Rainforest (Henry, Swanwhite, Leto)

Swanwhite swerved as the Sabertooth Boomstick boomed at her again twice, and growled once in response, changing her pursuit from straight to zig-zagging. She thought some more during her otherwise silent pursuit. This was looking more and more like a kidnapping.

Swanwhite was just about to prepare a fireball to snipe the car's tire when the car started to slow down. Swanwhite withheld the fireball out of curiosity and gained a little altitude as the car slowed to a stop. Swanwhite started flying in circles above, still using the mist as concealment, but her wingbeats were no longer drowned out by the motor.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 10th 2019 at 9:25:35 AM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

_{^< cont. from} Forest, Edge - A Way Out _{^> Henry, Joseph/Arku — Bonnie, Carol, Lily — Mequoql, Morpho — Michelle, Rebecca}


"I know you heard," Henry grumbled, "It's for my own peace of mind."

He sighed, shaking his head slowly and rubbing his eyes. "I suppose I should just shout everything from the rooftops now."

Turning to glance at Morpho, who zealously affirmed his calculating capabilities, Henry said, "All right, no need to brag. Just..." he gestured off into the woods, eyebrow slightly raised, "go ahead?"

Finally, he turned his eyes back to Lily as she described the town a bit more. "Actually, that's not too far off the mark. But if it's a stone's throw from here, I can't imagine it's all what it sounds like." He leaned slightly on his bat, sticking it against the ground like a cane, and gazed up into the trees. "Not when there's magic— demonstrable magic swirling around."

He was silent for a few moments as Lily and Mequoql voiced shared concerns over the behavior of the gems and how it differed from the respective magical rocks each was familiar with.

Glancing between each with a mounting confusion, Henry spoke up. "Who ever said these were aether crystals. Or your 'mage-quality gems'? What makes either of you think these are anything you're familiar with— I mean," he turned his head to Lily, "we just talked about this a second ago, didn't we? Those fancy automobiles? They look perfectly ordinary to me." He glanced at one, noting a curious character on its license plate. "Well, that one seems to be in Chinese, but the point still stands.

"Maybe those gems aren't broken, maybe they just function differently to what you know. And if they take a bit of energy... wakefulness... 'me-juice' or whatever to run— to do miraculous feats," he threw his hands up, "fine. That's fine. If the worst that happens is I get sick, and thirsty, and tired again, I'm okay with that. I've got a bed at home. I've got water at home. I've got a mop at home. I'd rather be at home. I'm starting to feel like a real captive here, and the get-out-of-jail-free cards we've got sitting within arms reach—somewhere—aren't helping."


Back in the pod, Arku faced another line of questioning and mental probing. The scene he'd conjured had been vacant of life but the foliage and the indefinite, fluctuating body of his mind's eye. Joseph was nowhere to be seen, and when Arku stirred, the place faded into faint flashes of burnt out color.

Mequoql chastised him for his statement on ignorance, to which he said, "You think in such extremes. So certain, so absolute. Invariable, and I see it of little use here. I took from you no foresight of sickness in your veins, nor the machinations of your enemies, nor did I carve away any bit of the shrewdness that brought you to this moment. I acted to spare you from this consumptive distraction, but that very shrewdness sought it out again."

Arku shook Joseph's head, sighed, and bowed it. "But silence me if I deny my own disguised manner. I'm not one to live as anything but myself, however, as I told you before, I had no greater trust of you then than you of me now. Our blind cautions collided, constructing this mess." He put Joseph's hands up within the confines of the pod, "I have no more need of secrecy. I harbor you no ill will, nor have I ever. Let me and I'll go in peace. Return their thoughts if you see fit; I have neither the means nor reason to stop you. I crave no chaos."

Joseph's eyes flickered slightly to Bonnie as Arku repeated, "Snares. Every tangle that holds Joseph bound to well-trodden dirt, where he'll be dragged down a long, wiry path, tantalized with lies and siphoned from until he finds himself too old, too weak to overcome the truth. Until he is grateful for the abyss to which he's been led. A road of absolute waste."

---

_{^< cont. from} East of Town, David's Truck - You and Me _{^> Joseph — Amy, Jackson, Marie, Maya, Nick — Arnaya}


A faint echo of a smile (faint for his big mouth, anyway) returned to Joseph's face when his joke—dumb as it was—got a giggle out of Marie.

"Yeah well, maybe just focus on the whole mind control proofing part first," he added, with a quick, sideways flash of his teeth.

Nick revealed that they'd been dealing with Mael for the better part of two months; not nearly enough time to become an expert on much of anything, let alone fighting off a malicious mind-controller. Doubly so when there was no one around to teach you but yourself.

Joseph thought back to his own month-or-so spent dislodged from the normal flow of time and space, which itself happened only weeks after he'd been inexplicably changed into a giant lizard. By the end of it all, he had simply felt exhausted, defeated, and only the faintest bit hardier for all his experience. It was only the long overdue hand of good fortune that lead him to rescue. If he was to vanish again in half an hour, he'd be no better equipped to handle it than he'd been on that first panicked awakening beneath a library table.

He was shaken back to the present by a certain double voice that seemed suddenly more directed at him in particular. As his sidetracked brain caught back up to his ears, he found himself having difficulty imagining what Arnaya described. Conceptually it was mostly clear cut, but he couldn't really picture what it was like to suddenly know how to do things he'd been more or less unskilled at in an instant, or even a few minutes.

The more he tried to make the connection, the more he found he couldn't, the more the idea freaked him out. If he was copying directly from her own knowledge from her own mind, would that make his brain part-Arnaya? Would he find unfamiliar thoughts amid his musings? Develop a taste for blood? Instinctively start trying to read minds? And furthermore...

"How does that work?" Joseph blurted out, rather suddenly and vaguely. Arnaya seemed to be in the middle of misunderstanding Nick's strong phrasing, so he took a moment to clarify, "I mean, like, muscle memory. How does that work if we're not even shaped- you know..." he glanced down, maneuvering his big tail around his leg to his front, shifting his weight slightly and waving it, "anatomically, aren't we kind of different?"

---

_{^< cont. from} East of Town, Modest Butte - Climbing In Style _{^> David — John}


David kept mostly neck and misty neck with John, until they reached the base of the outcrop the others had scaled upon, whereupon John ascended effortlessly, and David began rolling up his sleeves, grumbling under his breath.

It wasn't that he was bad at climbing, or that he disliked it in general. On the contrary, his muscularity relative to his size and weight, the tough, padded skin on his hands and feet, and the free, flexible weight of his tail meant that the climb should have been trivial. But as he began to scale the craggy outcrop, the care he took to not so much as brush his new change of clothes against the lightest, loosest sprinkling of desert pebbles demanded each of his strengths, and still resulted in an arduous climb.

Ten feet into his ascent, he found the unspoken curses littering his mind joined by a message from Arnaya regarding his truck. David twisted his neck around, but couldn't quite glimpse his truck or the group nearby it.

You can send it to the lot by the hotel in town, he thought back. And do please be careful. I'm still paying off my lucky stars for not letting that damn thief wreck it.

Edited by Ryuhza on Jul 13th 2019 at 2:57:48 AM

this place needs me here

CURRENT TIME: 5:50 PM. The sun is now slowly setting over the horizon.

[Wasteland]

Before Nick could ask how the hell her plan worked, he was thrown off guard by something else she said.

"Wait what?" Nick said, "NO! EW! Why would you think...?"

