Skaia

Sibyl whistled as they got to their proper destination. It hadn't been the first time she had been to one of these arenas, but she didn't frequent them enough to find their scale mundane. There was also an almost eerie sense of wonder that made the building feel even larger today, having no actual people around it, that made her all the more excited to actually enter. It also didn't take particularly long for her excitement to rise as it was evident that their competition had already set up shop. As the explosion was let loose and Thessa had already gone on the run after the perpetrator, Sibyl exchanged glances with Cassiopeia before calling out, "yeah kick their ass!" Looking back to Cassiopeia the girl then said, "so, guess we should see what the rest of the commotion was about." Cassiopeia let out a sigh. As the duo made their way onto the field proper it had appeared that there already several capes waiting for them. A vaguely familiar face belonging to someone in the air, using their power as a means to balance themselves up there. A second flier, much less familiar looking, who rather than using some complex form of power to keep themselves afloat actually had a pair of wings. And someone Sibyl was very well acquainted with; Hellhound, who had looked no worse wear from earlier, was somehow standing on the field looking opposite to Cassiopeia and Sibyl. Though she could not see them either, Sibyl could hear a pair of footsteps approaching from behind. "Only three of you, huh?" The first said. "You all must be confident, foolish, or both" "Oooooh." Sibyl marveled at the group before having a friendly smile cross her face. Giving a wave as if she was greeting an old friend she shouted, "hey there Hellhound! Long time no see," before laughing at what was supposedly a joke. Looking up to Arcturus she'll say, "I got into a scuffle earlier today and three was plenty for that." Then, after a moment passed she asked, "do I know you by the way, you look familiar?" There isn't even a look of recognition on Hellhound's face. The one Sibyl questioned looked like they were about to say something else, but settles on, "It makes sense if you don't remember. You seem like an out of sight, out of mind sort of girl anyway. I was there for that scuffle -- your friend tackled me through a ceiling, though I like to think I paid him back for that. To my memory, there were four of you then." Sibyl thought about it again before saying, "oooh, you're right. I forgot that we weren't just protecting the Lady. Well, that's all in the past and if you're as fun as you sound then I'm sure I won't go forgetting again." Sibyl's shadows began to coat her arms. "So, is this the whole party or did you invite some more friends along?" "Oh, you know Caesar. He'll put his thumb on the scales so much you'd almost think he had luck manipulation powers. He just wasn't expecting there to be three other capes before." They responded. "The house always wins, but you'll have to figure out the exact odds on your own." She spotted Sibyl gearing up for battle and started forming her own ball of light in her hands. "Well I don't know much about what you're saying, but I don't need to know the odds to get a Jackpot right?" The girls grin widened before taking up a fighting stance saying, "let's have some fun!" Breaking into a run towards Hellhound.

Looking back Lana was feeling antsy not knowing what the fate of her other party members were as she had been the first to get to the stairs. After all, their situation had been particularly dire and Lana felt a bit bad just leaving them to it. Thankfully, her worries were only so for a few seconds as the entire rest of the group had managed to make it to the stairs. With everyone making it down, the path before them opened up and once more they were met with a pile of riches and a wand for the people that cared to use the magic item. It was far out of Lana's wheelhouse and so while she was curious about it, she made no bid to actually take it, instead being satisfied with the fat pile of cash she had just gotten. With their exit route being cleared, Lana said, "I am so done with skeletons for today," before leaving the dungeon. With all of their wounds being treated and her paralysis being cured, the girl let out a large sigh of relief. "Well, I guess that's another five floors down. Just...however many more to go." The sheer scope of the dungeon and the lack of the girl's knowledge of it was worrying and a bit demotivating all at once. However, with the money in her pocket and her fatigue making such thoughts fleeting she didn't pay the daunting imagery an endless labyrinth of monsters any real mind. Though, she was far from at peace or content. Switching to a whine the girl said, "ugh, I'm gonna need to buy new weapons. My poor axes." After walking a bit forward, the fatigue in her legs becoming more apparent now that the day's dungeoneering was done she looked back to the others saying, "alright. I'm done for the night. Good job everyone. Let's meet up...I don't know, later. Good night." With an abrupt leave, the girl made her way back to the church she had been staying at. She didn't quite make it to her bedroom, though, instead only managing to get through the front door before sitting down at a pew. "I need a rest first before bed..." She muttered, stretching her legs out and reclining back in her seat.

"Know Luca? Of course we know Luca," the apparent leader of the group said as Gene questioned them, before going on to tell them of their situation further. One of the Lemur's let out a small snort as he finished his explanation saying, "yeah, Rumian fighting, that's a good one." His snort was cut short by an elbow to the gut from the second lemur. The apparent leader of the group continued looking at the Exalted, a skeptical look on his face before saying, "well, no. I can't really believe that you're from another world. That's pretty out there, even if you are the Exalted as you claim. But..." The elephant spoke, "but they seem to know Luca and Rumian so they've at least been to town." "Yeah..." The man looked at the group again before mumbling, "maybe they're from another town? No but there isn't another town? Maybe they're from beyond the Thunderhead?" His brow furrowed as he was trying to make sense of all of this before finally relaxing with a sigh. "Well, if nothing else none of you are from town and none of you look like any Storm-blooded I've ever seen. So, I can believe you're not from around here at least. As for who we are, we're a hunting and gathering party sent from Aersinn to, well, hunt and gather. Town doesn't get fed by itself after all." He pointed to the tarp as if to indicate that it was what they had been gathering, or rather what was under it, before saying, "and unfortunately we got caught up in a storm which is why we're here." As if on que, the rain began to pick up in intensity as the thunder grew louder, the delay between the flash of lightning and the clap of the thunder becoming nigh instant they were able to see the spire they were standing near begin to get hammered by lightning. The man started speaking louder, practically shouting, to talk over the storm saying, "so, what were all of you doing out here? It's pretty dangerous to just be wandering out here."

Lana grimaced, gritting her teeth as she still held her hand axe firmly, as the monster she was facing now made it was towards her with a dagger. Typically, a dagger was not the most threatening weapon and she wasn't even sure if it was any worse then the claws of a zombie or skeleton or something. Though, there was something incredibly unnerving about the fact that this monster seemed to understand how to take what was lodged in it and turn it into a weapon. An inherent intelligence to it that made it far more threatening then any of the other bizarre and unnatural power it had with in it. The girl gulped once more, her situation only growing worse by the minute. She had one hand axe that she was armed with and one arm that was beginning to no longer function. Unsure of the proper course of action, her thoughts were broken up as a dagger whooshed right past her. The weapon planted itself in the chest of the monster, creating a moment of pause either from hurt, shock or both of the attack. The girl looked back to see that Chris had come to her aid and with the monster stunned, brief though it may have been, and nodded. "On it!" Without a second thought the girl ran straight into the now opened building. Her grip on her axe was still tight, the darkness around her serving still to unnerve her, as she continued to run towards the stairs. Making her way down them, approaching the abruptly transitioned wall of darkness, the girl found herself unable to continue down them. "What?!" Panicking for a moment as she could no longer make her way down, she backed up to try to ascend the stairs only to find that she no longer could as well. Her nerves didn't stop screaming at her until a moment more passed and she realized that this feeling was a familiar one. The same one that would have happened if she tried to go up any other set of stairs and ascend to a previous floor in this dungeon. "Oh..." She spoke for a moment as the realization hit her. "I guess it's over?"

