Stranded in the Light (CMGQ again)

[NSMS]

Meihua's hand closes firmly around the handle of her knife, long training and experience warring with her emotions to prevent her grip going white-knuckled. Eyes flicking briefly to Temple and taking in her martial sister pleading expression, she draws in a long breath through her nose, and slowly relaxes her grip on the blade.

"This august self has risen above such things. However, this self will tolerate neither disrespect nor pity from one such as you; your incomprehension does not excuse this. Be mindful in the future, lest this self's patience and mercy find their limit."

Click to shrink...

Sandra nodded seriously, a determined expression on her face.

"Don't worry, I'm suuuuuuper mindful. Or... I think I am?" Pausing for a moment to consider things, Sandra tapped a finger on her lips thoughtfully, before shrugging. "Anyway, no pity, pretend I understand your funny speaking. No problem."

If Sandra cared about- or even noticed- Rain's threat then it wasn't apparent, as a moment after she finished speaking she half-closed her eyes and began humming to herself, swaying slightly from side to side in time with the tune- apparently having decided that her role in the conversation was over.

 

[LostDeviljho]

With an imperious sniff, Meihua releases the knife entirely, turning and striding toward the door. "Disciples, attend," she commands with a sharp beckoning motion at the two pressed against the wall.

 

[A Wise Hermit]

Mary does a 180 from the dipshit trying to expose them all and walks quickly out of the Taco Bell, grabbing Rejova's hand and pulling her out faster as she passes.

Click to shrink...

---

10.

Someone is Touching Me​

Woah, Personal Space Please​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova felt herself grow colder, and it wasn't because of the air conditioner. The scraping of a chair's legs as it was pushed backwards screeched out behind her, a climax to heated argument. With it; foot-steps. Foot-steps that came closer every moment she walked, overtaking her pace. Rejova sped up to match it: a powerwalk turned into a light-jog; a light-jog turned into a quick gait. She didn't look back, keen on leveling some level of plausible deniability. A push and a shove later, and she was outside.

A hand snatched her arm. She brushed it aside, face red.

"Woah! First of all, don't touch me: I barely know you. Second of all? Whatever's going on in there isn't my problem! I-"

"We need to go now."

Click to shrink...

"I-mean, I kind of noticed that those guys were about to do something stupid but think about my water cup!"

Rejova, face still red, squeezed her arms closer together. A beat. "I mean, sorry. But, where would we even go?"

 

[Familiar]

"Disciples, attend.

Click to shrink...

The situation deescalating without violence: a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

The attention of an agitated alpha magical girl: less surprising, more unwelcome. Workable, though.

Kenna heeded the summons, slowing only for a second to grab a handful of those weird paper straws and stuffing them into her sweater pocket. "Sure, uh... how do you want to be called?"

 

[LostDeviljho]

The situation deescalating without violence: a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

The attention of an agitated alpha magical girl: less surprising, more unwelcome. Workable, though.

Kenna heeded the summons, slowing only for a second to grab a handful of those weird paper straws and stuffing them into her sweater pocket. "Sure, uh... how do you want to be called?"

Click to shrink...

Meihua shoots Kenna a scornful look from the corner of her eye, not breaking stride. "As this august self said earlier, 'Mistress Meihua' is preferred when not operating in a professional capacity." She seems to finish, before adding as an afterthought, "'Lady Meihua' or simply 'Mistress' would also be acceptable." With that, she pushes open the door and strides out into the cool air of Canadian spring.

 

[Tarro]

"Ah, hey, wait up!" Rumia calls out, chasing after the group.

Nobody got shanked in a taco bell today, which meant it was a good day. Probably. Maybe. Maybe Rumia's standards for what constituted a good day were decaying extremely rapidly.

But hey, that was a problem for future Rumia! Present Rumia was hanging out with her friends, and not compartmentalizing too hard. Definitely not!

 

[Familiar]

"As this august self said earlier, 'Mistress Meihua' is preferred when not operating in a professional capacity. 'Lady Meihua' or simply 'Mistress' would also be acceptable."

