10:10 <banana> The storm clouds rise and any pretence that the sun may do the same is abandoned. There's barely rain anymore; snow and hail are coming down off the Dark Peak, inundating the Tintwistle farm and its defenders without soaking them... and without washing away the chlorine. 10:11 <banana> Two of the tripod-machine's legs still stand, six feet of metal like un-strung bows, with great spotlights ranging from their frames and illuminating the scene. One's in the disused farmyard, swinging past Rolf's destroyed foxhole and Badawi's intact one (protected by the mage Egret). 10:14 <banana> Planted in the house, spearing through its roof and into a stairwell, is the purple 'leg'. It barely missed Aster when it came down, and Mary Morgan's come out into the hall to gape at the thing. "I've never heard of anything like this," she utters. "I didn't think it was this powerful. Do they really want me?" 10:15 <banana> The lower part of it you can see is starting to move, panels opening up and instruments extending - likely usable as weaponry, at least in an improvised fashion. 10:15 <Crion> Aster, shouting down: "Be flattered in cover!" 10:17 <banana> The valley farm is itself at the head of a deeper valley between the Peaks, which is where the pods came up, connected at the time by a sort of cat's-cradle of tubing and exotic weaponry that now lies shattered on the ground on the other side of the house. Beyond that is the fallen white leg, buzzing and sparking in a growing cloud of choking green gas. Willie and Bob are by the titanic mech's 10:17 <banana> side, and they're the ones doing the choking. 10:17 <Crion> Not much purchase on this thing so far for the Talon Module, but if any little grey men come pouring out, he'll be ready. 10:17 <VoxPVoxD> It doesn't matter what they want anymore. It doesn't matter what they came for. It's time for them to burn! *cough cough* 10:22 <tom> Fuck this sucks so bad. 10:23 <tom> Let's see, its chlorine, which means the gas is meeting the water in my lungs and forming hydrochloric acid. 10:25 <banana> Bob's melting to death, yeah. He should be able to survive up to a minute though. 10:27 <tom> Just all of his mucous membranes. He reflects on this as he reaches for the weapon on his shoulder holster. 10:27 <VoxPVoxD> Getting chlorine gassed mere days after taking the poppy off. Willie's wearing one year-round now. 10:28 <banana> The starchild guitarist known by the stage name "DisAster" is on the radio again, her once dreamy voice shattered by the noise of turrets and machine gun fire (not to mention the Carl Gustaf). "There's a man.. on the line for us. Caller... you want the big gun? He wants someone to dig into the wire-rubble and turn on the big gun." 10:29 <Crion> Aster turns away from the woman and reaches out to the 'leg' -- easy, as the massive column is right next to him -- and sends it a spike. 10:34 <banana> Egret's skin is red with heat-flash and her clothes ripple with the backblast of the grenade launcher. She nods to Badawi, looking grimly exhilarated. "You've got us in the good shit now." 10:34 <Crion> He feels it writhe. So, knowing he's ground zero danger close for all sorts of incoming fire, he reaches deep down...and sends the spike again, as his nose begins to bleed. 10:34 <Crion> It's not as powerful the second time, but it gets the point across. 10:39 <hrolf> Un-foxholed, unbowed, unbroken. Rolf continues firing, gun shuddering in his hands, standing his ground against the recoil. BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA 10:39 <Crion> Over the channel as he staggers behind a couch. "There's minds in each of them. They can feel afraid." 10:39 <Crion> "Fire for effect, danger close." 10:41 <banana> They can even be defeated. The picture is you holding the picture when you hear this you will know you're in new. Aster can't feel the blood; he feels the thing's mind, far more alien than its surprisingly unexotic machine, wink off and on again. Some regimen of drugs and medical mechanical support revives it nigh-immediately, but it screams. 10:41 <banana> Inside the farmhouse you can even hear it with ears. A thin and plaintive wail. 10:47 <tom> It stings- the acid forming along every wet surface in his body- but at these concentrations, it'll be a few minutes before his lungs fill with blood. Not really an immediate concern. 10:48 <banana> While the purple pod's pilot is insensate, it stands unmoving - and Rolf takes advantage. A storm of bullets to match the hail batters away at its armour; more bits fly off, including at least one gun turret. 10:48 <banana> Its yellow rises up on the jump jets which were aiding the whole machine's rapid movement, blasting the slick mud with rocket flame, and flicks - this would send Hughes flying if he didn't simply get out of the way. 10:48 <VoxPVoxD> Willie fumbles the mask on. The burn in her lungs and her eyes is foreign, but not particularly novel. She's felt worse. She's done worse to herself on purpose. The clean air that comes through the rebreather doesn't clear the poison out of her, but at least it stops more getting in. 10:49 <banana> *yellow twin 10:51 <VoxPVoxD> After that she's moving out of the gas radius. Emmentaler's needly voice is in her ears, don't stand in the baaaaad... 10:52 <banana> Down there in the gas with Bob Goreman, something moves. 10:53 <banana> A green mass heaves out of the shattered 'eye' as the leg-mech continues to power down, roughly triangular, wrinkled flesh forming three unequal limbs. 10:53 <tom> Oh, what now? 10:54 <banana> The third is thicker than the others, forming a 'torso'; the others could be arms or structural supports. The thing has a head with three tentacles coming out of it and trilatera eyes above a combination nose-mouth which gapes round and greedly sucks in the chlorine. 10:55 <banana> Patches of its skin are more green than brown. It's bigger than he is, but shambles weakly forward, flailing uselessly at the air.. and singing. 10:55 <tom> "Augh, sick-" he manages between fits of coughing. 10:59 <banana> The tripod Master blinks slowly with three eyes and Bob feels his mind under attack... again. It's quite different in character to the previous indignities he's suffered; his nerves start to flare up with pain and he can feel muscles go slack. But it's not that strong. Not like some of the shit he deals with daily. 