Enigma: The Triggering

Proteus has been working on a lot of things lately. One of them has been the nature of the Pieces of Enigma, which are, as advertised, quite enigmatic. Attempting to analyze the 'casing' of the Pieces, which each obviously contain something, has led to mediocre results at best. The other issue is considering the nature of the different 'varieties' of Enigma Pieces. They seem to have specific traits based on the type of Piece... And there is the matter of how they are labeled 'Simple'.

This means they can get more complex. And how better to make something more complex than to try to combine pieces? Sort of like... a puzzle. Proteus thus had invited Prophylaxis over to perform an experiment, since he too possesses a Piece of Enigma of the specific type Proteus is interested in, and has offered up one of her others in exchange for the use of his.

For Science.

As an additional benefit, Prophylaxis also gets to be present as Proteus performs said experiment of trying to combine the two Pieces. Thus Proteus is sitting in the Plant Hwyaden workshop, land of Fey Moods and Dark Deeds, flipping the puzzle-like Piece of Enigma around in her fingers as she idly awaits the arrival of one of the few Scale Emblem members she seems to get along with.

It sure was kind of these mysterious artifacts of great and alien power to kindly title themselves as Enigmas. It makes it so much easier to tell when there's some Shenanigans Afoot! Considering how many other apparent DANGEROUS MYSTERIES can be found throughout the Yamato server, it was extremely courteous of the world to at least throw them this potentially apocalyptic bone.

It makes it so much more appealing to scrimshaw all over it.

Prophylaxis appears in this den of this anatid iniquity. He seems a little more shady than usual, wearing his hat pulled down low over his eyes so that they seem to glow with even more extraordinary ominousness than they usually do. "Proteus. I've brought what you asked for," he says, offering a sealed black box. "And also what you have not asked for. That is to say, I have information you may be interested in. We can kill two birds with one inadvisable science experiment, yes?"

The best kind of mad science is efficient mad science, after all.

There's a lot of shadiness in Plant Duck, so Prophylaxis mostly blends in, though his shadienss is something of a different type than the others. Proteus nods to the doctor as she arrives, and she pulls out another box of her own, sliding it forward across the bench next to them both. "And here's my part of the bargain." This one is emblazoned with a rubber ducky insignia. Because that's just how Proteus rolls sometimes. There's some mischeviousness in that gremlin.

She doesn't hesitate to take the box from Prophylaxis, and pops it open, presumably finding the Piece requested inside. She wastes no time in turning to the bench and putting both parts on the table, beginning to examine both for differences and seeing if there are ways to interlock them and put them together. As she works, she talks. "You have information I might be interested in? Well, I do love information. Pull up a chair, grab a Duck Bento. Let's hear what you've got, Prophylaxis."

Very much are they similar. The 'shapes' are different, unique in their own way, but definitely similar enough in the way that it's possible to tell that two ducks are in fact ducks, but they are different ducks. The question is, will they quack the same?

As Proteus begins to mess with them, she will find that the 'shells' can be moved around as they usually can. It's quite possible to interlock them in such a way to create a tunnel between the two pieces. She has no way of 'directing the flow'.

Her fingers slide along their intricate sides. Putting them together. It's not an easy process. A good five minutes of hard work. And just before she is about to 'open the gates' so to say between the two devices, she suddenly gets a message on her HUD.

<< Your actions have been noticed by Th3 M0rr1g4n >>

The symbols keep flicking and flickering, making it hard to read. The prompt disappears automatically after about 3 seconds, the window seeming to just... kind of shatter.

Will she release the gates?

Plant Duck is all about that shadiness but never the kind of shadiness that thinks to itself 'hm, I wonder if people have the same organs in this strange game world as they do on the outside.' Or maybe if they do, they lack the expertise to actually pursue the answer to that question. Prophylaxis is a dangerous kind of shady. The kind with the physical expertise to make his shady dreams a shady reality.

He's also the kind of person to put a cartoon bunny logo on the inside of his shady black boxes, because sometimes you have to have a little levity when you're doing inadvisable science in someone else's house.

"Indeed," Prophylaxis says, quietly removing his own Oracle and... setting it next to the other.

...

They're two glass spheres. Like tiny palantirs. Uh.

He's pretty sure these don't fit together??? But hey, he'll give it a shot. Maybe they just kind of push into each other? Do the balls make contact? DO THEY!?

"Indeed," he says, "Something that I think you'll want to help me look into. There were recently... /strange/ monsters that attacked Tolbana. You remember the sandworm that was present when Akumeiji retrieved that other Enigma Piece? Similar creatures, but like giant wolf-lions. We want to capture one and study them, and I have reason to believe that they'll be back to finish the job."

As Prophylaxis begins to bring the two palantirs together, he'll notice that... something is keeping them apart. It's like two magnets with opposite poles. And no matter how hard he tries physically, they seem to repell eachother...

