Character Frontier

[Town ~ Bed & Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Cynthia, Connie, Joseph, Omar, Rin, Amy, Maya)

Setting her pack down on the table, Cynthia folded her arms and leaned back gently on the table. She turned her head to glance over at Connie. So the girl was a few years younger than she was. She looked over at Joseph. She felt bad for him, what with all the attention everyone was giving him.

Everyone was starting to calm down after the huge misunderstanding that had taken place. Cynthia didn't fully understand the situation, so she quietly remained at the table, looking expectantly at Omar for explanations. The man apparently knew something about Joseph's... condition, and she wanted to hear more.

[Wagon (Teri, Wolfe, Gwion, Nemaforte, Zuri-ish, Iraal, Scents, Oswald)]

Scents gave Iraal a Look as Nemaforte started hyperventilating and zoning out. She was okay with some degree of recreational narcotics, but this was just ridiculous and embarrassing. It was probably a good thing that they'd never made it to the Dead God.

Though it was interesting how the 'sunestre concept of death' (there was just one 'sunestre concept of death'?) seemed to be similar to both of theirs rather than the humans'.

Then the dagger (which she really wished she'd noticed earlier) started floating into the air, and mist began to form around it. Scents yanked the gun off her armor's back and pointed it at the apparition, thinking only too late how provocative it might look. But they'd had more than enough of this Prophet-damned weird spookyness for one trip already -

Zuri appeared.

"...the fuck," Scents managed.

Iraal stood up and advanced on the apparition, which wasn't seeming to show up on any of the equipment built into her glasses or eyes - only as a purely visual image. She tilted her head sideways and closed one large to focus more clearly on Zuri, unconsciously resembling her assistant.

"Interesting," she concluded, opening her eye and standing up straight. "It is one thing to believe in an afterlife, and another to be directly confronted by proof of its existence. Fortunately, I believe there are ways to rationalize this away if it becomes necessary." She looked over at Teri and Wolfe, and queried the SI component of her social interaction software. "Which I think it might be for you," she continued as text appeared in her vision.

"...the fuck," Scents added.

Iraal glanced at her. "Don't say that again." She looked back at Zuri's... soul? and dropped her gaze, her voice taking on a lower tone. "I am... no longer certain how necessary this is, but I am," she swallowed, "sorry. I don't think I have made any secret that I didn't... don't like you or your companions, but you were part of my expedition, and I didn't protect you."

Scents came out of her daze long enough to give an amused yip at Nemaforte saying she was always high on something. "I'm pretty sure you can't actually be real," she told Zuri, "so I'm going to focus on the comm thing now, okay?" So saying, she hopped off the wagon and dropped back to be alongside the Terra Novans.

"Uh, someone look at Oswald," she added.

Railway Street East —> Main Street/Doc Carson's

James watched Vicky run off towards the distant wagon and figured that she would be fine. After all, the wagon was in sight and she would soon be with Wolfe and Teri - whom he knew to be quite capable of dealing with emergencies - and Gwion and Scents - both of whom had a manner about them that indicated that they were quite capable as well.

Kris started leading the horse bearing Yamiko down the road and the others fell in alongside. Lupin seemed to have found his second wind now that he was within a short walk of medical assistance and on level ground and it wasn't long before they rounded the corner onto Main Street.

Ahead was The Tipsy Toad - wherein, apparently, Peggy, Karl and Aubrey were waiting - and Doc Carson's little surgery.

They progressed down Main Street. By the time they reached The Tipsy Toad, they had a simple plan: Kris would go into the saloon and rendezvous with Peggy, Karl and Aubrey and James would return the horses to the Livery stable after delivering Yamiko and Lupin to the doctor.

At The Tipsy Toad, Kris handed the horse's reins over to James and vanished inside the saloon, leaving the others to continue.

A short walk later, they arrived outside Doctor Carson's modest place of business.

Kaitlyn looked at Lupin and James and then up at Yamiko. "I suppose we'll need to carry her in." And as Lupin's in no fit state, "we" means James and me, I guess.

'd by nrjxll. Will put up a post for the wagon later, after I sleep - nearly 1:30am, here

edited 5th Jan '17 4:29:16 AM by Wolf1066

[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Connie, Joseph, Omar, Amy, Maya, Cynthia, Rin)

Omar looked up from his watch again just in time to find all eyes pointed at him, including those of his two escorts. They wanted answers. There was no more avoiding it. The others seemed to have calmed themselves down—or had at least stopped the infighting— but for Omar, the situation had become more volatile than ever before. Say too little, no one believes him, time runs out, plan goes kaput. Say too much, the means disappear or time runs out, plan goes kaput.

His mouth fidgeted slightly, as though carefully choosing which word or syllable to start on. "Okay," he said, finally, "I'll tell you what I can, as best I can, but you'll have to trust me when I say this is a complicated situation and we are on a time limit."

Omar's hand briefly drifted to his jacket pocket, but he resisted pulling out the small pack of cigarettes from within. Neither the time nor the place. Talk. "First of all, it's not worth the time or energy it would take to explain exactly how I know about Weller's condition, but I'll say this: he told me about it when we met yesterday, it's an uncommon problem but not unheard of, and I happen to be more familiar with it than most. There are solutions— difficult most of them, and highly reliant on good fortune, but Weller has been dealt just such a swath of good fortune, if he chooses to see it."

Joseph lowered his gaze, looking down the length of his lizardy snout and frowning slightly. Omar had always pushed—and evidently still was pushing—this idea that his appearance, their meeting in a hotel hallway in the middle of the night, his thorough understanding of Joe's problem and the relatively close proximity of a supposedly rare way to fix it, that all these things had somehow fallen into position by chance and good luck. Even ignoring that Joseph had never in his life felt particularly lucky (just the opposite on many occasions), it didn't seem possible that all those things could have happened so neatly without someone's guiding hand, and he suspected that someone was Omar. What still concerned him was whether the man's motivations were really as altruistic as he would have them seem.

"As for the time concern, it's the nature of how this particular... uh, tss- solution functions. Even explaining this much may risk it's success, but for the sake of your good conscience, as of right now, half an hour is the difference between Weller winding up near to his own home and winding up somewhere like Pompeii just in time for the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It's a delicate, fluctuating thing, and right now there is a small window that is Weller's best shot at getting back to where he belongs."

Connie glanced away for a second, back towards the bathroom door where she thought she heard water running. Davey was still inside, waiting for her to bring him a non blood-soaked shirt, but this whole reemergence of Omar kinda took precedence.

"All right, I've got a question," she said, raising her hand slightly. Omar didn't look enthusiastic when he saw who was asking, but he nodded anyways. "What exactly is this 'solution'? 'Cause we went through that whole dusty mine and all we found was some poor guy held prisoner in a pitch dark room."

Omar grimaced slightly. The prisoner in the mine was quite the curveball thrown into his story, something he never once accounted for. "Look, I had nothing to do with that man. Whoever was holding him captive must've had some kind of ulterior access to the mine. I did not put him there, I did not know he was there. I hadn't even set foot in there before today, and Weller was with me the entire morning." He looked at Joseph, who still seemed overwhelmed by the eventual decision that stood before him, "I needed a key to get in, remember? That's the entire reason this matter wasn't resolved last night. We had a window then as well—to get him even closer to his proper place and time—but I forgot about the solid iron door between us and the solution."

" 'Solution'," Connie repeated, voice packed with raw skepticism.

"I can't be more specific, I'm sorry," Omar replied, sounding more exasperated by the minute, "Getting Weller home successfully hinges on treating the matter of this solution delicately. You simply cannot be allowed to know too much about it. Not yet. Once Weller is taken care of, I can come back and tell you all about it, but not before."

Connie glanced at the others, raising an eyebrow, "Does that sound really convenient to anyone else?"

[Town ~ Main Street/Doc Carson's] (Mari, Lupin, Vicky, Yamiko, James, Kaitlyn, Kris)

As the group turned and traveled down Main Street, Mari took in the sights and sounds of the town. Someone had left their luggage outside the train station, and it looked like thieves had gone after it. She laughed slightly, served whoever left it there right for leaving it unattended. She noticed something going on a quaint little bed and breakfast, but since it really didn't concern her at the moment, she didn't pay it any further attention.

