"Don't worry about it," Luna assures, glad her arms are free once more. "You should have seen me earlier. I ran all the way here and was still late. I collapsed on the ground and didn't even hear the last of the orientation or whatever as I tried to catch my breath. At least you could speak when you got here."
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"I'm Shona," she replies to the walrus, twisting her body around so that the flipper that was on her shoulder ends up in her hand so she can shake it vigorously in greeting. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Tusky!" She then turns to the rest of the gathered group, "Isn't he adorable?" Then, turning back to the walrus, she holds out some sugar cubes saying, "Want some sugar?"
Her thrush, in the meantime, is flying nearby trying to draw her attention to the fact that a fire alarm is going off and that's probably important. As usual, she's ignoring him.
Noticing the boy walking up to them, Luna realizes that there is no way to get away and investigate the possible battle...for now. Turning to introduce herself to the boy, Luna says, "Hello, I am Luna Stargazer."
Seeing that he hasn't gotten the response he had hoped for, Narly decides on the direct approach.
Narly kicks in the door and hands the burning trashcan to nearest secretary. "Here. Hold this." He then announces "There's a fire in the building. You might want to leave. Thanks. I'll take that." He retrieves the trash can waits for the crowd to leave. He takes a framed motivational poster down from the wall and smothers the fire with it.
Right. His next stop is the student files. Place still uses a lot of paper. Filing cabinets.... Student council members.... 'Cup size'? 'Sufficient'? Heheheh.
Kayin bows slightly in response to the greeting. "Kayin Ashok, a pleasure to meet you," he says with a smile. Underneath the smile is a great deal of barely-hidden tension, however, as meeting new people tends to end poorly. This isn't made any easier by the stress of the day and his unfortunate luck, which decides to make its presence felt once again.
As he steps forward after his bow, he accidentally treads on the tail of a fox whose presence he hadn't noted. The resulting cry of pain startles him, and he loses his footing in the scramble to avoid stepping on the fox a second time. Trying desperately to keep his balance, he ends up stumbling back and falling over the walrus behind him, ending up in a tangled heap at the feet of the girl to whom the walrus has been speaking. Once Kayin is certain the moving and falling is done with, he lets out a low, pained groan.
Giggling at the pretty boy's short trip, Luna walk over and crouches down to help him up.
"Here, let me help you up," Luna says.
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"Hey!" Shona admonishes Kayin, "you need to watch where you're walking! You could have hurt the cute little walrus, clumsy girl!"
"Ummm, Shona?[/b]" the thrush interjects. "I'm pretty sure that's a boy...?"
Shona, meantime, has stopped paying attention t the fallen boy or the thrush, and instead, is simply making sure that the "little" walrus is okay.
"Do you often get mistaken as a girl?" Luna asks Kayin.
Kayin nods dejectedly, a palpable aura of disappointment surrounding him as he gets himself sorted out. "Unfortunately, yes. It's worse when the other party is male. They never seem to believe that I'm not female... Well, aside from the ones that prefer males themselves, they believe that just fine, but refuse to accept that I'm not interested," he finishes with an annoyed huff while standing up with her aid.
He sighs and shakes his head while dusting himself off and checking to make certain that he wasn't injured. "I'm pretty sure I've got a legion of fanboys out there in that crowd of students," he continues, glancing around warily to ensure that none of the aforementioned fanboys are near. "Not something I'm looking forward to about attending here, to be honest. I really was hoping to not drag that stigma along with me when I left home."
"You're a guy?!" Shiro asks incredulously, leaning out from behind Boscoe, who's enthusiastically and literally eating out of Shona's hand. Without waiting for a response, from Kayin, Shiro clambers up on top of the walrus, setting her chin down on his head and looking at Shona. "You don't listen to your bird friend very much, do you?"
"There are many worse things than being too pretty. Though it's a problem you share with the nice young lady here!" muses Boscoe. Slurping noisily at Shona's hand, he angles himself up and pats Kayin on the back, leaving Shiro hanging around his neck like a collar. "Mmmph, delicious. I'm shure 'our problem will 'esolve itshelf."
