THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

[steampunkborgia]

[It's time.

Once everything has gathered, perhaps they feel as prepared as they can be under these circumstances. Behind that door lays the place where things will end. The door opens easily, giving them access to the most important place underneath Krakow.

It's a rather large chamber, carved in the rock, but on the far end it feels like someone decorated the place to give it a very mystical vibe. A polished stone staircase leads to what seems to be a very large, glowing gate. It's being assaulted by an uninterrupted beam of volatile energy. Its origin is visible: a large, imposing laser machine, where all the tubes and wires are connected to. Right beside it, there's a coffin-shaped machine, the antenna blinking intermittently. Looks like it's on! But is it doing anything right now?

And, standing there with your backs to you, are the two people who have caused you so much grief and pain during the last month and a half. They're standing some distance away from the gate. Throughout the room are a few rocks that could serve as cover, as well as a pillar or two, but do you intend to hide? Regardless, looks like your intrusion didn't go unnoticed]

You all are so noisy.

[The door opening seems to have alerted her of your presence, yup. The Lady turns around. She doesn't have her half-mask anymore. The eye that's usually under it has a summoning circle carved onto it, shining so noticeably it can be seen even from the other side of the chamber. To her hip there's a sword, and her hand goes to a weapon a couple people may be familiar with: the marshmallow gun...with modifications. That sure is the fire-spewing trombone attached onto it. It's all pretty dangerous-looking yet still ridiculous. ]

Welcome, everyone, to the secret of this world. In here--why are there cats here?

[She blinks, puzzled. A good sign! Looks like, despite everything she has done and worked on, there's still room to catch her off guard in many ways!

The Lady shakes her head]

If you're down here it means you have been snooping around, haven't you? I'm sure this isn't the only place you sneaked into. My, darlings, that's naughty of you. All you had to do was stay on the surface and do nothing, and you could have the happy ending you wanted. Now, since you have seen more than I intended, I have no more option but to kill you. You can only blame yourselves, darlings.

[The Lady glances back at the gate, pensive, for just a moment before slapping a grin on her face]

My followers call me their Lady. My priestesses their Goddess. Everyone else calls me...the Other, for...some reason. [She doesn't seem terribly fond of that moniker.] But you all can just call me Lucrezia. And this here is my servant, Rembrandt as you well know by now. [She turns to him to add:] Oh, feel free to strike fear into their hearts by undoing your current form. The charade is over.

Now, have you all grasped the truth of this project?

Comments

[psychophant]

Given what I've seen of her plans, I'm not surprised she was attempting to work out how to remove Rembrandt should he get in the way. It looks as though she's attempted to plan for everything.

[Hopefully Mikami didn't just. drop that machine he was tasked with carrying!! If we broke it then we have to rely on Iago's notes, and no one wants that. So anyway, here's the machine, here's a massive book getting inserted into that slot in the machine and Iago gestures to it. Come look at this plot info, guys!!!]

This book is full of the Lady's [yes he's still calling her that!!] notes, written in code. This machine allows us to read it anyway, however. [how convenient...] It looks as though she was scouring other worlds for technology she could use - I recognize a few things in here from Dist's world [he knows what a fonon is now!!] but there may be things the rest of you recognize as well.

The most pressing, however, is the ending section and her plans for victory. The Lady and Rembrandt don't appear for very long in these plans. It sounds as though they don't expect to see this through to the end. [Rembrandt because his contract will be up, but the Lady...] I must admit, her plans are detailed and there's clearly been a lot of care put into this, but she also makes quite a few assumptions, such as Cumore, Dist, and I serving her. It doesn't sound as though she planned to have us killed.

[inordertobelieve]

[ He did not drop anything but removing it from his iron grip might take a minimal moment of coaxing because god, he's still freaking out. Sorry. There you go. ]

[psychophant]

[Thank you, Mikami. He'll even pat you on the arm as a show of support...??? Or is that condescending. Too late, pats delivered, try not to die.]

[inordertobelieve]

[ He is just letting that pat happen. He's a very decorative statue currently. He's probably going to manage in like... a minute or two. ]

[psychophant]

[eh, he'll be fine, probably........... (unsure)]

[deadlygoals]

[ hewwo decorative statue have a cat on your shoulder. ]

[inordertobelieve]

[ He actually pauses her to glare at Dazai! Progress at unfreezing the man!]

