Wyches' Waltz
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Wyches' Waltz
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[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Inside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
Lace looked briefly confused “Team? I don’t have a team, just Eric…” then her eyes narrowed and Calista could feel the tug of power as Lace’s voice changed, taking on weird inhuman cadences that seemed to bypass Calista’s ears and reach straight for that small part of the brain that wanted to obey
~LEAVE THIS ROOM NOW~
Spoiler:#16
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Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Rooftop, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle
Colibri shivered with the sudden cold spike, watching her breath come out in a thick cloud before realizing what that meant. Smiling, she looked up at her two new friends, glancing between one, then the other, then glancing around for the one responsible for their appearance. +I think we’ve been noticed. Got two air bogies up here with me+
Whether she saw the spirit-wrangler or not, she turned her attention back to the two next to her, slowly standing and holding her hands up in what looked like a pacifying gesture, though she was still smiling cheerfully. “Hoi-ya, guys! Nice night for a stroll on the rooftops, wouldn’t you say?”
Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Nook Between Ballroom and Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle
Ryoko reluctantly pulled her attention away to regard the man before her, blinking slowly and furrowing her brow in what probably looked like a pained expression. She looked him over for a moment, then gave a shrug. “My apologies. My head was hurting, so I wanted to get away from the noise. I did not realize this area was off-limits.”
Without further word or any complaint, the decker stood and made her way back to the ballroom to find a seat there, instead. She had wanted to be closer to her team in case something went horribly wrong, but she could just as easily get into the place’s security from another room as she could from the hallway.
Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Outside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle
The “drunk” party girl was apparently not fluent in the “Drunken Master” style, and the Nocturna found herself thinking that the little darling would probably benefit from a couple of very, very old Jackie Chan movies. Foxglove noted the glint in the girl’s eye, and lowered her hands from her lower back to her sides in what could be considered a “quickdraw stance,” fingers loose but arms at the ready. She still didn’t take her attention away from Eric, knowing quite well that he was still a threat and just as much of a priority.
This, however, was all she did. Biding her time until one of them made a move and gave her a concrete reason to strike.
#39-19
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Robyn
Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Ballroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown SeattleRobyn finishes her last set to applause from the crowded ballroom. Standing, she takes her cello and leaves the stage via the door to the dressing rooms, accompanied by her black shadow. Once in the room, she almost collapses at the vanity, putting her hands in front of her face and allowing herself to cry the tears of joy that she had held back while in the public eye. Her hand goes to her chest and grasps at the silver orthodox cross and the hand carved voodoo symbol as she prays.
She recovers a bit then steps out of her evening gown and into something much more comfortable.
45
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Something hot and primitive uncoiled in Calista, a bone-deep anger at the prospect of being ordered- not just ordered, but compelled– to do anything. That part of her life was over, her escape paid for in blood and tears and lost memories and a shattered psyche that was only now beginning to heal.
And this woman, this insolent, puffed-up little sorceress, this child thought that Calista would bow to such an insignificant, fragile, mortal little speck as her.
Calista held her ground. As soon as things had started to go sideways, with Colibri on the roof, she’d begun burning blood to empower her sorcery, and her eyes glowed a hard, vicious crimson with her stolen power. The mageling’s command washed over her, tugging at her mind, but Calista was stronger than that, her will too strong and her spells too puissant for Lace’s command to take hold, and Calista’s voice was a flat, hammered-iron tone as she responded.
“You…presume to command…me.” The pretty ingenue was gone, and an utterly inhuman horror had taken her place, one that walked like a girl but absolutely was not. “You would order me around like some common slave, would force me back into bondage even for a moment?” Calista shook her head very slowly. “You should have learned from what you know, what you deduced, what Robyn had told you. Now…” Calista’s hands came up, “you will never get the chance.”
Calista opened her mouth, and the monster sang as she stepped back into the role of Anguish, a person she had thought dead until this moment as she channeled her power. She didn’t aim to stun, or to hurt, or to kill or paralyze. No, her only desire in this moment was to make Lace suffer, and her perfect voice rolled up through the aria in Maria Mercurial’s ‘Who Weeps For The Children’ as her power lashed across the room, bearing down on Lace with the force of a hurricane.
Spoiler: -
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Inside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
Lace collapsed to one knee under the vicious barrage of Calista’s spell as the pain wracked her body, desperately trying to fend off the hostile magics with her own limited grasp of counterspelling. The Patterns were blurred by the sheer power of the spell but from somewhere she felt another force trying to unravel the mana that gripped her. Despite the insidious pain she refused to be felled and reached in to her inner reserves to push the sensations aside
“Please…” she managed to gasp out between gritted teeth “stop this…”
Spoiler:***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Rooftop, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
On the roof the two air spirits rushed to embrace Colibri, wrapping their icy tendrils around her and forcing themselves down her throat…she knew that if they managed to bind her they would restrict her breathing until she passed out, possibly until she died…
Spoiler:***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Outside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
As Foxglove waited poised to see what these two idiots would do she only felt a twinge of surprise when the girl said “catch” and flung the champagne flute at her whilst Eric’s pistol came up and prepared to fire from the hip, the bright green laser sight providing little doubt where he was aiming…
Spoiler:Coming down the corridor towards them Foxglove saw a third threat in the form of one of the serving staff, a tall pale blonde man carrying a deployed Executioner briefcase submachine gun…
***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Ballroom / Opera House Host, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
As Ryoko analysed the feeds from the camera footage outside the boardroom she detected a loop…it was subtly done and probably a sign that more cameras had been tampered with…it saved her a job of course but she might have preferred to be the one in control…
***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Inside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
As Calista watched Lace valiantly trying to resist her crippling spell a service door on the far side of the boardroom opened and in walked two figures. The woman in the lead was dressed as one of the serving staff although the submachine gun she craddled gave lie to that. Her slicked back hair revealed two small horns on her head and the grim smile showed pronounced lower canines, although far smaller than any orcs. Behind her was a child, no a gnome, carrying the technological equivalent of Calista’s spell…beside her, visible only to Calista’s Wyche sight was a plant spirit shaped like a willowy tree
“They aren’t her team, they are mine…”
“Silk?” Lace gasped out
“Release her now and then I think you and I are going to have a little chat!”
