[IC] Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

"Trust me, Mordred doesn't live up to the hype." Penny said, grabbing at the air in the direction of the voice on the off chance Jessica was close enough to be shanghaied into being a seeing eye dog. Unfortunately she was way to far away for that so Penny just crossed her arms. "He this weird little creep with daddy issues and I don't like how he always stands right behind me."

"Far better for a knight to stand before his lord!" Gawain said, walking right up behind her as sand drained out of his armor. Penny jumped in surprise, whipping right around. She swore she could almost see the shine of his smile through the haze. It was a luster like that that had come off of practically every knight of the round table for her ever since she had started interacting with them. The funny thing was she'd really liked them when they were just words on a page, which just made her wonder why her Epithet spit them out as these deformed gremlins.

Suddenly, she heard Jude at her side. Like Jessica, he also declined the healing until after everyone else in a way that really rankled her. "Oh come on." She said, stamping her foot. "Just accept the healing. You two both have a pair of actual working eyeballs. Treasure them. We can't look around for kids and stuff if you guys all end up blind as me!"

She stopped suddenly. Before she'd known it she'd gone off agreed to what Jude had proposed.

"I mean, it's not like we can take chances." She continued, her tone softening. "We need to find people, food, water. We don't know what we have out here, so we need to take care of ourselves. And, speaking of," She took off the fake glasses Jude had made for her a tapped them against her head. "Do you have enough energy left to put these back they way they were, Jude? I can't do anything without them."

"If not I could simply carry you my lord!" Gawain said.

"Please." Penny said to Jude, a note of desperation creeping into her voice.

[Lugubrious]

The kids got together as the adults disbanded to head off and get started on various tasks, with Rosco explaining their general plan to the new arrivals, since it didn't seem like they'd be taking orders from Lou anymore. Only Harry stayed with the teens, joining the cluster shortly after Haywood did. The yellow-eyed kid looked pretty pleased with himself for someone with puffy red eyes cheeks slick with tears; he clearly did not take Jessica's encouragement lightly. When the girl deferred Harry to him, Haywood accepted the help gladly, having taken a lot of punishment for his close proximity to his over-decorated adversary. Harry put his hands together in a praying motion, and columns of light shimmered around him.

From the gleaming pillars stepped three figures in heavy brown robes, all about four feet in height. Covered head to toe, the summons betrayed not the slightest hint of their true figures thanks to those obscuring cloaks and their featureless, smooth white masks. When they raised their arms to lay hands on Haywood, however, gravity dragged their sleeves down around their arms, revealing them to be unnaturally spindly. Despite that weirdness, when they touched Haywood, a restorative shine washed over him that began to slowly restore him.

Meanwhile, Penny chided the others for refusing the healing. The over-the-top classic hero trope made Harry snicker. “Aw, come on, I know you're all hurting. Gather 'round, there's enough for everyone.” His summons tended to the wounds of everyone in turn. Splitting up slowed the rate of healing, but provided more overall relief.

Since Eyebrows seemed to be talking sense, Haywood headed toward her, getting out of the way of Harry's operation in the process. He crossed his arms, taking steady breaths. Things had been happening so quickly he didn't even get the chance to properly think about the food and water situation.”So,” he began, “What are we gonna do right now?” Though near Penny, he looked at Jessica as he spoke, just as any Blaster might look to his Captain for guidance.

[Octo]

Jessica nodded at Jude as she started straightening her hair, carefully shaking out any sand that had taken up occupancy in her LONG, GOLDEN LOCKS. This wasn't Scooby Doo. This was real life, with WILD ANIMALS and INSURANCE SALESMEN. It wouldn't be safe to go alone, even though Jessica was totally a cool lone wolf.

"It's probably best we stick together, though I'm NOT HERE to MAKE FRIENDS," she said, making sure no one would want to be her friend because she DIDN'T NEED ANY. Except maybe Haywood, because he was a COOL BLASTER.

