VVVVVigil: Valorous Veterans Vanquishing Venal Vermin

[Arkhosia]

Firing Range

Blanche nods. ”It’s pretty strange to think about. Hell, I’m not even sure I’d want to live that long.” Seeing all those entities live, grow old and die again and again while you’re still ticking doesn’t sound like a very pleasant experience.

Now, Blanche does not in fact know what a beaver is. She assumes some kind of cute furry critter, but the innuendo is completely lost on her. That doesn’t stop her from trying to pretend otherwise with a chuckle, though. “...eh, [gently caress] it. Massage, then shotguns?”

[Rebonack]

[Vigil Tour- Training Grounds]

The butterfly is momentarily forgotten.

"A ninja (忍者) or shinobi (忍び) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare. Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the honor of the samurai. Though shinobi proper, as specially trained spies and mercenaries, appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century," Lapis recites. It sounds like she's reading from a book. You can tell because her head is sorta quirked off to one side as she rambles off the definition.

Then she blinks, followed by a wide-toothy grin.

"Like a spy! Except without a car that's also a submarine! Spies are cool. Except when they're pod-person spies since those are the WORST, I hate those," Lapis hisses. "The pod-people gobble folks up and then pretend to be them! They've been trying to infiltrate the Nexus and make everything terrible. Mom's been working to convince them to go away."

Via application of violence.

"And she wanted me to stay here at VIGIL just in case any try to sneak in. The magic they use is unique and super-terrible, I can feel it if I'm close."

Being able to identify the doppelgangers is pretty important.

"The angels you know from somewhere else are probably a different sorta angel," Lapis reasons. "That was something mom wanted to make sure I knew. That there are lots of things called angel or demon or faerie or dragon or whatever! But they're all really different things since the Nexus has stuff from lots of different cos... cosum... different places!"

She glances between the ninja and the training dummies. "Are you training your super-cool ninja skills?"

With Lapis distracted, the butterfly lands on one of her nubby horns.

[Shadowcaller]

Firing Range

She doesn't know what a beaver is? Poor shame!

Anika shrugs. "Whatever you say, kittykat." A beat. "You're not offended by that name or anything right?" She doesn't wait for Blanche to actually reply before she gestures at her her however, specifically, her shirt. "But get off at least a layer of clothes and we're in massage business."

[Arkhosia]

Firing Range

”Nah, that’s fine.” Blanche pauses as Anika casually requests her to undress a little. “What, like... right here?” the firing range isn’t exactly very private, and Blanche is pretty sure you need to like, lie down on a table or something? That, and the serious soldier is surprisingly awkward about being seen shirtless in general.

[Shadowcaller]

Firing Range

Anika grins, her sharp canines coming at full display. "Dude, I'm just gonna massage your shoulders, nothing more complex than that. Not to mention that I've seen Wenomir and others shirtless around here plenty of times. No one would even bat an eye at it. Heck, most of my people walk around in less than that daily." She gestures at herself. "So consider me a 'prude'."

[Arkhosia]

Firing Range

Anika grins, her sharp canines coming at full display. "Dude, I'm just gonna massage your shoulders, nothing more complex than that. Not to mention that I've seen Wenomir and others shirtless around here plenty of times. No one would even bat an eye at it. Heck, most of my people walk around in less than that daily." She gestures at herself. "So consider me a 'prude'."

Firing Range

Blanche hesitates for a couple seconds, still visibly uncomfortable about the idea, but chooses to relent, shrugging off her jacket and taking a seat before lifting off her shirt. The sports bra underneath is fairly covering by underwear standards, but it doesn’t conceal the true cause of her reticence: a pronounced scar has been carved into the side of her abdomen, and a couple faint scars mar her left forearm. She crosses her arms a little self-consciously.

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler: Commanders' Village spoils

Show

[Commanders' Village]

Having your arm torched while it goes full skinwalker on you is the sort of thing that sounds incredibly painful, as it happens. Ithuriel certainly seems to have quite the pained expression, but in keeping with the Intersection Angel Officer's stoic personality, she's not screaming, or panicking, or anything like that.

Instead she grips at the base of the lower arm just past the elbow with her other hand.

"S-sorry Cessie, this- ungh, this isn't going to be pleasant to- nrrgh, watch. I guess we triggered something."

