The City (IC) [M]

[Gareeku]

As the human displayed his reaction to Gareeku's question and replied, the wolf snarled, his fangs on display and hand gripping the hilt of his katana tightly as he glared at the hairless ape. He really didn't like this guy. Watching the human gather his things and begin to walk away, the wolf listened to his advice, relieved that they were to be rid of him. "Thank you."

Turning away from the human, Gareeku glanced at the pantheress.
"I swear to the gods...if every inhabitant of this city was like him, then no wonder this place went to shit." the lupine growled softly.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Waiting for the two young felines to consult on the offer of making up a party Sister Alex worked on finishing her bowl of soup. She hadn't gotten very far through it when the clockwork bug climbed on the table and questioned her regarding Snappy. As a member of a teaching order she was happy to explain.

"The book is my grimoire and I created every bit of it from making the paper and binding it into a book through the spellcasting. Originally it was merely enchanted to come to me when called. My work is to locate and acquire magical books. After many years of exposure to a magic-dense environment, the book has soaked in enough to gain semi-sentience." 

Alex gave the pocket Snappy was currently in a soft pat and felt him wiggle a bit. She was quite proud of him. Every Gutenberg made a book from start to finish, it was part of the vows, but only the mages made grimoires. Well made and sturdily enchanted his growing sentience had been a surprise, but one that had been a blessing. More than once Snappy's presence had quieted a dangerous book and allowed it to be taken without damage.

[Cogidubnus]

 A cloud of blue smoke followed the blackguard down the way, a product of the strange, bitter-smelling tobacco he was smoking. It wreathed and curled in the air, playing in the noonday light and only fading long after the blackguard had left, rising into the air and staying perhaps a bit longer than it should. The blackguard seemed more relaxed away from the people he'd just left - his face, rather than a mask of anger or indifference, actually looked thoughtful. He threw the cigarette to the ground, and gathered a bit more tobacco from his pouch.

"Hostel, huh..." he said, running a finger along the rotting wood and flaking paint. "I've seen worse, but not much. This whole place looks like it was gutted a long time ago." He licked the paper and rolled the tabacco into a tube, pinching the end to light it. He seemed to contemplate walking by, but after a few moments smoking, he opened the door anyway, expecting to sink through rotted floorboards and old carpeting. He looked around for an unfortunate person to question. He had a perfect one in mind.
"What's the best way to get lost around here?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

The suburbs were quiet as Ed and Eph moved on. Quieter than before. It was almost sad, in a way. At least before there were sounds of life around them. Nothing eventful happened until they were halfway to the bridge, a trash can knocked over near one of the nearby houses and a cat's tail disappearing around the edge of said house in a strange, jerky manner. Like it was dragging some heavy weight.

"Now that's odd...." Ephrael said coming to a stop and pointing at the disappearing tail. She started walking again but not directly at the corner but at a wide angle so she could see round it and not get surprised by something jumping out at her.

[Lisky]

Ed followed Ephy in her wide arch, staying close.  His wings were twitching in anticipation as he too was curious about what it was.  The edges of his wings could be seen folding in on themselves, starting to form the tendrils with which he preferred to fight. the very top of his wings gleamed as it hardened and sharpened itself into a steel-like edge the grew back to it's feathery state as Ed willed away his nervousness.

The incubus stretched all his senses to try and get a better idea of what the thing was.  at the same time, he was already preparing a general defense spell for ephy designed to divert most basic harmful magic away from the wearer of the shield spell, it wouldn't be the greatest defense, but it was the best he could do with such limited information. 

A few steps later his wings had formed a swarm draconian headed tendrils, which seemed to playfully travel about the maximum length of the tentacles they were attached to, as if a pet, testing the limits of it's owner's leash.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Traxen heard the voice of the book-girl in his headset, and his switched channels again, responding to her through the drone. "Interesting...I've heard of ambient magic producing unusual effects through long-term exposure, but haven't seen any examples until now. Anyway, you...procure magic tomes? That's an interesting job...what sort of skills or abilities do you have that aid you in this line of work?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha snorted in agreement with Gareeku, watching the human leave.  To whose comments the weird creature ended up addressing, she knew not...for hers seemed to be unheeded...but it didn't matter in the end.