As Alois was tossed off, a bit shocked by her sudden burst of strength and force, he had a moment of pause before getting back to his feet. Getting ready to give chase to the woman, both dissatisfied that they were no closer to learning anything really and that he had lost a contest of strength with her, his own path was barred by the sudden flurry of pigeons. "I hate these birds so much," he muttered. "Well, that happened." He sighed, clearly resigned to what had just happened, before looking back to Penelope. "I can tell you we searched every room in this place and didn't find Cat anywhere so I can say for sure she's not just taking a nap or anything from one too many drinks." Letting out a sigh after informing her there was a brief pause. And then, as he helped her off the ground he said, "you know I totally would've won even before you got there." Tsetseg was only more confused as to what to do now. She had shot the man, in the leg no less, and it did little to stop his gait. Similarly he had displayed a strength she had only seen in some of the members of the Beir Tribe and Urvan as he stopped the horse with nothing more than his bare hands. Tsetseg didn't really know what to do right now as Cora didn't seem to want to kill the man, but she wasn't sure she could shoot him anywhere that would debilitate him enough to keep him down without killing him. She also had only shot the horse earlier because it was necessary to do so as well, being an enemy horse, but now that the horse was being attacked by the man there was a part of her that felt it entirely unnecessary and cruel to just kill the steed. As such, she just kept her bow trained on the man, waiting to shoot at his arm if he had attempted to strike at Cora or Link.

"Yeah, sure, who - " The man started stammering out as Sabrina and the others started to come over. His tone of voice was confused to a degree that he clearly had no idea what Sabrina was talking about at all, and even more so that he had no idea who they were. It would turn out that clarity of who they were dealing with was only given to one side of this equation as the group could see who the hunting party was. There were six of them and they were humanoid in shape, as their silhouette had told them. They also seemed to be similar to those of the people of Aersinn, baring animalistic features such as more fur, clawed hands, hoofed feet, etc. depending on the animals. There were two that bore the stripes, ears claws and eyes of the tiger. One who had hoofed feet and long curved horns or antlers like that of a gazelle. One who had enormous floppy ears and tusks coming from their cheeks. One with the ears and nose of a pig. And finally two that didn't have anything too strange about them outside of the enormous bushy tail of a lemur. Each of them had some manner of weapon, between bows, spears, daggers and hatchets adorned to their persons. Next to them was something they still couldn't make out but that was because it was entirely covered by a tarp, though it was reasonable to assume due to how the tarp covered it there were boxes of some sort underneath it. The elephant stepped forward, his confusion and that of the others still readily apparent if not even more so. "Who- who are you all?" One of the Lemur's spoke up saying, "they don't look like Drengr. And they can speak like us too." The gazelle, "but I've never heard of a Dracona in our village. And they don't," the gazelle humanoid walked closer to inspect them saying, "they don't got anything on them." The other Lemur, "the girl said they're blessed by dragons. Plural. You don't think," the man shifted his gaze from side to side until he spoke in a loudly hushed tone, "they're those Exalted Luca's always going on about." He raised his eyebrows several times as if this were a big scoop. The elephant spoke again, "yeah right, that's just a tale the chiefs pass down. But it's true, I've never heard or seen any of you before. And I hear a lot. Where are all of you from?"

"Eh? Eh? But I - I," Carmen couldn't help but try to respond to Brian's comment about her lack of communication and stammered off instead. As the man brought up the idea of sealing the room, Carmen wasn't entirely sure what that entailed. Maybe the could just close the doors and seal them both like that? But then what if the room was the ghost and then they would obliterate themselves when the ghost was destroyed. That wouldn't be preferable. Though it was probably less painful then standing here for all eternity and wasting away in a ghost room. Maybe it was preferable to that. Still, Brian's assurance that this was in fact just an escape room did help ease Carmen's mood. She hadn't really had much experience with escape rooms, typically the idea of being stuck in a room or series of rooms and having to rifle around every little thing in order to find one's way out did not sit well with her on multiple levels. However, in this instance it just meant that she was living in one giant puzzle and puzzles were meant to be solved. There also wasn't anything particularly scary about this puzzle, unlike the visible ghost they had seen last night, though her hairs were still standing on end and her shoulders were still hunched forward with her head pulled back in the same way a scared child attempts to retreat from a situation. But that was just how she always was. Deciding to go look for the answer she decided to check one thing she hadn't yet in this room. Looking at the posters, all of which were taped to the wall, they also seemed to have some kind of generic maxim on them to motivate the employees. She wasn't really sure what to make of them, the girl herself having little in way of motivational posters at her own work space or home, but she was positive that they would only serve to unnerve her rather than inspire were they around. Tapping at the posters, nothing seemed to happen. And while she would have been able to remove them, quite like the water cooler, she was afraid of damaging private property and also being caught on camera doing so. Tape left marks on the wall sometimes after all. So instead she just lightly pulled back on them, to try and see if there was anything behind them. Though the left and right were blank, the middle one seemed to be hiding something underneath it. Reflexively, seeing anything other than wall, Carmen let the poster snap back into place and took a few seconds before allowing her newfound curiosity to be satiated. All that was there was a crude drawing of several sticks figures kicking a one with devil horns labeled "boss." A smirk crossed her face as she imagined doing so in her own work place, simply letting out another short, "heh." After seeing the drawing the girl let the poster snap back into place and walked away. Though amusing as it was she didn't end up finding any real clues to the puzzle at hand. Disappointed, hanging her head, the girl looked back at the posters before a thought crossed her mind. She looked over to the doors, and then to Brian. Walking towards one she said, "uh, um, oh, uh Brian could you uhhhh..." The girl had a hard time voicing herself after the last time she spoke not being able to get her message clear enough across, but started moving her fingers rapidly as if to say, "walk." "Through there- the uh, the door. At the same time...." The girl pointed to herself and the door next to her. Once it was clear what she meant she got ready to cross the threshold and when the two entered at the same time they...exited at the same time too. Having not passed each other or collided they were merely now at opposite ends of the room once. Hanging her head in defeat the girl said, "I uh...sorry, I just thought...Escape Room..." The girl pointed at the first poster and muttered, "teamwork..."

