Recudor: Party's House

Jericho smiles a little when he sees the doll slowly rise up and look at him. He clears he voice before speaking.

"Good, I am glad you are still functioning. I am sure you know that I am your master, but so is the person who sent you here on this night. I am not going to ask who that is, I am sure if I did, you would be unable to. No, lets instead find out why you are here. When I ask you a question, I want you to answer yes, or no. If you are unable to answer because of your other master, just say 'next question'. Now..."

Jericho then unties the black tome from his belt and shows it to the dolls face.

...was this book the reason why you and your master attacked this house? If it is, why do you need it? Lastly is your master part of the White Claw?

He awaits his answers.

"Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong. I'll try to be as fast as possible. Try to get as much intel as you can"

Jack handed Sharpe his gun before bolting off to the bathroom to get Frazil, only to find a bizarre gate made of ice.

"What in blazes is...ugh...nevermind. Frazil, we need your help. Two of the assassins tried to break in through the bedroom. We shot one of them, crippling them, and Blake is currently holding both of them at gun point. The problem is that he shot an incendiary round, and now, there's a fire in the bedroom. I need you to head over there to put out the fire and give Sharpe back up so that I can go downstairs to check on the others. I'm assuming Hitomi and Clarent should be fine on their own as long as they stay in here, but it's your call."

Jericho's Doll stares back at him as he explains. It shakes his head both times indicating it was not sent by the White Claw and it wasn't sent after the book.

The tension around the house wanes slowly with all four assassins taken care of. Frazil and Jack rush upstairs to put out the fire, which luckily caused only minimal damage, while the others collect the Dolls in one room.

All four are identical, built out of exotic, treated, black wood with basic features. Only one of the dolls is still active, due to Jericho's magic, while the others are dissolving into shadows at a very slow rate having spent all their energy.

Overall all four of these identical intruders acted very passive, only attacking when directly spotted, with most of them rummaging through rooms, equipment, and belongings either trying to find information or with the intention of robbing the place. Either way they did not seem very smart or reactive.

[Combat Complete]

As Sharpe walks into the room where all four of the dolls are held, he hands Jack his pistol back.

"You left this in the room upstairs, I didn't need it." he says to him. He looks over at Jericho.

"Hopefully you had better luck than I did, the two we had wouldn't talk, and we thought at least one of them was human, maybe acting as a relay. Guess not. Has this one been able to say who sent them?" He asks.

"To me, it looks like they might have been sent by a group of mages, these feel less like complex machines and more like enchanted automatons, given a rudimentary set of commands and then sent on their way." Sharpe looks over at the rest of them, slowly withering away to the black of the night.

"Their deterioration seems to support that. Maybe they're related to Atrium's family, or rather the part that splintered off and killed the old guard? They used shadow extensively. Alternatively they're a third party at work, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case."

Airgetlam takes some time to make sure some of their less combative number are alright.

She walks over to the bathroom where Jian and Frazil were.

She looks at Jian and smiles.

"Sorry for waking you up at such an abrupt hour, I didn't want you having to fend for yourself. It looks like the intruders weren't as capable as we thought. Would you like to join me to see what they were after?" She asks of him.

"I'll be there anyway, one of them has a bolt stuck into it's chest and I'd very much like to retrieve it.' She says and walks out to join the others. She walks over to the one she shot and yanks the bolt out of it's chest, and puts it back in her quiver. She takes a stand next to RD as the questioning begins. She looks up at him and whispers her thoughts.

"What do you think? They were more infiltrators it seems than assassins but had the ability to defend themselves, though perhaps it was more of neutralization? Either way they weren't very tough, and we clearly have something somebody wants."

Richard watches the attacker fall, his feelings on the ordeal mixed as he watches it's last moments of struggle. "Hm." He shrugs, a look of mild disappointment stamped onto his face as he comments "That was easy." He listens closely to his surroundings, while he checks the body, confirming his own suspicions of the assailant being a construct. Hearing nothing but low speech and running water he assumes the rest of the group had finished up as well.

