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 Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 4:25 pm
[Dawn : Narnia : Library]
"Aunt Dawn is there," Krystal pointed down the stairs in the direction where Dawn was talking with Joe. The little girl grinning the whole time.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
"Krystal!" Dawn shouted out in fear at the loud scream that echoed in the silence of the wing.
The child bolted from where she was with Amy and her husband. The girl grasped onto Dawn's skirt shaking like a leaf. The dancer touched the girl's hair and looked up at Amy then at Joe.
"What in the world could that of been?" she said in a low voice, "We should go..."
She reached down to pick the child up, who showed no signs of letting her go, into her arms and started to run out of the room, even if no one else followed her.
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 5:12 pm
[Kyla: Narnia: >Library Back to the Grand hall?]
She came into the library, hearing Joe, Dawn and some other child conversing in the quiet beyond her view of the bookshelves- she cleared her throat to let them know something was about to happen less they miss it.
“Joe! Dawn! I just came to get you, there’s something being prepared for us by our families in--“
'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!'
She was cut off by a horrible screaming that resounding through the entirely of the castle like walls meant nothing. Kyla was still for only a second, before turning on her heel and running. Tapping of shoes became bare claps as they transitioned from flats to her bare feet. Kyla always ran better on her bare feet and her dress sphere responded to that instinct to remove anything hindering her flight through the halls.
All thoughts crystalized into one single focus, to return to where she was reluctantly parted from her brother and find out what happened. The found of screaming, hysterical shouting got louder and louder-
“It’s the other Cathedral!” she yelled, not knowing entirely if Dawn or Joe were on her heels or not.
‘Carbuncle! Carbuncle can you hear me?! Something is wrong, common! Answer me!! I don’t give two shits about the negator you’re part of ME!...right?!!’
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 9:01 pm
[[??? : ??? : ???]] "Aww, you broke them," came a voice from the abyss as a male shape stepped form into the light shed by the small, dim source at the table, "Didn't I warn you not to go too far?""I thought they could handle it," said the blonde man at the table, rolling his fingers across the table over and over with a sigh, "I didn't mean for them to fall apart like that."The hooded and robed man gripped the extra chair and dragged it around too sit diagonally to the blonde, "You're too intense. Too brutal. We should have known leaving this part to you was a mistake. Now we'll just have to start over again.""If we're too soft, it won't be enough and they won't be capable of-" he retorted, though cut off, his blue eyes stabbing into the other which simply continued on without a hint of emotion. "Can you say they'd be capable of anything like this," he motioned to the crystal, an image of the earthlings and several others slumped about a bloody chamber, staring into nothingness, catatonic. Broken. "I wasn't wrong," the boy said, shifting his eyes away from the image. "Not entirely, no. But, we have to make changes," the man wove a hand through the air over the crystal as through writing in cursive in some unknown language. He punctuated the spell with a finger to the crystal and it released a sharp light that fizzled out revealing a familiar scene, Noelle standing and walking away, "Let's rewind things a bit, put them back to where it went wrong.""We don't have much time left! They've already gotten inside," the blonde slammed his fist onto the table in frustration, "Not mention, one of them is already-""No! You're right, we don't have much time at all, but," the hooded one shouted, but softened suddenly, "We've enough time for one more try," the man ran his hand along the crystal as though caressing a loved one's face, "This time, I'll take over and we'll weave a story truly worthy of our name sake."
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 9:08 pm
[[ Narration - Northeast Wing : The Grand Cathedral]] [[ Cue: Requiem by ARIA from God Eater 2]] The doors opened to a small, simple room, red carpet floors, a few chairs and potted plants sat around decorating the otherwise simple room. At the center of the square space stood a pedestal with a golden plaque bolted to the top. On it read the passage: "In the end, I am joy.
In the end, I am ssadness.