As Anima tried to delegate and formulate a plan as to what to be doing to set things up, Jacklyn smiled and said, "fufufu, leave all the tenting to me!" Of course it did not end up as "just" Jacklyn doing it. With Anima sifting through the papers Jacklyn was busy looking at each of the individual parts of the tent. Anima would be able to hear things such as, "oh I think this goes here," and, "this definitely fits together like this," and most concerningly, "wait it moves like this?" The girl continued to fiddle around with each part, probably making more of a mess then anything else as Anima asked her question to the adventurous girl. Turning around, tossing the part of the tent to the ground she was holding, she smiled at her companion. "Oh sure do! What kind are you interested in? See back in Castelia we had all kinds of urban legends and rumors and stuff like that. Like the story about being kidnapped by the sewer Krookodiles that were secretly running the city from the shadows - I checked and didn't find hide or sandile down there by the way. Then there was some other stuff like the Tentacruel that would sprout legs and roam the streets at night, looking for people to drag back into the ocean with it. But I didn't ever see one of those things come out at night, much less dry to drag someone into the sea with them. Oh, oh! And then there was the one about this haunted building near home. It was due for destruction and rumor had it that a bunch of ghost types would be in it and when it was raining they would spirit you away to some kind of weird haunted ship or something. Which never happened to me!" The girl became rather upset as she rambled on about these things. As she went back to pitching the tent, and with Anima's help making some progress on it she asked, "oh but I don't really know anything about where you're from. Like, a ghost type Corsola! That's crazy to learn about. Oh! Is that why you wanted to know ghost stories? Does Confi have any or like are there any cool spooky ones where you're from. I hear that smaller towns and stuff typically are loaded with haunted stories and ghosts!" The girl furrowed her brow thinking for a moment saying, "I wonder if Anneliese knows any good ghost stories, we'll have to ask her too!"

With Fiona having lost and Melissa having pulled off a win of her own, the girl looked at the card pack that was forcibly put on the table for them. Fen looked to the door as Fiona made her exit, having done her best to not say anything about the girl's temperament the whole time, now saying, "oh, well, that was nice of her." Picking up the pack Fen truly didn't know what to make of the duel, as it was certainly different then what she had experienced when playing against the Spike Brothers. Melissa had mentioned that she had saved her partner a number of times during the duel but Fen couldn't help but feel that it was more the reverse. "Well, if not for you I uh, I don't think I would've made it past her first monster." At the end of the day it was a team match and they did win through some degree of teamwork. But still that remorseful feeling of being more a weight than a help persisted and this was only compounded by her not even being able to have made it to the very end of the duel. Still, "I would say I had fun, yeah. In fact," looking at the card pack in her hand, a glint was in the girl's eyes. A feeling similar to when she had fought Kelsey in fact. A bigger smile appeared on her face as she said, "I'd love to play them again." The girl then went to open the pack saying, "oooooh," in awe. This was more so at the card arts themselves then the actual cards, as she had no real idea what the value of most of these generic monsters in her pack were. But one card looked particularly interesting in her set. "Oh, it's like Sparks." The girl seemed to be genuinely happy as she showed the card, Hinotama, to Melissa. "Well, maybe I shall uh, add this to my deck later." After spending some more time with Melissa the girl nodded, "it is a big city after all, so perhaps it would be best to, well, take it one step at a time or such to explore it. Let's head back." The girl got up from her chair and left with Melissa.

"Well that's reassuring," the girl muttered towards Chris's less than favorable response. At least she didn't have a ghoul immediately pressing down on her. Unlike her other two door guarding companions. With the sound of a ghoul coming from behind her as well as seeing a ghoul go towards Estelle. While she had a half mind to go intercept the latter, she was paralyzed and unable to move forward as she felt a wave of fear rush across her. Out from the fog, lit up by the orb of light behind it was a creature that made her hairs stand on ends. While it was certainly a disgusting looking beast, like a zombie but with worse skin care, there was something about it that unnerved her. Add to that her numbing arm and hand and her primary axe on the ground near her, she was certainly feeling threatened by it. Her fears also were becoming more justified as it seemed to focus its attention on her. No really knowing of what it was capable of nor if there any more ghouls near it readying themselves to spring out at her, Lana did what she was learning to do more frequently and that was take her time. Taking one cautious step forward, she looked the creature in the face - She was running. She didn't know why her legs were moving but they were. She didn't how she got into this place but she was. She couldn't understand what she was seeing, which was herself, running. And the ground beneath her started to give way. The once solid ground beneath her feet had started to turn to some kind of sludge, to some kind of thick substance that pretended to be a floor. Her feet were moving less, she was running slower until finally she came to a full stop. She didn't actually stop running so much as the ground had rendered her immobile, her feet, ankles, legs slowly sinking deeper into the muck that this floor was now made of. Of course she tried to free herself. She tried to push her legs to the limit to force them out. She placed her hands on the ground to try and push herself out. But try as she might she was just sinking deeper and deeper and deeper until - Her eyes widened. Her chest was in pain and she gasped for air as she tried to get her bearings back again. She saw sweat dripping from her face onto the floor below - the stone floor of the masoleum she had dispatched the ghoul on. She looked back to see Chris still working on the lock. And she looked forward to see that the creature she had met eyes with was now closer. Estelle had mentioned something about a monster before hand and only now did she really understand what they were talking about. Gulping, she took a step back as the creature was alarmingly close now, standing at the foot of the steps. The girl planted her feet on the ground, nervous to even take another step as if the ground under her would give way at the slightest movement. But she still had to keep Chris safe from this creature. And so with her first hand axe, without looking at the monster, she tossed it towards its chest. The toss was somewhat blind as she couldn't afford to keep her gaze on it for too long, but it was large enough that that didn't matter and the axe found purchase. However, the creature didn't seem to be bothered a bit by it and continued to move forward, taking a swipe at her with its arm. The girl stepped to the side and dodged before drawing her second axe and going for another swing at the monster. It proved to be more nimble and aggressive then she thought such a beast would be, grabbing her arm and stopping her swing. Lana grit her teeth as she could feel a burning sensation coming from its grip and could tell the monster was moving its head closer to her in an attempt to lock eyes with her once more. She had no idea what would happen if that occurred a second time, but she had a good idea from the position she was currently in that she was likely going to die. And so, the girl took a deep breath, dropping the second hand axe to the ground and using her free hand to grab the axe still in the monster's chest. Closing her eyes she shouted "get off of me!" and tackled the monster, freeing her arm and axe from it as well as sending the creature down the stairs. It was certainly strong, stronger than her, but the natural disadvantage of standing on stairs was enough for her to overpower it. A burning sensation coursed through her still as the girl did her best to keep the monster in view without looking directly at it. "I feel like I've said that a lot today."

