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Owner	Pose
Wuyin Tsai	EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES The journey to the Savage Coast -- really the southern side of the island Kingsmouth Town is located on -- is just like the journey to Kingsmouth in the first place. This Agartha portal is only a small distance from the other one in the grand scheme of the enormous Hollow Earth, bringing travellers to a short tunnel in the side of a gap that might have been a riverbed. The gap is bridged by a, well, bridge up above, with the tunnel to the portal covered by vibrant plant growth and full of the sound of buzzing bees. The path to the storied Innsmouth Academy is more or less a straight one. Wuyin meets people outside the portal and helps them up the rocky wall onto the main road. From there, it's a trek southeast into the small cluster of residential homes, past a Kindergarten that may have been fixed up recently and a more ominous, seemingly burned-out black house that seems to groan as the group passes. Is it breathing? Something for another time, perhaps. The road forks, one branch going northeast towards Kingsmouth Town proper and the other going south towards the water. Wuyin turns south, keeping a steady pace. Figures can be seen in the distant fog, the shapes of the walking dead even here. A few sprint across the road. One gets too close, running into weapons' range of the heavily-armed travelling party. It likely meets a quick and gruesome end. The Academy lies ahead. Brick buildings rise in the distance inside a walled, rectangular compound, down a straight paved road with six neatly-planted trees on each side. The gates lie open, and figures move inside in the distance, crossing the courtyard with a distinctly different gait than the living dead. They do not strike the observer as human. Wuyin pauses there, tapping the flat of his blade against his shoulder. "Hmmm... I suppose they couldn't hold out, either."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Until now, Inga hadn't really traveled far from Kingsmouth proper. She's surprised to see that the island is larger than she'd expected--and unsurprised that the plague of horrible weirdness is present here as well. The whole island must be like this. Inga begins to wonder if the entire island has somehow detached itself from the flow of time and space. What does this all look like from the outside? The trek is long and difficult for Inga. Likely, she's had to enlist some aid from her friends in getting here, a situation that makes the Seer a bit grumpy. However they've arrived, they made it to this Academy, a building that causes Inga's eyes to widen slightly. More so, however, the beings roaming around it. A shudder passes through her as she peers into the night, leaning on her oak staff. "Many spirits here," she says, wondering if she should perhaps use a rune of spirit sight. Probably not necessary...also probably foolish. Inga sighs heavily. "The building looks like it would hold up well to most kinda of attacks...there may be survivors barricaded inside," she comments quietly.
Kotoha Isone	The instant she stepped into Agartha, Kotoha was filled with a sense of wonder. That place was definitely otherworldly, in a good way. As soon as she stepped onto Solomon Island, she felt a shiver up her spine. "I already don't like this place." Seeing zombies on the road did not help her opinion. "Those are not the adorable and huggable undead I'm used to... not that I know more than one." The hanyou makes a face and lets others deal with the zombies. As they arrive at the gates of the school, Kotoha tilts her head curiously. "What're those? They look really different from what's outside." One hand comes to rest on her hip, and she clicks her tongue softly. "Tch.. Weird amgic stuff, I bet." After a pause, she glances at the others. "No offense to any users of weird magic here!"
Staren	Staren alternates between walking and flying as they make their way from the portal to Innsmouth academy. He's wearing his armor, as might be expected. He lands when everyone stops outside the academy, looking at the open gates... and the figures beyond that don't move like draugr. At Wuyin's comment, he asks, "You mean... they're all infected?"     Beat. "Do you think they're like Slater? Or... turned into something else?"
Ainsley	Ainsley steps through the portal out of Agartha. She makes a face at the familiar damp, cold air, happy that she has a proto-abstractum ribbon on her tail to, at least, prevent her from being hindered during a normal trip to the island. She spares a look to the edges of the portal, listening to the hum of the bees with an absent, scholarly curiosity, trying to discern a message from the sound that does not come.     She doesn't need help up the rock wall. She just floats up on her own, landing beside Wuyin with a gentle smile on her lizardy muzzle.     The walk to Innsmouth Academy is uneventful, thankfully. She hovers along at a placid pace, avoiding getting into a position where a zombie could blindside her. Which means she stays somewhere in the middle of the group.     They reach the Academy. Ainsley turns her head to regard Kotoha with an amused smile, showing some warmth at the girl.     She reaches to grasp the hilt of her longsword, pulling the weapon out at a lazy pace as she hovers forward into the courtyard, floating up and out of reach of snatching zombie hands, should any be down there to grasp at her. She holds her sword down and charges it with lightning mana, prepared to provide taser-like zaps to anything that tries to attack her. She's trying to figure out what those things are, not expecting them to know how to deal with a floating target.
Kotone Yamakawa	So here sh was again further into what was a small sleepy town well maybe it never was given the infestation of the all seeing eye it seemed to have. Either way here she was with everyone else nd was making her way throught heportal for the school she has a rifle out and seems to be keeping ready for trouble she frowns a bit. "With how they keep comming you'd run out of anima or bullets in time..." This is why she keeps slipping supplies to the people at the police station after all. "That's also true Inga they might have moved to a more defendable part of the place. Consolate the firepower they had left and ... ghost? Great." Kotoha gets a look and a smile from Kotone and she says. "No these are the horrors that should not be still welcome aboard and I'm Kotone I don't think we have met." She tries to not focus on what Staren just said she totally doesn't want to think on that. She opens fire on a zombie clad in a track and field outfit gunning it down. "We shouldn't delay...I think they are just going to keep comming."
Riva Banari	Riva pops out of Agartha, and helps people along. She looks up at Miskatonic Birdge above, and frowns at yet another rickety wooden construction on Kingsmouth that looks like it's ready to fall apart at any time... But never does. Regardless, they move right along through the residential area, Riva waving to the one guy whe sees sitting on the porch of the Dream Quest Kindergarten, and heading soth along Illuminated Way. Riva groans at the street signs. "God, this place couldn't get any more obvious if they painted pyramid-and-eye signs everywhere... OH WAIT THEY DID THAT." She grumps. She sighs and moves along. The zombie that gets close gets a hail of murderous Anima blasts from a pair of HK MP7s that Riva pulls out of her coat, and she smiles to herself, skipping along a bit towards the tree-lined entrance to Innsmouth Academy. "Well Ainsley, check it out. The best repository of learning on Kingsmouth Island." Riva laughs. "I bet you can't wait to get into the library and crack it open." She turns her gaze over to her associate who came with, and she shrugs, gesturing with her gun. "Ready to have a parent-teacher meeting?" She chuckles as she speaks to Eleanor.
Eleanor Lamb	"I do not think I shall be sending the Girls to this place, Riva. It's a bit... Filthy."     Eleanor has shown up in her dad-tech gear today, hoisting her two-handed pipespanner over her shoulder like a champ. She's also right alongside Riva and Inga, looking more than a little concerned about the nature of the place.     "It's not that they're infected, I'm not sure they were people to begin with. Look at their movements. It's not like a shuffle, more... stilted than that." She points with the wrench and then looks around. "Almost like... puppets maybe?"
Kyra Hyral	Kyra...walks. She walks and climbs and stumbles along like a normal person. The farther they go, the more miserable and uncomfortable she looks. Doubt remains etched upon her face that, although she's here with a big group, considering what happened the last time she came to this world, she really shouldn't be coming along here. Only half effective, really, since it's clear she's deliberately avoiding using her magic.     Kyra keeps her gun drawn at all times and tends to be quick to shoot undead. Much like on the previous mission, she keeps herself in the very middle of the group so there are people on all sides. It gives her access to the others and keeps her protected by other bodies.
Landon al Cid	Kingsmouth is the most awful place Landon al Cid has ever been.      No, that is inaccurate. It is the most subtly awful place Landon al Cid has ever been. It is utterly unlike the Iron Desolation of Odin, and utterly unlike Priscilla's horrid world as well - not because it is not horrible, but because it does not wear all its horror on its sleeve. It is not the monsters that lead Landon to this conclusion, but the subtle things - the breathing burned-black house, the Academy's broken-open doors. This place takes some pride in its terribleness, in the darkness that hangs throughout the very air, but it is the subtle darkness, the sleeping darkness, the old secrets, that make Landon most uncomfortable. Darkness shown is darkness fought. Darkness concealed under shadows is darkness waiting to strike.      The Prince is not armed for stealth. He is clad in his heavy Judge's armor. The silvery full plate does not clang as he walks; it is surprisingly quiet, though not completely so, speaking to his years of experience and grace within such a thing. Behind him, his purple cape brushes gently along the ground. It is not there to make a statement. It is there in case he needs to blind something.      In his hand is the shining, crystalline formation of the Judge Blade. The weapon is congealed Law, formalized Order, magic given shape by the Law Cards of the Judge Job. It is almost larger than he is, though he wields it casually with one hand, confident in his skill. The few undead who come close enough to threaten find themselves unhappily on the receiving end of the massive sword.      He stays near Kyra, for the most part. He says nothnig to Kotoha - *he* doesn't think of the magic of Galianda as bizarre. Quite the contrary, worlds without it were just strange. How did people understand how gravity worked without magic? It was odd.      "If there are survivors," Landon speaks up, his voice clear and strong, "Then we'll rescue them. If there aren't, then we'll be able to clear these monsters without fear."      He wears his confidence, his royal mien, as well as he does his armor. He wields his words like he does his Judge Blade - decisively, to bring hope and silence disorder. He moves forward, into a leading position - because, of everyone there, besides the three immortals, he was probably the most durable.      Basic party dynamics. The tank in front.
