[RP] The Inn of Peace - IoP (Open to all)

[Gren_Eckener]

"Probably...we could employ magic?"

Zippo leapt up and skittered out of the room, making shrill raptor cheeps as an alarm. Within a minute or two, Charlotte wheeled into the room, half-wearing a suit over her pyjamas, eyes wide. Spotting the stranger, she gave Samsara a questioning look before the face clicked. "Oh! Hi!" Spying Orrin, however, her face fell to concern. "...What's the fuss?"  

[Azana Brown]

"I wouldn't leave home without it!" Max beamed, pulling up her sleeve enough to show the little green glow. "Can't have ya savin' me all the time."

"It is pleasant to see you outside of work, Chaotic One," Samsara bowed politely. "Forgive me if I am not more cordial."

"..." Orrin looked to her, honestly frightened for once. "...Law...he almost never leaves his office, but..."

"Law is coming to this plane, and particularly, to this Inn. For Orrin," Samsara explained sadly. "I cannot interfere, as an Orderly...but...I care for Orrin. I do not wish to see him ended."

Orrin started, gaze snapping to Samsara. "N-now wait a minute! Ended?! You're saying--" His voice locked up, his hands clasped tightly together, as if praying that Samsara could tell him otherwise.

"...he wishes to kill you, Karma Keeper. He sees you as a dire threat to his Cosmic Order."

"But that makes no sense!" He protested. "This is absolutely unnecessary! Strip me of my position, if he must...but such heavy-handedness? What in the spheres could I have possibly done to invoke that?!"

"...you have done nothing," Samsara answered quietly, rather accustomed to this sort of reaction. "And yet...you've seen it, haven't you? Something is off..."  

[Gren_Eckener]

Remy held up a hand, lighting a blaze of crimson flame. "I've got a few new tricks myself...any of that materia good for shields?"

He didn't seem to notice that the couch was melting into yarn as a result of the incident upstairs.

Charlotte smiled kindly, not minding the urgency in the lady's tone at all. She's been kind enough before; all was permissible in times of concern. And, as she listened to the exchange, there was much to be concerned about indeed. Charlotte shifted from worry to shock, then from shock to staunch offense, and from that to brewing fury.

"If he wants a direct threat to his Cosmic Order, oh ho, I will give him one." growled Charlotte, trying to keep herself gathered for the sake of the others, despite the sudden blooming of mitten-flowers that smelled of dust and old wine about her feet. "Do go on, please. I'd love to hear his broken reasoning for such an outrageous and futile notion."  

[Azana Brown]

Samsara shuddered, her guise of Death shimmering around her form as a shield against Charlotte's chaotic anger. "Because what Law fears the most is coming...change."

"But what does that have to do with me?" Orrin asked, trying his best to not get a little nervous as Samsara's costume change.

"...how are you feeling, Orrin? Sitting next to active Chaotic power?" Samsara asked, pointing to Charlotte's narrowly-contained outburst.

Orrin looked down to the flowers, blinking in surprise. "I...how...? I should be--"

"Reacting? Yes...and yet you are not. You, Orrin, are the epicenter of the changes. Law feels he must stop them -- stop you -- while he is capable." Samsara explained.  

[Gren_Eckener]

Charlotte drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her nose. "S-sorry...sorry. It's not on purpose." she muttered, flowers evaporating, sofa downstairs reverting to its former glory. "I just...yeah. Didn't care for that notion."

However, spying that Samsara had her defenses up, but Orrin did not (and looked remarkably unphased and well), she straightened up. "Wait...epicenter of...oh no...I, I didn't corrupt him, did I?!" asked Charlotte fearfully, fussing with the hem of her shirt. "Law should be coming after me, then, if I'm ruining Orrin!"

Anything but killing him!  

[Azana Brown]

"You're kidding, right?! Come on, let's go raid the box! I'll glow like a mini-rave by the time I'm done!" Max pulled on his hand, though she knew she couldn't budge him.

