Realistic or Modern SMITED [Mission Two] [Always Open]

[June Verles]

Rory found that he liked the other recruits in the agency at first interaction, more than he could say about his cousin who seemed to be suffering from water induced PTSD. Don't get him wrong, he did feel somewhat bad now that he bullied her about her fear, but going up to her and apologizing would mean he was wrong and she was already preoccupied with her own group of people. With any potential feelings of remorse easily dispelled his attention was grabbed by Maia's request for him to spot her, which resulted in Rory realizing his rather obvious lack of gear.

"Scuse' me ma'am but I forgot to put on me gea-" unfortunately before he could finish his sentence a leech-like girl, possibly a girl-like leech, butted in and started talking to Maia. That would usually result at least with an angry remark from the big red demon, but instead, all that came out of him was a tired sigh and a groggy response to the lady's introduction;

"Happy to be your acquaintance miss, you can call me Rory if that would suit ye."

However, before the conversation could continue any further he was cut off by Si-woo's orders to team up. You could almost feel the indignation as he groaned at the sound of him having to go and join up with his cousin's possy. With a roll of the eyes, he excused himself and made his way to where the gear was located, putting on a breathing apparatus and a chest mounted light flashlight which he equipped on himself with a somewhat lack of finesse. But before he could finally go meet up with the rest of the team he had to sadly leave his bagpipe behind in the favour of a more practical harpoon.

Walking up to Jasper who seemed to be the agent in charge of the team, he waited for the mage sight to finish its course before speaking to him;

"G'day, agent Rory Red, sir. Before we move ahead forwards, I am used to a wee bit more air which might be why I might be acting more sluggishly."

Epiphany Zaxs Tarmagon Fable DergTheDergon Noble Scion

 

[Phayne]

Cain Hawkins
-The Scarecrow-
​

Cain merely followed behind, his left hand tracing the side of the cavern wall as he transmitted his powers along the shadows at certain intervals, almost like a steady pulse. Though with every step further their group took into the shadows, the weaker the response was; his manipulation of the shadows reaching an impassable limit, an area beyond where his powers could extend and it soon became apparent as to what the cause was. A faint glow appeared beyond the group, the soft light radiating through an opening in the cavern wall and holding back the shadows that had encompassed the rest of their path.

Reaching the gap behind the others, Cain could only gawk at the marvel that had presented itself to them; an entire city; one basked in an eerily blue light."Bioluminescence?" he heard Si-Woo ask, though the question itself seemed to be rhetorical in nature. Considering the fact that this city was deep underground and within an ocean, it made sense that any civilisation intending to survive in such a place would need an alternative form of light source, were the bio luminescent plants the reason this supposed ancient civilisation chose to reside here or did this ancient civilisation some how create this plant, some form of ancient cross-pollination procedure to cultivate a species of flora capable of producing light and if that were the case, what other scientific marvels could they have accomplished.

Pulling his gaze away from the glowing plant life, Cain's eyes scanned the rest of their immediate location; the area around them appearing to be indicative of some kind of market bazaar. The large opened area and structures reminiscent of market stalls coupled with the large statue in the distance seemed to imply that this was an area where the locals would gather quite frequently. As Cain examined their surroundings, his hand occasionally tapping away at his camera's 'capture button' whenever something of interest caught his eye; the senior agents had begun discussing their next course of action; the idea of splitting into smaller groups being their decision.

"Yes, Sir" replied Cain, taking one last 'zoomed in' photo of the statue and turning to face Si-Woo. "What exactly will our group be tasked with?" he inquired, glancing towards Morrigan and Yue.

Fable Zaxs Lexielai​

 

[Birdsie]

Quinn Johnson

Countless masses of fish moved away to the right and left, parting to allow the predator swimming next to them go by. That predator was an androgynous human being with an unhealthily pale complexion, equally pale hair, and dark eyes, wearing what looked like a casual day-to-day outfit that clung to her body.

Despite going across the water this way, the human did not drown despite not having any diving equipment and she did not seem to release bubbles of oxygen from her nose. In fact, the efficient movement at which this person moved were so unnaturally graceful it felt as though she was born down here.

Quinn resurfaced in the cavern and climbed up onto the dry land. The water soaked in through the fake skin, becoming acceptably dry in barely fifteen seconds. Quinn proceeded down the tight archway, past the collapsed column, and went through the room with mural depictions of oceans, until she arrived behind the rest of the team.