"Anyways, I think Eyebrows said that her WEIRD LITTLE MEN could make a shelter. If they can do that unsupervised, then the King of Knights here can join us on our quest for the Grail. Sans Mordred, I guess. You need to make him cooler."

She looked from Penny to Haywood, sighing in relief as the healing really began to take effect.

"I can get us drinkable water just fine. Cross it off the list. We should find those kids ASAP, though, and look for food while we're at it."

Jessica grinned her EVIL shark grin.

"If we get to those kids first... think how thankful that OLD HAG will be. GAHAHA! She'll probably THROW MONEY AT US while CRYING and KISSING MY FEET and APOLOGIZING for being a DICK earlier."

[Kafka Komedy]

Jude was happy to hear Mad Dog agreeing with him, even if it was Penny he actually wanted to follow. Speaking of Penny, she absolutely flipped her lid at him for refusing to be helped. All Jude could do in response to that was meekly put his hands up and accept the healing. If that was what would make everyone happy, so be it, he guessed. Whilst the healing was going on, Penny reminded Jude about her glasses situation. He was still focusing on keeping all of the glasses reflective-- he totally forgot. With a sigh of relief, he let go of all of their properties and returned them to regular old shitty glasses, except the pair he was wearing, which were actually Penny's original pair. He handed them over.

"Sorry for using your glasses haha... they were the least reflective so, yaknow I didn't want anyone to have to deal with that." Jude rambled as he scratched at his face. Once the healing was all done, Mad Dog and her pal decided to talk strategy. Mad Dog's epithet apparently allowed her to get her hands on drinkable water just fine. Immensely useful in this situation, and crossed one need off of the list. She suggested looking for both food and those kids simultaneously, since water was no issue. Jude couldn't help but agree... even if she was being a weird dork about it.

"I-uh, agree with... Mad Dog. What's your name-- if, yaknow, if you wanna tell me."

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Oh no, more light. These lights didn't seem to hurt though, and as they faded a blurry group of figures descended on...someone before the adult laughed and the group split up to all of them. She felt something touching her on the sides, and was about to start complaining again before the scalding headache she felt coming on seemed to drain away into the little guys fingers. Gawain looked on, hand resting on his sword on the off chance the strange creatures attempted anything untoward with either his liege or her new friends.

As they were being patched up Jessica started talking again, asking about what Penny's serfs were capable of. Penny grimaced. "Unfortunately, they're peasants. They're not allowed to move all that far from me. You saw that castle though, they're lightning fast wherever they get to work. I'll get the materials while we look for the children."

Jude handed her glasses back to her, apologizing for using them. She took them greedily. "Don't apologize. I gave them to you." She said, slipping them back on. "AH, clarity!" She looked around, jumping a little when she caught sight of the masky, roby, skinny armed healermens still hanging around, before catching sight of Lou lying on the sand stripped of all his finery. One look at Jessica and her friend told her where that stuff had gone. Without hesitation she reared back her foot and booted him right in the bum. Smiling, satisfied that she had done her part, she look up to the friendly bearded face of the shopkeeper she'd met earlier. "Do you have a handle on him? I'd leave you Gaiwen but..."

She looked down at the knight, who beamed up at her, and wondered grimly what Lou would be able to do if he managed to squeeze in to Gaiwan's literal shining armor. "He's not a good fit."

[Octo]

"That's Hellmouth," Jessica answered Jude, indicating Haywood, "and he's SUPER COOL. We're both pretty experienced at evil stuff like LOITERING and NAME-CALLING. I'm pretty sure the skills transfer to WILDERNESS SURVIVAL."

Now that Jessica thought about it, her ability wasn't entirely useless in this context. It would be just like her video games, with CRAFTING MECHANICS. She looked around at everyone, and thought for the first time in her life that maybe she was needed by someone.

Or at least her epithet was. But that was fine too.

She drifted somewhere between gloom and joy, and then settled swiftly on joy when Penny kicked that asshole from earlier. Jessica snickered.

