Roland managed not to make a sound when John grabbed him and stuffed him god knows where. It didn't matter much though. In less than a minute Roland's claustrophobia had kicked in and he started to struggle to get back out again.
At first he only muttered quiet curses but as the moments passed and he was still nowhere near freedom (the agent's pocked must have had buttons or a zipper) he started to panic. What if he suffocated? Or what if someone would bump into John and crush him?
Seras blushed a little as he put an arm around her. She then giggled, "Perhaps this whole affair involving the doppelgänger and the she Lich has changed something in the air....I'll still be the dear sweet Seras that you know and love." She said giving him a kiss, then pulling him closer, he held his arm in place. Moments like this made him forget the world around him, the annoyance from earlier just washed away.
They soon arrived at an area that was used to pickup luggage, they both began searching. He focused and took a deep breath, he then began to smell the air. He soon found his own smell and walked towards it to find his own bag. He picked it up and then focused again looking for Seras' bag. He found that one too, his new werewolf side did have his advantages. The bags were quite heavy though, he increased his muscles making himself stronger. He then walked back to Seras holding both the bags with ease. "Are you ready to leave yet darling?" he asked smiling at her.
The officer was just about to start asking questions when his phone rang. It was almost funny how nothing seemed to be working out for the poor man. He walked out into the hall, leaving Terra with her thoughts. Moments later, he started screaming into his phone; apparently things at the airport weren't going as planned.
"JOHN DID WHAT?" Richard let go of control, briefly not caring that anyone in the hall could hear that before quieting back down, "What do you want me to do about it, I am not at the airport... command approved of this, before the plane even landed? How... right above clearance right... Uhhh..." he said, clearly audible from the ER waiting room. All she could do was shake her head at the display; at least until the end.
"Richard reporting out"
Terra frowned. It was unkind but necessary to ask a person worried for her boyfriend questions while his life hang in the balance, but sending an officer with the same name... that was just cruel. Now even talking to him wouldn't prove any kind of distraction.
He eventually reentered the room and began his questioning. "All I need is to know what you saw and to listen to a... proposition." Terra raised an eyebrow at the statement, but otherwise answered his question as best she could
OOC said:
She tells the truth; I don't think reiteration is needed
When she had finished answering the man's questions as best she could - her voice still cold - she turned to him and asked "So what is this proposal and why should I listen to it?"
"Well..." Richard started, nervous at the continued coldness, "W... The... MI6 has been having a lot of trouble dealing with the same Lich that took down the plane and almost killed you, your boyfriend, and the rest of the passengers. The government has decided to... outsource help, deciding to go with the... more powerful passengers on the plane. I understand it, your boyfriend stopped the pla..."
Richard then figured out that might not be the best line of discussion to pursue, "Well... anyway. We been offering the other passengers compensation to help take down this menace. For example, for you..."
Richard took a brief look a good look at Terra, deducing from her unnatural beauty, black hair, and cold eyes she was a succubus, or at least part succubus.
"Your a," Richard tried to think of the polite term for sex demon, "... from the Nether realms, correct? Well, control over your... nature and your emotions is difficult, right? Well, I think I have a solution for you. Have you ever heard of a Custos Anima?"
Meanwhile...
John grabbed his phone while putting his arm over his coat where Roland was to cover up his movement.
"Yes? Oh hi Christine," John said to his phone, "Please stop yelling, I can explain why I am late..."
John walked away from the agents, before opening his jacket and lifting up the cover to the pocket.
"There?" John said, "Happy? You almost got us both in deep #@$^ right there."
Didn't even think about that the names are the same, I just was continuing to do a Top Gear shout out.
"Your a.." the other Richard said, taking an awkward pause. No doubt he was trying to think of a nice way to say what she was - he needn't bother; she'd heard them all before. "... from the Nether realms, correct?""Subtle" she thought, before tuning back in. "Well, control over your... nature and your emotions is difficult, right? Well, I think I have a solution for you. Have you ever heard of a Custos Anima?"
