Sitting down on her own bed, Jess debates the wisdom of offering her opinion with Lucifer still present. He seemed slightly tense since the battle, but this was a formative time for Kumiho.

"And you really shouldn't worry about the question of who you are." she says, clutching her head. "The crowds will decide that for you."

Halley brings up terrible memories. The room literally growing slightly dimmer as Jess wishes she could go back in time and do something to draw that bullet towards herself.

"Don't misunderstand Exaltation. We may seem like we're 'more', but... we will all someday stand before the rain. And we will all someday be washed away.".

The statement is inadvertently punctuated as she goes into a coughing fit.

At his statement about his age, she simply chuckles.  She knows damn well she was overexaggerating there.

"Let's not go get too heavy into the storm metaphors here, Jess, before someone starts saying 'I am the storm' in a gravelly voice,"  She gives Lucifer a meaningful, chiding glance- no doubt another joke.  "But it's the way you guys are marketed.  Super-driven, from the moment you Exalt, working towards your projects for the greater good, etc.  It's weird having the option.  Somehow that's more mindbending than having the powers I've got."

She breaks into a grin, "Which, might I add, are SO FUCKING COOL.  I wiped the floor with those fighters.  Destroyed a dozen with one burst.  It wasn't even like time was standing still, it was like it didn't matter, all I had to do was twitch and they blew up.  Man."

Daniel shoots a glare at Jess upon her advice.

"Bullshit. The crowds may decide what you are to them and you can choose to take that image to heart if you so choose, but no one external dictates our true nature. And while it's certainly true none of us are immortal in the true meaning of the word, we certainly are 'more' as far as our potential to shape Creation goes."

He can't help chuckling faintly at Kumiho's irreverence at the glance. She was certainly still feeling the rush daring to joke like that after what had happened mere moments ago.

"I like your gumption, Kumiho. It's refreshing. Just don't cross a line or go around saying I'm soft."

He leans back in the chair, approaching something resembling relaxation.

"It's not the first time marketing doesn't tell the whole truth, is it? Of course the image given to the masses is polished. Yeah, most of us are driven as a whole when we find our calling, but it's not something that just clicks at the moment of Exaltation and illuminates the best steps to it. It's a much more human process of introspection, trial and error, but you'll find that with abilities like ours - with the world suddenly open for whatever we set our mind to - it's hard to not become driven and absorbed in what you set your mind into."

He gains a smile as Kumiho starts hyping about her newfound powers.

"It's an incredible rush, isn't it? By all means, use it, revel in it and internalize it so you can better estimate what you can and can't do with it. Just don't get cocky and ride it too carelessly; remember that the enemy has access to similar or greater powers as well. You can't always simply overpower them, particularly when you're not fully familiar with your budding strength yet. Yeah, that means you can get even stronger through challenge and practice."

He looks to the Lunar with a smirk, lowering his voice just a bit as he goes on. "Well, at least you can't unless you're the storm. Which is me."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:20, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

In no shape to argue with Lucifer, Jess merely decides to take solace in the fact that his anger seems to have turned to mania. This was a very good first impression of the Exalted life, and maybe the one Kumiho needed now. She could talk to the girl alone later, ideally when her head wasn't being crushed by a vice.

"What, do you want me to go around telling everyone that when I met you in private that you were hard?"  She grins wider, "Don't worry, I'm actually pretty discreet.  There's a lot that goes down in the hangars that nobody needs to know about."

She leans against the back of a bulkhead, giving Jess a glance- Jess isn't looking so hot, after all- then looking back to Lucifer.

"Well, that's a bit of a load off.  I don't want to be some kinda free-loading waste of an Exaltation, you know?  But practice feels good.  Any idea what I can do to start amping up my destruction potential?"

Daniel quirks a brow, smirking. "I don't think that's something that needs to be spread around either. One way to a reputation, though."