With a vice-like grip, Ithuriel ruthlessly twists first one way then the other to the sound of snapping bones and tearing muscles, breaking everything that tethers the arm in place in two quick motions.

Then she pulls, letting out a hiss as skin tears and flesh splits.

It takes all of a few seconds for her to rip her forearm off and throw it to the floor, staggering backwards with a groan, gripping the messy, broken stump that remains at the end of her arm, the bright white of broken bone showing through the pulpy blood-soaked flesh.

[Commanders' Village]

The tentacles are going for door number 1!
What's behind door number 1? A new car more fire!

Cessie had seen a lot in her relatively short life but seeing the angel tearing her own arm off was somehow more surprising than the arm coming to life. Though the tentacle veins going for her made her panic for a split second, which when you're a mage is never a good thing. A beam of boiling hot magma manifests in the air which will scour the tentacles and the rest of the arm as the angels tears it off. This is including the floor underneath it and possibly even some of Ithuriel's clothes as even being near magma is enough to get a severe burn.

She will quick rein the heat in once the moment has passed and the tentacles have been dealt with however.
Still, she backs away from the still smoking hold in the ground and then let's smaller, less magma-heated, flames scour the room for all that blood that ended up spraying across the room. Then she realizes something...

"I'm burning it all down, get someone to look at that." She won't accept any arguments from the angel as flames start to spread from the sorceress in every direction. But if Ithuriel could tear her own arm off, then Cessie could at least burn down her own office.

There probably aren't a huge amount of things walking around that have the natural fortitude to take magically concentrated magma to their being and walk away from it, let alone something that already has a strong aversion to fire.

The little bit of blood and assorted bits that have gotten tossed around? It has no recourse at all. Gone.

The squirming thing that Ithuriel tore from herself? It has enough time to squeal, as the entirety of its few-second existence is condensed into a moment of magma, heat and obliteration.
Cessie's spell was quite possibly enormous amounts of overkill.
But was it unreasonable? Given what is known about the things here, it's not so difficult to understand.

[Shadowcaller]

Firing Range

As Anika takes a glance at Blanche she smiles as she spots the scar. "Ohh, you got a awesome scar too! Let me show you my 'collection'." Then suddenly goes ahead by loosening her belt to remove her own shirt to unveil a rather drab brown bra and a series of smaller scars across her abdomen.
"This is the coolest one, got it from a fel-stalker." She gestures at one of them that is colored a bright sickly green. "It looked way worse before but it healed up pretty nicely." She then gestures at another scar near her armpit which looks normal in comparison. "That one is from an orc blade, cut straight through my armor!" She looks up at Blanche. "What about you? Where did you get yours?"

[Arkhosia]

Firing Range

”Er, bayonet.” Blanche answers awkwardly, looking away with discomfort. “I’d... prefer not to talk about it.” She frowns. ”The hell is a fel-stalker?”

[Lord Magtok]

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"Good guess." Calm Reed smiles. "I would have learned Fire Dragon style. Air Dragon and Wood Dragon don't work well in the kind of armor I normally wear. Earth Dragon can be practised in armor as heavy as yours, even." She peers at St. Laz's movements. "You should try to pull your shoulders back more when you strike. You overreach and waste energy otherwise. Stand firm on the ground and strike from your legs and core."

Saint Lazarus rolls her shoulders back, taking a step away from the dummy she just wrecked, and trying out Calm Reed's suggestions on another. Oh wow, that's a lot better, isn't it? She takes another swing or two, making a few minor adjustments between each swing.

"I probably mentioned this already, but I've never actually had any sort of formal training with this thing," she points out, before trying out a horizontal swing that nearly dislocates her own shoulder. Yikes, she wasn't kidding. At least she's already mostly dead though; she doesn't have to worry as much about tearing herself apart as ordinary mortals would.

[Morty]

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"I believe you've said something." Calm Reed decides to politely not mention that it's rather glaringly obvious. "I haven't had formal training with a two-handed blade... well, not in fifty years, anyway. I was introduced to many weapons by my family's teachers." The monk seems strangely absent-minded, as if something weighs on her. "But it's similar enough to Earth Dragon style for me to teach you more about... the basics. If you want."

[Purple Eagle]

Vigil Tour- Training Grounds

Makuro watches Lapis prance off with a smile on her face, rather used to the seraph's short attention span.

