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 Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 2:12 am
Clerise made a face at the horrible stench once they made their way inside the house. Christ it smells..." a little bit like death.
She let the sentence trail off with a shrug.
Turning to Dakota, she raised a brow. "Don't mumble. It's not polite."
Clerise was the beacon of good behavior, you know.
"Evie, I figure there's no harm in splitting up if we stay...relatively close together?" Either way, I'm going to see if there's some bad ham or what in the kitchen or what."
Finally, the Life trainee pointed Reine. "Starshine, holler if you want me elsewhere."
Apparently, the redhead didn't really realize she needed to be asking for permission in this mission.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 2:29 am
Reine had actually bothered turning around to face Dakota, as much as his whispering annoyed her, after all he was one of her team members, and that meant they had to work as a team. Or die trying-- or not, fingers crossed. Still, she gave him the most exasperated sigh and a look, before snapping at him.
"Yeah, something like that."
Furrowing her eyebrows, she pulled her cellphone out again, re-reading the message from Caelius. Re-verify the location of the Lair.. should they really be wasting time poking around a house? At least by her logic, anything connected to the horsemen seemed to be.. well, underground, like that huge cavern they'd been in on the last big mission. Was there a basement here? And then again, the absence of any signs of life concerned her. If there were survivors they could speak to maybe...
Once more Reine was startled out of her train of thought, this time by Clerise calling out to her, and by the time she'd turned to see, all she caught was the back of Clerise's jacket, disappearing into the kitchen. Reine really did not like the idea of anyone out of her sight, and especially without permission- but the house seemed small enough that should Clerise require any assistance...
Reine considered for a moment simply ignoring her because if she wanted to be rebellious, she could bear those consequences on her own. But then again, she was all too aware that she was responsible, not only for the success of the mission, but also the lives of the people she'd chosen to take along.
Fine, a compromise.
"Rep, Dakota, you go with her. Evie, you're with me. If you find anything, yell at me, or text me, whatever, let me know."
She frowned at them, as if to say 'why are you not already gone', before turning around and walking into the single bedroom. It seemed normal, mostly, a rather rickety-looking bed, a closed wardrobe. Maybe it was because she'd just sent half her team somewhere she couldn't see them, but Reine was definitely more on edge now, more skittish than she had been when they first arrived. The scratchy rustle of a spider running across the floor spooked her, and she squeaked, darting backwards so she had her back pressed against the wardrobe.
.. Oh well, false alarm.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 2:59 am
The Fear scanner did not exactly hum, but there was the distinct sound of the floorboards moving and creaking under light footsteps.The noise stopped as fast as it began though a vague small shadow could be seen behind the large curtains in the "bedroom" of the house.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 11:52 am
The sun hunter wasn't one to argue with orders, life tended to just be easier when you followed orders, at least in such a militant setting. Outside Deus, orders were made to be disobeyed by the cunning, on the inside, you did what you were told. He shrugged.
"Sure bosslady." he purred giving Reine a lazy and all too smarmy smirk. He was fine with orders, just not women giving them.
He sloped off to the kitchen following Clerise. Going /towards/ what may have been the source of the horrible horrible smell in here though was not his idea of fun. He only paused to make sure Dakota was tagging along too, sharing misery always made it easier to deal with.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:00 pm
Eva simply nodded as Reine divided them up, turning to wave at the other three--or rather, two, since Clerise had already disappeared--trainees and mouthing, "be careful". Hopefully there wouldn't be much need for her to worry--and she was certain that the three could take care of themselves and each other if the need arose--but Eva would be lying if she claimed to be not in the least bit worried.
Considering how on edge she was, the squeak from Reine didn't help matters. Realizing only now that Reine had already progressed into another room, Eva zoomed into the bedroom area, shoulders tense and hand raised to summon Chara. A concerned gaze flickered towards the girl who was pressing herself up against the wall, and then Eva followed her gaze to the floor. What was--
--a spider. Oh thank god. Her shoulders sagged as she watched the spider disappear into a crevice, and she had been about to let out a sigh of relief when she froze. Was that...? Turning to look at Reine with wide eyes, she mouthed, "footsteps?"
