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

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills:

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The train trip was long. Niah was bored. She had pulled out her reading book and was nearing the end when they finally reached Olympia. "Does it have something to do with when the town was founded? Like California it is Sacramento, and Nevada is Cason City. That last one doesn't make any sense. It should be Reno or Las Vegas." Then Madalyne said that there were monsters on the train.

Niah started to turn to see the new conductor and refreshment lady, but then Nancy said they were Gorgons so she avoided eye contact and looked down to the ground. She shivered. Then looked at Nancy. "Great, just great. No quest ever goes easily does it?" She sighed. She felt like she had asked for this. "Game plan?" She looked at her friends.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Olympia, Washington, Near the, Centennial Train Station
Skills: Mystiokinesis, Mist Control

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Madalyne kept avoiding eyecontact with the two gorgons who were slowly walking down the aisle of the train car, they weren't at their part yet which was good that would give them time. Madalyne waved her hands quickly as three pairs of reflective sunglasses appeared on the table, she was glad that they weren't those hand held mirrors that people usually use when applying makeup. "The reflective mirrors on the glasses might work no guarantees though." Madalyn whispered to her two friends.

She went and focused on the mist now, but the mist didn't want to work with her this time letting out a slight groan looking at Nancy and Niah and shrugged slightly. "Tried the chimera trick earlier it isn't working." Madalyne said, reaching for the hilt of her sword just in case. "We could get off the train, but it'll make traveling longer."

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Amtrak - Centennial Train Station
Skills: Audiokinesis, Daggers

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Nancy flinched slightly when Niah mentioned Las Vegas. If she could go her entire mortal life without seeing the borders of Nevada, it would still feel too close. She shut her eyes, wary of accidentally being turned to stone by a gorgon. She had this horrifying feeling that her stone body would be brought back to New Rome and made into a garden statue somewhere. Or even worse, maybe her stone form would be put in the augury as a decoration for Alexandra. She shuddered at the thought. "We can't get off the train - no way am I going to be stuck in grody fake Seattle," Nancy grumbled. "If the mortals wonder what our damage is, well, good thing we've got a bonafide Sabrina Spellman here to make them think nothing weird happened."

She drew her twin imperial gold daggers, concentrating on the sounds around her. She amplified them in her head, though mostly all she could hear was the conversations of the passengers on the train. None of them realized what sort of mortal peril they were in, with gorgons on the loose. Nancy didn't even recall the names of these monsters, just knowing the most famous one was Medusa. Yet from the noise, she was finally able to pinpoint where one of the gorgons was. She stabbed with her daggers, hitting the gorgon in the back. She pulled out her blade, yet the monster didn't crumple to dust, still alive.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills: Short sword

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"We are not getting off this train if we can help it." They had spent way too much money getting on it. Niah wasn't going to risk having to steal a bunch of money to travel for what they had already paid for. She couldn't close her eyes like Nancy and hope to hit the Gorgons, but she could use the sunglasses. She grabbed a pair of them and put them on. Then squinted as much as she dared without losing sight of the monsters, she made sure to look at their feet. That at least would give her the ability to keep track of where they were.

She drew her invisible sword and following Nancy's movements stabbed the Gorgon that she had suck with a dagger. It still didn't dust. She used the backswing to hit the Gorgon again. The Gorgon swiped at her, she saw the hand reaching for her, but it dusted. Niah let out a sigh of relief. She hoped that the Mist was keeping them from getting noticed, and thanked her lucky stars her sword was invisible. There was still one more Gorgon to deal with though.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Olympia, Washington, Near the, Centennial Train Station
Skills: Sword Fighting, Mist Control

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Madalyne quickly stood up, seeing both of her friends springing into action and went to attack the first gorgon, she smiled seeing the two of them double teaming the snake head woman Madalyne quickly put the glasses over her face. There was only the one wearing the conductor's uniform, she quickly charged after her and swung her sword. Only for the gorgon to block it with her arm, Madalyne then turned around using her sword and swung her sword again which instantly made the second gorgon to burst into dust. Madalyne tried to get the dust off of her while looking over at her friends, they actually went down pretty easily.

The people on the train now started to freak out seeing the girls carrying weapons in their hands, Madalyne started to close her eyes and tried to control the mist around the people within the train car. But none of it was working she quickly slipped her sword back looking at Nancy and Niah. Before trying a third time with the mist, and everyone seemed to calm down now at this point letting out a slight sigh. "Crisis averted." Madalyne said while looking at her two friends and smiled a bit.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Amtrak - Centennial Train Station
Skills: N/A

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She heard the gorgon she had attacked rush into dust. Nancy hadn't stabbed at her a second time, so she deduced that either Niah or Madalyne must have taken care of it. Then, a moment later, Madalyne gave the all clear - the crisis had been dealt with. Nancy opened her eyes and sheathed her imperial gold daggers, placing them away. She didn't know what Madalyne had convinced the mortals they had seen - maybe they thought Nancy was armed with two bananas - but it didn't matter that much in the long run. She took her seat again.

