Scene #7159: *Wicked Northern Masques-4

Owner	Pose
Bloody Revelations	Gold melted and rendered into orichalcum, Jade harvested from the mines of Whitewall, the Wondrous Globe of Precious Stability complete. The Guild's flunkies caught and pinned, interrogated for what little they know in so many steps of a half-criminal empire's airtight trade plans, the flow of kidnapped children traced down. The Freehold marked, cold iron brought from the markets, armed with knowledge of the Bonefire the malleable Chaos of the north. With the Solar, Rune, having finally completed his reproduction of the ancient artifact of immense complexity, there's no better time to take it to the Fair Folk. Or, the Winter Folk, as their local band's name goes by. There was little information to gain on them in particular, and perhaps little need. There is no knowledge of their specific names and characteristics, especially since Whitewall deals with so little; they have the luxury of seeing the Fair Folk as least as possible in the whole of the North, given the ancient long gone Solars' hatred of them when consecrating its well. Broad strokes of information are available about their attitudes, temperaments, predilections, and vage, exaggerated accounts of their powers, with small pieces of useful warnings buried here and there. Most of what you truly know is that there are only five major personalities known --any more and Freeholds tend to fall into infighting and subterfuge-- and only one who holds the Bonefire and its associated pennant of power. The warnings of the Frozen Fog were entirely on point, however. Traveling due west of Whitewall takes you over plains still well frozen into the late spring, not buried under old snow, but rather covered in such fine layers of deeply penetrating frost that spring grass crackles like thin glass under your feet. There is indeed a 'bank of fog' in the way, but the term doesn't do it justice; the Frozen Fog towers overhead like the encroaching wall of a desert dust storm, or the leading wave of a tsunami, and is impenetrably opaque inside, limiting how far you can see to barely a stone's throw at best, in such a samey environment, where the few landmarks you come across seem to stretch and shrink and switch places while you aren't looking. It's only the huge (and very very heavy) jade and orichalcum orb being lugged around by hundreds of fine cables attached by Tamamo that provides a radius of clarity and refuge from the unrealistically lethal cold outside, and even then, despite its glowing runes which seem to spin around its surface, only a small one, fit to move perhaps a large boat through. You've been told that the Fair Folk cannot approach, touch, or affect the Globe, and their powers have much less effect on those within its protection, but it's not a large enough area by far to be a viable primary fighting strategy. Though you'd been told the Freehold is 'up in the mountains', that particular description isn't quite accurate. Rather, after slogging it up a rather short set of peaks, more like very steep hillside cliffs more than anything, you arrive at a plateau of absolutely nothing, grey, flat, and lifeless, an island in the fog, save for one thing: the dangling end of a silken rope ladder, almost touching the ground. One that rises up and up into the sky, for what must be a mile, until it disappears into the clouds, swaying ever so gently in a high up breeze.
Tina Natsumi	"Sheesh. Sure is gettin' warm 'round here, ain't it?" Tina boasts with a confident laugh as she trudges through the strangely crackling grass and keeps herself bundled up in what looks like two layers of coats, having opted for winter-appropriate attire after hearing that they'd be going into the ominously-named Frozen Fog. "Could use a little AC once we get inside. Maybe a nice soda after we're all done..." Yes, she's talked and joked like that the entire way. No, she's not going to shut up unless someone actually tells her to. She's not falling behind, at least, despite helping to lug that orb around with whoever else is on pack mule duty. It's not until they reach the plateau of nothing that Tina finally stops to take a real breather, furrowing her brow at the big nothing before them. Also, that rope ladder. She looks incredibly offended by that ladder, wary of even touching the thing as she slides out her phone to take a quick video of it from the bottom all the way up to the top where she can't even see it anymore. "Y'all think we can just pull 'em down to us instead?" Assuming it's not that easy, of course, she'll just have to suck it up and start climbing.
Tomoe	A lot had been accomplished by those who had been looking to get to the bottom of this mess. The kit they needed was made ready, the magic that could be mustered was ready. She's certainly made sure to get some cold iron ready for the upcoming mission. It was very likely to be needed. The Irony that the races of ALO were based on Fae myths of Earth was not lost on her. She has some idea that they as basically fighting in the lair people who more or less have edit and admin commands over that area. It was going to be one heck of a trip of a fight in the end. The trip wasn't too eventful until they hit Frozen Fog. That's when things started to get trippy and she'd never seen fog like that before. She will make note of what she can to try and make landmarks but there isn't anything she can use for such a plan. Tomoe can barely see farther than she can throw a stone. "I'm very thankful we have you along with us Tamamo." Tomoe notes as she keeps near the Orb, heck she'll help pull it without complaint given the protection it gives everyone. Finally, they near what looks like could be their destination. Tina's chatter and jokes had done a lot to keep Tomoe's spirits up as the trip had gone on. "If only Tina though I could grab you and fly us both up if you like?" She may be half-serious on that as she's going to wait in on the expert like Tamamo before she starts touching fae things.
Damocles	/Let the storm rage on! The cold never bothered me anyway~/ Damocles, sorcerer of Chaos, disciple of Tzeentch, is also a fan of musicals and puns, and he has been making use of both these interests during this otherwise very long haul through the cold. He offered to step out into the fog to scout, since his transhuman genetics made him highly resistant to the cold, but this was shot down for several reasons. A: Randomly being teleported to the edge of the fog bank, B: He couldn't see anything in the fog anyway, and C: Even if they did spot something, their response would be 'stay in the bubble and ignore it' so why bother finding it? He did take some time to drag his staff outside the bubble and collect some mystical ice fog, though. He's got his own research to do while he's here, and sampling the icy magic that surrounds them for study later is a major part of why he's here. Otherwise, he contributes with jokes and the occasional song that is somehow, someway related to being cold. It's been fine mostly, though he did get told he couldn't sing 'Baby it's Cold Outside'. He doesn't pretend to understand all the complex rules that govern life in the multiverse sometimes, but he does his best to oblige when he can. When they finally break the fog and reach the plateau, he looks up at the dangle ladder, and gives a resigned sign. "Oh. So that's what he meant when he asked me if I'd mastered any flying magic yet." He sighs again, as he moves forward, reaching for the scary looking rope ladder. "Alright, I suppose I'll go first, but I don't want you trying to sneakily look up my robe, you got that?" He motions his staff in Gawain's direction as he says that, then without waiting for a reply, begins the long scamper to the top.
