ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: Early/Mid November
Location: Under the shell
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The Foreigners had begun their counterattack by trying to possess the Great Turtle whom Malicant had taken, and although the movement had failed, some vital information had been uncovered. Under the shell lay Malicant's weakness, and inside the Dreaming was where he could be fought.

Any help from the kedan is uncommon. They're wary, watching, as a group beginning to lose sight of the community. Their family groups are more tightly-knit than ever, and any approach from the Foreigners is answered by suspicion at best and violence at worst. That makes daily life difficult, when the majority of the city refuses to have much to do with them. Why aren't you doing anything? they seem to say. What good are any of you? All you've done is make things worse. We'd be better if you'd never come.

The Foreigners are unwelcome in Keeliai. The cultists are becoming a majority. Now is the time.

There aren't many left of the Foreigners left, but inside the Dreaming the limitations of the waking world no longer exist. For every Foreigner and their worlds, their loved ones, this is the chance to make themselves safe for good. And all of them will be needed.

---

LINKS
Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC Plot Post

OOC
There are two main headers, one for preparation at the Hotel where Milyn and Eva will be available to speak with The second section where they will be able to search the caves beneath the Shell inside the Dreaming to find the Vilii Stone, and where the boon'd characters will be affected. If you are threading something that doesn't fit one of those categories, just add it to the bottom of the post. Questions go to the plotting post, please! Once the Stone has been acquired the second half of the plot will go live in the logs comm.

Comments

[royalguard_style]

"That's what they say. Dunno, I've never actually gotten a shot before." That didn't seem to unusual, right? Plenty of people don't get vaccinations. He can just say he was too poor or something like that. Heck, that lie had a grain of truth to it, too. "My classmates when I was a kid also said that these were a hell of a lot bigger then they were. Seems like a lot of hype over nothing."

"Honestly, getting hit with leeches at least sounds like fun." He had a rather twisted view of what "fun" was, but his point stood.

[solo_patria]

"Oh good. Then I am not the only one who has no idea what is going on." Really, on some level, it is less the needle and more the idea of something foreign being put into his body that is odd. Though Enjolras will do it easily for the cause before them, it is still strange.

"I suppose they would appear bigger if one were younger or unused to them?" Enjolras shrugged a little. "I can be around them in the hospital with no trouble at least." Still. Needle. He imagined looking away would work well enough though.

"The leeches were...they're fairly odd. I have a few scars." Enjolras shook his head a little. "They look somewhat like...well three pronged, I suppose. They are...interesting, to say the least. Not so bad as being bled though, I will say that. Combeferre and Joly, our doctors, both seemed to like them well enough."

[royalguard_style]

"Maybe. Kids tend to get all dramatic like that." He nodded. The doctor, meanwhile, had an idea. She grabbed a fresh needle while Dante and Enjolras were talking, and started filling it with the venom.

"Eh, I've seen weirder. Besides, they're real little too, aren't they? Sounds more cute then scary if you ask me." He casually continued the conversation as the doctor made her way for Enjolras's arm.

[solo_patria]

Enjolras had not been dramatic about quite the same things as a child, honestly, though he had never really enjoyed visits from the doctor, but he does remember the myriad of minor offenses people dared to commit against him in his younger days, and he has to laugh, admitting the point there.

"True enough. I made several enemies out of a good deal many unnecessary things." The truth of the matter was, and Enjolras knew it, too, that he had been a spoiled little shit of a child, and even worse when he was school aged. "Every minor injustice seems the end of the world as one knows it, then."

He did not notice the doctor behind him, there, mostly because he knew that if anything truly dangerous were going on, Dante would not be one to let anyone be caught up in it, unawares. Whether that truly applied to shots or not was up for grabs, but as it so happened, he was focused on the conversation instead.

"They are rather small at first. Once they begin to do their work, that changes rather quickly." He allowed, and had to smirk a bit at the thought of various reactions. "Do you know, I suspect many doctors do find them somewhat charming. I would not quite say cute." He mused, noticing someone moving behind him now, but mostly from the point of view of being aware that someone else was nearby as opposed to anyone doing any medical work on him personally. "Not completely horrifying, and according to certain theories they do an adequate job reversing swelling. Rather worth it when we have no other ways I think.

