Crazy Kiwi
Trail to the Mountains - Wagon
[Nemaforte, Zuri, Lupin, Yamiko, Vicky, Iraal, Scents, Katya, Teri, Wolfe, Gwion]Wolfe listened to what Iraal had to say to Yamiko and heard Katya's terse response. He exchanged glances with Teri; their time together in a variety of different, sometimes life-threatening, situations enabled him to see that she was in agreement without any need for words.
He turned to Yamiko. "It seems that all of us have the same concerns. If this were my home, I wouldn't put a lot of stock in 'auras' or other such supernatural mumbo-jumbo but, given the nature of these in-between places and what I just saw, I think there's good reason for us to be suspicious."
Just the memory of those shadowy figures entering the unconscious forms of the students was enough to give him a chill. He was mindful that the four had paranormal abilities that would make them formidable opponents - by Yamiko's own admission, restraining them would do no good - never mind whatever abilities the shadowy figures might have.
Teri nodded. "You say you're fine, but how do I know who's speakin'? Is it the woman I spoke with earlier or whatever the fuck it was that crawled inside?"
She could see that Katya was still holding her pistol and recognised the model instantly, having encountered them before. How much good the pistol would be against people who could read minds or move large objects with the force of their minds, she didn't know.
Gwion glanced from Iraal to Scents, to Wolfe, to Teri and to Nemaforte before looking at Yamiko. He canted his head and raised his eyebrows as if to say 'what's your answer to all that?'
[Bed and Breakfast (Dining Hall)]
Amy rubbed her head.
"Hosting a kids show...?" she repeated, "Hm. If I get to teach kids about flying, then I'll consider it! But, right now, I liking piloting more."
Maya only shrugged at Samuel and Davey. If ya'll say so. Though you can still speak like modern citizens and be dignified. Just sayin'.
Amy felt a little sad that she couldn't tell more than one story, but it wasn't like they had all day. Before she started, she turned to Samuel, "So...you don't want your plane fix now? Aww, that's a little disappointing. Maya would've shown you her skills. Oh well...we can still travel together! All six of us! Then we can all get to know each other more!"
Don't forget that we still need to fix our plane.
"I haven't forgot! But this place is too cool to leave early! And I'm making friends! I don't want to leave them so soon." Amy cleared her throat, "Ok! I wanna tell my favorite story! The story of how Maya and I flew in a dangerous storm!"
Oh boy...
"I was ten years old, and she was eleven. My uncle had just finished up shop, and he had promised that we would fly his plane when he finished work. But, he had just heard that there was supposed to be a really bad thunderstorm, so he cancelled it."
Amy crossed her arms, giving a faux glare.
"I was angry. We had been preparing this all weekend! I even brought Maya along so we could have a lot of adventures. But I wasn't going to let my plans fall through because of some falling water. So, while he was in his office speaking to my grandma, me and Maya snuck into his garage and got in the plane. We were going to fly, no matter what!"
Maya wrote in her phone, There's gonna be a jump scare coming up soon so, uh, just warning ya'll ahead of time...
edited 2nd May '16 2:04:58 PM by Masterofchaos
[Northeastern Forest]
The woodlands were alive. A small, steady plume of smoke rose from between a cluster of trees, visible only to those with a view away from the shroud of the forest. Even then, it would have been difficult to spot by the unfocused eye, especially amidst the gathering clouds.
The gray stream led back down to a burning pile of wood and dry tinder grass, locked in by a loosely-assembled wall of assorted rocks. A hand adjusted a particularly wobbly section of the wall, dirt and soot-stained fingers pinched tight, carefully rotating one rock to secure a firmer foundation. The fingers gave the rock a little shake, finding the wobble to be all but gone, and the hands appeared satisfied, retreating to a perch atop two knees. They lingered there for a moment, the grayish skin sitting at a contrast with tired black cloth that covered a set of legs.
The hands slid back, moving further up the legs and began rubbing. Motion. Friction. Heat. No matter how much of the first two were applied, there was never enough of the third. No matter how close those legs came to the fire, they wouldn't catch its warmth. The set of hands worked furiously, wearing away further at the fabric of the trousers covering those legs. The only reward was pain and a little less skin on the palms. The hands gave up and pulled back closer towards a torso, the magnate of that bodily heat. With hands pressed against its chest, the whole torso tipped forward, sandwiching the hands against the knees in a near fetal position. The body sought warmth.
Minutes later, the crackle of the fire was joined by a horrible groan from deep within the body's gut. The groan, in turn, was joined by a wracking ache. A desperate cry. The body, too, sought nourishment. Dwindling nourishment that would not be hunted nor gathered. Nourishment that existed as an alien concept brought over from a distant land where such was plenty. All the tools at the body's disposal and all the skills with which to use them meant nothing without game. The best fisher with the best rod couldn't find a catch in a fishless lake. Therein lay the body's greatest predicament. The cold was troubling, and the body's inability to find heat when seated on a log right in front of a roaring fire was even more troubling. When paired with the lack of food, the near future looked grim.
The body's bare feet stirred around in the twig ridden soil, burrowing beneath dry leaves, sticks and dirt, finding a comfort within the ground that both soothed and disquieted. It wasn't warm, but it was better than the chill of the forest air.
Some measure of time after, the body sensed something that stirred it out from its sunken huddle. The body raised its head and opened a pair of eyes. They were harsh, reddened things, welling up for moisture whenever the body permitted. As for the irises, one was blueish green or greenish blue, and the other was the reverse. The pupils grew quite thin in the light, and found themselves focused on one very interesting sight indeed.
What a strange fortuitousness. Was great luck smiling down upon the body, or a taunt, bound to disappear the second action was taken? What peculiar set of circumstances could have guided a solitary brown rabbit straight to the edge of the body's fire pit? The small forest dweller was no more than two meters away from the body itself. The creature had doubtlessly caught sight of the body as it returned the body's stare. One was a wary stare, the other a stare of desperate fanatical hunger. Still, the body dared not move openly. There was a chance that the body would be able to catch the rabbit with its bare hands, weariness notwithstanding. There was also a chance that a meteorite would fly down from the sky and strike the body flat, leveling the surrounding trees into a neat crater.
The body silently pulled what air it could through its wide nostrils, and held it deep within. Freely breathing had become a luxury the body could not afford if it was to eat. A long, large stick that had been whittled into a rudimentary spear was lying on the ground not more than a few feet behind the body. Although, without serious adjustment and, consequently, a lot of movement, it would remain out of reach of the body's hands. So, the body extended its long, pointed tail, reaching discreetly for the sharpened stick and seizing it with a prehensile dexterity.
