yui

bump fun fact: scented candles are fairies in disguise, which is why they smell like things such as fruits and sea breezes

A long road, a bunch of trees, and one girl walking down the road. The black hoodie and tracksuit pants were functional yet cozy, and the large backpack slung over her shoulder carried everything she had to her name, save for her phone, her wallet, and the latter's own contents. That wasn't to say she was destitute or anything, just that Kiara was the type to travel light and live an extremely minimalistic lifestyle. Maybe one day she'd settle down in one place and let herself buy extra bells and whistles, but she had more important things on the mind at present. Today most of all. She'd woken up at the crack of dawn in a cheap motel room at the edge of Erie, grabbed her bag, went to the nearest restaurant to get some food for the road, then started walking. After all, she didn't want to be late for tryouts at some fancy government job did she? The potential value of working for the JJA aside, Kiara just valued punctuality. If she could make it early to something, she preferred to do so, which was easier said than done when your only mode of transportation was your own two feet. She took a sense of pride in that, though. Not because it somehow made her better than people who made it early on a bike or a car, but because the amount of people who'd been all the places she'd been, and got there mostly by foot, must have been incredibly small. It was also good casual exercise. That said, she'd been going for some time, with very little in the way of actual breaks. She'd been in Tennessee when Kiara got the call about potentially working for the JJA, and while Memphis to Erie was very doable within a couple days by car, going on foot meant she basically had to get going as soon as the call ended, even employing her cursed technique to speed things along when possible, and hitchhiking every so often. Which brought her back to today's scene, as she absentmindedly grabbed a strip of bacon from inside the to-go box and idly munched on it, taking in the scenery around her. Some distance outside of Erie, a lone girl walked down a Pennsylvania backroad. She’d done a lot of that since taking off on her own quest, the more she thought about it. Walking. Down backroads, across sprawling urban landscapes, into the middle of the woods, through mud and snow - sometimes both at the same time - in sun, wind, rain, or otherwise. If there was one constant, it was walking. Which was fine by her. It was good for her, and this kind of walking - down the highway with no distractions of civilization, yet a literal paved path to her objective - was her favorite. Still, the trek up here had been nothing if not long and arduous, and Kiara was at this specific time getting a bit tired of walking. Eventually, a beat-up station wagon pulled up beside the girl. Leaning over, the driver laboriously cranked down the passenger window, poking her head out, “Need a lift into town? I’ve got somewhere to be but I could spare a bit of time.” “Gwen. Good luck Kiara, not that it seems you need it.” “Same to you.” While Gwen drove off, presumably to find some parking, Kiara eyed up the building before her. Pretty fancy-looking for something out in the middle of the woods, to be sure. Not one to stand around considering what the inside might be like instead of just going in and finding out, Kiara went inside. It was very much in line with what she expected. Following the sign into the next room, Kiara took a seat at the back row and occupied one of the seats next to her with her bag, simply so she didn't have to walk as far before sitting and finally giving her legs a well-earned rest after the trek across nearly half the damn country. Some other sorcerers were already assembled here, though she did have to wonder just how many people the JJA could have possibly hired in one go. They clearly cast their net wide and didn't leave much in the way of unturned stones, if she of all people was attending this meetup. She had to admit, this place wasn't half-bad. After a bit, Gwen from earlier even made a rather loud entrance. “So, do we just line up at one of those Test Your Strength carnival games to see who’s special grade and who’s getting neuralyzed, or what?” "If a good punch is all it takes, I must be the strongest sorcerer in the room," Kiara laughed. "Long as they don't say some crap like "tell us your name and a fun fact about yourself," I'll play along."

None of the named ones, that's for sure. Best I could realistically manage is probably some generic unnamed fairy.