Though you have seen odder? I must ask, in the interest of science, what you have seen then, and when."

[royalguard_style]

"And that's what they call 'growing up'. At least, I'm pretty sure." Dante was also a little shit as a child, but for him, that meant when he was in his late teens and early twenties. His actual childhood was far too troubled for anything so petty. Of course, his rather arrested development still shows to this day.

Dante would have been wary if it was danger, but he saw what the doctor was doing, and said nothing. Surely, Enjolras was alert enough to object if he wasn't ready to be stuck.

"I'm a devil hunter. I see weirder shit every week." He explained. "Sometimes every month, if business was slow. Have you ever seen a pile of sludge devour someone? It's something else."

And that's when the kedan assistant stuck Enjolras in the arm without him noticing.

[solo_patria]

"Most likely." Enjolras has to agree there. At least, he thinks he's stopped making mountains out of molehills these days. It happened around the time he found actual mountains to try and scale, and stopped making others. He's fairly sure.

Or, well, dramatically dying in a failed revolution that is likely supposed to fail is probably somewhere along those lines, but it's better than simply deciding your teacher hates you because he rejects your ideas about political theory, or makes you do extra Greek translations because you are awful at it. So, it's balanced, compared to that, anyway.

As far as the doctor went, Enjolras did find it a lot easier to ignore what was going on there, so thank you for that much, Dante. Not looking at what was happening was good enough for him.

"Devil hunting?" He raised an eyebrow at that, though it was actually not actually so unheard of now. "I cannot say that I have, at that. The closest thing to unusual here was probably watching Iskierka set things on fi..."

And that was when he noticed said needle in question, and he paled a little, but managed a smile for the moment the sting lasted.

"That was shockingly effective."

[royalguard_style]

Dante waited until the assistant was done before speaking up again. He was honestly hoping Enjolras would be a bit more cross. Oh well.

"Shame, then. I was hoping that things around here weren't going to be completely boring once this son of a bitch dies." Not that he'd leave. He has unfinished business now, not to mention a kid. Yes, it's presumptuous to say that they will most certainly succeed, but he's confident.

"But you know, devils, demons. The exact words don't exactly matter. It just means that a few leeches aren't exactly the scariest thing I've seen."

[solo_patria]

Honestly, were there less people around? Cross might have entered the equation. Were there very few people around, angered terror might have been another. As it was, though, well, composure had to hold sway, no matter how awful the entire thing was.

"Ow." he muttered, at the Kedan assistant as the syringe got fully depressed and put away. "That was unpleasant." He did have to laugh at Dante's statement there.

"Oh, I am sure there will be something. I am told before he reared his ugly head there was excitement here, of other sorts. I am sure it can step up to us in time, or we will reach it, even."

He nodded at those words, taking them in.

"True enough. Our old friend here is probably the worst I've known myself, so I might see where a lot of them do make leeches look completely stupid. I suppose, with them, it is more uncomfortable, if one is paying attention, really." That sounded reasonable, enough, he guessed.

"So. Demons and devils. How does one hold more than one of those at bay?"

[royalguard_style]

"Or cause some excitement. That's always fun." Sure, the kedan wouldn't appreciate it, but screw the kedan. They tried to poison Dante after he showed them so much leniency and mercy. He's saving the world right now, so therefore he should get to act however he wants in it.

"Plus, there's the fact that the leeches are there and our mutual friend isn't. You gotta wonder how hard the guy would hit." He hated this "acting indirectly" nonsense that Malicant pulled.

"If you're not sturdy enough to take a few hits? Stay the hell away from them." He explained. Normally, he wouldn't even entertain the idea of last-minute lectures, but they're in a pinch here.

"Guns are great, but bows work too. Anything to keep you out of your target's reach. If you have to use a sword or your fists, then hit and run. If you try to fight them toe to toe? It won't be pretty."

[solo_patria]

"Excitement can be useful, yes."

