Riverside 18

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

Dena raises her hand. "Hold on, while Jezebel is likely a good candidate to sell the info to, the timing is important. Selling it to her during the election, and she might just use it in her campaign, and if she do that, the mayor will believe her agents broke in. That might escalate into an outright conflict, however, we would likely get a higher pay as I don't think Jezebel will value the information as much after the election, unless the mayor wins of course. The best case scenario would be if Jezebel wins the election, in that case, we could simply wait for her to establish her power over Eastside, then we can sell it to her, as it will likely lead to her persecuting the then former mayor. Without that position, she should be relatively easy to take down, if that's in Jezebel's sphere of interests of course." There is a pause as Dena considers further. "But regarding the general, I feel like we need a good, specific, reason to hide things from her as it would be unprofessional to hide information from her."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

"That's more or less what I was thinking, was to wait until after the election, but I wasn't sure if there was some angle that I was missing that might make it a better option to sell before. The only person who wouldn't find the info of at least some value after they win is Stu, and even he might take action if it's leaked to the media and the people start asking for it, so it's not like we need to hold onto it for a long period of time." She frowns for a moment, choosing her next words carefully. "The one thing I'm concerned about with the General is that if the current Mayor starts a civil war, either after being re-elected, or after being defeated, then the General might take that opportunity to invade Eastside. I'm not sure what her plans might be, but if I was looking to expand my holdings and one of my neighbors started fighting like that, I'd probably take the opportunity, assuming I had the forces to do it with, especially if I knew they were going to do it before it started. Is that reason enough to withhold some of the info? I'm not sure. I know it's unprofessional, and we're not being paid to prevent a war, but...I'm on the fence about it."

[Zefir]

Spoiler: Southside Tour

Show

[Southside Tour]

The energy whip has no special targeting features beyond the skill and experience of its user. The home in function was just too expensive. That's all right though. Nadas is closer to her and the shadow now, embarrassingly so. She can't believe she's related to this guy. Ilpholin ought to disown him on the spot and leave him to his fate.

Alas, it feels like it would be even more cruel to leave him to die in such a rancid state. Ilpholin swings the whip back in the direction of the shadow, shifting mid swing to take advantage of the momentum as the agile whip becomes a far more blunt hammer intent on smashing the shadow to pieces. Unfortunately she's forced to sacrifice a large portion of her swing's power, as she leaps just over the legs attempting to sweep her own out from under her.

[Southside Tour]

This isn't going right at all, is it? It should have been over with by now.
Nadas shoves aside a bag of refuse and gets to his feet.

What is Jacob doing? "We need a way out of here first!"

His gaze trails up the sides of the buildings. Could he climb that, those crumbling bricks? Maybe. But for the moment, he hesitates. Panicked? (yes) Planning something? (probably not)

[Southside Tour]

Jacob yells to Nadas, "You run. I'll meet up with you. Just go!" Does he have some plan? He will fire his SMG (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8) one handed, fairly accurately at Fade while in the other, pulling out a combat knife with a glowing red edge, looking like plasma, to eventually slash Fade.

[Southside Tour]

First of, the building may be hard to climb without tool. On one wall you can see a rusty and partly broken fire stair, but it's much safer to climb ofer the trash cans then going for that. While the main problem here is how to reach the stars in first place.

When Ilpholin swings her hammer, the shadow seems to melt down with it. As the shadow is totally melted it appears like a normal shadow on the ground and a moment later it sees to cover the whole alley ground. Maybe that got somethignt o do with what jakob does?

Fade watches Jacob shoot again. He dodges the first bullet just to note they are leathel. The next bullets hit him, but the shield holds the most threating once up. Those who made it through hit him, but it is hard to say how much damage they caused. So Jakob is really trying to kill him.
An unexpected turn of events which leave only one option. Retreat! Changing his shadow into the giant shadow that should grant him the strength he will need. With this force fade makes a fast swing to dodge the bullets and aim for the window. The wooden window should break easily under his force allowing him to enter the building. The big shadow follows after him.
When he made it small lines of smoke come from his wounds where he got hit. His blood fading away as it leaves his body.

[DMSide]

"That's good. You have a plan."
Alice nods carefully.

"No, I just have a normal skeleton. Well, it's on the inside of me, anyway. It isn't exactly normal. There are lots of devices under my skin."
"How could you tell?"
She's not the sort to use the term 'endoskeletal' casually.