They arrived at a saloon called The Tipsy Toad, where Kris left the group to head inside. Mari lingered behind. This place could have something I've never tried before, she thought. She took a step forward, only to stop and frantically pat her clothing. Shit! I don't have any money. Mari growled slightly and crossed her arms.

Might as well follow the others to the doc's office, Mari thought as she jogged to catch up with the others. She caught up to them while Kaitlyn was saying they needed to carry Yamiko into the doctor's office. "Don't worry, I got 'er," she announced as she stepped forward. Carefully, Mari lifted the out-of-it psychic off the horse, cradling the girl in her arms. She gave the others a reassuring look before carrying Yamiko towards the office.

edited 5th Jan '17 11:15:37 AM by WillDeRegio

[Bed and Breakfast]

Maya closed her eyes in irritation.

Ok, I'll try not to be an ass this time, Maya signed, But holy shit, you are making this difficult. We are seriously on a time limit, and you're acting like this is something from a crime show. Connie...he gave you an answer. He gave you an alibi. He explained all that he could. What more do you want? Whatever it is, he can't give to you.

Amy nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, Connie, but Maya's right. He did all he could do to give you an answer, and you still won't accept it. Please, Connie." She gently held Connie's shoulder, "Please. We have to help Joseph and we're running out of time! Can you be a little less suspicious? Please?"

Yeah, listen to your girlfriend. Maya signed, smirking. She has all the facts.

Amy didn't translate that. Instead, her shot Maya a quick glare, her cheeks red.

Sorry. Super short. x_x

[Bed and Breakfast] (Main Hall)

Omar's explanation had seemed plausible enough... Right up until the end. The teenagers that had walked in with him seemed completely untroubled, too, but perhaps they just hadn't noticed. The other one, though - Connie? - raised a good point. "That does sound convenient," Rin said, fixing a challenging look on Omar. "Are you saying we're not allowed to know the details? And are you further implying that nobody would be able to go with you, if Joseph wanted anyone to?"

She shook her head. "He's already said that he doesn't trust you, and yet your response is essentially 'hurry up and trust me.' Which brings me back to one of my questions, one which I don't believe you've answered yet: why do you care so much? You just met this morning, didn't you? What's it to you if he doesn't make it home via your convenient mystery method?" she said.

She fully realized how easily that question could be directed back at her, however. After all, she'd only met him a few minutes ago. Why did she care about what happened to him? They were scarcely acquaintances, and he wasn't even human, much less a Hakodan citizen. It was a fair point, and yet, she was involved anyway. Perhaps it wasn't rational, but Joseph seemed nice, and Omar seemed suspicious. She'd felt the need to step in, and that was that.

"Even if he were to change his mind," she continued, quickly glancing over at Joseph. "Which, of course, he has every right to, it's his decision... The time-frame might not be as much of a problem as you say it is. Anywhere that you can drive to in under half and hour, I can get to in seconds," she said, then hesitated for a moment, looked over her shoulder at the others and explained, somewhat sheepishly, "I can fly."

Since when am I so selfless? Especially for a stranger, she wondered. Whatever. Just go with it. What's the worst that could happen?

Hotel - Sagebrush Suite

For most of the day, the third floor of the hotel had been deserted due to a reported haunting of the suite, indicated by nearby flickering lights and a dark mist leaking out beneath the front door. However, sometime in the late afternoon - coincidentally, at the same time that the Dead God vanished - the lights stopped flickering and the mist disappeared. A nearby maid pushing a cart of cleaning supplies looked on from the end of the hallway, shaking her head in disbelief, before deciding she was seeing things and moving on. That's what I get for staying up late last night watching Ghostbusters.

Inside the suite, the four people who had been lying in bed all day all rose out of their beds, got themselves dressed, and gathered in the common room. There were the Japanese siblings, Gon and Ari - a teen boy in a red sweater and a teen girl in a blue peacoat, the former carrying a backpack and the latter wearing glasses. There was Amanda, another teenage girl who looked almost like a female version of Lupin with the gaunt figure and the thin wavy hair, though dressed in jeans and a band tee like every emo kid ever, and with a scary look to her glasses-free eyes. And then there was Merlin, a man about Lupin's age, very effeminate-looking with the green eyeshadow, long ponytailed hair, short height, and elegant purple coat lined with pink satin.

"Whoa, I dunno about you guys, but I feel like I've been sleeping for a whole year," Gon remarked, followed by a yawn. Looking over, he saw Ari make a beeline for the kitchenette, where she started a pot of coffee.

"How odd," said Ari as she watched the coffee brew. "I had this awful nightmare about confronting Nightfright and being belittled for losing my powers. But they seem to be back now. ...No, Amanda, I'd rather you not use yours. I'm not as fond of pain as you are."

Amanda crossed her arms and smirked. "Well, I already had my fun. Nightfright let me actually possess Yamiko for a while! Though that pesky witch prevented me from torturing that green alien, and I lost my grip on her when she drank this weird potion."

Gon and Ari both shot disapproving looks at Amanda and were about to speak, but Merlin got there first, looking more amused. "Possession, eh? It would seem as if you inherited the abilities of Nightfright himself. The similarity of your aura to that of Dr. Savant cannot be mere coincidence."

Amanda sighed. "Well, with Nightfright gone for some reason, I can't do that again. Although if my assumptions are correct, Yamiko would become very ill from the telepathic reaction she had, so I'm willing to bet she's headed to the hospital." In fact, wasting no time, she grabbed her skull-design-adorned messenger bag and headed out the door.

Gon stared. "Did she inherit... what was it, either remote viewing or telepathy, as well?"

Wagon -> Railway St East (Zuri, Nemaforte, Iraal, Scents, Teri, Wolfe, Gwion, Oswald... and Vicky)

Zuri was a little offput by the surprised reactions in especially Teri, Wolfe, Oswald, and Scents, but then realized that none of them (except maybe Oswald) were familiar with supernatural concepts, and she herself was a walking supernatural concept. In fact, of all people, Iraal seemed the most understanding of her form (not counting clearly-stoned-out-of-her-mind Nemaforte), and she even apologized about not being able to protect her. This comment brought up a noticeable sorrow within her, though she spoke rather calmly despite it.

She started by shaking her ghostly head. "There's no need to apologize. This was entirely my doing." Then the sorrow began to show itself in her voice, and increased as she went on. "Ever since I attained the power of astral projection, a part of me knew that it might lead to my demise... but at that point I had nothing to lose. With my parents dead since I was three, my grandmother dead since a few months ago, and no close friends, I figured that nobody would miss me if I decided to end my life a little early." She surprised herself for a moment - this was something she had only told a couple of counselors and therapists, but any concerns about suicide didn't really matter now that she was actually dead. "I already looked like a ghost while alive - so perhaps, deep down, I thought it would be better if I actually... was one..."

At that point her eyes started to sting, so she closed them and turned around so that nobody would see the tears leaking out of them. That's when she heard Scents' comment about her not being real... at which she turned around, her eyes glowing white and glaring at her.
"Of course I'm real! How would you feel if someone told you you were a..." she stopped herself, figuring it would not be wise to speak the obscenity she was about to say, "...not real either?"

As she sighed, her eyes turned back to normal (notably, they were a reddish pink, just like Nemaforte's), and for a while she gazed down at the floor... until she heard a ringing from inside her bag. Turning around, she pondered for a moment, and then took a high leap right onto the pack horse, which didn't even notice since she was weightless. Once there, she withdrew her cell phone from her bag and answered it.

"Hello?" After a pause, her eyes widened. "Gon?! You're awa... all of you are awake? ...Amanda too!? But that's not possible! She had possessed Yamiko last I checked... oh. ...Uh... it must be the reception out here. I think people's voices would sound a bit distorted in... no? Hmm. Well, we're just about back in town after a trip out into the wilderness. ...Oh uh, I can explain when I get back. There's... a lot to explain. If you want to find us, leave the hotel and make a right, then right again on Railway Street. You should see our wagon approaching. ...Ugh, just trust me. Bye." And she hung up, leapt off the horse, and moved around to the side of the wagon where she phased through the wall and sat next to Nemaforte.