"Hello! Agent Quinn Johnson reporting for duty," an excited voice spoke from behind Si-Woo and Lacily. The tone of voice sounded deeply unsettling, with a low subsonic hum over rumbling, like a very distant swarm of bees was flapping its wings while the person spoke.

"I was assigned to this mission post-departure, hence my late arrival. I have my documents on me if that's required! As for my race, I am what you would call a Great Old One, however, I'm not old enough to warrant calling me old."

Behind them was what looked like an androgynous, short, teenage... person.

She didn't look imposing, but there was something innately unsettling about her. A smile, too symmetrical and eyes still too wide, spread across her face. So close to being human, yet still off. Wrongness cultivated into horror. The pervasive wrongness was so subtle, and yet so sublime that it could send goosebumps down one's spine - as if warning that who stood in front of them was not what the eyes said it was. It was like looking at a kaleidoscope and sensing that there is some greater meaning in the shapes and colors, but being unable to connect the dots despite staring wide-eyed.

Fable

 

[DergTheDergon]

Sang’s thank you was met with a smile and a nod. The smile only increased as she brought herself to communicate a bit more with JT despite her fear. No matter how Sang acted after this mission, Xaira had a different opinion of her now, drastically improved over before.

As the Dragoness marched onward after her announcement over comms, most of her felt free, finally getting to take action after all this time. However, in the back of her excited mind, there was a tiny tinge of anxiety that she was forgetting something. Or, maybe several somethings. It was a feeling that, as usual for her, mostly went unnoticed until Lacily spoke. Her exasperated word caused the Dragoness to stop dead in her tracks, a blush forming on her cheeks as she tensed up a bit. In all honesty, the talk of team leaders and equipment, while she’d certainly heard it, might as well have gone back out her ears so to speak the moment she’d felt the excitement of what she might find deeper in. She nervously scratched the back of her head, shaking her head simultaneously in response to Lacily’s questions. “I-I, umm, O-oops,” was all she could bring herself to say in response. In short, no, she shouldn’t be doing any of those things and wasn’t a team leader, and embarrassingly, all of those details had gone out the window for a moment earlier. Taking action without thinking had always been a major habit of Xaira’s; she’d never been one for hesitation to put it lightly. In situations like this, it was a detriment, but she hoped that the positive side of her usual lack of thought before acting could be laid bare to the others soon. She hoped to become one of the foremost agents with a reputation for getting things done, even if, at first, she wasn’t doing quite a few things right. It had always been like that for her, in any endeavor she took up or participated in.

When lacily then turned to address everyone again, Xaira stayed frozen in embarrassment, but listened to what she had to say as best as she could. However, it would seem that it didn’t look quite like she was paying attention now to a certain Mer among her fellow agents. She was just about to go ahead and shuffle back toward the group when Agent Bae literally began to drag her back. “W-what the hell?! I wasn’t going to go any further! Let go of me!” Once he did as she requested, she shot him a glare before straightening herself and continuing to absorb as much that was being said as she could. It took a good bit of willpower for her not to ask Bae how he’d like being dragged around by the tail, especially as he kept loudly bashing her hasty actions. It seemed as though he assumed that she intended to ignore orders, and assuming her intentions was, in her experience, both usually wrong and very, very infuriating. However, she wasn’t about to deliberately do something that might get her on the bad sides of those appointed team leader any more than she already had.

The notion that she had to be ‘babysat” by Jasper also made it difficult not to speak against Agent Bae (although she herself shared his apparent sentiment that Jasper had himself together a great deal more than she did from what the Dragoness had seen of him thus far). She just barely managed to only nod at Bae’s question and not chew him out in turn about how truly wrong his guesses were as to why she’d begun to forge ahead so abruptly. Lacily clearly had the same idea. In truth, it was simply her excitement for the mission and for being in this place unlike she’s ever seen before; the itch to explore, discover and do things that mattered that had yet to be truly scratched. Such excitement often overwhelmed her, subconsciously tuning out all in her surroundings and in her mind except for the anticipation of what lie ahead. Others bringing her back to the moment was an embarrassingly common occurrence for the Dragoness.

