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Angela There have been sporadic reports lately of monsters and anomalies having 'infiltrated' the City within the outskirts (lower case) of District 14's (also known as District N) Backstreets. District N is known for having a terrible opinion of mechanical prosthetics and also being the producer of 'Canned Experiences' which can be utilized to let you experience something you hadn't before, but the Backstreets are usually composed of areas left behind as a new Wing comes in. The regulations for entering N Corp's Nest is quite strict relative to that of the Backstreets.

Angela knows where all the Abnormalities are stashed and has known of two in particular she needed to fetch. She has told this to those she has asked to lend her a hand in particular, "The Road Home and Scaredy Cat are examples of Abnormalities that were sent away from this facility because they synchronized in a way with other Abnormalities that made them more dangerous. As we are attempting to rehabilitate these Abnormalities, we need to return them to the Library so that we can properly guide their story when they are all together. I know the location of the facility but it is possible they have escaped. You might need to return them to their 'egg' state--by killing them--in order to transport them back properly. Scaredy Cat is dangerous, but careless engagement with the girl is considerably more dangerous--like with Laetitia. So be careful. I'll send Tiphereth along to help guide you but she won't be assisting you with combat, even if she has an EGO with her."

The best way to track the Road Home is to look for the road, no doubt, and passing along through tall buildings is indeed a golden road of brick wiggling and twisting through the wiggling and twisting streets of the Backstreets. Once that's found it's not too difficult to see, indeed, an armless little girl with a large (for her head) bow in her brown hair which is pulled back into two spiraling pigtails. She is unnaturally pale and has bright blue eyes and is wearing a black dress with white accents, white stockings, and pale blue slippers.

"Let us all... gather together...for an adventure! Come on, lion! Let's go find our buddies and our pals"

The cat, whimpering and crying, nonetheless loyally follows after the girl. So far they are oblivious to anyone watching her but there is something ethereal about the way the girl moves, like she's not entirely tethered to gravity even as she skips along the road--sometimes she skips a little too hard and lifts off it like she's about to float away into space before--as if remembering that gravity SHOULD affect her, she eventually slowly flutters back to the ground.

Surprisingly, however, the Abnormalities aren't alone. Two women are already in conversation with the Abnormalities, the golden road slowly growing in front of the armless girl and laying itself brick by brick behind them.

"Is your name Patches? Are you a scarecrow? Is that why you have so many patches? Is each of them an adventure?" The armless girl asks the tall blonde woman. "We can all go together, let's all let's all let's all gather up!"

"That's her alright..." Tiphereth murmurs. She has decidedly gathered the crew behind one of the many tall buildings of District 14. "Wait--who are those two? I don't recognize them--if they set the Abnormalities off..."
Distortion Dets. Elsewhere and Earlier . . .

Moses' Office PI Services
Plätzchenstrasse 22-10

    "Detective! Come check out this job posting, it's a *weird* one, it sure looks like a Distortion! And just look at that pay!" Within the disorderly confines of a quiet Fixer office in the Nest of District 14, Ezra, faithful sidekick to Distortion Detective Moses, scatters a packet of stamped papers onto the latter's desk.

"There's cats and, ehhhh, not dogs, but a whole lot of bricks, but maybe there could be dogs, still! Read it, read it!"
"Mm. I'd read faster with a bit of quiet."
"Ope- eheh, okay..."

    Taking a drag off a long smoking pipe, Moses skims over the report and posting- last-spotted locations, witness accounts, and general impact. "Pack your gear up, Ezra. A fully-matured Distortion that isn't keen on staying in one place... we can't let this chance slip by, especially not if it's this local. Be ready in fifteen." "Okey-dokey, Detective!" Ezra claps a fist into the palm of her hand. "Smart thinking! If we're fast, maybe we can negotiate a higher pay!" "If we're fast, there's likely to be less collateral." "Oh~! That's true, too! A two-for-one!" "..."

Now. . .

    Standing to watch one another's flanks, Moses and Ezra stand in the way of the ever-growing golden path that the abnormalities tread upon. Ezra, tall, blonde, big, and just about ready to toss a meter-long hard sided carrycase of weapons down beside her, and Moses, short, much older, casually smoking on an elegant pipe as if the cat-monster and strange little girl are an every day site, stare the strange pair down.

'Is your name Patches? Are you a scarecrow? Is that why you have so many patches? Is each of them in adventure?'

Moses, her jacket fluttering in the breeze, puts up a cautious arm to Ezra's shoulder. Whispered, "Press her for information, but don't take your eyes off the cat." Ezra gives a shallow nod, and- "Nope! My name's Ezra, and most of these, ehe, I picked 'em up because they look so cute all over my coat! Do you... *like* adventures? And what's your name, huh? Do you have one-" Moses pats her shoulder again, to cut her off.

'We can all go together, let's all let's all let's all gather up!'

    Moses herself answers, this query- smoke trails out of her mouth to accent her words. "Little girl, tell us first where you're going." Turning back to whisper Ezra's way, and mostly to think out loud, "A travelling group... if she's wandering, or lonely, floating and unbound, that could be some part of the core decoherence of this Distortion, a loss of place or home or sense of belonging? Could she be a victim of the District 12 diaspora, or is this something older? And the cat, its colors are strange, but I don't have a read. Keep it in your sight, Ezra. I don't want to see what it's capable of."

    Then- as Tiphereth, Roland, and the other Elites emerge, Moses and Ezra both visibly tense. "Eyes up-" "Detective, watch out-!" The pair say in near unison, lowering their respective stances, as if prepared to fight or run.
White White came at Angela's call as she often has lately, arriving in the usual dress, boots, unarmed and wearing her mantle raised over her head once she's out in public after leaving the Library to join Tiphereth and the others. She's patiently quiet along the way, mentally workshopping a plan from what she knows up until they finally come across the pair of anomalies and the opposing pair of individuals speaking to them. From their group's somewhat concealed position, White seems to react to the question of 'who are they' with the most direct solution; she opens her eyes and directs the Evil Eye of Analysis at all four, anomalies and humans alike. Names and Titles come first to her eyes in the readout they produce, so as long as nothing puts up a noticeable interference White can probably at least get Moses's name and connect it to the couple of times she's heard them talk to others before. Whatever else she can learn about their abilities- or those of the anomalies- is valuable too, but before she's finished processing that information she notices their wariness on spotting their group, and... Raises a hand to shoulder-height in a small wave.

     No point in opening with hostility, she thinks. Chasing two rabbits, or rather, trying to handle two pairs of threats isn't something she'd like to deal with if she doesn't have to, so as long as she can put a name to a face she hopes they'll take her plain expression and sense of calm as a good sign. She doesn't have many ideas beyond presenting a minimal threat toward that end though... So in the meantime she's paying more of her attention to the anomalies, watching for sudden movements. Being unable to predict their thoughts or actions is really inconvenient, but if one of them suddenly becomes aggressive she should be able to respond quickly enough to teleport into action if she's not too distracted.
Kukuru "One that wants to go home, and one that's... Oh, the one Scared? Aw. No wonder they'd be dangeorus together..." Kukuru's already got her mind wandering a little as she makes assumptions based entirely off getting the Abnormalities' names from Angela, dressed in her combat-appropriate jacket and leggings combo. She doesn't look like she's quite ready for a fight yet, though, sipping away busily from some knockoff Big Gulp filled with gas station horchata while watching the Abnormalities from the alleyway.

"They don't look toooo dangerous yet," she starts, leaning in from behind Tiphereth and tilting her head slightly at the two unidentified strangers, "as long as we don't scare them or anything." Blinking curiously at the detectives, Kukuru follows White's lead with a broad, easygoing smile as she raises her hand in a lazy wave.

"Hello, he-llooooo. Oh, thank you for the help, dears~" She can only assume they're here to help since they're already introducing themselves to the Abnormalities, and the taller one looks especially friendly. Approaching the group in her usual languid pace, she doesn't even look worried about their flight or fight posture as she instead, moves to pop a squat besides the armless girl and the crying cat.

"Aww... There, there. We'll help you two get home, okaaay? Come on, you can climb riiight up, and then you won't have to worry about getting lost." Kukuru pats her own head once, then her horns. "You can even hold onto these to stay stable. How's that sound?"
Audrey Basque     Audrey's day at the Library went...
    Well, it went.

    It's a transparent fact Audrey hasn't been well, and while sinking into work-- and more work, and even more work, studies, practice, working out more than usual-- had been a temporary respite... almost, ALMOST, an invigorating one, bumping into Petra had dragged her back down.

    Maybe it suits her, then, that for the first time on an outing, she'd elected to wear EGO Gear. Not just the weapon - the Sword Sharpened By Tears idle in her hand - but the long blue and black coat, with occasional metal plates and a blue tie, and the black teardrop under her left eye too.

    This was promising not to be safe, after all.
    But it undeniably makes her look sadder and more forlorn than she-- no, maybe it's the exact correct look after all.

    The air around Audrey is already bent and twisted, folded into itself. Nobody could touch her, right now, unless they put quite the effort into it. She's focused-- drowning in the stimuli of her spatial awareness rather than deal with her head full of thoughts, as much as she can.

