Welcome to Gaia! ::

Not long after he had sent his birds out with a letter he had received one in return. A note of progress, how delightful. Taking the letter from the leg of a rather rough looking pigeon Suto unrolled it to read what it had to say. Mulling over its contents for some time Suto made sure not to overlook a single detail. "Half breeds? How interesting." Then there was a location. "The town of August?" Crumbling the letter in his hands he hummed in thought pressing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"This deserves investigating." Stepping over to the microphone that he had stationed on his desk Suto pressed the button beside it and spoke into it clearly. "If there is anyone free to run an errand please join me in the lab on the mid-level." By now everyone that worked for him knew that when he meant errand he meant quest so hopefully no one foolish would wander up the stairs to his main office.

As he waited Suto took a seat at his desk smoothing out the letter he had crumbled up and read it over again. The little tid-bits of information were so juicy. His little creation had been found and on top of that possible new lab rats.

Suto had begun to scribble away at the piece of paper with a crayon he had at his desk. This was often how he liked to unwind by drawing pictures though to many they seemed to come off as disturbing. Once the door to his lab opened he looked up to see who had taken him up on his offer. Once he saw who it was a broad smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Ah, our newly hired assassin. There may not be someone for you to kill, at least not right away. Though damaging isn't out of the question." Suto said as he stood to his feet. "It seems that my ward has finally been located and quite a ways away from here." Crumbling up the letter he threw it onto his desk. "She isn't by herself, however, and I'm interested to know more about her companions. A lot of them are half breeds. Usually hard to come by but apparently she's stumbled on the lot of them." Suto's smile twisted into something a tad more wicked as he stepped closer to Shun.

"If any of these half breeds look promising I want them to be brought back here. Naturally alive. Its much harder to run experiments on a corpse. Though that's not to say that if any of them before difficult that you can't 'take care of them.' Just keep note that I pay more for live specimens." Walking passed Shun Suto made his way to the far wall and opened up a small safe that was located there.

Once open he pulled out a small leather bag and began to fill it with gold coins that were located there. Once he had a little over a hundred he closed the safe tightly and tied off the bag. "You'll find them in a rather large town by the name of August." Suto explained as he made his way over to one of his lab tables searching through the vials he had stored there picking a few up to examine before placing them back down. "Its located about 5 kilometers off the desert on the east side of Nao." Finally finding the vial he was looking for he made his way back over to Shun holding out the vial and the bag of gold for him to take.

"Here is a sufficient amount of funds to get started and if you wish not to deal with anyone that you bring back this is a sedative. It won't knock them out but it will certainly make them a tad too drunk to care about what's going on. Do you have any questions about your assignment?"

Riyo filed behind Mitsu and watched. All the while scratching her arms. "Ugh... I've never had fleas, and I wanna keep it that way." She growled, expecting that was the reason for her itching. Then again, she'd just had a bath. That didn't make too much sense. And who could've given them to her? She hadn't really been close to anyone. Maybe... Something in the water? No, Neko didn't get in the water.

"What the hell..." She couldn't make sense of it. Paranoia? Over what? She'd started itching before she saw anyone else.

For a moment, Blade glanced over towards Mitsu and Riyo as they both seemed to have some sort of skin irritation. At the mention of fleas, he frowned a bit as he certainly didn't have any, and Tobi seemed to be parasite-free for now.

"Maybe you guys are allergic to something?"

It was a long shot, considering Riyo had been here all night with no symptoms. Not to mention that it couldn't be Tobi since Mitsu was reacting too. It'd be a bit silly if she was allergic to dogs seeing how she was of the canine race. Still, it was a possibility he supposed.

---

"I'll keep that in mind."

Taking a small bow as well, Shun went and left the office to go get ready for this assignment. He needed to grab a couple rations, as well as make sure all his weaponry and equipment were in check. Once that was all done, he went and left for Autumn.

Yuki had glanced over to Neko as well, and when the fellow feline had looked at him Yuki shot him a glare. This was all Neko's fault, and he wasn't being nearly as sympethetic as he should be. Yuki watched him walk off, only to leave Mitsu standing in discomfort. He frowned, and approached them.

Hitsu was standing off to the side, looking a little nervous. She felt fine, at least until everyone else started acting funny. Of course, any uneasiness she felt in her stomach was nothing more than stress. "I dunno..." Hitsu replied quietly to Riyo and Poke, "Wouldn't you be able to feel them crawling on you?" She shuddered at the thought, that would be horrible. "But, I guess it's possible with us being out in the woods, and just after a fresh rain..."

"Come on, don't scratch it." Yuki had stepped up next to Mitsu, and gently tried to tug her hands from digging at her reddening skin. He looked to Riyo; Her too? This was strange. "You're just going to make yourselves more miserable if you make your skin raw." He said, though he knew he had little room to talk, since he didn't share these symptoms. "Maybe we can find something to help the itching, when we get to town." It wasn't so reassuring, knowing that it would take them a couple of days.

He looked down to Mitsu again, looking a bit concerned. It already looked and sounded like Neko wasn't showing much interest in her well being, at least that's all that Yuki had seen since they'd met up again. He sighed softly, knelt down beside her and patted his knee. "Step up, Mitsu. I'll carry you." He tried not to sound demanding, but he really hoped she'd do as he asked. "Just promise me that I'll get a warning if you feel sick again... Enough in advance for me to avoid being puked on."

"T-ticks?" Oh no. Not ticks. Those were ten times worse than fleas in her book. "Nonono. I'm not gonna sit around while some parasite sucks the life out of me." She also wasn't about to stop itching anytime soon.

Her eyes then glanced at the dog. "Creature. I have no qualms with you. But if it is indeed you responsible for this, we'll be having a talk later." She mumbled as she started scratching what she could reach of her back.

"You don't have fleas or ticks." Came a voice from behind. Looked like Atticus had gotten over his dumbfounded block. "You would be seeing them if you did. Ticks are a little harder to spot, but the irritation they cause is nowhere near severe. Even if they did carry some kind of disease, there would be more symptoms than that." Great. Now he felt like more of a veterinarian than a doctor. "Also, if it was fleas, everyone would be affected. Not just... Certain individuals."

Riyo looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Then what is it, oh wise witch doctor?"

"Well, lets see. An allergic reaction is much less likely to affect two people of different species at the same time, so I'd say either A, you have a virus that only takes residence in individuals with specific traits, or B, someone in your group is cursing you." He didn't know nearly as much about magic as he did medicine, but he knew that when there were no other signs, it's always a possibility.

upon listening to attircus, poke raised an eye at the idea of "cursing" someone. "who here would have the power to do that anyway?" she asked. She had heard about curses before. They were like white magic to demons, execpt with humans.

she placed her hands in her pockets, and then for the second time remembered the item she was carrying. Looking around at riyo with her back turned, she wondered if this was what was causing riyo to scratch so much. Was it supposed to have an effect like that? she had neglected to ask the dragon anything about the item.

poke felt the need to think this over. What if this item she was carrying had a hidden magic that she wasn't aware of?

"I...need to go to....go find my staff" she said the first logical thing that came to mind, and then quickly walked into the bushes.