Ash's face didn't really change as the person he was talking to whipped up and around to face him, her face becoming clear as the hood fell off. She look suprisingly smooth, unlike most monsters in the underground, if that made any sense. He could almost call it pretty, reminiscent of the pop idol he somewhat hated. Ash barely registered her attempts to lie while he was gazing at her, but he certainly tuned in for her next sentence.

"Yeah. Right in front of you. Congrats, you found me."

Ash looked her up and down once again as she smiled coldly. So THAT was what humans looked like. Hm. He certainly expected them to be more... beastly? Scary? This thing was murdering monsters? It seemed so out of the ordinary, such an almost pedestrian looking thing was a murderer.
But Ash was no fool. He realized looks could be deceiving. He almost had an idea, looking at his face on her shirt, and her similar enough look to some monsters... but he'd need time to think it out. For now he was going to stick to the original plan. He grinned cockily as did she, and he got into a lax but ready state, gripping his Drillsaw and allowing light flames to crackle at his fingertips.

"Oh. That's good. I'm afraid I'll have to kill you now."

ASH blocks your way!

Nina stiffened slightly as the now-familiar feeling of butterfly's in her stomach let her know that she'd have to fight. She let the smile fade from her face, focus taking its place. She had to be ready to dodge, and then trap the monster's attack to send it back at him on her turn. Looking at the monster, she realized she recognized him. The logo on her jacket... maybe...

It was at least worth a try. Before he could attack, she let her stance slip, just enough to show that she wasn't trying to be hostile as she spoke. "You, aren't a normal monster, are you? You're special in some way?"

Ash noticed her mannerisms. Her cool switched to a warriors focus and concentration. She didn't appear to have a weapon, so her power must've come from natural strength. But he saw her pose falter, noticeably slow. She wasn't experienced in this kind of thing, was she? Then maybe she was good at ACTing. She did seem to be talking during the fight... He replied, "Was it that obvious? I'm flattered, but lemme answer your question with another question. You're the kinda gal to do anything to survive, right? Lie, cheat... kill. Lets see if you're determined enough to survive THIS!"

He quickly threw his Drillsaw at her, the circular blade cutting through the air right at her. It was a simple attack, easy enough to dodge. He mainly wanted to talk while he could. He was sure someone was tailing him, so this would be his main chance to see if she had what it took. Sure, killing the human would make him look like a hero. A bridge between two races? He'd be more. Much more.

Nina slid to the side to dodge the attack, the saw freezing in the air as it passed her, a purple web flashing for a second as the saw became trapped. She took the saw out of the web and held it at her side as she turned to face the monster again. "Determined, no. I'm way too..." She shrugged her shoulders as she tossed the saw back at it's owner, trying to hit him but not so he couldn't dodge. "True, I've killed, and I tried to lie to you before I figured it'd just be useless. But I can't say I've ever cheated. You don't really seem to be the righteous type either though." She smiled slightly, realizing the irony of her words. Some of the monsters she'd killed had called her a cheater for using their own attacks against them, but how could it be cheating if she was allowed to do it?

Ash stood mouth agape in awe as, when the sawblade flew past her as expected, it suddenly stop, frozen in time and space. He tried to listen to what she said but it almost didn't register as he stared at his stopped blade. When she threw it back at him he got clipped and lost a small amount of health he didn't bother to catch, too astounded by her ability to try doing much moving. He could tell she wasn't trying her hardest there.

He back stepped and grabbed the Drillsaw now stuck in the ground. hefting it around his body and hiding himself in it. He wouldn't be using it for a little bit to avoid something like that happening again. He growled in anger at her powerful technique. "Never cheated? Whatever the H*LL that was seemed pretty d*mn close!... But, you're right." He said, switching gears to her admission of sin. "Neither of us are the 'righteous' type. We're winners. How long do you think you would have survived out here without doing the things you did, 'humon'? Certainly not enough to experience THIS!"

He quickly extended his palm and shot forth a jet of orange magical flame from it. Hopefully she couldn't reflect purely magical attacks. While he was expelling these flames, he shouted, "Expect company soon, by the by! I'm sure someone followed me. You're pretty famous around here!"

Nina dodged the flames, well almost anyway. She wasn't fast enough to avoid getting hit, though as she dodged she didn't feel herself taking any damage. "W-was that a joke? Or are you purposely not trying to hurt me?" She blanched when he told her that he would have backup soon. Fighting one monster was bad enough, but she hadn't really fought more than one at a time. She probably would have died a while ago if she had tried.

Nina glanced around for a moment. Maybe she could run away before any other monsters arrived? Well, with the lake behind her she might be able to swim away, but she'd not really be able to dodge any attacks very well there. The rocks she'd been hiding between blocked the sides now, and the monster was blocking her from going forward. She sighed and tried to think what to do. She hadn't caught any of the fire just now, so if she tried to attack she'd be using her fists, and honestly that didn't seem like a very good idea. "Famous, huh? Like you? This... this is a picture of you, isn't it? Why would you warn me that you've got help on the way? Aren't you worried that I might just run away?"

Ash smiled slightly. Judging by her dodging it with ease, she knew of orange magic. Though, the slight fluctuation in her voice told him that at the least he caught her off guard. Her reaction to the news that another monster would be coming could be expected by many monsters, but not Ash. In his one track thinking, escape was not an option. Luckily, a glance around told the both of them all they needed to know. It was do or die.

