On a day like any other, the City of Truce had little to offer than wasn't the typical hustle and bustle of major city life, and as the fountain at its epicenter bubbled and gurgled away, people came and went about their business, heedless of its aquatic repetitiousness. Still, even uncommon faces sometimes felt the need to show themselves once in awhile, and this particular uncommon face would belong to a woman who was pale of skin, ivory of hair, and unintentionally-provocative of poise and presence. This woman, one 'Jillian' by those who knew her, had placed herself quite comfortably upon one of several benches surrounding the fountain proper, one leg crossed over the other to showcase the black-painted toenails on her otherwise-bare feet, and appeared to be busy entertaining a very small, dark being that resembled a black bat with a large silver eye instead of a body at the center of its wings. Every now and again she would giggle at something, but no words were exchanged between them, otherwise, and the strange creature merely bobbed and swayed in the air, its enormous eye occasionally contracting or dilating in accordance with some unseen or unheard notion. This activity occasionally turned a head as someone walked through, though whether it was the little creature or Jillian's personal presentation, herself, was left up to interpretation.

Having had no real luck in Southern Truce, Alex made his way north to the Fountain to try other parts of the town. Before he could change direction, though, the sight of a small creature with an enormous eye caught his attention. While his first instinct was to blast the crude-looking thing, closer inspection proved it was a pet of a demonic-looking woman, even though he only had her horns to go by for that assumption. It was hard to focus on her due to the massive amount of magic wafting from the creature, which was enough to almost make him gag from the scent.

"You got that thing on a leash?" Alex asked reflexively, too distracted by his nose being overpowered to focus on wording that politely, which he was trying to be better about. Kupala knew how crass he could be to people he didn't know when he was younger.

The small bat-thing swivels in the air to turn its large eye toward the newcomer, holding itself still in the air as if it were making its own silent analysis. The woman, too, looks up at the commentary, and only offers a cheerful smile that showcases her two fangs quite visibly. "I would wonder if you were asking it of me, or the other way around," she responds. "There are no leashes could hold them, honestly, and they are everywhere, besides." Her tone is conversational and open, and she places her hands atop one-another in her lap, unguardedly. "I, too, would have difficulty adhering to a tether, but I'm not opposed to trying new things." This last comment DEFFINITELY has an undertone to it, but it, too, is fairly light and playful.

While the woman talked, he began gagging, and that swiftly turned to choking. Desparate, he opened what looked like a portal that little more than a hand could enter. His concentration was compromised, so it took a bit of rummaging to find what he was looking for - a mechanical device that was designed to be worn over the lower half of a face. He quickly donned the device and flicked a switch on it, causing it to whirr. Whatever it was, it seemed to help him breathe.

"Sorry about that," he apologized, his voice muffled but still understandable. "The crazy amount of magic that thing's packing caught me off guard." Now that his sense of smell was diluted and not impairing his breathing, he could focus on who he was talking to, and the horns on her head was an immediate red flag in his mind. Ever since he was almost killed by a lust demon in his youth, he'd always had a stigma against demons and demonic folk. He tried not to show his disdain, and the mask certainly helped, but he didn't say anything else. He couldn't sense the magic within her with the mask on his face, but he assumed she had to have some given her horns.

The women looks decidedly baffled at the choking and the sudden placement of a respirator as necessary, but when the comment is made about the reason for it, the bat-like creature turns back to the woman and seems to bounce in place, offering some kind of silent commentary. The woman nods, and gestures loosely, which causes the creature to abruptly pop out of existence in a small display of dark purple sparkles. That done, the woman returns her attention to the newcomer in question, tipping her head slightly to one side. "I don't know if I've ever seen you around here before," she said, not seeming to have taken any offense to anything that was said or done. "And you're definitely the first person I've come across with such a sensitivity to mana spirits, such that I assume it was." She grinned openly. "Do not worry, though, Mero understands." She carefully tucks a bit of hair behind one pointed ear, an insignificant gesture in most cases, but her careful and methodical way of doing it seemed almost salacious in and of itself, despite its simplicity. "My name is Jillian."

Given that the scent of magic let up some but didn't dissipate entirely, even within the respirator, it was clear that this woman was partly at fault for the choking levels of magic he sensed. It wasn't all the bat-like creature's doing. He hesitated at the introduction, though. HIs history with demonic beings was sufficient for him to not want to trust her, more so than a human (which was saying a lot because he could get downright racist toward humans sometimes).

He wasn't going to leave her with nothing, though - he knew not to judge a book by its cover, even if he was unwilling to immediately trust. "Yeah, well, grow up in a city where magic use is common place, and you'll be lucky that sensing magic is the only mutation you pick up. It is a common trait for Kuporian-born moogles, though," he explained as if she had any inkling of what Kuporia was. "And yeah, I dodged the fountain with the help of my own magic about half an hour ago, so I'm fairly new. Just call me Alex," he said finally. With what little he knew of demons for lack of bothering to research, he was aware that some were fond of the true name clause, and he was not stepping on that landmine if he could help it.

An unaccompanied pumpkinhead child scampers down the road with the kind of heedless joy that only the most naturally-carefree of children can manage. Arms extended, he makes flapping motions and narrowly avoids bumping into various pedestrians as he 'soars' into the vicinity of the fountain, making noisy crow-sounds as he does.

Jillian seems to perk at the mention of mutations, seemingly enamored by the idea. "Is that what that is?" she asked. "Magical sensitivity is something a lot of people wish they had, though I suppose... maybe not quite to the level where they need a breathing apparatus to survive the presence of a simple succubus such as my--"

LUST DEMON DETECTED GET THE FUCK OUT NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOP-

The second the word "succubus" was uttered, Alex created a blackish gap in the road and fell through it, transposing himself to some other part of the town. He was not opposed to killing lust demons wherever he found them, but he JUST got here and was not looking for trouble with the local authorities. He didn't know what kind of government would LET her kind just walk around, but he didn't care at the moment. Since killing was likely out of the question, immediate extraction was the only option.

The kiddo arrives just in time to see a person seemingly fall into nothing and simply vanish, which causes them to stop short and stare with head tilting to one direction in obvious confusion. With nothing to hold his interest there, though, his childish attention span is quickly captured by the next most interesting thing in the area, which is, of course, Jillian herself. Straightening up and bringing his arms stiffly to his sides, he appears to have decided it's time to end the crow game. The Pumpkinhead child is now staring very openly at the woman, and he's made no attempt to greet her in any way. Apparently he's missed the lessons on staring being considered rude.

Jillian stares blankly as the guest she was just entertaining simply falls into a hole in the floor. She leans forward a bit and inspects the road where Alex fell through, though she fails to hide an accompanied grin. "As amusing as that was, I suppose I ought to be more careful. The last thing Haut probably wants is his place getting raided by people with torches and pitchforks." This statement is made with absolutely no fear, guilt, or actual remorse whatsoever. "Ah well." It was at this time that she noticed the other presence nearby, and catches his stare with a wide grin. "Are you lost, little one?" She places her hands back in her lap, clearly indicating her lack of any perceivable threat.

The intrigue is pretty obvious in her eyes, though; it's possible that she may have never seen a non-adult Pumpkinhead before.

Instead of answering the question, he blurts out one of his own. "Are you a real witch?" It's... possibly an unexpected question, with no obvious indication of how the young one managed to reach that particular conclusion. Apparently not at all put off by her appearance, though, he comes closer and puts his hands on the bench she's seated on, looking up at her face which what can be assumed to be open fascination, given that he hasn't made an attempt to look away even once since he first saw her.

Jillian can't help but let a giggle slip at the question, though she puts a hand to her mouth in a gesture of apology for unintended rudeness. "I have been called that before, yes," she says, then adds, as if making an assumption on the child's background or upbringing, "but I don't know Deneb personally." Jillian still looks pretty fascinated by this whole exchange, her inexperience in dealing with Pumpkinheadkind becoming fairly obvious. "I can do magic like one, but I don't like to wear hats if I can help it. Putting things on my head feels weird." Jillian leans forward a little bit, suddenly curious. "Can -you- do magic?"

"I like hats." This statement is probably self-evident, given that he's sporting one on his gourd right now, and it, in fact, looks a bit like a cheaply-made witch hat. Surprisingly, he doesn't really respond to the comment about Deneb, almost as if the name doesn't actually mean anything to them. "I can. Not that kind of magic though."
Without any kind of an explanation, he steps back from the bench and reaches under the hat to withdraw what appears to be a piece of chalk, and kneels down on the ground. There he starts to draw lines with a very serious sense of concentration. It honestly just looks like he's scribbling, but the level of focus suggests that he feels like there's a purpose to what he's doing.

Jillian is very, very interested in this, and actually removes herself from the bench so she can squat down nearby and get a better look at what the child is doing. In so doing, and also with apparent acknowledgement of their offended guest no longer being present, there is a sudden yet small burst of purple light from atop one of Jillian's shoulders, and the bat-winged eye from earlier makes a reappearance, it's silver orb fixated on the drawings, as well, as it gently bobs in the air over Jillian's shoulder.

Toby's concentration is not disturbed by either observer. With motions that grow bigger and more sweeping, the drawing starts to take shape, beginning to look more like packed symbols inside of a circle. Finally satisfied, he puts his hand down in the center of his creation, and a gentle red light surrounds the chalky lines, and a glimmer surrounds his figure then disappears; a weak form of barrier magic, for the magic-sensitive. He then looks up at Jillian, somehow radiating a sense of pride in spite of the mostly-static grin on his pumpkin face. "Protection circle. But you don't need it if you're a witch."

Deciding that staying in a town that would allow lust demons to exist would be bad for business, Alex cast his Wind Tunnel spell to fly off, so he could look for other towns to operate in.

Meanwhile, a strange man with long white ears instead of having round ears on the side of his head like a normal person would appear from the street to the north, looking all around. It didn't take long for him to sit down on a bench, though. He looked worn out, like he'd been walking for a while. After a few seconds of relaxing, he looks to the side and sees a humanish woman and a pumpkin-headed kid. "'Sup?" he asked casually, giving the pair a small wave.

Jillian still looks no-less amazed, having seen her share of rune-etching before, but never with something as simple as chalk. "That's great!" she gushes, with genuine sincerity. "Did you learn that on your own?" The bat-winged eyeball, meanwhile, floats down from atop her shoulder and closes in to inspect the chalky creation a bit more closely, as if in silent scrutinization. Jillian wasn't going to try and hazard a guess at the kid's age, but she felt like being able to actually draw runes and infuse them with the magic needed to ritualize a spell was pretty adept at his perceivably-young age.

The spade-tipped tail waving about her backside suddenly stiffens as Jillian hears the brief voice behind her, and she glances over her shoulder from where she's still squatting over the magic chalk etchings, half expecting to see the cranky anti-succubus come back for an apology, but is a little surprised when she realizes it's not a moogle, but a rabbit instead. "Hi there!" she says cheerily, her tail waving at him in her stead, since her hands are currently squished between her knees and her chest, given the posture in which she's kneeling down in.

Toby shakes his head. "No. I learned it with the help of my book." He is suddenly distracted by the eyeball-shaped critter, head tilting to focus the hollows of his eye sockets in that direction, and he questions the spirit cheerfully. "What do you think? I've been practicing for a while."
The kid looks up when another voice is heard. He doesn't say anything to the rabbitfolk immediately, but seeing him seems to prompt the child into starting another drawing.

