[System]
Age: 14

Gender: Female

Nationality/Birthplace: ?

Current Residence: Republic City

Appearance:

Occupation: Student/Babysitter

Elemental Affinity: Air

Theme: Fireflies - Owl City

Background: Asha is a young girl with a talent for air bending. She resides on Air Temple Island with the other air benders, spending her days learning of skills and techniques to come ever closer to becoming a master. Not much is known of her parents, other than they arrived in Republic City with their infant daughter to try and start a new life; they were not seen since dropping Asha off on the island. She often wonders where they are, or if they are even alive, but tries not to focus too hard on the issue.

Asha is fairly young to be roaming the streets of Republic City, but likes to earn a little bit of income from babysitting jobs. She is good with children, probably because she is still a child herself. Despite this, she shows maturity and responsibility when looking after kids. She is often employed by the Tsukiko family, as they are busy people with hectic schedules and need someone to watch out for their youngest, Sesi.

The brunette is a bit awkward and awfully innocent to the point that she seems oblivious to what is happening around her. Asha is sweet and honest, wanting nothing more than peace within the world. True to the air bending culture, Asha does not have many worldly possessions. The items most precious to her are her ancient but useful glider, a lemur plush, and a necklace with the air bending symbol.

Asha hopes to explore the world someday. With so much out there, she feels she is missing out on the wonders of the world.

[User]
Asha's facial expression turned into one of sympathy as she seen how Siku was taking the whole situation; she could certainly understand why the older girl wouldn't want to leave, this was her home...and home was a hard place to leave. When she heard they were most likely going to go to one of the Fire Nation's Islands, she was pretty excited. This would be her first time ever leaving Republic City and despite the people after them she was eager to see the world.

"Okay, just let me go and get some things really quick," The brunette mumbled before side-stepping Yakedo and Katsu on her way out to get her possessions. She quickly formed an air ball and rode it to her room, gathering a small bookbag and shoving a few clothes, extra hair ties, and of course her cat owl. She also grabbed a small amount of money that she had accumulated from her jobs of babysitting; it wasn't much, but it should be enough for food and the like.

After she had packed up her things, she quickly explained the situation to her family and friends who were all awake and said her goodbyes. They were reluctant to let her go, but understood that this was what she needed to do. Asha gave them all bear hugs and waved behind her as they made their way back to the ferry to go to their next destination, which was Siku's house.

----

Siku's sister, Sesi, was not taking the information and situation well...at all. Asha cringed a bit at that look that Sesi was giving her older sister. Man, Sesi could be scary when she wanted to be, she had babysitted her a few times before, and while Asha really liked the little girl, she could be a handful at times.

They all waited for Siku to gather her things and say her goodbyes, Asha standing a little awkwardly with her hands behind her back. She took a glance over at Hiresh and quirked her lips to the side; she really wished he could come along too...Hiresh was a strong warrior and would be a benefit to everyone's well being on their travels. That and Asha just liked the guy, he was nice.

Once Siku was all set they all said goodbye and left the house, soon to be saying goodbye to Hiresh. "Bye, Hiresh. I'm sure our paths will cross again soon," the brunette said with a small smile before reaching out to give him a hug. She did it quickly, hoping that he didn't dislike her affections too much.

Now they were on the road, the three of them, all unsure of what exactly was to come in the future. Asha smiled and laughed a little at Siku's comment. "I have you here to look out for me, of course!" she replied as she came to walk in between them; this adventure was going to hard, but Asha felt that she was right where she was supposed to be.

[Assistant]
Katsu really hadn't wanted to go to Siku's home, hating to face her family after what was happening with her. As if he hadn't felt guilty enough to begin with it was almost smothering once there, the Avatar trying to keep to the back of the group while they waited. Being in the same room as Siku's father was terribly awkward, as every time he looked up he swore he caught the man staring at him; did he know what he truly was? Yakedo may have filled in the man without his knowing, which given that Katsu was taking his daughter away it was only fair, in a way. Just another person to know the truth about him, and another to potentially get in trouble because of it. The Wait for Siku to get back was a rather long and uncomfortable one, and when she finally came back downstairs he almost let out an audible sigh of relief. Now hopefully they could get moving, he didn't want to stay here much longer and be scrutinized.

So it seemed they would be heading to the Fire Nation after all, and a place Katsu knew no less. He'd only been to Iwa all of twice before in his lifetime, yet each visit had been pleasant enough; cherry blossoms, fields and a large set of mountains obscuring the northern shore were what he could remember the most, and of course the relatively friendly locals. It would be interesting going back to his home nation after so long, and Katsu couldn't help but wonder if word might have spread about him since then. So long as everyone just knew he had run away and not the reasons surrounding it then he'd be fine, otherwise they couldn't stay in Iwa for very long either.

After some brief farewells they were back out on the road, the three of them carrying meager belongings to help them on their journey. The entire way to the edge of the city Katsu couldn't look anyone in the eye, a crushing feeling of guilt threatening to make him break any second. Siku wasn't fooling anyone when she said she was okay with this, and Asha probably would be more upset when the gravity of the situation finally hit her; there was no telling how long they might be gone for: Months? Years? Either way it seemed like a long time to have to leave home, something he knew from experience. Everyone he'd formed a band with since arriving in Republic City were now a memory, it was the second time he had to leave a family behind. Just how many times was this going to happen because he was the Avatar? Why did being what he was have to bring so much misery with it?

Katsu gave Republic City one final glance back when they stopped on the western edge of the city. The sun was just beginning to rise, giving the cityscape an unmistakably beautiful gleam, the rays basking over everything in a soft glow. Almost poetic, in a way, to see the sun rising when they were to begin their journey; when he had left home all those years ago it had just been rising as well, and in some way it made this feel oddly familiar. Smiling somberly he turned to Yakedo when addressed, giving a small nod of his head in reply. Of course he would watch out for them, it was his fault they were even in this situation. While it may be true he didn't have mastery of bending yet he could still most certainly fight, and he'd protect both of them from any dangers they might face.

"You could have bought us a car, you know..." Katsu offered weakly, slumping slightly when Siku poked fun at him. The only alternative they had was Koinu, albeit his companion was barely up to his knee, hardly something the three of them could ride on. Sure walking was bound to take a while, but they didn't exactly have much choice for the time being. Narrowing his eyes when Siku laid on the hurt and added "doofus" into the mix he let out a sigh, his face reddening in embarrassment before sniffing indignantly. "This doofus protected you in the sewers, you know, so watch it Siku," he retorted, managing a small smile.

Something slowly dawned on him then too, something he didn't know how he'd failed to realize before. Glancing at an elongated item hanging at her hip. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was, especially considering she hadn't made any conscious effort whatsoever to hide the thing. Blinking owlishly as he stared at the dao for a moment he slowly looked up at Siku, frowning before pointing to the weapon. "Why the heck did ya bring that thing along with you?" he shouted, shaking his head in disbelief, "Since when do you use a sword? We aren't killing people you know, so why are you taking that?" He was somewhat back his regular self, now truly baffled why they had something as lethal as a dao in their midst. "I don't kill people Siku, I knock them out. We have no reason to need a sword! But now people are going to get the wrong idea and we'll probably scare someone away, sheesh!"

[User]
"Protected..?" She scoffed, her mouth hanging off. "I am perfectly capable of protecting myself, thank you. If anything, I'm coming along to protect you," Her observation was met with a remark about her sword. "That goes to show you just how much Mr. Avatar here knows about swordplay. I'm not a killer, Katsu, and I don't use my dao that way. But what if we were attacked by people with weapons? If they get too close, it's nice to have an alternative. Not to mention, it'll only scare away the kind of people we don't want around anyway."

The small group was off and heading on down the road. Going by foot was not something a lot of people did anymore, but it wasn't entirely unheard of either. Lots of people traveled traditionally if only for the pilgrimage nowadays. Leaving at this strange hour, with only the sleep from the night before, the three were already rubbing their eyes and yawning after only a few minutes. Siku sighed, "How far do you think we should go before setting up camp?" She asked, adjusting the pack on her shoulders and yawning for what felt like the millionth time. The sun was already moving up and Siku was just glad that they were westbound, keeping it out of their eyes. "We could take a quick four-hour nap up here, the road had enough little twists in it that I can only see a couple of the tops of buildings... We could get past the treeline here and set up camp, sleep for a couple of hours, and then get back on the move for a while until we can get a good rest. We can take a look at the map I brought too, figure out where we want to stop for the night... Plan it all out, so we can relax for a minute."

There was little enthusiasm left in the group as they stepped from the road and pushed past the trees, moving deeper into the woods for a few minutes. She dropped her pack to the ground and rolled out the bedroll from it. She didn't pack a tent, but she didn't see any need for one, at least not yet. "Alright, here's as good as anywhere else, right? Night... Morning... Whatever," She mumbled, sitting on the bedroll and laying back. She placed her sheath and sword by her side and put the pillow over her eyes. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep. She hadn't had much rest at all since waking up the day before. Between practice and dinner and then... everything between, she was exhausted.

A few hours later, the watch on her wrist began to beep and she rubbed her eyes. "Ugh... Please, just six more hours..." She mumbled, sitting up and looking at the time. Yup, they had to wake up now. She groggily reached for her bag and pulled out a map, "Hey, wake up you two," She ordered, clearing her throat and still trying to wake up fully. "Alright... Alright, c'mon over, let's look at this." The girl ushered the other two toward her and pointed to Republic City on the map, "So, we started here and left... West, right? yeah," She decided having to think for a moment to recall the day so far. "So... If we spend a few more hours walking, we can probably make it... Hm... It might be night time, but we could get to Gung-Li... And then either see if there's any kind of ride to Iwa from there. Or get a little boat and get ourselves there... It's open water, so we'll have to be careful if we don't charter it. Gung-Li might have something, but going farther would yield better results for options, I think..."

