Vigil

[Morty]

[Training Ground]

"Yes, I do think you should consider a new mission." Wenomir scrutinises TARBot closely. "Will you come peacefully or will we have to drag you?"

[Gold]

[Training Ground]

"D-do you serio-ously th-th-think my end g-goal is to rob-b-b people? You idiot-t-ts."

"D-drag me if you w-w-w-want to. I don't feel-l-l like gett-tt-tting up." TARBot is trying to save whatever energy he has left, since he can't regenerate it until his dimensional warp comes back online.

[Zefir]

[Training Ground]

"Whatever your endgoal is, it involves robbery." Mia says. She still assumes he kind of has a collect all swords endgoal or something alike.

"We need a cell with an dimensional anchor, do we have one ?"

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo simply looks up at Ambrosia. She'd admit she's somewhat intimidated. She never got a real look at the true size and bulk of Ambrosia's dragon form earlier, even if she could see it from a distance and guess at that. It's quite another thing to be so up close.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

The dragon's gaze is drawn to the stairs as Thariza gestures at it. "You should have told me earlier and I could have taken you here."

Her eyes then settles on the charr again, though now a touch more gentle. "But since you brought our new companion into this I'm guessing this isn't something you want to be left alone with."

[Morty]

[Training Ground]

"Yes, we can properly question him when he's more coherent and safely behind bars." Wenomir seems to be recovering from his daze. He'll have TARBot cuffed and carried away, unless he resists or tries some other trick.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"Sort of. But also I didn't realize I had to do it until after a while." Thariza looks up at Ambrosia. "I need to digest it, but I think something caught up here with me that I'd escaped in Ascalon. Or that had followed me from there. I'm not the person I was... hadn't been for a while, but now I can stop pretending."

[Gold]

[Training Ground]

"H-hm? Oh, y-yes." Some kind of progress bar appears on TARBot's screen, reading 'Reinstalling audio drivers...' When it's done, his speech problem seems to have cleared up. "I don't blame you for finding me hard to listen to whilst my audio was stuttering. Frankly, that was starting to get on my circuits too."

TARBot doesn't resist against the cuffing or carrying. He's run out of tricks, and there isn't much fight left in him.

[Keeper]

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

"I know, Koshal, but let me enjoy it while I still can." Wenomir smiles, looking and sounding more like the father of a fast-growing teenager than a martial instructor. Then he nods to Obriane. "I certainly hope that's the case. I don't accept students lightly, but so far she seems to have what I look for."

A Fox Can't be Cut

"Well, you've got a year. I'm sure you can make the most of it." Koshal says cheerily, lowering into a proper stance, holding the practice sword ready.

[Recaiden]

[Village]

► SHOW SPOILER

This is crazy. There's no way toasters work like that, Sophia is thinking. She's used toasters for years!
Of course, she never did have any talent for seeing spirits. Rather the opposite, if anything. Perhaps, all that time, there was a quiet toaster spirit at work.

How troubling.

Demons, of course, operate on a spiritual level. Reshaping the merely physical through the infusion of foreign spirits and out-of-band self. That's expected.
The hive, weirdly enough, also can operate on a spiritual level. Which only makes sense now that she thinks about it. How else does Faye work? How else did they get the phones?
But that means...anything could go. Any machine could be made to live.
"That does seems a shame. Is there any category of things without spirits?" she asks hopefully.

[Village]

Mia shrugs.

"Not sure, maybe raw materials like an iron bar. It is hard to tell sinc epeople here didn't seem to know the spirits of machines. It does sound like this is trouble for you and maybe your kind? Might explain to me why?"

Sophia nods slowly.
"Having a spirit seems to go along with all the most important qualities of being alive."
"But it's an almost-religious belief to our hive that machines do not have spirits, that they can't be whole because of how they're not alive. Which means they can't be a proper part of something greater."

"If machines do have spirits, and we can reach those spirits, then they need our help, and we might need them also." It would have been a huge waste all this time, and also it might end up with things being even weirder.

