barring emergencies

[the_very_best]

Bella's not sure where she has wandered. She thought she was about to walk into a shop, but this appears to be an unattended bar. With none of the windows associated with the shop she thought she was entering. It could be an elaborate psychic assault of some kind, but it doesn't feel very... assault-y... and she was in the middle of a town and doesn't think any humans want to sic their 'mon on her. It's strange. She approaches the bar, looking around warily, hand hovering near her belt.

with Max (Benedict)

with Earth and Lightning (kappa)

with Ann and Sabrina (kuuskytkolme)

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Frills, joy." Cam materializes the clothes in question. "Okay, that's a little seventeenth century but not too bad. ...Flaw in plan. What language are you even speaking?"

[imeanforever]

"I'm just plain speaking, I shouldn't have a translation issue unless something very odd's going on."

[pythbox]

"...Flaw in plan," Earth agrees. "All right. The translation issue means you probably can't ask the amulet-minder for their name without involving Promise, which would be troublesome. But one of us," he gestures between himself and Lightning, "can still go look and see whether or not you would have needed to, and then if you would have we can try thinking of something more complicated. In a pinch you could pretend you're very foreign and that Promise is your recently captured, I don't know, Earth/Shine hybrid? What would they call one of those - Leaf, probably, if they looked like you. And have her translate. Elementals speak all the languages that exist when we coaelsce; it wouldn't be that odd. And you could make a fake amulet without much trouble, I imagine. It'd be a complicated story but it wouldn't have to hold up for longer than it took to find out the amulet-minder's name."

[imeanforever]

"Sounds good to me. Are we all set?"

[pythbox]

"I think we're all set."

"I'll hold the door," says Lightning. He opens it. Earth walks through.

[imeanforever]

Promise and Revelation stand by to hear about the name of the amulet minder.

[pythbox]

Half a minute ticks by. Earth comes back.

"Kisonde," he says.

[imeanforever]

Promise nods. "No one else around?"

[pythbox]

"No. Do you need to see her to make her do things?"

[imeanforever]

"No, not if she can hear me."

Promise flutters forward, Revelation following with careful awkward steps.

"Be silent, come here," Promise addresses Kisonde.

[pythbox]

...Kisonde is silent and goes there. She is very confused and alarmed, but she is silent.

In the room where Kisonde was until a moment ago, there is a large rack of hooks with amulets hanging from them on chains. Earth moves past it to duck his head into the room beyond.

"We're all being stolen to be taken away and freed. I absolutely trust the people doing it. Does anyone want to stay behind?"

No one wants to stay behind. No one seriously doubts him about it. They know this Earth; he's been here a while.

"All right. Turn down your halos and follow us. Is anyone out flying right now?" He scans the crowd. "Ice twenty-eight - who knows where Ice twenty-eight is?"

A Shine stands up. "I'll go track her down."

"Everyone else, follow me. Fold your wings and turn down your halos so we're not too eye-catching. Luckily we don't have to go far - just out the front door and around to the side. I'll explain the rest when we get there."

[from_scratch]

Meanwhile, Revelation collects all the amulets.

[imeanforever]

"Follow me," sighs Promise at Kisonde. "I'm really sorry about this, by the way."

[pythbox]

Kisonde gives Promise an incredulous look, but (of course) follows her.

A parade of elementals troops around the corner of the building and back in by the other door, a journey of no more than twenty steps. Except that when they get there, it isn't the elemental barracks again; it's some kind of bar or something. They are confused. Earth directs them out to the lake area. Just as the last few are making their way out of the barracks, Ice and Shine land and follow the rest.

[imeanforever]

"We should probably do this in the yard," says Promise. "Well, elementals in the yard, Kisonde in here? Does that work?"

[pythbox]

"Yes," says Earth.

Kisonde is really alarmed.

Lightning closes the door.

"Check all the amulets first to make sure we've got everybody," he says. "It'd be kiiind of a mess if we had somebody's amulet but they were out flying when we broke it."

"I did that, but we can double-check," says Earth. "Revelation, would you mind bringing the bag out to the yard and reading off all the tags and then bringing it back here?"

Kisonde is so fucking alarmed.

[from_scratch]

Revelation brings the amulets to the yard and takes attendance.

[imeanforever]

"The plan does not involve harm to you," Promise informs Kisonde, "if me telling you that helps, at all."

[pythbox]

Kisonde makes an eloquently sarcastic face.

There are neither any stray amulets not belonging to an elemental, nor any stray elementals not belonging to an amulet. Everything checks out.

[imeanforever]

"Now?" Promise asks Earth.

[pythbox]

"Now."

[imeanforever]

"Break all the amulets," Promise tells Kisonde. "And then you can talk again."

[pythbox]

The prohibition on talking does not forbid rude gestures. She makes several, very emphatically, while reaching into the bag with her other hand and scooping out handfuls of amulets.

A red droplet of Fire vents its substance into a wisp of smoke; a gleaming metallic drop of Adamant cracks apart into glittering shards that dissolve immediately; a pearlescent Glass does something similar; Water melts and turns to vapor, Ice shatters and does the same, Shine goes out in a burst of light, Shadow in a burst of dark, and on and on. The empty amulet chains pile up on the floor.

Finally, the last amulet turns to dust.

"What the fuck are you doing," says Kisonde.

[imeanforever]

"Freeing large quantities of elementals."

[from_scratch]

Cam goes and has a peek at the freed elementals.