Encounterlogs
Illyanas Odd Encounter Sr Ritsuka 241011
On a stormy day in the Northern Meeting Room of Town Hall, Illyana finds herself entangled in an unexpected mission. Tasked by a concerned professor from the White Oak school, she is asked to retrieve a stolen artifact, the Seraphim-blade, a powerful and dark object that has fallen into the hands of Patricia Victoria Lytton, a former security staff member now affiliated with the nefarious Golden Shadow. With the artifact's capability to enhance its wielder's abilities at a grave cost, its recovery is crucial to prevent its misuse. Despite her reservations, and partly enticed by the promise of a GPA boost, Illyana, driven by her mixed angel-demon heritage and her innate resourcefulness, sets out on this perilous quest, equipped with her combat prowess and a strategy to recover the blade.
Illyana's encounter in the forest with Patricia and two Golden Shadow associates quickly escalates into violence. Utilizing her exceptional combat skills and a clever psychological manipulation, Illyana manages to have Patricia turn against her own ally, succumbing to the dark desires induced by the Seraphim-blade. This grim scenario underscores Illyana's inner conflict and the monstrous aspects of her being she often wrestles with. In the wake of the bloodshed, she finds herself questioning her actions, haunted by the brutality she both witnessed and perpetrated. As she leaves the fiery scene behind, a mysterious paper suggesting a more extensive conspiracy at play finds its way to her, hinting at unknown benefactors and deeper machinations. The weight of her decisions and the implications of her newly discovered information hang heavy as Illyana contemplates her next steps, the Seraphim-blade in hand, its desires aligning ominously with her own.
(Illyana's odd encounter(SRRitsuka):SRRitsuka)
[Thu Oct 10 2024]
In Town Hall Northern Meeting Room
It is morning, about 51F(10C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. It's raining outside.
(The Golden Shadow has stolen a relic of power, a dark artifact that amplifies the user's own abilities, but at a cost. The target and their allies have been tasked by a desperate individual to retrieve the artifact before it's used for ill gain, forcing them into a dangerous confrontation with the mercenaries.)
A day like any other around the autumn. Rain falls heavily from the skies and will continue to for a long while yet, no streaks of sunlight shines through the skies. Only the terrible terrible rain. Wet, full of endless leaves and muddy! Though it is not all vain, with an idyllic hotspring and a maze just nearby. And yet, all the same! Terrible terrible day! In the distance, a teacher from the White Oak is making their way through. His gaze is one of a man in his middle thirties with short black hair and a framing beard.
His gaze falls over Illyana, and then around again. Here, it is not so busy, like it is inside the Town Hall, here the activity is still, no one really likes to stand under the rain so much, naturally.
Having spent most of the morning indoors save a conversation with Lance over at Rosie's diner, Illyana headed to the town hall; There was a member of interpol needing to be bribed. Fortunately for the interpol member (and less so for Illyana she cared very little. She in fact offered the fellow very little insentive as she was too busy being furious at having her hair ruined by the rain. So now, she finds herself loitering around and waiting for the torrential downpour to stop. Then of course, Illyana spots the teacher from White Oak. But she doesn't near just yet. She glances around- Clearly he cant be needing Illyana. And still, it would be a distraction, so she stands there, hands in her jacket pockets, dressed to ride her bike home in cycle leathers as the professor seems to be zeroing in on Illyana.
"Miss Howlett," The professor calls on out and over "A moment of your time, please? It is important." His pace comes to be a little quicker and his steps surely make their way towards Illyana. In one hand he is, of course, holding his bag, the most typical one that can ever be seen on a teacher or professor. Leather, black. In his other hand he is holding an umbrella to shield himself from the pouring rain. He wears a coat, could probably hide weapons under it, but how likely is that truly?
"If I was meant to do it, I already handed it in." Illyana quips back, but she doesn't in fact move. Even if the man is hiding weapons, he also has an umbrella, and his hands are full; One with his bag, the other with the umbrella. And that means some reprieve from the rain. So at me simply waits. She is going to get dry under that umbrella or else. "You can have a moment- Hell, take two or three if you're going to bring the brolly here." It's autumnal weather and even in full bike leathers, Illyana is shivering. Though she'd happily use her power to warm her, in public that's not such a good idea.
"Of course, miss Howlett," The teacher answers when he draws near, holding the umbrella over himself and moving the hand a little forward to put them both into partial coverage from the downpour. "This is not about your papers," The man adds, and then his voice grows a little bit more quiet. "I thought you would be the most suitably skilled to do this. An artifact in the possession of the school was stolen, and I would like to ask you to recover it. It is the kind that makes someone much stronger, so you can see why we would like it returned. Especially from the hands of the people that did steal it."
"Okay..." Illyana tells the man. "I have multiple questions. But let's start with the first couple. Why me? What exactly am I hunting for? And from who?"
"Your GPA is at a 3.3, miss Howlett, and we are understanding you are a very resourceful individual. We will of course consider it for your grades," The teacher answers, keeping eye contact if Illyana does not turn her gaze away. "You would be looking for the Seraphim-blade, but do not let the name deceive you. It is a dark artifact, and while it may enhance the wielder's abilities significantly, this one affects the combat prowess of the wielder, but I need to repeat that it is a dark artifact. It will take something from you. The thief is a woman of twenty-nine years. Blonde hair, glasses, hazel eyes, worked as part of the security staff. She took the artifact mid transit when intended to be moved to a safer storage location. We do not yet know how she knew what was transported but she did manage to overcome the other staff with help of the artifact. She appears to be affiliated with the Golden Shadow and that you are the one with the highest likelihood of recovering it."
"By which you mean that right now, I'm the most expendable." Illyana snarks. "What does the blade look like? I need a name for this woman and if you have anything else that could be useful, I want that, too. And why exactly am I the one most likely to succeed in bringing it back?"
