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demon_pachabel rolled 2 12-sided dice:
9, 12
Total: 21 (2-24)
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 Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 9:22 pm
"I've called him that since I met him..." Cass replied as though she were more surprised that anybody would think Lance wouldn't let her call him that. He and Unicorns came with awesome memories, after all. "I mean, I guess a lot of it was context, but he's cool enough to be a unicorn!"
She looked sure of this as she sliced through several more apples, finally getting into the swing of things.Apple Apple AppleNumber Remaining: 2 HP Per: 5 Auto Damage: 2 Current Target HP: 5/5 - 15 = 3 apples ded Cumulative Garden Damage: 64 Cass HP: 36/60 Damage: 15 Charge: 0/3
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medigel rolled 2 10-sided dice:
8, 7
Total: 15 (2-20)
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Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 9:34 pm
"It's so cute! Can we call him that too?" Stormy asked earnestly, for taking someone's personal nickname without permission was akin to copyright infringement in her head.
Pausing to concentrate, she stared down the remaining pair of mutated apples intensely. Gripping the greatsword, she rushed forward and with a mighty swing cleaved them in two, spinning the rest of the way on her heel. "Hah! Third time I cleaned up the rest. Maybe I am the Groundskeeper . . ." She looked to the ladies eagerly. "What's left?"
Apple Apple Apple
Number Remaining: 0 AWW YEAH GO GIRLS
HP Per: 5
Auto Damage: 2
Current Target HP: 3/5 -9 = two apples dead
Cumulative Garden Damage: 64
Stormy HP: 33
Damage: 9
Charge: 3/3
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Pixie Nyxie rolled 8 4-sided dice:
4, 3, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1, 3
Total: 22 (8-32)
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Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 9:49 pm
Nevada blinked, rolling her shoulders.
"Carrots, Apples, Onions...what's left?" Tomato's and Pumpkins? She studied the red little balls of fruit too.
You all are going down.
>:C
"Tomato's Stormy. The tomato's." Then she pulled for Leroy's charge, watching it blast away one, and carve into another. Unfortunately....there was a lot of red splatter and it landed on her coat and dress.
"I just got rid of all the blue junk."
I'm pretty sure I saw the tomato movie before...
Number Remainig: 29
HP Per: 10
Auto Damage: 2; they also leave a red stain on your hunter clothes.
Current Target HP: 10/10 - 18 so 2/10
Cumulative Garden Damage: 64
Nevada: 21/50
Damage: 18 (1 Tomato)
Charge: 3/3 using
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demon_pachabel rolled 2 12-sided dice:
7, 9
Total: 16 (2-24)
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:08 am
Cass slowly tilted her head to the side at Stormy's question. "To be honest, I don't really think it would have the same significance to you as it did to me at the time. Not saying you can't, just that there is meaning behind it."
After all, she was pretty sure she could count on at least one hand how many... - Before, Roland, Feng, Dillon, Dorian, Ian, Justin....
"Holy crap, I'm moving on to needing two hands for that.." she said quietly to herself before she sliced through one of the offending tomatos, splattering juice all over her nice clean coat.
Ah well. At least she had a lot of soap to clean it up with.I'm pretty sure I saw the tomato movie before...Number Remainig: 28 HP Per: 10 Auto Damage: 2; they also leave a red stain on your hunter clothes. Current Target HP: 0/10 Cumulative Garden Damage: 64 Cass HP: 34/60 Damage: 10 Charge: 0/3
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medigel rolled 10 12-sided dice:
1, 11, 11, 8, 9, 3, 4, 6, 12, 7
Total: 72 (10-120)
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 12:45 pm
True . . . no, she'd come up with her own nickname if she'd ever need it; Unicorn was special to Cass!
Okay, tomatos . . . Tomayto, tomahto. These looked even hardier than the apples. Having held a charge for quite a while, Stormy decided it was time to try and decimate some of the mutated things in full force. Unfortunately it seemed Thane was still not a terribly willing participant (really? He still had a grudge?), and the acidic explosion that occurred soon after didn't kill anything except the good plants.
