Welcome to Gaia! ::

The afternoon was the perfect time for texting, because Abbi was definitely awake (not like when she received those pesky 6AM texts) and definitely energized with nothing to do. Despite the particularly delicate situation, the teen replied with her usual gusto, if not a bit more.



The teddy bear backpack made its reappearance, only this time stuffed with the girl's earned bandages, a box of bandaids, one of the two Swiss Army knives she'd found on Island, what small snacks she had managed to pilfer and a notebook just in case. A few minutes later, Stormy received another message.



And a few minutes after that, Abbi actually appeared at the Lighthouse, having gotten there thanks to a full on sprint that left her only mildly winded, a vast improvement over her normal attempts at intense exercise.

Jake would have pointed out typos, but that wasn't really important right now. If Stormy found a way to extend Nevada's life for just a bit longer, he was all for it.

No reply text was sent from him as he was already following Sherry. Stormy would see him soon enough.

Sherry was pleased by the look of their team. She knew Stormy and Jake were dependable, so was Otto in her opinion, and Abbi was a sweety who was probably just as awesome in the field as anyone. Not that the make-up of the team would have put her off of helping.

Especially not for an artifact retrieval, and most especially not when Nevada was going to benefit. Sherry was glad she'd had the presence of mind to not leave without her flask, and her bandages, though she had not yet done the paperwork for runic torch clearance. Oh, well. She knew Jake had one. The Fear was a bit worrisome, but it looked like Stormy had that handled.

It sounded like they could handle this.

But Sherry did have a couple of questions. Might as well start with one. "I'm not familiar with Eshu," she said, raising her hand, "Where in the world are we going?"

Artifact hunting was relevant to her interests, and she wanted to know more. She couldn't wait to get going with this.

Upon arrival, he was glad to see Stormy didn't look any different. Well, asides from haircut and attire, but he was thankful something hadn't happened to her too. At least... he hoped nothing happened. It was only when he found out about Nevada's case that he realized he had talked with anyone outside of Sherry for quite some time. So many things had happened, and he...

He listened quietly as Stormy went over explanations, giving a curious look at the machine.
"How does that thing work?"
After past missions, he didn't trust strange tech stuff. But then again, most of that strange tech stuff had been associated with Mark, so as long HE wasn't responsible for it...

"Funny you should mention The Avengers," Stormy said to Abbi a little slyly. "I did pick you guys out so that all the divisions are represented~ That way, all the bases are covered!" And how clever she thought herself for it. If she had wanted to be on the safer side, Tuck would have probably been a stronger Moon . . . But he had just gotten back from his months-long outpost duty, and Abbi needed some experience anyway. Alongside a full hunter like Otto--

--Wait a moment. She tilted her head curiously at Sherry and Jake before it clicked: their coats! "'Grats on the promotions, by the way," Stormy added to them, grinning widely. She made a mental note to catch up with them after this business was finished. Alright, so alongside three full hunters; suddenly, this didn't seem nearly as bad anymore. She'd gone on an artifact hunt with just Lucky while they were only basic trainees, and if things really went to the pits they could always warp out.

"So, Eshu!" She looked delighted to expound further, vomiting out hours of research in the span of a minute. "He's a bit of an obscure figure with different names across a few different cultures, but the common theme is that he's a divine trickster who originated from West African mythology. I'm assuming we're somewhere in that area," she said a bit more apologetically. "But the Fear concentration messes with the scanners; it took forever just finding it with the portals again, lemme just say. Anyway, Eshu's spheres of influence often deal with the duality of human nature: light and dark, cruelty and kindness, creation and destruction, that sort of stuff. Legends say he's present at every important crossroad in life, allowing him to see all possible paths. That's why this artifact has the potential to be a miracle worker: it has the power of a mediator who can cross over any obstacle and direct someone who's lost back on the right road again!" In this case, restore Leroy to his partner.

"As for this machine--" Stormy hefted it into the crook of her arm for a moment, turning it around so the group could see the small, thick leather straps tied underneath. "It's a second generation prototype, but the lab techs assured me it'd get the job done. Basically, one of us will have to have this strapped to one arm. Runic tech does its runic tech thing," it was clear just how much of that "technobabble" really made it through to her, "and measures the bearer's shield strength, then multiplies it and radiates it out like runic barrier daggers do--but more stable and long-term. Whoever wears it'll have to be careful, though. This thing only has a reach of about ten feet around the user, and it's a little heavier than expected."

And it probably had a chance to backfire that the labtechs hadn't mentioned in pursuit of free experimentation. Just so long as it wasn't a repeat of what happened that one time she followed Jake and co. on that one mission . . .

(At least it didn't require four people to lift. That was a good start.)

"It does have an internal battery as an emergency function," Stormy added, "but the effort to keep up a barrier that strong means it wouldn't last long on its own. The safest bet is just to keep it locked on someone's Fear shield signature, in the same way iPods can be charged and used at the same time."

She nodded to Otto and pat at something concealed beneath her coat. "Great! I'm cleared, too. Between us, we should be okay on light source. Where I looked, it didn't seem too big a cavern anyway."

Abbi's question gave her pause, though, and after a moment she rummaged through the Mist Toolkit at her belt, past the stolen lockpicks and her Swiss Army Knife, and procured a small lighter, though what that was doing there was anyone's guess. "You can borrow this," she told the Moon as she tossed it. "It won't be as good as the torch, but it's something in case there's tinder there. Like I said before, you could go by your weapon's runes, but they won't be too bright. Stick to the group and you'll be fine," she said with a wink.

"Any other questions? Also who feels like undertaking the one armstrap to rule them all?" Stormy asked them with as grave a voice as she could parody, dangling the little machine like a treat.

Sherry grinned and maybe blushed a little at the congrats about promotion. She was happy about it, even if it wasn't the best promotion story ever. Though she did have a very nice scar to show for it. "Thanks."

As Stormy continued, Sherry pulled out her little notebook and started taking notes. The Lore was very interesting, and Sherry was most certainly going to research it some more when they returned. (And they were going to return, she was sure.) Eshu, trickster, duality, West Africa... all very interesting and new to her in her research. "I see, I see," she said, mostly to herself as she tried to write everything down.

She didn't bother taking notes about the Fear machine thing. It was interesting, too, just not what she wanted to note about. Sherry was very happy to see it was mobile, though. Anything was better than the last time she'd had to help haul a machine. She took a moment to glance and Jake and Stormy. Yes, anything would be better than a repeat of last time they were in the field together.

"I think I'm good for now." She'd probably have a million questions once they got to the place.