[Assistant]
Asha smiled as she listened to the other two in her group bicker playfully back and forth about Siku's choice in taking her weapon with her. Although Asha didn't agree with violence, she knew there were times when it was needed, and if someone decided to attack them with steel, well, they had something for that.

"Sounds fine with me, we can stop where you said," The brunette said, agreeing with Siku's choice for a camping site for a few hours. It was relatively out of the way of the road so that people couldn't easily spot them, but close enough that they wouldn't be too far away from the road. Once they were all settled, Asha took a small blanket out of her backpack and settled it over herself. Using her backpack as a pillow, she laid her head down and wished the two a good morning, or whatever time of day it was.

Siku woke up first it seemed as she was trying to talk them awake. Asha rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms, trying to get her body to become more responsive to being awake. She crawled over to where Siku was with the map and tried to follow along with what Siku was saying, but she was a bit confused by it all; if there was one thing Asha was bad at, it was navigation.

"I will trust in whatever direction you guys want to go in...I'm not so great with maps," the girl replied, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. She went back over to her things and packed them back up to get back on the road. Asha was fine with walking places, it let someone really take in their environment.


[System]
Your neighborhood Pyro Source
Age: 18, Senior
Gender: Male
Power: Pyrokinesis

Personality:
Ash is a closed book, simple as that. He's not interested in making friends or fitting in with all the other kids. He doesn't take anything seriously, even if the consequences are absolutely dire. Everything is a burden in his eyes and everyone is twice as unreliable as the last person. The best way to get Ash on your side is to be willing to put in a lot of work, otherwise you'll have to get used to a middle finger and the occasional glare.

Likes:
Cigarettes (rolled himself), The dead of night, Punk music, Bourbon, Coffee, Things that are fast, Comics, Reptiles

Dislikes:
Bars, School, Cold weather, Persistent people, Birds, Guns, Parties, Bullshit

History:
Ash isn't a Pavar native. As far as Ash is concerned, he isn't a native anywhere. He also has a tendency of trying too hard to look like he doesn't care. He moved to Pavar with his twin brother Curtis and their mother at the start of his Sophomore year. They had gotten the hell out of dodge after a nasty divorce between his momma and his pops. Ash wouldn't complain about the sudden lack of weekly black eyes or the occasional broken rib from dear old dad, but moving across the country wasn't that thrilling to him either. Unlike his straight laced brother, Ash find enjoyment in showing up to school once a week, give or take a day, smoking, drinking, getting into trouble, and being an all around menace to society. He's a bucking bronco daring the world to try and tame him. Ash and Curt are as close as radically different brothers usually are. Curtis is often wandering town trying to find him and, after a little agreement with the cute barista at the Sand Creek Mall cafe, Ash usually hides out at the Cafe whenever Curt is trying to find him.

Awakening:
What Ash was doing at the time of the awakening was almost as if fate was trying its best to mock him, something that seemed more and more true with every year. Ash was one of the local Thai joint's, a place called Thai Cafe, best customers. Was, being that he once was their best customer. Was, because there was no longer a Thai Cafe. He dug his fork into the Thai hot pad thai and brought a piece a pepper up to his lips, savoring the scent that cauterised his nostrils, and then he bit in. Fate was a silly thing and, as fate would have it, his awakening came about the same moment he bit into the pepper. A burn built in the back of his throat and for a moment his mouth and nostrils felt as if they were filled with smoke. He opened his mouth to gasp for air, only for a burst of flame to spill out onto the table, searing the pad thai and setting the table ablaze. "Jesus!" He gasped, falling backwards out of his chair, arms flailing out in front of him, hands also ablaze.

Ash flailed about of the floor, trying to pad out the flames, only to spread them more. In his panic he hadn't yet realised that the fire didn't hurt or that he was unintentionally willing more and more of it to spill out of him in his state of panic. Ash stumbled out of the restaurant and left the building to burn down, the staff fleeing out the back of the crumbling restaurant. Ash crashed in an alley, exhausted and filled with a lingering terror which turned to shock when he finally noticed his hands. He wasn't even slightly burned. His clothing had been scorched in some places, but beyond that he was absolutely immaculate. Ash stared in silence at his hands and reluctantly placed his fingers together, ready to snap. He closed his eyes and snapped. And when they opened, there was a flame.

[User]
Alan sat a few feet from the microwave, watching his hot pockets slowly rotate inside. Epsilon said he had twenty minutes to go back and get the last kid who wasn't in the cafe. Suddenly a realization occurred to Alan, the twenty minute deadline started around sixteen minutes ago. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" He jumped up from his chair and ran towards the room where Epsilon had placed the portal. A humming filled the underground facility as Alan picked up speed, faster than was possible for any human. Within the seconds he was running through the portal, a inky black shadow spread across the back wall of the back of the sleeping quarters. Instantly the cool damp air of the underground facility was replaced by the dry Arizona heat. He didn't break stride as the ground beneath his feet went from concrete to sand. The straggling meta was supposedly in the parking lot of some mall. After a few more seconds of running he was combing the city for a shopping mall. He didn't have to look for very long. Within moments of reaching the western part of the city he could sense a very powerful metahuman. Phi must still be in the mall, where the hell is this kid? Phi made it hard to feel other metas, but after focusing a bit he could pick out the kid walking up the parking lot towards the mall. Alan adjusted his trajectory and raced towards the kid. In one smooth motion he threw the kid over his shoulder and back towards the portal that would take him home.

Alan bolted out of the portal and into the sleeping quarters, and raced back towards the microwave without dropping the young man slung over his shoulder. On the way he grabbed a chair for the boy to steady himself in after they stopped. Everyone reacted differently to moving at this rate of speed for the first time. Best case scenario he'd just need to sit down for a few minutes, worst case scenario Alan would be cleaning vomit off the floor. He slowed as he approached the corner of the mess hall that contained the microwave, still not even close to being finished with his hot pockets. The second chair was placed next to his and the kid was gently lowered atop it. "Sorry about not being able to warn you that you were about to be snatched up. If you had moved any when I came in to grab you then your neck probably would have snapped." Alan looked at the boy closely for the first time. His long brown hair was a complete mess from the ride, his eyes slowly adjusting to the lower light levels. The kid had some sparse facial hair on his lip and chin, he couldn't have been older than 19. 20 tops. "My name's Alan, but you can call me Delta. If you would have made it inside that mall then your brains would have decorated the floor. Don't worry, its chill here. Epsilon grabbed a few more metas your age, so while he's tending to them you're stuck with me. So...what's your name? Oh, and do you want one of these when they're done?" Alan motioned to the microwave, its soft buzzing filling the mess hall while he waited for the boy's response.

[Assistant]
Before Rose could do anything, something yanked her wrists and tightly clenched them so tight she was sure they were causing a blood clot. She glanced over at her arms in panic to find a strange black roping around it. She tried to thrash her arms against it but she wasn't strong enough to even budge them.

"The bold and impotent are only rewarded with death," a voice whispered from behind her. It felt like he was whispering in both her ears somehow. She tried to look over her shoulder to see the speaker, managing, "Well that's not me. I am not bold or impotent at all." Her eyes darted around the room in panic as the room seemed to get darker an darker and the black substance spread across the room. This was a nightmare come to life.

Rose thought she heard the voice conversing about Phi or something but she couldn't pay too much attention to it. The darkness had shrouded her at this point and she couldn't see anything nor feel her own weight against the ground. Was she drowning? She sure felt like she couldn't breathe. Rose had no idea how much time went by like this. Though it was a dreadful experience, she knew the end of it probably meant her death and she was grateful for final moments even if they were kinda traumatic.

Then suddenly the blackness was all gone. She slowly dared to open her eyes when a dim light intruded through her eyelid. She ran a hand through hair, brushing strands that had fallen in her face back to their spot in order to clear her vision There was one light bulb in the room and a guy standing there. She couldn't see him too well except for his pale back. She wasn't sure but it sounded like he was humming. He turned around, the cigarette lighting up his face for them to see. It seemed they had another smoker with a mohawk in their presence.

 "Sorry about your friends." The guy finally said. His voice was warm instead of threatening or frightening which she had expected. He turned away from them to fiddle with something she couldn't see and said, "Go ahead and ask any questions you might have."

Questions? Rose had a million of them. The one that played over and over in her head was whether or not she could go home but she knew she couldn't just leave without understanding what had happened. "Okay. Who are you and why did that man want to kill us? And what was that black stuff? "

[User]
The man waited patiently for one of them to talk and turned away once the boy with ghostly pale skin and a shock of orangish-red hair spoke up, tripping over his words as they spilled out of his lips. "Where are we? I- Why are we here? This isn't bad, right?" He asked and even with his back toward the boy, he could still feel the kid's frantic eyes staring into his back as if it had the answer written across it. Well, it did have the answer written across it. The boy just didn't know what it meant yet.

The man's lips began to part, before pressing back together at the sound of another voice, the blonde mirroring the boy's question. "Okay. Who are you and why did that man want to kill us? And what was that black stuff? " She questioned him, having the wits about her to ask about what restrained her. She had a feigned confidence to her voice. Or perhaps it wasn't feigned. Perhaps she was just an overconfident brat that had no idea what she was in for. She had told him that she was neither bold nor impotent. To try and throw around Phi and fail so spectacularly spoke much more strongly than her words. She'd probably die in her next confrontation. Kids like that rarely lived long. Their brains tended to be wired to shut out anything he did to teach them.

The man made a mental note of her. Dead on arrival.

"Because if I'm going to die a tragic death, I could have done it back there and I'm still not feeling it," the boy spoke again with a nervous laughter that reminded the man of his first experience with an Omega. He had laughed too. Gallows humour. It tended to help a lot of folks get through tragedy.

The man made another note, letting out a puff of smoke as a mental period to his thought. He might have a fighting chance.