While all this was going on, Nemaforte remained mostly quiet. Mostly, since once she had enough of the odd time distortion, she collected herself and whispered something just audible enough to notice if one happened to be paying attention to her.
"Sio tei-bi tura-mi gaile tura mord-na."^note Translation: "Let my sense of time return to normal"
Focusing with all her might (a lot easier to do given the effects of the soothemist from before), she attuned herself to the tempo of her surroundings, becoming aware once more of the soft creaking of the wagon wheels... okay, that was a bad thing to focus on, as the sound they made when they ran over pebbles was too inconsistent. Same with the words other people were speaking. So instead, she focused on her own heartbeat, which she knew had a specific frequency. Feeling this, she visualized the wagon, the town in the distance, and the horses moving at a regular pace, all from what she remembered of how time normally flowed.

Shortly after Zuri sat down, Vicky came running up to the wagon, calling out to the others from a short distance while broadly waving a hand. "Heeeey! We're back - and it looks like you're back too!" Way to state the obvious.

Zuri froze. What would Vicky think of her new ghostly form? Then she looked over at her body - what would Vicky think of its new dead form? Actually, just then she got an idea. She crawled over to her body and lay down inside of it, trying to get it to move. It was unsuccessful.
Aha, I know why.
And so she levitated the ritual dagger over to her, laying it on top of her chest. The body's fingers may have moved a slight bit after the dagger landed, but didn't move beyond that. Defeated, Zuri's ghost sat up and leaned back against the seat, completely forgetting that she was still sitting partially inside her body. But she quickly remembered once she saw Vicky approach and levitate herself into the wagon - she slipped back inside her dagger, which sheathed itself on her body's chest, just in the nick of time.

Fortunately, Vicky didn't really like corpses and thus decided to look away the instant she saw Zuri's body, clasping a hand over her mouth and shutting her eyes tight for a while. Yeesh... I couldn't imagine a dead body being so frightening to look at! It's no wonder I never liked zombie films. Once she collected herself, she found Nemaforte, who looked to be meditating or something with how calmly she was sitting and how her eyes were gently closed. Approaching closer, she waved a hand in front of the elfin witch's face.

"Hello, Orenya to Nemaforte..." She snickered at her little joke. "Hmm, how do you say hello in your language anyway?"

The question was rhetorical, but not to Nemaforte, who opened her eyes (whose pupils were still kind of dilated, though not to the extent they were before) and looked right at her.
"Kati-ya. Or kariel, though I prefer the first."

"Oh, uh... kati-ya. I thought you were sleeping or something." Then she flashed a cheeky smile at everyone else, still diverting her gaze away from Zuri's body - and more towards Iraal. "Eeeh, what's up, Doc?" She snickered again - this time inwardly.

Main Street - Doc Carson's Surgery (Yamiko, Lupin, Mari, James, Kaitlyn... and Amanda)

Lupin was thankful that there were three people able to carry Yamiko with him, as he knew that even if his arm wasn't broken, he wouldn't have been able to, given the dire lack of muscle on his figure. So instead he followed Mari into the building, where the nurse assisting the eponymous doctor took a look at the lovers, the only ones in the group who looked to be in need of medical attention. While she took Lupin aside to attend to his arm, the doctor took Yamiko off of Mari's hands, carrying her over to an examination table and checking her vital signs to start off with.

"Well, her heart rate is a little low, but physically, everything else seems normal so far." That is, until he took a look at her eyes. "Lack of a blinking reflex... hmm, seems unresponsive in general." He looked to James, Kaitlyn, and Mari. "What did you say, something about telepathically reacting to a god? It reminds me of what happened with Cthulhu and other great and terrible beings in myth. As far as I know, people who so much as see them in some cases can go mad in all sorts of ways."

He shook his head. "I hate to say it, but she may have become an empty shell. If they say the eyes are the window to the soul, I don't see such a soul in her. If that is the case, the most humane thing to do would be to put her out of her misery. But that's the worst case scenario. I'll have to run more tests to try and detect whatever consciousness she has left."

"I know something that might help."

The voice was female, but it didn't belong to the nurse, or Kaitlyn, or Mari, or Yamiko (would've been a miracle if it did). A teenage girl about as scrawny as Lupin walked in, gazing in amusement with her heavily-shadowed eyes. As she reached a hand to her chin, many linear scars on her forearm became visible, even more so when she held said hand out, as if to shake someone else's.
"Amanda Tibbett, also known as the person who possessed Yamiko until that pesky Dead God pushed me out." She turned her palm outwards. "Oh don't bother drawing your weapons - A) we're in a hospital, and B) I'm sure you've heard of what I can do."

Lupin looked a bit surprised upon seeing Amanda awake and without control over Yamiko, but that surprise quickly turned into a glare. But strangely, he couldn't see her aura. Or anyone else's, for that matter. Did his new power suddenly leave him? If so, he hoped that that didn't apply to his cloaking abilities as well. But the way she acted, her intentions were obvious. "I don't think Yamiko needs your 'help'. She's been in enough pain already."

At this, Amanda laughed, a very hearty laugh. "Is there ever such a thing as enough pain? But no, that's not what I meant - do you have trouble seeing it in my aura?"

Something clicked in Lupin's mind. "You're awake - that must mean Merlin's awake as well, as well as the siblings." Amanda nodded in reply. "Ah, then he must have his old ability b- agh!" He felt a tinge of pain in his arm, to which the nurse hastily apologized. "...So what did you mean?"

"Let's see what the doctor can do first."

The nurse shot a glare at her. "If you cause any problems for the patient, we will have to ask you to leave." Then she turned back to Lupin, where she had been inspecting his now-exposed forearm. "Hmm, so it looks like the fracture is only in the ulna, and thankfully there seems to be no active internal bleeding. Quite surprising for someone who fell off a horse, especially given how thin you are."

"I've been told my bones are far stronger than my muscles," Lupin remarked with a shrug.

edited 16th Jan '17 9:44:35 PM by ladytanuki

[Town ~ Railway Street (Wagon)] (Oswald, Gwion, Teri, Wolfe, Iraal, Scents, Nemaforte, Vicky, Zuri's ghost)

Oswald's hand resurfaced briefly from beneath his ragged cloak when Scents expressed some sort of dutiful concern for his well-being. He waved it away, and though he did not yet raise his bowed head, he said, "Oh I'm quite all right, thank you. This vast and mysterious existence has simply caught me off guard once again. I'd have thought by now I might have been a bit more attuned to expecting the unexpected. I suppose it just goes to show what dim light this knowledge bears."

He pressed his hands against his hooded forehead and let out a very quiet, shaky laugh. "The dead back to life..." he murmured, "the dead..." he paused, finally raising his head back up. There was a strange, almost giddy smile on his face. "Come to think of it, I believe that makes this wagon haunted. Oh how spooky."

Oswald laughed again, and dropped his head back down, letting it hang sedately above his lap. He was quiet once more. He remained quiet while Zuri's ghost spoke, explaining some of her reasoning, which didn't do much to make the situation feel any less surreal. Her moving to answer a cell-phone, as a ghost, only exacerbated that feeling.

He remained silent, only stirring at the sound of a new voice calling from somewhere beyond the wagon. Rather than raise his head again, Oswald seemed to recede further, scooting close to the edge of the wagon and drawing his tail closer, so that it was mostly hidden beneath his cloak. When he stopped moving—shortly before the owner of the new voice, Vicky, made her entrance—he looked like little more than the raggedy shape of a stranger tucked into the corner; easy to miss in the surrounding excitement. It was a shape Oswald had taken on many times before. Not always necessary, but counted on nonetheless for its comforting discreetness.

[Town ~ Bed & Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Cynthia, Connie, Joseph, Omar, Rin, Amy, Maya)

Cynthia crossed her arms, frowning. "I have to agree with Connie slightly," she said to Omar. "You make this solution," she emphasized the word with air quotes, "sound very... suspect. Like it's a bad thing or something."

"However," the young knight recrossed her arms, "if this is a genuine means of getting Joseph back to his home, and there is a time limit to either him poofing off to someplace else," she made an emphasis of staring at Joseph for a second before continuing, "or this way not working anymore, I think we should start heading to where we need to be, instead of standing around debating this."

