The Grand Lady (Tsareena)
Steel Scavengers
The Blood Pit Arena
Affected RPers: @Noblejanobii @Neo Emolga

The Lady had waited for her opportunity, and paid the price for it.

She was hoping that by establishing a defensive position, she would have been able to allow her foes to whittle themselves down before going after one of her prizes in this field.

But as she had walked towards a more ideal position (some morons were shouting about obliterating her, this was really quite annoying), her posse in tow, intuition sent a little warning. She was about to warn her group to be on guard for traps when Kaytoo and Ioseph exploded before her eyes.

Rut, The Grand Lady had thought to herself, and they were the among the ones I least suspected. It’s possible it was one of them, regardless, but I doubt it. And that took one my escape routes, too.

Presently, her group is stealthily approaching the battle between the Black Lotus and the others. The Lady is quite annoyed: she has yet to accomplish any of her objectives in coming here, and all that she has to show for risking her life in this rutting insanity is a dead Vikavolt that everyone watching already forgot about. She decides to take the risk of tying her little blue scarf around her neck: she is suspicious that she is about to need mobility more than enough to compensate for the drawbacks.

The effects of Gravity lift, and The Lady holds up a hand before it can be reapplied. She notices a Ninetales-- one adapted to the harsh cold of a mountaintop, but definitely a Ninetales-- hiding behind a piece of debris, getting ready to take aim at the battlefield once more, with his back to her. A member of the Gracidea Order, not the Black Lotus, but The Lady is not the type to split hairs about which enemies present a threat to her. She throws her shield, a massive thing about as wide across as she is tall, and hits the Ninetales in question.

Dazed and surprised, he wheels around, only for the Lady’s golden sword to follow her shield. Between her prodigious strength, his inherent weakness to the steel of the blade, and the typing advantage she is keeping under wraps, subtly guiding the metal weapons, the Ninetales’s unpleasant surprise becomes his last.

Jackson the Alola Ninetales (Gracidea Order) is eliminated.

Behind her, Gloria has gotten the general idea of what The Lady is attempting to accomplish, and she fires a Draco Meteor directly at the position of the Black Lotus Ursaring, taking advantage of the surprise. The Breloom and a Lurantis from the Order are quite possibly caught in the periphery, but as the scent of a Power Herb restores Gloria to full strength, it becomes clear that the bear is the one who caught the brunt of the blast. Iolande applies an Earth Power, and as the ground erupts underneath the Ursaring, it takes his life in quite the parallel to the blast that took Kaytoo and Ioseph.

Vekker the Ursaring (Black Lotus) is eliminated.

“Now then,” the Tsareena announces, “Who wishes to try for the honor of striking down The Grand Lady?”

Come on, take the bait…

And he did.

The Lady’s scarf does its job, allowing her to move with much greater speed than she would be able to otherwise as a Moonblast from behind destroys her previous position. The knife from her hair is reflexively thrown and hits her target dead on before he has the chance to react.

Durkon the Clefable (Steel Scavengers) has been eliminated

“A pity,” says the Lady, “I owe Arlington some money. I did not think the mole was you.”

The whole time, the Grand Lady ensures that her awareness of the battlefield was undiminished. It would not do to be ambushed, after all.


Anthony Carpenter-Weaver (Mimikyu)
Steel Scavengers (Leader)
The Blood Pit Arena Stands (hidden)
Affected RPers: @The Nonexistent Tazz

Anthony scuttles about in the shadows of the stands. The Lady is putting her life on the line for opportunities such as this one, and it would not do to dishonor her by not making the most of it.

Arlington is some distance away, easy to spot but difficult to identify: Sharpedo were not common on land, but they were far from unique, and Arlington’s easygoing demeanor and seemingly constant focus on “getting some” (as the shark artlessly put it once) makes it easy to be less than guarded talking to him. Presently, no less than six other Pokemon were doing just that, and Anthony was certain that if at least some of them were polled before today, they would swear that they would never try to get into the pants of a Sharpedo.

Anthony loves his friend, really, but the Mimikyu married young and has been shamelessly head over metaphorical heels for his wife even longer than that, which makes Arlington’s lifestyle seem a little strange.