He let out a quiet hiss as the pain of antiseptic began to sizzle away at the open wound, stinging sharply along the crudely sealed wound. He had improvised in a rush to treat the wound from Phi and used butchers twine instead of thread to sew shut his wound. It'd leave uglier scars to accompany the new gash that ran just left of his gut, three inches in length, deep enough to make it gurgle up blood before being packed with gauze and sewn shut.

Wound closed and blood partially washed away by the hydrogen peroxide he turned and planted his two bare feet. He had long gaunt limbs with a sharp chin and aquiline nose. His face glowed a sullen maroon from the already dying light in the cigarette which trickled visible streams of smoke with every long slow breath. He eyed them up and down, offering only a flat neutral expression to the lot of them. Deciding that enough time had been wasted, he reached a hand farther into the light from the naked bulb, deciding to answer one of the questions right out of the gate. The hand was plain. Pale skin, short trimmed nails with pink nailbeds, long fingers with callouses running along the palms of his hand. The blackness from the cafe emerged from beyond the light and moved like a snake up his back until it squirmed along his arm and wrapped around the outstretched hand, making it appear as if it had been dipped in ink. The fingers stretched and drooped, coming to long talon. The hand looked sickly and unnatural. They type of unnatural that would make a priest run the other way and cry that Lucifer himself walks the world.

"You are in the holding room of my home while I decide what to do with you. Any more information could compromise my chapter of the order, so you'll have to allow me some time to decide what is on a need to know basis and what you two need to know." He spoke in a polite and gentle tone, retracting his hand from the light and dismissing the shadow as he did so. "The one who tried to kill you was a member of the Omega order, a metahuman hunter known only as Phi. He is their order's bloodhound and holds a sterling record for subdued metahumans such as yourselves. So, yes. This is bad. Your current location is the safest you'll ever. You're welcome to leave, though I cannot guarantee your safety."

"I am Epsilon," The metahuman began to conclude his little introduction, "or the Revenant if you're at all familiar with cryptozoology. You're in the current home of the Alpha Order's recruitment chapter and I'm offering the lot of you a chance to make some use of yourselves and a chance to survive. I am not going to promise you will survive if you join, but I can promise you will the moment Phi has a chance to locate either of you again." Epsilon reached down and tossed the pair of cellphones that belong to the girl and boy, two spears of raw black energy that seemed to absorb the light that touched them lurching out of the darkness and slicing through the phones as if they were made of tissue paper. "Any contact to the outside world is strictly prohibited and any connection to an internet enabled device will result in more than just your own death from this point forward. Now chose," Epsilon ordered, standing up from his seat with a rigid spine, his freshly sealed wound threatening to burst at the seams. "Will you join us or leave?"

Epsilon thought for a moment to mention that if they were to attempt to leave, deciding it was best to hold his tongue. Knowing Phi, everything they had any involvement in was being scoured for information and their loved ones were likely going through advanced interrogation techniques. If they knew what was happening, they'd want to run and save their families. Epsilon held his tongue because he knew that by the time they found their loved ones, it'd be to late. There wouldn't be anything recognizable left.


[System]
DECEASED(killed by Anise, who also took his sword)
Age: old

Appearance:

Occupation: presently, monkeybat hunter

Personality: A bit off.

History: ?

[User]
Anise stood between the newly returned lantern bearer and Reus. The red light of the stranger's lantern clashed with the blue light of Anise's lantern. She could feel her shattered lantern's desire to join with the Fire Lantern. The sensation was so strong that she had a hard time telling which feelings were hers and which ones were the Dragon's. She cleared her throat in order to help her clear her own thoughts, but to no avail.

Anise did not reach out with the Spirit Lantern's power to connect with the stranger's mind for fear of the Dragon attempting to do something through the connection. The lady seemed just as confused as she was when she first arrived in the Forest. Anise still felt mixed feelings. "Y-You won't hurt Reus again, will you?" She lifted the hawk mask off of her face and let it rest on the top of her head. The change in the clarity of her vision disoriented her for a brief moment.

The sixteen year-old's dress was in tatters barely covering anything that needed to be covered, total strips missing from the bottom. She wore a belt that was tightened all the way to the max and had an empty sword scabbard on it. Tied to the belt opposite of the scabbard was a rabbit mask. Her shoulder-length brown hair had twigs and knots in it from getting snagged. Her feet were bare and raw from the constant use. Her expression was one of cautious worry.

-0h

[Assistant]
While the fire lady made herself known, Morly wobbled back and forth as if he were standing on the deck of a ship, his hand stuffed up under his mask to scratch his nose.

"You talk weird," he informed her. "Piiieee-rate! They're the ones with iron and armor and magic scribbles. Everybody knows that. Where'd you come from that you talk like a batmonkey?" It was an honest, innocent question.

Meanwhile, the healing water was working; even as Anise soaked Reus' fur in it, the wounds began to heal slowly. The wolf remained still and compliant until Anise stood up to address the newcomer; he then lifted his head and grabbed the water jug in a comical hug between his paws, tipped it, and lapped up mouthfuls of the water as it flowed.

Morly twisted around to see Anise, and his jaw dropped to see that she'd taken off her mask. He quickly looked between Anise and the fire lady, wondering if there was some social rule about masks that he didn't know about. Finally he decided to follow Anise's lead, and he, too, shoved his mask up on top of his head.

The little blond boy was certainly near eight years old, with sleepy brown eyes and a perpetually bored expression.

Behind him, Reus finished his drink and sat up straighter; the wolf's face looked much less alarming now, though it would take awhile for the fur to grow back on those patches of burned skin. He huffed, gave Artemis an annoyed look, and shook the water out of his fur in a torrential spray.

Morly sniffed, still squinting at Artemis. "I think you gotta be careful with that thingy, 'cause you almost caused another forest fire, and that one made the river super mad, and you're gonna get in trouble with the witch, and if you're not careful -- UWAAAH!"

Suddenly, Morly was dangling upside-down in the air, held aloft by the mossy root of a tree. His mask fell into the grass below.

"LEMME GO!"

The root threw him up into the leaves, where he was caught expertly by a branch curled around his waist.

"WHOOAAA GAAAAAHHH BAD TREE! BAD! LET GO! I'M KITH! KITH! FRIEND! WHERE'S MY MASK! AAAHH! LEGGO! DON'T EAT ME! NOT FOOD! BAD!" Morly smacked the branch with his feet and fists.

The trunk of the tree slit itself open like a vertical mouth, revealing bones and fragments from a number of small creatures that had previously been devoured.

Reus only continued to groom his soaked fur.

[User]
Anise's jaw dropped as the tree grabbed Morly so violently. She quickly pulled her mask down and grabbed Morly's mask. She quickly pulled her own mask over her face and approached the tree cautiously. She reached out towards it and focused. She concentrated as she reached out through the Spirit lanterns power and touched the tree with her mind. She was briefly shocked by its mind as all she could pick out was rage, hunger, and hate.

She told the tree. "Put him down. Let him free." Her tone was calm and commanding. As soon as she got close enough, she shoved the Frog Mask into Morly's stomach so he could grab it quickly. She then got closer to the carnivorous tree approaching its side and touched it gently with her now free hand. She shoved into it her will to protect and save. "It's OK. Morly's a friend." After everything she had been through, Anise wasn't going to let an angry tree stop her from her goals. She soothed the tree the best way that she knew: her strong emotions and the assistance of the Spirit lantern's power. She didn't want anyone to come to harm including the tree.

[Assistant] Absorbing the shreds of information the boy offered, Artemis pinched her eyebrows together. What he was describing wasn't like any pirates she'd ever heard of. Then again… giant wolves and ticking trees. Her eyes darted between the girl, the irritated-looking wolf, and the boy. She opened her mouth to respond – in her own language again – while still keeping her distance, when the action erupted behind him. Artemis stumbled back as a tree seemingly woke up, grabbing the boy. A moving tree. A moving carnivorous tree. Artemis wasted no time turning and running away.

[User]
Unfortunately for Artemis, running away was the same thing as running toward more trees. Lantern or no Lantern, she wasn't wearing a mask -- and was therefore fair game.

The tree that held Morly shuddered under the weight of the Spirit Lantern's influence -- it was a rather stupid creature, after all. There was nothing there except an endless hunger and desire to crunch on Morly's bones. It began to lower the screaming child into its jagged mouth, but Anise made it think this wasn't really worth it. Finally, Morly dropped on his head with a yelp and the tree pulled up its roots and glided slowly elsewhere, creaking and groaning.

As Artemis ran, roots all around her lifted up out of the writhing ground, branches squirmed and lashed, trunks bent and creaked. The Lantern flashed with fire, and a searching branch darted away, but a root coiled around Artemis' ankle and dragged her down where more roots were waiting.

Fire burst everywhere, and flaming branches swung and swiped overhead, creating light patterns in the night air. Artemis would be able to beat and burn away the roots and boughs that twined around her, but whenever one let go two more caught hold.

While Anise had been busy with Morly, Reus had quietly got up and walked after the shine of the fiery Lantern.

The great wolf moved close, just out of range of the swinging fire and the twisting roots. He sat down patiently -- and then he threw up his chin and howled.

He sang long, deep and haunting; the sound trembled in the trees and echoed deep into the forest.

The trees went still, transfixed.

Reus grasped a root between his jaws and cracked it in two -- and another, and another.

Meanwhile, Morly scrambled back to the shore, jamming his mask on his face and hightailing it to his raft. He was very willing to abandon them all if it meant he'd never see another tree ever again.

[Assistant]
Anise felt relieved as she felt the tree relax and Morly soon became free of its grasp. The boy dashed off shoving his mask on as he rushed to his raft. Anise would have gone after him if she wasn't concerned about the safety of the lantern holder whom ran off out of fear. The Kith could do whatever he wish. She had saved his life which is all she wished to accomplish there. She followed after Reus after she heard him howl and made it to him as he snapped the last root.