Click to shrink...

Kenna palmed her face. "Right, you said that like two minutes ago. Sorry, I've literally never spoken with any kind of formal language in my life. I'll remember from now on... Mistress Meihua." Yeah, that's definitely gonna take a while to say without it being weird.

 

[NSMS]

Still humming happily to herself, Sandra wandered after the rest of the girls. 'It's so nice to have made some friends...' She thought, glad to have made cleared up the misunderstanding with the weird-speaking girl and her companion. Making a mental note to give them both hugs later, in celebration of their new friendship, Sandra stepped out of the restaurant, ready to face whatever awaited her.

 

[Cmd. Frost]

"I-mean, I kind of noticed that those guys were about to do something stupid but think about my water cup!"

Rejova, face still red, squeezed her arms closer together. A beat. "I mean, sorry. But, where would we even go?"

Click to shrink...

"As far as we can before the Counter Force shows- oh." Mary stops as she looks back and sees the others walking out of the Taco Bell.

"Never mind."

 

[kinigget]

Sarah takes one last look between Meihua and the weird clock idiot, sighs, and relegates herself to wrangling that particular relationship for as long they spent together.

Finally getting out the door, she calls to the two who were apparently trying to abandon ship, "you know, you may not believe me, but I do think we'll live longer if we stick together. Do either of you even know where you're going?"

 

[A Wise Hermit]

"you know, you may not believe me, but I do think we'll live longer if we stick together. Do either of you even know where you're going?"

Click to shrink...

---

11.

All this Trouble...​

Why are you asking me?​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova's lips sealed as she turned. A rasping sound assaulted her ears, a voice calling out to her from across the entire establishment's square footing. It was Sarah, the civilian personality of the lizard girl. Next to her was Meihawa, tell-tale unreadable expression on her face. Rejova didn't move; instead, she made a silencing motion with her mouth, and gestured her to get closer. They were in public, for god's sake!

"Okay, sheesh. Just. Remember we aren't in a safe place, okay. But, to answer you? No, I don't believe you. Clock and August almost had a free for all inside of a public space where everyone could see us, and then we would've had a lot more problems than just... the flavor of Taco Bell tacos or something."

She paused. She looked askance, an eyebrow raised.

"And seriously? Do you even know where you're going? Because with that last move it almost seemed like we were on a fast track to prison."

 

[LostDeviljho]

Kenna palmed her face. "Right, you said that like two minutes ago. Sorry, I've literally never spoken with any kind of formal language in my life. I'll remember from now on... Mistress Meihua." Yeah, that's definitely gonna take a while to say without it being weird.

Click to shrink...

Meihua nods. "Inexperience is to be expected. Endeavor to improve, and you will do fine, Disciple."

"And seriously? Do you even know where you're going? Because with that last move it almost seemed like we were on a fast track to prison."

Click to shrink...

"The most practical option for the time being would be to return to the Sanctum of the Falling Star Sword Sect. Be grateful, Initiate; most such as you are not permitted to pass its hallowed gates."

 

[Cmd. Frost]

"The most practical option for the time being would be to return to the Sanctum of the Falling Star Sword Sect. Be grateful, Initiate; most such as you are not permitted to pass its hallowed gates."

Click to shrink...

"The most practical option would've been for you and Clock to stick to the plan." Mary snaps back, not thinking until it's too late to stop.

 

[NSMS]

"The most practical option would've been for you and Clock to stick to the plan." Mary snaps back, not thinking until it's too late to stop.

Click to shrink...

Still humming along, Sandra closed her eyes and began bobbing up and down and from side to side. And after a moment, she began to weave words in between her movements and humming.

"Hard, to, fol, low, plans, you, don't, know, yeah!" On the last word, Sandra spun the spot and struck a pose, flashing a peace sign and winking at Mary.