Enjolras was not one prone to flying off the handle, normally speaking anyway, but he did enjoy a good demonstration, and shaking up the natural order as it was required. If world saving was going on, then the kedan must deal with the resulting chaos, right? It was for their own benefit, after all, and people would surely want to help set things right later. So bring on the excitement for now. It sounded good.

"He rather seems to enjoy manipulation." Enjolras admits, shaking his head. "His touch is rather...hot and cold at the same time. Invasively so, and one can think of nothing else while it is happening, but where he's placed it, what of you he is touching."

Here, he really is tensing a bit, in memory, not so much to the point that it is incapacitating him, but it IS noticeable all the same. "It hurts, but less because he hits or bruises and more because he...takes an intimacy no one else could take, one that my partner never managed, it...he touches the worst parts of you, the darkest that you dare not think of any other time."

Better that he let someone, particularly Dante, whose direct seeming approach might not fit what Malicant likes to throw, and better to let him know he must be on his guard.

"Easy enough." He answers that, tilting his head to indicate the foil resting at his hip. "I can play distraction well enough, keep them engaged. But in your world, then? There is not some special sort of bullet or arrow to drive them off?

I did try learning archery, at first, a little, but the man who offered lessons vanished shortly after. Perhaps when this is over, I might try again. I've good aim with a riffle, and a decent eye. It might be good to prepare for finding food or protecting oneself in a slightly more mundane existence once we have finished this.

And no, I cannot see that going over very well." He shakes his head at the thought of that. "Somehow it seems worth avoiding."

[royalguard_style]

The kedan seemed capable of handling chaos, or at least causing some of their own. When Dante had arrived, he had assumed the kedan were humanoid doormats. Boy, was that ever a mistake and a half.

"Well then, I guess the same rules apply. I just have to stay far enough away so that he can't touch me. " Strategically, he should be pushing for more information, but nope. This was too obviously traumatizing. Time to change the subject.

"There's holy water, but that's expensive as hell. Better to just blow them to tiny pieces or fill them full of lead." He explained. Expenses were one of the sad facts of life for a devil hunter, as clearly evidenced by the way he emphasized the cost of the entire affair. "And if you're enough of a layperson to need it, you probably can't get your hands on it."

"Mastering a weapon's more of a matter of practice then proper instruction." Even he managed to become rather proficient with guns and swords in this fashion, and he is not what one would ever call a diligent student. A few decades of fighting for your life will make you master just about anything. "If you know the basics, then the rest is just a matter of figuring out the small stuff."

Oh, right, normal life. That's what most folks would call normal, isn't it? Having to only worry about food and muggers. Dante almost wonders what that's like. "But that's not a bad idea either. I'm no farmer, but I don't exactly think there was a huge bumper crop with this war going on."

[solo_patria]

Enjolras had assumed, even after knowing them for the longest time, that they had been reduced to those under Evandau's reign as Emperor. It was insulting, it was unfair, and he'd had the thought anyway, and had hoped they would consent to be 'saved' from their lack of agency and ability. He was glad he'd only really talked about the details of such a thing with Clark, and that, in doing so, he'd been able to remember it was their choice. It had been touch and go with assumptions from him for a while too, and he had even known better. It happened to anyone, that sort of mistake; though he regretted it a great deal now.

"Hopefully. And far away enough that manipulating the world around you would not have an immediate effect. If you can tell yourself he is manipulating it, and things are not so real, it helps. What managed to break most of his hold when I was there, was a loophole in the logic that he used to try and convince me to shoot myself. If those appear before you, call them out and think them through. It did seem to be the major key, then. I expect it would play some role now."

And then, Enjolras was relieved to step away from that conversation, and found himself nodding instead. "Supply, demand, and inflation." He commented, nodding. "So anything in the way of weapons that can be found. Those are rather reasonable natural laws for a universe to have, really."

Practice was one thing, Enjolras agreed there. Practice was how he had come to be a decent fencer, and he had learned a great deal more of it outside of the salle he trained in, with his more accomplished friends, particularly Courfeyrac and Grantaire as his dueling partners instead. Madame Hucheloup had always been beside herself when they'd taken such impromptu lessons into Corinthe, muttering about this being a cafe and not the streets. Still, that was how he had gotten better, so he knew that firsthand.

