Skaia

Fen was quite glad that Melissa seemed happy with her team name suggestion. It was something that she had really thought up on the spur of the moment, and she was glad that both terms were something Melissa was also already familiar with. The girl then listened to the others talk about the nature of squads over breakfast until it was finally time to clean up. The girl had helped put away the dishes along with Melissa, and then saw Penelope out along with the rest of the group. As Melissa asked her last question to Penelope, she responded, "I would think so, we're all in this together and I'm sure there's many things you all can tell me about different worlds. I can't exactly ignore that chance. Not to mention...well, actually, I suppose I won't mention that just yet." Fen raised an eyebrow at her statement, but smiled and waved the Strategic girl off as well. "Well it was a pleasure to meet you as well Penelope. I hope we call work with your squad one day in the future." Once the girl had left, Fen looked to the others. Nodding to Trevor she said, "thanks for reporting to Mauvache for us." Then, to Melissa, the girl excitedly said, "I'm ready to go and learn more about trading cards!" With that, the two of them had left and went to the mall. Fen continued to be in awe of how much of a one stop shop this massive building was, and after a bit of meandering they had found their way to a game shop of sorts. While Fen hadn't been sure what to expect, outside of cards, she found that there was far more to this shop then just that. Large boxes and books that were all over the wall and near the counter. Grab bags and boxes of dice coming in more shapes then she thought possible with both more and less sides then she had ever seen on one. Incredibly detail, incredibly small stauettes that also adorned the counter. And of course, lots and lots of cards. A bit overwhelmed by all of it, Fen looked to Melissa asking, "so uh, where do we start?"

Boss Music Part 2 The axe wielding armored guardian had pick its axe back up, not injured any further as the duo went to make a plan. As they were getting ready, the armored being began to charge at Sabrina who in turn seemed ready to enact Gene's plan. "Uh! I guess we're going now!" Sabrina said as she ran towards the armor. The two combatants closed in on each other and as the armor went for a heavy horizontal swing Sabrina ducked under the attack to strike at it with a slash of her own. The scythe found purchase, cutting into the armor once more and making water spray out again, all while avoiding being bisected in the process. As the armored guardian began to right itself Sabrina would realize that she was now crouched in swinging range of this axe wielding being, something that perhaps would've been a problem if not for Gene swooping from behind her and going for a cut of his own against the armored creature's leg, causing a streak of water to come as it had from every other wound. The attention of the axe armored was immediately taken as it turned its body to face the boy, axe already at the ready to be swung. Gene had opted to take a parrying stance against the creature, and would find that once more as his blade made contact with the axe he was clearly no match for it in a battle of pure strength. His blade was tossed aside again as the axe muscled through it from brute strength alone and moved towards Gene's unguarded torso. Once more, pain shot through the boy as an axe buried into his side, vibrations from the sound magic also coursing through him. Gene would find his consciousness begin to slip and fatigue begin to set in as he now had two wounds from his axe to show for his troubles. Though he was still able to move, much the same as he had before, it was becoming incredibly clear to him that he could not keep this up for much longer. The spear wielding armored guardian skidded a bit on its feet as it was recovering from the hit it took. However once it got its footing back, it had opted to stay where it was instead of go forward like it had last time. Seemingly now aware of the danger that approaching these two possessed it opted for a different strategy. It leaped back before planting its feet into the ground, reeling back its arm as the entirety of the spear seemed to crackle with electricity, intensifying by the second. Abby would soon find her request to Marshall fulfilled, as once the creature had finished its wind up, it launched the spear at high speeds towards the small girl.

Lana had been running alongside everyone up until the point the large hulking creature had started to barrel its way towards them. Frightened of the creature and seeing the others being the one it was chasing after Lana decided to enact a plan that would give her a better a chance at dealing with someone she would've wanted to. So, she ran opposite the direction of everyone else, and with Chris asking for someone to deal with the cultists well, that was already Lana's plan here. Not being able to see their faces and seeing that they were vaguely humanoid shape, Lana felt a bit odd thinking she was just about to charge some random person in the middle of the dungeon. Even if everything they had met so far had been out to kill them. "Hey uh, you better stop that big thing...or else!" She unthreateningly threatened. Seeing that there was no change in demeanor and feeling on edge as it was, the girl readied her axe and charged the cultist. The cultist readied its dagger and raised an almost skeletal, with how bony and pale it was, arm from under its robes. Lana, heedless to danger, swung her axe down against the cultist who attempted to deflect it with its dagger. The axe powered through the dagger with little effort and she slashed into the creature's body, only to then feel its hand touch her and send a chill through her body. Wincing, which turned into a grimace, as she felt the cold sting and flow through her, the girl then noticed her axe had started to feel heavier. "Oh great, more tiring magic," the girl grumbled before pulling her axe back and going for another swing, stepping away from the side without the dagger as she did. Estelle, meanwhile, had been running along with the rest of the group. Seeing Ziun's efforts to bring the beast down, she cast a spell to empower the lad's rapier.

Carmen only continued to groan in discomfort as Brian began to press her for an answer...or didn't? She wasn't entirely sure on that but she was certainly certain that he was quite angry with how she was acting. But, there was not much else the girl could do in this situation. She was scared out of her wits and she wanted to only partake in as much scary things as were particularly necessary. As the boy's bathroom was not her domain to investigate she figured that she would be better off just not doing anything at all. Of course, having someone angry with her while her face was buried into a table in a place she knew was haunted was actually incredibly unnerving. Every moment that he stopped moving or paused she briefly wondered if he had gotten eaten by a ghost or not, and the idea of lifting her head up to see him either dead, vanished, or a ghost in his place was similarly terrifying. Realizing that she had put herself into a no win situation, the girl slowly lifted her head up to see the paper seal with a cryptic string of numbers on it that she had to take a moment to parse was in fact a phone number. Looking up fully to see that Brian was still there and waiting for her answer on the matter, the girl had a clear discouraged frown on her face. Matter of factly the girl stated, "Shiki is scary and ghosts are scary." As if this was all the explanation that she needed to give as to why she was here in the first place. "But, well, uh, um...I don't really want to go back because uh," the girl pointed to the flashlight in Brian's hand. "And I don't want to talk on the phone since well, if you got attacked by a ghost I don't want to hear that second hand. That would be kind of spooky in its own right and I would have to hear you screaming from two places at once but on a delay, unless you just vanished which might be even worse over the phone but then I guess I'd just be sitting here waiting for you to never come out and get murdered by a ghost myself. I guess it's better than dying in a bathroom though but a school is still a bad place to go in...I guess you never can escape school, hehehehehe...." The girl chuckled to herself after giving a longwinded chat to herself, pulling out her phone and calling the number on the slip. Looking much calmer then she was before, though still having the expression of a nervous puppy, the girl pointed to the boy's bathroom. "Oh uh, but I still can't go in there."

