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[Takosher]

Monika

"Yes, the ritual is complete." Ehman answered, "But if that is 'it' is up to you. Take that responsibility to heart." He spoke with kindness, knowing that gaining power from the death of another, even someone lesser, was not easy to stomach. Few survived as long as Carlos, fewer died at such an age. To lose his life this late, the weapon he'd created must have been for someone truly worthwhile. Ehman could only hope that such a sacrifice would be put to good use.

Jessie

Mirth could see she wasn't getting anywhere. Alice wasn't interested in anything more than small talk. It had been worth a shot. She set down the bags she was carrying just inside the door, wiped her forehead with the back of her arm, and gave Alice a tired smile. "I'm fucked for energy, can you finish the rest on your own?"

It was too bad, really. She'd known from what Lali said that they couldn't trust the walking disappearing act, but she'd hoped that was something that could be changed. Clearly Alice wasn't interested in anything more than a professional relationship with the group, and that wasn't going to fly. There were only two ways to get by in the underbelly of society. You could make a lot of friends, or you could make a lot of enemies. And if Alice wanted to choose the latter path, she was going to find out the hard way what happened when you made the wrong enemies.

L

"Less lockdown, more instant death, but yeah." Terra said. She didn't seem the type to brag, but L got the distinct sense that she enjoyed having such a powerful weapon. She didn't seem bothered by L's sleepiness, but she didn't seem bothered by much of anything. "Well, I figure if they're willing to let me out at all, the Church must think that whatever you're going doing is a big enough deal that I'll be worth it." she said rather insightfully, "So I don't think I have much to worry about."

Kirari

Kirari barely had to speak for Verna to open the door. Her cheeks were stained from tears, but she was smiling happily. "You're awake." she said, sounding relieved, "Doc wouldn't tell me anything, but I'm a smart girl, I know you almost died. But you're okay now! Did it work?" She was acting as excitable as ever, but it was slightly muted. It would be easy to shake it off as lingering sadness, but Verna's emotions didn't seem to do much lingering. There was something else wrong.

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

She wasn't sure how much to tell Verna. Recovering her identity hadn't exactly cleared up her thoughts regarding the girl in front of her. ". . . Yes, it did. I'm still thinking through things." It was fortunate that she didn't have to work to keep inflection out of her voice. It wasn't quite a lie, but Kirari knew it for what it was. "Did something happen while I was asleep?" She didn't bother asking about the medical equipment; with what she now remembered, the reason for it was clear. Disrupt the power and you disrupt her body; with nothing at the top of the hierarchy, the rest falls into disarray. 

[Takosher]

Eilyth

Laurie returned as fast as she could. "I got the aprons." she offered, skirting around the lack of a cart. It looked like Eilyth was going to have to cross the dragon threshold if the cake were to be saved.

Kirari

"You started shaking and thrashing and Doc took you to the emergency room." Verna said. She was oddly informative and there wasn't a hint of ulterior motive. Even stranger, she hadn't crossed the room yet. She had the awareness to close the door for privacy or she would probably have stayed in the doorway. It didn't take long to find out why, Verna was terrible at keeping her feelings under wraps. "You look different." she said, "Are you still you?"

Yava

{yoink theme}

"Hey, get back here!" the shopkeeper shouted.

Raze City was a bustling place and with her power it should have been an easy job. Just a little food, no big deal. Until she'd noticed a shiny necklace that one of the customers had left lying on top of her purse. It seemed like such an easy grab, and she found it impossible to resist. Of course, that innocent little snatching had spiraled into nearly getting caught, and now she had to run. The crowd on the street was thick, and she had to push and shove every step of the way. The shopkeeper was much larger than she was, so they weren't going to catch her, but she needed to get far away before the authorities showed and boxed her in. In a busy shopping district like this, there were always cops right around the corner.

At one point while she was looking over her shoulder and shoving past someone she realized the crowd was getting thinner. When she turned back forward to figure out what was going on she saw them parting entirely. The only person still in the middle of the street was a girl in a wheelchair who was slowly wheeling her way down the street. She had short blonde hair with bangs that covered her eyes and had a green streak in them. Her clothes were a simple dress and a white half-jacket, leaving a decent amount of freckled skin left exposed, especially on her legs that seemed to be pockmarked with scars. It was unusually polite of a crowd like this to part for a disabled girl, but Yava did have much time to think about that. She'd shoved past the last person in her way while looking back, and was now on a full speed collision course for the wheelchair girl.

