Kiyoka

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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

Oh hell, no. "Just walk away quickly, don't make eye contact, and try to lose her in the crowd." Argus muttered, pulling her away in a fashion that was urgent but managed to look only slightly impatient. "If worst comes to worst, we can duck down an alley and I'll stick a wall in her path. I do NOT want to get into a discussion with a Mesuinu."

Argus shuddered in a way that would have been theatrical had it not been absolutely genuine. "Believe me, neither do you. The whole family must have been exposed to magical radiation of some type... You wouldn't believe the interior of their household."

You'd never forget it, either. Unfortunately.
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

"I've heard of the family. Get moving, but I want to try something first," Sister Rose said, a hint of panic in her voice. "I'll catch up with you in a minute." As Argus hastily turned to go through the door, Rose's green eyes glowed again, but this time it wasn't polymorph magic she was using, but rather her other specialty. "Aha!" she half-shouted, then hurried toward Argus.

"Okay," she panted as she caught up to him, "are you good enough with illusions to cast a phantasmal figure at the top of that steeple over there? Make it big, glowing, with horns and cloven feet, if you can manage. I know what she's looking for."

Behind her, a shower of tulips and pickled herring had mysteriously started to fall between them and the Happy Eater, right about where Kureji might be, startling -- that is the polite word -- the passersby.
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LordofNightmares
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by LordofNightmares »

Seeing Argus and the woman he was with Tsubasa started to chant softly pulling a round black and gold crystal and took the form of two ravens (this is said using a mental link) "Go, stick to the shadows, follow them but don't get too close." she looked at the other one "Keep an eye on that girl, stick to the shadows." Now looking at the two large birds "If you need to call on the other ravens and crows in the area if you need to escape or protect those two."
"Huginn and Muninn go and seek" she wispered to the birds, as they flew off in to the cities skyline. With that done and said she finished her salad and tea then she headed away. Fading away in to the shadows of the ally near.
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

Argus sallowed back panic. He had sworn a solemn vow never to meet with a Mesuinu again, and he didn't intend to voluntarily violate that edict. "I have my own little variant on illusions," he muttered.

Looking at the steeple indicated, Argus reached out to it, subvocalizing a series of complex incantations. It had been a while since he had done this, but old habits came back easily.

It wasn't quite a phantasm. Instead, the substance around the steeple shifted, stone and tiles reworking themselves smoothly into a brutal, demonic shape. What made this spell unique from other types of illusions was that it had actual substance to it, and thus a skilled mage trying to breach the illusion would still see the hulking horned demon perched on the roof. It WAS physical. On the other hand, the structure in questions was magically charged. Whenever disturbed, it would elastically snap back to its original shape. What resulted was something more believable than a regular illusion, but no more durable, which meant fewer awkward questions later. Though if Argus saw where this was going, this town would be short a church steeple anyway, shortly.

Following up with a simple illusion spell, Argus made the figure shadowy, with glowing eyes, and gave it an auditory component, which made it sound like it was distantly growling. Overall, the effect reminded him of his wife when he had come home drunk. That had happened exactly once.

The entire procedure took less than three second. "There," muttered Argus. Now, it shouldn't be too long before the fireworks start." Already, people around them were starting to notice the shape on the roof in horror.
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

"Nice work," Sister Rose smiled -- it wouldn't do to call the facial expression of such a distinguished-looking woman a smirk. "That should gain us enough time to escape -- and let's hope that Brother Farley can figure out what's going on well enough not to try to exorcise it." The rain of tulips and herring appeared to have subsided behind them, although she wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.

[OOC: Kureji and Tsubasa, don't let Rose and Argus' "escape" from this scene keep you from having fun with it; all sorts of hilarity should be possible. /OOC]

-------------------

Fifteen minutes later, Rose and Argus found themselves standing outside a medium-sized building across the street from the warp gate. A sign out front read:
TSUIRAKU DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Kiyoka Public Safety Division
Capt. Kentauro Kitaura, Commander
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

Concertina wire surrounded the building, and even in daylight, Rose and Argus could see the network of interweaving magical beams that formed a protective envelope over the whole complex. Some, they knew, were detection/alarm spells at work; others were more ... offensive in nature. At the perimeter of the magical field stood a small structure with a sign proclaiming it the visitors' entrance.

"Okay, what now?" Rose said. "Father Egbert wants me to make sure this is done as cooperatively as possible. Remember, the mission is here to serve as a good-will, cultural exchange representative of our country and preach the gospel of Luminosita, not start another Mage-Priest War." At least, not yet. "Let's check out the lay of the land, but before going active, we need a plan..."
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Today was proving far more productive than Kureji could ever have hoped to imagine. After the rocky start yesterday and, at some point, managing to loose Rokku and his flying vermin, things were looking much better now... that sandwich was delicious.

Then, another stroke of luck - one of her many suspects that had managed to escape her grasp last night walked right in to the same eatery she was currently eating in. Imagine that! Unfortunately, he was proving to be a more slippery client than she'd originally anticipated. After leaving a sizeable tip for the excellent service, she followed he and his lady friend outside, but they'd already gone by then.

