Yankee — Roleplayer Guild

Ace Cadet, Pit,
Primrose, & Therion

Level: 9 - Total EXP: 250/90---------Level: 8 - Total EXP: 153/80
Level: 11 - Total EXP: 178/110------Level: 10 - Total EXP: 105/100
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Tuesday Morning.
Location: The Avenger
Word Count: 2497 (+3 exp)

Despite sleep coming late for some, morning came early for everyone. Hope's voice filtered into every room, waking the crew in order to get ready for the day's affairs. Except for the most recent recruits, everyone had some idea of what was on the docket for the Seekers' morning.

Primrose and Midna's room was kept pretty dark for the Twilight Princess' sensitive eyes, but the dancer didn't mind. She could dress and brush her hair out with her eyes closed anyway, though after her most recent fusion her hair did seem to want to curl itself back into a braid. Thankfully that style was pretty easy too, so once she was washed and garbed in her dress she sat back on her bunk to bundle all of her hair at the top of her head, tied it off and began to weave the long ponytail into itself. 

Somewhere down the hall, Therion was already awake and exiting his room. He'd turned in about as early as he could, knowing that by the time the ship reached the desert he'd most likely be awake again. Sure enough, even before Ganondorf had entered their room the thief was awake and aware, though he chose to lay with his eyes closed to get more rest. The Gerudo had to have been even more tired judging by the way he hit the bed. Therion didn't mind sharing the room with the other man, but it would probably be a while before he could sleep through the whole night both in the close proximity of another and with the ambient noise of the airship to get used to. A few cat naps and a couple of hours was all he really needed though, or so he told himself, so when morning came he got up with no complaints. He splashed some water on his face, dressed, bid the King of Evil a quick good morning, and then he was on his way to the bridge. 

Surprisingly, Pit was even faster. Considering the angel claimed to have to be ready for duty at all times, he rarely undressed in the first place. This was true last night as well, where even his chestplate remained on as he slept on his back with his now larger wings stretched out and hanging off the sides of his bunk. It had been easy enough to get to sleep, but upon waking he decided that at the very least he'd doff the new armor pieces for future nights. He was up after only the bare minimum of feet dragging.

And then there was the Ace Cadet. His second night on the Avenger down, he found it wasn't that bad. It had taken him some extra time to calm his racing heart after parting with Nadia enough to fall back asleep, but once he had he'd slept like a log until the AI's message roused everyone from their slumbers. With his equipment it took the man a little extra time, but he was an early riser anyway - so when it was time for everyone to assemble, he was right on time. He entered the room back in his usual armor, the altered Rathian plate, with the the arm pieces swapped out for a plainer kote and devoid of a helmet for now. With just one day of rest between doing battle with Consul L and soon being deployed to take on a Guardian, it felt a little like hopping out of the frying pan into the fire. He couldn't deny the tingle of anticipation though.

The Dead Zone. Ace didn't have any frame of reference for what they'd find there beyond what he'd been told by other Seekers, and what they'd said made it sound horrible. Now, even after that huge explosion - the voidout - had wiped the whole place clean, it still sounded horrible. But they had to tackle it at some point, and the best time was now that everyone was together.

Speaking of, with the Bridge filled with people the Cadet could finally get a good look at who 'everyone' was. Of the Seekers that he'd fought with in the Blue Seaside, only Nadia, Geralt, Blazermate, and the Koopa kids remained. He'd been told what had happened with Bowser, Kamek, and Peach, and that Sakura was up in some city helping refugees along with Karin. He'd found Tora and Poppi were here on the Avenger during his round, though they'd opted to stay out of the action for now. And of course, Linkle was stuck up in the Frozen Highlands at the moment. Besides those Seekers, Ace vaguely recognized a few others that had been introduced in Twilight Town. It had been right before he'd gotten stuck in the Highlands himself, so he'd only met them for a few hours at that point, and combined with the fusion changes he had a harder time telling who was who. Nothing a little time spent together won't fix, he figured, as his attention then shifted to the total strangers. 

He had briefly met Sandalphon the day before and found her to be pleasant, though they hadn't talked of anything besides, well, Seeker business. Besides her there was a rugged man with an eyepath and a horn protruding from his head... No, wait, not a horn...? Looks more like it could be a wound. Ouch. A red-clad woman with a horned crown... A middle aged man with a pair of gray wings... A coffin-carrying bearded behemoth... Whoa, he's almost as big as Band! And that groovios haircut! An equally tall tanned man with dark cropped hair and a goatee... An almost nondescript man save for pale blue skin and white and black hair... A sort of dark and eerie looking woman in a patchwork dress... A shorter person in a dark cloak that looked Neopteron in nature... A fit woman in a flashy black and pink bodysuit and sharp eyeliner... A muscular man in a blue suit and a helmet that obscured his eyes... And another huge man with sharp facial features and red hair that rivaled the Cadet's own in color. 