    The sight of the girl, the cat, and the two new faces-- Audrey turns to Tiphereth, curious for an instant. "Does that mean there's other Abnormalities matching the Wizard of Oz?" Is it like the Magical Girls, if they get together they're stronger? It sounded like it, when Angela mentioned they 'synchronized'.

    Scarecrow... so she IS looking for more like her.

    Audrey approaches-- pointedly the sword remains pointed down, so as to not appear hostile. The Detectives certainly don't fit the aesthetic of the Abnormalities... but Audrey's not about to judge hastily. Put the brave face on. This is just like any other social mess.

    "Apologies for our brusque arrival," she offers to Ezra and Moses, as much as to the Girl and the Cat. "As Kukuru is saying-- we represent a safe haven for those like them," indicating the Girl and the Cat, wondering if Ezra and Moses are part of the ensemble or not. They don't... REALLY look like a scarecrow, or a tin man, coat and weapons aside if you're being generous.

    "Though, it's a safe haven for most who want it, too." She knows not to overshare. Angela-- and Petra-- would get mad.

    "Little girl, do you have a name? Is it Dorothy, perchance?"
Sarracenia      After their previous adventures in the books, Sarra is a bit dismayed to find that the mission today sounds like a possible return to the meltdowns. After Angela briefs them, Sarra hmms. "What Abnormalities did they synchronize with? Just each other?" Knowing might also help them know how to resolve things peacefully. Sarra doesn't want another Pianist incident. As usual when she ends up on a mission with White and Kukuru, Sarra greets both warmly. "Hello Miss White! Miss Kukuru!" she says, then eyes the other one here. "...Audrey."

     Finding a crying cat and an armless girl was certainly not what Sarra expected. A golden brick road is also unexpected. Combined with the mention of the Lion, and Sarra's mind is suddenly not on danger but on whimsy. Her eyes sparkle a bit. Even she has heard this story! But, a crying cat is just about the saddest thing, and the sparkle dies down quickly. She smiles softly as Kukuru talks to the cat and battles against the urge to pet the poor thing after following Kukuru down.

     '"Eyes up-" "Detective, watch out-!"'

     Sarra blinks in surprise, then looks to Moses and Ezra. "...why are you cautious of us? Do we look so frightening?" she asks them, a slight frown on her face. She gives a graceful twirl, her black velvet dress billowing out elegantly around her and showing just a bit of black leggings with silver sparkles before she curtseys to the pair. "Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom, Aspiring Heroine." She leaves out the Trideag introduction for now. She isn't really here as part of the association at the moment.

     'Apologies for our brusque arrival...'

     Sarra giggles for some reason, then says, "It was not a brusque arrival, dear. It was a Basque arrival." she says, then giggles some more. She definitely realizes how dumb that was, but is obviously highly amused by it. She nods in agreement with what Audrey is saying though. "Indeed. It is safer for them and for the City if we can bring them in."

     'Little girl, do you have a name? Is it Dorothy, perchance?'

     The sparkle in Sarra's eyes returns as does her smile. Then, as she thinks about this mystery woman being called a scarecrow Sarra ponders a moment before she reaches up to touch her Silver lotus. The Silver flows down over her, and soon there is a Silver Sarra. Does she think she can be the last member of the four person party? "Where does this road lead, dear?" she asks the girl.
Chuyao He      "There is no need to be alarmed," says Chuyao He, scholar of the late generation. His reason for being in the City was not originally to assist Angela, but rather to visit her and see the Library. As he believes she ought to have more company that doesn't want to kill or exploit her, however, helping isn't out of the question, especially when it's serving the public good. Strict visitation requirements don't intimidate or hinder a scholar from imperial China, and so he's found himself here, on the opposite end of the street from Moses and Ezra.

     "I, the scholar of the late generation, Chuyao He, respectfully greet you, sisters and cat. May this humble scholar know how to address you?" He rises from a fist-in-palm bow with a pleasant smile. Chuyao wears, aside from the smile. white shenyi robes, fastened at the waist with a thin black rope belt. The hem, trimmed in neat black, is nevertheless slightly dusted from travel, as are his black cloth boots. His long, straight raven hair frames his soft features, extending past his shoulder blades even with some of it bound in a bun by a carved coral hairpin with orchid motifs, threaded through a silver and jade hair crown.
Audrey Basque "...Audrey."

    "Pr--" A pause. Voice dripping and sounding a bit too much like Petra at times, Audrey has to shake her head and twist her head back on straight. Not quite literally, mercifully. "Sarracenia." A bit cold, and she restrains herself from asking if the princess intends to interfere with the Library's business again. She recalls Angela being quite mad about that. Madder than she'd ever seen her, save perhaps once. That elevator is cursed, seriously.

"It was not a brusque arrival, dear. It was a Basque arrival."

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    "W-Well, thank you for agreeing, at least. Yes, it's safer there-- for them, and for the City," Audrey manages.

"I, the scholar of the late generation, Chuyao He,"

    Huh. So that's a face to the voice, finally.
    They'd not talked, that she recalls, but she'd heard him speak of his divination, the Book of Changes and a few other things that had drawn her attention. And now things keep happening, and Audrey's struggling to have that sort of *passion* to just chat someone else up about their craft.

    "Scholar, I've heard you referred to by multiple names and titles-- do you have a preference? Audrey is fine, for my part." She's grown quite weary of 'Ms. Basque', and 'Basque' especially so.
Distortion Dets. -Evil Eye-

Moses, Distortion Detective
Fixer Grade Five
Skills:____________________
Distortion Sight- Perceives core aspects of people as unique abstract imagery
Smoke, Smoke, Smoke, Smoke- Weaponizes her emotions into myriad forms of attack and mental control, all reliant on the smoke from her pipe.
Moses, Captain of the Udjat
Fixer Grade One
Skills:____________________
Eye of Ra- Possesses a near-mythologized capacity for ruthless savagery as a field commander.
The Pharaoh's Right Hand- Total severance from guilt in the pursuit of her patron's cause.

Ezra, Loyal Sidekick
Fixer Grade Three
Skills:____________________
Fisticuffs- A big-body brawler, she's a tough and able grappler.
It's Just a Hobby!- A nearly-endless collection of nifty weapons let her switch up how she fights on the spot.

- -

'Hello, he-llooooo. Oh, thank you for the help, dears~'

    Kukuru's words are met with confusion, and a redoubling of the duo's obvious tension. It's Ezra who speaks first, of the two- "Hey! No, this is our contract! You gotta back off- this is a dangerous Distortion, leave it to the experts!" The cheery smile on her face doesn't quite match her dull red eyes, as she points a thumb her boss' way. "Ezra. Leave it to me." Moses clears her throat.

    "This contract is taken, and it is a sensitive matter. Stand back, and without causing a fuss, vacate this area. I won't have unaccountable complications in our way. Ezra- keep an eye on that cat!" Moses' voice is gravelly-coarse, so tired of ambiently everything, that it's impossible to imagine her staring your way with her eyes more than half opened. The pipe at her lips twitches, in clear reaction from her biting down hard on the mouthpiece in ire.

'As Kukuru is saying-- we represent a safe haven for those like them,'

    Moses' gaze swivels- Audrey can tell that she is being looked clear-through, and the detective's gaze isn't a happy one. "You- stay, explain. A 'safe haven' for Distortions?" Moses' command is tangibly prickly.

'There is no need to be alarmed,'

    Ezra lets her carry-case drop to the ground finally, it lands with an echoing thud.
"Psst! Detective! Nobody who says that's telling the truth- the old guy could be reeeeal dangerous..."
"'Old'?"
"...White outfit? Talking all old-like..?"
"He looks close to your age, Ezra."
"Gwuhh??? He does *not*- hey, still, watch out!"
"Mm."

'May this humble scholar know how to address you?'

    "Detective Moses, Fixer. My sidekick, Ezra. Sole resident authority on the matter of Distortions. Please understand, that we do not wish you here."
Angela Roland is startled by being picked out so quickly. He wasn't exactly trying to hide but he was figuring they would be more busy with the Abnormalities. He steps out from behind cover and doesn't draw his weapon but.

He has no face and thick black smoke drifts off his body like ashen death. He is, broadly, humanoid but on closer inspection it isn't that he has no face, it's that there's nothing but a void, there All the way through the head. It's a familiar smoke, of course, not utterly unlike Moses's own. The sword at his side seems to be effected by it, the edge of his sword drifting off into a sharp smoky point. Though the head is a void it is more like a cavern than a black hole. the back of his head and its sides are still visible.

Tiphereth seems to not be nearly as afflicted. Moses can see that her eyes are green but an outline of purple eyes hover behind her head. Little sparks of light hover around her they are colored yellow, pink, blue, and green. Outside stressors, outside connections, strong enough that they are with her now like this. There's one last hazy outline of a young brown haired boy with her, but she doesn't seem to notice him either. She carries a heavy weight, but it hasn't ensnared her just yet even as she's always conscious of it. Or maybe she managed to pull away, just a bit, from all these little hauntings.

