Scene #2088: Aztlan: Third Tether

Owner	Pose
Ainsley	A new forward camp has been set up at the Hub in the underground tunnels. Thanks to the fountain, it is relatively safe compared to the rest of the Underground. Unfortunately, that means getting to it involves cutting down undead that lurch toward their potential snacks. Fortunately, once in the camp, people largely don't have to worry about dealing with more angry dead things for a while. Ainsley has cleaned the hub room up some. She's sitting down on a bench in front of a stone table, and drawing out a map with a careful touch. She has that map she had used during one of the earliest trips down here and she's updating what she knows of it. From what the map indicates, it shows... North has a Ink Curtain blocking the end of the tunnel. According to the map, that is the Aztlan courtroom. Along that path there are archives and places like police stations and subtunnels with rooms that house Quetzal lawyers. The northern branch seems to spread out in many narrow tunnels like that, so it might be dangerous if someone gets caught alone with the undead lurking down here. The West has no blockade anymore. The University is now open for exploration, as well as several libraries, secondary schools, and... an elementary school. Ainsley seems to have crossed a great big X on the doorway of that place and written in big letters 'BAD IDEA,' so it's clear she recommends against this particular location. South has no blockade either. It has rooms such as Barracks, Civilian Quarters, Armory, Staging, Mess Hall and many other military-based rooms. East has Food Stores. Curiously, the stairway leading down from the Hub to the Containment room is between North and East, or Law and Food. Other rooms are labelled in scientific manners according to what is grown there. Hydroponics, for instance. There's a room at the end called 'Farmer's Market,' but there's a Ink Curtain blocking access to that area in particular. Each major tunnel seems to stretch on for a very long distance, but the stairs up to the surface are distributed closely to the Hub. Exploring beyond the surface stairwells could take hours of time, there's just so many branching side tunnels and major areas to look at. It's up to the party to decide where to go at this point.
Faruja	Faruja is here! The Inquisitor peers over the map, applying copious amounts of cologne after the journey here. Undead smell /horrible/ as a rule when you burn them to a crisp. The nezumi rubs his chin, squeezing his love's shoulder before finally nodding. "May as well play to type. Courtroom it is for mineself. Whom is coming with me?" He offers to the group. After that? He'll summon up Carbuncle, who starts to toss out Shells and Protect spells for the group. They're all going to need it.
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura is here! Dressed up in her Adventuring Outfit - that is, her Hashshashin cloak (it's pink!) worn over a set of flexible leather armour with Far Too Many Pockets. It's barely even armour, really. She's kinda just hanging around near Ainsley, leaning against the closest wall and looking up at the ceiling. She's likely just going to stick by Ainsley during this investigation. She's not really the smartest person here, after all! Let the brainy ones do the investigatoring.
Finna	"From one ancient ruin to another!" Quips Finna, who's taggina long with Faruja in her human form today! Smiling brightly and COMPLETELY unfittingly for the area, she 's carrying a sword in one hand. "And of course Iiii'm sticking with you. Splitting up in a place like this? Bad idea. I'd feel awful if I went off on my own, came back and everyone else was stabbed by a ghost." Her singsong tone suggests that maaaybe she's just being silly, but.. in the situation? Maybe not. "ALSO, any food around here's probably long since rotted to yuck..."
Staren	Dealing with weak undead while traveling is something Staren got used to on Riva's world. His armor's beam cannons and beam sabers have effectively unlimited ammo, so that's not a problem. Staren gives friendly nods and waves upon arriving, then looks over the map. "...I think my best chance at helping is finding records, to understand what happened here. That brings to mind the living quarters, if I'm looking for a journal or diary... Or the University, if someone might have left lab notes there on whatever they were working on. But then, if they were cultists... they'd probably hide their records in some secret, out-of-the-way place, huh?" He starts to scratch his helmet, then removes it and scratches his head. Well, tries. Not like his gauntlets have fingernails. Annoying.