11:02 <Quaker> Badawi and Egret are both reloading their weapons, though Badawi’s is done in a half-second. The sights settle over the center of the strangely shimmering yellow leg for a moment, and then she pulls the trigger. 11:03 <hrolf> Rolf yells into his earpiece, over the sound of close range machine gun fire: "Bogey two down! Repeat, bogey two is down. Over!" 11:04 <banana> A pinpoint high-caliber shot. These things aren't the solid metal they seemed from far away - well, they are covered in thick metal armour, but magic's obviated it. And the actual structure of them is complex, masses of tubing and joints and bearings and struts.. blowing all those away is something you can do with a very high-caliber rifle fired accurately. 11:04 <banana> The yellow leg freezes in place and sparks. This time, Badawi didn't make the mistake of knocking out the cockpit and releasing the poisons inside (but there the poisons remain...). 11:10 <tom> Bob cocks his head at the goofy alien and blows it apart with a burst from his stubby machine pistol. 11:10 <tom> It's time to get the fuck outta here. 11:11 <banana> Paola Anna on the radio: "There's a persistent caller on the line. Lindsay, could you get this guy out of the studio? He's just not going to be satisfied until someone makes another hole." 11:11 <tom> He dumps the rest of his magazine into the alien machine embeding itself in the wall of the farmhouse; the impacts strike up sparks along its outer plate. 11:11 <Crion> There's too much smoke and gas, and the angle is bad -- difficult to impossible to see what's happening outside even with the great hole in the building. Aster tries to track his allies inside the house by where they're shouting. 11:12 <banana> Egret, to Badawi: "You've got that one locked down. I'm going into the house before it falls apart on the people in there?" 11:13 <Quaker> Badawi: “Alright. Mind the gas and the purple leg.” 11:13 <banana> Egret: "That's what she said." 11:15 <banana> The mage hops out of the foxhole, moving oddly as she pushes through the glassy-air barrier around it, and jogs down to the wracked farmhouse. As she arrives she waves with the Big Gun, gesturing crudely in the air. Things happen that you don't have the senses to make sense of, and the juddering structure stabilises. Bits of it that fell off fall back on. 11:15 <tom> Bob scrambles out from under the carpet of choking gas, tossing his spent weapon over his shoulder and unfolding the shotgun from within his jacket. 11:16 <banana> From Aster's point of view, a madwoman with a grenade launcher steps in the front door chanting and waving, as matter quakes and the roof tiles animate themselves. 11:16 <banana> However, this is actually good. 11:19 <Crion> "One moment," Aster says, blood trickling from both nostils. "I have some words for our friend in the leg." 11:19 <Crion> Run back to your precious star or die. 11:25 <banana> Reveille's still in the bedroom doorway, although at least she's not actually out in the hall anymore. "Jesus, guy. That's an awful-feeling... something... you're not doing it, right? You're controlling something that does it?" 11:27 <hrolf> BUDDA BUDDA BU-dd-d-ch-chchugggg. With the gun wound down, Rolf bursts into a sprint and begins slamming into the stricken leg, to no great effect. 11:27 <banana> It does wobble. 11:34 <tom> The shotgun comes together in his hands. He takes up a canister of thermite from his satchel and fixes it to a clamp on the gun's muzzle. 11:35 <banana> As Willie crests the hill, balancing burning desires, she's well-positioned to summarise the situation. The farmhouse's collapse has halted and even begun to reverse, but there's still a huge purple machine jammed into it like a curved and hiltless dagger; that one is thankfully silent, immobile, with its pilot lapsed into unconsciousness. 11:36 <banana> Below her is an unnervingly large spreading green cloud, within which she can't even see Bob. She can see the outlines of the smashed white mech... it fizzes, a lot, but does not move either. 11:36 <banana> Around the corner of the house is the torn up farm yard, full of bullets and metal and Rolf. There's only one intact bunker from your original series of traps and preparations, and it's further occluded by a haze to the air. Badawi's in there, but she knows this only due to their radio comms. 11:37 <banana> Slowly coming back to life in the yard is the yellow mech, the only one that's actually moving. 11:37 <banana> It's blasted, burned, shot up and Rolf is holding part of its pincer armour, but it's moving and the guns are coming back online. 11:37 <Crion> To Reveille, without looking away: "I am operating a series of mental techniques and technopractices known as a 'module.' I am a product of the Wintergreen Process. All parameters are optimal. Aren't they, you little shit?" That last bit is clearly to the leg. 11:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's voice is cold and muffled on the comms. "Agostina do you have a gas mask?" 11:40 <banana> Reveille: "The world is a vast and terrible place. Might as well fight it." 11:40 <VoxPVoxD> Her mouth is full of bitter and sour. She wants to spit but that will just make it worse. 11:41 <Quaker> Badawi: “No. I’m clear of the legs.” 11:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The yellow pod might be about to burst. Be warned." 11:43 <banana> Both women's voices are clear on the radio, which is a counterpoint to the total inaudibility elsewhere - now that the rain and snow have morphed into hail, there's a loud clatter off all the metal surfaces and on the farmhouse. Occasionally one of the tiny stones pummels you harmlessly. 11:45 <VoxPVoxD> No one's near enough to Willie to hear what she mumbles under the mask. On the comm it sounds staticky and weird, like overlapping little voices that build in volume and intensity until the yellow pod pulses red. 11:46 <VoxPVoxD> Someone with eyes on her might see the veins on her exposed skin flare orange and see her retch and stoop with pain. 11:52 <banana> The 'iris' on the yellow pod is pulsing as the creature inside focuses on Agostina... and it stops, abruptly. Red flares. There is a screech of pain. Willie gets a moment's triumph before the white pod behind her fucking explodes. 