She tilts her head and looks down at Karasu. "I don't know that word. What's a 'ninja'? I am... I do not know what I am, but I wish to help others. Possibly stop what happened to me happening to others, if I can. From what I have heard of the pod people, they are dangerous, Karasu. There is a reason Lapis was created to find them. Human senses aren't enough." Makuro's own senses likely aren't enough, and she's got a slight boost to her sight, enough to prevent her getting blinded easily.

[Vigil Tour- Training Grounds]

The butterfly is momentarily forgotten.

"A ninja (忍者) or shinobi (忍び) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare. Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the honor of the samurai. Though shinobi proper, as specially trained spies and mercenaries, appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century," Lapis recites. It sounds like she's reading from a book. You can tell because her head is sorta quirked off to one side as she rambles off the definition.

Then she blinks, followed by a wide-toothy grin.

"Like a spy! Except without a car that's also a submarine! Spies are cool. Except when they're pod-person spies since those are the WORST, I hate those," Lapis hisses. "The pod-people gobble folks up and then pretend to be them! They've been trying to infiltrate the Nexus and make everything terrible. Mom's been working to convince them to go away."

Via application of violence.

"And she wanted me to stay here at VIGIL just in case any try to sneak in. The magic they use is unique and super-terrible, I can feel it if I'm close."

Being able to identify the doppelgangers is pretty important.

"The angels you know from somewhere else are probably a different sorta angel," Lapis reasons. "That was something mom wanted to make sure I knew. That there are lots of things called angel or demon or faerie or dragon or whatever! But they're all really different things since the Nexus has stuff from lots of different cos... cosum... different places!"

She glances between the ninja and the training dummies. "Are you training your super-cool ninja skills?"

With Lapis distracted, the butterfly lands on one of her nubby horns.

[VIGIL Tour - Training Grounds]

Karasu listens to Makuro without a word, then nods once. She's about to respond when Lapis interrupts with her own response, having ignored the butterfly for the moment. The difference in her recitation and the rest of her words make it evident enough that she was reciting information she's been fed, part of what she mentioned her mum teaching her earlier. "That's partly right, Lapis. A specially-trained spy and mercenary who performs those things mentioned. I use it to protect my city from its more dangerous evil elements, and mostly to kill troublesome monsters. Where I'm from, you'd call a mish-mash of Japan and Nigeria, but then where I'm from, I won't survive looking at an angel of your level." She turns to Makuro and addresses her. "I'm not a mere human, Makuro-san, not by the standards of most places. I've fought worse and lived, I've survived torture. I can handle it." Who'd want to torture a teenager? Other currently-dead teenagers, for one.

She turns back to Lapis, nodding at her question. "Yes I am. In GLoG, the younger angel is 7 but looks and acts 5, talks with a stutter and cries a lot. I get the feeling you'll like each other."

[Earl of Purple]

Vigil Tour- Training Grounds

Makuro frowns a little at 'Makuro-san'. "My name is just Makuro, Karasu. I have no surname." She's not familiar with Japanese honorifics. "And I know of neither Japan or Nigeria. They might exist, where I am from, but... I cannot remember them." The explanation of what a ninja was did prove useful, however. That's something she's going to have to remember.

[Shadowcaller]

Firing Range

”Er, bayonet.” Blanche answers awkwardly, looking away with discomfort. “I’d... prefer not to talk about it.” She frowns. ”The hell is a fel-stalker?”

Firing Range

"Just a demon, looks kinda like a dog with tentacles and and spikes everywhere. But hey, what about that massage, huh?" Anika moves behind Blanche and puts her hands on the shorter woman's shoulders and squeezes. "Yep, you're extremely tense. Why don't you try to relax a bit, unless you're already doing that. I can't tell."

[Lord Magtok]

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"I believe you've said something." Calm Reed decides to politely not mention that it's rather glaringly obvious. "I haven't had formal training with a two-handed blade... well, not in fifty years, anyway. I was introduced to many weapons by my family's teachers." The monk seems strangely absent-minded, as if something weighs on her. "But it's similar enough to Earth Dragon style for me to teach you more about... the basics. If you want."