Riva Banari	Riva is more or less in agreement with Faruja on how to proceed here. Deal with all the evil crap, then poke around. Or maybe she's doing that int he wrong order? The artist doesn't seem to care. She's looking around warily in the area despite the relative safety of the underground hub, dressed in her Templar uniform like usual. The red doesn't show the blood as much. Riva pokes around at the map, pondering. "So we haven't found a single survivor yet..." She sighs. "That's really unfortunate. Faruja, I'll go with you. If anything happens, it's better if I hit the problem a few times so you can take it out." She looks over to Ainsley. "So what's your take on things, Ains? Is there anything in particular that's standing out here? I know you didn't spend time here, but you know your people better than any of us would, I'd think..."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is here once more in the camp, she's just wondering about why does she keep pushing into this stuff so hard? She wants to help yes, but even once and a while once must think about the horrors she keeps going head to head with. Still there's people who need help right? She was looking to check out the south her self but she takes a moment to speak up. "Well not yet, we need to keep looking, Riva and we may still find clues to help get to the bottom of things regardless. I was thinking of going south myself to see what I could track down there." She pauses at Staren and looks over at him and thinks. "The sorts of places they would think they would not be found by others."
Yuuki Kuran	This is a bit much to absorb in one sitting, for Yuuki Kuran, Totally Mundane Wanting-To-Help-Out Girl has arrived with the majority of the unionites, at the base camp. She's wearing a nice set of 'exploration' clothes which is basically just rugged shoes and pants and a coat over the whole dealie, with a pair of climbing goggles around her dinnerplate eyes. She's learned her lesson on EYE PROTECTION. And, even though they're in a not that bright place(?), they're slightly tinted. "Well, I'm excited! New, untold wonders! A civilization! Much better than books of history. We're living it!" She exclaims to Faruja and Riva, as she cheerily smiles at both of them, all ready and raring to go. This is because she followed Riva here. "Finding records, hmm?" She wonders, at Staren. "Do you know what they look like? Or what those... inky things are?" She gestures at the Ink Barrier.
Ainsley	Ainsley looks up at Faruja with a brief smile, then over to Staren when he speaks up about cultists. She stares for a few seconds, and then she points out, in a gentle tone of voice, "This city housed hundreds of thousands of people who all followed a central religion, and the priest we saw was once part of that religion. I find it unlikely, as well, that a man losing his mind to the Filth would leave much in the way of records. It is probably best to search for the tethers and pick up information as you go." She looks aside to the Quetzalcoatl tunnel, and then to Staren again for a second, wordlessly suggesting the Western path for his search. Riva's inquiry gets a look and then a momentary shrug. "The specifics are always left vague in the literature I've read," she admits, "I know much of it is based off of mesoamerican culture, but enough of it is different that I couldn't really say. A lot of it is based around the, ah... the Blood magic that they use predominantly here, which is why it's underground. Older priests cannot even step into the sunlight without bursting into flames. The undead here exist only because the Dark magic animates them constantly." Then she taps the Southern area, where the Civilian Quarters are indicated. It's a very expansive branch with a few hubs of its own. "This is a residential district. If anywhere has been barricaded against this, I think it would be this area. People that band together in a crisis might be found there, or maybe a stray survivor or two making due on a crisis supply. Most of the survivors already left the city, but they couldn't have checked every room before they evacuated." Finally, Ainsley answers Yuuki when that inquiry comes up, "The ink curtains impede our paths until we break the tethers that are generating them. There's two ink curtains that I know of, so there's at least two more tethers left, if they work on a one to one ratio. We could take side tunnels to bypass them, but that risks getting trapped in a cramped space with things that want to eat us because we happen to be alive, things that don't really care about concepts like pain or moving like normal creatures." "The undead are trivial in the main tunnels, but they wouldn't be in the side tunnels."
