The Shattered City Postscript: Something Old, Something New

[Nerit]

Nerit had the arrogance to smirk through the utter confusion up at Celeste (this may have been a defense mechanism). "I knew there was something to that girl."

An indifferent gaze passed over Gauvain's body. That takes care of that problem...if it wasn't an illusion. Surely, the powerful leader of the mage-police could withstand a lowly stabbing through the chest?

Back to Celeste. "No one touch her, including you, Thierri," Nerit commanded. Her hunch told her the bride was the only thing between possible survival and a certain watery grave.

Arcana 22 -_-

[Nathan of the FoS]

Mercator is, frankly, flabbergasted...the first time anyone present has seen him with his customary composure shattered, as he stares at the...tsunami?...that...wasn't?...and then at the...dead?...Chief of Police, hoisted on his own petard, so to speak, and the bride, who is...levitating.

This last rather seems to snap him out of his shock; looking no more startled than, say, if a guest had stood up and announced his objection verbally, Mercator mutters to no-one in particular, "It seems someone wishes to object. Forcefully.

Arcana 13. Natural 1. Ridiculous. I will assume we still have our powahz and use Dark One's Own Luck to reroll, for a 26.

[The Whistler]

OOC: Perception, Religion, Heal, and/or Dungeoneering may also be useful.

[Isabella]

Back to Celeste. "No one touch her, including you, Thierri," Nerit commanded. Her hunch told her the bride was the only thing between possible survival and a certain watery grave

Thierri seemed willing to comply. But then, the groom seemed quite willing to comply in not doing anything, being completely and utterly stunned. His feverish gaze seemed torn between his bride, who just wasn't the woman she used to be, and his friend, who had been run straight through the chest.

[NeoTiamat]

"Oooh. Somebody killed the bride." Cerise volunteered, standing on tiptoes to look over Kerrian's shoulder. One wasn't sure exactly when she'd materialized near Kerrian, but that was where she was now. "This happens in all the novels! There's a wedding, so something bad happens, and it's usually a Rokuma tree-ghost or the actual fiance coming back after being hidden for twenty years or an assassin spikes the bride's drinks with something to make her sleep for twenty years..."

It was highly unlikely that Cerise was comforting anyone right now. She frowned, looking at the floating bride, and waved a hand enthusiastically in front of Celeste's face.

"She's not really dead." Cerise seemed a touch disappointed by this. Not because she meant Celeste any ill-will, but it didn't exactly fit her perception of how events should go. "It's like someone reached in and turned her brain off? And made her not notice anything and set her to floating since she doesn't know she can't..." This made sense in Cerise's world. "So she's not actually dead."

[yalenusveler]

"Do you know how to...undo it?" Kerrian asked, concern kicking in. This was certainly NOT something that happened in a Dead Travel Fast romance. "And what happend to Gauvain, is that an illusion or real?" Kerrian started going into a pace, looking out over the crowd of well wishers, and trying to see if he could spot any who might have had ulterior motives. It was likely a futile gestured, but for the moment he could think of little else to do. At least until they knew more.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"No illusions," Lia says. "More's the pity. Whatever just happened set off a whole load of wards - and whatever happened to Ms. Viardot, or whatever she is doing, is the only thing preventing us all from being crushed by a hammer of sea water."

[Nerit]

Nerit nodded in agreement with Lia. Whether she was frightened or not, the nun didn't show it. Her eyes moved quickly over the panic-in-a-bubble, however.

"There were wards somewhere, and they went off before the tidal wave. We need a way to push back the water, then we can get her down from there."

[The Whistler]

"No one touch her, including you, Thierri"

This apparently applied to Yvette as well: she had been thrown to the ground by the force of the wave, but had been in the process of reaching up at the bride’s skirts as she lifted off. She shrank back, immediately, into the arms of her husband, who somehow managed to help her to her feet using the part of his brain that wasn’t devoted to gawping and turning grey.

“Lady preserve us…”

“What…what is happening to her? Alphonse!” Mme. Giroud, to her credit, was not panicking. Neither was she particularly calm.

“I…I don’t know…only legends…”

“Alphonse. Can she be brought back to herself.” Yvette clung to the Warden’s arm, visibly resisting the urge to shake him. Good manners die hard, after all, even in the center of an inexplicable watery death sphere.