 

[LostDeviljho]

"The most practical option would've been for you and Clock to stick to the plan." Mary snaps back, not thinking until it's too late to stop.

Click to shrink...

Meihua gives Mary a look of utter disdain, before plastering a sickeningly sweet false smile. "Ah yes, the plan. This august self apologizes. So then, O master strategist, enlighten us as to our next move. Surely you must know, for you to squawk about it so."

 

[A Wise Hermit]

"The most practical option for the time being would be to return to the Sanctum of the Falling Star Sword Sect. Be grateful, Initiate; most such as you are not permitted to pass its hallowed gates."

Click to shrink...

---

12.

Wait, we have a Plan?​

I Must be Dreaming​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova perks up at the mention of a Sanctum, cutting through the flowery language and discerning that in Rain's language it's probably some sort of hideout. She makes a show of picking her fingers, one by one, before stopping. Face neutral, she speaks.

​

"I'm assuming that this Sanctum of yours is just some abandoned building, right? Whatever it is," She closes one eye, weighing her options. "I don't want to waste time fighting over trivial details anymore. So I'm just gonna say it before it becomes a problem."

She nudges her irises from side to side, as if she was looking for Nightmares in the corners of her eyes. As if nothing was wrong, she raised her cup, took a sip of water, and took a moment to look straight into her eyes.

"We can't afford to do this weird dominance game right now. Now I know that in the Unified Darkness, the whole wanna-be Game of Thrones Great Game is par-for-the-course. Trust me, as an agent of what, three years? I've had my fair share of it. But think about it. You've been eyeing Clock, Mary, and hell - me; the whole afternoon. Calling it murderous would be like calling a Chicken flightless. But," A beat. "Temple's right. We need to work together. And I'm willing to do that. As long as we realize that we need to take each other seriously."

She nudges over to the Taco Bell. "It might've seemed rough? But I wasn't lying when I said that you almost caused a scene." Then, she looked over to Mary. "Mary here doesn't seem to want to work with the rest of the group because of what happened earlier this morning. She's so spooked about something that I'm worried that whatever it is might become a problem later. I, myself, am flabbergasted at the fact that you can make decisions like, 'Let's go back to my place!' without considering the fact that all six of us are agents like you are, and probably have our own connections that we can leverage."

"Point is, miscommunication kills. So, I'm all for listening to Mary for a moment here. And if we're good, then we'll move to the next person, and weigh our options at the end." She looked around at the group. "Are we all okay with this?"

 

[Cmd. Frost]

Meihua gives Mary a look of utter disdain, before plastering a sickeningly sweet false smile. "Ah yes, the plan. This august self apologizes. So then, O master strategist, enlighten us as to our next move. Surely you must know, for you to squawk about it so."

Click to shrink...

The shear... Mary doesn't even know how to describe it, but the retort hits like a truck, and she stomps up to Rain with fire in her eyes. This might be more effective if Rain didn't have over a foot of height on her, but what can you do?

"I. Don't. Know. I know what the old plan was, you know, the one where we get on the darn helicopter with Gloam, all of you to jump on her when we were in the air, I string her up, jump out, and then link up with Miris out in the woods, who." Mary pauses to pull a phone out of her pocket. "Left five minutes ago. It was a good plan, it was a simple plan, it was a plan that would've worked so, so... stop trying to take my family from me. " Mary finishes quietly as she tries to hold off a crying fit.

 

[A Wise Hermit]

The shear... Mary doesn't even know how to describe it, but the retort hits like a truck, and she stomps up to Rain with fire in her eyes. This might be more effective if Rain didn't have over a foot of height on her, but what can you do?

"I. Don't. Know. I know what the old plan was, you know, the one where we get on the darn helicopter with Gloam, all of you to jump on her when we were in the air, I string her up, jump out, and then link up with Miris out in the woods, who." Mary pauses to pull a phone out of her pocket. "Left five minutes ago. It was a good plan, it was a simple plan, it was a plan that would've worked so, so... stop trying to take my family from me. " Mary finishes quietly as she tries to hold off a crying fit.