Keeping his voice low still, the teacher does listen to Illyana with patient eyes and when the questions are asked, his answer does provide "She is called Patricia Victoria Lytton. The blade is augmented with Quartz, that means it has a crystalline sheen over it with a cross encased into a diamond at the center of its cross-guard. The blade is believed to have originally been wielded by a true angel in a mission of demon-slaying from the war in heaven as mentioned in the new testament. It is observed that people with angel-blood are less afflicted by the weapon's cost, but we disallowed it to be held for longer than a couple of minutes at a time when we were analyzing it closer."
"I believe you can understand why we would like this artifact to be recovered, miss Lytton has already wielded the blade for longer than most had been allowed to, and we do not wish that it is in her possession and would eventually lead to the death of innocent."
Illyana nods. "Quartz. Interesting..." Staring at the teacher, she asks him, deadpan, "You know I'm a hybrid, correct? - Of course you do, it's on my record. Okay, what's the location you expect it to be?" Though even as she asks, Illyana is already setting her team of researchers and experts to find likely corolations and places it is likely to be, along with the name given, with the engineers scouring feeds. "Anything else I should know other than you don't want me to keep it?"
"We turned in a couple of favors," The teacher looks as if he wants to reach for something but all his hands are full and so, the hand with the bag only raises briefly. "The GPS signal tracks to the deeper parts in the forest. Sanctuary will affect both you and them, that means a deadly option is not possible. We would be very interested to hear on how the blade responds to you when you return it to White Oak."
After a short while, Illyana does hear back from her own associates, specifically that the GPS signal comes to right outside the border of the forest, where sanctuary is a little off. Within the forest, sanctuary would still keep someone safe, beyond, and it does not apply so much anymore. There is also another note that draws by, specifically that Illyana would bbe asked for the recovery because of her mixed bloodline. An invested party outside of White Oak is keenly interested in knowing how the blade would interact with a person with both bloodlines in them, the file is mostly information not important and confusing, but it is clear that this party is the one that helped White Oak get a hold of this weapon.
"Okay fine." Illyana allows. "I'll go, and I have some info here, so I guess I'll look into it/Try to bring it back." And that then is it. So Illyana heads off. Her sabre on one hip, her ballistic vest under her jacket and her bow over a shoulder in a sling. And so, she finds herself in the forest with guides from the scouts directing her to what ever this is.
Approaching the side at the border of the forest, all is, of course, very quiet. The scouts were very careful and helped make sure they would not run into any monstrosity along the way that would make it far too difficult. The thunder BOOMS and a strike of lightning descends from the Heavens! And though both earth and skies are heavy with the humid air, less of the rain actually makes it past the overhanging canopy. The scouts guide the way along up until about two hundred meters away from the border of the forest and one of offers a spy-glass to Illyana.
If it is looked through, she can see a handful of figures camped in a tent about ten meters off the forest. The tent is opened, and a heater stands at its center. Though it is difficult, to look past the underbrush and trees, there is two visible figures garbed into dark yellow raincoats, barring a golden dagger plunged through a shadowy globe on the back. They have their hoods drawn over their gazes, through one is smaller and thinner than the other with some wet tugs of blonde hair that show at the side of their face under the raincoat's hood. Both are armed, one has an assault rifle, a Colt CM901, typically in active use of the united states military, slung around their torso. The other, smaller and thinner figure has a sword on one hip, and over it, a holster for a small firearm, but it is difficult to tell from the distance which handgun it precisely. They seem to be in conversation, gaze turned to each other but even with acute senses, it is too far away to listen in on the quiet talk.
As Illyana travels and collects her equipment to head after this artifact, she likewise puts in a research request for the third party. It's gotten to the point where she's so suspicious of quite literally everything and anything in her life that nothing goes unchecked; No rock goes unturned.
There seems to be no other choice but to get closer, so Illyana does exactly this. She remains as quiet as possible, and in her bike leathers, she blends into the shadows of the trees. The figures are of course obviously there and that sword seems to be the objective. But it seems too obvious. So Illyana, using the spyglass circles around before making any move; Are there any other members of the Shadow? Is there anyone else in the tent? Two people Illyana can likely manage. But more would need more people. So she scouts and she picks things out from all angles before making a single move.
Staying in wait has the two figures glance towards the forest, and out towards the horizon beyond before one other figure steps out from within the tent, holding a can of food in one hand and a fork in another. This figure is more similar in sizing to the rifled one, and has a rifle, a regular M16 slung at the side of their body, out of the way for their dining endeavors. Regardless of how much longer Illyana waits, these three seem to be the only ones present at the campsite.
If there are only three as it would appear to be, Illyana has decided on a course of action; She has angelborn speed, a sword, a bow and she is an angelborn champion. It's rare, so chances are, she will have the upper hand right now. First, Illyana aims for the two rifle wielders. Angelborn speed launching arrows from different directions- Illyana firest on the move. The rifles are the biggest threats right now. They have greater range. A sword wielder with a hand gun is shorter range and Illyana can run in and do damage far easier without suppressing fire. First, Illyana firest at the guard outside. It's the obvious choice. The man who's ready. Then, the eating figure. In the time the arrows fly against the first, the second can get their own weapon ready, but with angelborn speed, it's likely that Illyana can fire on them before they can remove the safety- Especially as they are eating and all three are not ready yet. Then, Illyana can go for the sword wielder. So that is what she does-- First man, three arrows. She aims for the head. The second man again, for the head. But then things might get messy, so Illyana doesn't do anything until this is done. Best to see the first outcomes before evaluating the rest of a theoretical fight.
WHEEEZ, the arrow hits the mark, piercing right into an eye that pops and the arrow pierces right into the first person's skull. Blood gushes out and everywhere in front before the man falls to the ground, dropping forward. The other rifled figure gulps, turns and the arrow clanks straight against the can of food! Flipping it over the figure's shoulder and letting it roll through the air down to the ground. His hands move to the rifle, remove the safety lock and direct it to the forest, sights aiming in the direction of where the arrows must have come from.