Jackson busted out laughing, tears streaming down his face as he held his stomach. Maya smirked, and Amy giggled.

"Not like that!" she said, "Not literally. You know how people say this is the...effing worse? Or this is effing great? Or something like that? That's what he meant."

"Oh, this is perfect," Jackson said, wiping his eyes and covering his cough, "Oh my God, I love this so much. I bloody needed this."

By this point, Nick had buried his face in his hands, also laughing. Marie had turned her head away, trying to compose herself from her giggle fits. It was odd; despite how tense things were, it had to take a misunderstanding to lightened the mood. It made her feel like a little kid for laughing at something as mild as this, but she'll take it.

After a bit, she cleared her throat. "O-Okay, on the...other topic, how does your plan work? Do you touch our shoulders and we instantly get knowledge, or do we need your computer base for it? I don't reject the idea, I just need to know how it works."

"Will it even work on us?" Maya said, "We're not Mayatans...well, obviously. If it does work on us, I welcome it, too." She waved her hand around, "But seriously, we've been doing nothing but standing around here. We got weird ass bugs that put shit in our skin, a mind controller on the loose, and a thief. And we gotta check on Adam. And it's getting dark outside."

---

[Hummingbird]

Adam patiently waited for Mequqol to give an assessment of what was going on with his body, even moving away some of his hair away from his neck so she could see the bite mark more easily. It almost reminded him of his last checkup at a hospital...except he wasn't wondering if he was going to turn into a zombie.

The Spinel in his neck was still disintegrating, shrinking smaller and smaller by the minute. As it did so, Adam felt...strange. It wasn't like he was sick or anything, but he felt compelled to do something. What it was, he wasn't sure. Maybe he was just anxious to see his friends again.

He tried to dismiss it, and just waited for the report.

---

[Hotel]

Mael cleared his throat.

"Good evening, miss," he said pleasantly, "My friends and I have just got back from out of town, and we would like to book a room for the night. Do you have any spare rooms available?"

Once again, like before, his gem on his glove began to glow slightly, just in case his early attempt to persuade the hotel clerk didn't work.

Sorry for the shortness in this. x_x

Edited by Masterofchaos on Jul 12th 2019 at 10:19:43 AM

East of Town ~ On a Butte, Hunting a Thief (Claire; John; Nasur; David)

Claire shrugged and nodded at what Nasur had to say about her position with her mistress. "Aye, I'm not a thorn in her side, I'm the thorn in other peoples' sides. I'm the unexpected, even when I am."

She whirled her flail, catching the chain with her off hand. "Right, I'm ready for whatever that thief'll throw at me." The witch-thief gave Nasur a nod as he began his descent, "I'll be there in a heartbeat should ya yell."

---

Rainforest (Leto; Henry; Swanwhite)

Initially flinching at the sound of gunfire, which drove her claws further into the upholstery, Leto managed to loosen her grip on the seat. She then extending a hand towards the disappearing dragonhorse. "Wait..." she murmured quietly, "friend..."

She calmed down more as they came to a stop. Glancing around, she was confronted by more strange trees, familiar yet unfamiliar to her. Leto was fairly certain she had probably passed one of the tree nearby once or twice.. or five times that day, in her incessant hunger-fueled travels that day.

She was then handed a metal cylinder. Liquid sloshed inside. The priestess clutched the can with both hands, staring at it intently. She gave it a few sniffs, but couldn't glean anything from its scent. She glanced over at the briefcase, before going back to staring at her can.

---

Hotel Lobby (Moobly, Nora; Archaeologist, Sarquoql)

Moobly and Nora finally arrived back in town from their excursion to the wastelands, which had been cut short by The Mad Bastards needing to return home suddenly for important matters.

On their return trip, they had the misfortune of running into an adult moufreta, which they managed to get away from mostly unscathed.

Nora, though, was looking a bit weary from the experience, her hair looking a bit slimier and iridescent, her eyes a vibrant and pulsating green, evidence of her human facade slipping.

The pair entered the hotel, with Nora shambling behind Moobly as they headed towards the front desk.

"Urgh... I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse..." the teenage-looking girl groaned.

Moobly paid her no mind, as the cynthonic had found herself transfixed with curiosity at the grass-green humanoid dragon at the front desk. She stared at him for a good moment, before noticing Nora about to absentmindedly waltz straight into the dragon man and his two associates ahead of them. She extended her tail, coiling around the girl's arm. "Nora, watch where you are going," she said.

"Oh... Sorry, Moobly," replied Nora wearily.

---

Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)

Novia and her pilot stared at the contraption Moquoql had pulled out. The boy stared at it in confused awe, while Novia did her best to understand what she was looking at. A strange weapon— no, a device. A tool of some sort.

Novia glanced from the tool to the wreckage, and back again. "So... you will be using this to repair the panzerfaust?" she asked.

---

Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale; Simon)

Cynthia frowned slightly, "I guess this means we'll be collecting this Haydn fellow; can't have a troublemaker like that roaming around. After that, we can accomplish our original objective."

Diantha nodded in agreement.

The two girls, ready to go, awaited further instruction from Arilay.

Larger River (Jann, Varg; Rosalind; Ozurr)

Varg climbed up onto the vehicles flatbed and began to root through the supplies stacked behind the cabin, looking back at Ozurr across her shoulder.

"Let's see what we can find then," she replied to Ozurr's hunting comment, grabbed the simple but sturdy crossbow she'd been looking for along with a bag of other hunting equipment, and jumped down again. On her way over to Ozurr she turned to Jann and Rosalind.

"Maybe you two could..." There was a slight pause as she briefly considered another joke but decided against it. "...get started on the camp while we're away?"

---

Once the distance to the haugr and the giant had grown large enough, Jann threw a few quick glances their way before turning to Rosalind with a somewhat sheepish look. He seemed to have developed a bad habit of ending up in awkward situations recently. Not very proper or gentlemanly at all, really.

"That whole exchange earlier..." he began, "Varg is... well, how she is, but I hope I wasn't being too forward or insensitive myself. I couldn't help but notice that you seemed rather uncomfortable..."

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

[Butte]

"Be safe," John said, waving at Nasur. Once he was gone, he turned to the others. "Alright, now let's try to think of our next moves. We don't want to kill her, just turn her in the authorities."

He looked down, noticing David was still a good distance from the top. "Oh dear. I'll be back." He, once again, turned into a black mist and went to him, materializing back to his regular form when he was close. "You want my help? I can grab your hand and bring you up the rest of the way. Don't worry, you won't have any side effects."

He tilted his head. "I'm also going to need a vivid description of her. Most importantly, I need to know if she looked like she knew how to use a weapon or was desperate to get away. In my travels, most car thieves are the latter. They don't actually want to shoot someone, they just want to scare them off so they can get out of dodge."

He lifted a finger. "This is just my experience, so you can take it with a grain of salt. Still, it could make her arrest go by a lot smoother if I knew how her behavior was before she got away. Just tell me as much as you remember and we'll go from there, alright?"

Edited by Masterofchaos on Jul 14th 2019 at 12:31:13 PM

WFS Hummingbird Sick Bay (Maequoql; Adam; NPC Bandits)

Telepathically sensing this, Maequoql thought to herself, "That can't be good. I wonder how many times Arnaya will say 'I Told You So'?" Aloud, she said, "Stay with me, Adam, don't you faint on me. Watch your impulses, try to double-check if they're really yours. Talk to me, say something, anything."