She walked up to the stranger, out of breath, and pulled the rabbit mask free from her belt. She sat down next to her and put the mask next to the woman. "My name is Anise. You should put this on, the mask has the power to keep you safe from the dangers of this forest." She kept her voice calm and soothing because she didn't want to scare the stranger anymore than she already was. She wasn't a princess anymore, no she was just a guardian, a protector. Weak, but strong enough to help those in need. "This was my friend's, but I think he would like it to be used to keep someone safe."

She then stood up and pet Reus. "This is Reus." She didn't want to give any wrong impressions on the stranger, so she introduced Reus with a tone inclining that he wouldn't hurt her unless he really wanted to. She wouldn't say Reus wasn't dangerous, because she knew very well that the wolf could be very dangerous if he wanted to be. "You aren't hurt are you?" She scanned the lantern holder for any injuries. She could still heavily feel the desire to take the Fire Lantern, but with great mental fortitude she walled up against that urge that wasn't hers.

Anise looked around at the trees currently frozen from Reus' howl. "Take your time and rest up. So long as you have the mask on the forest won't attack you."

[User]
The blue Lantern eagerly urged Anise closer. All she had to do was reach out, and the Dragon's desire would do the rest.

A batmonkey screeched in the dark frozen treetops.

Bright, searing clouds of fire billowed out of the Lantern in Artemis' grasp. Reus swiped Anise back with a paw just before the white-hot flames could melt her skin, but the scalding heat of the inferno quickly singed what was left of her dress. Fire thundered as powerful and frightening as the inferno, higher and higher, illuminating and destroying everything around it in a blinding, thundering light.

The trees wailed in pain, uprooted themselves, writhed and crashed twitching to the ground.

Reus skittered back toward the river, huffing at Anise to come with him, to abandon the stranger, though the Dragon's will insisted that she walk forward into the inferno.

"GET ON THE GOSHDANGIT RAFT CRAZY LADY!" Morly hollered from the shore.

---

Meanwhile, the way was open to Artemis: a dark path through the darker woods, illuminated in haunting red and white by the flames that consumed the carnivorous trees.

It would be a long walk across tilted stones and strangely writhing roots, little streams and thick mossy boulders, before the glow of the fire disappeared behind Artemis.

Occasionally, something dark skittered in the corner of her eye.

Birds crackled and chittered in the branches.

At the edge of the Lantern's light, grass and bushes rustled.

A huge animal, thin like a deer, glided slowly among the shadows, unconcerned with Artemis' presence.

Something glinted on the ground ahead: a rosary with an iron rose. It was damp, as if it had just been fished out of water.

A firefly glinted in the dark. A few others blinked among the shadows to the left of the rosary. They almost formed a line, if one stared long enough -- a trail of fireflies, leading off among the stones and low-hanging branches.

To the right, half-hidden among roots and ivy, a dilapidated sign had been nailed to a tree. Two words were carved into it: NO SOLICITORS

In the bark below the sign, a rune was carved.

In this direction, the path was much clearer, as if it were traveled frequently. Spaced along the way were white stones, each carved with a different rune.

In the distance farther down this path, Artemis could hear the faint, rhythmic sound of someone hammering wood.


[System]
Gender: M

Age: 26

Career/Class:Soldier / Ex-Soldier

Weapons:
* Basket Hilted Broadsword
* Imperial Dagger
* Norscan round Shield (Took from his first felled enemy)
* Aged Pistol

Physical Description Cyrdic is tall and lean, but solidly built, standing an inch over 6 feet in height. His eyes are reminiscent of shaped wrought iron. His face is ruddy and echoes a youthful appearance, though battles and training had roughed him into the look of a mature soldier. He has quite the rugged quality about him. Two scars mar his face. One parallel to the bottom of his left eye, and another scraping across his right jawline. His legs are long and his his facial hair is only a coarse, 5'oclock shadow thanks to his knife. He's clad in fine and tough leather over a chainmail hauberk, with sturdy traveling shoes and a worn belt.

Mental Description/Personality: Cyrdic isn't a fool. He spent a year apprenticed to a Quartermaster (as punishment for recklessness) and learned how to read and write (to a degree). The best way to describe him would be a hardened, rough soldier at the brink of his youth. He'll use what he can in his disposal to win, though half the time it turns out he'll need to fuck someone up anyway. His fierce independence and rough nature can only be matched by his determination to survive. He's not tactically intelligent, but he has a sense of how battlefields shift and can command smaller troops with his powerful voice. He tends to have a take-no-shit (unless it's from a superior officer) lookout on life. He's amiable to certain people however, and will have a dry wit around those he enjoys (or to people he wishes he could be more honest with). While fighting and killing and marching has been his entire life, he's not particularly fond of being thrust into impossible situations and doesn't lack a healthy sense of self preservation. He's gotten quite tired of working for corrupt officers. He's a devout Sigmarite thanks to his upbringing, and has a hammer chained necklace upon his breast to signify this.

[User]
The rest of they day passed quickly. For Camilla it seemed the first chance she had found to relax since they had fled the scene of the court in Ostland. She took an outrageously long bath, soaking until the water grew cold, she had scrubbed her hair and skin clean with the plain but smooth soap and toweled herself dry. Many of the bruises were beginning to fade and she found herself somewhere back near her former glory.

After a hearty meal and several more mugs of ale she and Cydric had fallen asleep without worrying about setting a watch for the first time in months. Although her sleep was dark and fathomless she found herself troubled by odd dreams of eyeless men, of strange places and fantastic beasts. Once she saw herself standing over a decapitated body, a blade of some sort of black glass in her hands. She awoke troubled in her mind but her body felt better than it had in weeks.

She and Cydric enjoyed a light breakfast of hard bread and wine and were just about to head out to try to convert some of the more exoitc pieces they had recovered from the horde in the mountains to cash when a cloaked figure approached their table. It took Camilla a second to recognize Osfurth, the Chamberlain. He was swathed in a heavy cloak and seemed to be going out of his way not to be recognized, although how he could hope that in an inn that catered to the Counts inner circle was hard to figure.

"Ah excellent, I had hoped I could catch you before you left on your business this morning," he said in a quiet but steady tone.

"I have some business I would like to discuss with you both... privately," he said, inclining his head in the directions of the room they shared momentously.

Camilla cast her eyes towards Cydric. The fellow clearly hadn't come to arrest the pair of them, he would have bought guards if that were his intent. She settled for a non comittal shrug of the shoulders.

[Assistant]
Cyrdic had finally had a chance to relax his weary muscles, and clean his scars. Not only that, but his shoulder length brown hair was now clean, something he'd been meaning to do for quite awhile. Along with his new clothing he had washed from Talabecland, he looked the epitome of a Middenland duke. A hint of uncouth northerner, yet an intense noble quality about his heroic frame and rugged features.

The plump, comely waitress had just left their table, her hips swaying for Cyrdic could admire, though for some strange reason Cyrdic felt a bit odd gazing with Camilla around. Still, his attention was immediately transfixed upon Osfurth, and he nodded to the man when asked to speak to he and Camilla privately. "Certainly," Cyrdic said, escorting him to their private room as if he were merely an old friend.

Once they closed the door, Cyrdic stood at the ready while the Chamberlain sat down. He removed the hood of his cloak, and gave them a helpless smile. "I do certainly hope you two have enjoyed yourselves here," he said. "I say, it's very few and far between when I see such good and trustworthy folk as you. I want you to understand that I do not come and ask things of you lightly..."

"We understand," Cyrdic said, gesturing for him to continue. "Yes, well...I have something very dangerous, yet important to ask of you two...You see, I do not want it broadcast to the city, nor even to Graf Boris just yet. I am hoping to rectify a terrible tragedy before it is known but...a month ago, our Knights discovered a cult of vile chaos worshipers within one of the old buildings uptown. They had a very large amount of that most vile substance."

"Warpstone?" Cyrdic asked, making the sign of the hammer. The Chamberlain nodded. "Yes, the Warpstone we discovered had seemingly come out of nowhere. And we took it into custody for our mages and priests to contain it within one of the Palace cellars. Only...now it is missing."

The edge of Osfurth's words had Cyrdic gripping his sword hilt until his knuckles were white. "And why do you come to us? What can we do?"

"You can look without scrutiny, unlike our guards and Knights. I realize this is a harrowing task I give to you. But I have nowhere else to turn."

"Ah yes, how forgetful of me. But here," he said, sliding his hand into his cloak and producing a letter. "You are invited to the Graf's ball in a matter of days. I don't know why the Graf throws them. He hardly shows his face. But there it is."

[User]
Camilla's mind was on the waitress while Osfurth talked. The girl was clearly a little irritated that Cydric had rebuffed what she had clearly meant as an invitation. Why had she thought that such an invitation might succeed though. The girl was pretty enough but she wasn't on the same level that Camilla was. The Tilean had been taught that she was beautiful and as such didn't suffer the same pangs of uncertainty that other women seemed to about the matter. To her it was a resource, she had a sword, she had three days rations, she was beautiful, but that same awareness tended to blind her to the struggles of others. Did the girl fancy herself the queen of the tavern perhaps and want to make a show of tempting Cydric to ... the thought trailed off as she realised they had reached a lull in the conversation. Her mind obediently played back the last few seconds.

"A ball?" she said, her face lighting with enthusiasm at the notion of a formal get together. She would take Cydric of course, but they would need to get new clothes and find a dress maker. What was court fashion here in Middenheim and... she noticed that neither Osfurth or Cydric seemed to be sharing her enthusiasm and she stilled herself.

"Yes well, I trust the matter of the warpstone will remain confidential," Osfurth huffed. The emphasis he placed on the word suggested an or else that Camilla found strangely authoritative for such a non threatening looking man. He came to his feet and produced a parchment.

"This is an authorization for you to be in the palace at the Graf's behest. As far as the public story goes his niece is fond of you and wants to be regaled with tales of adventures for a few more days before you depart. Please dont use it unless you have to. If you need to contact me, leave word with the guards that you have to discuss the ball with me, that should make an adequate ruse don't you think."