Emiya Shirou	A jaunt over some hills and into some other parts is fine with Shirou - hes' up for a trek! But the locale... is NOT fine with him. The redhead's not very magically sensitive to normal magics, but this location is so distorted in other ways that it gives him the UTTER CREEPS. All of Kingsmouth is like that, but the blackened house is worse. He actually shudders while passing it as if ice were sliding down his back.     He is not happy at the distant shambling figures though.. the young man's teeth clench tightly. More people he was too late to save. This isn't what he wants. He wants to save people from becoming these things... not clean things up after he wasn't there to solve the issue!     Nevertheless... "Trace... on!"     In a flash of prana, Death's scythe Thanatos is soon within Shirou's grasp. "... always more undead..."     He casts Wuyin a glance, as if asking, 'what's the plan?'
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga shakes her head at Eleanor. "Perhaps once we have cleared this place," she says. If it even can be cleared. It isn't quite a lost cause, but that possibility continues to buzz around in her mind. She must have faith in the gods. Even this new goddess, this Gaia. "I am still willing to tutor them in magic however if you'd like," she smiles. Inga looks over toward Kyra, nodding to her supportively. She knows something went wrong and she's feeling badly about it. Inga can sympathize. She hopes a show of support will help Kyra know that incident isn't held against her. Inga looks toward the forms, watching their movements...focusing in on them...then, a frown. "Puppets indeed. I sense no wyrd. There are no threads," she comments, sounding both curious and disturbed. Inga looks ahead toward Landon, resplendant in his armor and princely airs. "It is not that easy, sadly, or we would have evacuated all of the people from Kingsmouth. The people cannot travel the world tree's branches," she explains. "There is something...a bit special about everyone here that allows us to pass. What is the term the Union uses...Elites?" When others begin to move forward, Inga does as well, her knife clutched in her hand so that she is ready to use her blood magic for wards or whatever is needed. The witch wears many talismans of her own, so the blood wards will likely be reserved for others.
Cirra Constantine	Landon is the party tank, Cirra Constantine is the Offensive Tank. While the PRince is a wall of steel, The Ice Queen of Alexander Academy is a brick with rocket boosters. Her entire trek from the portal has been one of strange grace despite her armor, vaulting over outcroppings and walls, and slicing down any undead with her own Judge Blade, the blade of Order and Law.     The burnt out breathing house gets a cold withering glare, but it looks like they're not here for that. She pulls her Judge Blade out of where it was thrown into a walking corpse and moves along. As a Judge she's hear to eliminate something speciciously like The Enemy. Purely professional.     As a Dark Knight her blood runs hot in her veins, waiting to be burned so she can cut the enemy down.     "This palce feels...wrong. And I don't mean the difference in worlds from Galianda. It feels diseased, sick."
Landon al Cid	"Then it won't be easy," Landon replies calmly, without looking back at Inga, "But it will be done."      "I will not consign survivors to death when I have the power to help them. We can secure a route to get them back to some relative safety."      He looks over at Cirra and nods. "It's as if the whole world has some subtle wrongness underneath the greater, more obvious wrongness. As if the sickness above was naught but scar tissue to conceal the illness below."      Landon shakes his head. "I do not like it. It unsettles me greatly to be in this place."
Kotoha Isone	"I don't think we have. Kotoha." The hanyou grins and gives Kotone a nod. "I am hoping I don't regret coming along, though the firepower is nice at least..." She glances toward the school building. "Was hoping to get to look at the library, anyway. I've heard about this place but never got a chance to come here before." She seems unarmed. And is only wearing a school uniform. Maybe this isn't the place for her after all? And then Shirou materializes a giant scythe right next to her. Kotoha's eyes widen. "Did you just make that out of thin air? How'd you do it? What's it made of? Can I taste it?" One of these questions might not sound like the others to most. "I mean, it's not as cool as a gun, but..."
Wuyin Tsai	Eleanor's assessment is correct. They move oddly, jerkily, with stilted motions more akin to a puppet on strings than the low, predatory crouch the walking dead around here favor. Ainsley takes the lead; the group as a whole follows after, with Wuyin somewhere near the front. She sees the creatures beyond the gates, crowds of misshapen humanoids moving together or roving seemingly at random. Their bodies seem to be made of twisted and crudely-affixed ropes of meat, with gangly limbs and stitched-together bodies. They're shaped like a human being, but only just. There are open double doors at the top of a flight of stone steps dead ahead, leading into the interior of the main building of the school. It's at least three or four stories high, shaped like a fat and truncated 'T' with the normally-longer end pointed towards the gate. The grounds extend to the left and the right, with another building flush against the wall to the far right and a second one set slightly further back to the left. The right one looks somewhat like dorms. The creatures are between the group and the front doors. They move intermittently here and there, occasionally clearing the path and sometimes wholly blocking it. Some walk calmly; others run back and forth in a wild, wordless sprint. There's something else here, maybe, a subtle shimmer in the air here and there... and in the distance, in the corner of your eyes, you could swear you see ghostly figures hovering by the boundaries of the campus. Wuyin gestures at the front door. "That seems a good enough place to start as any." Ainsley has yet to be attacked by the monsters on the campus. They don't appear able to reach her.
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor smiles over at Inga. "You're still welcome to come teach them. How much does 'Viking Seer Tutoring Services' cost these days? Can I pay you in leftovers because I've got plenty of those." She tightens her grip on the wrench though, and sucks in a breath as a set of puppets shuffle in front of them... but do not attack. "This is far too eerie, an-"     Hnnng. Ghosts. Eleanor's eyes blink a few times. She hasn't sampled much of the blood of this place, so those are probably natural ghosts of this place rather than figments of her own imagination. Still, important to be sure. She sighs and starts moving for the ruined front doors of the school. "Well, let's see how bad it is inside. Get it over with."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga nods to Landon and Cirra. "Yes. I agree with your assessment...certainly we will get the people to relative safety. That is what has been done over in Kingsmouth," she says, looking off toward the building again. The pupils of her eyes widen slightly for a moment as she sharpens her magical sight. "Mmm...I think this place is built to weather a storm. But let us see what we can do," she replies, then follows after Ainsley. She sticks nearby Riva and Eleanor, forming a girl power trio. Inga's eyes continue roaming, her frown growing deeper by the moment. The ghosts further off seem to be the main focus of her anxiety. Inga looks to Wuyin, nodding. "Mmm, the main building. I sense wards. Like those on the Church in Kingsmouth," she informs. Inga looks to Eleanor, briefly smiling. "I'd be happy to teach them for whatever compensation you think fair," she answers.
Kyra Hyral	"It's the Filth." Kyra mutters at Cirra's comment. "This world is infected with this corruption. It'll get into visitors too if you don't wear one of Inga's wards." As she says this, part of her wishes she had taken some footage of the living Filth monster from the last time they were here. Too bad she was too busy causing problems with her own magic.     Kyra gives Inga a look of embarassment. Even if the others had forgiven her, she still had trouble forgiving herself for exacerbating such a dangerous situation the last time they were here. "I'll be more careful this time." she says in a quiet voice. "I have prepared pretty thoroughly for this trip so I hope to still be useful somehow!"     She manages a weak smile and keeps her gun pointed to the ground but that turns into a frown of concern as Ainsley moves so very far ahead and nearby...creatures? Kyra narrows her eyes, trying to get a better look at them. "Those creatures, they seem to be...constructs? Experiments maybe? ...interesting."
Staren	"You think maybe they're constructs? But made by who? And what are their orders?" Staren wonders.
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga reaches over to put a supportive hand on Kyra's shoulder. "You will be useful. What happened was not your fault. We can discuss that more later...just warn me if you can and I will try to get wards up," she says quietly in response.
