[COMPLETE] To you, thirty minutes ago

[azuredreams]

Nasir looked between Shun and Alexis, some of the fury dying down just a touch because this was a young man playing guitar (more like the drunk young man he had seen at the conference, not the being of eternal fire he had seen at the fairy ball).

"Whatever you're doing, Lord Ezra," the title and name felt odd on his tongue, "is potentially life-threatening for all those involved. I don't think they knew that when you took their thumbprints." Or most would likely not have done it, right?

HP: 40
Roll: 5 x 1.73 = 9 (8.65)
Total: 50
Inventory: one mini-sigil (prevents one stack of burning)  

[AMItotic]

Lily hesitated when the small sheet of paper was pushed her way, but she grabbed it nonetheless, with gentle fingers to ensure that her skin didn't touch Preacher's. She slid it under the hem of her shirt and adjusted her bra before entering the room, because she at least understood adjusting oneself to be considered rude when in audience with the Fire Lord.

"Hey," she greeted in response, lifting a hand to wave. She couldn't bring herself to call him Lord or Sir, not when he was draped so casually over a guitar like the intro to Wonderwall might just spontaneously begin. He looked the part of a lost kid, and she was also a lost kid, and this lent her some amount of comfort when confronting the man who literally had their lives on a sheet of paper somewhere.

"Yeah, mark me down on the 'I didn't know that part' list," she remarked, vaguely gesturing at Nasir's comment. "You got everyone's consent to help Pride, right? And a lot of other people, probably, but if it's not done right, a lot of people are going to end up hurt, and that's...not great."

HP: 30/30
Roll: 9 x 1.73 = 16 (15.57)
Total: 66
Inventory: one anti-fire mini-sigil  

[shibrogane]

Ezra thumbed a chord on his guitar, thoughtfully drew a whining chord out on the strings. It didn't sound like any Wonderwall they'd ever heard; there was something abjectly magical about the sounds, like the instrument was just incidental. "I do intend to help them," he said, "Pride and Pax and Minerva and the rest. It's a pity what happened to Pax, but..." He shrugged. "Sacrifices must be made."

There was something odd in his yellow eyes at that, a moment of rebellion. Something pale in them.

"It sounds to me like someone's being alarmist. My intentions are good." He looked at Shun. "Didn't I swear to you that I would cause you no harm in that revocation? That it wouldn't interfere?"

Quote:

Round over
Total score 66
New scrying bonus is 1.35
Should you hit 100, stop and wait for my post
round whatever go

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"What did you do to Pax?" he asked lowly, though he was fairly certain he already knew the answer. There was no way Pax could defend himself, but beyond that... he had also been in a rather delicate state of being when it came to magic.

Shun's fingers twitched slightly at the thought. He was supposed to help him. And it seemed that he had failed in that regard. It was not a good thing that weighed in the back of his mind.

"Intentions or not, doing something that could cause us to be magically torn asunder does not exactly sound like causing no harm," he added.

HP: 40
Total: 80
Next roll is doubled  

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher was too ******** short for this bullshit. She couldn't a damn thing, so she pushed forward a bit, carefully avoiding both Lily and Oliver.

"Bro," she said. Ezra was not her bro. "It ********' interfered, so that was kinda a lie. Ya gotta make it right, if that's your whole schtick." Preacher would really rather punch through this, but she was giving it a try, even if it showed in her sour expression.

HP: 30
Total: 90  

[Daekie]

"The Court needs to be remade. You took our ability to consent without fully informing us of consequences."

"You get on your knees and beg the Spinel Lady for forgiveness."

"Even if you're not causing direct harm, you're still endangering it." Calm, cool, clear.

HP: 40/40
Roll: 10
Total: 100
INV: One mini-sigil (negates 1 burning stack)  

[Smerdle]

He said nothing for a time after he'd entered the room, struck by a scene he thoroughly hadn't expected. Ezra—for this man didn't particularly look like he was burning, odd eyes or not—was an entirely ordinary, floppy-haired musician, much like the version from the 60s. He was sinister, surely, but without any action to back it up, Chester felt more like he had barged in on something private than that he was here to save the world. At least until the mention of Pax.

He recalled the explanation he'd received on the back of a Taco Bell napkin, the one that had informed him that undifferentiated magic filtered through that particular triplet. And now, this Pax was dead. A sacrifice. The action had already happened, out of sight. Maybe the time for negotiation had passed, despite appearances. It was a shame. They were all doing so well.

