To End the Harvest

[Nayt]

"Beyond this, all we got are the basic facts," Scott continued.

He recounted the basics aloud. It was mostly unnecessary information for anything outside of melee combat, and most of the time unnecessary when not in the presence of a plain old fist-to-fist battle. The man they were dealing with was six feet tall and close to two hundred pounds. The original--or what was currently believed to be the original--form he took was easily noticed. He had a head that looked proportionally too large, awkward silver hair, and was devoid of facial hair. He was easy to spot in a crowd and they weren't even going to a crowded place. Scott informed them of all this noise, though he knew only the latter-most details would actually be all that useful.

By the time he was done with the explanation, he felt the urge for another cigarette, but he held off for now. He only planned to smoke half a pack during this mission.

"You got five minutes to pre-plan if you want them," Scott remarked as he started past the girls.

He walked over the two original designs made in the dirt, walking across the remains of the fountain, but left no footprints behind. Scott stopped at the other side, turned, and held out his index finger out again. This time, he began creating smaller symbols in the dirt.

"It'll take me that long to set you up a good transfer spell for your bodies, anyways," Scott commented, followed by a mutter he'd no intention to be heard--but no care if he was, either, "Gotta avoid puttin' you in a wall or somethin'. Hope you don't mind fallin' a bit."

[Paroxysm]

“My equipment isn’t on my person,” she said, though ensuring there was no bashful, or embarrassed inclination behind her words; the last thing she wanted or needed was for Scott to be Scott; “and so I’ll probably need two of those minutes to get ready.”

Circe couldn’t be faulted for not being prepared, of course; it wasn’t as though she were negligent in her role as a reaper; it was just that Scott hadn’t given any warning before forcefully moving her soul to Purgatory; and that had a habit of causing problems, mostly for people who weren’t Scott Thompson.

Sadly, Circe wasn’t sure if she were capable of moving herself from Purgatory, despite her skill level with Seele Übertritt, and the like; she had never attempted to move a soul from Purgatory and Scott’s method seemed fundamentally different than hers.

“So if you could just send me back real quick,” she smiled invisibly, “I’d really appreciate it,” or I’ll probably have to murder you, she finished in thought.

[Zach Kaiser]

It might have seemed highly fortunate that unlike Circe, Myrria was ready for battle, but it was really just a matter of probability. She was trained to be ready for battle if not at any time than as much as realistically possible, a habit which used to seem rather extreme but now in light of the improvised methods the Dirige was forced to use now was quite practical.

Unfortunately, she couldn't do much to help the younger girl with her situation. It was difficult to see in the dark, but she hardly wore enough clothing to cover herself, let alone another. Not to mention there was probably other gear she needed.

Fortunately, while Scott was unarguably perverted in social situations, those tendencies were usually left behind while he was on the job, at least serious ones, and this sounded as serious as anything she'd been assigned to. Of course, the key word was usually...

In any case, she was ready to go herself, and couldn't exactly plan strategy until Circe had gotten her equipment...and some clothing.

[Nayt]

"If I do that, you're gonna show up at the meet site all jumbled to shit," Scott muttered to Circe.

The way he talked didn't make Scott sound remotely interested in her plight--but the truth of the matter was, well, he was busy. If the patterns here were wrong, there was the explicit change that he'd send only half of Myrria's body or maybe just Circe's arm. No one wanted that. Nonetheless, he had a point. Two body/soul transfers like that back to back would indefinitely sicken Circe, perhaps to the point of outright uselessness. There'd have been a 94% chance that Circe would be violently ill, and thus incapable of completing the mission. There was already a guarantee that she'd be mildly sick with just one transfer, after all.

Once Scott was finished with the two designs, he looked to Circe and focused his eyes enough to figure the situation well. He'd have made a comment if he had the time. Instead, Scott stifled the want to grumble and unbuttoned his dark overcoat. He pull it off by the sleeves and tossed it Circe's way. Beneath, he'd only a white dress shirt and a black vest with a pocket watch on the front.

"Bring it from from the Dead Lands when you're in the sand pit," Scott straightened his spine, cracked his back, and rolled the knots out of his shoulder, "Same for weapons. Whatever you girls need, let me know, I'll send it your way."

If I got it. He left that part out. The nature of the situation didn't allow for leeway or time wasters, and it might have been a bit difficult to get any of their specific equipment. Their bodies . . . that was fine. He knew their spiritual signatures, but soulless objects were different. He needed to actually go get those and directly send them. There was no middling spell for that. He had equipment that he could personally send, items and the like that he kept on hands for his Reapers in times just like these.

"Speakin' of," Scott pointed to the coat he tossed to Circe, "There's a couple of scrolls in there. Give one to Myrria when you're in the real world. They'll let you hear me."

[Paroxysm]

Circe muttered something inaudibly as she caught and subsequently put on Scott’s jacket, which was no doubt a few sizes larger than anything she had ever worn, but she didn’t specifically complain about that. At the very least, it was nice of him to do anything, though she would have preferred to be sent, illness be damned, and so forth; she was a mission minded agent, but she also had her limitations…

“Whatever,” she said as she started to roll the sleeves up her arm, obviously she wouldn’t be taking the coat with her when they were sent, she’d arrive in her body, lacking clothing just as well as her soul had, but habits died hard, didn’t they?