She refused to attack this turn, probably setting up another of her traps while she spoke. But she seemed to have come to a sudden realization. This was his opportunity. "Yep, you're right. I'm a pretty big guy in these parts. But not big enough. I warned you about help coming because when they do, if they find us talking like this, neither of us win." He grabbed his Drillsaw and started spinning it around like a sling. "You promoting me would be a major bonus, if they believe you didn't do it. But sometimes, you just have to settle for second best... or dead last in your case."

He paused, letting the information sink in. "If you survive this, whoever they are will arrive soon. Follow my lead once they do. Okay? Now..." He threw the circular saw to the side of the girl like a curve ball, before quickly shouting "POCKET SAND!" and throwing some sand he had in store for occasions just like these at her face. After said attack, he quickly prepped another orange fire blast and threw it at his opponent as soon as she rubbed the sand out of her eyes.

Nina was ready for the next attack, or so she thought. She saw that the saw was going too wide to actually hit her, and so was just going to catch it, but then she got a face full of sand. The saw still froze in midair, and as she started to wipe the sand from her eyes she reached for it, a somewhat snarky response already forming in her mind before a sudden burst of light and heat in front of her startled her. Shouldn't it have been her turn to act now? "Hey, what-" She stopped short as the flames hit her. She hadn't moved, and so the orange magic hit her full-force. She watched her HP go down 6 points. It wasn't much but, she didn't have much HP to start with.

She finished wiping the sand from her face, fighting the urge to sneeze as she took the saw from where it had been suspended in her web. "Heh, nice trick. Shouldn't I have got a turn to throw something at you during that?" She smiled, purely joking. "Guess we both cheat a bit, huh? So, what lead am I supposed to follow exactly?" She kept holding the drillsaw, not really wanting to give it back to him yet.

He laughed a little as she joked about both of their "special tactics" and how they were both pretty similar in the end. Though, her not throwing his Drillsaw back to him made him a little peeved. He understood though, she wanted at least some leverage over him, and he realized this helped even the odds in her favor, just a bit. "So, here's the story, those murders? Weren't you. Maybe some monster infighting, some sort of disease, other humons, whatever. You didn't do them. You've been surviving down here pacifistically off scraps until I, Ash Hare, the first candidate running for the leadership election, found you and offered you solace where others would have abandoned or even killed you. Sound good?" He explained. It was a bit much to take in but hopefully she would understand it all. He could explain more once they both reached his abode. "Oh, and, before I forget- don't think this stuff happens all the time, okay? Cuz I'm normal a mean lean killin' machine."

ASH is sparing you!

At first Nina wasn't really sure how to respond. After a moment, she started walking towards Ash, handing his saw back to him once she was close enough. "Deal. My name's Nina Sari. Nice to meet you, I guess." She didn't know how this was all gonna play out, especially once people started questioning her about her time here, but at least she could keep the lie together for a while. Hopefully.

Sort of letting out a snort at Skylar’s question of enemy, “I dunno, maybe anybody you got a reason to point a gun at…namely, not me?” Squinting, blinking at the two, “Yeah, and I’m from the…?!” Seeing Eeeeeeeeeeee float down from…somewhere, his eyes widened. For a moment, the area flickered into the black and white of a battle, though this might have been in everyone’s mind. The yellow and red glow of…before that too faded back to the normal world and—

Click

The LED light shut off, the room was plunged into pitch black once again, and the sound of running could be heard…a rock knocked over and tumbling as the man ran off…





As the dust of the weird blob settled…

“hhhoi…!”

It sounded far off…

It sounded clearly much closer…and more numerou—”

Suddenly, a blob the size of Eli’s fist landed on his shoulder, a little shaking face on its side as it peeped out,

“hoi hoi hoi, hoi hoi”

And then a large one fell before Xaria, seemingly vibrating aggressively at the girl…before more and more rained down from the ceiling, hoi-ing at them and vibrating at their various intensities. Soon, they were surrounded by no less than a dozen of varying sizes.





Hearing Isa’s voice, and the subject brought up on the ground floor below, the rabbit monster looked at his weird hatted companion tersely…before dropping off of the narrow walkway of the library chamber.

Landing before the two and letting the dust settle a moment, his face scrunching up in distaste at the Skeleton, before he smiled at Dorklestein and Isa, “What is this about a human? Perhaps you should get some of the guards to barricade the commonly traveled tunnels, underwater and highroad? Some humans can breath underwater…right?” The rabbit seemed to look between the monsters gathered, checking their reactions, before continuing, “Get everyone on some sort of lock-down procedure?”

Reaching out to hold out a book with what seemed to be a skeleton on the front, “I think it would also help if people knew what a human looked like…not everyone is well studied, let alone know what the common human even looks like.” Laughing to himself, before sticking a carrot into the side of his mouth and lighting it with fire magic, his eyes went up above him, and he snickered harder when he noticed his companion far above trembling on his place on the chamber.

Cupping a hand to the side of his mouth, “Don’t worry, no humans around, bud!”





Blinking at…was that that idol? Pausing a moment to pulled the fuzzy article from the bag, she noted the matching Angel Brand logo on it. Hm. Right, her son did like that music, didn’t he?

Hearing the greeting directed at her, the one-eyed monster turned to stare at the shadow monster, whose excited fuzziness was not unlike her own son’s...at times, also, the tendencies to pick up fleas and other small things. Making a vague sound, she brought her gaze up to his handler, that warrior, “Greetings.”

Hands together, holding the bag carefully, “What would you like to talk about? Despite my appearance, I am all ears.”

Oh no, the other human ran off. I can't believe even a new person dislikes me. I am just so bad at this. But there are two other humans, fortunately. Hooray!