Jillian's next thought was that maybe there was a special kind of school or academy the kid went to that taught them their tricks, but she wasn't too surprised by the alternate answer, either. "Ah, of course," she said. "I forgot that tomes tend to hold a lot of magical secrets." She raises her attention from the magic circle and the child for a moment, suddenly curious about something else as she scans the vicinity. It wasn't -that- uncommon for kids to run around in Truce without parental supervision, but... "Do you live around here?" Then, adds: "What's your name, hon?"
The miniature Shade inspects the chalky drawing a bit longer, then floats on up toward the Pumpkinhead child's shoulder and situates itself there, compressing itself slightly and seeming to 'nod' in a forward-leaning direction, all attempting to convey a positive inclination toward the kid's work despite the lack of verbal communication. It seems to approve!

Ruen couldn't help but smirk at the girl next to her. "Dang, you look good!" he exclaimed, nodding in approval while he looked her over. He didn't seem to pay the pumpkin-headed child any mind, entranced as he was by Jillian's figure. "You come here often?"

Jillian smirks to herself, apparently receiving some sort of indication despite not looking at the spirit or communicating anything openly. "Mero seems to think you're showing promise," she says, still attempting to see if she can spot any other Pumpkinheads in the area.

Jillian's attention returns to the immediate area after a brief scan, her tail waving loosely about her backside as she addresses the bunny-person behind her. "Thanks! The sunlight doesn't really do a lot for me, unfortunately. I'd like to get a tan one of these days, but I don't think it's in the cards." Her response seems decidedly random, but then, whimsicality seems to be a running thing for her at this point. "I must confess that I don't come out in public very often, but I'm always around in some form or another. I was..." she thinks about how to phrase her next statement, tapping her chin lightly. "..a scout, for a period of time. I'm not originally from this realm, but I've seen my fair share of things that have happened here, over a long period of time." Her tone at the end, there, seems to drop off a little bit, as if some of her recollection wasn't exactly pleasant.

This second drawing seems to be way more simplistic than the first. In fact, it becomes clear pretty quickly that he's just drawing a face with rabbit ears. He doesn't immediately take the time to answer any of the questions asked, instead looking up a few times at Ruen to eyeball his reference. It's not exactly a good likeness, but he seems to be having fun.
Eventually satisfied, he sits back and sets down the chalk, putting his hands just over his knees and leaving a little bit of chalk-smear on his shorts. He moves a bit more carefully than he was a moment ago, not wanting to dislodge the guest on his shoulder. "I'm Toby," he says, finally, and then, almost solemnly: "Thank you, Mero." He seems to have skipped over the question about where he lives, though whether that's by accident or design is not clear.

Ruen listened to what Jillian was saying, though he seemed more interested in looking than listening. When she explained she wasn't from around her, he spoke up. "Yeah, same here. I wound up here about a week ago. Been doing monster killin' jobs to get by, even though the money they drop is more than the pay for killin 'em," he admitted with a smirk, not realizing he just explained why the pay was so little. But it was something he could easily handle, so he didn't care so long as he could afford food. "To be fair, I spend more time on the road than in town, myself."

Jillian looks upon the second drawing, then over her shoulder at Ruen, then at the drawing again. "Seems pretty accurate," she says, but stays squatting so that she can remain more-or-less eye level with the pumpkinhead child. "Well, Toby, I'd say that you're a growing artist as well as a mage, so you have a bright future ahead of you." She grins brightly, with the side effect of showcasing her fangs quite blatantly in the process. "I'm Jillian! And yes, that's Mero over there." She gestures to the Shade spirit that remains floating over Toby's shoulder even as he moves around the drawing, seemingly content where it is. "He's a buddy of mine. I don't exactly have a lot of friends but he keeps me company."

Jillian adjusts her placement a bit, scooting back slightly so that she doesn't have to crane her neck to look at Ruen and talk to him. "We get a lot of those types, the 'adventurers' that come around," she says. "It always strikes me as weird, how lucrative that style of business seems to be, but there must be something to it if so many people decide that it is their preferred career path. Myself? I don't understand the enjoyment in killing things. It just feels... not... fun." Her tail twitches slightly, as if in emphasis of her lack of enjoyment over the prospect. It may or may not have come off as an odd statement, given what kind of creature she is.

"Oh, but..!" she says, clapping her hands together once as she rises to her feet. "Here, it's my turn to do a little magic. Watch!" Jillian extends her arm outward and spreads her fingers as a dark light very slowly begins to manifest at her palm.

Toby's head lifts a little at the compliment, projecting the sense that if his features were a little more malleable, he'd probably be grinning. He doesn't seem to have a whole lot to say when not asked a direct question - or asking one of his own, but given his innate curiosity, he'll probably come up with one sooner than later.

Perking up when the succubus mentions doing magic, he scoots back a little on the ground and crosses his legs, looking up at Jillian with the kind of attentiveness one might expect from a schoolchild in a classroom.

"Eh, killin' is kind of secondary. I'm mostly out to get stronger, not that I have that much of a ways to go," he bragged, flexing an arm. "Fightin's what's fun. Besides, as long as I get the money, doesn't really matter to me if my target's dead or not."

He turned his head to look at what the pumpkin-headed kid was doing, but didn't take an interest in it. So instead, his focus was entirely on Jillian.

Jillian focuses as the dark light in her palm grows more dense, but then suddenly she jerks upright, her attention suddenly caught by something else. As the spell fizzles out and she looks abruptly toward the west, her expression is a mixture of confusion and concern, like she just heard (or maybe felt?) something uncomfortable or surprising. She doesn't say anything, though, her eyes simply scanning for... something, and her tail is flicking a bit wildly about her backside.

The Shade on Toby's shoulder abruptly leaves the pumpkinhead's side and rises into the air a ways above everyone else, also turning towards the west as it seems to have heard or felt whatever it was that set Jillian off, as well.

It goes without saying that whatever it is seems to have prevented Jillian from acknowledging Ruen's commentary about combat morality, as she doesn't respond to anything he'd said as her attention is overtaken by.. whatever it is.

Toby's head turns in the direction Jillian is looking, clearly trying to pinpoint what could have captured her attention. The child looks between her and Mero a couple of times, then picks the stick of chalk again, twisting it between his hands nervously. He might not know what's going on, but her sudden reaction, and the lack of an explanation, have them feeling more than a little worried.

Ruen definitely notices the silence, but doesn't sense anything, himself. "What's going on?" he asks, not knowing what the holdup was.

Jillian goes from concerned to a look of terror in pretty quick succession as she continues looking at -something- off toward the west, and the small Shade in the air above them very swiftly pops out of existence in a small shower of purple lights, seemingly not wanting to be a part of whatever was happening. Abruptly, Jillian reaches out toward Toby and tries to pull him toward her in a protective embrace, her voice echoing the fear in her expression. "Here, hold onto me!" she yells, which is a startling thing given that... nothing, really, seems to be happening. It's a very strange act that the woman seems to suddenly be putting on from out of nowhere. Without actually turning around, she calls out, "You too, bunny! Get over here now!" As soon as she's made this demand, little motes of green light begin to shimmer in a small radius around herself, a clear indication of a spell being primed.

Toby whimpers at the sudden fear on Jillian's face, his grip tightening on the chalk until it snaps in two. He doesn't have long to feel disappointed about this, however, as he finds himself being tugged towards the woman and drops the pieces to instead latch onto her with very little hesitation. The boy trembles slightly, and mumbles something that isn't quite coherent or loud enough to be overheard.

Ruen looked concerned when he noticed the fear on everyone's faces, but that concern quickly turned stoic. When Jillian offered him to be a part of her spell, he stood up and faced the direction they were before.

"AYO, BITCH-MADE! YOU WANNA FIGHT, YOU GOT ONE RIGHT HERE, PUSSY! NO BALLS!" After shouting that, he looked to Jillian. "You two go on a head. I got this."

"What in all the Abyss is going on over there...?"

Merciviant slinks out of the alley it had been reading in during the commotion, quickly looking about to see what it could about the situation.

I thought I had detected an umbral being in this area, then it moved. Perhaps with that group? Ah...yes. Yes, indeed.

Its sole light was focused solely on the woman of apparent demonic origin, but only for a moment. It quickly took note of the pumpkinhead child as well and seemed to stagger at the sight.

She...did not. The queen would not do this to onethat* young, would she?
...she would. And did. Yet...*

Its thoughts were disrupted by the brazen challenge shouted out to the group's as of yet unseen foe, and it was torn between ducking for cover or approaching these new focal points of interest.

I wonder if they will need help. It could not hurt to see, I suppose. A chance to put the research to use, perhaps.


The motes of green light dance in the air for a scant few moments longer as Jillian completes her well, creating a dense beehive-style barrier that manifests over her and Toby, sparkling brightly for several seconds before it fades out of sight. Even to those not sensitive to magic, its protective field is quite tangible and obvious that a lot of magical power was infused into it. Jillian hugs Toby close and seems to brace for something unseen, frowning deeply as she continues looking in fear toward the west... But then Toby would feel her body relax all of a sudden, the tension dissipating slightly as she transitions from fear to confusion. Jillian tilts her head to one side, practically showcasing a giant question mark over her head in the process. Whatever it was, it seems to have passed.. at least for now.

"I.. what..?" Jillian seems to stumble over trying to say something, but comes up short.


The little one stays where he is, waiting for something that never happens. When his protector reacts as if the danger has passed, he finally braves looking up and around, as if trying to see for himself. Whatever sign he's looking for doesn't show for him, of course. He does notice another Pumpkinhead approaching, and his gaze fixes in that direction for a second or two, before looking up at the succubus again. "Miss Jillian...?"

Merciviant stops a good distance from the pair, staring with an unmoving focus.

Its worn cloak shifting in the breeze, the curious symbols all over it seem to be faintly glowing in the light. Other than gently pinching the rim of its witch's hat to keep it from fluttering off, it does not make any further movements as it observes them both, as if scanning them thoroughly. Just for a moment, its light shifts to the other unfamiliar person in the area, then back.

It isn't clear if it's in deep thought or unable to speak, though it does seem to be waiting to see something.


Once Jillian spoke, Ruen huffed. "Got me all riled up for nothin'," he said, sounding disappointed. With a shrug, he turned to Jillian and saw the barrier just as it was fading. "Oh, though you were warping out or something," he says before taking a seat again. He opens his mouth as if he's about to say something else, but he immediately turns his head away, sensing another presence. He doesn't adress it, however, opting only to focus on the being.

"I'm.. I'm sorry." Jillian looks down at Toby, relaxing her embrace over him. "It's okay now. I just felt.. something, and it felt very dangerous. I guess I was mistaken." She seems to be trying to play it off as some silly paranoia, but her tone still sounds a little shaken. "It's okay now. I'm sorry if I scared you, Toby. That wasn't a very good magic trick, was it?" She seems over-concerned with the small Pumpkinhead's well-being too much at the moment to notice Merciviant or Ruen, her demeanor no different than a mother fussing over her own child.

Toby may be a child, and a fairly carefree one at that, but he's not utterly unaware. The extended silence and stare could be any number of things, but it doesn't seem to be relief. He takes his grip away and then steps back from Jillian and flutters his arms in what seems like a mostly idle motion, his hands gripping onto the ends of his slightly-too-long sleeves. Almost imperceptibly, his head shakes, and then he looks up at the other Pumpkinhead, like he's expecting it to say something.