[DMSide]

"I can hear it whispering." he replies. "As a priest of Deus Mechanicus we are blessed to hear 'the voice of the machines'. Thought I'm not that skilled yet so I just hear it as a whisper. The high priestress is able to understand them and talk with them."

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"So you're afraid that if the general hears about the mayors activities, she will suspect that someone might have a reason to start a civil war and start preparing for it? Did I understand that correctly?" Dena first asks. "Since all the Intel we're gathering is likely for that purpose, yet it seems to me that would likely trigger such a civil war would be the mayor reacting violently to the outcome of the election. Either that, or someone else finding out about this, yet no one else is supposed to, right? This information is meant for the general alone, and even if she does suspect we're selling it to other people, she can't predict how they're going to react to it. Yet, we might have to accept the fact that all this information we're gathering might lead to a war between East and West." She pauses. "However, I'm going to leave the ultimate decision to you, Electra. You know the general better than me so you decide what you want to tell her. For all I know, it might not even influence how much we're paid."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

Electra shakes her head, considering Dena's argument. It isn't exactly what she meant, but it's served to remind her that she really owes no allegiance to the city of Riverside as a whole, or really, even to Southside. Sure, she lives there, and works for its current leader, but that might change. She pinches the bridge of her nose with two fingers, closing her eyes, and sighs in frustration with herself. She keeps forgetting she's not a Maverick Hunter, or even any sort of official, anymore.

"Not what I was worried about, but you're right. It's not our place to choose, the General is the client, and whatever we can make on the side by selling the info to other parties later is just icing on the cake, even if it might lead to a war." She looks back to Dena, shaking her head apologetically. "Sorry, old habits die hard. I think after this job, I may need to take a hard look at joining MERC as a full-time member."

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"I actually see your point Electra, though perhaps not from the angle you're seeing it from. A full-out war would be... unpredictable. Not to mention that it might clash with our other contract, to keep order in Westside. This whole contract is honestly, which is why I never officially accepted it. We might lose a lot of other contracts from this long-term if a war actually do break out as we might get caught up with it. It is impossible to predict at this point." Dena argues.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

"True, though if a war does break out, I'm sure there will be other opportunities that will come up. As you say, it's impossible to predict at this point. The General may well simply place forces on the border to keep things from spilling into Southside and do nothing else. For now, we might as well just share the whole lot with her. She won't be able to act on it until conflict breaks out anyways, though it might give her a chip to bargain with whoever wins the election," Electra muses. "We can deal with whatever the fallout is afterwards."

[Murkus]

[Fourth Tower Compound]

"I can't let that happen either, Zhareen," says Sticks. "Not without talking to Malechenar first. Not without ensuring they give me what I need."

As much as this talk will help stall for Malechenar's forces, Sticks doesn't trust either of them not to make the first move. Yet... he can't bring himself to just start hurling spirits and spells. Negotiating with Vax is pointless, and Zhareen is so spineless that that's the only negotiating he's likely to see. Thus... He whistles loudly at them, apparently to get their attention. "Give me the demon and flee. I'll stop Ryhe's dogs." He crosses his rod and his staff before himself, the magical focii flaring into action. "Or fight. Maybe I will lose. But I'm certain I can delay you until they arrive."

If either of the girls have acute senses of hearing, they might hear the sound of warbling wing-beats from somewhere far above them...

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

Dena nods. "You can probably tell all that yourself, I'm g-" Dena suddenly grimaces and her hand quickly reach up to clutch her forehead as if she were in pain. At the same time the snakes that make up her hair go wild, their eyes glowing a faint red as they squirm uncontrollably, hissing loudly in a chorus.
She let's out a loud groan and leans back in her chair. "Sssomthing isss happening..." She says, her words coming out in a serpentine hiss.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

Electra's eyes go wide for a moment, before she rises out of her chair and moves carefully up to Dena's side.

"Can you still talk, Dena? Do you want me to get you to a medic?" She squats down slightly so she's in a better position to both hear Dena, and to pick the MERC lieutenant up, if need be.

[Reinholdt]

[Southside Tour]

Ilpholin is a bit surprised that her swing had such an impact. She was admittedly uncertain if the shadow could even be damaged. If you don't try, you'll never know. Still, her immediate reaction is that it melting into the ground isn't an indication of injury, but preparation for attack. Not wanting to be on the ground the shadow was now covering, the nymph leaps up to balance on the edge of one of the dumpsters. In terms of footing, she knows it's a precarious position to be in, but it's still better than standing on the ground where the shadow could attack at any moment.