Still... the moment he makes some progress, he suddenly gets a message that seems to disrupt his concentration;

<< Your actions have been noticed by The Morr1g4n >>

Right before the Enigma Pieces rocket off in two directions of the room, one of them bouncing off the wall, and the other putting a nasty dent into a nearby piece of furniture.

MEANWHILE, AT THE ~~BATCAVE~~ ~~FORTRESS OF DOOM~~ Downstairs...

Whiskey Sour, temporarily embarrased master alchemist, is arguing with someone from the guild about the proper way to spice a stir fry.

"Of course you don't use *just* chili oil. That's just facts. You need peppers -- butterflied, preferrably -- and..."

The raccoon-ringed eyes of Whis track -- not flick, but slowly track -- to noises coming from the hallway.

"Janken to check? They're doing science upstairs and Proteus --"

Whis quick-throws rock, almost like a punch.

The guildmember, smiling, blocks with an open palm.

"You always throw rock, Whis."

The druid scowls deeply. "It's the best throw."

She heads to check the Mysterious Disturbance while the Excessively Smart People rub balls together upstairs.

"Hmmmn," Prophylaxis froooowns severely, not just at the fact that apparently SOMEONE is disapproving strongly at his attempt to do bad things to these mysterious artifacts, but also that he might have just figured out a way to weaponize palantirs.

Like, other than using them to pull up blackmail on someone, that is.

"...The Morrigan, huh?" He asks of the air as he goes to retrieve his two cannonball'd crystal balls. They disappear into his inventory, because... Uh. He's probably not going to be making progress on /that/ particular mystery today. Still, something popped into his HUD just then, sure as that palantir popped into a cabinet.

Honestly, he was expecting a spectacular explosion, so to be honest this is a step up.

As Whiskey Sour steps out into the Hallway, there's a sudden yell as someone runs past, very much the opposite direction. Right in front of the Outcast Alchemist, she watches as the wall seems to adopt three /tears/. Red-orange light seeps down, as if someone were cartoonishly opening a paper wall. She watche as knives stick out.

One slash.

Two slash.

Three slash.

                                                                                
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Right before a young man steps out, with a zombied-like face and a sneer on their face. They seem partially confused, partially angry at having to be here. Their gaze seems to fully ignore Whiskey Sour. Their Inspect information is entirely unreadable. And it doesn't take long for this individual to turn towards the stairs, in the direction of Proteus and Prophylaxis.

Proteus has a lot of better things to do than Lander dissection. Besides, even if you would ask Proteus, she would answer 'no, of course they're not the same. They're data'. That isn't to say that Proteus doesn't have her own designs, as Prophylaxis might know had he access to Olympus channels. Still, there is a little smirk from Proteus at the little bunny logo. Both of them seem to be more alike than some might think... Which, well, for good or for ill, the World has to deal with their shenanigans.

"Strange monsters attacking Tolbana." Proteus replies as she works. "Giant wolf-lions. Do you think they might be related, then?" She hums. "Well, I and perhaps others in Plant Duck might be interested. Especially if it's a lead on Enigma Pieces." Proteus replies, flicking her hand to conjure up an Arcane Eye that looks over the parts in more detail. "There has to be something in here..." She leans in closer, frowning... And then there is a laugh of triumph.

And then there is a click as the two pieces connect together. "Ah! Here we go." She grins in anticipation as she begins to connect things together... When she blinks, her head snapping up. "What? The Morrigan? But isn't that...?" There is a grimace as her hands pause over the pieces as they snap and slide together. "Notice me all you want." She mutters. "I'm not giving up that easily."

A moment later, she slides the last pieces into place. "Puzzle... solved."

There's a cut on the wall.

"Hey, idiot, use a door!" Whis loudly grouses, not really 'getting' it.

A second cut.

"Did I stutter?" Whis asks, turning to look back at--

An empty area behind her. The person she had been arguing with had wandered off.

The third cut. A man walks through, data-corrupted and face-zombified. Whis falls back onto her butt, processes for two thundering heartbeats, and then starts screaming.

"ATT!!!" She cries. Scrabbling back on her hands and feet, she flips onto her knees and shove-slides her way back to the end of the hallway.

"HA-SE-O!!!" She hollers, lifting to her feet as her staff de-inventories into her hand. "PK ZOMBIE PK ZOMBIE PK ZOMBIEEEEE!"

Whis is very awake now.

The moment Proteus releases the gates of her remade puzzle, they suddenly latch and shift and begin to move. It's not like one of her puzzles. She can physically /see/ it grow a new shell. Its form warps in a way that seems physically... unlikely. Slowly collapsing in on itself like an egg having its chick try to break out... in reverse. Like beak-marks tick /inwards/ into the egg, as the shell becomes pale white. There's a black series of orbs that drift up, and disappear. But it's a small amount compared to normal.

Right as the egg starts trying to connect to Proteus' hands. The shell starting to grow over her fingers if she doesn't pull away fast enough. Almost like a pale cocoon, bright flashes of light eminating from it. Then, music rises from it. Including a very physical seeming voice, that seems to echo from the Enigma piece!