"Ah..h-hey, we're not here to fight." Roland says, waving his hands up to show that he's not drawing his weapon. His words don't match his Distortion at all but his tone is genuine enough. They might recognize his voice from the radio, though he's a little slow to--it's been a minute.

''They don't look tooooo dangerous yet.''

"Don't forget, you know appearances can be misleading." Tiphereth warns.

''You won't have to worry about getting lost.''

The little girl looks a bit incredulous. "We won't get lost, we have a road to follow." She's got a point, there is indeed a road laying itself out before her though where is the road going? Impossible to say as it's being laid out before her.

''Little girl, do you have a name? Is it Dorothy, perhcance?''

The girl giggles and dances along the road. She seems a little impatient to keep moving forward but more in the hyperactive sense rather than the upset sense. "Eheh, that's not what they call me. I'm The Road Home! And this is Scaredy Cat--he's searching for Courage! We need to find the Scarecrow and the Tin Man!"

Roland gives Chuyao a thumbsup. Angela didn't give any orders on what to do if someone was already engaging the Abnormality, though he's feeling a little uneasy about it.

3''Nope! My name's Ezra, and most of these, ehe...''

"Wow! Ezra! That sounds like a load of fun...! I love adventures! An adventure is about leaving home and then finding your way back! We need to follow the road, defeat a wizard, and follow it home!"

She doesn't seem to be interested in safety either. She starts to move around the Detective where there's space on the road for her to but stops.

Scaredy Cat ducks behind the girl, whimpering.

"Oh you scaredy cat, detectives are supposed to ask questions!" She chides her companion. "But to answer your question, we're on our way back home now! We could get there any minute!" And with that she hoves up into the air and aims to just bwooop over the detectives and then land behind them, the road continuing on as she clippity claps away, the Scaredy Cat nervously attempting to crawl around them without looking at Moses directly--but he won't leave the road either.

"Wow an actual princess...! But we don't have time to marvel at princesses!" She mulls to herself.
Angela Analysis of the two Abnormalities indicate the following...

THE ROAD HOME

Classification: WAW CLASS ABNORMALITY
Skills: Weapon Mastery - House
Abilities: Flight (low), Telekinesis (extreme), House Summoning (extreme, one at a time), Immortality (transforms into egg when killed)

Entity is not inherently hostile but house may be summoned at any point if Abnormality is not subdued.

SCAREDY CAT

Classification: WAW CLASS ABNORMALITY
Skills: Weapons (Claws, Tail, Agility, Endurance)
Abilities: Immortality (transforms into egg when killed), Transformation (gains boosts to all stats when activated).

Entity turns hostile when sufficiently frightened or if Road Home is sufficiently threatened. When hostile, transforms.

White also gets a notification that 'When United With Scarecrow Seeking Knowledge and Warm Hearted Woodsman, the path to Ozma shall appear'.

''We do not wish you here.''

"Ahm...well... If I don't go my boss will be real mad." Roland says. "I've seen how unexpectedly dangerous they can be but--" He spots the girl and cat trying to wiggle on by. "Shit we're gonna have to decide something fast--"

''Sole resident authority on the matter of Distortions.''

Roland forgets the mission for a moment. "Wait...you're ... Moses? That's right?" Shit, Angela's now gonna be really mad no matter what he does. Uggh. "These are Distortions?" His hand is, however, now drifting to his sword.
Audrey Basque "You- stay, explain. A 'safe haven' for Distortions?"
"Detective Moses, Fixer."

    Oh, Fixers!
    *Ugh*, Fixers.

    No, now that she hears them speak... they'd been on radio before, hadn't they? Grilling Angela, specifically, and Petra. Looking for angles about the Library. And it had, very clearly, made Angela wary, uncomfortable, and a bit paranoid for a while. This got dangerous.

    "I'm not at liberty to say more, if you're Fixers," she says, looking a crank too down and gloomy for the statement. "But you're calling them Distortions. Our source says they're Abnormalities." Don't reveal you still don't grasp the terminology. Don't reveal that. DON'T REVEAL THAT. "Either way-- that means you should know how dangerous it is for them out here. You said contract-- how many others might be on the way to attack them? If this breaks into a fight we all lose," she tries noting.

"Eheh, that's not what they call me. I'm The Road Home!"

    Oh.
    Well okay then.

    "Well--"

    She's clippity clapping away!!

    Audrey breaks off from the Detectives to try to follow along the Girl and the Cat; at least the road makes it easy. "Wait, please. What if we could help you find your companions? We have countless friends at our place, and many of them are like you-- they seek someone, or something, and we want to make that possible as much as possible."

    That's a generous way to phrase 'rehabilitation'.

    "It would take five seconds. I can get us there faster than you can clap your heels together."

    No no no no she finally has *work* to do, if she messes this up Angela's going to be mad-- Petra's going to be mad! She's forgetting she came with a cadre of allies like this is all on her and her alone now.
Riku Asakura Walking up to the group is another member of Tiph's team, it's Riku, who hasn't transformed into Ultraman Geed yet.  He holds his hands up and waves them from side to side when Moses and her partner dip into battle stances, shaking his head.  "We're not here to fight you, we're here for them..." he says, pointing to the two Adnormalities behind Moses.  

Riku himself is in his normal get-up, a jean jacket, an orange shirt, with jeans and a pair of sneakers.  He's got a concerned look on his face instead of his usual smile, and things seem to be creeping towards a confrontation.  Their work is secret to the city, and these fixers are not unfamiliar to him.  They came with Trudy to the far north.  

"I'm sure we can work out something, but we don't need to be going for each other's throats.  We're here for the same goal, right?  So let's focus on the...girl and her cat first and worry about each other second," he says, looking around at the others and trying to keep the peace as much as he can.  

"Besides, standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere, right?"
Kukuru "He-llo, Audrey! Dorothy? Oh, that would be a nice name for a-" Kukuru pauses briefly, making one entire mental connection as she follows Audrey's gaze over to the child. "-cute little girl. Mhm, mhm... Oh, he-llo, Sarra!" Chipper as ever, She greets Sarracenia with a light wave as well, then realizes something upon hearing her speak to Moses and Ezra along with Chuyao introducing himself.

"Oh. Right. My name's Kukuru." She starts introducing herself, complete with short pause. "That's Ku-ku-ru. Ahhh, so you're all here to help, then? Wonderful, wonderful~" Clapping her hands together pleasantly, she tilts her head in the opposite direction with another hit of confusion at Ezra telling her to back off.

"Experts? Ohhhh, no, no, we're experts, too. Don't you worry, we've done this plenty of times." She reassures with a carefree chuckle, still squatting in place and rocking back and forth a little when Moses starts bringing up names she's unfamiliar with. "Detective? Ooh, that's new... Oh! You're both Fixers, then. Then you already know how dangerous these.... Distortions?"

She looks over at Roland and Tiphereth, taking the latter's warning to heart before turning back to Moses and Ezra again while stroking her chin. "Distortion... Oh, that's waaay easier than saying Abnormalities. We should use that more." Kukuru suggests, looking towards her companions to see if anyone else is on board with that before looking back towards the girl and the cat.

"Road Home, Scaredy Cat, and you're looking fooor... The Scarecrow? And Tin Man..." Furrowing her brow slightly, Kukuru keeps following along behind the pair of Distortiomalities, not putting too much/any effort into actually slowing them down in favor of seeing where they're going. She hangs back near Tiphereth, though, pursing her lips while deep in thought.

"Tin Man, Tin Man... Why does that one sound so familiar? Did we ever... See him?" She not-so-subtly hints, trying to sift through her memory on if there were any abnormalities that might match that one. "Or a scarecrow...?  No, I could've sworn there was one with lots of metal..."
White White's attention fixes on Moses as she learns more, her plain expression giving away little that the direction of her attention wouldn't already. Smoke... Not normally something White has to worry about, but if it's a personal ability tied to emotions it's definitely supernatural and not just a nifty way to poison someone. 'Tricky type', then, and she doesn't seem to disarm just by being friendly. After a few moments of thought, caution seems to win out; White calmly draws her phone from her sleeve and types in a succinct warning to the primarily Concord-centric group, noting to "Be careful about smoke. Don't get too close to Miss Moses." It's far from complete, but typing for too long during the conversation could have other consequences even if it doesn't limit her attention much.

     Before she addresses Moses or Ezra's talk of contracts or dibs, White notices the girl and the cat already moving around them, and in a moment's thought decides to teleport over alongside them in a brief flicker of etherial violet light, walking politely at the girl's side from close enough that she can faintly whisper to the Scaredy Cat from around her, "Usually... You have to... Make 'courage'... Yourself. But it's hard. I understand." She glances backwards then, not necessarily needing to, but deliberately signalling anyone else that perhaps they should follow; a walk and talk seems like the most prudent thing right now, and White would rather not do all the talking herself. If the Cat starts to get more agitated than expected, she'll try to calm them with a gentle dose of the Evil Eye of Hypnosis, though she'd rather avoid that unless it seems like it'll transform.