HP: 50/50  

[Melancholies]

Oliver had been mostly silent upon entering the room, silent as he watched Ezra with the guitar and silent as everyone else spoke up. There were things he wanted to say to him, and yet, things he found he couldn't quite say at all. The way he wanted to say them, the tone, the hurt; they were things he couldn't really convey, he found, and so he kept himself quiet and quiet and quiet until—

Pax was one of the triplets, right? His brother was checking on them—Jamie too—but if they were too late, then...

His thoughts were echoing Chester's. They were a hair too late and had nothing to show for it. But a small, selfish part of him didn't really care—Pax was someone he didn't know, at at the end of the day he was only focused on his own survival, on Jamie's survival, on Horace's survival, of the survival of everyone he actually knew and gave a damn about, and unfortunately Pax didn't quite make that list.

Though another part of him felt a small inkling of guilt, because had he been there, had he known, then maybe—

...but he couldn't take that sort of responsibility, no. He couldn't keep himself hung up on every death that could've been saved. It just wasn't possible, and he knew this deep down. In the same breath, they still had a responsibility to fulfill here. It didn't mean his gaze wasn't hostile as he watched Ezra like a goddamn predator.

HP: 30/30  

[iloveyouDIE]

The sound of the guitar was odd, something different about it, but it was foreign to his ear and slightly unnerving. Algie wasn't swayed by the appearance of a floppy haired young man. The eyes betrayed it all, and his own dislike only kept Algie from letting his guard down.

The other's stepping forward to confront Ezra was reassuring. Considering how often fights broke out amongst the group every time they met, to see them all stick to the peaceful plan towards the same end was nice.

"If we are truly on the same page," No pun intended, "It shouldn't be too much trouble to come along. With the document and your focus."

---
HP: 30
Inv: 1 sigil  

[shibrogane]

"I did nothing to Pax," said Ezra, "and I have no intention of tearing you asunder." He set his guitar aside though, rose to his feet. "But you're in no ******** position to make demands of me, dear stupid boy. I'll come with you, but my possessions are mine to hold."  

[azuredreams]

"Then if you'd join us, we must return to speak with Silk now that you've been found." Nasir looked uneasy but perhaps that was because things had gone so easily. The way it had been built up- it was almost too easy.

Ezra was going to have a very interesting escort group.  

[Daekie]

Alexis bowed their head to Ezra in respect, reticent, and fell back to stand next to Nasir. "Silk will need to see the document you collected consent by, Lord. We mean no intrusion."

It was easy to fall back into those speech patterns, steps away from court; as genuinely polite as they knew how.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Holla holla get fire dolla," Preacher whispered, having melted back into the middle of the group. She hadn't expected it to be so ******** easy. It felt like a goddamn trap.  

[AMItotic]

After all of the fuss leading up to this confrontation, Lily found herself a little offput by how easily Ezra relented to their claims. She made space for him to walk out with the others, but her eyes were scanning the room, hoping to see the concern on someone else's face. It seemed a little sketchy that Ezra wanted to go to the court himself when he hadn't been invited to the ritual for fear of sabotage. Were they just leading him back to undo everything they'd accomplished?

If she said something, she risked throwing off the delicate balance of their parlay, and Lily wasn't eager to see anyone get hurt because of her own big mouth. She watched, and she waited, arms folded across her chest. Maybe someone who mattered could protest.  

[Melancholies]

Oliver blinked very slowly. "Then why be so secretive? Why tell everyone something different? Even if they weren't total lies, playing your words like that—" He sighed, a hand going up to knead the space between his eyes, right at the top part of his nose. He didn't like this one bit, nor the sounds of it.

Still, if what Silk had been saying was true, it was wholly within the realm of possibilities that Ezra could crash the entire casting, if he so desired. The fetches apparently couldn't disobey him if he really wanted it, and with the ability to destroy so many lives at his fingertips... it didn't add up to him. There was something going on and he was never going to get a clear answer as to the what or why. Whatever.

"I guess it can be sorted out when we get back..." He looked incredibly uneasy, like he didn't trust this at all, because he really didn't. He was fully expecting a struggle, not... this.

Ah, but they hadn't really won yet either.