"SHIT, Eyeb- ah... Penny. That was ice cold! I could use someone with a sense of PETTY VENGEANCE like that," said Jessica, nodding, "keep up the EVIL WORK and I MAY just invite you to join my SECRET CLUB."

There was a wide grin on Jessica's face, but for once it wasn't particularly evil. She just happened to look like a happy little delinquent.

"Well, we should fan out a little to cover the most ground, but stay close enough in case we get into trouble. I'm sure if we all COLLECT STUFF on our way, we'll come back with enough for shelter and dinner."

[Lugubrious]

Haywood awaited instructions with his arms crossed, nodding sagaciously when Jessica said she wasn't here to make friends. “Just happens naturally, then. Amazing!” He started to get lost when she delved into King Arthur territory, wonder what she meant by 'grail'. Did she still think they'd be trying some heist now? As fun as that would be normally, Haywood could think of a few hundred things the castaways might be better served doing. Oh right, the kids. That nice lady from earlier seemed pretty frantic, so despite whatever animosity Jessica suggested lay between the two, it seemed like they'd be helping her get her family back. Big shot on the outside, softie on the inside, he noted. No way she's never met that soup guy all the minions're talking up.

The others chatted a bit, but Haywood's short attention span led him to zone out. Instead he looked over toward where the adults had split. He watched the big guy head into the ocean, and take off like a jet when he hit the water. Maybe he planned to catch something for people to eat. There were a lot of mouths to feed around here, but that also meant a lot of hands to help. Some of the others appeared to be doing something in the underbrush, though Haywood couldn't quite make out what. His attention snapped back when Jessica mentioned his name. With nothing really to add, he gave a brisk wave to the timid-looking guy and prepared for his leader to make a plan. When it came, it turned out to be a simple one, but effective. Scatter.

“Okay, let's get going then. Maybe we could use palm fronds to try and carry stuff we find.” He glanced around at the surroundings again, checking for options. The archipelago appeared to rest in a crude crescent shape, with the islands close enough together that the distance could be easily swum if not walked on sandbars. On this one, judging by the sun, the ocean lay to the east, and the foliage started on the west. He didn't know how far it extended, but searching the miniature jungle would be difficult no matter what. To the north, he could see a rocky area reaching a fair height. Rather than a singular mountain, it appeared to be a bunch of piled-up stone formations, which probably meant canyons, nooks, and crannies galore. The parents of the lost kids had gone into the jungle, and since Haywood figured he could leave the tougher task to the more experienced Banzai, he knew what to volunteer for.

“I'll comb the beach,” he announced. “Walk around the whole island, grab whatever I find. Maybe we'll get lucky.” No sooner had he said it then he began his mission, plodding north across the sand. After a few hundred feet, he stooped over a shapeless blue and red object, which he determined to be a beach bag. Sandals, a paperback, a watch, two towel cards, and both a bottle and stick of sunscreen. “Score!” With the bag in hand and thoughts of makeshift palm bags discarded, he continued on his trek.

[Kafka Komedy]

Jude sighed in frustration as Mad Dog gave him her other friend's fake name instead of her own real name. He supposed he probably should have been a bit more clear on the subject... but was she genuinely stupid, or just didn't want to give out her real name for some reason? There was a degree of comfort that Jude got when people online referred to him as a username instead of his real name. Maybe the strangers here weren't so different, and he was being mean bu trying to get them to reveal their real names. Especially the people his age who had adults to worry about.

Jude's ever running internal monologue was cut off once more as Penny aggressively snatched the pair of glasses he was handing her out of his grasp. This elicited a small 'eep!' but not much more, as he knew being able to see trumped social niceties. He was a bit odded out by her taking a strike at the unarmed, half-conscious Lou... but he had hurt them all, hadn't he? And he was clearly a bad person... He let his conflicted feelings slide for now. She was the one person he knew and raising a stink about this wouldn't help at all. They needed to explore, which 'Hellmouth' began to do immediately, combing the beach for helpful detritus like the handbag he started on. Jude turned to Penny.