Sibyl was never much into organized religion. It wasn't as though she hated the idea of some kind of higher power or thought the entire thing was stupid as a whole. She just hated the idea of having to live by a set of restrictions from the get go that were who knew how old. And she figured that people who were into religion had always used it to find some kind of solace or meaning in existence, some kind of guide or comfort. To the girl with a code to adhere only to the self and to take everything in life as it came to her, she never really saw much purpose in following one. That wasn't to say she disliked everything about religion - she always found the art and iconography of it to be pretty neat. And the stained glass in this building was no exception to that. Eventually, though, she was directed to where she would be meeting with the head lady in the building. Once there, reciprocating friendly greeting with friendly greeting she said, “hey there Angel! Sweet place you got.” The girl at the two globes of light curiously before pulling out the papers she had been sent with. “I’d love to say I was here to chat about that rad glass stuff you got going on downstairs, but I’m mostly just here to drop off some papers for you to read.” Lailah accepted the papers with a smile. "It's always nice to take physical petitions. We've had an online portal for longer than I've been alive but it's much easier to read things when they're right in front of you and not behind a screen." She buffeted the papers and was about to start reading when she added, "And there's no reason we can't talk about Sacred Harp's stained glass afterwards, is there? I'm only visiting so I can't give construction details if that's what you're after but I can talk about the meanings contained therein, if that's useful to you." “Ooooh, true. The glass itself is pretty rad but I’m sure the stories could be some good inspiration. Maybe we could even get a burger or something once we’re done here.” She finally started to read in earnest but didn't get very far before looking back up at Sibyl, seemingly trying to reevaluate her. "The Fates sent you, didn't they? You're part of the Moray Clan?" Sibyl look as if there was no problem with this before saying, “yeah, sure am.” Lailah looked back at the papers and kept talking as she read. "Do you know why I owe them a favor in the first place? Did they tell you that at least? We- I was going through the Old North -- there's a church just on the other side near Clintonville -- and I ended up in the crossfire between Gibbons and the Zodiac. The Old North was up for grabs. Moray Clan wasn't quite the presence it is these days. Anyway, to make a long story short, the Fates saved my life. They took me in, gave me shelter, and staked their own claim on the territory. All they asked was a favor in return." She shook her head. "That was years ago. I almost made a game of trying to think up what they would ask me do. I wasn't sure they even remembered. I suppose I have my answer now." She turned the page and flipped through a few more. "I don't suppose there's a way to negotiate?" she said. "I- this is- I really would rather not." “Ooooh,” the girl said as she was recounted the story. Then when asked she shrugged, “can’t say I was given anything else to offer, and I’m really more the chatting and breaking type then the deal offering so, is what it is. ‘Sides, it’ll probably be fun.” It was then that her conversation was interrupted by two coming heroes. Her expression brightening still she said, "hey there Aeon! Long time no see. And uh," she looked at the other, before just as friendlily saying, "and hey there guy! But oh, heavy stuff you got going here." Looking at Lailah Sibyl said, "I wasn't here to paint but I wouldn't mind sprucing the place up once we're done here too."

Boss Still Battling The axe wielding servant was in fact only one creature and thus it could only focus on one person at a time. Such was the advantage of Gene and Sabrina's tandem offensive, being two people, that forced it to keep its attention on the boy who had mostly injured it. Gene went for a slash again, though this time things were not nearly as clean as they were with his original attack. The creature swung its axe into the sword of the Exalted and as the two collided once more Gene would feel the burst of sound send a shock through. In addition, the blade was completely and utterly parried, being dislodged from his hands almost instantly upon contact, both from the sound pulse and brute strength of the creature, and left nothing to prevent him from having an axe blade bury into his side. Blood would come from his wound and Gene would still feel great pain from the attack, yet he was able to stand and fight just as well as he had before. This sacrifice as well was not without its reward, as Sabrina's scythe swing was able to come over and slash into the armor of the creature. Quite like what had happened when Gene struck it, an arc of water in the shape of blade came out from wound. Whatever pride she might've felt from landing her third attack, and thus not landing a proverbial three strikes, would be interrupted as armored figure clearly didn't seem to care about any injury it may have suffered. Instead, it immediately shifted backwards and elbowed Sabrina, before prying its axe out of Gene, pivoting one hundred eighty degrees and going for a swing against her. The tandem offensive of Abby and Marshall had also proven to be quite effective. Taken off balance and with the sudden charge of Marshall it couldn't defend itself in any way, and the Lance managed to pierce the creature. It did not go all the way through, and a large burst of water came from the area that was punctured much like a full armored water balloon being suddenly popped. However, it did not continue "bleeding" water and unlike a water balloon its form was still stable and whole. In addition, it didn't seem to feel the least bit amount of pain and the only recovery it needed to do was regain its balance, which took a nominal amount of time. Once it did, it went for a swift stab of its own, and with Marshall already in close range against a similarly lengthy weapon moving at high speeds, she was unable to avoid the spear piercing into her gut, send a surge of electricity flowing through her body. The spear wielding armored man then did a short hop back, the top half of its discorporating into water and freeing itself from Marshall's abdomen before swiftly reforming back into its whole spear form.