Gawain	GThe cables attached to the globe have an armored knight attached to them. Specifically, Gawain is using his super strength, dampened without sunlight but still mighty, to help as a pack mule. Despite the journey and the cold and the fog and the big dangerous murderquest ahead which Gawain hopes can be resolved diplomatically but absolutely can't, he's got some cheer too, as he turns his head to the side and nods when Damocles motions at him. "Understood, I'll avert my eyes! I will take the rear, then." Summoning his sword and making sure it's close at hand, Gawain waits for everyone else to approach up the ladder and positions himself with the globe as necessary, and then moves to start climbing up with the rest. Assuming Tamamo doesn't tell them it's actually a mimic or something, that is.
Staren	They're going to the freehold. After all the warnings about that, Staren is... concerned. But at least they have the Orb, to keep SOME amount of reality stable. He's come as a robot, although how well that will protect from an environment like this remains to be seen... he doesn't try to bring an army, just some golems to help move the orb. Also, somewhere on his person is every iron permutation of high-tech 'cold iron' weapons he can think of. Cold iron rounds for both conventional firearms and railguns. Cold iron frag grenades. Even anti-tank missiles modified to use cold iron instead of copper (does it still count as 'cold' or, for that matter, 'iron' when it's pumped so full of energy the electrons are stripped from the nucleus as it's blasted through the target? Science wants to know!) He's not sure if he should hope he gets to USE this arsenal or not. Going into the faeries' lair makes him uneasy; he is, perhaps, so used to talking up the rakshas as one of the worst classes of beings in existance that he's hyped up the danger in his own mind. Then again, he's never actually tried to fight, let alone hunt, a raksha in its own home, so perhaps the nervousness is just proper caution. His mood does somewhat damp his responses to the jokes cracked by the others; what might get a chuckle normally only gets a short 'heh' as Staren looks around like he's expecting monsters to fly out of the mist and strip their souls from their bodies. He looks to Tina. "I doubt it. Then again, maybe they'd think it's a novel idea for a story and go along with it." Damocles goes up first, putting one question to bed. Staren actually waits for others to seriously consider the 'pulling the ladder down' idea, but if the consensus is to go up he climbs.
Tamamo	Tamamo no Mae had to spend a while to get all that meticulous work done, weaving threads together to cover the orb without covering up its runs, and bringing those threads together into stouter ropes once away from its body. It's not something that can be carried about in any of several more convenient ways, but it's still immensely heavy, and superstrength isn't her forte. It's quite fortunate, then, to have so many strong allies about, a couple immensely so. If one of the latter pair has a much reliably grounded appearance than another, she'll keep those concerns to herself. The navy-blue coat is all zipped up, and even so, she's keeping her hands covered by both gloves and long sleeves, halfway to hugging herself for warmth. Neither the general weather nor the name of 'Frozen Fog' has great, obvious appeal to her. Anyone walking close to her might notice that the air's actually warmer in her immediate presence, though any wind is a strong mitigator to that warmth's value. For herself, she stays rather close to Gawain. "Oh, you are most welcome, Tomoe." Even in such a hostile environment as the land near a Freehold, she has little trouble managing a smile. She eyes the way up, such as it is. "There must be some more convenient entrance, no? But then, as the invading party, they would not wish to make things too easy, yes." She has no objection to Damocles going first, though she says, "Some fae having little difficulty in flying throughout the skies, and others being possessed of inscrutable humor, one should not be too surprised if..." As he moves rather quicker than she expected, she shortens the question to, "You will not be too put out by a surprisingly long fall, I hope?" She doesn't move to climb herself, but instead ponders, chin in hand. "Might whatever it is to which the rope attaches be pulled downward with force, I wonder?" She'll join the way up only if there really seems to be no helping it.
Song of Rainbows	Having mugged someone with Big Ideas and a Small... Follow-through, the Song of Rainbows is in a tremendous mood. Humming what is unmistakeably a shanty of some sort, the finer points of 'the giant heavy sphere of make fairy go away' largely ignored. It's extra! It's for 'everyone else'. They carry their civilization with them. Instead, Song of Rainbows tries to get Tamamo to sing along to a shanty she doesn't know, or bother Gawain about what his 'new backstory' will be. Arriving at the ladder with everyone else, Tina suggests that they 'pull down' the ladder and bring the fairies down to them. Guffawing in big, happy laughter, Song wipes a crocodile tear from her right eye, clapping Tina - hard - on the back. "That's a great idea, sister! Drag them down to your level! Problem is:" Grabbing a low rung on the rope ladder and tugging down with an obvious bicep flex, the whole thing creaks. "Stories don't work that way. The ladder'd just snap, and then we'd have to swim up." ...Swim? "You're enforcing your story, down here! With your big gold rock! So right now, this is juuuuust a rope ladder." Song thumbs to Gawain. "You carry the sphere up. I'll see if I can remember my Sky Pirate tricks!" Song announces, starting up the ladder with a loping arm-over-arm heave. "Clever of them to hide in the clouds! But come wind and rain and biting cold, no fairy can overwrite MY story!"