Ainsley	Ainsley frowns at the expanse of horrid undead that block the party's path. Her eyes lid as she hovers over the erratic creatures, looking at them with a quizzical stare. The flesh constructs get odd stares where they seem to be running back and forth. She times a dip just in time to bring her longsword him and try to bisect one of them with a soft BRRRRZZZT of the blade giving off electrical magic.     After this, she'd try to retreat away from the constructs. She's just trying to gauge what the deal is with these things. They don't seem human at all.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is on edge for a moment she seems wary about magic and she pauses shuddering. "Biological androdis then without a ghost? How does that even work?" She doesn't want to think about it that much. "Even I don't feel right in there for long to be honest, I feel like I'm about to chug more bandwifht than I can handle." She looks to Cirra for a moment and nods grimly to her. "This place is wrong the filth it twisting everything here it can infest. Living or dead." She looks to Landon and she tilts a head for a moment. "I think I get where your comming from, I have squat for matgic and this place always makes me uneasy." She looks to Kotoha for a moment longer before she presse a head a bit. "Well we need all the help we can get." She seems unbothered by Shirou's tracing she's used to it by now as they press inwards behind Ainsley. "Might as well there might be records from the school's scurity system I could tap into, I should be able to domolish security that a school might have in this time period." Eleanor also gets a bit of a look from Kotone as she pauses about the goes she also has to agree. "Kyra's right, this stuff it's just ... I don't know like a virus or a ghost hack it gets in and twists everything."
Landon al Cid	Filth.      It's an appropriate name. It fills everything. It's a subtle, ugly, awful thing. It seems to get everywhere, settling across the whole world. Even the weather feels wrong like it's crawling with...Filth. There's no other word as appropriate. It stains the sky and the soil and the surroundings all alike. Landon can almost imagine, as they move through the constructs, the Filth spilling out of them and into the Earth. Like everything here is...diseased, and that the disease spreads no matter what happens.      He doesn't really want to dwell on it. He doesn't really have time to dwell on it. There may be people in danger.      Inga mentions wards in the central building. Landon shifts his course, moving into the fore of the group once again in his big, heavy armor. The Judge Blade is both shield and sword as Landon moves in the direction of the wards. It snaps outwards, guided equally by his hand and his will; sometimes monsters narrowly get to him, and they clang off his armor and meet their ends on the curved end of the blade. And anything he doesn't get, he trusts in Cirra or Kyra to get, or one of their other companions. These aren't incompetent people. They're skilled, otherworldly adventurers.      The conversation about samples makes him unhappy. This world...no, even a piece of this world...feels wrong. Bringing this sickness to a healthy world is wrong.
Emiya Shirou	Shirou's at least glad that nothing's started flipping out and trying to kill them yet, but what he can see of the monstrous humanoids jerking around has him getting all tense and tigh. He stays even closer to the group. "What in the world happened here?! ... I hope these aren't the students...!"     Then he whips around to look at something off in the distance, blinking. Did he see something? He's not sure...
Riva Banari	Riva is not going to spend time ruminating about all these shenanigans. "HEY! FRANKENNOCHIOS!" Riva yells, bringing up the MP7s. "THERE AIN'T NO STRINGS ON ME!" She steps forward in a stalking motion, seething Anima rolling throug hthe imprinted circuits on her MP7s as she rakes the horrifying beasts in the way. It seems like she has an even shorter temper than usual today. "Ainsley!" Riva calls. "Don't get out ahead, let the guys with armor take point! Or at least the people who don't die when they are killed! If you get dumped into the hospital again I am going to be /very disappointed/ in you, young lady!" Should she reach the main door, she can and will kick it open like a boss. "AVON CALLING!" Riva yells into the front lobby of the Academy.
Cirra Constantine	"How appropariately named." Cirra comments as the group wades into the constructs of flesh. Those that bounce off Landon's armor are run through by the bodygaurd's Judge Blade. Her work is quick and effcient, thats no need to get flashy yet.     "Landon, stick with the group." She say firmly, incase he gets any ideas about running off by himself to be a hero.
Eleanor Lamb	WELL.     If Riva is going in swinging, Eleanor Lamb shall as well. She is extremely hard to kill, after all. That spanner lights itself on fire, and the Big Sister lets out a battle cry, a massive wave of TK lashing out to knock over the nearest group of constructs, all the better to simply crack their skulls open.
Kyra Hyral	In the future, Kyra might just take samples on her own without alerting anyone. That way she wouldn't get shot down all the time and she could endanger other worlds if she damn well pleased! She makes no attempts this time, instead taking the Luna's Resolve in hand. She's careful to stay behind the likes of Cirra and Landon, the Judges serving as excellent tanks to her backliner status.     Calmly, she shoots whichever construct monsters that seem to get past both Landon and Cirra. It's likely a distressingly small number, which Kyra is okay with. Ammo for the Luna's Resolve was limited.
Ainsley	Ainsley's face immediately goes red when Riva shouts at her, somehow able to blush despite having scales. She floats up out of the fray and moves back to a point where she can do something less hazardous: She casts bolt of lightning that she can somehow arc around the party members and hit the undead with, without hurting anyone she didn't mean to hurt. She is very good with that lightning.     When Riva kicks in the doors, Ainsley peeks in through the doorway, having floated over to cling against the top of the threshold.     "I don't think anyone here is interested in beauty care products," Ainsley points out to Riva, in a quiet voice, a product of her embarrassment.
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga blinks several times, shoulders slumping as she sighs. There goes Riva, charging in, and Eleanor after, and Ainsley per usual. A frown. Ainsley had been injured? She hadn't been called? Well, there are certainly enough warrior types here that Inga is likely not needed to throw around fire and lightning, so she will focus on getting up the steps and into the building. She pauses by the front doorway, looking around with brows furrowed in concentration. "Ah, here we are," she says, locating a symbol that looks familiar. "Hmm...it is not active," she comments, mostly to herself. That isn't good news.
Xion	"Bustin' makes me feel good!" Comes an off-color (and, honestly, off-key) tune, before one of the ZAMBAMBINOs gets a taste of WEIRD ASS KEY-BLADE-THING. From behind it, Xion appears, hacking at the zombie with two-handed chops, before looking up. She's covered in zambi viscera and ghost goo, and she has a ghostbusters patch on her shoulder. "Oh! Hello, everyone! I'm a Ghostbuster!" She announces, cheerily. "What are you all up to?"
Wuyin Tsai	Ainsley's sword goes snicker-zap and cleaves into the creature's body. Her sword doesn't go all the way through; there's bone inside, and it's tough, but the electrical charge fries whatever this thing is. It flails wildly from the shock before its legs fly out ahead of it, the body of the thing hitting the grassy lawn with a 'thump.' It twitches intermittantly. A group of them move in as soon as one hits the ground. Riva starts to cut them down with Anima bullets, slowing the rush, and Landon and Cirra use precise swordplay to hack into the ones that get through while Kyra's support fire closes holes. They're a well-oiled adventuring machine. The monsters strike crude but strong blows, using fists and heads and supernatural strength to batter the warriors down even as they're cut to pieces. Another group closes from the right, three more getting close and then thrown off their feet by Eleanor's telekinetic blow. Their skulls are hard, but very crackable. Riva kicks a front door in a very deliberate way. It swings open and bangs against something inside with a squishing noise, slowly rebounding back towards the frame. Inga and Ainsley both spot a marking just inside the door, some kind of arcane symbol that seems... flat. Lifeless, even. Another one is on the floor, more crudely drawn at the foot of the thing the door squished against: a body, practically unrecognizeable as a person. There is copious amounts of blood. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a response to Riva's shout in the form of an older man's voice echoing down the hall: "No running in the halls!" He sounds somewhat insistent, but otherwise calm. "They are /quite/ slick with blood."
Landon al Cid	Landon does not understand Xion's references. This means that he cannot judge her for them.      He is also slightly distracted by the man shouting about the hallways slick with blood.      Landon is adept at dealing with this kind of situation. He starts moving towards the voice, careful to remain slightly ahead of the group, but not so far ahead that Cirra grumps at him again. He's in Serious Mode right now.      "We're here to rescue you," Landon calls down the hall, "How many are you, and how long have you been here?"
Staren	Staren follows after the group, cleaning up with beam cannons and beam swords. As he comes up behind the others, he responds to the voice: "Is it safe to come in? Were those constructs yours or were the wards keeping them out?"
Kotoha Isone	"Well huh." Kotoha crosses her arms as business is, as it were, taken care of. "Okay then, that was terricially gross. I'm going to just... let you guys do your sword thing, I think." For the moment, Kotoha follows behind the others, though she pauses to look down at the symbol that seems to have gotten their attention. "What's this do?" She pauses a moment. "Or what's it supposed to do?" At the sound of a voice from down the hall, the hanyou glances up. "Oh hey, someone who isn't a shambling messy thing! ...I hope." She raises both hands to cup around her mouth, "If you're not a shambling messy puppet thing, tell us so! I need to be prepared!"
