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 Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 8:58 pm
At approximately five in the morning the next day, Gale got up, showered, dressed, and got ready to go. It wouldn't take him an hour to do all of the preparations needed for the mission, but he liked having the extra time to move, and besides, being early to a Caelius request was much better than being late, or even on time.
By the time five forty-five rolled around, Gale was double-checking everything. Comfortable work clothes, runic daggers attached to his belt, some extra bandages in a little pouch, his shooting glasses perched on the top of his head (it had been a while since he had last worn them, but they did help).
Finally, with a text to Nora asking if she wouldn't mind taking care of Tink if they were away for longer than a day, Gale turned to Stormy with a wan smile.
"Ready?" he asked her, holding out his hand.
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:04 pm
Night owl as she was, Stormy had chosen to shower and layout her clothes the night before before crawling into bed. She seemed dead asleep for the most part as Gale got up extra early to get ready, stirring only when her alarm went off twenty-five minutes before. It didn't take long to put her face on for the world again: she hadn't bothered with makeup for the last two months, her hair was short enough that a few runs of the brush had it decent, and she only had the stomach for a part of the banana that she had set aside as her breakfast.
Guzzling water just in case, she tossed the empty bottle and stretched one last time. As Gale's phone lit up with an okay from Nora, Stormy took a breath, turned to Gale, and returned the bracing smile.
"Probably not," she replied as she took his hand. "You?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:13 pm
He slipped his phone into his pocket and slid his fingers through Stormy's, giving them a little squeeze of reassurance - whether for himself, or for her, he wasn't entirely sure. Maybe for the both time. Gale couldn't recall if they'd ever gone on a mission with just the two of them; even when they'd been together, they'd always had other people.
"Probably not," he said with a quiet sigh. "But here we are."
He leaned over and kissed her softly, briefly, before pulling back. Gale watched her for a moment, just taking in her features, and then he looked away, eyes flickering over to Tink's cage. He gave the dragon a little wave of his fingers in goodbye.
"Okay. Ready as we'll ever be. Let's go."
Approximately five minutes later, they were at the door to Caelius' office; which, Gale was somewhat disappointed to see, was still as intact as ever.
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:12 am
There was a note on the very closed door that simply wrote Lighthouse. in that exact lettering, with the little dot at the end, all in immaculate print.
OOC Stormy and Gale's trip to the lighthouse: On the way to the lighthouse, Stormy and Gale may pick up key elements for the plot later on that may prove to use to them during the mission! Roll 3d10 each player and RP out each element given. If it is a double, you can pick either the dice roll above or below to rp out instead. When each player is done rolling, simply quote Zoobey (per player) and arrive RP wise at the lighthouse. 1) Mark passes you by one of the hallways and shouts something unintelligible, batteries dropping out of his pockets like crazy. You collect +1 battery. 2) Two Mist Hunters are busy talking. You accidentally brush against one of them. "Watch it!" the female Mist Hunter seems pissed. You get nothing 3) Allan spots you on your way out to the training fields and gives you a double V for victory obviously. He then tells you to stand very still as he fishes in his pockets and them Simon's pockets to come out victorious with two extra boxes of slightly beaten pocky. +1 box of strawberry pocky4) You notice something staring at you, and realize it is a someone. Oz just watches you from the top of the stairs, saying nothing the entire time, before slinking away backwards (you get nothing). 5) There is for some reason a bar of soap on the ground. Someone could trip over that! +1 bar of soap6) A couple of Moon Hunters rush by, carrying what look like rows and rows of stacked pancakes. Looks like breakfast today is going to be an abundant supply of pancakes - hope they didn't mix up the baking soda with baking powder again.... +1 pancake7) A Life Hunter sticks a bandaid on your arm as you pass them by. +1 bandaid cool Two Hunters are bickering, something about the most recent Jurassic World movie and which dinosaur was clearly superior. They stop you for a moment and ask you what you think of the indominus rex. 9) Someone seems to have left a pair of headsets on the ground. More for you! +1 headset10) A Sun Hunter with long beautiful wavy green hair greets you on your way out of a hallway. He poses dramatically, the morning sunlight glinting off his exposed abs. +1 loss of morale as your abs will never look as good as that
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medigel rolled 3 10-sided dice:
4, 6, 2
Total: 12 (3-30)
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 10:38 pm
"No expectations means we can't get disappointed, right?" It was her new brand of bleak optimism.
