Masquerade Ball [Cadet Dungeon/A Team]

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After the battle ended the bandages around Susan's limbs gave slack and released her gently, as they had done before. She could feel another surge of resilience within herself as she had toward the beginning of the night. It was comforting. It meant that she could keep up, even in the thick of combat she was holding her own, no special considerations were being made for her at all like they had before. Yet she was still deficient in a key area and that was her emotional reaction to trauma. Despite her welling of inner strength she could still be seen visibly shivering at the sight of blood and snapping her head to sudden sounds. This was not a positive event of growth. She had watched people killed in front of her. Susan would never get over it. As long as she woke every morning, when she laid her head to rest at night insane cackling of the burning man will haunt her troubled sleep. This inner strength did not make her calloused to the psychological wounds, it helped her resist them. Resist, but not remove. It took most of her composure to refrain from breaking down into a sniveling mess in this terrible, awful place.

Seshat hovered above to spread her light of prescience yet again, though it was accompanied by glyphs of scarabs blinking in and out. Along with the soothing mental effect of calm understanding it also began to dull the physical senses, numb the ache. It didn't lessen it or make it disappear, but it conveyed the understanding that this pain was temporary and gave the mental fortitude to push past it and allow it to fade. Susan breathed in a shuddering breath and allowed the light to bathe her in its comfort.
"*haaaaa...* ...o-our target is up ahead, I can feel the weakening of the mist just as before. The path appears to be clear to the target, it s-seems that was the last obstruction," she meekly informed. Wasting no time she wrapped her combat sling back around herself and began to move past the mirror room at a slow jog. There was no need to maneuver it, it was not in the way. It appears they had survived "T"s preliminary game. For the moment.

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Tension - Maria Woodsworth:

Cecilia marched forward in an uncharacteristically mechanical fashion. A blank and unperturbed expression rested on her face, but whether this was a brave face or a genuine lack of fear mattered not in the moment; she and her allies had their sights set on the target ahead.

The team was silent as they pressed onward, as per the usual. She must not be the only one that had been psychologically scarred, it made her feel guilty to take this as hard as she did. It reminded her of the Eternal Divide in a way. They weren't happy memories. Officer Frost did speak up with praise though she felt she should not be praised for this. Susan had done her best to keep her team alive. For all that played it, no matter how well she planned it, no matter how meticulously she calculated it meant that others had to die along the way. That was not praise-worthy. The timid woman hurried along in silence for some time before speaking up, stopping just short what she knew to be their destination.

"Th-thank you, Officer Frost..." she accepted.



Susan turned to continue, but left her gaze on Officer Frost to deliver a final point with the only opportunity she had to do so with all the courage she could muster.
"He is a terrorist, Officer Frost. He has a negative view of the government and wants us to act less than we present ourselves in order to feed his twisted ideals. Please understand." With a deep breath the short woman continued onward.

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Tension - Maria Woodsworth:

loli loli stepy stepy

Playing to his ego? Now that wasn't something he considered, he'd have resorted to only aggression to get through this problem. Susan just had proved that she was valuable in the battlefield despite her meekness. It also just further proved the importance of teamwork, which is something a certain princess should have learned by now.

Albrecht, Lvl 8:

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Susan released a shuddering breath with Officer Frost's compliment. The businesswoman could understand he wished to be encouraging, they would all need it through the trial they were facing. Motivation was a luxury. Yet she did not wish to be praised for all she had done tonight, she wished to forget.
"....thank you, I-I believe I understand. Which is why I hope you can trust me in the c... coming events." The trust of her team was paramount, for all their sakes of course. A team was nothing without trust, let alone Susan's shaky confidence would have any doubt placed in her questioning herself which can lead to the wrong decision. She would need faith enough to one day take command and stick to her resolutions... if she could survive this mentally in one piece...

As Susan allowed her eyes to glaze over and turn inward she was violently brought out of her reverie by a dreaded and familiar voice. She stopped where she stood and turned deathly pale.

...h-how... m-m-much of th-that did h-he hear...?


Susan could not hide the very obvious fear in her little body, trembling where she stood. She had made a grave error. In reassuring her team mates she did not allow trust to foster and present itself naturally. Through this reassurance their enemy had gained insight into their approach. Through this insight her major approaching tactic had failed. Susan could no longer glean info on 'T' in the normal way, she could not longer appear to be on his side and 'play his game'. She had failed in a very important way. Emotions and baseless negative thoughts began to spiral in her already taxed mind, though she had to keep some semblance of normalcy.
"W-we will n-not allow y-you to c-continue this ch... charade, " she muttered in a fearful voice, "I-If you turn yourself in n-now we c-can end this qui...qui-quickly with less chance f-for accidental... a-accidental death..." She did not put on a brave face, but Susan would still continue and attempt to resolve this mess. Even now did she plan. It would take time for her to process the meaning behind his words, if they were or were not lies, and if he would take her bait of reverse psychology and remain where he was. In the meantime they would need to move.

Susan entered the mirror and began moving down the only path.

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Tension - Maria Woodsworth:

midget midget zoomy zoomy

"Hmmmmm..." Susan whined quietly. She could simply not tell Officer Frost her intentions lest he catch on and didn't trust herself enough to share her information without her counterparts making their knowledge obvious. It was a helpless feeling. She would need to begin planning again, if she could not inform her teammates the businesswoman would need to begin conducting and directing her behavior to achieve the desired result, that being to use 'T's megalomania against him. Susan fel that her cowardice in that scenario could be a possible benefit, she was certain he delighted in striking fear in the Cadets, although she had truly been terrified that he would have gone so far as to lose his temper at the revelation that the only officer in this scenario attempting to reason with him and listen to him was doing so in order to bring him down. But he wasn't stupid. She knew that already. One could not orchestrate an attack such as this if he were not intelligent.

Though he did cast doubt into her with his remarks about the hostages. He insisted that he had none and yet the ones attacking them were the hostages. This would make sense in the worst case. It would mean that he himself would force the Cadets to harm innocent people along the way to arrest him, which would make them seem monstrous. They had no alternative if the brainwashed civilians were attempting to fight them. Worse still is that in each and every scenario they had struck the first blow. None of it would be seen as self defense. And she could not tell if he were lying or not. Nothing could be done for the moment, as long as there were those willing to fight them their lives were in danger. The Cadets could only continue to move forward. The sooner "T" was in custody the sooner this nightmare would come to an end.

Susan approached Cecilia before moving again.
"Officer Hunt, I would like to politely request that you allow me to, u-um, place my h-hand upon your face," she asked sheepishly. It was such an awkward ability to have.
"The control of my abilities has increased, I would like to place an additional monitoring sigil upon you in case we become separated." On a positive affirmation she would lay her fingertips on Cecilia for an Eye of Horus to spread around her own eye like ink on paper. When the mark was finished Susan could observe through yet another set of eyes. She began to send a message to Officers Frost and Hunt when this was complete.

Susan was not one to be outfoxed for long. She did not appreciate being made a fool of, and "T" had made them all into laughing stocks this evening. Through his trickery, his games, and the trauma he induced she was at her wit's end. As she began to jog again Susan silently resolved to capture "T" by any and all means available. He would lose this game in the worst way, and the stakes were worse than death. It was the eradication of their entire twisted operation.

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