'it is a good thing to meet you both i am very glad that you are not mean people like the guy who ran off because he is just the rudest person ever he doesnt even know who i am maybe i would be nice to him and all but no he actually has to be rude and mean and all that so really i guess the only way for him to stop being mean is to not be mean i suppose hes just a big mean person but you two arent mean are you since youre still here and-'

---

CH-CH-CH GOU~

'What the-'

So first that guy ran off like a scared cat at the sight of this guy, leaving the two people who were trying to save him in the dark, and then, all at once, the world's apparently turned black and white, save for whaaaat is that thing. That, uh... that is some sort of cartoony yellow heart, inside me. And apparently, Skylar has a red one? Okay, well, this should be interesting.

'What is this thing? Tell me what you're doing, you weird ghost person!' I shout, bringing out the empty gun again. The ghost doesn't even notice... it's just going on and on and on! Like a lawnmower over pebbles. That said, having tried to talk to it, all that's happened is... nothing. Maybe if I examine it, it'll...

ACT -> CHECK

"we simply don't know"

'...what.'

That was a voice in my head. Or a visual hallucination of text in a box. Actually, it was a weird combination of both, but either way, that shouldn't have happened. I look to see what Skylar's doing, hoping it has a bit more impact than what I... apparently... just did.

Skylar looked confused as everything faded to black and white and a red heart appeared from her chest. She looked to see a yellow heart appeared from Rodney's person. She looked to the half naked hot guy, only to see that he ran away. She called after him, "Hey! Wait!" It was already too late. The man ran off, clearly frightened by the ghost. She looked to Rodney to see that he had a yellow heart come out of his chest, and he was clearly panicked. She looked to him and she told him, "Rodney, please calm down. I don't think the ghost knows what he's doing."

She watched as four bars appear in front of Rodney and he picked the ACT option and then CHECK. She saw the result of that choice as well and she couldn't help but mumble in a perplexed manner "OK then..."
Soon enough the same four bars appeared in front of her. She immediately found ACT and chose that. After looking over the options, (commenting to herself "What the heck is 'Blep' and 'Mlem'?!") she selected INFORM thinking that it would do the most good.

"Uh, excuse me, Eeee? Could you please stop...whatever this is? We have no idea what's going on here," Skylar asked the ghost, all the while informing it that it was attacking them.



Lorelei flew through the Underlake, following after Ash, trying to be as well hidden as possible. Soon enough both her and her agent finally reached where Ash had stopped. He seemed to be in the middle of a fight. The agent didn't need to be told twice, and he immediately got the camera rolling and broadcasting, focusing it on Ash and what seems to be a human. Lorelei may not have heard much of the conversation, but she did hear the last bit of whatever it was with that human saying the word, "Deal"

She kept herself hidden, while the agent kept on filming, but she was definitely more than peeved. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the word deal meant. Here she was, trying to show the Underlake the real Ash, and what does she get?! A choreography! An act! A SCAM! If the audience wanted choreography, Lorelei herself would easily oblige with one of her shows!

Lorelei's grip around her agent tightened with her anger, and he squeaked, whispering desperately while he was being crushed between her feathered arms and her ample bosom, "A-Angel! Ca-Can't br-breathe!"
Lorelei hushed her agent as she loosened her grip and whispered "Hush! Quiet, dear! Keep filming!"

Ash smiled slightly as the girl handed him back his saw. So they had a deal! Finally, things were looking up for Ash. Now he had a different, much less important question on his hands. Wait it out for the guests to arrive, or start the trek back to his mansion. Sure, if he waited out here than it would project openness and portray Nina's rescue as 'something that just happened' but that also left them open for questions they weren't prepared for. Priority one should be getting back into the city at the least.

"Good. Let's go back to my place than. We can-" He cut himself off as he heard something. Or he thought he did. A squeak of some kind. Was whoever following him already here? It could be a coincidence but...

"Huh. That was weird. Ah well, let's get you back to the city. Follow me; these forests can be confusing for first timers."
He would pretend they didn't exist. Act as if this was totally what they would say to each other even when not under surveillance. Hopefully she caught on. These early first impressions were the most important. The only time more remembered than when you first meet a person is the last. They would need to make it back and hash out more of a plan, but they were going to meet much oppisition. A human on the loose? Followed by THE Ash Hare? What a story.

---

System smiled and nodded as Isa and Dorkle greeted her. Though, her smile quickly turned into a frown as Dorkle told System what had been relayed to him by the Royal Guard member they were both speaking to. Apparently there was a human on the loose. System hadn't heard much about them honestly. They seemed more like myth than fact, but if she remembered correctly they were true... When Dorkle suggested putting up fliers and the such about this event, System nodded solemnly.

"I may join you in that..." she added.

The rabbit boy who had scolded her for not returning her books sooner a while ago jumped down from up above, giving her a sour looking stare. It seemed he wanted to pitch in on ideas about protecting the people of the Underlake. His ideas weren't horrible, but she felt the idea was obvious. If the guards could be spared, they would be, right? Still, it wasn't a horrible idea. A better one he suggested was educationg everyone on what humans were, what they looked like and how they attacked. The front cover of the book displayed a skeleton like her. Oh yeah, some humans looked like her, didn't they? She hoped this wouldn't spell trouble.