Ainsley	Ainsley frowns again when she hears the old man's words. She floats inward after the rest of the group, and lands to get a look at the symbol drawn by the corpse, waiting until everyone has passed by first. Her eyes flick over it, trying to pry some meaning out of what she's looking at. She compares the flat symbol, and the symbol at the feet of the corpse...     "Hmm. Maybe this one was trying to reactivate the wards..."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga looks to Ainsley. "An inactive ward..." she says, then looking to the second symbol. "Hmm...was someone attempting to put up their own ward? Or to power the one already made?" she wonders. Then, a voice! A man's voice, undistorted, authoritative. Perfect! A survivor! Inga heads in the direction of the voice.
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor is busy smashing open doll heads, as she heads the voice and frowns. She looks to Inga and Riva and voices her concern over the radio, before setting up traps of her own. A mental effort, and she swats swirling masses of air on the ground between the group and where the dolls have been coming from, filling them up with fire and ice and lightning.     Certainly not as permanent as Inga's wards. More like paranormal landmines.
Emiya Shirou	Oh so it turns out the creatures ARE hostile. While Shirou does listen to Riva... in that he doesn't go charging out leeroy jenkins style... when the creatures approach, he swings Thanatos about again and again, swirling and twirling with Death's finesse several times. The Noble Phantasm's always proven to be effective against the dead... but who knows just WHAT -THESE- things are?!     it can still cut, regardless!     But the fight's over quickly enough... and so Shirou's left to gape disbelievingly at the figure who spoke, as he looks down the hall... "You're kidding. Someone's still in this place?"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has found in regard to the flith you need to keep fighting no matter what, the second you give up? It winds for lack of a better term. he pauses at the mention of the samples ya szhe's kinda chilled about that to put it mildy she listen as Riva sings anf he sighs a little bit, she also takes out a few as she presses arhewad. "Hey Riva that's my song if anyone's doll here it's me." She made a joke about being a cyborg? That's a first sshe makes it inside she pause as the man asks them to not run in the halls, but clas sis out, oh she gets it that's kinda creepy she lower her rifle now and keeps alert for more thing. "Doesn't shock me if the school's warded it means people who might have even an idea of what's going on could have made it. Hey the police station and townies thee surived and most of them only heard rumors, right?"
Cirra Constantine	Cirra looks at Xion "I'm sorry, what?" Her gaze is drawn to the key-blade-axe-thing Xion weilds, well she can't doubt the weapon's effectiveness. She moves in after LAndon after the announcement about the halls being slick with blood. She puts on hand on Landond's shoulder. "Becarefull, just because they sound safe at first, doesn't mean anything until we meet their eyes."
Ainsley	Ainsley frowns at the wards, telling the party over the radio in her mellow tone of voice about how the symbols represent protection and destruction and that the sloppier one was likely made by a person desperately trying to repair the wards. It's the only reason she can think of.     She floats up off the floor again, and follows after Inga closely. She does not want to walk into any blood puddles.
Kyra Hyral	"Oh, hey Xion." Kyra seems entirely unsurprised that the girl has showed up again. At this point she assumes that Xion has started living in this world and hanging around it like some kind of aggressively strange tourist. Kyra moves along swiftly with the group, taking the moment to turn on her flashlight so she can ge a better look at the floors and where to step. She doesn't want to slip on slick blood, after all.     "We're here to help!" she calls out down the hall, "Unless you're a construct that's smart enough to speak. If you are, you're going to have a bad day!" Kyra loads a fresh chamber of bullets into the Luna's Resolve as she walks.
Riva Banari	There's a lot of miscellaneous monster murder. Riva takes a moment to give Eleanor and Inga high fives for TEAM GIRL POWER and distributes post-battle victory tacos. As she munches, her gaze is drawn by Xion in the distance. "Whut." She says, squinting. "Where, there's sure something strange going on in /this/ neighborhood, but are you who we're gonna call? Get over here, Xion. Let's rock on in here and see what's up." She snorts in amusement at Kotone's response. "You know, if you didn't bring it up so much I probably wouldn't even remember you're a cyborg half the time. You don't look THAT bad." She then pointes over to one side of the lobby. "The voice came from over there, let's go and remember: No running! We don't need people tripping on all the blood." She sighs, and helps direct people into what looks like the front office area.
Wuyin Tsai	Eleanor lays an elemental minefield on the front stairs. If she had a recording device and a sick sense of humor, she might get some satisfaction out of the footage. It will pretty neatly hold the front door, at least for a little while. "I assure you, I am no crudely-constructed familiar wearing a human's face. There have been no incidents of that sort of behavior in... at least three semesters," the calm man says. There's a sigh from someone else, quiet but more audible as you close in. A woman's voice replaces his. She sounds distinctly Scottish. "What he is trying to say is, the office is safe, and there are three of us holed up inside. If you're speaking, I expect you're at least partly friendly, eh?" Following the voices leads to an office. One of the wards is in the doorway, glowing electric blue. Beyond it, a man in a suit stands in front of a window, hands in blue latex gloves folded behind his back. He's looking out over the grounds. A woman in red and white is looking out into the hall much more cautiously. "These parts have gotten pretty lively since everyone died," she comments. "If you're not some sort of phantasm trying to lure us into a false sense of security, well, you won't mind crossing the wards, will you?" She sounds somewhat tense, compared to the other man's apparently professional calm. A third voice comes from elsewhere in the office, a younger girl's. A student? She's a little more quiet. "The wards'll stop something like that, right?" The calm man turns slightly. "Oh, no. I expect if a phenomenon that powerful is indeed at work, we will all surely perish." The woman in the door exhales through her nose, stifling a groan. The girl pipes up again, clearly somewhere between angry and scared. "Have you ever even /heard/ of a white lie?!"
Kotoha Isone	Ew, ew, ew, such a mess. "How did it even -get- like this?" Kotoha's footing is just fine, at least, but she may need to burn these shoes before going home. "You mean you three are the only ones left here?" Kotoha peers into the doorway, then down at the wards. "I'm totally not a phantasm and I don't eat people or anything, but is it really safe to touch those?" She seems somewhat hesitant, poking her toe at the very edge of the ward. "'Cause I'm not all human. It won't explode the room if I step on it, right?" She -looks- human enough, at least.
Landon al Cid	Landon takes a moment to really /appreciate/ what's going on here. And, well, by really /appreciate/, it's more like...it's more like he sort of stares for a moment at the three people tossing jokes about in the middle of a siege by horrible nightmares.      Well...humor...copes with...everything...?      He takes a moment to put his authoritative mien back on and clears his throat. "Of course. You have nothing to fear from us; we're here to help."      The armored Prince crosses the threshold basically without hesitation. He's not an Evil Thing, he's not possessed of Evil Energy, he doesn't have any Chaos Taint or Filth or anything, so he should probably be fine. If the ward really does anything to him, well, then Cirra will probably kill them all, and Kyra's on hand, and...stuff. Cirra will probably intercept him anyway.      Assuming he isn't fried alive by entering the room, Landon places his hand over his armored chest and lowers his head. He straightens a moment later, a courtly bow and no more. Not bowing too low is essential in the courts. Too low, and you look like you're submitting.      Princes did not submit.      "I am Landon al Cid, Prince of Ramuh. My companions and I are here to rescue you, and to find information about a sword of some nature recovered by a man named Joseph Slater. Can you tell us anything - about the situation, about the monsters, about the sword - that might enable us to better aid your escape and the recovery of this weapon? We believe it may be the key to helping with your problem."
Staren	"At least three semesters, huh?" Staren echoes. "Of course we're friendly!"     There's a discussion. "I like this guy! Don't listen to her! Honesty is awesome!" He peers into the building. "So, how /do/ you tell the difference between phantasms here to trick you, and actual help from outside? ...Hey, do you know about the Multiverse? ...Wait, how do we know /you're/ not phantasms?" Staren sounds excited actually, as now he has a problem to solve. "Ooh, this is an interesting puzzle... What's your name, mister? I'm Staren of the Union!"
Xion	Xion seems to be ignored, but, honestly, she's not offended! OH WAIT NO, RIVA GETS IT! HOORAY!     Kyra, Cirra, and Riva all seem to notice her, and Kyra even remembers her name! Today is a good day. Much better than yesterday!     Yesterday sucked a lot.     Shouldering her weapon, Xion saunters along with the others, grinning up a storm. "Haha, hey, Riva got my thing! But, well, I'm trying out things, to figure out what I'm good at. So far, though, Ghosts are slimy. I'll stick to Heartless."     Xion is about to talk to Kyra and Cirra, but the slickened floors catch her up around the feets, and she pratfalls into blood. Now she's bloody. "Ewwwwwwwww!" she announces, picking herself up. Her face is covered in DIRTY OLD DISGUSTING FLOORBLOOD.