With her chat having been done with the Tinker, Sibyl was more than ready and raring to get going on with her mission. As it turned out she was working alongside Aeon again as well as someone from the Zodiac. She had the vaguest idea of who Cassiopeia was, if only from her status and reputation, but didn't have much of an idea on the girl regardless. She was certainly happy to be working along with them, even if she had no idea how it was that the two were having a conversation with each other. The girl then raised an eyebrow at Aeon's comment about stagnation but that broke way for a child like smile as she was asked about the coming fight. "Oh you better believe it. Like you said it's not really a fair fight with the bunch of us going," she assumed Cassiopeia was strong in her own way, "and well, I'm a villain. Fair is never really what matters. It's all about what's fun. And the more they try to cheat the better it'll be."

With Sabrina moving towards the spire in the south and the rest of the group presumably following after her, or not it was a free country after all, they would notice that the rain started to pick up. The skies had grown darker still, the thunder continued to relentlessly resound throughout the plains and there was even some wind starting to pick up. Though they hadn't quite hit the deluge phase of the rain yet were they not presently the Exalted a rain jacket would certainly be appreciated. It wasn't as if they were immune to the effects of the rain nor did having died give them the ability to dodge the rain, but instead their body's temperature had seemed remarkably stable. They could feel the temperature or the rain and they could feel the rain hitting them itself, but it didn't seem to make them any warmer or colder overall. As they approached the spire, or just Sabrina as once again it was a free country, they would also notice that they weren't the only ones that had had this idea. Standing by the pillar was some humanoid looking figures and next to them was...something. It was big, it was a bit of a rough shape but it also look like it was completely covered by some kind of tarp. They couldn't really make out more details then that though, both of the figures and the object next to them as the rain, darkness and wind were obscuring their vision. How they, or she if singular, would proceed a simple narrator could not know.

With the turn having been passed to her Fen said, "well, my turn." The girl looked at the only card in her hand and figured that there was no reason not to play it. "I summon Papa-Corn. And it gains 1000 attack points because there is a field spell on the field." The sentient corn man huffed as the dagger he was wielding extended into a full blown sword, his attack spiking from 1200 to 2700 attack. Fen hadn't done the math wrong, with her monster being just 100 attack short of beating the Goblin Attack Force, and she didn't really have a way to further it either. But she figured having something this threatening looking was better than just defending and passing anyway. "Uh, I end my turn." Fiona draws. She looked at her card and let out a sigh. "Finally, this'll work. I think you've held onto that spell long enough, Melissa. So I activate Double Cyclone. By targeting one of my spells and one of yours I can destroy them both. So I choose Terrors in the Hidden City and my face down, Anti-Magic Arrows." "Terrors in the Hidden City has a bonus effect, though," Melissa said. "When it's destroyed, I get to Special Summon a monster from my graveyard to face-down Defense Position. I'll choose, um," after a moment of deliberation Melissa continued. "I'll choose Magician of Faith," Melissa said, sliding the face-down card down onto the board. "Yeah yeah well that's enough. Now I activate Acid Trap Hole, and target the face down you summoned on your turn." "Ah, I see why you said that earlier," Melissa said. "Yes, you got my Magician of Faithfulness." Fiona glanced between the two players, specifically at their face-downs, then shook her head. "Well, guess we'll see. I attack your...Corn." "I think I should hold onto this just in case," Melissa said, "Sorry, Fen" "Oh it's quite alright." Fen removed the card from the field as her life points were whittled down a bit. (Fen LP 1700 --> 1600) Truthfully she had been hoping to take some of the pressure off Melissa anyway. After all, she couldn't do anything about the goblin attack force on the field and figured that Melissa having more monsters on the field was better than her. And so Fiona's turn had come to an end and passed back to Melissa. OOC

After standing around and discussing the next plan of action it was likely that the group had intended to follow through on this course of thought. They would obstacles to their plans, however. As while the animals hadn't been exactly secret as to the fact that they lived in the hills and burrows that they had created within them to shelter themselves from the coming storm they weren't exactly obvious either. As they were paying attention carefully it was still doable enough to see through the patchwork camouflage that they had set up, though the speed at which the animals had managed to set such a cover up was commendable in its own way. The second problem they had found, though, was not so easily circumvented. They would have noticed that a large majority of the animals that they had seen scampering about were small and their hovels were equally small as a result. With these smaller hovels in mind, there was no way that the group would be able to actually fit inside of them as they were not sized for humans to move through. Though even this was a solvable problem for they had seen animals that were quite sizeable and, even if not meant for humans, would be able to fit the party well enough. However, this came with its own measure of risk that thinking about it for a moment would solve. Animals by nature were quite protective of their territory, as such they were likely to have to come to blows with anything that lived in these hovels that would fit them. And so their options for shelter were now as follows. The large animal hovels. Perhaps they could reason with whatever was in there, though being animals only the more hopeful individuals would think this an option, and even in the hypothetical situation that they could communicate with the animals the likelihood of reaching a diplomatic conclusion was quite small. The elephant in the field. Perhaps it could provide some cover? It certainly didn't seem to mind lying down with the coming storm. And then there were the black spires. There was one southward, which they were getting closer to though still some distance from. One - or maybe a few? - westward which was a bit further away from them as the southern one. And the one northward that was much further away now. The rain had still been only a few drops at a time, though the wildlife had seemed to react almost instantly to this shift in climate so who knew how long such peaceful waters would last.

Carmen had looked to the door that had Brian had pointed at before. The girl gulped at the prospect of having to go through the door in front of her, knowing that unknown thresholds were always the scariest to cross. The girl hastily walked up to it only to take the last few steps to the door at an exceptionally slow pace. Her whole body was quivering as she looked at the door in front of her, gulping every step of the way, and examined it. It was, at the end of the day, just an ordinary door. The kind that she had had no problem opening any other point in her life. And as she reached out her hand to open it, shaking as she clutched the handle, she would find that this time was no different either. Opening the door she would see that beyond the door was a hallway. And beyond the hallway, or rather as a part of it, was a split. To the left, she did not know. To the right, a staircase. The girl stood at the threshold, paralyzed at the thought of having to actually cross the doorway for fear of something - anything - jumping out and tearing her limb from limb. Or maybe some kind of spectral entity would make its presence known and mess with her in some kind of manner. However, it was just a hallway. There was nothing she could see and having opened the door it was possible that she had already caused herself to be permanently haunted. A downcast expression on her face as she stared the ground, shivering still, a wry smile appeared on her panicked face as she said, "I-I'm doomed anyway....heh..." Before gulping one last time and crossing into the hallway. The instant her foot went into the next room she immediately felt something off. She had every instinct to run away from the door but flight or fight was no longer an option as she had been locked into her choice to walk through the door already. Both gravity and momentum were working against her body and it wasn't as if she could react in any way other than simply noticing. And so she stepped through the door. Into a room. She looked to the right. There was the water cooler with the now oddly placed trash can in front of it. She looked to the left. There was Brian by the printer. The girl didn't say anything at first. Paralyzed at the idea of what had just happened. What had just happened? She had left the room and ended up in the same room, albeit at the opposite end of it. She knew what the hallway looked like and it wasn't this. A thought that she had entered a room that was the exact replica of where she was and now she was in some kind of bizarre copy space entered her head and to see if this was true the girl could only think to back up. Take a single step back through the door she had just come from. And now the hallway was in front of her again. Blinking rapidly trying to process the curse that this building seemed to be under, she simply looked over to Brian, who was in fact still in the same spot. With a terrified expression on her face the girl let out a, "ehhhhhhh?"