As the quartet-now-trio assembled within the hole in the wall, it immediately became clear that Sabrina had gone ahead on her own. That was... not ideal, to say the least. While Marshall and Gene announced their shared intents to go left, Abby responded instead with a nod to the right. “...Sabrina’s gone, I’m going to go look for her. ...I’m going left,” "N-No telling where she went...but... May as well see if we can find some clues on the left path..." "I'll go check for Sabrina over this way, then. Try not to get in too much trouble without us, mkay?" After all, if three people were going the wrong way, that would leave Sabrina high and dry without any backup for longer than necessary. And Abby could take care of herself if it came time to trade blows. And right did she go, conjuring forth her hammer along the way. Right into a long hallway. Eventually, on her right once again, there was a door leading up to a staircase, yet the hall stretched further still. Reasoning that checking the upper floors first would be slightly faster, Abby elected to go for the stairs. Up the spiral staircase she went, and after a bit of climbing, she came to a landing with a door and a continuation of the stairs. Abby elected to take a quick peek out the door, in case there was anything interesting on the other side. Alas, it was just another long hallway. There seemed to be a few of those around here, which made sense for the building in question and all. Still, Abby was resolved to continue following the stairs, so she left the mysterious Hallway #2 behind for now. Continuing further up the stairs, Abby found herself at the top of the stairs, where her search for Sabrina would begin in earnest. And, as luck would have it, where her search for Sabrina would end as well. At the top of the stairs was the dragon descendant(?) girl in question, along with a very dead Drengr. Un-conjuring her hammer, Abby looked over the dead Drengr, before giving Sabrina a thumbs-up of approval. "Nice. Any injuries on your part?" "Huh? What?" Sabrina looked around, startled, until seeing Abby. "O-oh, yeah. I mean, no!" "Great. The others are downstairs looking for you. We should probably meet up with them, unless your dragon blood senses something up here worth doing of course." "Looking for...me? Er. Well. There's another door there...but I don't know where it goes. I thought..." She shook her head. "T-that is I discovered a watchman who would have surely, um, alerted their boss and..." her voice trailed off. "Uh, I guess I'll...go downstairs now." "Don't be so hard on yourself," Abby winked, nodding to the door behind her. "You took out a watchman who would have alerted the boss. That's a huge help to the rest of us. Good work!"

by popular demand i'm posting this meme here too

not shown: second monitor on the left which is pretty much reserved exclusively for Firefox & Discord i'm even sourcing the art cos it and the artist deserve attention

Find the Flame

Maybe coming here was a mistake. Over the last couple days, Bridget had been put through the wringer and then some. After a rather uneventful landing at Korova, things went smoothly at first. Then everything went down the gutter the moment some thug stole her Trapinch! Arthur wasn't just some random creature found out in the streets; he was a gift entrusted to her for this journey! Naturally, she wanted to get him back, and the small group she'd caught a ride with were willing to help. The entire day was spent trying and failing to track him down, then having trouble sleeping because she was worried sick not just about what could be happening to Arthur, but what the faculty might say or do if they found out she let him get stolen so soon after arriving. Which brought her to this morning, and the reason she was trudging her way back the way she came. Simply put, she was being left behind. Bridget wanted to stay longer to track down Arthur's kidnapper. Her teammates had offered to catch a replacement pokémon for her instead - an offer she refused - but they were "not going to miss the ferry to help rescue him." Out her only pokémon, and with it any promising prospects of catching a new one, as well as the very people who were supposed to help each other in situations like this, Bridget was doing the only thing she could think to do. Turn around, and go home. As she proceeded on the somewhat windy walk back across Route 102, she'd been making one last-ditch attempt to at least get leads on her assailant, grasping at whatever last threads of hope for this adventure that she could. Up ahead on the path were two youths, probably on their way to the next town over. Worth a shot, I guess. "'Scuse me!" Bridget called out to the incoming pair. "You lot seen any shady individuals 'round here? 'Bout so-and-so tall, long red 'air, jacket wiv a bird on the back, maybe bit of an attitude? 'E took my pokémon, and I can't find any leads on the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-- the fug who did it." Should mind my language around younger people, especially if I don't know them.

sure

The meeting with the hunting party had gone fairly well. Near the end of it, when the storm had well and truly arrived at the tower, Abby had elected to simply squat down and cover her legs with the hem of her raincoat. It wasn't an entirely perfect method, but to say she had fared better than most was a foregone coclusion. Once again, she was oddly thankjful for the unenviable circumstances she died in. Once that had bpassed, however, and the other party ohad offered up towels for the Exalted to dry off with, Abby was thankfully not terribly in need of one. Most of what she had to do simply boiled down to wiping the water off her coat, and wishing the hunting party safe travels as they and the Exalted went their separate ways. In the latter's case, it was a way that led straight to what was the ruined castle of Aerstoff. The lightning rod spires protruding from it in the numbers that they did really gave the place a whole "this is absolutely where the bad guy is doing bad guy things, ad the heroes are gonna storm the castle in the final chapter" vibes. Of course, this was far from a final chapter; no, it was merely the beginning. The first things Abby noticed other than the spires were the amout of Drengr in the area, not just on the castle grounds, but some she'd spotted along the way as well. And after that, she noticed the sky here was much darker, making it that much clearer that this was indeed their destination. Just in case, Abby got her hood up and ready to keep her head dry. In the end, the group had settled on not attacking directly in a reckless head-on assault. A decision Abby wholeheartedly agreed with. While she had no doubts that the combined might of the Exalted would make such a course of action fully feasible, it was more a matter of she didn't want to expend the energy it would take to do so. In the end, a more secretive way in was found, but it looked like getting up there would also be a bit of a climb. Sabrina, for one, only seemed to have a littl ebit of trouble getting up there. But she was also rather mobile, so that was hardly a surprise. But, perhaps, with a big enough slam of the hammer, and a bit of magic herself...? "Never enjoyed climbing, but here goes nothing." Course, that doesn't mean I was ever bad at it. Abby raised her hands, calling forth her trusty hammer, and holding it up over her head. As Abby took in a deep breath, the air nearby began gathering around the head of the hammer, swirling and compressing, winding up and waiting to be unleashed. After a moment of build-up, Abby slammed the hammer down, smashing it into the ground beneath her feet. The air gathered around her hammer, in that moment, unleashed, spewing forth from the head as a high-pressure blast of wind that set the weapon's diminutive wielder shooting upward. It wasn't a large enough leap to make it all the way up, but it was enough that Abby was able to spot and grab hold of a brick that stuck out a bit more than the others. From there, it was simply a matter of figuring out where to climb up to next, until she was up at the edge and able to lift herself up and into the castle at last. Could she have just climbed up the whole way normally? Perhaps. But it would have taken a lot longer, so she didn't. Once she was comfortably situated inside the castle, Abby turned back around, lying belly-down on the floor. She called forth her hammer once more. Then, she hung it down over the edge, giving the other Exalted something to grab onto on their way up, as a helpful boost up.