"Take that, universe - going to take a whole lot more to get us off the train," Nancy tried to joke. She regretted it almost as soon as she said it. The Fates probably were going to make their lives a lot harder because of that. But then again, they had tricked a chimera, killed werewolves with Cherry Bomb, and just turned some gorgons into confetti. They were on an upswing in the quest and as long as they didn't leave the train, they'd be able to make it to Mount Rushmore in no time.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills:

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Niah sighed relieved with the all-clear from Madalyne. She relaxed and re-sheathed her sword, then sat down pulling the glasses off. Then Nancy tempted the Fates. Niah winced. "If only knocking on wood actually helped." She sighed. "Though now we have a new and interesting problem, there is no conductor?" Niah kept her voice pitched low so hopefully, none of the normal people on the train heard her. She sort of asked, her voice rising at the end. Partially in concern and partially wondering if they gorgons had just been there to be annoying not truly run the train.

Did Gorgons have jobs? There had only been two...weren't there three? She put the glasses back on real quick and looked around trying to see if someone seemed off. She sighed relieved when there didn't seem to be any other monsters. She did notice that there were a couple of actual snakeheads on the ground. "Ew." She said and grabbed a couple of napkins to pick the heads up. "Any idea what good these might be for?"

Niah looked at the heads, "They do have teeth, maybe we can add them to the bracelet." She laughed slightly. "I don't know what type of snakes these are though, so might want to be careful about that." She let the others examine the snakes and then carefully wrapped them in the napkins before putting them in her bag. Niah leaned back in her seat. "Admittedly, we do make a badass team." Niah grinned at her friends.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Olympia, Washington, Near the, Centennial Train Station
Skills:

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Madalyne went back and sat down with Niah and Nancy giving her two friends a smile as she put her sword back into her pack, and leaned back watching Niah pulling out the snake heads and shuddered slightly seeing them. "Just don't prick yourself on those fangs they could be venomous or something." Madalyne said towards Niah as she went to put them away, as she shrugged slightly. "Could use to make poison or something. Or we can take the fangs out and use them for our little bracelet project to." She said, she didn't really mind either way it would also look pretty cool if they added it on somehow.

A few seconds later the real conductor came onto the train, and then the train started to move again a few seconds later, she started to relax watching the train station starting to move away now. They did actually make a really good team and worked really well with the monster encounters as well. "We do make an awesome team."

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Amtrak - Washington State
Skills: N/A

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Nancy had a brief image of them taking the fangs and making them into rings - she had heard of rings before that concealed little poison spikes. Those sounded pretty rad. Of course, she also liked the idea of adding a collection of items to these hypothetical (and increasingly dangerous) friendship bracelets. She liked Madalyne's idea too of just making a poison out of the fangs - she pictured Madalyne with a cauldron with bubbling fumes, dropping them in one at a time while chanting in Latin or some other dead language. "'Course we're a badass team. I'm here," Nancy joked, sticking her tongue out slightly.

The train was moving once again, meaning they were safe from monsters until the next stop most likely. Of course, monsters weren't the only things demigods encountered on quests - gods tended to come and poke their noses into things too. "But since we're such an awesome team, I think it's time we ask revealing questions of each other. Super serious stuff. So, Niah... What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? And why isn't it rocky road?"

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills:

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"We can decide later what to do with them." She said, being extra careful now as she put them away. Niah laughed at Nancy's joke and grinned, "Yeah, and I mean who else sings Cherry Bomb so badly it explodes heads?" Her stomach tightened as she made the joke, fear that Nancy would take it the wrong way and be mad at her pulsed and she hoped that she didn't judge wrong and Nancy would laugh.

"As for ice cream, my favorite is Moose tracks." She paused to think, then said "Rocky road is good too, but I'm not a huge fan of chocolate base ice cream. I also don't like things that are too crunchy in my ice cream so the nuts aren't my favorite. Why don't you like Moose Tracks? And what about you Madalyne what is your favorite ice cream?"

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Washington, Train Tracks Again
Skills:

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"I think im the more badass of the group though, like tricking that chimera earlier and then fighting that second gorgon all by myself while you two went for the other." Madalyne said jokingly as she leaned back a little bit and watched the scenery moving along slowly which was also really relaxing before turning her attention back over towards Nancy and Niah and smiled as they brought up their favorite types of ice cream.

