Mirandae

OBLIVION

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NATALIE MILLER █ act one: way down we go Ritman High [Football Field] Interacting with @Salsa Verde ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

Natalie observed that smudge being removed from Melanie's cheek with bewilderment. Huh... I literally didn't see that. I guess I was blinded by something. She thought to herself as Oleander did his best to clean things up. It was a flurry of people, greetings, and old feelings stirring. Pleasant for some, too much for others, like a kid getting three rounds of ice cream in a single day. Natalie found herself in an awkward position, to say the least. She was positive that things in her own perception of herself had changed. Her entire approach to other people had been as different the past year in comparison to Ritman as the color black is to white. Natalie was rather surprised that some of these individuals even bothered to say hello, let alone use her name. She gave Dante a nod and smile in return. It was good to see that he was still himself despite what the gals did, all the while Natalie herself did nothing to stop it in the usual fashion. Natalie kept her mouth shut, though. Perhaps it was best to say nothing for a bit after that Chubby Cheeks comment to Samuel. How the fuck did I let that one slip out? Her mind muttered. In the old days, Natalie would have committed some kind of crime after being called the wrong name. Back then, she was somebody—at least she thought she was—and there was Hell to pay for any wrongdoings. Now, on the other hand, she simply kept quiet after being named 'Natasha' by Trystan. Could she really blame him? Blame anyone? Many of them had a right to do much worse to Natalie if they wanted to, and there was absolutely nothing she could or should do about it other than let it happen. Luckily, or perhaps hopefully, they were all good people, much better than Natalie had been and probably was ever going to be. She shrugged at the mispronounced name and glanced at Melanie to see if she noticed it at all. So many things were happening all at once, so much background noise of chattering and movement, that it would be no surprise if it flew under the radar and Natalie was the only one that somewhat reacted. Natalie held her fort next to Melanie until the capsule opening. The evening had damp, chilling air to set the mood, even if it was the beginning of summer. The jean jacket and deep V-neck top that Natalie wore did not quite measure up to keeping cozy. Her slim-fitted jeans were strapped so tight that blood circulation was but a faint memory, so she did not feel anything down there anyway. A bit of stand-still walking to keep the motions going kept her warm until Meir returned with the capsule itself. "Out of breath already, Meir? Better take it easy on those drinks." She said with a mischievous smirk. Before the thing was opened, Natalie remembered what she had put in there all those years ago. It was a video of Jennifer Elkmann, one of the gals that had given so many of those currently present a hard time. Natalie had captured the chick puking her guts out at a party and making an ass out of herself. The video was a solid five minutes of embarrassing shit that Natalie actively encouraged Jennifer to do more of, all stored on a USB stick. "Moment of truth! Here we go!" Natalie said excitingly loudly and gave her hands a few claps as Meir demolished the capsule with his boyish masculinity. However, the excitement was short lived. There was apparently nothing in the metal tube except some old, ragged book. Natalie leaned forward slightly to look inside the thing as someone else inspected it further, and it was true—the thing was empty. Natalie clearly remembered putting the USB stick in there, so someone had tampered with the capsule after that day at some point, which did not go well with the fact that Meir had to Hulk his way inside of it—a paradox. "What the Hell? I know I put a USB in there with a funny video of Jen. Maybe this is the wrong tube?" She said with a pale tone. ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

ᵀʰᵉ Spirits Within/Aeon

Come on now, this is a family-friendly roleplay.

ᵀʰᵉ Spirits Within/Aeon

@Archangel89
How are you feeling? Just checking in on ya.

@Salsa Verde
Try to get it in before 20 days since your last post. We're going to try to keep the 14-day thing the best we can.

@DeadDrop
Keeping the OOC alive. Mommy is very grateful for that!