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEW3VQiRdQM

It's fine! It's not like the two of them are playing around with forces that could uproot the very underpinnings of the world or anything!

No. Surely not.

"Considering they didn't seem to take damage no matter what we did to them, and didn't even seem to be triggering the... Whatever the world does when it notices you're in combat. We could still Chim as we were getting mauled to death. Somehow it could make us /bleed/ too. I had to keep someone's carotid artery from leaking them to death." He shakes his head, his ears twitching at the sound of the click-click-clack of Proteus' puzzle boxes. "Hm. It sounds like you figured it out. Good work."

There's a beat.

The Good Doctor frowns. "You know something about a Morrigan? I've only heard the name in video games bef--"

Wait.

"What the duck? Is that... Is your box /singing?/"

Att is very awake now.

The back door thumps open in a hurry. Att, with an armload of fresh-cut timbers, has just kicked it inward. He's got a sawdust-covered apron on, a bandana, and an expression of alarm. Doing A Science is not the problem; hearing Whiskey 'Perpetually In A State Of Low-Key Diassociation' Sour scream about something serious, and repeatedly, is the problem. "WHIS!"

The lumber vanishes into his inventory, and Att swaps gear-sets in a hurry, armor settling into place while his own staff materializes. Sawdust poofs off of him in a lazily drifting cloud, making a big mess by the open doorway.

Att almost yells again. Instead, he opens his Friends list, pulls up Whiskey's name, and lobs over a party invite. His free hand goes to his ear, an unnecessary Chimlink broadcast motion. "Where?"

Proteus is trying to work and hold an indepth conversation about important topics at the same time. It's something of a multitasking feat, especially when discussing things like invulnerable monsters that can make Adventurers bleed instead of creating generic Damage Slashes. "That's really messed up." Proteus agrees. "That's definitely something we need to investigate. I have a feeling we might need to drag Haseo out of the closet for this one. Last time we ran into monsters that couldn't be damaged, we needed him."

The question of the Morrigan, of course, goes unanswered because now they have bigger things to worry about. The Imp stares, fascinated, as the thing collapses into itself and becomes a strange... object before her very eyes. "What is this...?" She asks. "I've never seen anything like this before." It begins trying to merge with her hands, growing over them, the strange music rising from it. Some of the words might be familiar enough, but the meaning eludes her.

There is a choice to be made here. Let it go... Or let it become part of her, it seems. There's no time to get more information about what precisely this is, either. A mad little grin crosses her face even as chaos erupts below. VERY CONCERNING words come over the Plant Duck Chimlink even as Proteus wraps her right hand around that egglike object, coaxing it around her hand as she tries to find a way to acquire it. "Are you the answer I'm looking for?" She asks, only half-paying attention to the incoming PK.

This is probably going to be distressingly relevant shortly.

As Att Syne reaches Whiskey Sour in the center hall, the one that Haseo has named Tri Edge in the past steps forward. Their wicked blades raised up as they get into a combat stance. They don't speak, at least, not in a way that Whiskey Sour or Att can understand. There's instead this intense /breath/. Almost like a deep feral hiss coming from him. They can /see/ his breath, slowly slipping up as if gravity gave up on touching this being's breath.

It seems to be reacting to their hostile stance, in the fact that they have weapons readied. They don't even get much warning. As they are in the way of it and the stairs, this being suddenly launches itself forward with enough force beneath their foot to rip tile from the ground simply from pushing off. Their wicked blades angling right for Whiskey Sour and Att Syne's throats!

Att asks where. Whis is still physically screaming, though her voice is hoarse and ragged by this point. Sometimes, it's all you've got. The screams focus into words.

"Front hall! Where the heck is HASEO!?" She continues, taking her staff in both hands as Tri-Edge advances. "Draw the line between light and darkness: No pain --" The seething PK legend's blades crack against her staff, and the leading edge of one draws a thin red line across a forearm.

Whis immediately feels 'less'. That feeling of loss, of something slipping away. She had been looking for it for almost a year now, carefully avoiding even sleep in lieu of an insane rambling about the continuance of her person. And here it was.

"-- no pain shall find purchase! Divine Shield!" Her shield fully forms, a shimmering bubble of light around her.

Whis stops screaming. It won't help her, and she can't cast and holler at the same time.

"I don't care who you're here for. Falling rain of icicles, hear me and obey -- Ice Rain!"

A hall-filling winter storm begins to pelt the area, a go-to answer for any situation: Apply cold debuffs and fill the whole field with danger, and let God and Defense stats sort it out.

"Coming!" Att's footsteps practically thunder in the hall. He breaks into a dead sprint, crossing the building in moments. Whiskey Sour comes into sight, backed to the end of the hall, and he steps out next to her --

Tri-Edge.

