While the concert is ongoing, a dark, scarred cruiser takes the opportunity to land, almost entirely unobserved - and the landing zone personnel who approach would have second thoughts. If one wasn't dead, and the other...screaming?

Screams which slowly start to make their way closer to the concert - the people who weren't at the concert already at least.

Ah, a delightful accompaniment to their next number! It would be better if the screams were in harmony, but you can't have everything! 

The Toy Soldier continues singing, unconcerned. 

Some of the other band members seem more worried. The violinist pauses before starting the next song, looking to the lead singer for a cue. 

The lead singer gives him a smile that might be meant as reassuring and plays the opening chord on the piano. The show must, apparently, go on. 

-Oh. That was a surprisingly in harmony scream! From...near the back of the concert crowd.

-And when did this guy carrying a wicked looking bladed weapon, and with eyes that are glowing...slightly orange? Make it to the makeshift stage? He has a wicked grin on his face.

The guitarist looks the intruder up and down, unimpressed. His metal fingers pick out a steady rhythm. 

The rest of the band likewise continue to play. 

The man tips his hat and gives a flamboyant bow. "By all means, dear bards, proceed! Music is the best accompaniment to chaos and delight!"

The song winds down. The bassist drops their cigarette, grinding it out with their heel, then starts picking out a new bass line, faster and more energetic. It's an excellent match for the rising violence. 

Grinning like a wild thing, the guitarist sings a duet with the bassist about corruption, arson and betrayal as the crowd below them scream and run. 

And those causing the furour are delighted by this turn of events! Two can even be seen dancing in amongst the carnage! (...And are those people...trying to eat each other?? Maybe.)

(Ey is so delighted.)

And in the midst, fighting as much as slaughtering, Wrath itself stalks.

...hot. The bassist shoots Wrath an appreciative glance as they keep singing. 

"The fire burns bright everywhere tonight..." 

The pianist, who's been providing accompaniment for most of the song, adds their voice to a three-part harmony in the final chorus. 

As the final notes fade out, the last few hapless concertgoers fall dead or flee out of sight. 

And those that had caused this seem...content? In their way?

...Also a few of them are making out with each other. Apparently carnage gets the blood up.

"You seem to have laid waste to our audience," the lead singer remarks, loud enough to be heard clearly by everyone left in the room. 

"Some people might call that rude." 

"Oh, I'm sorry," her eyes are still glowing slightly red as she talks, "were you using them?"

"A concert without an audience would serve no logical purpose," the flautist pipes up from where she's sat with her legs dangling over the front of the stage. "It might as well be a rehearsal." 

"What, are we not audience enough?" the guy who'd turned up in front of the stage asks, turning his head away from his partner.

"That depends on whether you want more music, more kissing, or more murder," says the violinist, his instrument dangling carelessly from his hand.

"Me, I think all of those sound good, but maybe not all at once." 

"You've obviously not been trying hard enough. All three together are delightful."

"Want to come over here and prove it?" he invites. 

"Kolya, stop flirting with the gatecrashers," says the guitarist. 

"Aw, but what if I want to flirt?"

"You always wanna flirt, L."

The violinist—Kolya—sticks his tongue out at the guitarist. "I think I will keep flirting with the pretty murderers," he says, winking at Lust. 

"Well, if you insist." Lust hops out of Gluttony's arms (and ey is tiny), and skips over to Kolya. "We should at least start with make-outs. Work our way up to the other things."

"Sounds like a plan." 

Only his bow hand is even sort of free to pull em in, since the other is still holding a violin, but his mouth is entirely unencumbered. Well, it was. 

He's not a bad kisser. 

Oooh! Ey makes a delighted smile and kisses back, managing to wind eir arms around his neck.

Ey is a very good kisser. (Ey should be, ey's had a lot of practice.)

"He does realise that if he hurts em, Wrath here'll kill him?"

The lead singer raises an eyebrow. "That might be entertaining to watch. I hope you won't be too disappointed if it doesn't stick."

-The woman identified as Wrath quirks her head, eyes alight, lips twisting into something that would be a smile if the scars on her face allowed for it. "Doesn't stick, you say?"

"Haven't met anything that can do it yet," says the guitarist, setting his instrument aside and coming over to join the little discussion around the piano.

"And believe me, we've tried a lot of things." 

His body language is a clear invitation to prove him wrong, mostly directed at Wrath but open to the others as well. 

Wrath gives another facial expression that's probably a wicked smirk.

But she isn't the one that attacks.

