[OPEN] That sign isn't for me because I didn't read it
Harper Quinn
the Stalwart
Teacher

Age: 33 | Height: 5'10 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Nomadic
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#15
the echoes of the thunderclaps
reverberation of the dead
The silence admittedly lasted longer than Harper had expected. He holds his tongue the entire time - but as one voice finally rises in debate, it’s the only catalyst the others seem to need, and from there distinct lines are drawn. Aurelia, Bartholomew, Ray, and Cameron all standing together in a huddle. Maeve and her family frozen to the side. Stragglers here and there - Deimos’ voice he hears at least, and Ray’s after. And then there’s Harper, watching over it all, staff loose but ready in his hands.

Maeve seems to look between him and Ray, and Harper straightens as his name is called out. Nodding sharply, the man moves gracefully to Gideon’s side, almost unrecognizable with the militaristic set of his shoulders and the severe aura around him. He is here to keep the peace. Nothing more. Whether Gideon intends to use his compass or to walk alongside Harper is out of his hands - he merely stands there, inserting himself bodily between Gideon and the others, hoping the mass of his figure will be a discouragement against anything worse.

Regardless of his own feelings on the matter, Harper will do as his Queen commands, and he will do his best to keep this from turning into bloodshed.
provides the tempo for the song
describing how all things went wrong
Locke Moore
Mercenary

Age: 34 | Height: 6'2 | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
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#16
LOCKE

When Cameron speaks, he turns, head tilting a smidge. Something about them is familiar and it takes a moment. Hadn't they almost joined the dragoons with him? And now they were Ascended? Interesting. Locke stores that away for a later use, potentially.

He tucks Edmund behind him as Gideon approaches but doesn't react beyond that. Not until he feels flitterings though the bond. He turns to see Aurelia in the crowd. Don't do anything stupid. It's both a warning and a threat. There's too much at stake here, if something goes wrong. Another voice, less familiar, reaches his ears too. But he doesn't respond to this one. He knows, deep down, that it was Wessex but he's not going to put her in any more danger than he must.

But Maeve does her duties and orders an end to the chaos. He watches her out of the corner of his eye, trying to read her body language. "We should go." It's just a breath for Maeve to hear, whispered as he leans over to her. His grip on Edmund tightens a bit, fear soaking through him. Others with the bond might even notice. He cares little to hide it.  

Aurelia was right. People should be afraid but of the right thing.
I'm motivated by the lack of doubt
I'm consecrated but I'm not devout
Cameron Davis
Artist

Age: 30 | Height: 5'8" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#17


Listening to Gideon talk pissed Cam off more -- until they heard Mabel's name, which set them back, their eyes wide. "Did you say Mabel? I haven't seen Mabel in ... God, seasons. And now she's dead?"

Cam's shock and horror was obvious. To hear that the dead Ascended was not a faceless stranger but someone they knew, someone they liked ... Mabel had never been exactly friendly; she'd always seemed a little distant, a little sad, almost as if she carried some great burden Cam didn't know about. But she certainly hadn't deserved to die.

Looking at Gideon, Cam spat, voice heavy with loathing, "Mabel was a fucking teenager. You kill kids, is that how you wage your war?"

They would have offered even more remonstrances had Bartholomew and the others not come to their side to do it for them. Looking around, Cam felt warmth fill their heart at the sight of these people who had come to their aid, especially because they were all strangers. (Wait, Bartholomew looked a lot like Nate; maybe they were related?) In fact, when Ray changed forms, Cam realized that she was probably Attuned, nominally a follower of the Old Gods, but she'd come to their side to defend the Ascended. That meant a lot to them. They'd felt so alone ...

There was just one more thing for Cam to do, then. Reaching out in their mind to Wessex -- and hoping that they were doing this right, since they'd only tried to telepathically contact Wessex once before, and that had been when she was standing a foot away -- they sent, Hey, there's a man here in the Torchline marketplace who says, uh ... It's a lot. He killed Mabel, Mabel killed his friend, and someone who sounds a lot like you attacked him? It's kind of winding down -- a bunch of us yelled at him and now they're escorting him away -- but I figured I should still let you know.


cameron ?