After Lana asked her question, as if on command, Ziun had burst out of the now fading doorway. The girl was taken aback by surprise as he did, saying, "oh, there you are." Chris had asked the next question that was on her mind, but seeing as the door had completely faded out of existence now and Ziun was panicking more than anything else, even the usually slow witted Lana knew the answer already. She furrowed her brow, frowning a bit at the revelation and sort of frowning at her own lack of reaction to what had just transpired. Someone she had just been with died, so clearly she was upset by the whole thing. But, perhaps it was because she had her own panic to deal with at the time, perhaps it was because she couldn't see the girl actually die or perhaps it was because she just didn't know her all that well to begin with, Lana didn't really feel a true sense of mourning of her passing. She wasn't so jaded a person to think that, "death happens all the time, you get used to it" - it truly did suck that Robin couldn't make it out of these five floors with them and that her life ended the way it did. But, well, it just sucked and that was that. Maybe she was just in shock and would feel it more once they left the dungeon proper, but for now outside of a souring of her mood Lana didn't have much issue following the urging of the dungeon to keep going forward. She certainly had an issue with the floor it decided to drop them off at, though. This was hardly surprising at this point. Similarly not surprising was that this room had been covered yet again in fog, only this one was a familiar red hue and the presence of it made the girl's hairs stand on end. Her upset feelings were now being mixed with a sense of urgency and paranoia, feeling like she wanted none of whatever business was being cooked up on this floor; that the longer they stayed here the worse and more doomed everything for them would be. This was before she had time to process the four freaky figures in cloaks and their enormous friend, causing Lana to gulp in nervousness and take a step back for the time being. There was no going back up the stairs, but there was no reason she had to be front and center of this terrifying monster's attention. This worked, to an extent, as Chris seemed to be the one to take initiative in drawing their attention. Unfortunately, everyone was still with him when he did, and Lana couldn't help but be a bit spooked as the hooded folk started chanting yet again. As the hulking monstrosity started making their way towards them, Lana most certainly wanted to run away, but running backwards was not an option. So she just shouted out, "uh, right!" As Chris guided the gangs escape once more this dungeon run, and followed after him.

As Fen was working towards the finishing touches of breakfast she could hear the conversation reaching an end between Trevor and the new girl. "Well then, miss Penelope, I shant keep you any longer...as I am certain one such as yourself has a busy schedule." "Why, of course, but this is part of the schedule. After all..." Melissa then joined asking, “Miss, Fen and I made some stir fry if you want breakfast. You know, since you came all this way…” "I have heard that this squad has an expert cook and I would like to test her mettle for myself. So I shall be staying for breakfast, rejoice!" After stating that, the girl followed by saying, "Did you know, commanders who dine with their soldiers have a 30% higher life expectancy? Though the soldiers have 30% lower, oddly. Well, anyway, let us eat." Fen, now with plates of food in hand, exited the kitchen. "Oh, well, I'm always happy to feed someone else," Fen added as she had entered the conversation. "I'm used to making food for large company so, I uh might've brought out too many ingredients for just the three of us. But I hope what we made is to your liking." Setting the table with the food, she looked to Penelope asking, "so, um, is everything alright with Trevor?" "Well I cannot say for certain! After all there could be plenty wrong. But if you mean what I came to confront him on, I believe so yes." "Oh, well, that's good to hear." Waiting for the others to sit down Fen then asked, "so I heard that you're also one of the uh, Guardians in Mauvache's employ?" "Employ? Hm, I suppose if that's how you want to call it, yes." "Does that mean you're also part of a Squad?" "Why, yes, I lead the elite squad, Unfailing Strategy!"

Tibarn (Radiant Dawn) Haar (Radiant Dawn) Vanessa (Sacred Stones) Olivia (Awakening) Sylvain (Three Houses) Yunaka (Engage) Ivy (Engage) Nino (Blazing Blade)

As the group continued to look around the room, making small talk about the apparent carvings and gathering info on the enemies ahead, they would still have one obstacle in their way. A large wall of water, bizarrely opaque as there was certainly something on the other side of it yet all they could see was the shimmering, flowing blue of water. If the group gingerly touched it they would find that it was in fact also solid and pushed them back. If any of them asked about it, or even if they didn't and it was a rare moment of speaking without being asked, River would speak up and explain. "That wall of water is a barrier, something known as a Threshold. These are barriers created by Lady Ocean used to divide what is beyond from the rest of the world. What is past the Threshold cannot perceive what is on the other side, and they themselves cannot cross the Threshold either. In most cases it acts as Prison Door of sorts, yet my Lady's servants are not prisoners." The girl tilted her head, curious about it before smiling. "It also acts as a means of informing you of when a particularly challenging foe is ahead! Crossing the Threshold, however, is impossible to do by accident. However, if you merely will yourself to go past the wall, you will be able to pass through it without issue. So, once you do, I wish you the best of luck!" Once the group passed through the Threshold, which felt like passing through a solid wall of water yet left them remarkably dry, they would find themselves in a large open box of a room. The walls on every end seemed to have flowing from the ceiling, obscuring whatever was on the walls, though the floor seemed to be dry. On the end opposite of them, though, they were able to see a large stone sculpture jutting out of the wall. The neck and head of what seemed to be a strange hybrid between a wolf and a dragon holding a stone in its open jaws. The stone glowed with a yellow and gray light and, after a few moments of the Exalted being in the room, the light flowed from the stone, splitting cleanly into one yellow and one gray light, flowing to opposite sides and into the water behind the statue. The water rippled and then with a sudden splash from out of the water flowed two figures. Boss Theme Though they were first just shapeless water, as soon as they touched the floor the water expanded and took on a more rigid shape, gaining coloration and solidifying into an actual form. Two hulking armored figures, a little taller than Gene and certainly far bulkier. Both of them stretched out a hand to opposite sides, water flowing from their arm and taking shape in their hands. The one to the left formed a greataxe, the blade giving a slight hum as a close inspection could see it vibrate slightly. To the right a spear, sparks of electricity flowing across the head. The two readied their weapons and began to slowly advance towards the Exalted. OOC

