Voyage Through the Multiverse (Ended) [IC]

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Miria

Miria responded to Mnem's sharp retort with a short, dry chuckle. "If you want to work out excess energy, I'm always looking for a sparring partner.", She wagged a finger. As for workshop chatter...

"Ordinance.", Miria echoed. Shaky breaths; just thinking about it had her a little excited. She couldn't hide the nefarious new gleam in her eye from the others. "Bombs. I've found my recent performance to be sorely lacking. I want to bolster my own arsenal.", She explained, already wriggling her fingers with anticipation. Angry and scheming, it seemed - she was definitely acting different since their exit from PJSS, but at least her creative spark had been reignited. "I can trust the lot of you to provide saltpetre and sulfur, yes? I should have no trouble procuring the rest from around here. Oh, and the deer!", Miria directly addressed Lee. "I want the bones, once the carcass has been broken down."

Interregnum | Frantzeska

"No mercy? I think that you and I shall get along well.", Frantzeska muttered - not at all caring to hush herself. They might have been invisible at that moment, but once they began their attack, there was a high likelihood that their cover would be blown. Even still, their forms may have been masked, but their voices were just as loud as ever. She was counting on that. She spoke aloud, all the while slowly navigating her way between the corralled villagers and their captors. The first bandit had barely enough time to turn his head before she struck him with all of her might.

Frantzeska was not a very large woman. She didn't seem to have much weight to her, and whatever muscle she may have possessed remained hidden under layers of heavy clothing. Despite that, she was strong; she was strong, and she was fast. Her blade found its mark and tore through flesh, as the Archduchess announced her presence with the cry of her prey and a splatter of blood upon his allies. The party recoiled, some instinctively raising arms or reaching for those which had been stowed. That was when the maimed body of their fallen comrade found its way hurtling towards them, bowling several more down and stunning them. Frantzeska hadn't just cut him down, but grabbed the bandit and, in one motion, thrown him towards the rest of his squad, forcing them away from the unarmed civilians behind her. Janali's blessing was broken, and Frantzeska materialized before the raiders and villagers, shimmering as light twisted around her body. Something else was shining behind her as well; A hazy mass, swirling, still taking form. The flash of a blue officer's uniform alone was enough to alarm some of the would-be pillagers, who backed away from the girl. The gleam of a golden circlet told others all they needed to know.

"What's happening now?", A hoarse voice called out from Aveta's right - likely one of the raiding party's leaders. On the opposite side of the village...nothing. Janali was more patient than her lord, likely still getting into position, if not waiting for a better opportunity to attack.

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Lee

Lee grinned with Kiara offering her help as well, and it seemed Miria shared some of his excitement with weapons and a desire to expand their arsenals. Kiara was already a master improv surgeon, so she would definitely shine in hand-cut parts. "Well, through last night I made this gun-howitzer," he gave it a couple pats. "simply in case we need a bigger gun in a future fight. Though it hasn't been test-shot yet, I've been looking into different kind of shells for it too. Even the chemical ones, because it's not for military use a bit like riot control gas." Miria listed off some things she needed, and he could make some guesses on what she was making. "Sure. That should be no problem, I'm already ordering most of my materials. If you feel like stuffing a bigger boom in the same size package though, feel free to browse the shops and Internet on my laptop as well." He gestured to where it was charging on his workshop table. Gavin turned his gaze to a wall in the direction the deer was, and connected with the golem he had left on autopilot. Still searching. It was just a golem after all, going in a grid search pattern. He paused right before he turned his attention back, and sent it after the brown, out-of-focus mass before leaving it to come back. Anda floated outside to deal with something. "Golem should be coming here sooner or later with it. Oh, and here's my airship project. Most of what's filling the pages are calculations. Since the last two we were on are now gone, one destroyed and one that left, I've designed it around the problems we've generally had and what I can make right now at this level of sophistication." He grabbed the stack and set it down for them to look through as they please. "Since Ableton mentioned outside help, I've kept most of the design flaws and weaknesses in my head instead of writing them down. Even the safety systems meant to deal with them."

[Skylus]

TGWR

Madi stepped up to examine the airship plans. “Huh. How quickly can you actually make this thing, Lee?”

There was a loud BANG from another section of the workshop.

Elliot’s slightly worried voice reached the others. “I don’t think it was supposed to do that.”

He then appeared in the doorway to the other room. “If you don’t mind, Gavin, I’d like to take a look at some of the weapon plans you’ve come up with.”

“Why? You don’t need to be walking around with futuristic weapons.”