While she was speaking, a few dozen of the acne removal nanobots slipped into the mosquito bite and found nothing in it. More specifically, Adam's white blood cells were dogpiling a bubble of nothing. Thinking laterally, Maequoql directed the nanobots to surround the "nothing" like a pearl forming before pulling it out. The rest of the nanobot squad streamed in after the first few nanobots.

---

Outside Hub Town, David's Truck (Arnaya; Joseph; the Hunters -Adam)

"Roger that."

As the teens burst out laughing over Arnaya pointing out Nick's ill-thought choice of words, Amy giggled, "Not like that!" she said, "Not literally. You know how people say this is the...effing worse? Or this is effing great? Or something like that? That's what he meant."

"I already knew that's what Nick meant. Regardless of what Nick meant, that doesn't change the fact that his poor choice of words triggers a provocative image," Arnaya deadpanned.

Arnaya clarified, "Species-specific muscle memory can't copy over. For example, you won't find yourself trying to glide with no gliding membranes, but we share enough musculoskeletal similarities to where, things like how and when to duck an incoming punch and how to tie a knot, they'll copy over."

"I could forge the connection right here right now. I'd recommend doing it back on the ship instead of risking an ambush here, though. David's told me where to put his truck. If this were an all-Mayatan group I could do it instantly. But since you're not Mayatans, this'll take some time and everybody meditating, optimistically for a few seconds, probably for a few minutes. I really hope nobody's abysmal at meditating or it might take half an hour or longer."

"As for it getting dark outside, I'm nocturnal. Jet-lagged, or rather, spaceship-lagged, but still nocturnal. If Mael makes a grab for you in the night, he'll have to go through me."

---

Hotel Lobby (Mael; Archaeologist Ellya-Salaenl, Sarquoql alias Ren 4; Nora, Moobly)

Sarquoql cut in, "Uh, hold on there, bud, the archaeologist and I already booked a room." He addressed the clerk, "Room 184, under the names Ellya-Salaenl and Ren 4. Are any of the adjacent rooms empty?" He switched back to addressing Mael and muttered, "Two is company, three is a crowd, and there's only so much space per room."

The clerk said, "Room 186 is available right next door, or room 185 across the hall. Or we could upgrade you to a roomier suite on Floor 3 to accommodate an extra party member."

In came a sapient dragon and a young lady... Sarquoql looked over his shoulder... the young lady had glowing green eyes. Sarquoql immediately whirled around and put himself in between them and the archaeologist Ellya-Salaenl, striking a defensive stance. This pair looked like the kind of people the Web would be interested in recruiting.

---

The Ridge (Mustang herd, Whisper, Skvader)

Wheezer sneezed twice and looked around worried.

---

Hotel Lobby (Mael; Archaeologist Ellya-Salaenl, Sarquoql alias Ren 4; Nora, Moobly)

Sarquoql relaxed his defensive stance. He decided to, at least for the moment, bide his time and watch these two. Still playing the role of bodyguard, he kept sentry at the archaeologist's side.

Meanwhile, the archaeolologist continued her Psychometry vision. Ordinarily she would be interested in the conversation of the past, but under Sarquoql's control, she sped past the conversation in favor of looking for any other Web of Friendship members. Outside the telepathic "spotlight", but still in the archaeologist's range, she noticed two Mayatans had arrived by the bulletin board. The archaeologist moved her "spotlight". One Mayatan had displayed her light powers, the other had a brief chat with a small group including a humongous reptile before making a beeline for the hotel.

Sarquoql identified his sisters, Mequoql and Murquoql, from the archaeologist's vision. He'd already inferred they were on the planet.

---

Larger River (Ozurr; Varg, Jann; Rosalind)

Ozurr exclaimed, "Set up camp? What?"

Rosalind cast a contemplative look at Ozurr — he didn't expect to set up camp? Did that mean that he was just as used to roughing it as she was?

Slightly belatedly, it occurred to Rosalind to ask Varg and Jann, "Just what kinda camp are ya thinkin' of, anyway? I'm used to just, well, roughin' it — no tents, no fire, nothin'." She asked further questions, this time to Ozurr as well, "And am I correct in assuming, Ozurr, that you're the same way? By the way, how good is your sense of smell? Mine got sharper when I... turned... can I come with ya, help ya hunt?"

Rosalind flinched at the sight of the crossbow. "Watch where ya point that thing!" she said as she darted to cower behind Jann. "I changed my mind, I'm not huntin' with ya!"

"Whatever ya say, just git that crossbow away from me!" Rosalind whimpered.

Rosalind mistakenly thought that Jann was talking about the crossbow incident. "Rather uncomfortable?" She reached down to her left pants leg to start pulling it up, revealing old, jagged horizontal scars one stripe at a time. "That's quite the understatement when the sight of Varg's crossbow reminded me of how once upon a time..." she pointed to a different, round scar just below her knee, "some sharpshooting so-and-so very nearly succeeded in her efforts to kneecap me with a crossbow."

Rosalind reviewed what Jann said and then it dawned on her. "Oh, wait, you weren't talkin' about the crossbow, were ya?" She pushed down her jeans leg. "Boy, do I feel awkward now." Both for the misunderstanding and from conflicting cultural ideas throughout the times she'd lived through on whether or not it was appropriate to bare one's legs to male acquaintances.

---

The Ridge (Mustang herd, Whisper, Skvader)

All the other horses were done surveying each others' injuries, and Fiddler was still plucking at the stone stuck in Whisper's hoof. But soon after, her luck changed and she finally got a good enough grip with her lips to dislodge the stone. It clattered to join the rest of the gravel. Whisper put his front hoof down in relief, and Fiddler escorted him to the water to rinse out his hoof... and her mouth, immediately upstream. She did not want to taste everywhere that Whisper had been.

Whisper had gotten lucky. They'd caught the stone early while it was still loose enough for Fiddler to remove. Any later and it would have been wedged tightly enough to require opposable thumbs to remove. Any later than that and it would have required a hoof pick for more leverage. And at some point it would have done serious damage.

Every horse in the herd was hungry. They tried to browse, but the vegetation was still sparse and scrubby. They took turns drinking from the little spring, both to re-hydrate and to attempt to at least temporarily trick their complaining tummies into feeling like what little greens they'd just eaten weighed a little more.

---

Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)

Moquoql answered as she plugged in the tractor beam, "Not exactly. I'll be using this to lift the panzerfaust. I'll be using other things to fix it."

---

Rainforest (Henry, Swanwhite, Leto)

Through the mist, Swanwhite saw Leto reach for her at the beginning of the chase. At the end of the chase, when the car stopped and the man offered Leto a container of something, Leto very sensibly inspected the container instead of immediately ingesting its contents. Swanwhite still thought this was a kidnapping, and if ever there was a time to not blindly trust one's food and drink, it was when it was handed to one by one's kidnapper.

Still flapping in circles obscured by the mist, Swanwhite bugled, then swerved, trying to provoke the man into wasting the booms in his boomstick.

---

Town Square, Billboard (Maelys, Mist; Soryn; Jenny, Alt!Jenny, Alt!Michelle, Zelena, Julia & Lauren)

"What powers would those be?" Soryn was only peripherally aware that Mist had moved closer, he was more preoccupied with the potentially delicate juggling act of trying to get the SHIELD agents unofficially interested in him without garnering their official interest.

Good, so far he was succeeding at the latter goal. He'd seen the ladies curiously eyeing him, did that mean he was also succeeding at the former goal? Under their gaze, he ran his fingers over his stitched-up claw and bite wounds, for the purposes of both examining himself and subtly drawing attention to his muscles. The inflammation was gone and he estimated his flurry of spells had ended up shaving another day or two off his healing time.