Pride flicks her whip out, with a practiced motion, to coil around Kit's neck. A slight twist of her hand and the metal scales that make up the surface of it change and become sharp.

Kit tilts his head up and grins at her, but otherwise holds very very still. 

She goes to twist her hand again, smirk widening into a wicked grin and-

A gunshot echoes around them, and the bullet with hit Kit square in the centre of his forehead.

"Damnit, S," Pride curses, but finishes the motion anyway - energy crackles along the length of the whip and she pulls it. In theory, this should sever Kit's head from his shoulders.

It does! The head rolls and bounces along the floor, laughing silently as blood streams from the bullet-wound. 

His body sways for a moment, then clumsily crouches down and starts feeling around for the head, which ended up at the wrong angle to see what the body is doing. 

Kolya, who looked up at the sound of gunfire, shakes his head and goes back to making out with Lust. 

Lust apparently didn't see any point in looking around at the gunshot - either ey's secure in the knowledge that ey won't be attacked, or ey's used to this kind of thing. Or possibly both of those.

-Well then.

"That is a new one," Pride comments. "Wrath, please don't get any ideas."

"No promises. You know me, Pri. Always looking for a new thrill."

Celestine picks up Kit's severed head by the hair. 

"Impressive, isn't it?" they say, pride obvious in their voice, as they help Kit put his head back on his neck and hold it there while it heals enough to stay. 

"That's one word for it," Gluttony agrees. "We didn't think there was anything else even remotely like us around."

"Ooh. Do we get to go hunting again?"

"...hunting?" Kit asks, his neck having now healed enough that he can talk again. 

"Well, after we busted out, we spent some time hunting down everyone responsible for doing this to us. Turns out when you shove a ton of tech into unwilling test subjects we get really cranky."

Kit chuckles and shakes his head.

"Nah, I don't think that's gonna be needed here," he says, with a sideways glance at Celestine. 

"Agreed. Congratulations on your revenge, but the circumstances here are somewhat different." 

-It looks like Wrath clocked that sideways glance, and she tilts her head, watching. "How?"

The robot drummer has been quietly helping the Toy Soldier pack away the band's equipment in the background.

Now, before anyone can reply to that question, he inserts himself into the conversation to ask, "So, does your friend over there make a habit of exchanging bodily fluids with strangers?" 

Gluttony snorts. "This is kind of an unusual situation. Normally we don't meet anyone interesting enough to catch eir interest. That said, if we did...yeah, I think ey probably would make a habit of that. Ey's got very hot blood."

"Interesting is...certainly a word for it," he agrees, putting down the box he was carrying and leaning on the edge of the stage next to Kit.

"Did I hear you say that you have something similar to our immortality?" 

"You did," Pride confirms. "I'm not sure whether our lifespan has been extended any, it's not been that long since we freed ourselves from our shackles, but we're certainly harder to kill. Wrath here has been nearly a walking skeleton before and survived."

"That was fun," Wrath leers.

"Can't say I've ever found near-death experiences very enjoyable, but each to their own." 

"I do," Kit comments, stealing his top hat and putting it on. 

"Oh—should we do introductions?" 

"-Oh. Yes. Normal people do indeed do introductions don't they?" Avarice spins his hat off his head, and sweeps it, and his bardiche out to different sides in an elaborate bow. "I'm known as Avarice, and this," he gestures to Pride, "is our good lady doctor Pride."

"Feel free to ignore the fool," Pride agrees. "Lust is the one currently insistent on introducing eir tongue to your violinist's tonsils. Wrath is the redhead who has a permanent case of murderface. Gluttony," she indicates Gluttony, who waves. "Sloth is...probably sleeping somewhere? He woke up long enough to steal my kill, the bastard and Envy is- Actually, does anyone know where E is?"

"Right here," Envy says from behind the band.

Kit jumps, then shakes himself and glares at everyone while he tries to pretend he didn't. 

"Charming to meet you all," Celestine says. 

"I am Dr Celestine, captain of this little crew; this is Cristián, my first mate," indicating Kit, "Martin, our pilot," the brass robot, "and Ivy, our archivist and navigator," with a nod towards the flautist. 

"The fire hazard over there is Ashes, our quartermaster, and the one swapping fluids with Lust is Nikolai, our engineer." 

"It's jolly good to meet you all!" the Toy Soldier says as it tromps past carrying a drum. 

"Aaand that's the Toy Soldier. It's just sort of...here." 

"Is...it? Always that cheerful?" Envy asks, tilting his head slightly. (His eyes, if anyone is looking, are unnatural, and there's a flash of metal visible in his mouth as he speaks.)