Jillian looks really sad when Toby doesn't say anything audibly and then walks away, and she casts another, cautionary glance westward, her lips curling into a small frown. "So, he's back..." she mumbles to herself, moving to take a seat on the bench behind her, with a sigh. "Definitely not what I had in mind when I snuck out for the day."

Merciviant slowly kneels down to the younger pumpkinhead's level, takes note of his garb and hat, and begins speaking in a soft tone.

"Do you study magic?"

Ruen does not look away from Mercivant, but seems to relax a bit as it approaches and interacts with its youngling, or so he assumed. Low-key frustrated that he didn't get to fight anything, he leans back and folds his arms behind his head.

"I do." The child's posture seems to relax slightly, encouraged by being asked a question about something he actually wants to talk about. After looking Merciviant up and down, and noting the way it is attired, he leans forward a little. "Do you? Are you a witch?"

Jillian sulks for a moment, lost in her own thoughts, when a familiar bat-winged spirit suddenly pops into existence in a small flurry of dark purple sparkles, hovering in front of her face for a moment before she looks up to acknowledge it with a small, barely-there smile. "Yes, I'm okay." She glances westward again. "I felt it, too, but not anymore."

Merciviant gives a small nod to the child's question.

"Yes, a type of one. My specialty is summoning magic - specifically, demonolatry.
How about yourself?"

"I'm learning protection spells." Little by little, he seems to be forgetting the fright he just had, sounding a bit more sure of himself by the moment. "I'm Toby." He perks up as if just thinking of something, and then leans to the side and points at the succubus nearby. "That's my friend Jillian, and that's my friend Mero, and that's..." He stops when his finger is pointed at the rabbitfolk man.

"Shhhhit, I forgot. Name's Ruen," the rabbitfolk man spoke up, surprised at himself it took him this long to introduce himself. Though it's not like he asked anyone else's names, either.

"Ruen?" a light, sweet, but nervous-sounding voice would echo into the night, coming from somewhere nearby. "Ruen?" it would ask, as if looking for the rabbitfolk man in the area. The voice would continue calling his name, the increasing volume indicating that the source of the voice was getting closer.

"Quite impressive. I have always struggled with supportive magic, myself."

Watching where Toby points and making note of the names (and lack of one at first), Merciviant nods again and slowly rises.

"Good evening and good day, my name is Merciviant. I heard a surprising commotion and came to investigate. What happened here, if I may ask?"

As soon as Ruen opens his mouth to speak, and that first elongated word comes out of his mouth, something in Jillian snaps, perhaps also associating itself with a fairly-recent memory of a similar situation, and she rises abruptly to her feet, her expression changing into something.. remarkably unpleasant. She gives the Shade a wordless glance, and it seems to understand, hanging in there air where it is as Jillian turns and walks toward Ruen with a slow but steady and intentional pace, her eyes a bit narrowed. She doesn't seem to hear or notice the second, female voice calling for him.

"I got cockblocked out of a fiiiiiiiiiuck." Ruen blabbed, looking immediately remorseful as soon as he heard the voice calling his name. Standing up, he started walking toward the voice, not noticing Jillian's disdain for his choice of vernacular.

Looking where he is, Toby picks up on Jillian's change of mood. Unconsciously, he reaches for Merciviant's hand, looking for reassurance; apparently he's already taken a liking to the other Pumpkinhead, too.

Jillian picks up her pace as Ruen starts walking away from her and toward the other voice, definitely making it a point that she's making a beeline directly for him. "Wait a moment, if you please," she says, shifting her tone into something that at least sounds like she might be trying to be pleasant, but it's.. iffy.

In Jillian's absence, the small Shade spirit hangs in the air for a moment, but then realizes something and hovers through the air towards Toby, opting to situate itself in the air above his left shoulder, where it had been just a short while before.

Sensing tension, Merciviant takes Toby's hand when it's offered.

I should best be prepared to take him somewhere safer if need be. I have many questions for this Jillian, but she seems to be...off at the moment.

Deciding to distract the boy in case things got frightening for him, he kneeled down to him again.

"Would you care to see what some of my magic is like?"

Ruen grunts in frustration at being followed. He stops, turns, and establishes immediate eye contact. "Look, I'm sorry I wanted to fuck you, aight? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got important family business to tend to." He then immediately turns around and walks off, looking for a family member apparently.

Jillian IMMEDIATELY rushes Ruen and reaches out with all the reflexes her demonic nature affords her, her hand reaching for his throat (or neck, as the case may be in that she's reaching for him from behind). She hisses loudly as she lunges for him, baring her fangs in a full-featured snarl.

The kid is obviously torn between giving his attention to Jillian or the fellow Pumpkinhead, head turning side to side uncertainly. Fortunately for everyone, 'magic' is... well, the magic word where Toby is concerned. He turns back to Merciviant properly, a little bit of eagerness creeping into his tone. "Yes, please."

Big mistake. Ruen immediately roared, emitting a white aura before leaning back and bringing his elbow down on Gillian's forearm HARD. Without missing a beat, he followed that up by mule-kicking her in the shin, keeping one leg primed in case he was dropped.

The source of the voice from before eventually appears, but immediately ducks behind a corner at the sight of Ruen starting a fight (from her perspective). Being a naturally timid creature, she abhored violence and didn't want to be involved in what was going on.

Jillian is triggered by the roar into realizing that she isn't getting quite what she'd hoped was a clean lecture about grace and tact around children, and takes it as incentive to up her game a bit; when Ruen engages, her form blurs and becomes transparent as she lunges -through- him and reappears on the other side, positioning herself a few feet away between him and the source of the voice that was calling out to him from before, in a very blatant blockade stance. Her eyes are extremely angry and narrowed, and her shadow seems to waver slightly as it extends from her feet in the sunlight, almost twitching. "You could've gotten away with the apology if it had been to the child instead of to me, you tactless clown," she says, heatedly.

Merciviant brings its hand down to the ground, and in the dirt draws a curious sigil.

It brings out a bottle of water and carefully lets it drip in key areas around the small drawing, before placing its skeletal palm over it and saying in a low, echoing voice: "Come forth, my ally. Buer, who presides..."

There is a black light, and when Merciviant removes its hand from that spot, there is a brown, shaggy kitten looking up at the two. Notably, its tiny legs end in hooves, and it has a fifth hooved leg where its tail would be.

The small bat-winged spirit seems quite interested in what Merciviant is doing, its silver eye widening slightly as it beholds this summoning ritual for itself.

When Jillian repositioned herself to be in front of Ruen, she'd notice that the aura aroung him was making his normally pinkish eyes glow crimson red. Landing, he growled, and the aura around him seemed to pulsate as each arm seemed to generate four additional arms made of the same energy surrounding him. For exactly one second. Then all of that energy immediately vanished.

"What? What kid? The fuck are yo-" Ruen asked before turning his head behind him and noticing the two pumpkinheads in the area. She was apparently referring to the little one.

"Oh. Crap. Yeah, well, sorry about that, I... completely forgot he was there. And what I said before, I was just trying to get you off my back. Seriously, I gotta go be a disappointment to my little sister, now."

With that, Ruen began walking around Julian to get to the pink-eared rabbitfolk girl standing behind the corner.

Merciviant takes careful note of the small being observing the spell.

"You are...a spirit, yes? I have not met one before, though I have heard of them."

Toby briefly tenses when he overhears a roar coming from nearby, but manages to resist the impulse to look around. The interest in observing this display of summoning magic manages to win out. He manages a bubbly little giggle when the kitten appears, and holds a hand out towards it.

Ruen led said rabbitfolk behind the corner, and the two began talking. Their voices were muffled, but some things could be picked up, such as "Yes, I'm getting the food now," "Yeah, I got distracted," and "Don't worry about that, just me being stupid as usual."

After the conversation died down, the girl slipped back out from the corner, but didn't leave it behind entirely. "Is everyone okay?" she asked timidly.

Buer walks over to Toby's hand and sits down, gazing up at him with metallic eyes that seem to shift in color as the seconds go by, but most often staying on a bright gold.

Merciviant speaks again to Toby.

"Buer is the first demon I have contracted with. They will grow to their true form as my own ability grows...but for now, this is the form they take.
They certainly seem comfortable with you."

Something else in Jillian seems to snap as she is blatantly handwaved and more-or-less ignored, and this goes over far, far worse than before. Jillian casts a side glance to see if Toby is watching, and when she seems comfortable that he isn't, she turns back and extends her hand outward toward the two rabbits, her eyes flashing. The air distorts in front of them briefly, right before a large, shadowy scythe suddenly swings inward toward the both of them, its edge gleaming red. This scythe seems MORE centered on Keiko than Ruen, but their proximity means that it would potentially get him, too, by proxy.

Keiko immediately dropped to her knees when she saw Jillian extend her hand. "I'm sorry!" she shouted.

By the time the scythe came close to hitting Keiko, it would stop. Ruen would walk out from behind the counter holding the scythe's blade, his aura billowing more strongly than last time. "Maybe you didn't hear me," he said flatly, walking toward her and pushing the scythe up and out of his way. "I'm SORRY for cursing in front of the kid, and I'm Sorry for SARCASTICALLY apologizing for wanting to do ADULT STUFF with you."

"Now, DROP IT," he insisted, flinging the blade to the side as hard as he could. "Or I'll drop YOU."

Jillian smiles, the harshness in her eyes maintaining itself for a moment as her own shadow rises up to envelope her. "Allow me to make your job easier, then," she says with a giggle, as her shadow consumes her body and drops down into the cobblestones without a trace. However, the scythe blade that was flung to the side boomerangs in the air and swivels back around from behind, clearly aiming for Keiko a second time. Despite her lack of presence, Jillian's giggle can still be heard, and it's obvious that she's not as gone as she appears to be.

Cursing under his breath, Ruen jolts to the side until he's staning over his sister. He attempts to catch the scythe, but fails, and the weapon jabs into his side. Grunting in pain, he walks back to where he was before and addresses the two pumpkinheads. "You two should get out of here," he insists before turning to face his sister. "You, too, Cake," he adds.

With a blur in the fabric of reality nearby, a second scythe, completely identical to the first one, materializes and twirls its merry way, once more, toward Keiko. Jillian's detached giggle becomes more pronounced and becomes more of a laugh, the laugh of someone who is probably having a bit too much fun with a side that she's long-since forgotten and is now recalling with a certain, perhaps uncomfortable and definitely sadistic joy.

This time, Keiko takes the initiative, running into the distance before the scythe can reach her.

That doesn't stop Ruen from attacking the scythe from above, deflecting it. "QUIT FUCKING AROUND! THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND ME!" he insisted. He tried to apologize to her before about his mouth - in his mind, she was the one being unreasonable, now.

Once she realizes the scythe is no longer nearby, Keiko starts heading back to the fight. From what she heard, this all started due to stupid reasons, and if she could help the cute tall lady see reason, she wanted to try.

Thunk-click. Thunk-click. Thunk-click

The sound is steady. Unhurried. It is exactly at the pace it needs to be. A hand settles on top of the rabbit girl's head, between her pink ears, ceasing her back and forth scurrying. The unhealthy sound of a throat clearing calls attention to the area as Haut calmly observes the situation caused by the scuffle. "Love this city. You can never trust the Truce guards to do a damn thing around here." His free hand is shoved into one of his coat pockets before the scythe blade is slapped aside by... a collapsible walking stick marked with runes.