Lauren started expositing about life model decoys, and how the dead Jenny was not a mechanical entity like the usual models.

Soryn idly wondered aloud, "I wonder if I might be able to meet AIDA?" He deliberately kept quiet that he was looking for a very specific kind of advanced robot for his bucket list. So far, all the sexbots he'd encountered had disappointingly unchallenging scripts, and all the rest of the robots had been flat-out unresponsive to his touch.

Anyway, apparently the dead Jenny was a biological artificial intelligence instead of a mechanical one. Maelys called that a 'homunculus'. Soryn wasn't particularly interested in the question of why someone would want to flood this continent (whichever continent on whatever planet it was) with others like the dead Jenny. He was more interested in the other methods of manufacturing that lead to other points on the broad umbrella of "artificial" beings, rougly similar to his own genetically engineered status. Even then, he wasn't interested enough to interrupt with technical questions that would start a bunny trail.

When dark matter was brought up, Soryn tried to clarify, "So Let Me Get This Straight..., it's the dark matter that makes her dangerous, not necessarily her artificial origin?"

Maelys added, "I would like to make it clear that neither I nor my companion are technically human. I am an undead, and Mist is a valkyrie."

Soryn elaborated on something he'd said before, "And I'm genetically engineered from the DNA of multiple species."

Lauren then turned the topic to Michelle. "I should also add, on an unrelated note, Michelle has a power, as an inhuman, which is useful to you as a group - she can go super mode, which means she becomes larger than usual. It does have the side effect of her spirit leaving her body to become the larger version, and her body becomes an immobile corpse temporarily - which also cannot die, since, well, Michelle's body is tied to it."

Soryn was dumbfounded. "How...?" he asked, trying and failing to find words.

One of the town citizens, a very grumpy farmer who was walking past on his way to city hall, shouted a sarcastic interjection, "Yeah, yeah, very dramatic!" and continued on his way, not-so-quietly grumbling to himself about weather control being wasted on Chewing the Scenery and what he could do for his crops if he could control the weather.

Soryn stared analytically at Michelle, assessing where her weight was shifted and looking for any other clues of injury.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 16th 2019 at 9:59:49 AM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

East of Town: Around the butte

Nasur made his way down with great care. Slow but steady, moving one limb at a time, careful where to grab onto. Any slip, and it would be a painful fall.

Unfortunately, that's what exactly happened. While slowly lowering one foot to a crevice, the other one slipped fom its precarious position. Nasur lost grip and fell the rest of the way down. Thankfully, as he had made quite some progress, the fall was not very high.

"Ow!" The shrubbery he landed onto was rather soft, which softened the blow against the otherwise rocky ground. So what may have been a disabling fall was simply very painful. Still, he was alive, and he thought it was a good idea to communciate it to his comrades. So, after falling inside the large shrub, he called out. "I'm fine!"

He crawled out of the shrub and paced forward, his body close to the ground. It would make him hard to see, so he could get close to an unsuspecting thief without being noticed. If there was no one, he could just wave at the group behind to move forward. If there was someone, he could scream and just like that he woulcd have reinforcements.

But what until then? If he signalled there was someone ot the others, he would give himself away to a probably armed criminal, or who knows what other danger. And Nasur was completely defenseless: He had no weapons, no knowledge of hand fighting, and his magic had ran out long ago, emptied into a ravenous pool of hunger.

A thought crept up as he worried more. 'I do have something.' He tried to dismiss it, but it bounced back when no alternative came up in its stead. His kind, the narati, had the unique ability to siphon ethereal energies surrounding them. Although back in Nocturna he only had to care to kept himself well fed through mana, in the weeks followig his exile he found out it could also drain the lifeforce out of living beings.

The idea horrified him. He had seen ghouls, those exiled narati that went mad with hunger, drain the life out of whatever they could get their claws on, leaving them dead and dry, and ripping the flesh with pointed teeth and devouring it whole afterwards. Nasur was not one of them, he still had his sanity, and had fought hard to keep it. To even think about stooping that low...

But the more he reviled that option, the more he felt it was the only one he had. For all the rocky terrain, there were no loose rocks he could use as a weapon. Run and hide? It was gambling that his companions would react and move to his position fast enough so that he wouldn't die. At least, if he tried this, he could subdue the attacker and buy some more time.

And besides, as he tried to justify himself, it wasn't like he hadn't done it before. Back at the metal base with Joseph, he had lost composure just a moment and drained a plant of its life. It had felt... reinvigorating, like nothing he had felt for so long. Yet the idea of losing himself to that feeling, of becoming addicted to it and descending into madness like any ohter ghoul, terrified him more than anything he had gone through.

'But I'm not a ghoul. Not yet.' He still had his sanity and his willpower. He could control himself. Just drain a little to weaken the opponent, and not a drop more. It wasn't a very reassuring idea, but it was better than nothing. Giving a hard sigh, Nasur crawled forward, body close to the ground. Hopefully, there was nothing nearby, or it would be of no danger.

_{^< cont. from} East of Town, David's Truck - Stalling and Concealing _{^> Joseph — Amy, Jackson, Marie, Maya, Nick — Arnaya}


"Oh," Joseph said, sounding neither enlightened nor especially skeptical. Just a little flat and disappointed.

He still had some lingering technical wonderings about his weight versus her weight and the distribution therein, about the length of his joints, the power of his muscles, the differences in their senses and so on. But of course, he wasn't really looking for an explanation. None of his desperate brain-wracking over half-remembered biology lessons really mattered to him. No, he didn't want an answer, he wanted a realization that the mental connection wouldn't actually work—at least for him. Something that would brush the prospect aside entirely, so he wouldn't have to sort out why the idea was really bothering him, or seem cowardly about his mental space.

His tail relaxed, settling back behind him, and his arms likewise fell limply by his sides. Glancing at the others, they—at least those that weren't locked in a fit of giggles—appeared to be on board with the plan with only the most minor of reservations.

Joseph shrank where he stood and swallowed his next few lines of defense. If he was going to irritate the others with his agonizing, at the very least he could wait until they were back aboard the Hummingbird.

"Well then let's get up there first, and then..." he folded his arms and raised his gaze from the dirt to the sky, "I don't know... we'll see what happens. At the very least, I'm sure Adam will be wanting to see us."

---

_{^< cont. from} East of Town, Clutching a Butte - Banter on the Rocks _{^> David — John}


Nearing the halfway point on his protracted climb, David spied John peeking down over the edge at him. In another moment, he had company.

"How's the view?" he asked, through a cheek tug of a grin. He nodded his head upward, "Got any ice cream parlors up there?"

To John's offer, David let his grin give way and asked, "what, as mist? Thanks, I've spent enough time in wet clothes today." He glanced back up the face of the rock, eyeing the distance he had left to go, before meeting John's eyes again. "The side effects that cause me concern aren't the ones you're thinking of. I've had enough fun with magic. I'll get to the top momentarily."

He reached for the next handhold and was about to pull himself up when John hit him with a series of questions demanding detailed responses. David's eyes widened into an incredulous stare, which he held for a solid five seconds before realizing that the man was dead set on getting answers, there, clinging to the side of a 30 foot rock.