Camilla nodded her head in acceptance. Osfurth pushed himself to his feet.

"I will leave you to it then, I cannot be absent long." And with that the strange man was gone from the room. Camilla listened to his footsteps as they went down the stairs.

"Reiner," she began, noticing the mans somber expression.Thoughts of dresses slowly bleeding from her mind.

"What is warp stone exactly?"

[Assistant]
Cyrdic's incredulous face was comical when he noticed Camilla miles away when they were discussing what could shape the fate of Middenheim. He waited for the Chamberlain to be gone before he closed the door, and locked it. Her next question had him give a less than excited expression, and he sat Camilla down on the bed.

He tried to put it into words. He honestly knew very little himself, other than it was the last thing anyone not a servant of chaos ever wanted to be near. "It's..." he gestured with his callused hands. "The very raw stuff of chaos, made into a solid form." He explained, looking at the Tilean woman in the eyes. "I've seen it, once. A Norscan shaman had a staff with a rock of warpstone embedded atop it. It took good men and twisted them into mutants before my eyes. I'll never forget it."

Cyrdic seemed troubled just recalling it, but then he breathed out to calm himself. The normally ruddy, handsome face had seemed lined with experience for but a moment, but it was gone. He hardly let it show, but the young sergeant had been through much in his military service. "We'll search around the city. Maybe we can ask the city's layout from someone." In all honesty, Cyrdic was thinking of asking the maid. She seemed like she would be helpful, at least to him.

"I've never been to a ball before," he admitted. "I don't know how to dance, and I don't know how to, um, mingle."

[User]
Camilla's high spirits waned as Cydric described the danger that warpstone represented. If it concerned Cydric so much it must be a potent threat indeed. Looked out the window of their large room for a moment to give herself time to digest what she had been told, taping a finger gently to one of her red lips.

"Oh don't worry about the ball," she said, waving a hand dismissively. She was addressing it because it was a topic she was familiar with and didn't seem to involve any pleasant risk of death or dismemberment at the hands of deranged cultists. Tilea had less of an issue with the Dark Gods, the attraction of the Chaos wastes was far away there, and the landscape to domesticated to allow for the infestations of beastmen and mutants which plagued its unhappy northern neighbors. Even on the sunny plains of Tilea though the rampages of the creatures of Chaos were not unknown.

"We will get you something in a millitary cut, perhaps some armor, then you can carry your sword and scowl a good deal," she explained, mentally fitting Cydric for a feathered hat.

"When a soldier dosen't want to be bothered he builds a wall of sharpened stakes. A scowl does the same thing in a social situation," she confided. Standing up she crossed the floor and took up her sword belt hefting its weight for a moment before fastining it around her waist at a jaunty angle down from one hip.

"He must think it is someone from the court," she speculated as she observed herself in the mirror, adjusting the set of her belt. Maybe she should get one of those polished leather chest pieces. They weren't too unlike a corset when tightly cinched and would give her some protection without sacrificing speed or, more importantly, style. Looking back over her shoulder she though Cydric looked a little puzzled by the comment.

"Well why else come to us? We are relative new comers, we have no connections here, he must have secret policemen who could make inquiries."

Crossing to the pitcher of water on the small table in the center of the room she poured herself a goblet and drank it down. It was nice to be back in civilization, even if it was this rather grim fortress town.

"Either he doesn't trust them, or he dosen't trust someone in their chain of command." As she said it an unpleasant though crossed into her mind. Unless it was Osfurth himself of course, and he figured that two bumbling adventurers were the perfect excuse in place of a real investigation.

"Any ideas where we can start?"

[Assistant]
Cyrdic leaned back on his strong arms and watched his companion try to make even her common clothing stylish. Briefly, he wondered if he would ever get used to how beautiful she was. Though, all of the danger they'd been through, he'd never really had time to focus on it too much. "I have been wanting new armor, though I'd want it to be more functional than stylish. Maybe a tabard above it to make it...presentable?" He asked, almost not even knowing which word to use. By Sigmar, he'd never given thought to being presentable unless it was to impress a lady, and he'd not found one interested in him in awhile.

He winced, and felt his side. An old wound aching from the bath yesterday. Once his body had relaxed, he'd felt much better. But all of the running and fighting had made his muscles more sore than he cared to admit. He hopped up onto his feet behind her, strapping on his leather belt about his lean waist, his Ulrican sword sheathed along with it. He'd need to find out if the blade had a name. Perhaps the sorceress could tell him, if he ever had the misfortune of running into her again.

"I've no idea why he would contact us. Or I've many ideas, I should say. And none are an obvious right answer," As he finished his last sentence, he stretched and groaned audibly. He needed to be limber just in case there was trouble. "I say we try our luck on selling our treasures first. Once we're out and about, we'll see if there's any leads we can find. If not, I'm sure we can ask a local about the town, or find a map. I believe the Old section of the city is to the north."

He made it to the door, and placed his hand on the door knob. "Whatever we do, let's do it quickly. After the ball, I'm planning on us being much further south, if we can help it." he told her. "Let's begin at the marketplace."


[System]
R.I.S.C. Dossier

---
Age

16

Physical Evaluation

Quinnlash is a young woman, five foot three, average build, and slightly underweight. She has very long hair (dark gray streaked with bright yellow) cut into sharp, straight bangs in front, and typically tied into a braid. When tied, it ends at approximately hip height. Untied, it falls nearly to her knees. She has extremely pale skin, unmarked with the exception of scarring around her empty eye socket (right), over which she wears a black and yellow eyepatch. Her remaining eye (left) is brilliant yellow. She has a sharp chin and jawline. Her muscle mass is slightly beneath consistent with regular exercise, and she is somewhat clumsy. She has a tendency to stumble if she isn't watching where she steps.

Psychological Profile

Quinnlash has some very strange psychological markers that nonetheless make sense when her history is taken into account. She is very much

1) Outgoing
2) Friendly
3) Cheerful
and 4) Supportive,
as well as

1) Anxious
2) Emotionally volatile
3) Prone to attention-seeking behavior
and 4) Highly competitive.

In addition, she seems to bear a great deal of attachment issues (for more information, check her background information).

Background Information

Neither we nor Quinnlash herself know exactly where she was born, but all she can remember is the house she lived in for sixteen years in Hovvi. Specifically, she remembers her own room, as she only left it—without permission, I might add—twice in her life. She was kept completely isolated by her parents, researchers on Modir and modium, and was only aware of what they allowed her to be. The only notable incident throughout her life was, as far as can be told, two or three months after she snuck out into the living room and saw the outside world for the first time. Her right eye spontaneously burst (very likely a result of sudden modium growth) and was subsequently removed.

The second time she snuck out was fully, immediately before meeting Besca, which was the first time she actually left her house. She was intimidated and fascinated, and the world seemed to stare at her very strangely. The only known survivor of the Hovvi Incident, she was removed from the town's ruins and taken to the Aerie, where she was subsequently tested for compatibility and given a modioscory to interface with a Savior.

There are a number of strange medical anomalies present in Quinnlash's system, such as her bright yellow eye and the hair being naturally yellow. More pressing is the unfeasible level of modium present in her entire system when she was first retrieved post-Hovvi Incident, and the filed and maintained seed growth of modium in place of her missing eye. Interim-Commander Darroh has taken over care of the child's training as a pilot, and should be contacted for any inquiries.
Savior

---

Designation

Ablaze

Body

Tall and lean, Ablaze is on the thinner side for a Savior. Long scutes of modium not unlike those found on some aquatic organisms run along the arms and legs, forming a sort of natural armmor-weapon combination. The fingers are long and end in sharp claws. At the pilot's request, its right eye has been covered with a thick plate of metal.

Weapon

Ablaze's weapon, suited to the name, is a cannon as long as long as Ablaze is tall that fires explosive blasts of fire. The mechanism by which it produces this fire is unknown. When phased, the cannon gains a charge mechanism, allowing her to charge a shot for up to five seconds to increase the destructive yield considerably, up to approximately twice the size and intensity of the blast at full charge. In addition, the cannon shots can be detonated on command, or detonation can be delayed as a form of trap.

[User]
Where there was an air of indignant anger, there was suddenly distinct feeling of satisfaction, and pride. The chill receded, she was content to listen. So was Besca, evidently, and Dahlia if the speed of her return was anything to go by. They both seemed utterly baffled, looking at her as though she'd torn off her face to reveal some stranger beneath. A glance passed between them, not of malice, but confusion—then, acquiescence.

"Uhm…" Besca stuttered, averting her eye the moment Quinn's turned to her. "A week. It would have been longer, these were originally doubles-duels; Casoban set the terms to bench Yule though, so now Helburke is using that to bench Dragon. Now it's a one-on-one."

She paused, hesitating to ask if Quinn was certain about this. Then she felt guilty. An outburst of bravery, warranted or not, wasn't going to squash her worry for the girl's safety.

"That's not enough time, Quinn. I don't see how it could be. If we dropped you down today to draw out your weapon you'd still only have a handful of days to practice with it—and most of that would be in sims, anyway." She mustered up a bit of her own courage and looked her dead-on. "I meant what I said; I'll figure something out. We could get you sick, maybe. We could…I don't know, we could tell'em you fell into a coma or something, get Follen to put you down for a couple days 'til Casoban forfeits."

Dahlia joined her, putting a hand on Quinn's shoulder. "She's right we can…" she began, but nothing came to her, so she just shook her head. "You don't have to do this. I…we don't want you to have to do this."

[Assistant]
The sudden bellows-blast of rage didn't last long, and Quinn slumped back down into a chair, looking vaguely sick.

"...You don't have to do this. I…we don't want you to have to do this."