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

She was more perceptive than Kirari had anticipated. "That's a good question." The girl looked up at Verna, meeting her eyes directly. She could feel the difference in how they tracked - or, more precisely, couldn't feel a difference. "I don't know the answer." She let her eyes fall, another swirl of emotions rising up in her. There were multiple levels of strangeness in the experience; it was both familiar and novel, and much of the turbulence was that of a dreaming girl at the source of her nightmares. . . except, of course, that the source was herself. "I think it depends on who you ask."

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth (Battling the Mother of all Cakes)
"Damn it," Eilyth sighed inwardly at the obvious lack of anything with wheels, "Fuck it then. We'll do it the hard way."
    Without a word, she took one of the aprons from Laurie and donned it over her dress. It was probably going to be redundant now, given she was going to have to armor up a bit more than she originally wanted, but whatever. She gave the cake one last look over before deciding on her tactics, and in a flash of dull, bronze light was instantly clad in stone scales across the majority of her body; It was a far different sight from anything Leah or any of her other comrades would be used to. This form was nothing like a dragon, nor even a beast really. Rather, it was something akin to a form-fitting suit of plate mail fashioned from hundreds of dragon's scales. Eilyth had chosen to forgoe a helmet, as it would only make things harder to coordinate for this delicate task. Likewise, she forwent any claws on her armored hands for similar reasons. So too was why her legs had been left Plantigrade instead of adopting their more agile Digitigrade configuration, though her feet had grown wider and larger, distributing the weight of her entire body over a larger surface area and granting even more balance and stability than was already typical to a bipedal creature. Her hands, lacking claws though they were, had been given similar treatment, broader, with longer fingers, and overall better fit to carrying something with a large base.
   Something like the abomination of a cake still menacingly staring her down from the heavens. She almost felt a bit sheepish, really. No one but her had even seen this form before, let alone knew what it was intended for. Yet here she was, squandering the hours of practice and development with it to lift a damn cake. Shame could wait though, she'd said she'd help, and damn it she was going to do it. She approached the cake and knelt down, carefully sliding her hands beneath the base of the box. Once she was satisfied with the placement of her feet and her grip on the parcel- firm enough to not drop it, but restrained enough to avoid crushing it under her immense power, she looked back to those assembled on the side walk. Her eyes briefly met Laurie's before she thought better of it.

"Leah," she said, "Gonna need you to spot me. Just to make sure I don't accidentally walk into or over anything that makes me trip." It was an unlikely thing, given the precautions she had already taken. But a possibility nonetheless. Nothing left to chance. With that out of the way, she returned her attention to the cake, and began to lift up very carefully, instinctively putting the weight on her legs, keeping her back straight and paying special attention towards not letting the box tilt too far one way or another...

Yava
"Damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it..." Yava cursed herself endlessly as she had fled out of the small shop and into the crowded streets beyond. She had fucked up big this time, she knew it, and that knowledge made her curse herself even more. The necklace looked so pretty though, and that lady had just left it out in the open, unguarded, like she was practically trying to get-
    "No!" She told herself. There was no rationalizing this one, she was a fool to have snatched something so openly, and she knew it. She'd seen carelessness get many of a colleague killed before, and she should've caught herself before she walked into the same trap. Even the most basic of precautions could've prevented this whole mess, but she'd been so sure in her abilities that she hadn't bothered to do any for this food run. Hell, even then she probably would've been fine if she'd just maintained some basic impulse control for even a few minutes longer. But...at the same time. it was so... shiny... Could she really keep beating herself up when-
    "Wait, why is crowd thinning?" The better question was why hadn't she done the sensible thing and used her small stature to fade away into it earlier, but it was too late for that. Just like how it was almost too late to notice the cripple girl the crowd was apparently avoiding. Yava immediately knew she was gonna skid right into her if she tried to stop. And the idea of skidding right into the girl filled her with a faint sense of apprehension, her gut reading more into the present actions of the crowd than her conscious mind was. Her gut had already saved her more times than she could count in her short life, and she decided to trust it once again.

With little more justification than that, Yava intentionally started skewing her balance as the distance grew shorter. As she inevitably fell just a few feet from the girl, she tugged herself into a tight roll, using the maneuver to veer her body off her former collision course and, hopefully, get right back up and keep running right past.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

"Right. Believe me, I will" Monika replied with a nod, glancing down at her sacrifice once again before letting out a sigh, spinning on her heel to face the entrance she came from, "take care Esteemed One. I'll make sure not to waste the opportunity he gave me" she added, offering Ehman a quick wave goodbye before setting herself back down the hall. Regardless on how she felt, Monika merely held her head and walked forward, moving to the flow of time.