"Well, for what it counts, I think you are a very handsome boy," Luna states. After a moment, Luna's face turns bright as she realizes what she said. "I mean, that is...aiyeh!"
Why did I just say that? Ohh, I really wish I knew how to cast an invisibility spell right now. ...What will he think? What am I thinking?
Luna pulls her headband down in right of her eyes in embarrassment. "I think I'm going to be quiet now," Luna murmurs. Luna can feel a great deal of amusement emanating from her bow.
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"Awwww, thanks for calling me too pretty, sweet little walrus friend!" Shona says, absolutely beaming at the compliment.
Then, turning toward the small figure hanging about the walrus' neck like some sort of cape or necklace, she adds, "And I always listen to Mr. Thrush whenever he has something worthwhile to say."
She then gets another sugar cube out for the walrus before looking up somewhat surprised, turning to Kayin, and saying, "Wait, that girl's a boy?"
Hearing Shiromori's incredulous exclamation, Kayin drops his head, unable to find the words to express his disappointment. His feelings aren't helped any by the well-meant, but totally ineffectual words of her walrus guardian. Hearing the question from the girl who's been loading the walrus up with those little cubes only makes it worse yet, and one can almost see the little cloud of misery hanging over Karin's head. "Yes, damnit, I'm male. Why is that so hard to believe? If only I could grow a beard or something," he mutters mostly to himself.
Kayin is soon startled out of his dark mood by the off-hand comment from the girl who helped him up, and a faint flush spreads across his cheeks in response as he stares at her in surprise. "Ah, really? Well, thank you, Luna. For the compliment, I mean, not the being quiet," Kayin quickly clarifies. Unsure of what else to say, he looks around the crowd, face still flushed as he avoids eye-contact with Luna. He almost wishes that his usual lousy luck would make another appearance, as it would serve to break the awkwardness at least.
Luna heaves a sigh of relief, though she herself is not sure why. Sliding her headband back in place, she half-steps away from the group and pulls out her form to fill it out. This is half an excuse to escape any more social blunders that she happens into so easily.
Let's see...'name'...'age'... Didn't they know all this when they invited us? The activity of writing quickly distracts Luna completely. Good thing I brought an ink pen. Hmm...'cup size'? But I don't drink. Maybe it means refreshments? Ah, I'll just put 'pint'. That's what dad would always order.
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"Treforshort," Shona says, messing up Tre's shortened form of her name, "could I maybe have some more coffee?"
Then, she suddenly looks animatedly around until her gaze falls on Chocola, "And does my precious Petrodone want some more sugar cubes?"
She then looks around at the gathered crowd of cute boys, who seem to be looking back and forth between her and poor Kayin, and she says, "I might need just a few more sugar cubes if one of you would be kind enough to..." and they're gone in a flash.
"I think there is maybe a drop left" Tre said as she poured the last of the coffee for Shona. Tre pauses. "Why were you asking Trevor Short for more coffee? Is he one of the boys who follow you around?"
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Shona smiles blissfully as Tre pours the last of the coffee into her cup. Then, in response to Tre's question, Shona says, "No, silly, Treforshort is what you said we could call you. You must be bad with names. That's okay. I'll just help you with them!" and she flashes a huge smile.
The thrush simply shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
As Luna finishes her form, her eyes travel to the huge gates, wondering when they would finally be allowed in.
What will it be like? Will I make lots of friends? Will I truly learn how to wield my power? Will I finally be able to make my father proud?
Maybe it was just her imagination, but an air of finality weighed on her.
Ah ha, they have an astronomy club.
....
"Pure of heart!
Strong of soul!
Steel of mind!
THESE are the tenets which are laid out in The Book of the House of Unyielding Radiance Student Code of Conduct, THESE are the tenets which all new students are expected to uphold, are the tenets which make up the very foundation of this institution! And what do I find instead!
Thievery! Forgery! And General skullduggery! Disappointing."
From atop the gates, the voice of an armor-clad girl booms down upon you. Despite the harshness of her voice, she possesses a regal and almost inhuman grace. The design of her armor is sharp, angular, orderly in contrast to an untameable tangle of bright orange hair. In spite (or perhaps because) of the clashing styles, the girl is strikingly beautiful - if looks could kill, she would be their militarized form.