"I guess I'll just go wherever you want to, if that's alright? We could head into the jungle with those parents, that would probably give us the best chance of finding supplies but they might already have that place pretty secured. There's also that rocky area over there but that'll probably be a big pain to get around. Not that I'll complain to much if you do wanna go there, ehe..."

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Penny considered her options. Splitting up wasn't ideal in her opinion, but that Hellmouth guy was already heading off down the beach before she could raise an objection. "I'm better equipped for the bush." She said, whipping up her sword toward the jungle. "Plus, I bet there's a ton of stuff to gather in there."

"And more dangers could await within!" Gawain added, standing triumphantly at her side and mirroring her pose. "Wild beasts, brigands, unseemly monsters. It is our duty o ensure no such danger threatens the beach."

"Right, that too I guess." Penny replied, visibly more nervous. "But I don't think we're gonna need you for that Gawain." She made a shooing motion over the miniature Knight with her hand. Gawain started to glow, parts of his body flaking off of him into glowing pellets of starlight. He sheathed his sword.

"Ah, but of course my lord. The honor of this hunt should be all yours. If you have need of me again, simply call my name and I will rush to your si-"

He didn't get to finish before fading out completely, disappearing back to wherever it was that they came from. Avalon? Maybe. Either way as soon as Penny felt the energy strain of the knight get lifted off her back she slammed her sword into the dirt. Her five workers exploded out of the ground around them like landmines, little hands grasping greedily for something to be put in them. "These guys will do a little better than palm leaves, I think. Welp, c'mon! Let's go see what we can find."

Penny marched off toward the treeline, the workers following behind her in a V formation. "We can probably do little cabins if we cut down enough of these trees," she said, slashing at the undergrowth to clear an easier path as they trekked into the jungle. The sword cleaved through the plant matter like it wasn't even there, barely even making a sound as it glided through them. "Maybe even a raft. But maybe we got lucky, and whatever put us here brought along some of the resort proper we can stay in."

[Octo]

Instead of oohing and aahing about Jessica's AWESOME SECRET CLUB and BEGGING HER to be a part of her cool exclusive group, the sentiment was largely ignored as people started wandering off. Jessica PUFFED HER CHEEKS in annoyance as she followed after Penny, who seemed well equipped to get them through the foliage quickly.

Even Jessica's meager epithet had its advantages, but even if she had the materials to create a chainsaw, she doubted she was strong enough to clear the path ahead. Penny was much stronger than she was, and seemed to be practiced with her blade. For a few moments, Jessica took in Penny's movements.

Jessica was tiny and weak. She had always been tiny and weak. Thus, she had picked up the habit of looking at everyone else as if they were a potential threat. It was important to understand physical capabilities and epithet powers just in case things didn't go well for her. Assessing Penny's capabilities now could save her life later.

While she was fairly certain she knew most of what Penny was capable of, Jude's ability was a bit more ambiguous. He could make copies with augmented qualities, but he also displayed an odd ability to send the necklace she had confiscated from Lou back at the man at a high speed. Due to her eyesight at the time, she wasn't able to glean any more than that. She'd have to watch out for him.

Jessica looked at Penny, and then at Jude.

"Hey, Jude. You seem to get along pretty well with Penny. You two FRIENDS or somethin'? GOIN' OUT? If I'm gonna be with you two, I gotta know what the DEAL is. I have DIFFICULTY parsing SOCIAL DYNAMICS."

[Lugubrious]

Talking among themselves, the young trio made their way into the jungled island interior with the help of Penny's henchmen. While they kept an eye out for lost kids and obstacles they would otherwise trip over, none seemed particularly wary. After all, the bright tropical sun shone clearly through the verdant foliage, its canopy too thin to block out the light. A breeze played with the leaves of the bushes and the giant palm fronds, diminishing the calls of the other seekers as they forged through the jungle nearby.