It was a trait she needed, because as soon as she touched the metal that would become her Holy Weapon, Monika set herself down a path that she would be hard pressed to escape from. The same path her own mother took when she was her age: The path of a killer.

[Takosher]

Kirari

Verna wasn't sure what to think, especially not when Kirari's gaze fell away from her. But then again, she never did that much thinking in the first place. Guided by her heart, she moved with purpose as she approached the bedside, there was only one thing to be done in this situation. Gently, she wrapped her arms around Kirari. "Even if you don't know the answer yet, you shouldn't ask anyone but yourself." she said reassuringly.

Yava

As unlikely as it was, Yava's execution was flawless. Taking the fall even got a smile from the wheelchair girl. A wide, toothy grin. A really, really creepy grin. And that's when Yava remembered. The Lady of this county was supposed to be a young girl in a wheelchair. Worse, she was known for her painful methods of dealing with criminals.

In one swift motion she'd unsheathed her weapon from its hidden place in the back of her chair and stabbed it in and out of Yava's ankle. Yava's entire leg went numb, and she found that when she tried to pull it in for her roll, it simply didn't listen. As she flopped hopelessly on the concrete, it quickly became apparent why. The limb had been turned to ice, it wasn't just numb, it was outside of her control entirely. She wasn't going anywhere.

"You petty criminals always make things too easy." Lady Nyna Thallus said, sneering, "You filth are perfectly happy to hurt whoever you please, but the instant you see the poor helpless girl in a wheelchair you go out of your way to avoid causing trouble. Fools, the lot of you."

[Chevaleresse]

Kirari

It took her a moment, but she dully returned the hug. It was. . . nice. The person giving it might have been a childish killer, but Kirari wasn't in a position to judge, and it was an experience she rarely had. "I remember everything now. I don't think Doc is going to be happy when I tell her." She doubted the woman would get this far only to turn on her after learning the truth, but the truth was a disturbing, horrific thing.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Yava
Her gut had been right. Forget getting boxed in by the authorities, this girl was the authorities. She was already caught. Yava briefly wondered if this Lady's power might have altered her leg enough for her own to actually act on it, but even if it did, altering the probabilities she needed to get free of this trap probably would've taken too long. She could pull out Last Resort... she hated the very idea almost as soon as she thought of it, but it was an option, however bad. Considering that she probably wouldn't hit the girl from here, and even if by some miracle she did, she'd basically be digging herself a hole that would be extremely difficult to climb out of... no, Last Resort was going to stay in it's place, as it almost always should. She called it Last Resort for a reason, after all.
     "eheh... apologies," Yava said sheepishly, "I am part magpie sometimes. I come for food, see shiny, can't help myself. I know when caught though; I give necklace back, yis? Just wanted to look at anyway, wasn't going to keep."

Even as she talked her mind raced through all the possibilities available to her. She could see the pockmarked scars on the girls legs, and judging by the state of her own she had a pretty good idea of why they might be like that. Even if she somehow recovered from her frozen leg predicament, this Lady might damn well actually chase her down. Disabling the wheel chair would thus be pointless. Her key was in easy reach hidden on her belt, as it always was, but moving for it now would be far too conspicuous. For now it seemed her best option was to try talking it out.

And the last she talked out an arrest, she had gotten conscripted. Well at least this time she would already have a holy weapon to make her escape with...

[Takosher]

Yava

"Oh, is that what this is about, a necklace?" Nyna said, feigning interest, "And here I had assumed you were just a petty purse snatcher. A whole necklace, wow, you must be something special. Whatever should I do with such high quality garbage?" That cruel grin split Nyna's lips again. She reached into the breast pocket of her jacket and pulled out a swiss army knife. She first flipped out the corkscrew, but then seemed to think better of it and switched to scissors. Using her weapon's power, she made the frozen leg flip Yava onto her back. Nyna then rolled herself closer and leaned down to Yava's face, holding the scissors right by her eye. Nyna's grin somehow grew wider as she tormented her prey. "What do think?" she asked menacingly.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L

"I suppose you are correct, but never hurts to know where your direct employer draws their lines." L certainly wasn't a fan of the young woman's overconfidence in herself. She didn't doubt Terra's weapon was powerful, the Church themselves all but confirmed it. But Terra herself had admitted to having a complete lack of combat experience. Did she truly know how to best use that weapon in the heat of a battle? How long did it take to create it's zones, how well could it deal with ranged Holy Weaponry... there was so many questions that simply had no answers. Between this and the church's angle, she really didn't want to be in the middle of the Church's attempt to depose of a dangerous kid so they could pin that upon her. L couldn't think of any other reason they'd actually allow her this asset.