"I personally prefer mint chocolate chip, that's actually my favorite." Madalyne said smiling a little bit as she remembered when she was younger she'd go get some ice-cream with her father, and he'd always buy her that. And she'd always pick out the little bits of chocolate chips and eat them before eating the ice-cream itself. "Also rocky road totally sucks." Madalyne said jokingly, she had never heard of Niah's before really.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Amtrak - Washington State
Skills: N/A

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Nancy narrowed her eyes at Niah for a moment, after her fellow demigod insulted her rendition of Cherry Bomb. "You dare insult the singing of a child of the God of Music?" Nancy asked, her voice sounding raspy - a combination of Darth Vader and Lord Voldemort. She held the gaze for a moment before she started to snicker, her facial expression changing to one of glee. "Just messing with you," she explained, giggling a little bit. She did enjoy singing, but she also wasn't going to be offended by Niah's joke. She liked Niah and she trusted her. Had someone else said it, well, then there might have been issues. Nancy's temper was... strong.

"What's Moose Tracks?" Nancy asked Niah. "Also, Rocky Road is the best ice cream flavor for a key reason - the nuts and marshmallows. The nuts are crunchy and give a good bite to it, while the marshmallows are like fluffy little pillows for your teeth. And then the chocolate base? It's heavenly. It's also consistent no matter where you get it from, you know that they'll have it and that it'll taste the way you expect. And as demigods, it's symbolic - our life is a godsdamn rocky road."

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills:

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Niah tensed up when Nancy spoke about being the daughter of music, but when Nancy cracked a smile Niah laughed. Niah was relieved. They had reached actual friend status.

"Oh my gods, you've never heard of Moose tracks." Niah sat up straight up. "Okay, so you have a vanilla ice cream base, peanut butter cups, and strips of fudge. Just the right amount of flavor. There are even mint flavored ones. But I prefer the classic vanilla one." Niah liked mint chocolate chip ice cream, and if a place didn't have moose tracks that was usually her go-to.

They would have to figure out how to get some. There were a bunch of different flavors out in the world, they just needed to get to like a Safeway or something. "You are right though, the demigod life is definitely a rocky road."

She looked at Madalyne, "You did do a great job. Without you, we definitely would have had to fight the Chimera." She shivered not wanting to have to deal with its poison tail.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Washington, Train Tracks Again -> Williston, North Dakota
Skills:

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It was another day before the train made a couple of other stops and for the most part things were uneventful for the train ride there wasn't any other monster encounters yet which was actually a good thing as well. Madalyne spent some time reading one of her books that she had brought with her. She was still on alert when the train made its next stop, she was starting to get really bored being in the train again, and it would be really nice to stretch out and move a bit. The weather was starting to turn bad though as there were a few thunder clouds rolling in now as well.

Madalyne stretched out slightly as she stood up looking over at Nancy and Niah. "So should we go out and stretch out a little bit?" Madalyne asked, as she decided to go and get some fresh air as well. Making her way over onto the train platform, there she noticed a map and went over to look at it. They weren't to far from Fargo which was a good thing, though they would have to travel over on foot or find some kind of transportation from there.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Amtrak - North Dakota
Skills: Sleight of Hand

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Nancy's legs felt stiff. She had chewed her way through almost her entire pack of bubblegum. She had even looked through the drawings on all of her tarot cards out of sheer boredom. The train didn't have any sort of instant entertainment. All she had to do was to talk with Niah and Madalyne (which was rather fun, but she couldn't fill all of the time constantly talking with them) or staring out the window at the scenery that blurred on by. She had spent decades in a place where time stood still and now, on a train speeding towards their destination, Nancy was beginning to chaff at the inactivity.

When they were just a few stops from their destination and the train came to a rest stop, Nancy instantly leapt up out of her seat, thrilled to be able to stretch her legs. They could probably buy some more food with the rest of the cash she had "borrowed" earlier - but first things first, Niah needed a phone. A smart phone. She still didn't get how those small buttons were usable, but that wasn't her problem. She went into the aisle and was about to bump into a businessman, when he turned and saw her going for his pocket.

"What the hell are you doing?" he said, clearly annoyed.

Nancy thought on her feet. She could have been a child of Mercury. "Argh, I'm... I'm so sorry... Is it... is it hot in here?" she mumbled weakly, stumbling forward as she pulled off a near perfect performance, acting as if she had been caught by a dizzying fainting spell and was not trying to pickpocket the passenger. Her plan was to get enough people asking what they could do to help, ask to borrow a phone to contact her parents so they could bring her some medicine when they picked her up at her stop in Fargo, and then pass along the phone to her sister, Niah, to contact them. "H-help..." she gasped, about to hit the floor.