In one hand she carries an unnecessarily large and extravagant polearm (a glaive-guisarme-bardiche-something-or-the-other) and in the other a winged clockwork sphere with a single eye in the center, which appears to be alive.
A nearby student conveniently thinks out loud, "It's Titania of the Elite Four and last surviving member of the legendary Midsummer Knights!"
With a single, effortless leap, Titania lands in the middle of the crowd of students unharmed. "That's Lady Titania to you."
When the voice rings out over the crowd, easily heard in spite of the noise, Kayin flinches and turns toward it reflexively. What he sees has him swallowing nervously, and if he weren't in his human form, his ears would be laid back and his tail tucked tightly between his legs. As the commanding voice's words register, Kayin casts a panicked glance at the pilfered form gripped in his sweating hand, then quickly tucks the incriminating paper behind his back in a transparent attempt at innocence.
The odd sphere does manage to catch his attention, in spite of his mind-numbing fear, however, and Kayin spends a few moments staring it curiously, trying to figure out it is. His exposure to outré knowledge stands him in good stead, and he is quickly ably to identify the sphere.
His brief foray into strange lore is interrupted by the startling arrival of the armored and armed girl in the crowd's midst following a prodigious leap. Kayin flinches again when she lands and unconsciously crumples up the form in a further attempt to hide his guilt.
Tre looks up, startled by the sudden voice, her eyes darting from side to side nervously before she manages to compose herself. Her hair, previously swaying gently in the breeze now appears blown back by a non-existent wind.
"I told you forging those forms was a bad idea" the caiman whispered hurriedly, "Now look what trouble we're in"
"Hush, Chaki" the sylph whispered back, resolving to tell the truth about making more forms if asked but not to openly volunteer the information, especially not to someone as scary as this Lady Titania.
Glancing again at the girl the clockwork sphere by here side catches Tre's eye. Interesting she thinks, I wonder what other outsiders there are here
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Shona finishes her cup of coffee, savoring every last drop. Due to this, she seems completely oblivious to the bellowing voice of Lady Titania.
"Excellent coffee, Treforshort!" she announces. Then, after a momentary look of confusion, adds in, "Wait, people were thieverying and forgerying? For shame!"
If the thrush had hands, he would be facepalming.
Chocola looked at her shoes, ashamed. "But he gave it to me... She looked up at Lady Titania timidly.
Vinda puffs out her chest and turns to face Titty-tania with her head held high.
"Forgeries would not have been necessary if enough forms had been provided for the students that were summoned here. We did nothing wrong. You may be one of the "Elites", but who made you boss? Now back off."
"You AND your little arbiter." and at that, Grinta snarls menacingly at Titania from Vinda's shoulder.
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"Well, of course he gave it to you, Chocolate," Shona said, taking on a tone one might hear from a parent handling a situation among their children. "She's not talking about us, she's talking about some unruly people who were thieverying and forgerying."
Then, despite the desperate attempts of a highly animated thrush to stop her, Shona turned to the armored gal who had just jumped off of the gates to land intimidatingly among them and said, "Hiya, Miss Ladytanatia! I'm Shona and this is my friend Chocolate. We'll help you find those rapscallions!" she announced, putting extra emphasis on the word "rapscallions" and enjoying every syllable to the fullest.
"The Omnesiac himself sent me to handle this particular matter with full jurisdiction!" Lady Titania glowers at Vinda. "Forms were provided at the beginning of orientation to all students who arrived on time. Timeliness is listed in The Book of the House of Unyielding Radiance Student Code of Conduct as a requirement for those Pure of Heart. Tardy students such as yourselves are undeserving of paperwork!"
"As for you," Titania dramatically sweeps the blunt end of her polearm so that it stops mere inches from Shona's face (breaking the laws of geometry in the process - the two seemed to have been standing at least 20 feet apart). "My informant tells me that YOU are one of the prime culprits! Do you mean to accuse him of lying?" The perpetually-out-of-breath boy that the form-less students rallied behind earlier begins trying to slink away guiltily.
"Timeliness only works so long as you have a sufficient public transport system! Some of us were late of no fault of our own! We were all SUMMONED here, and we DESERVE to BE HERE!"
