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Noemi shifted in her spot, wondering why she was here. She was just a simple nurse, you know? She was just a quiet little mist hunter with no special abilities! But the mission was important enough, so had gotten ready and was packing her bandages in one side.

In her hands, she held her trident at ready.

"Uh Lance..." She headed to the mist hunter leader and then choked on what he said.

He...Headcount?

"No!" She squeaked out and then moved from him into the field, she couldn't even THINK of headshots or kill count or extra pays. She just scurried along until she found a survivor. A tall blonde with blue eyes.

Much taller then her! About Milo's build it seemed! Huh..how did she move him then? She grabbed him by the foot and started there, dragging him to a spot where she could...go from there.

How wonderful, to volunteer for something! The feeling of selflessness and the knowledge that someone else would benefit from her efforts, all for nothing more than just a little bit of her time. There was no payment in it beyond the good feeling she would get from the act of helping others, and wasn't that good enough?

Sorcha, personally, would much rather have had compensation in the form of shiny things, but she hadn't been given the option to protest, or say no, or even leave when she tried to--and she had tried to, right up until the little man with the large voice started going on about humans and the end of the world. Well, that sounded interesting, didn't it? She had never seen one before but was under the impression that they were like very large minipets that had to be kept separate from the rest of Halloween for reasons, Sorcha, and do stop asking, and oh, look, what's that over there?

Now, however, there was nothing and no one to distract her attention--except herself, and she did a fantastic job of it on a regular basis--and she was even being encouraged to pursue her curiosity. Quite forcibly, even!

She eagerly looked over the pamphlet that was shoved in her hands, trying very hard to commit it to memory so she wouldn't screw it up when the time came to save one of the human-pets. It didn't sound too difficult. She especially liked the yay part.

All too quickly, she was ushered through the portal, though she stopped to nod and wave and smile sagely at the volunteers lined up outside of it as if she was about to undertake a heroic endeavor rather than go into the human world to hug people and yay.

Once she was on the other side of the portal, she found herself immediately underwhelmed at how very dreary the human world was. It didn't look anything at all like a minipet habitat, grey and boring and poorly-maintained. She could barely see her hand in front of her face, and even that was more interesting than the endless fog and wispy shadowlings.

How disappointing.

Still, she had no choice but to continue on; she had volunteered, after all, and she couldn't see the portal to go back to Halloween, so the only way to go was forward. She didn't know how long she had wandered before finally nearly tripping over something just laying in the middle of the broken street.

Upon closer inspection, the form was large and roughly student shaped--not like a minipet at all. "Excuse me," Sorcha said to the human, delicately nudging it with a hoof, "are you a human in need of saving?" She waited patiently for a response from the prone figure on the ground, and beneficent little smile on her face; she wanted to appear as helpful, after all.

It faded after a moment had passed and the human, being deeply unconscious, remained unresponsive. "Excuse me," Sorcha tried again, bending down to poke the human's shoulder. She huffed, affronted, as the human slept on. Humans, Sorcha decided, were quite rude, sleeping when the polite thing to do would be to answer her one way or the other.

"I will just have to save you whether you like it or not, and if you do not like it then you have only yourself to blame. I did ask, after all," she scolded the human, trying to figure out what to do with it. She started by picking up its arm and pulling, but it was heavier than it looked and, good-willed volunteer or not, struggling with it seemed like far too much effort.

She pulled the pamphlet out of her pocket, rereading it. She had already found a human and--ah, yes, now she was to hug it. She didn't quite feel like hugging it, since it had been so very rude, but it was in the instructions and there was no one there to bargain with to get out of it. With a put-upon sigh, Sorcha leaned down and wrapped her arms around the human, staggering a little as she straightened them both upright.

Now she was to carry it somewhere, though that was easier said than done and the exit seemed a long, long way away. "Yay," she sighed, awkwardly clinging to her unconscious burden and beginning the long, awkward dance forward.

Kari held the book, unsure of what she had gotten herself into. While she did understand Amityville's need for humans and why they would feel the need to intervene in human extinction, was the answer really to grab every Joe Shmoe they could find to recruit? It hardly seemed like a sound method. Though the reaper couldn't say much considering the gnome had played to her compassionate side and won her over with words of human extinction being a thing.

Flipping open the book, Kari stared for a moment. Seriously? Did they take her for an idiot? They probably did since the steps on 'how to save your human' ranged from a single word to a basic sentence. "Just what age range are they going for here?," the ghoul grumbled as she shut the book.

