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Ami had been about to shrug off Lex's help when the screaming white blur hit. Her left hand instinctively flicked to the right, expecting Junpei to appear in it, only to remember that no, he wouldn't. She scoffed at her stupidity and then looked back at the gaping white hole. By then it was too late, the tendrils of darkness were swathing the area in insanity, bathing it in a deep grey color.

Things went dark.

When her eyes finally fluttered open, she found herself thrown on a chunk of rock, strewn about like a rag doll. A bleary moment or two later and she was scrambling off the rock, looking around her. A crunch sounded beneath her feet, causing her to whip out her guns in two seconds flat, eyes flicking back and forth, paranoid of the world around her. She relaxed when she found nothing, but her guns still remained hot and heavy in her hands- a stark difference between the temperature neutrality she felt around her.

Of course, finding nothing wasn't as reassuring when she could barely see two feet in front of her. She could make out a faint voice in the fog- one that was familiar, but not recognizable. She didn't dare respond- the insanity played tricks on your mind, made voices sound in the back of your head you weren't ready for.

Instead, she moved through the fog slowly, inch by paranoid inch. Sure, she might not get anywhere, but Ami was well aware of her limits. She was alone, had no weapon, and injured. Odds weren't lucky at the moment for the blonde hunter.

One more step and Lex's figure came into view. It was obscured by fog, blurry at best, but the faint yellow glow gave away that he was at least a hunter, a friendly. "Lex?" she said hesitantly, quietly, calmly. Her pistols were still pointed directly at his chest, too paranoid to know any better. Any hostile responses would get a bullet lodged in his torso- it was just in her self-preserving nature. A part of her really hoped it was him though. It was better to stick in numbers, but someone she knew would be even better.

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Ami noticably relaxed as she heard his voice more clearly. Seeing the guns startled her, but it at least meant he was alive and kicking. Ami debated turning tail and avoiding the situation altogether, but a sudden movement would get Lex's bullet through her skull. Unlike her, he was a crackshot too. There was no doubt in her mind it would reach its target.

She stared at him for a moment, trying to think of what he was asking, and then the gears clicked in her head. "Ahhh. Calm down, jethro." She shrugged with approval. "Smart question." A REAL COMPLIMENT!@#!%!!

Awkwardly, she put her guns back in their holsters. Her hands went up to tug on her braid, a forcive nervous habit. "Sorry for ... back there- with the mantis? I think an explanation is only fair, but it should be apparent that now is not the time." No, now was not a time to dwell on her mental damages. Not in a field of insanity, that fed on mental damages.

She looked down at the ground, feeling somewhat ashamed of her shortcomings. Looking at all the grey around her feet, something occurred to her. She could at least share information to help Lex. "Listen, some advice? If you start to get ... repeating thoughts? If you hear voices, if you feel paranoid ..." She paused, realizing she was listing too much to remember. "Say so. It's insanity." No beating around the bush, just blunt facts.

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Lex visibly relaxed once his given nickname was called out, gun falling to his hip and posture not as stiff. It was good to know someone else made it okay. He smirked a little at her mentioning of the mantis, and waved it off. "All in due time, Ami. And I'll be sure to tell you if any red flags pop up."

He took a step towards her, making out a little more detail of the littlest trainee. "What would be your recommended plan of action? Go towards that warm light over there-" he inquired while pointing, and then doing the same towards another light source. "or this one over here?" He dropped his hands, and gave a roll of his shoulders. "Or maybe just search for something else?"

Regal was up again suddenly, an audible CLICK telling everyone in Lex's vicinity the gun was cocked again. He saw a silhouette, slightly familiar. "State your name, division, rank, and summon your weapon. Failure to comply will result in immediate action."

How did he get in front of Ami so fast?

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Part of her hadn't really intended to lose Merope so much as it just sort of happened. She was busy looking for things in the ground when very suddenly she realized she'd lost her new undead water dragon friend. Not a huge thing to be concerned over, but it did mean she was alone aside from Israfel, a slightly concerning state given the past giant insanity things. So she spent a good few minutes trying rather poorly, to find her glowy friend. After a while, she sighed, hoped he'd be alright and wandered.

Wandered far enough that eventually she heard voices in the fog. Israfel slung over her shoulder the glowing rose was hard to miss, and when Solia realized who she was hearing? "Wow, rude Lex. Seriously rude." A hand on her hip she went towards the gang of girls... and Lex. "Hi guys! I'm glad to see you're all okay. Oh-" Solia wasted no time going over to Kat. "I'm Solia by the way. Death division." Her coat was still slung over one shoulder. Smelling slightly. "And Hi... Amy?" Solia smile was a bit weak towards the other life trainee. "Sorry. I uh.. forget names a lot."

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Questions answered, and called out by two women, Lex put Regal down to his side, giving a slight sigh. "Alright, alright. I don't think we've been here long enough for the fog to get to us just quite yet, so I think it's safe to say none of us are hallucinations caused by this Insanity stuff." He waved a hand through the fog, highly suspicious of it.

He looked at the group of women, noted that he was in a group of attractive women, inwardly smirked, then cleared his throat. "Okay, decision time gals. Should we head towards one of those lights-" He pointed to the two lights, one warm and one cool "or should we try searching for something else?"

Scanning the lights, he gave the warmer one his attention. "My preference is to head towards the warm light; but that might be what this Insanity thing wants us to do." A pause, and a scratch of his chin. "This stuff is sentient, right?"

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Ami! Ami okay. "Sorry." Was her weak reply to the life intermediate, clueless to her status of being in the 'No' bin. Solia was just going to assume she was slightly grumpy from the fog, a justifiable thing given the fog and whatnot. Still the sun got a smile and a shake of her hand. "Nice to meet you Kat! I'll try my best!" That was about as much as she could do or say in this situation.

Looking around, she pulled the bow forward. "I was with a bo-boil." It was hard to remember that. "And he was looking for clues. My arrows glow for a while after I shoot them but it's not the brightest or the best method. I dunno if he found anything as we got separated. As for lights-" Arms crossed.
"A warm light is often what is used to describe near death experiences. Symbolically speaking going towards the warm light can be seen as rebirth, speaking literally, a 'warm' light is not so different from a 'cool' light. A cool light symbolically doesn't signify death so much as it follows the rebirth archetype. Lights in general emit heat which should heighten viability. Overall the symbolism points to either light, favoring warm. Knowing what we do about Insanity and it's side effects, a source of warmth, tied to rebirth, with a calling of home, I'd be inclined to agree with Lex on this one."

She sighed. "Thing is... I dunno what the Insanity wants. It acts like a parasite, which makes me think that if we play into it, and it follows typical biology, it's goal is to reproduce which seems to be what it's going in terms of infecting. Something it can do even without us going towards the light. But walking into the lion's den as it were has merit. Our goal was to find the source and eliminate it. Following in line to find the source is a good start as any... Warm light seems the best option aside from wandering."


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Mixed results, as expected. Ami favored exploring, Solia was inclined to go towards the warmer light, and Kat was unsure. Giving a quirked smile at the group of girl, Lex nodded towards Ami. "She's got the most airtight logic here; if we find all the variables, we can find the best solution." Then he turned to Kat, giving he a similar nod. "And similarly, Kat's has a point about how much danger we're probably in." Finally, he gave a nod to Solia. "And yet the courage to go into the lion's den does deserve it's own merit."

A slight inward sigh, which got a response of agitated feathers being ruffled. Regal was anxious to get moving, any which way.

"If you have a coin, I'll flip it."

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