The last figure, pistoled and with the sword, responds fast. As far as Illyana is familiar with, as Illyana herself truly knows. Light shines off of the blade as the arrow wheezes by and misses alltogether, the blade is raised over their head and begins to glow aflame with golden fire. The reflection of the fire over the blade's quartz augment makes it all reflected inwardly, from crystal to crystal, creating a truly radiant shine around it. The hood draws back, rain pours onto the woman's cheeks as her gaze turns hostile. Braided blonde hair flows around her gaze and her eyes quickly center Illyana, seeing her clearly. This is she: Patricia Victoria Lytton.
"You're next bitch." Illyana snarls. This woman is using a fieryweapon. That's Illyana's thing. So Illyana moves. She fires more arrows at the first, but as they leave the gage of the bow and as the string snaps back, it's already sheathed. Illyana's eyes begin to glow as she enrages with the demonborn power of fueling her rage. Her sword glows as her weapon grows fiery and she glows with incandescence, using her speed, angelic combat abilities and her raw strength to close the gap. But neither White Oak, Patricia or this third party appear to know that Illyana has dampened her angelic and demonborn weaknesses. And this sword is not designed for someone with her weakness... So Illyana leaps in and seeks to catch Patricia off guard from the side, seeking to take any advantage with the strength a demonborn/angelborn hybrid can bring to a fight; Something inherantly stronger than just an angel.
BANG BANG BANG, the rifled man fires a burst of shots from their m16 to where Illyana stood a moment ago, bullets meeting into naught more than foliage as Illyana is already on her move. In speed, Patricia matches Illyana and saber and relic make an ugly sound of swords meeting upon each other, and by all means, they would be equal. But this is not so, because each time the blades meet and parry, Illyana gets to push just a little more, just a little further as demonblood strength wins over the other's far more simple angelic strength. Fighting in the forest is difficult, and here, only one benefits from sanctuary while the other's still remains spotty.
From the corner of her eyes, Illyana can see the other figure, by the tents still breathe, still alive, and they are now drawing a communicator from a pocket, raising it up to their gaze. The rifle's stock is leaned against their shoulder, directed into the battle between the two highly mobile entities, a finger on the trigger of the M16, ready to fire if something suddenly turned their away.
Demon and angel combine as Illyana strikes at Patricia. She works to move the other woman back, her strokes harsh and unforgiving. Lethal with each chop, each down swing, each side strike and thrust. Even enraged as she is, Illyana tries to keep Patricia between her and the other man; If he wants to strike Illyana, he will have to hit his companion. But even so, a relic is a powerful thing, and Illyana has to be careful. so she smiles at Patricia. Her blazing gaze snaps to the rifle wielder though and there is an insidious moment as Illyana suggests to him two things. One is a psychic suggestion. The other is a hypnotic instruction. He can likely not avoid both. "Tell me the time." is the first one- The psychic persuasion and it's so simple; Just quickly shift your gaze and check the time on your watch. It's not even harmful, so why should the rifleman ignore it? The second, the instruction is equally as seemingly harmless. "Start to sneeze." Looking away, he can reflexively pull the trigger and fire without looking at a target. He will of course not hit a target- Or the right one. Then, she returns to her duel with Patricia. The man has only just drawn his communicator. He will likely drop it. And if he's sneezing, he cant send any communications for now.
(Dice 50/50: 54) HATCHOO! The man suddenly sneezes, and so does he squeeze the drigger of his firearm and shots ring out, dirt flies everywhere where the shots hit into the ground somewhere between themselves and Patricia and with the sheer surprise, the communicator drops. Embarrassing, but once rubbing the back of their hand over their nose they move to pick up the communicator again. An incredibly slow process, in comparison to the fight that the two angelic entities wage.
Sparks of fire flicker as the weapons come to meet again, but in the brief opening that Illyana gave to manipulate the other figure, she found hold and the pommel of the relic strikes against Illyana's arms, creating a bruise. A very minor wound. It gives her to grin, but just as her grin finds its widest, there is a glaring light that surrounds her sword hand and with it comes a sudden will for fulfillment.
Sensing that desire, Illyana smirks to Patricia. If Illyana felt it, she must have, and Illyana isn't human. She's hybrid; Angel and demon. And Patricia is angel, so what else can Illyana do? She could let it be and deny it. She could let it be, but being angelborn herself, she knows how this works. So as enraged as Illyana is, she too wants to feed the life force of the human into the blade. And with two angelborn, that desire will begin to spiral. Both angelborn will begin to want to feed the blade more and more. But Illyana has an advantage here. She enjoys that suffering and for an angelborn, someone elses suffering isn't desirable. And so Illyana unveils her thoughts fully and her desires bombard Patricia even as she continues to attack her- Brooze or not. Mental and physical. Then, Illyana does the super villaine thing. She begins to monologue. "You cant control it. You need to do what the sword wants. You need to feed /that/" and the /that/ Illyana is talking about is the rifleman, of course, "To the sword. You know you want to do it. You need to do it and you need to feel the sensation of drinking the life force. You are like me. You're a monster Patricia. You're a monster and you need to feed. So put your sword through that man right there. You know it would be easy to do it. You're stronger than he is. You're faster and I can wait for you to do it."
The grin had faded almost instantly from Patricia's face, and indeed, she was looking to start to resist it, but this is not how it would go. Her gaze turns to Illyana and the pain on it speaks of endless misery. Almost robotically, she backs away from someone, and a moment later, the beautiful radiant relic in her hand raises over her head and SCHLING! The arm of the coated figure drops to the ground. Patricia lets and gives to laugh, her eyes wild as she first reluctantly, and then far more willingly gives into the monstrosity, gives into it all. A lose arm turns into the figure being tortured. The hood flies back when they get dropped to the ground, revealing a man. Screams follow with each cut made and the blade begins to glow brighter and brighter and brighter still as both Patricia and it begin to feed on the man.