To be honest, she'd never heard the term before. It sounded magic based; something she really never understood at all. All of it was Richard's expertise; not her's. She did however feel the need to correct his knowledge. "It isn't so much the controlling of emotions so much as the having emotions. Most of my kind - Succubi in case you were wondering - don't feel emotion; we fake it. I'm a bit of a special case, but I digress. I've never heard of any Custos Anima or whatever, but I don't know how it can help. Just like humans need food to survive, I need souls - or parts of them at least - to survive. Unless your Custos-thing can somehow make souls to eat, I don't know how it can help." she said. Her tone and voice were still stoic, but it lacked the coldness of before. Even if this Anima-thing couldn't do anything, she could at least bargain for the best doctors and magical healers for Richard.
"Well, it does make souls," Richard said, "It holds one. Back in the days of old, many mages sought immortality. However, ascending was both difficult and dangerous, while becoming a Lich was sickening, considered dishonorable, and demanded their souls be forfeit. One solution was the Custos Aminas, or so they thought. Much like Lich's their souls became tied to an object. However, both their soul and conscience self were stuffed into it, with the hopes of somebody in the future figuring out how to undo the spell and put them in a new, fresh body. Well... it didn't work out that way."
"When Mages finally did figure out how to release the trapped souls in 1793, during the last great discovery period in human magic," Richard continued, "It was found out anyone inside a Custos Aminas had been completely conscience and aware while inside the objects, without feeling, seeing, or hearing for hundreds if not thousands of years. The mages that got out were invariable insane, beyond any kind of help or cure, attacking anything within arms reach with chaotic, uncontrolled magic. All the defensive spells placed on the things made sure the souls could not be easily taken out of their eternal torment, so most of them were either sold off to collectors and pawn shops as antics, or thrown away as garbage. The... British government has taken a vast amounts of these objects, not of much use to us. However, you would be able feed off of them, for a time satisfying your hunger for souls."
Richard grinned, "So, do you think that could help with your problems?"
Since Lich's exist, and thus it is possible to tie one's immaterial self to an object, it stood to reason that you should be able to do it without becoming a shambling undead.
"There? Happy? You almost got us both in deep #@$^ right there."
Roland scrambled out of the pocket as fast as he could, then sat on John's shoulder.
"Don't ever do that again or I will peck you!" he hissed angrily, then took a few moments to calm down. He was embarrassed that he had panicked so quickly but what could he do? He was used to wide open spaces like forests and such. Being stuck in small compartments or pockets made him feel as if he was suffocating.
"They, the other agents I mean, will probably think you're keeping someone locked up in your basement," Roland joked once he had regained his composure. "Anyway, should I talk with your boss too? He seemed like such a nice person."
Seras continued searching through the carry on luggage, kneeling down to examine things more closely. Whilst she could find the luggage belonging to Dominic, Nicole and Katarina; but there seemed to be no sign of hers and Theon's. She stood up to ask Theon if he had any luck, when she saw that he was carrying both of them, even noticing the slight muscular change. "Are you ready to leave yet darling?" Theon asked with a smile. Seras smiled as she handed the luggage to her family, before acquiring her own.
"Yeah, I've had enough of airports for one day Theon. However, once we've dropped off our luggage Theon, I think we should go visit Terra at the hospital, see how she is feeling at the moment, and if there is any news regarding Richard's condition." Seras remarked in a concerned tone.
"You sure about Seras? Didn't you say that you wanted to rest first."
"I know I said that mother, but concern for my friends is higher on the list of priorities at the moment then rest and relaxation."
Lucius watched, in amusement, as a crisis nearly broke with the talking birdman. How naive must these agents be to have not suspected anything from all that fuckery. Lucius sighed - mortals. Well, at least he had freedom now. He muttered to himself, "Nuntius Multis", before whispering,
"Anyone helping to bring down Arzhela, meet me in the lounge at the Ritz. If the price is a problem, ask me there.", Lucius focused, diverting the message to all of the passengers from the flight, plus the agent who had spoken to him - He figured it would be useful to have someone representing some governmental resources involved in any planning, after all.