“They’re not for me, they’re for the Master Cycle. Gavin suggested I put some sort of weapon on it.”

“Is that so….” Madi then noticed something. “I don’t know what you did but it burned your hair off your face.”

“It is?” Elliot gazed at Madi in confusion, then slowly reached up to his face and felt smooth skin. “I was testing the Dragonfire fuel… No wonder my face felt colder… Don’t think my face is burned….”

“It’s not.” Madi confirmed. “You look five years younger, by the way.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Elliot then returned to the other room to continue working on the MCZ.

Madi then turned to Lee. “… Dragonfire fuel? What is that?”

[Menschenfleisch]

TGWR | Polly K. Delilah, Mnemosyne Cain and Kiara Anenasya

"I think a sparring session would be great." Kiara smiled with homely warmth. "You might need to go easy on me, though. I'm not exactly in prime form right now." She smirked and placed a hand on the back of her neck, twisting her head to one side and eliciting a series of dry cracks. "I'm a chemist first, but brushing up on my ballistics shouldn't do me any harm. I could work on optics or propellant, if you're interested?" Almost unconsciously, she picked up a pair of copper and plastic rods and wedged them in her elbow, before beginning to trim it with the base of her sword. With her spare hand, she collected the metal that she was stripping from the ingot, weaving it around her fingers in complex formations. She built a circuit with her bare hands, stretching the wires out by balancing them against tensely stretched ribbons of plastic, each finer than the width of a dendrite. It was obviously organic in architecture, with an arbor of redundant or floating connections.

To the others, it just looked like a shimmering patch of air. Though after a few seconds, it began to take on a more definite appearance as a harsh-looking organ of delicate, reflective strands. She balanced it on the back of her wrist and extracted her fingers from the centre of the structure, letting it flatten. It folded in on itself, becoming a film which clung closely to the skin of her forearm, appearing like the cuff of a golden robe. "Still got it," she whispered. "Threat recognition system. It'll need a unique interface but I think we can implant it into essentially anything that we construct. Making these is essentially the one thing that I'm truly good at, taking mental engrams and translating them into something physical. This is a recreation of a section of my inferotemporal cortex. Of course, simplified, and with a lot of the unnecessary parts removed." she explained. "So we're working on airships? Maybe I have some ideas as to what we could mount on the outside. Or failing that, just straightforward armour designs."

Interregnum | Aveta "Cailleach" Divona

Aveta must have cut an unusual figure, holding that unwieldy scythe in both hands and standing in plainclothes by the most richly dressed woman that the bandits had ever seen. She hadn't much stature, mostly attributable to how she carried herself: stoically, and without pomp. Still, the massive gleam of her blade spoke for itself. She turned to her left, where an amply fed man in a bright breastplate leaned on a cavalry sabre too impractical and too expensive to be anything other than a weapon that he'd looted from a murdered soldier. She simply placed her hand on his collar, reached around his neck with her scythe, and then pulled back, decapitating him and getting a streak of warm blood across her cheek. Tossing his body to the ground, she made eye contact with his former subordinates. "We'll accept your surrender now," she plainly intoned, as she hefted her great weapon and rested its tip in the soft, wet ground.

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Lee

The top blueprint of the airship showed a roughly ovoid body with many smaller engine pods dotted evenly all around. The ship had no apparent up or down from the outside. There was a clear front and back that had differences and similarities in the fact of a hole like a thruster in the center. It was built for manueverability despite the speed disadvantage to modern planes. The measurements on the side indicated it was about the size of a three-four story building, which wouldn't help dodging attacks. The page beneath was many calculations. Some were force calculations and some were speed, which were surprisingly high for a normal airship.

"Short answer? 3-4 days with help, once the bulk shipment of sky aluminum from the South American Cloud Archipelago arrives. Lucky for me the market price went down. Long answer is the entire plan of building it." He winced slightly at the bang, and grabbed a fire extinguisher in case. He went in and made sure nothing else was prone to go boom, giving Elliot a thumbs up. He had inspected Link's Master Cycle, and found that the teleportation magic wasn't built into the entire frame and whatever was attached to the object became part of it to the Sheikah Technology. He returned back to the room in time for Madi's question. "Special fuel from home. Dragons are involved in the process of making it, but thankfully not as livestock or anything like that. Quite energy dense, which I thought might be better than whatever organics he was putting in it. Quite an interesting engine as well. It's also useful in flamethrowers since it can gel, as I mentioned to him."

