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Roche’s efforts to cure her loneliness and galvanize the team were, miraculously, making some progress. True, it was a process akin to pulling teeth while someone else was pulling her toenails at the same time, but the mental anguish and emotional discomfort was worth it.

She really, really hoped it was. Putting herself out there was making headway in connecting to her fellow club members, but there were times she found herself wishing she could slip behind the cold veneer of a rancid bitch and not need to wear her heart on her sleeve. Brief as they were, it was easier to shrug off the feelings then it was to deny the impulse to slide back upon her recent advances. 

Though since when did Roche abandon the path just because it was difficult?

Such were the musings of the Rule Keeper as the nightly feast began, her mind astir not be general angst, but the presence of Rei perched upon a lamppost like some anachronistic gargoyle. Bereft of the comfort she once found so easily in the authority figure’s presence, she chafed like a dog whose collar had been replaced with a choke chain. 

She didn’t partake in the feast herself. It was slim pickings, and she knew Nyxia would revel enough for the both of them, leaving Roche to keep a watchful eye upon the city itself. Waiting for a sign that was only infinitesimally less loathed then the burning visage of Ashbringer screaming across the night sky. 

Earthshaker’s vigil came to a close when the sky was sundered, night burning before the radiance of day for an instant of awesome power put on flagrant display. After the city had shaken under its first tremor in years, it was a relief to see her paranoia rewarded with the appearance of a Light Girl. She’d expected those marauders from the City of Light to show up, and her feet shattered the pavement as she bounded to intercept the light show even after it evaporated against the chill night. 

Flight by the strength of her leaps alone, white tattoos of stored power blazing with the sleight excretion of stored energy, left Roche ecstatic under normal circumstances. Traversal was freedom in its simplest, basest form, yet when done in pursuit of a goal that wonderment was turned into a narrow minded drive. The focus of a predator closing in by intuition and the feel of dispersed magic.

It helped that she wasn’t the first to arrive, and neither were even attempting to be subtle. 

[color=orange]”Don’t mind me.”[/color] Earthshaker’s tone was all business, coming down in a crouch before straightening up behind Kiyo and on her left. Her arms soon crossed, the evening breeze setting her cloak billowing before settling around in a shroud. Taking in Kiyo’s posture at a glance, she reasoned this wasn’t those City of Light girls like Margonite and her ilk. More likely it was the stray cat she’d spotted, and as Roche had promised, she’d lend her silent support.  

[color=orange]”I’m just here to keep everything civil.”[/color]