As the ghoul got ready to move towards her, Lana locked eyes with the creature. Based on how it had moved before it was fast enough to get away from her swing and, unlike every other undead she had fought thus far, actually seemed to be somewhat aware. Annoyed at having to deal with an actually thinking opponent, Lana tried to slow herself down as well. She could feel the numbness in her arm hindering her a bit and knew that the straight forward approach didn't really work with the mindless zombies so it was probably not going to work against something that could think. Taking a deep breath, Lana shifted her grip up the haft of her great axe and readying herself as the ghoul made its charge towards her. Thrusting the axe head forward, the ghoul swiftly ducked under her attack opening its jaws and readying to bite down on her. Gritting her teeth she grunted as she swung her axe above her and as result the haft of the weapon into the ghoul's face. With the wooden pole stunning it the girl shouted, "just die again!" bringing her axe down onto the creature's shoulder. Her numbed arm was starting to lose the strength behind it, and even with gravity on her side she didn't manage to do nearly as much damage with her axe as normal. "Tsk," the girl could start to more plainly feel the weight of the axe, her still good arm straining more as most of the burden of carrying it started to transfer to it. Needing to use more than just her arms to dislodge her axe, the girl kicked the ghoul, pushing it away as she pulled her weapon back. The ghoul, however, wasn't stunned by this for long as it lashed its claws out at her. Off balance, Lana pulled her leg back hastily and as a result ended up falling on her face. Letting go of her axe, feeling that she couldn't properly get up if she was still holding it, and letting it fall to stone floor of the mausoleum she was at, Lana stood back up. Using her good arm to ready her hand axe she kept a watchful gaze on the ghoul. It, in turn, seemed perched up on all fours, as if trying to get a read on her. The two of them were both waiting for their moment to strike but, with a shorter weapon and a bummed arm the girl didn't think she would win a direct clash again. It was then that the girl thought of something. While she had won the last clash, that was mostly on instinct. But, what if she could plan to do something like that? This time, Lana had been the first to make the move, charging towards the ghoul. As the girl readied her axe to swing, once in range, the ghoul instinctively dodged away from her attack as it had each previous time. However, Lana had never swung the axe. It had never dodged an attack as there was no attack to dodge to begin with. Smiling as she caught the ghoul in its movement the girl said, "gotcha," and swung her axe for real this time, burying it into the undead's skull. Pulling out her axe and letting out a sigh she looked over to Chris shouting, "how's it going with the lock?"

Jacklyn gave a smile to Annelise as she had tried to speak to Cherry with her adventurous spirit. The girl felt that there was something lacking in it, but could tell the effort was there at least so they could work on making something of an adventurer out of her later. "Wait really?" She said to Anneliese's comment on the fact that she had something like this before. "I wonder if there are other weird colored pokemon out there." Cherry, for her part, was a bit confused why this new human woman was so speaking so intensely to her but let out a "bu!" that sounded both like it was confident and completely unsure at the same time. As Anima made their way and gave their greeting, there was a much cheerier and less confused response from the Buneary. Cherry then stared at Confi, waiting for its greeting before letting out another cheerful, "bu" to the Corsola. Jacklyn also looked at Anima more closely as Anneliese had pointed out how rough they looked. "Whoa, she's right. You look like you've already been diving head first into this adventure! Nnnn," the girl mulled for a moment before saying, "as your leader I should be proud for how readily you've been adventuring but I feel like I'm falling behind. Oh well!" The girl clapped her hands together to refocus herself. "All that matters is that I - we! - keep pressing forward!" With newfound resolve Jacklyn was ready to tackle her way through any challenge that had come their way. The next challenge for the group to face was the night. Specifically being able to weather or, sleep through it or some kind of thing like that. As Anneliese had made her comment Jacklyn smiled and nodded along saying, "yeah I'm pretty stoked to build a tent too! Don't worry, I've watched tons of videos," or just a few, "and read up a lot," or a web page or two, "on how to build tents so I'm sure I can do it no problem!" Once they had settled down, eager as she was and without waiting for anyone else's say, the girl gone to take all of the tent supplies out of its container before saying, "as for a fire, that's where my handy dandy partner Rus comes in. He can make fire instantly," the girl looked around saying, "though I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to start a fire on a grass...hmmmm...Well, I'm sure we can deal with any problem anyway, Corsola's a water type anyway right?"

Sibyl gave a little bit of a clap at the end of Override's speech, repeating, "one thousand victories, hell yeah!" Of course, she had barely been paying attention to what he was saying, having tuned out most of it - outside of knowing that he said her name at some point - but he spoke with a lot of confidence and she felt that had to count for something. She, similarly, tuned out most of the rest of the talks between the higher ups as they had decided on the next course of action. It was only at the end that she heard something that caused her to refocus. There was a Renegade who had a plan to locate the head honcho they were looking for, but the plan itself didn't concern her. No, she heard that he was a tinker. She also heard the distinct way he said Caesar's name which she knew was something that the Gibbons did. Blankly staring into space, it was as if suddenly a thread of information connected in her head as she put her fist to her palm in realization. When it came time to figure out what to do next Sibyl raised her hand saying, "oh, I volunteer! No sweat there. But I'm not really a "raid strike team" kinda person. Well I am, or I can be but I like to vibe with the bigger crowds you know?" Before getting a response from anyone though, Sibyl rushed off after the Renegade. As he was waiting for the hero assigned to him to come over he said, "hey you - oh hey Minos - you said you were a Tinker in Caesar's area right?" Minos gave a small wave. "I did yes." "Sick, so you ever hear of something called like a Rubix Con or uh, no that's not it..." Putting her hand to her head and tapping her foot rapidly the girl exclaimed, "oh! Rubicon! There we go."\ He paused for longer than one might expect there. "They -- Gibbons people -- were recruiting about it earlier this week," he said. "Some friends of mine mentioned taking an interesting sort of job. I only have a few details. Where did you hear about this?" "Straight from the horse's, well, Hound's mouth." The man relaxed a little at Hellhound's mention. "Well, if they said it..." he said. "Sorry, you understand Caesar wouldn't want me to be here. If he thinks I'm a liability, he'd target me personally." "Well that's what you have me for, right?" Minos chimed in. "And, uh, whatshisname too." "Override, yes. Here is what I do know, then: Caesar wanted Tinkers from all across the spectrum, right? But that feels contradictory to me. You wouldn't expect a biotech tinker to sus out what someone who deals in clockworks is doing. And yet... So whatever Project Rubicon is, it's bound to be unstable. But maybe that's why he needs more people like us." "Huh, crazy." The girl similarly didn't know what to make of this and instead just felt proud in her own ability to chase a lead down to this extent. "Well, if you hear anything more be sure to let me or I guess someone else know. You can find my deets on the web easy enough I'm sure. Later." She said, before walking back to the main group.

