[right][img]https://i.imgur.com/XfzeLgs.png[/img][/right][hr][hr]
[right][b][color=black]Agents of the Void call and receive.
Listen in, hear the pleas.
Give into the interim or play its aberrant games.[/color][/b][/right]

The more the misfit platoon spoke on the topics of intelligence—paranormal or otherwise—regarding the situation, the more Mao wished for a coveted clarity in whatever end she found herself in. [i]Magic and monsters[/i]. Each new character in her new world had their take on the fate that awaited the condemned. In other words, [i]them[/i], the whole lot. Mao pressed the top of her fist against her chin and pursed her lips. Everyone seemed a bit desperate to splay out their knowledge of purgatory all too competitively, ‘Eldritch Shifters’ or not.

As much as she wasn’t particularly fond of any of her new companions, Mao did rise from the bar when Zoey and Penny headed for the door. She fancied another escape. It was always like that with her—one escape after another. This one would be into the empty city. [i]It was just her aesthetic[/i], she thought, but plans changed as the living embodiment of darkness bared down on them.

When it spoke, Mao’s eyes transfixed upon the spot where the creature’s visage should have been. She lingered for a moment, but Penny’s voice jostled her back into reality. It seemed that life in death wasn’t meant to be so easy. Mao didn’t have much a choice but to remain still as the creature’s hand shot past her and straight for Stacey. She slipped under the spindly arm without thinking. It probably wasn’t the smartest move to near it at all, but Mao figured that Mr. Special Agent Prescott had the right idea on this one. 

[color=black][b] “Not the line I would have gone for, really,”[/b][/color] Mao said, to perhaps no one in particular. By the time Mao had reached the stairwell that led back up and out, she turned back just missing Penny’s rather magical endeavor to create a distraction. She didn’t really notice Penny at all. Again, she just stared into the blackness, like she was looking for its eyes or something. At least that would have given her a fixed point to focus on. Its smokey form just caught her, reminded her of something and left her reminiscing. 

[center][color=black][b]空　　道　　　和[/b][/color][/center]
[i][right]Emptiness. Path. Harmony. A strange configuration and stranger reading.[/right][/i]

As Mao started to realize how swiftly the others made their exit, she didn’t linger either, though opted to take the same route in and out. Who knew what awaited at the back door after all? She figured instead that purgatory wasn’t the place to make things so easy if dark demons dared to devour any denizens freshly dropped off from other worlds. She darted up the stairs towards the balcony.