pray for the wicked

[pointedlook]

WHO? Ashitaka lonelywar & Arthur pointedlook
WHAT? HRHR; in which Ashitaka and Arthur save the Queen.
WHEN? Day of the eclipse.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, probably not anything gratuitous...but they did score over 75% margin of success.

[ Grothia, in all of her commander wisdom, had doled out their specific missions during the week of the eclipse. She'd cited that the general populous would be busy with preparations, which gave them a certain bit of leeway to move around. Arthur had agreed with her assessment; holidays simultaneously left people on high alert and also drowned them all in a chaotic frenzy.

In his opinion, it would be the best time for the Regency to make a move on the Queen. What better victory than to cut her down at the peak of the empire's indulgence? What better way to have a captive audience?

With the holiday around the corner and the Queen being relatively pro-COST, it's easy to get set up as extra protection detail. Arthur gets in touch with Ashitaka, feeling like their skill sets will balance out– close range for him, long range for the other. Thus far, most of their movements have been shadowing the Queen's errands, following her out to dress fittings, caterers, every little nitpicky thing under the sun. It doesn't bother him, just winds him up further and further.

Right now it's mid-morning and the Queen is heading back to the throne room, attaché dutifully in tow. Arthur gets that stomach swooping feeling that something is going to go wrong. Maybe he'll be wrong, but he doesn't want to test it.

Carefully and quietly, he contacts Ashitaka via BCE. While he isn't really that far off, he isn't about to break form and possibly tip someone off. ]

Call me paranoid, but I feel like something's about to go down. Can you break off for a good angle?

Comments

[pointedlook]

[ What feels like a lifetime ago, he'd watched Ashitaka's fight in the stadium. It'd been a bloody affair, as were most of the fights, but even moreso with someone who specialized in long range. Getting a good angle was hard, even without the added stress of going head to head with an Aranean. An Aranean who outpaced and outmatched nearly everyone in COST, just by virtue of their genetics.

Suffice to say, it seems like Ashitaka's had some practice since then, a dying and reviving experience giving him the knowledge to take a spider down without so much as a hiccup. Arthur's engaged in another fight, but when he flicks his gaze to the Aranean on the stairs, he sees the arrows poking out between plates, in the soft tissue and piercing through muscle, sinew, tendons. Nearly getting slashed for his moment of distraction, he re-focuses, knife flashing in the dim light.

It takes a few minutes but eventually, he manages to hamstring the agent, careful to dodge just out of their reach and then darting in. They go down in a crumpled heap and he uses their own sword, driving it through their chest.

The Aranean has slumped to the ground in the meantime, but he isn't looking at the body for more than a second, instead searching for the answer to Ashitaka's question. ]

Regency agent, on the stairs. [ It looked like they were in the middle of things, essentially at the front, fighting off two guards with practiced ease. There were a couple other servants blocking the eyeline. ]

Distract that other Aranean, would you? I'm gonna clear you a path to their lead.