"If you want to work on propellant, there are the emergency forwards and backwards thrusters, but I'm still iffy about the usefulness, and actual ability to be utilized of it. I've been working on the plans on and off since we came to the cabin, but you guys may have some good ideas to offer before we commit or run out of time to plan." He watched in silence as Kiara worked trying to track her movements. This was certainly a unique way of crafting. "Huh. That useful, huh? If it can identify what fire is, we could certainly consolidate some of the systems, which is good and bad in it's own way. But yeah, suggest what you think. Right now, I've mainly designed it around manueverability and being a secondary, possibly tertiary, forward operating base. Having defenses would be nice since without most of it's surprises, it's no better than World War 1 and 2 era airships."

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

"No Mercy. That's what my master taught me.", Miria wagged a finger at Mnem. "But I suppose I could try to go easy on you. Oh!", She glanced at Kiara's little display. Miria raised an eyebrow, but the bulk of her attention was turned to Lee rather than the saprophyte girl. His plans - or, one of his plans - had caught her ear.

"I haven't seen any airships here since that last one we flew in, but they're very common back home.", She commented. Some of her anger from earlier was beginning to dissipate. "Some models are designed to adapt to sudden gravitational shifts from lunar activity. Fortunately, you won't have to account for such things here.", She nodded. "Any way, parts fabrication is one of my strengths. Any tasks that require a finer touch than what your golems can provide, I can likely help with. It's quite an ambitious undertaking, I must admit."

She couldn't help but notice the propulsion systems, standing on her toes to better look at the blueprints. "Internal combustion engines? You don't utilize arcane propulsion?", She asked, tilting her head. "I would suggest an aethereum engine if I thought the necessary materials were available in this world. I could possibly fabricate a crude version, but even then, it's a difficult task without azurite cores...", She paused. Rubbed her chin. "Or Crimsonite, but I'm not sacrificing my harmonic dagger. I'm fairly certain that my own tablet would be insufficient as a power source, too. Oh, forgive my rambling."

[Skylus]

TGWR

Madi walked over and examined the airship plans more closely. “Seems your world figured out how to combine non magic and magic together correctly, Lee. That’s good. I don’t know if I’d be able to cover the entire airship in invisibility spells, but I can try.”

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Lee

Lee nodded along with what Miria was saying. Having someone who was more familiar with magical airships would be a nice help in case he had made any obvious design mistakes. His world had magical versions too, but what he knew of them was that the professional ones are exceedingly complex and the majority of ways to learn about how they were built was the professional way. "I've also designed an electrical engine pod as an alternative to those, though I haven't been able to get around to designing a magical engine like one of the original plan's goals in order to deal with AEGIS trying to hinder our movement by manipulating reality or whatever." He listened to her suggestion and paused when he heard the name of a mineral. Then she mentioned another mineral that rung something back in his memories. "Hold on, azurite? That's a crystal mineral in this world that grows on weathering copper. And..." He extended a hand out towards his laptop and typed in the air, which opened a search bar and came up with search results for Crimsonite. He telekinetically opened a .org website and scrolled down. "Silver Coin Mine, Nevada, USA. So there are minerals by the same names here, though I feel like the ones you're talking about are obviously magical. If you want to try jury-rigging one later, I'd at least want to see the results if not help." He nodded at Madi's offer. "Thanks, though I don't know how stealthy our airship can be."

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

"Ah, you have it!?", Miria's eyes lit up - only for that enthusiasm to fade again. "Oh. It doesn't look quite the same...but it *is* blue, and it is a crystal. Ha. I wonder, though...", Slightly differing terminology aside, it might not have appeared to be an exact one-to-one match, but the fact that there was an azurite on Earth was an exciting development. "Back home, magic-reactive minerals are common. Moonfolk and Janavar utilize azurite in a lot of our technology.", She explained, nodding her head slowly. A tap of her chin, a flicker of her eyes across the screen in front of them - she scrunched her lips to the left, the right...

"I'm not sure how this stuff matches up.", She said slowly. "But I suppose we won't know until we try. Thank you for enlightening me on this; I'll see what I can do."

Interregnum
Frantzeska

"Let them surrender?", Frantzeska asked aloud, almost questioning Aveta's line of thinking. Janali, on the other hand, was quick to throw her hat in. "Surrender!", She cheered, just a bit too happily. Surprisingly, that tone shifted immediately to one more suitable for the situation. "No, seriously. Surrender.", She repeated. For the men in the back of the hamlet, the strange voice was a surprise. It was only a moment later that the warlock broke her own veil, waving it away rather than breaking it with a surprise attack. It seemed a bit unnecessary at that point.