Except the noise already seemed to have disappeared. Brows knit, Eva turned away from her friend-slash-leader to do another quick scan of the room, and--hold on, what was that shadow.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:45 pm
Except Dakota didn't follow Clerise and Rep.
Dakota frowned, "No." Was all he said as he followed Eva and Reine upstairs, leaving Rep and Clerise on their own. "I'm not leaving you and Eva alone." He crossed his arms. Boss lady or not, Dakota wasn't going to be leaving Reine by herself. Eva was strong but...she was also a healer. If s**t went down, they would need something more then two girls.
"I am staying with you two." He followed Eva and Reine to the bedroom. He stayed quiet though after as he kept close. His ears twitched at the sounds of the old house and then....A figure moved. His fear scanner giving a slight hum. "Reine?"
He immediately quieted at Eva's mouthed words before looking to the corner of the room. Was that a shadow? He moved to put himself between it and the girls. ******** man, Houses like this were creepy. What the hell. His heart was beating SO MUCH RIGHT NOW.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:08 pm
The curtains had literally began to shake, right around the proximity of the shadow. Upon closer examination, they took the shape of two smaller figures, each of them at the most three feet tall. There was also the sound of sharp breathing, and if the trainees looked a little below the curtains, they could see tiny bare feet poking out below.
The Fear scanner was still not going off.
A small hand parted the curtain slightly open from the center, a single blue eye, peering through before they gasped, and pushed the curtains closed again.
The curtains were shaking just a little harder now.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:41 pm
Dakota was quickly proving himself to Reine- proving to her that really, neither he nor Clerise should have come on this mission. She did not, as she had learned from Justin, need a ****ing tank, especially not one that probably didn't even have the right gear, not to mention couldn't follow orders.
At the very least, she was angry enough to not be as scared, and if Dakota was trying to challenge her superiority she would just beat him back down. Not even bothering to acknowledge him, she walked around him towards the curtains. If they were what she thought they were...
Throwing the curtain open confirmed her suspicions- unless they were really monster children, there did not seem to be any immediate danger. Crouching, she held her arms out to the two children, calling them over.
"It'll be fine now," she found herself promising. "We're here to save you."
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:48 pm
They were two twin children actually, one girl and one boy, their bright eyes oddly dissonant with the rest of their appearance: filthy and covered in mud. The taller of the two, a boy who's hair was a murky dirt-brown, hugged his twin tightly, trying to protect her from harm. He narrowed his eyes at Reine. "Please- please just leave us alone, mommy said we shouldn't talk to strangers."
They couldn't have been any older than five or six.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:59 pm
A whole list of, surprisingly, bad pickup lines ran through Reine's mind, before she decided that firstly, lines like 'if I had a nickel for every pair of twins as cute as you, I'd have a nickel' were not meant to be used, ever, and secondly, that she really had no idea how to talk to children.
That, and she was getting quite tired of not being listened to.
"Well," she tried again, making sure to smile. "Why don't you take us to your parents?"
Reine might also have tried to very covertly call Eva over, glancing over at the girl with puppydog eyes.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:12 pm
Dakota watched Reine as she pulled the curtains back and frowned. Obviously the children were hiding and not meant to be scared!
"You mommy and daddy said not to talk to strangers right?" Dakota came up to the little girl before crouching down to her. He didn't reach out to touch her or anything and eyed the twins before sighing. REALLY REINE, LET'S BE BLUNT AND JUST ASK THEM.
But that made Reine cute too.
"It's okay little ones. We promise not to hurt you." He reached in his pocket and pulled out....a smut novel? Yes Dakota let's give that too children. "Reine...psst...Reine, do you have CANDY to give them!!??"He blinked. "Were you guys playing a game with your mom and dad? Hide and seek?' he blinked at the two children.