She strapped her pack to her back and picked up the metal case off the table before making to leave the bed and breakfast. Cynthia turned around towards the group when she got to the door. "You mentioned finding someone who had been held prisoner in the mines that we have to get to, right? The people who held them captive might be there now, and we don't know how many there might be, or if they're armed. So I'm going to go with you guys." She held up her gauntlet, "I am a knight of Cadia, after all."

[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Connie, Davey, Joseph, Omar, Amy, Maya, Cynthia, Rin)

Connie sighed under her breath— somehow. She glanced between at Amy and Maya. "Have you guys ever heard of a lie? A carefully constructed mis-truth, maybe? You know," she shrugged, "something you can say to get a person off your case without revealing the actual truth, a truth that's probably—lets be mild—disagreeable. And maybe I'd buy that he really can't tell us more—maybe he swore an oath not to tell a random bunch of people in the desert any details of his 'solution'—except that the story he's come up with is... well, it's like uh," Connie glanced at Rin, waving her hand in a loose circle as she struggled for a name.

"Rin," Joseph piped up, smiling slightly at a small sense of helpfulness.

"Right, Rin," Connie nodded. "It's like Rin says, suddenly we've got this narrow time limit where a decision has to be made without properly thinking it through, and we're supposed to let Joseph go by himself with this guy with no guarantee that he'll do what he says- with no guarantee that he won't do something awful to Joseph and skip town. Hence why it seems so convenient. I mean," she shook her head and shrugged again, "I can't say that he would, but just the same I also can't say that he wouldn't, y'know? I can say that his story is suspicious as hell, and that kinda pushes me away from trusting him."

Joseph turned his chair slightly so that it was pointed more directly towards Connie and the other two teenagers. "Well, uh..." he scratched at a nonexistent itch on the side of his neck, "I don't think he's lying."

Connie raised her eyebrows, "No?" she asked, blinking a few times. "Really? I mean... why not? What makes you say that?"

Joe tipped his head this way and that slightly, as though acknowledging Connie's skepticism, "Well, at least, I don't think it's all a lie, or even most of it. It just seems like a lot of specific and weird stuff to be lying about, plus what he knows about this thing that's happening to me checks out with... this thing that's happening to me. I mean, my own experiences with it. Like I didn't tell him anything, but he knew."

Connie glanced away, not because of anything Joseph said, but because she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the bathroom door moving very slightly. Quietly, she separated from the group, stepping away from the others and walking over to the door.

"That being said," Joe continued, "he's definitely not telling us everything, and I'm talking more than just the details of his solution. Like he knows way too much about me. It's not just how my problem works, it's personal stuff too. He knew that there was a woods near my house, and I never told him." He lowered his eyes towards the ground and shook his head, It's creepy. I just wish I knew why he was doing all this, if I'm supposed to be a stranger. And if not..."

Meanwhile, a short distance away—though long enough to make it difficult to hear what the others were talking about—Omar addressed Rin's standing question. "Why do I care?" he repeated, raising his eyebrows slightly. "Because, know about his problem. I understand—more than any of you—the lasting implications of that problem. Moving from place to distant place in an instant. Having no control. Having no home. No friends for more than a day or two. No escape. It strips life of meaning. It destroys a person. I wouldn't wish it upon my enemy, let alone a harmless young stranger. It's called possessing a modicum of moral fiber, what I'm doing." He sighed, rubbing his brow, "What I'm trying to do, at the least."

To Cynthia, he explained, "It's not a bad thing, it's a delicate thing. A very delicate thing, and if I don't handle it carefully— delicately, then I won't be able to help Weller. I know it's frustrating, but the more I explain, the less likely this is to work. Once it's taken care of, I can tell you everything you want to know."

When she suggested that they should get moving, he nodded hesitantly, saying, "Yes, I agree time is wasting, but it would take far too long to get there by foot and my motorcycle only seats two." He frowned slightly, muttering, "Three if we really push it, but Weller has the tail so he'd have to be at the end, and with the saddlebags..." Then Rin pointed out her felicitous ability to fly. "Oh! Well, that changes things a bit. It doesn't necessarily erase our time concern, though. I should be there with Weller; I'm the one who knows where the solution is, how it works, and what the safe time window is. There are too many ways for this to go wrong without guidance."

Back near the bathroom door, Connie leaned against the adjacent wall, splitting her attention between the three closest to her—Amy, Maya, and Joseph—and the door itself. Surely enough the knob turned slowly, and the door opened inward a bit, revealing Davey's short form on the other side. He was still shirtless, but he seemed to have cleaned himself up a bit more, judging by the fluffy, recently-dried look of his fur, and general lack of blood spatters or tear stains.

"Connie?" he said, looking surprised to see her right outside the door, "Is everything all right?"

"Yeh-" she caught herself, "Yeah, um, kinda no. Not really, Dave. It's uh... look, you know that guy I wanted you to meet?"

"...Ah.... yes?" Davey replied, sounding unsure. "Weren't there two?"

"Yeah well, the closer one, the one that's here with us right now. Well the short of it is, he's got this weird problem, and he met this weird guy who said he could fix his problem, only this guy's solution is kind of suspect, especially because he won't tell anyone all of the details, and now there's this deadline and he's here and we're supposed to make a decision or else in like twenty six or twenty seven minutes his chance to fix the problem disappears, I think." She took a quick breath, "And that decision involves letting him go with this guy—who we don't really trust—by himself to a cave way south of town where supposedly the solution is, but I was there and I didn't see shit, so," she shrugged and made an exasperated face.

Davey blinked, looking a bit stunned. "Oh!" he said, not sure of how else to immediately respond.

"Sorry I haven't gotten your shirt yet. I was right about to," she gestured at the scene behind her, "but then this kinda came barging through our front door."

"Oh that's all right," Davey smiled, "this seems a little more important than getting me a clean shirt." He paused for a moment, then tilted his head, glancing up at Connie, "Think I might be able to help?"

Connie shrugged, "I... I don't know, maybe if you can read minds. You sure you want to come out half naked?"

"Please Connie, by some standards I'm already over a hundred percent clothed," he said, dusting his coat off. "Just tell me if I catch anyone's eye."

"Oh Jesus..." she murmured through a quiet laugh.

With that Davey stepped out of the bathroom, winked at Connie, and walked towards the others.

[Bed and Breakfast (Lobby)]

This was getting nowhere.

It seemed that the concept of a time limit wasn't settling into Connie's head, and all that they were doing right now was wasting even more precious time.

Thankfully, Rin and Cynthia already offered to help Joseph, so maybe he would have some help after all. But there was still the issue of Connie not truly understanding the seriousness of the situation.

You think we're ever gonna convince her? Amy signed to Maya.

No. Maya signed back, She's too stubborn. I guess the only way to for her to understand is if Joesph just vanished right in front of us or something.

Maya, that's horrible!

What? Clearly, she doesn't want to believe anyth-

She stopped when she noticed Davey coming towards them. Instantly, she felt relieved that her semi friend was unharmed. Now she felt bad for not checking on him sooner.

"Davey!" Amy said, immediately pulling him into a tight hug. This time, she didn't lift him off the ground. Instead, she kissed his cheeks, then pulled away, "You're ok! I was so worried about you! They didn't hurt you, did they?"

edited 8th Feb '17 1:53:39 PM by Masterofchaos

[Bed and Breakfast] (Main Hall)

Well, that was a fair enough answer as to why, she supposed. What more was there to say? She still didn't trust the man, as he was clearly still holding back quite a lot of information, but she'd asked all she could think to ask. Cynthia seemed to want to go to the mines with or without Joseph and Omar, apparently intent on finding whoever had allegedly kept someone captive there. It seemed unlikely that she would just coincidentally run into the just the right people, however, and even if she did, how would she recognize them? Either way, going was her prerogative, but Rin wasn't sure if she wanted to go with her. Leaving town unannounced seemed a bit irresponsible.

In the meantime, she gave Omar a measuring look, and without another word, turned away and wandered over to Joseph. "You've still got a few minutes to think about it," she said. "It remains, as always, your decision. As is whether or not you want anyone to come with you, I suppose," she shrugged.

[Town ~ Bed & Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Cynthia, Connie, Joseph, Omar, Rin, Amy, Maya)

Cynthia tapped her foot a few times as she thought about everything. "While I can tell that you mean well, you're not exactly giving us much to work with, except to trust you. In any case, I'm still going to go with you to this mine and make sure no harm comes to Joseph," she said to Omar.

