Anarion

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential: 1]

Shade of a captured hero. That was a good guess, interesting too, maybe worth investigating?

First she acknowledges the cats with more purring. That was sweet, and almost mentoring. The girl had chosen mother cat, not a companion. Did she think she was stronger than Anathet? Or older? Maybe she viewed herself as caring for others that way, or had when her whole self was present. There wasn't a lot of time though, Set needed to help her friends.

image of girls flipping through books, looking for signs asking "should I look for information about you in the library?" Set's thoughts are settling into a calm blue.

She can sense the strong shame on the other side, not Marianne's though she'd recognize it, so it must be a prisoner then. Really impressive as always. There was something about Marianne, maybe she could be a true kindred spirit even if she didn't have the sort of empath training that this eyeless girl had, or the Zhianku. She had that joy in life, in moving that made Set feel like sisters when they ran together and glided through walls each in their own way (Set thought hers was much less dizzying though).

The girl's shade flickering in the library the flickering is indecisive yellow, Anathet wondering whether the girl can stay with them while they look for information or if she'll have to leave again. And then: This one is a quick image, like a person changing from animal to animal, first cat, then crocodile, hippo, jaguar, mouse, cat again and on. It's a general question, a question of shape and self-identity, asking the eyeless girl to lock herself in from possibility. At it's heart, it asks the simplest question: "who are you?"

[Rolling to pierce the mask: but 1+2-1=2. Gaining a potential.]

Maybe it's too much too fast, Set starts feeling a purple melancholy regret at offering so much, she should have been more careful. Argh, if only there were really an expert here, not like her!

She's distracted like this when she walks in on Marianne and her prisoner. In fact, she very nearly thinks at them, which wouldn't do either much good, and has to stop herself and try to focus. She forces a short laugh, almost a bark, and says "well, Marianne, who do we have here?"

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

Set ought to be arriving to Marianne right about now, but she is busy having the jump scare of her life. It's all she can do not to cry out loud (years of meditation and focus training just barely paying off). Instead her jump is a mental affair, yellow colors, cat scurrying underneath a pillow!

Then a breath, that feeling of hatred. Set reflects that, yellow turning to angry red. Idols of Ishtar and Ereshkigal burning and then a sort of tilted head, question mark. Did she understand the target of hatred correctly? And then, belatedly, cat coming out of hiding, purring because she's delighted to meet the eyeless girl and it just took her brain a minute to catch up to that fact with all the intense emotions!

Is the Eyeless girl walking somewhere or following her? Can they hide in shadows to converse? Hopefully she's not keeping Marianne waiting too long, right?

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Unleash powers to escape: 5+6+2=13!]

"Ah, everything is broken. All those screens that were so useful for spying." Set shakes her head, the movement like a parade of Set animals crossing her cheeks as her snake crown stands in judgment above. Perhaps she would play longer, try to really impress the lynx, but then there is that high whistle and she knows that one girl cannot stay in one place with the force of the Annunaki converging. Especially when there's nothing more to do here to help her team. Now was the time for departures.

Set walks daintily over to the Lynx as she recovers from her leap, stepping carefully around the little incense pellets, glass shards, and the poor unconscious guards. Red hot rage is rising from the lynx like steam, poor thing. She really ought to take a long swim to clear her mind, though perhaps Lynxes, like earth cats, did not enjoy the water. Idle musings. "I'm sorry, kitty. I can't play any longer, I need to leave for now." Set giggles a bit, high and clear, the giggles of a young goddess of chaos. Then a portal opens beneath her and she drops where there is no floor and is gone.

The plan was in a bit of disarray, not too much just a bit. She'd originally hoped to keep the security room for longer, alerting her friends of any dangers and ensuring no guard patrols were in the way. Canada was supposed to have been the one make the big distraction and then she was on her own to get out of there, and Marianne would handle getting them cleanly into the library. With all the fighting, Set hadn't had the chance to see anything of Marianne past her entrance and had no idea where she was at the moment. Canada had done something big and flashy, but who knew where she was now either! And there had been all those extra guards that Set had tried to send into a panic with all those false alarms to Caphtor. The best thing now would be to make her way to the rendezvous point in front of the library early so she could pull away any guards there and make sure Marianne had a free path. She didn't want to run into any of the alerted guard patrols either because it would suck to pull them towards where she was going.