After a short time, an object of artificial shape and color caught the eye off to the left. A quick check determined it to be the bubble machine in use on the resort beach just before the disaster, a little dented and dirty but not seriously damaged. As the group came to a stop, its members got a chance to listen out without any noise pollution. In the peaceful near-silence that followed, they could a couple faint sounds that didn't quite fit in. One was the discordant clamor of audio distortion, perhaps some kind of broken equipment. The other was a young voice, calling out over and over. Unfortunately, the two came from different directions, with the audio from northeast and the voice more toward south-southeast.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Jessica's implication that Penny might be dating caused the girl to let out a choking noise and fumble her next swing, sending Excalibur halfway through a nearby tree before she managed to stop it.

As one the peasants stopped and turned as one to scrutinize Jude for a few uncomfortable moments before one lifted his stumpy little arms in the air and squeaked, "God save the queen!"

"No one is the queen!" Penny said quickly, spinning around and catching the other peasants with the arms midway up and their mouths halfway open. They flopped their arms down under her stern gaze, disappointed. Whether it was that their King was still queenless or simply that they'd been cut off before they could start a good chant Penny couldn't know. Her gaze softened when she turned it to Jessica, empathizing with their shared lack of social experience. "We just met today. I mean, right?" She said, briefly looking to Jude for confirmation. She had enough self-awareness to know that she could have run into this guy somewhere before all this and just not payed him any mind at all. If you pointed out some of her classmates on the street Penny would have a hard time giving you their names.

"The point is, like, I didn't know anybody here and a dude who's going to stop me from picking on a little girl and a girl whose idea of evil is loitering and coming up with tough sounding nicknames are a pretty solid draw in terms of people I could have met before we all got thrown into the deep end together." She hoped they were picking up what she was putting down, but turned and kept working so she wouldn't have to see their faces if they took it the wrong way. "Especially if the deck has dudes like that like Goodfella we beat up in it."

She kept hack her way through the underbrush before they came to a familiar looking bubble machine. It wasn't the most valuable piece of salvage they could have found but it could have its uses as crafting material, especially with the use of her companions epithets. "You guy think you could do anything cool with this?" She said, walking up to it and setting her peasants on standby around it. If either of them gave the word the peasants would carry the bubble machine wherever they were told to.

In the quiet that followed, though, she could hear the noises creeping into the clearing. A distant audio distortion, and a distant voice. There was a choice, but then again there wasn't a choice. After all, broken machinery wasn't in the habit of getting scared and moving away. Penny made her way to the south, not so fast as to leave her companions behind fast, and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Hey!" She called back, listening intently for any call back as she made her way further toward the voice. "You're going to be all right, just stay where you are."

@Octo@Kafka Komedy

[Octo]

Jessica laughed as Penny flung her sword into a tree a good couple of yards away. The girl had some pretty funny reactions. Getting mad at the 'Eyebrows' thing was a good time, but throwing her sword at the implication that she might be dating Jude was even funnier. It seemed like a pretty innocuous question, after all. The ensuing overreaction from her little summons was almost just icing on the cake.

But nope, that was hilarious too.

Jessica started up a surprisingly girlish giggle before clearing her throat and heading back into her VILLAINOUS "GAHAHA". As Jessica followed along, she felt herself wondering why she ever thought Penny was SCARY. That girl wasn't scary at all, only the sword was. Not to mention...

"Y-yeah, I came here ALONE too... I'm not REAL GOOD with people. But I definitely would'a remembered those EYEBROWS if I'd ever seen you on the STREET," Jessica informed the girl, trying to TEASE her enough so that she wouldn't realize that Jessica was being REAL for once.

When they came across the bubble machine, Jessica inspected it. Notable components were a FAN, a POWER SOURCE, and a PLASTIC CARAPACE. Certainly she could get some use out of it eventually, depending on what they needed. Jessica nodded at the small men that stood astride it.

"Nothing IMMEDIATELY USEFUL, but I can think of a FEW things in the LONG TERM. Take it."