After taking stock of the Seekers as they were now, he realized that an entire half of them were people he'd never met. He also had no clue which of the girls was the Juri that Nadia had warned him to 'steer clear' of, but if he had to guess it probably wasn't the thin, dark haired woman with the very magical looking eyes.

He'd have to meet them all properly after the meeting, as it began almost immediately so as not to waste any time. 

As the first item for success in their mission, the personal shield generators drew plenty of interest. Pit likened it to the shield bubbles of Smash tournaments, so he figured he would get used to it right away. Not that he wanted to have to spend much time under the aging rain. And if the barrier's strength relied on not getting struck, Therion didn't think he'd have many issues with keeping his working properly. But if it was as simple as using energy to protect against the timefall, couldn't a magic barrier also be used in a pinch? As Primrose considered that option, the second item was unveiled making it known that magic may not be so reliable for the first part of the mission.

This was the linchpin of getting through the timefall unscathed, the Stable Field Emitter, but the fact that it weakened the effects of magic and other similar abilities gave a large portion of the Seekers some reservations. Pit had no doubts that his goddess' divine power would be unaffected, but for Primrose and Therion their ability to support the group would most likely be taking a hit. With no magic to speak of, save for possibly the boon bestowed upon him my Aphrodite a while ago, the Ace Cadet would have no such issues. Ultimately this machine was going to protect all of them as they invaded the Dead Zone, so no one could really put up a fuss. While the hunter thought about if it was possible to miniaturize the field emitter for taking down mages in the future, the final piece of the puzzle was revealed.

The BBs. Pit remembered being introduced to them and that method of detecting BTs a while ago, when he, Nero, Yuri, Banjo, and Kazooie returned from their reconnaissance work at the edge of the Dead Zone. They'd been opposed to using the infants then, even though they'd been told it was impossible to track or sense the BTs without them. So... no one had been able to find another way? Or maybe they hadn't even tried at all, preferring a tested method.

Pit tightened his fists at his sides. It had been weeks since the angel first learned about the BBs; he'd changed, but he still didn't like this plan. A quick glance around the room told him that he wasn't the only one with reservations either. The Ace Cadet seemed bewildered by the idea as he tried to parse what Sandalphon was saying, and how and why they needed to expose the BBs to danger. The Beached Things seemed like some sort of ghosts from their description, and if the BBs had a connection to the 'other side' was it because they'd just been born? How did that work? He couldn't quite grasp it and didn't really want to in the first place, the whole thing rubbing him the wrong way. Primrose and Therion hid their distaste behind carefully crafted neutral expressions, the both of them having already decided that they would do what they had to do in order to make the world right. Still, taking literal infants into battle was asking a lot. 

Out of the four of them, Primrose alone held one piece of information that let her get over the use of BBs more quickly. These infants would never grow up - they wouldn't make it past ten years even if they'd been allowed to age. 

Mere bookmarks. Just like everyone else.

She didn't like thinking about it in detail, but with that knowledge in the back of her mind she could push down her discomfort and go along with the plan. Sandalphon mentioned the need for volunteers to be decided before deployment, and the dancer took a step forward to offer herself as one - much to the surprise of some.

"I will carry a BB," she said. If the machine they were taking would weaken her magic, then she would be a less effective combatant. On the other hand, even if it weakened the positive effects of her dancing, a buff was still a buff. She could support the team from the back line and simultaneously protect the BB while it did its thing.

Pit balked at how fast she seemed to volunteer. Shouldn't they talk about this a little more? Was everyone really okay with little baby Mario and friends coming along with them as glorified sensors?!

"Why can't we just shoot down right next to the Qliphoth from the sky?" Pit asked, pronouncing the tree's name correctly for the first time. "Then we wouldn't have to deal with the rain or the BTs in the first place! Right?"

"The equipment is delicate, particularly the Stable Field Emitter. In addition, the crown of the Qliphoth tree is much larger than the base, its branches of flesh thick and tubular in shape. This poses a great deal of risk to incoming hellpods, which could deflect off its surface and become deathtraps, or leave troops stranded at an intolerable altitude." Sandalphon's pupils became inverted triangles as she explained. "Most poignantly, the Avenger can fire only four hellpods at once, and it cannot hover in place. It would take six passes to send everyone down, and if the first few run into trouble -including but not limited to landing in a BT pack- they will be on their own until reinforcements arrive." The archangel projected a screen with the image of a much smaller troop transport ship on it. "Our plan is to deploy the bulk of our forces via Pelican."