[deadlygoals]

[ Petting the cat. ]

You know, I couldn't ever pet sensei. This is pretty nice.

[ And then he'll look at Mikami. ]

Stay focus, Teru. You'll make sure she doesn't get her way when it comes to those three, right?

[inordertobelieve]

[ If the look in his eyes is anything to go by, then no, never. He's not going to let her take anybody and least of all those people. ]

I do not recall giving you permission to use my first name.

[ Yeah, he's surfacing from his terror for sure. ]

[pr159]

[ lmao good luck getting those guys to stop sucking each other's dicks long enough to do anything for you, lady ]

[steampunkborgia]

[she never took character development into account in her plans! accursed character growth!!!]

[psychophant]

[let's be honest, no one here was expecting character development from any of these three]

[baitless]

That seems quite the assumption to me, even when taking your potential ambitions into account. She did effectively force you into some sort of murder game, and even if she theoretically could resurrect you, there’s nothing to account for, say, spite.

[reanbeans]

I'm not surprised. She seems to have a really big ego and all.

[ That everything would go to plan, everything would work out in her favor because she was so powerful, and so great and intelligent. ]

[baitless]

Indeed she does... and I suppose we should be at least somewhat thankful for that.

[psychophant]

[............he's just. not going to mention anything he talked to the lady about shhhhhh.]

That's just it - she's made countless plans and backups to those plans, but she seems to have forgotten something absolutely vital. People don't always act the way she expects them to.

[this is hilarious coming from him but hey, character development...?????]

[steampunkborgia]

[At that point Lucrezia laughs. And laughs, and laughs, and laughs. She's even doubling over]

Ooooh, that's rich!

[She recovers]

That's true, that's true. That's why you should always make plans where you always have the control. If people's actions don't affect your plans considerably, you win.

[Her eyes are twinkling. Looks like she still has a little secret about the events in Krakow]

[psychophant]

[Gods, he's been trying so hard this entire time not to look at or deal with either of them, but fine!! Here we go!!!]

You said it yourself: "if". You've gone to all this trouble to learn so much about us and prepare everything for the outcome you want - but even now we're not acting as you expected. Here we are, when you assumed... what? That we'd simply sit idly by?

[steampunkborgia]

No. I figured a few of you would snoop around, so I set a few...trials, so I could extract some more energy from you all. If there's going to be information leaking around, then I'd get something in exchange.

[Such as, for example, having to use powers to climb the hotel, or having to use them to access the crypts]

I was shortsighted about a few of you, I can admit that much. But in the end, your presence here is still a good thing for me. [She puts a hand on the hilt of her sword] Even now you're all being sapped of energy. As long as you're in Krakow, you are giving my machines power.

[psychophant]

[He has such a headache already...]

You've gathered all of this energy for something - likely powering that gate that Raven, Dazai, and Rean found. But why? What exactly are you trying to accomplish here that will lead to your complete domination of your world?

You put this much time and effort into your plans, surely it would be a waste not to enlighten us on just what it is you're going to do.

[steampunkborgia]

That'd be just so much tedious exposition. [She glances at the glowing gate, frowning a littl, and seems to think it better] Nevermind, I may as well throw you a bone.

Think back to what we once talked. A way to catch the enemy offguard is to use things that are unknown to them. Using great technology in worlds that aren't so advanced is a way. Using powers that don't exist in your world is another.

[She gestures behind her]

This here is full of power. Power that, by the time anyone in my world comes even close to understanding, will have granted me victory.

[Yeah, apparently she's going to access the gate's powers to have an edge over everythng]

[drydrown]

She thinks she has a way to guarantee obedience.

[As we are currently yelling about.]

[baitless]

[SIGH....]

That does make far more sense, yes.

[deadlygoals]

We did hear before that she's interested in brains. That may not have entirely been inaccurate. What if she has a way to influence people's thoughts or control them?

[psychophant]

She does, at least in her world. She uses insects and the entire thing sounds both incredibly disgusting and horrific. She couldn't manage that here, however, so we're all free from her mind control.

[Here's the book with that info, if you want to check it out!]