Bloody Revelations	Grabbing samples of Frozen Fog is as easy as scooping it out of the air with a glass bottle. It swirls around inside any container restlessly, diffusing light into a slight corona of rainbows around its individually glittering particles. Yanking on the ladder gets a good, solid, straining creak, but especially within the bounds of the Globe, it's an improbably long silk ladder (silk is at least known for extremely high tensile strength). Whatever it's attached to is very hefty, having far too much inertia to get moving without likely snapping the ladder, or abandoning the Globe and surrendering to the whims of Faerie Narrative. Climbing up it is an easy process however, or at least as easy as it can be to have to climb for a good fifteen minutes straight (depending on one's speed) as it gets steadily colder. The height is dizzying, but the handholds are soft and the footgrips are firm and hold tense without quivering. Lugging the Globe all the way up makes some unnerving creaks and jostles, but with its protection, a ladder is a ladder is a ladder, and whatever trickery was woven into its threads never materializes. It goes all the way up and up, until you can tell that the clouds it reaches are oddly very very low, given the way you can't see out to the edges of the Fog at the final altitude the whimsical ladder reaches. When you reach the lip of the clouds, you find it's more like a ledge. The ladder is anchored straight to the puffy white and slowly swirling grey, driven in by great big wooden spikes, as wide around as small tree trunks. They match the decor you can see spreading across the territory of solid sky, where clouds rise and fall like the subtle contours of a village built on once-wild ground. Wooden long cabins, of almost viking style, dominate most of the cloudy ledges, arranged in winding streets paved with glittering stones of green unmelting ice, lit with floating torches of rainbow flame. Snow falls here, above the clouds somehow, localized entirely to this place, shrouding much of the ground and piling on rooftops in a picturesque, snowglobe manner. White smoke coils out of chimneys in entrancing patterns, and sturdy wood and rope suspension bridges link cloud to cloud, creating a whimsical treetop habitat of floating northern village fragments. Carved idols and totems depict, instead of sailing ships and spirit animals, strange and beautiful creatures of mystery, intricate palaces, and things like lyres and trees. In fact, where trees should be, it seems that bolts of lightning from on high have struck the village, crashed into the cloudy ground, and frozen solid from the cold, creating surreal, glistening fucshia-white and pale blue 'trunks' in gyring shapes, given 'roots' and 'branches' by the natural forking properties of lightning. The streets are patrolled by short, pale, thin-limbed creatures in great number, with manes of hair like puffy clouds and skin covered in glittering scales of ice, carrying around piles of timber and coal that don't seem to come anywhere, hammering hinges and horseshoes that nobody needs, shoveling snow from paths that disappears when thrown aside, and doing other village-y things that make no sense. All the way at the far end of the 'town', at its highest point, is a massive totem carved into a huge artifact of three coiled bolts of frozen lightning, depicting a towering, fiercely beautiful woman, her crackling hands outstretched, and cupping a tale, pale silvery flame.
Tina Natsumi	"Ain't gonna say no if you're offerin'." Tina replies to Tomoe with another chuckle, shivering after a moment and tightening her outer jacket up just a bit more. "Could get some good footage on the way up, too, come to think of it." She's getting IDEAS. When Damocles mentions his robe and starts climbing, though, Tina raises her camera for a moment while mouthing a loud camera-shutter noise. The ideas are rarely good, apparently. Slipping her phone back into her pocket, she snickers at Gawain's reaction to Damocles' request, then turns back to the ladder just in time for Song of Rainbows to give her that hard clap on the back. "Oof. Ya think? Well, might as well give it a shot." She laughs in good nature, not looking too bothered by that sore spot on her back. Really, just how strong is Song of Rainbows? Sadly, the ladder doesn't pull anything down. "Aw. Worth a shot." And then they're off! Once everyone gets to the top of the cloud-ledge, Tina does the dumb child thing and peers right off the edge. Five seconds later, she crawls backwards to get away from the edge looking just a bit paler than before. "... That's a big drop alright. Good thing we got some fliers with us!" Another laugh, but this one's a little more anxious than those from when they were a mile or so lower in altitude. She does a bit of poking around at first, touching those weirdly colored clouds and recording footage while just walking around. Eventually, though, she heads towards that giant totem. "Figure we'll find someone interestin' on the way there... But dang. This place sure is weird, ain't it? Wonder if we'll find the... Uh. 'Moichendise" around."
Damocles	Damocles doesn't slow down his climb at the mention of falling, but he does say in a slightly too flat tone, "Good question! I hope I don't find out." And then at the talk of 'reinforcing your own story', he adds dryly, "Well, I'm going for a story where I don't fall off this stupid ladder. Or, failing that, my oversized load takes these jerks out when I land." He climbs fairly despite, despite his size. Agility, balance and speed are three things the superhuman Astartes has a great deal of, and he doesn't seem to tire at all by the time he gets to the top. He isn't really put out about the height or cold, either. Though with his face obscured, he could be gnashing his teeth the entire time and nobody would be the wiser. Upon reaching the top, he clears himself to the side, and then reaches his arms down to help haul the sphere up so the others can more easily made the transfer to the top. He expected more resistance, but is sure that's on the way. No need to hurry that up. Once everybody is safe at the top, he stands up again, and takes a look around, taking a deep breath. "Well sure the view is nice, but just think about the daily commute!" Beat. "Okay okay. Now that we're up here, I would like to resubmit my 'fill this place with smoke and ash and force them to abandon it' plan."
Tamamo	Tamamo is interested in learning Song of Rainbow's shanties, but apparently more so the lyrics than the singing of them. Maybe her singing voice has the wrong style for it, if she doesn't do an adaptation. Disappointingly, they do end up just climbing up. This seems terribly dangerous and not terribly dignified, but she's not about to be left on the featureless plateau with the fog rolling in, all by herself, without the reality-defending orb. The silk rope is at least more of an easy climb than expected, she is wearing winter-appropriate pants, and she isn't hauling any freight at the same time. The wearing of pants, or even of multiple layers, isn't enough to bring her to enjoy the wintery scene without distraction. "Oh, how picturesque," she says, but there's no passion in the comment. Maybe that has something to do with the oddly pointless toil of the strange minion-creatures, or maybe it's the replacement of trees with lightning (a general downgrade of aesthetics, by her measure). "Though the wood of the cabins seems not to be locally grown." Having some measure of 'solid' ground beneath her feet is enough to have her subtly stretching and taking a few paces out to the side, after the long climb. "Well, they are rather rude not to come and greet us, no? Perhaps there is a bell that must first be rung."