"Blonde, green shirt, full pants. Bit of a sun tan. Scared, sneaky, desperate. She's got more bite than bark, and venom to boot. Knows how to pull a trigger, but either doesn't know a thing about ranges or didn't care to hit when she shot at Joseph. If it was to scare him, it sure worked, but she damn near blew my ear off earlier, so it's hard to say just what she was going for."

He brought himself upwards with his hands, his otherwise light and limber movement stilted as he walked his feet up afterward, legs extended out to the rock face to avoid scuffing his trousers. As he went, he continued, "The big thing to bear in mind is that she's not just a car thief. That was just her way of evading capture for her earlier thievery, and who knows what else. We found a body in her hideout, after she made her getaway. Maybe an accomplice, maybe an unfortunate passerby." He paused, glancing down at John for once. "My advice, you keep two eyes on this woman at all times. Now, if you want any more than that, ask me again at the top."

And with that, David resumed his careful climb.

this place needs me here

The Necropolis ~ Ossuary -> Inside the Church (Akane; Syrni Sandra)

At Akane's prompting, Syrni Sandra kept the lead she'd taken, dashing back inside the church. When she found the entrance to the underground tunnels, she sent Jen Jara a message through the comm-chips, "I'm on my way with Akane. Help me track you down."

The Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room (Jen Jara; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris; Alexa, Cody)

"So, what brings a fellow like you to these parts?" Alexa asked conversationally.

Jen Jara was still itching for a fight, but she tamped down on it for now to see if whatever Alexa's idea was would work. Fortunately, her impatience was distracted by a message from Syrni Sandra.

"I'm on my way with Akane. Help me track you down."

Jen Jara quickly compiled a list of short phrases to say with her ultrasonic voicebox. She loudly chirped the first phrase.

The Necropolis, Cody's Cove (Akane; Syrni Sandra)

Now underground in the catacombs, Syrni Sandra stopped and listened for half a second at the first split in the corridor, triangulating the call. As she took off running again, she said, "Do you hear that? Jen Jara's calling out in ultrasound now." She translated along the way, "She says 'look for child on down steps' — Cody on a staircase leading down."

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

[Wasteland]

You're the only one who thinks that, Nick thought, smiling. That just makes you a pervert.

"All we gotta do is meditate?" Maya said, "That's the easiest shit in the world. We can handle it. Beam us up."

Amy quickly noticed the uncertainty on Joseph's face and gave him a hug. "Don't worry! We won't let anything happen to you!"

Nick felt relieved that they were going back on the ship—not just because he was going to have a way to thwart Mael, but now he had a chance to properly get back to Adam. This time he wouldn't be ejected off the ship for the crime of checking on his friend. He was still pissed that Arnaya did what she did, but now that they had an understanding, he trusted she wouldn't pull a move like that in the future.

"Let's go," he said, "Sick of standing around in this place."

---

[Hummingbird]

Adam blinked in confusion.

"Faint?" he said, "Miss, I feel fine. Um..." he looked at his hands. "I-I don't feel any impulses. I think. Not much I can really do in a pod like this, it makes me feel kind of claustrophobic."

Inside his body, the Spinel was now gone—except for a small part of it that latched onto a nanobot. At that moment, whatever he was compelled to do seemingly vanished.

That was weird. He thought, Wonder what that was about?

"Did you find what you're looking for?" he then asked, "Um, I hate to leave my friends for this long, so I really need to hear the report. S-Sorry for sounding anxious."

---

[Butte]

John felt like an idiot asking David about the thief while he was still climbing, but he got the answers he wanted...and more. So they were either dealing with a murderer or an accomplice. No matter what the answer was, that made him more on his guard. He was a bit baffled at David didn't want his help, but decided not to push the issue.

"If you insist," he said, turning back into a mist and heading back up. Once he got back to his regular form, his held his hand out for David as soon as he was close enough.

---

[Hotel—Outside]

"Ah," Mael said, "I see. I'll take Room 185, then. Privacy is important to me, after all."

Orseu had stopped contacting him, but at this point, Mael decided it was best to move on. It was unfortunate that he lost a potentially powerful ally, but Sarquqol knew more about Web of Friendship more than them, so an expert on his new enemies was far more beneficial. Now he just needed to see how far this particular plan could go.

Edited by Masterofchaos on Jul 18th 2019 at 6:18:10 AM

Outside Hub Town, David's Truck (Arnaya; Joseph; the Hunters -Adam)

Arnaya started setting authorization flags in the program. The task was made easier by the downgrade to Orange Alert.

"No, the trendsetters who started that manner of speech are the perverts. I'm merely suffering from Thought-Aversion Failure, like the perverts intended."

WFS Hummingbird Sick Bay (Adam; NPC Bandits)

Meanwhile, Maequoql was slowly and steadily drawing out the small pearl of nanobots. Despite their sensors returning null, there was definitely something solid at the center, judging by the nanobots' inability to move into the space.

Maequoql got the last of the nanobots out of Adam's skin. At that moment, whatever he was compelled to do seemingly vanished.

"That was weird." He thought, "Wonder what that was about?"

"Did you find what you're looking for?" he then asked, "Um, I hate to leave my friends for this long, so I really need to hear the report. S-Sorry for sounding anxious."

As the pearl of nanobots was transferred through a tiny airlock in the medical pod, Maequoql answered, "I found something all right. If this is what I think it is, I'm gonna have to consult your friends about spinel and adjust the scan for brainwash residue accordingly."

Outside Hub Town, David's Truck (Arnaya; Joseph; the Hunters -Adam) —> WFS Hummingbird Transporter Room —> Sick Bay (Maequoql, Arnaya; Joseph; the Hunters; NPC Bandits)

Final adjustments to the el-kor field were made, and the teleporter pulled the people up to the pad before immediately displacing them to Sick Bay to make room for the truck. Maequoql remarked, "That was pretty good timing."

Meanwhile, the mind-controlled bandit whom Aynara hadn't drank from had semi-accidentally activated the comm-screen. Now he could look out of the pod he was in, and likewise his silver eyes were on display. He mistook Arnaya for her twin and resumed trying to bash his way out of the pod so he could fulfill his directives to kill her already. The pod banged and rattled, but didn't yield.

Arnaya looked over at the struggling prisoner and thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "Hmmm..."

---

Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale, Aynara; Simon)

Arilay began, "Right. Shale, take Simon to John Smith, Security Service. I know there's a bounty on Black Morgan himself, see if there's a smaller bounty for his minions. You know how to find us when you're done. As for the rest of us..."

Arilay was interrupted by a thump on the roof, followed by a downpour of smoke into the fireplace that coalesced into a bluish off-white figure with jagged black spots. "Ooh, snack!" Aynara made a beeline for Simon.

"Who, me? — ARGH WHY?!" Simon wailed as Aynara bit into the part of his large bruise that was blossoming on his arm.

Arilay sighed. "Ladies and gentlemen, meet Aynara, one of the Web's resident vampires. Aynara, this is Cynthia and Diantha. The bandit you're drinking from is Simon."

"Mrrrphl," Aynara waved one hand, her mouth full.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 19th 2019 at 7:20:13 AM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

East of Town ~ Waiting on a Butte (Claire; John; David)

Claire had tensed, ready to jump down to Nasur's aide, but the blue man didn't need any assistance... yet. So she returned to impatiently waiting on that rocky outcrop.

"You know, it would have made more sense to stay down there... everyone didn't have to climb up here," she belatedly said, before addressing David, "I can carry you down when I go if you want— save you the hassle of climbing down."