"So far, yes," Martin says, retrieving his hat from Kit's head. 

"I should finish helping it load our equipment—a few extra pairs of hands wouldn't go amiss." 

"Sure, why not," Wrath shrugs. "Point us at the things you want moving. Av?"

"Must I?" he asks, even as he hands off his bardiche to Pride.

Martin makes no comment on the answer to this question, merely pointing out the equipment he wants moving. 

When the three of them are out of sight and earshot of the group, he speaks. "You asked how our situation is different from yours. That...isn't a question I wanted to answer in front of Celestine." 

"Oooh! An intrigue plot!" Av practically bounces.

"Av, hush. I'd noticed the look...Cristián," (she pronounces it perfectly), "was giving them."

"Yes, I was hoping you'd caught that. Celestine is the one who made us all immortal, by creating mechanical prostheses and...something to do with nanotechnology I don't entirely understand. All of us were brought back from the brink of death, and...only some of us had time to consent in advance. Kit—that is, Cristián—did, I believe, as did Kolya—Nikolai." 

His pronunciation of Cristián is awkward, as though he doesn't say it much. 

Both of them notice that. "There something he prefers to be called?"

"Kit—would rather people call him Kit than try and fail to pronounce his full name, if they can't wrap their tongues around it," Martin explains haltingly.

"With Kolya, I would suggest sticking to Nikolai until he invites you to do otherwise." 

"Understood," Wrath nods sharply. (She wouldn't have presumed with Nikolai, but it's good information to have regardless.)

"Yes, yes," Avarice says, not quite dismissively - he's definitely filing that information away (and using their internal comms to make sure the others are aware of that information as well), but. "That's all very good, but it sounds like we do have hunting to do. ...Although is it really hunting if you know where your quarry is?"

"Yes, well. Therein lies the complication," Martin says in a dry tone.

"Celestine is at least as immortal as we are, although by different means—about which I know very little, before you ask. I wasn't exactly around for it." 

"A challenge..."

"So, before we get too far ahead of ourselves. Have you seen anything tried that should kill them that won't? Like...spacing them, dismemberment and then cremation, firing them into a sun...wait, nix that last one, no easy way to confirm it was successful..."

"Dismemberment works about as well as you've seen it work on Kit. Possibly even less, they're harder to injure in the first place. I haven't seen them be cremated or fired into a sun, and I have no information on whether I should expect to survive either of those myself," Martin says.

"I know I can survive hard vacuum—it was one of the first things I asked—so I'd be surprised if Celestine can't." 

"...Would you prefer them dead? To be clear, we're probably going to try anyway-"

"-honestly surprised Wrath's still here talking to us and not trying..." Avarice mumbles.

"-but it's better if we don't also have to fight you guys on it."

"You...might have to fight some of us on it," Martin admits.

"Mostly Kit, but—none of the others have ever objected to what Celestine does, as far as I know. I...won't get in your way, but there's a limit to how much I can help." 

Wrath nods. "I think we can at least temporarily disable you all if it's required. We're very good at what we do."

"—oh, there is a. Further complication."

Martin hesitates.

"As I mentioned, I don't know very much about how our immortality works. Celestine is the only one who fully understands all the modifications they've made to us, and the only one who can repair us if something goes wrong." 

Avarice and Wrath are quiet for a long moment, looking to each other.

"We could try to beat the answers out of them," Avarice comments. "And it's not like Pri doesn't have a good learning curve on tech she never had to deal with before."

"How often have things gone wrong?"

He thinks about it. 

"I needed a lot of maintenance in the first few decades after my mechanisation, but it's tapered off since then, and the others seem to need even less upkeep. I'd say...most of the time, when one of us ends up in the lab it's because of something Celestine wants to improve rather than something that's broken per se." 

"...That's good to know."

"Nice to hear you're better put together than us!"

Martin fidgets, tapping the fingers of one hand with his thumb.

"Well, I'm not claiming it's a perfect job or that there's nothing I'd like improving, but I'm...functional. Are your modifications not so much?" 

"We're functional, but Sloth sleeps like...ninety percent of the time, Gee's only alive because Pri managed to patch her to not need a constant IV drip of nutrients, and E...well."

"They weren't that interested in their proof of concepts being things like 'pain free' and 'functional'."

"Then—what were they going for? If you don't mind me asking." 

"I wasn't exactly...with it. For most of the time I was there."