Staren	So they climb. At least a robot body can do the motion on automatic while Staren's attention watches the endless white around them for attack. None comes. "We've been climbing almost fifteen minutes, could this already be some kind of-- oh." The ladder goes to an actual village literally build on the clouds. Okay, sure, Staren can live with that. "Where is the snow--?" no, no, he shakes his head. Not the thing to focus on. He takes in the surroundings. There's no sign of the children... and he shakes his head at Damocles. "First we find the children. And these creatures... might also be innocent." Staren looks at the villagers, then back at his companions. Particularly Gawain. With the sun knight here, noone will be TOO upset if he's direct and honest, hopefully. Staren looks back at the villagers. He could demand where the children are, or... Staren approaches. "Take us to your leader."
Gawain	As he hauls up the globe, Gawain lags a bit, but he's still the man for the job. Once they reach the top, the knight turns to the others, having sang shanties and told Song of Rainbows that he doesn't have a new story yet, but he's willing to come up with one, and probably spending time wracking his brain for one. When they reach the village in the clouds, Gawain feeling the groundd beneath his feet and looking over the cabins, he calls out to Staren as he approaches the creature. "Careful, the globe may ward them off. Smiling softly, he looks over the beautiful sight, and then shouts out again, this time towards the creature, trying not to be too loud but enough to be heard. "Please cooperate! I mean no harm to you." He's not going to lug the globe too closely to the fey creature until Staren gets a respond.
Song of Rainbows	The lyrics of Song's shanties, when not completely wholecloth made up about murdering fairies and weathering storms, largely boil down to 'the Creation equivalant of Northwest Passage'. Up and up and up they climb, and Song idly switches her outfit out to be more sky-pirate'y. A sky blue bandanna, a jeweled sword clenched in her teeth, a breezy sarong around her waist, she's just about ready for a full on Skies of Arcadia boss fight when... "A bloody SLEEPY WINTER VILLAGE?!" She outright shouts at the top of the ladder, hurling her jeweled sword over the edge of the cloud in a fit of pique. "Their leader is the BIG STUPID LIGHTNING BOLT LADY!" Song tears off her bandanna and steps furiously on it, grinding it beneath a bare foot into the soft cloudstuff. "S'fine. S'good. Ok. Sun Knight, you're a..." Song snaps her fingers, composing thoughs. "Travelling prince seeking the thunderbolt queen." "Bright Sister..." She points at Tamamo. "You're his... sister, cursed by the thunderbolt queen to bear the shape of a fox? No, no, too small of a part..." Song gets lost in mad mutterances as she tries to set up a complex narrative so she can get off to the violence that will no doubt shortly follow.
Tomoe	Tomoe didn't quite expect jokes out of Damocles but it wasn't unwelcome, any diversion with the party during the trip was honestly welcome. The trip is over at this point they are now at their destination and she sees that Gawain is starting to climb up. Looks like they are going up then she thinks she'll glance over at Staren for a moment. There goes Damocles as well. Tomoe will summon her wings which flare out glowing and bright red a she's going to fly up. She'll carry Tina is Tina accepts her earlier offer, if not? She'll fly up and keep overwatch on the ret of the party as they are going up. "Right we're fighting lethal stories..." She notes at Song of Rainbow's comment about enforcing your story. She will keep within range of the orb after all she doesn't want to find out what would happen if she got out of range of it as she carries Tina up with her. "You are having too much fun with that Tina." She won't say a thing about the photos that's all on Tina as far as she's concerned. Things are meanwhile getting strange, very strange. They finally get to the lip, well ledge. The good news is they are no longer heading up. Tomoe will land and let Tina down gently before she'll also banish her wing and take things on foot from here. The location is pretty wild like something out of a movie or painting. It's to be expected given what they are dealing with and she's now watching and considering anything that moves and does not move a possible threat. Tomoe watches the things acting like villagers, put together by things that don't understand how people be people. Then back to the big totem. "Sadly we will be anything but bored dealing with this Tina." She then looks to Staren and nods. "Yeah we have business with them." She notes and then she looks to Song for a moment. "I'm just a village lass who was kidnapped and experimenter on by a mad wizard trapped in his floating tower. Trapped in a play of swords and death. Transformed into a Salamader Knight."
Tamamo	"I am merely that incarnation of the Sun, come to peek into those long, dark nights of Winter, into which wayward children have been hidden from my gaze." Tamamo says, not indicating whether she considers this 'a narrative' in the same sense as Song of Rainbows is trying to rebuild. "And there, a knight of the sun, a natural questor for my aims."
Song of Rainbows	Song shrugs. "If you're able to live it, then it's a good story. With how you twisted that golden pissant, I shouldn't be surprised you spin a yarn." She smirks amusedly at Tamamo, still grinding her bandanna into the cloud beneath.
Damocles	Damocles swings his arm outward as people start assigning stories. "Don't assign me my story," he intones darkly. "I can do that myself." In a way this is very close to how Chaos Sorcery is done, and something he's not unfamiliar with. Besides, drama is fun when it contributes to the objective. "I am the eldest son of the ruling family of a small but prosperous nation. However my birth I was cursed with sorcerous power which I was far too young to properly control. After an accident nearly claimed the life of my brother, I was locked away, hidden and isolated from everyone and told it was for my own good. Finally, unable to bare the isolation and oppression any longer I snapped, losing control of my power and tearing myself free of my home. I fled my kingdom, afraid I might hurt the family I loved, and retreated as far away as I could and swore to do whatever it takes to master my power."
