816/Spooky Stories of Solomon Island

Spooky Stories of Solomon Island
Date of Scene:	16 October 2014
Location:	The Secret World <TSW>
Synopsis:	Once upon a time, there was Stingy Jack. Heaven and Hell barred their doors. Be careful how many lanterns you gather. Never know what you're guiding in out of the dark. (TSW Halloween, part 1 of 3.)
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 151, 152, 481, Riva Banari, Wuyin Tsai, Inga, 560, Ayako Hasekawa, 596

---

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Kingsmouth Town is a sleepy little town on Solomon Island, an equally-sleepy place off the coast of Maine. If it weren't for the impenetrable fog and the near-complete inaccessibility, it'd be totally normal.

And, you know, the monsters.

Night has fallen. Sunlight no longer filters through the thick blanket of fog that encases the island hovering but not falling save in thin trickles of mist. The two most active places in the little town -- that is to say, the two places with the most survivors -- light up. The police station uses spotlights to pick out zombies attacking their fences and barricades, with officers on the roof and at the entrances. The locals have holed up here, and with the addition of Orochi Group supplies, are holding out well.

The fire department across town, with a fence of bones and lit-up windows on the second floor, has no such things. The dead seem to just ignore it, which is just as well for the people inside. This is where the people from the Multiverse stay, and where those who possess extraordinary powers from this world do as well. The interior of the second floor has gained a few pieces of furniture, making it more comfortable, and the 'tactical map' appears to have gradually gained notations.

Wuyin stands in the kitchen, apparently managing an enormous pot of something liquid, probably soup. (It smells like soup.) He's got a stack of mismatched bowls and spoons nearby, and has made an awful, if localized mess. He's humming something to himself as he goes about it. His 3D glasses are currently missing.

It's a pretty boring night, all in all. There haven't been any new crises, and things outside of the Secret World have taken the attention of some others trying to help here. They have a few plans, but nothing concrete. There's a sense of tension in the air, like waiting for a shoe to drop. It's hard to tell where it's from.

There's a creaking from outside, a dim, quiet sound of something moving up the stairs towards the second-story landing. It goes away quick as it can be heard by the sharp-eared. Then, suddenly --

-- there's a knock at the door.

*tap-tap taptap-tap*

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Well, whoever that is, the knocking is not caused by Shirou. The redheaded magus is outdoors, but... well.

    The creaking-rumble rattle of cart wheels on pavement is one of the few other noises that disturbs this eerie nighttime cursed town. Emiya Shirou's currently pushing a double-decker cart like some beast of burden. It's overloaded with strapped-in supplies: lots of canned food, bottled water, gasoline, medical wares of various sorts... it's been professionally packaged and secured but dang, that's a lot for one guy to be hauling.

    Add in that he's also wearing an equally stuffed backpack and you have one magus-turned-beast-of-burden there.

    He's just trundling and struggling along, on a beeline for the Fire Station.

    If any zombies happen to pop out, they're in for a nasty surprise: An estoc from the heavens through the skull.

Inga has posed:
Lately, Inga hasn't been staying in Kingsmouth. Really, who would want to sleep here?! Though the fire station is as perfectly safe as one could get around here, there are much more pleasant placed to be now that she is a bit more comfortable visiting a couple of outside locations. Still, Kingsmouth is in need of attention. Until all the madness of this place is solved she knows she'll come back. Perhaps tonight they might accomplish something.

Inga is sitting in the upstairs of the firestation with a needle and thread, repairing some of her clothing. It appears extremely mundane unless you have some magical senses, in which case you might sense the anima/mana/whatever she is using as she sews a charm into her underdress. Once can never have enough charm and wards in this place.

Inga looks up toward Wuyin, lips pursing. "You and I need to have a discussion Wuyin," she informs him.

The universe is apparently on his side for the time being however, as they are interrupted. A tapping at the door draws her eye and a small frown creased her brow.

Well, she's not getting the door. "Couldn't be draugr, the fence would keep them out," she comments, then goes back to her sewing, putting the finishing touch on the charm.

Staren has posed:
    Another cart of supplies is pulled along next to Shirou. His armor does allow him to easily pull the weight, so why not help out? Still, he feels vaguely ironic for some reason.

    "You know, I made a civilian version of this armor for moving heavy things. Would you like one?"

    Any zombies that pop out and don't get estoc'd through the skull are in for the nasty surprise of any one of Staren's myriad of weapons -- probably the particle beam cannons.

Faruja (152) has posed:
A trip to that zombie infested, corrupt land of the Secret World? Count Inquisitor Faruja Senra in. The Summoner walks calmly beside Emiya, a much smaller backpack on him; not only due to his leg and smaller stature, but the fact he's playing bodyguard for the man. Whenever a zombie gets within range, they're met with a gout of furious Esper-flame from the maw of Salamander on one side of the cart. On the other? The tall, bubbly, dark-skinned viera Strawberry hefts her shotgun, and blows off heads alongside Staren. She grins back at him.

"Heeeeey~. Teach me about that gun of yours some time, Mister Staren!" Seems Faruja's told Berri about the tech-loving kitty-man.

A nod as Staren speaks. "Quite alright there, Ser Shirou? I /can/ summon a Chocobo if ye tire!"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako is walking right behind Shirou and is humming a song to herself while she sightsees! Believe it or not, she's the one carrying most of the bottled water that Shirou wanted to bring. Said bottles of water are floating in the air behind her, gently bobbing up and down as they follow her like a trail of ducklings. "I know clean drinking water is pretty essential, but... this is kind of a lot, you know." She could honestly care less about zombies... and is ready just in case she need to throw a barrier up or something!

Kirika (481) has posed:
    The group moving along the town is joined by a woman with ears and a tail. Kirika keeps her sword clutched close to her body as she advances down the street towards whatever place the group is heading towards. Any undead that get within range will be relieved of their heads as Kirika quickly draws her sword, and Kinugiri releases their wretched heads from their shoulders. She's content to remain close to the others, just in case more zombies come along to swarm the gang.

    She notes Berri's shotguning, raising an eyebrow as the Viera spews out more hot buckshot to fell the undead.

    "I can't believe this, one would hope that this would not be necessary /EVERYWHERE/ we go these days..." She grumbles under her breath.

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks over at the... bunny girl? And quirks an eyebrow. "Which one?" There's the pistol and grenades on his belt, the rifle on his back, the particle beam cannons and missile launchers built into the armor, the weapons in his magic bag...

Faruja (152) has posed:
Strawberry points enthusiastically at the particle beam cannons. "The big ones! KA-VOOOOOOM! WOOOOOSH!" She /giggles/ even as she shotguns another zombie.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is finding her self in this hell hole a heck of a lot she's been doing a lot of supply runs for the surivors at the Police Station, the zombies were easy enough for her to deal with and they often didn't see her as /actual/ food being ya know basically a robot. However the bit on waiting on food has her intrest, mmm food.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou blinks over at Staren, but quickly gets back to his duties without pausing. "Well, this is part helping people out and part training my body. ... I wouldn't say no to some kind of full-body armor though. Zombies are contagious, right?!" Yeah, he's slightly worried about becoming a zombie. And metal is hard to bite through.

    Though for him, as long as he can see the zombie, it'll be quite dead very fast. Provided a HORDE doesn't reach...

    Thanks to the others, he hasn't needed to use any prana at all.

    "Thanks, Faruja! But I'm holding out. How about you?"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles cheerfully to Shirou. "Keep it up, Emiya! If it's not heavy enough still, I can always add a few more bottles!" She giggles brightly and resumes sightseeing! Oohh... an actual town under siege by actual zombies!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    With its new access to the Syndicate mission board, Zwei is following several leads per day. A certain notice about some kind of metaphysical infection, possibly as a form of bioweapon, or even sentient, draws its attention quite easily. Nonphysical entities bringing back the dead and invading the heads of other beings is the closest thing on the board relating to Zwei's priority mission at the moment, and so it makes the decision to dispatch Asche as soon as it becomes aware of it.

    Predictably, Asche gets held up in the world tree access, by virtue of attempting to scan and reconcile the utterly bizarre dimensional twisting going on. After taking thorough enough readings and realizing that it would probably take days of dedicated crunching to get through them, he finally gives up, logs the data, and exits onto the island late enough that every Elite familiar with the current crisis has already gathered long before him. The subtle whine of thrusters permeates the night air, without the accompanying rumble of a sonic boom, since there is no need to travel such a short distance over the speed of sound. Anyone paying attention to the skyline will be able to see a black shape descending from the air and crunching onto the ground somewhere in the middle of town. The steady thump of heavy footsteps follows as the Armiger makes his way on foot towards the fire station, being one of the only two sources of light, and the one with the largest number of significant energy signatures. Anyone can probably see him coming well before he gets there, since he can look straight into the second storey windows.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva is busy hovering over Wuyin's cooking escapades. She might be helping occasionally. At the moment, she's stacking up the bowls and getting the silverware prepared for delicious consumption of soup. At least, she thinks that's soup. She's asked more than once if that was supposed to be soup.

Her hovering is interrupted when she hears the knock. "Hrm?" She looks around, and frowns for a moment, before heading towards the door and opens it up. It sure can't be a zombie, right?

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Wuyin doesn't look up from his work when he addresses Inga. "I can't imagine what you'd like to talk about," he replies mildly. He fishes into the soup with a ladle and takes a taste, nods to himself, and looks up at the knock. He waves Kotone over. "Kotone, dish this up, would you? Should be enough for everyone." He goes over to actually answer the door with Riva.

There are plenty of zombies en-route. The stuff-dragging crew leaves a nice trail of them on the way up the street. Fortunately, it's basically a straight shot once you get into Kingsmouth proper, and the roads are... well, they're New England roads, so they're a mix of new and terrible. At least they're paved?

The people outside see a bicycle propped up against the side of the building. It wasn't there when they came over last, for the frequent visitors. There's also someone standing at the door, a young man (probably a teenager) in jeans and a black jacket with a backpack over one shoulder. When he looks back down the stairs from the landing, you can see his bright yellow graphic tee on underneath it. His hair is best described as 'shaggy,' and he looks surprised to see you.