Att Syne feels himself lowering into a fighting stance the moment he makes it into the hall. The presence of the person (creature?) that Haseo has gone on and on about immediately puts him on edge. There comes a point where, once something is sufficiently hyped up, the moment of truth arrives to see if it lives up to all the talk. This has been coming for months now, waiting in the wings. He immediately assumes there's some truth to the skill of a PKer this strong, but --

Tri-Edge launches down the hallway like a cruise missile. Att responds with old instincts, a rush of adrenaline, real or simulated, accompanying a flowing upwards motion and a twist of the wrist. His staff intercepts the deadly blade aimed at his throat, the intended kill shot narrowly but neatly deflected upwards. The pulsating haze that surrounds the staff gripped in his left hand is the telltale sign of a defensive skill, activated through motion controls rather than verbal incantation. If it works for a shield, it works for a parrying 'blade', and a staff qualifies as the appropriate weapon group.

These are the things Att Syne would explain, were he not in a situation where the spent breath might mean he only gets one more. A sharp inhalation, and then an exhalation of his own, a shout, a bellow, as his right hand sweeps his own sword off his hip. It travels upwards in an ascending slash that makes him twist at the hip and summon a pulse of thundering surf at its apex, a forceful wave intended to blow their aggressor backwards into the midst of the icy rain.

Visions of Sword Art Online's dedicated killers dance behind Att's eyes. A broad, razor-thin smile grows on his face, unsummoned and unwelcome.

The white 'cocoon' continues to grow and disassemble over Proteus' fingers. She can feel her fingers be pulled into it, tearing at the skin. But there is no pain, as the cocoon continues to sing. She can feel it swallow around her fingers, slowly growing, ungrowing, and regrowing around her fingers as the Cocoon continues to crack and seem to implode on itself. Until finally, it begins to dark, and Proteus starts feeling like something is fusing with her.

The cocoon creeps up her arms like a set of cuffs, leaving behind more and more of its body, until it finally 'snaps' at the center, after having formed two black... gloves?

No, not gloves.

As the singing halts, Proteus can feel this whine in her ear. She flexes her fingers.

The Cocoon had not gone 'around' her hands. No, they /are/ her hands now. Her hands are off black, like a black marble. Imp in shape, but definitely not flesh anymore. Inlaid on the back of each hand, is a series of pale gray 'circuits' that mesh with the marble itself. A circle at the back of each palm, and lines that wrap forward toward each finger. Half-u symbols 'connecting' with circles at each joint.

<< PROTEUS_FEHU_MORRIGAN_FEHU_MORRIGAN >>

Suddenly appears on her HUD... before it fades again.

Guess who absolutely does not have a chim link hooked up to the Plant Duck central mail server?

THIS GUY!!

So Prophylaxis is even less aware of what's happening elsewhere in the building than Proteus is. That'll be fun! Y-yeah... f...fun...

"Yeah, I seem to remember he did something /weird/ to some of the goblins in that Monster Nest. The strangest thing though-- that red stuff? You know, the damage lightshow? When I staunched the bleeding, that stuff flowed /back in/ to finish the job. It's almost like our bodies in here have some kind of built-in regeneration system or something--" Prophylaxis pulls his palantir from the cabinet it got lodged into and looks back...

Just in time for... That. That? "What-- Proteus, your hands. What's happening to your hands!? Where'd the Enigma Fragment go? What--" The doctor reaches out. His own hand clasps around her shoulder, and his face scrunches as if trying to read minute words in the middle of the five-hundredth paragraph of a bottomless text book. "...Elevated Heart Rate? That's it? That can't be all that happened..."

Ice Rain! The pounding shards of ice snap through the hall and seem to freeze the hall as Whiskey Sour pulls out her magical technique! The floor gets slippery, and it's clear that while this Tri Edge is a powerful combattant, they are not immune to the power of Physics. They slip for a moment, before Tri Edge spins, righting himself, glaring at Att Syne. His mouth opens again, that same /hiss/ eminating from him. That breath rising once more.

Att Syne's forceful wave of thundering power pulses against him however, forcing him back across the slippery hall, and stopping him from reaching the stairs for the time being, giving Proteus and Prophylaxis the precious moments they are going to need. Because Tri Edge is not so easily discouraged, digging his foot back in, and stabbing his blade against the ground...

At which point, the ice seems to crack, as if a local earthquake just rushed out from that position, the floor starting to break out from near Att Syne and Whis.

Plant Hwyaden HQ is one of the more advanced, and secure, buildings in Alne. Built up by multiple highly talented and dedicated crafters, the grounds were casually impregnable to most people.

Tri-Edge was not 'most people'. Tri-Edge was, in fact, essentially the Jason Vorhees of MMOs. And he had decided that the Plant Duck Campers were due for a bit of bloodshed.

When the property damaged increased as the Ice Rain's effect was cracked through, Whis has a decision to make. She's a senior member now - someone who had spent far too long trapped in a death game sleeplessly whiling away seconds, minutes, and hours in a singular quest to continue her personage.

And now she stared down Death Itself.