Smelling of sulphur, she dug her sword into the ground and leaned on it, panting heavily. The only red on her was the red of absolute shame and fear.
I'm pretty sure I saw the tomato movie before...
Number Remaining: 28
HP Per: 10
Auto Damage: 2; they also leave a red stain on your hunter clothes.
Current Target HP: 2/10
Cumulative Garden Damage: 103
Stormy HP: 8/50
Damage: 23 to herself neutral 39 to the garden neutral |||
Charge: 0/3
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 1:07 pm
A loud squelch followed by the pitter-patter of tomato guts on the hunters' shoes announced the arrival of said unicorn. "Great work! Take a quick breather ladies," Lance complimented as he passed out bandages, recharging their Fear shields. "I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that there aren't as many pumpkins as there should be which means some probably ran off somewhere. The good news is that since there's less of them, it won't take too much longer to clean up the rest and skedaddle out of here before any other division checks in on us. To that end -- hang on a sec." The assistant broke off, turning to swing and stab his weapon at the offending produce. A minute later and there were 10 less tomatoes to contend with. Lance scowled at the resulting mess on his jacket and weapon, shaking his head. "Anyway, as I was saying... There's two things you girls can do. The first is that we can start in on the pumpkins -- once you fine ladies finish off the tomatoes. Or leave'em to me, I guess." He shrugged, clearly not caring either way. "Let's see... To make this interesting, why don't we see who can dish out the most damage in the shorter amount of time? Cass, you'll have a bit of an advantage over the others since you're a full hunter so Stormy and Nevada will get a bit of a head start to make up for it. As for the prize..." Lance reached into his pocket and pulling out a recognizable object: "It's a prototype, but I can use this to power your room for about a week. Or, I can give you clearance to use the Lighthouse Portal for one trip off the island." The assistant stashed the pendant away into his pocket. He frowned, looking around. "Funny, I was expecting to see more of Aria's own destruction around here... And no new messages." He had pulled out his phone to check, frowning before putting it away. "Even though she can take care of herself, the fact that she hid this place from all of us? I dunno... I think it might be a good idea to look for her, but on the other hand I'm a little cautious to find out what else she might be hiding." The OOC CHOICE TIME!You can either take on the pumpkin challenge where winner will get a partially charged reverse pendant (good for ICly charging their room for one week OR allowing your hunter to portal off the island for a day), OR go look for Aria. The Garden is too big to search for Aria post-challenge. In addition, searching for Aria will lead into Aria's plot. This means is that should you choose to look for her, you are giving me permission to drag your character along for a bit in the next part of her story. Death will not come of it. Injury is a possibility. Many Negative Consequences and Things can happen. On the flipside, you could even choose to look for her and then have your character forget everything they've seen in order try and to avoid the potential Negative Consequences that can come about as a result of what they'll experience. The choice is up to you; if you're unsure I highly recommend sticking to the pumpkin challenge. Since I know there's stalkers out there: if you're interested in getting in on Aria's plot (either after the big reveal or before it's revealed should no one go that route), please don't hesitate to come talk to me so we can plot something out!
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 1:29 pm
The pendant was tempting, to be honest. However, what would she accomplish with going off the island for a day at this point? She didn't have a room to charge since the Kaiju Insanity Titan had turned the town into rubble.
"How about you two girls take care of tomatoes and get that pendant for yourselves." she pat Nevada and Stormy on the shoulders with a smile, "I already get more time off than you two do and...." while Lance's concern over 'what else' she could be hiding did make her somewhat nervous - "I'll go see where Aria has gone off to." he thumped her chest with a fist, "I'm a big girl, I'm sure I can take care of it, and Unicorn can make sure you don't get runover by the produce department." She gave Lance a thumbs up.