RD carries the body to the main hall, listening offhandedly to Jack's explanation of the situation upstairs and rather roughly tossing his charge towards the center of the room as Jack and Frazil dash upstairs past him to handle the flames. Richard listens to Jericho's conversation with the one construct still active at the time as he waits for everyone else to gather, along with paying attention to Air's musings on the situation.  It gives him a thought which he immediately voices to Jericho, hoping the man's further investigation may shed light on an idea of a sort. "Ya may wanna ask it about the soultraps and the radar as well. Just a thought." RD then leans towards Air somewhat "Yer probably right. They seemed more like scouts of a sort. Who were very clearly looking for something we possess. Only thing we can do is keep asking what, luckily we have something to ask instead of merely guessing." He shrugs again as the other active members of the group begin to gather in the living room, Point-Man included, setting down the now-lifeless constructs he fought upstairs.

Richard listens to what the man has to say, arms crossed, and considers it for a moment as he too watches the dolls slowly dissipate into shadows. In response he gives the man a sideways glance and just says "Incendiaries? In the house? Really?" RD slowly shakes his head chuckling as he looks back at Jericho. "Well what do you think? Does this way of infiltration remind you of someone you used to associate with back when ya ran with that group?" He then adds, seeing the man's look of confusion, "The 'family' you and Atrium used to be in... That group of Assassins."

Richard looks over to Jian and yet another speculation pops into his head. "Oi Jian, you don't have anything on you that they may have been looking for either do ya? Maybe something within that satchel of yours?" He offhandedly alludes to the items Sharpe and himself had given Jian off of the man they discovered dead at the Eman Ytirucsbo Inn, he keeps it rather ambiguous, attempting to respect the young man's privacy.

Frazil deposits most of her water into the bathtub, leaving it stoppered for the moment. In joining the group's pow-wow she also grabs her bag, checking to make sure all of her belongings are in order, with no discrepancies.

She enters the room but stays as near the bathroom door as possible, and looks up at the cluster of people. You guys are really quick to dismiss this as over. These guys weren't impressive by any means. They were both weak in stature, and inept in skill. If these are supposed to be "assasins" or some kind of "infiltrator", they're some of the worst I've ever seen. What they were good at is distracting everyone, and/or getting an idea of how we react to an attack. I'd do an in depth check of everyone's inventory, both for missing items, -and- for extra ones. In addition, I don't think we should drop the red alert just yet.

Jian shakes his head slowly at Air. The situation was appropriate for him to be ripped out of his sleep, so it's all justified.

"Don't worry about it, it seemed like a proper reason. The main problem is just... that I had quite a calming herb-mix before bed, so I feel really sluggish and tired. -- Yes. Let's check out what might've gone missing and the likes, rather know about it now than later.", he says, re-adjusting his attire a little.

His view shifting to RD, he begins thinking, then his eyes fall closed, his fingers resting against his forehead. "Yes... I think there might be something*, his eyes snapping open, looking back at Richard, "I have a book that contains a lot of information about the history back in the east. I have quite a bunch of notes scribbled down in it, and I also have a few pictures in there. Maybe that was of interest..?"

He falls silent, then sighing, if that book's gone, he might be in a problematic spot. Then taking a few steps out of the bathroom, immidiately finding his way to his items to scavenge through what is remaining. The tension building the longer it takes for him to find that book. Eventually, he does find it and sighs once more, in relief this time.

"Good... Good...", he whispers, forgetting that the situation might not be clear just yet.

Jericho looks at Sharpe with a confused look on his face.

"I take it that Atrium hasn't told you about how he has no family."

He then hears what RD has to say and frowns.

"Assassins...a bunch of cowards who don't have the guts to kill someone face to face. They are with Atrium, not me. I want nothing to do with them. Besides, when I came to be Atrium has long since stopped being an assassin. I do not know any assassins.

Jericho then turns to the Doll.

"As for you. I am in no mood to play 100 questions. This is your new assignment. I want you to find whatever it was that you and the other dolls were looking for. When you find it, I want you to give it to me instead though. Now go."

Jericho waits for the doll to move or respond.

