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Nader let out a short huff as he listened to the explanation continue -- so the prince had been killed by humans. Evidence confirming what he already knew, but hopefully it would make the others be more careful. And by the sound of it, it wasn't the first time that something like that had happened. It was tragic, of course; nothing should ever happen to kids, especially something like that. Despite the detached tone Nader found himself internally taking, he really did mean that. But this was the context of why monsters killed humans, and that necessitated that Nader stay on his guard. He couldn't afford to melt to something like this, as somber as it was, when his life (and the lives of everyone else, including Lucine) were on the line. "I suppose that explains it. It's a shame, but it does provide proof, I hope. Stay on your guar--" And Lucine was already approaching the small monster. Nader's entire body tensed up, and he checked his guns for the umpteenth time just to make sure. "Lucine..." He wasn't shooting as of yet, he promised that much, but he was watching the situation very, very closely. It was natural that a kid should be naive (kind of fucked up that she was here, wasn't it, he reflected) but it would be his responsibility to make sure that naivete didn't get her killed.

"You know... I wouldn't mind rooming with you, Mim--" Lizaveta's cheery response to Mim faltered as she heard a loud sound and looked up to see Shin falling down the stairs. Baldur passed right over him, because of course the piece of shit did, but Lizaveta rushed over to Shin immediately after Justine did. "Shin, are--" She yelped as he lost balance towards her and she had to catch him, staggering back herself as she did. "Are-- do you need any help?"

"Voila l'apprentie de la sorcier Merlin. Lutte, mademoiselle!" Q8, perform Blodeuyn

Stretch's eyes widened as he watched the TV reports -- he was frankly completely overwhelmed. He had been dealing with a couple of issues back home, one being impending and very bad, but never had he been at the center of so much chaos going on without him involved. Had he bounced his way around randomly and accidentally become the ruler of a village of raiders and dedicated himself to changing their ways to peace and solving the survival issues that had led them to raiding? Yes. But this was something of a different matter - now, he wasn't actually operating at his own bizarre pace. But people WERE getting hurt, and that was horrible. "We have to do something!" Stretch declared, smacking his fist into his palm, causing both to bounce away with a slightly rubbery sound. "But... we can't be in all three places at once... I guess unless one of us actually can be in all three places at once... but, like, I don't think anyone can do that, so... maybe we should split up! There are other people we can help in those places, after all! I want to go help out the people getting stuff thrown at them or getting shot at -- they could get killed!! I need to go stop that."

That seemed to get Lizaveta fairly excited. "Eheh, well, that probably won't be right this moment, but, wow, I'm going to have to explain a lot! I've studied a lot about the world, and this manifesto is really precious to me, so I know a lot about it. There's a lot of details and stuff like that, it's a pretty complete thing, but I'm sure I'll be able to convince!"

Jeanne frowned, for a moment. "Well, uh... yeah. That would... that would be a pretty good motivator, huh. You guys were talking about zombies, are there, like, zombies and shit here? That's pretty cool. Wish I had my camera. Where the hell is it? He promised he wouldn't break it..." Her expression darkened. "I'm totally gonna kick that dickhead's ass if he was lying about that." She brightened back up. "Buuut I'll stick around with you guys. I mean, I AM all transformed into whatever the fuck this is and maybe I shouldn't think too much about that BUT-- and if there's some zombie movie shit going on then I probably should keep with you guys, but, you know, also it's cool! It's pretty cool. I wanna see the zombies. Also I think I DID sign a contract but the fact that it's cool is more important. Damn, I REALLY wish I had my camera right now. Zombies on some other world, man! It's hard to get a better scoop than that. Even if people would think it's fake."

"I am afraid I do not. Then again, he was saying that it would, if it does explode, explode to get rid of its contents after we read it. So, for now, we should be looking at these documents, so we do not miss our chance." Navin scooped the folders out of the briefcase, opening them up to facilitate the group being able to read the documents. "This is our chance to at least start to find out if what he wants us to do is moral, after all. There might be a catch, though --there often is-- so we should keep paying attention to that after we actually embark on the mission." He then began to read some of the documents himself.