By some miracle, the rabbit still hadn't moved. It sat there, nose twitching, staring at the body as though it knew that it's purpose that day was to die, and in it's death, preserve the life of another. The body slowly moved its hand out, preparing to receive the spear, working out a path of transit that allowed for speed while minding the body's horns and allowing for quick correction if a mistake was made along the way.
Not willing to risk another second of good fortune, the body sprang into action. Its tail swiftly hooked around one shoulder, passing the stick-spear into its hand. The legs jumped into motion immediately after, feat tearing through the thin soil and dry leaves as they left the ground. The body flung itself forward in a maneuver that happened too quickly and yet managed to feel clumsy and slow. The eyes dazedly tracked their target. The muscles within the body's arms and hands tensed up, anticipating movement. The rabbit was stock still. Frozen in fear? Or possessed of an unusual daring? Death claims the daring rabbit. The body's feet were a moment from landing. Its wide nostrils drew in new breath. Its large mouth drew in even more. Its feet landed, and at the same time the spear was thrust forward; a dead-on shot.
Blood rushed to the body's head, summoning up further dizziness and disorientation. Even in such a state, the body's eyes could spot the barren patch of dirt where the spear had struck. The damn rabbit had dodged out of the way at the last moment. It lingered nearby, taunting its mark: the hungry fool. The body steadied itself, locked eyes on the rabbit, and, mustering what resolve it had left, sprinted after the creature.
The chase was on.
this place needs me here
Drummer Boy
[East Temple Corridor (Karl, Sophia, Arthur)]
Terra Nova... sounded weird. Were there time portals dumping people onto the planet or something? <i'm canadian, but not really from earth. humanity abandoned it a couple hundred years ago after we turned it into a wasteland. kind of sad that we didn't get serious about conservation until that late, but better late than never?>
Wait.
<hold on a sec>
Arthur switched on his glove light to take a good, hard look at the wall next to him. Was it just his imagination, or did this area of brick and mortar look a little less worn-down than the rest?
He checked his tablet again. If he was right, all he had to do was move around a bit until—
Signal detected.
All right, there had to be Alliance tech behind this wall. But what were they going to do about this wall? They didn't intend for everyone trying to get in to have to tear it down brick by brick, did they?
<ok. there's definitely some kind of device back here. i'm going to have my teammate connect to it and figure out what it is, and hopefully there'll be a way to get rid of this wall. like maybe it slides away or something. because i'm not looking forward to demolishing it ourselves>
Then he sent a message to Tsadro. <there's a computer i can connect to behind this wall. i'm going to disconnect from your implants in case there's anything weird going on. if i don't reconnect with news in five minutes assume that there's a problem and nymue's trying to fix it. either way, you can probably bring the others over here now. we shouldn't be hard to find>
As soon as they were disconnected, Nymue got to work. "They took things up a notch in the recent ones, it looks like," she said in Arthur's earpiece. "What do you think's worse, this one, or the one where they just said 'fuck it' and collapsed the entire cave?"
<are you working>
"I'm on it, I'm on it."
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
[temple, west T-intersection -> lab entrance - Tsadro, Peggy, Finn]
"More like death did actually seem like the case before they awoke. Soldiers fighting over a place called Jerusalem, children who died of plague, a woman executed under suspicion of witchcraft..." He trailed off as Arthur's transmission hit him.
There was a brief pause, of Tsadro's eyes unfocusing and him lowering his palm, as he scanned through the message and slipped in an affirmative signal before Arthur closed the connection. Not unlike that look employees described as 'spacey', from the days when his implants ran that horrible, literally seizure-inducing OEM firmware.
"Arthur's found signs of a laboratory." He motioned for them to follow, fastwalking in the direction they came, all the way back to the entry room. Apparently, this lab was straight down the eastern corridor. Convenient for whoever had access to the lab, but a bit easy to find, he had to say.
He stopped next to Arthur. "I'm closing my implants, even I can feel that." Once he was sure all of his security routines were on, Tsadro set about examining the wall, paying special attention with his palm-light to the line between the new bricks and old bricks. Was there some kind of gap, and if so, what was through it?
Of course, if worse came to worst and it turned out someone had deliberately walled the lab shut... blowing it open wouldn't be a problem for him. It'd be a convenient excuse to get an aither-wielding demonstration out of the way.
edited 3rd May '16 7:24:05 PM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
PAINKILLER
[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Dining Room)] (Connie, Davey, Amy, Irina, Maya, Samuel)
Samuel heaved a sigh. No way I'm getting away from her. By no means was Amy's enthusiasm a bad thing, but he couldn't exactly imagine traveling a long time with her, and remaining enthused himself afterward. That feat was possibly—impossible. "Eh, we'll see. I'm speaking too soon."
Irina finished her breakfast—or possibly, brunch—by then, and set aside her plate to listen in on Amy's story. "Goodness, were you really flying that young?
Samuel set down his primary utensil and folded his hands in front of him. "Let me guess the finale..." He feigned to think, then said, "You both died? Right?"
Irina shoved him. He giggled a bit as a response. She then commented, "Jumpscare, hm? I believe I can take it."
yeesh sorry for the short post. I'm working on Daniel's post, but it won't be out tonight.
Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
Valley of the Dead God (Blair)
So far, there had been little trouble from the local wildlife. That changed with the approach of the hyenas. Blair liked hyenas. These hyenas, though, were not exactly living, as far as his magic was concerned. That was unsettling.
“Of course we can,” Blair said cheerfully to Brin, or at least he hoped he sounded cheerful; in truth he was very unnerved by the non-animals. “In fact, I see a few options.” None of them had strong odds, but they were something.
“Option one - I can cast an illusion into whatever passes for brains for them. I’m not sure they actually have anything of the sort, so it may not work.” Blair was speaking quickly, more so than usual, in order to save time. “Option two - we can try fighting them.”
He glanced up at the starlings. They wouldn’t be useful. But he still had his bow and arrows, and that might help somehow. Not that something soulless could be grateful, but a meal could certainly distract the things. The hyenas looked like they needed one. Overhead he could sense Hoshi and Miyuki; hopefully they had not all come this far for him and Brin to call distress already.
“Option three,” he said. “We feed them something and then slip past.”
edited 3rd May '16 7:58:31 PM by savlamar
[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Dining Room)] (Connie, Davey, Amy, Irina, Maya, Samuel)
"Ten?" Connie repeated, echoing Irina's surprise. "You were ten and you were going to fly a plane?"