Stepping up to receive her passport, Kari was beginning to feel anxious. What if it didn't work? Wouldn't she dissipate for good? As the little booklet was handed to her, she was ushered towards a portal while hearing snippets of conversations from senior volunteers. Something about honor, a weird fog... apple cider? She tensed as she was sucked through before she could come to terms with the information.

Kari's landing was anything but pleasant. Groaning from the impact onto solid ground, the mage eased herself up and dusted herself off. One gaze at her surroundings was enough to stop her cold. Never mind where, what was this? Was this the human world? It was so desolate... was there even life left in this place?

Gradually shaking off her shock, Kari began her search. As the fog grew thicker, the ghoul pulled her scarf closer to her nose and mouth. It gave her the creeps, and not in a good way. It made her hesitant to call out, even with her introvert personality.

She was saved from calling out by something under her foot. One stumble and roll on the ground later, the reaper looked back to find a body on the ground.

A blonde haired female... human? Was this what she was looking for? It certainly didn't look like she was in good shape with all the blood that was coming from her eyes, never mind the numerous cuts riddling her body. Picking up the woman's arm, she draped it around her neck and lifted up. "Ugh... are humans supposed to be this heavy?," she grunted as she began retracing her steps back towards the portal.

Kari just had to get one to safety... right?

Marcy had been intending to go to the shops. She had discovered she rather liked window shopping, and she’d heard one of the cafes was selling delicate little spider-web cakes, and she just had to know what that was all about. Did they go well with tea? Could she learn to make them? She honestly had a thousand questions in her head, but as she passed the fountain she gained a few more.

What was that elf going on about? Why was she being handed a leaflet? Why was it not a leaflet and actually a small book? What did it mean by Human? Marcy didn’t have a human. OH. Step one was find a Human. That made sense to the little ghost. Marcy read the little book, it didn’t take long, and then she was finding herself standing in a line. She had the vague notion that she’d never actually agreed to anything… but they were offering a trip to the human world and free hugs, so she didn’t protest.

She instead took a moment, while picking up her brand new volunteer passport, to speak with the elf. “It is!” Marcy was quite happy to agree. She’d never met a human, but surely the elf had- they knew what they were talking about.

Marcy was all but beaming and perhaps floating a little higher than normal, as she stepped into the portal. When the fog hit her, it nearly knocked her over. It was so… sad. Heavy. Not like the fogs back home, not like the gray mornings there. Here the gray was… well it wasn’t comforting. It certainly wasn’t helped by the all of the broken things she saw.

Marcy had never been to the human world before. She’d seen illustrations, of course, and pictures- she knew they had tall buildings and weird things that almost passed for cars, but nothing like this. Broken blocks of crumbling cement, broken…everything. And the little shadowlings… they were everywhere. She’d not expected that. She might have pondered their existence more but her attention was pulled away by a shape that could have been a human. Was it? She’d only seen them in photos…. She couldn’t stare at it. She couldn’t quite look at it. There was something wrong with it. That couldn’t be a human. It was just standing there, and it was odd. Marcy knew she couldn’t help that thing, and she was here to help humans.

So she kept looking. This way and that, her bare feet taking light, delicate steps and she moved. She’d find one sooner or later, right? Of course she would.

She was waiting for one, looking for one, and she still let out a little gasp of surprise when she found one. Why, it looked very similar to what the picture books said they did. Very similar to a reaper, in fact. Female, if Marcy had to guess. “Oh, are you alright?” she asked it.

The human didn’t answer. It didn’t even move. Sleeping? Yes. It was breathing, and she knew humans needed to breathe to live (she’d been told they died without air- it was very important information).

Marcy took out her instruction booklet. “Step one is find a human,” she read to herself, “Step two is hug it… and Step three is carry it.”

She looked back at the human. “Don’t worry. I’ll save you.”

Cady was really bored.

She had eaten all the things there were to eat and as a result slept through most of her classes. So, instead of being a Responsible Student and doing make up work, she was playing hooky and walking around town square.

"You know, Smelly," she commented to the minipet in her arms, "for once I do not think I could eat another bite! I might pop, and that would be messy and also gross and I'd probably end up in Nurse Cricket's office and I don't think she would be very happy with me," she added. She noticed a commotion by the fountain, and moved to investigate.

Some helpful reaper handed her a book.

Obediently, she opened it, looking at the pictures upside down.

On the first page, which was actually the last page, was a halloween citizen cheering in victory.