"They wanted a plausibly deniable way to wipe undesirable elements out of colonies to provide more room for expansion. We were to make sure the tech worked. Don't think they realised quite how badly they'd chosen their test subjects..."

"They—ugh." Martin shudders, with a noise like a peal of tiny bells.

"It sounds like they got exactly what they deserved," he says, venom in his voice. 

"And then some! Pro tip: do not piss Wrath and Pri off at the same time. Completely different styles of anger that somehow compliment each other far too well."

That gets another one of those wicked supposed-to-be-a-smile, but the muscles don't work that way any more facial expressions off Wrath. "You say that like Pri ain't gonna be trying to beat Celestine into the ground when she gets told the entire story."

"I doubt that'll do much good, but I suppose an argument could be made for its positive impact on morale." 

"Yes, but unlike you, who'll do it with very little thought to anything other than 'beat into ground', Pride will have all the precision of a scalpel!" He grins at Martin. "We're all about the morale."

"What'll be better for morale is if you can come up with a way to get Celestine—not even dead, necessarily, just away. Ideally contained somehow, but even just getting them away from Kit and the others would be better than nothing." 

"I might have a couple of ideas," Wrath says thoughtfully. "What kind of strength levels are we talking here? Punch through a bulkhead?"

"Understand I'm only working from what I've seen, but what I've seen is..." Martin tries to call to mind examples of Celestine's abilities.

"They can lift any member of the crew off the ground, including me. I think Kolya and I are the only ones they would visibly struggle to lift—Kolya is much heavier than he looks. They're fast, too, which might be a bigger problem. I have enhanced vision, and they're still a blur at full speed." 

His voice grows tight as he recalls darker memories. "I don't know about a bulkhead, but I've seen them punch straight through an unenhanced human. It was...messy." 

"Takes less strength than you might think to punch through an unenhanced human," Wrath muses, apparently completely absently. "Speed might be the problem, but that just means we have to be creative with capture methods..."

"The other half of the problem will be keeping it a secret until you're ready. I...can't guarantee which, if any, of my crew can be trusted to help, and I would suggest having some contingencies you keep secret even from me." 

"Oh, you don't have to worry about people finding out. Internal comms might be fritzy but they're excellent for some things."

"Oh! That is convenient. What sort of range do you have with those?" he wonders. "Could you communicate with the rest of your group from here?" 

They're nearly at the Mechanisms' ship at this point, the closest docking point they could get to the concert venue but still quite a distance away. Above them, the ship looms much larger than one might expect for a crew so small. 

"We haven't tested full range, but we've dropped S on mountains before and been a few miles from him..."

"Easily far enough, then—ah. Time to change the subject, I think."

The Toy Soldier waves down to them from the top of the loading ramp. 

"How do you even work?" Wrath asks it, because she can't not.

"Oh, it's all clockwork!" 

And indeed, from up close there is a faint ticking noise. Its voice, though, doesn't sound like it comes from a machine—especially in contrast with Martin's, which very much does. 

"Fascinating. I didn't know anyone used old type clockwork these days." Pauses, squints. "...Although if you're immortal I suppose I shouldn't assume 'these days'."

"I'm an antique!" it says, pride clear in its voice—much more expressive than the ever-grinning face.

"I was in a museum for a while, you know," it continues, picking up a box to move it onto the ship. "I gave guided tours!" 

"Oooh, what kind of museum?" Apparently Avarice is more interested in that than Ira is, and follows after the Toy Soldier.

"It collected sculptures and paintings and dolls!" it explains.

"I was a walking exhibit! I told people all about the paintings and sculptures. My favourites were the paintings of glorious battles!" 

"Those are the best paintings!" Avarice agrees delightedly. "How long were you there for?"

"Oh, years and years! It got boring after a while," it says sadly. "No-one wanted to talk to me anymore, and it wasn't any fun. So I just walked out." 

"I'd've done the same. Did no-one try to stop you?"

"I'm not sure they even noticed, old chap!" the Toy Soldier says. "They all forgot about me after a while. It happens all the time!" 

Its tone is chipper again, but now it sounds a little forced. 

"Aw man, being forgotten about sucks. But yay for just being able to walk out?"

"Thank you!" 

It stows the box it was carrying and goes back for another. 

Avarice has no idea if this is where what he's carrying is supposed to go, but... He'll follow the Toy Soldier's example, and the walk back with it.

"Do you like it here? Uh- with Celestine and this lot?"

"Yes! It's ever so much fun!" 

Back at the concert venue, Kolya doesn't even look up from making out with Lust as Martin all but drags Wrath and Avarice out of the room. 