The Witches Of Shipden Peak

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Location ⋗ Somewhere at the Patch. Interactions ⋗ Enzo Leonardo @Lionhearted School of Magic ⋗ Conjuration & Enchantment. Items ⋗ -	_______

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That distinct timbre in the voice sounded distantly familiar to Hanna. She had heard it before, although among the newcomers to the coven, which explained why she likely had not been able to place it quite yet. Either way, the smooth tones came from a lovely young man that she certainly had laid eyes upon before—once or twice, maybe three times, probably more if she was being completely honest. There had not been a decent opportunity to speak to him just yet. The restraint had been a mix of callous nerves and simply too many chores to take care of. Hanna was slightly taken aback by the approach, but it was much welcomed. It certainly made things easier for her by breaking the ice and all.

"Hah, maybe she would." Hanna said with a bright smile. Her focus briefly returned to the esoteric parts of things to make way for that pocket dimension again. She put her cell phone back inside, and then closed it up. Hanna quickly adjusted her dress to slim the fit and tucked a few wild strands of hair behind her ears, then she fell all of her attention on the mysterious man. "I thought I had a good grasp of everyone here, but clearly I was wrong. Although, I've seen you around a couple of times. It's kind of difficult to gauge who I should and shouldn't talk to. Some of these types are very talkative and social, and others are, well, they're not. I'm Hanna by the way." She said and offered her hand. "I tend to cause a lot of ruckus and talk a lot, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone has complained about me to you already." Hanna chuckled.

Even if her attention was on the immediate company, Hanna did catch a glimpse of Scott departing the festivities and heading towards the outskirts. It felt noteworthy, perhaps unusual, but Hanna did not connect any dots as cause for concern, although a hint of inquisitiveness was certainly there. Hmm, where is he off to now? Perhaps I should let my babies shadow him. One of the unique things about Hanna's talents in Conjuring was the wolves, Geri and Freki, which she called her 'babies'. Besides being lovely to interact with, they obviously filled Hanna's primary means of violence. However, they had other useful functions such as 'shadowing', which was essentially tracking or following someone or something. Hanna could not see or hear through them, but the wolves could lead her to whatever or whoever she wanted to find at some point. Alas, it would be weird to fling her arms around at the party, doing ceremonial gestures, and spawning animals out of thin air.

OBLIVION

Come on Magpies! Let's wake up.

ᵀʰᵉ Spirits Within/Aeon

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_{DAY 1 《》 RD-PRS [Research Wing] 《》 After Noon 《》@Aeolian}