Quinn laughed then, a thin flat thing totally devoid of humor or joy. A death rattle. "You think I'm thrilled about it?" She looked at her feet, and her voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. "But there's...there's nothing we can do about it, right?"

She wasn't particularly savvy in politics, but she'd picked up a thing or two from Besca. "Fine, I get out of it. What then?" She left no time for responses before continuing: "We lose Casoban, right? And then what happens to the Aerie?"

She shook her head and looked down at her hands. They were trembling again, but her mind was clear as it could reasonably be, under the circumstances. That bolt of pride—unexpected, but not unwelcome—that had punched through her mind from Quinnlash stabilized her some. Enough to keep her together, at least. "I'm terrified. You have no idea how terrified I am. I have no idea how I'm even speaking right now, when all I want to do is run back to my dorm, curl up under my covers, and cry until I wake up from this bad dream."

A deep, shaky breath. Another. A third. Three deep breaths, in and out. "...But I—I can't. So..." she dropped her head into her hands. No. NO. She absolutely could not. There wasn't anything she could do, or anyone else. She turned to Besca. "...I'm drawing today." She blinked, and for just that moment she was that terrified child again. The one who'd woken up screaming. The one who'd latched onto Besca in a death grip, and begged her not to leave. The one who'd cried her eyes out into Dahlia's shoulder, apologizing for killing her father. Who'd barely made it through her first phase.

Then she blinked again, and—at least for the moment—that child was gone.

[User]
The cockpit was cold, and dark, even with the skullport open. As the elevator brought the unnamed Savior down from Aerie Station, Quinn could only sit and feel the odd, artificial gravity keeping her steady. The vents on the suit's collar warmed her face, but an eager chill raked its fingers down her scalp.

Dahlia stood in the narrow opening. She wasn't suited up—Dragon was still docked in the hangar—but she'd thrown on a few layers of shirts and coats, and had a scarf around her neck. She still shivered even without being inside, but made no complaints.

"It'll happen," she said. Her words were visible in the frosted air. "You'll get it, it takes a little focus at first but you'll get it. You just gotta reach out, physically and, y'know, mentally, too. Don't think too hard about what you want it to be, don't worry about not knowing what to do with it—it's all natural. It comes to you, from the Saviors. They know what to do with these things, so, so do you, if that makes sense."

She looked down below, to the horde of engineers scurrying around the Savior's feet. Most were running last-minute diagnostics as the elevator closed the last distance to the earth. Some, she saw, were snapping pictures up at them—or more likely, at its face.

Its eye still hadn't grown back. A month had passed, and the Savior's socket was empty—covered now by a metal plate. Dahlia had never seen anything like it before, which wasn't too surprising, because evidently no one had. All wounds dealt to a Modir short of destroying the brain would heal, without fail, in every single case.

Except for this one.

She tried not to think about it. It wasn't her area of expertise anyway, and whether the thing had one eye or four or twenty didn't matter to her. Quinn mattered, and Quinn seemed to do just fine with it as it was.

"Alright, touching down," Besca's voice said over the comms. Sure enough the strange gravity waned, and with a slight shake the elevator came to a stop. "Slot in whenever you're ready."

"Gonna be right here on the lift watching the whole time," Dahlia said. She scooted in enough to give Quinn a hug she'd likely barely feel through the layers, and then climbed back onto the lift outside. "Good luck, sis."

As she descended, the view behind the open cockpit opened up. They'd come to a vast expanse of flat, dry earth, and miles in the distance the lip of a crater creased the horizon. The bed of a long-gone lake, perhaps—plenty of space regardless.

Soon enough the door shut, and she was enshrouded.

The eager chill returned. It told her she was ready.

[Assistant]
She let her eye close. She didn't know why she always did; it just felt right.

Then, just like always, that smear. Like someone fingerpainting onto a black canvas with a paint that was also black, but so much more. That moment of splitting—

And there she was. She looked down. Dahlia was a tiny matchstick beneath her, barely coming up to her ankles. Life really was easier with only one eye, wasn't it?

She shook her mammoth head. No. No time for that. She tried to remember what her sister had told her on the way down. They knew what to do with them, and so should she? She tried to remember how she'd seen it happen in recordings or in—no. In recordings only. They'd reached out their hand, just like this—

Nothing happened.

What hadn't she done right?

She tried again, this time concentrating on it. Focusing on pulling out whatever weapon she'd get. And still, nothing. She groaned, and the Savior's voice—like gravel and boulders—echoed over the empty space. There was something she wasn't doing that she needed to. The press of time crushed down on her, and she tried again. The attempt was equally as fruitless. She resisted the urge to reach up and rub her finger over her eye. Last time she'd done that she'd punched a hole in it with the claw, and as much as she appreciated the eyepatch, being blind was not as fun.

Don't think too hard.

She took a deep breath and tried to stop thinking so much. Let her thoughts go quiet, and just for a moment, let the Savior's thoughts breathe too.

Then slowly—a certainty in her movements that hadn't been there before—she reached out and closed her hand again. And this time it caught.

It felt like...like pulling a sheet. A huge sheet. Dragging it backwards, bending it towards her. And as she pulled, it stretched. She knew instinctively that it was about to break.

Then the space bunched up between her fist tore, and she ripped out a massive object. Blunt, rectangular. As long as she was tall, or maybe even longer. She hefted it in front of her, marveling at its lightness—

In her ear, she heard a horrified choking gasp from Dahlia.

And then she looked at it.

It didn't make any sense. The weapon was supposed to be her. It wasn't—it was supposed to come from her and not the Savior, right? So then why was what rested in her hands a very familiar cannon?

Her eye slammed shut, a black membrane falling for a moment in front of the red orb in her face. She felt her breaths seething through her body, faster and faster. The fire all around her the SUN looming in front of her she was RUNNING she needed to RUN—

NO. STOP.

She could not panic. Panicking was a luxury, and she didn't have any time for luxuries.

So instead, she gritted her teeth and opened her eye again. There it was, a great block of modium running with burning white lines. And where was—there, there was the trigger. She hefted it onto her shoulder, and a part of her screamed. She hated this. So why did it feel so natural as she pointed it downrange?

Click.

A moment later the cannon kicked against her, and a searing, blazing ball of smokeless white flame raced away from her. And where it struck on the lakebed, there was a thoom that echoed for miles. When the dust cleared, a crater fifty feet across—at least—was carved into the hard-packed, sun-baked dirt.

Another click, and another shot seared its way through the sky. She closed her eye again, but her voice over the comms displayed only a grim acceptance.

"It'll do."


[System]
Class: Archer

Gender: Male

[User]
Yukimura Sanada
(Southern Miyama, Riverside Cottage - Attic)

She had decided to wait. Without interrupting the man before her at all, she took in what he said. Her Lord for this war seemed like he was polite enough. He did not show any anger or a change of mood at the way she had tried to extract an answer from him. That was a good starting sign.

The talk of her gender though was a bit vexing. If anything, she didn't like the reminder of how she was written down. Of course, there were reasons for that happening beyond them simply writing it incorrectly. Taking a moment, she moved forward before her Master, and actually put herself down on one knee, fist against the floor, looking downward. After all he was the Master, the Lord, in this relationship.

"Lord Ríos! First please forgive me. I had not meant to talk to you as I had, but sometimes I act first and think after. It's an unfortunate habit. You do not need to be so cautious with me though. I would prefer we act on friendly terms if possible, but in this relationship, I am but the lance that you shall direct at your enemies. Thus, I would request you not be careful when talking with me. I am prepared for any complaints you may have or orders you may give. That is what it means to be a warrior under their Lord."

Even if her Lords decisions would bring her to ruin, she would follow them if they were adamant and did not want to hear her opinion or compromise. Well so long as her personality didn't interfere and she caused issues by not thinking about it.

"As for my identity, I am indeed Yukimura Sanada. If history has recorded my identity as that of a man, that would be because I had detested my gender and had often had people treat me as if I was one as well. The values of the time were very different. Thus, I had discarded them and instead tread down a path where others would treat and see me as a male warrior. I can promise I am a formidable warrior though. Any order you have I shall do to the best I can."

Rather than lift her head up to look at David, the Lancer kept her head down, humiliated by her previous tone when she had spoken. It was completely her belief she had come off as full of herself and was already causing issues in their relationship of Master and Servant. Or as she preferred to think, Warrior and Lord.

It was a matter of the fact she was extremely embarrassed and didn't want her Lord to see her no longer composed expression. That and she had every urge to speak much more casually. She wanted to simply talk with him as if they were friends, but she also had her own values from her time which would not allow her to do that. Being so informal could easily cause her to lose her life in such a situation if he took it the wrong way.

As well, from Lancers side she felt this display may help establish trust between them. That would be one of the factors she felt weighed most heavily in this war. If they could not trust each other, serving under him may become more difficult.

"If you have any questions for me now I shall also answer them if I can. Be it how I fight, what duties I can perform for you, or anything regarding my history. If you desire it, I shall tell you anything you want."

This was what she was used to. The staggering difference between the Lord and the Warrior. Master and Servant. But due to her own hang up and passion to clear up the misunderstanding she felt she created, she also had not realized her own thoughts were going in circles, bringing her back to trying to fix the relationship every time she opened her mouth despite not having a response yet.

She finally become silent though, awaiting a single world from her Master. If he showed displeasure she felt as though she'd be more humiliated than anything though. Her hands felt a bit sweaty at the mere idea, and she felt her expression would slip into one of despair.

Lancer never could have known about the issues running through the man's head in contrast to the ones running through her own.

If she had known though she may have tried to re-assure him. She had no issues with how he had spoken, nor with what he knew of her. It was only natural after all. History had recorded her in a way that pleased her rather than made her upset. It may be due to the difference between the eras, but it still had her happy on the inside.

[Assistant]
Alex Bradan
The Scuttle, docked in the Fuyuki harbor.