"Quite so," she murmured back, giving the wolf a quick grin.  "Probably a bunch of cowards, scurrying off in the dark like roaches at night.  Not an ounce of respect for those who want to help, I just bet you anything."

The panther hummed dismissively and looked about the dilapidated scenery, wrinkling her nose at some of the smells permeating and regarding the sights with a small amount of pity.  "Well, while we're scoping out a path...we might as well head to one or two of the places that he suggested before.  Museum or sewers...heh, such a hard choice," Aisha laughed.

Meanwhile, a thought in the back of her mind wondered if anyone else had come through the City somewhere along behind them.  Just briefly.  For now though, she was content looking out for herself and for her companion.

[Angel]

Black Magic turned and faced the others when the multiple offers and questions about said offers came up. She looked at Mykst, who was still looking doubtful about all this. He felt a sort of obligation to see Payden, though he knew the cop hadn't demanded that he join him at all and likely wouldn't mind too much if they didn't show up.

"Well," Magic said, startling Mykst out of his thoughts, "to be honest, I'd be much more comfortable with these guys than just heading to the cop. And besides, we just might run into him later anyway."

Mykst looked away for a moment and bit his lip. But then, he turned back and nodded with a small smile. "Okay, you're probably right," he admitted. He turned to the roo-rat who they'd healed before. He could relate to financial troubles, but he wanted the man to know something before they took his offer.

"We'll gladly take your help, but you don't need to worry so much about repaying us for earlier. Your thanks and help are enough," Mykst said, a little quietly but much more calmly than he'd seemed with Payden. "We're healers. If we'd just left you to rot for the sake of a few coins, we'd be murderers." He smiled just a little. "I never did get your name, though."

As this went on, Kali listened for Andrace's response to the troll. If they agreed to help each other, it would be interesting to see how things would turn out once they all left the inn...

[Boog]

As Aisha and Gareeku continued onward, something being-shape darted away from the edge of a nearby rooftop, hoping not to be seen. They'd been talking to Silas. Who knew what they might do?
Eventually they reached the museum, a building constructed with fine architecture in the style of such great buildings, a wide and squat thing all flat planes, columned entryways, carved roof edges and windows shaped like mailbox doors. The occassional flickering light, like a campfire, could be seen through some of the windows, delicately carved faces reminicient of the greek style staring down from them and the tops of the entries, but most eye-catching was the crucified demon on one of the columns.
It had obviously been there a long time, the corpse having long since grown mummylike and dried. The eyes had fallen in their sockets, the still vaguely canine muzzle still open in some final scream. The horns were long since blunted, one even cracked, and limbs that were noticebly once strung with muscle that could crumple armor had been dried and shriveled to dust, rag and leather. Six long implements, seemingly some manner of immense ivory quill, had been driven through each wrist, ankle and wing to nail it to its place, a long rust-colored stain trailing down the column below it.
Nearby, someone had spraypainted the words "Eat the ____." A blank space left like some highly unnerving word puzzle.

The thing Eph and Ed came upon was depressing, to say the least. It was another creature comprised of Being and animal features, although far less functional. The body, legs and tail were that of an ordinary housecat, while the hands, feet and head were the features of a rather delicately built being girl. The head, being full being size, was too large for the body and had built up thick callouses along one side from being constantly pushed and dragged along. Two perfectly furrae green eyes focused on Eph, widened to their fullest... And the cat screamed. It sounded terrified, and furious, but more importantly it sounded like an alarm.
And indeed, answering calls came back. Roars, screams, barks, shrieks... All manner of noise.
All approaching.

"Lost and never found, or lost and having to take a cab home?" A wolverine woman stepped into the lobby where Giles was, absentmindedly brushing some dust off her flannel jacket. She was middle aged, with auburn hair slowly but steadily escaping from the tight bun it was tied back in. Sharp eyes peered over small round spectacles at the blackguard, sizing him up with something between a schoolteacher's glare at a student who looked like trouble and a merchant's appraising eye.
"First one's real damn easy around here. Second one's a bit harder."