Into a a thunderstorm, Davey thought, though he remained silent. The setup for the story did leave him with some contemptuous thoughts regarding what appeared to be a very keen lack of common sense or even survival instinct. Then again, Davey could hardly recall what kind of stupid decisions he'd made as a kid. Probably nothing as obviously reckless. Trying to sneak into and fly a plane unsupervised...and in the face of a storm warning. He glanced between the two girls and thought back to when he had first met them. In the middle of a sandstorm. Which they had flown into. Was a lesson ever learned here?
"Jesus," Connie continued, "my kid sister is nine and she still uses training wheels."
She ate some spoonfuls of oatmeal, nearly choking on it snickering at Samuel's "guess". It took a few moments before she could compose herself. "So- so- you guys must've had some kind of training before hand right? I mean, to up and dare yourselves to do something like that. Or did you figure you would just get in the cockpit and wing it from there?" she paused for a split second, then broke into a smile, "Ha, 'wing it'. If only I could be this clever all the time."
this place needs me here
[Bed and Breakfast-Dining Hall]
Amy smiled. Cool! People are interested!
First she addressed Connie and Irina, "Technically, this is the first time I flew without my uncle. Whenever I was flying, my uncle would be right behind me, always telling me how to steady the plane, how to make sure we don't crash, and so on! This time, I wanted to see how much I learned from him! And I had Maya with me, which made it better!"
Then, she turned to Samuel, smirking, "Hey, you have to wait! I'm not gonna spoil it! Now, where was I...?"
We went to the garage and got in the plane. Maya signed.
"Right! So, when we took off, I only got a small glance of my uncle outside before we went higher and higher in the air, until he just vanished. I couldn't see his face, but I knew he was wasn't happy. I didn't really care; I was flying!"
She closed her eyes.
"It's the best feeling in the world. The wind flowing through your hair, seeing birds right beside you, hovering above the clouds...it's like heaven. And for a while, that's exactly where I thought I was. I didn't regret sneaking into that plane at all. At least, for a moment."
She then reopened her eyes, and her voice suddenly got quiet. "You see, I was so focused on being in the air I didn't even noticed that the sky was darkening. For a moment, I thought everything was calm and peaceful...but then....BOOM!"
Her eyes widened, and she said that last statement so very loud, Maya nearly fell out of her chair. She held her chest, her heart racing. Even though she knew that was coming, it still managed to get her every time. She gave an apologetic glance to everyone, in case Amy's shouting scared them too.
"A thunderstorm!" Amy continued, "And rain! Soon, something went wrong with the plane! Everything stopped working, and soon, we started to fall down! How could we get out of this one?"
edited 5th May '16 7:45:55 PM by Masterofchaos
Giant alien spiders are no joke.
Northern Desert
"Huh," Hazel said to herself. Ideas meshed together in her head, and while she didn't know a clear-cut solution, she had an idea, and maybe that would be good enough, if she followed through with her thinking.
"I think I know what the problem is, or at least I have a clue."
Hazel wordlessly asked for Rip's stick and pointed at where he indicated he put the writing. "There are some similarities in this to resurrection rituals, specifically the part identifying what spirit you wanted. I think what happened was that you weren't specific enough. You can slap a whole bunch of descriptors down, but there's probably at least a dozen people that could fit that description. In resurrection, that's a bad thing cuz either the spell fizzles since it doesn't have a defined target, wasting everyone's time, or some Big-Nasty-Motherfuckin'-Elder-God takes the chance to waltz in, use the body you're rezzing as a physical connection, then fuck everyone's shit up."
Hazel dropped the stick, then held the spirit-stone up, still tightly within her grasp. "The rock can only hold one spirit at a time, right? If so, then there's got to be a way to dismiss the spirit currently inside the rock. You said that you got the rock from someone else. That means the rock has at least one previous owner, meaning that there's a way to dismiss the current spirit in the rock, and summon a new one.
"So...I'm thinking that I can try to reverse, or invert the original ritual. Hopefully, that'll expel your poltergeist without damaging the rock, and you can try again."
Hazel looked around for a flat, hard surface to work, but didn't really find anything since the ground was too dusty and soft to draw anything significant, much less lines that kept their shape when somebody sneezed. Instead, Hazel scanned for a large enough rock to work as a surface, and found once a bit smaller than a school desk in width, about 10 meters out. It was rounded and wasn't flat, but that did not concern Hazel.
"Follow me," She said as she mentally commanded her zombie steed (which was standing there patiently the entire time) to stay where it was. She walked over to the rock, Rip's ghost stone still tightly grasped in her right hand.
She raised her left hand, which held a Focus mounted on her left wrist, and focused her will on a blade of pure force only a few nanometers thick, as solid as her will. She felt her magic pour from her body, shape itself with her will, then focus to a fine degree into a long, slender blade of yellow, sparkling light, hovering a few inches parallel off the ground. Hazel's face scrunched up in concentration. This was difficult. While Hazel's telekinetic abilities were remarkable, projecting her power into force remotely was harder for her. She felt more comfortable when she had the medium of her own body to use and sense the where and how much. She almost wished that she could get Dodridge to do this for her. This was his thing.
Almost. Hazel is a trained mage, and doesn't let her natural affinities get in the way of being able to ask other types of magic.
"Stay back," she warned Rip, and when satisfied that he was in a safe distance, she sliced the boulder in half.
Obviously, since she sliced it parallel to the ground rather than at an angle, the top half of the boulder did not slide off. Hazel relaxed and released her spell and the magical blade dissipated. She then pushed the top half of the rock over, using a little bit of telekinetic aid to grant her extra strength. That was much easier, required so much less precision.
Hazel unclipped her mage kit from the side of her vest, and sat down on the top half of the rock. She removed her left glove and felt her handiwork. She marveled how smooth the rock was. Perfect. She opened up the mage kit, revealing its contents and pulled out a black grease pencil to draw lines onto the rock.
Realizing that she hadn't vocalized what she was doing, she gestured to the shaped boulder and said, "So uh, since there isn't really any good place to uh, do any ritualwork, I figured I could make one...yeah..." Hazel suddenly felt a little awkward. "I was thinking that since you know how to do the ritual, you could draw it out, and I can make the adjustments and power the ritual. Or something," she shrugs.
Edit: Agent Dodridge in name and character is a main protagonist in Hazel's story, alongside Hazel. I have permission from the original writer to do this, as we are very close friends.
edited 6th May '16 9:30:55 PM by Tehpillowstar
"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." - R. W. Raymond
Crazy Kiwi
Southwestern Desert - Temple, East Corridor/Lab
[Arthur, Sophia and Karl]Arthur's off-hand references to the fate of the Earth and the timescale had Sophia wondering how far in the future of what Earth he came from. She was also rather surprised about his seemingly cavalier attitude towards the rendering an entire planet uninhabitable, but perhaps that was because it was as far back in his past as the late nineteenth century was to her. After all, she decided, I'm not overly concerned about the first World War and that was only a little over a hundred years before I was born.