Unless anyone objects, i'll take over GMing once any active players are in the lounge with Lucius. Does Not G. Ivingname want to keep controlling Clarkson (if he turns up/joins us), for the sake of characterisation?
Can all players who are still active PM me once they're in the lounge too, please, and if you read this and intend to stop playing, please PM me that instead? cheers.
"GAH!!! STOP DOING THAT!!" Lucia shouted to the Litch before rubbing her temples from a minor migraine "Fucking telepathy ..." she grumbled as she made her way to baggage claim and then to the hotel.
"So, do you think that could help with your problems?"
Terra opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She honestly wasn't sure. Taking a moment, she began to speak. "I'm not sure... First, I'm a bit of a special case as far as my kind are concerned. I can't really turn my telepathy off; just... "down" I guess. If they really have their soul in an object, then my telepathy should pick it up. If their really as crazy as you say they are, I don't know if I can easily get close to one. Second, I can subsist less then a full soul at a time; aside from telepathy, I don't use my powers much so I don't need much power. As a result, I survive off eating... emotion is the closest thing I can call it. Just like you can't live off bread alone, I need to eat more then one kind of emotion in the grand scheme of things. If they're all just angry and insane, I don't know if I can get all the nutrients I need. heck, I don't know what will happen if I try and eat only insane souls; I can't think it will be good for me. And, at the end of it all; I've never tried to extract soul-stuff from something other then a human... I don't even know if it's possible without magic. Magic I don't have." she said, listing off the problems she could see.
"That said, if there's a way I can survive without needed to hurt anyone, I think it's worth a try." she finished, letting him have some provisional agreement. "But; that's not enough. If you want my help, I want something else as well." Terra turned her head to look up at the glowing red ER sign and took a deep breath. "Richard - the man in that ER right now - is very important to me... I can't lose him. You want my help; I want the best doctors and healers and mages and... whatever else you can find to help him here to do just that. I... I can't do anything to help him; if you can, then I'll do whatever you ask." she said, her eyes stern and unyielding.
Richard was both more uncomfortable sitting right next to Terra, and now stuck with little to bargain with. The fact he shared the name with the man having surgery preformed on him made his position look hopeless.
"Well..." Richard began, "Your... boyfriend already has the best medical staff on hand to take care of him, thankfully this was not to busy today. As I understand it, he did have a fair amount of internal bleeding, but thankfully that was it. As long as they had enough of a capitable blood type here, the doctors should easily be able to patch him up fairly soon. Since he is a mage, he should be out of here as soon as he is awake and can preform the spells on himself. Healers are harder to convince to come to hospitals unless it is the worst of cases, and get to bill you for their work. Magical healers are not regulated under British universal healthcare law, and demand to be paid in private islands, bloody money grabbers. We also don't hold people to bargains using other's lives, even if they ask."
Richard pushed the reasonings behind that out of his mind.
"Well, is there anything else I can give you?" Richard said, "Your traveling around Europe, yes? I can help remove national barriers, get you in better planes and hotels. Anything your boyfriend wants? We could allow him access to mystical records, I am sure that Lich will have several one of a kind books we could let him see if you two help us."
Meanwhile, in the emergency room...
The doctors were patching up the bleeding in Richards thighs and chest. Thankfully, even though Richard suffered a massive fall, their was no evidence of bleeding in the head or near the brain. The best guess was that Richard used some kind of cushioning spell, although it was simply a guess. His type A+ blood also was very easy to match, when tested they found no resistance to the donation. A few broken bones had been easily set, on a normal person the healing process would take around a year, although the doctors assume Richard would just fix it himself easily. With all the bleeding gone, blood pressure returned to normal, Richard was patched up, and hopefully would wake soon.
Meanwhile, at the airport.