At least neither of them had to deal with Caelius that early in the morning right off the bat; she almost chuckled at the sight of the note, more out of relief than anything else. Although that also meant they would have to deal with it at the end of the mission, if Mark didn't get them first or something...
Stormy was about to turn them when she froze in place. Slowly she turned her head and observed that someone was staring at her for some reason. Her face wrinkled slightly as she tilted her head, but the man backed away into shadow before she could ask him what the deal was. "New trainee?" she asked Gale as they started to make their way out. He didn't look familiar...
It was around then that it really hit her that they were about to go on a mission together. Thankfully she hadn't eaten much, since her stomach was now doing a few flips. Mission nerves were extremely hard to avoid even as a seasoned hunter, but it was less the oncoming task and more the reminder that if anything happened, they would be on their own. Less people was good and bad for her anxiety: good because less people to think about, bad because more responsibility to handle at once. Lost in thought, Stormy accidentally bumped into several fellow Mists and apologized.
Then nearly turned into a stampede of....were those pancakes they were carrying? The smell teased her and made her stomach grouse at its owner, and it was only due to a twitchy hand that she was able to catch one of the falling pancakes in the Moon hunters' wake--syrup already included.
"I got us something to go?" she added, blinking owlishly.
Zoobey +1 pancake +2 ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SHE IS SO PREPARED FOR THIS BRING IT
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kuropeco rolled 3 10-sided dice:
6, 1, 4
Total: 11 (3-30)
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 11:34 pm
Seeing Caelius at six in the morning was the equivalent of being force fed grass for dinner instead of steak - which was why Gale breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of the note on the door, the stiffness in his shoulders easing somewhat.
His gaze followed Stormy's as she froze, his hand still wrapped around hers so that when she stopped, he did as well. Gale's expression turned to one of exasperation, mingled with vague annoyance and a strong urge to fling something into the shadows after him.
"Oz," he told Stormy. "He does...I have no idea what, something in Death Division. He just sort of...appears at times, he's got a thing for Quinn, apparently."
There were a few more obstacles along the way - the hunters Stormy ran into, as well as Mark rushing past, arms full of things, some of them toppling free. Gale stooped to pick up one of the objects rolling away, which turned out to be a battery. He shrugged, and tucked it into his pocket for later.
By the time they got to the lighthouse, the only addition to the battery and their already packed supplies were two pancakes, one for each. Gale just gave them a look.
"Well," he said. "I suppose you're right...maybe we'll need a snack later."zoobey +1 BATTERY +1 PANCAKE...........
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 11:41 pm
A Death Hunter at the lighthouse, still yawning, nodded at them. In his mug was some coffee that was probably two days worth old of brew. "Mornin'. His majesty already left and said something about some headsets and rendezvous with him at the center. Oh and he said and I quote him, 'don't touch anything, Gale'." He turned to look straight at Stormy when he said the world Gale, mistaking who was whom entirely.
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 11:55 pm
She had to take a moment to remember who Quinn was and nodded, frowning slightly. Odd kid, Oz. Another name to the list of people to sneak after and drop in on, she guessed.
"I guess we're armed against hunger if nothing else," Stormy noted bracingly as they entered the lighthouse. She'd been on the end of rationing food before, so it wasn't entirely a loss. She went a little cold when the Death hunter greeting them mentioned headsets, however. Were they supposed to have gotten them somewhere?
"Morning! Are there headsets here we could borrow, sir?" she asked, missing the meaning behind the hunter's look and warning against Gale.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 2:08 pm
"Hunger can be frustrating, so yes," said Gale, taking a small breath. The headset mention made him wince; he sincerely hoped that they weren't supposed to have already picked up something, and that they would be getting said headsets after they reached their location.