In the end, it appears unnecessary. The shadow is not performing a fancy attack, but instead leaving. That's something of a relief. When Fade and his shadow enter the building and ground is no longer covered in darkness, Ilpholin will hop back down. She's not a fan of letting a foe go, but she's even less of a fan of chasing an unknown into a trap. Rather, she will stick around, turn her hammer back into a normal hand, and use it to offer to help Nadas out of the trash. Her other hand remains a shield as a precaution. "I think you'd better tell me what's going on."

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"It-it'ss... okay." Dena says as she slowly lets go of her forehead. It does appear like she is still in pain though, judging by her pained expression. "I think I had sssome kind of visssion." That hiss in her voice still remains though. "Ssome street, lotsss of people ssshooting at me... no clue what it wasss about, but I could feel myssself... dying." She tries to explain, shuddering slightly as she utters the last word.

[Celticbear]

Southside / AMENside

Out of the blue, a white canoe appears at the front doors of the AMEN complex. Upon the conae is a man in blue robes, his face hidden by a cowl. In his hands is a paddle. In a cool, almost silky voice, he says: Ah, I have finally arrived. If this is AMEN's location, I would like to join.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

Electra's concern doesn't decrease. She doesn't know much about magic, but this sure sounds like it. Perhaps there was something in the Mayor's office that had a delayed reaction?

"Has this ever happened to you before? Are visions part of your curse?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

Dena shakes her head. "No, thiss has never happened before. I felt like I wass watching through sssomone else eyes, and then... I could sssee them turning to jade." She let's out a sight and seem to force herself to grab a pen and a piece of paper off her desk to make a simple sketch. "I ssaw a wall, and yard, there were bodies laying there. A lot of dead people filled with bullet holes." Her speech is almost back to normal now. "It must have been some kind of gang fight, though it looked more like an execution."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

Electra rises, but doesn't leave Dena's side. She's still concerned, though the effects seem to be passing. Whatever they can glean from the vision might be useful in some way to someone who knows more about how things like this might work.

"You said it was a street. Do you remember anything about it? Did it seem familiar or strange or like some place you've been before? And...a gang fight. Do you remember anyone saying anything, what they might have been fighting about?"

[Zefir]

[Wildside - A Momentous Occasion]

It looks like someone does want to stop Mia and talk. That someone being Commandant Ruby Ignitis, Southside representative, who on her own way out comes over to intercept the priestess, waving one hand, claws folded neatly behind her back.
"Hey, Ms. Mechanicus. We've gotta go over the DMZ."
Because for various complex reasons Southside really has respect the neutral area between them and DMSide.
"The problem is depth. Since we're both expanding outwards, based on area rather than perimeter, and given that we started with more than four times as much land and with the ratio between Wildside and the city center being so much bigger than the distance between Wildside and the longest line through your land towards the city center, a naive expansion is going to wind up with a lot of your new land within a neutral distance of us. And vice versa."
"Obviously we'll keep abiding by the treaty, but I think that we can come up with a land trade - acre for acre - that leaves you safer and us with more money, without anyone losing space. I can show you on the map, if you'd like."

[Wildside - A Momentous Occasion]

Mia looks friendly at he dragon? woman. Or maybe something else? Whatever mia just remains in her friendly political smile.

"I have started to make some thoughts about this as well." she replies. "And I thought the time to argue that someone got to much land is already over. Still I see what you are up to. Please show me your thoughts."

((I'm sure I missunderstood something, but I can#t really find out what. I think it goes with the translation.))

[Recaiden]

[Wildside - A Momentous Occasion]

Mia looks friendly at the dragon? woman. Or maybe something else? Whatever Mia just remains in her friendly political smile.

"I have started to make some thoughts about this as well." she replies. "And I thought the time to argue that someone got to much land is already over. Still I see what you are up to. Please show me your thoughts."

Dragon-woman. Much like the dragon-man who was captured by DMSide back in the invasion, except her wings are not suitable for flying. They're not half-dragons exactly, but that's the right idea.
The Commandant nods. "It is. I don't think either of us got too much, it's just how we arrange it."
On a computer display of hers, she draws out a zoomed in map of the DMSide area. The original border of DMside, then around it three variations that include the new land. They're all the same size, but different shapes. One is near circular, the second long and thin, running along the Eastside border, the third is a wedge-like shape giving up some old territory but getting a larger portion of Lenai's grant that would otherwise have gone to Southside.
"As you can see, there's a tension between compact borders, developed land, and distance to the edge of Riverside and roads."