In the end, I am perspective." As they passed by this, a second pair of double doors opened to the castle's grand cathedral. The marble structure, white and black intertwined with gold and silver run through every seam and crack, causing everything to glitter. Many large marble carvings of angels hung suspended in the air by chains and ropes overhead holding lanterns and spears that lit the massive space. At the far end was a stain glass portrait of Aslan and crude depictions of his chosen children. The sound of the blizzard outside was clear as day, the wind whipping about slamming itself against the windows wish to breach its way into the warm cathedral. It was likely once a beautiful, surreal sight. But now... A flicker like static across space. A hissing screech, white noise in the mind's eye. Nothing. Darkness, encased most of the cathedral, only a single light of the angels over head burned as a candle flickering in the wind. The family members, friends, or loved ones of the earthlings sat about napping, heads rested on each other's shoulders or laps. A warm, comforting sight, through the atmosphere, it lent nothing to the innocence of the scene. Noelle shook the shoulder of one person before moving to the next, "Hey! Hey! Wake up," she looked at her hand and thrust it forward, a spell expected but none came, "Why? Why won't it work? Why aren't you waking up?!"At the edges of the cathedral, golden eyes peered around corners, watching them, waiting, and retreating into the shadows to vanish. Noelle became increasingly desperate, tears running down her face, shaking Bobbi's mother violently, "Wake up!" her voice was shrill, same in pitch to the scream they'd heard before. Of those there, 3 were seated on the pews, Joe the Stranger's mother, Bobbi's mother and James' father. Kyla's brother lay face up on the steps up to the altar, while Daniel's brother lay face down, half concealed in the shadows by the corner next to a pillar where Anthony, Jenny, Sayrike, and Matthew's loved ones sat backs against pillar, as though only moments before they'd been hanging out chatting and suddenly fallen asleep. As James and Joe the Stranger entered the Cathedral, they could tell after a moment spent like Noelle, they weren't sleeping. No amount of shaking, screaming, crying, or pleading would wake them from this rest. Their hearts were gone.
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:56 pm
[ Melisandre : Narnia : Grand Hall ]"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Her eyes widening, Melisandre barely hesitated; in a blur, she stood from the lounge chair and rushed through the crowd (the humans very quickly made way for the near-giantess) within seconds to reach the Northeast Wing. As her gaze fell upon the bloodshed, she had one primary concern— —Rewind.— "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Her eyes widening, Melisandre hesitated; then, in a blur, she stood from the lounge chair and rushed through the crowd (the humans very quickly made way for the near-giantess) within seconds to reach the Northeast Wing. As her gaze fell upon the bloodshed, she had one primary concern— —so she turned away and searched for a single person. It took some scanning, but being the tallest person there and her target also being fairly tall helped. Upon finding him, she ran up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Nicholas, was it?" she said, her eyes blazing with an intensity that matched the fires on her shoulders. "There's danger, and we need support. Follow me."Regardless of his reaction, she dashed directly across the Grand Hall into the Northwest Wing. Barging through the doors, she swiftly leapt over the above railing to get straight down to the ground floor, and without pause darted off again down the hall. By this point, servants, chefs, and drunken party goers were all starting to file out of their respective rooms after the scream, but the norn quickly barreled through them as well, gazing left and right with every step, looking for something, something specific-- There!Weapons. Locked behind a cell door, of course, but weapons all the same--including that gargantuan sword the Ivalician had forfeited upon entry. She stared at the lock, which was built into the cell door itself, for all of a breath's moment. Then, rearing one leg up and back, and channeling all the superhuman strength she naturally had into her thigh and calf, she throttled the door near the locking mechanism, aiming to break the aged iron.
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:58 pm
[ Kyle : Narnia : Atrium ]"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" It begins. Every muscle in Kyle's body felt like it had suddenly been wound up, pressed tightly together as if ready to explode outward by a single twitch of a trigger. The scream had broken him, if only somewhat, out of the stress of dealing with the constant ringing; as it rolled through the castle, his own distressing noise had seemed to lessen to a much more dull hum."What the hell?" Josh asked, standing up, hand going out to his side out of habit, only to remember that no weapons would appear. Cursing under his breath, he looked back to Kyle, a worried look coming over him. "Come on, we need to go check it out.""No, we stay right here," Kyle insisted, not even looking at his brother--simply staring at the doorway. "There are dozens of people and a good handful of them are my friends. I know they can handle themselves.""What? Come on, they might need our help!" His expression was confused, frustrated. "Maybe, but we're safe here." The doors, the flowers, the fountains, everything seemed so shiny, so brightly lit—"Since when did you ever sit back and hide?!" Frustration had turned sour, his face contorted. "We need to stay—"—Rewind.— "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Oh shi— "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"Kyle, stop, he'll find you! He wanted to flail, he wanted to strike out, the ringing had become screeching and roaring and hissing all at once, his breathing was ragged and gasping as if he was trying not to drown, he was grabbing his head and squeezing, praying, begging to crush the sound, the shine—He'll single you out sooner, he already knows! "Kyle! Kyle!" Josh screamed, grabbing his brother by the shoulders, trying to look into his eyes, but the older male's gaze was so far distant it was as if the brother wasn't standing right there. He shook him slightly. "Hey, snap out of it! Look at me!""We stay right here dozens of people my friends handle themselves we're safe here—" He rambled, new words, new memories, so much noise so brightly lit, he couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything, just wanted some silence, some—I'm sorry, I hope you can forgive me for this. "Kyle, breathe, stop freaking out!""Hmm?"
