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

[lonelywar]

[There was a tension in the air. He could feel it, live and crackling against his skin, like the energy latent in the thick humidity that arose before a mighty thunderstorm. Ashitaka has little skill in politicking and the mindgames that accompanied it, but he had attempted to follow to the best of his ability the state that the Araenan court was in. With tension between the Queen and the Princess, and not to mention the Regency and COST, reaching its breaking point, it felt as though everything was building up to a tempestuous moment. Finally they were directed to their different areas of expertise, the simple yet weighty goal hanging over each and every one of them: make sure that, when all of this was over, COST would have the ear of who sat on the throne.

And they had seemingly decided that that ear would be that of the Queen. Ashitaka's own opinions on her were - well, they made this complicated, but it was not his place to make this decision. Though his meeting with the princess had given him some pause, his time with COST had taught him that this, unlike the war he was fighting back home, was not one that he took personal ownership in. He would be a hand to aid for what they thought would be right for everyone, not just for his own heart.

Ashitaka's response had been swift when Arthur had contacted him; he had been swamped in a low spirit after his defeat in the stadium, but with time healing wounds both physical and mental, he is now eager to prove useful to their cause. Arthur is an individual who holds his respect, being keen of mind and quick to decisions, so they fall into an easy partnership. As the Queen travels for shopping, Arthur remains close where he can keep a sharp eye about them, and Ashitaka remains at range (and elevated, when possible), doing the same.

The market had been an area of clear danger, where threats could loom at any place in the crowd. They had navigated this without much issue, though (the Queen's guard had been noticeable enough to deter much trouble), but when they begin to approach the throne room once again, Ashitaka begins to catch wind of a tense and anxious feeling as well.

When Arthur contacts him, he sees that he is not alone. They best be cautious.]

I believe to be paranoid in this situation is appropriate.

[There is some audible noise across the line, the shuffle of movement.]

But I agree. I will find a place where I have view of the entire area. As soon as you see anything, give me word and indication.

[pointedlook]

Affirmative.

[ And then there's silence over the line once more. Arthur has every trust that Ashitaka will find a suitable place. And that he'll be difficult to pick out to anyone who isn't looking hard enough.

Then again, that sort of someone is likely to cause trouble, so they might be dead before they can start.

The procession back into the throne room goes without a hitch, despite his nerves buzzing with an unnamed paranoia. Queen Thsh sits on her throne, the guards fan out at their posts. As for himself, he finds a relatively shadowed section to remain in. Close enough to the Queen to interfere, out of the way enough that he'll be overlooked. When he'd first gotten on the planet, he wasn't sure how his natural status was going to play out. But more often than not, it's been an upside, allowing him to sneak around with relatively little notice.

At the ornate doors, the herald announces an audience. Part of House Shaiy holding up their end of an appointment. A red flag seems to wave over the whole situation, but he stays where he is, watching intently. The doors open, admitting a few towering forms of the lesser ranks of Shaiy– no one he recognizes with any immediacy. Behind them, there's two neat columns of servants, dressed immaculately in house colors. Without counting, he guesses about 10 bodies, plus the three Shaiy representatives.

It's a drawn out affair, the formal introductions, the long winded pleasantries. Arthur recognizes that they're three quarters of the way through them when one of the spiders accidentally loses a bracelet, the clink of it audible on the polished floor. Whoever is speaking keeps going, but a servant silently makes their way to pick up the dropped bangle. Their hood dips over their face, shadowing, but when they glance up, he makes out the unmistakeable features of a Regency operative.

This is it, this is their move. ]

Ashitaka, 10 o'clock from the door, it's Regency.

[ He'll be damned if they're going to get the first shot. ]

[lonelywar]

[Aranean architecture was laboratories and caverns, taken from their original use and wrought in the kind of austere yet macabre style they so cherished. All of it was alien to Ashitaka, but it provided both places to hide himself and places to climb into a point of vantage. As it is, he manages to get himself high off the ground on a narrow ledge built as a lip around a pillar, one with a clear view of the entire area. He strings his bow as he eyes the Queen and her entourage, trying to discern Arthur from the crowd. He manages to pick him out, standing somewhat apart, making sure to keep an eye on him. Orienting his directions to where he stands will be important if he is to shoot he is meant to shoot.