---

Hotel Lobby (Moobly, Nora; Archaeologist, Sarquoql; Mael)

Moobly raised her hands. "Many apologies, sir. Moobly did not intend to startle you," she told Sarquoql.

The cynthonic guided her companion away from the trio by the desk. Upon being led to a seat, Nora eagerly plopped herself in the comfy armchair.

"Nora, sit here for now. Moobly shall fetch her coin-purse, and then we can get you something to eat," said Moobly.

Nora's mood rose a bit, causing her to smile, "Okay."

With that, Moobly took off towards the stairs, her stance low to the ground as she darted across the floor.

---

The Necropolis ~ Tunnels (Akane; Syrni Sandra)

Akane followed Syrni Sandra into the Necropolis' underground, her ears twitching as she picked up Jen Jara's faint chirping.

A child was in trouble... a sense of urgency washed over her.

She put forth more effort, gathering wind beneath her metaphorical wings. She charged forward, crashing into a wall, and transferred her momentum into scrambling at a breakneck pace along it, closing the distance between her and the others.

_{^< cont. from} East of Town, David's Truck —> WoF Scouter Hummingbird, Sick Bay - A Lot Goes a Little Way _{^> Joseph — Adam, Amy, Jackson, Marie, Maya, Nick — Arnaya, Maequoql — Bandits}


Joseph couldn't help wondering if Maya was being a little optimistic about the ease with which they could meditate, considering the group's bickerings-per-minute rate. That in itself presented him with another small window of hope that the whole idea wouldn't work, or at least that it would take so long that something planetside would come up and excuse him from the transference.

Amy—sensing something amiss within him—gave Joseph a hug, and promised not to let anything happen to him.

He could always say no. If it came down to it, and his discomfort outweighed the benefit, the perceived necessity, and all the pressure... he could say no.

Joseph felt his heart rise as the group was transported miles into the air, beyond the clouds and evening sky, back aboard the Hummingbird.

Once his feet found the floor and his eyes adjusted to the light of his new surroundings, Joseph turned his long head this way and that, searching the room from the confines of Amy's gripping embrace.

Spotting a familiar Mayatan, he smiled and called out, "Hi Maequoql. Is Adam around he— oh, Adam!" He caught his words as he noticed the screen on the pod near Maeqoql, or rather, the person on the screen. "Hi!" he said again, freeing his arm to wave it somewhat sillily. "Are you doing okay? Is every-"

Again, his words were interrupted, this time by the cacophony of banging and rattling from a different pod, screening a gruff looking stranger who was—to put it lightly—restless.

"What's that guy's deal?" Joe asked, eyes widened in both surprise and a confused concern.

this place needs me here

The Necropolis, Cody's Cove (Akane; Syrni Sandra) -> Coffin Room

Syrni Sandra listened behind her. Akane was having very little trouble keeping up, so Syrni Sandra picked up the breakneck pace, also bouncing off the walls around corners. Their progress was now punctuated with Syrni Sandra pausing for half a second at junctions and forks to listen, still translating Jen Jara's ultrasonic chirps along the way. "She says 'I'm in room at bottom of down steps'."

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 19th 2019 at 7:35:30 AM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

_{^< cont. from} East of Town, Conquering a Butte - Worthwhile Pursuits _{^> David — Claire — John}


David poked his head over the flat top of the rocky outcrop just in time to be told that the climb had been entirely unnecessary.

"'zat so?" he hissed through a grimacing smile. With a sigh, he accepted John's hand and let himself be pulled the rest of the way up, where he dusted and straightened his shirt in silence.

"Oh, I'd never dream of imposing myself so," he said once finished, flashing his dark brown eyes at Claire. "But..." He held his gaze for a moment, before frowning slightly and glancing away, tilting his head up to scratch lightly at an imaginary itch beneath his jaw, "...it could save some time. Just promise me you won't rock around too much; I get terribly sleepy."

With a cool smile, he marched over to the other side of the butte, put a hand over his narrowed eyes, and examined the view. "Well," he muttered after a few seconds, "this isn't so bad. No ice cream parlor, but still a treat for the eyes."

Then his ears flicked up and he froze, as though struck by a sudden realization. Glancing over his shoulder, he asked, "say, what's become of our groovy blue friend?"

this place needs me here

Forest's Edge ~ Campsite (Michelle, Rebecca, Bonnie, Carol, Lily; Morpho, Mequoql; Henry, Possessed!Joseph, Possessor!Arku)

Michelle had decided that if Mequoql wasn't interested, she'd find someone who was, so she ran quickly towards Bonnie, Carol and Lily.

"Hi there, I'm Michelle", she said, in a somewhat overly out-of-breath but excited tone. "I've got some important news you need to know, and it's about the forest we're in right now. It's about a hazard that could be, well, if not lethal, just, painful."

She turned towards Bonnie, and was trying to get her attention.

Michelle noticed the Toyota RAV 4 near Bonnie. She liked it, and thought "I'll have to get one like that at some point".

What Bonnie, Carol and Lily didn't know was that Michelle was set to go Super Mode, it was a case of when, not if. Why Michelle was using Super Mode? Well, actually, it was to try and fix a problem that they had no idea about.

Edited by Merseyuser1 on Jul 20th 2019 at 10:17:32 AM

Forest's Edge ~ Campsite

Bonnie, Carol, Lily; Morpho, Mequoql; Henry, Possessed!Joseph, Possessor!Arku; Rebecca, Michelle)

Behind her mental shields, Mequoql temporarily designated Carol as mind-controller bait until the beer wore off. Meanwhile...

Instead, Morpho said "Excuse me one moment," to Henry as he picked up a random grape-sized rock and threw it at the moufreta, hoping the impact would sting enough for the moufreta to consider leaving.

Mequoql warned, "The gem escalated in what it took from me. It dulled my reflexes, which delayed my capture of the memory thief. I'm still waiting to see if what it took from me is permanent. I don't want you suffering from permanent nerve damage either."

Lily thought up a plan. "If Mael turns out to be lurking in town, that's where I come in. We have Bonnie team up with Henry until he is sent home. If Mael approaches, I can snipe him with a paralysis spell from over a thousand meters. Or Bonnie sucker punches him. Or enact whatever plan you probably already have planned out."

Mequoql outlined her own plan for a pessimistic scenario, "But what if Mael decides to follow our tire tracks here? If we go back the way we came and he turns out to be tracking us, we'd all be surprised at bumping into each other, and I don't want to take the chance of Mael recovering from his surprise faster than we can recover from our surprise. Instead, I want to make it look like we died here. That way if he shows up here, we'd either be elsewhere with our trail hidden or ready to ambush him right as he's drawing a conclusion from all this splattered gore." She wasn't finished thinking up plans for other scenarios, there had been too many interruptions. She ignored the newcomer turning her exhortations to Bonnie, Carol and Lily.

"I want to know, too," Mequoql added.

"And out of all the other methods of disentanglement, you chose memory wipes?" Mequoql growled, "There are more effective ways of de-wimping someone." Silently, she added to Bonnie, "Do you know anything that will help eject Arku out of Joseph and transfer him into that moufreta over there?" Her telekinesis reached for the tongue of the aforementioned moufreta as she intended to immobilize it like she did earlier to the pack of D'voreem.

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

[Hummingbird]

Adam's eyes widened. "S-Spinel? That's only used for jamming radars! What was it doing in my body? Now I'm worried if I've been poisoned or—"

He heard a familiar voice call his name, and a huge smile grew on his face. "Joseph! Hey! If you're here...that means..."

