[IC] Ω Heroes of Olympus: the Hidden Gem (Nallore, Morose, Kirah) Ω

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Camp Jupiter - Deccumanian Gate -> San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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"I thought it was harpies that went after shiny things - or do fauns do that too?" Nancy asked. She really wished she had some sort of reference guide - like Minerva's Guide to Monsters. Something like that had to exist. There had been demigods for ages, someone would have taken the time to write everything down? Maybe that was how Dungeons and Dragons was created. Should the legion start looking up how to play that game? Was it useful? She had to shake her head slightly. Her ADHD brain had a habit of getting off task, going off on wild tangents at times. Supposedly, this would save her life in battle. "All I know is that it's super powerful and came from the Underworld... Maybe Pluto gave it to Proserpina as a wedding gift or something."

She let an uneasy silence fall for a moment. She could always consult the cards, see if she could trigger a prophetic vision about the gem. She didn't typically try to force prophecies to come on. Nancy knew that the cards were designed to help her control her gift, to manage it, yet she was afraid of them still. Sometimes, she would dream about throwing the cards into the flames, symbolically shedding her curse.

It wasn't too long of a bus ride for them to get to the station. "I've got $50 on me," Nancy said, pulling out her cash. "How far is that good for nowadays?"

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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Niah shrugged about Eric. She wasn't surprised he had been a jerk to the pair of them. So far she hadn't seen him not be a jerk to anyone. "I don't know maybe they grabbed it cause they thought they could pawn it and make some money. They are always begging for money. Seriously, why can't we give them a job like pulling weeds or something?" Though her experience with Fauns had been that they were lazy so she didn't see if giving them job would even help.

"I've got $30." She winced. "Should have grabbed some cash. I guess we see how far this can get us. Maybe we can find a place to do an exchange." She had 20 Denarius coins. That could get them some American money, but would probably be an ordeal. Not that the whole quest wouldn't be an ordeal. They always were.

"We can see how far this takes us." She stepped over to a route map and started mentally plotting what sort of trip they had ahead of them. She couldn't remember exactly where they were headed. She didn't know US Geography all that well, but she knew it was one of the Dakotas. After following a couple possible routes with her finger she decided on one. "Okay if we go up through Portland and then over to, Fargo North Dakota I think that's as far as the train can take us. After that, we'll have to take busses. Maybe she could call her dad and ask for a wire of money. But that was dangerous since phone calls seemed to send out signals to monsters.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station San Francisco
Skills: N/A

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Madalyne looked at Nancy when she mentioned something about the gem was from the underworld, she knew that her mother did deal with ghosts and crossroads, and usually ghosts did come from the underworld as well. "Maybe my mom will pop up somewhere and say something about it." Madalyne said, she only seen her once in her life and that was when she had gotten to Camp Jupiter with Nancy shortly after that her mother appeared before her to give her the wand as a gift. Madalyne searched through her pockets and pulled out two fifty dollar bills, and then looked to the others.

"With all of our money combined that's around 180 dollars." Madalyne said as she watched Niah checking out the route, and she made her way to the ticket counter for the same route that Niah suggested and went ahead to buy the tickets for the three of them. "Seems like a quick and easy train ride then." Madalyne said jokingly she did know that they would most likely end up bumping into some monsters at some point.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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Nancy nodded, listening to Niah's recommendations. From what she had heard about Portland, it was weird. Weird tended to mean a place with loads of monsters in her experience, so she mentally prepared herself for a few fights to the death in that city. She knew next to nothing, on the other hand, about the Dakotas. They had just about no reputation, at least not that she was aware of. Apparently they were home to dragon lairs. Hopefully just the one. "Please don't jinx us, Mads," Nancy groaned, as Madalyne suggested it would be quick and easy. "And I hope we don't run into your mother... Don't some people go mad or something if they meet Trivia at a crossroads?" Nancy asked. She couldn't remember exactly what happened, but she knew that it was bad.

She shifted slightly, squinting her eyes to try to get a better look at their surroundings in the harsh sunlight. She wondered briefly if her aunt had heard her prayers. Nancy doubted that they would be answered though. Her curse was hers to bear and likely couldn't be washed away. She wondered also if a god removing her gift of prophecy would offend her father, Apollo. Maybe he was sitting up there in the Sun Chariot, shaking his head at her. Did he know that she had prayed to Diana? Would he scold her?