With the night having passed, the group was ready as they could hear the shifting of the forest around them. While Ryia herself was ready for combat right off the bat, what she was not ready for was for a man to come and approach them and speak directly. It was clear he was not alone and it was clear that he was ready to fight as he introduced his presence. Ryia was naturally taken off guard by his entirely human, if not a bit unkempt, appearance though remembered again that this was just what Lycans did. Though, he was certainly less feral than she was expecting. As Lindow and him began speaking with one another, a clear tension in the air between the two, Ryia was intrigued by the information on the demon gate. The idea that it wasn't above ground was certainly familiar to her, after all the last one they had found was in an underground ruin. Of course, trying to tunnel everywhere in this forest was both disrespectful and not particularly practical. Besides it would've had to either been placed not in the immediate forest or moved there. And if the werewolf didn't know, who of course he could've been withholding information, there was only one other group that made their home in the forest. Stepping up, now feeling more able to partake in the conversation, the girl asked "um, have you uh...noticed anything strange about the forest. Uh, recently, that is?" He looked at Ryia silently. Looking her up and down. Then he grinned and said, "hm, not bad I suppose." He didn't answer right away then finally said, "Besides that the outskirts are dying, and the animals are all worked up, not much I guess." Troubled, both by his appraisal of her and the first part of his answer, the girl asked, "the uh, outskirts are dying?" She'll also look over to Cym and Pan as well on this. Neither elf seemed to notice her question; Cym looking back and forth rapidly while Pan stared unblinkingly at the man. "What, didn't you see? Even a human should have been able to tell." the man replied. "Ah...yeah, I suppose that was the case..." She said thinking back to when they had first entered the forest. There wasn't much in way of life to greet them and while she probably thought it strange at the time there was a plethora of new experiences the past few days that took her mind away from them. Feeling incredibly awkward about the entire situation the girl gave a polite bow and said, "um, thank you for the info." "You humans are such funny creatures. One of you wants to fight, and right next to him you're acting so meek. It's no wonder your kind die so easily." He laughed more, echoed by howls all around. "Six" Keres said suddenly. "So they are..." The girl muttered to herself, realizing that they were in fact besieged by wolf people. A troubled expression was still on her face as she knew what this was going to lead to. Looking at the man directly, "do you uh...really want to eat us?" "Well, those animals look to have much more meat on them. But, food is food." He chuckled. "But maybe I'll bring you back, you look like a stronger woman than those others at least." "I see...You seem um, well, reasonable enough? Or uh, talkative at least, so I'd uh...really rather...well, if you could just not. I don't want to have to fight and I'd um, well, I uh...would really like it if we could all be peaceful with each other. Um, elves too..." She didn't want to engage in combat with the minotaurs where they last were, and just because they were people who also had bestial traits didn't mean they couldn't be reasoned with or had to be outright killed. "Well isn't that nice. What about him, then." He looked at Lindow. "I can tell, he's a killer. He can't wait to get started." Then at Reinaan. "The boy there seems more wild than you, too. No, they came here to take my head for sure." He then smiled wide. "And her. Look at her eyes and tell me she wants any sort of peace." Looking back, Ryia saw that Madelyn's expression was one of utter contempt towards the lycan. Though, that expression was something of a common place one for Madelyn, she couldn't exactly just say that and it certainly didn't negate her feelings either. Nor did she doubt Lindow and Reinaan were more than willing to get into a fight. A bit deflated as she didn't know how to continue with such peace talks, the girl said, "I uh...I suppose not..."

With the two of them having made it to the office building proper, Carmen was a bit hesitant to go into yet another haunted building so soon. The plain and mundane office building before her had its own sort of dread to begin with, more to do with the general horrors of an average 9-5 work shift and having to work in office filled with people. It was like school only she was even more likely to get yelled at for not doing her work properly. "But...that sorta happens already...hehe..." The girl mumbled and quietly laughed to herself at this, as Brian began to talk about his discontent with the job. Carmen hadn't even thought about their lack of knowledge with what they were dealing with, feeling nervous to actually walk through the door at all for fear that it could cause some kind of paranormal happenings. Letting out a sigh, as they began gearing up to head into the building, Carmen had the presence of mind to take two flashlights with her this time. That way if one was unruefully taken from her grasp again she had a back up. With her mediocre perpetrations complete, the girl walked in after Brian only to find that her worst fears were in fact confirmed upon entering the office building. Which was to say, it was in fact a regular old office building that you could see on any TV show. That happened to take place in an office at least. As she began her own investigation of the area she looked around before deciding to go the scariest place. The place where one was most likely to chance any kind of encounter in an office building. The water cooler. Looking at the half empty cooler, the girl flicked it with her hand, seeing if anything jumped out. When nothing did she thought that there was a chance that there could be some kind of strange ghost or haunt, possessing the cooler itself that would be triggered upon the use of it. With trembling hands she reached out, getting ready to push the tab down before she realized she had no cup to put the water in. While this was not particularly vital to her experiment she thought it would be rude to splash water on the floor and that anyone watching via a security camera would see her do that and chew her out later at her own home. The legal fines alone were enough to scare the girl into being considerate. Unfortunately for her there were no cups to use, as they were all currently in the small waste bin to the side of the cooler. Looking at the bin, then the cooler, the girl cautiously made her way over to it, shuffling the garbage can under the cooler directly. Gulping nervously, she flipped the cooler on to let water flow from it. And...nothing happened. Well, the cups got wet as water did indeed come out but there was no ghost or anything that had come to attack her. Letting out a sigh of relief the girl then stiffened up again as she realized that she had actually made no real progress in the investigation and the unknown was still just as unknown. So, she instead moved her search to the desk nearby. It seemed pretty standard; a cup filled with pens, a computer and a photo a dachshund wearing a deerstalker hat and a collar with a tag that read "Sherlock." The girl let out an audible, "heh," at this before looking at the desk. Nothing seemed completely out of the ordinary and the computer didn't seem to be on either. The girl decided to confront her fears once more, doing exactly as she had with the cooler and, trembling, had moved to turn on the computer. Nothing happened. The girl let out a sigh of relief as nothing happened. Then, froze again. Nothing had happened. That was certainly not normal. The girl gulped nervously, remembering the flickering lights from the last mission before she looked to the photo of the dog. "What would you do Sherlock?"