"Why give them the chance?", Frantzeska asked, wagging the tip of her sword towards the bulk of the outlaws. "We're ahead of our troops. Who will be left to keep these animals in line once we leave, hmm?"

"But do you want to dispose of all of them once we're done, Your Majesty?", Janali retorted. Was is so wise for her to be arguing with her superior like that? Regardless, Frantzeska did listen, even if she was annoyed by it. She was certainly stronger than she appeared, probably enough to go dragging away every bandit there if she desired, but the time sink...not to mention, traumatizing all of the civilians there. They'd already had their days ruined enough. That was the thought that made the little monarch stop and calm herself. "Damnit...", She muttered. "But can we afford to stay here any longer? Perhaps I should send for some guards."

"I got it.", Janali said, shaking her head.
"All by yourself?"
"Do you doubt me?"
"Hmmph.", Frantzeska chuckled. "Not at all. I'll send my hawk for the main army any way."

"Is that it? What the hell?", One of the bandits cried out. They were met with The Archduchess's booming voice - a swift "Silence!", and an icy glare that seemed to freeze everyone, citizens included, in their tracks. "Any way...", She glanced towards Aveta. "My apologies. You're the one to call for their standing down. Do you agree that Janali here is capable of holding this area until reinforcements arrive? She'll be able to catch up with us quickly once they arrive.", She explained.

[Menschenfleisch]

TGWR | P&K

Mnemosyne invited Miria's fierce response. It was to see the girl moving about. Even if she wouldn't ever admit it, she had a certain maternal instinct which applied to the group of twenty-somethings. And also, being around dour people just put a dampener on her mood. "Well, mercy's for the enemy. What's a little uninvited catastrophe among friends?" She paid as much mind as she could muster to the discussion of the airship's design. All that hullabaloo about propulsion systems and weapons, she didn't quite get. She was barely literate, and definitely not a specialist in any field. It left her a little miffed. She was positively normal; any asshole with dream powers could have taken her place within the group. It wasn't a point of insecurity for her, just an annoying fact that she recognised now and then.

Kiara meanwhile listened attentively and absorbed the group's combined knowledge. She had no vision in regards to the airship, but she definitely had ideas for augmentations. Plumbing and internet access were among the uppermost items on her list. "Magical engines, then. It's settled. I'll work on the metallurgy, and forming the materials you'll be needing. Let's not make our vessel easy to down."

Interregnum | Caillech

The reaper stuck her scythe in the dirt and stared into the distance. She chewed on her lip, assessing the situation as the clouds roiled overhead. "I honestly wouldn't know. Janali can keep herself alive, but the bandits could attempt a breakout. To escape." She clicked her tongue and stared at the bandit who'd spoken out. "But these men are like chickens. They'll follow the leader, wherever he goes. We only need to hold onto them in order to control the rest."

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Lee

He nodded along with what Miria was saying. There wasn't much he could say since Lee had said what he could already. "No problem." He was curious how engines from Miria's world would look. Kiara laid out that magical engines would be used. He instantly remembered an idea of the simplest engine he could make. It was just a magic motor connected to a propeller, but a decently made one could easily lift itself
with force to spare with enough magical energy. He could certainly do better. A thunk suddenly came from outside, like a few tons of something had been dropped. He felt Anda tap in. "Anda says that's the five tons of sky aluminum. The current plans factor in using that magical material for a majority percentage of the structure to minimize the amount of lifting gas we need, which allows smaller gas bags and more space for the inside. Since you'll be working on the metallurgy you'll possibly want to familiarize yourself with it, even if it is still pretty similar to normal aluminum from what I read." Anda came back in and Gavin turned towards her. "Thanks for signing for it, by the way."

[Skylus]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Wicklow Mountains, Ireland
3-9-2020

It was three days later.

Lee would get to a few test-shots at the crack of dawn on the first day, having gotten plenty of the rest he needed for the work that the airship would need. He had a full, sturdy box next to it with munitions stamped on it. After reviewing with Kiara the finalization of the plans, he started Creating huge sections of the general structure of the airship, supported by scaffolding the golems had been erecting since yesterday. Even though finishing just that took less than an hour, he was winded, but not tired. He spent the rest of the day checking the structure and working in the workshop. He put a smaller box labelled special munitions in his Inventory. Throughout the night he went around installing some minor systems and filling out the now-attached structure.

On the second day, tall bottles of gas with flammability warnings arrived. Gavin explained it was enchanted hydrogen, which he assured wouldn't burn unless it lost it's enchantment in an anti-magic field or space. He went on with most of the rest of the day dedicated to serious progress of the airship. At night, the metal skin is covering most of it and the basic controls have been installed. There were quite a few slots big enough for missiles all over the outside.