Then they heard a couple of different noises. If this was a VIDEO GAME or a CYOA BOOK, the ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT would probably be the correct choice, because it wasn't the IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS one. But this was IRL, and some KID needed HELP. There wasn't a choice to be made. Jessica immediately set off with Penny to find whoever was calling out, spreading out a little to widen their search radius while remaining in visual contact with Penny.

[Rockin Strings]

Mark woke with a groan. Looking around, he was on a beach. It took a few seconds for his memory to kick in.

Mark stood on the beach with a sigh. The supposed mundies were walking away. He heard a scream and turned around to see a commotion. Then a storm started. He did his best to use his Stride to get people away before he was dragged in himself.

He remembered flying through the air before everything went black. That must've been when he was slammed into the tree he was now leaning against and knocked unconscious. He didn't see anyone else. With another groan of pain, he stood, wincing as he realized his ankle was a bit swollen. "Take it in stride," he said to himself.

With nowhere else to go, he began limping along the beach for a while. Then he saw some people from the beach. He limped forward, calling out to them. "Hey! Everybody alright?!" As he got closer, he realized who some of them were. Jude and Penny he knew by name. Then there were the Blasters kids, Mark wasn't happy to see them again. And then some people he didn't know. He looked down at the unconscious man with an abundance of jewelry as he passed him, wondering what had happened there.

He first approached the kids, Penny in particular. "Is everyone safe and accounted for?"

[Lugubrious]

After the breeze carried Penny's words away, a moment passed, and then a small voice reached her team through the trees. “Okay! I'm staying!” After a brief reunion with Mark, they possessed more than enough power to get a search underway. The jungle messed with the travel of sound, making the rescue operation less than perfectly straightforward, but it ultimately took only a short time in order to track down the source of the noise. Additional calls of 'over here!' and 'help!' from the person of interest helped speed it up as well. Lo and behold, the little team converged around a tall palm tree with a most unusual feature. They spotted a little girl with reddish hair streaked by black, stuck seven feet up against the wooden trunk in a dark mound like molasses. It possessed no discernible shape or characteristics other than its color, slight transparency, and evident rigidity, although some melted streaks of the stuff appeared to be dribbling down the trunk like syrup on the side of its jug. No matter how the child wriggled, she couldn't break free of her sticky prison, and from how tired she looked she'd been trying for a while now. Her face, red from crying, stared pleadingly down at the older girls. “Can you get me down? Please! I have to find my mommy!”

[Octo]

"Ah... it's that WEIRD CELEBRITY that was harassing me," Jessica said as Mark came up to them, GAGGING a little for effect, "you know that you only get away with picking on LITTLE GIRLS because you're famous, right?"

Although... dunking on this WEIRDO kind of took a back seat to saving a kid at the moment. A task which, due to the child engaging in dialogue with them, became significantly easier. It took a while, but they were able to locate the girl. She was stuck up in a tree, like a cat in a cartoon.

...Not Jessica's favorite configuration. Only HEROES saved cats from trees, and Jessica was a VILLAIN through and through. Surely one of the others would be able to save this small child. Then again, she appeared to be stuck in some thick SAP. That might be difficult for the others to handle.

Jessica flip-flopped between wanting to RUB this rescue in that DUMB WOMAN'S face and MAINTAINING her VILLAINOUS PRESENCE, but then something that the little girl said tugged at Jessica's BLACK HEARTSTRINGS.

Jessica bit her lower lip, and looked up at the kid.

"I bet... your mommy misses you a whole lot. I guess... I can help get you down."

Jessica thought, for a moment, about how much her own mother probably didn't even know she was gone, much less missed her. Then again, that was just business. Her older sister was perfect. A genius. Why waste time on the runt that nobody needed? Nobody needed her... but at least she could do this.

Jessica took out her lighter, and flicked the switch. She touched the PLASTIC CARAPACE of the bubble machine, and combined PLASTIC with HEAT to create a different configuration of plastic: a bottle, to be precise. Then, holding the bottle, she touched a streak of sap that was running down the tree. By combining a BOTTLE with the SAP, she was able to make a BOTTLE of SAP.