11:53 <banana> Chunks of metal hurtle out of the gas cloud in all directions. They're big, so there's an illusion that they're moving slowly, but this is not the case - it takes some fancy footwork on most people's part to avoid being struck by debris. A hard-edged shard of white painted steel takes Willie right in the back. 11:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's dazed by the pain in her skin and her lungs, and she doesn't have anywhere to hide, really. The shrapnel digs into her back and she hits the ground. Her scream cuts over the comm as the world spins beneath her and she struggles for purchase by clinging to wet grass. 11:54 <Crion> Aster: "What the fuck was that?" 11:54 <Crion> "Did one them explode?" 11:55 <banana> It was BOOM, thump, thump, smashing glass as chunks rain down on and crash into the farmhouse. The wizard in the doorway staggers and nearly drops the Carl Gustaf. "Uh, yeah, think so. I'll hold this place together, but you might want to get people inside if that's going to happen again." 11:55 <VoxPVoxD> As if sensing an opening - as if a Beast had been lying in wait for this opportunity - the fire inside her rises. The gas mask fills from within with the smoke coming out of her nostrils. Embers fly from the bleeding wound like sparks from the dying machine that caused it. 11:55 <Quaker> Badawi: “The white leg blew up.” 11:55 <tom> Bob clicks on. In a flat voice: "We've got wounded." 11:56 <Crion> Aster: "What's the fucking mechanism? Did it do it on purpose?" 11:57 <banana> Molten lumps of metal are still falling with the hail. The noise reverberates off the hills. 11:57 <VoxPVoxD> She can't contain it. It can't be contained. She detonates again, a sphere of brick-red fire expanding rapidly from her centre of gravity. The comm crackles, sizzles, begins to melt. The last thing they hear before her mic goes inoperable is "No. No. No no no no no no no—" 11:58 <VoxPVoxD> The sphere of fire keeps expanding... but the rate of its expansion slows. Eventually the parabola bends, and the rate of acceleration increases again but backwards. The sphere rolls back. The fire shrinks. 11:58 <Quaker> She ignores the comms and tries to put whatever is going on down there out of her head. Badawi has seen the thing in the yellow leg’s cockpit backlit twice now - once in purple and once in red. She aims at the center of the shadow and holds for a beat before her rifle’s *crack* joins the rolling chorus of noise. 11:59 <VoxPVoxD> In the space of a few seconds it's gone, and Willie is gasping, bleeding, and smoking in the grass. 11:59 <hrolf> Rolf is running, running, running like hell out of there, panting with the effort. "Can't see shite for the smoke and hellfire! Everybody, check in!" 12:00 <Crion> Aster: "In the farmhouse with the client." 12:00 <banana> Paola Anna: "Here. And here, in the phantom zone." 12:00 <Quaker> Badawi: “On the hill. Just put down the yellow leg’s pilot.” 12:02 <hrolf> Rolf: "Goreman? Wellesley?" 12:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's mic is slag. 12:02 <VoxPVoxD> Don't say it Rolf. 12:02 <hrolf> So's sh- 12:04 <banana> Egret: "If the one in the kitchen goes up, I can't contain it. Prioritise that." 12:05 <banana> Mary: "We'll just, ah.." She ducks into the bedroom and hauls Paola Anna up over her shoulders. "Seems safer to get out to the porch for a moment." 12:05 <banana> They're moving, but might not be out of range. 12:05 <Crion> Aster: "Absolutely. I will finish things in here." 12:06 <banana> There's both smoke and chlorine boiling out of the rift in the yellow leg. 12:06 <banana> It begins to teeter and fall, tonnes of metal collapsing in a random direction. 12:06 <tom> Bob's radio clicks on after a near-eternity: "I'm down to my last grenade." 12:07 <Quaker> Badawi keys her radio: “Are they all down?” 12:08 <hrolf> Rolf: "Seems like they are- Wellesley might be too? Didn't 'ear 'er check in. Man down!" 12:08 <Crion> Aster, to the radio: "It's fine." To the pod: "You had your chance. Don't come back." 12:08 <banana> One of them is falling down even as she watches. The collapse of the yellow metal thing is a little too familiar... might not want to go near that one either. Also, it's got the same "surrounded by choking poison" issue that the white pod had pre-explosion. 12:09 <banana> Mary winces again. "Got to try that," she mutters. The last tripod Master does worse than wince. 12:09 <Crion> The strongest, most upsetting Talon module pops a blood vessel in Aster's tear ducts and causes him to start, well, crying blood...as it rips through the mind of the final master. 12:09 <banana> Aster plunges his whole something into an alien brain, which collapses both morally and physically. The triangular creature's flesh boils under psychosomatic pressure. With the chlorine unvented and its mech unbroken - wedged in place by the repaired farmhouse roof - the purple pod goes silent. 12:09 <tom> "Ugh." He pats down his side; searing pain spreads from what must be at least one broken rib. Every breath hurts. 12:10 <VoxPVoxD> Willie can't see anyone. She can't hear everything. Every bit of her will and attention is focused on continuing to breathe. 12:10 <Quaker> Then she leaves the rifle in the foxhole and gingerly steps through Egret’s hazy field, and starts sprinting down to the farmhouse. 12:12 <Crion> Over comms: "Purple is down. Clear the farmhouse. I don't know if it's structurally stable--" 12:12 <banana> Egret: "It is." 12:12 <Crion> Aster: "Well, clear it anyway. We've got wounded to tend to." 12:13 <banana> Badawi and Rolf both make it inside before the yellow pod blows up and takes the MG with it. 12:14 <Quaker> Badawi flinches as the thing blows up as she steps into the house through a new hole. “Who is down?” 12:15 <tom> Bob flips up the shotgun, unscrewing the grenade from its muzzle and disarming it. The gun goes onto the wet grass; he follows it, balancing somewhat unsteadily on one knee as he comes down from the adrenaline. "Willie's got it bad." 12:15 <banana> On the downhill side of the house there's an argument; you don't catch much of it as Mary isn't wearing a headset, but Paola Anna's up, apparently, and stumbling down the hill into one of the areas that's still full of burning metal. 12:16 <banana> DisAster: "Someone help me turn this thing on!" 12:16 <tom> "Chlorine gas. We need oxygen." 12:16 <VoxPVoxD> Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. 