Even if she's heard a story like this before, she doesn't remember all the details the way others might, and she isn't quite sure there will be a perfect overlap either. She needs time to think. She's thinking about how to handle Moses and Ezra's staked claim too, but it's immediately visible how low of a priority that is to her, beside the request she's been asked to complete.

     But, just as White could observe Moses, Moses can observe White. Even if she can sense the ability in use, after consideration she wouldn't seem to particularly mind the idea of being examined; some small optimistic part of her still thinks that, as long as she's not in danger, being Known will mean being Understood. What Moses might see, though, is a little hard to find comforting.

     If visualized in smoke, there's an ambient mist of stark white vapor that feels obstructive to the rest of the whole, but which doesn't fully conceal the rest, only makes it harder to pick out and observe. Behind and amidst the white are two sets of ten; ten points of gleaming, stable violet presented in two sets of five, as 'X' shapes as if looming over her... Not unlike her actual, ten-pupiled pair of eyes, like somehow they are the most stable and 'real', grounding part of her. Beneath that, ten linked masses of red in a cycling loop seem to pulse like ethereal hearts within the vapor, unsubtly bound together by thin coils of the white smoke as if to hold them together by force. The white vapor isn't just there as ambience; it's there to fill space, like the vessel is too large for every metaphorical organ to keep its place without it, like cotton stuffing and twine stitches alike.

A mix of red and white seems to drift off of her slowly as well, the rest of the whole working to replace whatever escapes the rest. It seems almost as if she's slowly dying and being revitalized at the same time, constantly.
Sarracenia      'Pr--'

     Sarra frowns lightly even at the start of the word, but when Audrey catches and corrects herself, Sarra's frown turns...well, at least to neutral.

     'W-Well, thank you for agreeing, at least.'

     "You are welcome~" Sarra says, then blinks. "Why would I not agree? It is true, after all." And it wasn't said by Petra or Lilian so she is allowed to agree.

     'I, the scholar of the late generation, Chuyao He, respectfully greet you, sisters and cat.'

     "Ah! Mister Jianya!" Sarra says with a smile as he appears. "It is good to see you again."

     'Wow an actual princess...! But we don't have time to marvel at princesses!'

     Sarra's silver outfit apparently gets no reaction from the girl, and so with a flat expression she returns to her normal color palette before following after Road Home and Scaredy Cat. "Well, allow-...would you allow a princess to accompany you on your journey for a bit?" she asks, not trying to stop them at all. That would break the fantasy and surely cause problems. As she watches the cat try to sneak by she steps aside to make sure it has room as she reaches into her purse. She pulls out...a pint of vanilla ice cream! And a spoon! As she lets the others talk she scoops a bit out. "Would you care for some ice cream?" she asks the girl, and holds the spoon out toward the cat. Sure, sugar isn't good for kitties, but fat and protein might be! "And how about you, kitty?"

     'Usually... You have to... Make 'courage'... Yourself. But it's hard. I understand.'

     "It is also easier to be courageous when you have friends and a safe place to stay." Sarra adds. "Your golden road may not lead there, but it is a lovely place. Much better than the rest of this city. There are books galore and they contain adventures! And you know what they say, if someone is looking for you and you want them to find you then you should pick somewhere safe and just wait there for them." Do people say that?
Chuyao He Scholar, I've heard you referred to by multiple names and titles-- do you have a preference?

    "So, it's Audrey Basque," says Chuyao with a polite nod and a smile. "Junior sister, you may refer to me by my given name Chuyao, my family name He, or as my courtesy name, Jianya. This lowly scholar is not particular."

Detective Moses, Fixer. My sidekick, Ezra. Sole resident authority on the matter of Distortions. Please understand, that we do not wish you here.

    Chuyao frowns, nodding with sympathetic understanding. "Ah, this is reasonable, as many do not wish to be disturbed during their work. Far be it from this lowly scholar to impede the relevant authority in their solemn duties," he says with a conciliatory nod. "However, I fear that junior sister Audrey is correct. Detective Moses and sister Ezra are not quite correct in their assessment; the Road Home and Scaredy Cat are the names of your interlocutors, and they are not Distortions. No mention of such a thing was made in the request which I answered--a request of a personal nature, not posted on any board. The relevant authority on such beings as these would be sister Tiphereth." Chuyao gestures with a gentle sweep of his hand towards Tiphereth.

    The scholar smiles brightly at Moses and Ezra. Moses in particular notes a brand on his forehead, a single character cut with a knife and sealed still bloody with graphite. It reads 'bandit.' When he speaks, there is no tongue in his mouth; a scarred stump wags grotesquely. The sun seems to beat down on him with particular, sweltering harshness of the kind that kills people by dehydration. "This humble scholar is certain that one expert may recognize another; of course, as this is a matter of public good, which is the concern of all virtuous people, he is also certain that Tiphereth would welcome your assistance. I, for one, certainly would."

     "Oh..." Road Home is on her way, and rather abruptly. "Hm..." Audrey's approach is promising, in its convincing nature. But of course, the pressing issue is the clip at which the girl and the cat are moving.

     Chuyao gracefully lifts off as if he were on the moon, his robes fluttering as he ascends into a nimble frontflip. He lands in front of the Road Home and Scaredy Cat, though a good distance away so as not to frighten either. "Sister Road," he calls from down the street. "Is this unrefined scholar to understand that you have already defeated the sorcerer? This is no mean feat, especially for one of your age." He purposefully steps aside if it looks like he'd be in her way. "You must be wise indeed, to have defeated such a foe--junior sister Audrey is very learned, did you know this? She knows the location of a great hall of legends, with a fair few storied adventures. Though no one doubts your bravery, a journey is best made with friends, is it not? Please, allow us to show you to that place--your companions have no Road to follow, but heroes and myths are like water, gathering in pools and flowing towards one another like rivers."
Kukuru When Moses looks her way, Kukuru's aura, despite her simultaneously bright and sleepy demeanor, seems to be constantly wavering between being too bright to look at comfortably and too dark to see much at all. It keeps flickering, like the light is always on the verge of sputtering out, but never fully replaced by that intense darkness. It keeps coming close in either direction, like the light might explode or become a black hole, but never quite being enough.

It seems to follow her mood, too, especially the brightness when she's looking at her companions, but the shadows grow a little more whenever she thinks too much, or seems to be forcing a smile.
Distortion Dets. 'We need to find the Scarecrow and the Tin Man!'

    "And what will happen when you do?" Moses asks- her eyes narrow, and her tone mirrors the expression. "If they're friends, will it calm you? Will they embolden you? Of the 'Scarecrow', and this 'Tin Man', are they specific individuals?" A breath through her pipe, to give a break, "And, do you view them in a positive way?"

    Whispered again, "Ezra- this is strange. A multi-part Distortion, with unique aspects... is there something you see that I don't?" Moses doesn't usually have to ask that of her sidekick- Ezra looks concerned. "Ehn, I don't think so, Detective, but... it sure is weird! Especially if they aren't all here already, huh!"

'But you're calling them Distortions. Our source says they're Abnormalities.'
'No mention of such a thing was made in the request which I answered--a request of a personal nature, not posted on any board.'

    "A difference in terminology, no doubt. 'Abnormality' is a new one- surely, 'abnormalizations' isn't what you meant? I hate the term." Wrong! It isn't just terminology! But she doesn't have a way to know that for sure. "The phenomenon has more obfuscation than truth about it- as I've said, this is no one's field of expertise than mine."

' The relevant authority on such beings as these would be sister Tiphereth.'

    Moses looks at Tiphereth, when pointed out, and raises an eye- code for 'explain'.

    After, though- Moses' eyes end up staying on Roland's face for longer than anyone else's, a slightly quizzical expression crossing her own. She puts her pipe to her lip and inhales.

'As this is a matter of public good, which is the concern of all virtuous people,'

    "If it is, that's secondary- I'm here to investigate this case for my own, selfish reasons, and I will carry that out- and ensure the solving or capture of this Distortion." Violet mars the edge of her breath, guilty and staining. "I'm sorry to mislead you- but you'll find I'm not all that virtuous."
Distortion Dets. 'We're not here to fight you, we're here for them...'
'If this breaks into a fight we all lose,'

    Moses's pipesmoke starts to burn an angry blood-red color, when she lets out a tense exhale. "No- you've misunderstood your circumstances. You've intruded onto something that doesn't involve you. Ezra? Watch those two. I'll mind the cat." "Got it, Detective~!" Moses and Ezra swap sides, a quick maneuver without giving the group a gap in their sightlines.

'We need to follow the road, defeat a wizard, and follow it home!'