He leans forward once more, resting his arm on his knee as he ponders. "Well, like I said, Battles is great at showing the ropes but he probably doesn't have enough time for in-depth training. your best bet would be to seek out the Martial Library, it's led by a guy I know - goes by Fossil. He's a Lunar like you. Could get him to coach you, but even if not there's a lot to be learned there - and they have facilities for trying stuff out that even I need to make a concerted effort to break."

He scratches his chin, then glances between Jess and Kumiho, wondering whether or not to speak further for a moment. "You can also get some real fighting experience there if you're interested and know where to look. I could take you some time, but it's a strictly 'at your own risk' type of deal. We avoid permanent injuries but blood and fractures are the norm."

He tilts his head, stretching his neck with a hand. Turns out scowling, grinding your teeth and squeezing your hands in a fist for too long will leave you with a sore neck and shoulder area. "Other than that... Well, you can always find someone whose style you like and ask if they could share."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Mon 31 Oct 2016.

Happy to have a non-controversial opinion to add, Jess speaks up, not really moving from her spot on the bed, or looking up.

"There's actually..." she stops a moment. "many kinds of destruction to consider."

Jess pulls herself up a little bit. "If you want pure destructive might... I can hit even harder than Lucifer, but I can't take a blow as well, which means I'm more likely to get taken out earlier in combat. Even that's a general statement assuming a number of factors which may or may not actually be the case in any given moment on the battlefield. There's also the matter of whether you want to be better at wiping out singular strong opponents, or groups of weaker ones. Stuff like that. You don't want to overspecialize, but it's good to have a niche you don't mind filling."

She activates something as at her bedside, taps a few keys, and Kumiho's combat profile pops up on a holographic display, showing stats and performance across multiple battles. "The goal is to figure out where your talents lie, how to emphasize them, and then to find the steps needed to account for your weaknesses. Lucifer is correct, as well. First step is probably to talk to another Lunar and figure out what you have to look forward to. Ideally someone of the same Caste. "

The display begins to show Jess' footage of the recent battle, magnifying an image of the events leading up to the new Exalt's Second Breath. "Some kill with their fists, others curse men to die, or shatter hearts with their words. Ideally work from the general to the specific."

All of this, she speaks in a bored monotone, her efforts mostly dedicated towards avoiding stuttering and slurring.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:03, Tue 01 Nov 2016.

"What, him?  I've heard about him," She says at the mention of Fossil's name, "I even went to one of those aikido classes he was giving.  I hated it, the damn thing is awful.  No real combat potential at all.  But I get what you're saying, kinda."

She pauses and gives Lucifer what he's rapidly beginning to discern is her mischievous eye, "Wait, so, if you have to really work to break that place up, why in the hell aren't our ships made out of whatever that stuff is?"

Jess, there's not much data on Kumiho's past fights.  The Raid was her first battle.  Before her Exaltation she takes the shots she needs to survive, paving the way to the Enterprise through sheer gumption.  What you can see after her Exaltation is she's become very, very good at reaping vast quantities of enemy fighters at once, even more than most Exalts.  She may seem very brash, but she's methodical while attacking.

If Jess and Lucifer are experts at eliminating large threats, and Lyla and the Red Queen are experts at single powerful opponents, Kumiho is best at taking care of all the other distractions.  In essence, she's a sweeper.

There's a knock on the door.

"Jess Maraud, the Red Queen would like a word with you."  Oh great, Kaspar, one of the Red Queen's chief Dragon-Blooded flunkies.

"Hmm, I think that's my cue."

"Well... I don't mean to sound  condescending, but much of the Martial Library's offerings are out of bounds or stripped down for the unexalted. There's a whole new world available for you there now that you're a child of Luna. Not least of which is the opportunity for real combat experience, mostly because few mortals return for a good while after their first visit."

He gives a half-snicker of amusement at the Lunar's ceaseless mischievousness. "Well, durability like that comes at the price of pretty much everything else. That and most of it's actually less about not breaking than getting back together quickly, which wouldn't be very feasible in space."

He rolls his shoulders. "Anyway, if you'd rather focus on space combat than conventional fighting, there's aways the simulators. There's more advanced ones available for the Exalted. Battles would know more about the specifics."