"Att!" She calls, as the broken floorboards twist into a mighty forest of vines, re-arresting Tri-Edge's progress with a choking wall of thick, thorny vines. Thorny vines that weren't connected to her.

Whis tosses away her staff, blue flames flickering across her body, and draining into her right palm. She aims it up - angular, at a point in the cieling that she knew only because she helped renovate the whole place.

"We're evacuating." Is Whis' simple declaration, as the world in the central hall turns white, and the pulse of magic becomes a brilliant beam that smashes through the roof, the second story, and through the Science Room heedless of EXPERIMENTATION.

It bursts on the outside, an implosion of white. White, specifically. White smoke.

The retreat flare.

"MOSHI FUCKING MOSHI, SCIENCE IDIOTS, TRI GODDAMN EDGE IS HERE, WE'RE LEAVING!" Whis screams up through the hole in the cieling.

The mass continues to merge and fuse with Proteus' body, becoming part of her avatar, part of what she /is/. It disassembles her 'flesh', and Proteus continues to watch, fascinated. "It's rewriting the data." She whispers. "What is it doing...?" She asks, the strange non-feeling of watching them disintegrate, the mass creating, recreating... And then she suddenly pitches forward as the mass snaps into defined form, instinctively grabbing at her ears...

And then she pulls backwards, blinking in shock as she pulls her hands around and looks down at them. Front. Back. Front. Back. She marvels there at the sight of the off-colored non-flesh that her hands have become... And the HUD flashes before her. New names. Strange names.

"Proteus... Fehu... Morrigan." She says, repeating to herself, utterly distracted at the moment as she flexes those fingers before her, wiggling them back and forth. "Heh... Hehhhahaha..." She laughs, shaking her head, her purple eyes alight as new ideas and theories surge through her mind. "I have no idea!" She replies to Prophylaxis, her tone gleeful. "And that's /great/!"

Perhaps in retrospect, soundproofing this part of the workshop might not have been the best plan, since she still doesn't know a murderous zombie PKer is crashing through her allies downstairs.

At least, until Whiskey reaches out and blows a hole in the floor and screams up IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Proteus's blue skin promptly turns to a very pale blue. "TRI-EDGE IS HERE?" She yells... And then turns to grab Prophylaxis. "RUN! OR WE DIE!" At that point, Proteus bolts straight for the nearest exit, hoping to put Many Walls in between herself and the most infamous PKer in the World.

Att returns to a neutral position once there's some space between himself and Tri-Edge, staff held perpendicular to the sword pointed at the floor. He stares across the frozen gap, the stairs behind one shoulder and Whiskey Sour behind the other. He thinks he can feel his heart hammering in his chest. Is that real? Or is the game just simulating it all for him again?

Deep breath. A moment of calm. He's going to come at him again with those knives -- the breath is a signal, a tell, a cast animation that he can spot and take full advantage of --

The floor explodes instead. Att jumps. "ENERGY COAT," he shouts, and a shimmering layer of ethereal armor surrounds him. The shattering floor scatters to either side, and his momentary weightlessness from the weird spell lets him slide backwards with a jab of his staff against the wall. He comes down on solid ground again, switching his footing, left forward and right back, body turned sideways like a blade presenting its edge to a deadly foe. He levels his staff like he was pronouncing judgment.

"THORN BIND HOSTAGE!!"

The already-trashed hallway sprouts glowing vines with gleaming thorns, spreading across the intervening space and lashing out to try and grasp Tri-Edge's extremities and hold them down. Att takes a hopping half-step back, swinging his staff back into a defensive position. He spares a second to glance over his shoulder -- but barely, unwilling to let Tri-Edge out of his even peripheral vision. His expression is not at all that of a man fearing for his life and an inch from panic. He looks like he's just sensed a raid going south and is working out how to pull it out.

"Go, Whis!" Att turns fully back to face down the killer. "I'm right behind you!"

Should he be more concerned about the fact that Proteus' hands just turned into some kind of weird... /Not/-hands? They're very clearly hands, that much is clear. They're her hands. That's true too. But... The way that matter just outright /replaces/ her limbs is unsettling beyond belief for a man of the medical profession. Normally, when that sort of thing happens, it's because of necrosis or the onset of gangrene. This... This is something else.

"I'm glad you're enthusiastic about all this, but normally flesh suddenly changing colors is a sign of some kind of flesh-eating bacteria, not--" A beam of light /lances/ up through the floor. Prophylaxis jumps back with a start, and inadvertently almost gets SUPER IMPALED by a spike of white-hot light. He's already so tense that he makes piano wire look flacid, and this! This is not helping!! Neither is what gets yelled up through the floor. "Tri-edge...?" The Doctor stares mutely, "The... PKer? I thought he was just a rumor, what's-- oop!" His hand is grasped! The doctor stumbles after her, almost tripping over his own two feet before a wave rises out of nowhere underneath him and sluices forward, keeping him upright but just barely. "Right! Running!"