Of course, making the mistake of assuming that Arlington is a clueless idiot with only a focus on satisfying his baser urges is quite stupid, as several new wallets belonging to the shark attest. Honestly, the Scavengers have more money than they know what to do with, but when Anthony asked about the Sharpedo’s sticky fingers in spite of all of their money, Arlington grinned and retorted that liberating rich, stupid idiots of their possessions was a public good, no matter the personal profits.

Of course, Arlington’s general demeanor is just as much calculated as it is natural: Anthony realized early on in their friendship that Arlington is genuinely always sticky fingered and willing to get down and dirty, but that the Sharpedo is aware of how people perceive him and ergo how to use that perception. Anthony’s subordinate is far more intelligent than people give him credit for, and he is currently using that considerable intelligence to point out to Anthony just who is “in the business.” Between the people Arlington has personally heard of or interacted with and “the look”, the shark is able to identify more people than the number Anthony could be possible for the number of spies and assassins in the world.

In between, Anthony tries not to avert his gaze too much from the unnecessary violence of the blood pit arena. He only catches glimpses between his distaste and his position hidden in the shadows, almost impossible to see (especially from the sniper positions he noticed almost immediately upon glancing at them). But he does notice when the mole among his friend’s companions reveals himself, and the bloody price the Clefable pays for daring to cross her.

Over their earpieces, Anthony privately queries Arlington, not wishing to distract the Lady or inform Isana of his question, “I still don’t understand why The Lady decided to take all the potential moles with her into the arena. Could we not have done this in a more controlled and less risky manner?”

Arlington snorts, but keeps his voice down, “Yeah, but it also would be slower. Plus, the documents I found revealed that there was only one mole among those guys, and we already cleared one of them. We figured the Lady and her definite ally could easily remove one mole from the equation.” Pause. “As we just saw.”

“But why here, in such a sensitive circumstance?”

Arlington gives a small laugh, “Because she’s been taking notes from me.” At Anthony’s noise of confusion, Arlington continues, “Think about The Grand Lady for a moment, Anthony, from an outside perspective. To you, she’s your closest friend whose life story you probably know by heart as she tearfully but privately confessed it to you when you unabashedly extended all the sympathy you were capable of to her.” Anthony makes a small snort at the somewhat accurate comment: she certainly was not tearful when she told him about herself. “But to everyone else outside of the Knights, she’s the person egotistical enough to run around calling herself The Grand Lady but dangerous enough that what would have been a cliche to laugh at in almost anyone else’s case is now a title that inspires fear, which makes it look less like ego and more like a justified confidence in her abilities. By very publicly and personally executing her spy, she shows that she’s powerful and cunning enough that she uses her enemies’ own bloodsports to remove traitors in a public spectacle. It increases fear and wariness in her presence. On a different note, that chick is definitely in the business.”

Anthony is quite surprised when Arlington points out a Lilligant. As a species, they were quite targeted, either by idiots looking for a facsimile of Taiya to take out their anger on or by fringe Black Lotus operatives trying to ensure that no one with the temerity to look like their queen survives the circumstance.

If she’s a Lilligant, and an assassin…

Well, she certainly merits a conversation.

Anthony suspects, by the relative health of her leaves, that this Lilligant is part of the Gracidea Order. But that just meant that he had leverage on her.

Arlington gives a flirty wink at her (earning her a slew of glares from some of his hangers on). Behind her, Anthony manifests a shadowy hand, gently poking her with it before beckoning her to a place within the shadows. As one of the most wanted people alive, it would not do to be seen so publicly in the Black Lotus’s stronghold, so he makes sure his appearance is obscured by the shadows. He is hoping that using a giant hand made of shadows to merely beckon her rather than eviscerate her is enough to communicate that the conversation to follow is not optional.

OoC: For the record, I foreshadowed the Lady's Choice Scarf in quite a few places, from her SU to the post where she mentions her, quote, "blue ascot" and the advantages it gives her. Also, if someone could help me with dealing with the pain of mentioning others (which only sometimes seems to work for me), I'll give them a million dollars (not really)