As the door is knocked,  Daniel gets up and sighs deeply. "Both of ours, probably. But let's see if we're needed before moving. Never know what RQ has in her mind."

"I'll get it. You stay put." He walks to the door and opens it, letting the visitors in with a simple gesture inward should they be so inclined.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:28, Wed 02 Nov 2016.

There were a few suggestions rattling around Jess' head, along with her marbles, but the knock on the door sets them immediately aside as she heard Kaspar's voice. Fuck. She was in no condition for a careful chess match of words with Queenie.

Jess quickly scoots to the edge of the bed, not wanting to risk standing, and very grateful Lucifer was getting the door. She fiddles around with her projector, making an effort to seem like she'd just spent the time reviewing battle footage.

Come to think of it, she did know someone who was an expert in the sort of large scale destruction Kumiho might excel at, but that could wait. She grabs the makeup kit under her bed, applies concealer to hide some evidence of the bruising, then quickly tosses it back under the bed, just as Lucifer's opens the portal.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:05, Wed 02 Nov 2016.

Kumiho keeps her mouth shut, watching the door with big happy eyes.  Of course they're happy- ten hours ago this sort of situation was well beyond her wildest dreams.

The Red Queen strides in, her artificial leg clanking as she looks around the drab room.  "Hm.  Somehow this is... ... about what I expected."  She then looks at Lucifer and raises her eyebrow imperiously but she gives a respectful nod, "Daniel, this I did not expect.  And this would be the new Lunar, Kumiho?"

She puts her hands on her hips.

"Well, I'm glad there's more than just Jess here.  That saves me some time.  Can we all agree that this last battle was a significant clusterfuck in terms of morale without going to heavily into specifics?  Can we all agree that a change of leadership and command structure is needed?  It's no secret that I've been building my own ship."

Daniel raises a brow of his own to mirror Red Queen's, much like he returns the nod in kind before stepping aside to let her in. "Neither did I. And you're correct."

He's a bit surprised as the Infernal goes right to business - although he really shouldn't be by now, knowing her. It wasn't bad, though - compared to the much more numerous demagogues who could spew words for hours without saying anything, such explicitness was like a breath of fresh air.

He leans a shoulder on the wall, frowning. "Well, unless you're the only person on the ship not aware of my outburst in the hangar you know I definitely second the former. On the latter... I agree something needs to change, but we might disagree on the specifics. I assume you would be Admiral over Captain? What would you change in the Command Structure?"

"We can definitely agree on the morale hit." Jess says, looking through records of the immediate public reactions. "This great a loss of life is well above the standard. Very little focus on the strategic value of the asset. Things might have been relatively easy to spin towards a positive, but Charmer's death makes that difficult. People liked her. Also, there was that incident with Lucifer."

She sounds bored. Probably a thing she can play off as the result of her concussion, though Jess had honestly just watched too many people die to feel that much. The more surrounded she was by death, the less it tended to bother her. Jess admired Lucifer's rage and Lyla's grief. They probably didn't need to fake much, or even exaggerate for that matter.

"The gut shot Thanatos gave us is exactly the sort of opportunity many have been looking for." she says, looking up at Red Queen "Did one of those many say they'd give the final approval for your project?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:49, Thu 03 Nov 2016.

Daniel's expression shifts from annoyance and a raised brow to utter incredulity, then seething anger as Jess speaks. All the unwinding Kumiho had managed to do unravels in a scant few moments and the towering rage breaks through from the back of his head in force.

"What the FUCK, Jess? I know the whole 'voice of the downtrodden' spiel is a deliberate charade on your part, but could you at least not sound like Michael or Brahe when discussing what happened?"

He takes a few strides toward her, grasping the bored woman from the collar and lifting her to the air with one hand.

"Those were real people who died! I won't claim a personal connection to them but I won't stand for you reducing them to figures on a spreadsheet or a footnote in your phony propaganda campaign. I don't give a single shit if you consider yourself a fraud, your duty is real and it extends to you beyond the big screen and public circus as well. Learn some fucking respect or I'll beat it into you!"