Jack moment of relief was ruined as paranoia ensued hearing Frazil's theory that they were all being distracted as the house was being raided. He stood with a dropped jaw seeing that Jericho had reprogrammed one of the dolls

"Obviously the dolls aren't able to bring any stolen items or intel back to their master in their current state. If they were meant to distract us, that could only mean there was a fifth intruder the entire time. Jericho, is the doll capable of communicating with us. Can we ask it questions? It has to have some level of sentience if it was able to fight."

With no current signs of any more enemies about the Doll listens to Jericho's command, righting itself up from the floor and immediately making a b-line for the closest bag. It simply walks over to Frazil, it's ominous silver eyes occasionally flickering green and tries to grab Frazil's bag to begin searching through it.

It is about now that the group begins to really feel the long night weighing on them. The previous late night coupled with today's dealings and the recent combat is starting to take a toll on everyone, especially Jian.

Sharpe scoffs at RD's comment about his choice in ammunition.

"Hey, I'm not about to waste valuable solid ammunition on adversaries who pose very little threat to us. Next time I'll just cut 'em to bits, alright?"

He takes a step back as the doll gets up and walks to Frazil's bag. He's a little surprised, but then again she is the newcomer and will likely have things people will envy.

"Speaking of bags that's a good idea. I'll be right back." He says and walks up the stairs to his room. Luckily none of his stuff was on that side of the room, and so nothing was damaged. rummages through his bag, seeing all is in order. He returns downstairs and sees if anything has developed. His eyes have grown weary, and the fatigue is starting to set in, even for his hardened self, but he wants to see what this whole deal was about.

Air watches the doll simply get up as ordered and start rummaging through Frazil's bag. She leans over to RD again, continuing their thread of thoughts.

"Think someone might be following her, spying. Might want to stay more aware when we go out."

"I'm going to head to bed, I'll see you guys tomorrow." She says, and goes back up to her bedroom where she looks through her backpack, which seems to be fine and untouched. She strips down and gets in bed and drifts off for the night.

Richard chuckles at Sharpe's mild irritation towards his comment and leaves the matter at that, then nods at Frazil and shrugs, speaking frankly, "She has a point, this probably ain't over. Those were the most garbage scouts I've personally ever faced, which is saying a lot considering i didn't even DO anything... I mean sure they were dolls, but at best their capabilities rated 'distraction'. Then again, its been a long day, I'll take first watch if ya'll want..."

RD watches everyone sift through their things as he listens to Jericho further instruct the doll, slightly irritated listening to the man slander Atrium's family, he sighs and says in a low tone "See, and that's why he doesn't let you come out to play... Ya'll share the same body, the least you each could do is have a bit of respect for each other, no matter what they do or did, he considers them his 'family'... C'mon man..." Richard walks off for a moment, slowly shaking his head, to check his own possessions; hoping to find nothing out of the ordinary, before returning to the group and responding to Jack since everyone else is occupied.

"Relax a bit, getting shook up will tighten you up, and if something does happen you won't be able to move when you need to. I'll admit, a fifth intruder is definitely a possibility, but as for your question, it seems to be only able to communicate via movement; non-verbal means... Head nods and such. It definitely understands us though given its responsiveness to Jericho's earlier questions... I wonder if it can transmit what its seeing and hearing back to its master somehow..." RD shrugs, allowing that little earwig to fester a bit as he watches the doll move towards Frazil's belongings.

He nods slowly at Air's comment and wishes her a good night as he awaits the result of the doll's inquisition, if its even allowed to perform on its current master's wishes, imagining that some may be opposed to having their belongings sifted through.

Frazil allows the doll to pick through her bag, watching intently to see how it behaves.

The body of his is growing very tired once more, and that at quite a fast pace too. It really is showing again that he was pulled out of his very tight sleep, nearly falling asleep as he just sits in front of his bag, the book grasped by both hands. His body tilting forward, the somewhat heavy hardcover drops from them, slamming onto the ground which leaves him with quite an electrifying reaction. His whole body twitches, an audible gasp, nearly a yell coming from the man as both eyes shot wide open. They look around with a somewhat paranoid expression, then shooting back to the book, making him nearly sigh out all his air from both lungs.

"I really need some sleep after all...", he mutters quietly, then getting up, which already feels hard enough as is. Both feet carry him back into the hallway slowly, him leaning down towards the stairs to make his words hearable.