Jinx opened the door to the living room of a decently furnished suburban home. A black sofa covered in plastic sat against the front wall under the windows, against the opposite wall was a television, the wall between them contained bookshelves...
And silluhuetted against the door leading to the kitchen was something profoundly unnerving. The head was decidedly reptilian, and the arms and legs and tail brought to mind a leopard gecko grown to enormous size. The body, however, was that of a supermodel. The juxtaposition of feral and beautiful traits was, was....
A scream split the air, and suddenly the thing was gone. The back door of the house slammed.

Jezebel kept an ear open for the current bonds being formed. She liked adventurer politics. It made for interesting thinking material. The demon girl, however, when she was done bristling at the troll's remarks, had taken on a slightly contemplative expression. Moze peered back downstairs, wondering what was taking Raek so long.

[Tipod]

"Yeah, cities and weapons more advanced than sharpened steel aren't too common. You know how much rigamaroll I went through just to get my .44, let alone the bullets for it?" He gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "It's funny: the places with the most gun control had the most problems, under the thumb of some monster. It's real easy to push beings around when you take away the great equalizers." It still pained him that his revolver was gone. What were the odds of a gunsmith being in town? "...I don't know. What do you wanna bet this city's just a giant ward? 'Don't get too advanced, or we'll come in and destroy everything. Signed, the Creature Council.'"

[Noone]

Kyirri was incredibly surprised when he heard his meal had already been pain. His eyes bulged. No way, he thought, good fortune doesn't happen to me, it's got to be a trick... a trap, I just... He shook his head. It felt dirty to him to repay kindness with suspicion, yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was somehow a trap. He took a look at Sister Alex. Why would she? He wondered. He couldn't come up with any conclusions. It was another debt he needed to repay, in his mind, yet, he felt a rush of guilt, feeling that he wouldn't be able to.

He turned his attention back to Mykst. He made a slight nod. "Kyirri Teekay... at your service." Kyirri found Mykst's attitude about him odd, it seemed too altruistic to him, and considering where he was going, he certainly didn't expect it. He found himself unable to produce even a weak smile.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Ephrael reacted quickly, pulling the bow off her shoulder and stringing an arrow in one smooth motion. She let fly at the cat thing's head, hoping for a quick kill knowing that putting this one down now could be the one chance off escaping what came next.

"Well shit I guess I owe you an apology Ed..."

[Aisha deCabre]

As the wolf and the panther walked along the street, the surroundings of the once-great city ever changing and yet ever the same, Aisha kept her ears trained on anything that sounded out-of-place.  She knew that something was darting around watching them, even if the footfalls were ever so slight...but the huntress figured whatever it was, they could deal with it later if it became a threat.

Still, she thought with her eyes narrowed on the road ahead, it was never a good thing to be watched.

But soon the museum had come into sight.  For being in a ruined place, it looked rather impressive.  She wondered about what could await them beyond the doors and windows, beyond which there was a little bit of light like that of a flickering candle, to her surprise.

"Weeelll..." Aisha whispered, looking around in curiosity.  "Seems like an interes--"

Her voice froze, and so did her footfalls upon seeing the dead Creature upon the column.  The huntress's hand instantly went to the pommel of the sword on her back, her eyes wide.  It looked like it had been dead for a long time...a face twisted in a macabre reminder of the pain it must have gone through in those last moments, and the shadow of dried blood having run in streams below it...still sent a cold chill through the quiet air.

The letters written upon the wall ending in a blank slate didn't help matters either.

Aisha grimaced in pity.  "I hate demons at the best of times..." she said, glancing toward Gareeku with her hand still on the sword.  "But I try not to believe anything deserves a death so painful and slow as...as that.  It makes me wonder what the circumstances were."