The ghost appears to completely ignore Skylar, just continuing to blather and drone like we're not there. Something about Skylar getting his name wrong, at one point, but- oh Hell, what are those? Are they words? It's starting spewing out physical manifestations of words all at once, they're flying out of it in every direction and heading right towards ohhhh NOOOOO-

All at once, my physical body, as black-and-white as it is, is seemingly filled with random words coming from all directions, words like "blep", "mlem", "chatter", "talktalk", and at one point "antidisestablishmentarianism". It's all I can do to... I don't know how I'm doing it, but apparently the yellow heart- which, I now notice, is inverted from my perspective when I look straight down at it- can be moved around by me as easily as any of my physical limbs, albeit only within the confines of a certain space, apparently defined within me by a white box. I don't know how or why, but apparently, that's how it goes. It's not amazingly fast, though. The word maze isn't exactly easy to maneuver around, and it's only after one of the damn things grazes the heart that I realise how vital the thing is to my survival.

HP: 19/24

'Shitting HELL damn it, that burns!' I scream, semi-involuntarily, somehow not losing my control over the heart as I go. I'm pretty sure that counts as assault. With that decided, and finding a relatively safe spot for my heart to hold up for the next second or so, I heft my gun at the ghost, yelling 'Alright, ghost-freak, you're going down!' and pulling the trigger. I highly doubt that'll do anything-

Oh! The heart shot a bullet, which apparently destroyed a word coming at it! Well that's...

...oh.

I promptly begin pulling the trigger as fast as I can whilst continuing to move the heart, shooting bullets from it at a rate not quite on par with the trigger pulling itself, but fast enough that the words it can hit are removed from play very quickly. Mostly, these are just the words from the top of the heart box, since that's the only direction it wants to shoot, and all the others are coming from angles that are rather difficult to hit, but fortunately, I only need to keep the heart dodging for another couple of seconds before, abruptly, every last word visible to me vanishes outright, even though the ghost is still talking over everything. How odd. With not much else happening, I look over at Skylar to see how she's doing... I hope she's done better at heart word avoidance than I have.

After Nina introduced herself, she got the feeling that she was being watched. Probably that "company" that Ash had mentioned earlier... Well, no time like the present to start keeping her facts straight. She listened as Ash started talking, noting when he paused. So they both had noticed already, this skele-rabbit was sharper than he seemed.

Better to hide your talents. Any prior knowledge she showed of anything could be used as evidence against her... So don't just play dumb, be dumb. "Wait, a city? I had no idea there were so many people here... How big is this cave system?" She made her voice and body language timid, following a couple steps behind Ash as they started walking. With what he'd already told her as far as their plan, acting perpetually scared was probably her best bet for the moment. She needed to seem harmless.

As Nina followed him, she started thinking over her "story", getting a rough idea of how she'd answer questions about herself and what she'd been doing while on her own. She might have to adjust parts of her story, depending on if Ash said anything before they could actually talk to each other again, but that wouldn't be too hard hopefully. She would blame the deaths of the monsters on another human, like Ash had sugested earlier... probably one of the guys on her team that she knew was alreday dead before they all got separated, so that he couldn't be found and disprove her. She sighed internally, she couldn't even remember the guy's name, and now she was going to blame her own mistakes on him... She herself would claim that she'd never been in a FIGHT before until Ash found her, and once he realised that she couldn't possibly have been the human going around and killing monsters -she didn't even have a weapon for cristíes sake!- he decided to take her in. They'd have to figure out a reason why once they got a chance to talk that out later.

As she was thinking she had unconsciously pulled her lucky charm out of her pocket, running her thumb over the smooth face of the obsidian. Once she noticed she was holding it she put it back in her pocket, but not before smiling to herself. Some people thought luck was imaginary, but considering her own past -both long ago and since she's been here in the caves- she was pretty sold on the idea that some things were just completely up to chance. It's up to you to make those chances better or worse for yourself.

So let's improve our chances, shall we? If they're going to be watched, might as well talk about something completely unrelated to anything whoever was tailing them would care about! "Hey, Ash? do you believe in luck? Or things like Karma at all?"

---

Isa smiled, noticing the small slip-up in Dorkle's words as he spoke. Sometimes this awkward little monster could be so adorable. She was glad he was her friend, but she would be lying if she said she never had entertained thoughts of him being anything more. "Thank you Dorkle, I will be." She started, in response to his worry, "You be careful, too. Putting up flyers is a really good idea, but depending on what you put on the flyer you could inadvertently cause panic."

Isa nodded to System as the skeleton added that she would help Dorkle with the flyers- however she was unable to say anything before a Rabbit landed in front of them- and started rattling off ideas. She was sure he meant well, that much was obvious, but honestly what he said probably sounded better in his head. "We can't just barricade the paths. Even if we had enough Guards to do so, that would only cause unnecessary panic, cause problems for people going about their daily routines, and probably wouldn't do anything to help capture the human. They're smart, at least from what I've heard. They probably won't fall for such an obvious trap, and locking everyone down would only create even more inconvenience."

Continuing with a slight lift in her voice, she crossed her arms over her chest to show that she was still being serious. "As for humans being able to breathe underwater, I'm not sure. I've heard that they could fly, spit fire, and even control your actions with nothing but their minds. But, you have a point- most monsters don't know what a human looks like. Even I'm not certain how to tell if something is a Human or not. Does that book have a picture that you could put on a flyer or something? Even a generalized drawing of a human would probably help."

When the Rabbit called up to his companion above, Isa's gaze followed his to find a monster trembling like a leaf as he watched them talking from above. "Ah, shoot." She mumbled to herself before calling up to him. "Hey, I wasn't being serious about the whole 'humans can breathe fire' thing. Just patronizing your pal here. You're perfectly safe in the city, it's the lake and forest where you've gotta be careful. I promise, we're not gonna let any human into this city."