[Magtok]

Career of Evil

► SHOW SPOILER

Secret Treaties

Blanche thinks through all this as Magtok speaks, her brow knitted in thought. "Okay, I think I understand what you're thinking here better now. It's... a lot, but I can see the logic behind it. I guess the focus on psychic ability makes sense for a ghost like Prime, considering they're both related to exerting control over the intangible and manifesting will. It also means that whatever he's done to engineer that implant, it could likely be the pinnacle of all his work thus far - and that makes me nervous to simply let it be handed over, especially behind the commanders' backs."

After a beat, Blanche raises a hand to try and put a pause on whatever Magtok has to say about this - probably disappointment or exasperation. "That's not a no. You have a strong idea here, and I think we're very much better off doing something rather than waiting for Prime to rear his head once more. My biggest concern is what happens if Prime figures out the plot, or the rune fails - or hell, even if it does work and Prime gets stuck in this body, he's still going to be an incredibly powerful psychic with an intent to mentally dominate others into his service."

"I think you have the right play here, - but if we want this to work, you want VIGIL in lock-step with us. We need Prime soundly thrashed once he's got the amplifier, and you and I both know you don't have the resources to whip up a strong enough posse to go kick his ass. And what if Prime decides to use it as a tool to further build power instead of simply kickstarting his rampage?

We'll recognize the threat of the clone getting loose, yes, but there will be time where we have to scramble to respond, and you're going to have to deal with VIGIL breathing down your neck instead of working more in tandem with you, if at all." And of course, the unspoken problem - who does he think is going to face all the retribution for this too?

Blanche affixes Magtok with a focused look, a steel in her eyes. "We speak to Wenomir and Cessie about this first. They know me, they seem to like me, and I will vouch for you. If they refuse to do anything about this, refuse to see the importance of what you're trying to do? Then, we try it your way,"

"The downside to bringing this up to Wenomir and Cessie is they'll obviously want to protect their own team, clear people out of the way ahead of time, and neither of them knows the first thing about being sneaky and underhanded. There's a greater chance the clone will suspect something if we do it that way, and I can't even begin to guess at what drastic action a rogue psychic grandpa might take if he thinks he'd being manipulated and outplayed," Magtok points out, before sighing loudly in defeat. Godsdammit, the stupid cat no the cat nope our wife's kid wrong Blanche has a point. Even worse, it's a pretty good point.

"At the same time, you're right, we do need a coordinated attack against Prime, and I can't just hope that the right people will notice and simultaneously spring into action the moment he starts raising hell. Fine, we'll try it your way," he begrudgingly concedes. He's not about to admit to it, but he's pleasantly surprised by this twist. The only possibilities he considered were a bull-headed, unimaginative refusal to cooperate for proposing a gross violation of protocol, presenting a plan that involved putting others at risk and getting her hands dirty...or weak, servile, reluctant compliance from someone who recognizes his determination and can tell he'd just do this on his own without her. A Vigil member that disapproves of aspects of his morally ambiguous scheme but doesn't immediately demand a stop to it is...refreshing, in a way. Maybe this elf-dating weirdo isn't completely trash.

[Arkhosia]

Oh No, They Say He's Got To Go (To Cessie)

"Not an unreasonable concern - subterfuge is neither commander's strong suit. It's an operational blind spot of ours that we're actually trying to take steps towards - we've actually been working with Jezebel to bolster our information networks and establish more of a spec ops capability." Blanche nods, silently acknowledging what Magtok is saying about the need for discretion and potentially genuine surprise.

Blanche smiles slightly. "Alright, I'll give them a call in a couple hours once they're up, try and force them to listen to you asap today. Hopefully we can convince them to let you take point on this, at least for staging a jailbreak. You said it yourself - there's no telling what'll happen if the target thinks we're playing him. I imagine you'll know how to handle duping one of your own much better than us, and you've always been good at it anyways."

While she's not going to verbally admit it either, it's easy to note the relief in Blanche's posture when the cyborg accepts her suggestion. He might even realize why - Caelynn mentioned she was promoted recently, so she's feeling a degree of expectation and scrutiny right now. Betraying the commanders' trust immediately after it would be quite the career choice.