Faruja	Faruja glances at Finna, and offers an exhasperated smile. "We art indeed getting quite the mileage out of dank, disgusting old ruins, mmm? Still, good experience, I highly doubt this shall be the last. After ye, mine dear!" Offers the rat to Finna. "Do let me know if ye see one. Difficult to put them to rest whilst bleeding out." And Riva as well as Yuuki are coming along as well! The nezumi crosses his chest. "Agreed. And God willing, we shall find some." From his look, he's not too confident about that one. "However, if we can find any records, mayhaps we can figure out any potential hiding places for survivors. Or more Heretics." To Yuuki, he sighs a little. "This is the sort we aught really see less of. But mayhaps we shall at least make a difference." He'll wait for Ainsley to give her input, then nod to the others. "We shan't accomplish anything if we worry about a bit of danger, slinking around like cowards!" The rat's then off towards the more northerly section, waiting for his compatriots. He even lights up a torch!
Finna	"Getting survivors a path out of here sounds like the best plan if we actually come across 'em. Finding it hard to believe there's enough food and water down here to last very long..." A grim thing to think about, but Finna knows very well how survival in harsh circumstances works. Finna heads out in front of Faruja, but her attention's not on walking. Instead she sharpens her sense. A few whiffs of the air bring a thousand odors to her mind, her ears perk up and scan every which way for the faintest sound. Even a heartbeat or creaking bone on the other side of a wall's significant! Somewhere to start, anyways.
Riva Banari	"Looking here, there, and everywhere! Great!" Riva doesn't sound ENTIRELY enthused at Kotone's assertion. Then there's Ainsley. "I see." Not much to work with, huh. Riva looks to Faruja and Yuuki, nodding to them both. "Well, we're not going to solve this if we stick to the entirely safe areas. We need to do what we can to work around the barriers so we can take them down and clean this place out." Again agreeing with Faruja! God, she's making a real habit of this lately. "Let's go, Yuuki. I was pretty excited too, and then it got super messy." She heads forward and takes the lead. No matter how much she might dislike it, she /is/ the most expendable of the group.
Staren	Go west, young cat-man! Staren nods, "I suppose not... and any such writings might be a memetic hazard..." and follows her gaze. "Do you think anyone might have been studying phenomena related to the tethers? Or maybe it's faster to just check everywhere at this point..." He nods, and pats Ainsley's shoulder. "Good luck." He steps back from the map, puts his helmet on, and joins the group going west. Once they set out, he'll deploy a few camera drones to explore ahead, help cover more area.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki nods thankfully with her big dumb begoggled head at Ainsley. "Right. That makes sense. Barrier, find the seal, open the door." She recaps for her own edification. It was a simple thought, really. There were horrible monsters in the side corridors, but they could use them to bypass seals, but it was really more effective to move through the ruins - and, one might say, life - by following the proper order of things. "It's alright. I brought some potions to help out!" She raises a few thimble-sized tinctures in the palm of her hand, before pocketing them anew. "Messy? You mean, um, dirty?" She wonders, glancing at Faruja for confirmation of this. "I mean, I'm no... princess." She begins, a bit haltingly. "Well, I'm good about dirt and bugs and stuff."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has noticed several new faces have been showing up to help Ainsley, which is a good thing she thinks. Given that nature of the filth? They needed all the people they could get to help them with it. "You have a point on that he wouldn't have left much. Also we may have to burn any information he left behind given how the filth works." She nods to Ainsley and Riva for a moment. "Humm I studied a little bit on some of those cultures in school but not in depth I can see some things in common, but others things are wildly different." She looks over to Finna and smirks a bit at the Exalted she's not seen her for long. "Finna, and you got a point we do need to be careful about what we dig up here. Either way I'm heading south and I'll keep in contact." She looks at Riva's reaction and isn't sure what else to say to her friend about what she said. She needs to focus now on what she can find, or what might need to be cleaned out. Kotone now starts for the south without much more to say.