"Charlotte..." Orrin leaned in, kissing her forehead. "If that is the case, you are the sweetest corruption I've ever met. Law doesn't have the authority with you that he does with me..."

"There is that fact...and, also, the fact that you are not being corrupted." Samsara chuckled, even if it was bittersweet. "You are merely changing...in a big way, but it is a natural change. It is one that some believe should happen. Law, however, will not have it...and he is forbidding the other Orderlies from interfering."

"What about--"

"Me? Heavens, Orrin...I have not interfered. Notified, perhaps. Informed, even. But I cannot and shall not interfere." She looked over to the frizzy-haired, wine-stained girl.

"I leave that to the expert."  

[Gren_Eckener]

Remy followed, quite cheerily, glad to be led. He went as directed, and if he closed his eyes, he felt human.

Charlotte pouted, slipping her hand into his with a squeeze. "No...and besides that, in the Inn, he has no power over anyone. So long as you stay in here, he can't do diddly."

Glancing back to Samsara, however, she slowly smirked, just a little. "And I don't think he knows just what he's getting into, now does he? Does that old goat even know I'm here?"  

[Azana Brown]

Max flipped on the switch in the basement, dusting off the box and sneezing from the resulting cloud. "Sheesh, did people forget about these or what?" She asked, digging around and pulling out Tyler's scanner. "Emily had a Barrier sphere...so there's probably some more in here..."

"That's the problem," Orrin frowned. "If I stay here, I can't effectively do my job. He would have grounds to summon me for a hearing, for disrupting the Order and neglecting my post. But if I leave, I lose the neutral protection of this place."

"He knows of your close quarters with Orrin," Samsara answered. "When he activated his...other...it drew Law's attention. I'm unsure if he knows the exact nature of your relation, but this displeases him, too. I do bear good news, however..."

"I'd really like that right now..." Orrin muttered, feeling increasingly trapped.

"If you survive this, you will no longer be under the authority of Law," she grinned. "You have many resources to aid you...I simply cannot be one..."  

[Gren_Eckener]

"Probably. I think I remember how to use it, but I think it's more a you-thing...I've got spells and junk, after all. And, hey...does your hacking technomancy involve cracking security systems? I can't get in without invitation."

Charlotte hummed, rubbing her chin, mind abuzz for solutions beyond extreme measures as she soothingly stroked Orrin's shoulder. "Well, you have been doing your job within these walls...and it's not as if you haven't met a diverse crowd to meet with. So far, I'm guessing we might have to play his rules against him, and build a case on natural law, rather than the starchy interpretation of his mind, which is the really tricky bit, because he'll probably just twist things his way...I suppose what bears asking is how he tracks. Is there like some kind of, like, auto-sense he uses, so hiding somewhere won't work? I've a lot of tricks up my sleeve, but I need to use the right one."

"Ai iitim?"

"No, sweetie. That's a last resort. Also, how soon can we expect the codger?"  

[Azana Brown]

"Defeating him in the context of Order? So unlike you, my little Golden Delicious," Nirro's fanged grin popped out of Orrin's shadow. "Besides, if Sammy's right, Orrin and I aren't gonna be Order anymore. How exciting...!"

"That is correct...by becoming something new, you would no longer be of the Order. Law would have no authority over you," Samsara nodded, pacing a little. "He will come to you before you can finish your transformation. He will find a way to you...it's up to you, all three of you, to find a way out."

"...there's still one question." Orrin took a breath. "...I know everything you tell me is the truth...but what am I becoming, then? Nirro and I."

Samsara gave a light chuckle, one that sounded uncharacteristic from the skeletal appearance. "You likely haven't felt it...because it is natural for you. Reward and punishment, weighing, measuring...in all you have done, you may have been keeping Order. But at its heart, beneath the veneers of morality and duty...you, dear Orrin, work in Balance. I cannot wish you luck, as per Law's mandate, but I still wish you well, old friend." With that, she drifted out the window, a specter on the wind.