Emiya Shirou	"Sorry for the scare." Shirou decides to give crossing the wards a shot. But first he banishes his Noble Phantasm. It vanishes in a flurry of prana-motes, eroded by an invisible wind. Of course... chances are the wards won't stop him, right?     "The rest of the town's in about the same shape as this place, with the exception of a few refuges... I'm Emiya Shirou!" And he tries to give the trapped group a reassuring smile. But it's a very slight one at best. He doesn't feel too happy about this mess!"     "... what's been happening here? It's strange zombies for the town... " And here it's... the heck is this anyways?
Cirra Constantine	Cirra looks heavenward with one palm turned upwards in a sign of exasperation as Landon just moves ahead through the ward to the possibly crazy people. She immediatly barges in after him and stands at his side.     "And *I* am the Prince's bodygaurd." her horned helmet tips down slightly as she examines each of the three survivors.
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga facepalms, shaking her head at Riva. "Not that bad?" she whispers? That is a terrible thing to say! Inga looks back to Kotone. "You are very pretty--and do not look like a-whatever-it-is," she informs Kotone. The hallways are indeed slick. Inga's staff slips on some blood, which throws off her whole balance, naturally. Inga stumbles with a quick gasp, looking more embarrassed than anything. Well, it wouldn't do for her to remain clean of blood for long, would it? Inga reaches of Ainsley to steady herself, since she is nearby. Inga continues to the office, stopping to examine the ward in pure curiosity, grumbling about how all magic things seem to glow in this world and how very odd and garish it is. Then, she enters. Landon makes his very regal introduction so Inga follows suit. "I am Inga Freyasdottir, wisewoman of Uppsala," she informs. "We are indeed friendly. Wondering if you might need some help. We've come from Kingsmouth," she replies, glancing back toward the ward on the door. "A strong ward. I did notice the one at the door in inactive," she comments further, clutching her staff. She looks to the woman, raising an eyebrow. The accent is a bit familiar to her. "Do you hail from Dal Riata?" she asks.
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor... pauses over the ward, shuddering a bit, and just standing there in the antechamber to the office, wobbling a little bit as she passes. It feels off inside of this particular ward, almost as if she's... unwelcome.     She looks to Inga and Riva and then shuffles quietly inside, looking at the other things in the room and not talking to people just at this second.     There's enough people talking to her right now.
Ainsley	Ainsley stops outside the threshold, giving a wary gaze down at the ward. She does not want to pass it on the off chance that it makes her burst into flames just by being loosely related to Aztec magic. She steps in after the rest of them, and nothing bad happens to her. Perhaps a load off her mind, her eyes lid and close as she floats through the room and stands off against one of the walls.     Her eyes open and focus suspiciously on the old man... and his gloves. She looks up at him, where he's staring out of the window, and then walks over to stand nearby, should no one impede her.     "Hello." She looks at him quizzically, her voice quieter when she's standing right next to him, "I would like to help you fix the wards. You seem to be the one who would know how they work."
Kotoha Isone	As others step through, Kotoha watches carefully. Well, there are others going through who are certainly not human and they haven't detonated or exploded into confetti. The hanyou takes a breath and steps across the ward... and then shudders, a chill running down her spine and setting her teeth on edge. "Nnngg, that was terrible! My skirt's not on fire or anything, right?" She turns this way and that, glancing down at herself to be sure she's all there. "And I'm gonna have to do that again to get out, huh..." The girl slaps her cheeks with her hands and looks toward the three survivors. "So... hi! Like I said, totally harmless. My name's Kotoha Isone."
Riva Banari	Riva's glancing causes her to catch Inga's response. She blanches slightly, suddenly realizing what she said. "Er, um... Sorry, Kotone." She says quietly. "That's not... what I meant." Xion goes flying, and Riva moves to help her back up. "That's kind of gross. Maybe there's a pool around here we can toss you in to clean you up." Riva looks over the wards and crosses them apparently without a care in the world. What are they going to do, activate and flash-fry her body and then eject her spirit to wander the unprotected grounds for all eternity? That would suck. "Some of us are from around here, anyway. I'm American!" She waves to the others. "Riva Banari, nice to meet you all. Don't mind the guns, they're only for killing monsters. So, what's going on in this thread?"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa choses to walk past the wards and see if anything happens but she looks at the group before them and says. "Fair enough I'm Kotone and yes I have heard of a white lite." Though she has to think Riva'a made a good point and just hearing that if she hadn't brought things up? Riva would have forgot what Kotone was? That means quite a bit to her and she pauses as Landon goes inforamtion drop but then again they might know something. She looks to STaren for a moment. She takes note of Xion's here again well she's not really /trying/ to cause problem so there's no bad blood about the other day at all really. She manages ot not slip on the blood on her way in. Though she may feel the need to get new shoes. "Your not the only surivors we were coming here to do a sweep of the school and hunting for information as the Prince said. "Japan by way of Canada. So I take it you got hit by the fog like everyone else did in town?"
Wuyin Tsai	The office is spacious enough that you could get the whole group inside, more or less comfortably if you spread out. It's in a slight L-shape, with potted plants under the windows, a desk, a table, corkboards for notices and even a computer with an old CRT monitor. There's a bookcase by the door you came in in the corner, and a blue rug askew in the center of the hardwood floor with the school's symbol on it. It is impossible to miss the Illuminati symbolism if you've seen it before. "You may experience some discomfort," the man says to Kotoha. "Whether this leads to the liquefaction of your organs remains to be seen. Ahhh..." He inhales. "...experimentation. Wonderful." The Scottish woman shoots him a look and shakes her head. "What H.J. is trying to say is, we don't really know for sure. I think not, though. You don't seem the type." Whatever that means. She blinks at Inga's comment. "From the area, aye, though Dal Riata hasn't existed for centuries. Dating yourself, are we?" She smiles slightly. She looks tired. The man turns to the Prince. "I am Hayden Montag. I have been the Headmaster of Innsmouth Academy for these past fifteen years. This is Miss Annabel Usher, perhaps the only other member of the faculty still breathing in the... conventional sense. She is thus the most talented member of my staff at present, barring sudden and uncontrolled reanimation." "Ugh," goes the girl. She's sitting at the computer, wearing a grey Innsmouth Academy hoodie that's been badly stained with blood up the sleeves and across the front. "I'm Carter. Just -- just so Professor Montag doesn't have to introduce me," she adds hastily. "I go to school here. Or, went to school here. I guess." Miss Usher looks to the Prince and his entourage. "Ah, you're trailing our mythical weapon of mass destruction, then?" She walks up to them, examining the group with interest. Carter pipes up from the computer again. "They're not too late, right?" "I sure hope not," Annabel says. She folds her arms, and adds with a touch of forced brevity, "I have a reputation to uphold as the only thing that's Scottish and dangerous on the island." She holds the light expression for a second, and then looks down and exhales, losing the traces of humor. "I should have called in the cavalry as soon as it turned up. But honestly? I caught me with my metaphysical knickers down. I have no idea what it was." "It's not like it's your fault, Miss Usher," Carter says. "No one's ever removed anything from the Academy before and gotten through the wards." She looks back to the computer, then down at the keyboard for a second, adding, "...In one piece." "Ah; Opening Day could've gone better," Usher remarks, trying again. She sighs. "Anyway. I suspect whoever possesses the weapon lacks the knowledge required to use it. And they'll be looking for answers." Montag, meanwhile, looks back to Ainsley. "The wards of this school -- hundreds of years old -- are /violated/. It is /unthinkable/. But we... /handle/ the unthinkable every day. Now, things are slipping through... both ways. I'm not sure which is worse for the health of the island." He unfolds his hands and turns to fully face her. "A thorough investigation will follow, as soon as we have appointed new staff, and dissolved their predecessors' corpses." Annabel coughs into her hand and clears her throat. Montag turns back to the window, still talking. "Yes, the immediate concern is that the wards must hold. The devices are hungry, rapacious for Anima." "Great!" Usher says, possibly sarcastically. "We'll have a sacrificial donation drive! Or a bake sale." Montag turns back around, his voice calm and rather flat as always. "Delightful."
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor is happy enough to just poke at the stuff on the walls for right now, thank you, though she does start poking at the stuff on the walls, examining it and the books and looking things over.     She is avoiding eye contact right now. Bluh.
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga clears her throat at Annabel's comments. "Forgive me, I do not know what that land is now called," she replies. Inga falls quiet then, listening, looking a touch distressed to learn that their quandry seems to have been taken. "It has been taken? Indeed your wards are strong, to be bypassed this person must be...powerful," she says. "As for the wards, perhaps we may be able to help you. A few of us are quite proficient in wards. If we cannot get these up and working I can offer wards of my own making--though they will be different in appearance," she explains. Tch, glowing. Overrated. Inga then looks to Carter. Her eyes widen-and not just the lids. Ah, there's those threads of wyrd... Inga moves over toward Carter. "You are one of us. A Chosen," she says, looking to the bloodied sleeves of her clothing, she raises her brows questioningly. "Do you use blood magic as well?" she asks.