But all of this, leaves Patricia open. Her form begins to glimmer brighter with each strike and she looks healthier and more and more beautiful each time.
The grin had faded almost instantly from Patricia's face, and indeed, she was looking to start to resist it, but this is not how it would go. Her gaze turns to Illyana and the pain on it speaks of endless misery. Almost robotically, she backs away from Illyana, and a moment later, the beautiful radiant relic in her hand raises over her head and SCHLING! The arm of the coated figure drops to the ground. Patricia lets and gives to laugh, her eyes wild as she first reluctantly, and then far more willingly gives into the monstrosity, gives into it all. A lose arm turns into the figure being tortured. The hood flies back when they get dropped to the ground, revealing a man. Screams follow with each cut made and the blade begins to glow brighter and brighter and brighter still as both Patricia and it begin to feed on the man.
But all of this, leaves Patricia open. Her form begins to glimmer brighter with each strike and she looks healthier and more and more beautiful each time.
And that distraction is what Illyana was looking for. As Patricia turns away, Illyana lashes out. As she starts swinging at the rifleman, she continues to move in. There's nothing reasonable in Illyana's motion now. It's violent, hostile and with each attack, Illyana screams at Patricia. It's tortured. It's fueled with rage. The anguish of an angelborn; "Why did you make me do that? Why did you make me do this to you?" It's unreasonable. Illyana is the monster here. She is the cause of it, but at the end of the day, Illyana is angelborn, and she hates violence as much as she loves it. So as Patricia begins to attack the man, Illyana starts to chop, moving to rip off Patricia's arm holding the sword. Tears roll down Illyana's face, burning and pain-filled. "Why couldn't you just drop it. Why couldn't you just put it down. Why couldn't you just lay down and die. Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to be the bad guy here? You're making me the villaine!!!" Illyana screams into the forest. But she doesn't relent. She keeps slashing, stabbing and chopping and she will not stop until Patricia lets go of the sword and is pacified. No matter what that takes.
Patricia screams out at the gash on her arm, but the grip over the blade's hilt is firm and only lessens with each cut Illyana inflicts upon the woman until eventually, she lets go of the blade and it drops with the slightest clang onto the ground. Patricia's eyes stare up to the heavens, now lifeless, blood gushed all over her form as the rain just continues to pour to wash it all away and spreads the dark liquid out into the mid around. No, there will be no forgiveness. Not today.
Another shot suddenly rings out, and Illyana could feel the gush of breeze of a bullet passing her by her gaze on her cheek. This is followed by a groan from the side and, though bleeding terribly, the man still lives. He no longer has the strength to do all too much, but the fear in his gaze tells all that could be told as they stare wide at Illyana. And the rifle he had risen up to fire this last shit, drops into the wet mud besides him. He coughs, hist chest raises, but barely so, but his eyes, they stay transfixed opened wide on Illyana, but he is no more threat. "Y-You will pay for this..."
The blade's hilt shines to the edge of Illyana's awareness, desiring. Yes, desiring still. No, not desiring, demanding.
"I'm already paying." Illyana whispers. She sees the blade; She wants to pick it up, but right now, she has to come to terms with what she had to once again too- For it was Illyana who gave into the monster today. She didn't even think to try a peaceful method to get the sword back. She just gave into the demon, and now, the angel will suffer its torture. "You." Illyana snarls. "This happened because of you..." Lashing out, she snatches the rifle up. The man is no threat and he's going to die, but Illyana still /needs/ to be the hero here. So she takes that rifle. She holds it over the man's face so he can see what she does and she uses her monsterous strength to very literally twist the barrel into a loop.A loop that she hammers into the ground pinning the Golden Shadowman. She then kicks, screams and punches, shattering the man's corpse. Next then is Patricia. Illyana is still crying. Tears roll down her face and she places the woman into a gentle repose within the tent. Using two fingers, Illyana closes Patricia's eyes, whispering to her empty corpse, "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." But that doesn't stop her from what she does next. Illyana channels her angelic power and she sets the tent on fire. This will be Patricia's resting place. And once again a part of Illyana slowly dies. So as the pyre begins to bank behind her, the rain hammering into and steaming off of the blending of angel and hellfire that is Patricia's resting place in this autumnal downpoor, Illyana picks up the sword and heads into the forest, features a mask of rage and pain.
The rain pours terribly upon the burning tent, as it washes the blood deeper into the mud and let the unburnt corpses sink deeper. No apologies are given are heard, the little crackling of a fire that goes down and leaves a true, final rest to Patricia distantly heard as Illyana returns into the forest. The blade is happy, happy to be in the hand of someone stronger, someone more able to feed it.
Then, though the pouring continues terribly, a breeze carries along a little page of paper in front of Illyana, and far too gently, it weaves down to the ground in front of her. The page is dry, and only now do drips of rain fall down atop of the page.
Illyana might be enraged, but she is too suspicious to leave this be. So with her sable sheathed, her bow slung and with the seraphim blade in her off hand, she reaches down for the paper. She picks it up and she reads it, but she doesn't stop walking. She didn't want to be wet or in the forest, but now she deserves it. She has murdered... again... and this will have to be her punishment.
The upper part of the page is written in an asian script, too round to be Korean, not enough lines to be Chinese and Illyana has seen one that is very similar before, somewhere at the heart of a shrine. The lower half is written in romanji and completely readable still "Helped Patricia gain the relic. Benefactor has made sure their plan goes as they entirely desire for this experiment. The payment was received in full, now we wait for the completion and the next step in this phase. We do need to make sure nothing tracks back to our mutual Benefactor, it would cause us issues if it traces back that they worked both sides, hired us and contributes to White Oak. Burn this after reading." Underneath is the mark of the Golden Shadow and a triangle with a caduceus at the center.