Dorkle was taken aback by the rabbit-like monster dropped from above. "We have stairs for a reason," he thought to himself but would never dare to say out loud. Though he was interested in what he had to say. Dorkle had never seen a real human before but what the rabbit was describing was nothing like what he read in books. But then again, the books didn't have much information. Humans were a bit of a taboo topic around here.

" Ah... anyways, I'll start designing the fliers. You could help me, System. And I'll show you my draft before I start copying them, Isa. Just so we don't put up anything that may be inaccurate or too stress-inducing for the other monsters," he said, changing the subject back to what they were talking about earlier.

He pulled out a pencil and a pad from his old lab coat pocket and began to take some notes. He wasn't very good at art so hopefully System could put all the information in a neat and tasteful manner.

* Human(s) on the loose
*Smaller, weaker monsters have been killed
*Be careful and keep young monsters at home
*Remain Calm
*The Royal Guards are on the case
*Picture/Sketch of Human (Might photocopy from A Monster's Guide to Humans)
*If you see a human, alert the Royal Guard and do not confront it

Hm... what else should he add. He handed his pad over to the others to let them see.

Skylar bit her lip at how the ghost seemed to ignore her words, but she figured that it would be best to try again. Before she knew it, words had materialized physically and they were heading right towards her and Rodney. One scratched her red heart, and she hissed "Owowowowow!"
Okay, so the heart was super important! Good to know! She looked to Rodney when he swore and cursed, and he tried to fire his empty gun...only to see that his yellow heart shot a bullet. Skylar couldn't believe what she just saw, and while Rodney fired at the words, her mind couldn't help but wander a bit on the subject of Rodney's yellow heart and the fact that it fired bullets, until she shook her head keeping back a laugh,

"No! No! Bad Skylar! BAD! There is a time and place for dirty jokes, and this isn't it!" She scolded herself silently, but she easily snapped out of her thoughts as another word hit her heart,

"YOWCH!"

She moved her heart around in order to dodge the other word attacks. It was hard to do, but she did manage to make it through the turn with only two grazes. She selected ACT again, and she tried to INFORM Eeeeeeee again,

"Hey! That hurt! Eeeeeeeeeeeeee, please stop attacking us!" She hoped her words reached him this time. If not, ...maybe the third time will be the charm?

She looked to Rodney, to silently ask him to not hurt the Ghost.

---

The agent kept on filming the two, and Lorelei watched patiently. She rolled at her eyes at the fact that the two were clearly pretending. The girl's timid posture needed work, and Ash...well, she already knew that he was a crafty one, so the fact that he acted naturally didn't surprise her.

The agent kept on filming never noticing that Lorelei had snuck away from him. She wondered...how would those two deal with an unexpected factor?
She smirked as she snuck around the cave away from the two, so that she would appear in front of them, from a different path than both her and her agent were originally going down. If she told her agent this, he would definitely say that this was a risky move, but really...no risk, no reward.

After Ash answered the girl's unrelated question, she walked down the cave hall as though she "Oh? Do my eyes deceive me?" She then swooped over to the both of them, and picked up Ash in a hug, "Hello, Ash Dahling! Isn't this quite a coincidence!" She then set him back down after she hugged him, and she chuckled "I see you're still showing off your body with pride," She then looked to the human and she asked "Who's your friend there?"

♥ Ash

Ash chuckled a little at Nina's question as they walked towards the forest. She was a pretty decent actor. "Yeah, there's a pretty d*mn big city here. I'd say the population's pretty high. We make a living down here." He explained. He wasn't sure what the surface was like, but it seemed she wasn't used to conditions like these, so it was safe to say they weren't living off scraps or anything. He'd have to ask her about the surface once they were alone.

Then Nina asked Ash a question that surprised him. Did he believe in luck or karma? He certainly wasn't expecting that. He didn't know if she was planning something or just wanted to talk, but Ash would answer honestly. "Luck? Yeah, I think luck is true. Somethings you just can't control. Don't think Karma is real though. If it were..." He paused, thinking out the rest of his sentence. But before he could get it out, SHE appeared.

"Stuff like this would happen..." He wheezed as literally the worst person ever squeezed the life out of him. So this was his stalker. Great. Luckily, after he wriggled aggressively enough, she set him down, but not before mentioning he was 'showing off his body with pride.' He was going to shout at her.

But then she looked at Nina.

Ash growled and stood between them. "Do NOT touch her. She is a human, and apparently there's been a misunderstanding." He said, gripping his saw. If it came down to it, (and he really wished it did) he'd fight Loriel. But she wasn't the kinda lady to kill him. She'd do worse, ruin his life and crush his dreams for some quick ratings. He'd have to dissuade her. "I know about the rumors, but this girl wouldn't harm a Whimsum. I picked a fight myself, but I know she ain't that kinda gal, okay?"

---

♥ System

System listened patiently as Isa explained that, although nobody really knew what humans could do, there were resources that said what humans looked like. Informing the people was of utmost importance. Dorkle pulled out a notepad and began writing some ideas on it, before showing everyone what he had written down. It seemed a little long winded. If people were to be paying attention to these they would need to be quick, concise, and flashy.

"I think that's a bit to much Dorkle..." She said, before pointing to the bottom two notes. "Those last ones are the most important. I can help make it pretty so people wanna look."

Nina was honestly surprised that there could be a city underground, and under a lake, where people could actually live. How did they have enough air? Unless monsters didn't need to breathe... Nina hadn't seen a lot of monsters since she'd gotten lost down here, maybe 10 or 11 different types at most, and she'd fought about 4 of those types. Usually the small bird-like ones were the ones that would see her, they were always glancing about nervously, and it had made her worry that there was something worse around that she'd need to watch out for.