12:16 <Crion> Aster is already stalking out to the field; once he sees the gas, he's both moving away from it and toward the cellmates he knows were out there. 12:18 <hrolf> Rolf catches up with the client's entourage. "Turn what on, marm?" 12:19 <Quaker> Agostina takes out her cell phone and dials Strangeways - Octocat’s personal number. 12:19 <banana> Paola Anna: "The black hole gun! We need to turn it back on, but this is completely..." she surveys the wreckage. The exotic weapon which did something horrid to Rolf's bones earlier is in there, but it's not doing anything. 12:20 <hrolf> Rolf: "Turn it back on? For what?" 12:20 <tom> Bob sounds haggard over the radio: "It's gas poisoning. Just dillute it! Swallow snow." 12:21 <Crion> Halfway to Bob and Willie, he turns and breaks for his Range Rover. He slides behind the wheel, drives it off the paved carport, and pulls it down next to them where he can drop the back and pull out all his medical supplies. 12:21 <tom> He scoops up a handful of sleet and rubs it in his burning, itching eyes. 12:21 <banana> Paola Anna: "The wizard went in! Come on, mate, I can't move all this stuff!" Don't be useless, mate! 12:21 <banana> *no don't be useless 12:21 <Crion> Aster has perhaps better, more direct applications of water than snow and hail: to wit, water, in bottles. 12:22 <VoxPVoxD> Bob was in the gas. Is Bob okay? She opens her eyes to look for him but all she sees is her own corrosive tears and the haze of smoke inside the mask. Beyond it, the rain-soaked earth is black. 12:22 <banana> Washing out the lungs will help, maybe stabilise them, maybe not permanently. Hospitals are annoyingly far away... and Badawi's signal is bad. The phone rings. 12:23 <hrolf> Rolf sighs and winces as the adrenaline wears off the pain wears on. "Alright, alright. 'old your 'orses. Let's 'ave a 'eave. With me. On 3. 1, 2, -" 12:23 <Crion> Half of the work here is going to be herding the victims -- it looks like Willie and Bob, and just them, Christ she's on her last leg, fuck -- over to the Range Rover for the first aid he can provide, and give Badawi a landmark to point any incoming mages toward. 12:24 <banana> Mary's there with the others, though.. she doesn't know first aid. "Oh shit, I'm sorry.. we should have brought the others. All I can do is-" She stops talking abruptly and shakes a bit. Everyone nearby, particularly Willie and Bob, feel a wash of calm. Pain fades to become an important but not distracting signal. 12:25 <hrolf> "3!" With a grunt and the squeal of moving metal scraping against itself, things begin to move. To reveal- what? 12:25 <tom> Bob just kneels there in the grass, pouring the offered water over his eyes, focusing on breathing. 12:25 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, that's nice. That's relief. Like a cool bath. 12:25 <VoxPVoxD> Is this what dying is like? 12:26 <banana> Rolf and Paola Anna have uncovered the weird long barrel of the singularity weapon, which has crystalline rings along its length. Absurdly, there's a human-sized trigger underneath it - a tiny little loop and pick that looks like it's for manual firing. 12:26 <banana> The thing is embedded in burning slag, connected to a power source which is mostly chemical slag, pointing... off at some random mountain. 12:27 <banana> You can't really aim it. But you could fire it. It looks like the guitarist is going to try, if Rolf doesn't object or get to it first. 12:28 <Crion> Not if Aster can help it. He can't get the residue out of their lungs or directly address the damage, but he can get them stable. 12:28 <banana> Octocat: "Hello? Agostina?" He sounds a little hazy. It's about six in the morning at this point. 12:28 <hrolf> Rolf whistles. "Look at the size of that trigger. This fing looks right dangerous - I'd 'old off on doing anyfing with it yet." 12:28 <tom> "Fuck." Bob stands, shakily. 12:29 <Crion> Aster: "Don't push yourself." 12:30 <Crion> "Either of you." He's spending more time on the water-and-flush routine with Willie, who is running a massively elevated body fever for obvious reasons. 12:30 <banana> Paola Anna: "Look, I can see and hear- fuck, it doesn't matter, let me just do it." 12:30 <hrolf> "Not going to 'appen marm - at least let's get everyone together first, figure this fing out." 12:30 <Quaker> Jesus Christ. Pick u - “Hello, this is Badawi. We just took down an extreme threat. I need an immediate medical presence at the location of this phone call as fast as you can manage. Free Assembly mages are currently missing. No paradox.” 12:31 <tom> "I'm fine. Just, fuck, couple'a busted ribs." He winces with each breath, bracing his arm against his side. 12:31 <banana> In the moment of calm with the two gassed hunters... less-gassed, Mary points across the hill into the flames. "I don't know what they're arguing about." 12:31 <Quaker> She keys her radio to Aster. “What’s going on with them? Do we need medical here, or the closest hospital?” 12:31 <Crion> Aster: "Here. Now." 12:31 <Quaker> “Got it.” 12:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's not trying to do too much. She's positioned however Aaron wanted her. Kaga is by her side, staring with unblinking eyes at Mary Morgan. 12:32 <Crion> "Give them whatever they want of the loot." To Bob: "Sorry Bob. You and Willie come first." 12:32 <banana> Octocat: "Uhh. Yes, okay, I'm going to VPN in.. people will come. There are going to be complaints... we'll put that off, forget I said anything." 12:32 <Quaker> To Octocat on the other line: “Immediately. Like, now.” 12:32 <Quaker> “Thanks.” She hangs up. 12:33 <Quaker> Another car can’t hurt. She texts Amjad to hurry to the farmhouse. 12:35 <tom> Bob just grunts. He turns- painfully- to regard his farmhouse. To Aster: "Is the client okay?" 12:35 <hrolf> Rolf: "In fact, I'd step away from the fing till the sod squad gets 'ere - they might know 'ow to get one of their own back." 12:35 <banana> The farmhouse is actually doing... better than the last time he saw it? 12:35 <tom> Bitterly: "I was like, two-thirds done with the remodel, man..." 12:35 <banana> It's literally repairing itself. 12:36 <tom> I like these guys so much more than Strangeways. 12:36 <banana> Sod is coming off the ground, burned wood restoring itself - the mage inside is contributing in her own way. 12:36 <Quaker> Agostina walks over to the Range Rover. 