Then it started raining fish and flowers... which, according to the Unreadable Tome of Neklaw Sirhc was an incredibly good omen for those on a holy quest, which was even better! Now, she was no longer doing a murder mystery, nor a quest for justice and vengance, but had officially been escalated all the way up to Holy Charge. This foul demon Springheel Jack would know the divine mercy of her righteous explosions; now even the Gods were on her side.

Kureji sensed some magical foolery afoot... and just as the crowd (already stunned by the heavens opening up an offering to Kureji's mighty deeds) gasped and all started pointing up, she noticed a female figure in the alley next to the cafe disolve into the shadows... she approached to investigate.

"You might as well come out... I can see magic, and you're lit up like a rat on fire."
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

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Argus pondered for a moment. "The key here is to learn why Tsuiraku is being so edgy; why they're not taking a greater hand in the investigation. Low-ranking or not, a battlemage self-destructing is grounds for a full inquiry. They'd want to know how such a thing could happen, if there were deficiencies in his training that need to be corrected, and most importantly what would cause him to forget such a basic rule." He paused a moment. "Of course, it's entirely possible that everyone just hated his guts and no one cares."

Sister Rose looked at Argus with a combination of shock and amusement. "Don't laugh," he said. "Battlemages have to depend on each other to survive. If someone isn't pulling their weight, they get very unpopular, very quickly." Argus shrugged. "Or maybe he was a jerk and they're trying to forget he ever lived. It happens." He recalled a certain private Euclius from his younger days, who was nearly always swathed in a haze of hallucinogenic smoke. The damn fool was always so out of it, he had damn near blasted Argus with his Yuuki staff on more than one occasion. Euclius had only survived because whenever someone had walked up to him to beat the tar out of him, they had walked into the ever-present haze of smoke and suddenly become very mellow. And got a case of the munchies.

"But to the point. Sister Rose, the local commander is likely to be a rather lonesome man. If I could ask you to use your charms, and charming magic, upon him, I think he would be far more responsive." Sister Rose nodded. She had been suspecting as much. anyway. "We'll approach him as concerned members of the church, asking about the 'incident' that occurred outside of our walls. A few carefully probing questions while the man's distracted should bestow a wealth of information upon us. The key is to subtle, so he doesn't get his guard up, and to read between the lines. If we feel the need... perhaps we can negotiate with Miss Shade to 'acquire' a few relevant documents." He turned to her fully. "Your opinion?"
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Graybeard »

"Your opinion?"

A brief frown passed across Sister Rose's face, then subsided. "That sounds reasonable. Of course, there are ... limits as to what I am willing to do. I'm sure you understand that." Was that disappointment that Argus was showing? She did him the considerable courtesy of not casting her Empathy spell to find out.

She continued, "I really meant, how are we going to get close enough to this Captain Kitaura to make contact with him? They've turned this place into a real fortress." (Which, in itself, was interesting.) "My skills with detection and divination magic aren't the best, but I'd just about bet that that web of protective spells they've got over the place includes things that detect magic. If so, then if I tried to use Empathy through the web, it'd sound off like a novice getting a smiting." Argus didn't want to think about that analogy. "We'll have to find another -- Ah," she broke off as Captain Kitaura solved that problem for them.

A small party was approaching the Homeland Security compound from the warp gate. Four Tsuirakuans in battlemage robes were loosely surrounding a man wearing a mildly ostentatious uniform, not so closely as to cramp him, yet close enough to make it clear that they were bodyguards.

Sister Rose and Argus looked at each other, then Sister Rose whispered, "Range is kind of extreme for this, but it may be the only chance we get for me to get into this guy's head, so ..." Her eyes got that glow again for just a moment, then turned back to their normal green as one of the battlemages gestured and a gap appeared in the protective field. The five Tsuirakuans stepped through as the field closed.

"Damn," Rose murmured quietly as the party disappeared into the building. Argus looked at her in surprise, with an eyebrow raised to ask the obvious question, but she didn't wait for it...

"He's gay."
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LordofNightmares
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by LordofNightmares »

"You might as well come out... I can see magic, and you're lit up like a rat on fire."

"So your the mad Mage Girl," Tsubasa said "don't you think you should be looking in to Dr. Clevings and why he is with the Veracian Church at the moment."
Walking up behind Kureji "I am known as Shade, and you are?"
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka

Post by Drannin »

"......" said Argus.

"......" agreed Sister Rose.

"......" continued Argus. He was very philosophical today.

"......" from Sister Rose, ever the helpful soul.

Argus considered the situation for a long moment. Actually, he was reasonably sure that the sun had shifted position when he said "How gay?"

Sister Rose blinked. "Homosexual gay."

"Oh."

Another long pause. It had to be asked. "Am I his type?"

Rose took in Argus' appearance. Tall, striking, refined... "Probably."

"Oh, hell." Argus' response summed up the situation perfectly. He was silent. His thoughts on the matter were: Burrrrrrrr... Quite enlightening if you were a member of an obscure northern cult, really. A distinct thought cut through the haze. Stick it to the bastards in Tsuirakushiti. He sighed. "Do I have a choice?"

(OOC: I don't know if this is where you were going with this, GB, but it's just too hilarious to pass up.)
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