Vinda accentuates each of the <bolded> words with a loud strum of her guitar, then launches into a complicated and fast-paced riff. The riff turns into a full-fledged slow-paced rock ballad, Vinda's voice beautiful and haunting. After a full minute, the song blossoms into a destructive, angry mess, full of screaming lyrics about a beautiful yet evil dictator who treats all those around her like crap.
Kayin watches wide-eyed as Titania starts calling out particular students on their actions. Though he would like nothing more than to slink off into the crowd--much like a certain wheezer is currently trying to do, and Kayin's eyes briefly narrow as he makes the connection between the boy and the aforementioned informant--his innate sense of justice prompts him to speak up, though it does take him a bit of effort to work up the nerve to do so.
"Allowances in the arrival schedule should have been made for events beyond a student's control, such as illness, travel delays due to weather or lack of transport, the need to deal with intentional interference from third parties such as bandits, and so forth," Kayin says loudly, interrupting Titania's tirade. Though he's speaking clearly and firmly, a nervous quaver in his voice is readily apparent, and he's obviously prepared to move fast if that weapon swings his way. "Failure to do so is clearly the fault of the administration. Furthermore, they knew how many invitations were sent out, and they should have allocated one registration form for each of the invited students right from the start," he adds with an emphatic nod. As he finishes speaking, Kayin is startled to hear the performer make almost the exact same points, though much more passionately, and he feels a faint bit of reassurance at the fact that he won't be the only one potentially obliterated by Titania's response to their defiance.
"The headmaster's administrative policies are not on trial here, you are! And regardless, tardiness is not the crime in question, but rather your blatant thievery and tampering with of the forms, for which I have eyewitness evidence of." As the informant attempts to slink past Titania, she swings the blade end of the so that it blocks his path - neatly slicing off a few of the boy's hairs in the process.
"Why do I always get dragged into these things," he moans.
Seeing the beautiful yet angry girl ignoring her melody completely, Vinda seethes. "That's it! Do we need to prove that we belong here by beating YOU?"
Kayin, outraged by the accusation of thievery and tampering--and guiltily aware that he would done as much had he any skill at either--draws himself him to his full height, which isn't really all that much, and is about to offer a scathing denial of her charges when the performer throws down her challenge.
His first response upon hearing the girl's words is drop his face into his hands--not remembering that he's still clutching that crumpled form in one of them--and groan in disappointment. "And now we're going to die," Kayin mutters mournfully as any attempt at talking their way past the trouble has just been thoroughly killed off.
Lady Titania smirks at Vinda's challenge. "You seek to prove your innocence by show of force? Very well, if you aren't all talk, then you'll surely agree to a school-sanctioned duel? Official academy rules of course - non-lethal attacks only."
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"Hey!" Shona says, realization seeming to have slowly dawned upon her, "'Prime culprit' means guilty person. Are you calling me a guilty person?"
"Yes, Shona," the thrush interjects, "that's exactly what she's..."
"Don't try to defend her!" Shona chastises the bird, "I think that's exactly what she's saying!"
And at that point, she draws her whip from around her and her pistol seems to just appear in her hand.
"That thing about beating you that the rocker chick said. Maybe we'll have to do that!" Shona says, not entirely sounding so much intimidating as mildly confused. "Standing altogether and stuff. Right, Chocolate?" she says, not thinking about whether or not her friend wants attention drawn to her.
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Shisōka continues to stand and smile demurely.
"PleaseLadyTitaniatheremustbesomemistakeIdidmyabsoluteverybestIhaveneverbee nacademicallydishonestinanywayshapeorforminallmylifeIamcertainthisisallsimp lyamisunderstandingwithareasonableexplanationhaveyouseenmysamplework?" She tries thrusting her massive load of maps and scrolls at Lady Titania.
"Agreed. I may not beat you, but I'll show you that I deserve to be here. Who's with me?"
Vinda puts her guitar down on the ground, and begins stripping off her other weapons as well. "No weapons, I assume?"
"I don't think this is going to end well Tre whispered to the caiman.