12:36 <Crion> To Bob: "Mary's perfectly fine. Only thing that's been hurt is her opinion of me. She got to see the Talon module up close." 12:36 <banana> Mary says: "I'm the client, yeah? All good here. Are you gonna be.. alright?" Can Willie even answer her? 12:36 <Crion> Keep them conscious. 12:37 <banana> Paola Anna: "Rrrrgh." In a moment, Rolf's going to win this one by default - the burning metal is spitting out splashes of.. horrible stuff, and it's simply not safe to stay here. 12:37 <VoxPVoxD> Weakly: "where's Bob. I don't see Bob" 12:37 <banana> Paola Anna: "It just.. can't we do anything? I hate it. I hate it." 12:37 <tom> "Over here." Bob coughs. "Take it easy." 12:37 <Quaker> She can take the empty water bottles from Aster, give him her still full canteen, and run back and forth to the house and the Rover to keep the water coming. 12:37 <Crion> Is Bob still some five to seven feet away? 12:38 <Crion> This is pretty bad. 12:38 <tom> "You're hurt way worse." 12:38 <Crion> He'll hand the bottles off to Badawi with a nod that means thanks. 12:38 <Quaker> Quietly: “Strangeways is on their way with care.” 12:38 <VoxPVoxD> "I can't- hospital. no hospital" 12:38 <VoxPVoxD> "reporters" 12:38 <tom> "Well. Mission success." 12:38 <hrolf> Rolf: "Don't fink so, unless you 'ave a phd in intergalactic weaponry. Let's move." 12:39 <Crion> Aster: "We're bringing the hospital here. Strangeways mages." 12:39 <banana> There's a blur up the head of the valley, on the access road. Much faster than cars should go, even on a racetrack. 12:40 <VoxPVoxD> "Mary's safe. Paola Anna?" 12:41 <Crion> Aster: "No casualties." 12:41 <banana> Egret comes out of the house after a while, spots the two older people arguing as they make their way out of the flaming wreck and goes to help. "Idiots. What the fuck. This stuff is eight hundred degrees." 12:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles weakly, and coughs up low-pH bloody sputum. "result" 12:42 <banana> Mary: "Yeah. Thank you all." 12:42 <Crion> Aster nods. "Now hush. Help is just about here." 12:43 <Crion> He looks around. "Rolf. Where's Rolf?" On comms: "Rolf." 12:43 <Crion> "Get the client and her people out of sight." 12:44 <Quaker> Badawi looks down the road at the approaching blurs. To Mary: “Get in the farmhouse.” 12:44 <Crion> "We don't want the Strangeways mages taking swipes, or worse, at them." 12:44 <Quaker> “And this shit is coming out of your royalties.” 12:44 <hrolf> Rolf: "Noted. Drive back to city?" 12:45 <banana> The star-children allow themselves to be herded inside, although Paola Anna looks pretty despairing. Mary's just quiet. 12:45 <Crion> Aster: "Yeah. Or just, anywhere but here." 12:45 <banana> A car almost materialises at the end of the drive, the last intact part, having arrived at superspeed and then come to a super-halt. 12:45 <banana> Egret joins the group. "I don't know where Zeb is I know he's okay, but our tracker is wildly off." 12:46 <Quaker> “Inside the black hole gun?” 12:46 <hrolf> Rolf harries Reveille and co. like a sheephound towards the range rover. "Let's go ladies, funtime's over. No time to waste - hup!" 12:46 <banana> "Could be, doesn't make any sense but maybe." 12:46 <Crion> Aster: "We can handle that in short order. When these two are stable. We had to call in other mages. Sorry if that wasn't run by you first." 12:46 <Crion> That's to Egret. 12:46 <banana> Egret: "Not mine to veto." 12:46 <banana> You actually know two out of the three people who come out of the car. 12:46 <Quaker> “Diamond mages. Sorry.” 12:47 <tom> Bob exhales, slowly, and watches the alien wreckage burn. The cables from the trap lie strewn about the property. It's gonna be such a pain in the ass to clean this up. 12:47 <tom> Maybe letting them take it all isn't a bad idea. 12:47 <banana> It's Carrey and Opal, from the Wolf-Mourners! It's also some guy in scrubs, half-on like he's been changing in the vehicle. They've a pallet of emergency medical kit with them, so it doesn't look like anyone else wants to risk going to a hospital either. 12:48 <banana> In the house, Reveille asks Rolf: "Who are your friends? Not punk fans?" 12:49 <Quaker> As they watch the wizards come towards them, Badawi’s eye goes over the wreckage. “Guess that means we’ve still got a chemical bomb over in the purple leg.” 12:49 <hrolf> Rolf: "Not my friends, marm. Best not to 'ang about when they're around in my experience." 12:50 <banana> Opal is tall, dark-eyed and typically serious. When you first met these guys and Zeno, he was the one most willing to be pragmatic about paying mercenaries to hunt spirits, rather than complaining about their circumstances. 12:51 <Crion> Aster: "Thank you for coming." He would offer masks and gloves, but they seem to have their own. 12:51 <banana> Carrey mugs a little for an invisible camera, but quiets when she sees the injured and, with the unknown mage, heads straight for them. Opal: "Hello. What kind of injuries do.. Dave and Willie have?" 12:51 <Crion> Aster doesn't bother correcting the name. "Chlorine gas. World War I style." 12:52 <Crion> "These 'aliens' used quite conventional, but deadly, kit. Bullets and chemical weapons this time, not ray guns." 12:53 <Quaker> Badawi: “And she’s got shrapnel injuries.” 12:53 <Crion> Aster: "Yes; I've done what I can for those. It's more than what I can do for HCl in the lungs." 12:54 <banana> The mage watches his colleagues work for a few seconds. He's using more than just the two visible eyes. "They'll avoid permanent scarring, at least from the gas. Your wash was reasonably done. He takes a step back and looks around at the battered landscape. Craters, green fog, vast chunks of metal on fire. A largely intact farmhouse with a six-meter alien war croissant embedded in the roof. 12:54 <banana> Carrey and the other guy, who she calls Pallas, talk Bob and Willie respectively through it. "We're going to adjust your lungs now. Please breathe deeply for a moment... now hold..." 12:55 <banana> Opal looks at Badawi; 12:55 <banana> *. 12:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie follows directions. 12:55 <Quaker> “Zebek Trajan was vanished by an alien weapon. Egret says he’s alright, but he’s still missing.” 12:55 <banana> Egret: "I'm Egret, Guardian. Free Assemblies." 