"Sorry, but I did what I could to make sure we weren't shot," John said, annoyed with the bird a bit.
"Anyway, should I talk with your boss too? He seemed like such a nice person."
"We shouldn't have to," John said, looking at the van, "All he would ask if..."
"Anyone helping to bring down Arzhela, meet me in the lounge at the Ritz. If the price is a problem, ask me there."
"I swear I am going to kill that @#$^ing Lich," John said under his breath, watching some of the passengers start screaming, "What give him the right to run this case?"
John turned back to Roland, "All Clarkson what you saw, which I already know, and if you have any interests in taking down Arzhela."
"While, besides that poison, your far from fit for combat," John said, "Will you stick with me, so we can see if any of her books has some kind of ritual to make you human? We also still need a sample of the poison, who knows what the antidote we can produce from it will cure."
You can take over Clarkson if you need him for a briefing, but just avoid making any assumptions about his work or the PIA than I already have given you. Just need Terra to talk to Clarkson and this RP is all yours.
"Anyone helping to bring down Arzhela, meet me in the lounge at the Ritz. If the price is a problem, ask me there."
"I swear I am going to kill that @#$^ing Lich. What give him the right to run this case?"
"Oh, good, you heard it too, right? I was starting to think I was hearing things," Roland said and shuddered a bit.
"While, besides that poison, your far from fit for combat. Will you stick with me, so we can see if any of her books has some kind of ritual to make you human? We also still need a sample of the poison, who knows what the antidote we can produce from it will cure."
"Tell that to the dopelgänger," the bird smirked, "Well, I guess you are my best bet at getting turned back right now, the lich too but I don't really trust the guy. Also, I don't think my poison will be that useful but I guess that's really up to you to decide," Roland shrugged, "Anyway, shall we head to the Ritz?"
"Well, I guess you are my best bet at getting turned back right now, the lich too but I don't really trust the guy. Also, I don't think my poison will be that useful but I guess that's really up to you to decide."
That was sweet music to John's ears. Maybe he could talk the bird out of giving the Lich anything.
"You wouldn't believe what medicines are made from toxic jungle plants," John said, knowing full well that curing people would be the last on the list of things his organization would do with Roland's cursed fluids, "There is more than revenge for that Lich. He views us as pawns in some game of his. Immortal beings such as him have spent centuries crafting their various schemes, and gotten good at it, willing to bide their time, because time is the only companions they have left."
"Anyway, shall we head to the Ritz?"
"Yeah," John said, "I don't want you out in the open though, lots of eyes are going to be everybody by various intelligence agencies. Worse if the police were no able to contain the media, it is hard to hide a smoking, half broken plane landing in London's most important airport. I can give you a minor invisibility spell so you can rest on my shoulder. However, I have yet to perfect the spell, you will be blind since light will simply pass through your retinas, but you won't have to be in one of my pockets."
"You wouldn't believe what medicines are made from toxic jungle plants," John said.
"You seem to forget that I only have so much blood in me. Even if you do find some miracle cure you won't be able to mass produce it," Roland reminded him. "Since when does the FBI deal with such things anyway?"
I can give you a minor invisibility spell so you can rest on my shoulder. However, I have yet to perfect the spell, you will be blind since light will simply pass through your retinas, but you won't have to be in one of my pockets."
Roland didn't really like the idea of being blind but he liked the idea of sitting in a pocket for who knows how long even less. "I guess I don't have much choice," he sighed, "Shame I can't change into anything less conspicuous like that Theon kid."
As they were leaving the airport, Seras received a communication inside her mind, it was from that misbegotten Lich Lucius.
"Anyone helping to bring down Arzhela, meet me in the lounge at the Ritz. If the price is a problem, ask me there." This caused Seras to become visibly angered, but her voice remained calm, the smile she wore soon dropped.