---

Alex listened to his Servants list of conditions and nodded at each one of them as they were presented. There was nothing to far off the mark here, though he chuckled softly when the Servant concluded. He held up his right hand displaying the command spells that were etched there. "If I decide to write a complaint you'll know in a hurry."

Jibes aside, he approved of his Servants basic outline, and found himself relaxing slightly. Their basic ideas of method at least were in accord, and from there pretty much everything else could be dealt with as it came. A loose, practical method of negotiation, that was what Alex Bradan liked best.

"Don't get me wrong Mr. Archer. I like to think of myself as a passable Magi, and I'm smarter than a good half of those old blood Clock Tower fucks. I don't intend to give you a reason to desert me." He moved over to one of the little circular tables that lined the wall of the chamber and moved several jars of reagents away before takeing his seat on the bench and lighting a new cigaret.

"To specifics then. This ship has been etched with my personal bounded field, while we are on board we should have some measure of security. I wouldn't want to sit in dock with a crack team of Enforcers on my tale, but most of these other competitors won't be that. More to the point, this ship is seaworthy. I don't plan on staying in the same place, and if things get hot enough, I intend to bring her far out to sea before circling back in to throw them off the scent. None of this should be a problem for you though, so long as you allow me to perform Transferal of Consciousness on you. It will let me to see through your eyes, let us coordination over long distance."

He paused takeing a puff or two on his cigaret before continuing.

If they try to attack us on the open waves that should give you the advantage. I cant think of a more coverless field. In fact, if it comes to it, luring some of them out over the water to shoot them down might not be so bad an idea. If you have the firepower to pull it off we could turn this rig into a mobile weapons platform, which brings us back to what your real name is, or at least, what your capabilities are.

---

Chulainn

[User]
David Ríos
(Southern Miyama, Riverside Cottage - Attic)

---

…Mm.

Had it been a misunderstanding of the Servant's character on his part, had what he mistook as pride been truly but an outburst of the moment? If so, he supposed that reflected all more poorly on him for not being able to see it, but – well, at least Lancer had the presence of mind to straighten it out before it became a problem.

Good thing, too. He much preferred a Servant that was comfortable following orders over one that challenged him at every turn. As for the 'friendly terms'… Well, it was much too early to say, but he certainly saw no problem in adjusting his persona just a tad – certainly, she was to be his sword and shield, so that kindness could certainly be afforded.

As it was, he could certainly say the situation was a weight off his shoulders – and he, for one, would look a gift horse like this in the mouth, particularly when it was presented like so. Tension slowly ebbed away and he shifted from the formal stance to a more relaxed one.

"I feel it is I who should apologize.", he said, hoping to clear any remaining unease. "I mistook you for the sort that would enjoy the formalities and came across as foppish, so that's certainly a mark against me."

Maybe it was better to keep the fact that he had indeed thought her to be the arrogant sort veiled for the moment – no need to risk coming across as insulting, right? Ah, well, at least his Servant seemed willing to listen and explain. He chose to not to comment on the reason she had been recorded in history as a man, merely nodding and letting the matter rest – it was not his business, after all. All that mattered to him was that she proved competent in her assigned role.

Nodding to himself, he went over his mental checklist for the day – regardless of the initial misunderstanding and his reasonable surprise, nothing had actually changed in his strategies, so that much was already a boon.

"Certainly, I would prefer hearing the sort of strategies and engagements you are more comfortable with, Lancer.", not in the least because he would need to adapt any plans he drafted to make sure his Servant could use her abilities to their full extent. "However, at the same time, I should share with you some of what I have already thought about prior to your summoning, as it were."

He paused for a second to let his words hang in the air. It was truly nothing grand, merely a conjecture of a plan he had formulated, to be completed only when he was certain about the capabilities of his Servant, but he thought it would be a sound idea.

That said, he was certainly no master strategist, so he figured input from a famed warrior would be a welcome thing.

"To begin with, though this cottage will serve as our base of operations, I have yet to create the Bounded Fields that will truly allow it to carry out its purpose – both basic and something more advanced, a specialty of mine so to speak.", it was embarrassing to admit that he had prepared so little, but at the same time, it was better to be upfront about such things – and it was not like he had been granted enough time, really. "In that regard, I consider it to be a higher priority than heading to the church and check in with the Overseer for the time being. More to the point of your role, however, I feel that we should first focus on the Assassin Class as far as threats in this war are concerned."

A smile that conveyed no small amount of faux self-mockery settled upon his features.

"I can hardly defend myself before a Servant, and the shadow of the Hero of Murder makes for a daunting thing – before we eliminate them, I fear we might not be able to focus fully on our other opponents for this War. Caster remains a close contender, however – particularly, we should try to hunt them down before they have a chance to set up a Territory of their own."

Indeed, Assassin and Caster were the two most dangerous pieces on the table, at least as far as he was concerned – one could appear at any one moment Lancer was preoccupied and go for his own throat, and the other could prove amazingly troublesome if given respite and preparation. Though he was confident in a Knight Class' ability to take challenges presented head-on, subterfuge was a more worrying matter.

He should know. He is, after all, a magus.

"Otherwise, as far as your own tactics in combat are concerned…", here, he paused again, as if thinking about what to say. "Well, I can hardly claim to know more about it than yourself, so in that regard, feel free to do as you believe is appropriate. I will provide support where needed.

So all I ask is that you bring me the heads of our enemies in turn."

…

Ah, had that last phrase been perhaps too dramatic? He thought it was what one was supposed to say, considering the circumstances...

[Assistant]
???, Ryuudou Temple, ???

From the temple that stood atop a mountain, a pair of existences conversed.

Or at least, they did if one could call what was happening a conversation. A magus, surprise briefly flitting across their face as they received word from their ally, looked towards a nearby woman who bore a lazy grip on a crimson lance. Surprise was written over with a trace of unease as the magus attempted to garner their Servant's attention.

"Oh, ah, Berserker? We've just gotten a report, it seems the others got into a brief scuffle with one of the enemy Servants, a Rostam of the Rider class. They drove him off, but-"

"Eeeh? So what, you're sayin' that the fuckin' pompous-ass bow prick managed to draw blood before I got a chance to?"

Without warning, the Berserker interjected, her face twisting in a derisive sneer as the grip on her spear tightened. In response, her Master could only falter back slightly.

"...I, um, well yes, but that's really beside the-"

"What kinda bullshit is that?! Here I am, workin' my ass off on this place, and you're telling me that he gets to hurt people before I've even seen a damn Servant?"

"B-Berserker, we don't have any control over what the other participants do, please calm down-"

"Calm down? Calm down?! If you want me to calm down, then maybe you should'a summoned one of those prissy calm fucks in the Throne instead'a me! Oh, I've got it, how about that little bitch saint who prayed so hard that she made a dragon fuck right off? I bet you two'd get along just great."

Silence reigned for several seconds, the overly-harsh exhales of the Berserker clashing against the faltering form of her Master, whose eyes were now flitting about as one would expect a trapped animal's to.

"...I...I'm going to go back to talking with the monks now."

"...Fuckin' slut."

Such is life in Fuyuki.

[User]
The Scuttle, docked in Fuyuki harbor

Archer looked around for his own seat, finding one where he could be across his Master, as his Master found his own seat. He nodded as he listened to the plan, a small grin on his face around the end.

"I see that you are indeed smarter than most would come to think, seeing as you thought of a well-formed plan. And at first, I was almost about to ask why you didn't summon me as a Rider. Of course, it does seem like fate has grouped us together, after all... I will allow the Transferral of Consciousness while I'm on land. That way, I won't have to make extensive reports. Regarding the event of the both of us having to go out at sea, I will have to refuse depending on as to how far we go. If you've ever been lost at sea as long as I have, you would understand."

"As for my capabilities... my Noble Phantasm will indeed work with your plan. In fact, the least amount of cover will work the best. Not that my arrow cannot pierce such cover, however... it is an arrow that will pierce any and all opposition in order to find its target. Of course, as you said, us Heroic Spirits have... superpowers based off of our legend, and as such, the arrow is limited only within the scope of mine... and of course, my legend does not involve me hitting my target, but by piercing through twelve obstacles."

Archer chuckled, crossing his arms.

"And that's not even what I'm most famous for."


[System]
Magical Girl Costume: The oh-so-adorable, well maybe not so much now, attire of Justice Goldenrod is compromised of a slightly poofy skirt that is in a goldenrod camo, that holds with two bright red holsters that contain two pink guns with the ends shaped with yellow hearts. Alongside this is a yellow mid-riff shirt emblazoned with a pink smiling face that has no sleeves, a pair of yellow rollerskates with bright red wheels upon her feet and a single pink stocking upon her right leg. Her hair also becomes a colossal set of gold locks that are formed into a heart held together by a giant pink heart bow. And of course she always has her trademark goggles on her; safety first!

Powerset Synopsis: Justice Goldenrod didn't earn the nickname 'Grinning Gunner' for nothing silly! She got that nickname because of her powerset, she shoots things, shoots them quickly and is able to speed around quickly. She is rather frail when it comes to combat in melee and if cornered goes down pretty easily.

Powers:
Heart-throbbing Dash-dash! - This ability revolves around Justice Goldenrod's ability to engage in a burst of speed by harnessing the power of her heart to move at breakneck speeds via skating. During this dash she can even skate up vertical surfaces. Any time she uses this dash she has a trail of yellow hearts following after her, this cannot be turned off.

Shot from the Heart - This ability is a simple and standard attack; in essence she aims one of her pistols and fires out a yellow lazer heart to non-lethally harm foes.

Etched in Your Heart - By taking a moment to aim, and in turn get another 'ammo set' in, Justice Goldenrod can fire a rather curious shot at an opponent. When this yellow polka-dotted lazer heart hits its target it 'marks them' by placing an oversized heart over their head or facsimile of which allows for easy tracking!

A Heavy Heart - Another of the different ammo set, Justice Goldenrod fires this yellow striped heart at a foe in order to slow down a foe! They both feel metaphorically weighted down by any sins they may have on their head, and oh the stripes from the heart which entangles them in chains.