Carmen had followed after Brian, trying to figure out what the teacher's subject was before she had told them directly. As they entered the school properly, the girl let out another squeal and backed up a bit as the school itself seemed to come to life. Carmen had hardly wanted to be here in the first place and that the school seemed to be welcoming them with the familiar sound of a bell ringing made her not want to stay here any longer. The girl had often thought that average every day life was something of a "seven out of ten spooks," maybe five on a good day, so she was certainly more willing to put this experience already at an eleven. As she was recovering, Brian then spoke up about their task that they had to get done. “You go seal all the toilets in the women’s restroom and I'll take the men’s, okay?” Not really paying attention to his words at first, the girl absently nodded along at first, only to then suddenly realize what that implied. “Eh? Y-You mean… by myself?” “I mean, I’m not going into a women’s restroom.” Brian picked up a handful of seals and held them right in front of Carmen’s chest. “Whatever else you might think of me, I'm not a pervert.” "Oh, that's good." Her expression brightened and she seemed to be genuinely more assured as a result of this. It wasn't as though that she had thought of Brian as a pervert before now, really all he had been was the guy who drove and bought tacos for her. But, being in the situation she was in, taking his statement entirely at face value she was relieved that that was one thing she wouldn't have to worry about throughout the night. However, she then realized something else. If she was to try to insist on going in pairs that would mean that she would also have to go into the men's restroom. And if going into the woman's restroom made a man a pervert it held true that the other way around would be as well. Carmen didn't want to live with the thought of arguing with a man until he dismissed her as just having perverted delusions and making the entire rest of the night that much more awkward and difficult. Which would mean that she would have to be left by her lonesome when he went to the men's bathroom, and similarly have to be left alone when she went into the women's. Defeated and downcast the girl muttered, “I’m not a pervert either…” before grabbing the seals and going into the bathroom. The bathroom itself seemed to be fairly normal, outside of the lights all still being on in the middle of the night. In fact add to that weirdness, there were five stalls in the bathroom and yet all of them had their doors closed. As a veteran of sequestering herself in the bathroom, Carmen knew that the doors to such stalls were typically only closed if there was someone in them. And so, while the girl began to walk over, she paused as she realized that the stalls could in fact be occupied. It would be utterly bizarre if they were at this time of night, but what would be more bizarre would be this random adult woman barging in on some high schooler while they were using the toilet at the same time of night. Carmen would die on the spot if she had to live through such an embarrassment and so paused before continuing forward. Of course, she could just call out to check if anyone was around, but she knew that the less she spoke, the less people spoke back to her and that could only be seen as a net gain. So instead, she lowered her gaze, crouching a little to look under the stalls. Of course Carmen was no pervert, and in no rush to be labeled as such, so this was a technique that she had perfected over years of hiding from responsibility by using the bathroom as an excuse. Looking under just enough, and moving her body just casually so to not be seen as if she were actually trying to look under the stalls. To her relief, there seemed to be no feet that could be seen which meant that her risk of having to live through being called a voyeur of some kind was - CRACK The girl reflexively lurched forward as she heard something that she personally would describe as a gunshot, echoing through the desolate bathroom. Keeping herself from falling from her stumble, the girl turned around only to see that the source of this noise was nothing more than a wayward mop that had fallen to the ground. Carmen breathed a sigh of relief, though couldn't help but wonder about it. Mops weren't typically stored in the bathrooms they were used to clean. Warily looking at the cleaning implement, the girl took a deep breath again, resolving to get this over with. Though she had already checked, the girl couldn't help but gulp nervously at the prospect that there was in fact someone in there. And so, slowly, she opened the door to find...nothing. The girl exhaled in relief once more, her heart working overtime with each new obstacle that presented itself. Walking over to the toilet, Carmen came to the realization that she wasn't exactly sure about what she was doing here. She had barely done this before and typically she was so scared out of her wits that she hardly wanted to remember what happened during. But, she had seals, and this was a toilet ghost of some kind so it made sense to her to just slap the seal on the toilet. Of course she didn't know which toilet in particular this ghost was inhabiting so it was best to be thorough and hit all of them. She moved to the second stall without incident, placing a seal on that. Then, as she opened the door to the third one, the girl immediately slammed it shut as something that wasn't a toilet came into her vision. She had no idea what it was, but anything that wasn't a toilet in an empty stall had to be bad news. The girl was ready to just walk out and get Brian to check it out for her, but, she knew she still had a job to do here and also didn't want to have to try and actually convince him of anything. And so, she pushed opened the door only to find...a toilet plunger sticking out of the toilet. The girl cocked her head to the side, curious and confused at the sight. Storing a mop in the bathroom was certainly weird, but storing a plunger in the toilet certainly wasn't ordinary anywhere. The girl didn't really want to interact with it, but she figured that if the ghost was inhabiting a toilet it made sense that the toilet had to be closed first before it was sealed. So, awkwardly, she grabbed the plunger and placed it on the ground before putting on the third seal, and without incident the girl made it to the fourth stall, placing the seal on that one as well. Flicker. Flicker. The girl stiffened her posture, standing still for a moment and letting out a small squeal as the lights began to flicker. Darting her eyes around, seeing if there was any sort of being in there with her she saw nothing out of the ordinary, though what she could see was getting more limited as the lights began to flicker more and more. Knowing that something much worse was coming then just intermintent blindness from darkness, the girl scurried to the fifth stall door only to find it jammed. With it not opening immediately, Carmen couldn't help but wonder if there was someone in there who had locked the door, as impossible as it sounded, and so first politely asked, "uhh- sorry- uh, is someone in there?" Her question was answered with only a chill. Feeling a strange cold sensation creep up on her, the girl had decided to instinctually seek refuge in the stall by shoving the door open. The door itself wasn't actually locked and so the force she used was far more then necessary, causing her to stumble in the dark as the lights had completely gone out. Shuffling around a little, the girl's mind was at a blank for what to do until she remembered she came prepared for such a situation. Pulling out her flashlight, the girl turned it on and looked towards the toilet, freezing in place. A humanoid figure, practically towering over Carmen was standing where the toilet was. A long, gnarled mess of sopping wet hair cloaked her body, stretching all the way to the floor. Carmen stared at the entity, the figure in turn reaching out to her with a grey, thinning hand. "Sorry." Carmen bolted for the door, the hands narrowly missing her as she let out an, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Bursting out the door and running through the cafeteria, panic clear on her face the girl shouted, "Briiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn!"

Lana was guided by Chris to the exit and at his behest sat down. A relatively mundane task that she realized, without sight, was proving much more difficult then usual. Really, in general moving seemed to be a task that she had taken incredibly for granted when she had eye sight. Dropping her great axe first, the girl slowly lowered herself before misjudging how far she was from the ground and landing with more of a thud then she would have liked. The girl tried to focus, seeming to realize that it was in fact that she was the one who was blind and not that the world around her had gone dark. It was certainly more believable then everyone else seeming to be able to see perfectly in the pitch black and be a skill that Lana simply lacked. With her initial panic having already been gone through and vented out on a zombie that she most certainly thought she killed, Lana was left with an incredibly bizarre sense of resignation to her current condition, sort of like an "it is what it is" kind of thing. Of course, this was met with incredible frustration, thinking about how inconvenient not being able to see was and she most certainly did not want to go through the rest of her life like this. Perhaps not being able to see what kind of gross stuff was in the dungeon was a bit of a blessing in its own way, though she had felt more off balance then ever before swinging her axe which certainly made getting through it more inconvenient then before. And forget trying to navigate back to anywhere around a town she unfamiliar with while being sightless. Downplaying the issue and just being annoyed by it seemed to work in her favor though, as the dark world around her slowly came back into view. As Chris tried to check up on her, with her vision returning it became obvious that the large blurry mass in front of her was in fact her male friend, which caused the girl to back up a bit from feeling like their was a sudden invasion of her personal space. "Yeah, I'm starting to see again and I know we have a healer. I was blinded not concussed." As the boy asked how many fingers he was holding up she said, "hold on a second uh...four?" Eventually her vision was fully regained, and the girl stood up. "Well, my eyes are back and working so let's get going." Looking around, she suddenly realized something. "Where're the other two?"