She switched to thermal imaging mode and spotted that a section of the wall was a different temperature than the surrounding wall - indicating that there was a cavity behind it - a split second before Arthur focused his attention and light on it.
It took Arthur only a short while to confirm that there was a device hidden behind the false wall and he made mention of his "team-mate" - whether he was referring to Tsadro or one of his mysterious and elusive friends, Sophia couldn't tell.
While he was doing that, Sophia examined the section of wall in thermal imaging mode in the hopes that she might spot some other irregularity that might point to the mechanism for opening it.
Southwestern Desert - Temple, West Intersection to Lab
[Tsadro, Peggy and Finn]When Tsadro mentioned that the arrivals from Earth seemed to have actually died on Earth, Finn's thoughts sharpened abruptly as the pieces fell together in an old, and very familiar, pattern.
Dying on Earth, awakening in another realm and the strange inhabitants of said realm having an aversion to iron...
It was strongly reminiscent of tales of Tír na nÓg and the powerful Tuatha Dé Danann - except none of them were renowned for having cybernetic implants and Portable Offices.
Unlike a large number of his fellow Warrior Rockers, Finn wasn't any flavour of Celtic Neo-Pagan, but he was Irish and more than aware of the tales.
Before he could question Tsadro further, however, the strange-looking man's eyes unfocused briefly then he announced that the other team had found the lab they were seeking.
As Peggy followed Tsadro and Finn back the way they came and down the Eastern corridor, she mulled over what Tsadro had said about the arrivals from Earth having died at Jerusalem or of the plague or were burned at the stake.
There were certainly people in Terra Nova who could recall the Great Plague of London back in the late sixteen hundreds or could recall witchcraft trials and executions or a number of fairly recent battles at Jerusalem, but no one actually remembered dying on Earth - most arrivals had been going about their daily routines when they found themselves "transported" and, so far as she could gather, all had been in motion at the time. She had never heard of anyone falling asleep and waking up in Terra Nova.
She was still puzzling over it when they arrived at the point in the eastern corridor where the others were waiting.
She flashed Karl a smile. "Hi honey, y'miss me?''
Karl gave a grin in return. "Aber natürlich, Liebling."
His glib reply notwithstanding, Karl was quite relieved to see Peggy had returned safely.
edited 6th May '16 4:36:41 AM by Wolf1066
PAINKILLER
[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Dining Room)] (Connie, Davey, Amy, Irina, Maya, Samuel)
Samuel agreed, "That's quite something. Can't imagine myself doing that at that age. I only started flying when I was... 21, I think."
The added "BOOM" barely rattled Samuel, but Irina flinched. Oh, that was the jump scare, she thought.
Even still, Irina mostly showed concern. The two weren't dead from this incident, but still, she felt secondary concern on behalf of their uncle. "I do wonder why'd you do that."
Yeesh, this is a short-ass post. I'm... At a loss for Daniel. I've also gained inspiration for my other writing projects, so I'm prioritizing.
Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Dining Room)] (Connie, Davey, Amy, Irina, Maya, Samuel)
Davey was trying to poke his fork into a particularly slippery bit of egg from his omelette when Amy's big 'boom' arrived. Having become somewhat unfocused on the story at hand, he flinched hard, banging the top of his tail against the chair’s backrest and nearly knocking his omelette straight off of his plate.
He looked up with an irritated glare. Davey hadn’t heard the term ‘jump scare’ before, but now understood full well what it meant.
Connie, on the other hand, had been paying fairly close attention to the story and saw Amy’s windup. She didn't react at all when the boom came, except to look around and enjoy the more lively responses from others.
Once the story resumed and Amy revealed the thunderstorm, Davey rolled his eyes. A thunderstorm following a thunderstorm warning? he thought, then muttered aloud, "Who'd have thunk it?" before trying again to eat his breakfast in some semblance of peace. His ears remained very alert, ready for anything that sounded like another 'surprise' in the story.
When Amy asked the (most likely rhetorical) question of how they got out of their perilous situation, Connie had a few answers at the ready. "Uh... parachutes? Or... a flock of birds came to your rescue? No no— one big mutant bird swooped down out of the clouds and guided your plane to the ground. Or- hell, forget birds, it was Superman."
"You woke up; it was all just a dream," offered Davey.
"No, I got it," Connie said, pointing at Amy and Maya with her spoon, "it's a little out there, but I think it's right. Your plane was struck by a magic bolt of lightning that sent you back in time, but only like five or ten minutes, so you were just back on the ground and a little wiser for your trouble." She paused for a moment, eyeing the other two girls expectantly. "Yeah?"
[Northern Desert] (Rip, Hazel)
Rip ran a hand through his hair as he listened. He kept his eyes cycling between the woman herself and whatever she was indicating, trying hard, it seemed, to grasp every word as though each was of vital importance. Even when he didn't quite get what she was saying about, he'd nod, keeping his brow low and eyes serious. She did seem to be taking a lot of ideas as certainties when he himself was far from certain, but even so, poking holes in her plan probably wasn't going to get him a better plan.
So he kept his mouth shut and followed when she told him to follow. If she could get that nuisance spirit out of his hard-earned stone, he wouldn't question anything.
He observed in quiet awe as she performed some kind of magic with her hands. He'd never seen anyone wield the strange energy of Ianus in quite such a way, although perhaps that wasn't so much of a surprise. Most folks who could influence the will of the world had their own unique means of doing so. Even so, when paired with everything else that seemed unusual about her, Rip couldn't help but wonder where she was from. Perhaps there would be time to ask her later.
Once everything that she could set up had, presumably, been set up, and she turned to Rip to draw out the ritual, he became hesitant. He clicked his tongue quietly, staring at the severed rock as if in a daze. "Well..." he said, finally, sounding fairly reluctant, "I'll need my book. The one with the symbols." He glanced at the woman, then began heading back to his truck. As he walked, he said, "There's something else I feel I should mention; might be important for this... reverse ritual thing. In summoning this spirit, it wasn't just a matter of drawing the circles and the symbols: there was also the matter of location. Like you said, plenty of dead pinks could fit the description I laid out, but sh... shoot, ah, the one I was looking for, they died here."
He popped open the truck's door, then stopped. He glanced at the door's mirror, and began to close it again. When he was about halfway there, he caught sight of what had stopped him before: something moving in the reflection. He shut the door and glanced over his shoulder. Surely enough, his mirror did not deceive. A trio mounted on horseback was approaching. Not too near, but certainly not too far out.