He has no idea what kind of sacrifices are being made to buy him the time to do so. If he did... Would he have still agreed to take this risk? To chance their lives for the sake of knowledge...?

...Hard to say. You can only live with the decisions you make. And right now, his decision is to beat feet as fast as humanly possible.

But just because he's running with his feet does not mean he can't also run with his mouth. And so he asks: "I was told Plant Duck's HQ was a strange place, but does this sort of thing happen often around here???"

The chase becomes a bit chaotic. Whiskey Sour and Att Syne continue their attempts at holding back Tri Edge. But each time they pull out more vines, or rock formations, the PKer cuts right through the magic with their tripled blades. It is clear they are just too high level to actually be held down by this kind of status effect. Still, they are managing to slow him down!

Enough that Proteus and Prophylaxis manage to get out to the square just before the door opens, and Whiskey Sour and Att Syne and kicked out onto the square in front, skidding to a stop with half their health missing. The red light of damage showing on their chest where they'd been kicked - luckily having avoided getting stabbed or cut by his daggers.

Tri Edge's eyes then set on Proteus... her hands first, then her face. That hiss gets louder. Angrier. Tri Edge spins those daggers around in their hand with a flurry for a moment, and then duck down, before bursting forward like they'd done before. They're about to make contact, one arm back, the other forward, aiming at Proteus' hands...

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With a slow step, a very familiar man approaches them, singing at an incredibly rapid pace, enough so that it sounds like two people are singing. One male voice, one female. One hand forward. Of that original party, perhaps it would be Proteus and Att Syne who are the only ones who still remembers what this man was like at the time, as the Bandit King himself comes forward.

This man, bearing black armor, with long pale hair and green eyes. Even those who have never seen the Bandit King just... know. Even if Proteus and Att Syne may have been the only ones who've seen this person before. Everyone here /knows/, this /is/ the Bandit King. They only relevant 'regent' to the Ezzo Empire.

As his... her... their(?) song continues, it is almost like Tri Edge is frozen in space. In the middle of their attack, yet unable to break from whatever is happening to them. The air doesnt' shimmer around them. There is no force being committed upon them. It's like Tri Edge is straining in mid-air of their own volition.

During which the Bandit King motions for Proteus to get closer.

Whis, running out of high level spells in her répertoire and having shot her magic wad putting a hole in the cieling that had taken months to fix up, doesn't have a smart counter for being booted through the front door. In fact, her slight frame tumbles and rolls across the grass, saved from (further) bruises and bumps by extremely niche bits of flavor text as she, beloved of the earth, eats an incredible amount of dirt.

Skidding to a halt on the path, she coughs a mouthful of dirt out, sits up, and realizes...

Oh, wait. Tri-Edge is still coming. She holds her hand out for her staff and--

Realizes anew she threw it away when she blew up the roof. In the moment, it was the fastest way to fix her handedness issue.

A strange song begins. Not to look a gift horse in the clean, dirtless mouth, Whis scrambles to her feet and puts more distance between her and Tri-Edge.

Until she passes the Bandit King, and - despite every single one of her best interests thumping in her heart - turns. "Att, if he's stopped, that means we're leaving! Double leaving! Don't be after me, come ON!"

Proteus and Prophylaxis run, just as they should. Unfortunately, most of the time that Att and Whiskey spent holding the horror back ended up being wasted by Proteus being caught up in that revelation. Unfortunately, there's only so many walls one can put between themselves as they bolt out into the main plaza. Proteus put out the alert to anyone who didn't somehow see the massive Emergency Flare that Whiskey put into the sky, so the good news is there's no one to get hit with collateral damage.

The bad news is Tri-Edge wants /her/. Selflessness isn't exactly serving the Imp Archaeologist well at the moment. The daggers spin, and Proteus quickly raises a hand, preparing to desperately try activating something, /anything/ to blunt those annihlating edges. It's too slow. Everything is too slow. Again, Proteus stares into dissolution, and this time, she knows it'll be far, far worse than what L'Arc had done to her.

... But the edges don't land. The song rings out, and the eyes of the Imp turn to someone she never expected to see. "... The Bandit King...!" She hisses. The strangeness of the one authority of Ezzo seems to have returned, and Proteus glances back to Tri-Edge and then over to the Bandit King. They're acting like they were when the Black Wave occurred.

She doesn't waste time. She rushes to the side of the Bandit King. "Got a plan on getting out of here?" She asks. "Because I sure don't." It's clear who the target is. And she knows why. If she gets out of there, the others should be safe... right?

Att's recollection of the chase later will be something more like a heroic retreat with him at the vanguard. In the moment, he's skipping along backwards, fighting entirely defensively, and being willing to take hit point damage from environmental effects over any chance that those blades actually connect with him. With someone having a name so on-point, that *has* to be the most dangerous part of their arsenal.

Anyway, Att ends up getting launched out the front door much like Whiskey did mere moments after she calls back at him. He lands awkwardly, rolling badly, and then finally recovering to do a dusty three-point hero-slide at the end in a vain attempt at recovering any manner of potential badass reputation he might have accrued from this incident.