"Cameras" by Ennev is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Edmund Ansel
Adventurer / Guildmaster

Age: 18 | Height: 5'10" | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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SPLAT - Mythical - Darkling
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#18
EDMUND

Edmund didn't know what to think. This Gideon guy had hurt a teenager? A kid like him? Is that what the others were saying? He saw his Auntie Ray move to protect the Ascended who'd spoken out. But Uncle Harper was guarding the Gideon man. It was confusing. From what the child understood, Gideon had done something. Something that had made the Voice possess her own and attack the man.

Confused, Edmund huddles behind his parents, clasping their hands tightly as they pull him away. "Why? Why is he only telling parts of the story? I don't understand..." This was too confusing. The Voice was bad so the Priest should be good. But he was lying, that wasn't a good thing to do.
I never realized how beautiful
Fires burn under the stars
Gideon Clemments
The Priest

Age: 52 | Height: 6' 1" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
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#19
GIDEON

pulled out all your stitches
Gods, but they had a lot of stupidity to let out. Gideon turned to face Bart (reflecting, briefly, that he looked a lot like the last idiot that had given him trouble in Torchline) and merely shook his head at the first point. "If any of the Old Gods were to take over the bodies of their followers - something I've never heard of, anyway - it would not be the same. The Voice is corrupt due to her very nature, the way she grasped at power she did not deserve. Her implants that allow her to do these things are unnatural. If the Old Gods were to control our bodies, it would be through their actual power." The distinction was clear to him.

As for Mabel and how she ended up with he and Cian...for a moment he considered simply admitting to it. After all, it had been the right thing to do. The girl had been dead the moment the Voice had set her sights on her. But he knew the people here were still blinded by the Ascended's human appearance.

"How swiftly you all rush to defend these monsters and blame an honest man of the cloth." He shook his head as if deeply disappointed. "The 'child', as you call her, though I believe 'machine' to be a better word, was helping the Order with a task. Willingly, until her fellow Ascended encouraged rebellion and the Voice concurred. " That was all he'd say: honestly, Gideon was struggling to come up with a convincing story on the spot, exhausted as he already was.

It seemed he was wearing out his welcome for good now. Holding up a hand towards Maeve, he shook his head. "I won't need an escort. All I ask from you people is that you listen. Ask the right questions. Can you say you truly know your Ascended 'friends'? Or do you merely know machines made to say things to get under your guard? I hope you find out before there's a knife in your ribs."

With those parting words, Gideon activated his compass and disappeared.
Hubris is a bitch
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
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#20
Wessex

Cameron’s message reaches her as she walks across the docks of the port, looking for where the Fireheart has supposedly re-purposed herself, above some ship known as the Ark. She came bearing gifts too, but as her sibling’s voice drifts towards her, she is suddenly all business, disappearing in a flash for the more crowded Haulani.

Someone might only glimpse her for a moment before she shifts into her kitsune form, ducking beneath a cart to catch the tail end of Gideon’s rant - lying about Mabel through his filthy teeth. She bares her own in a silent snarl, watching as the Priest disappears. Her gaze finally shifts to the onlookers, familiar and unfamiliar alike; remembering how Bastien’s face fell when he identified the redhead - Lily? Yes. Lily. She wasn’t Ascended and what if… what if this isn’t just about Ascended? Some here surely knew the dead Outlander.

Projecting an illusion some fifteen feet up, well above the watcher’s heads, Wessex conjures up the burning woman, red hair spread in a fiery halo around her head. Her clothes burn, her skin too -  and the Wraith makes her creation dramatically point to where Gideon just stood. “Liar,” it hisses, into the ears of anyone within the magic’s radius. Lingering for a moment, just to make sure everyone gets a good look at the horror that was - Wessex lets the magic fade away, until there’s nothing but clear, Longheat air above them.

---------------

Wessex conjures up an illusion of Lily burning and has it belatedly call Gideon a liar.
What is life? A madness
What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story
Aurelia Murlow
the Fireheart


Age: 29 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
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#21
Aurelia
You may feel no purpose for existing
It's all just conjecture and gloom
Aurelia's focus centers directly on Gideon as the shit continues to pour from his silvertongued mouth. A gnarled growl wrinkles the skin over her fangs to show the sharp tips, her body posturing in favor of defense against any action that might be taken. She didn't think anyone would take some form of action against the Ascended here, but if Gideon had other acolytes with him? Who knew what might unfold, and her gaze starts to dart around the scene.