By now, he was sick of how coffee tasted but he needed that and some cold water every now and then. In the morning of the third day, the outside looked mostly finished. Some of the engine pods had turned out to be disguised gun turrets. He spent time on the interior, helping it to look like actual rooms for the morning.

By this point in time he had to make sure he was alert before doing any work. He'd set up a simple but scaleable enchantment of shielding. The engines weren't on, so the crystal processor that fed it mana wasn't either. He was nearly done. They had a day, half-day of work still left until they were left with him Finalizing the craft. He was a bit curious how much experience he would get from it.

Miria had split her time between drafting up plans for her proposed magic engine, intense physical training, and crafting materials for herself - hand grenades and smoke bombs, and small kunai/throwing darts from the deer bones she saved.

Mnemosyne had been keeping tabs on everyone and drinking low-alcohol beverages, Kiara had been making electronics and sections of the airship's chassis. Basically manufacturing.

Madi had been working on various spells and occasionally helping with the airship, which was mostly figuring out what wards to put on the thing.

And Link currently was up in the gatekeeper’s house, reading up on the history of the region he was in at a table.

Link never knew what struck him from behind. His last fleeting thoughts were of confusion and pain as he crumpled to the wooden floor.

“Well done, Franklin, now throw the kid down the basement stairs and lock the door, it’s best if he stays down there while we clean house.” Andrew stated as he stepped into the red cottage and looked around, the motioned for the large group of Keepers he had brought to start moving down the dirt road.

Amster looked down at the unconscious Hylian. “Shouldn’t he be healed?”

Janzel shook his head. “No. We have orders to not capture the Kalmite and Janavaria as well. We’re leaving them behind.”

“And capturing the others?”

“Precisely.” Andrew confirmed to Amster as a group of Keepers moved into the cottage. “Franklin, I’m sorry to inform you, but your house and services are no longer needed. You will be joining us in our headquarters in Dublin.”

With this, two Keepers picked up the comatose Link and carried the Hylian to the basement, where he was unceremoniously tossed down the stairs into the darkened dirt pit. The door was then locked and sealed with fireproof spells - they didn’t want to kill him - before Amster was apperated out. Janzel then looked around the house before he set it on fire with powerful spells after getting a safe distance away.

This is what alerted Madi that something was wrong. The witch was half asleep when she saw flames shoot into the air from down the way and she fell out of the hammock she was lying in on the porch of the white cottage. She got her bearings and then went off to find everyone.

Little did she know it was already too late.

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Lee

Lee gave a big exhale of effort. The Status screen showed he had a level of exhaustion now. He would need to sleep before it got worse. Then he noticed something bright flare in his peripheral vision, and turned to see the house Elliot was in. Panic came and gave him a helpful boost of adrenaline, spurring him to shut the panel he was working on. He rushed to throw a bag that gave absolutely zero traces of magic into a cabinet before running off the airship into the air. He dropped fast and landed softly, dealing himself a bit of damage from inertia. He hit the ground running, nonetheless. While he was exhausted, whoever was doing this was going to have to face him with a full load of Mana and a whole lot of bullets. Anda rushed up to get an idea of the situation after sensing the agitation from Gavin. It wasn't long for him to get a look at a group of people with wands he definitely did not recognize that weren't supposed to be here. "Fucking bastards!" got their attention and he dodged to the side from a shot. He shot back with a newer Skill. " Lightning Spears!" Three straight bolts appeared above him, much less compared to his mana arrows. They shot forward to three different targets, though. A shot caught him in the head and he went down for a moment. Anda helped him get up through their link, and he noticed the boost from his adrenaline rush was over. He shouted out another round and dodged again, but now he knew the shot that hit him made him gain more exhaustion. He couldn't see the others, and if the enemy was smart Anda stood a small chance all by herself. He told her to get to Link before he took a shot to the chest and blacked out again. This time she couldn't wake him up remotely, but he was still alive and she knew exactly how he thought it would go. She reluctantly retreated into the woods to stealthily reach the burning house. Fire didn't mean much to most spirits, even to her while physical. Searching through the house, she thankfully found nothing interesting aside from cellar doors that weren't burning for some reason. Stopping the flow of Mana that kept her physical, she went through them and saw Elliot. He was safe but knocked out, and Lee was still outside unconscious with the enemy. At least this told her they weren't going to immediately murder everyone.