As the questioning between the princess and the maid continued, Alois let out a sigh as it seemed that this was getting them nowhere. As Penelope turned to Alois, suggesting what was about to happen, he simply said, "yeah yeah alright." Placing more pressure on the maid's arms the boy said, "so a noble's a noble eh? Sure, but where do you think you'll find your next paycheck from? A disgraced asshole who left you here to fend for yourself? One that's probably gonna die or be thrown in jail in the next few hours anyway. Or better yet, where do you think you'll find employment as a killer without arms?" The woman attempted to shift in place, gritting her teeth when she couldn't move. "Tough talk from Sir Noodle Arms 'imself. E'en wivvout arms I could take ye, one on one, when yer not hidin' behind some bird's skirts." Alois's brow furrowed, clear annoyance on his face as he said, "alright." With his patience with this woman having been tested and already having the go ahead from Penelope he let go of one of her arms, bringing a knee to her gut before she could move and taking a hard swing at the woman's face. Resuming his hold the boy glared at her. "I'm not a professional at this, I'm just pissed. So I'll keep doing this until my employer tells me not to, and I've taken stronger folks arms then yours." A pause, before a very obviously annoyed, "bitch." "Oof," the woman let out a grunt, eyes going unfocused for a moment before she leaned her head sideways and spat at his feet. "Fine, fine." She laughed in a crackly voice. "Whaddaya wanna know? I'm warnin' ya, though. I don't know nuffin'." Giving a wry smile Alois said, "that's the spirit. Alright, first, what were you hired for?" "I was hired to look after 'is lordship." The maid smiled. "I clean the place, cook the meals, and if'n the worst comes to pass an' a group of bullies like you come along, I protect 'im." "Was ''is lordship'," a clear mock in his tone as he referred to Gaston as such, "the one who hired you?" "Who else?" the maid spat. "Sure, 'e ain't the friendliest, but at least 'e pays well." "Alright let's try this then. Has he ever talked with any other nobles you've seen, around here or otherwise?" "Not that I've seen. Ye can ask any o' the villagers about that. They'd be on it quicker 'an flies on honey. Just can't shut their yaps when it comes to gossip." Unsatisfied, Alois sighs for a moment before saying, "fine. Last question then. The princess- the bigger one that came in here not her. What happened to her?" "Oh, her. She got drunk an' passed out. I helped put 'er to bed in the guest room meself. Ain't seen 'er since but I ain't been payin' attention, what wiv everyfing going on and you standin' here 'olding me arms hostage." The maid scoffed. "Great," Alois said curtly. Turning to Penelope he said, "well, we've already searched every guest room there is and there hasn't been any trace of Cat. At least we know what happened." Turning back to the maid he said, "now, see, was answering a few questions really so hard?" With Gaston no longer being on his horse, Tsetseg kept her bow at the ready to fire an arrow off if he tried anything against either Cora or Link. She got an arrow ready and was about to pull it back just to prepare, when she spotted something else. She had been aware of the wyvern, obviously, the whole time and had been somewhat conscious of its actions even though Gaston falling off his horse had given her a brief lapse in spotting it. But she noticed it was no longer doing anything, save for staring back at her. The girl locked eyes with it, seeming to understand that there was some kind of a challenge being provided from it on an instinctual level, letting out a growl to match its own. Hers was, of course, much less intimidating coming from a smaller, human, body though perhaps was equally as so for that very reason. While she had a half mind to respond to it with actual violence, as it was no longer attacking anything and Gaston was running, Tsetseg had to put her grudge behind herself for a moment. Pulling back her arrow, she broke the staring contest with the wyvern as she fired it towards Gaston's leg, attempting to keep the hysterical man from fleeing in anyway.

"Right, well, um, my turn. Draw." After a brief pause, Fen then looked at her cards for a moment and then looked back to the field at hand. She was pretty sure things were looking pretty bad for them, and Melissa's field was wide open now with Fen not having any way to prevent a direct attack on the girl. Add to that while her Nettles was surely able to overcome the Ant, it would only put Melissa even closer to losing if the rest of Fiona's monsters were anything to go by. And Fen barely had anything in her deck to stand up to those things. It was then that the girl looked at the cards in her hand more closely before perking up, figuring she had something for this. "Oh, okay. So, I summon Bacon Saver in attack mode. And well, now I have Nettles attack Self Destruct Ant." And so sentient grass destroyed the bomb ant. (Fiona LP 6500 --> 6300) "Well, as my ant is destroyed, I will have it do 1000 damage to....how about you take it this time, Melissa?" "Alright, that makes sense." (Melissa LP 2500 -> 1500) "And so well, next Bacon Saver attacks directly." (Fiona LP 6300 --> 5600) "Next, I'll go and activate my spell card Mystik Wok. So, Bacon Saver is tributed to give me 700 life points." Placing the two cards in the grave and having her Life Points raise in turn the girl said, "and uh, yeah, that's my turn." (Fen LP 1600 --> 2300) Fiona drew a card and before even looking at it said "Well first of all, I play Pot of Avarice. Bringing these Monsters back into my deck, and then drawing two more cards." She then looked at her cards and smiled. "And now I summon her, Traptrix Atrax. With Gaia Power out this little angel has 2300 Attack." She glanced over at Fen, and frowned a moment, before turning her gaze to Melissa. "Now lets see what happens when I attack Melissa directly." “Oh, well I activate my Bacon Saver. Who uh, negates your attack.” "How shocking." Fiona said with a sigh. "I will set one card and that will be that. Oh, what a scary situation I've found myself in." Fen for her part smiled earnestly, her plan having gone off without a hitch and looking to Melissa as if to tell her that she had her back. OOC

With the group having met back up again, Lana grimaced at the sight of the shadow darting away from the light and listened to what Estelle had said about their mystery enemy. "Great. More magical zombies to deal with." The girl let out a heavy sigh before Estelle asked if they were injured at all. While it was true that she had gotten a small hit from the zombie earlier Lana didn't really think it was something so urgent that she needed healing from. After just shaking her head no, the girl looked towards the mausoleum near them. There was a door on the east side of the building, and as she made her way over to the rest of the group she was able to notice that there was a second door on the southern side. Not wanting to just blindly wade further into the mist and deal with the creepy staring shadow zombie thing, or the what sounded like a zombie coming from the north end of the room, the girl walked over to the mausoleum to check it out. After all it was the biggest point of interest in the room. "I'm gonna try to open it," the girl declared as she paused, grimacing and saying, "uh, get ready if anything crazy jumps out." Walking up to the door, the girl placed her hand on the door and pushed, only to find that it didn't budge at all. Looking at the door, she noticed that there was a keyhole on the door of it, and started saying, "hey Chris, the door's locked do you think you could-" The sound of something running towards her interrupted her and the sudden clawing of her arm made her swear under her breath. The girl reflexively looked to the side, seeing the figure of a ghoul that attacked her, before swinging her axe immediately towards it. The ghoul dodged backwards from her attack and Lana herself was starting to feel her arm numb, a familiar sensation though not quite the full paralysis she had encountered on the last floor. As she cursed under her breath again, the girl saw a skeleton approaching with a sword in hand. Her mood only turning fouler the girl said, "oh great more of them. Ugh, alright." The girl gripped her axe, her annoyance growing as the numbed arm wasn't gripping quite as tightly as she'd like. "Stupid undead." OOC New Map