Looking at the front entrance to the enticing museum, she also couldn't help but wonder what could have easily killed and done that to a demon...and whether or not they'd run into it.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace's ears flicked from side to side as she listened to the replies. One eyebrow went up at the wolf-thing's final comment, but she seemed more amused than anything else. "Well," she said, "if somethin' bigger an' nastier 'n me does m' in, I'm hardly goin' t' complain, whatev'r y' do. If y' happy wi' twenty dollars a day plus a share o' whatever we pick up along th' way, y're in."

"As f'r th' rest o' y'," she said, turning to face the two young mages and the kangaroo rat, Kyirri, who'd just introduced himself, "I'll not speak f'r th' Sister here, but f' m'self, I'll be happy t' have y' along. Say, ah... Mykst, y're not just healers, are y'? I thought I saw y' start t' toss a spell t' try an' break up th' fight. Got anything else useful in y' bag o' tricks?"

Privately, the lioness made a mental note to keep track of the wolf-troll, especially when he was behind her. It wasn't that she mistrusted the huge Creature's honesty and reliability: she mistrusted his medical diagnostic skills.

[Mao]

Mao took a minute to take in as much of his surroundings as he could.  There certainly wasn't a lack of life here, but the glances of it were fleeting at best.  His gut felt that something definitely wasn't right, but he couldn't pinpoint what was giving him that feeling.  Concerned about this, Mao decided to stay within sight of the fence and do some scouting to see if he could get a better understanding of this feeling he was getting.

He used his ability to increase his speed to fling him in quick leaps about, being sure to stick to areas that were not otherwise occupied and that were likely to keep him out of sight as much as was possible.  Roofs, Shady areas that appeared devoid of life to his sight, and spots that had no windows facing them and plenty of clear space for him to be sure he wasn't being observed.  He watch every footfall as closely as he could to ensure as much silence as was possible.  The feeling he was getting was certainly one that warned him to caution.  Mao had felt unnatural things before, and faced them, but he knew better than to take any risks concerning them.  The back of his mind played through the image of the injured demon and the few snippets he had heard about the place, each as vivid as though it was just happening.  He forced himself to focus on what he was doing as they passed through his mind.

"This would not be a good place to lose focus.  I know too little at this point of what has happened here, and what is still going on."

He resolved himself to the idea that should he encounter life here, he would observe it from as far away as was possible and do his best to stay unnoticed.

[Lisky]

Ed nodded to Eph, he noted the sounds of beastly howling, to very being like screaming, coming from all around the area.  Taking a quick look, he noted that there was 2 story house nearby.  The feline said, "we'll be safer on higher ground, at the very least we'll get a better look at what's headed this way."

He led the way to the edge of the house then asked, "you wanna try and hold out on the roof, or perhaps slip inside and hide out for a little bit?"

[Myr]

Pity he hadn't gotten a reply back from the demon yet, as it were. Still, no loss. The monstrous canid was more than happy about the lack of retribution. So it was a simple matter for him to, for lack of a better term, shunt any thought of the conversation with Alice elsewhere in his mind -made it far easier to sort things out mentally. The current situation with Andrace took up most of his attention anyway-everything else in the bar was decidedly peripheral at the moment.

And no, he hadn't forgotten about Moze...he just felt this needed to be settled first, or at least be close to settling before following the simian fellow.

The lupine troll sighed as he considered her offer-the noise sounding rather odd, to be honest...and frankly quite impossible to describe. Not that he was one to complain, but his kind put little value in trinkets and whatnot -preferring something they could actually use. Like his axe, for example. Still, better than nothing. And a dollar? An ear twitched briefly before he remembered. Oh...wait, that paper they use in some places.

"Sounds reasonable overall," He grunted finally in a slightly sour-seeming tone, "I accept the terms of pay especially." That last bit he'd learned from being around other ilk like himself- as in other mercenaries. Always paid off to be at least a little polite when accepting an offer.

As a side note...yes, it was probably a good idea not to trust his opinion when it came to injuries- especially if one recalled his initial thoughts on when that little rodentine chap Kyirri got hurt earlier. Not really what you wanted someone to consider if all you needed were a few stitches or a good healing spell.