[Shadowcaller]

Submerged
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! All demons must die!" Ophelia struggles against the web in an attempt to reach her weapons, but only succeeds in tearing her arms free, leaving her hanging upside down by her feet. Her head splashes into the water and she struggles to raise it, coughing up water each time she manages to pull herself up for a breath.

Submerged

((Will post here late or edit this space.))

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

"How many students do you have right now? Are they close to Ana's age perhaps?" Obriane inquires as her eyes are drawn to Koshal. Was he one of them? She would assume as much. Though considering his size she hoped that Ana wouldn't have to overwork herself to get to the level Wenomir expected of his students. Not that she doubted Ana could do that of course.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"Yet the person you were lingers here since this is where she died." The dragon remarks as she motions her head towards the same staircase that Thariza pointed out earlier. "Would you like to meet her, your ghost? Since that's part of the reason that you came here, wasn't it?"

[Morty]

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

"Aside from Koshal here, I have three other regular students," Wenomir says as he prepares for a bout. "Two of them are older than Koshal or Anastasia, but one is younger."

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"Not literally, but... yeah, I guess in a way," Thariza admits. "Maybe it'd be good to actually see what I left behind here."

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"I must admit." Utayo interjects. "I'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to be present during this." It was one thing to provide company during some challenging introspection. This, though, sounds far more personal and outward, and she admittedly doesn't feel comfortable.

[Keeper]

A Fox Can't Be Cut

"Hm...if I had to guess...I would say that she and I are the same age." Koshal suggests. He's gotten better at identifying human ages after spending so much time with them.
Obriane might not have been expecting this given that Koshal is currently the size of an adult human, just starting to go past that as he gains his full adult minotaur height and width.

[Shadowcaller]

Submerged

There is laughter all around her. As if she was suddenly before a great crowd of people. All mocking and jeering.
Perhaps you should join a circus instead she(?) thinks.
Just look what a freak you've become.

As she struggles to keep her head above the surface she starts to see tiny reflections of herself in the water all around her. Despite struggling for her life they seem to pierce her mind and even with her eyes closed she can see that images of a serpentine demon calling herself a 'demon hunter'.

You lie to others, you lie to yourself. But you cannot lie to us. We see you for what you truly are. These voices are a bit different. They're still hers but they're somehow more distinct.

Something enormous then emerges from below and its jaws closes around her.
It takes a moment to realize that this one happened in her head as she's still struggling.

A snack.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

The dragon glances at Utoya for a moment before her gaze returns to Thariza. Seemingly waiting for her to give her opinion.

[bc56]

Submerged
The rush of adrenaline is exactly what Ophelia needs to pull herself up from the water and grab onto her swords. "I will find you, and I will destroy you, speaker of lies!" The silver blades glow and grow warm in the presence of demons. We'll see who's lying in a moment.

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

"How many students do you have right now? Are they close to Ana's age perhaps?" Obriane inquires as her eyes are drawn to Koshal. Was he one of them? She would assume as much. Though considering his size she hoped that Ana wouldn't have to overwork herself to get to the level Wenomir expected of his students. Not that she doubted Ana could do that of course.

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

"Aside from Koshal here, I have three other regular students," Wenomir says as he prepares for a bout. "Two of them are older than Koshal or Anastasia, but one is younger."

A Fox Can't Be Cut

"Hm...if I had to guess...I would say that she and I are the same age." Koshal suggests. He's gotten better at identifying human ages after spending so much time with them.
Obriane might not have been expecting this given that Koshal is currently the size of an adult human, just starting to go past that as he gains his full adult minotaur height and width.

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

"Mom, please, we don't wanna interrupt them," Anastasia remarks somewhat quietly, clearly embarrassed by the very parently questions and comments. They've surely been a bother enough right now!

[Zefir]

[Village]


Sophia nods slowly.
"Having a spirit seems to go along with all the most important qualities of being alive."
"But it's an almost-religious belief to our hive that machines do not have spirits, that they can't be whole because of how they're not alive. Which means they can't be a proper part of something greater."