The runes along the stick flare as they make impact with the scythe blade, and the tool is discarded over one shoulder before it summarily burns away in light. "Kid, keep close." He raises his own voice now, nowhere near the youthful shout of the bunnyboy, but enough to be heard properly. "Jill, you wanna introduce me to your friends?"

Keiko tenses up immediately as a large, rough hand is placed between her ears and moved in a rubbing motion. As sensitive as her ears were, the sensation skyrocketed her anxiety, but fortunately, her ears weren't touched. It didn't help her nervousness, though, as meeting new people was never her strong suit. Still, given the situation, and the fact that he basically saved her life, she went with it. "O-o-o-okay," she managed to tammer.

The scythe actually does pretty much vaporize on the spot as soon as it connects with the runed walking stick, whatever those runes possess seeming to be able to overcome the magic involved in Jillian's attack. Jillian's laugh fades quickly as Haut calls out to her, but it's a few moments before she actually appears, and, fortunately or unfortunately, it's a different Jillian than has actually been presented to him before, at any point in their relationship. Out of the air a short distance away, Jillian reappears by way of a snap of warped space, but she looks... not quite so motherly anymore. Leathery black wings protrude from her back and flap heavily in the air to keep her afloat, and the fanged grin she gives the group, including Haut, is one that is very much not the most settling of expressions. She's dressed the same and, at last bodily, appears to be the same person in most ways, but a certain dark undertone seems to have overtaken her at some level, as she comes off as much more 'succubus' than her better-known persona would suggest. She hangs in the air by just a few feet, grinning broadly without remorse for the troubles she's escalated up to this point.

Ruen tensed up when Jillian appeared. His first instinct was to bash her face in repeatedly, but given the new arrival and her seemingly disarmed reappearance, he didn't attack. But he didn't loosen up, either, his aura still billowing powerfully.

Haut raises an eyebrow and whistles softly. "And somehow you look better every day." As if she wasn't terrifying to him, or spooky or anything else. If anything the change in her demeanor and appearance brought a small smile to his face. He pats Keiko on the head like an overly familiar parental figure at the playground, before looking over to the boy in the roadway as well. "Seems we've had a little bit of a heated moment. But I'm sure we can all agree to take a big step back, right?"

His eye returns to Jillian, before his hand lifts from the girl's head and extends towards the mostly-familiar woman. "Heard some people yelling, but we can all still talk this out. Maybe go, grab a little ice cream after we get things sorted." His tone is tired, but diplomatic, like someone trying to coax an indoor cat back inside at 3 am.

Something in Jillian's face at least seems to recognize Haut for who he is, but only enough to bring her down to the ground, where she plants her bare feet solidly against the road. Her wings stretch and collapse behind her, and her grin remains, a feral look in her brilliant, vertical green irises. "I'd forgotten this," she said, her vocal range taking on a slight near-hiss to it, as if it were ingrained into her speech. "It's been... a really long time, actually." She looks aside at Keiko, baring her fangs fully in an obnoxious grin.

"I guess I should be thankful," Jillian adds, still grinning. "Which is a lot more than I can say for either of you dumb bunnies."

"THIS AIN'T GOT SHIT TO DO WITH HER!" Ruen roared. "I APOLOGIZED TO YOUR UGLY ASS TWICE AND YOU STILL TRYNA SCRAP! I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT!"

'Well, so much for that," Ruen thought. All this time, he'd been trying to de-esculate the situation because he doesn't like fighting women, but the exact opposite of his intent has been happening, and kept happening, and now Jillian's got him so wound up that he doesn't care who hears him anymore. "I don't care WHAT BEEF you got with me, you keep her out of it, PERIOD!" It honestly started to seem like even the new guy's presence wasn't going to stop this fight like he hoped.

Keiko ducked behind the corner again, but started looking genuinely sad. She hadn't even gotten a chance to talk to the tall lady yet, and she already has a target on her head. Sure, her brother could be stupid sometimes, but she'd never seen things be this bad around him before. She was equal parts sad that the tall lady wanted her dead and scared for her brother.

Merciviant takes Toby's hand and gently guides him away, Buer quickly trotting after the two of them as the summoner guides the boy away from the dangerous area.

"It would be best if we steered clear for a moment. I am not confident we can guarantee your safety amidst all this."

Bringing him close to the alley it was reading in before, it stays close enough to keep an eye on the situation, its free hand tightly gripping its tome.

"...Let us see what we can discern from their kind."

Buer purrs, seemingly in agreement.

"Boy, you are the stupidest damn thing on the face of this planet." Haut doesn't even try to sugarcoat it. Instead he simply raises up his until-now hidden hand. In it is nothing amazingly special, no super tech or anything like that. It's just a tazer. Just a simple, basic tazer that he uses to shoot at the shittalking rabbit. At the same time, he points at Jillian. "Hey, focus." With luck the target of her ire would be writhing around on the ground. "I need you to focus on me so things don't go too far, Jill."

Spoken like a man who isn't currently trying to taze someone into opening his mouth less.

Keiko saw the tazer and immediately panicked. "No,wait-!"

Ruen screamed out in pain when the tazer hit, the pain killing his aura immediately and causing to colapse to his knees. His aura would flicker in and out as he attempted to overpower the pain with rage, but he couldn't pull it off. He wound up shaking in place, but managed, at least, to keep from lying down.

Keiko rushed to Ruen's side and hugged him at the risk of some of the electricity bouncing through his body to jump into her. "Please stop!" she screamed, talking to everyone in the area, especially her brother as she knew he was far too prideful to yield on his own. "Please, just..." she said quietly as tears started to form in her eyes. "...stop...'

By this point, there has been entirely too much shouting and screaming for Toby to continue to convince himself that things are going to be fine. He offers no protest to being led away by his new acquaintance, but throws several nervous glances behind until they are in the shelter of the alleyway. Looking between Merciviant and Buer, he then grips the hem of his top and twists it, clearly agonizing over the way a peaceful gathering turned so completely south. "Is Miss Jillian going to be okay?"

"I believe so. It seems someone who knows her and cares for her has entered the fray.
Powers aside, things will likely calm down."

Buer gently nuzzles Toby's leg, looking up at him with their sparkling eyes. There is something soothing about the light of them, though the friendly motion itself may help with that.

"... However. Just to be absolutely certain...let us see what we can do in aid, if necessary."

Merciviant opens the inscrutable tome it had been carrying and begins rapidly flipping pages before stopping on one depicting a strange but powerfully built humanoid figure.

"If things do not clear up on their own, I have an associate that may be of use. Do not fear - we will not stand idly by while you and your friend are in danger."

Jillian doesn't falter in her obnoxious, menacing grin, but she declines her head slightly. "Anything I do from here while you are present wouldn't amount to any success, whether I wanted their heads or their blood," she says, with maybe a small ounce of irritation, but like, the tiniest amount. "Both sound appealing, honestly, but I will abstain for now." Her grin fades quickly, replaced with an equally-mean scowl as her attention switches wholeheartedly to Ruen. "I will not, however, apologize for my indiscretion, and furthermore, I will strongly suggest that you watch your tongue, going forward, while there are children present. If you do not, that tongue will not be the only thing you lose, and Haut will not be around to save you at that time." Though aggressive, her tone is oddly subservient, as if she were recognizing this strange man as someone even she, frightening demoness that she was, regarded more highly than her own desires.

From where Jillian is standing, at a distance roughly five feet or so away and behind her, space seems to pixelate strangely, and from that odd pixelation spawns a shadowy silhouette that forms the shape of an odd male. This male just stands there in an arms-folded position, not moving or saying anything, and while it lacks any heavy details in its shadowed state, its size, shape, and build all look -remarkably- similar to... Haut? The very same one that is also standing nearby.

As soon as this silhouette appears, the miniature Shade over Toby's shoulder suddenly has a panic attack, its silver eye widening tremendously as it flees from where the two Pumpkinheads are taking shelter, speeding its small self across the way and back toward the kerfuffle taking place toward the other end of the fountain, as if something just happened that absolutely -demanded- its attention and could not wait.

Contact with the boy's leg catches his attention, and he stops fidgeting while he looks down at Buer. Dropping down to his knees, he reaches to pet the feline-looking demon, this alone seeming to help settle his nerves.

"Okay. Granny said that if there are ever people fighting I should find somewhere safe to hide, and be with a safe adult if I can." His voice is slightly shaky, but reciting it seems to be helpful in keeping him (somewhat) calm. This first mention on the fact that he has (had?) a caretaker might have brought a little bit of relief to Jillian, were she near enough to hear it.

And then he can't help but notice the sudden startled reaction from the Shade and his head snaps in the direction of the opening of the alleyway. Folding in on himself apprehensively, he shuffles a little bit further into the alley.

Ruen, electricity coursing through his body, could do nothing but hear what Jillian was saying and seethe. Every time he tried to speak, he voice caught in his throat. He wanted to tell her that if she had beef with him, she should have kept it with him and not involve his sister. He wanted to shout obscenities. He wanted to beat her to a bloody pulp. But the pain rendered his rage impotent.

"Ruen, just stop," Keiko insisted as she started trying to fight back her tears. Through his convulsing and impotent snarling, she could tell he wasn't going to drop the matter on his own, and restarting the fight was going to end badly. For both of them, probably. Keiko didn't know what she did to draw the tall lady's ire, but she was too scared to ask, now. That, and she was trying to get her brother under some form of control before the pain from the tazer began to wane.

Haut relaxes as Jillian makes her move to step back from the fight. He wasn't seeking an apology from her, nor did he really think she needed to give one. He similarly offered nothing to either of the rabbits, since at least one of them was the idiot who caused it and the other hurt herself. "Live and learn, Jill. I think we're all happy to-"

He stops as the strange effect happens, a scowl settling on his face once something new forms in the space behind the slightly feral woman. Immediately he snaps the taser's tip off, discarding the pack and his control of the ignorant little shit so he can reload and free his hands.

"More and more friends to introduce me to, Jill. Who's tall dark and handsome?" His tone has shifted yet again, this time equal parts curiosity and concern as he observes the spectre. Nothing else matters to him at the moment beyond what's happening to Jill.

In the course of Haut's commentary, the bat-winged mana spirit flits its way over to Jillian, and promptly has a spaz attack in the air where everyone in that vicinity can clearly witness. This distracts Jillian's attention from the rabbits and from Haut, as she seems to listen to something unheard. "..What?" she eventually says, turning halfway around. Her wings grow slack and tuck themselves in against her back, her expression forming a confused frown as she regards the silhouette for the first time, seeing and noting the shape before she looks back at the dark mana spirit. She seems oddly unperturbed by whatever it is, though that could be good or bad news. "I don't know who or what that is, but it's not Ambience. What are you talking about?"

"Subconscious manifestations?" The comment was to no one in particular. Instead, Haut's hand switches to diving into the breast pocket of his jacket to pull out a black slate. Still not a creation of his personal workstation, simply a cell phone that he uses to take a few quick pictures before starting up a video, all attempting to capture the... him-thing.