"Well, worth looking into by myself again, by far, after this. And perhaps one or two lessons on my form. I know that it was fairly awful when I had no idea what I was doing. All in the details, I would presume, but then, I shall need a hobby when we've done with this."

Enjolras, coming from the city, and before that, a small village by the sea, one which his family practically owned the entirety of, is not so sure what that must be like, himself. He's mostly known fish, and almost exclusively fish in the time that he's been here as well. It would be nice to find more options, perhaps a substitute for beef so that he could pay someone to make his favorite daube, and to have a means of getting it to said cook in the first place.

"It would certainly reduce the issue of rationing a little, if there were more food." He answered, then realized Dante had likely not been here for that. "That is, around the time that I arrived here, there were rationing rules, and lists, in place. No bumper crops, no, and I do doubt it will have changed much after all of this. It may be better to be safe than sorry, yes."

[royalguard_style]

Wait, Malicant was trying to goad people into suicide? Is that how he was able to do in the emperor? Well, there's not much he can ask in that territory without digging up some pretty awful memories. And an ally is no good when he's too stricken by fear or grief.

'Anything in the way of weapons one could find' would be much more reasonable laws if those weapons didn't include a shapeshifting briefcase and a convertible guitar/scythe.

"Presuming that doesn't just open up a whole new can of worms." Don't say it Dante, don't say it. Perhaps he was just pessimistic, since this wasn't the end for him. He had unfinished business here, what with a whole bunch of blood magic loose on the shell.


"Rationing? Yeah, I'm not much for hunting for food, but I'll go out there myself if it means avoiding that bullshit." He came right out and said it. "We go out and save the world for them, and this is how the folks on the shell want to thank us? Fuck that shit."

Oh, food. Don't talk to Dante about food. He missed it all. He was so used to being able to eat nothing but pizza and strawberry sundaes that he took it for granted. Now he's here, and he can't have either, he misses them both dearly.

[solo_patria]

Well, to goad Enjolras in that moment of his weakness anyway. Enjolras had also had the felling that Malicant had just enjoyed doing that too, as a -0*potential path to entertainment. That said, it had been pretty effective as a means of leading to the defeat of the group of them, then.

Ah well, each world had its own quirks, didn't it? Enjolras would have been shocked by those concepts of weapons, but if they were useful for fighting against evil in those worlds, well, those who were skilled might as well use them, right?

"Do you suppose that would?" Enjolras asked, trying to consider the problems that might be found, and shrugging. "I would think the most immediate can of worms would be getting into a fight with a weapon I did not know well, and thinking I knew what I was doing." Considering that he was here, well, it was somewhat ironic now, wasn't it? "I should think it easily avoided, really.

And the rationing was..." Enjolras made a face. "I always suspected it was unbalanced regarding the foreigners but I never did find out for certain. Things happened shortly after I arrived, and then they were so impressed with us we became rather important for a while. It seems like their favor is somewhat ephemeral."

And Enjolras was not comfortable with that sort of thing, really.

"It was a long time ago." He told Dante, instead. "They might well be better with that now, when we've finally vanquished him. It seems reasonable enough, until the next crisis comes about. Most of all though, I should hope that we manage to establish some sort of permanent peace.

I've no idea how governing might work here, when our fight is finished, but I think it must be the next step to prevent all of those problems, when we are through this. I wonder if the kedan might like a few leaders of their own, and we might establish the same."

It was not a time to think of that now, but Enjolras felt his mind buzzing with those possibilities anyway. "Well, we must wait to be certain there is a population to find leaders for." And certainly not himself, Enjolras thought, but did not add.

As far as food goes, Enjolras misses several things himself. It does prompt a wistful sigh, thinking of some things there.

"It would be so much better if the sources for food were better." He added, mind going back to that. "Or at least, more plentiful and a bit more than fish. I miss beef daube." he added, sighing a bit mournfully. "and croquembouche, even if they do have rather good chocolate croissants in one of the bakeries. The things one forgot to appreciate in the old world, I suppose."