One strength of her ability was that, by combining things, she used the components to create a new object. Thus, the sap had all but disappeared from the tree and was now inside her bottle. The girl would be released, but Jessica wasn't strong enough to reach her all the way up in that tree, much less help her down.

"Sap's taken care of. Can either of you help get that kid down? I skip school because I'm an EVIL DELINQUENT, but if I DIDN'T skip school, I would fail gym."

Jessica examined her bottle, and considered all the things she could do with sap. Depending on the sort of sap it was, it could be used to make syrup, lacquer, or, uh...

Probably other stuff too! Maybe the teacher could identify the type and uses, because it was not Jessica's area of expertise.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

"That depends on what you mean by 'everybody.'" Penny replied, ignoring Jessica's attempts to start a fight. She wasn't surprised that the dude with the heartthrob good looks of a TV star had shown up, not after getting a front row seat to how fast he was earlier. She didn't mind him being around either, speed like that could be a lifesaver. "Right now we're in the middle of...speak of the devil!" She finished as a small voice called out a reply from somewhere further in the jungle. "C'mon." She said, hastily hacking her way through the underbrush toward the voice. It was a little slower going than before, seeing as she was clearing out room for that bubble machine that Jessica had chosen as a prize.

It still only took them a little while to reach the source of the crying, and when they did Penny almost kicked herself. "Eugh." She gagged at the putrid situation. "Of course you're gonna stay where you are. Way to make me feel like an idiot." She hoped there wasn't some kind of undiscovered species of giant bug on the island that did this to people.

Jessica, on the other hand, looked like she was thinking of something way worse than horrible giant insects. The look on her face as she looked up at that kid reminded her of the look she'd given Penny when they'd first met, like she was just a little kid. The girl immediately got to work on getting the sap, or whatever that gunk was, off the girl. Penny was glad she was already getting some use out of that machine, but Penny worried that without the sap the kid was going to come tumbling down from the trunk. So when Jessica gave the word she snapped to. "I have just the men for the job, boss. Men!" She called out. The peasants as one dropped the bubble machine and stood at attention. Penny pointed up at the girl. "Fetch us that maiden fair." She intoned, with all the regal authority she could muster just to get them really pumped up.

"Aye Melord!" They said, throwing themselves at the tree and ascending as dizzying speed toward the girl like little hairy cockroaches.

"Carefully. This isn't like picking fruit!" She called up.

"Carefully." Came back down five voices as the peasants lines up around the girl and took hold of her with one of their hands, one each for her arms and legs and one above her gripping the back of her shirt. "Careful." "Careful." They said, using their surprising strength to gentle pull the girl from the remaining sap and began sliding slowly down the tree, little nails leaving gashes in the trunk as they arrested the speed of their descent.

"Well, that's one more accounted for at least." Penny said, turning back to Mark. "This is kinda what we're doing now. If we get attacked by a giant bug, could you kill in with your flash steps?"

[Rockin Strings]

Mark watched as the girls rescued the child, keeping his senses open. He found it very annoying every time someone brought up his uncanny appearance of Jensen Ackles. He didn't like Jessica already and she wasn't going to make it easier to like her. "Let's just get the girl to safety." he sighed, glaring at Jessica.

He noticed the little people Penny summoned with her Epithet and how she worked them. He found it interesting. That's actually kinda cool, he thought to himself.

"Stride." he frowned at Penny. "My Epithet is Stride. It's a movement Epithet, not usually meant for outright combat. Giant bugs, though, shouldn't be too hard if you can find me a big stick to use as a weapon."

He was being modest, though it didn't sound like it, and he knew it. He loved his speed. He already knew how to fight with it.

With the girls behind him, he took point and began heading back towards the beach. "Leaving your find?" he asked Penny, motioning towards the bubblegum machine.