"...I guess that makes sense..." Pit begrudgingly admitted. He seemed to want to argue, but instead he closed his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. His face went through a couple of expressions as though he was having a conversation with someone internally as the meeting wrapped up around him. 

"I can look after the Field Emitter," the Cadet said from across the room, offering himself as one of the six needed volunteers. The device was large, but he didn't think he'd have any problems lifting it. Though this would likely prove to be different, escorting people and goods in caravans while keeping them protected was something he had experience with, so he was sure he could handle it. Wanting to be helpful was in the hunter's nature, and he'd much rather do this than risk fighting with a baby on board. There was a slightly more selfish reason too, in that being on emitter duty meant he would most likely be at the center of this anti-magic, anti-supernatural field. 

Therion was not about to volunteer for either role. It wasn't because he didn't want to help out, but because he knew he wasn't a good fit. If the Seekers needed to fight something that wasn't a BT, then Therion's offensive style of debuffing and hit and run would not lend itself well to carrying a BB. Neither would sticking around the emitter, which he figured would restrict him to his throwing weapons only if his (admittedly unreliable) magic spell wouldn't work. Actually, wouldn't the field reduce the effectiveness of his debuffs as well? This is gonna be a pain, he thought, letting out a quiet sigh. The group could only hope to get through to this "Qliphoth" as quickly and quietly as possible.

Once everyone had a chance to say their piece or put themselves up for early volunteering, Sandalphon dismissed the group. As basically one mass they moved down to the mess hall, all of them more or less ready to prepare for what would be an intense day. Once whatever private conversation he'd been having was over, Pit turned and left pretty quickly. He'd need a little more time to come to terms with some aspects of the mission plan, but mostly he was just hungry. He squeaked towards the front of the pack before the hallway got too congested. Much less concerned about getting their quickly, the Orsterrans simply joined the group and ended up somewhere in the middle. They exchanged some morning greetings with each other and few other Seekers they'd gotten to know better than others as they did. And although pretty eager to eat, Ace was content to just wait his turn - better everyone else get their fill before he got a chance at the buffet.

Auguste was clearly pleased with himself for catching the other man off guard. Yep, being petty with a friendly stranger is pretty much the highlight of all my nights. He lowered the camera, looking at the tiny reflection of himself in the viewfinder. Of every word that could be used to describe himself, Auguste probably wouldn't pick cute as first choice, but he supposed one must take compliments where one could get them. He then shifted his gaze to the digital screen displaying Julien's image, and up again to Julien himself. 'Cute' would certainly describe the blonde better - he was handsome, but not in a rugged way. He looked more like he could have been a teen idol in his youth, with softer features that complimented his masculinity rather than sharpening it. Definitely well suited to being on stage or broadcast on a screen.

"Julien Lafleur," Augsute repeated aloud as he gave Julien's features an in-depth, if brief, once over. It was a tip he'd been taught a long time ago to help keep faces and names together in his memory. This Julien was pretty confident, but if he ended up even half as famous as he claimed he was going to then he'd just given Auguste a little nest egg for the future. Lucky me, Auguste thought. 

As the small talk started, Auguste's eyes flickered over Julien's shoulder to the man he was supposed to be tailing. So far things were quiet on that front, so he could indulge his newest acquaintance a little longer.

"I stick out that much, huh?" He asked, amusement coloring his voice. He wasn't really surprised to hear that. His usual ensemble of neutral, muted colors blended in well out on the town, but here it had the opposite effect. In a sea of bright, boldly dressed men and women, along with professionals in rich suits dyed the blackest of blacks, Auguste's white and beige was a little bit of an anomaly. Just a little, but apparently enough to attract the more eccentric guests.

"Believe it or not, I am here on business," Auguste said. Now that he knew Julien had nothing to do with his mark, Auguste fished a business card out of his pocket. Introducing himself while advertising - now that was efficiency. 

He held the simple card out to Julien. On its face was the name Auguste Vareilles, and below it the words Private Investigator. His business email and telephone number were printed on the bottom of the card at either edge.

Tapping the camera against his shoulder, Auguste nodded his head towards the crystal tree. "If you actually want a proper photo done, I don't mind. It'll expand my portfolio a little. You can probably guess how my usual photos turn out," he said with a quick little grin.

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