After nodding and seeing Bae move for his gear, she found herself shaking her head and muttering under her breath, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Yeah I got it, I totally needed all that just to understand I messed up. Lacily didn’t make it clear enough.”Thankfully, it was highly unlikely anyone except for Sang and Jasper heard her due to the volume she carefully kept coupled with her proximity to those two that remained closer than the other members of the group.

Once she had recentered herself in the moment, with a deep breath and a few moments of massaging her scalp with her fingertips, Xaira went ahead and grabbed the necessary gear, sauntering back over toward Sang and Jasper with a bit of an awkward smile. The orders now having been the equivalent of pounded into her skull with a hammer, she found herself mentally noting to touch as little as possible and document everything she found of particular interest before securing it, and to ensure to stay with the others at all times. Considering that they were about to head further into a place likely rife with discoveries of the century, the last one was still going to be harder for her than anyone here would like, but she promised herself then and there that she’d pay more attention, for everyone’s sake. The embarrassing moment that just passed might’ve been just the kick she needed to get truly serious, she admitted mentally.

Thankfully, it didn’t take much longer before the team began to move further in, and past teh column Cain had found earlier with his interesting magic. Even though they were moving as one, Xaira ensured that she was as close to the front as possible while still staying where she could see or be seen by Jasper and Sang, mostly the latter as she still found herself almost naturally toward the front of the group, moving at a brisk pace.

She also tried to keep her distance from Bae so as not to work herself up about him further, and focused on observing what was around her for now. Doing so always helped to ground her and remind her of what was truly important to her in the moment, which currently consisted of making sure she was paying attention, keeping with the group and being ready to take any action that might be needed. She always had the third one covered, but the challenge of the first and second began to occupy her for now as she finally calmed down and became more used to being in such disorientingly different surroundings. Any Dragon would likely feel restless so deep underground; such was the yearning for the sky in their blood.

Jasper's use of his mage sight was very intriguing to Xaira; it was clear that it was some sort of magical detection spell regarding his subsequent comments on the apparently non-magical glowing flora that dotted the ruin, but she’d never even heard of a timed variety such as this. Using the method she was aware of, the caster had to channel their energies constantly; Jasper seemed to be able to ‘set and forget’ his version of the spell. Were those tattoos of Jasper’s the source of his magic, perhaps? That would explain his ability to activate it for a certain length of time and not seem to need to focus on its upkeep, as in Xaira’s case for example, her magic came from her Draconic blood and had to be channelled with conscious effort. She’d have to ask him about it later, she decided.

As the group moved deeper in, all her hasty action and visible antsiness from before had simply vanished due to a combination of the feeling of progress gained from exploring beyond the first chamber and her surreal-seeming surroundings taking the Dragoness’s breath away. She had had a feeling before that there would be sights to be seen down here, but she still found the abandoned Merfolk city fascinating to take in up close. The photographs shown during the briefing didn’t even come close to doing truly being there its due justice.

When she was told to take to the skies and observe, Xaira responded at first with a curious look, finding herself tilting her head. Bae had only recently chewed her out for going off on her own, however, considering her ability to fly that was currently unique to the group, it made sense. Brushing her incredulity aside, her face lit up with a grin in a split moment. After all, she was more than glad to help. “On it,” she said without so much as a moment’s more hesitation, stepping just far enough away from her compatriots to have a clear launchpad. Crouching down and putting all her weight into the balls of her feet like a loaded spring, her palms on the the cavern floor in front of her akin to a runner’s starting stance but modified for vertical momentum rather than the horizontal variety. After taking a deep breath to center herself, she unfurled her wings, and with one forceful flap of them pushed off the ground with all four of her humanoid limbs to aid her. Now a good few feet up in the air, she flapped steadily a handful of times to gain height before beginning to glide a couple hundred feet above the cavern floor, taking in the sights below with a breathless “woah...”

Once her awe had been given a few moments to sink in, she began to relay what she saw to the group over comms.. “Xaira reporting from above. Looks like the city’s split into clear sections. It looks like there’s housing over to my left, and what might’ve been a commerce center of some sort stretching for quite a distance on the right. I see a few clearing-type spots that might’ve been parks of some sort. Waaaay off in the back, there’s a huge palace-like building that’s probably paramount we check out. That’s really all I can see, so I’m coming back.”. Her tone was professional and metered, quite the contrast to her earlier behavior admittedly. Feeling the sensation of flying even as far below sea level as they were currently was very freeing, although she couldn’t help but feel as though her wing strokes took more effort than above ground- likely because of all the water and air pressure bearing down on this place from above. She mentally noted that she’d have to be careful not to overuse her flight for any reason down here, lest she become exhausted.