"I swear on my life, if I get my hands on that Lich, I am going to beat him to an inch of his non-existent life. I know it wouldn't do much in the long term, or even in the short term, but it would make me feel better. Appears we have a slight change of plan Theon, let me call Terra, tell her that we may be a little late in visiting her and Richard." Seras then gave a reassuring smile as she removed her mobile from her bag, and began dialing.
"You seem to forget that I only have so much blood in me. Even if you do find some miracle cure you won't be able to mass produce it. Since when does the FBI deal with such things anyway?"
"Find your poison's chemical chain, and it shouldn't be that hard," John said, "It also isn't the FBI that is really interested, it is mostly the Health Department and the CIA. The former wants reports on any potential new toxin, and a sample if possible, although it is above my clearance to know what the CIA plans to do with it."
"I guess I don't have much choice. Shame I can't change into anything less conspicuous like that Theon kid."
"It wouldn't be a curse if it benefitted you, now would it?" John said before pointing a finger at Roland, "Non videri."
John walked to one of the van's placed next to the plane, pulling out a compartment on the side. John placed his glock inside a holster in the compartment, before grabbing the roller luggage. John opened up the case, finding his personal revolver, body armor, some C4, and his Kel tech shotgun all in place. John holstered the revolver, closed the luggage, and started to head back to the taxi pickup.
"Well, is there anything else I can give you?" Richard said, a touch nervous, "Your traveling around Europe, yes? I can help remove national barriers, get you in better planes and hotels. Anything your boyfriend wants? We could allow him access to mystical records, I am sure that Lich will have several one of a kind books we could let him see if you two help us."
Terra just wanted to yell in annoyance. Richard - her boyfriend - was in the ER having god knows what done to him, and this idiot officer was trying to tempt her with plane tickets and hotels? Ignoring the irony of trying to tempt a temptress, it was just madness. The last thing on her mind was where in Europe she was planning to go next. And magic books? She could barely understand the basic spell books Richard kept on his coffee table, much less the books a Lich might have. How was she supposed to say whether Richard could make use of them?
Worst; she wasn't really angry at the other Richard - he was just doing his job. What bothered her most, was that all she could do was sit in an ER and wait for news. For all her special powers, she couldn't do anything. It was frustrating and angering and soul shaking all at the same time. The only thing she'd been able to do at all was place a call to Richard's sister; who appeared to still be in the airport being questioned.
As if to respond to her thoughts, her phone began to vibrate. Looking down at the screen, she could see the name "Seras" light up upon it. "Excuse me officer, but I need to take this." she said, then walked out into the hall. Pressing the little green button labeled answer, she placed the phone to her ear. "Hey S; is everyone alright; I didn't get a chance to see before I left the plane."
Lucia took a Taxi to the Hotel she already had reservations for, she wasn't about to change her plans for some Litch. She gave her name to the receptionist, got her room key, which was a plastic card with her room number on it, and headed up to her room. She tossed her bags on the extra bed, then striped down for a shower.
After her shower, she put on fresh clothing then headed to the Ritz
"Hey S; is everyone alright; I didn't get a chance to see before I left the plane." Terra asked as she picked her phone.
"Yeah, everyone who was on the plane got off alright. At the moment the police are just gathering information from us about what happened on board; no doubt someone on your end is doing the same around about now. There has even been a few people offering us something to help take down the she Lich Arzhela. Hey listen, after me and Theon had gotten set up at the hotel, we were going to head over to the hospital and visit you and Richard, see how the pair of you were coping; since well not only are you and Richard our two best friends, but in a way you kind of helped me and Theon get together, so thank you." Seras said, before stopping for a moment to massage her head, still feeling an after effect from the Lich's mental communication.
"But now it seems that misbegotten Lich Lucius has called for a strategy meeting in the lounge of the Ritz hotel, so our hospital visit has been put temporarily on hold. Rest assured though, once we're done, me and Theon will make our next stop be the hospital to come visit you, no doubt you could use the company whilst waiting on Richard's condition. Speaking of, any news on that front?" She then asked with concern in her voice.
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