And just like that, he was back. He raised a brow at Josh still holding his shoulders, his mouth curling into a confused expression. "You mind? I was just scratching an itch."Josh froze, lost and confused as he stared back at Kyle's face. After a few seconds, he let his brother go, taking a step back. "You... okay?""Yeah, sorry, that shout surprised the hell out of me," he said, shaking his head as he stood up and pat his pockets as if to knock the dust off his pants. "And then there was this itch, it was driving me crazy."Josh didn't say a word, simply narrowed his eyes while still managing to look mostly dumbfounded. "Anyway, better go check that out," he said, starting to walk toward the exit stairs again before stopping and turning, looking around the garden. "Actually, let's look around for the healer woman, Fiora I think? She should have heard the scream too, but just in case, you never know if she can hear like she used to."Josh hesitated but started walking anyway, glancing back at Kyle every so often. He chuckled to himself. "Yeah, I'm back."[[ Small note about why Kyle's reacting to a lot of things worse than most can be found in the HA:QSD thread here. ]]
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 9:34 pm
{James : Narnia : Grand Cathedral} {{Cue : A Soldier’s Honor}} As James entered even without his senses it was evident darkness was prevalent within what would have been a beautiful cathedral to look at. There was only one light from a candle that the angelic statues held and even it looked like it would go out any second. The corsair looked at Noelle as she moved from each person doing whatever she possibly could to wake them to no avail. James scanned the room for his dad, only spotting him by his gray, almost white hair in the pews. He quickly made his way over to him and attempted to rouse him. ”Dad?… DAD!?…,” The corsair yelled, roughly rocking his old man’s shoulder trying to get a response. Of course it was to no avail. His father felt cold, not like dead but catatonic. All of them present were the same. It was just like Rae and the corsair knew Richard’s fate and it wouldn’t take long for the other’s to realize it as well. ”I’m sorry… it seems despite all I have done, all I have helped save. I couldn’t protect you.”His breath shook as he looked down, fighting off the tears that were building in his eyes. His free hand clenched into a fist, the other tightened it’s grip on the knife he held. He couldn’t hold them back anymore… He had lost his dad again. ”GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”The corsair unleashed an almost bestial roar, one that would have normally been accompanied by an internal howl or growl from Fenrir as he showed his anger, frustration, and ultimately his sorrow regarding the events that had transpired at the same time his empty fist came down upon the top of the pew, hard having nothing better to unleash his anger against. It hurt… it hurt a lot. But nothing compared to the emotional pain that he was feeling right now. He wanted answers, and more importantly he wanted retribution. Emotionally spent the corsair rested his forehead on his old man’s still shoulder and just let the tears flow. He normally wasn’t one to cry in front of others aside from his wife but at that moment he didn’t care. When it came to family and people who he cared about deeply, he wore his heart on his sleeve.
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Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 10:37 pm
Joe : Narnia : Grand Cathedral As Joe ran into the dimly lit room, he saw James and Noelle screaming, desperately trying to wake their loved ones.
"s**t..." he muttered, pacing towards the pews towards the sleeping bodies, his blood turning to ice as he found his mother. "s**t!"Back when his family bothered to go to church, his parents had always scolded him for falling asleep or not paying attention. Joe hadn't been much of a believer even as a kid, something that rolled over into an inability to even try paying attention to the priests. Now looking at his mother siting peacefully in a pew, completely unresponsive, he had to wonder if their was some type of cosmic irony at play here. Sadistic, horrifying cosmic irony. There wasn't any point in shouting. If James and Noelle's shouting hadn't woken up anyone else, he wasn't going to miraculously fix anything. His mother was a notoriously light sleeper anyway. He had to check her pulse, just to make sure. Placing a hand on her neck he felt a faint heartbeat.
'So she's not dead' he thought 'She's just..gone.' In this world, he knew exactly what that meant: Her heart was gone. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to curse the universe and everything in it for letting this happen. But then, seeing her like this, he remembered. Remembered the worst day of his life, how useless he was, how everything she had taught him since then was how to react in situations like this.
"OK." he said shaking "OK Mom, just like you taught me."
What do you do when the people you love are hurt? You pull yourself together and help them.
"Alright, we aren't helping them by screaming." he said, moving from his mothers place in the pews to the main aisle. "We need to figure out what happened and the only way we do that is if we stay calm. You guys got that? We have to stay calm and we have to be strong..."He glanced over at his mother.