"I'm... I'm going to rest now. Don't mind that sudden slam from upstairs either... I just dropped something... Have a good night everyone and thank you, thank you for keeping me safe.", Each word somewhat slow and deep due to the tired state, he tries to say it as loud as possible.

He then just turns around and drags himself back into his own room, dropping onto the bed without even undressing at this point. His right hand gets a firm hold of the blanket and he yanks that up to his torso, covering him up. Literally seconds later, his body falls into a tight, deep slumber, finally able to recharge.

Jericho lets out a huff when RD finishes talking.

"Atrium doesn't have a choice for when I come out. If he did, I would of found a way to force his hand. And you don't need to remind me that we share the same body. Also, you are correct. The doll is non-sentient, it has not free will or free thought. The only time it would get confused would be if I gave her and order that collided with an order that her other master gave her. For example, If I told her to stand and her other master told her to sit. She wouldn't know what to do. The doll may look human, but it doesn't have a..." Jericho pauses for a moment, getting an idea. "...A soul. I will be right back. I need to talk to Aura."

Jericho pulls the Soultrap out of his shirt and sits down. He closes his eyes and holds the Soultrap in his hands as he focuses on it. It takes a moment for him to feel his surroundings fade away and for him to be in front of Aura. He does a low bow before he speaks.

"Miss Aura. I may of found a way for you to live out your endless life and not be trapped inside of this gem. I have found myself in possession of a working Doll. I am able to keep it powered and alive with my magic. If I am correct, I can put the Soultrap on the doll and you would be able to take control of the Doll. Though, I have to warn you that this would have some draw backs. The biggest one being that because it is a Doll, you would be compelled to fall anything I would have to say, even if you yourself don't want to. I can promise you that I would never order you to do something you would want to. I cannot promise on Atrium's behalf. I am telling you this now so you can think about it. Right now it would be very risky to try and put you in the Doll right now. At this moment, the Doll is being controlled by me and some other unknown shadow caster. Until I am able to ether kill the other master or undo her hold on the Doll, you would be compelled to listen to some other unknown person. Please, I would like to know what you think."

The doll finishes rummaging through Frazil's bag, grabbing a few random items of interest that could identify her in some way. When it is done it places the items on the ground and moves to the next bag looking for more information.

"Greetings, formless one." Aura says to Jericho as she appears before him in her familiar garb. "It is curious to me that you would make toil for someone considered to be, indeed, the enemy. Pleasant, but surprising nonetheless." her tone is soft and questioning as she continues. "While, yes, I truly don't mean you harm. What would stop me from escaping? The mere binds of a doll?" she smirks a little, not tauntingly but friendly. "I am not still so weak that I can't control my binds. A living, breathing, thinking body? No. By no means. But a proxy controlled by someone else? This is easy enough for me to break." she pauses, looking past Jericho into the distant, clearly lost in thought for a moment. "Would you risk it, I bid you to wait till morning when the sun is up. I will find your false master for you if that is deserving of a body, even one like that."

The Doll meanwhile behaves a little sluggish, with Jericho having only infused little power into it due to the great strain placed upon him today. He would either have to rest up and strengthen his grasp on the Doll further or risk giving up on it entirely.

Sharpe watches the Doll take the contents from Frazil's bag and move on to another. He lifts an eyebrow and takes a few steps around it to watch it unpack the next bag.

"It seems as though they're trying to find out who we are perhaps? That doesn't look so pointed, its not just one of us but several." He looks up at to his room where his stuff was kept.

"I'll be right back." he says and walks upstairs again to retrieve his belongings. He comes back down and sets the bag on a table and stands beside it, arms crossed in case the doll decides to search his bag, which may have what it's looking for.

When the doll notices Sharpe's bag it jerks a little, then stiffly turns to walk over to his bag instead, rummaging through it until it pulls forth a Curious Key. Sharpe recognizes this key as the one Lox had found in the same office the two of them had encountered that thief. The very same office that belonged to Nathan Tisperry. The Doll retrieves the key alongside the papers that go with it and makes its way over to Jericho, handing him bothpapers and the Key.