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:02 pm
Grateful for the distraction, she watched Lance spear through a handful of tomatoes like it was nothing and quietly sparkled with awe. But mostly still shame and guilt because oh God Miss Aria--
. . . Wait, she wasn't around? With all the "clean up in the Produce Aisle" going on, though, it was easy to lose track of things . . . Stormy eyed the pendant longingly, for it wouldn't have mattered if either Nevada or her won since they shared the same room. A day off in the real world, or a way to power up the fan so they weren't so hot, or recharge their cell phones . . . But they seemed like petty wants in comparison to a missing division leader. Plus, there were the stones beneath Deus she could locate later for pretty much the same purpose.
"We'll go too," she answered with a nod, trying not to bristle at Cass's (probably accidental) insinuation that they as intermediates weren't big girls themselves; Stormy had been sensitive about how she was perceived lately, and she couldn't pass up a chance to show that, young or not, she could take care of herself. And she highly doubted Nevada would stick around to be a gardener either. Offering Lance a smile, she linked her arms with her roomie. "You look like you could totally take care of everything here, Mr. Lance, and, uh, there's safety in numbers," she added to Cass.
Besides, there was a natural curiosity to know what else Aria had been hiding. A whole garden was one thing . . . Who knew what else the Mist Leader had up her sleeve?
Marushii Nyx says she's on board too, she just can't post for a few hours because of work!
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 5:38 pm
Lance slowly looked around the garden as the girls made their choices. The garden was a wreck: flower beds were trampled, non-animated fruit squashed and ruined. Debris littered the pathways in the forms of branches and fallen fruit trees. All in all, Lance was very pleased that he wasn't going to be seeing Aria immediately. His heart briefly went out to the hunter and the trainees. "Well, all right." He said at last, giving them a salute. "Good luck finding her. It looks like there's several caverns so searching may take awhile. Don't get in over your head, either -- if something big comes up be sure to fall back all right?" The Mist assistant was left to carefully pick a path while chasing down errant vegetables. His energetic shouts could be heard as the three began their search. Eventually the sounds of battle would fade as they went deeper and deeper into the cave network that Aria had converted into a reclusive garden. Whatever had affected the fall crops didn't extend to the deeper caverns. While the main one was a little bit of everything, the smaller caverns were specialized. In one cavern a cluster of dwarf fruit trees, in another a centralized cluster of flowers. There was even a cave that seemed to produce a low humming, however the way into it was blocked by prickly blackberry bushes with overripe berries and thorns that quite possibly evolved from "minor annoyance" to "holy hell those things are sharp."But that didn't matter. After accidentally looping through the same series of caves a couple times, there is something... different about the cave they've re-entered yet again for perhaps the fifth or sixth time. It was just a flicker: a quick shadow on the wall here, disappearing the next. Normally something like that would escape the human perception. But this? This was a lead. It might have been much of one, but it was something. Then again, being a hunter meant you were something more than human and a mere shadow could be something different completely. The wall was fake; an optical illusion that made the hidden passageway look nothing more like a solid wall when it wasn't one. This one lead to a twisting corridor, blank and ill-lit. There wasn't anything particularly exciting about it, in fact it was rather d- "So it's likely an inside job, then." Aria. "It's very likely. I've never seen anything like this before." A new voice that held a particular lit to it that seemed odd and out of place. "What can you tell of it so far?" Another new voice, deep and rumbling. There isn't much corridor left. Who is Aria talking to? The lighting is dim. If one could just edge out around the corridor and peek -- "My dear," a new voice says rather loudly and too close for comfort, "It seems our position has been... compromised." All too quickly the hunters are grabbed and hauled forward, around the corner and thrown to the ground. An unseen weight pushes them down, hands too heavy to move to grab or aim a weapon. From their positions on the floor, the hunters can clearly see Aria looking down at them with unconcealed shock and ire. Next to her are three figures covered head to toe in black cloaks. One of the figures has clearly green skin and odd slitted eyes. The hood of the second barely conceals the ebony horn tips that peek out from under the brim. The third has an unmistakable tail peeking out from the bottom of the coat. And the fourth -- The pressure on the hunters increases as the fourth leans down. "What should we do with them?" "They've seen too much," rumbles one of the black coats, crossing