"Hey," he called to the woman, "heads up, we've got an oncoming mystery. Three on horses; living ones at that. Maybe curious. Maybe already very interested."
edited 8th May '16 3:02:57 AM by Ryuhza
this place needs me here
[Bed and Breakfast (Dining Hall)]
When Connie and Davey gave their answers, Amy giggled. "Nope! You're both wrong! Maya, care to take over?"
Maya smiled and signed, With pleasure. So, plane's gone haywire, and we're falling from like god knows how many feet. We knew that if we crashed, we weren't going to see another day. While Amy was busy screaming her head off-
"Hey!"
-It's true! You were screaming! Anyway, while she was panicking, I decided to try to fix the plane. Keep in mind that we're rapidly falling still, so I had to race against the clock. Her uncle's plane worked differently from others, so I did my best to find out how I was going to get the thing to jumpstart again. I thought I would never get it fixed; and I could see that sooner or later, we were going to hit the ground.
Her eyes widened. Then, luck. To this day, I don't know how I did it, but I pressed a wire, and soon...the plane started working again. We were going to live. We were going to see the next day.
Amy nodded. "Maya saved the both of us that day. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here telling you this story. But, since that we are, we didn't die, Samuel. We didn't want to risk going through that again, so we decided to land at a nearby park. And it turned out that my uncle was following us with his car, so when we landed and got out the plane...he wasn't happy. My grandmother was even madder than he was when she found out what happened!"
"Still, that day, I realized just how much I need Maya. I also learned that thunderstorms are the scariest things on earth, so when grandma grounded me for a month, it didn't really bother me. A near death experience does that to you. Since then, we tried our best not fly during scary weather."
Like sandstorms. Maya signed.
Amy glared. "That wasn't my fault! And at least we found a safe town before things got worse!" She smiled, "Besides, we wouldn't have met Davey or the others if I kept flying!" She stood up and took a bow, "So that's the story of how me and Maya flew in a dangerous storm. The end!"
edited 8th May '16 7:35:24 AM by Masterofchaos
Attitude is prohibited
[Hotel] (Lobby)
"I don't mind holding holding the cat," Rin offered, cheerily. "Although... I hope this car of yours is spacious. I'm not really a fan of tight spaces."
Not entirely dead.
Crazy Kiwi
Northern Desert
[Kaitlyn, Kris and James + Hazel and Rip]As they approached the strange scene with its unusual-looking donkey and its two disparate-looking people, Kris and James produced ear plugs and inserted them into their ears.
Kaitlyn's enhanced eyesight enabled her to clearly see the hole on the outer side of James' nearest earplug and quickly deduced that they were designed to allow normal sounds to pass but block any sudden and loud impulse noises - such as gunfire. Kris' earplugs, from the one Kaitlyn could see, seemed to be electronic, so they most likely had amplification capabilities as well as blocking the sound of gunfire. Good idea. She wasn't wanting - or even expecting - a firefight, but it didn't hurt to take sensible precautions in case there was one. At least she now knew that she could fire her weapons, if she had to, without the risk of damaging her companions' hearing.
Up ahead, the man returned to the truck, started to open the door and then shut it again, looking into the door-mounted rear view mirror. Then he looked back over his shoulder at them. '
"Spotted." Kaitlyn glanced at her companions and could see that they had also noticed the activity at the truck as they suddenly were even more alert and watchful than before.
Kaitlyn had already been filtering out wind noise for the sake of her own sanity and had her hearing enhancement "dialled up" slightly to get advance warning of approaching danger - but not to the level at which she could hear what was being said between the man and the woman.
Now they had been noticed and the man was turning back to alert the woman to their presence, she ramped her hearing up to maximum acuity.
"...heads up, we've got an oncoming mystery. Three on horses; living ones at that. Maybe curious. Maybe already very interested."
Well, at least it didn't sound overtly hostile. That was a good sign, at least.
"He's just told the woman we're here. Made some strange comment about living horses." She took another look at the strange donkey. Yeah, I can see why he'd say that.
James was impressed. His hearing had been irreparably damaged during his time as a Grenadier but even before that, when his hearing was at its best, he could not have heard what someone was saying at that distance.
Kris was also impressed. Even with the amplification provided by her ear plugs, she couldn't make out what the man had said.
She looked across at Kaitlyn and noticed that the "elf" wasn't wearing ear protectors. Was she unaware of how loud a firearm could be? Or did whatever provided her augmented hearing also provide protection from painfully loud noises?
Just then, a freak eddy of wind wafted the strange chemical scent of the undead donkey in their direction, causing the horses to shy and get skittish.
Kris and James, as experienced riders, were able to get their panicked mounts under control quickly, but not so Kaitlyn.
Kaitlyn's horse danced sideways, turned about and took off.
James saw what happened. "Fuck!" He turned his horse and took off after the frightened animal and its hapless rider.
Kaitlyn fought down a wave of panic and remembered what James had told her about riding as she sought to bring the horse under control.
She was slight, but no weakling. She drew on the reins with all her strength and managed to turn the horse about and bring it to a halt. She could see James approaching and flashed him a triumphant grin.
Triumph quickly turned to frustration when she discovered that the horse showed no inclination to head back the way she had come when she dug it in the ribs with her heels. This is why all the cowboys in the movies wear spurs.
After a few good nudges, however, she finally got it moving and headed back towards where Kris waited. James expertly wheeled his horse about and rode alongside her.
The approving nods Kaitlyn got from both Kris and James made her feel ten feet tall but her arm muscles were twanging from the exertion of getting the horse under control.
Not just her arms; she could feel tension and strain all the way through her body from where she had braced herself in the saddle in order to wrest control back.
Presently, they rejoined Kris and Kaitlyn gave a sheepish smile. "As you can see, I'm a bit of a townie."
Kris gave a reassuring smile. "So was I, once, love. You did very well."
The three urged their now-reluctant horses back on their original course and, as they had been seen, James gave a friendly wave to the two people near the truck.
Even with the necessity of urging their horses nearly every step of the way, it didn't take long to reach the place where the two people were.
"Hello," said James once they were within hailing distance. "We mean you no harm, we're just journeying through."