Click to shrink...

---

13.

Woah, Calm down Champ​

Should've Seen That one Coming​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova closed her eyes. If she couldn't see it, it meant that it wasn't happening. She channeled the energy of a thousand conspiracy theorists, keen on learning their power in the seconds between now and an escalation. Unfortunately, sight is only one of the five senses. I have to contain myself, she thought. Eyes still closed, air erupted from her nose. She thought about how salvage this.

"As we can see here, Mary is a prime example of miscommunicating killing. Quite literally in this case, poor Gloaming Kiss. Mary, sweetie, recall the moment we were called into that cramped, overused meeting room? Now, think: Who else did you tell about your plan?"

 

[Cmd. Frost]

---

13.

Woah, Calm down Champ​

Should've Seen That one Coming​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova closed her eyes. If she couldn't see it, it meant that it wasn't happening. She channeled the energy of a thousand conspiracy theorists, keen on learning their power in the seconds between now and an escalation. Unfortunately, sight is only one of the five senses. I have to contain myself, she thought. Because apparently no-one else FUCKING WILL! Eyes still closed, air erupted from her nose. She thought about how salvage this.

"As we can see here, Mary is a prime example of miscommunicating killing. Quite literally in this case, poor Gloaming Kiss. Mary, sweetie, recall the moment we were called into that cramped, overused meeting room? Now, think: Who else did you tell about your plan?"

Click to shrink...

"What are you talking about? W-why would I? You all k-knew the plan, she told you when the m-mission was set up? Right?" Mary says as she looks around the group with dread as pieces begin to fall into place in her mind.

 

[A Wise Hermit]

"What are you talking about? W-why would I? You all k-knew the plan, she told you when the m-mission was set up? Right?"

Click to shrink...

---

13 1/2.

And To Finish...​

The Cherry On Top​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Somehow, Rejova managed to sigh internally. Mary breaking up wasn't a part of the plan, but as long as nobody else knew that then this would be the perfect cherry on top.

"Exactly. Do we want this to happen again? If one of us has information that we decide to withhold, we shouldn't be surprised when it bites us in the ass later. Never assume that everyone else knows something you do." A smile, almost innocent, broke across her face. "So, to finish off my argument: let's go around to table. I will say this again: Mary, what exactly was your old plan? Slowly this time. And is this Miris person someone who can get us out of here?"

 

[LostDeviljho]

The smile slips off Meihua's face like water off a stone, leaving only an inscrutable expression with hooded eyes.

"Child," she begins, not unkindly, "We are going to need to have a long discussion about appropriate levels of trust, and what exactly this plan was about. But now is not the time and here is not the place. This self and Martial Sister have a prepared safe house where we can retreat to speak in private and relative safety. Come."

---

12.

Wait, we have a Plan?​

I Must be Dreaming​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova perks up at the mention of a Sanctum, cutting through the flowery language and discerning that in Rain's language it's probably some sort of hideout. She makes a show of picking her fingers, one by one, before stopping. Face neutral, she speaks.

​

"I'm assuming that this Sanctum of yours is just some abandoned building, right? Whatever it is," She closes one eye, weighing her options. "I don't want to waste time fighting over trivial details anymore. So I'm just gonna say it before it becomes a problem."

She nudges her irises from side to side, as if she was looking for Nightmares in the corners of her eyes. As if nothing was wrong, she raised her cup, took a sip of water, and took a moment to look straight into her eyes.

"We can't afford to do this weird dominance game right now. Now I know that in the Unified Darkness, the whole wanna-be Game of Thrones Great Game is par-for-the-course. Trust me, as an agent of what, three years? I've had my fair share of it. But think about it. You've been eyeing Clock, Mary, and hell - me; the whole afternoon. Calling it murderous would be like calling a Chicken flightless. But," A beat. "Temple's right. We need to work together. And I'm willing to do that. As long as we realize that we need to take each other seriously."