His attention flicks towards the door, taking note of the herald calling out the appointment. Shaiy. Ashitaka's grip tightens on his bow as he finishes stringing it, taking an arrow from the quiver at his side and knocking it, wanting to be prepared rather than made a fool of. Since his defeat in the stadium he has been practicing, having grown somewhat out of practice over his time with COST. It had given him a quiet, lethal sort of confidence.

Throughout the meeting, his eyes are scanning the group, watching for furtive movements or activity out of the ordinary. But, with his distance, the smaller sound of the jewelry dropping to the floor was lost upon him, and he might have overlooked the servant diverting towards the Aranean. He wouldn't be able to see faces from here, but he trusts Arthur. He draws the arrow back, deadly arrowhead tracking the hooded individual. He speaks as he does so.]

Be prepared. [Because there will be no peace after this.] Just tell me who it is to be shot.

[He looses the arrow.

Ashitaka draws a bow with much more strength than the average human. Despite the distance, despite the narrow window, it finds its mark between the Regency operative's shoulder-blades. It sinks with startling ease into the flesh, emerging out the front of his chest. For a moment there is silence, a strangled sound of air failing to enter ruined lungs, the thick smell of blood. And then the insurgent drops to the floor, blood pooling beneath.

And the image of civility and formality shatters, chaos erupting in its place. Ashitaka is swift to draw another arrow.]

[pointedlook]

[ Ashitaka's warning happens a split second before he hears the faint whistle of an arrow streaking through the air. From here, he can see the Regency operative has pulled a knife, but it doesn't do them any good– the head of the arrow pushes through to the front of their chest. There's a wet rattle of lungs trying to take air in and failing before they drop with the heaviness of literal dead weight.

Not ones to remained stunned, the guards are already moving as the throne room explodes into a frenzy of motion. Arthur is not even a step behind them, unsheathing the dagger he'd liberated from the armory, clashing with another operative. The first engagement isn't flashy; he's rusty with fights that don't include the use of a gun. He manages to duck out from under a nasty slash, uses the angle and his weight to tackle them to the ground. In their shock, he neatly slits their throat and then pops back up, eyes scanning the room. ]

Four o'clock from the foot of the throne.

[ One of the House Shaiy spiders has managed to slaughter her way to the steps. The guard looks like she's struggling to fight back.

Arthur takes a few steps away from the body he's left, sweeps a foot towards the back of an agent's heels to pull them from the fight they're currently in. ]

[lonelywar]

[The Regency and their allies have surely gotten desperate; Ashitaka thinks that this approach is very blunt for them, without the usual layers of duplicity and subterfuge. But the Commander had explained several times the importance of gaining an alliance with the Araneans, and with their maneuvering to support the Queen versus how the Regency had aligned with the Princess, it seemed natural that it would eventually come to something like this.

It was a struggle of lethal force. There was little other way to think about it, and Ashitaka doesn't do very much of that at all as he knocks another arrow and draws it back, hand tracking several of the forms that seemed to move a little too erratically for his taste - though he ultimately waits for Arthur's instruction, rather than relying on instinct that could lead him to putting an arrow through the heart of one of their current allies.

For a moment he keeps an eye on Arthur, in the throes of his own fight, but the operative he had been grappling with ends up dropping to the ground in a gush of crimson blood as the COST agent stands up once again.

As soon as he hears the command, Ashitaka tracks the point of his arrow to where Arthur specified, takes a breath, and releases it as a hiss through his teeth as he looses the arrow through the air.

Felling an Aranean with arrows was far more difficult than dropping a human being. Whether in their natural form or shrouded in their human skins, they hid their most vulnerable parts with layers of flesh and cloth, or chitinous plates. Ashitaka had realized how difficult it was when he had failed in the stadium, but as soon as he recovered his strength, he had practiced. He knows how to take one of these creatures down now, and that training shines through now. Arrows pierce the Shaiy assailant in the back at multiple points: between plates in the shoulder, the neck, each impacting with the force of a powerful blow as Ashitaka puts all of his inhuman strength behind them. Purple-blue tendrils writhe like maggots at the feathered hafts of the arrows for a moment before dissipating, causing nearby Araneans to recoil at the strong source of magic.

The attack slowed and confounded the attacker, making it far easier for Ashitaka to send an arrow through her head. She slowly slumps to the floor not ten yards away from the queen.]

Can you discern who is commanding them? [Ashitaka draws another arrow, ready to continue to continue to reap the chaff, but severing the head would mark the end of them sooner rather than later.]

[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.