Frowning, Illyana slips the paper away; She'll have to research this more later and put out feelers with her team of researchers. For now though, she walks. The paper safely tucked inside her waterproof leathers, Illyana walks, heading back for town, where she /may/ hand the sword over to White Oak. But she might not. This is all too suspicious for Illyana's liking and she does like the blade. It talks to her. It wants what she wants...
Illyana's encounter in the forest with Patricia and two Golden Shadow associates quickly escalates into violence. Utilizing her exceptional combat skills and a clever psychological manipulation, Illyana manages to have Patricia turn against her own ally, succumbing to the dark desires induced by the Seraphim-blade. This grim scenario underscores Illyana's inner conflict and the monstrous aspects of her being she often wrestles with. In the wake of the bloodshed, she finds herself questioning her actions, haunted by the brutality she both witnessed and perpetrated. As she leaves the fiery scene behind, a mysterious paper suggesting a more extensive conspiracy at play finds its way to her, hinting at unknown benefactors and deeper machinations. The weight of her decisions and the implications of her newly discovered information hang heavy as Illyana contemplates her next steps, the Seraphim-blade in hand, its desires aligning ominously with her own.
(Illyana's odd encounter(SRRitsuka):SRRitsuka)
[Thu Oct 10 2024]
In Town Hall Northern Meeting Room
It is morning, about 51F(10C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. It's raining outside.
(The Golden Shadow has stolen a relic of power, a dark artifact that amplifies the user's own abilities, but at a cost. The target and their allies have been tasked by a desperate individual to retrieve the artifact before it's used for ill gain, forcing them into a dangerous confrontation with the mercenaries.)
A day like any other around the autumn. Rain falls heavily from the skies and will continue to for a long while yet, no streaks of sunlight shines through the skies. Only the terrible terrible rain. Wet, full of endless leaves and muddy! Though it is not all vain, with an idyllic hotspring and a maze just nearby. And yet, all the same! Terrible terrible day! In the distance, a teacher from the White Oak is making their way through. His gaze is one of a man in his middle thirties with short black hair and a framing beard.
His gaze falls over Illyana, and then around again. Here, it is not so busy, like it is inside the Town Hall, here the activity is still, no one really likes to stand under the rain so much, naturally.
Having spent most of the morning indoors save a conversation with Lance over at Rosie's diner, Illyana headed to the town hall; There was a member of interpol needing to be bribed. Fortunately for the interpol member (and less so for Illyana she cared very little. She in fact offered the fellow very little insentive as she was too busy being furious at having her hair ruined by the rain. So now, she finds herself loitering around and waiting for the torrential downpour to stop. Then of course, Illyana spots the teacher from White Oak. But she doesn't near just yet. She glances around- Clearly he cant be needing Illyana. And still, it would be a distraction, so she stands there, hands in her jacket pockets, dressed to ride her bike home in cycle leathers as the professor seems to be zeroing in on Illyana.
"Miss Howlett," The professor calls on out and over "A moment of your time, please? It is important." His pace comes to be a little quicker and his steps surely make their way towards Illyana. In one hand he is, of course, holding his bag, the most typical one that can ever be seen on a teacher or professor. Leather, black. In his other hand he is holding an umbrella to shield himself from the pouring rain. He wears a coat, could probably hide weapons under it, but how likely is that truly?
"If I was meant to do it, I already handed it in." Illyana quips back, but she doesn't in fact move. Even if the man is hiding weapons, he also has an umbrella, and his hands are full; One with his bag, the other with the umbrella. And that means some reprieve from the rain. So at me simply waits. She is going to get dry under that umbrella or else. "You can have a moment- Hell, take two or three if you're going to bring the brolly here." It's autumnal weather and even in full bike leathers, Illyana is shivering. Though she'd happily use her power to warm her, in public that's not such a good idea.
"Of course, miss Howlett," The teacher answers when he draws near, holding the umbrella over himself and moving the hand a little forward to put them both into partial coverage from the downpour. "This is not about your papers," The man adds, and then his voice grows a little bit more quiet. "I thought you would be the most suitably skilled to do this. An artifact in the possession of the school was stolen, and I would like to ask you to recover it. It is the kind that makes someone much stronger, so you can see why we would like it returned. Especially from the hands of the people that did steal it."
"Okay..." Illyana tells the man. "I have multiple questions. But let's start with the first couple. Why me? What exactly am I hunting for? And from who?"
"Your GPA is at a 3.3, miss Howlett, and we are understanding you are a very resourceful individual. We will of course consider it for your grades," The teacher answers, keeping eye contact if Illyana does not turn her gaze away. "You would be looking for the Seraphim-blade, but do not let the name deceive you. It is a dark artifact, and while it may enhance the wielder's abilities significantly, this one affects the combat prowess of the wielder, but I need to repeat that it is a dark artifact. It will take something from you. The thief is a woman of twenty-nine years. Blonde hair, glasses, hazel eyes, worked as part of the security staff. She took the artifact mid transit when intended to be moved to a safer storage location. We do not yet know how she knew what was transported but she did manage to overcome the other staff with help of the artifact. She appears to be affiliated with the Golden Shadow and that you are the one with the highest likelihood of recovering it."
"By which you mean that right now, I'm the most expendable." Illyana snarks. "What does the blade look like? I need a name for this woman and if you have anything else that could be useful, I want that, too. And why exactly am I the one most likely to succeed in bringing it back?"
Keeping his voice low still, the teacher does listen to Illyana with patient eyes and when the questions are asked, his answer does provide "She is called Patricia Victoria Lytton. The blade is augmented with Quartz, that means it has a crystalline sheen over it with a cross encased into a diamond at the center of its cross-guard. The blade is believed to have originally been wielded by a true angel in a mission of demon-slaying from the war in heaven as mentioned in the new testament. It is observed that people with angel-blood are less afflicted by the weapon's cost, but we disallowed it to be held for longer than a couple of minutes at a time when we were analyzing it closer."