Something worse than monsters that could literally conjure attacks out of thin air? Definitely something to worry about. She smiled as Ash answered her second question, but then she stopped cold as another monster appeared suddenly and... hugged Ash? Although it almost looked like she was trying to suffocate him from where Nina stood.

As confused as Nina already was, the newcomer then said something to Ash about him showing off his body. After a closer glance Nina realized that, yep, the bird-woman was wearing clothes. Like, a full outfit of clothes. All of the monsters Nina had seen so far, including Ash, had either not been wearing anything or had been wearing one or two odd articles of clothing, like Ash's cape or the jacket she now wore. So... Ash was naked except for the cape? She would probably ask him about this later, maybe. Most likely not.

Nina's train of thought was broken by Ash suddenly stepping protectively between her and the bird-lady. As he was warning off the bird-lady, She noticed the grip he had on his weapon change, and without thinking stepped forward to stop him. "No! Don't, don't fight. I-" She cut herself off and stepped around him so that she was standing next to him, her tone sincere. She wasn't acting now.

"It's true. Ash found and attacked me, and after a while we ended up just talking. We made a deal with each other, he said that if I came with him he'd protect me, and I'll help him catch the person he told me about, the one going around and hurting people." None of it was a lie, she just left out the part about her apparently being the person they were talking about. She looked from Ash to the bird-lady as she finished her little speech. "So, don't fight ok? Please?"

Not really waiting to see how the two had responded, she continued, introducing herself to bird-lady so maybe she might do the same and Nina wouldn't have to keep calling her bird-lady in her head. "My name's Nina. It's nice to meet you."

---

Isa nodded her approval at the list Dorkle had made. "Well, I know about as much about humans as you do, so I'm useless for fact-checking, and it looks like you've got the whole 'keep people calm' thing down pretty well." She looked over the list again before continuing. "I agree with System, that might be a bit much to put on a single flyer. The last two things should be the body of the poster, but the very first two should probably be given as well. Maybe you could use the first two as a heading/subheading and have the last two as the rest of the poster?"

She shrugged before noticing the clock in the room and realizing how much time had gone by, how much time the human could be using to hurt more people, or get away. "I'll leave you to it. I should get back out on patrol." She was almost out the door before she stopped and turned back suddenly. "Thank you, by the way. I really appreciate your guy's help." And then she left, almost running down the street back towards the lake, not wanting to get there to find she'd been too late, again.

Lalita hummed as she walked down a cave like corridor. She could feel her pocket knife bouncing loosly in her baggy shorts that she had chosen to work today as well as a plain black shirt that was wet still and clung to her slim body. She was not very tall, maybe around 5', perhaps 5'1" tall. She was a odd human since it was not often a human was born with more than one genetic disorder. Her bio color eyes looked around where she was and realized she had seen those small monsters that she had spotted earlier when she had arrived and had ran away from her. She sighed and just continued her journey through a the cave like cavern, her damp, white hair that was put in a loose braid bouncing up and down with each step.

She stopped when she heard a noise bouncing off the cave walls and echoed for a few seconds. She stopped and listened more closely when she realized it was the sound of running water. 'Water running down here...much be a fiver or perhaps a underground lake she thought and began to head towards the sound with quicken steps. She hoped to find someone for help, weather it was monster or human.

Dorkle nodded as his friends gave their thoughts on what he had wrote down. He did write down a lot, but he figured he might as well write more when it came to brainstorming. It was better to cross things out that they weren't going to use then to forget things they would like to add later on. "Please help me with that, System," he said while scratching his head with his free hand. "I'm pretty much useless when it comes to flashiness and art."

"Goodbye Isa! Stay safe!" he called out as the Royal Guard member ran off back to her post. He knew that he shouldn't worry, but he was. Humans were unpredictable after all. Even Isa could get hurt if she encountered one.

He turned back to System and handed her back the note pad after crossing things out. "So this is what we're going to have on the poster. Wait here while I'll get the book to use for the reference picture."

He walked towards the labyrinth of shelves that would probably confuse most monsters but Dorkle had grew up in this library so he easily found his way around the place. He made his way through the somewhat unpopular nonfiction section. Only nerd monsters and reluctant school children came to this section. He quickly found A Monster's Guide to Human and headed back towards the front desk where System would be waiting for him.

"Here it is," he said, showing off the dusty book. He wiped the cover with a cloth to remove the dust. Unfortunately in the process of doing so, he got some dust in his nose which caused him to have a sneezing fit. "Aaaaachooo. Aaaachooo. Aaaaachoo."

He grabbed a tissue meekly to cover his face and coughed. "The picture should be on page... 23."

Taking a moment to catch my breath, I look over at Skylar to see if she's alright, catching a glance from her that indicates I shouldn't keep trying to hurt the ghost. I mean, I guess if my gun actually just fires weird heart bullets, then...

'Alright, look, you ghost character,' I begin saying, 'I don't really like you that much, and I think you should stop spewing your fancy words at us-'

ACT -> Mlem

'-blerb,' I abruptly finish, my tongue flipping out of my mouth unexpectedly. Shocked and mildly embarrassed at my faux pas, I quickly cover my mouth... but hey, the ghost stopped talking!

For a couple of seconds, anyway.