Staren	"You really should have mentioned the organ liquifying thing /before/ she walked over the wards." Staren comments. Still, he feels it's /pretty/ unlikely something can do that to him so easily.     He's been wrong a lot lately, though.     But he makes it inside, organs intact. "Weapon? Knowledge to use it? Are you talking about the sword? It's what /unleashed/ all this in the first place, don't we need to put it back or something? What /is/ it? Do you know?"
Ainsley	Ainsley keeps an eye on the exchange between the party members and these survivors. Her eyes lid at the revelation that the sword had been taken off the grounds by someone. She shakes her head slowly, unhappy with the idea that such a thing could happen... She then nods at the Headmaster, and lets out a tired sigh of her own. However, when Inga points out Carter's nature...     She blinks at him slowly... so far all she's seen have been people like... well, Wuyin, Riva and Inga. Adventurers. Problem solvers. Not people in a more fixed role like this man.     "Once the wards are repaired -- which I am eager to assist with -- I would like to peruse any libraries you might have. Forgive me, I cannot pass up the opportunity."
Kotoha Isone	Squint. Kotoha lifts a finger and points toward the man. "Yeah, let's not experiment on my insides again. I'd really appreciate it." The hanyou takes another breath and lays a hand on Eleanor's shoulder. "You okay? You seem even worse off than me." She considers that for a moment. "Maybe 'cause of how I work... but there's no way I'm letting Mister Deadpan here be involved with testing anything." She makes a face. "They seem really casual about death and mutilation and stuff. Even given the situation..." Another look is given to the wards, though Kotoha makes no move to get any closer. "I like our wards in Sakurashin better. They don't make you feel like this." She perks up again, though, at mention of the library. "Oh yeah, there were books here! Though I suppose there are those weird monstery things all around them, huh... What are those anyway? They don't act like they're alive."
Riva Banari	"If anything happened to you, I'd be moderately irritated." Riva comments to Kotoha. "We've only just met! I can't have you melting on me now." She pauses. "Or ever." She sighs as she listens to the entire spiel. Most of the others seem like they're on the case in unravelling the various commentary from the teachers of the most occult school Riva's ever known about. She, instead, pops over next to Carter and leans against the wall, crossing her arms. "Did you happen to know a Danny?" Riva gestures. "We met him back in town proper. He mentioned you." She keeps her comments simple enough. Maybe this will give them some more information. "Are you part of his League?"
Landon al Cid	"It is a pleasure to meet each of you," Landon confirms politely, because a Prince must be courtly in all things, even in a situation like this. He listens, carefully, to everything , stirring it over in his thoughts as he holds the Judge Blade.      A mythical weapon of mass destruction? Was that what they were pursuing? Landon had thought the sword was something related to the mists, from what little he had read. What *was* the sword? What secrets did it hold? What did it do, and what did it mean? Just what was it they were seeking? Just what was it they were hoping to do with it?      "Do you have some means of tracking the sword, once the wards are restored? Or some means of finding out who has it? Some..." Landon hesitates.      Mostly because this kind of thing was fantasy in his own world, but, hey, this was a big multiverse.      "Some sort of scrying tool, or some such?"      He looks out into the hallway. If these wards *were* that strong, well...they didn't seem like they needed rescuing, so that freed him up to concentrate on the sword, probably. If they wanted to be here...      Frankly, he thought they were nuts, but he understood the willingness to fight for one's home.
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor smiles a bit over at Kotoha, and looks... uh. Sudden sullen eyes, something else behind them. A little smile, as much as she can manage. "It's a disruption effect, I think. Tries to... put right things that are Not Right, or at least that's how it feels to me. Actually." She takes a breath and slips out the doors of the office back into the festering mire of the rest of the academy... and looks suddenly refreshed.     "That's... better ish." She leans on the doorjamb and murmurs. "I am an amalgamation of people, Miss Isone. Not quite... what you might call a Proper Young Lady as much as I may try to emulate one."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa pause at teh discomfort and stares for a moment doubly so at the mention of her organs either way she sighs but what's done is done she look to the woman for a moment and shr tilts her head for a moment. "We're and odd crew Mr. Montag I admit and humm so your incharge here?" She ponders for a moment then smiles at Carter a bit as she shoulders her rifle. "So thes wards were pretty well set up then?" She looks to Inga for a moment nodding. "If we can get the wards here back up we might be able to clear things for a moment. she moves to Carter now. "So managed to keep an landline up by any chance? Also have you been in contact with the surivors at the police station by any chance? Humm that's an idea Landon, a good one." She pauses for a moment longer. "Got anything on file Carter that might be able to help us?"
Emiya Shirou	As usual, there's just way too much going on for Emiya Shirou to take it all in at once. He looks about frantically, flabbergasted at this development.     "... The school's in on the supernatural stuff too? Not just the Church and the cemetery?" Stare.     Well this is pretty awkward for him. He asks Wuyin, "Do you think it's possible that everyone's in on this kind of stuff but keeping it a secret from each other? The supernatural's not REALLY secret?"     Maybe he's not too serious asking that, but this is CRAZY.     "Yeah, we're looking for that sword. It's probably key to stopping this crisis!"
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga suddenly looks toward Landon, spine suddenly straightening. "Scrying! Yes! Odin's bones, that is brilliant," she says, reaching to touch a pouch at her belt. "I shall have to scry--Could you show me where you kept the object in question perhaps? If I can be near to where it is kept I may have vision, or I could use my runes..." she waves a hand dismissively. "Whichever."
Cirra Constantine	Cirra seems weary of Montag, the man just seems... off. And who wears blue latex gloves in and office? She shakes her head slightly at Landon's behaviour.     "Are you aware of any othe survivors, or places they could possibly be? Other warded off sections?"
Ainsley	"Shirou..."     Ainsley steps over, and reaches over to touch him on the shoulder. In as patient, placating and gentle a tone she can, she explains...     "What happens to a town that knows nothing about supernatural threats, and no way to prepare for them, and then it gets hit by a supernatural disaster that would cripple even the most powerful people for an extended period of time?" She frowns softly. "You saw the walking corpses all around Kingsmouth. The people we are finding are people who were lucky enough or skilled enough to defend themselves."     "Understand?"
Emiya Shirou	Shirou can be dense and thoughtless on occasion. Ainsley's words reach him and...     He promptly flinches. Then slaps a palm to his forehead. "...Right." A short, shame-filled comment. How did he not think of that?
Kotoha Isone	"Is -that- why I feel like I shouldn't have had breakfast this morning?" Kotoha crosses her arms and frowns. "Making right things that are Not Right. Well, it has no say in the matter! You seem Right enough to me, and if you seem Right enough to yourself, then that should be good enough. The ward is just trying to stick in its nose where it doesn't belong!" She grins broadly. "You know, if it had a nose. Or could think. Or anything like that. You're you, that's all that matters. 'Swhat I've always lived by." Riva is given a grin, though a slightly uncomfortable one. "Glad I've fallen into the unmeltable category, then. I know I'd be pretty irritated if something happened to me." The hanyou tilts her head slightly, glancing back to Eleanor. "Do you have anything you like to hold onto when you're not feeling well?" The question may seem nonsequitur, but she seems to be soemwhat serious.
Wuyin Tsai	"Ah. You may have already run into some of the students' familiars, out there?" Usher says to Kotoha. "They look a fright, but, well, think back to how /your/ first shop class projects turned out." More seriously, she adds, "Without the kids around to control them, they're running wild. Eventually they'll go pure bonkers, and things here will go even more pear-shaped..." She sighs. "I wish there was a cleaner way to contain them, but --" Montag interrupts. "I recommend the delivery of a swift, decapitating blow with a spade. A fire axe has a distressing tendency to... rebound, from the vertebrae." "From... experience?" Miss Usher says. "Aye?" "A teacher is only as good as his tools," Montag intones. He looks back to Ainsley and Kotoha. "Do you read? It's a fading art. In this modern world, offer an occultist an irreplaceable manuscript, and they will claim they are waiting for the movie. All the scholarly aspect has gone out of forbidden knowledge. The studiousness, the drive." He folds his hands one on top of the other. "There are certainly many texts available in the Academy library, at the center of this building. Reactivate the wards, and deal with any potential apparitions within the library itself, and you may peruse at your leisure."