"...because they'd do the same for us."
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 5:44 am
[Nick <> Narnia <> Grand Hall]
This party was so boring.
The 'Ivalician' stood quietly as the party went on, the Earthlings meeting various family members and having their touchy feel good moments. It stung a little that his loved one wasn't here, but he honestly couldn't say he was surprised. He'd let out a sigh, then stared down a servant until the silly fool scrambled over with a glass of wine. The Avatar of Chaos wasn't exactly a wine drinker, but if he was going to survive this snooze fest of a celebration, alcohol wasn't desired, it was an absolute necessity. He took a sip of the deep red-purple liquid, and blanched at the taste. Pulling the glass away as casually as he could, he continued scanning the party.
Then the screaming started.
Nick turned this way and that, seeing blood and god knows what else. He froze for a moment, unsure of what exactly to do. He thought about running away. Just like last time. He tensed up again. Where had that come from? When did he run? He started to hyperventilate; he felt something was very wrong, but he couldn't figure out what exactly had changed.
His thoughts were shaken, however, by the rather large Giantess that had been with their group. She wanted him to follow? Support? Ooooh, fight time. Nick grinned, only responding with "Yes'm." before dashing after her. When she leapt over the railing, Nick was about to do the same when he remembered the Negator, and opted for the stairs. Sliding on the railing as quickly as he could, he pushed himself to make up for the lost distance between him and the giantess.
A servant randomly crossed his path as he ran, and without missing a beat, shoved the man to the wall and continued running until he stopped at what Melisandre had located: the weapon cache. Even his gigantic sword was here. But...where did he get that sword from? Another mystery added to his ever growing box of questions. But he knew they were going to need everything they could get. The Giantess delivered a swift kick to the lock, and he could only pray it busted the door down.
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Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:52 am
{Bobbi .:. Narnia .:. Grand Hall > Grand Cathedral}
Reacting on instinct honed over the past week, Bobbi whirled on the spot when she heard the scream, and began running back the way she had come. She didn't miss the fact that the scream came from the very same room that the lady in blue had tried to let her and Daniel into earlier, and that simply added fuel to Bobbi's "it's a trap!" fire. Not being the fastest, of course, others got there before her, and she paused in the door a moment, staring at the carnage scene.
What?
Bobbi shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. It felt like her eyes were strained, more so than they should be when staring into a dark room. Her head was pounding in rhythm with her heart. On the farthest edges of awareness, she smelled something warm and metallic. Blood? But it was gone, and Bobbi's nose had never been reliable.
And then she saw her.
"Mom!" the archer shrieked, running over to Linda and immediately checking her for a pulse, checked her breathing, pressed an ear to her chest to listen for a heartbeat, gently patted her face, kissed her forehead... all the while muttering under her breath, "no no no no no, what happened, oh god, Mom, no, please don't, don't, no no no, I can't lose you again, not like this, Mom, please, no, wake up, Mom, Mom!"
When it finally occurred to her what had happened, when she finally let herself read the symptoms and the knowledge hit her, Bobbi let out an inarticulate, heartbroken whine, and broke down sobbing. Pressing her head into her mother's chest, desperately clutching at Linda's clothing, she cried in a way she hadn't cried since the first time her whole world shattered, so many years ago when the man she loved more than anything broke her heart.
Only this time it was much, much worse.
It was only when Joe2's voice cut through that she was able to pull herself together—and bless him, he somehow knew exactly what to say to bring Bobbi back to herself completely. She sniffed, hard, wiping her nose on the back of her wrist, and pushed herself up into a sitting position, placing a loving kiss on her mother's forehead again as she did so.
"He's right," she said, voice breaking. She coughed, and tried again as she got to her feet. "He's right. You're right, Joe. We have to find whoever did this." She clamped down on the thought of "and make them pay" as hard as she could—that was vengeance, not justice, and it wouldn't help her mother get her heart back.
How am I going to tell Dad? Losing Gramma and Grampa almost broke him. What will losing Mom do?
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phoenixianCrystallist Crew
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AldrickZearse Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 10:50 pm
[Joe: Narnia: Grand Hall -> Cathedral]
The male snapped to attention, the scream making him look towards the exit. What in the hell was going on now? Did...were his suspicions now have a basis in reality?
The male nodded to Dawn without looking at her, then sped off, running at full speed and even passing by Kyla in a blur of speed and he ran, ran to where everyone was looking, zipping around the people, dodging around tables.
He froze when he reached the door, eyes darting around. The image of everyone...it gave him pause. It left him uncomfortable, but he couldn't place why...at least until he noticed the eyes in the shadows.