12:56 <banana> Opal: "Okay. I'd like to ask why there was an alien weapon, and in fact what all of this is." 12:56 <Crion> Aster still has dried blood down the front of his face; he notices it now and splashes some bottled water into his hands. "Excuse me." He turns away to wash it off. 12:56 <banana> Egret: "If you're going to focus on investigation, I'll go contact some friends. We need to look for Zeb." 12:57 <Crion> When he turns back: "How familiar are you with the Starchildren, conceptually, as a phylum?" 12:57 <banana> "I left your awesome gun on the kitchen table, Agostina." 12:57 <Quaker> To Egret: “It’s yours. You earned it. Thank you, again.” 12:57 <banana> "Hell, I'll take it." 12:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie exhales. She's still in pain, but she can breathe painlessly, and has the diaphragm strength to speak. "Have we met?" she asks the mage-physician administering her. 12:58 <banana> Opal: "What I was told is that your team is involved with star-children; that you're doing a job for them, commercially; that it's already resulted in one open incident, and a coverup into which the otherwise-weak local Seers of the Throne inserted themselves. Now there is this." 12:59 <Crion> Neutrally: "Then you are current." 12:59 <tom> Bob coughs, stammers, coughs some more, horks up a worryingly-sized clot of what he prays isn't lung tissue. He spits on the grass. "Fffuuck." 12:59 <banana> The mage notes the changed state of Aster's shirt. "Do you need treatment as well?" 13:00 <tom> "Hey again Carrey. Opal." 13:00 <VoxPVoxD> "Pardon me," A very unladylike hacking cough and she comes up with a handful of, "Ah, it was chlorine." 13:00 <Crion> Aster, curtly: "I do not. Thank you." 13:00 <VoxPVoxD> "Happy belated Remembrance Sunday." 13:00 <banana> Pallas: "We have met now, Lady Wellesley. Amusing circumstances, but I can't recommend repeating whatever procedure this was." 13:00 <VoxPVoxD> "Do call me Willie. I am very grateful." 13:01 <VoxPVoxD> "Is there a bag for these crystals?" 13:01 <banana> The wizard in scrubs has his hands on Willie a lot, arms mostly, but it's clinical in a good way. She can feel things untwisting and relaxing into a surprising lack of pain. 13:02 <Quaker> Badawi isn’t in the mood for a field interview, so she’ll disappear into the farmhouse and come back with some towels, blankets, and a bowl of water. She’ll kneel by the two recovering Hunters and give them some wetted towels for their faces, and the blankets to wrap around them as the snow falls. 13:03 <banana> Carrey produces a bag from the medical kit and hands it to Willie. She tells Bob, "We have to stop meeting like this." 13:03 <VoxPVoxD> "Thank you, Agostina." She permits herself a little groan and, with Pallas's permission, a stretch after the crystals are deposited. "Aaaah. 13:04 <banana> Opal: "Without meaning as a judgement, I'm surprised you're alive. No wonder that idigam stayed in its box." 13:04 <banana> "Seems to me that as a group you've delved into the Mysteries enough to survive them, but without actually being part of that world. It's an ongoing danger." 13:04 <tom> The mage gets a bloody smile. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand: "We won, ma'am. Good enough for government work." 13:05 <banana> Carrey: "Ex-Office? There's a lot of that going around." 13:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I think at this point we're well enough part of whatever this is." 13:06 <banana> Opal: "That's a choice you've made. The trouble is, it's requiring repeated bailouts. Now there's a stretch of Peak District countryside covered in impossble things." 13:06 <tom> Bob: "As the property owner, I'm willing- if you want any of this-" 13:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "If you don't want to maintain a working relationship that's your prerogative." 13:07 <tom> "If you can clean this up, you can have all this pristine alien salvage." 13:07 <Crion> Aster, to Opal: "I don't disagree with your assessment. There has yet to be satisfactory explanation for the aggravated -- I mean this in the sense of assault, or a wound, not 'annoyance' -- nature of this particular Calling. If this was the norm you'd be seeing these things all over Britain." 13:08 <Crion> He doesn't bother contradicting Opal on 'bailout.' It is not worth trying to get between a mage and their own high-handedness when you need something from one. 13:08 <Quaker> Badawi: “It was either here or downtown Manchester. We didn’t call them down. They were coming anyway.” 13:08 <banana> Aside, to Bob: "Try making that offer to a discreet scrap dealer." 13:08 <hrolf> With the star and her entourage carefully shepherded into the range rover, Rolf turns back to Reveille on the back seat and gives her the thumbs up. Without waiting for them to strap in, he slams on the accelerator and they're off up the dirt road towards the highway. VROOOM 13:08 <tom> "Well it was worth a shot.." 13:08 <banana> Egret: "Ahaha. Dour fucks. They're on the right side, mind you. Your friends'll be alright." 13:08 <banana> Reveille: "...that's good." 13:08 <VoxPVoxD> How's Bob doing? How's Aaron doing? 13:09 <Crion> Outside of the blood on his shirt, whose provenance Willie can probably clock by now. He's fine. Trying his hand at being sociable with a mage. 13:09 <banana> Opal: "Once is coincidence, twice is enemy action... what will the third time be?" 13:09 <banana> "I'm not severing any relationships. You've got friends in higher places than you know. That's an investigation of its own." 13:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "At this rate, Advent." 13:10 <banana> "I believe you've already been made an offer by my colleague." 13:10 <Crion> To Opal: "We have a plan of action to prevent a third time. Working through...multiple channels in parallel. One way or another, there cannot be a repeat of all of this." 13:10 <Crion> "I don't think any of us can sustain escalation." 13:10 <banana> Carrey: "You're actually okay, Bob. Give it a couple of days and you could go dancing. Nice alveolae cultivation!" 13:11 <VoxPVoxD> Now Willie's thinking about Samhain. 13:11 <banana> Opal: "I'll take that assurance in the spirit you've given it." 13:11 <VoxPVoxD> Ah fuck. 13:11 <VoxPVoxD> Well... he's in the same room. That's a good sign, right? 