[Southside Tour]

Spoiler: Previously

Show

First of, the building may be hard to climb without tool. On one wall you can see a rusty and partly broken fire stair, but it's much safer to climb over the trash cans then going for that. While the main problem here is how to reach the stars in first place.

When Ilpholin swings her hammer, the shadow seems to melt down with it. As the shadow is totally melted it appears like a normal shadow on the ground and a moment later it sees to cover the whole alley ground. Maybe that's got something to do with what Jacob does?

Fade watches Jacob shoot again. He dodges the first bullet just to note they are lethal. The next bullets hit him, but the shield holds the most threatening once up. Those who made it through hit him, but it is hard to say how much damage they caused. So Jakob is really trying to kill him.
An unexpected turn of events which leave only one option. Retreat! Changing his shadow into the giant shadow that should grant him the strength he will need. With this force fade makes a Fast swing to dodge the bullets and aim for the window. The wooden window should break easily under his force allowing him to enter the building. The big shadow follows after him.
When he made it small lines of smoke come from his wounds where he got hit. His blood fading away as it leaves his body.

Jacob yells to Nadas, "You run. I'll meet up with you. Just go!" Does he have some plan? He will fire his SMG (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8) one handed, fairly accurately at Fade while in the other, pulling out a combat knife with a glowing red edge, looking like plasma, to eventually slash Fade.

Ilpholin is a bit surprised that her swing had such an impact. She was admittedly uncertain if the shadow could even be damaged. If you don't try, you'll never know. Still, her immediate reaction is that it melting into the ground isn't an indication of injury, but preparation for attack. Not wanting to be on the ground the shadow was now covering, the nymph leaps up to balance on the edge of one of the dumpsters. In terms of footing, she knows it's a precarious position to be in, but it's still better than standing on the ground where the shadow could attack at any moment.

In the end, it appears unnecessary. The shadow is not performing a fancy attack, but instead leaving. That's something of a relief. When Fade and his shadow enter the building and ground is no longer covered in darkness, Ilpholin will hop back down. She's not a fan of letting a foe go, but she's even less of a fan of chasing an unknown into a trap. Rather, she will stick around, turn her hammer back into a normal hand, and use it to offer to help Nadas out of the trash. Her other hand remains a shield as a precaution. "I think you'd better tell me what's going on."

"I...think this is really not the time." Nadas snaps back. This is the person who's...supposedly...trying to kill him? Compared to Jacob who is...definitely(?) a danger. But only because of his...talking...to Ilpholin. No, even before then. Has this all been a horrible misunderstanding?
He takes her hand and climbs up out of the trash, onto the dumpster-lid as well.
"Why are you doing this?"

[DMSide]

"I can hear it whispering." he replies. "As a priest of Deus Mechanicus we are blessed to hear 'the voice of the machines'. Thought I'm not that skilled yet so I just hear it as a whisper. The high priestess is able to understand them and talk with them."

Alice holds a hand cupped to her ear, as if the machine voice was very quiet and she could hear them if only she listened.
"What sort of things do they say? Can other people learn to hear them? They are, after all, my constant companions."

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"I just got a glimpse, didn't really have time to memorize any street number. But..." She takes a deep breath. "I think it was in skyside though. I could breath the air, and if you've ever been in skyside, you'll know that the air is lighter there since its so high up. That and the buildings clued me in, definitely skyside somewhere." She nods as she looks at her vague sketch. "I think I, or the person from which point of view I saw, was chanting something, a spell of some kind, couldn't make anything else out though. It was really bloody however, so if that has happened, we could try to look up news in skyside for it."

[Deathkeeper]

The Empress' Estate

"Yes, I do. Her name is Alva. She is serving as my advisor and sorceress." The Empress explains. "She is a..kitsune I believe she called herself. As for what happens now, you are to move slowly and adjust to your new size and strength. After you have finished eating, I will take you to the armory where we shall select a suit of armor and a weapon for you." She adds.