"Adam!" Nick said rushing to the pod, "You okay in there?"

Adam nodded. "I'm fine, Nick. They did scare me a little when they snatched me away, but this lady was really nice to me and—"

He was interrupted by Amy's brief scream. When he saw what was wrong, his eyes widened in horror. On the screen was a silver eyed man trying to get out of the pod, no doubt trying to kill Arnaya.

"Fuck..." Nick muttered, "He's still around."

"Joesph," Marie said, "When we say 'Beware the eyes of silver',that—" she pointed at the screen, "—is what we mean. This is one of Mael's victims. It looks like he's contained, thankfully, but these are dangerous people."

"Damn it, I knew we were wasting time," Maya said to herself, "He's gonna go after more people. We need to get back out there and stop him."

"Have some faith!" Amy said, letting go of Joseph, "Web of Friendship is on his trail."

"Yeah, they've clearly been on top of that."

"Maya!"

"What? I'm not gonna sugarcoat my feelings. Mael is out there and is still a danger for everyone. We need to hurry up with this meditating shit and find him before he strikes again."

Adam tilted his head. "Meditating?"

"Oh," Jackson said, "Arnaya is gonna transfer her knowledge of mind controllers to us so we can know how to handle Mael."

"R-Really? Well...before we do that, the lady I talked to wants to know more about spinel. She said I had some in my system and she wants to make sure I don't have something called brainwash residue."

Nick blinked in confusion. "How the hell did spinel get in your system? That's only used for jamming radars! Why would it brainwash you? That doesn't sound right." He shook his head, "Bah, Maya can give Web good info. She likes rocks more than we do."

"What do you guys need to know specifically?" Maya asked, "Where it came from? Who made it? I can give you a rundown."

I need to leave. He needs me.

Adam looked around in confusion. What? Why did I think that? The only person who he could think of who needed him at the moment was Nick, and the very thought made his cheeks turn pink. Keep it together, Adam. You'll be out soon.

---

[Butte]

John narrowed his eyebrows, annoyed.

"Would've been nice to tell us that before we got here," he said, then sighed, "Oh well. I'm not wasting more energy going back and forth."

He turned to David. "Nasur's going to be our lookout. If he sees anything strange, he's going to give us a yell." He frowned. "It feels a little risky considering you told me that she might be a murderer, but I'm a good sniper. I won't let her lay a finger on him or any of you."

Edited by Masterofchaos on Jul 20th 2019 at 6:03:36 AM

Sick Bay (Maequoql, Arnaya; Joseph; the Hunters; NPC Bandits)

"Sabotaging the medical scanners, that's what it was doing," Maequoql inferred, placing the pearl of nanobots onto a microscope.

Arnaya facepalmed, "Don't tell me you've forgotten the warning already!" She double-checked to make sure the bandit in question couldn't hear a word of what was going on. Fortunately the audio was already deactivated.

Arnaya boasted, "Dangerous to you, but not to me." Before she could boast about the rest of the bandits her twin had captured...

Maequoql hissed at Arnaya before Arnaya could hiss at Maya.

"Seems pretty obvious to me," Maequoql interjected from where she'd sidestepped over to the miniature teleporter pad, "The spinel was meant to hide something else that the mosquito injected along with it." She summoned a new canary scanner from Engineering. "And I'm gonna find out what." She quickly crossed the space back to Adam's pod to replace the broken canary scanner.

Arnaya added, "I Warned You that mosquito bite was bad news! I Told You So!"

"I don't see how info on where it came from or who made it could help." Maequoql asked, her hands still busy, "How about more immediately useful questions like... How much does Mael have access to? Have you ever tried to use it? What are the side effects from using it? Does it dissolve in human bodily fluids? Are you sure that jamming radar is all that it does? Is there any possibility that it also does something else?"

Maequoql froze mid-replacement and gasped. Simultaneously, Arnaya whirled and pointed "Aha!"

As Maequoql resumed replacing the canary scanner, she addressed Adam, "Remember I told you to double-check your impulses and see if they really were yours? We just overheard one that sounded like it was from brainwash residue. Watch out for more like it."

Arnaya checked the other prisoner-pods to make sure the audio stayed deactivated. "Oh, by the way, Maya — that bandit over there wasn't the only one my twin captured. She single-handedly caught..." Arnaya switched on eight other pods' screens, revealing pale, dazed and groggy faces. "...nine bandits, only two of which were not under mind-control." Indeed, only two bandits didn't sport silver eyes.

Maequoql added, "They're being treated for blood loss. Slowly. So they don't have the strength to make more ruckus like that one is doing." She finished replacing the canary scanner.

Meanwhile, Arnaya used her comm-chip to glance through the spaceship's telescopes at David's truck in the town's parking lot, wondering if it needed more security than being watched through a telescope and hoping the tractor beam or teleporter was available if a thief showed up again.

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

Larger River (Rosalind; Jann, Varg; Ozurr) -> Off Hunting (Varg; Ozurr)

"Let's see what we can find then," Varg replied to Ozurr, taking what was, from his perspective, a very tiny crossbow out of the truck and hoisting it onto her shoulder. It was kind of cute, actually. He barely repressed a giggle.

Rosalind, however, seemed much less amused, hiding behind Jann and quickly changing her mind about accompanying them. Ozurr almost said something, but thought better of it. Traumatic memories, he told himself, remembering how Arnora would react to white skullcap for the first few years after her mother died. Probably best not to pry.

With that, he accompanied Varg off into the grassland to search for prey.

"I'll be honest," he said. "On Hunt Night, each party usually gets a few ferulves to help with tracking. Unless you're my father, in which case you get half the pack, plus a Manticore." His voice developed a bitter edge, without him noticing. "And yet he makes fun of me for bringing back a jubokko seed as a trophy, when he knows damn well those trees are more dangerous than eighty percent of the animals in Faerie!"

Ozurr cast his eyes around, first at himself, then at the flock of sparrows that had taken flight at the sound of his voice, and finally at Varg. "I didn't mean to say that out loud, but I don't regret it."

---

Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room (Jen Jara; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris; Alexa, Cody)

"Yes, I hurt you," the feathered thing said.

It took Krakka'a one second longer than he would ever admit to realize what she had said. "You..." He started forward.

I WISH I HAD POPCORN. AND A MOUTH TO EAT IT WITH.

"So, what brings a fellow like you to these parts?" the big one suddenly said, in a surprisingly conversational tone. It was so surprising, in fact, that Krakka'a froze on the spot as he tried to process the situation.

Something about it triggered a recent memory. Specifically, the memory of meeting Akane. Physical violence hadn't gotten him anywhere that time either, but a more subtle sort of manipulation...

Yes, maybe this was one of those times as well.

Krakka'a immediately relaxed his posture. "Oh, you know how it is. You're living your life when suddenly, this talking mammal...this "human"...shows up out of nowhere, steals your eggs, and drives you away from your home and your family by convincing all your neighbors that you're the bad guy."

THAT IS NOT HOW IT HAPPENED AND YOU KNOW IT.

"Oh, and do forgive me if I seem a bit...off. Apparently, on top of everything else, a literal Death God has decided to take up residence in my head and he will not shut up!" These last few words were directed off to the side, as if he was shouting at someone only he could see.

OH, AM I BOTHERING YOU? AM I BOTHERING YOU? DOES IT BOTHER YOU WHEN I DO THIS? DOES IT? DO YOU FIND THIS ANNOYING?