Cynthia wandered over towards Rin, tapping her chin a few times as she though about what she was carrying. If Rin was going to be flying Joseph over to the mine, that would mean she'd have to go with Omar on the motorcycle. And there might not be room for her pack and box. "How much can you carry, Rin?" Cynthia inquired of the other woman.

Glancing over towards the other side of the room, Cynthia noticed that Davey had finally come out of the bathroom. He was much cleaner than the last time she had seen him, all caked in dirt and blood, though he wasn't wearing all of his earlier attire. Her mind drifted towards her own previously bloodied shirt; it was hard to remove blood stains from fabric.

"Davey!" Cynthia smiled at the little otter man as she headed over towards him. She set the metal box she carried down on a table for a moment, not wanting to inadvertently tire herself out before they set out. "You mentioned earlier about seeing Minerva. Did you see where she was headed?" Cynthia asked quietly of Davey.

edited 13th Jan '17 2:39:47 PM by WillDeRegio

[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Connie, Davey, Joseph, Omar, Amy, Maya, Cynthia, Rin)

Davey's dark brown eyes widened almost imperceptibly as Amy swooped in, bombarding him with a hug and kisses. For a brief moment in the middle of all of it, he considered giving her a bit of a hard time for the unsolicited affection, what with their talk earlier that day^* Relevant Post. But in truth, he didn't mind all that much. After all, the last they had seen each other was under perilous circumstances; it was only natural for emotions to run high, and—with Amy being Amy—for those emotions to manifest themselves in very Amy-like ways. He was happy enough that she hadn't brought up the dreaded four letter c-word or anything of that sort.

When she had given him some space to move again, he smiled pleasantly, brushing his whiskers back a bit before glancing between the two girls and saying, "Hello again Amy, Maya." He gave each a respectful nod, "I have to say, it's a big relief to see you two in good health after that incident at lunch." He paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes slightly and looking between them again. "Well, you do look a little stressed out, but who could blame you?"

When Amy expressed her concerns about his well-being, he asked, "They who? The ones who rolled up in tanks?" Then he smiled and shook his head, "Not a chance. They'll have to bring something bigger if they want to lay a scratch on Sir David Harkness." He puffed up his chest slightly as he said his name, hoping mostly to put Amy at ease. The poor girl seemed prone to worry herself to death if he let her.

Cynthia approached moments later, with a question in tow. Taking note of the quietness of her voice, he stepped away from the others before answering.

"Rin hasn't told you?" he asked, glancing briefly at the other woman. "...Hmn. Well, I last saw the girl at the south end of town. She was with a man, McGee, ah, Jim McGee— did I tell you that already? He was searching for her as well, and the two left the town in a commandeered tank, if you can believe it."

Davey stepped back over towards the teenagers, "Well there is a lot more to tell you, but—if I understand correctly—there's a more pressing matter at hand, is there not?"

"Yes there is." Omar grumbled loudly from across the room. He hadn't batted an eye at Davey's appearance; he just seemed to be annoyed at more distractions presenting themselves. "If you will excuse us, we are wasting precious time, and we really need to be moving."

"Whoa, hold on a sec." This time it was Connie stirring into life. She pointed at the man-lizard seated at the center of the room. "Joe still hasn't made a decision, and you sure as hell aren't forcing him to go with you against his will."

"No, no, of course not," Omar said, shaking his head and sounding more exasperated than ever. He looked at Joseph himself. "Weller, it's your choice, but if you wait much longer, that choice is gonna make itself."

Joseph couldn't help but tense up, feeling all the eyes on him. He'd been distracted by the appearance of Davey, who—despite pretty much fitting Amy's 'otter' description from earlier, still caught him quite off-guard. It was more his manner than his actual outward appearance, as Joe still hadn't fully let go of the mental image of some kind of pet otter in his head. At the very least he had expected something a bit more 'animal' about his behavior, but it seemed anything but. Perhaps it was a bit of a hypocritical expectation, but he was staring nonetheless.

Rin had approached him first, reminding him of the momentous—at least for himself—choice at hand. He didn't say much in response, just a nod and a quiet,"Right…" It wasn't until Omar and Connie called him out that he felt really and truly pressed for a response.

He still didn't feel great about either of his options, but at the end of the day, he felt he would rather know the truth rather than wonder endlessly about what he'd turned away from. About whether he had made the wrong choice. That would drive him mad. It already drove him mad when he made such a choice in much smaller matters. Try something new at a restaurant or stick with an old favorite? Go to the party, or stay home again? Follow up on that phone call or let it wither away, unanswered.

What faced him now was much bigger than any of that. His first—and possibly only—chance at breaking out of his accursed vanishing trap.

Besides, he had safeguards.

"I'll go," he said, finally. "Yeah, yeah, I'll go," he repeated with a little more conviction, "but I definitely want someone there with me. No offense," he glanced nervously at Omar, "it's just that I need the reassurance. I'm putting a lot on the line here. Everything I've still got, you know?"

"Of course," Omar nodded, "that's fine. I wish I could do more to reassure you myself, but… well, this will work. You'll see for yourself very soon."

edited 21st Jan '17 2:02:35 AM by Ryuhza

[Bed and Breakfast (Lobby)]

Amy sighed with relief. "Good! But don't worry us like that next time; you should've came with us to the desert!"

Now that she thought about it...where was Sam and Irina? She hadn't seem either of them since they left; she only hoped that they were safe. If only she could've convinced them to come with her...

Right now, she had to focus on Omar and Joesph. To both hers and Maya's surprise, Joesph decided to go back to Omar—albeit with some company.

"You're leaving...?" Amy said sadly, "...Ok. But you don't get to leave without another hug!"

She wasted no time giving Joseph yet another quick hug. Even though they literally only known each other for half a day, it was still painful for her to see him go. She knew she and Maya couldn't stay in the Frontier, and neither could Joseph. It was bound to happen at some point, but it didn't make it less painful.

Maya, on the other hand, was just relieved that this whole mess was finally getting resolved. Now they could finally stop arguing with each other and finally just relax and unwind after all that had happened. Though, when she really looked at Davey, she felt a little a confused.

...Where's your shirt? she signed to Davey.

Wagon

The conversation seemed to Gwion to take a rather maudlin turn when Iraal attempted to apologise to Zuri's spirit for not liking her much and for failing to protect her and Zuri's shade responded by effectively saying she had sought her own death. From what she said, it seemed that she had wanted to die for quite some time.

Scents suggested that someone should look at Oswald but, so far as Wolfe could see, Oswald was giving every indication that he wished to be left in peace, huddling down in his cloak as if to shut out the distractions of the outside world. Oswald promptly confirmed this by stating he was fine and made a humorous comment about the wagon being haunted before lapsing back into silence and retreating back under his hood.

Wolfe watched Zuri's ghostly figure answering and using a mobile phone with a scientific outlook. Clearly she was able to manipulate solid matter - telekinetically, no doubt (he briefly wondered if she could move things at a distance or whether she would be psychologically limited to whatever was "within reach") - and it was obvious that she could make herself heard over the 'phone, which meant that her speech was due to movement of the air. Again, telekinesis. Was her body actually dead, or just so far gone the heart rate and breathing couldn't be detected? There was a precedent for that sort of thing, resulting in people being prematurely buried. If her body was dead, how could she maintain thoughts and paranormal abilities without a living brain to support her existence?

Given that telekinesis was nothing but fiction on Wolfe's version of Earth and on Terra Nova - the province of fraudsters and stage magicians - he was way out of his depth and had insufficient understanding of the rules that governed places - like here, Capital City and wherever-the-fuck she came from - where it did work.

It wasn't long before Vicky approached and Zuri made herself scarce, which made things a lot less weird so far as Teri was concerned. However, it did seem odd to Teri that Zuri was fine with showing herself to strangers - largely ignorant of the nature of her abilities and the laws of whatever universe she came from - but hid from her own friend who was probably better equipped to understand.

Vicky seemed quite shocked to see Zuri's corpse and actively avoided looking at it - to the point of melodramatic gestures.

