tushanshu_logs | catchall, early November

Entry tags:

catchall, early November

Characters: Raine Sage and OPEN
Date: first week of November mostly, some flex if necessary
Location: various around Keeliai, including her suite (Tu-Gai)
Situation: also various, mostly involving catching people up to the situation as it stands and seeking possibilities for dealing with things under the shell.
Warnings/Rating: violence/gore in Anton's thread; probably all-over discussions of mind control etc.

While the suspicion of someone willingly working with Malicant is something that never quite leaves her mind, for the most part Raine's of the opinion that dispersing information can only help right now. Not via the network, of course, but she spends much of the first week of November seeking out people she knows to catch them up to how bad things are, to make sure the vision Wan and Valdis had gets shared out, and to see if anyone has any helpful input at all. She's done about as much as she can within her own head; now it's time to get outside points of view.

When she's not busy doing that, she can mostly be found in the Earth sector, either at her suite, which she hasn't made a significant effort to hide, or in one of the assorted nearby parks, running through artes over and over in an effort to improve her casting time and focus or simply swinging her staff in the most basic of forms.

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Once the vision has had a little time to sink in, one of Raine's first priorities is to talk to Gene. She doesn't know for sure how far the powers of his rings extend, but if there's any possibility that the one they were testing a few months ago could help provide answers, it's worth following up on. While she touches base with him briefly via the network to arrange a time and place to talk to him she doesn't provide any details on what it's about, beyond 'important.'

When she turns up to meet him she's about as put-together as ever and alert, but there are faint shadows under her eyes that suggest perhaps she hasn't quite been sleeping enough.

Zelgadis has been building stockpiles of medical supplies, especially kits that could be hauled to whatever part of the city that needed them. He knows there's trouble, and he doesn't know what he can do... and, working made him feel less helpless and miserable and betrayed.

"do you have anything else I should be doing?" he asked Raine. Because there were only so much busywork he could find on his own.

Raine's not the only one looking a little haggard these days. Gene's been running himself down taking care of both Kalliel (as a single parent now) and Tony (since the dumbass had accidentally left a backdoor for Malicant to get in and burn out his 'bots for a week).

But the dark circles under his eyes are concealed readily enough by his green-lensed glasses, and he tries to smile at Raine when he sees her, but it seems he's forgotten how.

"Hi, Raine. What's going on?" he asks, not meaning to be brusque but wanting to get right to the point.

"Hello, Gene." Raine's not particularly offended either by lack of pleasantries or by sub-par smiles. It hasn't been much of a month for either, and the smile she returns is not wholly a happy one, either. "I had a few questions," she says. "Mostly pertaining to your capabilities with the rings, and possibly regarding what information you can gain from them. Has one of the children passed you the vision from Wan and Valdis yet?"

Raine appreciates his efforts, at least, and really does understand the need to throw oneself into work. It's something she's been feeling, too. "That depends," she says after a moment, studying Zelgadis thoughtfully. She knows the man, but doesn't actually know much about him beyond their association at the hospital. "How much do you know about the current problem facing us, and what do your magical skills encompass?" She's certain there's something he can do, it's just a matter of finding the correct place to apply it.

Dante had been trying to get his hands on any information that may let them finally kill Malicant. He was forced to finally acknowledge that he was outmatched here, and that meant he had to get any information that may give him the upper hand. Therefore, the second he found out that Raine had all the information he need, he burst through her apartment door by kicking it down.

This only looks bad.

Edited 2014-11-08 18:23 (UTC)

Gene nods. "Kalliel showed me. I had to tell him it wasn't that bad, but I don't know how good a job I did reassuring him. It's...enlightening. But disturbing." He shrugs. "As for the rings - theoretically, nearly anything. Teleportation, elemental control, matter manipulation...what did you want to know?"

The door bursting open was never a good sign, especially with the growing unrest in the city, and so when Dante burst in Raine flung herself back into a corner, kneeling with staff braced in front of her, and started to cast. Ryder was at the Hotel more and more these days, thankfully, so she didn't have to worry about him, just herself.