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:38 pm
The more protective of the two hesitated, backing up a few steps away from the Life trainee. It wasn't until the smaller one, a girl with messy pigtails, similar to how Reine wore hers, tugged on her brother's sleeve that the boy looked back.
"I want to go find mommy." The girl said, very plaintively, rubbing one eye with her grubby hand.
The boy hesitated. And then quietly held his sister, staring suspiciously at Reine and Dakota. "Okay, fine. But you better not run away, not like the last ones." By last ones did they mean civilians or perhaps, Hunters?
For children, the two of them walked quickly, despite wearing only a simple dress or shirt, despite the fact that they were walking on bare feet. They were on the road in no time, hesitating for only a second to wait for the rest of Reine's team to catch up, uttering words like "hurry" and "there isn't much time"! It was really hard for any of the group not to notice the kids running around outside.
The twins continued to move forward holding hands, for a solid five minutes: despite it still being sunny and deathly quiet, there was a strange quality to the atmosphere, similar to it being humid, and equally stifling. It felt hard to breathe, it felt at times, hard to think, and occasionally, the ground seemed to lurch and shake right below the trainees' feet, despite remaining perfectly still.
The bare outlines of a small town could be seen now: at first just a concession stand, its florescent 'Open' sign forever flickering, the door swung wide open, with no signs of anyone inside. Next to it was a series of stores: a bakery, what looked like a clothing shop, a laundromat. All of them had been broken into, their windows smashed, some of the doors missing. Their walls looked blasted, burnt in large, noteable craters. A dry, dark red texture ran along some of the window frames: the floor as well had several dark stains.
In fact, as the trainees rounded the entire town, all twelve buildings that made up this town, they would quickly come to the conclusion that the entire place was abandoned. A word in bold red was plastered in graffiti on one side of the wall:
ROANOKE.
There was however, an interruption to the silence, an odd fluttering, crinkling noise. A piece of newspaper remained wedged under a half-shattered door. The date on it read: March 1st, 2012, and right under it 'Epidemic'. The rest of the paper was cut off.
The two children continued to walk, slowly now, more cautiously. They did not stop until they reached the only establishment in the entire area that did not look run down: a small, simple church. While the structure may not have been in particular interest to any of the trainees, what they saw, at the perimeter of the church, may have shocked them.
Pegged into each corner of the church was a runic barrier dagger, all four of them making a perfect rectangle. They were still flickering weakly, creating a light barrier that repelled, hopefully, most if not all Fear creatures.
But it also meant that someone was inside.
The two children stopped right at the entrance of the church, hesitating. The younger one, the girl, turned around towards the trainees, ready to say something-
- when she screamed shrilly.
None of them had time to react, to even see what exactly that figure was before it descended on them, a mess of black, rotting feathers and burning flesh. It hissed, bringing out one half-decayed, burning arm to lash out at the closest trainee, shrieking something in an incoherent language. ??? BOSS FIGHT? ??? BOSS FIGHT HP 25/25- Trainees need to fight the boss and push them away from the children!- Battle mechanics apply as normal, but every time trainees hit the creature they take a whopping 10 damage. Apply mechanics as normal, until the creature is dead!
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danse-hexe rolled 2 10-sided dice:
7, 3
Total: 10 (2-20)
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:58 pm
Like the last ones. What.. did he mean?
"We're not going anywhere," Reine soothed, giving Dakota the evil eye. Seriously, if he interfered anymore... only to find the little boy glaring at her. "Not without you, I mean." Yeah, way to be reassuring. After collecting Clerise and Rep from the kitchen, they followed the two children- Reine would have picked the girl up, at least, and simply let her direct them- they were both in fairly bad condition, how did they even manage to move so fast..?
Maybe they were used to this. Reine didn't like the idea of that- not these children, they looked about five, and they were living like this..? The outside of the town, too, was in a similarly horrible state. It was, to say the least, disconcerting- not just the fact that most of the buildings were in a state of ruin, but there were signs of violence, shards of glass, broken-down doors, and.. what looked like bloodstains all over the place.