Teri shook her head. It was just a body, for fuck's sake! And a pretty tidy one, to boot, since it hadn't died from catastrophic damage. Perhaps it was a good thing that Zuri's ghost/spirit/soul/whatever had decided to make its- herself scarce when Vicky arrived - Teri could imagine the melodramatics that would have ensued if she hadn't.

Despite apparently being totally shocked by the presence of Zuri's corpse, Vicky then proceeded to crack wise with Nemaforte and Iraal - Bugs Bunny quotes, indeed - and the whole thing reeked of attention seeking. "Ooh, look, I'm so freaked out by the spooky dead body and look, I'm so funny." Teri shook her head again. Fucking flakey tart.

Before Teri could turn her thoughts into a scathing comment, Wolfe looked up at Vicky. "Did everyone in your group get back safely?"

Main Street - Doc Carson's

Kaitlyn gave an appraising look as Mari seemingly effortlessly lifted Yamiko down from the horse and carried her through the doctor's door. Kaitlyn was no weakling herself and could appreciate that Mari was stronger than her build suggested.

Lupin followed Mari into the doctor's surgery and Kaitlyn turned her attention to James. She could see that he was clearly conflicted - it was writ large on his face and in the way he held his body - he obviously wanted to get back to check up on his friends, especially since they had found the person they sought but his sense of duty dictated that he stay with the group, especially since two were injured.

She gave him a reassuring smile. "I'll stay here and keep an eye on these ones, if you like, and you can go and do what you need to do with your friends - I'll join you all once everything's sorted out here."

James gave Kaitlyn a grateful smile in return. He wouldn't have asked to abdicate his responsibility, but - as a Sergeant - he appreciated a volunteer. "Thank you. I'll return the horses first."

James headed off in the direction of the Livery Stable, leading the horses, and Kaitlyn turned and entered the doctor's surgery, arriving just in time for the doctor to ask her and Mari about telepathic reactions to a god and express his concerns that Yamiko may remain vegetative for the rest of her life.

With the doctor talking, it was nearly impossible to hear the quiet footfall of someone arriving at the door but Kaitlyn's enhanced hearing and her conditioning to notice such things meant that, unlike the doctor and the nurse, she heard the steps outside and turned to face the door just before the newcomer announced her presence and entered.

The girl - she was little more - showed clear signs of self-harming and reminded Kaitlyn of some of the young troubled youths that haunted the streets of Hamilton. The type was definitely familiar.

The back of Kaitlyn's neck prickled when the newcomer identified herself and pointedly threatened everyone. This was a danger that she wasn't equipped to handle - hard to do anything if you're writhing in pain from the inside. Perhaps a Lyco - like Alpha or Gwion - could push through the pain barrier or at least ignore it enough to do some damage against such a threat, but a mundane like herself would probably be seriously fucked if Amanda took it into her head to go on the offensive.

Amanda's subsequent comment regarding whether there was such a thing as "enough" pain confirmed, so far as Kaitlyn was concerned, that she was extremely unstable - as if the self-harming weren't evidence enough.

Despite the very real threat that Amanda posed, Kaitlyn wasn't scared or intimidated - Kaitlyn had been a member of a gang, whereas this newcomer was just a civilian - and a fucking kid, at that. Utgard alone had been dangerous enough, and there had always been the risk of encountering rival gangs; Kaitlyn was no stranger to threats, violence and pain from extremely unstable people.

Kaitlyn gave Amanda a level stare. "As you say, this is a hospital - and you've got absolutely no fucking idea what some of us can do, so don't go around making threats, little girl."

[Bed and Breakfast] (Main Hall)

Rin was not a fan of Joseph's decision, but she kept her thoughts to herself. As she'd said a few times already, it was his decision to make.

"Fair enough," she said. "But who's going with you? Aside from Omar, obviously. And it sounds like Cynthia's heading over there anyway, so..." She looked around at all the others, briefly, then shrugged. "More decisions for you to make, huh?" She offered a small, sympathetic smile.

Thinking about it, she supposed she would go if asked... But on the other hand, would she leave without telling Hana? And if she did tell, would she be ordered to stay? She stood silently, for the time being, thinking and waiting.

[Town ~ Doc Carson's] (Mari, Amanda, Lupin, Yamiko, Kaitlyn)

Mari stared at Amanda before grinning. This girl reminded her of one of those yappy little Yorkies. She waltzes in here, acts like a big shot, and tries her best to intimidate everyone. Unfortunately for her, Mari wasn't one to be so easily intimidated. She grabbed a scalpel from off the table.

"I'll be the third one t'state that we are in an 'ospital 'ere. I take it you're friends with these two, and yet you barge in and threaten complete strangers. You've got guts, kid." She intensified her gaze, "I'm not exactly sure what little mind powers you 'ave, but judgin' from what I've been able t'glean, you've got about 'alf the power o'what Yamiko over there 'ad earlier, give or take a power up," Mari took a few steps forward, looming over Amanda. She began projecting her fear inducing aura onto the psychic, "and you rate about a small fry compared t'me. I'm Mari Dojima, the Red Oni of Kanto. So if your wanna try some shit, step outside and hit me with your best shot." Mari was grinning at the other girl, her rather noticeable canines a little bit more noticeable.

The sound of something clattering to the ground could be heard around the room. At Amanda's feet was the crumpled remains of the scalpel, blade bent in on itself, and nary a scratch on Mari's hands. The taller woman took a step back and crossed her arms.

[Town ~ Bed & Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Cynthia, Connie, Joseph, Omar, Amy, Maya, Rin)

"No, Rin didn't tell me," Cynthia tilted her head in mild confusion, "a tank...?" She rolled her eye in thought before it lit up in recognition, "Oh, you mean the landkruiser! Wow, so they managed to make off in one... huh." She cupped her gauntleted hand over her mouth.

Cynthia's face brightened up when Joseph agreed to go, "Right, I'll definitely be going with you guys!" She pumped her fist once before rocking back and forth on her heels, awaiting what the others would agree to.

edited 23rd Jan '17 1:40:49 AM by WillDeRegio

[E. Railroad Street: Wagon (Iraal, Scents, Oswald, Zuri, Vicky, Teri, Wolfe, Gwion)]

Not for the first time on this expedition, Iraal considered that no amount of social interaction software could help in a situation. There were a number of easily-accessed files on how to carefully address suicidal thoughts, but they all seemed somewhat pointless when the person had in fact already died.

Instead, she simply kept silent and remained so when Zuri tore into Scents for her assistant's disbelief. That was a situation that would certainly be beyond any help from her or her software. As she turned away, though, she began speaking quietly under her breath, letting some of her thoughts about the Dead God play out loud - not really trying to make any coherent sense of them yet, though. She had just started to lower herself from the side of the wagon when one of the other psychics they had left behind came up and said something to her. Iraal blinked and looked over, letting her backup replay just what had been said.

"Formerly, an enormous primeval machine that I would have greatly preferred to actually study," she said levelly. "Now, just the sky."

She turned back to the wagon and adjusted her sunglasses before calling up. "Zer Gwion, walk with me."

Scents turned back to 'Zuri' and waved her ears in a vaguely insulting fashion, before realizing - Why am I doing that?

Oh, right. Evasion.

She fixed the apparition with one eye. "Look, where - um. My, uh, Splinter of the Faith says that there's this life and there's the next life" - she waved her arms together across in front her for emphasis - "and they're two separate things, right?. They don't mix. There aren't people staying behind or coming back after their material bodies die and the rest of them moves on to whatever comes after. Ghosts aren't - aren't really-real." She paused. "And I think I actually told you this before. Told Zuri this before. Um."

She hopped down from the wagon onto the street, not even bothering to grab Lament just yet, and put a paw over her face. This is just too much, even for the Gates.

And to top it all off she was still worried about Oswald. He seemed to be handling this even worse, and nobody was apparently suited to help.

[Town ~ Bed and Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Connie, Davey, Joseph, Omar, Amy, Maya, Cynthia, Rin)

Davey fixed Amy with a skeptical stare and a smile. "Amy," he said, touching her hand, "I don't think it's humanly possible to keep you from worrying." He turned his attention to Maya as she signed her question. It took a few moments—his understanding of ASL was still far beyond rusty—but when he followed her eyes to his chest, the message clicked. "Oh, yes, it's in dire need of a wash. Blood and lots of it, see. I'll give you the rest of the details once this is taken care of."