"At least they're keeping Lady Titania's attention focused on them at not us" the caiman drawled back.
Patting a leather pouch strapped to her left hip Tre shakes her head "I sure hope I don't need to use this on my very first day"
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Shisōka's face is even whiter than usual, her expression one of blank desperation.
"Ohpleaseohpleasethere'sbeenamisunderstandingIswearI'veworkedSOHARDIwouldne verCHEATpleasebelievemeI'vedoneEVERYTHING...."
Tre notices that Shisoka is not looking too good. Moving through the crowd so she behind her she taps Shisoka's elbow to get her attention.
"Are you alright?" Tre asks.
As Titania accepts the challenge, Kayin whines softly, though the stipulation of non-lethal combat does reassure him somewhat. With obvious reluctance, he steps forward to join the performer, wordlessly indicating his acceptance of the terms as well as his willingness to participate. Before he can drive himself into a frenzy of worry over the impending fight, his attention is caught by a rapid burst of noise from another girl. It takes several confused moments before Kayin can parse the noise into actual words, and he quirks an eyebrow upward in amazement over the fact than anyone can actually speak so rapidly and still be intelligible.
Even with everything else on his mind, Kayin is still sharp enough to note the faint fluttering coming from the breast pocket of her top, which he finds to be quite odd, enough so that it actually diverts his thoughts from his current troubles for a few moments.
He finds his inspection of the strangely active pocket diverted by another stream of words from the girl, and his brain locks up as it once again devotes itself to making sense of the noise, so he has nothing left to spare for the pocket and whatever it is that is making it behave so oddly.
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"I'm with you, RockerChick!" Shon replies, forgetting that Vinda actually does have a name.
She then whispers (badly and quite audibly) "Does no weapons include no whip or gun? I kind of use those."
The thrush, meantime, is fluttering about insisting that there's simply been a misunderstanding and strongly encouraging Shona to put her weapons away this instant.
Chocola's ears fall as she watches her new friends fight with Lady Titania, her tail twitching awkwardly. "I think we shouldn't fight our first day here. This is all a misunderstanding that can be rectified by just talking it out. No reason to get violent..." Her face pale, she stares at her shoes.
"Misunderstanding my tight butt. She's accusing us of some pretty serious stuff. I've taken offense, and if she wants to fight, we'll fight. I appreciate you joining me, Shona, but you should probably put down the whip and gun. Now, let's do this."
*MUSIC BEGINS!*
Vinda touches a small jewel on her forehead, and suddenly a bright light show appears around her from out of nowhere. Her normal clothing peels off of her, revealing a skintight purple one-piece suit. From the jewel, a rush of liquid metal seems to flow out, down her cheeks and along her neckline, until it seems to flow over her entire torso and upper legs, forming a beautiful purple set of chainmail armor. A skirt, almost a tutu, flows outward as well, all blacks and purples. Vinda's hair even grows streaks of purple in it, and over her face flows a sheen of metallic white, black, and purple makeup.
"I am Vinda-metaru! Let's DO THIS!"
Visual and audio reference FULL OF WIN
Vinda launches into a voice-only melody, her music weaving a spell that increases her physical prowess.
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"Hmmm, okay then," Shona says as the gun retracts back into its sheath and she simply snaps the whip around her own waist where it hangs in place thanks to the magnetic strips.
"Now...let's do this" she says with a fist pump and a cascade of near black and yellow stripes fly past as a swarm of wasps go flying animatedly around and her outfit morphs as her skirt turns to brown so dark it is nearly black and a yellow and lace-lined wrap seems to just billow out from her waist on down. Her shoes turn into metal and grow upwards to her knees where they are topped with wasp-shaped decorations. Her corset becomes striped in yellow and the same nearly-black brown of her skirt. One of the flying wasps lands in the midst of her bosom and morphs into a wasp-shaped pendant. Her blousey top remains a pure white. Yellow sleeves lined in the almost-black brown appear going from the middle of her upper arms down to her wrists and they are billowing enough to cover her wrist sheath as well as the armored bracers that also appear on her arms.
"Time for you to feel Calistiria's Sweet Sting!" she says, striking a heroic pose. She then ruins the moment by turning to the thrush and saying, "Did I get it right Mr. Thrush? That's how we practiced it, right? All serious and focused-like and not distracted or anything?"