Kit, who seems bored now that there's no music and no-one's trying to kill each other, is sat on the edge of the stage pretending that the fact that he's not looking at Kolya and Lust is a coincidence. In his left hand—the flesh one—he spins a dagger. 

Ivy has her head buried in her book again. 

Ashes sits near her, burning flyers for their concert one by one, and trying without success to set fire to the book without Ivy noticing. 

Envy drifts around among the group, watching everything, eyes glinting weirdly, and...clicking? Quietly? Weird. He has a faint, somewhat unnerving smile on his face.

Lust is as engaged in making out with Kolya as he is with em.

"Anyone else getting...hungry?" Gluttony asks, a strange leer to her words as she licks at her lips - and teeth? Her teeth are, perhaps, a little sharper than teeth usually are.

"Mmm, yes, I could eat," Celestine agrees, looking directly at Gluttony. Their canines, when they grin, are definitely too long and sharp for human teeth. 

Gluttony's smile turns hungry and a little vicious, and she moves a little away from the others, spinning a dagger easily around her hand.

Kolya detaches from Lust long enough to say, "Oooh, are you two gonna fight? Haven't seen Celestine fight in a while." 

"Not since Coperion-12, right? That time with the space crabs?" 

Kit is also preparing to spectate, blithely unconcerned about his captain going toe-to-toe with a probable cannibal. 

"That wasn't fighting," Celestine throws over their shoulder as they move to meet Gluttony. "That was pest control." 

Lust glances over when Kolya detaches. "Have fun, Gee!"

"Oh I intend to." Gluttony's eyes flash slightly, and flips the knife up, into her hand and throws it.

Celestine—blurs, and is standing a foot or two to the side of where they were.

"I hope you didn't want this back," they say playfully, spinning the knife between long fingers. "By the rules we usually play with, it's mine now you've thrown it at me." 

"I've got plenty more where that came from," Gluttony says, cheerfully, apparently nonchalant, sauntering forward. "After all. Who throws away their only weapon?"

"Fools and dead men," Celestine agrees with a sharp-toothed grin.

There's a pistol at their waist, but they're not moving to draw it just yet, merely waiting for Gluttony to approach. 

She knows she can't move as fast as that, but she doesn't necessarily need to. She's sparred with Wrath often enough to know that speed and strength aren't always the deciding factors of a fight.

Her pace doesn't waver as she approaches Celestine, and she doesn't telegraph any hint of her plans as she gets within strike range and then twitches slightly towards Celestine's left.

Celestine almost doesn't dodge that one. But they do, and now Gluttony's own knife is heading towards her throat.

Gluttony bends backwards, plants her hands on the ground, and pivots on them, sweeping her foot towards Celestine's legs.

Unfortunately for her, legs are a moving target—and by the time Gluttony's foot arrives, the target has moved. Celestine laughs delightedly.

"Nice trick." 

Gluttony grins, sharp and vicious and attacks again. She's fast, and she's clearly no slouch at fighting, but she doesn't have Celestine's speed, and even her own boosted skills are only going to take her so far.

Celestine is faster, equally vicious, and has centuries of experience to back it up. 

Gluttony makes them work for it, but after a few minutes, it's clear that Celestine has the upper hand. 

They certainly do! Though Gluttony seems far more delighted by this fact than anything else, and when she finally finds herself going down, she goes down cackling delightedly.

"Good fight!" she declares.

"The same to you," Celestine says, offering a hand to help her up. "It's been a while since I've had quite that much fun fighting one-on-one." 

Gluttony will take it, grinning. "I'm not even the best fighter of the group!"

"Oh?" Celestine looks around speculatively at the other members of Gluttony's crew still present. "Who is, would you say?"

"Might depends... S is probably the strongest of us, but he tends to just want to sleep. Av and Wrath regular beat the tar out of each other, and they won't spar with the rest of us, and seeing what they can do...Probably one of them?"

"Noted." 

This is the face of someone who is absolutely planning to ask Avarice or Wrath or both for a spar in the near future. 

"Now, were you serious about wanting to eat? I'm sure we can find somewhere for dinner nearby if you eat the same things as baseline humans, but it might be a little trickier if you don't." 

"I can always eat," Gluttony says, and there's something a little dark under her words. "And we're probably easier to feed than most baseline humans. We do eat the same as baselines, we're just...less constrained, in some ways."

"Really." Celestine pauses in the middle of stowing what used to be Gluttony's knife in their belt.

"Would it be terribly rude of me to ask for more details on that?"