13:11 <tom> "Thanks. I do the breathing exercises and the tantric yoga." 13:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What's my exposure? Am I okay to drink water? Is it just rest from here?" 13:12 <Quaker> Badawi’s adrenaline is pumping out of her veins by the second. She’s too tired and cold to argue anything or pay attention to any lecture. Closure has the recording for them, if they want to listen. Fuck off if they don’t. 13:12 <tom> He coughs, snarls, and horks up a disgusting mess of red mucous. "Hooooo.." 13:12 <tom> "That's better." 13:12 <banana> In the car, Paola Anna tells Egret, "I'm sorry about your friend. He was talking to me in a dream, but I can't remember my dreams properly. It seemed like he was going to be okay.. he was having fun, but worried about how we were doing." 13:12 <VoxPVoxD> Reflexively Willie offers Bob her handkerchief. 13:13 <VoxPVoxD> She only realizes what she's doing once it's fully extended. 13:13 <VoxPVoxD> She can't take it back. 13:13 <banana> Egret: "Reassuring, sorta. You're both telepaths?" 13:13 <hrolf> Rolf: "They'll get 'im out of that fing, don't you worry." 13:14 <banana> Paola Anna: "It's a bit different. I can farspeak people, M&M's more... hooked into minds around her." 13:14 <tom> Bob takes the offered handkerchief and dabs his mouth, groaning. "Hey Willie." Resigned. 13:14 <tom> "Can I have my gas mask back." 13:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie points at the contaminated stuff on the floor beside where she's propped up. "It got a bit melty. I'm sorry." 13:15 <tom> "Aw, no biggie. You gonna be okay?" 13:15 <banana> Opal gives the patients another once-over. "Good job, friends." He means his friends. "I'm going to walk around a bit and take a look at these artefacts. Could you liase, Carrey?" 13:15 <Crion> Aster turns back to the debris. "This land is privately owned, by Goreman over there. If you're not interested in any of this nonsense, we'll at least have time, space and capacity to dismantle it properly. With correct safeguards for, who knows what else is in there. Mustard gas. Chauchat rifles. Trench foot." 13:15 <VoxPVoxD> "I think so." She looks directly at him. "Are you?" 13:15 <banana> Alien corpses. 13:16 <Crion> If Opal had included Aster or the others in 'friends,' that might have gotten Aster to actually break his uncommonly polite facade. 13:17 <tom> Bob straight up just gets up from where he's sitting and leaves the living room. 13:18 <banana> Carrey: "Hey- ah, he's fine." 13:18 <tom> It's after a second that Willie can hear the fridge open, and the clinking of glassware. He comes back with a bottle of beer and one of those incredibly shitty little plastic wine bottles. 13:18 <banana> "Aaron, don't mind Opal too much. It's his job, you know? We have people whose job it is to be like that." 13:18 <Quaker> Badawi will wander through the farmhouse, half-paying attention as she looks through the rooms for anything they might have missed. 13:19 <banana> Pallas: "I'm not going to pile on either way. These seem like extraordinary circumstances." 13:19 <VoxPVoxD> When Bob just gets up and walks out again, hurt and shame and anger spike, catching the sides of her throat where the Beast sat. When he comes back immediately she chokes it back down. 13:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We don't take it personally, so long as he doesn't take it personally that we're not going to listen." 13:20 <banana> Pallas: "Careful, Willie. I had to leave a layer of.. damage, basically skin-deep pain, so that the part which heals is you." 13:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I know the feeling." 13:20 <Crion> Was that Carrey? If so: "Oh, I don't mind Opal in the slightest. I'm sure the feeling's mutual." 13:21 <VoxPVoxD> "I really am very grateful for your help. A genuine, literal lifesaver." 13:21 <banana> Carrey: "We owed you one. Whole city did, really." 13:21 <tom> Bob sets down the little bottle of wine- some sort of cabernet- and a glass across from Willie before collapsing back into his chair with his beer. 13:21 <banana> "However, the Hierarchs would like me to state... we only owed you one." 13:21 <banana> "Scrambling like that has costs. Sucks, but it does." 13:22 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So far. We're not the only ones who need bailing out." 13:22 <VoxPVoxD> "And you've got our card." 13:22 <banana> Carrey: "Yeah, don't be surprised if you get a call asking for help on some insane bullshit. It'd pay well though." 13:22 <banana> "Tuchanka says - do you know Tuchanka?" 13:22 <VoxPVoxD> She shifts in place and winces at the pain. She shakes her head. 13:22 <VoxPVoxD> Then she pours a glass of wine. 13:23 <banana> "A fortress hierarch. Tip of the Arrow. Tuchanka says, these guys have come out of various places and embedded themselves in the city's doings; most of it's positive, most of it doesn't matter to us, but it's one more factor. There were... already a lot of factors." 13:24 <banana> Pallas: "Opal's coming back. We might have to head straight out again." 13:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, thank you again." 13:24 <tom> "Yeah, thanks." 13:25 <banana> The only things Badawi finds in the farmhouse are Reveille's E and a structurally-intact purple alien war-machine spiked into the ground, full of chlorine and fuel. 13:25 <VoxPVoxD> Whew. Easily a bottom-two day this week for Willie. 13:25 <tom> Bob groans, feeling the shallow ache where his ribs had almost punctured his lungs. 13:25 <banana> She also finds Opal, shaking his head. "That thing's got DNA. What kind of alien has DNA?" 13:25 <VoxPVoxD> Then again, the weekend approaches. Daniel Craig intones its dark portents in the back of her mind. 13:26 <tom> He waits for the wizards to leave before turning to Willie. "Obviously I talked to her. You should know." 13:26 <Crion> They're clearly not actually aliens. 13:26 <Crion> Come on, man. 13:26 <banana> The two Life mages - or maybe all three of them use life magic in varying degree - pack and get out. They're not hostile at all, but there's a strong smdh aura to them. 13:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie once again meets Bob's eyes levelly and directly. "Of course. I need to talk to Sergio, but... after that, you and I should... clear the air a bit." 13:27 <VoxPVoxD> "Perhaps once we've healed up a bit more." 13:27 <Crion> Aster has moved elsewhere. Somewhere away from the conversation between his two previous patients. Perhaps he's seeing the Life mages off, like a polite host. 13:28 <tom> Bob tips back his beer and nods. "Here's to winning." 