Eis
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Posts: 189
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Post by Eis on Jul 10, 2021 5:49:39 GMT -8
Her words fell on deaf ears. At least, when it came to the one closest to death. What is Lucas thinking? Eis is all too quick to jump on the bandwagon, echoing Oren's reasoning - if not necessarily his sentiment. "Oren is right," she says, leveling frankly with Lucas. "we'd rather not see you throw your life away on something so uncertain. You're of better use to the Freehold alive." It isn't the entirety of her reasons for not wanting him dead. Not by a long shot. But, to her credit, she remains somewhat distant and matter-of-fact about it.
Eis hadn't even thought of testing whether or not the pistol was mundane. Yet here some Summer is testing the waters like it were obvious. But no... she can't fault herself for not having thought of it. She knew it would function exactly as it was intended; it was a weapon to serve a quick death. One bullet to the brain. With nothing approaching even a vague-sense-of-likelihood that the victim or volunteer would ever return.
As if she'd prayed to whomever or whatever would hear her, and her prayers were answered, Kai rather bluntly refuses to follow Lucas' idea. Eis could kiss Kai get Kai a 'thank you' card for that. And Gavin, too, seems ready to turn the pistol away from Lucas. But even he didn't see the big picture. They were speculating over something so plainly obvious in her mind that she just couldn't fully reveal to them. It was maddening! Eis catches Gavin's eye as he turns to her. She doesn't know what he'd expected from her. Which is ironic in that she'd given him no way to understand how she felt about the matter. The more that keeps getting added to it, the more she feels the building need to scream.
But she holds that back enough to propose a solution that would - good Lord help her - hopefully put the subject to rest. For now.
She scans the eyes of each of them as she speaks, hoping to impress on them just how important this is. "No. We can't do that. The monarchs don't need to be bothered with this - yet. They can decide how justice will be met for the responsible parties. The message in the 'Plan' is something else. Entirely. The notion that Vegas' Lost need to take action on this to fix Spring's rituals could spread like wildfire." She gives her head one slow shake, clenching her jaw. "Please... some of you weren't there. You don't know what I saw. And even I, having witnessed every moment of it play out, don't really know what it meant. Please. Leave the pistol and silver with me." Eis holds out her hands, like a sinner seeking absolution
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Post by Cinderella on Jul 10, 2021 16:04:26 GMT -8
Cinder was listening to what the others had to say, taking the micro snapshot of current affairs between the courts. The glowing edges of her iris sparked pensively to the occult chatter, before her mouth twisted at Lucas' offer. The others covered the bases that were needed, offering a sympathetic smile—nodding along with Oren and Eis in particular.
"So, Gavin, from what I'm hearing...?" her voice cut through the conversation, more focused on the flaring emotions that really didn't have anything to do with Queens and policy. "If you were evoking the Gambit based off of the idea that you were changing out a Freehold Rite—and correct me if I'm inaccurate—because changing the nature of payment is completely rewriting the Rite—the Contract was trying to provide a plan that would...replace a foundational step in the Bargain's power structure."
She starts talking with her hands, slicing the air underneath the other, "You can't just...change one clause and not expect the rest of the Rites to react in turn. Forging loopholes is complicated for basic agreements between our people, let alone Monarch Oaths. If they're all tied together in a chain or a contracted Bargain with the Season, you're looking to accomplish something that the former Sovereigns constructed that built our Freehold and subsequent Wards in the first place. If we're not allowing these people to be culled, then the Rite is failing. Banking power for another Season is another question all together—it's a completely different Bargain made by another entity—but given the fact that they were all in this motley and coordinated as a team, it's probably all tied, guys."
She coughed.
"Anyway- thinking that shooting yourself or forcing one of these Springs, so you can cut a deal with the dead is as hubristic as it gets. I know we're all really upset about the systemic crimes against humanity that's baked into our magic, but rushing to, like, kill some people to accomplish what Baron Samedi, Lamassu, Nohoilpi, and Indra all built isn't...Do you- do you get that the Contract failed? It's telling you it's impossible unless every sliver of fate aligns in your favour."
She was listening to a Fairest and a Beast rushing to get themselves hurt, and understood their desperation on a personal level. Her eyes misted—It's why her motley was the way it was, and why Apollo and all the other Summers are dead. But her tone didn't change.
"We don't need to 'hunt down the guilty.' The guilty is King Lamassu who designed this Rite in the first place. And Spring courtiers are going to keep doing this.
Every year.
Until the system is replaced.