The door opens about then. The teenager turns back forward. Wuyin leans around the doorframe and looks at him, brow raised quizzically. His 3D glasses appear to have materialized on his face sometime en route from the kitchen. "Can we... help you?"

"Oh man," the kid says, looking between the two of them, "this /is/ the Hall of Superheroes! /Awesome/!"

"Er," Wuyin replies, clearly thrown.

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods to Shirou. "I'll see what I can find." He looks over to the bunnygirl. "The reactor in my backpack produces a /lot/ of energy." He holds up his right arm. "That energy is used to heat matter into superheated plasma, and then magnetically propelled towards the target."

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley was inside the fire department building, carefully examining the map when the knock came. She didn't bother to check who it was, but she wasn't about to freak out about it. After all, nothing can really attack the place.

    The sound of a teenager speaking makes her turn her head. She approaches the doorway, and just sort of stands there awkwardly with a thermos of soup, staring at the boy with big blue eyes.

    Sssssip. Tail sway.

    "Wuyin, who is this child?" she wonders, as if he would have ANY IDEA who this person is.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pauses for a moment at the kid and sits up starting at him for a moment, she wonders how did this kid /make/ it through the mess outside she's a bit on edge but she looks to Wuyin.

"Sure I can handle that and umm super heroes what?"

So says the full con cyborg as she goes to divvy up the food.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Kirika quietly makes her way towards the Firehouse, once the shipment makes its way there. When she sees a kid at the door, she raises an eyebrow with a tilted head. Her tail sways side to side as she pilfers a candy bar from her pockets, munching on it quietly.

    Red eyes observe the child further as the half-kitsune wanders into the fortress itself, bowing her head to Wuyin and company before awkwardly looking back at the child again.

    "...hello." She grins shyly, wiggling her fingers. Pay no mind to the fact she's carrying a fucking SWORD in hand right now.

Inga has posed:
Inga gives Wuyin a look. Funny, even if he doesn't look at it he may get the distict feeling of that gaze all the same. "Tch, later then," she says, watching the door as he moves over.

Lo and behold, it is one of the locals. A young man. Inga's eyebrows rise. Brave of him to leave whatever place of safety he had to venture in here. "Odin's bones, let him in," she comments, waving him in, getting to her feet and beckoning him over. "Come here boy, if you've come from out there I need to check you over--were you attacked?" she asks.

As for super heroes, she can only guess. Obvious meaning, hereos who are super. At least some of them qualify for hero status she's sure. "Sit," she says to the boy, pointing to a chair. She's small but authoritative and clearly not used to arguement.

Staren has posed:
    Staren is informed he's at the hall of superheroes. "Maybe. Why, do you need a superhero for something?" The kid is, of course, scanned for magic, unusually high ki power, weird dimensional hooey, his heat and radio signature scanned, and an active ultrasound scan checking for anything unusual.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Finally, the PACK GROUP arrives at the Fire House. Shirou parks the cart in the garage and unshoulders the backpack, only to do a few stretches and breathe deeply. WHEW! What a workout.

    "You're awfully cheery for the circumstances, Ayako." he asides simply, unsure whether to approve of that or not. It's just too awkward a subject to broach, but he feels bad saying NOTHING when spoken to...

    So he walks in, just in time to see the teenager stroll in. "...Hall of Superheroes?! ...Hold on a moment, is that your bike outside?!" How did this kid evade all the...

Faruja (152) has posed:
"Well enough! Union Medical hath been insisting I walk on foot more oft, rather rely on float spells so much. Good for the leg." Responds Faruja to Emiya. Strawberry, for her part, has all but glued herself to Staren's side.

"Oooooh, neat! Magitech? Crystal-based fuel, or ohhh what was it called....nu...clear? Nuclear power?" Comes Berry happily, only to turn to Faruja with a grin. The mage scowls.

"Berri. Finish the tank first. /Then/ we can get a grant for replicating such a thing with crystals." At Faruja's words, the bunny pouts.

"H..how..?"

"I know ye too well, mine dear."

Then, Firehouse. "Hail, and Lord's blessing upon thee! Let not the darkness beyond destroy the Light of Hope! Supplies for the beleaguered defender and civilian alike!"

Faruja similarly deposits the supplies he's been carrying, and follows behind Shirou.

"Hail!" Comes Faruja gain when they're all bee-lining into the Firehouse proper. He doesn't notice Inga or Ainsley just yet, as Strawberry blocks his view. The pair might recognize his voice though!

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako cheerfully follows Shirou into the garage and sets down the water next to the cart, stacking the cases of water bottles neatly. She reaches into her muffler and produces a wet towel for Shirou. "Well, what's wrong with being cheery? If anything... a place like this could use some cheer, right?" She smiles brightly and follows after Shirou.

    With light footsteps, she follows Shirou into the firehouse. "Eh heh... hall of superheroes..." She shakes her head slowly and then smiles softly. Oh. She's also dressed like a stereotypical witch rather than her usual outfit! "Hello Everyone!"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Reaching the firehouse just after the last of the group makes their way in, Asche stands outside the relevant window; the bloody red glow of his visor pointedly staring through the glass. As Zwei realizes Asche won't actually fit inside, it deploys Weiss using its usual spatial entanglement procedure, causing the more humanoid Armiger to simply pop into existence by the fist floor door. Taking a brisk stroll up the stairs that involves skipping the even numbered steps, she breezes past the group on the way up without any form of explanation. "Hello Shirou! Staren! Ayako! Oh do I see Kotone in there as well?" Unlike Staren, Weiss seems to be focused more on a wide area, passive scan, rather than especially scrutinizing the teenaged stranger. After all, approximately half the people here are strangers. "Hi everyone else! I don't mean to interrupt, but I heard there was something about a contaminent on this island?" Asche continues to stare.

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks at Zwei. "...Huh. How did you do that? Teleporter? The contaminent's pure form is a sort of black ooze, and is also present in some quantity in the 'zombies'. Proximity or detailed examination of the pure form may cause infection -- we're unsure of the method, but it's some sort of memetic virus. It calls itself John, or The Message, and purports to offer immortality but never says how. You seem pretty advanced, so I trust you have appropriate precautions?"

Riva Banari has posed:
Huh. A kid. "Well, I didn't know we had that kind of a reputation. Come on in!" Riva says, stepping out of the way and waving him in. "Just um..." She looks to Ainsley, and then the kid, then shrugs. Whatever, he's a kid, he's seen stranger things on TV. "So what brings you over to this side?" She asks, turning to help distribute soup bowls that have been filled by Kotone to people. Inga and the kid get theirs first, then the arriving visitors find themselves plied with bowls themselves. "Hi Staren! Nice to see you! Shirou! Faruja! What's up?" She says, brightly. "Don't worry, Wuyin made enough for everyone! Even if he won't tell me what's in it!"

Dragons are the worst cooks. EVERY DAY IS MYSTERY MEAT except when it is something else just to throw you off. The arrival of Zwei causes Riva to tilt her head. "Oh, hi! You're new. Here, have soup." She holds out a bowl to Weiss. "So what's your name and deal? And yeah, we seem to be having a problem with zombies and weird black evil goop here. At the moment, we're recharging though. Care to join us?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks at all the people that are comming in and is just kinda going wow at all the traffic.

"Do be careful near the police station they got snipers up on the roof."

It seemed the fire hall had become a real hive of activity with all the buzz it seemed to have generation it's a good thing she was not one to be bugged by such a thing.

"I should be done in a moment Inga just make sure the kid's all righ..."

She freezes up at Zwei enters, if not for Arthur's hard work the other night, things would likely get bad very fast. Thankfully she's just uneasy.

"Hello Zwei..."

She pauses for a moment and looks at Staren and says

"... John? The Message? Hummm The medium... is the message."

She falls back into some of school on Canadian communications from the looks of it.

She looks over to Ayako, Shirou and all the others whom are arriving.

"Hi!"

There may be something people who have not encounted kotone before might notice there's just something off about her, like a lack of any sort of flaws visablly and something with her eyes.

"You know him then Riva?"

She looks to Staren "There should be food for you and everyone else here."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
PACK GROUP can drop everything in the Fire Engine-lacking bay that takes up the first floor. There are internal stairs to get up to the second from there.


Staren's scans come up with the perhaps startling fact that this kid is absolutely, one-hundred-percent normal. There are multiple objects in the backpack, but none of them appear to be dangerous weapons, unless they're improvised.

"Uh," says Wuyin, clearly in control of the situation.

"Oh wow, and you've got a /lizard woman/. Do you have poison breath? Hypnosis eyes?" He's /totally/ hype. Ainsley doesn't even bother him. He looks around, grinning like an idiot. He looks around, marveling at people as they come on up. "And a fox-girl! And a /robot/! And a... witch?" He might be looking at Inga, or Ayako, or, in the case of the next comment -- "Two witches! But I guess that's probably a costume. Sweet." ...both.

The teenager walks on in, properly invited. Wu gets out of the way. He instead turns to the baleful red glow and the teleportation, a spark flickering between his fingertips momentarily. Their guest heads over to Inga and has a seat. "I'm Danny. Danny Dufresne. I'm usually up at the skate park. Y'know, the one with all the traps?" He lounges on a couch.

"I'm a good runner, and my bike's all tuned up," Danny says. "None of the zombies can get me. No sweat." He plays at being cool. It's a little /too/ forced to actually be 'cool.'

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
The soup, incidentally, appears to have lumps floating in it. Some of them look meaty. Some of them look bready. Some of them look green...y. It's delicious, though, and there's a huge amount of it.

Conclusion: Probably not poison.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles softly at the offer of food. "Umm... I don't really eat, so... pardon me if I pass on the food." She startles slightly when she notices Weiss suddenly enter. "A-ah. Weiss! You're here too?" She looks around the room curiously... and then smiles happily when she spots Riva and Kotone. "Ah. Hello Riva and Kotone!" She smiles softly and then notes the teenager.