The next page was the same citizen, and in his arms was -

"A HUMAN!" Cady gasped excitedly.

She turned the pages eagerly. So it seemed they were instructing you to cheer to show you meant no harm, pick up your human, carry it, hug it, and then spy on it from a distance.

This seemed fairly straightforward, and she immediately signed up. She got her passport and gave an excited yip as the portals suddenly appeared in the middle of the square.

"Sorry, Smelly," she said quite formally, but it would be better for you to stay here, in case you like, melt or something."

He scampered off happily, leaving her to listen to their instructions. After the orientation, she hung back to ask the gnome a few very important questions.

"CAN I EAT ALL THE THINGS THERE?"

"No, but you can save a NOBLE and MAGNIFICENT human-"

"OKAY I WILL."

Before he could respond, she jumped into the next available portal, ready to start her human world culinary adventure-

She stumbled into a horrid, grey fog instead, one that sapped her enthusiasm (if only momentarily). There were quite a few shadowlings, slowly forming like some kind of weird garden, and other, more humanoid things that made her eyes ache to look at them.

Adventure! She reminded herself, and strode forward blindly.

After a very short amount of time, she lost track of her fellow volunteers, the fog growing too thick to see. It's ok, she thought. I am a Creeperscout, and have an Excellent Sense of Directs Shun. Time passed in a sort of meandering and utterly immeasurable way, but Arcadia of the North Rock Clan bravely continued onward, impervious to any peril until -

She tripped over a tiny yellow thing and fell face first onto a large, unmoving mass.

"Who the hell is playing guitar?"

" Interesting."

"I think she has a list, but there are too many nines."

Tinny voices emanated from the strange device as she picked herself up off the ground. She had been lucky, she decided, to have fallen on something so nice and soft-

and totally human.

"I DID THE THING!" Cady yelled, and danced around (as per the instructions, albeit not upside down as there was not a tree or other device to hang from. She grabbed the funny yellow thing at her feet, pressing all the buttons at once and shouting into it excitedly.

"I DID IT! I FOUND A HUMAN!"

Listen, all Wrex had wanted was a nap, alright. It wasn't supposed to be hard: sleep, eat, run around, nap, grab a snack, grab second lunch, etcetera. But with such a gaggle of students forming by the fountain, the boil's curiosity couldn't be stopped. So he took his snack (fried rat skewers) with him as he investigated.

Save humans? Well, that was weird. Weren't they supposed to scare them? Or eat them? No, wait, you ate hunters, right...

A piece of paper was stuff in his face, which Wrex chose to awkwardly hold in his mouth, as he still wasn't quite used to having useful length arms. It wasn't as if he knew how to read anyway. He caught enough from ambient conversations around him: find a human, hug them, bring them back. Like fetch!

He swallowed the pamphlet whole and happily, determined to do a good job.

Sherry had, much like usual, read the entire message and the turn around to figure out where she put her gear. Bandages, check. Flask, check. Armagnac, check.



Basically- Sherry had been in a good mood when she’d set out for the portals that day. Sure the mission involved infected and such…but it was off Island and that was usually ok.

The rain reminded her that she’d been lying to herself again. Off Island missions were usually hell and she usually ended up soaking wet or with sand in her boots. Well, at least she knew which one it would be today.

Rain aside, Sherry wasn’t too apprehensive. It was a rescue mission. Get in, grab some people, get out. Four hours. With any luck, things would be just fine. They’d handled infected before, after all. The Mist Lead confirmed this when she had a moment to speak to him.

With a shrug, Sherry made her way through the portal.

She wasn’t quite prepared for what she found on the other side. It was so grey, so foggy, so broken. It was like a scene out of one of those ‘end of the world’ films. Sherry gave a little shudder, the fog itself reminding her of days gone by. “No time for that, there are people to save.”



“Agreed,” Sherry whispered. Far too many…and there! An infected. It was barely moving. Sherry shook her head and stepped away from it.

Sherry could feel Armagnac’s longing for a fight echoing in the question.

“We have priorities.” Sherry shrugged and turned away.

The city was so broken. The cars sitting here and there, the buildings falling down…and the vines. Sherry shook her head and steered clear of those.

Deeper into the mist she went, searching. No signs of life so far, and that was disheartening. There had to be someone alive in this mess.

She almost tripped over the leg of the little woman. “Oh, here we go.” She knelt and checked for a pulse. “Good. Still alive, but don’t blame her for being unconscious.” Whatever had happened here had been massive. “Well, come along. Time to get you to safety.”