The Empress' Estate

Tester's gut groans mightily at the mention of food as if on cue.
"Ooof. You better have as much food as I hope because I feel like I could eat an entire cow."
Tester groans. If he speaks very slowly he can get his words out right. "Wait, armor? Like, the old-fashioned stuff?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

"Hmmm. Yes, perhaps we should. But I'm wondering if Astrana shouldn't take a look at you, as well. You said this has never happened before; maybe something about the curse has changed and that's why you had a vision?" Electra muses, crossing her arms over her chest. "You said before you could see them turning to jade. Who was turning to jade? The person you were observing through, or the the people you could see?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"The people I were looking at, most of them were aiming their guns at me so they got petrified pretty quickly." Dena explains. "And I'll be honest with you, I'm not too comfortable letting with being warlocks performing tests on me. But I suppose I got little choice, do I? This curse makes me so reliant on other people that its painful."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

"Unless there's someone else who's familiar enough with your sort of curse, and might be able to help you piece together what just happened and why, then no, you really don't." Electra sighs. "I can only do so much to help with that, since magic isn't really my thing. Sometimes you've gotta rely on people who have more expertise in a given area than you do. This is one of those times."

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"Mhmm..." Dena replies unenthusiastically. "But are we done for tonight then? It is getting pretty late..." She gestures at the grandfather clock in the room. "I think I'm going to return to the main base after that vision, this place gives me the creeps."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

Electra nods, looking a bit more relieved.

"Yeah, we're done. I'll gather this stuff up and take it back to my place; I'll have to roll it into my briefing for the General, but I can handle that on my own." She gestures at the pile on the table, then looks back to Dena. "Do you want a lift back to HQ, or do you want to try and manage it by yourself?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside - Thievery]

"A lift, please. I just need to hit the loo and then we can get out of here." Dena replies as she gets up from her chair, leaving her unfinished sketch behind.

We can probably handwave the rest of the scene.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Westside - Thievery]

Electra nods as Dena rises, and gathers the documents together while Dena gets ready to leave. She'll have some interesting things to report to the General very soon.

The rest of the scene is handwaved.

[Zefir]

[Wildside - A Momentous Occasion]


Dragon-woman. Much like the dragon-man who was captured by DMSide back in the invasion, except her wings are not suitable for flying. They're not half-dragons exactly, but that's the right idea.
The Commandant nods. "It is. I don't think either of us got too much, it's just how we arrange it."
On a computer display of hers, she draws out a zoomed in map of the DMSide area. The original border of DMside, then around it three variations that include the new land. They're all the same size, but different shapes. One is near circular, the second long and thin, running along the Eastside border, the third is a wedge-like shape giving up some old territory but getting a larger portion of Lenai's grant that would otherwise have gone to Southside.
"As you can see, there's a tension between compact borders, developed land, and distance to the edge of Riverside and roads."

[DMSide]


Alice holds a hand cupped to her ear, as if the machine voice was very quiet and she could hear them if only she listened.
"What sort of things do they say? Can other people learn to hear them? They are, after all, my constant companions."

[Wildside - A Momentous Occasion]

Mia looks over it.
"Sadly non of your suggestions works for us." she replies. The facilities planned are to big so anything other then a straight square results in a lot waste of Land. She doesn't tell that to the commander, since this is non of her business.
"The other thought is to strink the neutral zone . Since you didn't break any of our arrangments."


[DMSide]

"The high priestress said they just talk like a person." the man says. "It's a long way to learn those things and you have to become a priest of Deus Mechanicus. I myself can just hear them like a whisper. Enougth to understand if they are mad, sad or happy, but noth enougth to understand why."


Nighttime Movement

During the Night some ething happens. Small groups of people enter Riverside. This may not be noticed yet since the groupe come from different angels and alone just appear normal, but if you know about them all you might be suspiciouse.

[Recaiden]

[Wildside - A Momentous Occasion]

The Commandant carefully shows no real reaction to that.
"That would be ... acceptable. If I can tell you a secret, Ms. Mechanicus?" She doesn't wait for an answer. "We're actually not interested in invading DMSide again. Anything we can go to run things smoothly and get along is worth a look."

[DMSide]

"Ah." Alice tosses her head 'no'. "A longer way than I can go, then. Thanks for explaining." The machines inside her are mostly happy, although some are a bit anxious.

"Tell the high priestess that I came by, won't you?" Flashing the man a grin, she turns to go.

[Nighttime Movement]

Well, if they enter via Southside, there'll be plenty of eyes looking for them. Army folk watching over the roads and rail, night-owl nephilim soaring overhead, even the trees giving shade to the avenues have among them spies that report to The General. They can't conduct a thorough investigation of everyone who passes by, but they can at least keep an eye on the most suspicious among them.

[Green Elf]

[Southside Tour]

Jacob continues to shoot at Fade, but is preparing for an attack at any moment. He ignores Nadas and focuses on helping Illophen kill Fade.