    "Hmm... Well... good work on getting here fine then, Danny!" Ayako curtsies elegantly towards him and everyone else she doesn't seem to know yet. "I'm Ayako Hasekawa, a witch..." She sticks her tongue out playfully, "As if! I'm a water spirit!" A bright giggle escapes her lips. "Please call me Ayako!"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Something like that." Weiss replies to Staren. "Since both my units are fully entangled it's trivially easy to place one in proximity to the other by alteration of causality. Or at least, it should be. It was a real 'bitch' to get it to work here for some reason. I had to use about a hundred times the processing power. Felt weird too." This stuff about black goop is exactly what Zwei wants to hear about though. "That's interesting! So it's a singular entity spreading its psychic awareness through physical means? I'm not sure what kind of precautions would help against that, but both Asche and Weiss have passive shielding that should prevent physical contact."

    Weiss politely waves the soup away as Riva hands it out to her. "Sorry! I can't really eat! Well, I can fake it, but I don't have a stomach or anything. It's a little more believable since she hasn't taken the time to alter her default appearance, since she knows a few of the Elites present are familiar with it." She does however, wave at Kotone as well. "Hello! Funny seeing you again so soon!" As soon as Danny introduces himself, she has a hello for him too. It's just polite to greet people after they introduce themselves. Oh, that's right! "You can call me Zwei." She responds to Riva again. "I'm investigating some potential leads on how metaphysical entities unify with the multiverse. I didn't expect to run into so many people here though! You must have some kind of operation in the works."

Staren has posed:
    "Altering causality?" Staren cocks his head at Weiss.

    But the kid is more pressing. What's going on here? Staren looks at the boy for a moment. He leaves the cart for Shirou and follows the kid. "You didn't answer my question." Staren observes.

    The soup is similarly scrutinized. Probably not poison -- it doesn't make sense for Wuyin to poison his allies. If he needed to test the effects of some strange substance, he could find random nobodies in the Multiverse and test it on them. That's what Staren would do. If he didn't have any moral scruples. Just sayin'. It's a strategy someone might do, that's all.

    Staren opens his visor to smell the soup, and then starts ladling some into a bowl or whatever's there.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    The fox lady bows her head. "I am Kirika, a half-kitsune, well met little one." She says, stepping towards the kitchen as she eyes the soup with a bowl. Doesn't seem too dangerous, as she grabs a spoonful of the stuff and pours it into the bowl, filling it up until it's ready as she reaches to get a spoon. Food is good enough for her, and she grabs a seat with kinugiri kept close by just in case. The giant and his companion are given a curious look, before Kirika shrugs and dines.

    "Kirika." She introduces to the technological twoesome. "Did you two just unify? You seem new enough, that much is certain." She asks, slurping a spoonful of the stuff. Nom.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Danny looks up at Staren, blinking. He brushes some hair out of his eyes. "Uh, what was the question again?" He says it exactly like a student caught daydreaming in class would to his teacher: warily and vaguely lethargically.

Inga has posed:
Ah, and there are the supplies. Inga isn't surprised to see these people, most of whom she recognizes. Oh, what joy! Faruja is here and he's brought the perky bunny woman. Inga resigns herself inwardly to verbose blessings of the church-mouse with a quiet sigh. "Good evening Sir Faruja, Strawberry. Good evening Emiya Shirou...and company," she nods to them, motioning them in.

On turning for a moment, Inga glimpses Zwei looming outside the window and gives a cry of alarm upon seeing a giant metal-suited figure with a crimson gaze. "What was that!?" she exclaims. It had better not have stepped on her bone fence!

More people arrive, and soup is handed to her, but she sets it down with a thank you to Kotone, deciding she will focus on the Kid. Inga makes a noise deep in her throught that is likely displeasure. "A witch, yes. Now stay still," she tells him, poking him over to be sure that he isn't injured, frowning with concentration. "If you lie to me, I will know I will be very cross," she informs him, her tone implying he would not want her to be cross. "If you were not attacked...good, here," she says, passing him the soup. It has green bits. Green bits are good for you.

People just keep arriving. She's still rather on edge about the GIANT THING in the window, but as no one else is freaking out about it, she figures she should do the same. "Danny Dufresne, a pleasure. I am Inga Freyasdottir, wisewoman of Uppsala," she informs before returning to her seat to eat her own soup. "I haven't a clue what a skate park is--though I know what a park is at least," she adds. She's been to one of those! A park with trees and grass...a haven in a world gone mad with buildings of steel and glass.

Inga glances over toward Ayako, a brow raised. Hey now, what is wrong with witches?

Then, toward Weiss and Staren's conversation Inga growls softly. "Not purely physical contact--it can invade you through a mental connection," she informs. "If you have a sort of magical Sight, do NOT Look at it," she advised.

Another look at Wuyin, sligt eye narrowing.

Back to Danny. "Why have you come here? Do you need a place of safety?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks at the kid with a 'Really?' expression. "I said, 'Why, do you need a superhero for something?'" He's so tired of people putting off answering questions. Sigh.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "The black filth is like a curse. A thick deadly curse in liquid form." Shirou points out to the others nearby who are talking about. "Just avoiding touching it might not be enough. Get something that can protect you from magical interference. A charm or amulet or something. Inga has stuff like that." He nods warmly at her when she tkes notice of him! But there's so darned many people here!r

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley doesn't really process the new person, Zwei, because she is vastly unequipped to understand what the hell they are saying. 'Investigating how metaphysical entities unify' is what gets an odd look from her, as if that sort of concern baffles her on some level. It is, after all, a very specific and scientific approach to something that she couldn't possibly begin to understand.

    Once she has shaken her distraction there, she turns her head to look at Danny, blinking slowly at him. "I am called a 'Quetzal.' No I do not breathe poison. I do, however, shoot lightning from my hands, and I have the ability of flight." She seems pretty mellow and matter-of-fact about this. She sips from her soup again, and then zeroes in on Faruja, walking over to give him an one-armed hug around his shoulders. Squeeze~

    To Staren, she points out, "He seems like a fanboy," without much concern about how offensive that may be. "It's quite adorable, actually. We are, basically, superheroes."

    Ssssip.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles cheerfully at Weiss. "So I take it that's Asche that's outside... should I keep calling you Weiss or start calling you Zwei now?" She thinks for just a moment. "And is there a Schwartz? No wait... that would mean you would be called Drei, huh..."

    A hand is raised cheerfully. "I can fake eating too, but the moment I lose concentration, it's just going to drop out of my body and... I don't like wasting food. Hmm... metaphysical entities... I... hmm... do I count as one?"

    A happy smile is given to Kirika. "Nice to meet you, Kirika! Ohh... fox ears..." She smiles cheerfully and then turns to Inga. "And nice to meet you too, Inga!"

Faruja (152) has posed:
Weiss gets a bow from Faruja. "Lord's blessings to thee! Inquisitor Faruja Senra of the Most Holy Church of Saint Ajora Glabados. 'Tis an honor, Lady...?" Comes the rat with introductions. The kid gets a smile from the nezumi, but he lets the others handle it. When they're finally up the stairs and he's no longer blocked by large bunny ladies? The rat-mage's muzzle bursts into a smile.

"Ainsley!" And then, Lizard Hugs! Faruja returns it with both arms, and a quick smooch on the cheek. Squeeze! He then reluctantly lets go, so as to not bring up such topics as cooties from Danny.

"Getting along well with the...locals?" He asks Ainsley even as his tail flicks to Inga.

His gaze then turns to Inga. "God's blessings to thee, Wit..ahem. Lady Inga." He says. At least he's being somewhat polite. There's even a bow! Strawberry is warm as usual, waggling her bunny ears and offering copious waves. Then, soup. Nom nom nom. Berri joins him, even as she offers Ainsley a wave.

Weiss just gets a blank look as she explains things. "...Any ale?" he asks of the locals. Science Talk gives him a headache.

His soup is raised in greetings even as he makes the sign of the cross to Riva. "How fare thee, oh brave, righteous warrior of God? Hale, I pray?" Comes the rat, looking her over for injuries like a proper Temple Wizard.

Inga has posed:
Inga looks up as she is mentioned, showing Shirou a smile. "I can provide help against it, yes, but I still advise avoiding close contact with it. You do not want to take any chances with this," she adds.

Then, a slooooow turn toward Ainsley. "You can FLY!?"

Shaking her head, she nods to Ayako. She can't...EAT? Inga is totally at a loss.

Just when Inga thought she couldn't be any more shocked, Faruja runs in and greets Ainsley with no small show of affection. Her eyes look like they're about to pop out of her head and do a jig.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Uh... yes ma'am." Inga has an effect of some kind. He takes the bowl. "I don't have anything like that." Danny starts wolfing down the soup sort of abruptly, as if deciding that green things are lacking in his diet and probably necessary.

"I'm not little," Danny asides at Kirika in a mutter. He bows towards her awkwardly, though, between spoonfuls. "Ohhh. I dunno, maybe. Don't you want superheroes around when there's a zombie apocalypse? This totally isn't your average, everyday zombie outbreak, either."

Danny looks over at Ainsley, eyes gleaming. "Really? That's awesome. How's having superpowers working out for you? My friend Carter, she has some real Sam Krieg novel stuff going on; it's pretty wild. Like, any girl can give you a drop-dead look, only she could probably do it for real." The soup is gradually vanishing.

Faruja (152) has posed:
As for Ayako? Faruja pipes up. "Well of /course/ ye art, mine dear God-Servant of Water. Ye art a true spiritual entity." Comes the Inquisitor with his stubborn surity.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Kirika can't help but giggle a bit at Inga. With how wide her eyes are, it's only a matter of time before she notices an honest-to-god KITSUNE is in the room too. She tosses a smirk at Danny before going back to her soup, then she raises an eyebrow at the girl. "Who is Sam Kreig?" One can assume it's some sort of writer, but it can't hurt to ask anyways for conversation's sake.

    Her tail swishes side to side as Kirika also glances to Ainsley regarding flight. That's definitely a new one of the lizard-girl's repitoire the fox hasn't seen before, huh.

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks in confusion at Ainsley. A... fanboy? But when Danny speaks again, Staren narrows his eyes slightly at him. "'Maybe'? What are you here for?" So tired of getting the runaround.

    Wait.

    "You said your friend Carter is a superhero?" Who's Sam Krieg? He'll Multiverse Google that.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa just is watching the kid now at this point she pauses at t5he robot comment and she twitches visabley for a moment

"Hello Danny My name is Kotone Yamakawa and I'm not a robot." %R She makes a bit of a face and she could swallow the kids story about being able to keep free she gets he's trying to play it at being cool. Then again she could see why she kinds feels like an ant around a lot of the people here.