[Menschenfleisch]

TGWR | Kiara

“Madi? Lee? I saw the fire, what’s going on?”

The ground was slick with traces of sweat, sweet with cortisol and endorphins; the air was heavy with adrenaline. Little synthetic fibres lay about, bent like bows. They weren’t crusted over with skin flakes and dust -- they were fresh, from barely a few hours ago. She smelled blood, contaminated by saliva. Internal bleeding; coughed from the mouth. Here, on the floor, little streaks of keratin, ablated from someone’s fingernails. It was hard to see, and harder still to taste, through the ash lingering in the air, and the smouldering charcoal that lay in heaps around her. This was no house fire, they’d been attacked.

“Anda? Is anyone there?”

She bent to sniff a patch of moisture, a solution of rainwater, condensed gasoline and stress hormones. It didn’t smell like anyone she knew. The source of all the excitement - the epinephrine, the fight-or-flight hormones - hadn’t been her friends. In fact, it smelled like they hadn’t been alarmed at all. They’d been ambushed in their sleep, taken away by fearful men. The scraps of fabric that these mysterious attackers’ clothes had shed were freshly manufactured, showing no signs of age. They’d probably picked them up at a local store and worn them just for the duration of their mission.

“Miria! Mnemosyne!“

She glanced toward the treeline, and examined the soil around the house. There were many pairs of footprints leading into the house, but not many leading away. She was looking for footprints that were significantly deeper than the others, as if to indicate that the person who’d made them had roughly doubled in weight. Or rather, that they were carrying the weight of two people now, rather than one. But, for all her searching, she couldn’t find any.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

Miria's head was aching. She hadn't been sure when or how she was rendered unconscious, but she was glad to still be there when she finally woke up. Her pride was spared by the assumption that, whatever - or whoever - had caused it, she'd been spared thanks to the small arsenal she had on her. Bombs, throwing darts, blades...

She carried bits of her new arsenal on her as she slinked from her patch of the cottage. The girl was more instinct than anything else at first, however. Eyes wild, teeth bared, grimacing. The pain was seemingly quick to subside, but the grogginess persisted. She had to force herself to stay focused until she was out in front of the cottage, pushing up her glasses and gingerly rubbing one eye. Surely if she was still up and about, then everyone else was around too, she though. She just had to find someone...her head snapped in the general direction of Kiara, who she was pleased to hear. "Salutations.", She approached in a fairly casual manner, adjusting her glasses and squinting at the girl.

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Anda

Anda floated along in the nearby woods, half-dazed from the new facts of the situation. She had left Link in the basement when the fire had started to burn down, and had been wandering through the safe areas. Lee had never been so far as he was now. It had been long enough that the enemy had certainly left, and with him alive she could tell. She had been able to conserve enough mana for her to sustain herself for now but it wouldn't last if the distance kept increasing. Eventually she wandered back near the burnt building, intending to check on Link again, but she saw movement. After a tense second, she recognized who it was and relaxed back to normal. It was some of the group, Kiara and Miria specifically. Anda floated on over, quite glad that she didn't end up alone. "It's nice to see you two. But we do have to hurry, because Elliot has been unconscious in the basement below us." She floated a bit towards the basement doors, turning to look back at them.

[Menschenfleisch]

TGWR | Kiara

"Miria- they are?!" Her look of relief was cut off by surprise, and a sudden wave of desperation. Something like anger, or apprehension. If she lost her friends now, what would her sacrifice have meant? She grabbed a makeshift truncheon, a burnt little stave of wood; "Let's go! Miria, do you know what happened? Y-... you're hurt. How did this...?" How had she allowed this to happen? She took off at a run. She could have outpaced her companions, but chose not to. She needed them to be here, to tell her where to go and what to do. Not with their words, but with their distress. She was here to protect them, to take care of them. She had a lot of experience in that regard.

If she was being honest, there was a perverse excitement running through her veins, or the saprophytic equivalent thereof. She wanted to save them, to be the hero. Knowing that people were out there, hunting them? It gave her some sort of purpose. And, if she was being totally honest, an opportunity to play the part of the knight in shining armour. Playing that role was... fun. Being around her friends and immersing herself in their lives was just fun. "Anda," she turned her head toward the little thing, drifting by her ear. "Thank you."

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

"It's just a bump. I've had worse things happen to my head.", Miria wagged her finger, casually running alongside her companions. Like Kiara, she was holding back a bit. It was more out of consideration for Lee's little animal companion than anything.