They've arrived
edited 9th May '16 12:59:46 PM by Wolf1066
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Desert trail - Wagon (Nemaforte, Zuri, Lupin, Yamiko, Vicky, Iraal, Scents, Gwion, Teri, Wolfe, Katya)
Nemaforte inspected the strange bullets as Teri and Wolfe explained that their guns didn't use magic. She still didn't quite understand the technology behind them, and wondered just what kind of force pushed the bullets out if it wasn't magic. And not only did Wolfe explain that Terra Nova didn't have magic, but Iraal and Katya said that they didn't have magic in their respective homes either. When Nemaforte turned back to face Wolfe, her ears drooped a bit.
"A world without magic?" Though her tone of voice remained emotionless as usual, the way her forehead wrinkled and the decreased speed at which she spoke (since being high on the herbal powder she had ingested before) suggested a tinge of sadness. "I cannot imagine how a world would function." She gazed out the back of the wagon, at the clouded desert. "'Ora da ri mornen ti mariya. Magic is in everything - the land, the heavens, ourselves, all of it. Not aware of it, maybe you are. And it is sad... this world, there is a disrupt in the magic field that encircles all. Why then..." She redirected her gaze to the psychic college students, then back at Wolfe and Teri. "You and them both are human. As I learned, there is knowledge of magic on Earth. How then, did Terra Nova lose its magic?"
She looked at Iraal next. "On Orenya, there are the Oradamin. Heroes that protect the peace. Even in the darkest parts of Zurem, they try to undo harm caused of magical source. Possession is a very evil crime. One violates their free will when entrancing their soul and keeping control of the body. However, the good is that possession leaves a mark. And these four..." she gestured over the college students, "...although there is another presence in them, I wouldn't call it possession. They have experienced something that on Orenya we call an infusion of essence. It is found when one dies in sacrifice, they transfer a part of themselves to usually a loved one. At least for the three. In Yamiko, the other presence known as Amanda is at least partly in control." She turned to the college students. "Is Amanda a person you know?"
"Oh uh, yeah," Vicky decided to reply, rubbing the side of her head as she did so. "She's one of our classmates."
"But she's different, somehow," Zuri explained, keeping an eye on Yamiko as she spoke. "For one thing, she isn't even a college student. She's apparently in high school and taking our class on the side. In other words, she's a bit younger than us. Secondly, she's talked about some dark stuff in class - everything from the details of possession to the psychology of agony to whether pain receptors can be activated psychically."
"Plus she sometimes drinks wine in class and Dr. Savant doesn't punish her for it," Vicky blurted out.
"Thirdly, she's very arrogant - she won't even tell us what power she received from Dr. Savant, and was always joking about threatening us. I even have to wonder if her power is possession..."
"I'm even beginning to suspect she and Dr. Savant know each other," Lupin pointed out, "which would explain the wine thing. But wait - did you say there were other presences inside of us? Like of other people?" Nemaforte gave a slow nod of her head. "I wonder... does that mean Merlin's powers got transferred to me or something?"
Vicky snickered, and pointed a finger comically at Lupin. "He means our classmate, not the actual wizard. I prefer to call him Nimbus for that reason."
"Yeah, well I've always known him as Merlin," Lupin retorted with a bit of a grumble.
"But wait..." Zuri spoke, "...that leaves Ari and Gon, doesn't it? Does that mean Vicky and I got their powers? If that's true," and here she looked at Vicky, "then one of us has pyrokinesis, and the other, technomancy." She took a brief glance at the robot Iraal brught along.
"It would be funny if you got technomancy," Vicky remarked with a laugh. "You can barely use a cell phone! Let's see, uh, incendio!" She held a hand out and concentrated... but nothing happened. "I dunno. You try it."
"Hmm." Zuri also held out her hand, copying Vicky sans silly incantation. After a while, she could feel the strangest sensation in her hand, like it was shaking or vibrating... and she thought she saw a light above it all of a sudden. After a while, a little candle flame appeared right on her finger, to which she pulled back and shook the hand off, then inspected the finger with an odd look. "...Oh. I guess I got Gon's power after all. Funny, for a second I thought the flame would burn my finger off. It didn't even hurt."
"Yamiko, do you know what power you got from Amanda?" Lupin asked his girlfriend. "...Yamiko?"
Yamiko didn't seem to be paying attention to him. Instead, she was glaring right back at Iraal. Nobody here knew about magic, and everyone seemed rather uncomfortable with it. Everyone thought she might have been possessed. A rage started to fill her, to the point where her eyes may very well have been on fire. She probably would have burned Iraal's soul to a crisp had she not just closed her eyes.
"Whatcha gonna do, shoot me?" Her voice was low and solemn, though with a seething undertone to it. "And then sacrifice me to the Dead God?" Then she broke out into a fit of shrill laughter. "That's interesting actually!" She heaved a sigh and wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye. "Whoo. I feel so oddly like a lamb. A black lamb. Hey Nemaforte!" She glanced over at the Orenyan herbalist. "Do you have an herb that can sedate me? I think if you gave me one of those, that'd be easier. Unless these people really do wanna detain me the painful way."
"You are sounding a lot like Amanda," Zuri remarked.
"Am I?" She became suddenly aware of the pale astral projector behind her. "Huh, suddenly I have an inclination to use her mannerisms, I guess. But you remember what happened when I tried to read her mind. I..." She gulped for a bit, remembering too well that brief painful moment. "...well, let's just say I have no idea what ability I may have inherited from her."
"So you did answer my question," Lupin quipped, his face brightening a bit. He scooted over until he was sitting right next to Yamiko, straightening up a bit and adjusting his glasses at last, glancing over at everyone in the wagon, but seeming a bit uncomfortable somehow. "I erm..." There was a long pause during which he seemed rather nervous, but when he spoke again, he sounded as serious as ever. "I don't think we should worry about Yamiko for now. How about I watch over her until we reach the mountains? There's no need for all of us to be all riled up about it, and besides, there may be bandits waiting to ambush us or something, so we'd best be on the lookout." He glanced around at the others nervously again.
"He can be my guard wolf!" Yamiko said with a giggle, placing a hand on his bony shoulder and shaking him from side to side. "Though I personally think he'd be better as a spy than a guard. Or maybe an assassin."
It was Lupin's turn to glare at Yamiko, though more from the side.
edited 10th May '16 1:16:38 AM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
Drummer Boy
[East Temple Corridor]
<ok guys. my teammate has control of the terminal now. she says to get away from this section of the wall because it's going to fall down>
Once the area was clear, Arthur sent a message to Nymue. <go ahead>
Arthur could hear some whirring just before cracks appeared on the edges of the suspicious area. Something was steadily, methodically cutting away this part of the wall with a fairly high degree of precision. Once the circular blades were visible, there was nothing left to muffle the noise. It probably wasn't as painful for the others, but Arthur winced, wishing he could cover his ears, but his helmet was in the way.