Either she failed and they dealt with a problem only having to sacrifice a few other's livelihoods in the process, or they succeeded and L turned one of their current greatest enemies into a possible asset. L couldn't deny that Terra might also truly become the iconoclast that so many believed her to be... but she didn't know if she was willing to stake her ad her squads lives on a brat who thought she knew more about the world than she clearly did. Terra's power might be something that could solidify their squad's safety. But it could also spell their doom. "And perhaps you don't..." L continued after a spell. "But it doesn't hurt to be more critical. Keep in mind, you're a political prisoner. They are calling on you in service of the country that you have become the symbol of it's unrest. They are playing a game that is much grander a scope than what either of us may see in this moment. Greater than what any one person might... and whether you like it or not, or whether you are ready for it doesn't matter to them Terra. You are in the center of that. It isn't fair and you never asked for it, but they have pinned the hopes, dreams and the very lives of many of this nation upon you."

[Glass]

Jessie

"Sure, no problem."

Jessie didn't know what was on Mirth's mind, of course. If she did, though, she might have said something about safety in anonymity, or asking why having either as necessary. She didn't want to get much mixed up in others' trouble, and she didn't want others getting pulled down with her. It wasn't their problem, and theirs weren't hers.

Ignorant of the topic at hand, though, she kept gathering the bags and bringing them back. They were going to talk about her, she knew; they probably had been since they sent her out. If she'd done this all right, they shouldn't know anything else about who she was.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Yava
"I think you are crazy bitch, making whole world mad," was the answer that immediately sprang into Yava's mind, but she stopped from ever making it out of her mouth. She could feel a light sweat on her brow... those uh... those scissors were pretty close to her eyes. For obvious reasons, Yava was rather fond of her eyes, and didn't exactly want them gouged out by some icy lunatic. The motion of being flipped over had given her hand enough time to move towards her key however, and now it continued that process obscured from her captors view. She could feel her fingers reach around it's handle even as her mind continued racing for a viable escape route.
   "No no no no..." Yava managed to say through it all, "I am thief, yis, but I am not like petty purse snatchers. I take only what is needed, or not wanted... the shinies, I don't even keep. Always give back eventually. I'm not even worth effort to torture, really. Or energy to kill. I face such things too many times in old country; I tell you now, I do not scream anymore. Very unsatisfying, waste of your time."

It was surreal how the hell she'd gotten into this to begin with. All she had fucking taken, necklace aside, was a few small bills worth of peanut packets and some bottled water. Even when she stole to eat, she made sure to only take the bare minimum to scrape by. She was no fool nor a romantic, she knew regardless her reasons, her efforts to survive would bring some measure of harm to those she took from. The only thing she could really do, aside from starving in the gutter, was to minimize how much harm her theft would realistically bring.

[Takosher]

Yava

Nyna laughed callously. Without a hint of hesitation she drove the scissors towards Yava's eye, but at the last moment she redirected her aim and instead cut off a lock of hair. With a couple flicks of her nimble fingers she'd switched the tool from scissors to a small knife. She was going to make a small cut just above Yava's eye, to continue tormenting the thief with the threat of her most vulnerable organ being cut out, but there was an interruption.

"It appears I was correct in my decision to observe you today, Nyna." a woman with an elegant voice said.

Nyna sat up immediately, all emotion suddenly vacating her face. Yava had to twist a bit to see the speaker, as from her position on the ground the speaker was directly above her head. The woman lived up to her voice. She was tall, had pale pink skin, red hair, and brown eyes. Her face and hair were both carefully managed, with the latter being restrained in a long braid. She was wearing a fancy white and pink dress, with the notable addition of a giant pink bow attached to the back. She was holding a large black suitcase in both hands, which was curious since she didn't seem like the type to carry her own luggage.

"This is none of your business, Solamon." Nyna said, unsuccessfully trying to put a note of force into her voice. She clearly didn't have the authority to tell the elegant woman off.

"The wellbeing of those in my domain is very much my business." Solamon answered, maintaining and air of civility, "You would do well to avoid provoking me, I will make no attempt to hold back because of your station."

the discussion was about Yava, but she clearly wasn't meant to be included. Her fate was totally out of her hands now.