She was worried, but knowing that at least some of their group was still around was reassuring. Optimism was better than panic, and fretting over some bumped heads and minor burns wasn't going to help them figure out what had happened at the cottage any quicker. She was surprised that a fire had broken out anywhere on the premises, though. Having Eliot in the basement seemed like a good idea, if it was impossible for Anda to move him any further. More solid foundation, and the smoke and heat tended to rise any way. With any luck, he would be no worse off than she was. "I can count on you to help, right?", She asked, stepping towards the doors and pumping her fists. "Carrying other people was never my strong suit."

Interregnum
Frantzeska

"Oh, no need to worry!", Janali exclaimed, casually floating across the ground between the bandits and civilians. "My powers don't stop at illusion, you know. Keeping everyone in line should be little trouble.", She explained. The lady was certainly confident in her abilities. Frantzeska nodded and kicked at the ground. "While you're at it, why not check some of wounded and see what you can do?"
"Will do."
"Excellent. I'll leave you to it, then.", Frantzeska waved her hand. Then, to Aveta - "I trust Janali. She's not disappointed me yet with her magic. I can handle the fallen, then, and we should be on our way. I apologize for dragging you into such a situation, but I suppose some things can't be helped.", She said, stopping only to raise her hand once more. The fight had hardly even started, and poor Aethon had barely the chance to partake in it. The large bird found its perch and went with her as she moved away, Janali starting to take on her own responsibilities in the meantime by approaching the apparent bandit leader. "Why don't we ditch all of these folk and talk it out, eh?", She began to draw the survivors away, pointing for the villagers to return to their days - picking up pieces and putting things back in order. She trusted them to handle themselves, so long as she kept the two groups segregated.

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Anda

Anda was well aware that she was slowing the others down a bit, but she couldn't very well pick speed over maintaining her presence. She needed something to get around that, but that will come when she'll need it. In response to Kiara's thanks, she nodded in response. She'd started picking up on the way she thought a little bit. "I was with Lee when it happened, we saw the cabin being burnt down. He rushed down, and I went to get a look from the sky. He fought with them for a bit, but he... got incapacitated to where I couldn't help. I came in while the fire was still raging, and found Link unconscious in the basement. Mostly because the doors to it were completely fine with the fire right next to it." It was clear she was being a bit brisk in her explanation of what happened, but her voice was still low. Anda was the one who threw open the doors, destroying the lock with a very focused and energy efficient zap of lightning. A bit of an unnecessary waste of Mana when one of the others could have bashed it, but she was more concerned with time. She went in, but made sure she stayed up out of the way so the other two could rush down to Link. Anything she could do was heavily restricted.

[Skylus]

TGWR

The girls and Anda would find a certain someone down in the basement, very much awake and very confused. “I suppose any of you can tell me how I ended up down here.”

Link was more than happy to see Miria and Kiara, although the absence of the others concerned him greatly.

The Hylian had woken up at some point and had moved himself so that he was sitting up against one of the dirt walls. There wasn’t much else in the room save for wooden barrels in various states of decay, and wooden crates filled with unknown contents.

“I already healed myself with some elixirs but you’re more than free to look me over if you want.”

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

"So we were attacked. Huh.", Miria commented. That explained the headache. When had they been found out? Seemed odd that some of them would only be knocked out, too. She didn't know where everyone else was at just yet, but as worried as she was, she figured that someone like Polly or Lee had better chances at handling whatever situation they were in than she was. They didn't have to worry about it being some freaky AEGIS assassin either. Likely some...rogue wizards? Ministry folk? Murderhobos? Though she doubted that the latter would have gotten the jump on anyone in their party.

Boots hit brick; Miria skipped down the stairs behind Anda, and hit the floor below with a soft thump, quickly skidding to a halt. She was expecting to have to carry the boy out, so seeing Link up and about was a relief at least. She flashed a jagged grin and pumped her fists excitedly. "If you can stay upright, then your good enough.", She nodded enthusiastically. "You were knocked out! So was I. I think. Tell me, have you seen where the others have gotten off to?", She asked, quickly flicking one hand out, snapping her fingers. "And none of the meat was burned, right?"

[Menschenfleisch]

TGWR | Kiara

Kiara wished she could be as lighthearted as Miria. But honestly, Lee and Madi could clearly handle themselves. They'd done alright without her, after all. "Any idea where the others went?" She queried, kneeling down to sift through the dirt, in search of fabric and footprints. There wasn't a lot to garner. Just some scraps of tarnished leather and deep boot prints. Nothing she hadn't seen already. "You were moved into the basement, right? You didn't get knocked down while you were already down here? I wonder why they would've left you and Miria alone. And why they wouldn't have gone after me, too."