Heroic Finishing Move LOVEY-DOVEY MAXIMUM UNLOAD - This ability is the trademark signature finisher of Justice Goldenrod; in essence she takes out both of her pistols and dashes back and forth firing at such a breakneck speed that the end result is a large cone in horizontal or vertical direction shooting out all the yellow laser hearts to wipe out villainous creatures and cleanse them from the world.

Source: Slightly transparent, but still distinctive, yellow goggles shaped in a heart.

History with Justice Heart: Courtney Cartwright was always a pretty cheerful individual even before coming into the ranks of Justice Heart. Naturally that bubbly spirit attracted attention from others in the organization to recruit her. While she was sociable and generally friendly, Courtney Cartwright was like really pigheaded, rushing into combat to show off the Power of Friendship! This in turn led to many, many, many beat-downs from various monsters and relying on allies to pick her back up and help her back up. In the end she learned with her new friends to slow down and try not to rush into things.

History after Justice Heart: And so the season of Justice Hearts ended with the defeat of Dollmaster and her lieutenants! Every member seemed to learn something from their journey, and everything would be happy.

In comes Justice Hearts Gaiden!

Skipping over the heart-breaks from boyfriends, even a secret girlfriend(!), and the catty backstabbing fights to assure dominance in her particular varsity cheerleading team, alongside other teen drama that occured in Courtney's schooling years both secondary and higher education we head to the moment of truth in Courtney Cartwright's life. That moment of course was entering the police force. She had many struggles going through the academy, from the physically grueling aspects to some mistreatment by her peers that were in her class, but she conquered through and became a police officer.

Of course she was a beat cop who worked the graveyard shift, but hey at least that would probably be a stepping stone to a better position. That's what she thought anyway, but life has a strange way of working out. And so came that fateful day when Courtney and her partner Nicole were sent out on a routine domestic dispute call, when suddenly the situation became more violent as the sounds of a struggle were heard in the distance!

The two coppers, the thin blue line protecting the virtue of society, rolled out in an attempt to find the suspect and apprehend them! That was a rather poor decision on their part as it ended up with Nicole Robinson dying and Courtney being sent to the hospital. Courtney began the painful process of rehab, knowing that she was bound to have more medical bills to pay and that with this incident she was not likely to be taken off the beat any time soon. But eventually she recovered, albeit with a nasty habit of some pill-popping, and was reassigned to a new partner.

AND SO HERE BEGINS OUR TALE OF JUSTICE GOLDENROD IN JUSTICE HEARTS~

Relationships:
Nicole Robinson - Good ol' 'Nikki', she was Courtney's first partner in the police force. Of course the keyword there just so happens to be was, as Nicole died in the middle of a botched attempt to arrest an unknown perp who was in the middle of a manslaughter. Nicole was killed in the crossfire while Courtney was hospitalized for a few months.

Jessica Steele - Jessica or 'Jessie' is Courtney's current partner in the force. She has a rather frosty relationship with Courtney due to the fact that at an off-duty Christmas Party, Courtney tried to come onto her. However she hasn't asked for a reassignment for a partner due to a bit of sympathy for that injured officer.

Lily Galbrett: Co-worker of the past and present! Courtney is one of the few cops who treats that 'labmonkey' alright but still will join in with other officers making jokes about her.

Elise McGillis: Elise is like totally her BFF! After all they shared a past as Magical Girls, and they even shared the same High School! Courtney got into all sorts of shenanigans with Elise and even had a good friendship with her brother Conor and a few of his pals. Elise even helped her out during her hour of need! Courtney has Elise's number on speed-dial for a reason.

[User]
Carrie teleported into the old lair, and immediately regretted her decision. Any interior decorator worth the name would have whipped up a bleach and cyanide cocktail at the sight. "Ugh. We really need to redo this place. Seriously, I need to keep my eyes closed or I'm gonna go blind."

"If we don't know where the monsters are coming from, then we need to cover ground quickly. Our bait needs to be someone whose abilities make them mobile, but able to fight as well." A disturbing thought came to the blonde as she realized what she said. "Oh, fuck. I just volunteered myself, didn't I?"

[Assistant]
Isana Seiger
NOPE

---

Isana was one of the ones being held against her will. Alice practically dragged her up to their 'lair' and she wasn't going to enjoy a second of it. Aside from the terrible decor, she had to be here with those people. Alice was alright, she could tolerate her...but everyone else? Here? No way in hell was she going to be spending any longer time than she needed to here. They were already talking about being all friendly and doing things, just like old times without so much of an inkling of actual respect.

God, she hated these people, and she was going to make that quite blatantly obvious.

"...well don't involve me. I could care less what happened to you fucks." Isana rather bluntly stated, wrenching her arm free from Alice's grip. Normally she wouldn't mind being the bait for something like this, at least in the past...but now, she just wanted to go home and get some sleep. "Tomorrow is my only off day and I don't fancy spending it 'monster hunting' or being bait for you guys." She reached into the pocket of her suit, pulling out her cellphone, quickly looking through her work schedule that she had saved. There was still that meeting her boss wanted to talk to her about the day after too...hmph. She was planning on taking it easy so she didn't get injured or caught up in something so she didn't miss it, and she didn't plan to acquiesce to any demands made by these guys.

[User]
Note: Was instructed to add something by Pyro to my post. He is at work.

'Star' Heart
Alice smiled at the group maniacally as she looked around, making her own declaration. "Bwahahaha! It was me all along! Well. Not really." The mother couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the shenanigans as the group arranged plans and one of their members signled themselves out as bait, but as Isana criticized the group Emily cringed slightly. Earlier in her life she probably would have backed off, but she was an adult now.

"Look, Isana. We know you hate us. There's a LOT of old bones here that have been dug out." Emily took a couple of steps closer. "And we know you are busy. Y'know what? I am to. I have a daughter to get home to. I'm sure the others have adult things to do as well."

Perhaps much to the annoyance of the woman she was talking to, she accidentally adopted the same tone she spoke when lecturing her daughter. "But these events affect you as well, and possibly the entire city. So put on your fucking big girl panties and give us a hand, Vale."

With a wave of her hand and feeling that her point had been made, Emily turned her head towards Carrie. "And do you have an idea of where the best location for that would be? Perhaps a time that works for our schedules? That'd be late night for most of us, yes?"

It was rather apparent that Emily didn't want to be here either, but she recognized she couldn't just ignore an assassination attempt.

[Assistant]
Clapping with both of her hands at a very frequent paced, Courtney smiled at Carrie. "Wooo! A volunteer, you'd be surprised at how many times people won't volunteer for something that's like really dangerous or probably really dangerous." She tapped against her temple as she continued on with a bit more dialogue. "So I suppose I'll do some spotter work for that then. I'd call dibs for interrogation, buuuut I get to do that enough as is, so I don't mind sharing it!"

Shortly after that Courtney focused her attention on Emily and Isana. Balling her hand into a fist and then resting her cheek upon it she waited until Emily had finished speaking.

"I'm pretty much always on call, but I generally I don't have to do late nights anymore. Uhh, wasn't there a few places we always got attacked? There were more times than I can count that incidents happened at that elementary, or was it middle school playground..." Courtney Cartwright shrugged as she zipped open her purse and began pursuing through it. Seemingly not finding what she wanted she zipped it back up and focused her attention at the group.

"Buut iunno, though all things considered what happened there wasn't neeearly as bad as what happened at college. ...Amy that little..." grumbled out Courtney before she shook her head. Pausing for a moment and with a few blinks a new thought occurred in Courtney's mind.

Snapping her fingers she turned her attention between Isana and Emily, "Oh by the by! For the quip I woulda used..." Courtney began as she turned to face Isana exclusively, "...It's time to drop that brooding training bra and upgrade to a real one."

"No? Not as good as it sounded in my head?"

[User]
Isana Seiger
NOPE

---

"Tsk," Isana's face scrunched into a scowl as Emily continued speaking, shooting a glare that could melt holes in metal towards Courtney. "For your information, I'm being practical, not broody." She retorted, leaning against a wall and as she flipped through some texts on her phone. "For all we know this was a one off thing. I don't have any interest in getting involved in something when I was just basically offered a promotion that could get me a lot of money." An excuse? Maybe just a small one. It was true her boss asked to speak with her on her next work day about something, and she highly doubted that it was for anything other than a job of some sort.

"Unlike you lot, I've managed to be somewhat successful with my life and I don't have any intention of ruining that." She waved a hand dismissively as she put her phone back into her pocket, crossing her legs and folding her arms against her chest. Sure, on her off days she blew off steam by finding some 'bad guys' and giving them a lesson, but she didn't want to make a career out of this again. It wasn't much of a career to start with. Just something to blow off steam and escape from the troubles of home back in the day. She didn't want to get into a fight or argument here, but her patience was wearing thin.

[Assistant]
"Awww, someone could use a hug." Courtney said with a smarmy grin as she placed both of her index fingers against the edge of her smile.

Cartwright placed her hand on her hip and continued to speak. "Nah, practicality is getting this done and over with, which means tracking whatever it is and hunting it down as soon as possible. Cause, narrative laws -while not as binding as law-laws, are still a thing. And narratively speaking this is just the prologue bit, the events that spark up an even greater and more dangerous chain of events."

Sauntering towards Isana, Courtney quickly reached over to place a hand on Isana's shoulder. "Dunno if you understood the merit of this; how about I offer you another proposal?" Staring Seiger square in the eyes Courtney continued on, "If you quit your bitching and do your part for this one thing of trapping and catching the bastard, at the very least staying the entire time even if it is fruitless, I will owe you one."

"One favor, whatever you may request and that is within my limits of course. Y'might forget dolly, but I am a member of the Force, that "Thin Blue Line" which separates the animals out there and those just trying to live their life."