So she took a roundabout route, slipping out of the panopticon and to the corridors below. She peeked around pillars, looking for where the guards were heading and then slipped back into those pillars in short jumps, slipping from shadow to shadow so that she could scout the library and see what dangers awaited them.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

Set feels some sympathy for the lynx before her. That sense of smug orange superiority oozing off of her is so strong. Set understands, sympathizes even. Isn't that something like what the Phantom Thieves themselves are trying to create? That mystique of just being better than everybody else. That turns heads, tugs on hearts. Little Annunaki thinking "maybe I want to be like that." The lynx feels that superiority over humans, and so it clouds her judgment and causes her to strike with abandon, secure in the belief that she's just better because nobody without a spinal mane could possibly see through the choking incense to react in time.

It's just that the lynx is wrong. She's underestimated the little goddess in front of her. That orange smugness shines off her like a torch in the night and so she's easy to predict.

She leaps. There's a swish of colorful linen. Set sinks into the floor. Lynx claws brush a swirl of dress that flutters aside leaving only air to rend. Then there's a light tug on her chest, a hand that's grabbed her from below. It's not that hard, even for a weak, small human, to grab the armor so the lynx's own momentum rips a chunk of her protective mesh off her chest, and then a new blast curls around the wrist of that hand. Just a light one, not too wide, a pinpoint strike of lapis energy that feels like a bull just kicked her right in the ribs.

[Directly engage with Littlest Space Bandit: 2+2+3=7. We trade blows, but Set selects the resist or avoid their blows option. Mra'al probably marks a condition.]

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

Oh she's a lynx like a leopard. Oh that's so cute! Set really wanted to pet the fur around her neck with the little dark spots! But oh! Oh! She was really fast and really focused!

Oh man, this was adrenaline pumping. That mesh wasn't the only thing doing some reflecting a back. An opponent this intense made Set get intense too and she started speeding up her movements. Without a sound, she slid under the rod into a new portal, left it open and fired her laser blasts into the mesh at an angle. Sching! The shot absorbed, the mesh tightening and bouncing the energy blast off twofold from the angle of fire. So Set opened another portal where it was going and reflected it back out towards the lynx again!

Meanwhile, Set's dropped herself through another rift in the floor and is sliding out from the ceiling on the other side of the lynx, sliding right near her back, linen just tickling the Lynx's mesh armor. Set permits herself just a little pat of that spotted neck, which is soooo soft and luxurious even through the mesh (a light pat is too slow for it to tighten and respond anyway) before throwing herself away from the lynx turning towards her to strike. But oops, there's that reflected laser blast coming at her from behind, and another one coming up from below, only Set's already slipped into another portal and she's on the opposite side of the room now.

There's an almost feral grin on Set's face through the tattoos, and maybe even the Lynx might feel a moment where she can't tell who's predator and who's prey.

[Unleashing Powers to turn the environment into high stakes laser pinball. 3+6+2=11.]

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

The logical thing to do here is to draw attention. It's clearly the best tactical move. Send Caphtor into a panic and then take up the Lynx's time. That will give Marianne a clear route. Probably make Canada's distraction easier too. As long as Set's taking up time, everybody else is free to act and then, well, the escape should be pretty doable, probably. So, alright time to make this look good!

"Caphtor, Caphtor, did you see that? There, in the prison cells, while you had the security off, there's an attempted prison break! And...and I thought I saw them coming in through the cellars! You'll need to send a squad to every sewer entrance, seal them off, make sure no more resistance fighters can come in that way! This is an emergency alert all the guards, all hands on deck! Oh, oh, did you see that? Down below the eye cameras in the mezzanine, I swear I saw someone with a stick of old-fashioned earth explosives! Hurry, hurry, send some guards down there, scramble everyone, there's got to be some kind of coordinated Resistance attack going on!"

That should probably do it. Especially because she had to set herself up for the arriving Lynx. Let's see, what style would really grate on an Annunaki guard here? Ah, of course, mimicry with sarcasm, they loved that. Set arranges herself so that she's lounging on top of the security monitors (oh and her linen dress might be blocking them from view, by coincidence). The guards are unconscious of course, and Set does her best to adopt that sort of bored, airhead look the Annunaki seem to love so much. She lets her snake crown slide down a little on her forehead, and brushes her hair back over her shoulders. Every part of her screams "Pay attention to me! Come right at me!"

[rolling to provoke the Lynx as she comes into the panopticon to give Set her full attention, nevermind the screens or the djinn or anything else going on. 6+5+3=14 (!). I think we got her.]

Chuubo's GMD: Love and Shattered Alchemy

Dulcinea and Jasper!