Interregnum | Caillech

Aveta leaned on the rim of her scythe, watching the village return to the status quo. The people looked less than shaken. This was routine, almost. Something that they rehearsed in their heads, made contingencies for, dreamt of daily. That desensitisation to violence; they must've been near the front line. Maybe everywhere was a battlefield, but she didn't know enough about the wider context of the war to hazard a guess. "It's good to have people that you can trust," she remarked. "I think I'd rather have a trustworthy superior than a loyal subordinate, though. There's safety in having oversight. There's always someone to keep you honest, then." She stole a glance toward the wounded. There was a surprising number of children among both the wounded and the physicians. The young had to step up when the old marched to war, or wore themselves ragged trying to fuel the apparatus of the army, she supposed.

She watched poultices of honey and ash being drawn over open wounds, and gashes being wrapped in lightly moistened linens. "Strange to consider that I might change history with a few sentences. Have you ever heard of germ theory? Discovered the atom, yet?" She wasn't trying to condescend Frantzeksa. She just wanted to anchor herself in this time and place, and to immerse herself in this foreign and fantastic world. Fantastic literally, since it was one of only a few dimensions that happened to sport magic. "I was expecting more of a fight, really." She chewed her lip morosely. "Do you want to meet with the bandit leader? He may be happier to negotiate with royalty."

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Anda

A flood of relief rushed over Anda seeing Link up. He seemed fine, but she asked him if he was alright anyways. Miria was upbeat despite the situation, but they had just been given a big relief. Anda had a memory pop in of the backstrap patties Lee had made from the deer. Learned it from his father, he'd said. Kiara asked a question she could answer. "I'm not sure about the others, but I know where Lee is through my connection, thankfully. He's unconscious and moving further away, considering which makes it more likely that they've been taken together." She could feel the point as the distance increased limited the amount of Mana she needed to support herself. At least herself would need to get a move on to solve that soon.

[Skylus]

TGWR

Link got up from where he was sitting and walked across the room over to the others. Once he heard what the others had to say, he processed all that was said. “The others were captured?” Well, they had outright said as much, hadn’t they?

He had to get out of here, figure out what was salvageable if the entire settlement was attacked -

Link led the others out of the dirt basement and he emerged into charred ruins. “…Well that’s a shame… It was a nice small house…” No time to think about that, though.

He looked down the path towards the other buildings and saw charred burning trees and ash.

Link stood there and watched smoke rise up from a short distance away, then turned around to face the others. “Is anything intact down there that you still know of?”

[Rostavykhan]

Interregnum | Frantzeska

"Germ theory?", Frantzeska planted her sword and shot Aveta a funny look. "Odd that you should bring up such things. I'm no doctor, but as I understand, it's a fairly recent discovery. I...", She paused. No answer for the latter question.

"Bandits can be bold...but others are not. They're bandits all the same.", She shrugged. "That said, if you ask me, it was a bold move to attempt a raid right behind an army like this. That battlefield that you arrived at was little more than a skirmish, really. To attack so close to the capitol...I would say that the unit was surprised to be found out so soon. And to be ambushed by the three of us.", She nodded, seeming confident in her answer. "Magicians are not very easy to come by these days. Not in this land, that is. Now...", Her eyes narrowed. She shot a sideways glance at Janali, the lady busy floating to and fro and corralling the demoralized company about. "If it is something that would interest you, then I suppose we can speak with the man. I hadn't intended to do much negotiating with bandits, but-", She smirked, just a little. "-Well, I suppose there's no need to rush our way back home if such things interest you. My apologies; let's get to it then."

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Miria

"Lee's airship was primarily made of metal, correct? I find it difficult to believe that it would have sustained much damage from fire.", Miria said. There was the chance that some parts had become brittle or warped, but she wasn't expecting it to be as bad as the house. Thinking about it, she was lucky that she hadn't been burned - a realization that left her chuckling, albeit nervously. No matter, she thought, clapping her hands and continuing down the dirt path with an energetic bounce to her step. "Whoever razed this cottage did a poor job if their intention was to cause harm. The others are definitely captured. With that said...you can track Lee to some degree then, yes?", The small girl bent over slightly to better address Anda. "I have not used it in quite some time, but if I get my old tablet out, then I should be able to adjust its scanner and track any residual magic energy.", She explained. Though, thinking about that, she couldn't help but furrow her brow a little. Run a few fingers through her hair, too. "That is, assuming that magic was utilized in some manner in their capture."