[IC] Soul Eater: Apple of Discord

[Karisma]

Coda Morr Périgord

^{l o c a t i o n. Camp
i n t e r a c t i o n s. @vancexentan}

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Coda's partner was always one step ahead when it came to emotional reassurances. Coda appreciated, but this time it did little to actually quell the small tremors that still riddled his body. The uneventful walk to their would be camp let Coda's thoughts wander without direction. Thinking back to when Coda had been partnered up with Evan, Coda realized it hadn't been that long between them and was genuinely surprised anyone had the patience to wield him as a weapon. Normally, he found it difficult to convince anyone they could be successful meisters with chains as their choice of weapon. And whenever he did manage to convince them to give him a chance, they would be immediately be put off by Coda's uncontrollable cowardice.

That was until he bumped into something right in front of him—his partner. "My bad."

Coda's eyes lazily examined the area they had walked into; he noticed that within minutes some of his other classmates were already setting up tents. Coda groaned inwardly, tents seemed like flimsy protection and he certainly did not want anyone being able to easily enter the space where he was supposed to defenselessly rest during the night. But was he going to say that aloud? Absolutely not. Instead, Coda resorted to taking precautionary steps, turning in a circle, to fully absorb the area they were in. "Oh?"

Coda took a step closer in the direction that caught his interest—where the forest met the clearing—off in the distance. He didn't know exactly what but was already praying to whichever overpowered being that resided above that it was possible shelter. Instead of taking the initiative, however, Coda looked back to his partner and took a hold of the edge of the bottom of his sweater. Coda pulled gently to grab his attention and angled his chin towards the direction he was hoping to convince Evan to explore, "What do you think that is over there?"

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[GreenGoat]

Judea

---

"Hmm... witchy?" Judea smiled a little at that, pulling Sloane a bit further away from the others. "It certainly has the same feeling as magic doesn't it? It could be some sort of old curse, especially considering where we are, but I don't have a definite idea yet of what it is."

Judea was stripping off her clothing while she spoke, working on her pouch, then her combat vest.

"Sloane. This place might be more dangerous than any one of us can imagine, so I'm going to ask you if you are willing to... to do anything it takes to survive, even some questionable acts."

Smiling gently, she put a hand on Sloane's head reassuringly. "I won't ask you to do anything you don't want to do. Say no, and I'll never bring this up again. You don't have to answer now. Think about it for a while. I'm going to look in the ruins and see what I find."

With that, Judea turned into a capybara, and swam into the middle of the flooded part of the ruins. This wasn't a situation she would have wanted for her partner; not after all the hard work they have done. She had no idea how dangerous it would be, so if it really gets bad, then she might have to resort to... drastic measures. Hopefully it won't come to that, but if it did, at least she would know whether Sloane would be averse or not to those sort of acts.

Speaking of which, she could probably set in one of these underwater ruins. It wasn't at all the height of magic to simple make a barrier to keep water out. With luck, she might even find one that has a clear access to a roof that wasn't underwater.

[vancexentan]

@KarismaWhen Coda bumped into him Evan had already been very much deep in thought about how he should go about making sure the food, and water were safe. He knew nothing of this island, and what happened to their teacher...he doubted it was a singular incident. However after Coda pointed out something in the distance he put his hand to his chin, and thought quietly not saying a word before he sighed. "Don't know could be a trap, could be someone messing around, could just be nothing at all. If you'd like to transform, or go over there with me we can investigate it if you want. Who knows maybe we could get lucky and find a good camp site." Evan stated as he looked back at his partner waiting for an answer. He didn't want to force him into a situation where he would be panicked that would be bad for their resonance.

[CelesteEste]

Chapter 0 - Summer Homework
III

Malum Island, Campsite

Bit by bit, the students were setting up in the abandoned campsite, some had focused on gathering the tents while others had started to explore the nearby area, in search of potential danger or of a better shelter than the available tents.

There was a general expectation of a concise leadership but once again it wasn't found. The best they would have would be the task list and even that was a bit vague. In fact, it seemed the students were having trouble even being all in the same area at the same time, the centre of the clearing would see people coming and going with now crowd being formed.

For Katherine and Cameron, who were waiting for further discussion, it would probably be a bit frustrating, of course there were people around they could try to talk to, or they could set up their own plans.