their arms in front of them. "And for Jack's sake put your gloves on!" "I can't examine these odd specimens with them on!" The green-skinned one replies with a haughty chirp as its raps its knuckles on a barely restrained pumpkin. "There is something very unusual going on with these that may spread to the rest of them." "Insanity?" "No, no there aren't any traces of that here." "I think," Aria interrupted, "We're starting to get off track here. I'll deal with them, and I'll take responsibility for them. They're from my division, after all." Her expression hardens as she looks at the three hunters before her, as if debating something. The Mist leader turned away from them, summoning her weapon and tracing a portal in the air. "This place has been compromised. We'll need to abandon it and reform elsewhere. In the meantime, please continue looking into... well." A nod was thrown towards the pumpkin. "Of course." When the division leader turned around again, three of the four black coats had gone through the portal. The hunters would find their arms pinned to their backs as an unseen force hauled them to their feet, lined up as if they were at the firing range. "As for you three... How did they get past the Undine?" "Unfortunately, no one thinks to watch the watcher." "Damn it! This is bad. No trace?" "The only trace is the one these three made when they passed the sound barrier." So that explained why they couldn't hear her until they were further down the passage. Aria cursed. "s**t, he could be anywhere on the island now. In between the Insanity Titans, my garden revolting, and the Circles starting to move again -- hell. They couldn't have picked a better time." She shook her head, looking past the hunters to the fourth speaker. "I need a favor. Can you please Bind these three?" A strange, unsettling feeling sank its claws into both hunters and their weapons. It was a cold sensation that seemed to melt away, leaving behind a lingering doubt and fear. What did she have done to them?"I already know you're going to ask me. Yes, I am working with Halloween. No, the other divisions don't know about it and I intend to keep it that way." Aria was addressing them, her voice cold and serious. "My comrade here has Bound you. If anyone asks where I was and where you went, you will simply tell them that an Insanity Titan managed to form itself into a cavern and had to be taken out without the proper Titan gear. You will say nothing of what you have seen, or what you have heard. In fact?" Aria brought her flamethrower out, resting the tip beneath Stormy's jaw. "If any of you tell anyone not here or outside of this division? I will personally see to it that you will wish you had never seen this or became a hunter. The less you know of what will happen to you, the easier it will be for you to sleep at night." "As for you," her gaze shifted away from the hunters towards the fourth. "You'd best clear off too. I can't keep the portal open forever." There was a rustle of fabric as the fourth walked around the hunters. Like the others they, too were clad from head to toe in the black hunter's coat that hid their features. Their features were hidden too well; it was difficult to determine whether they were also from Halloween, or if they were a human. Or Hunter. A gloved hand reached out, lifting Aria's chin. "Tut tut. The longer you scowl, the more likely your face will stick like that. We can't have your lovely face frozen in that horrid expression, now can we?" The hand fell away as Aria rolled her eyes, offering a small wave to the hunters before they too disappeared into the portal. The portal closed moments later, freeing the hunters from their invisible bindings. Aria stepped back, placing distance between herself and the huntresses. She said nothing as she kept her weapon trained on them, watching. The OOC hai lurkers! If you want in on this plot, please feel free to reach out and *talk to me*. I don't know if you're interested if you don't say anything to me or tell someone else who then tells me! <-- pls don't do the later.
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 5:45 pm
The OOC ...I knew I forgot something. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY CHARACTER MARU?!Your character has been Bound to silence. If they attempt to talk to another character not present at this exchange about it (or really talk about it at all), please notify me so I can get in on the loop too for stalking purposes. c: This Binding affects both Hunter and Weapon, so if your weapon runs around in golem form yes something may happen to them if they blab.Don't worry, the effects of breaking the Bind (or attempting to) aren't deadly. It'll just lead to a lot of Suffering. c: There's no outward indication that something has happened to your character. Your character(s) may feel a little chilled from time to time, especially when they're alone. They may feel as if someone may be watching them, but then again that effect may be due to Aria threatening them with an unimaginable about of Suffering if someone spills the beans about her secret book club that she held in her secret garden where they discussed secret maybe-girl things because who the heck knows what genders those things were, really. In secret.