    "A 'wizard'- a specific target? Is it someone who's hurt you, 'The Road Home'? A path towards vengeance, paved in cheer and whimsy- is that the core of your pathos?" Moses' voice doesn't sound readily sympathetic, but she's pressing more to figure this all out. Quick and tense, when The Road Home tries to vault overtop Moses, far faster than one ought expect, dips back and under where the Abnormality will land. Her green jacket flaps in the motion, and she keeps the advantageous position of blocking the road forwards. When she exhales, as if from exertion, a more-than-possible quantity of smoke spills out, lingering around her and the ground at her feet. It's just the normal, grey sort- but it sends a message of marked-territory, reinforcing her claims. Ezra's quick to follow back as well-

    -But when White teleports in, that sudden of a movement sparks response. "Keep-away mode, activate!" Ezra's shout causes her dropped carry-case to click rapidly and eject a two-handed hammer that certainly shouldn't have fit inside it, decorated over its head with gears and cogs. She doesn't swing it, but, stancing up like a goalie, tries to be herself an armed barricade between Moses and White. Moses' eyes go wide, and the bloody whisps at her mouth flare up- the pipe she'd held in her hand is now a red, translucent saber, held far out to her side.

    "Damn! Damn it. What did I say? You all are further complications."

'What if we could help you find your companions?'

    Irritated, Moses puts a finger up to her own lips and lets out a sharp 'Shh!'. The pipe is taken away from her mouth at the same time her hand is. "Little amateur- I don't need your name -it's reckless to indulge a Distortion. Threat assessment first, core motives and concepts second, and navigate from there accordingly. Indulge an angry, dangerous desire, and you have bodies at your feet. A Distortion needs guidance, restraint, restructuring, and opposition. If you won't leave this to us, then do it right."

'Would you care for some ice cream?'

    Moses' eye twitches.

'Wait...you're ... Moses? That's right?'

    That Roland's next move is to go for his sword isn't lost on the Detective. "Should I know you, veteran of the Smoke War?" That's a cold read, but only barely. Her own sword at her side stays even and ready.

    'She knows the location of a great hall of legends, with a fair few storied adventures.'

    "That 'safe haven'? Will you talk on it?"
Audrey Basque "A difference in terminology, no doubt."

    "M-Maybe. The City isn't exactly a place where knowledge flows freely or fairly. The term Abnormality comes from L Corp, for what it's worth."

Moses' smoke.

    Audrey is not a pleasant sight. Through the smoke, she is whipped, and bloody, bound tightly by thin lines of Silver that dig into her skin like barbed wire. She's frayed, and flayed, restless, desperate, the kind of prime candidate for Distortion if someone, or something, sets her off. But whether she has the strength of will to do so or not... is a different matter altogether.

    Because for all she looks like a walking corpse driven by nothing but a sickening need to belong, there's instability. This isn't someone who has figured herself out. This isn't someone with a Core Identity that she knows of and abides by, and the signs and what they mean might as well flicker aggressively. This is a child flailing and being pulled in different directions by different people, different circumstances, and indecisive on top.

    She's a ball of stress and contradictions.
    And so she might be no threat of Distorting at all.

    In the language of the Light, she's suffused in yellow, with undertones of green and cyan.

"So, it's Audrey Basque,"

    Basque.
    So he's heard of her.
    The last time that happened... it's easy to infer.

    "Thank you, Jianya."

"junior sister Audrey is very learned,"

    Or maybe he hasn't heard of her??
    Is she jumping to conclusions too quickly...

    "Hall of legends... that's... a poetic way to refer to it. Accurate, in a lot of ways, there's certainly quite a lot of--"

    Ezra has a hammer. Moses is agitated.

"A Distortion needs guidance, restraint, restructuring, and opposition. If you won't leave this to us, then do it right."

    "We can give them all that but not here! We have specialized means to-- it's really complicated but trust that we've already *done* this! If we can get them to accompany us..." It'd be so much more simple that way.

    Her grip on her EGO blade tightens in frustration.
Riku Asakura 'Damn! Damn it. What did I say? You're further complications.'

Weapons are drawn, and Riku attempts to calm the situation, but it falls on deaf ears.  He draws the Fusion Riser from his side and stares down Ezra and Moses.  He takes a breath, once more trying to retain peace and calm, while Chuyao He attempts to talk down both sides from a confrontation.  

"We're not complications or trying to get in your way, we're here for them..." he says, pointing towards the Long Road and Scardy Cat.  What Moses can see behind the man is a large giant of light, standing over him without distinct features.  It's almost like his body is holding a power that is larger than he is.  Deep in that light, however, is a deep darkness that seems to be deeper than abyssal depths.  It's seemingly trailing off from somewhere else, rather than coming from him.  The eyes of both giants of light and darkness share the same strange design.  

"Chuyao is right, let's just... talk this out."
Angela ''I can get us there faster than you can clap your heels together.''

"Oh! That's right...! I can..." The Road Home clicks her heels once.

''Besides, standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere, right?''

''We're here for the same goal, right?''

"Are we...?" It's slightly more a question than a statement, but only barely from Roland there.

''Tin Man, Tin Man...''

The girl clicks her heels a second time, smiling up at Kukuru. "Eheheh... You're trying to play with us, but we can play friend to friend..."

''usually you have to make courage yourself. But it's hard.''

The cat shakes its head from side to side, banishing his tears. It seems like he understood and is trying to muster up some courage...

''Would you allow a princess to accompany on your journey for a bit?''

"Wow! Sure! You must be lost from home too!" The girl seems ecstatic about this.

''Allow us to show you to that place.''

The girl stops short again, still smiling brightly and innocently at the man who leaped before her. "Woah! An acrobat, an acrobat has come to play! He wants to join us on our adventure along with the princess! Sing along with our song and we'll find our way across this golden road!"

''And what will happen when you do?''

"We'll make our way to Ozma and ask her to return us home!" The girl starts to float up into the air before wiggling her hips and pushing herself back to the ground. She swings her heels out.

''The relevant authority on such beings as these would be sister Tiphereth.''

Tiphereth, who hadn't rushed out to greet the Abnormalities or the Detectives at all steps forward. She seems faintly irritated at being called upon like this and, more importantly, being encouraged to move CLOSER to the Abnormalities.

"Haven't heard of a weapon quite like that before." Tiphereth says of the pipe. "That smoke from your pipe suddenly becoming a sword. That's an EGO, isn't it? ... I suppose you wouldn't know that ... But it's a relief knowing EGO are out there. We haven't heard the term 'Distortion' much before, but our understanding is that Distortions are formerly human. These two were never human." She barely hesitates before adding, "But outside of that, your methodology is perfect. It is idiotic to indulge them, I told these morons this a thousand times but they never listen so I was staying a safe distance away. Yes, threat assessment first. Core motives and concepts second. Indulge them and they might kill you or take over your essence and drag you into their ''story''."

''Should I know of you, veteran of the Smoke War?''

Roland's posture shifts from hapless Grade Nine Fixer to a more assured stance. "...Figured that out huh..." Roland sighs. "Maybe you recognized Durandal? I don't recognize you though I'm guessing you're a vet too. ... Were you in the G Corp Intrusion Team? They wiped my mind a bit so that might be it--" From that, he was someone who fought on her side in the war, at least in some senses.

Tiphereth notices the girl is about to click her heels a third time.

"Shit! Chuyao! Watch out!" She shouts moments before the girl clicks her heels a third time.

And a two story house comes crashing down from the sky towards Chuyao, intending to squash him flat. The little girl starts running towards the house which starts bouncing away from her shortly after.
Riku Asakura '"Shit! Chuyao! Watch out!" She shouts moments before the girl clicks her heels a third time.'

Riku looks up, and without thinking pulls out the first capsule.  "You go!" he shouts, before activating the capsule and placing it into a holster.  He repeats the process, this time shouting, "I go!" He brings the other capsule into the holster after activating it, before shouting, "Here we go!".

The images of two Ultramen are summoned briefly, and the area behind one is full of sparks, the area behind the other one is of swirling light.  "Time for my courage to burn bright! GEEEEEEEEEEED!"  

Ultraman Seven!
Ultraman Leo!
Ultraman Geed Solid Burning!

Riku was running forward as he transformed, causing him to grow large as the house fell towards Chuyao.  Growing larger than the house, Ultraman Geed attempts to catch the house dead on, aiming to try and catch it to slow it down so that Chuyao has time to avoid it, before tossing it carefully out of the way and not onto anyone else.  

Sparks rain down from Ultraman Geed as he does this, as this was still an attack, and Geed was blocking for another person.  Moses, on the other hand, will see the Giant of Light now the same size as Ultraman Geed, and the eyes of Geed are the same as the giant of light, with their odd design.  The darkness from the giant of darkness is still there, but faded... looking more like an outside influence than a part of the giant of light itself.  

"Hey, that's not very nice," he says to the Long Road, but they did learn something... don't get in its path.  
White Moses and Ezra's reaction to her movement isn't lost on White, and while she doesn't visibly arm herself the way several others are, her posture does shift a little out of habit. Her hands aren't folded politely in front of herself as she walks beside the Abnormalities, but separated with a bit of tension in her shoulders, and she doesn't leave the detectives squarely at her back as comfortably either. It's not so much her own safety that worries her... It's that the stress might cause one of the Abnos to act out, if this does turn into a fight. That... Would make this all a lot less pleasant.