Dulcinea mentions the feeling of lurking and as Jasper finishes her heartfelt promise, right behind you there is suddenly the sound of clapping! Someone is there. She's a young woman wearing mussy jeans and a wrinkled black t-shirt that says "I <3 Fortitude" in white letters. She's got an umbrella but she's not wearing a rain jacket or anything. Peaking out from under the umbrella is her brown hair, all up in a ponytail and it seems like she tried to put a flower in it before going out, but it's like a daisy that's missing a few petals so it's kind of sad. She's got this sincere look on her face as she claps for Jasper though, and it feels like things will start to calm down a little as she's clapping. Dulcinea, you probably hate this. Jasper, you probably find this to be unusually polite based on what you've seen of Fortitude so far.

"Oh wow, that was so moving. Um, you must be new here. I'm Shokyou, it's very nice to meet you!" She extends her hand kind of stiffly for a formal handshake, but doesn't wait for it to complete to keep talking. "I, um, heard you talking outside my window, so I thought I'd come down and say hi. I was feeling kind of down because my comics got all drenched today, but listening to you talk has really helped me feel better!" She gives you just the warmest smile. It's almost infectious.

You could tell her to get lost and go get some ramen by yourselves if you really want. Or you could take her with you, she'd be so happy to get ramen together like friends. She likes plain ramen with salty broth and a little gyoza, by the by.

[Dulcinea, take one Science! XP and one Outside Stirs XP for your theorizing.]
[Jasper, go ahead and take an emotion xp for touching Shokyou's heart (you can't touch Duclinea's heart because she doesn't have one, of course).]
*****

"Yes, of course! I'm a master chef!" Seizhi says, straightening her bearing as she starts heading towards the back. "Don't even worry about the menu OR the uniform. I, Seizhi Schwan, who must have been around quite a long while to have learned to cook as well as I have in any situation, will prepare you something right away, just to your taste!"

Sessily giggles a bit. She seems to be enjoying the place, Rinley. Maybe it's just that the people here are lively, or maybe she likes maid outfits! If I were you, which, to be clear, I am distinctly not, but if I were I'd ask her some new friend questions while Seizhi is getting your mystery food ready. Maybe learn more about the maid who's running the place too. You could have a group conversation, like "everybody say your favorite food out loud on the count of three!" or "we'll each go around the table and say our favorite secret glass dragon fact, ready set go!"

Meanwhile, Seizhi has grabbed a couple cans of some kind of fruit and has turned on the camp stove and she seems like she's super into it. She's got some powdered eggs too, and flower, and it looks like she's whipping up some kind of light fruit pancakes, maybe even crepes! Sessily would probably really like crepes, on the grounds that almost nobody would be like "oh yeah, I hate dessert crepes, like, they're the worst, who would ever want to eat that?"

Mila, since Rinley is showing her girlfriend friend who is a girl this lovely place and Seizhi seems to have the food situation well in hand, how do you busy yourself? Do you try to avoid conversation or let Rinley wrap you up in her web?

[Mila, not seeing any XP since you already got the suspicious one and you're handling the unexpected influx of people pretty well.]
[Rinley, you marked your own XP already, but confirming storytime from earlier. So really you're just trying to get a "noooo!" out of us and maybe learning some mysteries now.]

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

Set's answer to worry isn't a...set one. She'd like to say that's it's always something like how she handled getting rattled with the dark-eyed girl. Deep breaths, center the mind, focus on what needs doing. That's certainly the Zhianku way. They are a people that acknowledge that conflict exists and that the mind will inherently focus on such things. Hence, addressing anxiety is a matter of training and technique. That works, too, and sometimes Set uses it. Especially where there's time. Be conscious of the physical. Feel your breath, slow it. Let your stress rise up from the very ends of your toes, all the way through yourself. Up through the legs to gather in the stomach, then up and out and past the chest, releasing the tightness, out of the shoulders that didn't even know they had a burden on them, and out with the breath.

But, that's also a technique that takes practice, focus, a solid mental state. It's difficult when you're distracted or angry, it's near-on impossible when somebody is egging you on or your reaction is an immediate one of panic or concern. Instinct isn't in the business of just sitting in the corner and waiting on rational decision-making. Set's instincts are a weird mix too. Sometimes she wants to draw attention to herself, other times she wants to run and hide. Sometime she wants to cry and other times she wants to get angry.

Right now, she's got her lips pursed unconsciously and she's leaning over the screens with her eyes darting from angle to angle, watching anxiously and trying to think of a plan to make sure this doesn't get messed up.