Wuyin Tsai	Miss Usher responds to Staren. "I haven't a clue. But..." She leans in a little. "The Illuminati built this place with secret passages and tunnels out the wazoo. Supposedly, all their records, covering centuries of occult lore, are kept in an archive. But the archive is /hidden/ --" "The one below the school?" Carter suddenly interjects. Annabel turns to her. "Below the school?" she echoes. In a quieter voice, she mutters, "Ugh, I hate when I repeat things." "I-I kind of... heard about this full-on Illuminati vault. Like, the seniors might've tried to crack the lock a few times. Or something." Carter rubs her brow, a touch sheepishly. She glances back up. "You can see it through the floorboards in the Old Block." Then she looks back down, holding her head up with one hand, adding after a slight pause, "...I heard." "Ahhh. /That/ Illuminati archive," Montag murmurs. Annabel rounds on him. "Tell me you're pulling my leg." Montag crosses his arms behind his back again. "No. Well. I couldn't discount a manifestation of unconscious telekinesis..." Annabel, clearly irritated and driven back to sarcasm, turns back to Staren. "Well then! There you are. The 'secret' Illuminati archives. 'Lost' to the ages."
Wuyin Tsai	Wuyin shakes his head, murmuring to Shirou while he observes the madhouse conversations. "I don't think it's quite that bad. I'm beginning to get the feeling that it's less of a secret than I thought, though." He moves over towards his fellow honey-scented immortals and the girl at the computer. Carter looks up at Inga and Riva. "You... know Danny? He's really okay, then?" She glances at the computer screen furtively, and then at them, apparently a little warmer at the name-drop. "Uh, no, this isn't... mine. My blood, I mean." She holds up her sleeves, frowning at them and shivering a little. Montag, ever the type to volunteer helpful information, speaks from the window again. "Carter was psychokinetic at birth. Her parents quickly learned to avoid metal nursery furniture." It is not a joke. He seems incapable of jokes. "Exposure to the island and its... checkered magical history has only amplified her abilities. From the age of twelve, she could shift laboratory animals into other dimensions. I intended to work with her on protecting them from explosive decompression at the point of return," he adds. "But those lessons have been on hiatus since a regrettable zoo outing last year." Carter sinks in her chair, incredibly embarassed. "This is why I didn't have him introduce me," she says quietly. She chances a glance at Inga and Riva, and spots Wuyin lingering nearby. "So. Uh. How's /your/ super-story going so far? Swallowed a bee, wrecked your place, I know how that one starts..." Wuyin frowns at the rather specific description. "They say we're gifted. I don't wanna come across like a spoiled brat, but gee, some gift! Scared off my friends, my family. Any chance for a normal life. I even creeped out the other students here at, you know, Hogwarts." Carter makes a broad gesture with her free hand, the other still propping her head up from the table. "I can't blame them. Sometimes when I dream, it gives my roommates nosebleeds. That doesn't really make me BFF material." She spots Wuyin's carefully neutral expression, and looks between the three 'bees'. "Have you...had the dreams yet?"
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor smiles over at Kotoha, and murmurs. "If I could be normal again I would take that in a heartbeat. I... my story is sad but long, and not for a place like this where there are ears here that should not hear things. Give them bad ideas."     Eleanor waves a bit at Riva before she's back in and talking to the other young lady...     And then back to Kotoha. She pats the end of her massive spanner. She doesn't seem the right size to be wielding something that big. "I like the feeling of a nice warm heavy object at a time like this. Nothing says 'please stay away' like thinking people on fire and then beeating offending Things with a wrench."
Staren	A school where Animating Corpses 101 is their version of shop class? Huh.     "So... they're locked and noone's been able to get in. Probably some puzzle?" Staren looks down at the floor. "Through the floorboards? What happens if you just pull up said boards and go down?"     Staren maintains a poker face as Montag describes psychokinetic... 'accidents'.     Staren raises an eyebrow. Swallowed a bee? What?     Staren tilts his head. "Hogwarts? How do you know about Neville's school?"     He takes a step forward. "Hey, with the resources of the Multiverse... I'm sure there's a way to help this. Powers don't have to ruin your life... but, we do kind of need to make there be a world for you to have a life /in/ first... Dreams?"
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga looks back to Carter, finding a chair and pulling it over to sit by the young woman. "My...super story?" she asks, tilting her head slightly. Then, she shakes it. "No, that is not quite how it happened for me," she says with a small smile. She stares at Carter for another long, likely uncomfortable moment. "I've always had dreams, but mine are not confined to sleep. You have the Sight too then? Are they developing that gift here as well?" she asks. Inga is obviously quite fascinated to meet another perhaps somewhat like herself. They may have some interesting things in common. She has no idea what psychokinetic means however. She does want to help though.
Xion	Xion is helped up by Riva, smiling despite herself. Her bloody/gorey/ichor-y coat just sort of drips as she watches. Her smile, and her eyes, are this sort of glassy, picturesque thing. Empty. And she just stands there, as everyone's talking.     In her odd, fake cheerfulness. Covered in slooowly dripping blood. In a black coat. Just staring. Watching.     Like a statue.     A creepy teenaged girl statue.
Riva Banari	Riva nods to Carter. "Danny was fine last I checked. Carting around his book and keeping an eye on things with this toy plane with a camera. Nice kitbashing." She chuckles. She frowns a bit herself as Carter basically describes her first week with superpowers. "Mostly? Just flailing around, making new friends..." She waves back to Eleanor at that point, as if to punctuate, "...and shooting things with magical bullets. Oh, and getting covered in blood every couple days. I wouldn't exactly call it glamorous." She sighs. "But I guess that's the thing, right? That old saying? 'An adventure is someone else having a really terrible day.'" Riva shrugs at it, but smiles. "But I feel for you. I'd totally rather be painting than learning new wrestling moves to deal with zombies." The mention of dreams causes Riva to blink. "Which... dreams?" She asks, cautiously.
Kotoha Isone	"I suppose we differ there... I don't think I could give up what I am. It'd be a betrayal of everything my friends have done for me." Kotoha reaches up to adjust her glasses a bit. "But I can understand that. I don't think everyone's had it as easy as me." The hanyou blinks... then lets out a short laugh. "Well, since you've already got one, I suppose you don't need help there either. But let me know if you do." Montag is given an odd look. "Those are student projects? Oh, and with the students gone, they're on their own. I get it." She makes a face. "I'll try to cage 'em or something, if it's all the same to you. Even if they're not alive, I'll pass on chopping something's head off with a shovel. Though maybe hitting them might be satisfying..." Kotoha considers that for a moment before focusing on Montag again. "Oh, I don't read to study. I just like to read. Though if all you have here is magical stuff that makes things like what's outside, I'd better not. Never know what'll come out of my mouth." Xion and her messiness catches the hanyou's eye, and Kotoha turns to face her. "Want me to help with that mess? Long as you don't mind getting a little wet, I can probably get the blood off before it stains."
Kyra Hyral	"You know...while I appreciate the dedication to education here..." Kyra speaks up, "I'm surprised the rest of you haven't focused on dealing with the facilities issues first. Cut down on the random encounters. Clean up so this place doesn't look like a prime candidate for some urbex. Little things like that. Though if you don't mind, I'm curious about the familiars you have. What exactly do you do to animate them? Is it straight necromancy?"     Kyra seems ready to take notes, which might be distressing, but if it turns out to be necromancy the others know that Kyra has no means of pursuing that since it isn't her Job.
Xion	Xion looks down at her clothes, and then at Kotoha, and nods. "Oh! I didn't really notice. If you like! I mean, I've got a lot of these coats. As long as it wouldn't be bad for this place to get wet!" She replies cheerily, with a FACE COVERED IN BLOOOOOOOOOOD.     She really doesn't know who's talking about what, but they're clearly not talking about HEARTLESS!!! so... You know, it's probably OK.
Emiya Shirou	"This situation just keps getting weirder." He continues rubbing his forehead, still reeling from his prior stupid comment. He'll leave the complicated questions about the supernatural situation to the others right now. Instead...     "For the moment, how is everyone doing on food and supplies? I can bring some this way next time I make a run. The city's cut off from most ways in or out."
Kotoha Isone	"Right, then! A no-mess cleaning, coming up! Let's see if this still works in here." Kotoha rubs her hands together and pokes out her tongue. "Shortcut: washtub!" Sparks run over her tongue, and a metal washtub appears on the ground beneath where Xion is standing. "And shortcut: water!" As she speaks, a cylindrical glob of water appears in the air above Xion's head... and then gravity does the rest. She's -very- accurate with the water remaining within the washtub, too. She might be showing off a bit.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa looks over to Carter and says dryly. "The last Illuminati archive we found was a death trap down to having posion gas." Kotone nots and she wonders what might be under there. AS Montag explains Carters powers she listens as the tale of the bee chosen has some light shead upon it. She's paying close attention. Inga, Riva nad yes even Wu are friends so far as Kotone is concerned and if there's something else that might trouble then she sighs looking the computer over it's likely they keep only analog records here so the Libary it is. "Don't look at me, I just kinda fell into things here when Riva put out a request for help. Dreams...humm." She looks to Shirou. "Things just started getting weirder the moment magic wasn't a thing in stories for me but you have a point." She nods looking to Shirou. "A good idea, ammo too if you ahve guns, I can ... get some standard rounds of various sorts if you don't ask me how."