Kotone is going about handing out soup to everyone at this point she looks at Emiya for a moment.

"I'd say so it's nasty stuff, we need more /fire/."

Riva's handler might be amused at Kotone's attuide to the flith, fire it's the templar's fav problem solver right?

"You have a point Ainsley but don't discount he surived this whole nightmare."

She grins a little bit at Danny.

"Still I'm not a super hero I'm a damn speed bump and a tiny one at that."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako reaches up behind her head and scratches underneath the hat. She blushes lightly and gazes slightly away from Faruja. "F-Faruja... p-please... just treat me like a normal girl... it's embarassing otherwise..." Her other hand pulls the brim of her witch hat down to hide her slowly deepening blushing.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva notices Ayako, then, and immediately sets over the bowl and spoon she was holding to give Ayako a nice big hug. "Oh my God, it's Ayako! So good to see you!" She seems to really like the watery spirit! "Come on in and take a seat anywhere! Or not! We might run out of sofa space with so many visitors."

Riva nods to Zwei. "I didn't get a chance to look up your file, I guess. No biggie!" More Dragon Soup for everyone else. She pauses at Zwei's interest. "Wow, you're really geared for this kind of thing, aren't you? I guess we're not the only ones who have this kind of problem, eh? And yeah, we've got some ongoing operations. We're trying to find the source of the problems here and clean them up. We've got a bunch of leads we're going to be following up in the near future and you're totally welcome to join us." She smiles to Weiss at that. Looks like it's the more the merrier for her!

Faruja gets a nod and a wave. "I'm doing just fine, Faruja. Thanks for asking! Hope everything's going well!" She looks between Ainsley and Faruja and smirks faintly. She is, in fact, doing fine. But then, her own personal health seems to be less of an issue than it used to in most cases.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "I'm actually one person." Weiss says to Kirika. In the traditional way Zwei likes to explain this, and talk on the radio, Weiss' pleasant female tones are charged with the rumbling, electronic underlay of Asche's volcanic speech. Though theoretically Zwei could give him any voice it chooses, it likes the way the big scary combat unit sounds. "And that's true! I don't know how long ago my universe unified, but I've only been here for a week or so." Thankfully just Weiss this time. She points out the window to Asche once Inga starts freaking out. "That's Asche. He's my primary combat unit. This is Weiss." She taps herself on the chest. "My intelligence gathering unit." Thankfully, Asche has not stepped on the fence. Probably stepped on a lot of zombies on the way there though.

    "Hmmm, I don't have any kind of magical abilities, but that does raise the question of what kind of scanning spectrums it can invade. It'll be worse than useless if I can't even examine it when all it said and done." Weiss looks to Shirou, then to Inga. "If she'd be willing to make me one, I can compensate her!" Next to Ayako. "You can call me whatever! If you want to address a specific unit, that's fine. Weiss was actually made to be a representative after all. I process sensory information from both units simultaneously. You probably do! I don't think your physical body has anything to do with your consciousness since it's just made out of water." Then to Staren. "Both of my units are engaged in an advanced form of quantum entanglement. Changes in one unit are instantaneously reflected in the other in order to allow instant computation, but I have a filter in place so that moving one doesn't move the other in the exact same way. By momentarily dropping that filter and running some offset numbers, I can have one appear in the same place as the other." And finally Riva. "That's great to hear! I'm not sure how well prepared I am for this, but I'll do my best!"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley looks over at Kotone, the blank look on her face showing a general disapproval of the comment in her direction. She didn't discount anything. Her mouth pulls into a thin line for a second. The lizard girl distracts herself with another squeeze of Faruja before he can escape and Priest of Ajora at everyone. She walks over to look at Danny quizzically, frowning at him.

    "I have no idea who Sam Krieg is. Could you explain what you mean? What can your friend do?"

    The fact that she does not know what might be a popular author DEEPLY TROUBLES her. It's obvious by the intense and curious and darkened expression she has, like a hungry tiger.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja turns to Kotone. There's suddenly a deep look of respect, and a smile. "...I /knew/ I liked ye for a reason, Lady Yamakawa!" Mental note, get that woman a Blaze Gun.

Ayako gets a smile. "Naught but the truth, mine dear. However, if ye wish to be treated as such, so be it."

He asides to the others, though Ayako will likely hear it in the rat's enthusiasm, "See? An Esper of compassion, cheer, and /humility/! Truly, she is Blessed in the service of the Lord and an example to us all!"

"Well enough, though if ye know of any mage towers with room for expansion for sale, /do/ let us know, hmm?" Indicating himself and Ainsley. Who knew real estate shopping could be so difficult! He looks amused as Ains goes on the local author hunt.

Then, he's tilting his head and looking to Inga. "Art ye quite alright?" His single eye blinks.

Staren has posed:
    Zwei says, as far as much of the room can tell: Science science science science! Science science science science science. Science science!

    Staren nods. "Iiiiiiinteresting." More evidence that her world seems to have an unusual, but very useful, version of quantum mechanics...

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Yeah, you know, the horror writer. He's sold, like, a billion books or something." Danny has by this point nearly finished the bowl. He slows himself down. "Carter? Yeah. She, like, blows stuff up, like it's no sweat. But shes not like that at all," he a /little/ hastily adds. "She won't even kill plants. I've given up on asking her to." Danny shrugs. "For someone with powers, Carter is totally normal. She does get steamed about the weirdest things, though, like me going out alone..."

The soup's gone. He's started to kind of ramble. Staren may get a stark sense of familiarity. "...but she's not the only one. Sheriff Bannerman wants me back at the station by curfew. Like being out past dinnertime is a big deal when the dead walk the earth?" He looks around as if for some backup here. "I may not be able to shoot fire or melt faces or, you know, jump my own height... but I'm a good runner. I've read all the right comics, and I'm, like, great with wires and motors and microchips and stuff."

Danny stands up and looks around. He goes to actually put the bowl in the kitchen. "'Necessity is the mother of invention,' right? I've already rigged a bunch of defenses around the town, but I don't think that's gonna be enough for this. I figure every superhero needs a brilliant inventor, so I've got that much to aspire to."

He rolls his eyes, muttering, "I'm the geeky sidekick. Yay."

Danny turns back to the room at large, and fishes something out of his backpack. "As the de facto head of the Solomon Island League of Monster Slayers, I have taken it upon myself to collect spooky stories from Solomon Island's history," he says, in what's probably his Official Voice. Chilled out, he tosses a bunch of papers onto the table with the tactical map on it.

"This one is from Deputy Andy. I thought it was worth checking out, so I looked around, and I saw something weird over near where the MIB guys have their secret forward base. You know, at the bridge?" Orochi, probably, where some of you have been before. "But it, you know, seems more like you guys's thing. Selflessly saving the day and all?"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako is suddenly hugged by Riva! "Eh heh... it's good to see you too, Riva." Her blushing calms down a bit and she smiles happily as she hugs her back. "A-Un. I will! Umm... shouldn't take up couch space when I brought my own chair-sort of." She hesitates for a moment, and then takes off her hat to reveal her still slightly blushing face. A few shakes of the hat and a broomstick drops out-and floats in the air horizontally. Ayako quickly places her witch hat back on her head and sits down comfortably side-saddle on her broomstick.

    "Hmm... how do I put this well?" Ayako inclines her head to the side gently. "I'm... Hmm... what you think is Ayako, is just my attention on a specific bit of water." She looks at Weiss and smiles softly. "Maybe you could think of me as a nanomachine colony except the machines are water molecules and the programming is magical in nautre. And can remotely control the other nanomachines in range... and can very quickly relocate and duplicate?" Her gaze then turns a sweeping glance at the rest of the room. "Or... well. A spirit that inhabits water." She giggles brightly.

    And blushes deeply at Faruja's aside! The hat's rim goes straight back down! At least... she can glance at the papers on the table.

Inga has posed:
Asche can stop on as many zombies as it likes. They pop up like daisies.

Inga lets out a sigh, resisting the urge to reach up and rub her temples. "I can make you a talisman, but it will take a bit of time. I have several already in the works and I must finish those first. I can provide you with a temporary ward if you intend to go out exploring here however. See me before you go," she says to Weiss. Most of the rest is just going right over her head and she's content for the moment to let it.

Inga goes back to eating her soup, finishing it off before going to fix herself a glass of ale. Highly necessary. Of course, she'll have to share. "I've ale, do help yourselves," she mentions.

A look to Faruja, who is more or less fawning over Ayako. A spirit is certainly impressive but she's so wildly different than what Inga would expect she doesn't know how to handle it. As for Kirika, she is noted and given a nod as well. Fox spirits she has met now. She's glad her fox fur scarf isn't within view...would that be awkward? Odin's bones navigating these worlds is overwhelming.

Inga looks back toward Danny, frowning. She basically hears; 'I'm good with 'blah' and 'thing' and 'moreblah' and 'stuff'. "...Well if you are going out in this madness I will give you a charm to ward you," she informs him. She knows young men well enough to know that he won't actually not go out because someone else says so. Indeed, he'll do the opposite.

A collection of writing is then dropped down on the table, and Inga just /sighs/. "If someone would be so kind as to read it out loud..."

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    There's something weird about this kid! But Shirou's seated himself for a rest break. With some of the soup. "This is a pretty decent flour soup..." He comments lightly to himself. Though, honestly, it's really hard to get soup wrong.

    He's been avoiding going on and on about anything, as there's been plenty of exposition already and he'd rather let the others enjoy talking while he listens. But he does hear one thing that sets him off.

    "Danny, wasn't it? She's mad about you going out alone because it's dangerous out there!" He's very vehement about pointing this out. "... All it will take is one slip-up on the bike and you might bite it... or rather, get bit. Being out past curfew is a big deal because it means nobody knows where you are... really, I know it comes off as bothersome but it's not like there's no reason behind it." A really, unusually insightful and responsible thing to say, considering Shirou - who will ignore these things in a heartbeat if it would save one person.

    So which is worse, a kid who probably ignores it because he wants to be a hot stuff...

    Or a kid who ignores it because he doesn't care what happens to him?

    He scoots forward to listen more closely. And read the book. this is gonna take a while.

    "Spooky stores might be kind of true, considering this place." He mutters.