She had photon prepared by the time she recognized the intruder, and she held off warily, the spell one mental push from fruition. Just because she knew the man didn't necessarily mean he was in his right mind. "Dante?"

There were few patrons in the Hotel these days, or at least patrons who were using the rooms. The cultists had figured out that they were allowed to enter as much as anyone else as long as they behaved. They had also figured out that Anton had no issues with ejecting them when they stopped behaving, or using the gangs to help, and didn't quite care.

Anton's original policy had extended only to patrons. He'd expanded it when the gangs used the Hotel as a meeting-place. Now the gangs and the cultists were the only people left, and the cultists were cocky. The gangs were, inside the Hotel, on Anton's side--outside the Hotel, he was just another Foreigner. The Hotel's lobby was a powder-keg waiting to happen and Anton did not like it at all.

The time was going to come, very soon, when he would be forced to kill any number of them to assert his authority, and while the gangs understood to some degree they also wouldn't exactly hide it from the rest of the kedan. It could turn ugly.

Then again, it was war.

Either way, Anton was watching the cultists in the lobby very, very carefully while he worked the desk. They were packing the building and he knew it; many of them had paid for rooms they wouldn't use just for the right to remain. Fortunately, so had the gangs.

Enlightening but disturbing. That's an accurate assessment. "I don't think Ryder would believe me if I tried," she says, rueful. "All right. The area under the shell is inhospitable to living beings, in that it exerts some kind of psychic pressure. I'm sure it's neither magical nor physical, or I'd be able to mitigate it somehow. Is there something you can do to defend against it?" A pause, then, thoughtfully, "And can you confirm its exact nature, or is that beyond your scope?"

Raine knew the streets weren't the safest, so when it became clear she was going to have to visit Anton she paused to cast a set of defensive artes on herself and Ryder before setting out for the Earth sector entrance to the Hotel, just in case. It hadn't quite occurred to her that the Hotel might be similarly risky, but, in retrospect, given Anton's policies, she really should have expected that much.

She stopped just inside the door, breath caught, conscious as soon as she entered that the lobby had a fair number of kedan in it, and most of them didn't look particularly friendly. One wrong move might go very poorly. Raine gripped her staff, prepared to gather mana if she had to, and sent a thought to Ryder.

"We're here," Ryder broadcast to Anton, in case he hadn't noticed. "She says is this as bad as it looks and which way do you need her to move?"

"That's me."It truly is a surprise that nobody had killed Dante by now, but when he thought something was urgent, his manners were the first thing to go.

"So, what's this I hear about you knowing what's going on?" He got right down to business.

"Not quite," Anton broadcast back, hearing the echo as Ryder carried it to Raine. The gangs kept an eye on the door, but they didn't care enough about the Foreigners to react. To Ryder, though, yes--the kedan didn't much like the Foreigners, but the hatchlings were innocents and all but sacred, and the presence of one made them tense.

Then the cultists stopped whispering and saw Raine, and then saw Ryder, and Anton noted the way their balance shifted.

"Now it is," he said, and moved out from behind the desk. "Move this way."

Even before Ryder had properly moved one of the cultists lunged at him, and Anton caught his wrist and knocked him back with an arm across the chest. The cultists were dicey because of their weapons--Anton couldn't afford to let them attack en mass. But they were planning on it now; they caught their fellow and fanned out. The gangs spread out too, and some went into the other rooms. Anton counted the cultists here in the lobby--there were eight of them.

Eight, all armed with tainted weapons. No, this was not going to turn out well, but Anton had been pushed as far as he could go.

"If you leave now," he said to the cultists, "I won't kill you."

Some of them bothered to look at each other and laugh. The gangs also looked at each other and chose to slink up the stairs, far enough that Anton should be able to keep the gist from hurting them.