"If you're not in control of it then, what. One of the elements just really thinks I look good today?" The quip covers cautious thought as he runs through a mental checklist of the tools he has on hand. Suffice to say, nothing specifically designed for the task, he was expecting a street fight, not elemental ghosts. "Jill, step over this way."

In what is not exactly a first, but also an extremely uncommon thing regardless, Jillian doesn't do as Haut asks. She seems to be focused on trying to communicate something with the small Shade, as the Haut-proxy continues to hold itself in the background of all this, everything else coming secondary. "Mana Signature? Why does it have his Mana Signature?" Jillian asks, sounding more annoyed with each question. The Shade throws itself around in the air in what can be perceived as equal measures of aggravation, firmly jutting itself in the direction of the silhouette as its silver eye contracts and dilates frequently in silent communication. "Was that energy signal from earlier not Ambience, then?" She turns, then, to face the silhouette entirely, looking more than a little aggravated, but abstaining from any action yet, rational or irrational. She either didn't hear Haut or ignored him, but given her earlier delegation in backing down from the fight at his request, it may be a safe bet that he just went unheard at the time.

"The conflict seems to be concluded. If you are able, it should be safe for us to approach them, now."

Merciviant spoke this softly to Toby, watching him carefully as he closed the book. Not wanting to further stress an already distressed child, it kneeled down again.

"But only if you're ready. Let me know when you are. Take your time. We will stay with you."

The child looks up at Merciviant, taking a moment to pat over Buer's head a couple of times. Understandably, he's still unnerved, but enough time has passed without anything scary happening (that he could overhear) that his curiosity is slowly starting to overtake the concern. He has to see what's happened with Jillian, after all.

Finally, he nods. He doesn't say anything immediately, just places his palms flat against the ground and pushes himself up to his feet, and squares his shoulders once he's standing, ready to face whatever is waiting for them.

"I'm ready."

"Very well."

Merciviant rises as well, and offers its hand to Toby again. Buer lets out a small, distorted mew as they stretch, yawn, and start walking at a leisurely pace.

The silhouette merely continues to stand there, little wisps of shadowy darkness occasionally flickering off of its semi-corporeal form, but it makes no movements or obvious intent to do anything other than look cool and menacing.

Merciviant takes Toby's hand and walks towards the group, Buer trotting along without obvious concern.

It stops a short distance away from them, taking in the scene, seeing the victim of electrocution and the curious phantasm that has the others so focused.

It stares at the image intently, apparently trying to discern what it could be before speaking.

"Apologies for barging in. But are we to assume the danger is past, or only beginning with this... entity?"

The small bat-winged mana elemental is still having a pretty heavy freakout in the air above Jillian.

Haut's attention was on the silhouette of himself primarily, with a flickering attention over to Jillian occasionally. With a series of plans brewing up in his head, the exact last thing he needed at the moment was another presence added in. Especially with a child on top of things.

This was the exact kind of shit he and Ambience had problems over.

The new pair prompts action, and Haut resorts to the old standby for solving situations he's not had enough time to deal with. Spreading his jacket wide with a flourish, he grabs a dagger from a sheath on the inside. Runes flare across it's surface before he flings the thing not entirely gracefully at the apparition.

The dagger flies through the air toward the shadow, and given that it doesn't move, it makes for a pretty easy target, without the need to take into account the grace involved in such a maneuver. What does happen, though, is that the dagger passes through the shadow on what would've been contact, and the runes flash brightly as it passes through the entity, but the only thing that happens is that the dagger seems to have its velocity slowed while passing through, as if it were only fractionally-corporeal enough to actually provide additional wind-drag on the weapon. A few feet beyond, the dagger drops onto the road with a clinky-clatter.

The shadow... unfolds its arms. And then places them on its hips, in a genuine sort of "..Really?" body language.

Haut shrugs. It speaks volumes of 'you can't blame me for trying.'

Uncalled-for as it may be, this actually gets a grin out of Jillian, who seems to find the whole thing amusing despite her erstwhile irritation at this thing somehow being mistaken for someone else by her elemental associate. "I don't sense anything from it," she says. "My sensory abilities aren't what they used to be, but it doesn't feel malevolent."

Jillian's verbal assessment seems to be the last straw for the small Shade, and it promptly bursts into a small shower of dark purple lights, disappearing from sight in the process.

Buer loudly mews upwards at Merciviant, who gently picks them up. The demon continues in shorter, smaller meows as Merciviant listens, then cautiously steps back while staying in front of Toby, keeping its eye on the silhouette.

Toby makes sure to keep the older Pumpkinhead in front of him during and after their approach. He peeks around at everyone, especially Jillian, who gets the most of his attention by far. In spite of the transformation, he doesn't shrink away at the sight of her, or show any new signs of fear. Mostly his body language speaks of curiosity, and concern.

Jillian regards the shadowed creature with less concern and more amusement, a small grin forming on her face. She doesn't say anything, but seems to just be watching it, as if waiting for it to do.. something. Her leathery wings twitch slightly, perhaps in anticipation of something.

Haut himself takes a step forwards at the lack of action, eyeballing the he-thing better while also forming more of a defensive barrier with his body before the two pumpkinheads. "So, if it's not hostile. And it's not something I can kill." He settles one hand on his hip while scratching the back of his head with the other, the image of a small county sheriff looking at some supernatural invader. "I'm at a loss here. Handsome as he is, there's probably gonna be some kinda issue with the authorities with him here."

Perhaps shooting in the dark, he clears his throat for a moment and just adresses the thing directly. "Hey bud. You wanna tell us what you're doing here? If you're me, you know how much I hate this unsolved mysteries ssstuff."

At being directly provoked by Haut himself, the thing DOES offer a response, though its body language and position don't change. "Give him back to us..." it says, its tone a dark sort of hiss that reeks of supernatural ghostliness.

No sooner do the words come out of the Haut-shadow's mouth than Jillian abruptly whirls, her eyes flashing and wings stretching wide as she spontaneously brings one hand around to forcefully backhand the real Haut across the side of the face when he is in proximity to do so, her small grin still in place as she does, without apparent rhyme or reason.

Haut is a moment through processing the words by the time Jillian's backhand cracks across his face. The force of it doesn't take him off his feet, though he does stagger back a step. His eye rapidly switches between the two once again, and the words 'nightmare scenario' are already forming in his mind. When he straightens back up to fully standing, there's a different air about him.

Closer now to the shadowed thing, his clothes no longer hang off his frame as much as they had before. There's no specific trigger, no spell or flash, he's simply no longer a withered man. Instead, he spits to the side and then points at the shade. "Aight. Whatever you're doing to her, cut it out. I'm happy to find someone who's missing without doing this whole song and dance." As a followup, he points at Jillian herself, focusing on her more than the shade.

"And you're forbidden from doing some kind of brainwashed heroine kidnapping thing, little miss. We're gonna have so much to talk about if you go flying off with this guy and I have to hunt you down."

This is, apparently, the last straw for a small Pumpkinhead who has had a day go very, very strange for reasons he still has no understanding of. Stepping to the side and exposing himself, he clenches his fists at his sides and shouts. "Miss Jillian, stop! You're acting weird and I don't like it!" While he's raising his voice, he also sounds rather close to tears.

Seeing the conflict is clearly not quite over, Merciviant reopens its book to the page it had before.

It draws out a small chunk of dark, metallic stone from its pocket and watches carefully for any further aggression while staying close to Toby.

The silhouette behind Jillian doesn't move at all in any way, and it doesn't have to because Jillian pivots to place herself directly between Haut and Shadow-Haut, defensively. At Haut's boast, Jillian raises the hand she just backhanded him with, and gestures loosely, summoning one of those nasty-looking shadow scythes to float in the air above her palm as she gives Haut a particularly nasty version of her earlier grin. Before she can actually do anything with it, the little Pumpkinhead's anguished cry seems to cut through the atmosphere like a knife, and its effect on Jillian, herself, is profound. For starters, the scythe abruptly poofs into thin air, as quickly as it came into being. Jillian's eyes seem to dilate as a certain sort of realization sinks in, and this has the added effect of causing the shade behind her to seem repulsed and disoriented by the shout, actively stumbling back away from the group. Jillian hesitates, her hand still raised without the erstwhile magical scythe. "...To..by..?" she stumbles through the name, blinking once, then a second time.

A strange voice, reminiscent of Jillian's but also kind of wispy and wavery, seems to weave through the air, centralized on where Jillian is standing.

"...not while children are present..."

Jillian and the shadow both look very confused and disoriented.

Fustration blooms in Haut. He had been having a pretty good day. Made some decent progress on his work. He had even slept for a few hours. And then some people started shouting, and now he's dealing with a real nightmare situation. "Kid, keep talking to her." He hated using a kid. He hated using one of Jillian's weaknesses against her like this.

It fucking sucked, but he wasn't trying to play this game today.

Stepping forwards, Haut grabs Jillian's outstretched arm and physically tries to pull her back towards him. If she started going all magical, he could try to siphon it off. His eye is locked to the shade though, trying to figure out if it's reaction was due to something specific or-

Or if it really was all in Jill's head.

Jillian physically stumbles in response to being pulled toward Haut, as if she wasn't expecting anything of the sort and didn't brace herself well enough to actually remember to use her feet like normal feet. The shadow seems annoyed as it recomposes itself, holding its arms at its side as it locks whatever would pass for a 'gaze' on Haut, as if he were a pesky fly that wouldn't just fly into the spider's web and be done with it already. Jillian's eyes are wide with some sort of shock, perhaps a combination of realization over what she'd just tried to do or something else, but the words she tries to speak are nonsensical and seem broken.

Toby, fortunately, doesn't need a whole lot of encouragement to keep going. "You were being so nice before... I don't understand why you're being like this. I don't understand it." Closed fists trembling, he stays rooted in the spot. Apparently concern for his new friend has nearly completely won over his fear of the situation. No doubt echoing the words that some adult has used to placate him in the past, he continues, "A-and... and we can just use our words and talk about things and nobody else has to get hurt, okay?"

The silhouette takes a moment to reach... inside itself? Like, literally into its own chest, and withdraws what appears to be a really beautiful longsword of absolutely fantastic design, with a handle of brilliant white and aquamarine, and a small tendrilled vine wrapping loosely about the base of the blade. This weapon stands out mostly due to the fact that, unlike the stark shadow-ness of the silhouette, the weapon is bright and colorful, just like the real thing, but also for other reasons.

Haut has seen this weapon before.

Slowly, Ruen started to push himself to his feet. Keiko tried to push down on him, as if to say they should wait before all this blows over, but his body refused to comply, and soon he was standing upright. "Let's go," was all he said. "Ruen-!" Keiko protested, but Ruen wasn't having it. "No. We're leaving. We got other crap to deal with," he insisted. He then grabbed his sister's arm and began dragging her away from the area. Keiko continued to protest, insisting that he was hurting her, but he didn't listen. He did look back to glare at Jillian before leaving, though. It was taking all his willpower to not rush at her and start swinging, but he knew he'd just be putting Keiko in danger again if he kept fighting now. So, he instead forced himself and his sister to vacate the area around the fountain.

The sight of the blade has Haut's mind spinning wildly. He holds on to Jillian as the pieces and parts start to fit together like an unholy tetris board. Shadowy figures, that fucking sword, 'bring him' whatever. "Sinistrals."