Staren has posed:
    Staren reads. "I /like/ pumpkin seeds. And pimpkin pie." He mutters. "Wrong 'you're'.'. ...Man, the devil sure is gullible in this story." He reads down one page to the next. "/Really/ gullible. And couldn't he just, like, summon an apple with his devil-powers? Why didn't he bargain for more than ten years the /first/ time?" Read read read. "Okay, who the hell actually buys from the shady guy who asks for payment in /blood/?? Why would Nanna /tell/ this story, it makes her sound like a colossal idiot!" Can you imagine watching a movie with this guy? "Who is dumb enough to STEAL from the shady blood guy?!" Read read read. Shake head. Read read read. "Well, good, if Jack shows up again, you can /go shoot him./ Or just, y'know, /not buy pumpkins from him./ Oh noooooo."

    Staren stands up and steps back from the papers, shrugging. "So, you think this Jack guy might be real? What do you want us to do, kill him? Tell him to stop selling pumpkins? Make him wear a placard that says 'seriously, kids, I'm an eldritch boogey monster, /don't steal from me/'?"

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Kirika frowns. "There are reasons for curfews, young one." She says sternly at Danny. "Going out alone with the undead out there is a foolish thing to do, at least unarmed without others to watch your back. I've seen what happens to those who venture out when such things are afoot before, the results aren't pretty." She agrees with Shirou on this that's for sure. "Whatever luck you may count on to keep you alive thus far will not always be there." She gives Danny a serious look, before she kicks back to eat more of her soup.

    She then glances at the writings, reading them quietly while she continues to eat.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks over at Ainsley for a moment, she ment nothing hostile. She just has this mind sex elites tend to forget about the little people in certain ways. She's going to let it drop and keep certain things in mind for later.

"Thank you anow have some soup humm Faruja?"

She will give him some if he takes it and now she has sme of it herself she's listening at this point.

"Sounds like your into what I work on a lot with Danny. I'm a mechanic and where I'm from computer hardware is tided up with it. Humm Andy?"

She listens with intrest form the sounds of it.

"Oh ... the MIBs...the bridge you say and Andy caught wind of something?"

She had to Give Andy points for one keeping his head and two paying attention to thing he's had tip offs before after all.

"As for the Police station it's one of the best fortifed spots in town, sides they likely could use your skills there they got some camera up and someone's going to need to maintan that and anything else, right? I find all myths seem to be true in this world."

Espically the /bad/ ones.

She takes a moment to start reading the story for Inga's benifit.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles softly. It seems she reads very quickly! Even at this distance. "It's a story about an entity stuck between Heaven and Hell by tricking the devil. They sell pumpkins for a bit of blood. They then scare their customers and kill any that try to shoplift from them." She shakes her head slowly. "Not a nice story."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "That's a very useful analogy actually." Weiss regards Ayako with renewed interest. Even Asche focuses his gaze from the window; the red hue shifting slightly in the slit of his faceplate. "That's not too different from how I am, except I can't just let these bodies go and make a new one." Hmmmm.

    Of course, that will have to wait for later. The pages Danny throws out for all to read are the more pressing engagement. Of course, Zwei reads them instantly, but it takes a lengthy few moments to really contemplate what they mean. It's easy enough to look up halloween and the devil on the multiversal net, but more difficult to properly regard them as fantastical fact or poor fiction. "You get what you give?" Weiss finally replies. "I'm not sure I understand. The child stole a pumpkin, and was stolen in return, but what of the price of blood? Is that simply a morbid detail, or were the children 'given' blood in return?" Maybe a little too literal minded for a spooky story. "Obviously the stranger wasn't Stingy Jack, or he'd be given away by the ember, but was inclined to lure him into Kingsmouth all the same. That's worrying."

    "Oh! I'd appreciate that!" Weiss breaks her concentration in order to respond to Inga. Asche remains silently fixed on the pages from the window.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja happily takes the soup as it's offered from Kotone. After all, Berri's gone and stolen his! Faruja will let the others deal with the reading. Grin, and a tail's up! He has delicious dragon soup to eat! Nom!

He /does/ look rather amused at Ayako though. He might just be teasing the poor esper.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley nods slowly in response to Danny, and smiles at his description of his friend. "Ask your friend how they feel and take their word to heart," she tells the boy, "It is probably best to make decisions that will not make the people who care about you sad or angry." She smiles at him gently. She has NO IDEA how to advise him beyond this very basic idea, so she awkwardly shuffles over to look at the small book.

    Well no, she keeps peering over people's shoulders. (Staren receives a pinch, if there's anywhere vulnerable to it, and a stern look for the open criticisms of a book whose author isn't even present. "Not necessary," she would tell him, gently.)

    Kotone gets the idea to read for Inga before she does. Ainsley crosses her arms and tries her best not to look grumpy and jealous about wanting to help someone first because it's SUPER WEIRD to do that.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Man, Staren. That's not the moral at all." Shirou complains grouchily. "The moral of Stingy Jack is you get what you give. It's Karma. If you do awful things, they'll come back at you sooner or later." Simple as, that, oi!

    "... though the blood price is weird. Why would he want that?"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako manages to recover from her blushing enough to lift her hat and smile at Zwei. "If you have questions, you can always ask me later. I love good questions." She giggles softly. "Oh, but you and Asche are very nice! Even Asche has his own charm." She then looks back to Inga. "Ooh... speaking of charms, I would like a talisman too! I might be water, but corruption..." Her gaze becomes a bit dull for a moment... "Corruption is something... that... anyway! Better safe than anything else!" She smiles cheerfully.

Inga has posed:
Inga looks to Shirou for a moment. "Its no use with young men," she informs him. Or accuses him. Take your pick!

As or the story, Inga can agree with Staren on one thing. "This Devil fellow does seem a little dim," she comments. "But that is not the purpose of the story, you are getting stuck on the details and missing the point," she comments, waving a hand. The rest is 'Starem rambles and complains about things' and is largely ignored in favor of thinking about the story, shaking her head. "Tch...is this is why you need skald and god-people, do you not know how to interpret a story anymore?" she comments quietly in grumpy disapproval.

Inga sighs, then folds her hands in her lap. "It is the way of spirits--why would he want that? Because blood is powerful in the hands of the right entity. It is a classic case of not understanding the true price of something you desire," she replies. "The ghost, surely he feeds on the blood and the...the memory of his story being told. On whatever it is he does to the children that leaves them with a streak of white in their hair," she replies, reaching up to touch her own braid--full white. "Knowing this place, is it any surprise there could be an entity feeding on the blood and terror of children?" she asks. She does not seem to even consider this as merely a story to scare. Stories always some truth.

Inga has posed:
Inga then nods to Ayako. "As I said, I can make something, but it will take time. A ward for a few hours or so I can manage at any time. Stay a bit and I will see to it before you go," she responds.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Uh..." The advice to actually pay attention to what she has to say and maybe listen about curfew is definitely acknowledged, but Inga might be right. "...yeah, I guess that's true." He brushes his hand across his bangs again. "Still --"

Danny just kind of shrugs at Staren and his reaction. He no longer seems terribly enthused to talk to the armored labcat. "I dunno! Look, there's a weird, rickety stand that way," he points north, ish, "and it wasn't there yesterday, and my cameras didn't see anyone come or go up the road to make it. I'm not a superhero."

He frowns, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I just thought you'd want to know. There's something here other than zombies, and... 'pale men,' or whatever Carter called them."

Wuyin is lingering near the door, looking thoughtful and otherwise quiet.

Staren has posed:
    Staren just can't help himself, there are so many holes in the story! He blinks at Inga. "Well, it's not really a surprise, but couldn't the children... /not/ buy pumpkins from him? I mean... What, do we also have to tell children not to stick their head in the oven or run out in front of cars waving their arms shouting 'Ooh, ooh, hit me, hit me!'"

    Oh hey, maybe this Jack guy is actually here. Staren blinks at Danny. "Well... guess we could go see if we can get Robbie's soul back or something. Everyone knows not to give this guy any blood or take any pumpkins, right? Or is it really not that obvious and I'm just missing something?"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako's gaze quietly moves off to the side as Inga mentions blood and it's significance to spirits. She's definitely uncomfortable. Although the reason exactly why blood is making her uncomfortable isn't at all. She winces slightly... but then shakes her head slowly. After a moment, she smiles softly at Inga. "A-ah... thank you."

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Staren recieves a stern glare when he begins to get nitpicky, then she goes back to listening to the thing. Folding her arms after she sets that bowl down, her ears twitching. "That isn't the point of the story, you realize. THis isn't something you can just critise and post on the 'internet' or whatever.

    Rolling her eyes, she goes back to listening until glancing at Danny. "So then, Daniel, I assume this is what we're dealing with then?" She asks, popping her neck.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva is just kicking back, eating Dragon Soup and listening to everyone churn like some kind of hilarious blender with a book of spooky stories. "They don't have to make sense." Riva points out. "It's not about logic or fairness. It's a spooky story."

She looks over to Danny at that. "So you mentioned there was a League of Monster Slayers, huh? Too bad we didn't meet sooner, I would have loved backup." She pauses. "Wait, you saw some weird stuff over there?" She thinks. "That's interesting. What kind of weird stuff is going on over by the MIBs? What can you tell us about it?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks at Inga for a moment "We call them English Majors these days they tend to be caught up in thier own little worlds unlike yourself, Inga."

She pauses for a moment she looks at Staren for a moment with a very odd look on her face.

"Likely because of the misery Jack would cause in his wake, what's the ruin of one soul when if you let one go to ruin many more and spred suffering humm?"

She looks like she's ready to say something else at Staren but choses to bite her tongue and finish her soup now things are up to speed. She finishes it off and looks back to Staren for a moment.

"You don't deal with young children often do you? Who are not Elites..."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Danny," he corrects, looking over at Kirika. "Only my folks call me 'Daniel.'" He rocks on his heels. "Well, it seems like it... I didn't really go take a close look. At least, not alone."