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:25 pm
Nevada didn't say much to argue with Cass, Stormy said it all too perfectly. And where her roommate and sister went, she did too. Even as they walked with arms linked, following a bit behind Cass, Nevada didn't say anything.
She was alert, highly so. Every new corridor room they passed was given a curious look, a arched brow...a slight murmuring of awe.
Until they heard voices.
Now she didn't want to be the one to tell Cass and Stormy that the mist girl was a TERRIBLE sneaky type of girl, only managing to stalk Solomon and he was a fresh Trainee. But thought it might be good to do so when she heard Aria's voice-
Then everything went slow motion. She was grabbed with Cass and Stormy and....Halloweeners. Part of her grimaced, struggling against the invisible bonds. She would not be attacked by one of the ******** again. But even with her struggles, which amounted to nothing, she was forced down where one of them looked them over.
Her eye might of closed to wait the attack that never came, and only opened when Aria spoke.
The speak of bounding them, this new secret. Her heart was pounding from just trying to calm herself to process what is going on.
Once the portal closed, Nevada felt the weight of what had been holding her down lessening, moving as if to rub her arms had been hurt or damaged.
She brought one green eye up, mostly filled with confusion and anger and asked one simple question:
"Can we ask questions?" There was no mistaken the anger in it. She had been possessed by a creature from the haunted house, held against her own will in her own body and it seemed like the same had just happened again. She was supposed to trust her leader wasn't she? If that was the case, she didn't know how to feel now. Her gaze landed to Stormy.
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:29 pm
"Don't work too hard, Unicorn, and if you pick up some stuff when you're done I'll see about making something from the mess." Cass suggested, giving the division assistant a kiss on the cheek - official dad-bro after all. He got physical affection where nobody else (sans her ball-and-chain-husband-blah) did. "We'll come back with Aria real soon."
With that, she put an arm over both Nevada and Stormy's shoulders. "Don't trust me to do the job alone, huh? That's alright, I wouldn't trust me either." she joked, "So better keep a close watch on me, alright?" Still, she'd be finding she was glad to have their company when things went south.
Namely them, to start with.
Cass took her arms from their shoulders as they made their way into the caverns, holding Nicodemus tightly just in case there was any tossed-salad to be had once they got down there. Hey, she never knew what they were going to get into. For all she knew, Aria had a stash of romance novels hidden away in a room behind a bookcase.
If she was honest, the caves, as they went down, looked nicer and nicer - flowers (wow, flowers on Deus ex Machina, that was amazing), fruit, - "Wow, I think we found Sleeping Beauty's Castle, guys.." Cass had taken a moment to comment, poking one of the thorns before pulling her fingers away from it. They could have been cactus-hybrid mutants for all she knew and she wasn't even going to touch it.
In fact, they'd gone in circles a few times before the faint glimmer on a wall caught (someone's) attention, but they were all pointed out to it in short succession. She wasn't the first one to touch the wall, but she knew what it was when whichever one of the trainees who touched it did so. It didn't seem like it hid anything in particular either - at least not until -
"Guys-" her voice was quiet, only for a moment and she barely was able to put her arm out to try and push them back, peering around the corner, just a glimpse using the tip of Nicodemus' blade as a mirror before- "s**t" They were all on the ground now and Cass could taste a faint amount of blood in her mouth as her face hit dirt and rock, looking down into the ground with a dark leer.
She barely looked up to glance at the figures with her, and her heart suddenly sunk into her chest, horrible memories flooding back into her head - again. Again. It was happening to her again. To them again.
However, she didn't immediately start asking for answers. Instead, it sounded like there was...well.......something going on. As a mist, having information would be her best tool. Adapt to the situation. Don't be passive, don't just accept it, but figure out the best course of action at this time. Whatever was going on with the vegetables.... it wasn't Insanity it sounded like - and why would it have been? The island was clear.....