Ainsley	The majority of the party heads North, with Kotone heading South, and Staren heading West. The Northern party would find that the trek down the Law tunnel is as dull as the Law itself can be. Even the undead down this path seem... dull. They don't even lunge at the party, and many of them aren't even in a state of decay. Actually, they don't seem to be rotten at all. Black-robed Quetzal with blindfolds seem to sit at the edges of the tunnel, just silently staring forward. They appear to be ALIVE, for a given value of that, at least. One or two turn their heads to listen to the party as they walk by, but for the most part they don't make a sound or indicate that they even care. Talking to them is fruitless and trying to move one of them... well, they sound grumpy by the horrid growls that come from them when anyone tries to get near them. Any undead along this path are, in fact, destroyed, until the only ones left are these bizarre blind acolytes that seem passive if they're left alone. It's really up to the party to decide whether to check one of the archives along the way, or search for a side path to the Courtroom proper. The Southern path is filled with doors covered with blood seals. It's very fortunate that Kotone is the one going down this path for certain reasons. Even such a technology-oriented entity like her might be able to feel the oppressive bloodlust permeating the air down that path, until the presence itself makes the walls twist and pulsate. The Civilian Quarters main doorway seems to be barred shut, when she gets there. If she can pry it open, she can get inside. That is, if she wants to risk the HUNDREDS of undead collected in the hall in front of the door, trying to press through the huge metal door with their sheer body weight. They really want into that area... Staren would find that the drones have a hard time getting into any of the rooms because of how tightly-sealed the doors are. A few are left cracked open, but unfortunately these rooms are overturned and occupied by strange, wizened Quetzal undead that watch the Drones ominously when they fly by. It's likely that at least one drone isn't making it out of the rooms, the older-looking undead picking an opportunity where they aren't being looked at in order to attack. Clearly more intelligent and dangerous than the standard variety. One drone gets all the way to the University, into a great hall with a table for eating at, and the room is just FULL of... well they appear to be made of ink. Not like the curtains, but actual ink, for writing. The vaguely humanoid figures slop around lazily, ignoring the drone. One pauses and kneels, attempting to smear writing on the floor with one of its vaguely-shaped hands, its very long tendril of a tail swaying behind it. Its deep white pits for eyes seem as blind as many of the Undead varieties found down here.
Faruja	To the Not-Vampire, Faruja nods. "These sorts of places usually art quite messy. Nevermind the undead blood and gore. I hope ye know a good drycleaner. One of the first things ye learn when ye delve into any sort of old ruin or dungeon." Comes the rodent, dispensing some wisdom. Faruja is happy to let Finna and Riva take point, even /if/ he spares them both a worried glance. He doesn't /need/ to say it by now. So instead he mutters a prayer. The braincell sharing only seems to make Faruja all the more confident. "Ye art becoming a /proper/ Templar at this rate, Dame Banari! Knew ye had it in ye!" That might not be the best compliment ever, given Faruja. Then Finna is doing Exalt Shenanigans (tm). Magic lingers at the rat's clawtips the entire time as they proceed, the priest by now well knowing to expect the worst. "Anything, Lady Finna?" Comes the rat over the radio. But when they go down the tunnel? Faruja tries to prod some of the various robed acolytes. All he gets is growls and general irritation. Eventually, even Faruja is frowning. "I say we check these side-archives, then see to the courtroom proper. Keep an eye on our friends." Faruja helpfully drops a bag full of water and bread. He has about four them on him. HOpefully those Acolytes can feed themselves!
Riva Banari	"Nah, not dirt. Well... If it happens, you'll see. Ugh. Blood everywhere. Thank you for bringing the potions, though! We will probably need it before this is over." Riva replies pleasantly to Yuuki while she moves with the others, hustling along. The acolytes look kind of promising, actually, as Riva considers for a moment pestering them. She doecides, in the end, to just leave them be. They have their own problems, by the looks of it, and they're not trying to kill her. BONUS. Instead, Riva begins nattering around the side rooms, looking around for anything that looks partiuclarly relevant or useful. Something will probably leap out at her. Maybe literally. Who knows.