With the job having been finished and Carmen having gone home, she did not immediately get to bed. How could she? After all, she had yet another harrowing life or death experience with the paranormal and while even her paranoid mind was able to figure out that that specific ghost was not going to be a problem to her anymore, she didn't know if there was anything else that would appear in the middle of the night to attack her. And well, she probably would've been awake at this time of the night regardless of her job anyway. So, getting home, the girl walked into her apartment room, booting up her PC and taking out her tablet. With stylus pen in hand, the girl started to draw feverishly into the early morning. When she awoke next it was already three in the afternoon. Slowly picking her head up off her desk, having fallen asleep there, the girl briefly recoiled as she looked at her screen. In part because what she had drawn had evoked the same feelings of unease from last night; a picture depicting two girls making their way through what was presumably a school corridor in the middle of the night, a flash light being their only guide and just behind them lurking in the darkness was a strange humanoid looking figure covered in seaweed, as if it just emerged from a bog, stalking them from the darkness. The second reason this caused her to recoil was because she had drawn a few unnecessary lines all over the place when she was falling asleep and had to get rid of those before posting it to her blog. After she corrected her work, Carmen went about her day as normal. Eating a cup of instant noodles and a bagel for lunch, lamenting at the state of the pantry and just watching videos on art, the paranormal and random cooking videos, granting herself knowledge that she would never make use of. It wasn't until she was up for a few more hours that she realized she didn't have anything for dinner and was probably going to need food soon. It was then that she received a message from Shiki. While the girl was typically incredibly wary of clicking any strange link from even a trusted source, she didn't dare not to click something that Shiki had sent her. Checking Shiki's messages, though, were never enjoyable and this one in specific was almost like one of those cursed chain mails, making her wonder if she'd have to send it to ten other people - she didn't even have ten other people to send it to! - or be cursed. Thankfully that was not the case. Unthankfully it was essentially a posting for a new job. Letting out a defeated groan, the girl decided to get her shopping out of the way now before the mission fully started. After a brief trip to the convenience store, bags of snacks and instant meals in hand, the girl was shocked and unnerved to find that pulling up to her was none other than Shiki's van. That Shiki knew where she was even when not at home was nothing short of unsettling and the girl was terrified to get closer to it, until the door opened to reveal that it was just Brian. While the man certainly didn't give her any sense of comfort she had at least worked with him and knew him to be not a ghost, or she at least believed he wasn't, and that he was stuck in the same situation as her made her reluctance to get into the car both more evident but easier to work through. "Ugh...I barely started my day..." The girl groaned as she walked on board. She placed her groceries down in the van and then was startled, hopping in place as the radio had Shiki's voice come through it. "I don't want to go someplace like that but uh, I guess...we should go?"

When all was said and done Chester was filled with renewed zeal and an inner strength that allowed him to stride to Jirachi and the others, ready to take on and tackle any problem that may have come their way. Of course he stood resolutely and fearless towards the coming light that encroached upon them, no matter the half assurances that Jirachi had given them and the rather ominous way the light had moved towards them. He knew that he was here to save the world and with everyone else at his side, even if he didn't know all of them fully, he could most certainly do it. Of course this unshakable confidence was briefly shaken by the disorienting sensation of being teleported but the metaphorical fall was only brief before he metaphorically rose through such discomfort in an equally short amount of time. With the blinding light having faded and his eyes and sense of balance having adjusted to the new environment, Chester could tell definitely feel the ominous presence of the woods that they were in, made only more ominous by the encroaching mist coming upon them. Jirachi had mentioned that their goal would either be a success of failure here, but Chester had not gotten to where he was today by simply believing he would fail at every turn. No, he was here to save the world, work alongside his comrades and help them all return home safely and no obstacle of madness or violence would stop him. Of course such gusto would get him nowhere if he simply charged forward, only more evident as Jirachi had made their advice known about what to do. Chester looked at the badge he was given, clenching onto it in stubby hand as he directed his mind to happier thoughts. Chester could only remember his time on the forums. He had no memory of what his life was outside of that, what his world was like. He didn't know who he associated with, what he did for a living was or even what his current goals were. He knew that he was going to school and working feverishly towards a degree of some kind, but he didn't ever really mention what major, why he wanted it or even how close he was to attaining it. But he didn't need what he couldn't remember to give him satisfaction. In fact, he was already satisfied, perhaps already living his best life on the forum. Sure his job as a moderator was stress inducing; bots continually appearing to spam the thread with who knew what, the populace constantly going at each other's throats for one reason or another, making sure rules were followed and requests were listened to and even having to pester other moderators about things that were currently non-functional with the site. He didn't mind any hate or jeering he got from the crowd because at the end of the day he was doing his job and he liked his job. But that was abstract and while it evoked a feeling of pride in him it was hardly the all encompassing joy that was probably needed for such a wish. So he only needed to go back further. He had always loved this community, from the very first day he joined in it. As cheesy as it may have been it was the truth. He loved the vast wealth of knowledge that everyone had collaborated together and making, he enjoyed the in depths discussions about games and pastimes that he actually loved. Sure there was times where it was stressful, there were times where he didn't get along with others and an innumerable times he was heckled for being an "ass kisser" or "mini mod," but those didn't bother him too much. After all he was the one following the rules and he was the one typically being civil. But, if that's how they wanted to view him than so be it. He always felt that he was working towards the communities best interest, and if people were mad at him for working with the mods and already "doing a mod's job," then there was only one thing to do about that. Chester was starting to realize that he perhaps was more of a competitive person then he first gave himself credit for. After all, he wanted to be a mod for altruistic means but he certainly couldn't deny the catharsis that came with proving the naysayers either wrong or right, depending on how you looked at it, and gaining his mod ship. He felt ecstatic that day the position was crowned onto him, though. And beyond the feeling of competitive triumph there was an overwhelming sense of pride and bliss as he had been the one chosen by the mods to become the next mod and he was similarly accepted by the people. Sure there was jokes and jeers about it, but the idea that it was an "obvious choice" made the validation granted from even the negative comments all the better. And so, pouring that joy and sense of accomplishment into his badge, into the vision of a clearer, brighter forest and WISHED.