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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Niah was glad she had found a route that took them as far away from Las Vegas as possible. Now Niah just had to hope that they would actually make it all the way to Fargo. It was step one. Though she doubted it would happen. Especially with Mads joking the way she was. At least it wasn't Nancy saying it. That felt like it could be even more dangerous. Sort of a 'Bard's tongue' curse. That was not something Nancy needed. Or any demi-god if Niah was honest with herself.

"I mean there is no way something won't happen. Thank you, for getting the tickets Mads. Was that all of our cash? Are we gonna starve now?" Niah asked half-joking. She was concerned they wouldn't have money for food, but if they could at least get to the Dakotas. From the Dakotas, they would need to figure where Mount Rushmore even was. A part of Niah hopped that it was in the Dakotas because she wondered if it was. She had thought it was on the East coast, but the Dakotas were in the middle of the country.

"This country is huge. How long is this train trip going to take?"

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station San Francisco
Skills: N/A

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Madalyne looked towards Nancy for a moment and nodded they could still simply run into a monster at any point while on the train ride from California to their final destination as well. And then mentioning her mother she gave a slight shrug, she had only met her once when she came to Camp Jupiter shortly after her visiting Lupa. "I only met her once, but yeah probably people have gone mad after seeing her. I haven't gone mad though, so that is something." She answered as Madalyne gave both Niah and Nancy their tickets.

"Yeah that's all of our money sadly. We could act like hoodlums and steal from people though which would be fun." She said jokingly as she rubbed the back of her neck, they wouldn't have any kind of money for food which would really suck. "I'd imagine it would take maybe a day or two at most, maybe shorter if there aren't any delays on the tracks." Madalyne said to Niah, she hadn't ridden any US trains before, but she did when she was younger before moving to the US. There was a bell sound going off, and she could see the train now coming over in the distance.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: Strategy

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Maybe it would have been a good idea to get a child of Mercury to go with them on the quest - they were good at stealing. Of course, Nancy was rather skilled at sleight of hand. It was a skill she had unfortunately picked up on the Vegas Strip. "I can steal, don't worry," she informed her friends. Niah was probably too much of a rule following goody two shoes to steal anyways. Madalyne she doubted would have any issues with it, especially given her mother. From what she knew, Trivia tended to have a fast and loose moral code in comparison to the goddess of the Styx. It was only a day or two, according to Madalyne, so they wouldn't even need to steal that much.

Nancy could probably even earn them food by singing - prophecy wasn't the only thing she had inherited from Apollo.

"Oh, wotcher," she said, calling the others attention. She had been keeping an eye out at the station for any monsters, especially with how thick the Mist was in San Fransisco. A chill then ran down her spine. Look for trouble and ye shall find. A chimera, a monstrous creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake. Practically every part of it was deadly. The snake's venom could kill with ease. The head was able to breathe fire. "Odds that it hasn't noticed us are... well, awful." She pulled her twin imperial gold daggers. Hopefully this fight wouldn't make them miss the train. They didn't have money for more tickets.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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Days. Why did this country have to be so big? Everything was so spread out. It was ridiculous. She sighed. There was nothing to be done about it. Maybe they should have rented a car. She thought one of them had to know how to drive. She didn't, she had been too young when she had come to camp. Niah resisted the urge to glare at Nancy when she suggested that Nancy would steal. Niah would have nothing to do with that. "I'll have no part in any sort of thievery." She would rather go hungry.

She looked up at Nancy when she called for her attention. There was a chimera coming their way. Three demi-gods, a train, and a chimera. Of course. There was no way that they hadn't been noticed. Niah drew her sword, it would become visible to the demi-gods, but the mist kept it from being visible to the people at the station. "What time does the train leave? Don't want to miss it because some monster decided to be annoying." She didn't dare say the creature's name. If there was any sort of luck in the world and it hadn't noticed them saying it's name would make it aware of the trio.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station San Francisco
Skills: Mist Control

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Madalyne though she didn't like to steal she would do it just out of survival if it ever did come down to it at any point, she knew that Nancy could do it with ease she had known her for a very long time. She was the closest person to a sister she had as well, and when Nancy pointed out a Chimera was stalking nearby. She closed her eyes for a moment, the mist was really thick here which was a lot easier for her to control. Niah and Nancy would feel a slight gust of wind and the Chimera perked up slightly, looking around confused, and it started to run off in the opposite direction.