"SO," he took a deep breath and returned his attention to the big one, somehow managing to smile with a beak. "What are you doing down here? You don't look dead...yet." Crap, I said that out loud.

Edited by apocalemur on Jul 22nd 2019 at 2:43:39 PM

The Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room

The crackling sensation in Cody's ears persisted but aside from that, he could hear somebody running towards the coffin room and a faint voice....Syrni Sandra's, perhaps? If so, Akane was probably with her as well. He could only assume that's who Jen was communicating with. Either way, it was definitely prudent to keep silent about it, so as not to agitate the Pterosaur in the room, so to speak. He backed cautiously up the stairs, towards the sounds of running footsteps.

Alexa startled at the pterosaur's sudden vulnerability. She certainly hadn't expected a Mood Whiplash right then, but perhaps she had been rather hasty in verbally attacking him and assuming the worst after what he had said. She groaned internally. If that certain Alpha Bitch hadn't made her time in junior high a living hell.... The speed at which the tears came surprised her, so she turned her head aside and cleared her throat in an attempt to mask it. She managed to crack a grin at his remark. Doesn't feel like I'm dead, although I may have forgotten whether I am or not," she joked. She decided to shift the tone back toward the events he spoke of, as she preferred not to think of those that had happened to her. "I am sorry that that happened to you. Did you have a mate?" she asked softly, using her normal voice this time.

Edited by Mroh on Jul 20th 2019 at 9:25:54 AM

Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room (Jen Jara; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris; Alexa, Cody)

Jen Jara smirked and prepared another kick, but Alexa interrupted. Her words triggered a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shifty look in the pterosaur's eyes before he said, "Oh, you know how it is. You're living your life when suddenly, this talking mammal...this "human"...shows up out of nowhere, steals your eggs, and drives you away from your home and your family by convincing all your neighbors that you're the bad guy."

Out of the corner of her eye, Jen Jara saw Alexa turn and hide some tears. But unlike Alexa, Jen Jara had no sympathy, instead raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Again, Jen Jara had no sympathy, interjecting "Probably for good reason." Then she fired off her second ultrasonic phrase.

Jen Jara retorted, "Neither do you... yet," putting deliberate emphasis on the word the uppity pterosaur had accidentally included.

Jen Jara whispered behind her hand to Alexa, "You didn't see the shifty look in his eyes right before he told that sobstory, did you?" She pulled her hand away to accuse the pterosaur, "Given that shifty little look in your eyes and your earlier eagerness to eat a child, I very much doubt you found someone to make eggs with in the first place." She smiled with saccharine menace. "And you didn't answer her question with your cute little sobstory, so I'm going to be more specific. What's an oversized prey like you doing in a cramped place like this where you can't fly away from predators like me?" Then she fired off her third ultrasonic phrase.

---

The Necropolis, Cody's Cove (Akane; Syrni Sandra) -> Coffin Room (Syrni Sandra, Jen Jara; Akane; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris; Alexa, Cody)

Each phrase was getting louder and easier to hear as they dashed closer. Syrni Sandra translated, "She says 'very large flapping prey said fighting words'." Surprised, Syrni Sandra added a postscript comment, "I didn't know there were sapient counterparts of the nonsapient species I eat." And then she saw Cody on the stairs, with Jen Jara's first aid kit, and teleported so she wouldn't trip over him. At the bottom of the stairs, she sternly asked the room, "What's going on here?" Her orange head-feathers were all bristled like an angry cat, and at the sight of Krakka'a, her stomach let out a loud gurgle.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 21st 2019 at 9:05:00 AM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

East of Town ~ Waiting on a Butte (Claire; John; David)

Claire gave David a smirk, "Don't worry, we'll be down their like—" She snapped her fingers. "It'll save a lot more than some time," she said.

She turned towards John, "Sniper, huh? Then you'll have my back covered," she told him, "good, I suppose. Though, most likely, I'll be carrying the team, like usual."

---

Town Square ~ Bulletin Board (Maelys, Mist; Soryn; Alt!Jenny, Alt!Michelle, Zelena, Julia & Lauren)

Mist sneezed, twice.

"À tes souhaits, à tes amours," said Maelys, brushing her heated ears.

---

The Necropolis ~ Coffin Room (Akane; Jen Jara, Syrni Sandra; Alexa, Cody; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris)

"Very large flapping prey... fighting words?" mused Akane as she sped around corners. She'd have her answer soon enough.

Rounding another corner, she noticed Cody below her on a flight of stairs, and performed a whiling teleport of her own, putting herself directly in front of him.

She took a glance around the room and noticed the rather obvious and (not) menacing wyvern in the room, being confronted by Alexa in her beast mode, and the two Maidens. She then proceeded to bound towards one wall, before launching herself at Krakka'a from behind, swinging an outstretched arm at his neck.

She aimed to hook her arm around his neck and drag him down to the ground, before delivering a point-blank thunderous roar of "BAKA!"

Edited by WillDeRegio on Jul 21st 2019 at 11:26:09 AM

Hotel Lobby (Mael; Archaeologist Ellya-Salaenl, Sarquoql alias Ren 4; Nora, Moobly)

"So I gathered," Sarquoql observed, gesturing to Moobly's restraining tail on Nora. Speaking as Ren 4, he added, "But I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't react that way to people suddenly coming up behind me."

Meanwhile, Mael was choosing an option for room arrangements.

With the rooms now arranged, Sarquoql said, "Then I suggest you secure your new room as you see fit while I continue my sweep of the area, then we'll meet you back at the rooms to discuss what I've found." Silently, he added, "My list of who's here is still incomplete."

The archaeologist retraced Murquoql's steps to the front desk. "Murquoql asked the front desk staff about... about... meeting someone in Room 444 of the hotel." Sarquoql lost interest after that — it was obvious from the requested pencil and papers that Murquoql had intended to gather information on the missing kid notification on the bulletin board. He nudged the archaeologist's attention elsewhere.

The archaeologist swiveled her head to look off in the distance — her vision of the past had caught up to the time when Mael had tried to nab Mequoql.

Sarquoql looked back and forth between out the hotel's window-doors and at Nora, getting an idea. He could always return to find out what happened later. Right now he needed privacy, so he nudged at the archaeologist's attention again, and she returned to track Murquoql to inside the elevator. "Her next destination was..." The archaeologist's fingertips ghosted over the call buttons. "...up." She pushed the button.

By the time the elevator arrived and the door opened, Sarquoql had fleshed out his idea. He followed the archaeologist inside. As the door closed, he took off his helmet, telekinetically removed his contact lenses, swatted her hand away from the fourth floor button and caught the archaeologist in his gaze to update his instructions.

First was the much-needed adjustment to include Mael in her silent reports whenever he was next to her — Sarquoql was getting rather tired of acting as a relay. Then Sarquoql set up his idea — for the sake of simplicity, he kept those instructions to a simple initial nudge to pay attention to Nora, and then, on his signal, help Sarquoql set up his ambush on Nora. Until that signal, the archaeologist was free to act as herself, as Sarquoql knew from prior experience that pushing his agenda immediately or using more heavy-handed control would garner suspicion. Once he was done, he put his contact lenses and helmet back on in that order.

About a minute later, they exited the elevator, still on the ground floor. The archaeologist made a beeline for Nora. "Um... hello," she began, "My name is Ellya-Salaenl. What's yours?"

Sarquoql stood nearby, trying to be unobtrusive. He twiddled his thumbs and avoided eye contact with anyone.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 22nd 2019 at 12:06:48 PM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.