He turned to the hostess his voice unwavering but anyone could tell he wasn't entirely composed by the lack of emotion in his voice. "Go turn off the negator and find some people to help us move the b-" He paused, rethinking his word choice with everyone around. "To help us move them. It's not safe to leave them there. Then seal this place."
He let out a huff of air from his nostrils. "You have a heartless infestation."
He entered the room, eyes carefully on the eyes around the room, as he went to grab someone to carry them out. The heartless, the loved ones...the image before them...deep in his mind, he felt like he knew something was amiss. Something was off, and Joe felt like the pieces were beginning to come together...much to his displeasure.
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 6:52 pm
[[ Joe : Narnia : Grand Cathedral ]]
'Good, the others are coming around.' Joe thought. He hated being as hard as he was, but they had to figure out what happened here and they couldn't do that as weeping wrecks. He couldn't help but be a bit relieved as the other Joe came running in. If there was anyone who could rally the others into action, he was it. As the other Joe spoke to the hostess, Joe looked around the cathedral and was put off by how peaceful it looked. His and Bobbi's moms, Noelle and James's dads, everyone else who was a victim... This was just a disturbing sight, it was wrong. It didn't make sense.
"Forgive me, but I don't think we should be moving anyone." Joe began, approaching other Joe and the Hostess "This is a crime scene. A very fresh crime scene. Until we turn this room over, we shouldn't move them anymore then we have to. And we definitely need to take a closer look at this place." As he finished talking, he looked Joe dead in the eye and tried his best at nonverbal communication without the charms. The message could be summed up as: I need to talk to you. Now. Away from her.
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AldrickZearse Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 9:45 pm
[Joe: Narnia: Grand Cathedral]
The 'leader' paused as the newer Joe spoke, looking at him with a bit of surprise. Not because of what he was saying being a bad idea. But because he hadn't...even really thought about that. He was still a bit on 'war' mode over 'investigation' mode. Soldier over detective.
Still, Joe was staring at him. Looking directly at him with...something. But it was enough body language that the monk felt something was off. So he looked at the hostess, his mood seemingly soured, and said "Excuse me. It looks like I have some... things to discuss with my...fellow Earthling." He stressed those words, then started to move away from the group and the crowd of prying eyes, pointing at Joe and saying somewhat harshly "You. Come with me."
He walked briskly towards the library. Sure, he had just come from there and there was a lot of nothing in there...but it seemed to be the most private place that he knew of. "Anyone else who feels they need to...discuss anything with me, you might want to come make your case. Though at least one or two people should...keep an eye on them." He meant the loved ones, surely. Or perhaps others? Or everyone and everything? Either way, perhaps someone would stick around to make sure nothing fishy happened.
Of course, he wasn't really mad at Joe. But...anger seemed like what might have been expected out of the leader. Hopefully he let enough of his body language describe that he wasn't actually angry at possible insubordination...but he would set everything straight once they were somewhere more private.
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 3:14 pm
[Dawn : Narnia : Grand Cathedral]
Dawn ran with Joe, and Kyla who met them as they rushed by, into the Cathedral. Her heart leaped to her chest at what she saw. The loved ones that were just returned to them, already gone. She eyed both Bobbi and James as they mourned for their parents. She squeezed Krystal tightly in her arms as placed her chin on the girls head and closed her eyes.
'Oh Garuda, what is going on...? What are we to do?' Dawn said mentally, which was met with the expected, yet uneasing silence.
She slowly walked to her two friends her eyes down at the shells of the two shells of their mother and father. She too remembering when she met them before Earth went to Hell.
"I am sorry guys..." the dancer said to James and Bobbi, unsure of what else she could do or say to comfort either of them while she still held her niece in her arms.
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phoenixianCrystallist Crew
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 5:48 pm
{Bobbi .:. Narnia .:. Northeast Wing}
Bobbi placed a hand on Dawn's shoulder and squeezed gently, acknowledging her unneeded apology without actually saying anything. She glanced to her mother quickly, and said in an emotionless voice, "make sure nothing else happens," before trotting along at the heels of the two Joes. As she passed the lady in blue, she slowed long enough to look the woman in the eye. There were a lot of things she wanted to say, but decided not to, and the archer simply moved on. Though the suspicious, even venomous look was back in the archer's eyes, and she doubted the hostess would miss the expression. An accusing "I trusted you, and look what happened" kind of look.
She had to relay her suspicions of a trap to Joe. If he wasn't already thinking the same thing by now, whatever his reaction to the idea was could either assuage or confirm her fears.
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