Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain

"Marie's right. If they can muster a defense -"

"What defense?" Nattie demands, and you growl. You're almost embarassed in the moment, but the rage carries you through as you interrupt.

"If you want to go save who you can, go. Do it fast and do it now but go. Otherwise, on me." You let yourself splinter into refracted light, and step out of a shattered visor on the ground floor as Marie lands next to you; she stares at her hand, and flexes it softly, and the both of you watch as sharp stingers of glass-tipped steel extend from her fingertips, then retract. "Marie, you got a plan to get through that gunline?"

"...She's a child," Nattie pleads, in a soft voice.

"Not any more," Marie whispers back. "...I wasn't sure it would work, you know. The old prayers. Grandma said..." she swallows. "...It doesn't matter. They worked. There's always one god you can call to when every other one fails you, and all it costs is the Law. I'm. Come on, yeah, I have a plan."

"Keep her safe," Nattie tells you, clapping you on the shoulder and giving you an intense look. You nod, just once, her insistence cutting through the pounding of the blood in your ears, and then Marie is tugging you away, making some kind of gesture with her hand, stingers extended.

You really hope she actually knows what she's done to herself. Not that you have any room to judge her, even if you understood yourself.

Marie leads you down one of the tunnels. Well, 'tunnels'; the dense maze that is the physical Durance-On-Bay is riddled with rooms and halls, so a 'tunnel' is more or less just a vaguely round series of holes and troughs that cut through the floor. When you nearly break your ankle where one cuts through the floor to the level beneath, you start paying much more attention.

"Are these things going to turn on us?" you ask.

"They won't turn around," Marie not-answers. She keeps looking around, and then - "No time, we have to get higher. Sorry about this Orchid, I kinda see you like one of my older siblings if it helps -"

You're about to ask what the fuck she means when you get the answer in the form of her crashing into you from behind; she wraps her arms just under your chest and takes off, her insectile wings impossibly strong for both their size and her body's size. She zips up, following the path of more larvae who move by chewing their way through the manifestation; to those that can see the Panopticon, it's as if the Wasp's young are devouring the empty air, only they can see it vanish into their maws. That version is shaking, quaking, becoming ever-less real, and it's taking the physical prison with it. You can hear concrete crumbling already.

"He has to die," Marie is muttering between deep, heaving breaths. "He has to die so they can pupate, and become predators that stalk the Law-that-Hunts, and kill it, and eat it. He has to die. I'll kill him. I'll kill him myself and give his heart to the Wasp -" You touch the back of her hand; Marie sobs, and sniffles, but she doesn't waver. "I saw so much," she whispers to you. "So much. I know the faces and names of every guard and inmate that needs to die before they ever hurt another person. You told me not to kill anyone myself...that was funny, Orchid. In a sad way. I was Inside the whole time. I don't have any innocence left to lose."

Nattie's voice is bellowing from the front entrance, and the inmates below seem to be doing everything in their power to get the fuck out of the way of these young wasps. You're going to need a plan; it's going to hurt.

Lose 2
[ ] Your okay health
[ ] Marie's good health
[ ] Easy access to an escape route
[ ] What's left of your feathers
[ ] Your willingness to keep the guards alive

AND

Choose 1
[ ] Marie kills the Warden
[ ] You kill the Warden