His other hand is balled in a fist, more than ready to turn his threat into reality at the slightest hint of displeasure at her reply.

"Well Daniel, I-"

The Red Queen actually shuts up when Jess responds, and then her eyes narrow as Lucifer grabs Jess and lifts her like a rag doll.  Kumiho presses her back against the wall, eyes darting about in panic.  Kaspar- who at this moment has been guarding the door- backs away slowly.

"Lucifer."  The Red Queen's voice is even and in command, but not calm- it is the steely anger of kings and queens.  Oddly Lucifer is absolutely sure it's not directed at him,  "I would put the woman down.  You and I are going to have a private chat, right now, in my room, about matters related to my patron.  I would follow."

"I'm... I'm out," Kumiho stammers and hurries out past Kaspar.

It doesn't really register to her when she's picked up. Lucifer's anger directed at her, in front of guests, in her own home, goes. This was her place of solitude.

"You really think I don't care?" she lets go of any energy she was using to conceal or heal her own injuries, instantly causing ugly bruises to blossom across her face and body. "You really think I look down at the multitudes like ants, like some high up god, seeking to arrange pawns on a goddamn chessboard?"

"I've spent my life watching the people I care about die. I am bathed in the blood of my failures. Queen is all I have left from the past." she says, her eyes, ears and nose beginning to bleed freely.

"I'd give anything to go back and save them. And I mean it when I say I'd die to save any one of them if it wasn't for the fact that I'm still needed here in the Land of the Living. Do you want me to cry, or throw a tantrum? Would that lessen my sins of incompetence? Would that quiet the screams of the dead that follow me in my dreams? Beat me to death if you think it will help, Lucifer, because you're damn well healthy enough to do it, and I'm covered in wounds I took for the people you think I don't give a damn about."

She wants so much to tear into him verbally, but something seems genuinely off about Lucifer. She's starting to wonder if Thanatos did something to him. Something more than just rattle his cage.

"I'm tired, I'm sick, my head is on fire, and I just helped burn the bodies of some of the bravest men and women aboard this flying tin. Please cut me some slack."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:56, Thu 03 Nov 2016.

Daniel glances to the wounds appearing on Jess, registering them but giving little reaction before turning back to her.

"You of all people should understand the importance of phrasing, Jess. If you care, don't give me that demagogue bullshit you did! And don't fucking hand over ammunition to the enemy with your 'May the Living be Exalted' brainfarts, which you just had to repeat mid-battle for good measure while mortals were dying in droves!"

His grip on the battered woman's collar only tightens.

"You think you're the only one bathed in blood? You think you're the only one battered and demoralized by the enemy? You are fucking LUCKY to have seen your associates just die, you are PRIVILEGED to have been able to take the fire for those weaker than you!"

Clearly something about his own words hits a nerve, causing the faintest pause in Lucifer's unbridled torrent of vitriol. As he picks it back up, his manner is less overtly rage-fueled and more bitter.

"I don't care if you laugh or cry, I want you to pull your shit together and raise your head from that pit of self-pity and delusion that makes you turn yourself into a marketed brand over a real person and then despair about keeping it up. Do your duty because it's the right thing to do, not because it's expected of you."

His grip relents, dropping his fellow Zenith back on the bed as he turns to follow the Red Queen.

"Or if you insist on keeping it up, do a better job at your damned charade."

"I'm not yours," The Red Queen  tells Jess as she walks out, "I deserve a better class of rival than this wreck."

The Red Queen directs Lucifer across the hall.  Her room is on the cramped interior, meaning it's smaller- no two-room deal like Jess has, just one large one.  Inside it's tastefully decorated, a red bed and makeup desk, a discreetly hidden bathroom, and two small cots for what Lucifer can only assume are guards or guests.  They look unslept on.

"Lucifer,"  She remarks as soon as they enter and Kaspar closes the door behind them, "I need you to take a seat.  I'm not going to chastise you for what just happened or demand your obedience or- whatever-" She flips a hand and rolls her eyes, "- but you're acting too irregular for me to ignore."