[Assess: 5+3+3=11. What here can I use to ensure our route is clear?
What's the greatest danger? (in particular, what does the aim of the guards seem to be?)]

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

Set feels a sense of loss. This had been a meaningful connection, a type she hadn't felt in a long time. She wanted more, but it was already gone. If this had been some sort of Caphtor echo, it certainly had a completely different personality. Things were off though. That feeling of falling asleep, that was a point that was off. An echo might have been frustrated at moving and gone through a catechism, maybe even done the feeling of twin sisters like that if it had been a psychic with a personality similar to Set's. But falling asleep like that, not something that would be in an echo. Maybe...if it's a part of Caphtor that's free but linked to something else...hm, no it wouldn't be afraid of getting lost if it had an anchor. None of that explained the eyes either.

She shakes her head. She could lose herself in speculation and she needed to be helping her friends. "Please turn off arena cell and elevator monitoring for the next, let's say five minutes" she tells Caphtor. The arena plan was already off-script, but at least if Caphtor left, Canada would have free reign to do whatever preparations she wanted without anybody knowing.

"Okay, now show me the Acanthus hall party and the Arena, I want to see all the high nobles present at both." She figured this was pretty safe as a request. Anyone engaging in a little voyeurism would ask the same thing, so even if Caphtor let slip that she'd asked for this view, it wouldn't tip off the Annunaki that anything was more amiss than a guard having inadequate self-discipline training (which would eventually get both said guard and his supervisor in some trouble, but that was acceptable).

Set admitted to herself that she wasn't quite sure what to do if she did see something strange though. Running interference for Canada was at least straightforward. And once a noble reached the library, she could ask Caphtor to turn off the security and then teleport over there. She didn't have any idea what to do if she saw something weird happening with the nobles though. Marianne had assured them she had it handled, so Set was watching just in case a problem came up. And, admittedly, because she had nothing else to do at the moment and she was trying to pay attention instead of thinking about the eyeless girl.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

Out of practice! is the first panicked thought that strikes Set's mind! She's just coming up from the Djinn and she hasn't had to do this kind of emotional communication for a few months now, not since she left the Zhianku. On top of that (which already makes her want to cry a little) this eyeless girl is doing something just a hair different than Zhianku aura communication. There aren't any colors! It's more like a direct connection, pure understanding shouting at the top of its lungs right into her brain.

Of course, as she's trying to calm down and think of anything coherent, she's getting the thoughts of error/failing from this eyeless girl, which sends Set tumbling back to her early days with the Zhianku. Memories of the first time she tried to learn aura and couldn't get it. Still so young and easily frustrated and unable to hold her mind with focus.

She'd run off from her teachers in tears, even pushed away Niknik when she got back to her room and the whale had tried to comfort her. Then she'd cried even harder because she had pushed her miniature space whale and that was, like, ultra mean! The only way she had known how to respond to that at the tender age of seven had been to curl up in her sheets and completely bury herself so she couldn't see anything in the world at all and just cry and cry until she had to stop to breathe.

So, you know, Set was really off to a great first impression here. Total cluelessness followed by pain and the overwhelming desire to cry and close her eyes. Yeah, that wasn't embarrassing at all, in fact she was sure that was how every empath greeted another empath for the first time. She might as well add in a litany of every time she wet the bed and that one time she was eating some kind of weird purple alien mush and spilled it all over the new dress Kuliana had just made for her, and just...stop okay stop. Deep breath.

[you're being watched?] It's a question asking for a confirmation, the image itself rather like a tiger in the night (or a lynx) with glowing eyes trained right on her. Tinges of deep black and green fear. Then:

[I'm curious too. How can we meet?] The image is like two traders in the market, both wearing wide hats that hide their veiled faces in shadow and carrying deep straw baskets of goods with the tops tied on, an aura of mystery and excitement in swirling blues and reds. They're shaking hands then pulling each other together and touching their elbows. Like a secret handshake. The marketplace is near the Seneschal's estate in the lower ward: bustling, easy to access, no type of dress would be remarkable. And last

[Friends?] Tentative question. Two wolf pups meeting, one noses the other waiting for a reaction in hesitant blues.

"No... medical... team" she manages to get out of her mouth while she's talking in a completely different way. She really was out of practice, that should have been much quicker. But finally when she's done sending her messages and waiting for a reply, "I'm fine. Just looking at the security footage. It's very...oh god please stop blinking like that, it is not cute. Ugh, just, show me the arena and the holding cells, and then the party in the Acanthus hall."