And that means we don't have these Wards anymore. I've been studying this for a while, mister Graves. What you and Eis pulled off with this medication is incredible and should be celebrated for the miracle that it is, but trust me when I'm telling you that you guys are jumping the gun and are going to regret thinking half measures will fix the Freehold. Queen Philicia's declaration is her own Clause added to the Spring Bargain, but that doesn't mean it retroactively dismantles Lamassu's Rites and rituals unless she stops them all together."
The Sun's Tongue nodded to Eis' concern about the High Season monarchs getting the information about the Skein.
"I think the gun is Loki's now."
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Jul 10, 2021 19:17:59 GMT -8
Lucas inwardly flinched at the accusation of acting in Hubris. Whatever negative emotions were brewing from the comment diminished when he saw Cinderella get teary eyed.
The more she shared with them, the more what she said made sense. They were getting closer to understanding the rites but there was still a long ways to go. They needed to make a decision in the meantime. The Underworld adventure was becoming a distraction at this point. He was the one who upped the ante with the Underworld suggestion so he felt responsible for getting them back on track.
"Right. We've established we aren't going to use the gun on anyone and trying to understand the rites is biting off more then we can chew especially with the timeframe we have available.
In terms of handing out justice and knowing how damning this will be for Spring if the rite doesn't go off, we are missing a conversation with a key figure. Like Gavin said earlier...someone else put this ritual together. "
"There are two living courtiers in Spring who would have a chance of pulling this off.
One is Buck Chaussier, who might know some esoteric knowledge from his time fighting monsters. The other..."
Lucas felt like kicking himself for not thinking of Noir earlier.
"Is Noir, who not only is their archivist--the courtier who is in charge of updating rites and ritual--but he is also a Gravewight. "
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Post by Kai Rose on Jul 10, 2021 20:16:37 GMT -8
Kai kept on staring at Lucas, gesturing with her thumb back to Cinderella with a look of sheer confusion on her face.
"She literally just said Lamassu made the rite. Go ahead and have your conversations in your own time, but we've got three for transport." A pause. "Buck Chasseur has been in Las Vegas for a very short time and definitely didn't put this together. Noir may well be one of Spring's best chances to figure this out, but something tells me that this isn't just something you can put a band-aid on. These rituals have been around forever. If you get anything out of Noir, I'm all ears. I'm interested in seeing improvements made, but this isn't a thing that's going to get done in a day and we really need to secure these people. "
Looking to the unconscious prisoners, Kai said, "Take the win. We saved lives today. Thank you for your assistance, all of you. Gavin and Eis - I'll make sure Uriel knows the great thing you folks did here for these people."
She nodded to the crew. They'd done good work in the here and now, and the occultists could Do Their Thing in due course.
"Good to go, Chevaliers?"
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Post by Gavin Graves on Jul 12, 2021 10:50:50 GMT -8
There it was. The final nail in the coffin for the ritual. Cinder had hammered it home. Not only did she do so convincingly, but also with authority.
The doom he feared closed around him and settled on his shoulders like a heavy weight. His mind spiraled inward as rising concern claimed the surrendered territory.
There would be no Spring Renewal. The contracts of that aspect of the season would fall into deep disrepair. The sentries would go dormant or disappear.
If what he feared to be true came to be, there would be no safety net. There would be no way to walk back a mistake.
Gavin tucked his arms in tight to his body, curling his claws up tightly. The tension in his limbs constricting his breathing, which grew more rapid and shallow.
It took a moment before he realized he had amped himself up into a panic attack. Dropping his arms to his sides allowed him to slow his breathing and begin thinking again. When a better flow of oxygen reached his brain, it occurred to him that Eis had not mentioned Callahan in her reporting.
"Right. Yeah. Okay." He was crushed. "Before you head out. You should know. Callahan didn't have anything to do with the fruit used to kill Yasmin or the other. He strongly contributed to the miracle we managed," his voice still carried the tone of his unsettled mind. "We wouldn't have been able to do it without him."
"On the subject of fruit experts," redirecting with logic alone, since he had nothing more left in him at this point. "If as Cinder says 'they will just keep doing this every year,' they still have a facility for the growing of the engineered Goblin Fruit and at least one hidden expert among them. They would not trust the success or failure of their whole season to an outsider, right?" his tone had improved its status to flat and devoid of emotion.
"What would they do next year without that facility or those experts? Something else, yeah?" If he could hope, he'd hope to remove a repeat of this year's ritual from the table early and get Spring to spend more time working on another ritual. With what he'd learned from Chunhua in mind, he knew they were going to need the time and the concentration of efforts.