And there was something else odd about the place altogether, the way the air felt heavy, almost as if someone was pressing a thick blanket on top of them, smothering them.
Reine was glad when they finally got to a place that looked relatively less shabby, though the minute she realised why, staring in shock at the runic daggers-
Runic daggers meaning hunters-
Meaning..
The girl screamed, and instinctively Reine grabbed her, shoving her through the barrier- where was the boy, she couldn't see him, and she had no time to look for him, not with the creature reaching out for her. Alynthe was already in her hands, and with a shriek she brought the blade down as hard as she could.
HP: 40/50
Damage: 4
Charge: 1/3 l Swift Strikes (11d4): 0/2
Boss HP: 21/25
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Baneful rolled 2 8-sided dice:
7, 1
Total: 8 (2-16)
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:07 pm
Rep was halfway into the kitchen when he picked up voices that definitely weren't those of his team. So calling Clerise back in, he headed over to where he heard the discussion, Reine seemed to have talked them round to her side. Which was probably a good thing, Rep's attitude to children was threaten them till they go away cause they are probably up to no ******** good.
As he headed down the path behind the kids, his thoughts were dismal. Orphans. That was never a good thing. At least presumably orphans given how messy they looked and unwashed. Orphans or kids lucky enough to have a mum like his. Either way they could probably use some hunter help.
As they headed into the town, the nagging fear he'd felt on arrival at this place only grew and grew. He'd never seen an empty town before in the flesh. It was a great deal more jarring than he'd ever thought, that stifling quiet.
It really didn't help that his head was utterly full of ********. It was hard enough for him to think clearly at the best of times but right now it was almost overwhelming, to the point he almost felt dizzy. Or was that the ground?
He'd expected it to have be abandoned for a while. People didn't up and leave places in a hurry for no reason, and didn't do it quickly either. So the sight of the newspaper made a sudden fear seize him.
He pulled his scarf up to his nose. Just in case, as if it could protect him from lingering remnants of whatever happened here. Memories of the report from the inner mists coming back to mind. Like a scarf would save him if that was the case. The fear daggers did little to chase off his fears. I mean, he could certainly /hope/ there was a team of hunters in there already and there'd be drinks and laughter and oh-isn't-this-a-quaint-little-ghost-town.
But given the track record, he ******** doubted it.
And his instincts proved way too ******** correct as the little girl scared the hell out of him by screaming and force him to turn on his heel.
"Ah shiiiiiit." He sighed, not caring there were kids present, summoning Tracey to hand and attacking the horrific creature, whatever it was with everything he had, terror seizing him as he did so, the startle at least giving him a well needed kick of adrenaline
HP - 30/40
Damage - 2
Charge 1/3
Boss HP - 19/25
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Pixie Nyxie rolled 2 8-sided dice:
3, 8
Total: 11 (2-16)
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:07 pm
Dakota frowned at Reine before shrugging. The twins took off at the speed of light causing Dakota to shout at Rep and Clerise with a "Hurry the ******** up guys." Before going with them.
Oddly enough though, he slowed as the air hit him and he coughed. It was thick and heavy and....unnerving, like when you got claustorphobic...or tucked in a tiny room. Odd seeing as they were out in the open where fresh air was suppose to be.
He rushed to keep up with Reine and the twins though, a newspaper hitting him square in the face before flying off. All he could make out was epidemic and March 1st.
"Reine." He came up on her before glaring at the town, "This doesn't bode well-" and just as he said it, they were swooped down on by a horrible creature. "You!" He grabbed the twin boy and rolled, taking the damage. In the roll though, he landed away from the barrier, holding the boy tight to his chest. "Reine! Either come take him or get me to the barrier." He clutched the boy and flipped Chama out.
Chama shrilled as fire spat out.
(( Dakota: 30/40
Damage: 5
Charge: 1/3
Boss Hp: 14/25 ))
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