Locke's voice in her head makes her take pause, the marred look on her face fading to something calmer as she takes a deep breath. I'm not doing anything as long as he doesn't, she retorts, her frustration palpable across the bond - but not truly directed at her friend. She knows that Locke understands the situation; they'd talked about it.

Gideon's plan seems to fall apart without her having to do or say anything though. His speech feels desperate, he's really pulling at straws here. Didn't seem to Aurelia as if anyone was truly convinced - be they for the Asceneded or not. But even he seems to realize that. As quickly as he'd appeared, he's gone in a flash. Relief floods through her, letting the striped fur on her back lie flat and her guard relax.

And she's about to pull away from the crowd and the chaos, to find some vantage point and watch over the streets for a while to make sure nothing bad ensued in the aftermath of all this shit. Then suddenly something happens. And her gaze lifts to behold the sight of the burning woman, pointing out the empty space Gideon once occupied, pronouncing him a liar. A shudder runs through her spine, disoriented and fazed by the sight. Until it slowly fades. But the image is burned in her mind.

Turning, she brusquely pushes past the onlookers that remain and makes her leave.



Exit Aurelia~
And there may not be meaning
so find one and seize it
Maeve Ansel
the Nightshade
Madame

Age: 26 | Height: 5'4 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Torchline
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#22
Maeve

Maeve bends down, scooping Edmund up into her arms and bracing him on her hip, glaring as Gideon turns his attention to her. His words are met with an icy stare and a tight lipped smile. She turns her gaze to Locke, nodding in agreement, leaning into his side as she holds Edmund against her chest. "I think that would be best." She agrees quietly, quickly taking in the others that were still lingering there. Hopefully they got the clue and scattered too.

That was until a sudden burst of light and flame. An image of a girl on fire. Red hair mixing with the orange of the flames as she lifted an accusatory finger towards the priest, hissing out the word, "Liar." She tries her best to shield Edmund from the view as they quickly leave the square.



Maeve is out with Locke and Edmund to follow!
when you are not fed love on a silver spoon
you learn to lick it off of knives

Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
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#23
death, you bring death and destruction to all that you touch
He could’ve argued the point Ray segmented back (he had quite a few examples where the Wraith had done just that) – but there were other matters to deal with, to listen to. Gideon’s tale had the makings of some other lies, for what Ascended would aid the Order, given all the information passed through land to land, and notion to notion, but he grasped at what sagacity he could. They’d likely have to parse through the deceit and duplicity to snag at what was fact and what was fiction, but for the moment all of it settled into his mind, intending to piece together fragments with the rest of his constituents.

The departure was called for, and he shook his head as the Priest simply disappeared. That might’ve been the end of the charades, had other multitudes not flickered through the sky – and he was quick to catch the flares of embers, the fire and brimstone, the chaotic shambles – and then the possible recognition. The woman amidst the inferno had been familiar years ago, though he’d never quite known where she’d gone after all this time. “Lily?” was a stark murmur in a series of movements and motions from the rest of the leaving mass, but it came from his chest on a low rumble anyway, on confusion, on what it was all meant to signify.

How had she been involved?

With his brows furrowed and mind spinning, he stared at the spot until the image faded away, and then he wandered out of the midst too.

{Deimos out!}
DEIMOS
Cameron Davis
Artist

Age: 30 | Height: 5'8" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#24


With Gideon's departure, Cam felt a rush of relief -- though also some disappointment that the priest hadn't stuck around to get totally verbally destroyed, after offering such pathetic arguments. No way had Mabel helped the Order willingly. But it was probably for the best that Gideon wasn't an issue anymore.

At least, so Cam thought until the form of the woman on fire appeared. They stared, utterly baffled by the illusion. OK, they knew Gideon was a liar, but why had this image appeared to accuse him? Whatever the reason, it was a little late, and soon faded away. Slowly, the tension also ran out of Cam's body.

They turned to look at the people who'd defended them, particularly Bartholomew, who'd been the most vocal. "Hey. Thanks. I ... really appreciate that."


cameron ?


"Cameras" by Ennev is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0


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