Fifty years since she went through two-handed blade training, wow! Assuming Calm Reed was maybe in her teens or twenties when that happened, that means Calm Reed is more than a few years older than Jenette's mom, Mrs. d'Aubigny. Saint Lazarus always suspected the Exalted monk was some sort of immortal, but this pretty much confirms it. Depending on how nobility works back in Exalted Land, Calm Reed could very well have kids of her own that are older than Saint Lazarus, and yet the Dragon-Blooded doesn't look even half that old.

"If it's not too much trouble for you, cutting into your own training time, sure," the ghoul modestly asks, not wanting to be a nuisance to Granny Reed, who surely has better things to do with her time than try to educate some flesh-eating dullard who can't even swing a sword right.

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds - Somewhere around]

It appears that Mia is around here. After spending much time maintaining the engine that keeps the island moving, she found a bit of time to train again.
First off she places the bade aside and prays for at least 10 minutes. after all she is a high priestress. You can't just ignore your god.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Commanders' Village]

Ithuriel has enough sense to get out of Cessie's office, quickly. But she doesn't get much further than that, stumbling a little way down the hallway before slumping against the wall, sliding down until she's sitting awkwardly on the floor, clutching at her arm-stump.

She's looking a little pale too. Seems like ripping part of her arm off in such a brutal way might have caused a bit of a shock to the system.

[Arkhosia]

Firing Range

The catgirl closes her eyes with a nod as the elf's hands rest on her shoulders. She attempts to let herself relax, focusing on vanishing those doubts and insecurities swirling around in her head, and recalls what she'd been taught before. Deep breaths. Inhale, then exhale. Again and again she follows the rhythm, her ears perking up when they were earlier flattened and turned-back. It helps to ease the tension in her back, but there's still quite a lot of stress to work out of Blanche's toned form.

[Morty]

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"It shouldn't. I admit that away from my normal duties in the Order, I find it a bit difficult to organize my time," Calm Reed says and stretches. "It has been a while since I last instructed mortal monks, but hopefully I pick it back up quickly. We'll start with the basics... I'll have to meditate on whether I can teach you the higher forms of an Immaculate style." She breathes out. "We can start now, if you like. I need to explain the principles... then there are exercises to harden your body. But then you're tougher than any mortal monk I've trained, so I may need to improvise."

[Lord Magtok]

Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon

"I don't think I'm that far beyond human limits," Saint Lazarus humbly objects to the monk's assessment. "Better at putting myself together after a fight, yeah. Maybe a little too quick to let myself get wrecked to accomplish a goal," she adds, before swinging her sword once more. She doesn't look even a little bit winded, swinging that zweihander around. No big surprise there, though, seeing as how she only breathes out of habit, rather than any sort of biological necessity.

[Recaiden]

[Training Grounds - Somewhere around]

It appears that Mia is around here. After spending much time maintaining the engine that keeps the island moving, she found a bit of time to train again.
First off she places the bade aside and prays for at least 10 minutes. after all she is a high priestress. You can't just ignore your god.

It seems that Alice is also at the training grounds.
At the moment she is throwing javelins at target dummies....mostly she misses them.
She said her prayers before coming up here form the village.

Sophia is also around here, but what they are training is 'being sneaky', so Mia might not notice.
I think they's waiting around to bother new members, but those new members keep being busy or with others.

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds - Somewhere around]

After Mia is done with her prayer she puts her sword on and heads to Alice waiting for her to throw her last Javelin. Just to be save.

"Hello Alice. We haven't seen us for some time. How have you been?"

[Recaiden]

Hah! That last one was a hit!
Luck, really.

Alice gets a lollipop from her belt bag and pops it into her mouth and starts walking over to collect the javelins from the range.
But then, a ... visitor? friend? Mia. A Mia!
"Oh, hello uh, Mia. Is something the matter? I've been-" she discards the first several things to come to mind.
"Just a lot of work. The music things hasn't gone much of anywhere, and there hasn't been a lot to do since that mission with MERC."
"Is the...temple in Riverside doing well?"

[Shadowcaller]

Firing Range

"You know, I got an idea." Anika says as she focuses on massaging Blanche's shoulders. "See, there is this well nearby that has been corrupted and I was planning on cleansing it. The problem is that its infected with vipers so I could use some help clearing those off. If we do manage to cleanse it, the well is amazing to relax in. Magical in fact. You'll feel like a new person. But i also figured we could practice some aiming at the snakes while we're there, so we'll kill two snakes with one stone if you know what I'm saying."