Jessie

Finishing up didn't take long, Jessie and Mirth had already carried most of the groceries by the time Mirth wore out. Just as she was dropping the last of them off on the porch, Mack stuck her head out. "You done haulin' Alice? We got a job to talk about." she sounded excited. This seemed to be the sort of large scale job Mirth had mentioned. High profile.

Inside, Mack and Hellia had already stowed most of the groceries that Mirth and Jessie had brought to the door. Since they'd carried most of the fridgeables first, there was no concern of things melting, so the rest could be left out while they talked.

The seating had been rearranged so that there was a makeshoift meeting room around the coffee table. Mirth and Hellia occupied the couch, Lali was in the recliner, and two chairs had been moved in from the kitchen for Mack and Jessie. Changer was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding out in her room. She preferred to be alone whenever possible, which is why she was the only member of the group who didn't have to bunk with someone else. Aside from Jessie, who was stuck crashing on the couch due to her late addition. Lali had offered to switch, but bunking with Hellia was a definite downgrade from the couch.

"What we got, Lali?" Mack asked as she lowered herself into her chair.

"Kidnapping." Lali said, "The client has their eye on a little girl, six or seven. I have pictures to identify, but if you see her hair you'll know her right away. Apparently she's something special, I didn't ask why."

"And just who is this client?" Hellia asked pointedly, "We can't do something this risky for just anyone."

Lali shot Mack a glance, and Mack shook her head almost imperceptibly. "Someone we've worked with before, you can trust this one." Lali said, "They're offering three million apiece if we pull it off low profile, two mil if it makes the news. International Yora, cash. We get five hundred grand up front if we take it. We get to pick the drop site."

Five hundred grand was the amount they usually ended up splitting between everyone. And with the scarcity of work, they'd only had two jobs in the three months Jessie had been with them, they had to be careful to spread their spending out. Three million apiece would have them set for months with room to spare for luxuries.

"Who do we need to convince?" Mack asked.

"Changer or Alice for integrals, and Mirth still has her veto from last time." Lali answered.

Nobody cared to explain to Jessie what that meant. In fact for a meeting that everyone was supposed to be involved in, she felt the distinct impression that nobody remembered she was there. It was a sensation she was intimately familiar with, but it didn't usually happen when she wasn't using her power.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Yava
The thief gritted her teeth as the scissors dove straight for her eye, but true to her word she gave no vocalization to the terror that briefly made her heart skip. Her hand was fully around her key now, and its grip on it was bone white. There was a subtle glint in her eye as the metal veered closer, and her pupil used the last precious few miliseconds it had to home in on the girl's wrist, the organ behind the eye ablaze with various calculations and estimates about the odds of severing it's tendons. She had tried to talk her way through this, but this psycho clearly had no interest.
   This had progressed far beyond the scope of reasonable conflict resolution. The gloves had to come off now. What she was about to do, she would do in the name of self-defense and self-preservation. She'd probably feel a tinge of regret about it later, but... fuck this bitch. No station gave anyone the right to fucking mutilate someone else on a whim.

Just as her arm was prepared to violently uncoil itself and the key it held from behind her back though, the scissors deviated. Cut off just some hair instead of an eye. Yava held off on the impending strike, but did not relax even a little. Now the pretty little psycho was pulling out the knife component. Lovely. She was toying with her. Her eyes were as fixed to the blade as a cat's to a laser pointer...
    But something Yava had never hoped for happened. An actual miracle, one that she had no part in creating. Someone actually reasonable had decided to step in. Seeing the little psycho relent, she let out a barely audible sigh of relief. She didn't care who either of them were or what their obvious beef with each other was as they talked about and around her. She just wanted to slip away from there. While they were distracted by each other, she reached up to the locks of hair that had been cut short, and subtly used the same motion to pull the hood of her poncho over her head. She slightly shifted her still hidden grip on the key to touch it's shaft directly to the back of her poncho, and let her power get to work. Gradually she began to plummet the shroud's probability of the being noticed, a concealment trick that had served her well several times since fleeing the old country, and probably would've saved her from this whole mess in the first place had she thought to do it before entering that shop...

There was but one thing that would still hinder her. She had no idea how long the Ice trick the little psycho used on her leg would last. For now she just had to sit there quietly, bide her time. Time for her power to finish it's work. And time for the psycho's power to (hopefully) fade.