He nodded towards the others, watching with subtle amusement as Joseph was hugged right out of his chair. Brought to a stand, the young man-lizard-salamander faced those he would be leaving, carrying, for the first time, thoughts of his imminent departure in mind. For a few seconds during and after Amy's hug, he was stone-faced, as though it hadn't registered at all. But slowly, the corners of his wide mouth began to stir, the lids of his strange eyes began to twitch, and eventually his whole face awakened. It burgeoned into a demented sort of smile, as though he was trying very hard to be—or at least look—happy, but someone had just dropped a brick on his foot.

"It's weird, I don't usually get to say goodbye." He said, half mumbling. It was a bit of an awful thought, but he couldn't help but wish he could trade this opportunity for another goodbye; an earlier goodbye. There were several he could think of that he would have loved to give. Amy, Maya, and Connie were nice, and he appreciated what they were trying to do, but he really hadn't known them for more than a few hours, and with Omar's story and willingness to comply with Joe's own demands, he was starting to wonder if he had been needlessly led astray. Still, given the circumstances, it was hard to honestly blame them.

He searched for the words to say his farewell with, but he had scarcely opened his mouth to speak before Rin stepped over, asking him who he was going to have come along. Joseph turned to face her, nearly knocking over his seat with his tail in the process. "Yeah, yeah, uh-" he began, scratching at another nonexistent itch—this time on his arm—and glancing very briefly at those nearby, "I guess I'm thinking maybe...eee..."

"Yo, here's an idea," Connie stepped away from the wall she had been leaning against, moving a bit closer to Joseph, "how about you pick whoever is the most qualified to kick Omar's ass if he's not being entirely honest."

Omar clicked his teeth, frowning slightly at the whole ordeal, though he seemed less bothered by Connie's comment and more by Rin's implying that Cynthia would be coming along either way.

"Now listen," the man said, raising his watch arm and tapping it, "we've got roughly thirteen minutes before our window of opportunity opens, and it'll remain open for ten minutes—even less if you want to make a safe estimate. That gives us an optimistic twenty-three minutes tops to settle this matter, drive to the cave, get Weller's provisions in order, reach the mine shaft, and locate the, uh... ah," he shook his head and thumbed towards Joseph, "his way home.

"My point being that I've got space for three on my motorcycle- that's it, and only if we really squeeze together. As soon as we get to the cave, we're dismounting and going in. There is no time to wait for anything slower, so unless you've got your own speedy transport, don't bother. If it's Cynthia coming, then it's Cynthia. We don't need to bog down the matter further with a bloated travel group."

"Well Rin can fly, right?" Joseph said, glancing between her and Omar, "I- y'know, I thought I heard you say so, anyway."

Davey and Connie had not heard, and were now both looking at Rin with piqued and eager curiosity, as though they were hoping to see her blast off right then and there.

"I mean, you said it was fast and all, so I was thinking you could follow us that way, and Cynthia could ride with us on the motorcycle," he turned his eyes briefly to Cynthia, then back to Rin, shrugging, "If that's okay with you two."

[Bed and Breakfast]

"Well," Amy said, finally letting go of Joesph, "Maya and I are gonna stay here and have dinner and do some catch up."

She and Maya also looked at Rin with interest and curiosity.

"You can fly?!" she said, before giving an excited squeal, "That's so cool! I wish we ran into you sooner; you could've flown next to my plane! That would've been super exciting!"

Maya looked at Rin, then Joesph, then Omar, then back to Rin.

Well, she signed, Ya'll need to decide if you're gonna fly or ride right away; if what Omar said is true, you don't have a lot of time. We've already wasted enough.

edited 23rd Jan '17 6:49:04 PM by Masterofchaos

[Bed and Breakfast]

Rin nodded. "Yes, I can fly, and I shouldn't have any trouble keeping up," she said, with a brief, pointed glance over at Omar. She supposed that, actually, the fastest possible way for everyone to get where they needed to go would probably be for her to carry the whole motorcycle, passengers and all, and fly them there. And technically, she could close the distance in a matter of seconds... But that would likely be quite unpleasant for the others, and she really didn't want to carry anyone around. She was a soldier, after all, a Striker, not a mule.

She crossed her arms. "I'm ready to go whenever you are," she said. Hopefully, the trip wouldn't take too long. She didn't want to risk getting in trouble for leaving...

Wagon -> Railway Street East (Teri, Wolfe, Gwion, Iraal, Scents, Vicky, Zuri, Nemaforte, Oswald)

Vicky uttered a rather stupid-sounding laugh when she heard Iraal's remark about the sky. Ask a silly question, get a silly answer... just like back at the ritual site. Speaking of back at the ritual site, Wolfe just then asked her if the others in that group got back safely. This surprised Vicky a bit - where to start? Lupin breaking his arm? Yamiko's telepathic reaction to the Dead God? "Well, uh..."

"Lupin broke his arm and Yamiko fell sick somehow. I glimpsed it as I returned, but perhaps you know more about it." Now that Vicky had calmed down a little, Zuri felt it safe to pop her ghostly head out of her body. Unsurprisingly, Vicky was shocked - though rather than say anything, all she did was point a trembling finger at her and hold her mouth open. Zuri nodded. "I decided to stay a while after all, by anchoring my soul to my athame. I think I like being a ghost better than being mortal after all." There was a warm smile on her face as she said this, and shortly after, she retreated back into her body.

"Heh, it would be funny if you could move your own body out of here," Vicky said with a nervous chuckle. "Would that be considered a form of necromancy? But if you're your own zombie, then that doesn't..." She pointed around for a bit, but grew lost in thought.

In the meantime, Nemaforte turned her attention to Oswald, who sarcastically remarked about the wagon being haunted before huddling up to rest once more. She could still detect a weary sensation in his aura, though given he had just recently come back from the brink of starvation, that made sense. In fact, she gently nudged his shoulder and reached a gloved hand towards him.

"Oswald, we have reached town. Maybe there there will be a healer with skills more than mine. I can help you up..." But rather than let Oswald take her hand, she stepped backward and extended the palm towards him, pulling him telekinetically towards her a bit, just enough to push him into standing.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Vicky turned to face Nemaforte, as well as Wolfe when she remembered his question. "Yamiko apparently had a really bad telepathic reaction to the Dead God, and Lupin and the others are bringing her to the hospital, or whatever they call it here. We were thinking she could use your help, since you know more about souls and whatnot. I uh, think the place is over there down Main Street." She pointed over to where Railway Street made an intersection with the main drag of town - the same street the hotel was on. "So yeah, that's what happened," she added to Wolfe. "The others are okay though - I'm surprised those lovebirds have been the ones attracting trouble in this place."

Nemaforte nodded. "I would be gladdened to. Osw... eh?" She paused for a bit; Oswald looked a bit different for a brief bit. In an instant, she saw him as he was some time ago, perhaps before his curse took hold. But when she blinked, he was back to his current self. Similarly, when she looked at Zuri, for a moment she looked more alive. Wolfe looked a tiny bit younger, the horses were foals, and then old and grey... Vicky was a middle-aged woman for an instant... and when she saw the town, she could glimpse some fires blazing and some more primitive-looking dark-skinned folk^note Indians, which I'm surprised never appeared in this thread given the setting walking about. But again, when she blinked, everything was normal. Is this a result of ending the effect of the Mushroom of Time early? she thought as she led Oswald out of the wagon.

Vicky was about to follow Nemaforte, but hesitated for a moment. "Um, where are you guys planning on going?" She looked from Teri and Wolfe to Gwion to Iraal and Scents. "I might stop by the hotel to see how our other classmates are doing, but I'm flexible."

Meanwhile, Zuri was in the middle of another attempt on moving her body. For at least a minute, she hovered there inside, matching the pose perfectly, trying to remember as best as she could what it was like to have a physical body. Minus the heartbeat, since she knew she didn't have one anymore. Specifically, how she felt while walking home one afternoon from a bus ride from school some years ago, since she felt so tired that day that she was slumping along and dragging fer feet, and remembered wondering if that's what zombies felt like as they walked.