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills:

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Niah had finished her book. So that left her with not much to do when the conversation died. She also drew in her sketchbook. A quick sketch of both Mads and Nancy. She put the date at the top of the page. Niah had struggled a bit with the sketch but was able to turn it around to something decent. She wasn't certain she would share it with anyone though. Only Nancy and Mads if they asked to see it.

When the train came to a stop and they had some time to stretch Niah was happy to take advantage of it. Her leg was cramped from being curled under her other leg. "Gods yes." Niah said shoving her stuff into her bag and then leaving the train with the pair of them.

Niah was surprised when Nancy feigned fainting, and for a moment she was caught up in the lie that she caught Nancy trying to make sure she was okay. "Are you okay? Do you need some water or something?" Those who knew Niah would know that until Nancy was asking for the phone to call their parents Niah looked like she believed something was wrong with Nancy, but then her face contorted slightly and she coughed. She didn't add to the lie.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station, Williston, North Dakota
Skills:

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The buinsess guy looked at Nancy a little bit confused at what the girl was actually doing, though there was a small crowd that started to form. "What do you need hun?" One of the passengers asked as she knelt down it was a woman who looked like she was in her late forties, and another passenger had some water and gave it to Nancey. Madalyne turned her attention towards her friends to see what they were doing, she instantly picked up on her friend, knowing that she was acting and quickly made her way back over towards them.

"Sis, are you okay?" Madalyne asked and looked towards the older woman. "Do you happen to have a cellphone on you? Ours have died suddenly." She said softly as the woman nodded and dug into her purse before pulling out her phone and handed it over towards her, and Madalyne gave it to her Niah.

[Morose]

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☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

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Location: Amtrak - North Dakota
Skills: N/A

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Nancy started to have a coughing fit, before abruptly remembering that she was supposed to be having a fainting spell, not the onset of the next deadly plague. Her brief slip in performance though wasn't noticed, as everyone continued to more or less buy her act. She fluttered her eyelashes convincingly, trying to embody a weak little girl as best as she could. "Water," Nancy croaked. "I'd kill for some gods damned water." Madalyne had picked up on the con she was pulling and a phone was handed to Niah.

Nancy roughly shifted herself until she was sitting back down in one of the seats, letting Niah have her hands free. "Thank you for giving my sister the phone to use..." Nancy said softly, trying her best to seem sympathetic to the woman she borrowed the phone from. She had no idea how long it would take Niah to look up the information she needed, but she hoped it was quick. Though Nancy also didn't know how long it usually took for someone to use a phone to call or text someone - cell phones made no sense at all to her and at New Rome, she hadn't really had a chance to learn. "Our parents are going to be so worried when they find out... My dad's got a fiery temper..."

[Kirah]

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Amtrak train
Skills: google

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Niah took the phone, nodded at the lady her thanks. Then stepped away from the small crowd gathering around her "sister". She pulled up google real quick and found two possible routes. One they would have to rent a car, and it would take eight hours. Or catch a flight. She frowned, pulled out her sketchbook, and wrote down the two routes real quick. Then deleted the search from the phone's memory cache.

Niah then dialed 767-2676. She could only hope that their current area code this number worked in this area. There was a pickup tone and then an informative voice told her the time. Niah spoke quietly about her sister not feeling well and could one of their parents hurry up and pick them up.

After what felt like an appropriate amount of time she hung up and turned back to the group. "Thank you." She didn't dare try actually lie. The fake phone call had been hopefully enough for her part in the ruse. And hopefully, if the lady looked at the number she wouldn't realize the kid who had borrowed her phone had called popcorn.

[Nallore]

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Madalyne Crane

Location: Amtrak Station, Williston, North Dakota
Skills:

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One of the passengers nodded and headed over to grab a nearby water bottle from his pack and handed it over towards Nancy. "Here you go." He said to her as soon as Nancy took a drink from the water Madalyne handed back the water bottle to the guy who had given it to Nancy. "Thank you." Madalyne said giving him a smile, as she helped Nancy back up to her feet while looking at her two friends, by then the crowd started to dissipate and went off to do their thing. "Are you alright sis?" Madalyne asked, still keeping up the ruse until they were off the train, and Madalyne made sure that they were clear she let Nancy go and smiled.

"So, what did you find Niah?" Madalyne asked looking over at her, since she knew how to use the cellphone better than the two of them they really should find the time to find out how to work a phone as well. This was another small rest stop and they had sometime before the train had to be boarded again as well.