The word leaves his mouth and he's hauling Jillian back now, jumping backwards towards and kneeling with the affected succubus. If he was right, he needed big guns. Which was just shit he didn't have. Which makes the metallic plate he draws from behind his back possibly anti climatic to anyone but him, Jillian if she was even able to notice what was going on, and the sword wielding shadow clone.

"Let's all just be real calm like the kid says, right? No one's looking to have a big go of this right now." His words are betrayed by the tenseness in his voice, he was on high alert and looked like he was ready to throw the device at any sign of motion from the shade, who he's watching like a hawk.

Jillian clutches tightly onto Haut, in a vein of desperation that she was afraid he was going to disappear if she let go. She's still trying to talk, but nothing more than aberrant syllables seem to come out, as if her mind was completely detached from her vocal capability and other things needed for basic function. Toby's words seem to be doing something to her, but whether it's pain or something else remains unclear.

Once more, though, "Jillian's" voice speaks through the air like a whispering audio-recording, centered around where she's clinging to Haut. "...not fair, really... can't have children of my own... but..." There's a garbled stutter, before it comes back in. "...make sure.. protect the ones I can..." And then it cuts out, the same way as the first time.
The shadow-Haut reels again from the sound of Jillian's wispy speech process, as if something in it were causing it to destabilize from.. whatever was allowing it to be here in the first place. Its sword arm drops, but doesn't lose its grip on the weapon as it tries to regain its composure.

"I... I want to see another magic trick... a good one, 'cause the one earlier wasn't." Toby huffs, breathing heavily as he starts to run out of steam. He takes it as a good thing that Jillian has latched onto Haut instead of aggressing again. He hasn't given a whole lot of attention to the shadowy silhouette, but given that it's what everyone is reacting to right now, he looks it over properly. Everyone seems to be behaving as if it's a bomb that will go off any moment -- but earlier Jillian thought there was a threat and it passed, too. He, ultimately, doesn't know what to make of it, but innocently trusting as he is, he believes the grown-ups surrounding him will keep him safe if it is a danger.

It's that moment that he looks around and notices that Ruen has been bleeding this entire time. He calls out, "You're hurt," abruptly breaking away from Merciviant to approach the two rabbitfolk.

"...another magic trick..." This time it's Toby's wispy voice floating through the air, a literal repeat of what he just said. Jillian tightens her grip on Haut's arm, trying to get to her feet against -something- that is seriously weighing her down mentally and physically.

"That wasn't a very good magic trick, was it?" Jillian's voice cuts in just as Toby's voice fades out, a repeat of her words from earlier when the unseen danger had seemingly passed.

"That wasn't a very good magic trick, was it?" This time, the low, whispering hiss of the shadow echoes Jillian's statement, in its own raspy, dry tone. The shadow regains its composure, and though it has no facial features to beget, its stance and forward posture indicate that it's flippin' angry at this point.

"...magic trick..." This fragmented whisper combines -all three voices- into one breathy, wispy combination, and as it fades out, the Haut-shadow rears back and hurls its beautiful Sword directly at Toby, with some sort of uncanny accuracy despite all the people between it and its target.

"...stop it..."
"...STOP IT!"

Both Jillian and the shadow's alternating voices clash against each other, but Jillian cries out for real when she screams out her words, abruptly launching herself away from Haut (using her grip on him as momentum to fling herself) and into the path of the flying sword, as if she were aware of it just as much as the shadow who launched it!

Ruen would give the pumpkinheaded kid a weird look. "The tazer didn't fu- er, mess me up that bad, I'm fine," he insisted. But that caught Keiko's curiosity, causing her to look the side of Ruen that got hit by one of Jillian's scythes. "Ruen, you're bleeding," Keiko pointed out, sounding very concerned. "I'm fine. Let's go," Ruen insisted, atempting to pull Keiko away from the area again.

This time, however, Keiko grabbed Ruen's arm and pulled hard. Hard enough to hold him in place and take him by surprised. Ruen had never seen Keiko do anything assertive or even get angry before, so he was immediately caught off guard, which let Keiko explain herself. "We don't have any money, Ruen. You're going to bleed out. Let him help," Keiko insisted, continuing to surprise Ruen with how assertive she was being. He just huffed at that, though, and folded his arms on his chest. "Fine. Just make it quick so we can get out of here," he said, looking unhappy about having to stand still. Keiko glared at him, but didn't say anything else for now.

"That does it. I'm sorry, but I will not stand idly by now."

Merciviant holds the small stone up and in an unshaking tone recites an incantation:

"I entreat you, who is low among devils yet higher than mortals.
With this lead, this air, and my spirit: I offer you into my service.
Contract with me, Knight of Hell. I welcome your name - Furcas."

The lead stone crumbles to dust as strange lights emerge from it and begin to converge, taking shape - first there is a skeletal frame, and then viscera and flesh begins to wrap around it. When it is finished, there is a humanoid figure with grey skin and red, battered armor, topped by a jawless skull veiled in wind. In its hands is a two-pronged polearm. It wordlessly steps forward towards the shadow, weapon at the ready.

"I thank you for answering my call. Please assist us in protecting the child."

Haut is not idle. There's a twitch of motion from the shadow, and as Jillian moves to tear herself away from him he flings his disc at the projectile, ahead of the point where the speeding succubus was trying to intercept it. In flight, it primes and activates, a void opening up on the sword-side of the flung plate. Anyone who catches sight of the void can see a dark cave beyond it, strewn with various jagged shapes.

That joins in with a shouted yell. It's a simple and effective one. Just a loud "EVERYBODY DUCK." It's probably fine. There's like four things between the kid and the sword. But for all of that he can't help but focus more on Jill than the kid at the moment.

Hearing the call to duck, Ruen grabs and almost throws Keiko in front of Toby before positioning himself in front of Keiko and holding his arms in front of his head so he could protect both of them. This put him in harm's way, but Toby was going to heal him, anyway, so what was one more injury?

Merciviant is taken by surprise by the call, but quickly complies while urging Furcas to do the same.

Despite his ragged appearance, he proves responsive and swiftly does just that while keeping his weapon trained on the group's foe.

Haut's movement in raising his arm to throw the disc is counterintuitive for Jillian as she attempts to fling herself off of him and into the way of the flying sword, which has the effect of altering her trajectory significantly and causing her to, instead, fall very short and land on the cobblestones a short distance away with a pained yelp of surprise.

Poor little Toby does not have the reflexes or the sixth sense of a fighter, and if he hadn't been surrounded by kindly souls, this situation could have ended very badly for him. When everyone in the vicinity bursts into a flurry of action after Haut's shout, he whimpers and freezes in place, the 'duck' order failing to be processed in any reasonable amount of time. After a couple seconds it clicks and he does crouch down, arms lifting to protect his head in about the only good instinct he's shown, here.

The disc, however, opens its created-portal's maw wide and does its job well in swallowing the hurled blade, which dives deep into the recesses of.. wherever it leads. It's almost like Haut had a lot of practice with these sort of reactions, who'd have figured?

The shadow, on the other hand, is not pleased even one bit by this turn of events, and in an angry huff, rushes Haut with one shadowy arm raised, preparing to deliver one heck of a lariat. It doesn't seem to regard, notice, or acknowledge the skeletal sentry nearby that had been summoned just recently, and if said sentry were in the path between the shadow and Haut, the shadow would attempt to charge through the sentry to get to its target.

Jillian remains mostly prone on the ground where she landed, wincing from the earlier impact and still not apparently in any real condition to do a whole lot.

For all the use of his technology and the revisions to them, they're still things that are barely functional and almost wholly reviled to the laws of physics. The disc hits one of the nearby walls and then shatters in a shower of little metal panels and electrical blue smoke. It goes without saying that the portal itself is dead and gone along with the device that spawned it. The satisfaction of keeping people safe doesn't really last long however, his sense of combat still trained to catch motion and intent to kill even with one eye.

But as the shadowy figure rushes him, Haut finds himself struggling to raise up an effective defense. His clothes sag around him as the shadow-stuff arm slams into his head, bringing him from kneeling down to a laying down position with a cracking thud, the one eye'd man's skull bouncing against the cobblestones beneath their feet.

There are no immediate sounds or motions from Haut afterwards.

Furcas springs into action, dashing at the shadow with the polearm aimed straight for where its heart would presumably be. He curves slightly as he runs, attempting to force the enemy back and get between it and Haut regardless of whether or not the attack connects.

The shadow seems intent on advancing toward the fallen Haut after dealing its blow, but either does not or cannot see Furcas coming; the incoming blow allows for the polearm to plunge deep into the shadow's recesses, but it reacts more with annoyance than actual pain as the polearm becomes lodged in its chest, forcing it back several feet and away from the fallen disc-flinger. The shadow-Haut attempts to grab onto the shaft of the spear and barbarically wrench it free from its own chest cavity, its actions apparently seeming to imply that it doesn't view Furcas as an applicable threat in the same way it did Toby or Haut.

Jillian crawls into a kneeling position at some point during all of this, one hand coming to hold her shoulder where she landed earlier. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't have to, because her voice comes out again in that familiar, wispy sort of aerial sound.

"...maybe I would actually... something that real mothers do..." The voice cuts out again and goes into a weird, buzzing static, but then comes back again. "...like a normal person... am I even someone who... real family..? ..." There is another buzz, and then it fades away.

As before, this causes the shadow to stumble and recoil, whatever Jillian is doing seeming to cause it real, actual pain. It loses its attempted grip on the polearm and just kind of.. lurches a bit, impaled on the end of it.

"Ugh..." Jillian tries to get to her feet, but it's still a bit much. Something still seems to be holding her down.

Without budging from his hunkered down position Toby looks up when he hears the distortion of the succubus' voice. He peeks around the bunny blockade with the greatest of care, ready to pull back at any sign of it being unsafe. Realization dawning on him suddenly, he mumbles a dejected, "I left my chalk..."

He withdraws behind his protectors again pretty quickly. Even he knows that to move right now would be a mistake.

Without a sound, Haut's eye opens and he sits up. The sound that his head made when it hit the ground was the kind of thing that should have put a man down for longer than just a few seconds, but apparently he had decided differently. The short hair at the back of his head clearly shows a rip through the delicate skin of the head, but the absolute profluence of blood such a head wound should provide is absent.

Unbothered by his lack of bleeding, Haut turns his head to the side, towards Jillian. Though his motions are still a little uncoordinated as he begins making his way over to her on hands and knees. He had been with her for a long time, and while these things he's hearing were things he had expected, hearing them like this...

Hurt. It made him hurt for her. It made the projects relevant, and he hated that. He hated being right. And he hated what this all meant. More important than dealing with the shade, he reaches out to Jillian and speaks to her through the din of combat.

"Jill. I'm working on it."

Seeming to be about the only thing Jillian is able to focus on, she actually hears this uterrance from the little Pumpkinhead, and her attention is drawn back toward, of all the things she could be concerned with right now, the drawings on the road and the abandoned chalk that is assumedly nearby. The visual image of those two drawings, one magical and one playful, with a forgotten stick of chalk nearby and no child playing nearby or doing any drawing, renders her immobile as she just.. stares at it, the gears in her head obviously turning in some capacity. These gears, however, grind to a halt when she feels Haut's hand on her shoulder.

She could've done any number of things from that interaction. She could've sighed in relief. She could've looked at Haut and smiled in thanks. She could have remained silent in contemplation over his words. Many things, really, could have happened. But the one thing that -actually- happens is probably the last thing he, or anyone, might expect.