If she'd been close enough she would have smacked him for being that stupid. As it was, Raine straightened, and let the spell dissipate into harmless sparkles of light, frowning at him all the while. "Dante," she said, no longer uncertain but severe. "What were you thinking?"

He should absolutely know better, capable of regenerating himself or no. Then again, perhaps not, given how he'd exacerbated the situation the last time they met.

"I'm willing to answer your questions," she added, still markedly annoyed, "but I had hoped you had better judgment than that."

Damn. She'd been the tipping point, hadn't she. Without their presence this wouldn't have come to violence.

Apologize later. For now Raine urged Ryder to move first, following in such a way as to try to keep herself between him and the cultists. She couldn't cast while moving, but she knew at least some of what Anton was capable of and was pretty sure it was more imperative that she and Ryder be both near him and out of his way. She stepped carefully, wary, staff poised to swing hard at anyone who looked like they might even be thinking of making a move against Ryder.

Did his rules about violence still apply, when violence was so evidently about to break loose? Well, he was giving them a chance, and so with that in mind when Raine had moved far enough she braced herself to defend, gathering mana but not shaping it into anything beyond potential quite yet.

"She says she can cleanse the wound if you're hurt, but it's better not to get hit in the first place," Ryder relayed. Raine for her part stayed steadfastly silent, attention on the mana in her grasp and the positions of the about-to-be combatants.

"Mostly what has been said on the network. And a bit about before," Zelgadis said. "It seems like most people were keeping secrets, so it's hard to know what I missed. As for magic, I have pretty broad magic, but... with the news about Asti, should you be trusting me?"

Iroh is doing his own exercises... not so much obvious bending forms, but lifting weights and calisthenics, the sorts of things designed to boost strength, flexibility and endurance. Today, he's out for a run before work. "Good morning. I'll get the tea on when I get back."

It wasn't precisely Raine's fault. This would have happened sooner or later, and sooner was in some ways better; it relieved the tension, at least, and happened while some of the gangs were at least still supportive of the Hotel's rules enough to back Anton up with a minimum of life lost. Anton didn't need their help, strictly speaking--but they were locals and the Hotel was a part of a city, rather than apart from any. If the kedan wanted to exercise their own justice, Anton would prefer that in some ways.

Calmly Anton unbuttoned his shirt to bare his chest, shifting his weight back on his heels. The cultists jeered and one made a comment that Ryder translated with a noise of indignation--"No need to make it any easier!"

Then one of them, one of the twitchiest ones, got impatient and lunged, and the gist clawed out of Anton's chest and met him halfway. The cultist lost. In the space of a blink he was ripped to shreds, and in another blink the gist had moved onto the rest of them, howling as it tore them apart before they could lose the smiles. Before, when magic had gone bad, the gist had turned Anton fanged and clawed, with black eyes; those same facets were present still, but wilder, with long matted hair and a face lined with viciousness, connected to Anton with a cord of light and darkness.

When the cultists were gone the gist turned toward the kedan on the stairs, but Anton called it back. It shrieked with rage as it went sucking toward his chest just as the cultists in the next room charged in. They saw it vanish, and saw him, and the gang-members flanked them from the stairs and the common-room.

Anton straightened up, trembling hard and on his feet only because the gist hadn't been out for more than a handful of seconds. There was still a growl in his voice when he said, "Anyone who bears a tainted weapon can no longer be a guest at this establishment. Drop your weapons or leave, or suffer the consequences."

The cultists glanced around the bloodied room, at the gangs, at Shudder, at one another. There was still insolence on most faces, but finally one broke and strode toward the door with a sneer, and all the rest followed. Even the cultists, every now and then, recognised prudence. They could spin this to their advantage, and the gangs might let them.

Only the old familiar defensive stance, long since beaten into her as more important than any emotional reaction, kept Raine from recoiling once the gist had made itself known. She almost thought she liked this option better, seeing the gist distinct from him, rather than the lingeringly unsettling image that was him half-become it, but regardless of the distinction she was reminded, once again, of the horrific potential for violence Anton carried.