Once she’d seen and relayed all she could for the moment, Xaira somewhat reluctantly turned herself around, came back down and landed near the group, carefully sweeping back her crimson locks which had ended up falling about her face and shoulders courtesy the draft created from her wings. Speaking of her wings, they felt a little sore now after such sudden exercise, probably due to being in such low altitude, and under a good deal of water pressure from above to boot. As much as she hated to admit it, flying would likely be best kept to a minimum here. Also, using her full Draconic form was very dangerous in a place like this.

The notion that the group should split up after all was met with equal surprise, agreement and trepidation from Xaira. The trepidation in particular was something Xaira wasn’t normally used to in these types of situations. However, being here in a place were dangerous tremors could send any manner of debris, not to mention water, crashing in on them was finally beginning to erode her usually strong sense of bravery. The team leaders were probably going to be happy about that, as she’d definitely be metering her actions a bit more now with both her in-creeping trepidation and the still-fresh embarrassment of being chewed out by two people in quick succession.

When the groups were assigned, Xaira nodded, a little concerned that Rory was going to be tagging along together with his cousin, but otherwise liking the lineup quite a bit. Sang didn’t seem to be in the most stable place right now, as it were, and on top of that, her and Rory didn’t seem to get along too well, to put it lightly. Xaira found her gaze wandering over the both of them as she thought about this, mentally nothing to herself to keep a watch on the both of them. She couldn’t speak for Rory at the moment, but Sang had shown vulnerability in asking Xaira so meekly to partner up despite a likely very strong desire never do such a thing, which Xaira greatly respected. If Rory were to make moves to upset her further when Sang herself wasn’t being disruptive at all, he might get some unexpected hostility thrown right back at him, courtesy of a Dragon’s maw. The look she gave Rory as he joined the group, though it was accompanied by a nod of almost-friendly acknowledgement, also came with an intensity shown in her eyes that served as a warning. For Sang, there was far less intensity, and a bit of a smile to boot. When Xaira gained a rather strong impression of a person, or in Sang’s case, her initial impression of them changed drastically through action, which Dragons had from time immemorial held as the true measure of a person, the past be damned, Xaira ended up displaying that impression quite clearly. Taking the example of her current team, her impression of Sang was rather friendly while Rory’s was less so, as she’d seen little of him thus far other than displaying a rather clear animosity toward Sang, which wasn’t quite returned by her if only out of having to face her rather obvious by now fear of water. However, she did feel a little guilty for thinking this way as Rory then proceeded to act very politely toward JT without showing any animosity toward Sang, letting him know of his discomfort down here. Did Sang share those concerns? If she did, she hadn’t said anything about it, though she was directly related to Rory. Perhaps he had a milder form of her Aquaphobia? Regardless,Xaira supposed it wasn’t really her problem. Reminding herself to keep an open mind about him while still keeping an eye on him for Sang’s sake, Xaira then moved up beside JT to start moving out.

“So, JT. Where we off to, then?” Her confident tone and slight smile conveyed complete faith in his ability to steer them in a fruitful direction. “Want me to stay up front with ya? If ya’d like to check out a certain area, I can point you to where I remember it being from my bird’s eye view. Ah and, I promise I won’t go off on my own or anything.” Slight bashfulness colored that last sentence of hers, but the moment JT decided where to move out, it seemed to fade as she began to follow him. She was distracted momentarily, however, by hearing a hauntingly distinctive voice nearby she swore she hadn't heard before. Turning around and getting a look at the stranger as she heard her explain that she was a late arrival, Xaira found her eyes widening for a moment at her appearance. Was she an undead of some sort? No, she looked a bit too… alive for that, a bit too human as well, with an emphasis on 'a bit'. The dragoness couldn’t help but notice that this adolescent-looking girl didn’t seem to be sporting any sort of breathing gear, but she clearly wasn’t a sea creature of any sort. Xaira would have to sate her curiosity for this girl from the source after the mission, but for now, they were about to head out. Smiling and nodding at the girl if she ended up catching her attention, Xaira turned back to the task at hand; continuing to explore the place to the best of her ability.