[royalguard_style]

The whole concept may be even more shocking if Enjolras knew said weapons are actually the souls of deceased demons. Yeah... things get a little weird in his world.

"Considering half of the kedan now want to kill us all? I'd say so." Dante had noticed that already. One minute, he could get away with everything short of murder, and the next, they were all thinking about murdering him. It was enough to drive a guy nuts.

"Well, if we haven't, then at least the biggest problem will be gone. Beyond that, screw em." He gave his opinions in no uncertain terms. Some had called him rebellious, but in truth, he simply did as he pleases with little regard for what everyone thought, and hence could be called "self-serving" far more then he could be called "rebellious."

"And if they're all dead, then that little problem's taken care of too." He's not serious, but god was he frustrated with the kedan right now.

But then Enjolras said things that he didn't understand, and he just stared at him with a puzzled look on his face.

"I'm pretty sure that's just you, unless there's someone else here rich enough to even know what those words mean." A jab, to be sure, but he was at least somewhat serious. "Unless those are as common as pizza and strawberry sundaes wherever you come from."

[solo_patria]

Fighting with souls would be the part that really gave Enjolras a mental pause. He was slowly getting used to a lot of strange things, but to him, souls, of anyone, were just intangible things. Despite the fact he had been told, and believed that his soul was living here, there were some concepts he was probably never going to quite fully wrap his head around and that happened to be one of them.

"I would guess that if we manage to make this work, that half will come around, for a while, until, of course, some other thing makes them hate us, but I doubt anything so big as this would return. Still, it is not something I would be comfortable just assuming. And true. It is not as though we could do anything from wherever one goes here when they die as it is."

And, pointed out a part of Enjolras, the part annoyed with several of the kedan at the hospital who had tried their best to discourage him from sticking with his job, it might be at least a little nice to have them realize things were not so bad before. A little.

He did have to laugh at Dante's assessment there. "Or someone else french enough, at least. The croquembouche though is a little fussy and elaborate. But I do admit to being fascinated with the process there." He shrugged. "And wishing I could do much other than boil water and throw things in a pot. But then again, I have no idea what pizza exactly is so we may be a little even."

[royalguard_style]

"They better not. Considering we're about to save all of their asses." He's used to his work going unappreciated, and quite frankly, he expects to be reviled by those siding with the cult for a good while. As long as he can still convince people to apporach him with jobs, he should be in the clear. But that won't stop him from complaining.

But that's not imporant right now. Has someone never even heard of pizza? The poor soul. "I knew french restaurants were overly fancy, but that's just sad. If this was where I came from, I'd drag you to the nearest pizza place myself. But sadly, we're in the land that taste in food forgot without any cheese."

[solo_patria]

Enjolras can see the point enough he thinks. He would not mind much as long as they are not treated badly outrightly. Anything like that and he would certainly have cause to fight.

"Well, should that happen, perhaps they'll need some sort of strongly penned reminder, no? I hope I can avoid that, but..." He shrugs. "It can be done, of course.

Well, he's heard of it on the network a few times. The strange turtle-human teenagers seem to thrive on it, but he's not tried it himself. "You would be surprised by SOME of what we've managed to come up with in Paris. One of our favorite places, you could barely eat what was produced for fear of dying and less being a complete snob, and we were most of us college students." There's something to be said for that that seems a universal after all.

[royalguard_style]

"Glad to see you're only sending strongly worded letters." Nope, Enjolras was never living their first meeting down.

"I guess that's why folks from other countries have never heard of it." He chuckled. Apparently somethings are universal constants.

"Well then, once we all get out of here, we're going to have to do something about the food here." And with that, he had something of a goal in mind. Perhaps not a well-thought-out goal, but a goal, nonetheless.

[solo_patria]

"So far." Enjolras had to snicker at that, actually. It's deserved, after all, upon consideration.

"True enough. And yes, we certainly are, at that." Enjolras wrinkled his nose a little, now. "There is such a thing as too much fish, and all."

Goals were good. Goals would be better if Enjolras were capable of not burning things in a kitchen, but in principle.

"We shall need to have some meetings or something, or share out batches of food between a group. But the logistics can wait, of course. Once we are out of here, we'll talk."