[ Akiko ]
Mhnn...
[ Akiko, wake up. ]
Five more minutes...
"Okay, she's not waking up, so..."
... whuh?!
Akiko woke up with a stir, looking down to see none other than Lorelai picking up the cat over her shoulder and starting to carry her off towards the darkness of the Abyss. "Okay, okay! I'm up! Jeez, you guys can't let a cat sleep for a little longer?"
Lorelai placed the scheming cat down gently as Castle remanifested behind the two. "I apologize, but the situation has grown more dire than last night. We ought to be moving." She paused for a minute before leaning down and gently grabbing the cat's chin. "After all, I'd be a shameful knight if I didn't protect my queen, wouldn't I?"
"Heheh, yeah." Akiko smiled, stretching for a second before looking around the corner at the rest of the group. She chose to stay behind a wall for the night so nobody saw her, but she'd prefer to keep her impression up-"Who the hell is that." Her eyes locked onto the cat barbarian across the other side of the group, next to Kanbaru. Lorelai peeked around the corner as well to get a glimpse.
"Another... alluring traveler arriving, assumedly to travel with your group. Why do you ask?" Lorelai fawned and inquired before she raised an eyebrow. "It couldn't be that you're jealous, are you?"
"No, of course not. Why would I be jealous." Akiko scoffed as Castle floated over beside her. She wasn't jealous, she just didn't like the vibe of another cat being around here. It was messing with her radar.
"My Akiko? Jealous of another cat around here? My my, how interesting! And here I thought the queen was above these feel-" Lorelai was cut off mid sentence by Akiko reabsorbing the card and stuffing it into her dress. "I'm not jealous since I only love you Lorelai, but sometimes you definitely push it." The two would have some real alone time later, both to discuss this and also scheme.
Akiko stepped out from behind the wall and rejoined the group, stepping to Kanbaru and the new barbarian girl. "Oi, bluey. Awfully quick at wanting to make new friends, aren't we?" She looked at the whale with a bit of concern before eyeing at the cat barbarian. "Don't believe we've met before, stranger, but I think we'll have to wait on that for just a second..." Akiko's tails flashed through the air in a similar fashion to Runa's previous exploits of time as the demon approached the group and spoke about the presence approaching. Just in time, too, meant Akiko could actually act here instead of waiting on the others to speak up.
"What she said. Come on, Kanbaru, let's get moving." Akiko grabbed the whale's wrist and started to pull her away from both the barbarian and the encroaching storm. Castle, in cat form, leapt onto the whale's shoulder and just stared at her with intrigue. What was it about this girl that made it's master so enticed?
Runa approached Akiko with a warning of the predictions, and Akiko nodded. "Noted, but if I'm to be honest, I don't think we really need to predict where it's going. Looks like it's on a pretty straightforward path." They'll just have to keep themselves ahead of the cloud, and thankfully Akiko could figure out just where to go, converging onto the same tunnel as everyone else (hopefully still holding onto Kanbaru). It was then her eyes settled onto Thomas.
How... interesting. Seeing Thomas made her think of how he and Riku had been getting closer and closer together. Almost made her think he was going for her royalty, too. Actually... if Akiko was going to be a queen, then getting into a relationship with a princess, even if she was scorned... noted.