"After all these millenia, I can finally tell the old man to shove it!" Nirro exclaimed, a giddy expression in Orrin's shadow. "Hey, hey! Does this mean I get to spend a bit more time in control? I miss the frizzy pixie, and I've been meaning to meet the others! Well, the non-traumatized ones..."  

[Gren_Eckener]

Waving farewell to the spectre, Charlotte couldn't help but giggle at the pet names. "Am I the frizzy pixie?" she winked to the shadow. "The more I think about it, the less worried I am, really... I've been locking horns with that buzzard for ages, in my own way. I've met laws that have had to change, and I've got evidence that what's going on is a natural progression of things. After all, if I can do lawful things as a chaos beast, surely people adapting to a shifting environment is as natural as can be. And that cannot be refuted."

Folding her arms, she sighed, lowering her head a moment. "However, I must ask this of you: whatever I say, whatever I threaten, whatever I might summon or screech or swear...I need you to trust me. Have faith in what I do, because I might have to do truly reprehensible things to win with the leverage I've got, and I'm not saying what it is because I need you to believe it when I say it."  

[Azana Brown]

"Are you kidding me? I'm looking forward to seeing you in top form," Nirro double-winked at her from the shadow. "What say you, lovestruck other half?"

"I'm certain we can find a way to avoid Law's wrath...I just haven't thought of it yet," Orrin frowned. He looked over to Charlotte as she delivered her request. Nirro was all for it, but if she was asking this, after all of that...what in the planes was she planning?

"...I knew what I was getting into," Orrin grinned. "You're full of surprises. I'll be surprised, but I have no reason not to trust you."

"Ya know, I've used a lotta these before...just not all at once. I feel like a walking magic missile," she giggled, looking over the colorful dots. All these different abilities...but all she had known was the gravity sphere. How to use these, how to use them together...as much as she enjoyed playing around, she was no special forces.

Just guys and bullets...ya can squeeze 'em. Remy's gonna help, too...  

[Gren_Eckener]

"Nor I, precisely, but I'm pondering it. Naturally, I'm thinking of the extremes, hence the warning. But I know you'll come through for me~" she trilled, pecking Orrin's cheek, her shadow pecking Nirro's in turn. "You know I'd never do anything to hurt you or make you sad. I'll just take the old man out to the Plains, where nobody else gets collateral damage."

"We can practice a little?" he asked hopefully, checking a sphere. "Ah. Barrier. You just sorta...stick it in your arm, right?"  

[Azana Brown]

"And then we'll knock 'im out of the park!" Nirro cheered, throwing up a shadowy fist. "I mean, seriously, if we're not Order anymore, where's the consequence?"

"We're not shifted yet," Orrin pouted. "Besides, I've never wanted to hurt him...I just want him to loosen up a bit, update himself. Law is too rigid."

"Yeah, just give it a light nudge and it'll sink in. It tickles at first, but ya get used ta it!" Max beamed, flashing her rainbow arms. As if she needed more places to put colors.  

[Gren_Eckener]

"Well, no...that's not my intention. but he sounds like he's on the warpath, and I've gotta be ready in case he decides big guns are called for. I'd rather keep things diplomatic, but if push comes to shove, you know it'll get ugly." she explained with a frown. "I mean, I'll even be decked in my ceremonial gear for this, y'dig? I know he won't be pulling punches, so I'll be handing what he delivers right back. This plane isn't built for us both to really lose our cool, after all, so it's not gonna be too ugly, or at least I doubt he'd let it get there."

Charlotte scratched her head, offering Orrin a small box of chocolate truffles. "You need this, love of mine."

Remy frowned thoughtfully, slipping in the orb with a mild shudder. "And invocation is, like, voice command? A summoning of magical willpower?"