Fable Noble Scion Tarmagon Birdsie June Verles and @ everyone else over the comms :3

 

[Noble Scion]

The leader of their merry band of misfits elected sort out the groups themselves, presumably for a more strict sense of control and caution given that they were exploring the unexplored, and who knew what was next? Certainly not Agent Si-woo, from what Sang could tell, which did not help her rather ravenous fear that was still quaking at the idea of being anywhere near the ocean, never mind down in its depths, the mere thought send shivers through her body and suddenly she felt a little more panicked than before, but she merely gulped it down once more and stared tight-lipped at the ground. Constant thoughts of how the crushing water could simply murder her in moment prevented her from relaxing her tensed body even a small amount, still unable to get over the idea that everyone else seemed so calm in a place that a single crack in the roof of the cavern could result in their demise, something about the sensation of the suit she wore did nothing but to heighten her discomfort. Even if it wasn't immediately surrounding her, it's presence was definitely noticeable, most particularly jarring being the complete absence of light aside from the ones that had been provided for their group. Something about it being a problem she couldn't beat into submission made it all the more terrifying.

Her new partner Xaira was given orders to leave the rest and find a vantage point as the rest of the group began making their way into what appeared to be a sunken city's remnants. There was something off-putting about the ghost-town, aside from the fact that it was currently at the bottom of the sea and completely lacked any and all forms of life aside from the strange bioluminescent plants. No bodies seen so far seemed to suggest that either It had been down here so long that even the bones had decayed to nothing, or that it had been deserted for some reason, and both of those screamed "unsafe", The princess of red just had to hope that the lost 'Atlantis' could hold the weight of all that was above it for another few hours so that they could get out of this unharmed. She'd dreamed of better ways to die, such as through attaining revenge in some dramatic face-off with those dirty Soledad demons, part of her still wished she'd died that day she'd charged their house so she'd be free of the shame she still felt to this day, yet it hadn't been, and thus here she was, scared almost to the point of fainting and wandered into the unknown a bunch of people she barely knew that probably didn't like her very much. "A long line of bad decisions led me here.." Sanguine Red, the old princess of the Reds, grumbled into the abyssal darkness with her barely-open eyes that still seemed to hold some of that signature rage within them, while the rest of her was shaking so much that it almost seemed to show that even standing was a struggle, only pressing on with sheer willpower. She'd never even had a bath since the say she almost drowned, only ever showers.

The most blaring thing that bothered her about their new team was the most prevalent fact that both her deserter cousin and her exiled self were now together once more, which warranted a groan from Sang herself, given that her deluded fellow demon had been bothering her the whole journey over, and not in a fun family reunion way either. She prayed he didn't try to bother her much more, she simply didn't want to deal with such a thing. The fellow Red began speaking to her magician acquaintance Jasper, to which Sang responded by shuffling a bit away in the opposite direction about as fast a terrified demon on the verge of panic could without falling over.

Once Xaira made her fated return to the group after reporting on a particularly large building that was out of Sang's vision, she did not seem very pleased at having been picked at by Lacily, going so far to mock him, which was the first thing since she had arrived at the organisation to earn a smirk from the demoness, despite her current status. The dragonkin seemed to be slightly out of breath from their flight, which made sense given the setting they were in, and although Sang didn't know much about flying, she'd read a small bit about thermals and how necessary they are for flying amongst birds. Perhaps it was something similar to her wings as well, yet despite this, they still managed a rather graceful landing, which did make Sang feel ever so slightly jealous given how terrible she probably looked in comparison a the moment, yet she said nothing and returned her golden eyes back to watching the ground in case it suddenly disappeared.

Sang inadvertently slinked to the back of the group, yet kept pace with them, arms folded in a manner of reassuring herself by gently squeezing her own muscular biceps through the suit, hating her blatant weakness and wishing that the mission would just finish up already, and hopefully be given the chance to redeem herself in the next mission, preferably one that had much less water, none if it could be helped. "Stupid ocean.. Being made of water... Who thought it would be a good idea to build a city in it." she growled to herself sulkily, kicking and dragging her feet against the ground as their group of four journeyed through the empty streets of ancient stone
Fable DergTheDergon June Verles Tarmagon

 

[Tarmagon]

"Rory Red?" Jasper asked, cutting his eyes over to Sang. "This isn't going to cause problems is it?"