if i've posted this before, i'm now posting it again

JUNE 17TH, 2030, 10:04 P.M. LOCATION: ROME, NOVAROMA... After a long day of arriving in Rome, seeing some sights, and meeting the Triumvirate, the sun had at last set over the City of Light. However, in the dark of night, where the sun's eyes could not see, all was not well in Rome tonight. HOTEL Initially, the reservation was meant for eleven people in total. Austin, hoping to make his funds stretch for this mission as best he could, had gone for the most cost-efficient option he could work out that didn't sacrifice the comfort of the team. That meant dividing everybody into four suites with three beds each. This also meant one bed was left empty, but as much as Austin didn't like the conspicuous "one empty spot" situation, it was more cost-efficient due to a mass reservation package the hotel offered. Fortunately for him, a new, twelfth face was added to the mix later that same day. And fortunately for Avis, hotel arrangements were made for the night, as there just so happened to be a spare bed among the rooms Austin had reserved. In one of those four suites, beds had been claimed up by Dayna, Tsurumi, and Sita. While the latter two had whatever conversation they may or may not have been having, the former was holding betwixt her fingers, a long, silver hair. The very same one she had retrieved from Air Force Zero's break-in. And standing across the suite's kitchen from her was Austin, brewing a pot of coffee, listening in on what Dayna had to say. "Pinning anything down with so little to work with was a chore, and to be frank, I'm surprised I got it figured out this fast." "Good work getting some information on our trespasser. What're we dealing with?" "A psychic, obviously. Seems to be a male in his early thirties, Chinese-Japanese heritage, if not origin. Since all I've got is a single hair, I'm having some trouble feeling out what he can do, aside from the hair thing Tom and Geri told us about. Based on the descriptions of the break-in however, we can assume he's also capable of teleportation or perhaps phasing through matter. Anything else I could tell you is just educated guesswork, but--" Dayna was cut short by the suite door slamming open, and Fay bursting into the room. "Team, we've got trouble and no time to explain, all hands on deck, parking lot, like right now!" Tsurumi scrambled up from her position lying on the bed, hastily trying and failing to peel a gelatin mask off of her face, "Like, violent trouble?? Or did someone spill our takeout?" "MIRROR trouble, May and I just saw one of their top dogs on our way back from the store with some people I don't recognize, get up and get those feet moving!" "SHIT FUCK WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE" Tsurumi extended a hand toward Sita, and the moment Sita took her hand Tsurumi's body began to fold. End over end, creasing and turning impossibly until she was nothing more than a small hair ornament, in the shape of a butterfly. "We'll cover you guys from up above," Sita said, opening the nearby window. It was the best compromise. She certainly wasn't about to run away, but she wasn't much of a frontline fighter either, not to mention Tsurumi seemed to have no intention of participating up close and personal. By providing support from on high, it kept both girls away from the heat of the up-close stuff, and also wasn't a retreat of some sort. Besides, this was just the kind of thing she'd signed up for! The suite containing most of the rest of the team would likewise find themselves met with May suddenly bursting in, but those who had gotten to know the twins might have just assumed it was a normal May entrance until she opened her mouth. "Parking lot, now, we've got hostiles!" As the twins ushered the team down two flights of stairs, Fay notably stayed behind in the hotel lobby as the rest of the team stepped out into the parking lot of the hotel. There would the team find two members of the group Stalag and Sita had encountered at the Colosseum, now in the presence of three other women. Hand tensed near his suit jacket, Austin was the first to address the group. "Shouhi Aki, I presume." "Mm?" The woman in the gothic clothes turned, staring Austin dead in the eyes. "Then you must be connected to that mole of ours. We were conducting our own business that didn't involve her, but if you're here, surely you know where she is. Hand her over. We can make it a worthwhile exchange, I assure you." "Like hell we're gonna treat Fay like currency!" May spat. Without waiting for further negotiations or the failure thereof, she immediately reached into her dress, procuring a small person made of clay, then throwing it on the ground in front of her. And upon contact, it grew three sizes in just as many blinks of an eye, becoming less of a clay figure and more of a clay golem. "Very well. Have