"Yeah, we --" Att gets back to his feet, raising his sword and planting his staff. He glances to one side, then double-takes at the appearance of their rescuer. "No way. Are you --?" 'The possessing entity that hijacked the Bandit King last time we saw him,' he does not manage to ask. Instead, Att takes a couple more steps back, then moves over to high-tail it away from the building with Whis instead of behind her. He can observe the musical magic once she's at a safe distance.

Exactly how out of his depth /is/ Prophylaxis right now? Maybe not as much as he'd think, but definitely way more than he'd like. Way, /way/ more than he'd like. Even if he's in a brand new form, capable of doing incredible things with both body and spirit, he is still human deep down inside. The psychosomatic fear response transforms his heart into a six-cylinder engine. Blood hammers in a frantic pulse against the inside of his ear and down his jawline and neck. Blood pressure elevated, fear absolutely through the roof. His legs pump like jackhammers, or so it feels. But even that isn't enough. Even then, the monster comes. Every moment that passes, no matter how fast they run, it's one step closer. The end it promises is inevitable-- absolute, perhaps.

And then, finally, it's upon them. The Tri-Edge throws open the doors, and Prophylaxis stares in disbelief at the thing standing there. It's... it's... "...Kite...?"

It leaps. Its daggers whirl. Proteus extends a hand to do something, to do /anything./ Prophylaxis...

Prophylaxis is a doctor. Prophylaxis is a man who has given his life to save others, someone who holds life and death themselves in his hands. Someone who personally witnessed just how limited his reach is. Someone who is in the midst of seeing someone else die.

She is not beyond his reach.

A split second before the daggers make contact, he rushes to put himself between the assassin and his target. It's a move made on reflex. An all-consuming need to save that life, at the expense of all else.

...But today at least, his sacrifice is denied.

Not because Tri-Edge slipped by, no. But because someone... sings the song that holds him at bay. Prophylaxis stares as the song reverberates through the air. It's... It's like that time in the square. The time with Ganesha. Singing at the world-- to compel it in a way that mere magic cannot. "You... Who are you? The Bandit King...?"

Proteus moves to the stranger. Prophylaxis' lips draw into a line and he steps forward after her. "Wait. I'm coming too. The Morrigan. You saw it too, right? I want to know where this rabbit hole goes. Besides, you'll need /someone/ to watch your back, right?"

There's a beat. He glances sheepishly aside and adds, "And if it's after you, it might be after me, too."

"That Accursed Monkey would never forgive me, if I ignored his last wish." The Bandit King manages to speak in the middle of the song. Though, the moment he speaks something other than the song, disrupting it, Tri Edge moves just a bit more. Forward. Anguished. Staring towards Proteus, and nobody else.

"You will not need to leave. But if you continue on this path, you will be hunted by him. You will not be able to stay in one place for long." The Bandit King then declares, before he touches Proteus' body. Laying his hand on her shoulder while looking at her with the warmth of an uncle. That crazy uncle that always showed more respect of his brother or sister's kids.

At Att Syne's unspoken question, the Bandit King nods at him, as if saying hello to an old friend, before slowly nodding affirmatively. His gaze then turns to Prophylaxis, seemingly appreciative of that attempt to protect Proteus as he had. Yet, that gaze slips to the woman who's approached him.

"Go forth, and be a Fraud, just like him." He says, as he suddenly pushes Proteus back, and flicker of white light overcomes her for a moment... as the song stops. Tri Edge lands, looking confused. Looking around, left and right, almost as it were a blood hound that'd just lost the scent of something. There's that fierce hiss, sniffing at the air. Getting closer to Proteus. The Bandit King pushes her behind him with his hand.

"There is nothing for you here. Depart." He commands.

Which seems to work, as Tri Edge then retreats back towards the building, stepping over the shambled door, and into the halls, no doubt to disappear through the Wound that'd been made in the Wall of this World.

Whis, as Tri-Edge, the legendary killer, nearly ends Proteus -- and THEN nearly ends Prophylaxis (because Prophylaxis is, strictly speaking, literally ready to go to Hell, TONIGHT) -- before... Nothing. An invisibility spell? A glamour? Did it matter?

Whis collapses on her knees, a distance away, next to Att, and then flops fully back onto her back as Tri-Edge offically Hecks Off.

This is a swearing day, but Whis has already bagged the Seasonal Single F-Bomb to keep this PG-13. You get one!

It was well-spent.

Whis, looking up at the sky of Alne, turns her head slightly to look at Att.

"I hate this game, Att." She murmurs, quietly. "And I hate being right way more. I started to think I was wrong..."

"But I wasn't. And that's even worse."

Att makes eye contact with the Bandit King. He returns the nod, albeit a touch more belatedly. The possibilities that this very simple gesture communicates are... well, not limitless, but certainly fascinating, once you've had time to sit down and digest them.