With so much worrying about the 'big picture,' Gavin had more immediate and pressing concerns that he'd left baking in the background. He had about a week's worth of sleep to catch up on and the unwanted attention of two gangs to tackle. With his head aching, his body decided sleep was going to be the first on the list. When his head hit pillow, it was going to be as if a void opened below and swallowed him: There is no Gavin, only Zuul. If the gangs came he'd have only instinct for them right now and instinct was messy.
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Eis
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Posts: 189
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Post by Eis on Jul 12, 2021 12:31:12 GMT -8
Cinderella inadvertently filled in quite a few holes in her understanding of the chaotically compiled and rewritten parchment’s message. Lamassu built these rituals together with Samedi. The effort from the Autumn king and his Motley would have been titanic - and far beyond her own capabilities - to accomplish the arrangements in the first place. And these arrangements may very well have been made with death itself. Eis feels like a fallen leaf drifting on a breeze. Powerless and at its mercy.
She can barely contribute to the continued talks of the ramifications of their near victory. The wards would fail. All they’d done was save a few mortal lives. She stares, numbly, at Gavin as he has the wherewithal to remember to include Callahan in the praise. But what she really takes from it all is that they’d failed. More desperate efforts would be make to fill the gap the sanctioned sacrifices once filled. The wards from the ritual are gone. It’s almost more than she can take. She’s exhausted. Defeated. And this Cinderella dismissively washes over her plea with soft words.
“What, precisely, does Loki need with the gun? It’s mundane. It solves nothing. It’s not even a piece of evidence.” she asks Cinderella. Coldly. An edge creeps into her voice, more out of hurt than anything else. Though her wounded pride only stirs her further. “The ‘failed’ contract that created the gun was my doing. I’m the one who bloody paid for it. You’ve already dispelled any false hopes that we’ve accomplished anything lasting. Do you need to take gun from me as well?”
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Post by Loki on Jul 12, 2021 13:01:45 GMT -8
Loki watched the two Fall Courtiers lock up and fall to despair, frowning with confusion.
"I don't know why everyone's so upset. The Sun's Tongue just explained no one has to off themselves to barter with death itself. We won. Something will happen to Spring in the big grand scheme, but the Queen's law was ready for that consequence. She also explained that there's going to be Royalists from the old monarchy trying to continue this old ritual sacrifice every year, unless the Queen completely redoes her agreement with Spring. So...why is the sky falling again?"
He raised his hands as the intense Snowskin hissed about her property, "I mean I can get you any gun you want, lady. But when people are talking about shooting themselves or breaking oaths I tend to think everyone's on edge and not thinking straight." The firearm followed the Elemental's gestures, floating next to him as he spoke to the object in Spanish, gesturing to Eis before the weapon popped its cartridge.
"If this one's a point of pride, sure, you can take it. But I'm not giving it to you loaded in good conscious."
It was becoming very apparently that Loki had power over machinery.
"Thank you all for helping with this. Solving a problem like this in forty eight hours is pretty impressive from my experience," he nodded back towards where the other Chevaliers were keeping watch. "We'll take care of the Emeralds. Taking people against their will does shit with your head that none of you need right now."
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Post by Krakenbox on Jul 13, 2021 14:05:44 GMT -8
The murder investigation dissolved, having come to the conclusions that they needed to ensure Summer's justice had been met.
The incident had a controlled public release to the Freehold, following Seasonal announcements that the vulnerable mundane had been exposed to a supernatural infection in a hubristic attempt to create a ritual. Queen Philicia herself addressed that the Emeralds involved have been tried and found in direct violation of the Law, and will be processed in a manner where the criminals don't pose a threat to the mundane population. Queen Uriel announced a formal thank you to Lucas Chevalier, Eis, and Gavin Graves for their efforts in maintaining court cooperation, while also thanking Solomon's vassals: Kai and Oren, for their continued contributions to defending Las Vegas from the errs of Changeling society.
Eis, Gavin and Stephen's research was archived as a miracle of science and magic, both the newer courtiers finding themselves flooded with requests for assistance on other projects looking to further the Freehold's reach in bettering their magic in terms of healing or negating disasters. Chunhua and Scorpio both acknowledge the pair's efforts quite publicly, with She-Wolf extending a person visit in an earnest explanation that they had helped alleviate tensions with Summer and Spring by walking the line of assistance without overstepping jurisdiction. King Baron Samedi also reaches out, unexpected and unnervingly, gathering small details while passing on the Season's blessings.
Litha looms with the ascension of Summer. It's clear to the investigation team that the details of the Rite and the fact that it is tradition was kept out of the public eye. What comes of the failed Rite is yet to be seen...
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