"If machines do have spirits, and we can reach those spirits, then they need our help, and we might need them also." It would have been a huge waste all this time, and also it might end up with things being even weirder.

"I see. But what kind of help do you think they need? It is more complicated then say they are like the souls of people. They have the same worth but rather then be free they want to be used in the way they were designed. Only a low percentage can act freely if they were build for that."

Mia replies staying calm. She seems to have some issues getting the right words.

[Training Ground]

Mia will just tell them again to hurry, but as they do she prepares another spell one that will protect her sword from beeing stolen.

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"You can wait outside, if you'd rather." Thariza has enough of a presence of mind to realize Utayo feels uncomfortable. "This shouldn't take long, hopefully."

[Training Ground]

TARBot will be placed in one of Vigil's holding cells, one prepared to stop anyone from teleporting out. Wenomir isn't sure what they'll do with the intruder, but for now they need to put him somewhere he won't make trouble.

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo nods to the two. "I will wait nearby. I won't be far when you need to find me." And with that she traces back the direction they came from in the first place.

[Recaiden]

[Village]

"I see. But what kind of help do you think they need? It is more complicated then say they are like the souls of people. They have the same worth but rather then be free they want to be used in the way they were designed. Only a low percentage can act freely if they were build for that."

Mia replies staying calm. She seems to have some issues getting the right words.

Sophia also seems unsure how to say what she means.
"Each machine wants to fulfill its purpose then. But people invent better machines over time, right? Each toaster, for example, could be upgraded into a better toaster."
"Even humans mostly get into trouble when they try to act freely, so that's not a problem. I don't need to set all the machines free or anything. But we could make them better. Blend the line between mechanical and natural for them."

[Magtok]

All Our Times Have Come

"Alright, I'll give them a call in a couple hours once they're up, try and force them to listen to you asap today."

Our cyborg immediately regrets his decisions leading up to this the moment the word 'hours' passes Blanche's lips. Stupid bureaucracy, stupid mortals incapable of being in multiple places at once. Why can't everything and everyone be exactly where and when he needs them to be at all times? You don't see Magtok ever keeping people waiting for hours or days on end, he's always there and posting taking action as soon as someone reaches out to him. What the hell do the commanders of Vigil have that's so important, anyway? Eating? Sword practice? Childcare? Sleeping? Shouldn't there be an alarm somewhere to make them come running in a panic, scrambling to find out why Lord Magtok is walking on their territory?

"It's really going to be that long? Should I just take off and wait for you to call me back, then?" he says with a sigh, peering at the spot on his wrist where his red eye projects a watch that no one else can see. What a waste of an afternoon; we had this whole day set up in our head, full of action and chaos and strife. If Mag knew playing things the 'smart' way meant not immediately rushing in like a blind idiot, he never would've agreed to any of this.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Ambrosia watches Utayo go and once she disappears out of sight she turns back to Thariza. "Let's begin. Prepare yourself."

Then the dragon turns to the stairs and raises her wings and then her whole body to her full length while holding out a claw fully outstretched. Then, born out of her palm is a brilliant golden light is resplendent orb which emerges from the dragons palm. This light then spreads outwards until it quickly has enveloped her entire form.

Then Ambrosia projects a word into her mind that Thariza can't recognize and all of sudden she sees herself on those stairs. Fighting an invisible enemy like she did that awful day. Her final day. She can see her own gaze being drawn to Ambrosia and she let's out a terrified cry. Since this is the Thariza that still believes all dragons are engines of destruction. The one that never learned of another way to look at them.

The one that never got the chance to.

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

Obriane looks to Koshal and then to Ana as he claims they're the same age.

Well, lesson learned. She shouldn't have expected any of Wenomir's students to be ordinary.
"They haven't really started yet, Ana. Just taking the opportunity before they get engaged." She claims but will then fall silent. Since she certainly didn't want to interrupt them now.

[Submerged]

As she swings herself up into the web the swords do indeed start to glow.
But she needs to get her footing as standing on the web will be a balancing act. Their stickiness make her able to stand on them but for the same reason it's difficult to actually walk on them. In addition, the strings off the web are sometimes so far away from one another that she would have to essentially jump in between them.