"I believe you can understand why we would like this artifact to be recovered, miss Lytton has already wielded the blade for longer than most had been allowed to, and we do not wish that it is in her possession and would eventually lead to the death of innocent."
Illyana nods. "Quartz. Interesting..." Staring at the teacher, she asks him, deadpan, "You know I'm a hybrid, correct? - Of course you do, it's on my record. Okay, what's the location you expect it to be?" Though even as she asks, Illyana is already setting her team of researchers and experts to find likely corolations and places it is likely to be, along with the name given, with the engineers scouring feeds. "Anything else I should know other than you don't want me to keep it?"
"We turned in a couple of favors," The teacher looks as if he wants to reach for something but all his hands are full and so, the hand with the bag only raises briefly. "The GPS signal tracks to the deeper parts in the forest. Sanctuary will affect both you and them, that means a deadly option is not possible. We would be very interested to hear on how the blade responds to you when you return it to White Oak."
After a short while, Illyana does hear back from her own associates, specifically that the GPS signal comes to right outside the border of the forest, where sanctuary is a little off. Within the forest, sanctuary would still keep someone safe, beyond, and it does not apply so much anymore. There is also another note that draws by, specifically that Illyana would bbe asked for the recovery because of her mixed bloodline. An invested party outside of White Oak is keenly interested in knowing how the blade would interact with a person with both bloodlines in them, the file is mostly information not important and confusing, but it is clear that this party is the one that helped White Oak get a hold of this weapon.
"Okay fine." Illyana allows. "I'll go, and I have some info here, so I guess I'll look into it/Try to bring it back." And that then is it. So Illyana heads off. Her sabre on one hip, her ballistic vest under her jacket and her bow over a shoulder in a sling. And so, she finds herself in the forest with guides from the scouts directing her to what ever this is.
Approaching the side at the border of the forest, all is, of course, very quiet. The scouts were very careful and helped make sure they would not run into any monstrosity along the way that would make it far too difficult. The thunder BOOMS and a strike of lightning descends from the Heavens! And though both earth and skies are heavy with the humid air, less of the rain actually makes it past the overhanging canopy. The scouts guide the way along up until about two hundred meters away from the border of the forest and one of offers a spy-glass to Illyana.
If it is looked through, she can see a handful of figures camped in a tent about ten meters off the forest. The tent is opened, and a heater stands at its center. Though it is difficult, to look past the underbrush and trees, there is two visible figures garbed into dark yellow raincoats, barring a golden dagger plunged through a shadowy globe on the back. They have their hoods drawn over their gazes, through one is smaller and thinner than the other with some wet tugs of blonde hair that show at the side of their face under the raincoat's hood. Both are armed, one has an assault rifle, a Colt CM901, typically in active use of the united states military, slung around their torso. The other, smaller and thinner figure has a sword on one hip, and over it, a holster for a small firearm, but it is difficult to tell from the distance which handgun it precisely. They seem to be in conversation, gaze turned to each other but even with acute senses, it is too far away to listen in on the quiet talk.
As Illyana travels and collects her equipment to head after this artifact, she likewise puts in a research request for the third party. It's gotten to the point where she's so suspicious of quite literally everything and anything in her life that nothing goes unchecked; No rock goes unturned.
There seems to be no other choice but to get closer, so Illyana does exactly this. She remains as quiet as possible, and in her bike leathers, she blends into the shadows of the trees. The figures are of course obviously there and that sword seems to be the objective. But it seems too obvious. So Illyana, using the spyglass circles around before making any move; Are there any other members of the Shadow? Is there anyone else in the tent? Two people Illyana can likely manage. But more would need more people. So she scouts and she picks things out from all angles before making a single move.
Staying in wait has the two figures glance towards the forest, and out towards the horizon beyond before one other figure steps out from within the tent, holding a can of food in one hand and a fork in another. This figure is more similar in sizing to the rifled one, and has a rifle, a regular M16 slung at the side of their body, out of the way for their dining endeavors. Regardless of how much longer Illyana waits, these three seem to be the only ones present at the campsite.
If there are only three as it would appear to be, Illyana has decided on a course of action; She has angelborn speed, a sword, a bow and she is an angelborn champion. It's rare, so chances are, she will have the upper hand right now. First, Illyana aims for the two rifle wielders. Angelborn speed launching arrows from different directions- Illyana firest on the move. The rifles are the biggest threats right now. They have greater range. A sword wielder with a hand gun is shorter range and Illyana can run in and do damage far easier without suppressing fire. First, Illyana firest at the guard outside. It's the obvious choice. The man who's ready. Then, the eating figure. In the time the arrows fly against the first, the second can get their own weapon ready, but with angelborn speed, it's likely that Illyana can fire on them before they can remove the safety- Especially as they are eating and all three are not ready yet. Then, Illyana can go for the sword wielder. So that is what she does-- First man, three arrows. She aims for the head. The second man again, for the head. But then things might get messy, so Illyana doesn't do anything until this is done. Best to see the first outcomes before evaluating the rest of a theoretical fight.
WHEEEZ, the arrow hits the mark, piercing right into an eye that pops and the arrow pierces right into the first person's skull. Blood gushes out and everywhere in front before the man falls to the ground, dropping forward. The other rifled figure gulps, turns and the arrow clanks straight against the can of food! Flipping it over the figure's shoulder and letting it roll through the air down to the ground. His hands move to the rifle, remove the safety lock and direct it to the forest, sights aiming in the direction of where the arrows must have come from.