"OW! GOD DAMN!" Isobel finally shouted, as she was not only initially battered but also nearly knocked right over. The third set of stars fired by the witch had neatly turned around after her attempt to duck and slammed her hard in the side of the head; she'd managed to correct her movements to stay up, but the botanist had some choice words about the situation. "Fuck! Holy SHIT, she just will not let up off of me! I really can't focus on much but keeping myself upright like this. Even then there's only so much tricord in these things and she is really just beating the hell out of me!" Isobel pulled another poppy out of a green pouch at her side, and proceeded to impressively vehemently eat the flower. LOTUS frowned at the plight of his holder -- it was in fact his-- her-- whatever, job to help her out, and that meant that she didn't like watching Isobel kind of just get swatted around, but considering that she was at most a foot tall there really wasn't much she could do about it. Besides allowing the others to beat their foe up more efficiently, anyhow. "Rory! If you want to keep up with the witch-broom woman there, you'll want to move yourself across those treetops to the left! They're scanning to be pretty stable, and you won't have to weave around trees like even she has to, so you should probably be able to keep up with at least us!" Isobel uses Healing Poppy on herself again, swearing bitterly and also healing herself for 4d4+INT damage! LOTUS uses Pathing Advice on Rory, fixing Rory's initiative directly behind LOTUS and Isobel's for this round and the next! Active Cooldowns: Tactical Uplink (Partial) upcoming in two turns.  15% dodge chance, 20% poison damage reduction and poisoning effect durations shortened by one round.

"Yeah. ...yeah. Yeah. "Maybe I should explain to you what exactly my ideology is, the Manifesto of the Peasantry, um, I'm probably going to try explaining it to everyone in Virtuous at some point, but-" "It's... nice to have some solidarity. Thank you for that."

"Rude," Jeanne muttered at John's declaration of "she's fucked up looking", "But yeah, I'm Quebecois! Saint-Jérôme, if you've been there. I've been all over Quebec, Canada, and the US, though, doing her work, though." She proceeded to point at Poncio and speak rather needlessly theatrically: "And that's because of the same reason I know who Poncio is: I am a journalist! My name is Jeanne Duforet," it was pretty incredibly unlikely that anyone had heard of her, if anyone Poncio might have seen her name attached to one singular celebrity exposé scandal a while back, "And I'm dedicated to finding the truth, when other people don't want it to be found! Which... led me to break into a mysterious PMC compound... which was in retrospect a really bad idea... and now I'm here." "And, er, I'm... not... exactly super caught up on what's going on. I wasn't real conscious for the operation either."

"Nice," said Jack immediately to himself when he followed the others into the ransacked lab. "Boy, somebody really did a number on this place. Kinda weird this place is fucked and not everywhere else, huh? Maybe that's what security doors will do for you, huh?" Without hesitation, Jack then waltzed right on up to one of the puddles of the tar-like substance, eyed the disk floating on top of it, then crouched down, and poked the disk with one finger.

Lizaveta shrugged just a little helplessly. "I can't just leave and do nothing, Reiko. I... I can't. I have to see this through, I have to. If I were to just... wander around and not fulfill my ideology, which is the reason I'm here, I really don't know what else I'd be doing at that point. And there's nobody else doing what Virtuous is, not like they are at least. Whether they have Baldur or not, Virtuous is my only real chance to see that those who oppress pay for it and maybe to see that those who are oppressed, the peasantry, get to have a society that stops oppressing them. Or at least start on that, anyway. I can't abandon that path -- it's righteous, it's the course of history, and it's what I live for." Plus, at this point, leaving would be an extremely difficult proposition for Lizaveta anyway, but she didn't mention that.

Lizaveta looked up at Reiko, and then down a bit. "The punch wasn't the worst part of it, really. Mim helped out with that and, well, I'm only a tiny bit bruised now." She sighed. "I guess the worst part is how it... I'm not that much longer in Virtuous than you guys; I joined just before this operation, and... it's been a lot and I'm not sure what to think, with someone like Baldur being like he is in Virtuous. I'm not planning on leaving or anything, but... he was a very unpleasant surprise. ...wouldn't call him virtuous."

"Oh, I suspect that the councillor was fairly angry," Navin mentioned as he watched Heidrun fiddle with the case, "he did make a point of reminding us about how he was shot the last time he interacted with our group, and how he wanted to get matters finished quickly. I cannot blame him, really." Navin shrugged. "He did get shot. It is just that he seems to understand that dealing with greater threats is in his interest. That is a good quality to have - the International Union of Heroes provides a strong force to unite the superhero community of my Earth, but even then these sorts of disagreements or conflicts in the face of large problems are frustratingly common. We should be grateful that he made this process smooth for us when he could have done the opposite."

Perlita steepled her hands together, looking rather uneasily at the footage of CFW Trick -- that thing was weird, and while she was admittedly used to weird things she was less used to people getting literally swallowed whole and killed by long horrible tongues. She swallowed nervously, suddenly feeling a little bit nauseous, and took a few moments to fight that down before speaking. "...yeah, we need to go for Trick. She did say Brave is the most likely to avoid collateral damage, so..." "Anyway, um, as I think has been made pretty clear, I heal people, with my Persona. I can use Diarama, which heals one person a lot, Media, which heals a few a bit, or Patra, which will, like, get rid of poison or magic despair or things like that. I also heal a bit when I heal people, so I shouldn't need attention from anyone else. Uh, I actually DO have attack magic, but I'm really not that good at it. Kouha is a pretty basic spell of light magic and will do, well... pretty mediocrely really. Hama normally does slightly worse but has a chance to do a lot better and mess things up pretty well. You really should mostly be leaving me to healing, though, I mostly just sling attacks when there's noone to heal. ...oh yeah, and I have this crossbow, but I haven't used it in a long time really. Psi attacks --or, uh, since I left my homeworld, mental attacks in general I think-- are... they're pretty bad when they hit me, so I'll need to be careful about things like that."

