ElfCollaborator

"Y-you're still humming it! I can hear you!"

Trailing behind the rest of the group is a red ant girl, huddled in yellow and blue fabric, singing something to herself. Her eyes seem to be studying what others recognise to be one of the magical pictograms that, when used by someone with the proper knowledge, caused gouts of flame to appear. She....appears to be singing to herself, and seems to be entirely blind to the rest of the group. "Red is for fire, green is for wind, yellow is for blasting thunder~" She slowly comes to a stop upon realising that the person in front of her, probably Mercy, has also stopped, and that the group has started talking, even the moth girl. This has the appropriate effect of having the girl's eyes snap up from the pictogram, eyes wide as anything, then back at the pictogram, then back at the group. She immediately drops the pictogram to her side, brushes her hair aside and does everything possible to make herself look like she hadn't been singing to herself over a pictogram for the last few minutes. "O-oh! Um.....you....didn't hear any of that, right? Right? Good! Let's forget I did that, okay?" "Faithful Diligence, at your service! It's nice to meet all of you!" "I'm pretty sure they heard that.....how embarassing...."

Empi shrugs about the fairies. "Haven't seen them? I wouldn't say that. However, being shot at by angry midgets is.....something I'm pretty sure people Outside don't get too used to."

Lenore was about to speak before what had happened, happened. Before Ferdiad barged Fey out of the way, threw Mim aside and attempted to skewer Pestilence, and was willing to do it even if Kane was in the way. This wasn't right. Ferdiad was the good one. She hadn't interacted much with him, true, but Lenore somewhat admired Knight, in a way. He lived up to his name. Lenore could never be so honorable; a thief was never going to ever be as capable as a knight who deserved the name. And here he was, throwing that all aside for....what, exactly? She didn't know. Knight had disappeared for so long and kept to himself ever since that mission. Maybe it had hurt him more. Maybe she should've checked up on him. Maybe.... The pragmatic side of her wanted to punch him; he was attacking a valuable informant, someone who they could play for intelligence, someone who they could use as a bargaining chip against their enemies. The side of her that had wanted to join Virtuous was torn between disappointment and shock. Enough thinking. It was time to do. Kane was next in line. Lenore processed her options. Ferdiad was a better fighter than Lenore, no questions asked. True, Lenore's code didn't prevent her from fighting people, just killing them, but he was a trained cavalier, whereas Lenore's fighting experience came from bar brawls, jumping her would-be rivals in alleys with traps and other underhanded methods. In a straight-up fight, Lenore didn't stand a chance, so standing between him like some kind of wannabe hero wasn't an option. She looks at the remaining person in the room. Lizaveta was a mage; Ferdiad was tough, but magic cared not for your physique. If Lenore could make an opening for Liza, maybe she could subdue him.... Too risky. I'm not trying to kill him. Just get him away from Kane. Of course, making an opening wasn't a bad idea. They outnumbered Ferdiad. It would take the pressure off Kane and Justine. And she was running out of options. "Knight, think fast!" She does the only thing she can do and picks up a nearby mug, before hurling it at Ferdiad's head. It wasn't going to hurt very much, or indeed really stop him. However, that would buy Justine and Kane time.

"....I'm guessing fairies around here are supposed to be midgets? That's the first time anyone's ever called me larger than average, I'll give you that."

"....you know, I should be surprised. But no, it really doesn't surprise me to see the King's no better than everyone else under him.." Lenore, too, refrains from saying much more. This was Liza's backyard, after all. She knew all about Perus; it'd been her stomping grounds her whole life, and the crooks and cons of that land she knew like the back of her hand. Really, what spooked Lenore, even a little, was just the sheer magnitude of the whole operation. The whole damn continent was in on it. She'd seen webs of conspiracy like these, dancing between them and robbing the shakers and movers. She'd never been involved in one, of course; killing was against Lenore's code, and it still was. She couldn't help but be a little impressed at the size of the man's operation, but not surprised. It made sense that the biggest crooks on the continent were the people in charge. After all, how many of the rich and powerful had Lenore robbed blind?

"We really should've seen that coming, considering Death. The hot-tempered assassin working for Perus. Land of the great and proud, where the roads are paved with gold and you don't go hungry." Lenore, it seems, isn't the biggest fan of her own homeland. "One part of me wants to say that Our Majesty's doing it for exactly what you'd think he'd be doing it for; like every single wannabe king in the country, he wants those things to stake his claim, and his claim might just well be the whole world. But I'm sure he'll find a way to shock us. Go on." Lenore is probably even less of a fan of the Perusian royalty than Lizaveta, if that might be possible.

"Check her." Lenore, having been attracted by the shouting and the speaking, comes in. She sizes up Pestilence calmly, looking between her, Mim and Kane. This was....not entirely unexpected. But then again, having seen Famine, she knew there could be mischief afoot, and her gut was telling her something was really off. Famine had had her fooled the first time, at first impressions. She wasn't playing around with Pestilence. "Snowbird, check her for weapons. I don't care if you trust her, I don't, and neither does the boss."

Empi was tempted to deflate the tengu's ego, but thought better of it. Less problems to deal with down the line. "Sure, let's go with that, since you're the only local. For all I know, we'll end up in some murder-y sex dungeon if we wandered off around this place. And the last time I was in one of those, the fuckers didn't even have the politeness to give me a reach-around. Ugh."