Over the course of the week, Sibyl had found herself with a plethora of free time and not much currently on her agenda to take of. Not like the demon girl had ever been one for keeping such a detailed plan for day to day activities. Naturally when she was bored and had nothing to pass the time with, Sibyl elected to go find some place to paint over. However, quite as she had stated the day prior, she couldn't draw a picture without an idea of it in her head. Similarly she couldn't do so without a canvas either. And so, she spent the following days looking for both a wall and inspiration. And so she went to all kinds of places. First was the sights of other graffiti artists, more to evaluate what they had done more then actually draw inspiration from them. She had gone to places she had spray painted before, seeing them now all cleaned and tidy making her only feel the urge to go over it again. Of course, areas that were so readily cleaned were always a bit of a pain to get painted in the first place and without an image in mind yet she didn't want to make such a fuss. And so she visited any place she could that she could think of with some kind of artistic flair to it. Music shops, libraries, the tops of buildings to get a bird's eye view of the city. Even simply sitting at a cafe and watching people pass by. She had been relatively docile and lowkey for how usually bombastic her personality was, though this was starting to get her nowhere fast. Feeling like the city wasn't giving her much inspiration she suddenly remembered the warehouse that she had been to not too long ago. And so, with the idea in her head she went on a bit of a night time tear that very night. The next morning injured officers could be found resting against a previously spotless wall, now sporting the image of a dilapidated concrete building. The furniture was all over the place and it looked as though nature were over taking the structure, vines and plants growing out of every surface that was represented on the picture. Such a scene naturally grew a crowd, and of course it was easily noticeable online. People who had found the image intriguing, trying to figure out the symbolism of every part of it, trying to figure out the artist's intents and what they were trying to say to the public. Of course, Sibyl just thought Baba Yaga was cool. "Oooh. Well, if she doesn't give me a reason to I won't go smashing up the place. It might even be fun to talk to her type." Sibyl grabbed the papers from the Fate. "But," the girl started to chuckle, "you got some sense of humor sending me to her." The girl gave a flick to one of her horns. It took a second, but they both started laughing too. "I think we completely forgot about that," Clotho said. "We see you so often, I dunno, just stopped parsing them. But no, that's cool." "Probably adds to the effect we're going for," Atropos said. "Yeah, and if it doesn't, well, it's too funny not to now." Smiling like an idiot Sibyl said, "gotcha! I'll see if a demon can't have fun at church. And by the end of it she'll probably either leave with a black eye or a burger in hand...I wonder if she's allowed to eat burgers." The girl mused aloud. "Well, whatever. Bye bye!" Sibyl left the headquarters, beginning her trek to where Archangel was.

I forgot this last post but it's still the BGM With Abby's plan having gone off flawlessly with the only casualties being Marshall's hat and Abby's previous dry state of being, Marshall had made it up to the second of the levers. Second as Sabrina had already leaped her way up to the first. As per what River had said previously, had Sabrina attempted to pull the lever at any point before Marshall had made it she would've found it remarkably stuck in place. However, once both of the Exalted had their hands on the levers they would find it much easier - as in possible - to move. With a little effort, they slid to the opposite side of their switch and locked into place, a "click" noise being able to be heard throughout the room. As it sounded two things became apparent. One, the trio of doors that were on the wall opposite the one they had come in suddenly closed. More accurately it was as if solid wall just appeared over the holes in the wall that constituted these doors to begin with, as if they never existed in the first place. Second, would be a grinding and sliding sound that reverberated from the hallway that they had originally come from. The third thing that happened after these two had passed, was River clapping her hands together, a beaming expression on her face as they did. "Excellent work Exalted! Your problem solving skills proved to be sufficient to pass and thus you are now eligible to take on the combat trial!" As it had turned out, the rather simple test of their abilities had indeed been all that there was of the puzzle. Of course, to the two stranded on the platforms from the main bridge they would need to find a way back though, thanks to previous testing they knew that the water made for an excellent trampoline. Going back into the room they originally came from they would find that the door that had previously been, presumably, locked was now swung open. Once more there was another hallway that sloped downward for them to go down. And once more did it have carvings inscribed into it, ones that seemed to be a continuation of the second scene. This time, the animal and humanoid figures seemed to be together, moving forward towards the strange alien figures rather than running as they had previously. In addition, it seemed that above them were something akin to the shapes of clouds carved into the wall. While the two sides, mankind and animals against the alien creatures, had met in the middle of the hallway it seemed that was not all there was. The further down the alien's side they looked, the more they would see the cloud carvings, this time with arcs and zigzags drawn from them towards the alien creatures. At the end of this hallway was yet another entrance to another room. Or rather, it would be safe to assume there was for at what was presumably the end of this hallway was not an opening but instead a large opaque wall of water.