A little late, by now, to tell Ryder not to watch, but he was old enough and conscious enough of who he'd chosen to make that decision himself. Genis, she knew, had seen worse, but that didn't dim her urge to want to shelter the children, and there was a part of her that was glad she was in front of Ryder.

Raine watched Anton, watched his gist tear the cultists apart without looking away, and smoothed her initial reaction out to blank impassivity before the last of the next group of cultists had left the Hotel. In the ensuing quiet she simply breathed for a moment, then finally turned to Ryder, checking that he was all right. No one should have gotten by them to him, but there was a reassurance in brushing her hands over his head and seeing him unharmed.

When she was sure of that, and sure that no further cultists had made themselves known to attack, Raine moved toward Anton, glancing him over as well. "Are you well?" she asked, dispassionate.

While Raine examined Ryder Anton kept his feet and waited for the shudder to subside into a tremble he knew, from experience, would linger. He wasn't exactly old even by sorcerers' standards, at least not physically, but he was getting there and the gist tear his body every time he released it. He'd often wondered if it was what having a heart-attack felt like.

He wasn't old--but he'd been physically burdened, and he felt it more now than he had when he was younger. The tremble would linger.

There was movement and it was the gang-kedan, and Anton watched wordlessly as a significant number of them filed out, glancing around him without meeting his gaze. Some faces held fear equal to insolence also, but many others were grimly challenging. He'd fought the gangs down to keep his Hotel, but none of them had seen the gist in active use before, not even when he emptied the Hotel while magic was wild.

The handful that remained, the ones whose fondness overrode their suspicion, drifted out of sight, back upstairs to rooms, or into the commons.

"I am fine," Anton answered Raine quietly, and glanced down at the floor, and sighed at the mess.

"I'm getting the mop and bucket," Ryder said quickly, and shuffled around the mess to go to the kitchen, not looking at what was left. Anton felt a twinge of regret that the turtle had seen what caused the mess he had helped clean last month, but it was all but lost in the heat of the gist raging in Anton's chest. That would subside, eventually, also. It never liked being returned before it was ready, and it was never ready.

When Anton was sure his legs would properly hold him enough to move, he silently went to the desk to get a garbage bag so he could start picking up pieces--and the tainted weapons that remained.

Edited 2014-11-09 04:28 (UTC)

"Good morning," Raine returns, with a smile that while small is genuine. "I'd appreciate that."

It's probably a given that Iroh's noticed her ineptitude in the kitchen by now, and while she can usually muddle through making a cup of tea that isn't terrible, it's usually much, much better when someone else does it.

Running isn't something she typically does, so rather than offer to accompany him she'll run her own practice where she is, arte after arte.

"Should you be trusting me?" Raine returned, with a little quirk of a mirthless smile. "Anyone who received a boon from him during the summer might be suspect. Frankly, even people who didn't, given what our enemy has intimated. It's pointless by now to hold off sharing information for that fear alone. Has one of the children shared the vision with you yet?"

"Huh? I was thinking it's time to kick some ass, that's what!" He knew that generally, breaking into houses was wrong, but he's too dense to realize that that's what Raine's upset about. "Besides, that distraction worked, right up until the bad guy opened a portal for his cronies."

"Yeah." Interacting with the remaining turtle children is painful, but Zel knows they are important. If anything he can hope they have some resistance to Malicant's influence.

Though maybe not, given what happened to Tu Vishan. "I hadn't realized you had a boon." But it made sense. Raine was a turtle-parent too.

Iroh noticed. Which is why on the days he doesn't eat out, he makes sure to cook enough for at least two, and have leftovers on hand. Because no one should have to suffer from bad food. (That and he used to cook for a teenage boy as well as himself; so he's used to having extra.)

"How is the practice coming?"

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catchall, early November

Gene; actually a little earlier than November, aka one or two days post-possession attempt;

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The Midnight Hotel; early November

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Outside

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