Wuyin Tsai	Montag nods slightly at Kotoha. "If that is what you prefer, then." He looks to Kyra for a long moment, hands still folded precisely. Everything about his appearance is precise. Orderly. "Necromancy is a dog and pony show. Golemetry is brutish puppetwork, and recollects my days of medical practice. This is something akin to both," he says, "but if you wish to learn the process involved, I would recommend attending classes in the fall, once we have had time to hire new staff and exorcise any lingering academics." "A meal that does not need to be wrested from the cafeteria would be delightful," Montag tells Shirou. "By now I expect the mystery meat to have achieved sentience." "At least we have a functional bathroom," Miss Usher remarks, with the barest amount of hope she can muster.
Wuyin Tsai	Carter is more or less wholly focused on Riva, Inga and Wuyin at this point. It may be that she's grasping at straws, trying to find some commonality between them. They've all got some kind of power from the same source. She's trying to explain what she said, but she's hesitant about it. "The dreams," she repeats quietly. She looks up to see if Miss Usher is watching or listening; she isn't. "Of the world suspended in a cold, cold darkness. Of voices worse than anything you ever heard on MTV -- even in the reality shows. Of elder things." She searches their expressions. Wuyin shakes his head slowly. "No? You will. Not to get all Emo Allen Poe about it," she adds in a quiet, grim tone, "but you will. It comes with the powers. It's a portent, Mr. Montag says." Carter meets each of their eyes in turn. "Enjoy the ones about swimming, or flying, or absent friends while you can." She picks herself up, looking to Inga. "Around the time things started going wrong, I started... 'seeing' people. Other kids, I think other kids like me, you know, with powers like me." Carter looks back at the tabletop. "It's the least crazy reason I can come up with to explain it. Maybe it's that 'Sight'..." Carter takes a breath. "There's a girl, a few years younger than me, who lives with her mom and dad and watches the snow come in from big mountains. Maybe Alaska? My geography is not so great. And a boy, he's tiny but way smarter than he should be. He solves algebra when he's nervous. He's at a school in some suburbs, with kids in yellow raincoats and, like, little sailor suits. I don't know what it means. Maybe I'm just inventing special friends for when the real ones let me down," she says bleakly. "But it seemed so real, the colors and the light... and I hope nothing's happened to them. Nothing like what happened here." Once again, she changes subjects. She looks between Riva and Staren. "Miss Usher has done here best to prepare me for the future. She warned me that there'll be people who will try to exploit my gifts. Like having the strangers with candy talk, you know, but with magic." She shrugs. "I know this academy is 'owned' by the Illuminati, and they don't give anything out for free. They'll want /something/ in return for my education, right? Giving back to secret society. And I've already been offered a full scholarship at Oxford. The /magical/ Oxford. That's the Templars, I knew by the look on Miss Usher's face. And I got a weird note with some Chinese signs on it. At least, it looked Chinese to me." "See, I don't want to 'use' my gifts for anything. All I want is to learn how to control them, so I won't /have/ to use them." She props her head up with her hand. "If that makes any sense."
Xion	Bloody!Xion becomes SOGGY!Xion really quickly, standing in a big washtub! Where all the water goes! She spends a few moments wiping off her eyes, but all the blood washed off her! As, you know, more pressing things happen. Ominous, pressing things. But, she looks around curiously, and walks right on up to Carter, and raises a SINGLE finger. "Iiiiii'm gonna take it that those black guys aren't heartless, are they?"     She looks totally honest with this question. She looks around the room, though. Other people can set her right.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa listen as Carter realays some infromation about dreams she's had she pauses for a moment ad she looks to Montag to ask. "What happened to the rest of the student body?" She suspec the fog or the first waves of undead got them, but you never know right? % She then turns back to Carter and nods. "You want to be able to have the control needed to live a normal life and not lose control. Which could mean hurting your self or others. Am I on the right track there?"
Staren	"Golemancy is an /art/. And a science. Ask Snow, she was made by it." objects Staren.     At the comment about bathrooms, he replies: "You /do/? Now, that's interesting, isn't it? There are zombies everywhere. Pretty much everybody's dead. So who's manning the water and power stations?"     Starens ears twitch as Carter talks. He shrugs. "They could be real. Inga's the expert on Seer stuff, though. My own dreams..." he shrugs. "They're just random stuff. I don't dream about the same thing a second time, generally." He folds his arms as she talks. "Well... I don't know about this world, or your powers. But once we've lifted the fog, if you're able to leave... I'm sure either of Lazlo's colleges would be happy to help you learn about your abilities in return for observing them. The study of psychic powers is sort of a... new field that a lot of academics are excited to explore."     "...That's a good question. What /did/ happen to the student body?"
Kyra Hyral	Kyra becomes really quiet and watches Montag for a long moment. She seems torn? Was this guy being serious or just messing around with her? KYRA CANNOT TELL. Eventually she nods evenly at the man and goes with the 'likely being honest' route. "I'll think about it. Maybe in a semester or two if your school accepts Extraversal applicants." If these guys decide to crush her innocent enthusiasm with facts of how things really work..well then it would be on them for leading her on.
Wuyin Tsai	Miss Usher shrugs. "Magic," she says to Staren, vaguely, tiredly. Who needs to man things when you have magic? Carter stares at soggy!Xion for a minute, and then shakes her head, very slowly. She nods at Kotone instead, who is marginally less confusing. She doesn't know what Heartless are, but she knows what not-losing-control is: a good thing, that's what. "...yeah. You're on the right track. I'll think about higher education once we get out of this, though." Montag looks very slightly surprised. "Why, they walked out into the fog like everyone else, I expect. The endless ranks of the dead and the draug have to come from somewhere." Carter makes a disgusted noise. Miss Usher just frowns.
Staren	Staren asks where the students went.     Montag tells him.     "Oh." is all he has to say to that.     Wait, no. "So why didn't you, then?"
Wuyin Tsai	"I have experience with supernatural compulsions, and take the necessary precautions to prevent unexpected possessions and similar phenomena on a daily basis," Montag says, as if it were as completely normal as wearing pants every day.
Emiya Shirou	"Mystery... meat. Yeah. You can look forward to some supplies. I'll bring some later today!" Shirou declares. This is something he can do VERY well indeed. he's gotten good at keeping the zombies off his back!     And Carter gets a sad eyballing next from him. "Well... maybe someone like INga or Riva here can teach you?"
Xion	Xion, who wears god knows what every day under that long coat (but it's probably like, shorts or something), raises her hand and addresses Montag. "Excuse me, sir. I have a question. Do any of these words mean anything to you? Keyblade, Kingdom Hearts, Heartless, Hearts - not the beating king or the art kind, uhhh..."     She considers keeping going. "Actually, after all that, what's the filth and why is it dangerous? People keep talking about it. You see to have a spooky ghost and zombie problem, which I suggest finding a funny pirate captain or perhaps a tiny chicken to help you handle. In lieu of that, I'm sure Roxas and I can help you!"
Wuyin Tsai	"Hmmm... 'Heartless' and 'Hearts,' perhaps, though they are typically used literally. There may still be a mystical significance," Montag says. He closes his eyes, looking thoughtful. "'The Filth'... I have indeed heard of /that/. It is a modern name for something very, very old. A terribly deadly disease, if I do not miss my mark. I may have a relevant text on the matter in the library." He opens his eyes slowly. "Interesting. Something to investigate once the school is safe."
Staren	Staren nods at Montag's explanation. Makes sense. "So... about getting to that Illuminati library that might be able to tell us about the sword..."
Riva Banari	When the dreams question gets clarified, Riva looks less happy. "You will see the end of days." Riva says, turning her eyes away as she gets a distant look in her eyes. "You will see the dawning of a new age. To be a monarch, or a beggar. To lose everything, or become a god." She pauses. "I've seen those dreams of shattered moons and buzzing voices. Montag is right." She sighs, shaking her head and looking back to Carter. "I do miss the days where I usually dreamed of cute boys and swimming underwater instead." She goes quiet for a moment. "I won't lie. I'm with the Templars. They found me after I basically blew out my studio apartment in Paris. It's been a pretty some of column A, some of column B experience." She shrugs. "Officially, I should be stumping for them, but look, I know as well as you do this isn't something for everyone. If you can try to stay out of the claws of the Illuminati, more power to you." She turns, and looks away. "But something tells me I don't think you're going to get much of a chance to live without using those gifts. There's nasty things out there, and most of them tend to only understand death."