"Now, I'm going to be getting some supplies," He said in a somewhat more normal tone of voice to Andrace's back- if one chose to ignore the thick rumble that came with said voice- "Since you're not offering a meal, I supply my own." There seemed to be a touch of amusement to what he said next, as it were. "If you're brave enough to stomach whatever I cook, you're welcome to it." His lightly fuzzed tail flicked back and forth in a lazy wag as he turned and padded towards where he'd seen Moze head off to.

"All right," He huffed once he'd reached the top of the stairs, "Show me what you got. I've got a bit of coin I'll spend, fair and even." One of his clawed hands dug into a pocket to reveal a large handful of varying coins. Mostly copper and maybe bronze, for the most part, but a little silver and maybe a genuine gold coin or two along with a few moldering dollar bills. Considering that the coinage itself looked a bit worse for wear -and one couldn't be sure if that verdigris on some of the coins was actually mold or not- a chap might get the impression they'd want to use a liberal amount of sanitizing materials on said currency.

[Kafzeil]

Jinx merely stood rooted in place, mouth agape, the colour drained from his face as one single thought looped in his brainover and over and over again:

What the Fuck was that thing?

Okay...it looked like a Being...sort of....but then...it was also-

The feline felt sick to his stomach...it wasn't a Being...but it might have been one.

You don't know that...dammit just get it together...follow that thing...you lost it, chalk it up to your own imagination trying to spite you.

Looking around to make sure no one was the Were shifted into his feral form, leaving his weaponry hidden nearby in his luggage, he slinked around to the back yard.

This form had other uses then just killer magic...

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Huh?" The cop was talking again. Traxen switched channels. "The Creature Council? I seriously doubt the Creature Council had any involvement here. If they were involved, I would think they'd just annihilate the whole place and be done with it, keep anyone from actually salvaging stuff, like me. People have gone in and come out alive, the barkeeper himself is living proof of that. And if you can go in and out, then you can bring something with you. No, I really don't think this place's troubles were part of a deliberate organized effort...though if it was, the implementation of retribution was horrendously sloppy."

[Boog]

Moze blinked at the money Raek had set out once or twice, then shrugged and Opened the door to the shop. Standard adventuring gear, tents and bedrolls and backpacks and useful lengths of rope. Flashlights and rations and the occassional map of places that previous adventurers had made of bits of the city, mostly hastily scrawled things of debatable usefulness. There were a few books that past adventurers had written as well, also of debatable usefulness. Weapons of not particularly poor nor high quality lined the walls. All this, packed into a room rather like a hotel gift shop. Moze knew how dangerous the city was, but that was no reason not to be professional.
"Anything you need but don't see here, ask about it. We might have it in the back, and there's a few shops in town I could probably direct you toward too."

The backyard of the suburban house was empty, with a long brown reptilian tail vanishing over the left wall. Something briefly rustled in the bushes toward the back of the yard, but whatever was there slipped through a hole in the fence after the lizard. The initial noise had quieted down now, the only sign that it had ever happened at all being the occassional soft rustle of displaced foliage as the various living things of the City suburbs moved quietly...

Eph's bolt struck home neatly, silencing the cat's shriek with a final sounding thunk. The howls and screams in the distance faded rather quickly, leaving Ed and Eph alone with the dead cat-girl and the general sussrus of what was probably the breeze through the occassional patch of overgrown yard.

Flitting from rooftop to rooftop, it was hard for Mao to get a definite read on the actions of the local wildlife. He could sense them moving, all around him, via cracks in floorboards or underground tunnels or just ducking from cover to cover, but when he tried to pick one out he'd lose it too quickly. They knew the area. He didn't.

The first room of the museum was thoroughly impressive. As soon as you passed through the reasonably sized lobby and ticket booth it was vaulted ceilings reaching up through both floors of the building, looking none the larger for the mummified dragon that took up the center of the room, with plaques and benches around it. Glass walls contained wax statues of past cultures both being and creature. In one Demons wearing feathers and animal skins snarled at a group of angels in more medival garments, disembarking a boat. In another several beings in a temple of stone, wearing ornate masks, clustered around a succubus in some manner of worship. In another a heavily armored being was sitting at a table with a human, both pointing to different parts of a map and discussing something.
The room looked lived in. People had stolen bits of the dragon's wrapping, and there was another glass case which had been smashed. According to the plaques, they once contained ancient javalins. In a corner, a fire in a trash can was burning from recent intruders spending the night.