He does not have this time yet.

Att Syne turns and watches as Tri-Edge is... banished? Driven off? Made to leave, in some way. He stands over Whiskey Sour's prone form while he does it, acting like a warding sentinel. He doesn't have to do any actual warding, so after that, he sighs deeply and sinks down to take a seat next to her. He's suddenly feeling very, very tired.

"I don't know what parts of this game are still pieces moving on a board, and what parts are players reaching into other boxes." Att shakes his head slowly. "But we'll figure it out. We'll get through it."

Somehow.

Prophylaxis is in about as deep as one could possibly get, and not even through any real fault of his own. He simply acted as an enabler for one of Proteus' theories. One that ended up having far-reaching consequences and ramifications beyond anything that either of them could have expected. Tri-Edge is going to kill someone. It almost killed Prophylaxis. The Imp can't help but notice the way the shady doctor hurled himself into the way of dissolution. Why?

Does it matter? Well, that's a puzzle with a simple answer. No. It doesn't.

Maybe one day she'll figure out why and she'll have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the chain of events. But there's so much to learn. So much to figure out. Proteus will remember this.

But the Bandit King explains some things. Not everything. But lays out the price of the path she has chosen: To be hunted by Death. She looks up at him, sees the reassuring smile, and nods, before he moves to shield her. She doesn't object. She doesn't even speak, as if to say a word would shatter the illusion and render the protection for naught. She waits, quietly, behind him until Tri-Edge leaves...

And only then does she step back out to look between them, then out to Att and Whiskey. She waves to them, with one of those strange hands, reassuring them that everything should be all right... for now.

But there's still things to say. Questions to ask. She looks over to the Bandit King, then, and holds up her hands. "So you know what I did? And what happened to me?" She points at the door to the HQ. "How long do I have until he returns? Do you know? But I know this for sure... Is that I am going keep going. I will solve the puzzle of this World. If this is the price I have to pay, so be it."

"Right now, I've hidden you from that being." The Bandit King answers Proteus. "But that protection will only last for as long as you are able to hold back that power." He taps against her hand. It makes a hard 'knocking' sound. Like someone tapping against hard marble. "It's not sunk in entirely yet." The Bandit King keeps looking at those hands. "But know this... that being is not the only one who will hunt you for the prize you possess. The ones that invaded this World on that fateful day also seek this. And they will stop at nothing to get it."

The Bandit King then looks Proteus in the eyes. "I honestly wish you'd picked a different path. But at the same time... I think this is the only one for you. Someone who seeks to avoid all fetters." The black armored one looks up, pondering her friends for a moment, before shaking their head and noting; "Do not seek more of those Enigma pieces until you are ready." He then finally declares, before he turns and...

Suddenly looks confused.

"What... am I doing here?" Looking left, then right. "Alne!?" Turning towards Proteus and her people, before he grimaces, glaring at her, and just /storms off/.

There are things that are better left forgotten. Scars carved into the very stuff of the soul that can never heal. For Prophylaxis, it is that feeling, that knowledge, that it would be okay to die for the sake of someone else. That maybe it'd make up for... something. It's an impulse, a stupid impulse, and it nearly gets him killed. Maybe /truly/ killed.

But it doesn't come. And the world keeps turning.

He watches, he listens, as the Bandit King speaks. 'The ones that invaded this world on that fateful day,' he says. The words of the man in the chair resonate in Prophylaxis' memory. Something about how his colleagues couldn't leave something well enough alone...? So then who were the ones that 'invaded' this world?

The Doctor frowns. "Wait," he begins to say, "That song-- what was it? Those songs control things in this world, but--"

No. Too late. The entity is gone.

And there's still much to do. Prophylaxis looks to Proteus' hands with a helpless shrug. Can't heal that even if she wanted him to. "You probably need some time to process... all this," he says to Proteus instead, a bevy of syringes somehow /already/ in his hands. "I'll take care of your guildmates. Whatever that thing was, if it's like anything /else/ weird in this world, it probably didn't... do anything good."

Att and Whis, get ready... FOR A CHECKUP...!!

"Hold back the power..." The tapping, the quite non-fleshy tapping against her hands are pointed. Proteus winces... But at the same time, she nods. "You sure are giving me a lot to think about." Proteus begins pondering the instructions given, looking back at the Bandit King and considering what he has to say... But then whatever entity has a hold of the King leaves him. The moment for pieces of the puzzle passes... And Proteus gives the normal King a wave. "A pleasure to see you, King." She says, giving him a short bow before he storms off.

"He seems to be getting yanked around by a strange force." She asides to Prophylaxis. "It's just like it was in Ezzo." She looks to the Shady Doctor, and nods. "Thanks... For everything. I appreciate it." She says. "I'm going to... take some time."

Proteus turns back and steps over to the front porch of the Guild, slumping down to sit at the stairs beside the entrance, and stares at her hands for a while.

She has a lot to think about. And things to tell her friends.