     Still, Ezra's goalkeeping goes unchallenged as long as that's what she keeps doing; White just turns her palms over, trying to appeal to the fact she's unarmed still, and stays beside The Road Home and Scaredy Cat. She can tell there's some communicative mishaps happening, but every time she opens her mouth to try and slowly piece together some kind of clarity, someone else pipes up and throws her off or drowns her tiny voice out, leaving her looking pensive and a teensy bit frustrated. Well, her eyebrows are slightly scrunched together, at least... But Chuyao is an expert at this, and he's working on it! Surely, she can just leave diplomacy to him, right? Look at him go, that guy, with his words, and his manners... And others are trying too! But that's... Not helping much, is it..? Crap. There's something about the way Moses is acting that White's still struggling to put a finger on; something's going unsaid, it feels like. There's too much urgency, even desperation in how she keeps trying to push back. Is it just that she feels threatened? Is it that she feels she's going to lose her paycheck over this if she plays nice? That doesn't sound right...

Experts become experts by fixating. Fixation comes from some kind of motivation. But White doesn't know anything about this woman; until recently, she hadn't paid much attention to anyone in the City at all, besides Angela and the people directly associated with her. It seems her laziness in snooping around is biting her, now...

     But, in the end, that's a distraction too. Focusing too much on Moses when the others were better suited to handle those negotiations was always going to be a folly, and it leaves White fractionally less prepared. It's too late to teleport an entire house away midair; too big of an object at once. If she tries to burst the building apart with magic, it might just backfire and make it harder to escape. If she tries to hastily build a web over Chuyao anchored against other buildings, it could end up pulling them down as well.
White There's nothing for it then; she instantly gives up on preventing most of the damage the building might cause and leaves that situation to the group that has: A) A gravity mage, and B) A giant superhero. While Riku is running forward to catch a building, White is instead running after The Road Home and Scaredy Cat at a brisk clip, unspooling webbing-threads between her fingers and reaching out to try and restrain the cat first; if she can catch them and fully coccoon the cat before it can transform, that would be ideal. She's already expecting Moses and Ezra to go into action, and some of her allies will probably retaliate too, so controlling the wild-card of the duo before it can get out of hand has to come first. If she has to get around the Detectives' goalkeeping posture in the process, she does so via rapid blink-teleportation across multiple points, trying to avoid ever entering a ten foot range around either of them if at all possible.

She wanted to handle this like the ones back at the Library, but it seems there are just too many risk factors outside for it to be reasonable. If she has to execute them herself and be hated by them forever so that Angela and the others can be their saviors instead, eventually, someday, that's fine. But they have to catch them, first.
Kukuru "'Abnormality' is a new one- surely, 'abnormalizations' isn't what you meant?"

Kukuru slows down visibly as she struggles to piece together this newest name for the Abnormalities in her head after already having to remember the last one. Distortions is easy, but this? "I don't like it, either. Let's never use it again." She declares, nodding firmly in agreement with Moses on at least one thing already.

"I'm sorry to mislead you- but I'm not virtuous."

"Then you're honest, and that's fine, too. Not everyone can be either one of these things, so you're doing a good enough job already." The smile comes back, and the light shines through just a bit more.

"is that the core of your pathos?"

And just as easily, the darkness comes creeping back. It might as well be as volatile as Kukuru's mood, even if she is smiling the whole time and just nodding slowly like she totally understands what's being said there.

"Keep-away mode, activate!"
"Damn! Damn it."

"Oh, those are some neat little thingies you've got there..." Kukuru comments as she sees the great hammer and strange saber coming out, oohing and aahing like she's seeing something novel without quite recognizing the potentially implied threat of their presence just yet. Even when she does, she doesn't really, but she does frown for once and stands back up finally.

"Pulling those out might give them the wrong idea, though, and we don't want aaanyone to feel like there's a fight going on yet." She half-agrees, glancing towards the Abnormalities again before turning to detectives. "We just gotta bring them back with us so we can aaaall those things done, mhm. Guidance, rehabilitation, those other things you and Tiphereth said about the..."

Right, not a Distortion. Tiphereth clarified it just now! "Abnormalities... So please let us do our jobs, okay~?"

Despite her words, however, Kukuru has yet to really follow up on any kind of threat assessment aside from taking Tiphereth at her word. She's only seen the girl floating high, after all, and motives have already been somewhat assessed, so how bad could it be?

Very, apparently, as a house comes crashing down at the unfamiliar-ish Chuyao. Aside from the sudden change in skin color and eyes, however, he's still able to speak normally, so Kukuru just sort of assumes he's doing alright enough to just send a small cloud of healing nanites his way.

"Now now, Road Home. The Tin Man wouldn't want you to play like that. What if you threw your house and broke it doing that? Or Tin Man could've been in one, and Tin's not that strong if it slams down that hard." She scolds gently, stepping through an inky cloud to teleport herself close to Road Home. "You've gotta be more gentle, okaay? Lightly, so nothing inside gets shaken up. Then you'll be able to find your home way faster."

She doesn't actually know that, but she does seem to be trying some angle of rehabilitation already. She's just not sure how to approach the Scaredy Cat angle of all this.
Chuyao He I'm here to investigate this case for my own, selfish reasons, and I will carry that out- and ensure the solving or capture of this Distortion.

    Chuyao laughs politely and shakes his head, even as Ezra brandishes her hammer. "I'm sure this misunderstanding can be resolved through civilized discussion. Please, sister Ezra, sister Audrey, brother Roland, put your weapons away."

    "Detective," he begins, calling to Moses while maintaining his distance, "As the resident authority on Distortions, you could surely explain to we, the laypersons, what makes something a Distortion."

<J-IC-Scene> Moses says, "As far as investigation has shown? Dire conditions, unmet needs, unrestrained fixations and obsessions- by the Distortion phenomenon, a person becomes overtaken in such abstract and monstrous ways. Hence, the manner I said by which you should confront this."

    "Thank you, Detective, for sharing your expertise." Chuyao nods with the enthusiasm of an eager student and an encouraging teacher alike. He's getting somewhere! "Sister Tiphereth," he says, with another gentle sweep of his hand, "Being the expert on Abnormalities, could likewise explain what makes something an Abnormality, yes?"

These two were never human.

    "Much thanks to sister Tiphereth for her wise counsel," Chuyao says, even after she insults everyone. "So, a Distortion is something which must become what it is, whereas an Abnormality is born into the world as what it is. We have established that the two terms describe different things. More than this, your own words have proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Road Home and Scaredy Cat are Abnormalities, and not Distortions. For you see, sister Tiphereth has foreknowledge of these two--"
Audrey Basque "I told these morons this a thousand times but they never listen so I was staying a safe distance away. Yes, threat assessment first. Core motives and concepts second. Indulge them and they might kill you or take over your essence and drag you into their ''story''."

    Audrey frowns. "They were peaceful! We couldn't just-- we had to at least--" she starts vibrating, almost, out of visible frustration.

    "F-Fine! Then we'll just--"

"Please, sister Ezra, sister Audrey, brother Roland, put your weapons away."

    Oh come *on*!
    Don't make her choose between good first impressions and pleasing her coworkers by just going for the efficient resolution!

    Riku takes care of the house, while Audrey whines, debris smashing into the field of twisted space around her. And then she looks like she just got hit behind the head hard.

    "... the road. The road!!"

    Audrey doesn't need to raise her sword for this. It's likely for the bests she DOESN'T utilize EGO in the state she's in, not that she'd know this. But what she does know is that she should have realized sooner this is a really simple problem to solve actually. There's a road. Just twist it.

    While the Girl and the Cat are distracted, Audrey reaches out. She's just going to take command of the road... and stretch it. Up, twist it in the air. Make it bend, turn, and head to the Library. Once they're in the mist, Angela can sort it out easily. As can the other Librarians there. And the Girl, surely, *must* follow the road, mustn't she? She doesn't control it, she just follows it.
Chuyao He Chuyao! Watch out!

    Chuyao closes his eyes. A black steel brise fan drops from the sleeve of his robe into the palm of his hand. A flick of his wrist opens it up, revealing the slats of the fan, and the hammered silver triptych detailing the arrogant demise of the giant Kuafu, chasing the sun. He lifts Two Rivers, as if to fan himself, but fans outwards instead--"Tss!" with a controlled breath at the same moment as the downwards flick of his wrist. A torus of air explosively billows outwards, pushing aside anyone in danger of being flattened and lifting him up to meet the house in one stroke.

     He lands on the front porch, his boots hooked under the uprooted planks. "TSS!" Hanging upside down as the house hurtles through the air, he smashes the front door open with a twist of his upper body that sends the side of his fist crashing into it and leaps through the house just as Ultraman grabs hold of it to halt it. A moment later, Chuyao rips through the back door like a bullet, his skin an alarming red and his eyes an equally shocking, featureless white. Aloft in the air for just a moment, his feet find purchase on the back wall of the house, and he leaps off a moment before Ultraman tosses it aside, landing as delicately as the puff of a dandelion reaching its journey's end upon the giant's shoulder.