Azgrurk Azgrurk proceeded to... actually get a bit of peace and quiet, probably to his own surprise. Though the place outside set his senses tingling in a way that only Orks' senses could tingle, the inside of the ship seemed pretty much normal, at least as normal as anywhere else outside of his own home plane was. It seemed that while within the bounds of the ship, Azgrurk could expect not getting surprised, either welcomely or unwelcomely. Ena Looking back at her logs, Ena would find that things were worse than she thought; she couldn't actually find either a singular snap of time change or even a consistent gradiation of time warping -- instead, when she checked her log times, she found not only that the logs were completely inconsistent, no seeming pattern between the different times in her logs, but also that every time she checked them back over they had changed. The only things that were consistent about the times in her logs were the date, (which stayed the same and was "1", just "1"), and the fact that there was a forward motion in the passage of time, altogether. Tim Well, Tim at least didn't see anyone else who might object to the loss of a piece of the literally-entirely-horizontal-but-for-that-one-tree-and-the-rocks-by-those-two-crazy-guys skyline. It seemed like free real estate. Vitor As soon as those words left Vitor's mouth, he could feel the OMINOUS FEELING OF absolutely nothing besides the normal feeling here (even if that feeling was rather ominous and off-putting). Kusuke and Satomi Satomi fiddled with the many pieces of gear hanging off of or tied around her kimono as she thought, the nervous movements helping her focus and think. "Alright... if it's that you're connecting to some sort of realm energy from your home realm... are you sure that is what you are tapping into here? Perhaps instead of something interfering directly with your Drive, something is different about this realm, about its properties, which means that things interact differently with it. I am no Toritaka or Kuni, but I do know that things from other realms have their own magic rules and perhaps that means that other realms themselves may have different rules with which our magic or other abilities interact when we use them. ...though, of course, the possibility that the plane itself is hostile is one that can't be dismissed." Leo Leo, rightfully confused by Stone Heart's answer, checked on the ambient mana through some of the other golems, such as Frost Brute and the tiny jumping golem. But the answers he got seemed continued from Stone Heart's, even from golem to golem. "...ed in fire whose fire flames if that continues and who can doubt it will fire the firmament that is to say blast hell to heaven so blue still and calm so calm with a calm which even though intermittent is better than nothing but not so f..." "...ast and considering what is more that as a result of the labors left unfinished crowned by the Acacacacademy of Anthropopopometry of Essy-in-Possy of Testew and Cunard it is established beyond all doubt all other doubt than that which clings to the labors of men..." Int check (done Shade style): 16 v 15 Leo's check into his golems' internal systems with his computer turns out to be a maddening venture. The golems' internal systems are all operating perfectly in sync with each other, but each and every external readout that they give out says something ridiculous or impossible, including of course those mana readouts. However, it's only the mana readouts which give such a specific result; every other external readout gives inconsistent answers or just-barely-bizarre ones, not a coherent string of text, and this is something shared between Golems. Leo does at least manage to figure out that nothing seems to be actively directing his golems; there are no changes in response to his checks, and every external sensor response but those mana checks seems to be aimless and random in nature, nothing directed at a single purpose.

Candide couldn't, of course, see the exact manner in which the archer had been exceedingly thoroughly killed, but he could make out the sound of shattering ice, so that gave him an idea of it. "The Queen of Ice strikes through, speaks true, no artifice. Those of you who trespass these lands will fall into unyielding hands: Excalibur shall mark your woe, for our ruler, Rosanne's your foe!" M9, perform Rosanne.

Lizaveta promotes to Scholar! "Another step on the path to revolution!" Lizaveta's new preferred stats are: Skill and Magic! Lizaveta's new Weapon Proficiencies are: Anima (D), Dark (D) Lizaveta gains the Class Skill: Assessment! After the Scholar makes a successful hit on a target, allied units gain +5 Hit, Evade, and Crit against the target until the end of the phase. Lizaveta's Promotion Bonuses are: +1 HP, +1 MAG, +2 SKL, +1 LUK, +1 DEF, +1 RES, +1 SPD, +2 CON, +2 AID, 5 MOV! Lizaveta puts her 5% growth into LUK. Lizaveta's new Personal Skill: Vanguard Party: If Lizaveta attacks an enemy at full health, she gains +15 Evade.

Johanna goes to W24 and attacks the Scholar with her Iron Axe!