13:28 <Quaker> “Maybe they’re some fucked up randoms that got turned to look like that.” Drugs? Seriously? She thought she was too tired, but now she’s angrier at ‘Reveille’ than she was thirty minutes ago. “Excuse me.” She grabs the bag of pills and walks to the bathroom. 13:30 <banana> Opal: "Later, or otherwise." That was to Badawi; he'll accept Aster's escort Out. 13:30 <banana> It seems that you get to(?) keep the alien war machine. 13:31 <Crion> Going to be a mess taking it down. 13:31 <Crion> Thankfully, not his mess. 13:31 <banana> For some reason, Egret reassembled the house around it. Maybe she thought it was aesthetic. 13:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie raises her glass. "Invictus," The joke is drier than the wine. 13:31 <tom> "Haha-oh, oh, it hurts-" He clutches his side. 13:31 <banana> The body of the thing is far wider than its tips, right? So now much of that body is embedded in a stairwell and kitchen - the basement stairs curve around it - and it wouldn't even be possible to lift it out with a crane. 13:32 <Quaker> They hear the toilet flush and Badawi walks back into the kitchen. To Bob: “When we’ve got a moment I can take that gas mask and a crowbar and pop the seal on the purple can.” 13:32 <tom> "We really are fuckups, huh." He nods, glances up at Badawi: "Sure, sure. You sure you wanna do it, though?" 13:33 <Quaker> “Well, once everyone’s cleared out.” 13:33 <banana> Now that's a coincidence. Willie hadn't got around to checking all her messages yet, having been woken up before sunrise, and there they are: the Invictus. Baron Eccles got back to her at last. 13:34 <banana> <I will accept your offer to return the blade. Having reconsidered, you hardly act like prey.> 13:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie beckons Aaron over and shows him her (somehow unmelted) phone screen. 13:35 <tom> Bob takes off his visor and folds it into his pocket. He picks up his phone. <idk wtf happened but we won> 13:35 <tom> <can we talk later> 13:36 <banana> Mari: <That's a relief.> Then, after half an agonising minute: <Yes.> 13:37 <tom> Bob visibly ages a decade over those thirty seconds, sitting there in his chair nursing a beer. 13:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sees him, and wants to put a hand on his shoulder. So she hopes Aaron comes over quickly before her inability to do so becomes too painful. "Aaron, I've a message." 13:38 <banana> It might not have been much fun on the other end. But the first partwas a relief. 13:39 <banana> Rolf's gone to take the women to their homes, so four hunters are alone together in an intact (yet altered) farmhouse. 13:39 <tom> Altered, how? Bob snaps out of his gloom to glance around. 13:39 <banana> The wind hasn't died down outside, so it fans the flames a bit. It's a good thing nobody wanted to farm this land anymore. 13:39 <VoxPVoxD> Well, a spaceship crashed into it a bit. 13:39 <tom> He gets up and goes to light the fireplace. 13:39 <VoxPVoxD> Then a wizard repaired it with magic a bit. 13:41 <tom> There's a little pile of firewood just out back. In a moment he's back to kneel in front of the fireplace and fiddle with a lighter and a hand-shredded copy of some awful tabloid magazine. 13:41 <Quaker> To Bob: “Want to fire the black hole gun?” 13:41 <Quaker> “Fuck it.” 13:41 <banana> Unfortunately, by now it's completely melted down. The big guns on the purple pod are basically okay, though! There are weapons it didn't even get a chance to use. 13:41 <tom> "Hee hee, oh, you're serious? Like you have to ask?" 13:42 <tom> He scratches his chin. "Badawi, are we going into debt with wizards?" 13:43 <Quaker> “Nope.” 13:43 <Crion> Aster walks over and checks the phone in Willie's hands. "Well then." 13:43 <Quaker> “I just can’t ask them for favors for a while.” 13:43 <Crion> "I think it's still in my van." 13:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Well, I don't have to respond immediately. We've got until sundown at least." 13:44 <Crion> "I, of course, have concerns about the level of respect he'll have at any sort of meet, but I trust you to set it up with that in mind." 13:44 <VoxPVoxD> "It's 6 in the morning, so the sun should be setting in about four hours." 13:44 <Crion> "Ha." 13:44 <banana> It's barely risen. 13:45 <tom> "That's a relief." Bob nurses the tongue of flame between the chopped sections of firewood, then sits back to watch it grow. It doesn't take long for the room to warm up. 13:46 <tom> "Well Agostina, it's not even December. Do you think we got a chance against what comes after this?" 13:47 <Quaker> Badawi sits in a folding chair. “I think that was their last, best shot to solve their problem this way. The lizardman phrased it like that, anyway.” 13:48 <tom> "Here's hoping. They gassed me like a fucking cockroach." 13:49 <tom> "So are they actually people, or something?" 13:49 <tom> "I uh, killed one." 13:50 <Quaker> “Who knows. Either they aren’t people or they stopped being people like you and I are.” 13:50 <banana> Oxygen-breathers? 13:50 <Quaker> “Yeah. I did, too.” 13:51 <tom> "It doesn't feel very good. For a fucking band?" 13:51 <tom> "I just had to execute a E.T." 13:51 <tom> "Breaks my goddamn heart." 13:53 <Quaker> “They haven’t tried to negotiate.” 13:54 <Quaker> “Starting to wonder how good the Winter Court is for you.” 13:55 <tom> "Pfff." 13:58 <tom> Quietly: "Being sad about murder is like ninety percent of what we do." 14:00 <Crion> Aster makes a noise in his throat and goes to find himself a beer. 14:03 <Quaker> Then stop doing one or the other, she thinks. 14:03 <Quaker> Or shut the fuck up. 14:04 <Quaker> She sees Amjad’s van pulling into the ruined driveway, carefully navigating smoldering chunks of alien metal. “Excuse me.” 14:07 <Quaker> The older man closes the door behind him and looks around. “Is everyone alright?” 14:08 <Quaker> Badawi crunches through the snow and pulls the blanket tighter. “More or less.” 14:08 <Quaker> “It looks like a plane crashed.” 14:08 <Quaker> “More or less.” 14:10 <Quaker> Amjad: “And you? More or less?” 14:12 <Quaker> She stands silently. 14:14 <Quaker> But she doesn’t resist when he puts his arms around her and holds her close. In fact, she doesn’t mind at all.