Digging her hands deep into the pockets of Scott’s coat, Circe pulled out the before mentioned scrolls, gawking for a moment, but quickly handing one of them to Myrria.

“Those weren’t standard issue,” she remarked, impishly, and referencing her surprise at all the ‘upgrades’ (or downgrades, depending on how you look at it) handlers were being forced into obtaining. “Can’t say I’ll miss those glasses, though.”

“Anyways,” her attention was turned back to Myrria, since Scott refused to send her back to her body, they might as well not waste any time, and strategizing hadn’t even started yet!

“Got anything to add about the mission or anything you’d like to know about me?”

Instead of going off into a rant about what she was capable of, Circe, instead, asked Myrria if there was anything that she’d want to know, and the younger agent would no doubt answer to the best of her abilities.

[Zach Kaiser]

Myrria agreed that anything was an improvement over the glasses. While she wasn't one to be terribly concerned about looks, the rapid movement of her fighting style often caused them to fly off her face. Given that she was prone to not picking them back up until the fight was done, she'd received more than one dressing down from superiors for breaking communication during a mission. She didn't personally see what the problem was so long as she was still successful, but nevertheless she preferred the device that went in the ear. It may have taken a bit to get used to and provided less information than the glasses, but at least she didn't have to worry about losing them.

She did have a question for Circe, one which was rather important. "What is your fighting style like? Mine involves being in constant motion up close to the targets, attacking with my blades." If their target had no backup, then they needed to especially coordinate their assault so that they weren't hindering each other in combat. While she was certain that she could avoid getting in the girl's way if they were both fighting in melee, if Circe used ranged attacks the last thing she wanted was to get in the way of a shot--or worse, accidentally get hit by one.

[Nayt]

"Heh. It's a bit less fun, though," Scott reflected aloud, "I used to be able to stick someone gullible like Hikane with the goofiest looking Goddamn commu-links I could find."

Thinking back on it, Etsu's reactions were almost entirely predictable. At worst, she looked at them funny, then upon accepting that it was good for the mission, wore them without complaint. Eld's reactions wound up becoming the best, and half of the reason Scott played any pranks on Etsu at all.

"Losin' the body suits sucked, too. Ah, the body suits," Scott reminisced, "Y'know, before all hell went down back then, I had Zaki make up a few choice sized maid outfit performance enhancin' suits . . ." He had a few girls in mind to wear them, too. And mostly just to embarrass them or piss off their whiny boyfriends. The other justification, though, was that Scott definitely wouldn't have minded seeing Addison Draugr, Myrria, or Etsu Hikane in a delicious maid outfit. Shit woulda been so damn ca-- Scott interrupted his train of thought once he realized he was starting up with the mental images and promptly decided to disregard this line of thought.

For now.

Scott went silent after that. The two girls (well, the woman and girl) needed to discuss their strengths and weaknesses. This was a necessary part of the mission and the entire reason Scott gave them this time to prepare themselves. Scott had more preparations he could make, anyways. Items, namely. If he was potentially going to send them little goodies here and there, he needed a spell circle for it. And so he occupied himself with just that, standing on the north side of the broken and empty fountain, and making a much larger spell circle for the occasion. If he needed to send multiple things at once, he was going to need the space to fit it all--and since it took a bit of energy to cast such a thing, he was definitely not sending things one at a time.

This method of spiritual manipulation was in its own right vastly different than what the Dirige used before the End. In some instances, that sort of technology was still around and in use, but with the events that befell the old compound and the utter ruination of Purgatory, they were all hard pressed to harness the energy to pull off such a large scale method.

What most Reapers didn't know, however, was how the old tech worked. Scott's methods of transporting and the old way of transporting were almost the exact same, only Scott's was a bit more potent. By design, their old compound was simply a series of thousands upon thousands of spells all at work, except they could be turned on and off with the push of a button. All they lost were the buttons and thus, in each their own ways, had to make new ones--sometimes better ones, all that mostly had a deceiving air of antiquity . . .

[Paroxysm]

“A-ah,” Circe licked her lips for a moment, thinking to herself; “I’m an expert in base Qi manipulation,” she stated proudly with a smile, “and trained with a weighted chain-scythe, though I’m pretty capable with just the chain, itself, too; that’s the most important part, really. So yeah, mid-to-close combat is pretty easy for me, and I can manage decently with ranged attacks, provided proper… outlets for ‘Seele.”

Although Circe introduced herself as an expert in Qi manipulation, it was a bit more than that, and also a bit less. Shaping natural Qi was relatively simple, it had been done for centuries in the use of priestly spells in some cultures, but what she really was, was an elementalist. Imbuing her weapon (in many cases, the chain of her scythe) with an elemental property, such as electricity, often had devastating results, though she didn’t bother relaying such information to Myrria, assuming that the woman was versed enough to understand that Circe was a high level Ubertritt user and most of her fighting style reflected that; for example: whether she be using an XT series shielding unit or her scythe, she was always incorporating Qi into her techniques and that would make it a bit easier for Myrria to gauge what Circe was doing with extrasensory instincts alone.