Isobel hears the fluttering of wings behind her, as Empi follows closely behind. "Hope you don't mind if I tag along. Not that I'd mind Hell all that much- demons throw great parties back where I'm from, shame they got all these trust passwords now to stop some dickheads from mooching booze off them - but I'd rather not be alone around here even if that lady said not to worry about it. Shit's crazy and you're about the only person here I can count on not to be."

"Scarlet's got a point too. Darcy's dead weight to us. We can't exactly ransom him, and we can't exactly use him as a bargaining chip. If we keep him hostage, we got an entire country weighing on top of us wanting their king back, on top of whatever fresh hell the others will raise once they realise that Virtuous has the balls to hold a king hostage. Of course, it's not like that's anything new either."

Lenore rubs the back of her head, having listened to the whole discussion. "She's right, you know, much as I hate to admit it. He's not some con we can just knock out and leave to the wolves, much as he acts like one. We kill him with no backup plan, we might as well be asking for chaos. We're a bunch of people with some weapons, a house and some disguises, not well-prepared revolutionaries with an entire government ready to toss out to cover our tracks and clean up our mess. More I think about it, the more I'm thinking we knock him out, get the book, and figure it out from there. We finished the mission, we're not equipped for much beyond that."

"Marvel's got a fair point. boss. After all, makes more sense for them to do it than some foreigners. I'm betting there's a LOT of angry families who want his head on a plate."

"Hm. Book's in a vault or some hidden alcove, probably trapped because of course he would, definitely nowhere obvious.....normally I'd like a few days to stake out the mark, but a few hours, I could do with some help looking for it and breaking in. If we find it, Kane, we at least get to unravel a little more of whatever the hell this whole business is." It turns out yes, Lenore is exactly that confident.

"You know, telling us that you have the book somewhere in the castle won't save you. We can just kill you, find it ourselves and then walk away. If anything, you just signed your own death warrant." Lenore doesn't hesitate to point out the flaws in his plan. She sheathes her knife. "I've got no personal stake with this filth unlike some of you. I'd rather not get my hands dirty and I wouldn't ask any of you to in my place, but I won't stop you from gutting him, either. The world's a better place without this man around. He's not the kind of man you can just rob and humiliate. But if the boss wants him alive, then so be it. There'll be consequences either way, of course, so whatever you decide, you better be able to live with it."

L7

".....we're supposed to walk through that? .....alright, not the weirdest thing I've seen in this place. Thanks for the grub, by the way."

"I'll give her cover, Phoenix. I hope this works." K3, knife a meido

"You know, I don't normally approve of violence." Lenore is very, very calm. This was a reminder of a life she'd almost had, had she had found less success as a con than the victim of one. She'd seen plenty of poor bastards who'd suffered that kind of life, and she'd robbed more than her fair share of monsters who'd benefitted from this kind of thing; true, she couldn't free their victims, but she could make damn sure that the wages of sin were distributed to those who needed money. It was dirty money, but people could live off it. That said, paying evil onto evil was something even Lenore had been tempted by. If anything were to provoke Lenore into breaking her code, this kind of depravity was it. "I'll let my companions do the talking. No con I could come up with could pay for this kinda evil."

"The kinda jokers our Reimu's gotta deal with back home, you'd trade for your freeloaders. Also....what do you mean 'price'? You mean you can't just stick a shrine to my girl Mitsu here around? What, some local god gonna get upset if Mitsu here barges in on her turf? "Cause if that's the case, we can work something out, surely." While this wasn't Empi's deal, she was personally invested in Mitsu's case. After all, she'd taken it upon herself to lend what help she could to the homeless, stray goddess. Even if it was quite literally above her paygrade.

"Perlita!" Gabriel hissed as he saw Perlita being scorched by flames. She'd survive, true; the power of a Persona would ensure that. But seeing her hurt brought something out of him that he was more than a little bit scared of. The normally calm boy clenched his teeth, commanding Oppenheimer to strike. "Puta! Look over here! Pick on someone your own size!" Gabriel casts Freila on Brave, inflicting Sun Arcana and activating Beat of My Blood. Freila: 6d6+SYN(12) damage on a single target. Sun Arcana: Deals SYN/2 (6) piercing damage to enemies struck by Gabriel's skills for three turns. Each subsequent nuclear or fire attack inflicted by Gabriel on these enemies inflicts another stack of Sun Arcana. Beat of My Blood: Enemies inflicted with Burn, Shock or Freeze statuses (or equivalents) struck by Gabriel's Frei-line attacks take x1.3 damage from Gabriel. Sun Arcana's stacks activate Beat of My Blood.Optimism: Even the worst kinds of situations can't bring a downer onto Gabriel's easygoing attitude. As the Persona is a reflection of the soul, Oppenheimer reflects Gabriel's unyielding optimism. Ailments have halved durations on Gabriel. Blue Jacket grants 20% resistance to radiation ailments and 40% against heat-based ailments.

N10

"Sorry, had to ask. There's this chick I know back home, name of Reimu. Does the same kinda thing. Well, with less shooting. Generally back where I'm from, us supernaturals don't solve things by blasting everything with magic; makes our insurance premiums shoot up through the roof and there's at least fifteen different laws against it." Fairy court was also the last place Empi wanted to get into. The last time she'd been there was as a young and "naive" girl at Ishtar University for drunk and disorderly conduct and she'd ended up polymorphed into a pony working some farmer's land for three days as punishment. She shuddered to think what kind of punishment they gave you if you did something actually wrong.

"Empi Powderbelle, matchmaker for hire. Well, not really for hire. I'm guessing you're the local fixer."

J11