Jillian gives a jilted jerk at the response from being touched, and she cowers away from it, huddling against her knees in what is very obvious fear, for some reason or many others. "Please.. I'm sorry, please.. don't hurt me..!" she whimpers, sounding like a terrified waif who is afraid of receiving more lashes from the whip. "I'm sorry.. I'm really sorry... please..!"

As Jillian cowers, her erstwhile voice emanates once more through the air, carrying that same wispy and breath-y sort of tone. "...collar would look cute on me... I want..." There is a harsh buzz, followed by what sounds like a distorted female giggle, and then more speaking. "... take care of... don't touch my horns... ... I'll behave... Haut... care of me... I'll... care of him..." This is followed by one more severely-distorted giggle, and then the whole thing fades away once more.

After a bit of watching the proceedings, Ruen starts losing strength in his limbs, and the sensation of his limbs growing heavier brings him to his knees. Bewildered, he looks around and inevitably finds the pool of blood beneath him, and the wound all that came from. "Crap," he grunted. He looked to Toby for help, but remembered what the kid said. His chalk...

Ruen didn't know anything about magic, but he knew what his gut was telling him, and he knew his options would deteriorate fast if he didn't act. "Keiko," he grunted, getting his little sister's attention. "Go get the chalk... so the kid can heal me."

That statement was the closest thing anyone was going to get to Ruen asking nicely, and Keiko knew that. Fortunately, she was way likelier to forgive his tone than most people. Still, the prospect of getting close to the tall lady after what happened before put a fear in her that made doing anything difficult. But her only family member was bleeding out. She wasn't going to ask the child to ask. She couldn't bring herself to. So she really didn't have a choice.

Kieko tried slowly approaching Gforte and Jillian, hoping they wouldn't notice her until it was too late. Once she got within a foot of the pair, her anxiety had build up past the point of her ability to control it. She dived forward and made a grab for the chalk. If she managed to get ahold of it before anyone noticed, she'd run back on all fours to hand it to Toby, trying to avoid any consequences involved in getting close to those two at this point in time.

Jillian is too busy having a succubus-sized mental breakdown of the worst kind to notice anything else going on around her, including the chalk she had earlier been temporarily fixated on.

Furcas holds onto its polearm with determined strength, forcing it deeper into the shadow every chance he gets while attempting to hold his ground.

During this time Merciviant is deathly still and seems to be focused on supplying its energy to the demonic knight as it carries out the request it was summoned for.

Buer watches carefully, staying very close to their summoner. What the tiny demon could contribute is uncertain, but they seem dead set on being vigilant.

The shadow takes the equivalent of several moments to regain itself, but in the process is continually impaled further by the spear and pushed back further away from the group as a whole, now a considerable distance away at this point. When it does come back to it's senses, it attempts to grasp the shaft of the polearm once more and, instead of pulling it free, wrench it further into itself, with the effect of dragging Furcas closer to itself and the spear the rest of the way through its shadowy chest cavity and out the other side, the wound of which seems to be... nonexistent, really.

There's no emotion displayed or change in intent from earlier when the Haut-Shadow was initially stabbed; it just seems to regard Furcas as an obstacle that is just getting in the way temporarily, and needs to be brushed aside in whatever way is easiest.

The kid is still fighting with his fright quite a bit, as could be expected of a more-or-less average child in his situation. But Jillian's actual voice being heard is a catalyst. "Don't hurt her!" His voice rings out with a sudden clarity, and he looks around Ruen at the succubus. His tiny heart seizes with something he can't name. He has no power in this situation; only his voice. But for whatever reason, that voice does seem to matter; why else would Haut have encouraged him to use it? He clings to that thread, the only thing he really has that keeps him from falling into a helpless panic. "J-just stay calm and we'll be okay..."

It's unclear whether he's talking to anyone in particular, or trying to convince himself.

Keiko's brave action at least gives him something he can do. Accepting the chalk from her -- it's half of the stick, broken in two now, but it's enough -- he looks at the older rabbitfolk and says, "Hold on." Crouching down on the ground, he starts to draw another one of his symbol-filled circles. He struggles to concentrate and stop trembling enough to remember, having to use his thumb to smudge a couple of marks that don't quite look close enough to the right shape. He's never had to draw one of these under such dire circumstances, but he knows how important it is, and he pours every ounce of exertion he can into it.

He hadn't been sure what he was expecting.

Maybe a look of confusion. Maybe shocking her out of whatever this was. Maybe one of those genuine smiles that made everything worth it. Whatever it had been, what he wasn't expecting was a look like that. Not words like that either. Seeing Jillian like that felt worse than the slap earlier. Worse than seeing her leave.

He wilts, visibly. The fear in her reflected on him in sorrow. The anger that might have been in him not so long ago had no place to burn. He had never been fully sure how she thought of him but-

It was better than this, right?

The kid's cry is what breaks through the moment he's hung in. Misunderstanding or not, that call sparks a flare of fierce anger inside of his soul. None of them would understand. None of them probably could. It was like how it had always been. The next time he reaches out, Haut uses both arms. Scared as she was she might lash out, but he pulls Jillian into a fierce embrace.

"No one's hurting you." His voice is low and brimming with emotion. "I've got you. I'll make this better." Each utterance a promise to her. "No matter what." Haut's skin glows as the old scars covering his body open up again, the runic inscriptions flaring as he looks back to the shade of himself. A construction of some enemy that had already gone on too long.

"Hey Jill. Do you trust me?"

Jill physically trembles when she's pulled into that embrace. She doesn't cry out and doesn't resist, but she doesn't respond in the way Haut would probably have hoped, either. She shakes like a terrified kitten, hiding her face from everything and everyone.

That is, until by some weird physical positioning in his desperation, Haut accidentally brushes one of his hands across the small, black, lefthand horn sticking out from her bangs just above her forehead. The one place, at some point, whether he may or may not recall, Jillian had asked not to be touched, but not explained why. For whatever the length of time that hand of Haut's connected with one of the more obvious details of her demonic heritage, Jillian briefly stops trembling and, in that short span of time, aggressively clutches at him in the same way as before, pushing her head into his chest.

However, as soon as his hand would fall away from that horn, her fright resumed, her fingers loosening from their grip and holding themselves against her own body protectively.

In all of this, though, Jillian manages no audible words.

"We need just a bit more time. Furcas - please unleash it. Show this being what earned you that title."

At Merciviant's request, Furcas' eyes flash a dark red, and with a surge of strength and speed he wrenches the weapon upwards in an attempt to launch the foe away or rip through it, whichever it can manage. He seems to understand that this entity isn't taking him seriously and that he likely can't inflict lasting damage on it, instead focusing on buying time for the others to recover.

As Furcas puts a burst of aggression into its attack, the polearm's attempts to push the shadow up and/or away only succeed in going further through its body and beyond, such that, given the extra burst of strength and speed, the skeletal sentry would likely now have pushed the entirety of its weapon most of the way -through- the shadow at this point, with the piercing end now fully outside of its body on the other side. As the weapon is ripped upward, it only succeeds in pulling the weapon's weight through the upper body of the shadow and then out of it, altogether, forcing the shadow-Haut back another foot or so but doing no actual harm. The feeling of the weapon going into, through, and then out of the shadow's semi-corporeal form is that of trying to swing or push a pointed stick through a person made with the consistency of pudding.

The shadow regards this extra assault with silent contempt, and rather than counterattack Furcas, it only gives a side-glance at where Jillian and Haut are semi-prone, then beyond them at where Toby is hastily attempting to etch further runes with his chalk, small fragments of shadows flickering off of its body. With this brief assessment, it turns with absolute disregard for its aggressor, attempting to make its way with slow, calculated and menacing steps toward Toby, though the distance it now has to cross is a bit greater thanks to its current altercation situation.

"Give him back to us..." issues a malevolent, dark hiss from the shadow once it begins advancing on its new target, its features still mostly obscured by its lack of actual solidity.

Haut's attention is split as the shadow of himself makes tracks and his hand lays over Jill's horn. The sudden surge of insight into some comments from the past. With a grimace, he takes hold of it again, hoping the calming effect seems to stay true. "Sorry, Jill." He keeps his voice calm as his other arm wraps beneath her. Picking her up does feel strangely good, but he doesn't have time to get lost in the feel good power trip.

Rapidly approaching the end of his bag of tricks, Haut struggles with an internal dialogue between simply leaving, and dealing with the fact that evil-him was currently looking at murderous intent at the kid. If he had been a matter of one thing or another, he knew which choice he'd make. But he wasn't given the luxury to cut and run here, not with morality being a thing.

Given his earlier weapon hadn't exploded, he felt confident enough to lash out with a kick to the back of the leg, hoping that something naturally organic might have an effect where every other weapon thrown out had failed so far. "I already told you, ask nicely!"

As inferred, Haut's physical contact with one or the other of Jillian's horns seems to somehow block out the terror effect that is otherwise afflicting her, causing her, instead, to hold onto him like some kind of sailor-mouthed life-preserver. Her weight seems to be a non-issue and she offers no resistance whatsoever, either.

The shadow seems insistent on heading toward Toby, and as such, does not put up a defense about the sudden leg-shot. The kick does, however, connect fully, bending its knee forward from the impact and forcing it into a stumbling kneel upon the other leg. This has a side effect of also getting its attention, as its 'face' shifts in Haut's (and Jillian's) direction. With no fanfare, it reaches into its shadowed chest cavity, and unceremoniously withdraws... another exact replica of the same Sword that it lost a short time ago, which, again, is completely colored and detailed, unlike the shadow that is now holding it, which makes for a pretty neat contrast. A low hiss emerges from where its mouth might be, but it doesn't act immediately.

"Oh you cunt."

Weakly, Jillian punches Haut in the chest immediately after that word is uttered, but without saying why. He knows why.

Jillian's voice is heard once more, echoing through the air with a bit more volume than the previous ones, and her voice comes in a good notch clearer as well, akin to someone having tuned an antenna to a much better position than before.

"Please.. I'll behave... I don't want to go back there, it's so dark and miserable. Everything hurts down there.."

"He's trying his best, it's not his fault. He didn't ask for this..."

"If anything happens to that little pumpkin, I swear I'm going to burn this town to the ground..."

"That had to be him. I recognize that power..."

"That feels... really nice, actually... is this what I've been missing?"

"Oh goodness, not in public!"

"It's nice to come home every day and know that Haut is glad to see me..."

"I'm going to make a rabbit-fur coat out of that bunny's hide, even if it's not actually rabbit fur... I've worn skin before, it's not so bad."

"I worry sometimes that I come on too strong, you know?"

Several thoughts just kind of... all scatter themselves over each other in rapid succession, but then gradually fade away until there is nothing else being said.

Finally finishing the circle, Toby looks up and reaches towards the still-bleeding Ruen. He places his other hand down in the middle of the circle, and grunts as he activates the spell, a red light emitting from the lines drawn on the ground. He strains visibly, but sure enough, opened flesh begins to mend and close. Within a few seconds there's nothing but smooth flesh where the wound was, and Toby pants as he sits back on his heels, rubbing sweaty palms on his shorts.