The delightedly excited look on her face contrasts sharply with the look of utter disappointment on the tiny bird's face. Still, he flutters to her side and alights on her shoulder.
"Alright, Shona," he says. "Let's do this."
When the transformation of the two girls next to him occurs, Kayin yelps in shock and jumps to the side, eyes wide. Then Vinda-metaru begins to sing, and Kayin feels a wash of magic hit, firing his mind with thoughts of battle. He almost succumbs to the song's lure, but manages to shake it off; with Titania's stipulation of no lethal damage--but not weaponless combat, strange that nobody else noticed that detail--he'll need his mind clear to pull his blows effectively.
Instead, he jumps back out of reach of Titania's weapon, taps his headband impatiently, and says quite clearly, "Alright you lazy bastard, time to wake up and join the fun, because if I'm going to be beat down, then you're going to be in a heap right next to me!" As soon as Kayin finishes speaking, the headband disappears into a cloud of small lights which move to the ground before coming together in a flash that fades to reveal a fox with a distinctly annoyed expression on its face. Eyes fixed on Kayin, the fox begins to speak. "What did I tell you about waking me up, you... you..." The fox's voice trails off as it finally takes note of the situation, its ears pining back against its head when its gaze finally settles on Titania. With a horrified glance back at Kayin, it points to Titania with a paw. "What did you do, you imbecile," it asks with a fearful shudder, clearly recognizing the armored girl.
Kayin shakes his head with a soft growl. "Inari, this isn't the time. Pull yourself together, grow a set, and fox up. It's time for battle! With that, Kayin shucks his heavy pack to land on the ground behind him, takes a deep breath, and--in spite of his misgivings over revealing one of his secrets to the watching crowd--initiates his own transformation. As music with a driving beat begins to play, Kayin's body disappears in a flash of light, replaced with a featureless, glowing silhouette that appears to have a fox's head and two tails. Another flash, and the silhouette is replaced by a person dressed in a militaristic uniform of grey cloth, with an ankle-length cape and a rather dashing hat as accessories, while a white mask that resembles a fox's face conceals their identity. Drawing a sheathed rapier with a flourish, the masked figure then speaks, voice full of confidence. "If it is a battle you desire, Titania, then a battle you will have! Karma is here to address the injustices that have taken place today!
At the masked figure's feet, the fox--identified as Inari--presses a paw against its face with a pained whimper. "By all the gods, great and small, why did I give this idiot my blessings," Inari asks rhetorically. Hearing this, as he was clearly meant to, the masked figure slumps and looks down at the fox. "Damn it, Inari," the figure says in a more normal tone of voice, "I told you, this isn't the time for it. If you don't get it together, this Titania girl is going to wipe the street with us. Now, it's time for Karma and his stalwart companion to do battle," the figure, apparently named Karma, says as he raises his rapier to a ready position.
Vinda puts her guitar down on the ground, and begins stripping off her other weapons as well. "No weapons, I assume?"
"You assumed wrong. This isn't some playground brawl like I'm sure you're used to. If you aren't skilled enough to use your weapon to make nonlethal strikes, then I don't know what chance you could possibly stand." As if by way of demonstration, Titania slams the flat of her blade into the stomach of the poor informant, who lets out a hiss of air as he flies back into the center of the clearing. "And another thing! I don't know where you got the idea that you could possibly hold your own against me, but you'll be challenging your accuser directly."
The informant can barely sputter, "Bu-bu-but I didn't agree to this!"
"TOO LATE!" Titania shrieks back at him, "As my second in this matter, you're honor bound to fight and this duel has already been agreed to. Unless these girls are cowardly enough to forfeit of course..."
"Well then." Vinda-metaru picks up her discarded guitar which, at her touch, transforms as well. What was a purple-painted wooden guitar suddenly grows a wickedly-sharp blade along one edge, and strong handgrips along its neck. "If you'd prefer we use weapons, we'll use weapons. I can use this non-lethally just fine." She looks at Shona. "Looks like your whip will be just fine. I don't think you can use your gun, though."