Bloody Revelations	'Take me to your leader' has results. Bizarre results. Instantly, the creature Staren asks drops his pile of implausible timbers, reaches behind itself, and whips out a scroll of parchment and a quill, the former of which unrolls to hit the ground, and the latter of which is already inked. "Name and purpose!" it wheezes, scribbling down each ridiculous backstory with involved gusto, dramatically swooshing the equivalent of i-s and t-s as it furiously records the narrative premise each person establishes, more than the two things it'd actually asked for. Practically vibrating, it rolls its parchment up with a snap of its wrist and puts it away . . . somewhere, then bows deeply with a triple flourish of the arm, gesturing towards the bridge directly across from you at the end of the street. "All in order! You may now meet the lord and lady!" The bridge in front of you rushes closer. Rather, the entire street contracts inwards. The street shrinks by hundreds of meters --or maybe you're rushing to the end of it?-- with cabins mysteriously disappearing to shorten the gap while preserving the aesthetic. The clouds up ahead of you line themselves up perfectly in unison, becoming a series of straight bridges and fluffy white snow-speckled landings. They elevate up in steps, straining the bridges at a thirty degree angle, causing their planks to tilt back to level and create a solid staircase. The enormous abstract sculpture of frozen lightning seems to race closer as well, until it stands only a short walk up a straight path. Only the area around you, within the Globe's radius, is completely unaffected. When you near the top, the statue, blinks its green gemstone eyes, shifts layers of snow from its shoulders, and comes to life, raising one hand up high and taking the silvery flame with it, bearing it aloft like a famous American statue, and lowering its other hand with a stoop of posture to carry down two figures to ground level, coming to meet you in magnificent fashion. One is a male figure wearing thick navy robes trimmed in white furs and collared with magnificent feathers, wearing under it a set of norse mail made of scales of glimmering green ice and trousers of woven gossamer. Long white hair spills down from his head, wearing a crown of forking violet electricity curled into horns, likewise frozen, matching unnaturally coloured eyes, and a lordly white viking beard. The other is a female figure wearing a dress of multicoloured silks cinched with a sash of the same rainbow flame that lights the streets and complemented by heavy jewels of silver and emeralds, her physical features blended with those of an arctic fox, though not in the same fashion as Tamamo --for starters, she has only one tail, but also fine white fur covers her hands and feet almost up to the elbow and knee, tipped with nails like black claws, and when she smiles, you can see hints of pointed teeth behind blue-painted lips. The former is armed with a broad sword of ice, gleaming with a trapped rainbow inside of it. The latter is not. "To think that we'd receive such colourfully august visitors out of the blue on such an ordinary day as this!" the woman says. "Indeed. Your arrival is unexpected, but opportune." says the man. "Today, it is your privilege to speak with only the highest and most esteemed of the Winter Folk, without tiresome concerns to precede in importance." He waves his hand. The woman says "It's so very rare that we see anyone come all the way here on their own! To be honest, it's very rare that anyone makes it here, hahaha~" Even her laughter sounds like fine bits of ice tinkling together. "And so many at once! Far more exciting than a mere caravan or nosey beast-thing. Praytell, what brings you? I'm dying to know. Surely you must have some suitably epic request or bargain in mind to match your journey! However, if you wouldn't mind leaving that cumbersome and hideous thing at the door for now. Don't worry --the little ones couldn't steal it if they wanted to~"
Staren	Staren blinks as the villager is apparently ready for... paperwork? While Staren considers whether to embrace this making up stories about themselves business, the others lean into it. Although Tomoe's life needs no twisting to sound a dramatic story. What would his be? Once a young boy seeking to become a hero, learned to pilot his father's mecha and set out into the Multiverse to make friends and right wrongs... but after that it gets rather muddled. But now they're moving! Or space is moving around them. It's rather trippy, and Staren wobbles a bit as he feels like he needs to hit the ground running, but doesn't actually have to move. And... here are the lord and lady of the land. They seem friendly enough. Even though he spent all the way here worrying about this encounter, for a moment he is merely regular-suspicious rather than 'facing down child-stealing soulless monsters who are anathema to any moral civilization' suspicious. He's considering whether to go with the rainbow treasure thing or just come out and admit the children when he remembers that, and his stance stiffens a bit as he looks over the opposition. "Epic." he echoes unsteadily, and looks back at Gawain. And Tamamo. And then back towards the fey. "Yes... I seek out that which many consider impossible. The return of all the children taken from the outside world -- and in a state of good health of mind, body, and soul." He looks at the lord and lady as if maybe if he looks hard enough he can see the monsters behind the pretty faces.
Tina Natsumi	"... Holy shit, did that actually work?" Tina looks amazed by the creature's apparent compliance with the request to just get brought where they want to go, and she's not quite sure how to work with that at first. She doesn't need to proceed far, though, as the bridge before the group does all the proceeding for them! She steps forward cautiously, one hand on her phone and the other hand assisting with moving back to the Globe to assist Gawain in transporting the one sensible thing here. And then there's more nonsensical things to try and make sense of. Their hosts of the evening are sufficiently fancy enough to look the part thatTina doesn't concern her too much with their appearances, but the stories they seek are another story entirely. "You're that curious, ain'tcha? Alright, then... I'm from a far off mythical land called MURICA." She says that with a long, drawn out drawl bordering on offensively stereotypical. "I chopped down thousands o' log cabins, marched through countless acres of cornfields filled with rovin' packs o' Nazkars, sold hats made of eagles to buy enough baseballs to feed myself, and...!" Tina opens up one of her puffy jackets to show the inside of it. It's fairly normal looking. "I won this here jacket off the Satandevil after bettin' that I could carve through THE Titanic with nothin' more than three orange peels, five rolls o' plastic wrap, and an industrial chainsaw. And why'd I go through all this trouble, you ask?" Nobody asked anything yet. "Because I knew I'd need to be prepared to make the trek here... To get back those kids I thought were dead after buyin' all those balloons from that clown that used to be a police detective but really had a complex over his brother gettin' killed in a storm drain!" Her delivery's consistent, at least. "... You did mention 'little ones', right?"