With the group having left after their ice cream had been finished, they made their way back to the apartment complex. Fen wasn't particularly physically tired, in fact the only thing that would've physically worn on her was the shopping they did. However, the fight had still taken a great deal of mental effort, both in the sense of having such a high pressure fight that she had to go into as well as having thought in an entirely new and creative way with her magic. As such, while the girl had originally planned to use her ingredients for a stew, she found that the mental effort required to do so was not in her today. Of course, that didn't stop her from cooking entirely, simply going to a much more simplistic chicken and potatoes dish. Once all was said and done, Fen had retired for the night without much incident. Waking up, the girl found that she was getting much more adjusted to the wrist watch of hers. So much so that it took her no effort to open and look at the messages she had received. Unfortunately, this news wasn't at all positive, seeing that the number of their squads size had been further reduced from five to three. Fen hadn't known Aduain or Morgan well, in fact the latter had been very uncomfortable for her to be around, but she couldn't help but feel a little sad about it. At least Aduain had found greener pastures for himself, and she could only hope for Morgan's recovery to her health...unhealth? The second message she found was also unique, not only because it had been addressed to her - and Melissa - specifically which was a rarity in of itself but also because of its topic. The girl hadn't heard about this game until yesterday, so she briefly wondered if it was a message from either Fiona or Kelsey. But it had mentioned where they originally came from when they entered this world which she knew the two weren't around for, unless everyone appeared in the same place. There was no use thinking about it, and similarly she didn't even have a deck for this game yet so there was some prep work she needed to do before she could properly respond to this incredibly suspicious message. As such, she would leave that for after breakfast and see what Melissa's thoughts were on it at a similar time. For now, the girl had gotten herself out of bed and made her way downstairs, seeing Trevor dealing with a woman who seemed a bit incensed with him. The girl didn't think much to talk with them, as strange people coming to their doorstep early in the morning had almost become part of their routine at this point, and left Trevor to deal with it for the time being. Getting into the kitchen, the girl had found her other teammate already there and looking like she was thinking about something. "Oh, good morning Melissa," she greeted. Looking to the various foods that were still about as well as the refrigeration machine they had she asked, "were you making something?" "Not yet," Melissa said. "I probably would just make eggs in a nest but we just got all this other food and it feels like a missed opportunity to not use it." "Hmm..." The girl put her finger to her chin thinking before exclaiming, "oh! I know. What if we made some kind of uh, Stir Fry. We have a lot of produce and that machine," she pointed excitedly to the rice cooker, "and we could even add eggs and the like to make it more uh, well, breakfast-y?" "Oh, sure! I think the knives are over... here?" Melissa pulled out a drawer, frowned, and pulled out another. "Over here. Okay. And then cutting boards..." were thankfully in the drawer below that. "And this thing is pretty easy to use. There's a joke back home that a rice cooker is just a pot that's smarter than you, anyway." Fen nodded, "I used it yesterday and well, it seemed pretty easy to use. And much more uh, stable, then I would've thought from such a small heating magic device." Getting out all of the ingredients and tools necessary to get to cooking, Fen began going at her work. Midway through she then looked over asking, "oh uh, right, Melissa. Did you also happen to get a strange text about the uh, "Yugioh" game this morning?"

Sibyl was pleased with the choice of restaurant for food, evident by the two large burgers the girl had purchased. As the girl happily got to eating her food, Lachesis began to ask the two about power and changing the world if they had it. Sibyl began picking at the fries at the center of the table, listening to Aeon give her answer about the whole thing Sibyl said, "ooooh, that's pretty big." Swallowing the food already in her mouth the girl commented, "well, I'm a pretty good artist but even I can't paint a picture I don't have in my head yet." Smiling then she said, "but it sounds like a pretty fun time if you can actually cause that to happen, so I'm rooting for ya." Reclining back in her chair, taking a handful of fries, she just started to think about the question saying, "can't really say I have much of an idea of what I'd do with all that power." Taking a few more bites of her fries the girl said, "yeah, I've never really given much care to the world or the status quo or any kind of stuff like that. I just kind of live life by the day and do whatever I please. I guess I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the friction of going against the grain, but like, that's more because of the individuals you meet then the act itself ya know?" Tapping a fry to her chin, seemingly thinking hard on how best to word it she said, "so I guess, if I had that kind of power I wouldn't really change Skitty, so much as I'd become someone Skitty has to change itself around. Or something like that?"

Lana had charged into the horde of zombies, her axe managing to fell one of them as the others began converging on her. There wasn’t a lot she was expecting would happen. She was pretty sure all the zombies were just going to pounce on her and she’d have to find a way to wrestle them off as always. At worst she’d have to deal with some funky eye laser magic. What she was not expecting was for the world to go dark around her. Lana was dumbfounded at first, confused as to why she was seeing nothing but black. She blinked trying to right her senses only to realize that blinking had changed nothing. Sudden fear and anxiety came over her as she realized that all of the same sounds were still around her. It wasn’t as though she were somewhere that was dark, it was that everything was just dark now. Feeling a lot less confident in her chances against the zombies now, Lana took a step back and, more so out of desperation then anything else, took a wild swing. Her blade hit something, filling her with confidence only to suddenly feel her hand grabbed. The girl flinched and was ready to take another swing only to realize that amidst her panic and the sound of zombies Chris had been calling out to her. As the boy ensured that they were almost at the door, the girl stammered out, “r-right! Got it!” She immediately proved that she did not “got it.” Hearing the zombie that was still in their path Lana, now filled with more confidence with someone guiding her she tore away her lifeline of confidence as she ripped her hand out of Chris’s grip, grabbing her axe with both hands now. “I got this! Uh, duck!” And with that girl swung blindly in front of her. Her axe found purchase in the zombies flesh, presumably it’s outstretched arm. Lana, now that she was in this position, wasn’t quite sure how to attack it next. Being unable to see, the girl could only think to swing blindly again. However, unbeknownst to her Chris, who had in fact ducked, cut through the legs of the zombie. Unable to stand anymore the creature fell to the ground. Lana was unaware of all of this and instead, confused, just said, “oh…I killed it.” Feeling a sense of pride from having blindly defeated a zombie the girl charged forward, stumbling over the mound that was now collapsed in front of her and almost falling down. Narrowly catching herself, the girl found herself incredibly directionally disoriented. She also only loosely knew where the exit was to begin with. “Oh. Yeah.” The girl took one hand off her axe and held it out, “Chris? Chriiis?” Once that was taken care of the girl made her way to the exit.