"Helps to have a mom that is the one who controls the mist." Madalyne said, a little proud of herself hopefully that little trick would keep the Chimera away from them until they got onto the train. She looked at the clock nearby on the train platform and then at the ticket that was given and as if right on cue the train was now just pulling into the station. "We should go, unless you two want to hunt the chimera down?" Madalyne said jokingly as she quickly climbed up the small little stairs that led into the train.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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Nancy wasn't too surprised that Niah was adamantly opposed to stealing. She had a very black-and-white moral sense from what Nancy could tell - not that there was anything wrong with that. It made sense to her, after thinking on it for a little bit. Niah's mother was the goddess who held everyone to their oath. It made sense that her children would be rule sticklers, just like it made sense that the children of Apollo would be inherently fabulous and skilled at many things (Nancy was, of course, incredibly humble). She respected the boundary though. Niah hadn't questioned her hang ups about Las Vegas, so she wasn't going to tease Niah about her aversion to thievery.

The wind brushed up against her and Nancy shivered, watching as the chimera turned and ran off in the opposite direction. She couldn't help but be a little bit in awe of Madalyne. "That was so rad!" she praised her friend. She offered up a high five. Amtrak Trains didn't really wait around for people to get boarded too long after the posted ticket time, so Nancy shook her head, not wanting to bother hunting down the chimera. Some other demigod would take care of it. She popped onto the train and walked until she found some empty seats with a clear line of sight to the exit, just in case. She took a window seat and sat, waiting for Madalyne and Niah to join her.

Hopefully there weren't any monsters on the train.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak Station -> Onto the train
Skills: N/A

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Niah had been ready for a fight. She wasn't looking for one. Definitely didn't want to chase down the chimera by herself. Heck, she was thankful she didn't have to fight it at all. Niah had been particularly worried about all the people at the train station. Yes, the mist would have done what it does best and protected them from not even noticing really what was going on. But that didn't stop collateral damage. Mortals could easily get hurt if a demi-god fight broke out in the middle of them.

"That was very cool." Niah agreed. Following Nancy onto the train, after she sheathed her sword. "I just get the ability to make people mad like I'm some knock-off Ares kid. Or you know the whole Oath thing." She took a seat across the table from Nancy. She was impressed with her traveling partners' gifts and more than anything thankful for them, but she didn't say that. It felt inappropriate. Niah knew how much Nancy hated her prophecy gift and didn't want to make her think about it too much.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station San Francisco
Skills: N/A

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Madalyne smiled and gave Nancy a high five once they were on the train and Niah sitting across from them, a few seconds later the train started to move from its station. She leaned back a little bit and started to relax seeing the scenery starting to move and looked towards Nancy and Niah. "I could try and teach you guys how to use it if you'd like." Madalyne offered, it came natural to her but she knew that others could learn it though it was pretty difficult to learn from others what she knew as well.

Madalyne turned to look at Niah mentioning Ares, but that was greek and she was also a legacy of Ares as well. "Don't you mean Mars?" Madalyne decided to tease her a little bit, the three of them were still capable fighters and they could easily kick any kind of monster ass that did come their way. "But you are still an awesome fighter to Niah." Madalyne said to her giving Niah a friendly smile.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak
Skills: Audiokinesis

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Nancy tilted her head slightly, hearing Niah refer to Ares, the Greek war god. She knew that Madalyne was a legacy of Ares, not Mars - and from what she knew, the difference between the aspects was that Ares was bloodthirsty and didn't care if people died, whereas Mars was into more clean and strategic warfare. "That'd be pretty rad, I'd be down to learn how to use the Mist," she told Mads. Truthfully, it would have been a nice way to get out of having her bunk in the barracks properly cleaned. If she used the Mist, then she could ace inspection each time without having to do a bit of work. And of course, there was the more ethical use of manipulating the Mist in order to send monsters away rather than fighting them.