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It was that light again. The light Emilia had seen in the forest earlier did come from Peter. She half suspected it, now the mystery was solved. Huh...Aether. Emilia thought to herself. It had been ages since Emilia had tried to heal herself or anything else. However, that light was different from what Peter was producing. I haven't seen that before... I wonder what that is. There was no doubt that Emilia had a general interest in Aeon and what they could do, but it was all mostly surface-level and nowhere near the detailed expertise of some of those present in the research wing. Regardless, Errikos seemed to keep an ever-watchful eye on everything, so Emilia could focus on the bizarre Stigma issue. Isolde certainly displayed who the real authority was around this place. She had the seniority both in age and rank, a wealth of knowledge and research behind her, and a rather frightening expression of the spirits within that would humble most Aeon. Emilia had no intention of ever telling this woman what to do or not do. Not even the careerist pigs within the UDF could keep her on a leash like they did everyone else. To top it all off, general McMahon had been polite to her and he rarely took a knee for anyone. The more Emilia thought about it, the more she straightened her own spine out and stood properly while listening to Isolde speak. Of course it's connected to Ben. Why wouldn't it be? Everything else revolves around him. The entire fucking world revolves around him for some reason. Emilia scolded the former flame of her life, as Isolde mentioned him by name. As the buzzing of notifications in cellphones faintly sounded among those present, Emilia reached for the back pocket of her pants out of habit and hardcoded muscle memory. A hint of panic struck her facial expression, followed by rolling eyes as Emilia realized that she had tossed her phone off of a roof early this morning. I'll just listen more carefully, instead. She thought along with a modest sigh escaping her frame. Although, Isolde's praise of Eunji managed to get a warm smirk out of Emilia, which was somewhat rare during missions and times of strife. "Zombies? Like in the movies?" Emilia lightly chuckled, a lazy puff of air at most, flaunting its sarcastic aroma—after Isolde's comment about the ants. It was an outrageous statement to call something 'undead' or 'zombie'. Then again, they were fighting literal monsters and demons out of a horrible nightmare on a daily basis, so it was not as reaching as one could assume. Isolde sounded more like a mad scientist the longer she talked. There was a fine line between being a genius and insane. She was going to conduct some personal experiment on Ben? Emilia certainly felt a bit of a punch in the stomach after hearing those ramblings about blood and a cure come out of the authority's mouth. It was as if that classified part of the Research Division had brainwashed Isolde's soul to a pulp. Or rather, Isolde was probably the one that did the brainwashing. It was difficult to tell whether these lunatic scientists of ResDiv were more out of touch than the night-crawling weirdos of IntDiv. Emilia did not take to the overall suggestion very well, but she kept her mouth shut. That ice-cold stare from the woman did not help. Isolde did not have to say or do anything more, Emilia could feel a sick sense of pleasure in the woman from a mile away—she actually enjoyed this, just as she enjoyed stepping over these poor people's corpses like they were trash in the street. UDF High Command would eventually know about this development, and they would probably side with Isolde. Emilia figured that they would also change their minds about a thousand times before the group even got close to Ben, so it was not over yet. Regardless, there was no use in speculating. Emilia tried her best to control the somewhat disturbing train of emotions going through her facial expressions each second, but it proved to be more difficult than usual. "Well..." Emilia began, trying to equalize her tone as much as she could, erasing any trace of an open book to her heart and soul. "I'm sure you'll convince McMahon and High Command of that. I don't know what we're supposed to do with him other than find him, so any practical direction would be nice, for a change. All I know is that we have to get into that city and find out why he basically destroyed it." Emilia paused and looked at the BlackRock operator. "Christina here saw an Archon in the city earlier, which is obviously Ben. He was close to achieving transcendence years ago, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that he has now. But, if these, eh, things have Ben's DNA in them, is it really him or is it Bahamut? I mean, they're not entirely the same thing, right? So, the question is whether you need Ben or Bahamut alive. I'm only asking because depending on the answer, the mission drastically changes in difficulty." She said and leaned her back against a somewhat clean wall.

Summary

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Emilia ponders about Peter's light and how it seems different from the Aether element. She listens to Isolde's speech. Emilia finally asks about the distinction between Benjamin himself and his Archon form, which one of them that is important here, and how it can change the difficulty of the mission.

Quest Steps

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The team has to ready up and head into the city. If there is no interaction to be had, characters can leave the Research Wing and rally by the entrance to the PRS.

ᵀʰᵉ Spirits Within/Aeon

@Aeolian
Very cool post. My head just exploded, I think. Lots of good stuff for me to work with in plot devices down the road!

OBLIVION

@Salsa Verde
A USB stick with a video of Jennifer Elkmann (one of Nat's friends) puking her guts out at a party.

ᵀʰᵉ Spirits Within/Aeon

@Archangel89
You shouldn't stress out about it, either. Let's do this: Aaron is knocked out and in the trauma unit of the Portable Research Station. Robert and Scylla @DeadDrop@Rockette carried his ass there after the fight. Whenever you are ready to post, there can be 1 of 2 scenarios. First, if you post after the team has moved on, my second character (Hana Maeda) will be there when Aaron wakes up. She's IntDiv, as well, so they know each other. Second, if you post soonish while the team is still at the Portable Research Station, then we just carry on as usual.

This way, you don't have to stress out or feel guilty about not posting. Take care of yourself first, come back, and then things carry on with one of these two scenarios.

ᵀʰᵉ Spirits Within/Aeon

This is mutiny. I can't believe you treat me like this, your own mother.