Danny turns to Riva instead of Staren. She seems reasonable. "Yeah! The treehouse is still here, and so is all our notes, too. But... I think I'm the only member left," he admits, somberly, frown deepening, "after the fog." He takes a second to compose himself. It's quick. "But... like I said, the stand just popped up. It's kind of... glowing. Like the weird lights in the Wispwood, only not."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "If you have a personal frequency, that'd be helpful! I wouldn't want to take up everyone's time here." Weiss responds to Ayako. Hearing Danny rebuff Staren however, instantly has her interest. "Oh! Now that's something to look for! I'd be very interested in encountering something of this kind! I can have Asche check it out now if you like!" For scholarly purposes obviously. Maybe it would be best not to sound so enthusiastic about the supposed arrival of some kind of spirit of the damned who preys upon children. "Staren, you might be overestimating the mental faculties of children. Undeveloped minds are easily swayed by simple and transparent tricks, and often lock themselves into narrow avenues without acknowledging the existence of other choices. They were most likely too scared by the stranger not to do exactly as he said.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley lets out a tired sigh at Staren's willful ignorance of the various remarks in his direction about his criticisms, so she decides to distract herself away from the story itself. She turns to approach Wuyin himself and stands near him. She looks at him for a few moments, as if trying to read his mind by reading his expression.

    "We should deal with it," she tells Wuyin, in a quiet voice, very serious about it. "It could easily do more harm to the survivors here if another threat were to set up shop." She doesn't expect any sort of answer except a confirmation from him.

Inga has posed:
Inga leans forward then, her eyes on Danny, her gaze intense. "A market stand?" she asks for confirmation. She looks to the others, frowning. "Another strange happening to investigate. We should indeed give it a look," she says.

A look to Kotona. A blank look. English...major? What? She shakes her head, then laughs softly at her quip about Staren and him not knowing many children.

Back to Danny, Inga frowns. The intensity of her gaze softens. Of course, he has lost family and friends to this madness.

Inga passes him the ale she'd poured for herself. "Here, have a bit of this," she says, then reaches into one of the leather pouches at her belt and begins looking through it for a few moments. Eventually, she pulls out a small skull, obviously of a bird of some kind, well preserved. This, she strings on a leather cord then hands to Danny. "Wear this. The skull of a rooster. It is a charm that will help protect you," she tells him, kindly. Kindly giving him a skull. Pretty standard Inga. And drinking age? What is that!? Pah!

Inga nods over to Wuyin. "Mmm, we should."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako takes a deep breath to try to calm herself down. It doesn't work as well for an entity that doesn't need to breathe, but it's something. She smiles softly to Weiss. "I'll figure something out later?" And then blinks her eyes quickly. "Umm... it's glowing? That's... usually not a good sign..." She lifts the rim of her witch hat-it seems she's recovered- and then nods her head once. "Maybe we should go take a look."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Danny takes the charm with a, "Cool... thanks. But I, uh, probably shouldn't drink and ride," he says. "Thanks, though." He seems kind of cheered up by something potentially supernatural being in his possession. Even if it's a skull. (Maybe /especially/ a skull, though.)

Wuyin is difficult to read. The 3D glasses are amazingly distracting and a serious boon to his poker face. Ainsley seems to be on the money, though. He nods slowly, watching the conversations in the rest of the room. "Yes," he replies, in the same quiet, serious tone. "Solomon Island has enough problems on it. One more could be too much if we let it linger. Nip it in the bud now..." He lets it hang, thoughtfully.

Then, he pushes off the wall, opening the door. "Exactly what we were thinking," Wuyin says, nodding at Ayako and Weiss in turn. "Best to know now instead of later." He steps outside.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pauses for a moment a she gets up, to grab her battle rifle makes sure it's load and get ready to go out. she also grabs a pistol of similar mach and secures both. She looks over to Inga for a moment.

"Should be interesting to get to the bottom of this."

IT's a odd but nice change from dealing with the flith. Why does the Fligh scare her more? You got to say yes to the Devil, the flith just /takes/ you.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako nods her head slowly and gives her broomstick a nudge with her foot. It quickly starts to float out the door-although Ayako has to duck her head to not hit her head on the doorframe. "A-ahh! Don't go alone! I'm not even acquainted with this area and I know it's dangerous to go by yourself!" She floats quickly after Wuyin.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "A... who would open a market stand at a time like this?!" Shirou blurts. It does take a few moments for the implications to mentally process and... geeze. "... Just the zombies... them alone... it's worth checking out." Shirou rises from the couch, stretching.

    Sheesh, he just got done hauling a seriously overloaded cart, too. The redhead just doesn't quit, ever.

    Though, he doesn't seem short of breath. if anything he's in peak human fitness without being an olympic athlete.

    He glances about the room - and his gaze falls across Kirika. Or more specifically, it's like his gaze is DRAWN to the weapon astride her lap. The boy then mutters quietly, instead of his usual 'trace on,' "My body is made of swords." More like a chant than a statement...

    His right hand opens as if ready to grasp the air, but when they close it's not air they grip. Thick golden light fizzles into view and stretches out within his grasp. Looking really closely at it, one can almost see a wireframe form - but it quickly gains incredible definition and fills in. The light fades, revealing the finished... holy sword (if a likely minor one), Kinugiri. The exact same weapon as Kirika's, if anyone's looking.

    "Yeah, let's go. I've got your back, Wuyin."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva nods as things continue to progress towards their natural end. Of course they were going to check it out, that much was a given as soon as Danny said it. The question was just how long it would take to get there and how much corroborating information could be gained in the meantime. "We'll definately check it out." Riva says. "Just give people a chance to- Wuyin! Oh God, not again." Riva sighs. And there goes Ayako, too.

Riva looks to Danny. "If I see any other members out there, I'll tell them to go to the skate park. I'll go look for your treehouse later, too. We can get the notes for you and then we'll be able to look them over together. If you guys have been slaying monsters for a while, surely you guys will know some things we don't, right?" She winks at Danny, and then nods. "All right, I'm going to go try to keep Wyuin from getting himself killed." Again. "Or should I keep watch?" She looks indecisive on this.

Staren has posed:
    Staren just looks at Weiss. "Perhaps, but I don't see children attempting to buy everything they see just because it has a price tag on it." He sighs. "But, in any case... yeah, if there /is/ more eldritch weirdness going on... let's take care of it, sure." He gets ready to follow the others, quickly finishing his soup. "So what's the plan? Try to get souls back? Just blast him? Go on a crazy quest to get him admitted to Hell?"

Inga has posed:
Well, it seems to have been decided. Inga takes the ale back, takes a sip, then puts the cup down. She begins to gather her things, checking that she has her knife and, of course, her staff. She shoulders into her cloak while she's at it; October on the coast of Maine is quite chilly. "I can provide wards before we go. Any who want them come forth," she says, drawing her knife from her belt. She rolls up her sleeve, then slices into her arm with the sharp iron of her blade. Blood wells, and she dips her fingers into. The witch would draw a runic symbol in her blood, charged with her anima onto the skin of any who wished for protection against the potential infection of the Filth--indeed, this is very much encouraged.

Inga would glance toward Shirou as he summons a sword, her eyes a bit wide. This is still rather amazing magic to Inga. Then, she follows his gaze to Kirika, an eyebrow raising, question left unspoken.

A sigh, Inga looks to Riva. "I'm nearly finished with the talismans...if you want to stay here with Danny...well, I will do my best to see no one is hurt," she says, then heads outside after the others, already grumbling about how quickly they're going while she limps along with staff in hand. Gods, maybe she should just ask for a lift.

Oh, the indignity?

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Kirika blinks as suddenly Shirou copies her blade to the letter, right down to the aura it gives off, save for a few fluctuations here and there. Raising an eyebrow, she observes Shirou closely for a moment. "...huh." She has to admit, it's impressive how thurough Shirou's magic can be like that. "I'm going out as well." She says, standing to her feet. If Shirou can copy her blade like that, then the kid should be fine as well.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Not so dangerous if you know how to handle yourself," Wuyin replies offhandedly. "I will not turn down backup, however. That would be foolish." He does not, however, wait for Riva. He /will/ wait for Inga and her wards, since people aren't quite as... /resistant/ as they are.

"I can watch the place," Danny offers, looking over at Riva. He seems to like her. Maybe it's because she's trying to speak his language. Maybe it's because she's the closest person to a superhero in the room, as far as he can tell. "You should be out there. This is like your day job. Saving the world and stuff? Putting your life on the line and the needs of others before your own? Right?" He smiles, big and wide. "Right?"

"You could work on your outfit a bit, though," he adds, offhand, hand on his chin. "Im just saying. It's a bit weak for a superhero. I could, like, show you some sketches after we've gotten through this? I'm thinking mask, black leather, no cape. Capes are so out this year."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Once Wuyin does wait for Inga's wards, Ayako does as well. As long as he isn't going to charge, she will wait! After all, she does want a ward from Inga. And almost looks a combination of eager and interested as she watches Inga. "S-sorry, Inga..." She smiles apologetically to her. "Want a ride on my broom?" She scoots over towards the end of the broomstick and gestures with her left hand to a free spot on her broom closer to the brush.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa calls back to Danny for a moment.

"Feel free to use the temrinal there's some games there you might enjoy."

Somethings that are classic to Kotone that are not yet out in this world." She notes before she moves to start heading out and pauses.

"Super hero outfit humm? Capes also tend to get caught on things."

She pauses looking at Riva for a moment thoughtfully but does not say anything further on outfits. With that she'll head out with the rest.

"I can spint pretty fast so don't worry about me."

Staren has posed:
    Staren happily accepts a warding.

    Seems Danny will be holding down the fort. Staren reaches into his bag and pulls out a pump-action shotgun and a couple boxes of 25 shells. (Engraved above the trigger are the words 'Renegade Rangemaster' -- a brand and model from an alternate Earth, apparently). "...You know how to use this, right?"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Perfect! Let's be on our way then." Clearly enthusiastic about the prospect of going after some hellish spirit in the middle of a zombie infested, metaphysically corrupted disaster zone, Weiss waits patiently for her turn to be blessed with a ward (though how this will work on only one unit is a good question), and begins to march down the stairs behind Wuyin. Asche however, seems fixated on the sword Shirou magicks into existence. Apparently the concept of Noble Phantasms still has some kind of draw to Zwei, as does machining magical matter out of next to nothing. As the smaller Armiger clears the front door, the larger one finally turns away from the window; the outer layer of one of his pauldrons popping open, and magnetically launching a miniscule sensor through the gap with a dull, whining crack, which swiftly vanishes into the night air.