The last figure, pistoled and with the sword, responds fast. As far as Illyana is familiar with, as Illyana herself truly knows. Light shines off of the blade as the arrow wheezes by and misses alltogether, the blade is raised over their head and begins to glow aflame with golden fire. The reflection of the fire over the blade's quartz augment makes it all reflected inwardly, from crystal to crystal, creating a truly radiant shine around it. The hood draws back, rain pours onto the woman's cheeks as her gaze turns hostile. Braided blonde hair flows around her gaze and her eyes quickly center Illyana, seeing her clearly. This is she: Patricia Victoria Lytton.
"You're next bitch." Illyana snarls. This woman is using a fieryweapon. That's Illyana's thing. So Illyana moves. She fires more arrows at the first, but as they leave the gage of the bow and as the string snaps back, it's already sheathed. Illyana's eyes begin to glow as she enrages with the demonborn power of fueling her rage. Her sword glows as her weapon grows fiery and she glows with incandescence, using her speed, angelic combat abilities and her raw strength to close the gap. But neither White Oak, Patricia or this third party appear to know that Illyana has dampened her angelic and demonborn weaknesses. And this sword is not designed for someone with her weakness... So Illyana leaps in and seeks to catch Patricia off guard from the side, seeking to take any advantage with the strength a demonborn/angelborn hybrid can bring to a fight; Something inherantly stronger than just an angel.
BANG BANG BANG, the rifled man fires a burst of shots from their m16 to where Illyana stood a moment ago, bullets meeting into naught more than foliage as Illyana is already on her move. In speed, Patricia matches Illyana and saber and relic make an ugly sound of swords meeting upon each other, and by all means, they would be equal. But this is not so, because each time the blades meet and parry, Illyana gets to push just a little more, just a little further as demonblood strength wins over the other's far more simple angelic strength. Fighting in the forest is difficult, and here, only one benefits from sanctuary while the other's still remains spotty.
From the corner of her eyes, Illyana can see the other figure, by the tents still breathe, still alive, and they are now drawing a communicator from a pocket, raising it up to their gaze. The rifle's stock is leaned against their shoulder, directed into the battle between the two highly mobile entities, a finger on the trigger of the M16, ready to fire if something suddenly turned their away.
Demon and angel combine as Illyana strikes at Patricia. She works to move the other woman back, her strokes harsh and unforgiving. Lethal with each chop, each down swing, each side strike and thrust. Even enraged as she is, Illyana tries to keep Patricia between her and the other man; If he wants to strike Illyana, he will have to hit his companion. But even so, a relic is a powerful thing, and Illyana has to be careful. so she smiles at Patricia. Her blazing gaze snaps to the rifle wielder though and there is an insidious moment as Illyana suggests to him two things. One is a psychic suggestion. The other is a hypnotic instruction. He can likely not avoid both. "Tell me the time." is the first one- The psychic persuasion and it's so simple; Just quickly shift your gaze and check the time on your watch. It's not even harmful, so why should the rifleman ignore it? The second, the instruction is equally as seemingly harmless. "Start to sneeze." Looking away, he can reflexively pull the trigger and fire without looking at a target. He will of course not hit a target- Or the right one. Then, she returns to her duel with Patricia. The man has only just drawn his communicator. He will likely drop it. And if he's sneezing, he cant send any communications for now.
(Dice 50/50: 54) HATCHOO! The man suddenly sneezes, and so does he squeeze the drigger of his firearm and shots ring out, dirt flies everywhere where the shots hit into the ground somewhere between themselves and Patricia and with the sheer surprise, the communicator drops. Embarrassing, but once rubbing the back of their hand over their nose they move to pick up the communicator again. An incredibly slow process, in comparison to the fight that the two angelic entities wage.
Sparks of fire flicker as the weapons come to meet again, but in the brief opening that Illyana gave to manipulate the other figure, she found hold and the pommel of the relic strikes against Illyana's arms, creating a bruise. A very minor wound. It gives her to grin, but just as her grin finds its widest, there is a glaring light that surrounds her sword hand and with it comes a sudden will for fulfillment.
Sensing that desire, Illyana smirks to Patricia. If Illyana felt it, she must have, and Illyana isn't human. She's hybrid; Angel and demon. And Patricia is angel, so what else can Illyana do? She could let it be and deny it. She could let it be, but being angelborn herself, she knows how this works. So as enraged as Illyana is, she too wants to feed the life force of the human into the blade. And with two angelborn, that desire will begin to spiral. Both angelborn will begin to want to feed the blade more and more. But Illyana has an advantage here. She enjoys that suffering and for an angelborn, someone elses suffering isn't desirable. And so Illyana unveils her thoughts fully and her desires bombard Patricia even as she continues to attack her- Brooze or not. Mental and physical. Then, Illyana does the super villaine thing. She begins to monologue. "You cant control it. You need to do what the sword wants. You need to feed /that/" and the /that/ Illyana is talking about is the rifleman, of course, "To the sword. You know you want to do it. You need to do it and you need to feel the sensation of drinking the life force. You are like me. You're a monster Patricia. You're a monster and you need to feed. So put your sword through that man right there. You know it would be easy to do it. You're stronger than he is. You're faster and I can wait for you to do it."
The grin had faded almost instantly from Patricia's face, and indeed, she was looking to start to resist it, but this is not how it would go. Her gaze turns to Illyana and the pain on it speaks of endless misery. Almost robotically, she backs away from someone, and a moment later, the beautiful radiant relic in her hand raises over her head and SCHLING! The arm of the coated figure drops to the ground. Patricia lets and gives to laugh, her eyes wild as she first reluctantly, and then far more willingly gives into the monstrosity, gives into it all. A lose arm turns into the figure being tortured. The hood flies back when they get dropped to the ground, revealing a man. Screams follow with each cut made and the blade begins to glow brighter and brighter and brighter still as both Patricia and it begin to feed on the man.
But all of this, leaves Patricia open. Her form begins to glimmer brighter with each strike and she looks healthier and more and more beautiful each time.