“I guess we’re opposites, huh, Myrria?”

Remarking on Myrria’s apparent focus on physical attacks and Circe’s own focus on Qi effects, the young woman stuffed her hands into the jacket’s pockets casually, and waited to see if the older, more experienced agent had more questions or comments.

[Zach Kaiser]

Myrria nodded in agreement. "That's good; it means we should compliment each other well." While she had an easier time knowing how to work with a person with similar skills as her own, she knew that having a wide array of skills available was more important.

"For our basic strategy, I'll keep the pressure on him and you can look for openings." Of course they'd no doubt end up adapting as the situation called for it, but having a basic mode of operation was still a good idea. If Circe was as skilled as Scott suggested, then she could cause a lot of damage if given the opportunity--and it would be up to Myrria to make sure she had such an opportunity.

Of course, that was assuming this guy was as tough as he sounded, and didn't fall to her blades first. While for the mission that was certainly the better scenario, she'd be a little disappointed if the fight ended so quickly.

[Nayt]

Scott thought about time. It'd been a few minutes so far, and he was going to be pretty insistent pretty soon that the girls get ready to go. He took another few seconds to finish the next spell circle, drew two extra marks he recalled for safe measure (which might slow the process down, provided he were to use these spell circles, but make it all the safer). Scott leaned back once he was finished and glanced to Myrria and Circe, in discussion as they were. He made no attempt to interrupt them and just continued about his way, personally preparing what he needed to prepare in the near future whilst they mentally and socially prepared themselves.

While he waited, Scott moved next to Myrria and Circe to make sure they didn't ruin their own spell circles. That would've been quite the problem. Fortunately, it wasn't at all the case. It was a good thing he included the anti-interference lines, even though they kind of made the transportation process a bit more nauseating.

Scott crossed his arms over his chest and decided to wait. The girls had a minute and if they weren't prepared by then, he'd have to kindly ask them for it.

[Paroxysm]

“Sounds good,” she acknowledged with a slight hesitant pause: “Just be careful, I guess. No telling what this guy can do,” smilingly innocently, she reassured that she didn’t mean to overstep her place; after all, Myrria was the elder agent, but the target was the blank check of Voleur d'âme and that made things a bit more difficult. Luckily, they at least had the advantage of going into the field knowing to expect the unexpected.

Pulling a hand from the coat’s pocket, Circe brushed loose hair behind an ear, and turned her attention to Scott, but not making the effort to inform him that they were done, he could figure that out himself; regardless, he looked to be just about finished, as far as Circe could guess, which, admittedly, wasn’t too far when it concerned Scott’s new tricks.

To herself, Circe was putting together a mental list of what she needed to “request” from Scott, it was last minute, sure, but at least she’d be ready when she hit the ‘real world.’

[Zach Kaiser]

Myrria nodded again. Naturally, they had no way of knowing for sure what kinds of powers they'd be up against--for all she knew, the enemy might even outclass her physically. But she guessed that she was a bit more durable than Circe even without her powers, so it was still better that she be the one in more danger. Plus, she had a lot more experience.

Noticing that Thompson was done, she crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. She was ready; she'd had her swords on her when she transported and was already dressed for battle. All she needed was instruction for what, if anything, she needed to do further to be transported.

[Nayt]

"Well girls," Scott began as he opened his arms.

He motioned for the two spell circles that Circe and Myrria showed up on in the first place.

"S'bout that time."

Five minutes were up and Scott had already finished all the preparations he needed to make. It also seemed like the girls gathered all the information about each other that they needed, too. It was still probably going to be a bit tough to go into this mission as total strangers, especially considering the dangerous nature of it. Scott brought his arms back to his sides and devoted onto to retrieving a cigarette from his pocket. He had a pack in his overcoat, of course--but he kept another in his slacks pockets just in case of . . . well, a young girl coming to him naked and needing protection from the elements. It was only the classy thing to do.

Scott waited for them to get on their respective spell circles.

[Paroxysm]

Circe scuffed a foot against the ground and sluggishly walked towards her respective spell circle, shoulders sagging and arms hanging limply in front of her; she straightened up by the time she stood in place, however, and was prepared to head off, already dreading the coming experience of teleportation and its side-effects.

While waiting for Myrria to position herself, Circe slid her thumb and forefinger between the cuff of Scott’s jacket, which she wore, and rubbed the digits in a small, circular pattern and removed them shortly afterwards, a small and mostly unseen gesture.

“Aright,” she announced in confirmation.

[Zach Kaiser]

Myrria quickly made her way to the spell circle--despite the seriousness of the situation and the risks involved, she couldn't help but be a little excited about facing a potentially strong opponent again. She crossed her arms once she was in, and nodded to Thompson to indicate she was ready.

While she wasn't looking forward to the nauseousness that the spell circle induced, it was something she was relatively used to. Some of the older technology used to be even worse, though admittedly she'd gotten used to the comparatively light effects of the new stuff.