[Cogidubnus]

 Giles tensed in the woman's presence - she reminded him of black-cloaked women he'd prefer to forget - but his tongue, and himself, didn't lash out. He simply inclined his head in her direction, respectfully. "Ma'am." he said, his tone suggesting that if he had a hat, it'd be in his hands by now.
She was pretty - getting on, but Giles was no spring chicken himself. She wasn't the lithe sort of beauty that came with youth, or the sultry beauty that came with maturity - rather, motherly, of a sort. Frumpy, but not in a bad way, greying hair and spectacles simply adding dignity to her visage. Giles smiled.

"The sort of lost that makes you hard to find. I guess that means lost and never found." he said

[Myr]

The lupine troll's furred ear twitched back at the brief look the simian fellow gave the currency he was holding. Just be glad he wasn't so dense as to ask what said look was for. Maybe I should find something else to put my earnings in, he considered as Moze opened the door. Or maybe make some new clothes. Probably both would be a good idea. Or maybe teaching him the value of more than rinsing his clothing out.

Still, at the moment such matters weren't nearly as interesting as what was behind said door.

Personally, the aberration of a wolf was inclined to say most of said items were junk at first glance. Still, couldn't hurt to look, right? The hand holding the money curled into a fist-if only not to lose what it was holding at the moment- as he stepped inside, pale eyes assessing; taking in everything with the casual familiarity of one who had been in similar places so often when on the job they knew exactly what they were after.

It was also, after a moment of standing a few feet inside and looking around, that he realized that digging through this himself might take a considerably longer time than he'd planned.

"Moze...I know what I need. But I don't think I'll be able to find it in all this," He said thickly as he looked over at the innkeeper. "I need a sack; not too large. Maybe big enough to hold sixty pounds." Raek grunted. "Then I need at least one cooking pot, a pan, and a stirring spoon." He paused, thinking. That 'roo-rat, three felines, the squirrel...And maybe that fellow with the spines, should he suddenly want to come along... "And five shallow plates-you know, the kind that can be used as bowls too." Eh, he'd just eat straight out of the pot or pan himself, as it were. "As for food..." The lupine troll scratched his muscled stomach reflectively, "Grain, dried meat, bread, vegetables...the typical things that should keep for some time and whatever else you think would work. And a jug of water should do it." He shrugged. "If you even have part of that, I'll be right thankful."

It was then he happened to catch sight of one of said maps. Hmm...might be useful... "And...how much for one of those maps?" Maybe one of the others could use it-he was never good with them since they gave him a headache.

[Kafzeil]

The feline assassin gulped. Perhaps following...whatever that thing was, was a bad idea.

Slinking back down from the top of the fence he checked his surroundings before shifting back to his furre form, his adjsuted his tie as he grabbed his luggage. He didn't know what bothered him more...the silence made it seem like he was alone, but his gut told him he was very, very far from being alone right now.

For the first time in years Jinx truly felt the need to be around someone...anyone who was at least slightly normal, and would make sure some Sin-Against-The-Gods didn't get the drop on him and leave his managed corpse impaled on a fence post.

As Jinx begun to walk back down the street, he hummed to himself, attempting to fight back against the silence by softly singing to himself.

"I like my town with a little drop of poison
Nobody knows they're lining up to go insane
I'm all alone, I smoke my friends down to the filter
But I feel much cleaner after it rains..."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Grinning as her arrow struck true (As well it should have considering the cost of the enchantments...) She turned to the incubus and placed her finger to her lips.  

"I think it would be better if we left the area instead." She said through her custom mindshield.

[Lisky]

Ed smiled politely then nodded. he'd have preferred to stay in place for a bit, but if she was ready to cross the bridge and get into the real city, the incubus wasn't going to complain.