She closed her eyes, focusing on the voices. She needed to remember those voices. She needed to remember them. She took a deep breath, shoulders and head held high as they were hoisted up, eyes only barely opening as Cass made to look at Aria - Traitor or something else? She didn't know.
While there was likely betrayal in all of them, Cass couldn't help feeling something the other two didn't know - Not again. She suddenly was swept back to that moment, standing in that place, net gun in her hand, a gathering of small, insignificant denizens of Halloween trapped beneath them, and then she came. She came. Freeing them. Being one of them.
She became one in red. She became a weapon. She became a monster.
There was pain in the way her lips tightened, but at first she didn't speak, instead she looked to the two Intermediates, especially to Stormy whom had a Division Leader's weapon put in far too threatening of a position. Only when it seemed safe to move freely did Cass move to put an arm around both of the Trainees and her back to Aria. The weight sat on her shoulders in a heavy, visible way.
"If you pull that trigger, will what happened in that place happen again?" Cass asked. "Did Aria never really come back?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:07 pm
She had been lulled into a sense of security at the sight of the beauty underground: pygmy trees and flowers meant life could be sustained on the island. It didn't have to be dry jokes about when the next horrible mission occurred, or when would they get real food or a non-rebellious power source, or how about those murderous titans: there could be a sense of normalcy.
And then Stormy heard the voices. Quietly she followed after Cass and Nevada, keeping her footsteps light and careful as she had on her previous stalking adventures. One, two, three, four. Odd voices, odd shapes, odder words: something infectious, something not of Insanity. And Aria was with them . . .? Conspiracy, Thane hissed in her ear, though before she knew it, they'd been sensed. And now, without much warning, they had found themselves captive and in trouble. An unseen force began to toy with them, and Stormy clenched her jaw to keep from crying out as something happened.
Like Nevada, she had been held against her will before, frighteningly conscious but not in control of her own body; it felt very much the same here, a chilly foreign presence gripping her from within that she couldn't stop. And she tried not to panic as the figures left them to be dealt with by the Mist leader, but it was hard to not shiver at the new chill settling inside her and too hard to stop the whimper that escaped her when Aria's weapon rested at her jaw. Even in the dim light of the cave she looked pale.
Nevada and Cass were free to talk for her; Stormy was far too stunned and afraid to at the moment. She would, as usual, be a very attentive listener until she got herself together, and did not move from her current position. Cass's words in particular made her glance at the Mist hunter with some confusion. Never came back . . . ?
In the chaos of her mind trying to quickly piece things together, she kept coming back to the image of Gale rolling his eyes good naturedly and saying, "Really, Watson, you found trouble again?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:12 pm
"I'm not going to stop you." Aria replied to Nevada. "But I would be careful who you ask the questions, least you bring suspicion down on yourself." "I don't know what you're talking about." Aria said to Cass' back. "I can tell you that you were born on December 22nd, a date you hate because of how close to Christmas. Your favorite color at the time of our last argument was blue. Said argument also concerned your attack on one miss Petra Walker that you had no explanation for, the result of which I broke your arm, cuffed you, and stripped you of your coat." Stormy was given a passing look as Aria awaited responses.
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:20 pm
"I meant can we ask you questions." Now that the mist huntress was calmer, and not feeling the same presence as the creature that had attacked her or Stormy, or one binding her...
"What's the contamination?" She waved to the pumpkins, "Or better yet, Why is there contaminated pumpkins at all?" She had just got done proposing to Lance about asking to study Insanity and FEAR, and now that she learned that food could be injected with levels of FEAR that had responses to human body....
Cass was given a raised eyebrow at her comment, but since Aria didn't pull the trigger....
As such, she also sat and desummoned her weapon. A lazy sigh was let out. "Our boss, teaming with Halloweeners. Some people would kill us just to get that information..."
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