Before Rory could reply, Xaira launched herself into the air, promptly sending down a clearer picture of the space. Jasper took a moment to think about the image that was forming, building it up in his mind as Xaira landed. Unlike some... An eldritch chill washed across Jasper, making him shudder like the cool air hadn't. A form spoke up, drawing his eyes to a female seeming Thing.

"Hello! Agent Quinn Johnson reporting for duty," it said. "I was assigned to this mission post-departure, hence my late arrival. I have my documents on me if that's required! As for my race, I am what you would call a Great Old One, however, I'm not old enough to warrant calling me old."

Jasper managed to control his reactions through years of training and discipline, his iron will standing him in good stead. It was an agent, nothing more, despite the ripples it propogated through the ether.

"Thank goodness my power is internalized," he thought. "This, entity could be disruptive."

Shaking his head, Jasper returned his attention to the task at hand. Some folks would be heading to the temple, but Jasper was fairly sure they'd get more information from the day to day living areas than a rarified temple environment. Glancing around, he saw that everyone was within earshot, which made things easier.

"We'll take the housing area," Jasper said, making certain the senior agents heard him. "Regroup in two hours to compare findings and archive footage? Red, could you steer us in the direction of the housing area please? Rory with Re... Xaira if you please. Sang and I will cover the rear."

Jasper let Rory and Xaira get a couple of paces ahead before pitching his voice low for Sang's ears alone.

"Do I need to send Rory to another group?" he asked quietly, glancing at the uncomfortable seeming demoness. "Or is there something going on that I can help with?"

Fable DergTheDergon Noble Scion June Verles Birdsie

 

[Fable]

DergTheDergon Birdsie Noble Scion Epiphany r e i Tarmagon Zaxs Lexielai StoneWolf18 Phayne June Verles Remembrance

(Team Reminder. Jasper, Xaira, Sang, Rory. Lacily, Maia, Mara, Calleia. Si-Woo, Morrigan, Cain, Yue. Additionally guys, the cavern has air! You're not gonna run out anytime soon. The breathing apparatuses are for if the area gets flooded in an emergency.)

Just as Si-woo was going to reply to Cain's question, a voice spoke out that caused him to actually twitch due to being startled. He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the agent who had spooked him. He felt his skin prickle in response and automatically wasn't keen on this new arrival. "Agent Johnson, was it?" he asked not expecting an answer. The moment the agent stated their race it explained Si-woo's dislike of the creature. He went up to the new arrival, snatched the papers and hastily backed away, preferring to keep his distance. He gazed over it and sighed before stuffing it into his pack. "Seems we have a late arrival then. Jasper you get Johnson."

Just at this time Xaira landed and eventually asked using initials where their team was going. Jasper replied for his group to claim the housing district. At first Si-woo would have protested, but since it was now the largest of their teams, perhaps it would be for the best to give them an area that was probably considered the largest site to explore. "Very well. Jasper and his team are going to take the housing. Lacily and her team will go to the large palace. My team will check out the market area. We'll do a coms check every hour to make sure each group hasn't run into any trouble. In three hours we'll re-group here. Team leaders will need to sync any time pieces they have. If any of you get lost, you are to return here and await the others to return. Head out." Tarmagon Noble Scion June Verles DergTheDergon Birdsie

With that Lacily, who had set a timer on her watch, motioned for her team to group up with her. "Since we'll have to go the furthest back, we're going to go there as directly as possible. Since we don't exactly have a map of this place, we're going to have to rely on this old thing." She pulled out a rather antique looking compass of elven design. "We can take notes, photos, and maybe artifacts as we make our way over there. Any questions?" r e i StoneWolf18 Epiphany

Likewise, Si-woo summoned the agents within is own group. "Since we'll be hitting the market district we're bound to find artifacts that might be worth consider taking. Remember, small items only and carried very carefully. If you find any papers or scrolls, something with the writing we can physically take with us, secure it in a waterproof container so we can bring it back for the linguists to study." Zaxs Phayne Lexielai

Jasper's Team - Housing
It would take the group the better part of thirty minutes walking on foot to reach the true entrance to the housing district. There was a half-wall surrounded the housing area which was made of what seemed to be sandstone bricks which were long ago painted a vibrant blue with over the unknown years has faded. The houses themselves were made of the same sandstone, but each was painted in white, which like the half-wall had painted over years of neglect. Most of the houses on this end were single story and quite small, looking more like fancy hovels than today's modern homes. These smaller homes had what seemed to be like thatched roofs, many were in decent condition while others had rotted and fallen into the building itself.