"Y'know, making people mad is pretty useful - get inside their heads, keep 'em from thinking, it's easier to beat them," Nancy mused. She had met a lot of demigods that didn't think their gifts were particularly useful. It was all about finding a way to apply them. Sure, it was a bit hypocritical given how much Nancy hated her prophetic abilities, yet she had inherited something else from her father. Apollo was also the god of music. "At first, I thought I could just sing well, y'know? But then I discovered I could do this..."

Her eyes darted around as a mischievous smirk appeared on her face. She spotted one of the passengers nearby with one of those glass cups, the sort that would be filled with water or some iced beverage from Starbucks. Nancy started to whistle, just a simple steady note, and she concentrated. The vibrations of the noise filled her ears and she felt a rush, as the pitch of her whistle changed to match the resonant frequency of the glass. The cup burst, spilling the unsuspecting passenger's drink everywhere. "Ta-da."

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: On the train
Skills: N/A

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"I am decent at fighting I suppose, even if I can't keep names straight. Thanks, Madalyne." But hubris was not Niah's flaw so she didn't seem very convinced by that. She did stick her tongue out a little at their ribbing but didn't seem particularly upset by it. She could tell it was in good humor. "That's usually what I use it for. Or to demoralize, and make people want to not even bother fighting. That's handy." She said agreeing with Nancy. She did give a small evil grin at the idea, but because it was Niah there was no true malice behind her grin. "I'd love it if you could teach me how to manipulate the mist." Niah's eyes lit up at the offer. She had been curious about magic beyond her own, but it had seemed so obtuse.

"Whoa." She gasped in surprise at Nancy's gift. "That's got to be useful." She could think of a few ways it could be used. "Can you hit the note that would bust ear drums? So if a monster could only hear would lose it's hearing? Like-" She cut herself off not wanting to say a monster's name. Even this far from where it would likely be. And maybe that was a little dark. Especially if used against a non-monster, but it could be useful. She hopped the person whose glass broke didn't blame them.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station San Francisco
Skills: N/A

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"Cool then class starts tomorrow morning early sunrise." Madalyne said jokingly, she of course was still going to teach them as best she could it was always really tricky and not to many people learned it easily. She looked over at the person who Nancy had targeted and heard her friend started to hit a steady whistle note. And eventually she heard a glass shattering and a really annoyed passenger starting to curse out a storm as he got up. And started to walk passed the three of them a wet mark on the person's pants making it look like he had pissed his pants and Madalyne started to laugh.

"You totally should do that in the mess hall when we get back to camp to someone in the legion." She said, knowing that Nancy did like to do stuff like that as well. Before turning her attention to Niah and smiled, getting into anyones head would be really cool just to mess around with them or even to make a fight a lot easier. "That could be really useful in the next War Games." She said.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: San Fransisco - Amtrak
Skills: N/A

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Nancy nodded, beaming with pride as Niah asked her just what else she could do with her gift. "I haven't tried bursting someone's brain like that before, but yeah, I think I'd be able to find the note - just might take some trial and error." It essentially came to trying out pitches at random, sometimes she had the approximate pitch she needed memorized (like for glass) yet she hadn't tried to make someone's head into a bomb before. That would be a fun way to kill monsters though - to just sing or whistle and have them explode. She snickered as the unsuspecting mortal walked on by, looking like he had pissed his pants. Had she not already been claimed by Apollo, she could have easily passed for a child of Mercury.

"Hey Niah... Are you immune to getting wet?" Nancy asked, thinking. Niah's mother was a river goddess - sure, the Styx wasn't the average river but it was a river all the same. "Maybe you've got some Neptune like powers waiting to be unlocked. Rome could finally have a fighting chance when it comes to water battles." She shifted how she was sitting in her seat, propping one foot up against the bottom of her seat, letting her lean forward on her elevated knee. It was nice to think about the War Games and to just talk about the ways they were strong, powerful, badass women.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: On the train
Skills: Odikinesis

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"I look forward to the lessons Professor Crane." Niah grinned at Mads. The grin Nancy gave her for her idea was worrisome. Maybe the idea was too dark if Nancy was enjoying the possibilities. "Warn me if you decide to do that in a room crowded with angry people with swords." Niah couldn't decide if she would watch or leave. Watching would be entertaining, but she did not want to have to deal with the fallout. As she thought that though Niah considered that Nancy was a friend and she would have her back if Nancy was in trouble. This, however, would be a trouble of her own making. Trouble she could easily avoid if she just didn't blow up cups around angry people with swords.

