[X] You're here for another mission entirely. Return to the church.
- [X] Show Father Maurice the image and write out what happened. Maybe some confirmation will make the Bureau look into the night-demons again.
"… Well, let's go back to the church. Come, Satsuki." You turn around and start walking, with Satsuki following after a moment.
"Um, why back to the church?" You wave your finger in a circle.
"To let people know about this, especially since we have evidence in the form of your picture. Very well done, thank you. Remember, the Bureau doesn't think these things exist. Also, we don't really know anything about them - these people must have legends about what they're capable of, but all anyone cares about in recent times is what they do - and if they can do something that delays us, then our actual mission could fail, and that would be bad." You walk on for a few more steps. "And the rest of the village doesn't seem like it has anything worthwhile, so - back to the church."
Satsuki is quiet after that, and you hum a simple tune. The trip out of the forest is as quiet and boring as the trip in, but once you're well out of the trees you stop and look back, scanning the whole treeline. Do you spot a couple pairs of gleaming green eyes? They vanish when you focus on them, so maybe it's just a trick of a plant and the disgusting moon's light … or maybe you're still being watched. "Flandre-sama?" You shake your head and turn back toward the church.
"Oh, hey, you're back! Did you have fun?" Sein greets you perkily from one of the benches; she seems calmer than she had been, less worried.
"Not really. Is Father Maurice around?" She snorts and laughs.
"He's an old man! He's sleeping - and unless it's really important, you should just let him, 'cause he's gonna be here when everything happens." You frown at her.
"Well, we may have met one of the local night-demons in the forest, and I wanted to show him the picture Satsuki took, but I suppose I should also make a report for the Bureau, so if you could show me how to do that?" She stares blankly at you for a moment before shaking herself and hopping out of the bench.
"Follow me, please. One good thing about the Church is that all of their facilities have pretty good communications systems." She babbles a bit about the Church and its network before you reach an alcove in the back area. "Okay, since I'm not allowed to mess with this stuff unless it's absolutely necessary, I'll just walk you through the process. It's simple, so don't worry!" There are several steps to the normal process that she shows you, but since you already know the name of ship you're trying to contact - Avesta - and roughly where it is, you can skip most of them and transmit directly instead of looking for a suitable receiver. After a few seconds, a weary-looking communications officer looks back at you through the screen.
"Hi! I was taking a walk earlier, and something happened that I think should get reported properly. How do I do that?" The poor man stares at you helplessly for a moment before the captain tells him to transfer it to her console. You wave at the older woman.
"An incident of some kind, you said? Have you filled out a report yet?" You shake your head.
"I've never done one, so I was going to tell Fate about what happened and see what I should do to make sure it gets properly noticed." The captain grunts and rubs the side of her head. Well, actually all you wanted to do was get it written down after telling Fate, but as long as it doesn't take too long, you might as well get a proper report done. The captain taps at a few things, and a notice appears on your screen. You glance at Sein and she nods, so you tap the 'Accept' icon. Another screen appears - a form of some kind.
"Fill that out as completely as you can. Once you're done, send it up and I'll make sure Enforcer Harlaown gets it after she's awake." She barely waits for you to nod before cutting out her transmission, and you growl quietly before sighing. Looking over the form, it's not that bad - time, date, location, individuals involved, and the like. You start typing, stumbling a few times because some of the keys aren't in good spots, but by the time you're halfway through the report you've got a system down where you just focus on the keys and only look up to make sure the words are right occasionally.
It doesn't take much longer for you to finish, and then you look back at Sein. "Okay, now Satsuki took a picture, and since I'm doing this formally, I think it should be added to the report, too. How do we do that?" Satsuki stares at the screen, apparently reading the end of the report and your suspicion that other night-demons were watching you.
"Hehe! Pretty easy. Okay, you've got the picture?" Satsuki shakes herself and holds up the camera-Device, then displays the image. Sein stares at it for a moment before shaking her head. "Oh, good, it's on a Device. Then what you want to do is connect the Device to the terminal - good, like that. Now, you should have an option somewhere to add files - yep, like that! And … there, that one. Recent files. Yep, good!" She claps her hands excitedly, then hugs Satsuki. Your servant squeaks at the unexpected contact, and Sein hops back, arms outspread peacefully, when your wings dart up threateningly while you send the report up to the ship. You turn your head enough to give her a pointed stare, then soften, stretch and reach over to pat Satsuki's shoulder.
"Now, Satsuki, since we have some time, why don't you review what I've taught you until now? Come, let's go back to the front and you can tell me what you remember …."
Satsuki ends up getting almost halfway through your lecture on etiquette before she starts yawning uncontrollably, and she seems unhappy to have to go back to the ship despite you telling her that she did a good job. And she did; she stumbled a few times and had to be nudged on some others, but all things considered, she remembered quite a lot of what you told her. But now you sit on a bench at the back of the church as Father Maurice tells a story to the few people in attendance - apparently the population despises the emphasis on the last Sankt-Kaiser and her tolerant message, which isn't too surprising given that the old Sankt-Kaisers who were warlike and invasive are the ones who freed them from the night-demons. Sein lies on the floor nearby, ready to sink into the ground with her power if something happens, and you scowl again at the light green winter coat you were forced to wear to keep your wings from alarming the locals.
Then Sein stiffens and sinks into the stone beneath her, and a very low buzzing tone raises your hackles. The door is blasted in and you - along with everyone else - turn around to look. The tip of a finger glides along the floor as well, and you make a note to try and avoid it if you have to fight. Outside, you see two figures - a shorter one, figure obscured by a heavy black cloak and face hidden by a gauzy mask, and a taller, elegant woman with a luscious mane of hair almost as red as Meiling's and warm brown eyes.
"Get up, Tool - how embarrassing …." You barely hear her reprimand, but as the other figure struggles to its feet the woman smiles and strides through the broken door, taking in the small crowd. "Well, well! Good afternoon, everyone - or morning, whichever it is right now. My name is Carmilla, and I'm terribly sorry, but you're all going to have to die now. No pushing to try and escape, because that's impossible …." She trails off as you step into the aisle and lower your hood. You keep your wings hidden, still, but her eyes widen and her smile turns gentle. "Oh, but you might live …. Yes, you're a dear sweet thing, aren't you? Why don't you come home with us, join our family. We'll love you, and far more than whoever claims to be your family right now -" You can't help it - your eyes blaze and you hunch forward threateningly, fingers hooked into claws. Your wings threaten to tear through the thick coat. The woman looks a bit surprised, but then smiles and shakes her head. "I'm sure you think they love you, and your loyalty is quite lovely to see, but it's true. Come with us, and you'll see what I mean." You force down the rage - Fate did make sure you knew that taking prisoners is the goal, after all ….
What do you do?
[ ] Inform them of who you are and that they're under arrest.
[ ] Attack to subdue.
- [ ] Focus on Carmilla.
- [ ] Focus on Tool.
[ ] Kill them.
[ ] She mentioned a family … see if you can go with them if they promise to let the people live.
[ ] Other?
DM Note: A quick note on the next update. I won't have much computer access this weekend, so I'm not sure if, when, or for how long I'll be available after tomorrow morning. And I won't be getting back to a computer until probably late evening on Sunday, so the update is probably not going to be up until late Sunday or early Monday.