The hunter's warning made him roll his eyes, face flushing a little in annoyance - and a dawning realization occurred that, in all of their discussions, he hadn't actually told Stormy about the grail incident. It was not as though he was trying to hide it; in fact, Gale had fully intended to tell her about it, but it had slipped his mind in lieu of the Nevada thing, and in the midst of everything else.
Gale said nothing in return to the tech on duty, instead waiting to hear the answer to Stormy's question.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 3:50 pm
The Hunter on duty shrugged and passed Stormy and Gale a set of headsets each. "You'll have to wait till Mark gets here, I'm on Lighthouse portal duty, not equipment duty. If things go missing I'll just forward the billing department to you."
He gestured towards the portal, returning back to a sudoku puzzle he was working on. "Comments and complaints can be sent to the accounting department as well, it's not like they even do anything." One of the other portals had started smoking, but it seemed like he hadn't noticed yet. It was flashing signals that said on the panel next to it return calibration unstable - immediate attention needed, but really, it wasn't Gale nor Stormy's problem.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:14 pm
Anything flashing drew her attention, and it was at unstable that Stormy felt her heart clench just a little tighter. "Thanks," she told the attendant as she awkwardly put the headset on (she refused to put sticky fingers near her hair), trying very much not to think about the chances of that happening to them. This mission was going to suck, sure, but it wasn't going to be a disaster. Hopefully.
She passed Gale a glance at the mention of Mark, a corner of her lips turning up. She was well aware of how he felt about the Death Assistant.
"Maybe if we give him these pancakes he'll be inspired to do it quickly," she suggested.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 10:04 pm
He took the second of the headsets, unsure if it was a good or bad thing that Mark would be arriving soon, a feeling of mild exasperation settling in his stomach. It seemed an automatic reaction now, whenever he thought of the division assistant; Stormy's faint smile was given a slightly dry one of his own.
"Good thinking," said Gale with a sigh. "Maybe he'll be more helpful if we bribe him with sweets."
He settled the headset onto his head and tried not to look at the half broken portal.
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 1:42 am
The Death assistant known as Mark didn't even notice Gale or Stormy as he practically ran into the portal as if the ghost of Caelius past was chasing him (and probably was).
When and if Stormy and Gale followed suit, they would immediately smell was distinctly was sewer. There were exactly two corridors to the right of them and three to the left. They would have to pick and choose - Mark was also long gone. There was only the thinnest of walkway for the two, and it was liberally splattered with waste. Vague shapes floated in the sewer water, difficult to tell in the mostly darkness, and it seemed that either the sewer had not been managed for possible decades or this place had long been abandoned.
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 8:39 pm
Or maybe they didn't have to worry about it at all, apparently. Mark whirled past them like the devil himself was chasing after. Stormy blinked, gave a one-armed shrug at Gale (could you blame the guy?), and stuffed the pancake into her mouth before proceeding into the portal with him.
She immediately regretted doing so. The smell almost knocked her off her feet, and she coughed and sputtered out what she hadn't already chewed and swallowed. Stormy sputtered a bit more before breathing through her mouth to avoid the stench and reached for her runic torch, squinting as she clicked it on.
There were things floating in the sewage, as well as five paths to choose in all, she noted as she scanned about. And no sign of Mark or Caelius. Good start. Despite the knockout smell, though, at least she didn't feel nauseous.
"Well...this is a crappy start."
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:32 pm
Gale was still trying to eat the rest of his own pancake as Mark hurtled past, and he kept ahold of Stormy's hand as he stepped into the portal with her, after their less-than-illustrious division assistant. He wasn't certain what he expected to see on the other side -
- but this was not it.
Gale almost gagged, swallowing a bit too forcefully, one gloved hand rising to cover the lower half of his face. The stench rose around them, high and disgusting, and their surroundings were downright vile. His gaze swept from path to path, each one looking just as terrible as the next.
He wrinkled his nose at Stormy, her pun making him smile halfheartedly.
"This is...well, horrid," said Gale lightly, and then sighed. "All right, let's...pick a direction."
He stared blankly at their choices and then gave a sigh.
"The second one on the left, perhaps?" he asked Stormy, gesturing.
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