it your way. Twins, cover me. Nyx, Camille, how about you show me what you're capable of?" "Yes, ma'am!" WARRIORS OF DARKNESS Nyx raised her hands, prompting the night's shade to gather and solidify in front of the hotel doors, behind the team. With their only real escape route cut off, she pulled her hands back, and so too did the wall suddenly pull back, toward her and the rest of the MIRROR gathering, fully intent to take the team with it. Her cohort, for her part, was less the type to bring others to her and more the type to bring herself to them. As evidenced by her crouching low, then pouncing, headed straight for Stalag, seeing as he was the largest and thus the easiest target. MUSEUM OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY CLOSED HOURS: TUE-FRI: 7AM-11PM SAT-MON: 8AM-9PM "This is a pretty long smoke break," John said between drags, looking at the sign hanging on the museum door. Ah, yes. A "smoke break." Which turned into a nighttime stroll around the neighborhood with his good friend Neal. Which, of course, was a cover-up for the real goal of the night. At first, John was going to tag along either way - not into the museum of course, but at least up to the premises - simply to see if the thief could pull off whatever he was after here. But, his curiosity wound up getting the better of him. What sorts of gadgets would a thief have in their arsenal? He wanted to make something like that. And so... "Do not lose this," he said, handing a device to Neal. "Or else we'll both get fired, deported, and sent to prison. In that order, if we're lucky." The device in question? To the average onlooker, and perhaps the average user, it was just a grappling hook. A very fast one, and one capable of pulling its user automatically, but still just a grappling hook. To Neal, who had been informed of its functions, however, it was so much more. Grab the hook end and throw the base, and it doubled as a smoke grenade that went off on impact with the floor or wall. Flip a switch on the bottom side, and it could serve as a flashlight in a pinch. And, worse case scenario, rip the base open and it could be a one-time flashbang, but doing so meant the grappling hook would be unusable afterward. "Now get in there and show me how a thief would use this thing." CITY OUTSKIRTS After a brief train ride to the edge of the largest city in the world, Íroas was met with the familiar sight of the world's greatest pizza-maker himself. Following Pepe's guidance, the two men ventured out further still, further from urban civilization. Houses grew further apart, and the concrete and steel of the city gave way to grass and trees. Deeper still, until there were no houses by the roads; only a scant few motels and chain stores & restaurants. Here, at the edge of the border between civilization and wilderness, they traveled further. Far from even the furthest motels, in a place where a pizzeria had absolutely no business being, it was finally in sight. PEPE'S PIZZA 2 NOTHING COMPARES (2) The exterior had somewhat of a more modern aesthetic than the already-existing Pepe's Pizza, but aside from that and the slightly different signage, there was no questioning it. The building - design choices aside - was unmistakbly Pepe's Pizza. There was no open or closed sign, nor anything to indicate what the store's hours were, but the lights were on, and the place didn't look closed for the night. And when Pepe led the way to the door - complaining the entire way about the way the building looked, being a fan of older buildings himself - the two men found that the door was indeed unlocked. Pepe stepped in first, followed by Íroas. The interior was much the same as the exterior. Modernized design aside, it was unmistakably Pepe's Pizza. "Agh, look at this place! Tile flooring, cheap and far too overdone. You come to Pepe's Pizza, you get the hardwood floor! Makes you feel right at home!" Everything seemed to be more or less normal inside. A little shinier to the eyes and smoother to the touch than one might expect, perhaps, but nothing that couldn't get handwaved as having just recently cleaned up very thoroughly. As the inspection of the pizzeria continued, however, Pepe and Íroas heard a young man's voice, from just behind them. "Welcome to Pepe's Pizza 2, what can we give you?" There was that slightest off quality to his voice. Perhaps he had an unusual speech impediment. Or maybe he drank way too much milk, and his throat was horribly phlegmy as a result. Maybe he was just sick and was still allowed to come into work despite that. Whatever the case, the young man's voice sounded almost normal, but not quite. He gave the duo of hero and chef a smile, eyes hidden behind long bangs of hair, and hands politely kept behind his back. Choosing to defer to the expert's judgment, Pepe simply gave Íroas a small nudge, and a nod of confidence.