Richard doesn't bring his things for the doll to appraise, thinking he isn't carrying anything of interest to it. He shakes his head slowly at Jericho's response, saying nothing, but looking mildly disappointed in the man, but reacts with some surprise at the man mentioning Aura. "Wait a sec, you're not trying to..."

RD is cut off when he hears the commotion upstairs, and is halfway up them; before Jian appears at the top of the staircase to assuage his worries. Richard wishes the man a goodnight as well which seems to fall on deaf ears as Jian wearily stumbles back to his own bed.

By the time RD descends the stairs, past Sharpe, Jericho is already in a trance-like state. He sighs, exasperated with the man's actions. "I really wish he would at least let me know what he intends to do before he just up and does it, then again, i'm sure i'd be more than against half the shit he pulls..."

There's a pause as the trio wait for Sharpe to descend the staircase with his belongings in tow, placing them on a nearby table for the Doll to inspect. "Oh? what's this stuff?" Richard exclaims when both the key and papers are handed to Jericho. "Looks like our proxy found its mark! So what's the story behind those Point-man?" Richard turns slightly towards the man, arms crossed and eyebrow raised, but overall looking very amused by the results, a slight smirk dancing across his face.

Frazil collects her things, putting them back in her bag, as it seems the doll wasn't really looking for anything she had. Having slept all day she's not nearly as worn out as the others so volunteers for watch duty once the mysteries have been solved to everyone's taste.

Jericho thinks about what Aura says and nods. "If you wish me to think on it, I will. However, I do not see you an an enemy. You have done nothing but help me when I needed it. You are also pleasant company."

When Jericho comes back to the world, he can see that the doll as found something. He takes the items and looks at the paper, scanning it. He stands up, but then gets dizzy. It takes a moment for the world to stop spinning. He then walks over to Sharp.

"So, where did you get this? If I had to make a guess, whomever sent the dolls is looking for this Mark Brigeutant. But we can discuss this in the morning. I have used up most of my magic and if I continue, I will lose the hold I have on this doll. I am going up stairs. Lets go Ningyō."

He commands the doll to fallow and they head upstairs. When he walks into his room, he checks up on Clairent. He then rolls out the sleeping bag and crawls in. He then commands the doll to sit in the corner and not to move. If no one is to bother him, he falls to sleep quickly.

Today was not Jack's best day, but thankfully, it wasn't his worst either. Obviously there wasn't anything note worthy for the doll to find in Jack's belongings even if the doll was still in use. He made his way to bed in a sloppy manner, as if his legs were made of butter, slowly melting. As he laid his head on the pillow, he couldn't stop thinking about the paper, having read it over Jericho's shoulder. There was a shiver coursing through his spine, thinking that these kidnappings have been going on for much longer than he suspected. That girl Jian likes would've been just another chapter in a very very long novel of disappearances if the group didn't step in. Nathan Tisperry. Something about that name sounded familiar, but Jack was far too dazed to think of where he knew that name as he drifted off to sleep

Bit by bit each members of the group slowly succumb to the tiresome evening, each going to their respective rooms for some well deserved shut eye. RD and Sharpe discuss the happenings of the previous night in fine detail in order for RD to get caught up before the two of them also give in to some rest.


Frazil takes the first watch where to her surprise but relief no disturbances occur, and RD takes the few hours watch until morning.



~ The 6th Day - 28th of the Season of Beauty ~

The slight chill of morning cold washes over Clarent as she wakes up in the moderately comfortable bed Doc had prepared for her. Her vision is a little hazy at first but despite this she gets on her feet and examines herself. No shoes, but her clothes and necklace are still in tact. Good.
She looks around the room to see Doc vast asleep on the ground before her, with an eerie figure sitting across the room from him. She shudders, wondering what the figure is for, and makes her way out of the room to find the washroom.

Coming down the stairs she notices RD sitting at the table across from her, in a position where he easily can see both windows and the stairs.
"Oh, good morning." she says, a little intimidated by the fact that she can barely remember how she got here but not at all who the person before here is. "I was rescued by... the guy, you know. Oh right... Sharpe was his name." she finally remembers shaking her head. "I'm terribly sorry if I have been an inconvenience for you." she states and sits down at the table.