Finna	"More to SEE around here than smell or hear so far!" Finna remarks wryly. THAT was a waste of Essence. Or rather... perhaps not. "It's normal. TOO normal in fact." She quietly coks her head towards some of the Acolytes. "It's hell down here, why is everyone else in such good health...?" She returns some of the gazes, but bad vibes prevent her from getting too close to their strange observers!
Staren	Staren watches the feeds from the drones. He sighs in relief when Ainsley confirms that the ink-things are custodial automatons. The last thing anyone wants is to find the Noble Horrorterrors in Aztlan too, like it's become some kind of cosmic horror tourist destination. Noone wants to deal with that many tentacles. He takes direct control of the drone in the great hall, looking for a doorway to fly it too, to explore deeper into the University.
Ainsley	STAREN One of the ink golems looks up at the drone as it passes by. It reaches out and its mouth opens up in a soft white circle of child-like curiosity, but misses by a mile trying to grab the drone. The effort makes its from mostly collapse and splash against the floor. It tries to reform itself. Further in, there's less elementals and more signs of black smoke crawling along the walls like something left paw marks everywhere. When he gets to the end of the Faculty hall with the drone, the finds that there is a very large black mirror there. In the mirror, there is a twisted copy of the hallway, and staring through the mirror is a Quetzal man with charcoal scales and red eyes, and mesoamerican regalia. He watches the drone, but doesn't seem overtly hostile. In fact, looking close enough indicates visible confusion on his face. He even reaches up to scratch at his snout thoughtfully, then shrugs and vanishes like a puff of smoke, much like the paw prints. Many of the doors seem to be sealed off by big red markers that glow when the drone nears them, repelling it with an unknown force. The Headmaster's room is not sealed, but the drone won't be able to get through the stone door on its own.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is very uneasy as she feels a blood lust but it may very well be muted. She's pressing hard and doesn't want ot stay there long, she however reaches the quarters dorr way. She has an idea of what's in there and she ponders for a moment at this. There's a lot of undead in there she knows it's going to have to be cleaned out btu she can't do this alone. She also notices just how intent they are to to get into this area. She's going to do what she can to add to the bracing of the door, given the undead are relentless? The Door won't hold for ever she thinks. She's also going to give a more detailed search of the area for anything of note.
Yuuki Kuran	"Oh. Blood." Yuuki replies quietly. She sniffs the air, and crinkles her nose. "I should have known." She mutters darkly, looking a little helpless as their TEMPLAR AGREEMENT party continues into the dark ruins. Her own 'enhanced' senses are something she'd rather turn right the hell off right now, as the place is pretty uniformly 'disgustingly smely', but she bears it. The simple taste of the air is almost enough to make her sick, though, so she sticks close to Faruja. "It is probably good we have a hunter or three here." She murmurs, looking at the spoopy scary lizingtons. "You're, uh, a vampire hunter, right?" She asks Faruja. He was fiery enough to be one. This whole place was extremely offputting, on pretty much every level, but her DESIRE TO HELP overrode her good sense.
Ainsley	KOTONE The undead notably don't bother her at all. They just don't smell the stuff they want on her and so she's effectively invisible, even if she knocks them over. A few might make confused grabs at her, but won't try in earnest to bite or claw her because she just doesn't 'look' like prey to them. There's another bar at the foot of the door she can use to further reinforce it. As for the rest of the hall, there's not much of note to be found. The military section is pretty bare of furniture, so she would have to brave one of the sealed doors in order to find anything else, and they seem to glow aggressively when anything gets near them, like they might explode.
Ainsley	NORTH PARTY The acolytes that Faruja touches twitch oddly, and they stop growling. One of them, outside of his field of vision, stands up with an almost imperceptible ruffling of cloth. There's a sound like that for the others. And then they start to move toward anyone in reach with a purpose, grasping with bloodied hands to try and hold them still, drooling mouths cracked open to try to get a bite out of any that are even close to them. Riva and Finna are able to pick up on these easily. Yuuki would be able to tell which ones are actually too far gone, and Faruja... well, they might need to warn him about the one that sidled up next to him while they were talking. These strange acolytes are trying to sustain them ENTIRELY on the blood magic conversion, and it's driven them to eating anything and anyone they can get their hands on. Two of the acolytes that bump into each other during this just start mauling each other like this. The few that hold shreds of sanity whimper and recoil at the sounds of approaching violence, and one a fair distance from the party audibly sobs. A few that reach for them, however, as Yuuki can sense, are not already horrible dark psuedo-vampire beasts on their way to being real vampires. Instead, they're just desperate acolytes following the lead of the others, and they seem to be way hungrier and shakier.