---

'mlem mlem ha ha thats so funny youre really funny you human guy hey it sounded like you want something human girl did you want rocks because theres plenty of rocks but i guess you cant pick them up i heard humans are really weak and cant lift things or was it really strong oh i dont know here let me get some rocks for you here ill just-'

And now I move to the nearest rock, and push my body into it, possessing the rock, and then I guess sort of possessing the nearby rocks too but not completely possessing them, like halfway possessing them without unpossessing the rock I'm in, and then I move them over at the humans who wanted the rocks.

'-okay i did it i possessed the rocks here they are here you go im going to give you these rocks theyre going to be awesome rocks-'

---

♥ - Rodney Colton Smith

Are you kidding me? Now it's throwing ROCKS at us?! I mean, it looks like possessing the rocks actually made them into the same sort of attack as the words, so I suppose I can do the same thing as before, but that's just obnoxious! Lifting my gun again as the rocks approach, I pull the trigger as fast as I can, firing projectiles that split the rocks hang on NO WAIT WHAT WHY DID THEY-

HP: 14/24

An involuntary noise of pain escapes me as one of the split rocks rams straight into my ghost-heart-thing. Of course the rock splits when shot, I can't just be allowed to dodge freely, can I? How unfair to have that happen with no warning... and as everyone knows, fairness is a subset of justice, but I guess at least I know for the rest of this attack, however long it lasts before abruptly vanishing. In the midst of dodging and weaving and shooting, I glance over at Skylar momentarily, who apparently doesn't have to deal with rocks that split when shot, but also has to deal with all the rocks as they come. And they're not all that small. I hope she does alright.

Skylar looked to Rodney when he spoke, and she held back a laugh when he had stuck his tongue out and let out a strange sound. So that was Mlem? It got the ghost to stop talking for a few seconds. Her eyes widened at the ghost's words and she let out a squeak, "What?! Wait, no-!" Before she could even continue, the ghost had possessed the rocks, and threw them at her and Rodney. She felt a sudden rush of adrenaline as the huge boulders and rocks were hurled towards her, and she found herself fluidly dodging, weaving, ducking, rolling under, and even jumping over all of the attacks. She panted heavily as she stared at the rocks that now lied on the ground incredulously. She must have gotten very lucky this time around!

She then looked at the ghost, and decided to try for the third time.

ACT ---> INFORM

"Eeeeeeeeeeee, we don't want rocks! We just want you to stop attacking us, and give us a chance to talk to you!" She really hoped that this time her words would reach the ghost, and hopefully, they can ask this ghost some questions and get some more information. If it doesn't though, then both her and Rodney can follow Hot Stuff's example and run away.

---

Lorelei couldn't help but raise a thin eyebrow at how defensive Ash became over the subject of the human, instead of shouting about how he wasn't nude like he usually did. She especially found it very curious when the human girl stepped in front of Ash protectively and told her about the deal she made with Ash. She got over the surprise and confusion and instead a smile appeared on her face. She laughed "OOHOHOHO! Oh, DAHLINGS! There is no need to worry! I had no intention of starting a fight," She then smiled at the human girl as she introduced herself, and she answered "It is absolutely LOVELY to meet you, Nina Dahling! I am Lorelei "Angel" Raine, THE STAR OF THE UNDERLAKE!"

She then whipped out a VIP pass from a hidden pocket on her white dress, and she handed it to Nina telling her, "Here, you can have this VIP pass for one of my concerts! It's my apology for scaring you a little earlier,"
She then looked to Ash and she asked him, "So, Ash, Dahling! While I'm here, there is something I would like to clear up with you: I will be interviewing the Mayoral Candidates, and we still need to pick the date for yours Dahling,"

Ash's stance faltered as something blocked his line of sight towards the Angel of Death. The black haired girl stood in front of him to block his attack, if he had thrown one. Clever girl. Her acting was amazing... really good. He almost felt as if she wasn't acting. After stepping to his side, Nina gave Loriel the story he and Nina had concocted. Then she introduced herself. Favorite lady, meet least favorite lady.

Loriel returned the sentiment with her fake ass enthusiasm, even giving Nina a VIP pass to one of her shows. Even when apologizing and giving gifts, Loriel always placed herself at the center. She probably would do so in the interview for mayor she was doing which, shit, he needed to give a date for. He debated passing off the responsibility to Nelson, but a better idea sprouted from his rabbit ear-ed skull. He could play this off great.

"I'd like to do it soon, so I can introduce everybody to Nina here." He explained, playfully wrapping his arm around Nina's shoulder and shaking it. "But before that I'd like to introduce her to the Underlake without all the baggage of being a celebrity. Could you hold off on publishing on her until after the the interview? For her sake?" He asked. This would buy them time, certainly. But part of him also wanted to genuinely show her the Underlake. She was gonna be living here for a while, might as well show the place off. "So, what do you think off this Friday, three days from now?"

---

♥ System

System nodded as Isa explained to Dorkle that that was like, way too much info. Instead, she said, they should include for things, the top two and bottom two. Dorkle quickly crossed the other notes out, and said goodbye as Isa left. After a short wait, Dorkle returned with a book titled "Monster's guide to Humans" The design was fairly simple, a bipedal thing with hair and hands. Dorkle informed her what page the picture was on, after a brief sneezing fit. She took the book from him and quickly flipped through the pages, trying to find the picture. She found it with, surprisingly a little trouble. It almost seemed like the book didn't want to be opened...

She flipped the page on the notepad. "So, I think this would work..." She began, quickly sketching out a general idea. It read:

LOOSE HUMAN KILLS MONSTERS :(
(_)
/|\
/ | \
|
/ \
/ \
ALERT ♥ROYAL GUARD♥ IF FOUND, KAY? :)

She held it up the notepad up to him so he could see it. "So? What do you think?"