     "And of the threats which they pose," he calls from on high, before another leap returns him to the ground level, just as gracefully, his robes and his hair settling as though he'd never left the ground. Chuyao's skin and eyes returns to their normal hue, as he continues: "This lowly scholar did, after all, listen to the explanation given, but 'a house shall be thrown' is of that class of things which may only be explained so sufficiently in words alone. Now that I have observed it, I am confident that it can be countered, not least of all thanks to junior brother Riku, who seems particularly suited. That only leaves Scaredy Cat."

     "Detective, sister Ezra, please be aware that Scaredy Cat will transform to defend the Road Home. This humble scholar would ask our experts--is this sufficient study of the risk posed? Which stage do we find ourselves at, presently?"
Sarracenia      'Damn! Damn it. What did I say? You're further complications.'

     The detectives continue to be aggressive in their questions and a bit abrasive in their responses. When Moses draws a line in the sand and Ezra pulls a hammer...Sarra accepts the thrown gauntlet. She reaches to touch her Silver lotus again, and liquid metal flows down her arms to form into a hammer taller than herself with a head that must surely weigh more than she does. She gives it a twirl as if it weighs nothing, then brings the haft down on the ground so that a slight thud flows through the nearby area. "Wrong." she declares, then blinks before pressing a hand to her forehead and letting out a breath slowly. Her hammer dissolves back into her lotus hairpin, then she takes in a slow breath. "...forgive me. That was...rash." she says, the incident with the Black Silence reining her back in.

     'But outside of that, your methodology is perfect. It is idiotic to indulge them, I told these morons this a thousand times but they never listen so I was staying a safe distance away. Yes, threat assessment first. Core motives and concepts second. Indulge them and they might kill you or take over your essence and drag you into their ''story''.'

     Sarra blinks in surprise at this. "What? That is precisely how we handled the last few! Indulge them in moderate ways, determine what it is they want, then guide them to a peaceful resolution! If we end up having to fight these two then..." She looks to Moses and Ezra. "...it is your fault!"

     'I can get us there faster than you can clap your heels together.'
     'Oh! That's right...! I can...'

     The heels start clicking, and Sarra hesitates. Abnormalities activating something has rarely been a good thing.

     A house falls from the sky. Sarra is pushed out of harm's way by Chuyao. She huffs indignantly. "That is not what the heels are supposed to do!" she exclaims as the Road Home and the house go bouncing away.

     Sarra practically growls at the detective pair now. "If you have dealt with such things before, then surely you know a typical interrogation does not even work! They are more likely to incorporate things into their story or destroy things that do not fit into their story than to engage with them in a meaningful way! That is, until you connect with them! Now we will likely have to forcefully subdue them! And there is no telling how many might get hurt! Was that your goal, detective?!"

     Sarra sees White go after the cat, and as much as Sarra doesn't want to hurt a poor scared kitty, she pulls out an ice flower and in a puff of white smoke is clad in icy colors. She starts throwing ice, seeking to aid in the cocooning process. "I am so sorry! You are really cute, so please do not make scratching posts out of us! I promise to get you so many cat treats when this is over!"
Distortion Dets. 'Were you in the G Corp Intrusion Team? They wiped my mind a bit so that might be it--'

    "I'll stop you there. This isn't a conversation I plan on having." Moses makes good on that plan, and turns to face anywhere but Roland- ending up looking towards Ezra, who offers her a little sympathetic look. "Detective..? Is everything under control? If you need I can go sock him in the-" "Controlled enough. Yes." "Oh-kay~! Yay."

'That smoke from your pipe suddenly becoming a sword. That's an EGO, isn't it?'

    "Psychoment," Moses says, under-breath- a small correction to the term she's familiar with, knowing fully none of the nuance otherwise.

> The little girl starts running towards the house

    It isn't an exceptional counterpoint to Moses' claim of lacking virtue, that beyond the quick judgement that the house likely won't hit any resident civilians, she acts to subdue The Road Home herself. With White also going for the same target, Moses acts fast- both in motion and decision-making. The sword she'd held disappears in a violet breath, the shift in stoked emotions wracking her like a gutpunch- tense anger to bitter, ugly guilt. It's easy, at least, knowing another Smoke War veteran is watching her- the feelings and memories are so right at hand. Soldier after soldier she'd sent to their deaths for such a pitiful cause, in bloody waves against men and women just the same as them- in truth, more of her guilt lies in how easy it was for her to play her dealt hand, guiltily free of guilt. It's such a bitter paradox to be caught within, isn't it? What flickering mote of hope could undo a heart so rotted and frozen, if the funeral pyres and charred corpses littering streets couldn't even-

    Barbed chains wrap around Moses' wrist, digging into her loose white sleeve, and flowing through the ground-hugging smoke. As quick and erratic as lightning, violet fills the haze and snakes towards the Abnormality, snaring her a dozen ways over in the heavy chains of guilt.

'If you have dealt with such things before, then surely you know a typical interrogation does not even work!'

    "Yap, yap. Like a little dog. Ezra? Did you end up buying that silencing gag at that one Workshop? Which was it-" Moses snaps the fingers of her free hand, trying to beckon the memory. It's quite the action to take while one's other hand is wrestling with monster-snaring barbed chains. "Ehhh? You said I couldn't mark it down as a necessary expense... so, nooooo..." "Mm. Too bad."
Distortion Dets. '... But our understanding is that Distortions are formerly human. These two were never human.'

    Moses' eyes go wide- that's quite definitive. "How do you know that for certain?" Is the first thing she asks, followed quickly by "If that makes these 'Abnormalities', what are those?" With The Road Home herself subdued, Moses isn't going to just let a dangerous, house-slinging threat go- but it does undercut and defuse the major core of her argumentative stance on the other Elites.

'Detective, sister Ezra, please be aware that Scaredy Cat will transform to defend the Road Home.'

    With just a glance to her otherwise-busy boss, Ezra throws Moses a nod first- "On it~!", then a smaller second-thought one to Chuyao, jumping into action to block the Scaredy Cat before anything much else can happen. Ezra keeps the haft of the giant hammer between her body and the animal Abnormality, continuing her gameplan of zoning threats off- at least she's not doing so to White anymore.

'Which stage do we find ourselves at, presently?'

    "Known danger, physical in nature, a timid, nervous, reactive beast... oppose its timid nature by allowing to be the protector, but without the full danger of such-" Moses is mumbling her thoughts and plans out loud, then- sharper, "'Restructuring', that is the step- to release The Road Home as it first takes action, we instill courage, defuse the cause to fight, and can subdue the two together."
Angela White unleashes her webbing upon the Scaredy Cat which is, naturally, starting to grow and transform itself. White's anticipation of the Scaredy Cat's behavior, however, lets her get a ready drop on it. The Scaredy Cat gets about halfway through his transformation before he is summarily coccooned into a thick swath of webbing. It tries to pull away only for an Ezra to block its escape, tears bursting out of its eyes in cartoonish amounts. If White is willing to take a moment, she can readily disable the kitty into a (relatively) tiny ball before it can rip free. When it's prevented from entering it's 'Courageous' state, it's not really a threat at all.

''I'll stop you there.''

"...Suits me fine." Then Roland does, in fact, draw his sword. Despite the Abnormalities, he clearly seems to think of Moses as the biggest threat here. Or maybe the most personal one. But he still seems ill inclined to start that fight, but he's certainly ready to move. He too hasn't seen any weapons like that pipe before--oh there are groups of people who use smoke to fight but it's not any kind of smoke like this.

''Psychoment.''

"That pipe of yours isn't anything like what the Reindeer have." Tiphereth says. "Call it what you'd like, but that pipe is uniquely yours. There may be some superficially similar to it, but there will never be another one exactly like it." She doesn't seem to care that she's spilling some beans here--she's a Sephirah after all, she originally fought AGAINST Angela--but in this case she considers it part of her moral responsibility. "...Abnormalities. They are monsters that Lobotomy Corp created." Tiphereth says. There's really no reason to protect Lob Corp secrets anymore in particular. "For the purposes of deriving the energy source enkephalin from them. We were sent here to clean up the mess from the company's fall. You can't fix them out here."

The Road Home is the Road Home! Not the Long Road! Though the road is long.

The house is slightly faster than Riku's transformation sequence to get big. Sometimes it takes a little bit to grow! But this doesn't end up hampering Chuyao who lands on the house instead of the house landing on him. He stunts off of it before dropping back down whereupon Riku grabs ahold of the house and he's able to hold onto it for quite a while. It IS still a house, and it seems to be trying to wiggle free from him but he's able to toss it out of the immediate path of anyone and Audrey can readily ensure the house doesn't crash into anybody by twisting the road it's following. The house follows the path up into the air and back towards Lobotomy Corp.

"Um... Are you going to...walk across two countries to follow that back?" Roland asks, briefly dumbfounded away from his sizing up of Moses and the like.
Angela ''Tin Man wouldn't want you to play like that.''

"Eheh... You're so gentle! But don't worry, this is just playing!" The girl can't be hostile because she doesn't understand hostility. To her this is all game. "It's part of the adventure for our house to fall and crush the witch, and so we follow the path home! So the story begins so the story ends."