Song of Rainbows	The Song of Rainbows is sped - quite literally - to the temple itself. Nonplussed at the method, or the elaborate scribing of all the stories down by the random faerie-civilian, Song watches with a dry annoyance as things become 'diplomatic'. "You're playing on their page, but go ahead. If it gets you what you need to really do your thing, Sun Knight, go ahead. I'm going to find some food." Then, at the prompting of the host to step outside the sphere's radius, she does, and immediately walks into the temple to scrounge for something to eat. She's not picky.
Damocles	Damocles doesn't look too surprised when they're sort of shuffled along, though he does make some notes in his head about distances and such. If things do get dicey, he may need to move around quickly and might not have another chance to survey. The 'lord' and 'lady' are certainly impressive in their own ways. From what he heard, only one being runs this whole show, though. Which one is the true ruler, and which one the decoy. She's fancier, with unique features that set her apart from everyone else. However, that precise thing could be the reason she's not the true threat. That doesn't feel right to Damocles, though. Everything he knows tells him this place isn't about subtle subterfuge, it's about overwhelming presence. She has the sharper presence. When asked to introduce himself, Damocles inclines his head, pressing his staff to his chest in a bit of a salute, and says quietly, "Please my lady, just call me Warlock. I mean no disrespect to you, but I have left my true name behind until I have atoned for my past." He doesn't say anything about why they're here, though. That's not quite his role in the story.
Tomoe	Tomoe watches the strange being pull out a scroll writing don their names and backstories that they have given to it. They even go so far to so dramatic swooshing for whatever the local version of i-s and t-s are. Tomoe notices the being vibrating just about and she will move to follow them keeping with the group and trying to keep near the front. She will keep an eye upon her surroundings as they make for the statue. Its strange hse notices the very strange nature of what lays beyond the sphere's protective zone. Then the statue comes to life that's not something she expected as it brings two figures down to meet with them. She's very sure both beings before her are Fae that they deal with one way or another here. She does size both of their 'hosts' up for a moment and seems to be intently listening to them. "It was no small quest just to gain the means to even reach here let alone anything else and I must say the real deal doesn't live up to the stories." She's playing along for the moment as Tine uses her streamer powers to attempt to keep their 'hosts' distracted she knows there has to be a way to break the freehold at the very least. For now, she waits to look for a moment to stirke but aware Song's noting that they are playing by the fae's rules. She also can't help but think of some of the tales the people of the British Isles had about the fair folk. She knows they don't apply here other than the Fae are very /bad/ news. "I am as I said simply the Iron Lily the flower that was not broken by the mad wizard." She will keep looking around here, for anything of note maybe they can find out where the kids are?
Gawain	As they're pulled forward, Gawain blinks, but keeps himself steady, as he steps forward, looking over their 'hosts' and attempting diplomacy. As the hosts ask what they want, Gawain tilts his head towards Staren, and then bows briefly. "I am the Sun Knight. While I seek many things, what is more important is what you seek, as our hosts." He steps out of the globe, confident even without its safety as he bows, and then fidgets nervously. "For while I seek the clouds, as a knight, I have been quested upon to help these children, and I am willing to find a price to pay. What say you?"
Tamamo	Tamamo minds the quick relocation about as much as she minded the prospect of falling off the rope, which is to say, very little. She continues to be only selectively bothered by the environment, breathing onto her palms on the way up the stairs. "With even lightning frozen, what form might 'that' take, I wonder?" When they reach the ruling pair--and Tamamo immediately agrees with Damocles assumption, that the fox is most likely in charge--Tamamo begins her response with, "I must apologize, but the orb is a regretably necessary burden." She doesn't say why. "And I must apologize once more, for though I would most willingly tell you a tale, that long journey that spans skies and worlds, from when the Sun first saw mortals reach out to praise its light, to the travails of betrayal, heartbreak, and hardship that followed she who trod the earth in search of the meaning behind words such as 'devotion,'" she spreads her hands in a helpless gesture, then pulls them in, curling her cold fingers, "and I would share the story of love, hope, despair, mortals and gods and buddhas, and though I /would/..." Tamamo gestures, shortly, to several others who have mentioned the primary topic. "I can only survive in a land of Winter for so long, and I must first see to the safety of those who were stolen. There were, I regret to say, children stolen not far from here, and the ones who stole them had no right to sell them once more. They thus transferred their wrong onto others, leading us here, as they laid their sin upon the Winter Folk, should we not have misstepped in following their trail. I can do nothing else until both the wrongfully-sold are returned to their rightful place, and those who orchestrated such a long and careful scheme, that complicated work of planning, are found and made to answer." She's not making a deal. The children, and the next link in the chain of the Guild that led from Whitewall to here, are what she wants. And she's not paying her story until she has what she wants.