The cut-out portion finally fell to the floor, revealing a pair of blast doors and a metal case resembling a fuse box. This protected the terminal. Thanks to Nymue, though, they wouldn't have to deal with it.
He went to inspect the area. The masonry blades had retreated back inside the metal tracks built into the walls around the doors and terminal. He rubbed the edges of the cut brick with his fingers. The saws had cut in straight lines, so the edges didn't line up with the mortar at all. <well that seems pretty permanent. it'd be hard to fix this wall and make it look natural again. guess you could get a hammer and chisel and remove these brick fragments by slowly working on the mortar, and patch it up with new brick maybe. lot of work. i'm not going to worry about it though. it's the alliance that wants these labs hidden, not us. so if we're all ready, i'm going to have my teammate open the door now.>
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Crazy Kiwi
Southwestern Desert - Temple (East Corridor)
[Arthur, Tsadro, Sophia, Peggy, Karl and Finn]Peggy had no idea exactly how the wall was going to fall down but, whether they used explosives or it just crumbled to rubble, it was likely to be a noisy process so as she retreated to a safe distance, she dug out her earplugs and put them into her ears. Karl saw what she was doing and followed suit.
Finn noticed the two "Mad Bastards" putting in ear plugs. Not so fucking mad, after all. In fact, he felt a bit of a chump for not thinking to bring ear plugs of his own - this was likely to get loud. He felt Sophia's hand nudge him and he turned to see she was passing him a pair of simple acoustic ear plugs. He accepted them gratefully and put them into his ears.
Sophia fitted her own electronic ear plugs as she and Finn joined Peggy and Karl at a safe distance from the section of wall.
Between the high speed blades and the section of wall crashing to the floor, the noise was unimaginable, but at least they were protected from permanent damage.
Sophia noticed Arthur wincing and surmised that his helmet did very little to block the noise - how would he fare if they had to fire their weapons? She read his message. "Be warned, our old style firearms are very noisy, especially in confined spaces like these corridors. As in: 'permanent damage to your eardrums and a strong chance that you'll be stunned or disoriented by the noise' kind of noisy. If we get attacked when the doors open and have to use our weapons... let's just say you'll wish we hadn't.
"Other than that I'm ready."
Peggy, Karl and Finn also expressed their readiness and stood alert with their rifles in their hands.
edited 11th May '16 5:05:33 AM by Wolf1066
[Valley of the Dead God (Brin, Blair)]
Brin studied the creatures. She couldn't but her finger on it, but there was something nasty about them. "We should be able to spook 'em," she said, and, with a motion, brought chunks of earth at the hyena's feet suddenly up.
This would have certainly terrified any normal animal, but after scampering backwards, the beasts seemed more pissed off than anything. One in particular stepped forward, now glaring at Brin with a legitimate hate animals should not have been capable of. There was a brief moment, then it leaped for Brin, only for her to interrupt its flight by bringing another pillar of the corrupted earth up and smashing its face in. She'd meant the blow to daze it — she was instinctively hesitant about using lethal force — but wasn't really bothered to note she'd killed the creature. Surprisingly delicate.
The remaining half-dozen rest scattered, still eying Brin and Blair with nasty glares, now clearly ready to spill their blood. "That wasn't supposed to happen," she muttered. "Try the illusions... or just deal with them." Her voice indicated she had a modest preference for the first, but wouldn't complain either way.
edited 11th May '16 6:38:15 AM by KillerClowns
PAINKILLER
[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Dining Room)] (Connie, Davey, Amy, Irina, Maya, Samuel)
Samuel leaned over to Irina and whispered, "Ah, do you wanna trust 'em to get us home by my jet?"
She replied low, "I trust Maya if she saved both their lives mid-flight."
"Big chance they were lying through their teeth. A little hard to believe, though makes a good story in the right mouth."
Irina shrugged. To the girls, she said, "If I were your mother, I would ban you from flying period. But, I suppose your uncle was reckless once in his life. Perhaps it's a good idea for Sam and I to head home our way. I don't want two hard-headed people to go on the same trip."
Samuel laughed. "You got that right."
Irina licked excess food off her finger. She then made a sound—mostly of realization. She pointed to the Colonel. "By the way, you have the papers? Did I ask you for them yet?"
Samuel nodded. He heaved his bag up to his lap. He opened it up and found the crinkled papers. He handed them to her.
She smoothed them out on the table. They were white sheets with handwriting on them. It appeared to be in another language, one Irina could read. She read it silently.
Samuel spoke to Davey, "You got any plans before your friend gets back? I kind of don't wanna go back right away."
[Grand Hotel] (Lobby -> Outside)
He was a bit off-put by Rin's sudden change in mood, but she was probably ecstatic about doing something. Still, Daniel made a glimmer of a grin.
"All right, nice." Danny clasped his hands together. "Might as well get going now, shall we?" He wheeled around and headed for the door. It was only then did he realize he was in a nicely-decorated hotel. It was way too expensive for his taste, so he headed out quicker.
The sun had risen more than when he initially arrived. He felt confused. Was I in there that long?
Daniel leaned on the door to let his newfound companions out. Besides, he had no idea where James and John's car was. As he looked around, he saw a man sitting alone on a bench, minding his own business. He considered calling out to him to see if he was baking in the fading sun. He decided against it.
Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
[Trail to Mountains - Wagon (Teri, Wolfe, Gwion, Nemaforte, Zuri, Lupin, Yamiko, Vicky, Iraal, Scents, Katya)]
Iraal bit back a snarl and squeezed her eyes shut. For a moment she entertained a brief, pleasant fantasy of telling Scents to zap Yamiko unconscious and put her in the storage field.
Even with her eyelids closed, her social interaction software was still flashing multiple warnings overlaid onto her vision. But she ignored them. Trying to be polite and rational and within the rules hadn't done her much good so far.
"What is wrong with you?" she said, opening her eyes and looking at Yamiko. Her voice, while still high and clear, sounded slightly less human now even with the translator - almost a sort of yowl. "Are you completely mindless? I've repeatedly expressed my concerns about your current condition and my lack of knowledge with your abilities. So have several of the other humans. But rather than trying to show the slightest ability to understand our understand our concerns, you keep just making stupid jokes!"
She rounded on Nemaforte, aware that the orenyan wasn't really at fault here, but not inclined to care. "And you! Yes, there is no magic in my world. Not on Vorloss, not on Earth, not on Vay, not anywhere else. So perhaps you could try to clearly explain it to those unfamiliar with it instead of leaving us all blind!"
Scents kept quiet, instead merely glancing in Gwion's direction and whistling loudly.