@stone @Aviaire

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Underwater Exploration I

@GreenGoat@Lugubrious

Judea would find it difficult to see at first, the lake was nothing like the nearby crystal clear sea, it was swampy, making it so the Capybara had to deal with a smaller field of view and avoid roots and algae among other sorts of creeping growth in the bottom of the lake. Sometimes she also would face submerged cars, fenceposts and even the slide of the old pool area.

Eventually a wall would appear, it had a hole in it so it wasn't hard to go into the building, the first floor was clearly used to store something, it had some crates in it, going upward there would be some rooms that seemed to serve the bureaucracy of the camping park, finally, upward, it seemed like she had reached that which she sought, the upmost room under the roof was a dry area, opening the window would make it possible to reach it from the lake without the need of diving, should they find a way to cross over the water.

The room itself was mostly empty, it had chairs and a few wardrobes, maybe a changing room for the staff? It also had a door, it was pretty close to the outer wall so it could logically hold a small closet at most, perhaps a shower room... instead, Judea would open it to find a hallway, far longer than any sort of room this particular building could hold. The hallway, unlike the building, was in a good state, and it seemed to have many smalls rooms on its side.

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RV park exploration I

@vancexentan@Karisma

The sub-tropical plants in the island were dense enough even something hidden just behind a tree or two was mostly hidden, mostly thanks the bushes and vines growing along the thick trunks and spreading roots of the trees. That said, the objects they would find as they moved away from the campsite's clearing was easy to spot and easy to identify, RVs, or campers, vans which are equipped with such things as beds, bathrooms and cooking equipment.

It felt like a jackpot when compared to the tents, but at the same time it was clear there were things wrong with them, the primary issue was that most doors were jammed thanks to the overgrowth, some of the RVs had broken windows and it was hard to believe anyone wishing to live in one wouldn't need to do a lot of cleaning.

The most worrying issue, however, was to check if the RVs, being part of the island, didn't suffer any type of curse.

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Food Testing I

@Inertia

"I think I will be a volunteer to test the local water and food and see if its cursed." Arlette suddenly said to Keith, standing with him in the central clearing. Her tone was serious so it was clear it was something that had been bothering her.

"I proposed it but now I am feeling guilty because of the possibility of it going wrong." she continued, looking to the side, seeing Katherine and Cameron. "They seem to have brought some dry food and water but how long that will last with more than a dozen students?" she sighed.

"I mean, the fountain was marked, which means it is at least somewhat of an unique issue. Maybe it was the only cursed thing in this entire place...?"

[Lugubrious]

Other than more or less confirming Sloane's suspicions, Judea provided little in the way of help with her answer. Oh well; it'd be unrealistic to expect her to be a sort of walking encyclopedia when it came to witchcraft. As Judea moved farther away from the others Sloane accompanied her, listening with a stern expression. What came next was a strange question, especially consider not just the strength of the meister-blade duos here, but just how many there were. Judea asked if she would do anything if it meant living through this crisis.

It was a good thing Judea gave her the option of not answering straight away, since that was precisely what Sloane did. She kept thinking, her features conflicted, while her meister undressed and then waded out into the flooded grounds as a capybara. Am I willing to do whatever it takes to survive? Sloane asked herself. Well, it went without question that she wanted to live. Dying could be seen as the ultimate failure, to her friends, her family, and herself. An inevitable one, to be sure, but one a wise person could avoid for a long time. But did it meant throwing away everything else? Her morals, her pride? Those closest to her? Fragments of herself? Could Sloane cleave her axeblade through a student or two -or Judea herself- if it meant seeing the next sunrise?

The answer, of which she felt quite certain, was no. She could count many things that she would not give up. Instead, she felt certain that she would fight to the death to defend them. Even though she didn't know the other students that well, and most were dorks, she knew that she would risk her life in their defense. It was just what a good person would do. Still, she would have to consider whatever options that came her way in the course of her extended stay on Malum Island. Sloane felt no particular urge to seek a hero's death.

A look toward the miniature lake confirmed that Judea had slipped out of sight. Around the campsite, the other meisters and weapons were mostly lolling around. Sloane couldn't blame them; they faced an unprecedented and dangerous situation. But some progress needed to be made, so Sloane left the lakeside to her partner and went over to help set up tents.