The grin had faded almost instantly from Patricia's face, and indeed, she was looking to start to resist it, but this is not how it would go. Her gaze turns to Illyana and the pain on it speaks of endless misery. Almost robotically, she backs away from Illyana, and a moment later, the beautiful radiant relic in her hand raises over her head and SCHLING! The arm of the coated figure drops to the ground. Patricia lets and gives to laugh, her eyes wild as she first reluctantly, and then far more willingly gives into the monstrosity, gives into it all. A lose arm turns into the figure being tortured. The hood flies back when they get dropped to the ground, revealing a man. Screams follow with each cut made and the blade begins to glow brighter and brighter and brighter still as both Patricia and it begin to feed on the man.
But all of this, leaves Patricia open. Her form begins to glimmer brighter with each strike and she looks healthier and more and more beautiful each time.
And that distraction is what Illyana was looking for. As Patricia turns away, Illyana lashes out. As she starts swinging at the rifleman, she continues to move in. There's nothing reasonable in Illyana's motion now. It's violent, hostile and with each attack, Illyana screams at Patricia. It's tortured. It's fueled with rage. The anguish of an angelborn; "Why did you make me do that? Why did you make me do this to you?" It's unreasonable. Illyana is the monster here. She is the cause of it, but at the end of the day, Illyana is angelborn, and she hates violence as much as she loves it. So as Patricia begins to attack the man, Illyana starts to chop, moving to rip off Patricia's arm holding the sword. Tears roll down Illyana's face, burning and pain-filled. "Why couldn't you just drop it. Why couldn't you just put it down. Why couldn't you just lay down and die. Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to be the bad guy here? You're making me the villaine!!!" Illyana screams into the forest. But she doesn't relent. She keeps slashing, stabbing and chopping and she will not stop until Patricia lets go of the sword and is pacified. No matter what that takes.
Patricia screams out at the gash on her arm, but the grip over the blade's hilt is firm and only lessens with each cut Illyana inflicts upon the woman until eventually, she lets go of the blade and it drops with the slightest clang onto the ground. Patricia's eyes stare up to the heavens, now lifeless, blood gushed all over her form as the rain just continues to pour to wash it all away and spreads the dark liquid out into the mid around. No, there will be no forgiveness. Not today.
Another shot suddenly rings out, and Illyana could feel the gush of breeze of a bullet passing her by her gaze on her cheek. This is followed by a groan from the side and, though bleeding terribly, the man still lives. He no longer has the strength to do all too much, but the fear in his gaze tells all that could be told as they stare wide at Illyana. And the rifle he had risen up to fire this last shit, drops into the wet mud besides him. He coughs, hist chest raises, but barely so, but his eyes, they stay transfixed opened wide on Illyana, but he is no more threat. "Y-You will pay for this..."
The blade's hilt shines to the edge of Illyana's awareness, desiring. Yes, desiring still. No, not desiring, demanding.
"I'm already paying." Illyana whispers. She sees the blade; She wants to pick it up, but right now, she has to come to terms with what she had to once again too- For it was Illyana who gave into the monster today. She didn't even think to try a peaceful method to get the sword back. She just gave into the demon, and now, the angel will suffer its torture. "You." Illyana snarls. "This happened because of you..." Lashing out, she snatches the rifle up. The man is no threat and he's going to die, but Illyana still /needs/ to be the hero here. So she takes that rifle. She holds it over the man's face so he can see what she does and she uses her monsterous strength to very literally twist the barrel into a loop.A loop that she hammers into the ground pinning the Golden Shadowman. She then kicks, screams and punches, shattering the man's corpse. Next then is Patricia. Illyana is still crying. Tears roll down her face and she places the woman into a gentle repose within the tent. Using two fingers, Illyana closes Patricia's eyes, whispering to her empty corpse, "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." But that doesn't stop her from what she does next. Illyana channels her angelic power and she sets the tent on fire. This will be Patricia's resting place. And once again a part of Illyana slowly dies. So as the pyre begins to bank behind her, the rain hammering into and steaming off of the blending of angel and hellfire that is Patricia's resting place in this autumnal downpoor, Illyana picks up the sword and heads into the forest, features a mask of rage and pain.
The rain pours terribly upon the burning tent, as it washes the blood deeper into the mud and let the unburnt corpses sink deeper. No apologies are given are heard, the little crackling of a fire that goes down and leaves a true, final rest to Patricia distantly heard as Illyana returns into the forest. The blade is happy, happy to be in the hand of someone stronger, someone more able to feed it.
Then, though the pouring continues terribly, a breeze carries along a little page of paper in front of Illyana, and far too gently, it weaves down to the ground in front of her. The page is dry, and only now do drips of rain fall down atop of the page.
Illyana might be enraged, but she is too suspicious to leave this be. So with her sable sheathed, her bow slung and with the seraphim blade in her off hand, she reaches down for the paper. She picks it up and she reads it, but she doesn't stop walking. She didn't want to be wet or in the forest, but now she deserves it. She has murdered... again... and this will have to be her punishment.
The upper part of the page is written in an asian script, too round to be Korean, not enough lines to be Chinese and Illyana has seen one that is very similar before, somewhere at the heart of a shrine. The lower half is written in romanji and completely readable still "Helped Patricia gain the relic. Benefactor has made sure their plan goes as they entirely desire for this experiment. The payment was received in full, now we wait for the completion and the next step in this phase. We do need to make sure nothing tracks back to our mutual Benefactor, it would cause us issues if it traces back that they worked both sides, hired us and contributes to White Oak. Burn this after reading." Underneath is the mark of the Golden Shadow and a triangle with a caduceus at the center.
Frowning, Illyana slips the paper away; She'll have to research this more later and put out feelers with her team of researchers. For now though, she walks. The paper safely tucked inside her waterproof leathers, Illyana walks, heading back for town, where she /may/ hand the sword over to White Oak. But she might not. This is all too suspicious for Illyana's liking and she does like the blade. It talks to her. It wants what she wants...