As Audrey expects, the girl does start skipping along the Road's path as if she had no idea Audrey had manipulated its path. She's right that she has to follow the road, it seems. She might float off the path, but her shadow will always fall upon it even if her feet don't touch it.

Sarracenia can readily aid in the coccooning process, speeding it up. Eventually the wiggling inside comes to a stop as the cat's bout of courage is ruthlessly crushed.

Well, there's layers of crushing anyway.

The girl may be free of guilt but chains of guilt can still weigh her down just fine. EGO are, as ever, very effective against Abnormalities. The initial problem is that the girl is pretty agile herself, floating around the chains and dancing about but she has no arms and Moses knows what she's doing. Eventually she lulls the girl into a situation where there's nowhere to run and the chains snair her by her legs and neck and pin her to the road as the house gets father and farther away, hopping like a little bunny.

Since the Abnormalities seem to be contained or at least neutralized from immediately squishing anyone, Tiphereth relaxes and Roland seems content to let her handle it, though he stays near her with a vaguely protective instinct.

"And to answer how I know. It is because I was originally a ... test subject and later employee of Lobotomy Corp." Test subject is stretching the truth a little but but only very slightly. She knows what they were brought back for originally even if she never made it to the slab.

"So what do we do? If we start fighting over it, they'll escape and we have to do this all over again." Roland asks.

Tiphereth hesitates and then says, "What do you want as payment to let us go with these? A fight with you will be messy even if I feel we have the upper hand." Even if it's mostly numerically.
Riku Asakura Ultraman Geed stands over The Road Home once he's sure no more houses are going to fall out of the sky, and he's sure everyone isn't about to start a fight in the middle of the city.  He also notices that Scaredy Cat is very tied up and unable to transform.  Which means the fighting has calmed down before it began.  

It also looks like the Detectives aren't about to start a fight without provocation, and Tiphereth seems to be negotiating with the Detectives in good faith about what the Adnormalities are and what caused them, as opposed to Distortions, whatever they are.  This causes Geed to shrink back into a normal-sized, albeit spandex-covered, hero while people talk things out.  

"I'm glad we could work this out, I have no desire to fight you..." he says to both Moses and Ezra.  "I don't know all the terms myself, yet, but I'm learning to be a fixer for Trideag myself.  I do this to help them..." he motions towards Tiphereth, "Deal with the fallout of L-Corp.  They are doing a good job trying to heal the wounds from that incident."
Audrey Basque "Um... Are you going to...walk across two countries to follow that back?"

    "O-Obviously not!" Audrey, who absolutely thought that far ahead and did not forget the scale of the City, responds. "Now that I know it follows the road I'll, you know." She snaps her fingers, demonstrably, because Roland knows what she's about. "Just not in front of..."

    Audrey does a vague head gesture towards the Detectives.

    For now, she can twist a road long enough to keep that house hopping. She'll sort out the 'getting to the Library' part later.

"What do you want as payment to let us go with these? A fight with you will be messy even if I feel we have the upper hand."

    Which leaves negotiations, then.
    She considers that she could just teleport the restrained Abnormalities directly-- as could White. But she's starting to lose steam. Without the urgency of the situation, the accumulated frustrations... the prospect of returning to the Library and... it's...

    Tiphereth's already handling the talks.

    Audrey's posture droops down.

    This went... fine, right?
    Fine-ish?
    Okay?

    She glances at Roland, silently, and seems midway to saying something, but ends up shutting her mouth instead, keeping her eyes on the road and the house. Her hand nervously fidgets with the blade in her hand, gripping it tightly until her empty hand moves to grip her arm and stabilize it.
White Once it's certain that the Scaredy Cat is fully restrained, between Sarracenia's ice, her own silk, and Ezra's hammerhaft-pressure while the former two are applied, White makes a slight show of wiping her forehead in relief with the side of her hand. There's no sweat, but a little performance might help lower Ezra's guard toward her, maybe? They helped each other kinda, right? Well, it's a long shot, but White can hope. The poor cat at least isn't suffering the full brunt of the cold of being in a mass of ice yet, since the silk layers started building up first, and although it probably won't feel much through all of that material she gives the coccooned feline a gentle stroke with her palm... It's as close to an apology as she's liable to get.

     Then, she's hefting the cat over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and giving Ezra a small bow, walking at a sociable pace back towards the others where Moses is more or less handling the restraint of The Road Home, now that the golden path is being redirected and controlled by Audrey- assuming Ezra doesn't take issue with that anyway. Then White might have to circumvent her via teleportation again, or the like. With one half of the abno pair slung over her own shoulder and one (more or less) in the hands of the detectives, White chooses particularly to step in beside Chuyao, slightly behind him on the right side, lending weight and implicit trust to his judgement and speaking skills... Positioning like an evil advisor is kind of a comfort posture to her anyway, even if usually it's not for well-spoken gentlemen.

     She could probably pull one over on Moses anyway if it really comes down to it... But she's not against handling things politely when it's possible. Maybe seeing proof of how she restrained one of the abnormalities might convince Moses to accept help with the other, but White isn't holding out much hope there just yet. If the detectives try to make a break for it with one of the abnormalities, they probably won't get far from her or her spy-der network anyway, so it can't hurt to let them talk for now.

White still doesn't know what to do about Audrey, seeing her so noticeably restless and droopy. She pretends not to be paying attention with her omni-directional sight for quite a while, but eventually makes the modest contribution of saying, "You did fine... Miss Audrey." It's far from what Audrey needs, probably, but White doesn't have much better to offer right now. She's pretty sure that spatial field is another way of saying 'no patronizing, forced hugs please'.
Chuyao He 'Restructuring', that is the step- to release The Road Home as it first takes action, we instill courage, defuse the cause to fight, and can subdue the two together.

    "It would appear that you and Commander White have subdual well in hand," Chuyao notes politely. "This is fortunate; such a pairing as these two is troublesome to deal with."

    "As for the hall of legends, I will speak freely, now that the threat is over, though I imagine the intrepid detective's understanding of Abnormalities is enough to begin to glean the purpose of such a place--containment is one, as you surely imagine." Chuyao inclines his head respectfully towards Moses. "To offer further elucidation: Abnormalities do not 'die,' but are merely returned to a dormant, resting state. Sister Tiphereth has the means to contain them, and shares your own methodology for... if not restoring them, then 'restructuring' them, as you said, blunting their fangs."

I'm glad we could work this out, I have no desire to fight you...

     "I am gladdened as well, junior brother Riku. It is good to have you along. Now..."

     "As Detective Moses has treated with us civilly," Chuyao announces, folding his hands behind his back and turning to face the two people he presumes most capable and least unwilling to obviate the issue by absconding, "It is right, just, and, I dare add, practical, that we show the same courtesy." He diplomatically glosses over Moses' very uncivil attitude in the service of making a point and rewarding her for backing down in one swoop. "It is this lowly scholar's understanding that expertise of her sort is rare and dwindling in the City. Therefore, to allow Tiphereth and Detective Moses to come to an agreement is wise, for the future dividends such a thing may pay."
Kukuru "Psychoment,"

"That's another different name..." Kukuru murmurs as her gaze inevitably drifts back towards Tiphereth. She had already illustrated the difference between Abnormalities and Distortions, so there must be another explanation coming for this, too!

Said explanation doesn't click right away from Kukuru, but a rare moment of clarity does actually let her make another connrection following that explanation. "So there could be more copies of the others...? Oh, wonderful. That means..."

One mental connection is enough for today. Kukuru can't quite come up with another. Tiphereth being more open about the group's reason for being here does mean Kukuru doesn't have to worry about withholding that information, at least, and she soon nods after Tiphereth's explanation along with Moses' process with Distortions sounding so similar.

"That does sound a lot like what we're doing, mhm... Oh, that's wonderful. Then we can work together perfectly~" Clapping her hands together, Kukuru slows down in her pursuit to turn to the DEtectives again.

"Maybe we can share our expertien... Expertise more, too. A buuunch of us have handled Abnormalities plenty of times, but we haven't seen these Distortion things before. If we share info, everyone'll be way better off~" She suggests, trying to reassure Moses and Ezra once again before turning her gaze back to the little armless girl.

"You're so gentle! But don't worry, this is just playing!"

"Hehe... Thank you, dear. That's because I was raised to be this way." Kukuru explains with a quiet giggle, skipping along with the girl and once again thanking her new cardio routine for letting her keep it up. "But people can still be hurt even during play, you know? Even without playing with a big house, they could trip and fall off a mountain, jump too high and get their heads stuck in a tree, catch a house the wrong way and break their hands..."

Despite the warnings, Kukuru still sighs fondly as though she's reminiscing about something good instead of recalling horrible injuries she's seen and treated in the past. She looks up as house starts to fly again, back towards wherever it was... Going? Came from? She's not particularly sure, but looks right back over at the girl again and gesturing at Riku just before he transforms back.

"...Even someone that big could get hurt by a house if it crashes into him, playing or not. That's why it's reeeal important to play nice and be careful with your friends, okay? Then Scaredy Cat doesn't have to be scared anymore, either. "