“…I say, fellows…it appears we may be facing a spot of…larger issue, what?” Hughes, with some trepidation, pointed his walking stick towards the last few rows of chairs. Most of the people in the back had been knocked out or brought to the ground by the storm, but a few of them had started to get up. Not in the good way, either: in the “reflective eyes/several inches off the ground” way. So far, it was two rather boorish cousins and the teetotaling postgraduate that Celeste had invited out of a sense of obligation, but still…not the best pattern.

“Gauvain? Gauvain, old chap…?”

Hughes noticed Gauvain.

“…Damn and blast.”

“We have to find the cause of this, or we must talk her out of it, or else…” Yvette bit her lip. “Celeste! Celeste!”

The wall of water shimmered and flickered, briefly. And contracted by approximately six inches. And Celeste got higher.

All the checks mentioned above would still be helpful, as well as others you think might be applicable -- though you are also cordially invited to employ a more active strategy of some kind.

[yalenusveler]

Kerrian was now in a full on pace. Which suggested that one should hope that a solution to the current situation was found quickly, otherwise he would wear a path to the other side of the world and that would not exactly be good, even if it did offer an egress from their current situation. Not a solution, just an implausible to the point of impossible escape.

But then again, it was Celste's wedding.

Plus pacing gave him time to think. Did he spot anyone acting strange...did anyone's behavior seem off? Important questions, to be honest. Nevermind wracking his brain over all the other myriad possibilities.

"Warden...how ecumenical are you willing to let this get?" Kerrian had a gleam in his eye, and was already rummaging in a suit pocket.

OOC:OK! 18 perception, 30 Insight, 19 Nature, 16 religion, 24 Arcana

[NeoTiamat]

"Do you know how to...undo it?"

"I don't know, Kerry!" Cerise said, looking a little disconcerted about the whole situation. "I usually just talk quietly to people and everything's fine!"

"There were wards somewhere, and they went off before the tidal wave. We need a way to push back the water, then we can get her down from there."

"I do not think buckets are going to work." Katja Zweibach said, eyeing the floating bride dubiously but without excessive panic. "I could try to swim it..." She did not sound as though she had a great deal of confidence that this would work.

[The Whistler]

"Warden...how ecumenical are you willing to let this get?" Kerrian had a gleam in his eye, and was already rummaging in a suit pocket.

"Quite ecumenical...very ecumenical -- oh, Ezra save us, it is happening..." The Warden was barely paying attention to Kerrian at present, concerned as he was with watching Celeste rise towards the center of the bubble, but this seemed to be an implicit go-ahead.

Yvette broke from yelling at Celeste to tug desperately at her husband's arm. "What is happening, Alphonse?"

"Legends...only legends, whispered in seminary...gods, or beings, blotted from the pages of history...should have paid more attention..."

He looked down at the crowd of you, suddenly; a somber gaze. "This...may be how the world ends."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Start talking, Warden," Lia says in a curt tone of voice. "Don't mind me, talk."

While she is still dishing out orders like always, Lia is also using her staff to clear a patch of ground of grass and debris. Once this is done, she starts to draw a fairly complex magic circle. She refers to a small book several times and is muttering spells under her breath while she does the work. "Can I get some help, here?" she asks as soon as there is a lull in other conversations. "Elementals are tetchy at the best of times, and the undine are worse..."

[NeoTiamat]

"This must be why M. Gauvain was killed." Cerise said, still hanging around Kerrian and looking increasingly distracted about the whole situation. She scurried over to where the Marquis de Montmort was lying dead, with a rather sharp umbrella in his chest. "He could have helped us, so they killed him so he couldn't!"

"Do you think it might have been only a flesh wound and they missed the heart." Cerise said, scurrying over to Gauvain and, with a great wrench, pulling out the umbrella. "So now he gets up, and everything's fine!"

Judging from the fact that there was a distinct hole in Gauvain's chest, Cerise seemed to have jumped from being eccentric to being insane.

[Isabella]

Gauvain's milk white eyes snapped open, one skeletal hand gripping the ground, the other clutching at his chest. There was... surprisingly little blood, all things considered, but standing was not something le Marquis seemed capable of yet. Of course, living was not something Gauvain seemed currently capable of either, but this wasn't stopping him.

"Elias..." Thierri breathed. He seemed in half a stupor, but perhaps he could be forgiven. He turned his attention back to his bride. "Mademoiselle... Celeste. It seems you forget yourself, as I did. Will you come back to me, as I did to you?"