Not that there would be any reason to as there are still no foes around her. But the voices in her head sound enthusiastic about this development.

Excellent! Then, believer in lies, you have searched and now you shall find.

And then Ophelia will suddenly start throwing up as something starts to force its way out of her stomach.

This is strangely not as unpleasant as it sounds despite what 's emerging out of her mouth is as large, if not larger, than her.
Since it is her.
Or rather, it is her if she had been a snake demon and suddenly she's in two places at once. Both a demon and not-a-demon. Each body desperately clinging onto the web they've been forced onto.

[Arkhosia]

After Dark

Blanche gives him a flat look. "Dad, it's 4 am. You're lucky I was even awake right now." And indeed, Magtok's projected watch reads just that. 4:19 AM, to be specific. "Wenomir gets up pretty early, so you might not have to wait long, but I feel like we'll have a better chance if Cessie's involved. You're welcome to stay if you'd like, though." Which does beg the question, why the hell was Blanche up at 4 am in the morning in the first place? Those aren't light bags under her eyes, are they?

[Gold]

[Training Ground]

TARBot will sit inside the holding cell. He won't move until the Vigil people start talking to him, seemingly having gone into sleep mode for the tine being. He does, however, silently check if they ever took the Pokeball off him, or if he still has it.

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"I guess I would have been scared witless of a dragon back then." Thariza is oddly calm. Like she passed through fear to the other side. "I hadn't met you yet. A dragon meant trouble. I had to befriend you first, before I realized I was wrong. And... I don't know, it doesn't look like the other me is actually fighting to win, does she? I thought I was at the time, but..."

[A Fox Can't Be Cut]

Wenomir begins the bout and attacks. Since Koshal has been his student for a long time, he doesn't hold back much. He assails him with rapid, scything cuts of the greatsword, seeking to use the long reach to overpower him. He moves in a blur, expecting Koshal to keep up. Anastasia might notice that it's far more graceful than is typically associated with a greatsword. It's a quick and brutal weapon in Wenomir's hands. Sometimes he will close the distance and make thrusts or close-range cuts while gripping the sword by the blade above the hilt.

[bc56]

Submerged

Stars, what is that? Ophelia vomits herself out onto the web, looking very sick.
"There you are," She steadies herself and readies her blades into an aggressive stance.
Ophidia, on the other hand, needs no weapons to be deadly. But if the webbing is awkward footing for Ophelia, it would be absolutely awful for Ophidia, who has a tail instead of legs.
And Ophelia isn't going to give her dark mirror image time to find her balance. She rushes the serpent, swords flashing, her own balance failing. She's more likely to knock both of them off balance than do any real damage with this reckless maneuver.

[Zefir]

[Training Ground]

TARBot will sit inside the holding cell. He won't move until the Vigil people start talking to him, seemingly having gone into sleep mode for the tine being. He does, however, silently check if they ever took the Pokeball off him, or if he still has it.

[Training Ground - Cell prepare room]

I'm sure they took the ball away from him as they can clearly connect it to the monster he summond. Thought is the monster in the ball or free? If its inside the ball will be sealed as you can expect.

Mia will be in another room first with Wenomir to talk about whats next.
"I am not sure what to do now. I don't have any enemies in the nexus and he seemed to be just intressed in the weapon not myself."

[Village]


Sophia also seems unsure how to say what she means.
"Each machine wants to fulfill its purpose then. But people invent better machines over time, right? Each toaster, for example, could be upgraded into a better toaster."
"Even humans mostly get into trouble when they try to act freely, so that's not a problem. I don't need to set all the machines free or anything. But we could make them better. Blend the line between mechanical and natural for them."

[Village]

"I don't think thats working. As i told you my homeworld is a clash between nature and machnies. We don't wanna fight nature, but also we don't want to make them our best friends either.Well beyond the nessesary parts."

[Recaiden]

[Village]

"I know it might not be what your world wants to do."
"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it here. If machines have spirits, those spirits should be developed to their utmost potential and brought to serve the greater good, just like natural spirits are."
This part, Sophia says quite confidently.