Lizaveta sighed as Crimson shared his full name -- the guy was to be frank one of the meaner people she'd met but... well, during the battle she'd been worrying that the people in the prison were cruel, and she'd been intending to talk to Ferdiad about his worries potentially being justified. But then the fluffy girl had been incredibly nice and she'd discovered that Baldur was really terrible, so... that judgement had been premature. So, even as she rolled her eyes a little at Tabitha's tone: "Well, if we're having Crimson there share his name, it's only fair if we do too. My name is Lizaveta Medvedeva, and it's nice to meet all of you."

Lizaveta sighed as Kane spoke to her. "It... it isn't just that he hit me," even if that had been really bad and she'd very nearly cried from the whole ordeal, "But... that he would act like all of that in the first place... it's, it's awful. It's really awful. I didn't think that anyone here would be like this when I came. But... yeah. People are." Baldur, and the angry red man, and that other healer, all seemed like cruel people to one extent or another. It was depressing, really.

Lizaveta spoke one thing, darkly, as Baldur turned to leave: "People have more to be afraid of than war -- they also have people like you to be afraid of, and that's why I'm here." Then Shin showed up and offered Lizaveta tissues, and: "I... I don't need..." Lizaveta fell silent, and then took the tissues, looking down. When Lenore approached Lizaveta, she just shrugged, looking down. "I didn't come here to just let people like him do stuff like that."

Lizaveta had been expecting perhaps yelling from Baldur; she didn't know him well because she was the newest member of the group up until maybe now, but she had already seen enough today to know that he was a pretty angry person. What she hadn't been expecting was getting punched in the face, a rage-driven blow that managed to knock her mask right off of her face, along with her glasses, a nasty bruise already beginning to form on her cheek. It very nearly sent her to the ground, but she flailed and caught herself, on her knees, her mousy face now revealed fully to all of the prisoners. Her expression fought between pain, anger, and upset, and she muttered out an angry epithet too quietly to be heard by Baldur, fighting not to burst into tears. "B-bastard..." Lizaveta stayed on her knee for a moment, sniffling and fighting not to tear up, when the girl with the fluffy hat and Shin both approached her, and she grabbed her things from the fluffy girl, sniffling and putting her glasses and mask on before speaking. "Th-thanks. I... Sh- Fi-- Shin doesn't deserve that, especially from people like him. It's not fair. It's not fair. We're supposed to be the ones helping those who can't help themselves, who need our help, right? So for someone like that bastard to treat him like that..." She glared up towards Baldur. "It's okay, Kane, he doesn't need to heal me, she already took care of it... and I don't want to be near a monster like him anyway. Why are you even here, Orchid, if you're just going to be like the man you were just so happy to kill?"

Lizaveta hadn't had anything to add to what the new archer was saying to Kane -- it didn't seem entirely wrong, at all, but she seemed like she had it pretty well in hand. But then Baldur said what he said about Shin, and that did not sit well with Lizaveta, it did not sit well at all. She whirled towards him; being apparently angry at him was one thing, but this was another thing altogether. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Ficus didn't ever do anything to you, so why do you have to talk about him that way? He hasn't done anything to anyone really, so is it... do you really just hate him for being a member of the peasantry? Is that it, maybe? Calling him a "little degenerate" - that's awful! You're awful! All he's done is not have as much as you do, and that's enough reason to talk to him like that? Do you just... take it for granted, that you can treat people you think are lesser than you like that? That's horrible!"

"For--" A star buffeted Isobel, hitting her head and rolling down to her shoulder, "Stop th--" A second star hit Isobel in the thigh, "Oh my G--" Yet another star hit her in the gut, expelling her breath. "Jesus fucking Christ! STOP that!" Isobel snapped, looking at Marisa with a thoroughly irritated expression -- at this point, she was starting to in fact look pretty beaten up. "I swear, I am really going to lose it if this keeps up," the botanist mumbled to herself, pulled a poppy out of her bag, and this time ate it herself, necessitating much less surprise and "why is a flower being shoved in my face" than the usual. LOTUS, meanwhile, merely stayed the course. The situation was not, she calculated, urgent enough to necessitate anybody being told where to move, and it seemed that the only person putting anything out with any potential efficiency issues was using a rocket jump so blazingly hot that she couldn't really give any advice regarding it. It was still important to beat the tar out of their foe, however, and probably even more important to facilitate that than before. "Keep it up! Now that we have multiple things coming to her, go for..." Isobel uses Healing Poppy on Isobel, healing herself for 4d4+INT damage! LOTUS uses Weakness Pinpoint on Marisa once again, giving attacks aimed at her a 10% crit chance for yet another turn! Active Cooldowns: Tactical Uplink (Partial) upcoming in three turns.  15% dodge chance, 20% poison damage reduction and poisoning effect durations shortened by one round.