[Lugubrious]

In a lucky turn of fate, one of the youngsters who happened upon the trapped child possessed just the tool for the job. Her quick thinking allowed her to combine a couple different objects in quick succession, putting the power of her epithet on display as she dealt with the problem in an improbably speedy manner. While that meant the child might tumble down the trunk and into the ground afterward, Penny recognized the situation and put her miniature legion on the case. They scrambled up and down with surprising alacrity, retrieving their target as carefully as they could. In the end, the little girl was retrieved with no fuss and only a little muss.

Though clearly shaken and close to overwhelmed, the child seemed grateful. “Thank you,” she told her rescuers, remembering what her mother always said about manners. Given her saviors' recent experience with Noelle -Jessica in particular- it wasn't hard to come to a conclusion about her lineage. The teacher and her husband would no doubt be relieved, even if the return of their daughter highlighted the still-missing status of their son.

Not long after Mark divulged the nature of his epithet, there came a rustling in the underbrush. A thin girl with shot red hair, a distinctive skull-and-crossbones shirt beneath her coat, and striped red and black long socks appeared through the trees, waving as she came into talking range. “Hello,” she greeted in a somewhat throaty voice before pointing her thumb at the trees behind. “Just wandering around when I found the girl. While trying to figure out a way to get her down, I heard talking. I didn't know what to make of you, so I kept a distance and watched. But way you rescued the young one there was incredible. You're obviously good people, and I shouldn't have doubted you.”

In contrast to her somewhat punkish, rough-and-tumble appearance, the stranger gave off an impression of sophistication and sincerity as she spoke. Her compliments felt good, and conveyed a sense of real respect. In turn that made the stranger seem genuine and trustworthy, someone definitely in the others' camp. These associations and conclusions came easily, not weirdly so, but it just seemed so obvious. The only thing even slightly off was the ever-so-subtle sweet taste on the tongues of those present.

She held a hand in front of her chest and gave a slight bow. “It's a pleasure to meet anyone with their hearts in the right place. My name is Erin. I'm sure you have appropriately important things to be doing, but if I could lean on your generosity, would you mind telling me what's going on? Who you've encountered so far, and what you've been up to?” She asked in earnest, buttering them up a touch but by no means overbearingly so, as she stood between them and the way back to the beach.

[Octo]

Jessica grinned her big shark grin, feeling accomplishment well up inside of her. She definitely didn't feel good because she helped a scared kid and it was the right thing to do. No, she felt good because she was AWESOME and now she could make that woman bow and apologize! She would order that lady to get down on her hands and knees and assume the dogeza stance just like in her anime!

"GAHAHA!" Jessica laughed loudly out of nowhere, to nobody but herself like an ABSOLUTE CHAD.

As if her massive accomplishment wasn't enough, the TV star Jensen Ackles of award-winning drama blah blah blah you get the point DIVULGED the nature of his epithet. He must've been pretty confident and, from the sounds of it, he had every reason to be. However, like that one cartoon said, "knowing is half the battle". Now that she knew what his epithet was, she could SCHEME ways to counter it just in case.

As Jessica turned to head back to the beach, her head HUGE from accomplishment, she quickly came face to face with a girl who looked like a PUNK. Dammit... PUNK was JESSICA'S aesthetic! At least when she wasn't a delinquent. It switched between the two depending. Jessica was about to tell the woman off for TOTALLY APING HER STYLE when she found herself being ABSOLUTELY FLATTERED.

"W-well," Jessica replied, blushing a bit, "I'm actually EVIL, you know? Definitely not a good person. But thank you for noticing how AWESOME I am. Actually, we were just... did I recently eat a candy?"

Jessica smacked her lips, paused a second, and then opened the bottle in order to sniff it.

She had combined a bottle and something that could be bottled, but had only assumed it was sap. Maybe it was syrup or something? She gave the contents a sniff.

"We were just, uh... going back to camp... with this kid... to make that teacher apologize," Jessica answered, a little distracted.

"You know... that busybody meganekko. I like your shirt, by the way. Do you think this TRACKSUIT looks cool on me?"