Faruja	Faruja is happy to stick near Yuuki, and guard her. He /does/ have plate mail under those robes! The nezumi shakes his head. "Inquisitor, actually, mine dear. But close enough. The undead art part of the things I keep watch for. Anything Heretical: undead, witches, corrupt officials within the Church, demons, unclean spirits, et cetera." Explains the rat. Then, noticing her grimace, he'll offer a clean handkerchief. "Ye get used to the smell." And then a damn not-Ainsley lizard is biting him! "I AM NOT FOOD YE FILTHY HEATHENS!" Yells the rat in rage, squeaking in pain as he's bitten! He chants, and then, gravity magic is aimed at the poor man's throat as it seeks to crush and toss back the insane Acolyte!
Finna	Looks like those bad vibes were well placed! "Those mouths - move 'em or lose 'em!" Finna warns the acolytes who come her way. But her ears catch little of the details around her. "Use non-lethal unless you fancy dead survivors or your life depends on it. Some around here might be salvageable. Then we can learn what's HAPPENING down here the easy way!" Hey, now there's TWO reasons to be a good guy if the first - 'do good' - isn't enough. Fur and muscle seems to ripple across Finna's body momentarily but she grunts and suppresses it. The 'change' compresses weirdly, making her whole body glimmer and glisten silvery in the light. Those who couldn't see her tail and ears before probably can now! Instead of a monstrous transformation, she focuses monstrous power into her human frame and backflips up to a wall. Instead of engaging the acolytes directly she plunges a fist into the wall - CRUNCH Then, in the space between seconds she uses her hands and feet (WHAT) to grab the chunks before they can fall and starts flinging pieces for the backs of legs and ankles.
Riva Banari	"Are you okay, Yuuki?" Riva asks, "You look kind of- OH GOD!" Riva yells as they're suddenly attacked by starving blood magic crazed lizard people. "THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF GOOD!" She yells, unlimbering her mace and holding it forward to try to push any attackers away. "Holy crap, these people are hungry!" The last person she met who was hungry mauled her with bloody iron spikes. She considers what to do about this, and then shifts her mace to one hand, holding it unsteadily as she prods with it, keeping things at bay. She pulls out... A large, brightly colored box full of individually wrapped tacos. "OKAY, ANY OF YOU PEOPLE WHO ARE STILL SANE, FORM A LINE! WE HAVE FOOD." Riva sets the box down. "EACH PERSON GETS ONE TACO." Riva's habit of carrying boxes of tacos from Dante's Taco Hut might just help them out here.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki nods. "Inquisitor, then. Zero is a... Hunter. He's part of an Association. He's also my bodyguard. Maybe you two would get along. He doesn't like... monsters." She notes, looking a little distant. The protection of the Ratte is quite well accepted, though, and Yuuki is used to being guarded, even if she also has a lot of practice protecting other people. Sort of. She draws out a metallic cylinder, which emits a metallic crackle and a small flash, and then it's a rather odd-looking scythe that almost looks organic. Artemis - her weapon - is designed to buttmurder things much more powerful than thralls and feral demivampires... But she doesn't have to reap them. Instead she uses the stave and flat of the blade to shove them away from Faruja, noting that, well, some are too far gone. But maybe Tacos will save them! She waves off the Handkerchief, and Riva's concern. "I'm... fine. Sensitive nose. Thanks, though! Just... watch out!" Thankfully Finna has selected >THROW BIGGER STONE
Faruja	With Finna using an amazing version of Throw Rock, and Riva setting out Taco Traps, Faruja gets to work with the most non-lethal thing he has. His cane. Like a very, very upset old man, he starts lashing out, smacking kneecaps, backs of the head, and generally trying to knock out those around him. As it turns out, he's not too bad at this sort of thing, working on sheer zealous irritation. "Bow down, heathens, and BE SAAAAAAAVED!" Faruja's gasping a bit amidst all of this. Dispensing Righteous beatings is hard work! "We shall hath tea-time the lot of us if we get out of this!" WHACK! "STOP MOVING KNAVE! THIS IS FOR THINE OWN GOOD!" Thwapt!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has got a warning about cracking the doors, however she does go up to the door the undead are trying to get into it's very likely there are living things behind it the more she thinks about it. She'll leave the military section alone at this point on Ainsley's wise advice and will leave those dorors about but now she's trying to check for people who mnight be behind that one civilian door the undead are obessed with. She's going to need some help to deal with the undea here however.