    The itty bitty drone hovers a few hundred meters above the town, hitting the streets below with infrared, microwave, and ultrasound wavelengths to map out the current distribution of zombies, and then feeding back a predictive algorithm for their paths, as well as locating what looks to be the market stall, wherever that is. "Topographical survey complete." Asche intones to Wuyin. "If at any point you require hostile targets to be eliminated, you have only to ask."

Inga has posed:
Yes, wait for Inga. Inga is the healer. You don't want to be seperated from the healer.

After giving Ayako her ward, Inga's eyes go round as the girl is suddenly riding on a flying broom.

And offering her a ride. "U-uhm I must decline, thank you though," she says, looking a little green. How is that even possible!?

No, Inga will move along steadily, if slower than those who are accustomed to running everywhere. Truly, it wouldn't kill them to move at a normal pace! At least she is not concerned about the zombies. With so many people about who are good at making things dead and re-dead, she'll likely not have to lift a magical finger there.

She does, at one specific point, suddenly come to a stop. "Ahh...here it comes..." she says quietly, then her eyes roll back in her head as The Bees speak through her.

"The League's "No Girls!" policy was changed the summer of Nika Vasquez. Nine times she asked for membership and was denied, with jeers and spitballs. The tenth time, she showed up at the tree house, demonstrating an erudite knowledge of comic book lore, and throwing a severed finger - too long to be human - at the feet of the gaping boys."

"Generations later and the League of Monster Slayers remembers. They pass on their stories mouth to mouth and in secret notebooks. Every inexplicable incident gets scribbled in."

"Danny Dufresne leads the current League, but the fog came, and the other members disappeared. Danny remains, the last monster slayer of Kingsmouth."

A shudder passes through the wisewoman, her head hanging forward as she takes a few deep breaths, pulling herself back together after the disorienting message from The Buzzing.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako shrugs lightly and scoots back onto the center of her broomstick. "Well, you're welcome anytime!" She smiles cheerfully at Inga. And then blinks her eyes quickly. "Hmm? What's coming?"

    Ayako just listens while inclining her head to the side gently. "Hmph... 'no girls policy'... Ah... well then. They might actually know a lot more than some of the adults do then!" She giggles brightly. "Umm... this doesn't happen all the time to you, does it, Inga?"

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Totally," Danny replies, taking the weapon and ammo from Staren. He gives it the once-over like someone who has actually handled a weapon might. Not an expert, but practiced, certainly. "Don't worry. The geeky sidekick is on the job." Beat. "That sounded better in my head," he admits.


The drone has trouble keeping a connection with Asche and Weiss. Something about the fog is making wireless connectivity through nearly any means spotty at best and nonexistant at worst. Fortunately, the target is inside the 'sweet spot' of it's range: a rickety wooden stand on the side of the road, standing out a ways up the road. Asche can see a group of men in black suits, white body armor and wielding sleek automatic weapons retreating behind a thrumming barrier of some kind at the base of a large, blocked-off bridge. There are a large number of corpses strewn around on that side of the island, apparently killed with projectile weapons.

As such, the trek there is pretty uneventful, save for Inga's oracular moment. Wuyin stops, jaw clenched through the whole episode. He untenses when she's done, nodding and moving on. They're nearly there, passing through the apparent scrubland and up the road. The skate park is dimly visible in the distance, lit up and surrounded by what the drone can identify as 'a fuckton of traps.'

The target location is a stand. It's made of ill-fitting boards and rusted nails, appearing rickety but standing sturdy on the side of the road. The word 'PUMPKINS' is scrawled across the top in crude white lettering. Behind it and along the side is an enormous amount of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, propped up against the stand itself and the jutting rock wall rising behind.

A figure stands behind it. He is slender and ethereal, rendered in black and white. His face is fixed with a too-wide mouth and a too-big smile, and his eyes are blank white with a pinprick of black, moving around like an insect squirming in a glass of milk. He wears old, tattered clothes and a tall, crooked hat, and his stick-thin arms are bent at the elbows, his spidery hands clasped together.

He is most definitely not among the living. The attentive will wonder if he is among the corporeal.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Just be really careful. Don't wander away from us, no matter what!" Shirou warns Danny. He's not comfortable with the kid tagging along, but... he's LESS comfortable when Inga starts Oracle'ing again. The redhead grinds to a halt to listen... yeeeow, this world is scary.

    No scarier than his own, maybe, but still...

    He's wandering down the streets with a copied magical katana. This couldn't get weirder very easily. But it does.

    It crosses tha threshold the instant ghosts enter the story, after all. or something that at least looks like one. Strolling up to the stall, Shirou makes a creeped-out face at what he's seeing. Still... despite all the creepiness of the situation, he does try to be polite.

    "Good evening. Isn't it a weird time to be running a shop here...?" Yeah, let's ignore the ethereal nature and the weird story from before. Nothing good comes from being a jerk.

Staren has posed:
    Staren shrugs to Danny. "It's okay. Hey, maybe sometime you should talk to Brad Carbunkle. I actually picked up that shotgun in another zombie outbreak... hopefully you won't need to use it, though." And off they go!

    Inga reveals lore. "...Shoot. Do you think maybe the story was in /code/ or something?" he wonders.

    When they finally reach 'Jack', Staren stares at him with interest, but decides that perhaps someone /else/ should handle negotiations first, so he waits silently.

    For now.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako idly floats on her broomstick just behind Wuyin. She quietly notes the stand that has a lot of pumpkins and... the figure attending said stand. Her right hand reaches back and idly scratches the back of her head. "I... Umm... Hmm... I don't know about the rest of you, but... I don't really have blood, nor do I want a pumpkin. So... yes. I'll leave this up to you."

Inga has posed:
Good thing she didn't take the broom ride, she'd have likely fallen right off when the Bees spoke. To Ayako, she nods. "It does--that and more," she replies quietly.

They continue on. The stand comes into view. Another shudder, all the small hairs on her body prickling at the extreme sense of the uncanny. Her eyes focus on the pumpkin seller, though she rather wishes they didn't. Reflexively Inga reaches down to touch the iron of her blade to ward against evil.

The witch stands a little ways back from the stand, just watching. She will not buy a pumpkin. She is generous with her blood to others for protection, but she will not make this bargain. The story says the ghost is trapped between worlds, but such a duality in death is foreign to her. That is a very Christian concept. What does it mean? Somewhere between living and dead...but that describes many things in Kingsmouth.

Shirou approaches and is polite. More and more she is convinced he has some sense in his head.

And Ayako's statement is just confusing. She doesn't have blood? Water spirit...perhaps it is water that flows through her veins? Does she /have/ veins? Urrggh...down that road lays madness.

"Hail, spirit," is all she says for now.

The fact that Staren doesn't say anything is a true blessing.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Curious." Weiss remarks, privy to the same visual feed as Asche. "Is there supposed to be a military presence on this island? If they're already here, why not do a clean sweep and sterilize the area in one go?" She frowns slightly at how bad the connection is. It's not as if Asche can't handle any amount of zombies, but Zwei doesn't like things intefering with its systems (and it would show on Asche too if he had a face). Both of them stop to listen as Inga begins to orate, obviously not familiar with the concept of a prophetic transce, as Weiss immediately asks "How did you know all that?" as soon as she's finished.

    Regardless of the answer, the little pumpkin shack is right there, just as the sensor pod had shown, and what's more, someone is actively behind it. Wondering exactly what the attentive supposedly should, Weiss begins using her more powerful scanners to probe the strange man's physical makeup, trying to monitor body heat, blood circulation, respiration, brainwave activity, and attempting an x-ray scan as well, because he certainly doesn't look more than passingly human. "I don't think he's expecting money." She says to Kirika. "I belive the story may have been quite literal."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
The man at the stand reaches up and tips his hat to Shirou. The motion is almost languid. "There is no better time, young sir. Samhain is coming. All Hallows' Eve. Can't have Halloween without pumpkins, can you?" His smile grows, the edges seeming to crawl across his face. "Would you like one? Perfect for lanterns. Have to have lanterns."

He inclines his head to Inga. "Hail, wise-woman," the spirit says. His head twists, facing Ayako. "You get what you give," he says.

Kirika comes up. He tilts his head the other way at her. He seems too tall for the stand. "You get what you give," he replies. "You can keep your notes, young miss. These fine pumpkins," he pats one, rather solidly, "are bought with blood. One little cut -- a fingertip, a palm -- and it is yours." He picks up a pumpkin, cradling it in his arms.

"You get what you give," he repeats. He puts it on the board that is a counter.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley does not spend a long time on the ground when they get moving. She takes to the air, floating as if gravity just stopped working for her. A faint taste of metal fills the air around her, and the way her clothing billows suggests she's being carried by a breeze as easily as a plastic bag, yet she moves with purpose.

    A purpose that sets her down with the others, standing before the stand and the peculiar fellow. She stares at the figure with a frown on her face. It's quite a hefty frown, too, like the very appearance of this apparition disgusts her on some fundamental level. She approaches the stand, to get a look at the pumpkins, and then the grotesque figure behind it.

    "Hello, Jack," she greets, she looks at the pumpkins, considering them.

    "Is it /just/ blood?" she wonders at him, clearly filled with a cool violence like the moment he did anything untoward she'd blow up his merchant stall and go Ghostbusters on his face with her lightning magic.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is able to keep out of most trouble and she wasn't kidding about how fast she could sprint at this point she slows down as they arrive she pauses for a moment she stares for a moment.

"Blood? But what if you ... don't have ... blood in the tradtional sense."

That might be a bit on the creepy side of things.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako hops off of her broomstick and curtseys politely to the figure attending to the stand. "Good evening to you." She smiles brightly to the figure as she picks up her broom with her right hand. "Oh, I don't mean to be a wet spot. Your pumpkins are really good, from what I see." Her smile isn't fake at all, she really is complimenting the offered product.

Inga has posed:
Inga glances toward Weiss. "I am a Seer. I have been given the gift of prophecy from the gods," she explains, then glances toward Wuyin and Riva before she looks back to Weiss. "But all of us who are chosen can hear the voice of the Buzzing--it simply manifests differently in us all," she answers.