Carmen was quite glad that she didn't have to do any of the driving. Not only was she not that confident in her ability to drive, especially in the dead of night, but the ominous atmosphere was doing nothing for her nerves. As such she didn't have to worry about going to slow and finding a cop that would've just been out at this time of the night going to give her a ticket in a vehicle that wasn't hers to begin with. However none of this was the case, especially as she wasn't driving, and they managed to get to the school no worse for the wear. As the girl stepped out of the vehicle, a look of dread appeared across her face as she looked up towards the high school. The building itself was nothing short of ominous especially at this time of the night, but the notion of going into a high school at her age was far more daunting to her then any ghost that might've lurked there. It hadn't been that long since she had graduated from college and she was glad to have school finally behind her, though that didn't stop her from having nightmares about it. Classes she didn't have, deadlines that didn't exist, failing the most basic questions on a test. With the building right before her, Carmen grimaced knowing that the nightmare of school was never truly over. As she got closer to the building, however, her nerves were set ablaze even more as she saw a pale white figure open a door, and slowly make their way towards them. "Eeeeeeeep," the girl let out as she slowly backed off, using Brian for cover from the being. The old, chalk white woman who made their way over to them, beads jingling as she walked and a ghastly expression on her face. Carmen had been expecting to go looking for the ghost but she was at a blank now that it was coming for them, and right on the onset of the job as well. As Carmen was making peace with her fate, the woman then spoke up. Carmen first wondered if this was still truly a ghost, trying to catch them off guard and figure out if they were connected to Shiki so it would know if it had to kill them right away or not. But, so far it had only been targeting janitors and people already inside the school. Carmen was not a janitor and they were going to go into the school anyway so it would've had plenty of time to get the job on them and kill them without making itself known. Trying to calm herself the girl said, "uh, y-yeah. We uh...we're Shiki's employees and uh, yeah. Are um, you the person who's supposed to like, let us in?" The woman yelps in response and clutches at the rosaries around her neck. "T-that's me, I'm Ms. White." The woman emphasized the "Miss," in her name coming out more like a long drawn out "mizzzz" instead. Looking again at the pale figure she said, "right. White...Um," the girl cleared her throat before saying, "so uh, wh-where is the uh, toilet, ghost, demon, thing monster. Right now?" "How would I know? I didn't go looking for it. I've been barricaded in the principle's office waiting for you all night." The longer she spoke the more high pitched her voice got. Then she narrowed her eyes. "What took you so long to get here?" "Eh? Uh, um..." Caught off guard by the question, Carmen felt that if she were to answer with "tacos" the woman would promptly beat her with a ruler and scold her for all the mistakes she made in her life. So, fumbling around trying to think of an excuse the girl eventually said the first thing that came to mind. "The bathroom..."

River continued to idly float above the strip of land, caring not to stray to far from the group or over the water. When not asked a question she silently watched as the group attempted to discuss about what to do with the puzzle right before them. She watched as Marshall sprinted full speed into a running jump just to fall into the water. She watched Gene discuss walking on water. She watched both Abby and Sabrina combine their collective powers over wind just to fall a little short. And then she heard Abby's comment. Feeling that it was her duty to inform the Exalted of their mistake, she said, "forgive my intrusion, but I do not believe that to be the case." "You think so? I did have some back-up plans, but they seemed a bit too dangerous so I scrapped them." "I do not believe those would be necessary, no." River paused for a moment before saying, "your plans have almost succeeded but I believe they are falling short as a result of a lack of power. Your arts are a powerful thing and while it heartens me that you have all taken to using them quite quickly and effectively it would appear you have yet to unleash their full power." The dragon girl paused again before saying, "perhaps it is yet another lack of clarity on my part. So I shall rectify that now. Magic is something of an inborne power and as such, its use is rooted in instinct." The girl held out her hand a small ball of water formed in it. "Within that instinct, there exists other ways to shape that magic unique to an individual." The girl then shaped the orb of water into something of a watery polearm. "And so, when instinct is not enough, conscious effort must be put into it in order to refine and empower it." Grabbing the polearm, the girl took a deep breath, before it became clear that the watery weapon suddenly became much darker and denser. Letting go of it, the water harmlessly vanished before she said, "so, to put briefly, by simply putting more focus into your Art at the time of its use, you may grant it greater power then before." Giving a bow she smiled and said, "I hope this has cleared up any confusion or questions there may have been." OOC:

"Oh that's a shame," Fen responded at the apparent lack of bug based cuisine that they were likely to find in the city. As Kelsey had brought up her point about wanting to swap leaders to get Trevor trained, Fen briefly paused in surprise at the idea. After all, she had never even thought about whether people were able to transfer groups or not. There was a brief moment of wondering how exactly she'd fit in with the members of Grand, but this was then replaced by her feeling sorry for the other two in the event that Grigory was in charge of their squad. Another concern of hers, albeit a ridiculous one, was the matter of the group's still undecided name. Would Grand suddenly become a nameless squad while Melissa and Trevor were now members of Grand? Or would she become the leader of Grand and those other three would then have to figure out a new name for themselves? It was a silly concern of hers, and she wasn't even sure she was so hung up on this name thing to begin with, and ultimately Fen recovered from her brief moment of pondering to answer. "Ah, well, I'm fine with just being uh, friends for now." The girl smiled pleasantly as she denied the, likely joke to begin with, suggestion and added, "but maybe once I learn more about my own squad I'll uh, trade notes with him." The girl joked. Looking over to Melissa her expression brightened more saying, "I would enjoy the company. I'm also not very familiar with many card games, so having a veteran help me out would be really appreciated." As Fen finished her ice cream, the girl looked down and, understanding the primary function of this device now, looked at her watch. "Oh, it's getting late." Looking to the others she said, "sorry, but I have dinner to prepare so uh, I think I'll, well get going now. But it was nice meeting all of you. I uh, wouldn't mind hanging out or something again." With that, Fen gave a wave as she began to depart looking at her ice cream asking aloud, "I wonder where they find the rainbow worms."

Sibyl found herself in a great mood. Sure, she was a disappointed with how the day at the warehouse ended and would've wanted to level the whole building and sure, her teammates that she were never to see again were a bit sticks in the mud. But at least the muddiest stick was convenient transportation and even gave her lunch money! So she could forgive him for not going for food. And in spite of that, she ended up finding good company anyway. Once the colorful hero gave her compliments to Sibyl, the girl let out a hearty laugh. "Hahaha, I like to think I blend the two together well too. Take a look at any news channel later and you might see what came earlier." Even if it were prematurely ended for her, she was still proud in the work she ended up doing today. Sibyl then looked towards the hero girl. She had definitely heard the name, "Aeon" before. In fact Sibyl had known that name from her childhood, even if only passingly and didn't even know much about the her to begin with. Even then she couldn't help but think that something wasn't matching up with her memory. After a bit of walking around, the girl then mumbled to herself, "Aeon...Aeon..." Then, looking at the hero with some degree of scrutiny as if trying to intensely remember something, squinted her eyes saying, "didn't you use to look different?" "Probably! The color changed a few weeks ago." She grabbed her hair and lifted it, "been growing it out too." "Ooooooh!" The girl's eyes lit up, cheerily saying, "so you're kind of an artist too. Looks good on you." Sibyl looked over to Lachesis and said, "I don't know where you met her, but I think I like your friend already Lock. Oh!" The girl then reached into her pocket and pulled out the money she had just got saying, "wanna join me for a bite? Alder's paying."