Ainsley	NORTH PARTY Thankfully the one that snuck up on Faruja was one of the really bad ones, because he doesn't even flinch from the pain, and instead just flails at him even as life drains out and the corpse just sort of slumps and falls to the ground... It grows still, and another of them almost lunges on it to try to get the last scraps of life out of it -- but then pauses when he smells tacos. Many of the converge around the tacos. There's a good dozen or so that go after it, mostly the ones who didn't dare attack the party. The ones that attacked them hesitate, and most of them slump to the floor either from pain or from a cracked bone in an inconvenient place. They have ABSURD pain tolerance, they seem to ignore what would be crippling agony for other people, but they all know a threat that's too big for them. It starts to calm down, all except for starving Quetzal eating and... sharing food between each other, dividing tacos into halves to give to others, moving with an eerie silence as if they all know the relative position of the others, despite not looking at each other even once. One looks up at Riva and there's hopeful smile. Not a word spoken, just the smile, and tears soaking into the blindfold. They are regaining something that was lost by the kindness she offers them.
Faruja	Finally, after many tacos, rocks, and beatings, morale improves. People are calm, and rubbing his bitten arm, Faruja looks out to the remaining Quetzal. "Right then! If ye follow us, we shall lead ye all out of here to /real/ food! Understand? Nay more trying to eat each other, or us!" Cue a point at that one far-gone quetzal, just for emphasis. "Now come along, step lively now!" Urges the rat. Luckily for some of the more battered, he summons Faery, healing them as he tries to help organize them into some form of marching order!
Riva Banari	TACO DIPLOMACY: SUCCESS Riva happily hands over one taco to each person who approaches. This is so she can ensure the food gets distributed evenly for one, and for two... You don't gorge when you're starving, it won't stay in your stomach. The Quetzal eating like normal people (well, normal lizard people anyway) makes Riva relax and smile brightly. The one who looks to her causes Riva to look up, smiling back to her, and she approaches the Quetzal. Carefully and slowly, she spreads her arms and gives the Quetzal a hug. "We're here to help." Riva says quietly, tearing up herself. "You don't have to hurt anymore." 5rAfter a little bit, Riva helps lead the others back to the hub area. This was... fortuitous. She looks kind of embarassed, really. She probably thinks she should have thought of this earlier.
Finna	Finna's rock barrage was aimed first at anyone getting too near her allies. When the tacos are laid down she halts the assault - and carefully withdraws the next barrage of stones. Normally she's all for peace and love over war, but it's kind of hard to use social wiles on such uncertain and dangerous freaks. The foxgirl sighs in relief and slides back down the wall. "HOW did you get all of that food?! I didn't smell it!" is her complaint at Riva. Kind of childish.
Riva Banari	"I store it elsewhere." Riva replies to Finna. "I stash it on the World Tree. Kind of like a squirrel hiding nuts!" She giggles. "Though I guess that makes me squirrelly." She offers an extra one to the foxwoman. "Here, take one!" She says.