He fluffed his wings back up, put an arm on Ephy's shoulder and said, "well, let's get going then... i'd hate to run into more of those things..."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When the spider-thing asked her about her training it took Alex back for a moment to her adventurer training with Sister Daisy, the most misnamed person she had ever met. Scarred and battered from years of acquisitions she was most unlike a delicate wildflower. Sister Daisy was a llama and never quite got over the urge to spit at people doing something particularly stupid. This was one of her most memorable traits to her often spit-stained trainees. That and her ability to carry an entire set of encyclopedias by herself.

Sister Alex shook her head at the the metal bug. People saw the habit and made assumptions. "If you're worried that a nun from an order specializing in librarians and teachers is a liability in a dangerous situation I can tell you that I was a fully trained mage before I took my vows and I've been retrieving magical tomes for 20 years while retaining all my limbs and organs. I'm a nun, but not a cloistered one. Shall we all give our qualifications?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   Traxen's voice chuckled through the spider-drone's speaker. "Heh, I didn't mean it like that! What I meant was, I've got an offer, specifically for you. We're both heading into the City, and we both have heard tales of it's dangers. I'm sure I can handle myself, but I've tagged along with a few adventuring parties, and I've learned that extra hands never hurt. Here, I need in particular people of skill and competance, which, as you put quite unmistakably, you possess. So, how about it? We can give each other protection and support in that forsaken place." The voice paused for a moment. "Any of the other people here can accompany you, it doesn't make much of a difference to me, and there's even strength in numbers."

[Angel]

Mykst looked over at Andrace when she asked her question, and smirked sheepishly. "Well, yeah. While we both know healing spells, our affinities for magic are different. Kali's affinity is dark magic - "

"But it's just my affinity, not a preference," Black Magic suddenly spoke up. "I'm not the type to sit in a pentagram all day begging spirits for black nail polish made from the tears of the damned or anything like that. Just so you know," she nodded to the older lioness. She didn't want her, or anyone else, to assume that she was like every other emo-child who could only wish for her magic. Or worse, that she would end up as one of those elderly psychos who used skulls as codpieces (and/or bras) and used legions of undead to try world domination. People thinking of necromancers that way tended to hinder their viewpoint of other users like her, who could be quite normal.

Mykst sighed a bit and continued. "And my affinity is elemental magic. But I only just discovered that it was a few months ago, so don't expect any big shows." At this, Kali snorted and grinned.

"Sweetie, I heard your spell. You almost summoned up a wall of solid rock to keep the two hotheads apart. Don't even say you're not good yet."

[Mao]

After a while of scouting, Mao was beginning to feel that a new approach was necessary.  Between his own fast movements and the fast movements of the life around him, Mao wasn't able to get a good sense for the life here.  Sure, the place was teeming with it, but something still wasn't right.  Everything was hiding and moving too quickly. 

"Perhaps a new tactic is in order."

Mao scanned about looking for an unoccupied tower or tree or something from which he could hide in a relatively defensible position (as much as one could in a town like this) and maybe get a good glimpse of the local life.  given his scouting, he had a good feel for this part of the outskirts of town but he still hadn't had much time to take in all of it.  With that in mind he continued about as he was while trying to find a suitable place to observe from.

[Noone]

Kyirri remained silent, observing his companions to be. He suddenly felt a feeling of inadequacy, What do I have to offer them? I can't wield magic, the others seem to be able to do so effortlessly. He glanced back and forth at Kali, Mykst, Andrace, and sister Alex. All of them seem quite capable, they seem a bit too trusting, I just hope in the City that it isn't their downfall. He looked over at the Raek, and then at the spider drone. I can't bring myself to trust them..., then again, they trust *me*, which I suppose is quite a stretch. He took a close look at his pale left hand, and sighed. Then again, it's not my place to decide whom they can trust.

Kyirri stopped himself. Then again,.. they don't know... it's better if they don't know about me. I'm sure they would hate me if they knew...  He ignored Moze as he opened his shop, Kyirri didn't need any additional supplies, and wouldn't be able to afford them anyways. He simply awaited for the others to get themselves ready and head out.