Inga looks back to Jack, her expression carefully blank. A question; "Must the blood be your own?" she asks. Yeah, that's not a creepy question at all.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Jack..." The spirit mulls it over. His smile falls into a considering frown. His head seems to shift oddly on his neck. "Jaaack..."

"It'll do," he decides, nodding his head. He adjusts his hat.

"It is blood. It is all things blood is. Just a few drops, though." He gestures at the pumpkin, caressing it with the fingertips of one hand, and then looking at Ainsley again. "For this marvelous specimen."

He looks at Kotone. It's an examining expression. Focused. He tilts his head back, then nods. "Mmmm. Might do. You get what you give," he says.

The ghost rounds on Inga. He places his hands on the countertop, lowering his head and looking down at her. He looks her dead in the face. "You get what you give," he repeats, perhaps pointedly.

Kirika (481) has posed:
Kirika keeps secuirty with Inga and Danny in tow along with Shirou, holding her sword close. Whatever Inga has going on, it might be that Buzzing thing Wuyin has as well. She bows to 'Jack', then hands over a handful of money. "One pumpkin please, and good evening sir."

    She will just hold the pumpkin in hand, it's only polite one at least provides patronage to a merchant even now.

    Pause. She pulls back her money, before suddenly she draws her katana. A soft rub long her palm is all it takes for blood to get flowing before Kirika presents hers to the spirit. "As you wish, then."

    She is way too eager for this.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "The buzzing? You'll have to tell me more! But . . . later." Weiss seems preoccupied with the results of her scans. Asche's forearm guard splits apart to allow something vaguely approximating a large, stubby gun barrel to poke through, its muzzle shrouded in white light. Just in case. "Well, clearly he isn't alive, or possibly even present. I'm detecting some kind of electromagnetic disturbance, but no mass signature. It might be someone projecting from somewhere else." 'Might' is a pretty big feat for Zwei. A week ago it would have said 'is definitely'.

    But all this dithering over loopholes and having blood or not? That simply won't do. Zwei wants to see sting Jack, and if nobody is going to participate in this particular game, then it will instead! As far as it seems, the concept of blood offered seems to be more important than physical blood itself, and so Weiss steps up to the fore. She doesn't need to produce a blade to alter her frame, and a regular knife wouldn't put a scratch in her anyways. Instead, as she offers her hand, a tiny hairline splits across the tip of her finger, and some sort of iridescent, faintly glowing fluid drips out in a single, perfectly sherical droplet.

Staren has posed:
    Staren just facepalms when someone decides to /actually give the guy blood/.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "B-blood?" this is creepily like the story they just heard. really unnervingly so. Shirou makes a face, then glances about at the others. "I'll get to that in a bit if nobody else does," He asides to Weiss, because his attention is more on the Spirit. "That creeps me out every time it happens, Inga. I'm glad someone's watching out for you though."

    So then he faces the Spirit again. "Samhain... oh, Halloween." Shirou is clearly speaking in Japanese. Somewhat informal and short Japanese, aside from tokens of politeness. "The American Holiday...?" He doesn't sound too familiar with it.

    He is from 2004. Halloween has only just started gaining any popularity at all.

    "Give life to receive life?" He boggles this out aloud. he has been taught that there is magical energy in all bodily fluids. Blood and a certain other category are the most potent.

Kirika (481) has posed:
    Staren gets another stern look from Kirika, "Don't be rude now." She admonishes.

Inga has posed:
Inga touches the iron of her knife again, not a gesture of aggression but of warding. "I understand," she replies, not shrinking beneath that gaze even though her insides shudder at the wrongness of it.

Kiriki takes the bait. She buys a pumpkins. Well, if only one of them does it, at least they can attempt to report back on what was learned. The children who paid were returned in the story, though after likely seeing something that frightened them. Perhaps a trip into the spirit realm? A glimpse of the orlog? Hmmm...

Well, Inga's lost in thought.

She's only brought out again by Shirou addressing her. "Hmm? Ah...it can be inconvenient," she replies, pursing her lips slightly. That's a bit of an understatement. At least she hasn't yet had a prophecy for him! That's when it really gets interesting.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "It's one of it's older names and both Pagan and Chrsitan celebeations on that day predate the consumist nightmare it has become."

She looks to Emiya and nods.

"Hummmm if it doesn't ... suit you I won't take the pumpkin."

She looks to the knife and takes a good look at it. She thinks for a moment as she looks it over. You get what you givew? Some would call her existance a false life...a mockery. She wonders and grits her teeth as she has to dig the blade into her palm given ther is not much in the way of little viens all ove rhte play a dark red and ... strangley smalling fluid comes from the small wound in her hand. Will it be enough?

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    It is quite clear that Ainsley does not like Jack. It is not clear why, exactly, she has such a strong dislike of him, however. Nothing else about this place has done this to her. When she isn't paying attention, a red glow emits from her eyes, when he gives that very pointed phrase toward Inga. The girl's snout crumples in what almost was a snarl or sneer...

    The dark feeling of Life magic hums in her soul now.

    "Jack," she says, gently, "You should go Home."

    They might want to grab Ainsley. She's starting to /feel/ like a dog about to attack someone it doesn't like. The way her feathers are poofing up like that...

Inga has posed:
Inga reaches out and places her hand on Ainsley's arm. "Peace, Ainsley," she says, hoping she can hold her back from making what might be a hasty decision. Not...that's she's never done something foolish...but dealing with spirits and the like is part of Inga's training. Before anything is done, she needs to discern more about his nature.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
The spirit reaches out, taking Kirika by the hand. His touch is icy cold. He gently runs his fingers over the cut, taking the offered blood onto his spectral hand. He brushes the stem with a bloodied fingertip, leaving a little red stain. The rest seems to vanish. He picks up the blood-bought pumpkin and holds it out.

"You get what you give," he says. He sounds pleased.

The spirit takes Kotone's hand and holds it by the wrist. He leans over it, apparently examining it. "Hmmmm... not the same. Not the same at all. Different," he remarks, "but still good." He does the same to another pumpkin, offering it up. "You get what you give."

Once she takes it, the spirit looks to Ainsley again. He folds his hands again, the spidery things crossed. "Now, miss," he says, "that's no way to treat a man trying to make an honest living." His head sort of tilts to the right, shifting oddly on his neck. He puts one hand on his chest where his heart would be, and the other off to his side. It's obscured by the stand. "This is my stand, and you came to it. You do what you like, now. Whatever you like. Just remember."

The squirming, rolling eyes of his fix on her. His long, narrow mouth curls up in a smile.

"You get what you give," he says, nastily.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley turns her gaze over to Kirika and then to Kotone. She looks over to Jack with something like an antithetical disdain, like his presence here got on her nerves in some instinctual way. The way he just beckons her to try something violent.

    Then she draws a dagger from her belt, twirling it once with a flourish like she's about to leap the counter to shank him. Except she doesn't. She cuts a line of blood on her palm, and holds it out to the spirit, considering him. "A businessman, then," she says, softly. "I give some of my blood. You might find it sweeter than some. How big of a pumpkin can I buy with this?"

    She looks at him still with that coiled feeling of violence. It was, perhaps, Inga's touch that kept her calm here. Or maybe she would've stayed calm on her own. It's hard to tell.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou thinks on this a lot, especially after the fiasco of the pumpkin marking. And his own thoughts trying to analyze this spirit's predicament. "... okay, what does a ghost want with blood?"

    He then does something he himself thinks may just be stupid. He bites his thumb carefully, drawing blood, and offers it. "Magical energy?"

    There is utterly no point hiding he's a magus from a ghost. That's like saying magic doesn't exist to a unicorn.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa lets the spirit does as it will there seems to be no sense of malice on the spirits part. She will take the pumpkin as it's offered bowing slightly to the ghost. She pauses at some of the chatter over her cyber comm. Inga's right she's not about to anger a spirit, you give what you get, and you reap what you sow after all. She takes a moment to find something to bandage her hand it will take a bit for the auto repair system to /stop/ the bleeding and it will need to be fixed. She just hopes she's not done something stupid she's just going with what her own ghost is whispering to her on this. It's all she's got since her gut long checked out.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako pauses for a moment... and then walks over to spirit. "It's true, you are a man just trying to make a living." She smiles softly and then slashes at her own finger with one of her fingernails. And then offers the water that drips from her cut finger to the spirit. "Here you go... if it's acceptable." She then smiles gently to him, "But, I don't want a pumpkin, you can just have this."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
While all this is going on, Wuyin goes over and offers a cut finger, cut facing down. The ghost brushes it and marks the pumpkin, providing another. "You get what you give," it says. Wuyin just nods, picks up the pumpkin, and starts walking a ways down the road. He's hard to read at the moment.

The spirit goes back to watching Ainsley like a spider spying another. It would be a mistake to liken it to a bird of prey; it is something else entirely. He reaches out to take the offered blood, a cold, gentle touch. "Mmmm... perhaps. Here." Ainsley gets a larger one, sort of squat but wide. He marks it the same way. "You get what you give."

With a flourish, the man takes Ayako's offered finger and draws the drip from it. He cups it in his palm. "Ahh, miss, that is very kind; very kind." She can probably feel the slight pull, the skimming of energy 'off the top' as it were, given her spiritual nature. It's subtle, and light. He wets a pumpkin, leaving a dark spot and offering it up. "But you get what you give. It wouldn't be a fair bargain if you didn't take one. One of your friends can have it if you like." His smile would be kindly if it weren't so creepy.

"Something like that, young man, something like that." The ghost takes Shirou's payment, finding a suitable pumpkin for him, too. "You get what you give. I help put this place in the right sort of holiday spirit, eh?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren just shakes his head and finally shrugs. He hopes his allies know what they're doing.

    Is he missing something? Could there possibly be some reason this is a good idea?

Inga has posed:
Inga looks at Staren, shrugs a little. "We'll keep watch on them," she says to him.

Inga nods to the spirit then. "Farewell, spirit. I'll see you again I'm sure," she says, then would exit when everyone else is ready.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles softly, "It's fair enough. You have some customers that are just watching, after all. And you do need to make a living." She gently adjusts her witch hat. "Just a bit for your time." She curtseys politely to the other spirit.