Nina sighed as the bird-lady, Lorelei, spoke. "It uh, wasn't really you I was worried about starting a fight. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like an accusation." She stood surprised for a moment as the self proclaimed "angel" handed her some type of card, and took it with a mumbled "thanks..." after a few seconds. Great, a celebrity. ugggh.

She listened in half-interest as Lorelei asked Ash about setting up a time for an interveiw. From what she knew so far, it seemed like politics was the same down here as up on the surface. In which case, it's probably just as much a game of cloaks and daggers as up above as well. She was shaken from her thoughts, quite literally, when Ash put one of his skeletal arms around her and shook her gently, talking about "introducing" her to the underlake.

Great. She didn't want to be a celebrity, she barely could stand being seen. This would be, interesting, to say the least. A catastrophe at the most. She sighed internally, three days was a lot of time, and not very much time, all in one. She wasn't sure what she should say, even if she should say anything, so she just nodded along to whatever Ash said, though she did get him to let go of her, not exactly comfortable with him being so close.

---

Isa took a different path on the way back to the lake as she had on the way to the city, wanting to cover more ground quickly. She'd already checked the one path on the way to warn everybody, and hadn't found anything really there, so maybe this path would be more revealing. As she walked along, a knife of blue magic already formed and gripped tightly in her hand, she thought she heard something down one of the branching cave-paths.

Surely enough she went around the corner to see... Well, it wasn't any type of monster that she knew of, so by process of elimination: "Stop right there Human!"

Well, now she's yelled at it, so she braced herself fro whatever this human might do next. She grinned slightly to herself, almost hoping that the human would choose to fight her. That wouldn't end very well... for them. "You're coming with me, dead or alive, and weather you like it or not."

After he had recovered from his sneezing fit, Dorkle looked at the poster that System had quickly sketched up. It was written a bit more colloquially than he would preferred but then again, it was written so that other monsters can understand what was going on. "Looks perfect, System," he said with a smile. "Do you think you could draw it more cleanly on a white sheet of paper so we can photocopy it?"

He pulled out a piece of white paper from the drawer and handed it to System. "Thank you again for helping me out with this," he said.

Alright, good. She's still alive, at least. As am I, of course, but it half-seems like even after taking similar hits, I'm doing better than Skylar. Odd. Still, I'm a bit irate with this ghost, now, so... ugh. I can't shoot it, I can't make it shut up, so really, I've got one option left to me.

ACT -> Blep

I stick my tongue out at it angrily. That'll show it.

---

'blep blep blep wow youre really funny you yellow guy you wait you said i had to stop talking didnt you red human girl oh no i did it again i always do that i have... to stop... okay... okay.'

I stop talking, because that was actually hurting those humans. I stay quiet for a moment, then begin talking again, but slowly.

'sorry about that. i... have problems with my talking. i managed to hurt some people before with it, and... i dont get to talk to a lot of people, now. sorry.'

---

...wow. What a sob story. I'm inclined to remain angry at him, frankly, considering the injuries we've been dealt, but... well, he seems like he's being honest, I guess. I huff a bit, then consider how to respond...

ACT -> Teach

...waaait.

'I mean, you're talking more slowly now, aren't you?' I point out. 'Can you not just... make sure you don't talk faster than this? Maybe pay attention and make sure you don't start spewing words out everywhere? Uh- back me up here, Skylar, I'm not crazy to suggest that, am I?' Surely it's not unfair (and thus unjust) to suggest that he do that, after all. It seems obvious, is what I'm saying.

Skylar saw what action Rodney took and she couldn't help but try and hold back giggles at the sight of him angrily sticking his tongue out at the ghost. It was quite hilarious and cute! She smiled happily when it appeared as though her words had finally reached the ghost. After Rodney decided to teach the ghost, she supported him and answered, "No, you're not crazy to suggest that. That's completely right! Now that I think about it..."

[ACT] ---> [Flirt]

Skylar smiled at the ghost and she stated, "Now that you've slowed down, you're doing marvelous! Just make sure to pay attention to your speed when you bring up a conversation next time, 'kay?" She added a wink for good measure, as a way to encourage the ghost and make sure they didn't give up on trying to improve their conversation skills.

---

Lorelei placed a delicate finger on her chin in thought at his suggestion. Three days....That would definitely give him time to prepare, but then again, there's a chance he could end up procrastinating and not predicting some difficult questions. She also noticed that the human with him seemed to not like the idea of receiving attention. She smiled at him, and she answered "Alright, Dahlings. Three days from today, at 5:00 in the evening! Don't be late, Dahlings!" She then said to the two of them, "Well, Ash, Nina Dahlings! I look forward to seeing you both then, at the Studio where I normally hold my concerts. You know where that is, Ash," She looked to Nina and she said to her sincerely, "It really is nice to meet you, Nina Dahling. See you later," She then flew off leaving the two alone.

*~*~*

After she was far away enough from Nina and Ash, she took out her cell phone. Her manager who was with her asked her what she was doing, and she answered him, "I'm not leaving anything to chance, Dahling. The people deserve a mayor who will bring them happiness. I'm calling on an old friend of mine. She's got a new case on her hands" She then lifted her phone to her ear and as soon as the phone answered (or went to the answering machine), she spoke, Hello! System, Dahling, it's me again! I have a new case for you, and before you even think of hanging up, Ash has a human with him. He plans to introduce her to the Underlake during his Mayoral interview in three days. I want you to investigate the both of them. I have a feeing that they may have struck some sort of nefarious deal with each other,"