She nudges over to the Taco Bell. "It might've seemed rough? But I wasn't lying when I said that you almost caused a scene." Then, she looked over to Mary. "Mary here doesn't seem to want to work with the rest of the group because of what happened earlier this morning. She's so spooked about something that I'm worried that whatever it is might become a problem later. I, myself, am flabbergasted at the fact that you can make decisions like, 'Let's go back to my place!' without considering the fact that all six of us are agents like you are, and probably have our own connections that we can leverage."

"Point is, miscommunication kills. So, I'm all for listening to Mary for a moment here. And if we're good, then we'll move to the next person, and weigh our options at the end." She looked around at the group. "Are we all okay with this?"

Click to shrink...

---

13 1/2.

And To Finish...​

The Cherry On Top​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Somehow, Rejova managed to sigh internally. Mary breaking up wasn't a part of the plan, but as long as nobody else knew that then this would be the perfect cherry on top.

"Exactly. Do we want this to happen again? If one of us has information that we decide to withhold, we shouldn't be surprised when it bites us in the ass later. Never assume that everyone else knows something you do." A smile, almost innocent, broke across her face. "So, to finish off my argument: let's go around to table. I will say this again: Mary, what exactly was your old plan? Slowly this time. And is this Miris person someone who can get us out of here?"

Click to shrink...

Meihua shoots Rejova a look. "Unless you are also a dedicated sabotage team with prepared bolt holes, which one doubts severely, you do not have a better temporary base that the Sanctum provides. Now hush."

 

[A Wise Hermit]

"Unless you are also a dedicated sabotage team with prepared bolt holes, which one doubts severely, you do not have a better temporary base that the Sanctum provides. Now hush."

Click to shrink...

---

14.

Taco Bell Treason​

I want Coffee​

} - [ Ω ] - {
​

Rejova slows down her speech, the last traces of a self-satisfied smile frittering away in the wind. Her face now fixed with a slight frown, she began:

"We are all..." Her jaw sets itself straight. Arms still crossed, a foot fights against her better judgement to tap, impatient about this strange contest of wills. She fights the urge to look around; with that, something clicks in her mind. Fuck. Despite her agreement, she couldn't bring herself to admit defeat. "We know about your sanctum. And honestly? It's kinda weird that we're talking about like, treason and murder outside of a taco bell. So like, yeah, we should go somewhere private. But before we do, does anyone else want to share? Who knows, might be even better. For all we know, Kenna over here could have a Espresso Machine."

 

[Familiar]

"For all we know, Kenna over here could have a Espresso Machine."

Click to shrink...

Kenna, who had been doing her level best not to draw attention during this extremely uncomfortable conversation, froze like a deer in headlights. "Uh." In her pocket, she fidgeted with one of her matchbooks.

After a moment of regathering her thoughts, "Nooot really? My boss is kind of a meathead. He just tossed me over with a month's worth of money and said I'd be grabbed later." She had no idea where he'd even gotten the money. Maybe they knocked over a bank during the raid when they'd picked her up? "So I suppose I've got the place I rented, but that's forever away 'cause the Counter Force's birds are bullshit fast. Can't think of anything there that would help us anyway."

 

[NSMS]

Sandra raised her hand, and with the air of one putting down a trump card declared. "I have five freezers full of ice cream!"

 

[Tarro]

There was this certain thing that would happen when you met up with friends. When you started walking in a direction, and they starting following you, or you were following them, and you just kept going that direction while idly chatting, everyone implicitly understanding that someone else knew where they were going. Of course, the funny part was no one knew where they were going, which would inevitably become a source of laughter when somebody asked 'where are we going, anyways?'

Not that Rumia would know, she didn't have friends. Until now!

In any case, that was basically what they were doing while Mary? (Rumia was bad with names and even worse with children) was going through her third mental breakdown of the day.

"I got nothing," She said, because she actually did have nothing. You got paid to be evil? She didn't get paid when she was a good guy! "That sanctum place sounds good to me."