[temple, lab entrance - Tsadro, Arthur, Peggy, Karl, Finn, Sophia]
Tsadro seemed almost bored as he watched the saws do their work. So, there were saws... on the other side of the wall? Where did they come from, why would this Alliance just leave a method of undoing their masonry here?
Honestly, he could have done that himself in a second, without the irritating noise. The sound didn't exactly hurt his ears, being what he was, but the only indication he gave that he found it merely a bit unpleasant was a single, longer-than-usual blink.
What finally did break his composure was the wall suddenly falling. He was already too far away from the door for any of the rubble to get near him, but he still stepped back anyways with haste, even bumping into the corridor wall behind as he conjured a faintly purple, transluscent forcefield in front of him. Just to keep the ensuing cloud of dust off his clothes.
In an attempt to discreetly save face, he pushed the forcefield with one hand, turning it ninety degrees like he was pushing a door open, and shoved the field off to the side with both hands to push the rubble out of the doorway. Not only could Arthur get closer to inspect the door, it meant one less thing to trip over in case there were any moving hostiles present to chase them out.
He read Arthur's transmissions, finding this saw thing made even less sense. If they truly wanted this to be lab to be forever lost... why didn't they take the saws? Why was this door even built to have tracks for masonry saws in the first place? It didn't matter. Tsadro gave Arthur a nod when he finished talking, and raised his forcefield again, holding it in place with a raised left fist like he was shielding his eyes from light, and flexed his other hand as fire sprouted from it.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Desert Trail - Wagon (Nemaforte, Zuri, Lupin, Yamiko, Vicky, Iraal, Scents, Teri, Wolfe, Gwion, Katya)
Yamiko couldn't take it anymore. She had momentarily calmed down when Lupin suggested not worrying about her, but Iraal was having none of it. Moreover, she read Iraal's thought of commanding Scents to subdue her. Jumping to her feet, she threatened to impale the orl's eyes with her own. "You are lucky I was not given telekinesis," she snarled. "Otherwise I would send you flying into that rock wall until your brains splattered. I could..."
It was Yamiko's turn to be interrupted. She felt something knock her aside, until she fell right in Lupin's lap. She extended a hand as she fell, her black nails clenching like talons, but they missed their target. And then there was a loud agonizing cry, and the wagon gave a mighty jolt and came to a halt, the horses spooked and whinnying.
Abruptly, the other college students turned to the source of the cry: the wagon driver was doubled over in pain and had let go of the reins.
"Whoa, what happened?" Vicky called out to him. "Did you get shot by a bandit or something?"
"I don't... well, I don't seem to be bleeding at least. That was sure weird. Like my appendix decided to go haywire for two seconds. But it's over now. Gotta keep on movin'." And he picked up the reins, calmed the horses down, and soon the wagon was moving again. "But can ya please keep it down back there? I don't want y'all startin' a fight."
During all of this, Nemaforte was forcefully extending a palm out toward Yamiko, seeming oddly calm given what just happened and what Iraal had just said to her. She cast a reassuring aside glance at the orl before assessing the situation. "Hmm..." She was looking squarely at the driver now. "Krain-ha kaora. Tei nave hata ka patsu la zhuen elda dai? You are safe, driver. There is no wound and by magic it will heal."
Nemaforte closed her eyes for a bit, and then turned to face Iraal, calmly as before. As she did, she directed her gaze at the yellow vial on the floor next to her. "I am apology. I not am well to those who do not know magic. However, I might suggest you relax so to better understand, maybe with that medicine you have there."
"Um, if I may," Zuri suggested, leaning in closer to the other albino in the wagonnote , "I don't think Nemaforte fully understands our situation either. I think I know what those shadow things were. I saw similar ones back in Boston. Basically, they're little pieces of our classmates. In this case, embodiments of the powers they were given. The reason why they sought us out is because they wanted to transfer their power to us. You can think of it as transferring weapons... if those weapons looked like malevolent ghosts."
"What about Amanda then?" Vicky asked her. "I don't think she would willingly transfer her powers to Yamiko, or any of us for that matter. And the alien witch is right - she can use telekinesis! I saw her use it on Yamiko! ...But why?" She looked to Nemaforte.
"Oh?" She hadn't been paying much attention, being fixated on the strange yellow crystals in that vial. They were nothing like any herbal residue she'd seen on Orenya. "Neeeeh... oh, yes, I had to push Yamiko aside because about to hurt Iraal she was. I detected a very evil aura about her."
"I did too," Lupin remarked, helping Yamiko sit up but keeping her on his lap, keeping an arm securely around her. Yamiko didn't seem to be resisting him... instead she started to cry. Not too loudly, but enough for tears to stream down her cheeks and her body to tremble in Lupin's grasp. "Also, I'm afraid that if anyone should think about detaining Yamiko, they'll have to go through me as well." Threatening though his words were, he spoke them as if they were just an afterthought. But he did move his other hand towards the inside of his coatnote , just in case. "She is... rather precious to me, after all." He seemed a little bit sad during that last part.
"I don't know about Amanda," Zuri continued, a little impressed herself that Iraal could get so furious all of a sudden when she seemed more the polite and stoic type earlier. "We've had some problems before with her ourselves." She looked over to the sobbing Yamiko for a moment, then to Nemaforte, giving her a concerned look, then back at Iraal. "I um, well, I agree with your concern about Yamiko, but... maybe we shouldn't be too harsh on her. If we provoke her too much, she might just lash out more strongly, and since we don't know what Amanda's powers arenote , someone could seriously get hurt, just like the driver did."
edited 12th May '16 12:18:30 AM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Dining Room)] (Connie, Davey, Amy, Irina, Maya, Samuel)
Connie yet again found herself staring at Amy's abundant enthusiasm just at the thought of meeting someone who she didn't know beyond the food on her plate, which, at the same time, wasn't a bad first impression.
"Hey Amy," she asked, "have you ever considered hosting a kid's TV show?" It wasn't really a serious question, but Connie did think that the girl's natural excitement might lend itself well to that line of work. Or it could annoy all of her coworkers.
Despite all of Amy's agonizing, Davey didn't seem all that bothered by Maya's comments. He gave a lazy impression of fear and slapped a hand against his face, "Oh no... I went and used my words again. Maybe I'm just an old soul."
He glanced up again when Samuel offered his two cents. "There," he said, pointing at Samuel and smiling before returning to his food,"dignified. I like that."
Connie stirred a spoon around in her oatmeal, still aiming sidelong glances at Amy from time to time. "I think one is good for now," she said. "We can always ask for an encore if we really can't live without another story. So shoot."
this place needs me here