It didn't work... but she had another idea. Standing up again, she positioned herself behind her body's head. Here she made a quick remark back at Scents. "I do remember you saying how you didn't believe in ghosts. I just thought that maybe you might believe me more after seeing me. Unless you think I'm a hologram or something, or a figment of your imagination... though if everyone sees me, the latter doesn't make much sense." And with that, she turned back around, knelt down, and lifted her body up by the shoulders, getting it into a sitting position, then slowly pushing it into standing. This was something she knew she would have had a hard time with while alive due to limited physical strength, but as a ghost, she felt like she could stretch that somewhat. She even managed to push her athame into her body's hands, making it hold it.

And then she pressed herself right against the back of her body, pushing each leg forward to make it walk over to the edge of the wagon. Fortunately, Vicky had her back turned at that moment - though if the others reacted to the absurdity of a ghost pushing her own body (that she looked almost identical to) forward, she would soon find out.

Doc Carson's Surgery (Lupin, Amanda, Yamiko, Mari, Kaitlyn)

Kaitlyn's reaction seemed a little dull to Amanda - basically repeating what she had said back at her in a less amused fashion - but Mari's, on the other hand... Though the aura she projected was meant to induce fear, in Amanda it induced laughter. As the super-strong-possible-supernatural-being spoke, Amanda held her hand over her mouth to hold in her laughter, but once she finished, she let it out. It was maybe a little on the loud side, but mostly wide, hearty, and almost crazed - akin to something a young villainess might laugh upon seeing the hero in trouble. She was laughing so hard that it made her sides hurt - and this only made her laugh harder.

Once she decided she had had enough, she wiped the tears out of the corners of her heavily shadowed eyes and looked at Mari. "Thank you. I needed that. It felt very good, actually." She stifled a chuckle. "I find it amusing when someone takes my threats seriously, even though I rarely follow up on them. I certainly wouldn't now - I've had enough of tormenting people for the day. I'm just here to see how Yamiko is faring, is all. And with Boston having a rather large population, I can always find more victims."

The Doc was busy examining Yamiko this entire time. At one point he hooked her up to a device that looked oddly similar to those electric-field-detecting devices that some fictional paranormal investigators used to hunt ghosts. Then after removing her tiny-top-hat-adorned headband, he started attaching little electrodes to her head, primarily her temples and forehead. After a short while of gazing at her, he spoke up to the others present, having paid no attention to the discussion about Amanda except for the possession part.

"Well, the good news is that nothing seems to be possessing her. My devices would have picked up on extraneous souls present within her, but nothing's coming up. Now I'm trying to monitor her brain activity for signs of consciousness... oh? What's this? Hmm, it's not much, but there's just a little spike of activity there mapping to the amygdala. That region plays a part in emotion, which is definitely a sign of a soul being present. But it's very weak. Hmm..."

Meanwhile, the nurse had just finished splinting Lupin's arm and was now tying up a sling to hold it in. While she was doing so, Lupin looked in the direction of Yamiko, the doctor's words about the possibility of her being an empty shell just now sinking in. A great worry began to well up inside of him, as he sincerely hoped that was not the case. The Doc's words were somewhat reassuring, though it sounded like it would be a long way to recovery, and he wished he knew the nature of it. For a moment he wished he had his aura-viewing abilities back, so that he could see the state of Yamiko's soul... but he realized even if he could, he might not even recognise a soul if he saw one. Where's Merlin when I need him? I hope he's on his way here... And then there's Nemaforte... I hope Vicky tells her to come over here.

Once the nurse was finished, he rose to his feet... or tried to, because just then he felt again the sensation of weakness that he had experienced during the trip here and frequently beforehand. Only now it was worse - he had to sit down again after feeling as if he might faint. He also slumped forward, and would have done so right onto his broken arm if the nurse hadn't stopped him right then, leaning him back in his seat.

"Are you all right?" she asked him.

"...Just a bit exhausted from the trip here - we just got back from a lengthy trek across the wilderness." As he said this, he slipped his free hand into his pocket, but was a bit surprised to find nothing in the pocket he was searching through. Then he spotted the large rucksack they had brought along sitting there in the corner of the room. If only he had an opportunity to get to it... but he felt too weak to do so anyway, and didn't feel inclined to mention it aloud nonetheless. He was just barely able to even lift his phone out of another pocket when it softly vibrated, having a quick conversation with who turned out to be Merlin calling for a status report before hanging up and slumping even further in his seat.

Hotel -> Main Street (Gon, Ari, Merlin)

After getting themselves ready, the three remaining college students walked right through the lobby, heading for the front door. On the way there, Gon had called Zuri, but he seemed a bit confused when he hung up.

"You seem rather unsettled," Merlin remarked, pointing his green-shadowed eyes right at him. "I can see it in your aura. Was it something Zuri said?"

"I dunno," Gon replied. "There was just something off about her voice... it sounded a bit more... ethereal? than it did before. She insists everything's fine, but something just... doesn't feel right, you know?"

"Can I see your phone?" Ari asked Gon, who nodded and handed it to her. She examined it for a moment, and for a while the screen glowed and her eyes looked purplish in the altered light, before looking kind of lost as she looked up again. "Well, there's nothing wrong with your phone, but there's some sort of psychic energy floating around Zuri's. It's as if Vicky was holding it telekinetically for her as she responded.

"Hmm, that is strange indeed," said Merlin, who was thoughtfully rubbing his chin. "I, too, sense that something may be not quite right. So Vicky and Zuri are in this supposed wagon... come to think, this place does look Wild West-ish. Definitely different from any of the other dreamscapes we've wondered into, though strangely less bizarre. I'm wondering if we should set up some of my divination tools to look into this matter further..." He was eyeing a table in a corner of the lobby.

"Or we could just call one of the others," Gon flatly suggested. "Dreamscape or not, we're still technically in the mundane world, genius."

"Ah! An excellent idea!" Merlin withdrew his cell phone from his pocket and tossed it playfully upward before catching it neatly in his hand, which bore two rings adorned with crystal-encased runes. "And I know just who to call!"

"Ghostbusters?" Ari asked him. She and Gon burst into brief laughter. Merlin gave a brief nervous snicker, but paid the reference no mind, even though a while ago he and Lupin had tried to "bust" a few ghosts before.

"Ah, pleasant late afternoon greetings, my night-loving friend!" Merlin exclaimed as he held the phone up to his ear, having decided to call Lupin. "So where might you be? ...In the hospital? Why..." His eyes widened. "Really!? Oh no, that cannot be good. I shall come over at once - it was further down the street, you said? H-how are the others doing?" There was a long pause, during which Merlin looked quite worried. "Oh, if it's worse than that..." He shook his head. "That is disturbing indeed. Yes, I shall come straight away." And he hung up.

"Gon, Ari, you two head over to the edge of town and meet Vicky and Zuri. Lupin, Yamiko, and Amanda are at a small medical facility called Doc Carson's. Yamiko has fallen comatose after reacting telepathically to a Nightfright-like entity of some sort, and apparently something worse has happened to one of the others. I must go there and investigate, so you two go on without me."

Gon vigorously scratched his head. "Oh man, this is getting weirder and weirder! We're not dealing with Nightfright anymore - we're dealing with fucking Cthulhu!"

"Gon, language," Ari sternly remarked.

"This is the fucking Wild West!" Gon replied. "I can say whatever I damn well want! Especially since we're already out the fucking front door! Fuck, man, I can't wait for this clusterfuck of a day to be fucking over."

"And I hope it ends with fucking Zuri," Merlin mused, gazing in wonder at the moon that had just appeared over the horizon.

Ari shook her head. "You guys are fucking nuts."

Once they left the hotel, the Japanese siblings headed to the edge of town, while Merlin headed off in the direction of Doc Carson's. Along the way, the latter passed by an older Brit who had some air of familiarity about him^note this being James of course - he had to wonder if he knew some of his classmates.

edited 29th Jan '17 12:56:04 AM by ladytanuki

[Town ~ Bed & Breakfast (Main Hall)] (Cynthia, Connie, Joseph, Omar, Amy, Maya, Rin)

Cynthia nodded in reply to what Omar said. "I'm fine with that..." She glanced over to her pack and the metal case, "Though I'm not sure I'll able to bring this with me in that case..." She turned towards the ones who were staying behind, "Do you think you could watch my stuff while I go with them? I should be back in about an hour."