Her eyes burn a radiant, radioactive green as she takes a sheet of paper out of her jumpsuit's pockets, "Especially since I am the expert on these things."

As Daniel enters the corridor and slams the door shut after him, he throws a glance down the hallway as if looking for the young Lunar he scared off. He follows Red Queen's direction to her room, fuming silently.

As she addresses him in what - relatively speaking - is the pinnacle of politeness, he takes a few sulky glances around the room and grumbles. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just... I'm just pissed because of the botched battle."

He sits down despite the dismissal, though. Perhaps part of him subconsciously knew she was right.

"Yes, you are," She says as she trails green essence from a fingernail and starts scratching a few arcane symbols on them, "Too much, actually."

She raises it at eye-level and seems to stare at him through the card.  It's like he's not there at all, just a shadow to her green eye.

"Mmhmm." She mutters, "Your essence is out of balance after that battle.  I saw Thanatos landed some hits on you.  They weren't meant to physically harm.  Spiritually harm, on the other hand..."

She puts down the green card, "Whatever she's done is amplifying your natural anger.  Exaggerating it.  I can see it clear as day, as I am a Chosen of Malfeas, of course.  Actually dealing with it's another matter.  Healing isn't Malfeas's forte, nor is calming down."

Daniel's first instinct is to deflect the claim... But the Red Queen wasn't one to kid about such things and she had been exceptionally polite, considering. And she wasn't the only one who'd said he was acting strange either, come to think of it.

He frowns. It didn't feel like Thanatos to lay such a curse on him... Well, not specifically, but unbalancing his Essence could conceivably result in something like RQ described.

"I... Huh. I guess that's possible."

He scratches his chin. Someone explicitly pointing it out finally made him faintly perceive the unnatural anger brewing in the back of his head.

"I should find someone to deal with it, then... Thanks for informing me. Any idea who'd be around?"

Rather disconcerted by the revelation, he attempts to shift the topic.

"Anyway. You were about to respond to my questions about your project before Jess made me go off?"

"Spiderweb is your best bet if you would prefer this being discreet and non-disruptive.  Her scavenger fleet is likely already here, picking over the bones of battle.  There are no doubt several gods scattered around who could do it, but I think it's better for your image that you don't show yourself going in for any kind of treatment."

She sits down on her bed and folds one leg over the other.

"I was, but then I saw your condition.  Lucifer, I'd prefer to discuss this with you when you have a clearer head.  A true Queen doesn't force someone to sign a treaty when they're not in firm control.  You have my e-mail, yes?  We'll speak about this when you're a true King again."

As she sits there, more or less broken, Jess tries to sort through her thoughts. Lucifer was right, of course. She was utterly worthless and despicable. She knew she never deserved the blessing that monster Sol had inflicted on her, and it made her sick just imagining that moment so long ago. Jess had fallen in love with him the moment she saw him, as was natural when shown someone so utterly perfect, but after everything that happened, she couldn't help but think he'd gotten exactly what he deserved.

Enough blaming Sol Invictus, though. He wasn't the problem here. At the core of the issue was a poorly placed Exaltation. The number of Celestial Exaltations available wasn't something she was especially certain of, but there was a limit. She needed to free her "blessing", which... meant self-termination. The core problem with that of course being that it would result in considerable damage to the population's morale. As such, she needed to have it happen in battle, maybe in a dramatic enough fashion to actually raise the people's spirit. People were suckers for heroic deaths.

Command would probably notice, but they'd gloss over the details to keep the peace.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:31, Thu 03 Nov 2016.

"Don't act like I'm-"

Once again, his mouth had started moving before his head could catch up despite being just told about what was happening. Daniel bites his tongue with a grunt of annoyance, standing up.

"You're right. I'll contact you later."

He moves for the door with a dissatisfied frown.

"Good night, Red Queen. And... Thanks."

Of course, there was one other matter.

Jess places a call to Sanctuary. "Hello, this Jess Maraud. I'd like to report a potential Abyssal infection."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Thu 03 Nov 2016.