Bloody Revelations	If Staren looks to see the monsters behind the mask, he will be disappointed, for there is nothing behind the mask at all; there isn't even hollowness or emptiness behind it, just mask all the way through to the core. Every last detail of the beautiful, fanciful, strange and picturesque creatures before him is worked and tweaked as if by an artist's brush. Every demeanor and mannerism picked straight out of several storybooks. A typecast image. A precisely chosen complementary voice. Everything about them, top to bottom, through and through, skin to bone, is Designed. More so than any body he's ever inhabited. Any sleeve he's ever worn, with only his intangible consciousness inside. More than he's ever considered his physical form something mutable and transient to alter as it suits him. One, deep look is all it takes for a little existential chill to tell him: Not just their form, but their very thought and function is a choice of hats to them. These two beings didn't choose to simply look like this; they chose to be this. The lord of the Freehold begins clapping in a sort of slow, majestic way when Tina goes through her tall tales, and especially when Tamamo sells the opening to what could be an entire play. The lady coos and gasps over the intrigue painted by titillating little hints at things like 'Damocles' dark and tragic past' and 'the mad sorcerer in Tomoe's backstory'. It's impossible to tell if they know you're bullshitting; if they do, they find it vastly more entertaining than 'not believing it'. Only once you finish introducing themselves, do they gesture and declare themselves "Lord of the Cold that Falls, Jarl of Jarls, He Who Carves the Northern Thunder, and Holder of the Walls' Ancient Oath." and "Lady of Light on the First Snow, Fox Princess of the Frozen Fields, the Howling Wind in Bare Trees, the Judge Who Holds the Freeze and Thaw in Each Hand." Song fucking off for something to eat is immediately responded to. A blue servile slides in out of the corner of nowhere, bowing and directing her to a longhouse that's just right there. Inside is a banquet hall --whether it always was or is one just now probably doesn't matter-- loaded with platters of elk and mammoth meats still red in the middle, spring fruits chilled atop elaborate sculptures of ice, thick honeyed mead and warmed milk. They are very, very eager to serve her. When the main subject is broached, the Lord and Lady . . . don't seem in the slightest bit put off. Rather than being cagey or turning sour at the fact you'd come here to retrieve the children they'd sort of kind of kidnapped by proxy, the Lady claps her hands together in delight, and the Lord begins stroking his chin. "Excellent! A deal it is then! I knew I'd taken you for the right sort~" the Lady says. "Now, of course, those precious little treasures were imported at great expense you understand. Imports from Ondar Shambal are especially rare and pricey." The Lord speaks "The good businessman who comes here of course wouldn't be so unwise as to accept mere transient things spun of gossamer and dreams that would evapourate in his hands when he departs. They do represent a genuine investment of labour you see. To part with them, well . . . of course I would expect something more rare and exquisite in turn." The Lady is still grinning. She looks at Tamamo with a stare that is indescribably halfway between waiting to see the end of a magic trick and undressing her with her eyes. "Oh but a tale of intrigue and revenge sounds much more exciting than one of mere heroism; so stock, so trite, so done before. Tell me, if you somehow offer something of extraordinary worth in trade, what will you do with the true culprit?" She very, very deliberately, grins in a way that oozes the fact that she knows exactly where the 'merchandise' comes from, and not merely the three layers of middle men.
Tamamo	Now, at least, the Fair Folk have something Tamamo wants, that she won't get from merely destroying them. She considers, briefly, whether their lack of concern for the truth of a story might make the gesture meaningless, but if Tamamo couldn't be pointed to the culprit, then the story simply wouldn't happen. The only people who like an anticlimax are the real people who have to live through it, and the Lady fails that qualification twice. 'That depends on how the children fare,' she does not say. She immediately thinks of a good reason not to walk the conversation in that direction. "My," she instead says in response, as if only just thinking of it, "but we have not yet reached that point, no? And the Sun is such a distant figure to play the role of the vengeful mother. No, no, it would be far more appropriate, more potently poignant, to have one of the mortal children, wronged yet possessing still the imagination of a child, and not yet the restraint of an adult grown, to choose the villain's fate, no? It would make a fitting end of hubris unraveled, that unexpected vector of revenge as the powerless pronounces their fate. I can only imagine what ending they might choose."
Tina Natsumi	"@FreedomWithFries, Streamlord of the Murican Pee-nin-soola, Explorer of the Plot Holes, Tryhard of the Three Kingdoms." Tina introduces herself following the Lord and Lady, truthful about everything except one of those things. It's when they finally address the reasons for the Elites' arrival that Tina's expression shifts. It's a slight change, but there's a noticeable tension on her face even as she maintains that wide grin. "That so? SHeee-it." She lets out a big, exaggerated sigh, then shakes her head a few times for good measure. "Dang... Hate to be the one to tell ya this, I really do. But... Y'all got ripped off." Tina leaves a moment of silence for dramatic effect, then strokes her chin a few times before snapping her fingers. "But I know just the thing to fix that right up! I'm a performer at heart, y'know? And what makes a story better than an audience of fine folks like yourselves?" Another dramatic pause. "A bigger audience! What say we get those young'ns rounded up, and I tell y'all some more tales?" She avoids mentioning anything about the culprit's fate, leaving that to Tamamo while focusing on her own specialty: Bullshitting as long as possible to buy time for everyone else to get things done.
Gawain	Gawain considers the trade. What to offer...he's going to try again to get an inkling of what they'd actually want, as he tilts his head approvingly at Tamamo's revenge plan. That's fitting, and also likely not to be cruel. "Ah, we could offer many things. But we're not all from this land, so our judgement may be poor. What do you see as even rarer than that? What are your heart's desires, fair lord and lady?"
Staren	I'll offer you a swift death. Staren thinks it, but doesn't say it right away. Someone else might have a way through this that might be... easier. Tamamo suggests making a child part of the story. Potentially a terrible fate to condemn someone to... but then, aren't they already doomed to such? Sometimes, people don't get a choice. Staren hangs his head and takes a deep breath, before opening his visor so he can be more clearly heard. "...Yes, that's it. We'll give you a story. We'll grant one of the children power to choose their own fate, and that of their opressors. Or maybe all of them." He raises his head again, looking at the lord and lady with a vaguely pissed-off expression, trying to keep his voice level as he speaks. He's forgotten, for a moment, that he can artifically control both of these things. "What happens then will be a story none of us can anticipate. Will they succeed or fail. What mistakes will they make along the way, what tragic flaws of personality will their new power and the choices they have to make reveal in them." He lets a bit more emotion back into his voice. "What potential does a child have living here? You could see them become so much more, and know that you had a hand in it."
Song of Rainbows	A tremendous spread. A terrible variety. A tre-ok. Alliteration is over. The Song of Rainbows stares out, over the tremendous spread. A mouthwatering array of foods. They're so eager, so ready to serve her. To please her. It's not even sickening. It's endearing, in the way a beautiful songbird would settle on the head of a crocodile. "Aww. It thinks I don't know." She teases the blue syncophant, stroking a finger under the fairy creation's chin. "But you don't have souls, so you're useless to me. And you're useless to her." With her hand like a vice, she grips the fairy servitor by the mouth, lifting him up to her heroic build's eye level, as her flesh roils like eels underneath the surface. "Mmm? Just a little spun treat, aren't you? You must know who I am. Are you the unlucky one?" Her tongue slides along the edge of her top lip. "Or are you the meal I asked for?" Her long dreadlocks, with a mind of their own, grow snake-heads and start in on one of the drumsticks off the roast game, fighting over the morsel. Song doesn't notice, staring into the restrained fairy. "Hmm? Entertain me. Answer me. I'm bored, and the slaughter hasn't begun... And it may not, since those others are so clever."