"Tragically I didn't get that gift." Niah sighed a little wistfully. She would have loved to have the ability to manipulate water. It was nice discussing what use their gifts could have outside what they had already used it for so far. She paused as she watched the now soaked guy storm off. Niah snickered but shook her head and reached out calming him. It would hopefully at least keep the guy from yelling at some poor train staff member.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station San Francisco -> Medford, Oregon, Amtrak Station
Skills: N/A

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It took a few hours, and there weren't any monsters that had gotten onto any of the stops on their way Madalyne ended up taking alittle bit of a nap just to pass the time her head resting against the table that they were sitting on. Until she heard the announcement that they were going to be making a small stop in Medford to stretch out and for those who needed it to have a smoke break as well. She stretched out slightly letting out a little bit of a yawn and looked towards the others.

"I'm going to get some air real quick." Madalyne said as she climbed off of the train seeing some people were there as well, some were just getting off as well. Either it was their train stop or they were also boarding. Madalyne looked around seeing what looked to be a bunch of biker guys just getting up from where they were sitting, she started to feel a little bit suspicious of them. But they were talking amongst themselves, as Madalyne remained calm for the most part digging into her pockets, and occasionally looked at the group seeing about ten of them in all as well.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Medford, Oregon - Amtrak
Skills: Sleight of Hand

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"I'm gonna get us some food," she told Niah and Madalyne, before getting up as well. She didn't mention how she was going to do it. She figured Niah would rather not know. She had her pack on her, just in case she somehow ended up not being able to make it back on the train and was stranded in Oregon for a few days. On her way off, she "bumped" into someone heading on, stealthily grabbing their wallet. Once she was off the train, she grabbed the cash and discretely threw the wallet back onto the train, figuring the owner would want it back.

She had scored them $26. There was a Jack in the Box nearby, so she figured she'd buy as much food for them as she could and bring it back to the train. It was such a quick trip, she figured she could handle herself. Nancy put the money into her pockets and started walking in that direction, whistling slightly as she went. A sickening feeling formed in her stomach, like someone was watching her, stalking her. She turned her head over her shoulder and saw about ten bikers. The feeling in her stomach worsened. Her hands shook slightly. Her palms grew sweaty. She wanted to chalk it up to imagination but... life was never that kind for demigods.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: On the train -> Amtrak platform (Medford, Oregon)
Skills:

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Niah had pulled out the spare shirt from her bag and used it as a makeshift pillow taking a nap. It took hours to get to Medford. She enjoyed the conversation and company of Nancy and Madalyne and was happy she had chosen to have them join her. And even happier that the Senate had allowed it. When the train stopped in Medford Niah sat up and stretched. She was sore from how she had been curled up in the seat, but at least it seemed like she had gotten a bit of sleep.

When Nancy said she was gonna get food, Niah frowned, but then nodded and stayed on the train for a little longer. She didn't know what Nancy had planned, but she didn't want to watch it happen. If she could pretend it wasn't happening then it didn't feel like she was complicit in it. That only worked so well.

After a little bit of time Niah stood, she wanted to get some fresh air too badly to wait any longer. She stuffed her shirt back in her bag and got off the train. As she gazed around, looking for Nancy and Mads specifically her attention was attracted to a group of bikers. There was something about them that set her teeth on edge. Not her Oath sense, but something else and sinister about them. She considered that maybe it was her Odikinesis. Maybe the group was very angry?

The problem though was they seemed to be eyeing Nancy. She suddenly doubted they were just a group of bikers, but instead monsters. An easy solution, if they were people, would be to join Nancy, that normally discouraged people. Witnesses. However, if they were monsters, that'd only attract their attention more.

Niah tried to catch Mads eye and gesture to the guys. In the meantime she drew her invisible sword.