Feeling his wound heal, Ruen forced himself to his feet, though he immediately regretted it as he was woozy enough to involuntarily, visibly wobble. He was still angry, too, but he held it in for now. "Keiko, get the kid out of here. If that shadow can be kicked, it can be punched. I'mma beat it's aaa..." Ruen said, stopping himself short. "Well, I'mma kill it."

"Ruen, no!" Keiko exclaimed. Her adrenaline had reached new heights tonight, and her brother was too worn out to get out of her grip, so he wasn't going anywhere. "You almost died fighting tall lady, and that thing can summon swords just like she summoned those weird curved swords! Let's just go home! I don't want to lose you, you're all I've got!"

"OKAY, FINE!" Ruen roared, scaring Keiko enough for her to let go of him. He then immediately turned to Toby, kneeling down and extending a hand to him. "C'mon, kid, you should come with us. This ain't no place for people who can't defend themselves," he pointed out, turning to look at Keiko as if hinting at something.

"Isn't that a bad idea?" Keiko asked, looking over at Jillian. "Tall lady's mad enough at us-"

"She can have him back when she's feeling civil," Ruen pointed out loudly, to make sure Jillian can hear him. "We'll take care of him until she's ready to do so AND I'LL WATCH MY MOUTH AROUND HIM, AIGHT?" he added forcefully, causing Keiko to gasp, but not out of fear. She'd never seen him swallow his pride this much before. This was a first.

"Now come on," Ruen said clamly after sighing. "You don't have to stay with us, but you shouldn't stay here. That one isn't in any condition to watch after anybody, right now, and the tall dude can handle whatever that shadow is." Ruen wouldn't force Toby to go with him, but he wasn't going to leave without offering, either. Besides, as worried about Ruen as she was, Keiko was worried about Toby, as well, so she wasn't against helping him.

Ruen was definitely looking away from Toby when he felt the urge to speak with emphasis, by the way. Totally. Probably wouldn't help the poor kid's ears TOO much, but an effort was made. Totally.

Merciviant considers its options carefully - while Furcas's attacks are clearly not causing effective damage to the shadowy figure, they are at least distracting it. The demon's specialty is, as its soldier-like form would imply, physical strength and resilience; as strong as he is, he isn't suited for any other form of battle.

I could have him continue the assault to allow Toby and his current protectors to escape...or I could have him join them as a bodyguard once the fighter and lady are prepared. Both of them seem quite powerful, if a bit out of sorts. I believe they can handle themselves, but there is too much I do not know about this entity.

...Furthermore, I do not wish for Furcas to be injured. Immortal or no, I refuse to engage in the callous cruelty that my 'teacher' espoused.

"...Wait. That works."

It looks down to the small demon that has been with it this whole time.

"My friend, please accompany the child and do what is needed to keep him safe. Those with him as well, should things get to be too much. I will seek you out as soon as it is reasonable to do so."

Buer lets out a distorted mew in response and quickly trots over to where Toby is, all five hooved legs click-clacking with surprising volume in the process.

Merciviant refocuses on Furcas, ready to supply any magical support it can to keep him and their current allies as able to fight as it can.

Science was a discipline that requires constant testing and reevaluation. And, while he still hasn't gotten all the data required for a full proof, feeling the Shade on his feet more than anything tells him the general rules for how it works. If only he had time to fully articulate it. Or curse.

That one was more for personal comfort though.

The runes covering his body flicker and fade, their effect short lived and leaving blackened marks across his flesh as Haut tightens his grip on Jill. "Hang on-" Snapping his knee up, Haut works on staying in close, denying the fake him room to properly use the sword as he tries to ram his knee into it's face. Then he drives his foot down into the wrist of it's hand, trying to pin the weapon down and keep it neutralized.

"Physical strikes are effective! Hands and feet, people!" Despite everything, the call-out is clear, delivered with the voice of a man who has directed battles in the past. Hopefully, the rest of them can capitalize.

The little pumpkinhead gives a "But --" that seems like it's going to precede an emotional protest, but it seems to die in their throat before it gets far. He looks around, once, and then back at Ruen. At the rabbitfolk who personally used his body as a shield to protect him, in spite of already being injured. Swallowing, he nods, managing to realize that in spite of his distress, he'll likely be as safe going with these two as he would anyone here. He is further reassured when Merciviant directs Buer to join them, as well. Reaching out to take Ruen's hand, he stands, legs slightly wobbly. He says nothing else, but his action should be confirmation enough.

The shadow reacts pretty swiftly, as if it were anticipating a follow-up after merely kneeling there and hissing like some kind of weirdo. As Haut's knee rises, it brandishes the sword horizontally to block the strike, but, perhaps to both their surprises, Haut's knee passes -through- the weapon as if it were made of air, and connects solidly with whatever would pass for a face with this creature. This attack sends it stumbling back to land squarely on its behind, a few feet back, and it becomes noticeable that the sword seems to be fused into the hand that drew it, where the hilt connects to its wrist, and Haut's second follow-up does successfully pin down that arm to the ground. However, retaliation is in order, as the shadow attempts to swing one of its own legs inward from his sitting position, attempting to sweep Haut off his feet.

"Furcas, fall back! Protect the boy!"

At Merciviant's command, Furas nods and leaps back (but not before giving the shadow one more defiant glare) and joins the retreating group, making sure to keep close to Toby. He stares down at the child, seemingly watching for injuries or exhaustion.

Buer mews at the demonic soldier, apparently giving him an update.

Merciviant follows suit, falling back to its summoned allies and bracing to run as fast as it can with them if needed.

Taking the pumpkinhead's hand, Ruen firmly but gently lifts the kid up and, in a sweeping motion, gets his arm under Toby. Woozy as he was, he was still plenty strong. "Aight, Cake, we're out," he warned his sister before making a mad dash away from the giant mess before them.

"You shouldn't be running in your condition!" Keiko warned, though said warning was unfounded as Ruen slowed to a walk once Haut and Jillian were out of sight. Fortunately, the inn wasn't very far from the Fountain. Once they got to their room, Ruen sat the kid gently on his bed.

Assuming Haut's hands are still on one or more of Jillian's horns (she seems to be pressing herself further into his chest, the longer this goes on, as well, and her breathing begins to become noticeably heavier), one of her arms weakly drops and flicks two fingers downward, and she mumbles something incomprehensible. At this incomprehensibility, a jagged shard of solid black shadow, her own doing, springs up from the ground and intercepts the Shadow-Haut's attempted sweep, with a loud -thwack- of solid-shadow on solid-shadow. Jillian's arm kind of remains limp there for that particular time-being.

Jillian's voice, however, suddenly comes up in the air again, as has been the case numerous times thus far. However, this time it is a garbled mess that only remotely resembles any words, most of which come off as distorted giggling and a host of other vaguely-female sounds, followed by what sounds vaguely like the word "responsibility" before it cuts out again with a harsh buzz.

The sight of everyone else simply running away does absolutely nothing to fill Haut with the love of Truce. Gone were the days of the watch whistles blowing and bringing all the other militia running. At the very least he could have trusted Milo or Cassiel.

"Occupied at the 'mo, hun." With the shadow having failed to execute his Cobra Kai maneuver, Haut starts working on his own endgame. Lifting up onto the tip of his toes, Haut releases the shadow's wrist before whipping around, keeping Jillian clutched close as he roundhouse kicks the shadow's head. Not one to assume a creature made out of shadow would be weak to having possibly a non-existent brain concussed, he instead tries to just follow it up immediately.

A curb stomp would probably put it down if a kick to the leg worked.

The shadow seems to be confused at the fact that another piece of shadow sprung up to stop its sweep attack, not really understanding what happened. This confusion definitely gives Haut the opportunity to successfully bring his foot around and solidly connect with the shadow's head, and it would seem as though there isn't a need for a follow-up afterward; the force of Haut's kick seems to cause the shadow-Haut, as a whole, to explosively detonate into a cloud of shadow particles that each give off tiny little hisses as they, one by one, evaporate into the air. Very subtly, almost like a whisper on the wind, the words "My queen..." can be heard, before there is no longer a shadow of any kind to deal with, any longer. Instead, there are two bright, round and shining jewels that come suddenly rolling across the cobblestone road, coming to rest in individual crevasses where they become lodged.

As soon as these two jewels show up and the shadow disperses, Jillian fully buries her face in Haut's chest, her limp arm coming back up to weakly hang onto him alongside her other one. Her breathing is still significantly labored, but her wings appear to quickly shrivel up and then fade away, leaving her physical appearance somewhat "normal Jillian" once more.

"Jill we need to talk about your admirers." He jostles her somewhat, looking around at the lack of other shadows before cautiously removing his hand from her horn. Assuming she doesn't immediately seize or something similarly worrying, Haut kneels down, supporting Jill with his knee as he collects the jewels. Both were going to need study, and if they came out of that shadow he wasn't just gonna leave them around to sprout new shadows.

Standing straight once again, he briefly wonders if he should hunt down the others and give them the all clear. But then again it was partially their fault in the first place, and he needed to go take care of Jill. And so, with that, Haut turns and starts making his way back to the house he'd reclaimed once again. They'd figure it out.

Or not. Who cares.

Jillian tightens her grip slightly on Haut's shoulder as he rests her minimal weight on his knee, as if afraid he was going to set her down or let her go entirely. She seems to relax again when he hefts her back up, and her breathing -sort- of begins to even out as he carries her back, making no attempt to resist or otherwise. If anything, the heart-shaped pupils that are now firmly planted in her eyes seem to indicate that she's not going to be left alone for awhile, whether he wanted to or not. Some solutions come with other problems, it seems.

Merciviant, who hadn't managed to catch up all the way, stops when it sees the battle appears to be over. Abruptly turning around, it snaps its fingers and its demons return to its side.

"It seems we are finished, for what it is worth. Let us go and be sure."

The summoner cautiously walks up to the two with its demons in tow, both Furcas seeming to be on guard yet calm, and Buer without a care in the world.

Merciviant makes note of...something, apparently left behind in the air. Its eye-light constantly shifts around as it studies something not quite seen.

It speaks as it draws near, its tone as steady as before.

"My apologies for my misdirected strategy. I have never been in a battle of this nature before, and this was my first time working with my new associate here. We are relieved it seems to be over, but...what exactly happened here? Is this a common occurence in these lands?"

Haut half turns, his protective grip on Jillian tightening for a moment before he susses out who was speaking. "Oh, you. Don't worry about it, you kept it off me and kept the kid safe." The pumpkin head was a weird one, but he had seen plenty of their kind around before. Nothing like the Cleft to desensitize you to weirdness.

"Common is a rough word. But no. I'm not sure what happened, but if I were you I'd go hunker down somewhere for the rest of the night and hope nothing else weird goes down." He turns away and starts walking again before waiting for the fellow combatant to reply. "Check up on the kid, let 'im know Jill's okay. Trust me. She will be."

The last part is said with the certianty of a man who would love heaven and earth need be. That being said, this conversation wasn't gonna stop him either.

Truly, this realm is one of fascination.
I had best do as he says, for now.

Merciviant turns to its allies and bows.

"It was a pleasure to work with you. Thank you again for contracting with me. I shall happily call upon you again, should you wish so."

Furcas wordlessly nods in response, the now-calm gales around its skull having an air of satisfaction to them.

Buer yawns and stretches, but does nothing else other than watch the two as Furcas then returns the bow and slowly fades away.

"Now then. Shall we go and see him?"

The cat-like demon purrs, and the two head in the direction of the inn.