#17
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Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Rooftop, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle
“Apparently not!” Colibri quipped as one of the spirits lashed out at her, and she ducked and turned into a crouched pirouette reminiscent of an ice skater’s spin, letting the tendrils whip out above her into open air, only to come back up again, using the momentum to carry her heel at speed into the other spirit’s…soul? Sternum? Whatever it was that spirits used as bodies when they materialized, jibing with an excited grin as the kick reached the apex of its arch where the spirit should have been: “No one appreciates star gazing, any more!”
Spoiler:Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Ballroom / Opera House Host, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle
Ryoko frowned at the loop that she had found. Their situation was probably better for it, but it did make her wonder who else was rummaging around in here with her. However, it did tell her that there was, indeed, another runner team in the vicinity. She didn’t know her team terribly well, but from what she did know of them and what she had seen so far, she had no doubt that they were going to be brutally efficient…which meant the possibility of being noticed by the civilians or actual security.
The decker moved to the alarms system, shutting them down one by one to make certain her new friends wouldn’t draw in any other unwanted attention.
Spoiler:Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Outside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle
The girl twitched, a small movement that gave away her intent just before the champagne flute flew through the air, spilling its contents which, honestly, probably wasn’t actually champagne. Foxglove was nearly a blur when she moved, stepping aside and twisting her shoulders so the flute went past her and crashed upon the wall behind her, the step bringing her closer to Eric.
However, while the flute was a concern, the cybered man beside her was the threat, and that step swiftly turned into a fighting stance as her left arm came up in a knife-hand at the man, sprouting a long, sharp blade mid-arch. He may have had the gun, but she had the speed, and by the gods she would use it.
Spoiler: -
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Rooftop, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
Although Colibri had deftly avoided the first spirit’s attempt to drown her in air, her vicious counter strike at its smaller companion breathed through the space where it had been moments before as the illusive sylph toyed with her…she could swear the fragging thing was laughing at her! It twisted around and she precariously moved to intercept the attack again…it was getting damn slippery up here as their frigid forms coated the roof surfaces with frost…
Spoiler:***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Inside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
Silk frowned as she looked in to the astral, the banshee was cloaked in madness and rage and it seemed like this encounter was doomed to be fought even though she wished to talk. She’d instructed her teams to take the runners alive but it seemed increasingly likely that this one would have to be put down as rabid. The subtle shifting towards feral instinct in the infecteds’ conditions was causing this benighted soul to leave reason behind…
“Blossom, level the playing field please” she said quietly
With a malicious grin the gnome took a handful of dried heather from her belt pouch and blew it in to the air towards Calista. Suddenly the banshee felt like she was wading through fog as the mana sparked around her, its normally smooth flows twisted in to impossible Celtic nots by the fragger’s spell that made it almost impossible to grasp on to. Her spell of agony on Lace was similarly lessened and the girl took the opportunity to try and make a break for the door although she was weaving unsteadily as her ability to resist the spell’s effects had been compromised by the shift in mana…
Spoiler:***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Outside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
Avoiding the champagne was trivially easy and as a bodyguard Eric seemed to be merely an adequate shot as she sidestepped the laser sight and the breathy phut of the silenced rounds that spat towards her. Sliding in close to him, her cyber spur extended, she pressed her advantage and although he managed to deflect the full force of the blows she rained down on him she felt the satisfying squelch as the spur bit in to his ribs and then a kick propelled him to the floor…
***
#18
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[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Inside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
Silk desperately wanted to contain this fight before the banshee went further off the deep end, the roiling emotions were painful to look at on the astral and she had to interject some calm, she held the Executioner out and to one side, not letting it go but clearly not pointing it at Calista. She modulated her voice to be soft and unthreatening and to Calista’s Wyche sight her aura was calm and resolute, the small hint of fear rigidly controlled
“Please, stop it, you’re hurting her… Lace is under my protection… she may not know who you are, but I do, at least in part. I know some of what Robyn and you went through to save each other and I have heard the beauty of the requiem that Robyn wrote for you. You cannot win here through violence, please, I just want to talk to you… you know who I am don’t you? I can see the recognition in your aura… I will pay you for your intel”
***
[Evening, Saturday December 25, 2077; Outside the Boardroom, Seattle Opera House, 800 North Taylor Avenue, Downtown Seattle]
The girl danced back trying to keep herself between Foxglove and the supine form of Eric, her arms wide in a defensive posture. Down the corridor the man ducked in to the cover of a doorway some fifteen meters away and, aiming the bright green laser sight towards Foxglove, yelled
“Do not move!”
***
#19
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