Tomoe	How much bullshitting is going on here with Tomoe's story? Staren would be the best bet to catch on where she's coming from given how long he's known her. Tomoe looks to the two Fae again as Tamamo speaks. Tamamo does not play nice and cuts right to the point. She looks the two Fae down for a long moment. She listens again as Tamamo speaks further and she brings up a very interesting idea. "To let the child be the judge, of the villain of the story? One could only guess what the mind of a child might concoct a fate for such a person." Fae are strange horrific things really when you think about it, which tomoe has been. the play that the Fae would be bored out of their skulls by an anticlimactic ending to all of this? Is something she' going to be trying to bank on here too. "It would be a story unlike any other with an ending such as that." Tomoe does want to bust this place up but getting the kids out is way more important to her on this. "Think of it you never seen or heard a story like this, to have to watch and not know where the whims of fate will take this. Who knows what they will become when this act is finished."
Bloody Revelations	"Don't know what, esteemed madam?" the hobgoblin asks Song of Rainbows as innocently as can be. The next instant, it's flailing and kicking, screams muffled by the Exalted's hand, as it's raised up off its feet --to no avail. She can barely make out some kind of garbled attempt at something about tasting just awful. The others begin scattering when her hair starts eating the food, clearly uncertain if that counts. A couple go booking it out the longhouse door, no doubt straight to the Lord to inform them of this dreadful occurence: a Chimera in the Freehold. However, 'letting a literal child decide what kind of 'justice' befalls the kidnappers' is so immediately, immensely, creatively twisted --the stuff of excessively grim folk tales and myths-- that the Raksha Lady is instantly entranced by Tamamo's suggestion. Her tufted ears perk and swivel at the array of various 'story' related things, but she dispels that haggling with just a little wave. "Well well, you've certainly done some research, but you see, just hearing word of the dramatics is only so satisfying; mere rumour is an entertaining distraction, not true nourishment for the soul. However, I've had a wonderful idea." With a snap of his fingers, the Lord conjures up a tiny roll of paper, sealed with a wax stamp, into his hand with a flicker of silvery sparks, and a narrow-necked crystal bottle with a stopper of green ice in the other, holding them just out of reach, wearing a cruel smirk for knowing exactly what his faux-Lady is about to say. "You will abide by this binding agreement: We will offer you the name of the mastermind --the puppeteer-- and give over to you the children. The name will not be read until you have accepted the terms, though you are free to decline as per usual." "You will find them, you will subdue them, and you will offer them up to the children's judgement. Whatever the outcome they choose, whether fury or forgiveness, mercy or murder, in those moments, our tragic antiheroe's emotions are sure to run as high as can be. Will it be terror? Repentance? The acceptance of a guilty conscience? The indignant rage of one about to be killed? Splendidly sorrowful thoughts of a lost loved one? The rending frustration of a goal now forever left unfinished? Those thoughts and feelings, you will bottle up and stopper, and return to us as fine vintage. If you can remember all of that, and execute in fullness, we'll lift the beguilement over the children and you can do whatever you like with them~ I don't care." "Does that sound . . . equitable? "
Gawain	Gawain listens to the pitch. It's...twisted, but it's better than whatever else they could have done. He's made agreements that have gone poorly before, so, so poorly, but at the same time, he has hope this one won't. The children will be saved. And if it's a binding agreement, they can trust it. Fairies don't lie, after all, and he has no reason to think that not true here. "While I do not speak for all my companions, I accept."
Staren	Staren tilts his head downward slightly. It's not really... acceptable, to do this, but the alternative is worse. Besides, they can always try to kill the rakshas after they've completed the bargain. A smile flashes across Staren's face at that thought, and he raises his head again. Though he's not SO eager to accept that he won't wait to see if anyone else has something to say first.
Tamamo	Tamamo doesn't need long at all to consider. "Oh, my, if that is your true wish, then it is a small enough price to pay for a name. As to this beguilement, I admit it as a story yet to reach my ears. It will not interfere with the children's judgment, yes?" If anyone's going to be mind-controlling children while they pronounce possibly lethal sentencing, it's going to be people she trusts.
Tomoe	Deals with Fae, that's something to pay attention to, how dangerous they are. There were children as far as Tomoe was concerned innocent caught up in this insanity. They had a chance to get them back home and hopefully free of any glamours or other fae magic. She looks from Gawain to Staren then to Tamamo. "If it meets her acceptance I too agree to this."
Song of Rainbows	With the screaming off in the distance, audible down the hall where the party is negotiating, the Song of Rainbows returns to the party, stretching. There's something gooey and blue all over her top, which she completely ignores. An apple sits stuck in her hair. She smells vaguely of roast and primal terror. "Hey." She greets, looking between Tamamo and the contract. The Lady and Lord aren't paid a second glance. "Come to terms? That's fine." "I found some food." She looks down, and slowly scrapes some of the blue goo off her top and flick it on the floor. "I'm not lugging the golden ball back to town." She asides, wandering off back towards the ladder.
Bloody Revelations	"Then the deal is struck!" says the Lady. There is no magical contract. There's no snap of magic. There's probably little likelihood of it working, more likelihood of you not trying to wiggle out of it if it's purely mundane, and frankly no need, given the nature of the precious cargo. With a great big flourish, the Lord hands over the stoppered bottle to Gawain, and the tiny scroll to Tamamo. Being opened, it shows only a short string of indecipherable runes for one moment, before swimming and blurring into an entire list of names. Considering the pair had referred to the 'mastermind' in the singular, the plausible conclusion is that they're a list of aliases, obtained through magical means for a person that these two have met at least once. None of them are familiar except one: Nerah.