Free of pretention and obfuscation this in fact the dungeon BGM River tilted her head in curiosity as Gene went to ask his question. After all, she had just answered what they were supposed to do. Though as the true nature of his question revealed itself River's confusion did not fade. "You are the Exalted. That I am here is proof enough of that so I do not believe it possible for me to make that sort of mistake and I know it is the Exalted who will deliver this world from its suffering. However, I am not privy to the decision making process of my Lady nor the criteria she searches for and so I cannot, definitively, answer whether she has made one or not. However, as she is my Lady I am inclined to believe that her judgement is sound and that you are all capable of fulfilling your mission. I had believed the means to accomplish your task were rather apparent, though if I have made an error in my explanation then I apologize and will endeavor to work harder in the future to ensure no further misunderstandings happen." River gave a brief bow before continuing her explanation. "To clarify, the Drengr, or most creatures you will encounter, serve no greater purpose in whether or not you are able to save the world other than to aid and empower you. The only thing you must truly defeat is the Accursed and subsequently the Lord of Curses. That is how the world will be saved. The means by which you do so will more than likely be through combat, which is the purpose of the existence behind these shrines, your spirit weapons and the rune grafts bestowed to you. I suppose there is also the matter of the Aeons as well, who will be a means of gaining a greater power, as well as defeating foes of greater strength then yourself which will also allow you to gain even more power to accomplish your task." Giving a pause, River then gave a smile and pumped her arms up as if to emphasize the next part saying, "but of course your greatest weapon shall be your strength of spirit, so do work to never lose heart." Another pause as River went back to a neutral state saying, "I hope my answer has proved sufficient enough." With Gene's question answered, the group was then directed down the hall, free to talk with River as she hadn't seemed to disappear as quickly as she did last time. River, though having legs, did not seem to walk and instead floated above the ground akin to how one might expect a ghost to. The hall itself wasn't particularly different from the rest of the shrine so far, save for the carvings on the wall being different. It had depicted the same animals and humans as it had before, animals on one side and humans on the other. However, they would notice rather than walking or standing still, these carvings seemed to depict them running away or on the ground. Once they had passed the halfway mark, a different type of creature seemed to join these carvings, somewhat humanoid in physiology but larger, more gangly, alien and having something protruding out of their strange arms, as they seemed to be marching towards both the humans and animals. This sight then gave way to another as they reached the end of the hall. The new room was starkly different in regards to the last one they were in. While the hall's ceiling seemed to stretch only seven feet high, this one was far far greater in height. And width as well. They would find themselves on a stone bridge that lead to another exit out of the room. On either side of the bridge was blue shimmering water, stretching out to the far ends of the room. Similarly on either side of the room at the opposite end of the entrance they would be able to see two different sets of platforms coming out from the walls. The platform on the left seemed to be incredibly high up, while the platform on the right seemed to be closer to three platforms forming an incredibly steep staircase. On the highest of the right side and on the left side platform they would be able to see two other notable things. One that there seemed to be an entrance, or exit, to the room next to these platforms. Two, that they both had a golden lever on them. OOC

Lana couldn't help but feel like there was something a bit off about the comment that Chris had made, but the stress of the situation just made the girl shout out, "got it! Escape time!" With her hands on her axe gripped tightly the girl knew that though the path was pretty clearly straight forward there were zombies and a floating eye that were determined to get in her path. Three of them in particular were already square in the way with more coming up from either direction. Lana had been fighting in a mostly reactive and defensive fashion so far, to moderate effect, but even to her it was obvious that such a style wasn't going to work if they needed to get to the exit. So she would have to get a bit more reckless. She knew that if she did, though, it would be only a matter of time before she was surrounded by zombies around her. Taking a deep breath she said, "alright, I'm going in first. Cover for me!" The girl just had to put her faith in the people with her to see if they could make it out. And so, the girl charged straight to the exit. As soon as she was in range of the one in the middle of her path she brought down her axe with all the force she could muster, directed at its head. In order to give her and the rest of the group some space Ziun had opted to cast yet another illusion. A repeat performance of the one that had captivated the zombie that had just recently attacked Robin, in an effort to keep them at least busy enough until they could reach the exit. And so, an illusory bard created noise behind the southern group of zombies. Figuring that the eye had some degree of sway on the zombies and was generally threatening with magic, Estelle decided to keep that one busy for the time being as well. As Ziun brought out an illusion and Lana charged Estelle, moving forward slightly pointed her finger at the floating eyeball. A bead of white light formed at the tip, before being launched towards the floating ocular monster. Rather than be some large fire ball or laser to see if she could kill it, however, Estelle had opted for simple debilitation and when the bead struck something it would explode into a large blast of light in an attempt to temporarily stun and/or blind the eye.

Carmen had just been standing awkwardly in the camper van, not really wanting to sit down anywhere in the moving vehicle and not interjecting with Brian's plan at all. She was becoming less and less sure about getting tacos before a mission to deal with some kind of ghost, but Brian seemed gung-ho for them so she said nothing about it. Instead, she just responded to his comments with a, "h-hi, Brian," neglecting entirely to introduce herself. The ride to the Taco Bell Pizza Hut combo was a short lived one, thankfully, and once there Brian got up from his seat and found the video to start their briefing on the mission. Carmen didn't have very fond of memories of school, in any year she went, and was dreading entering the old building more so than she was the ghosts at first. Of course the prospect of having to deal with a bathroom ghost didn't fill her with delight either, figuring that such specters were amongst the most heinous to deal with. Once the briefing ending, Carmen looked to the video of Shiki, then to Brian wondering if he'd stop it. Then, as Shiki told them to stop the tape, the girl looked back to the man and, not wanting to go against her paranormal hunting employer's wishes the girl awkwardly shuffled up to the television and shut it off. "Um...uh...yeah," the girl tried to say something, really anything, about the mission they were just given but instead went with nothing and shuffled over to the bed. Looking in the tote as described the girl pulled out a few familiar looking rectangular slips of paper just saying, "they're uh, here," and then put them back inside almost immediately before leaving the camper. While moments earlier Carmen had been having doubts about whether she wanted tacos at all and typically not wanting to spend too much of another person's money when they were buying, the combination of stress and newfound hunger had wrapped all the way back around to her ordering four tacos and a large soda. As she got her food, the girl looked sheepishly towards Brian saying, "so uh...well, I don't really feel comfortable um, driving, so, uhhh..." Having just mooched off the kindness of a stranger and then telling him to drive her, Carmen truly felt like she wished to go hide in a bathroom and vanish.