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There were several ways to go about this, but for the sake of not coming out looking like a creep via shadowing Otto until it was a good time, Stormy chose the most direct. It was a Friday, a day she didn't normally bother Otto for company after they did his list of Death Assistant chores. She had actually stopped by his room the day before, but after finding it and Nevada's old one empty, she could put two and two together. Hopefully today she'd have better luck.

< < You will not let this go, will you? > >

Not on your life. Unlife. Undeath. Whatever you call it.

She arrived at Otto's door a little after the usual lunchtime hours, a small platter of cookies in one hand. They were misshapen, looking more like magnified images of spores than round cookies, but hopefully their gooey, chocolately insides would make up for it.

She did not knock, however. Instead, Stormy accidentally fell back on her Mist training and immediately tried the knob instead, half-hoping she could test out the lockpick set she'd managed to swipe. "Ottoooo~?"

(So much for not being a creep.)

Mildly disappointed she wouldn't get to try picking the lock, Stormy turned the knob and entered. "Heya~ Hope I'm not bothering you, but in case I am I've got some cook...ies..."

She stopped a few steps inside, nudging the door closed with her foot behind her. There was Otto with...with a...stereo system. Music. Music. Stormy stared with her mouth parted slightly.

"Oh."

Her feet quickly brought her over, the cookies sliding to one side of the plate in her haste. "Tell me I just caught you about to jam out. Please tell me."

Her toe tapped to the beat as the song started, trying to place the artist. After a few seconds into the chorus, though, Stormy sought the closest flat surface to set the tray down and did the only sensible thing one could do: rock out.

Grinning away, she started air guitaring as she swayed, the tapping switching between both feet. It was an angry sort of song, the kind she had been introduced to back when she had been dating Jack. Given their circumstances, it was pretty appropriate. "Reminds me a little of Avenged Sevenfold!" she said to Otto over the music, really getting into her moves shamelessly once the guitar solo midway started. "I like it!"

As the song wound down, she came down from her brief high long enough to place her hands on her hips and gave Otto a look. "Hey, I'm not all Disney and rainbows and sunshine! There's a musical dark side, too, I just have to be in the right mood." And lately that seemed to be the course she was following: repressed emotion needing a little vent by having someone about the words for her.

"'Ppreciate the offer, though," Stormy added gratefully, grabbing a chocolate cookie as well. "I really don't get enough music in my life. Next time I'm out on leave, I'm getting an iPod or something. Or I'll probably just steal into your room and let it blare on this awesome stereo~"

She leaned against the wall, tucked her arms like a squirrel, and nibbled for a few moments. Yes good, still soft and gooey..."So, um, how've you been lately?"

Considering she had accidentally followed Nevada a little too closely and knew they ahem canoodled, Okay, I guess was a funny way of putting it. She nibbled her cookie a little more, licking her lips of smeared chocolate. "I dunno what's true now," Stormy answered a little wearily, the energetic pep she normally cloaked herself in wavering momentarily. "Everything here is in layers and layers and twists and turns. But this is what I know: I was there when it happened, so yeah, that part's true. And I've followed Nevada around enough to know it's affecting her a lot more than she's letting me see; she's not even staying in my room anymore." If anyone looked like they were dying, she did now--but Stormy would never say it aloud.

Dying, maybe. But not dead yet. That was the hope she had to cling to. Taking a breath, she bit into a larger chunk of the cookie and swallowed it down along with her fears. "But anyone who tells me she can't be helped is wrong," Stormy continued more determinedly. "I know that's how it is on Deus: all that junk about being only pawns and that toeing out of line gets us killed, or being deemed useless even faster. I get it. It's not up to them t'help her anyway: it's up to us, family and friends. You agree, right?"

"At least she lets you," she grumbled, then shook her head. "I'm grateful you're there, though. Aside from me, you're someone she trust completely." No bitterness, no overemotional reactions, no despair, no negativity whatsoever. It had to be all or nothing if Nevada was really deteriorating as fast as she seemed, visiting all of her friends with a zombie-eyed look . . .

Stormy straightened from the wall and and lightly crossed her arms. "What if I told you I might've found something that could help Nevada?" she asked carefully, wondering if Otto would fall back on scorn or would indulge her. "Would you believe it's possible to do something people say can't be done?"

She didn't mind him being skeptical; part of her was still reserved about the whole thing, even if it was being consistently shoved off to the side along with the rest of her negativity. "There was a rumor I heard a while back in the library," Stormy explained, "about old, old artifacts that no-one's sure still exist, if they ever had. Things more powerful than just the smaller ones like these." Mentally tugging at the link, she summoned a small, elaborately designed book coated in gold colors, quietly soaking in the whispers that always came with it, that always intimated that they were proud of her for being so brave, for doing the right thing.

It was more than a mere example to show Otto, though: it was also meant as evidence that she had already survived the trials needed to get such artifacts, a sign of good faith that she at least had half a mind about what she was getting into.

"I did a little research." Three days' worth, to be honest, though make up did a bang up job of hiding tired lines. "There's a possibility that out there, there's something called Eshu's Mask. According to the books, it's said to be able to 'mend any broken bond'. Naturally, they also said it's in a remote location that'll probably have a lot of nasty obstacles we have to get past," she added with a wry smile. "But I think it's worth a shot."

Stormy nodded and looked more than a little relieved. "My thoughts exactly. A lead's still a lead." And a glimmer of hope was better than nothing.

She joined Otto near the cookie platter and snatched another one up, more enegetic this go around now that she had one supporter to the cause. "We'll probably need more than just the two of us, though, just to be safe . . . A tight group, but an efficient one." Stormy frowned thoughtfully. "Like I mentioned earlier, been watching her go around . . . There's Ian and Dory-an, maybe Cass and Candace, her twin . . . I'll look into people and let you know, since I know your'e not very people-y." But the idea of approaching Alaska honestly made her nervous: she was a tough woman, and in Stormy's head there had been more than one occasion in which she had taken pride in knowing she had a closer relationship with Nevada than her own twin did. There was Roland technically, but maybe it was still too much of a sore spot to bring him into any more trouble . . . Tuck? Evan? Gale? Who else would follow her on what could very much be a wild goose chase?

Concern softened her features as she looked to Otto again. "How's Nevada been anyway?"