[Commanders' Village]

Cessie joins her a few moments later, her entire office now ablaze. Her gaze lingers on Ithuriel's stump for a moment, as if it just dawned to her that the angel had actually lost her entire arm. "I'll have a elemental carry you to the medical station." She offers as the elemental from earlier comes wandering after her. "Just hang in there." Cessie pauses as she suddenly seem to realize something. "...but I might have to burn our clothes first however. If I'm close enough, I can do it without hurting you however." She's going to burn everything, isn't she?

[Morty]

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"Perhaps," the monk admits. "There's only way to find out. Earth Dragon teaches its students to withstand pain, so we'll see what we can accomplish." She assumes the stance that St. Laz would have seen her use before. Legs wide and bent, raised arms close to the torso. "The Earth Dragon style teaches its practitioners to be like the earth. While learning the basic stances and forms, the students also have to harden themselves to pain and learn to stand firm even in face of overwhelming force."

[Arkhosia]

Firing Range

"You know, I got an idea." Anika says as she focuses on massaging Blanche's shoulders. "See, there is this well nearby that has been corrupted and I was planning on cleansing it. The problem is that its infected with vipers so I could use some help clearing those off. If we do manage to cleanse it, the well is amazing to relax in. Magical in fact. You'll feel like a new person. But i also figured we could practice some aiming at the snakes while we're there, so we'll kill two snakes with one stone if you know what I'm saying."

Blanche can't help but lean gently into Anika's hands as they slowly but surely relieve the tension in her shoulders, and those pointy ears might catch the faintest rumble of a purr when she starts to work away at a particularly tight spot near the nape of her neck. "That... mm, that might be nice... gonna be a lil' interesting trying to take care of something so small, too. Don't think I've ever handled a .22 either, so it'll be a er, a learning experience for us both, eh?" A beat passes before she adds, "by .22, I mean, uh, a .22 rifle. Smaller bullets than what we were using, won't have as much recoil. Don't wanna, like, blow through 'em and ruin the well itself, y'know?"

[Zefir]

Hah! That last one was a hit!
Luck, really.

Alice gets a lollipop from her belt bag and pops it into her mouth and starts walking over to collect the javelins from the range.
But then, a ... visitor? friend? Mia. A Mia!
"Oh, hello uh, Mia. Is something the matter? I've been-" she discards the first several things to come to mind.
"Just a lot of work. The music things hasn't gone much of anywhere, and there hasn't been a lot to do since that mission with MERC."
"Is the...temple in Riverside doing well?"

[Training Grounds - Somewhere Around]

"It is fine." she replies. " Lucky for us the demons had no intentions to harm us due to the other party at Southside."

I'm not sure what the music thing is, but I guess I just forgot?

"I was just going to train myself and thought it would be nice to talk a bit. Do you try something new with the javelins?" Missing so much might mean she is either out of practice or just never did this before.

[Recaiden]

"That is lucky." Alice nods.

Alice had been working on a project to try to harness some perceived magical benefit from music. But it didn't work.

Alice glances down, embarrassed. She should be better at this!
"I haven't been training with them very long. I keep having to fight things even bigger and more mobile than me, so I thought a way to strike at range would be good. Something that can take advantage of my strength."
"Do you have any advice?"

[Shadowcaller]

Firing Range

She's purring, like an actual cat? Anika isn't sure what to think about that. She had just though as Blanche as a human with weird ears all this time, but now it looked like there was more inhuman traits to her that met the eye.
"Not gonna use the shot gun? Though it had like, spread or something? Shooting snakes does seem kinda hard admittedly. Maybe you should bring that flame thrower again? The one you used in Inside I mean. Just foosh! All snakes dead!"

[Zefir]

"That is lucky." Alice nods.

Alice had been working on a project to try to harness some perceived magical benefit from music. But it didn't work.

Alice glances down, embarrassed. She should be better at this!
"I haven't been training with them very long. I keep having to fight things even bigger and more mobile than me, so I thought a way to strike at range would be good. Something that can take advantage of my strength."
"Do you have any advice?"

[Training Grounds - Somewhere Around]

"No, I can't help you with that." Mia says. "If you would want to carry a weapon or something more mechanical I could help, but you will need a master in throwing javelins to get proper advice rather then me."

"Maybe you can find some improovements. I have seen weapons that return to their owner by themself. This could at least help you not getting out of ammo."