Within these smaller homes that were still safe enough to enter, it appeared eerily as though those who resided here had never truly left. All their things were still inside, barely disturbed. There were straw beds on the floor with vibrant blankets over top and layered in a thick dust. Some kitchens looked as though whoever had been there stopped in the middle of whatever they had been doing. Old piles of dust were all that was left of the food that had been left out; on plates and inside bowls. Clothes were left in wooden dressers. Items of value for these poorer citizens remained where they were, jewelry made of shells, stone, wood, and pearl. It was as if they had suddenly vanished, taking nothing and leaving everything they owned behind.

Lacily's Team - Heading to the 'Palace'
Lacily gazed down at the compass and then glanced up in the direction that they needed to go. As long as they stuck to the same general direction, even weaving through the unknown streets of this ancient city, they shouldn't get lost. "Let's try and get there with enough time to actually explore the ruin," she said openly. They only had a few hours before they would have to re-group and as much as Lacily could just tell off Si-woo that she'd need more time, it was better to try and stick to the timeline as given before making any changes to it.

She set off with the team in tow and within ten minutes they had discovered one of the parks that Xaira had mentioned. There was a piece of dead coral in the center with a stone base. Upon closer inspection it might have even been used at a fountain. It was huge! Towering over them with a few feet to spare. She'd never seen anything this size before when it came to coral. "I wonder if it's real or just constructed," she pondered out loud.

The grass here felt more like sea grass and very soggy and there were a few trees here and there, much like willow trees in how their leaves dangled, but they were twisted and dripped with moisture; a true weeping willow. All the flora here was strange. "Should we take some samples back? They aren't artifacts but just as peculiar."

Si-woo's Team - Market
As they were just outside of the market district, Si-woo's team didn't have very far to go. There was a large open space that was was probably the center for the market crowd to gather. There were stalls made of wood with fabric canopies, which seemed odd for a cavern city. What light would cause them to need to use canopies? The oddest thing about the market was there were goods still in place as though the merchants had left them without a care if someone had stolen them. There were shops of things like food - now nothing but dust in grain sacks - dinnerware, clothing, trinkets, and all other manner of items. Si-woo was drawn to a very strange shop that had gemstone figurines within a stone shop rather than one of the food stalls. These gems weren't the tiny kind you found, these crystals were huge! Large enough to be made into fancy figures, cups, bowls, plates and more.

"Why would they leave something as valuable as this?" he asked himself.

 

[June Verles]

As they made their way into the housing district Rory finally realized the reason why he was getting so drowsy, his magic conditioned him into increasing his lung capacity to almost ludicrous levels. Which would've been fine if he was on the surface but they weren't on the surface no more, resulting with Rory having to slow down his breathing in order to fully fill his lungs. That fixed the problem but with slower breathing also makes you more tired so he was currently trying his best not to fall asleep, wherever other members of his team noticed or not.

By that point however they already made their way inside of the housing district and begun investigating the first few houses. The way everything was left behind almost as if the residents were vaporized from existence was somewhat creepy but they needed to look for a reason. He squats down taking in a deep breath before exhaling and jumping with incredible prowess, landing somewhat graciously, for someone of his caliber, on the sandstone support that made most of the houses.

"I'll hang up ere' to provide better lighting for everyone," he says as he fiddles with the chest mounted spot-light before turning it on. "Up ere', I can spot for..." he stops himself as he squints at Xaira in an attempt to recollect her name "Red... if she wants to take to the skies. And any of ye mates who wan' overhead light."
DergTheDergon Tarmagon Noble Scion Birdsie

 

[Epiphany]

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[/div][div class=statusText]Location: Heading to the 'Palace'
Interaction: Lacily, Mara, Calliea
Tags: r e i StoneWolf18 Fable [/div][/div][div class=title]Maia Sarif[/div][div class=text]This place was fascinating! Maia craned her neck to look around and openly marveled at the ancient architecture. This wasn't something she'd ever seen much of, growing up where she had. The conflict in her homeland made ancient structures both less important for daily survival and additional points requiring extra protection from the skirmishing. Not that she'd been home in a long time. Nor had anyone been home here in even longer.

The elves and the merfolk seemed professional enough, and competent. Perhaps more so than herself. Maia had no doubts to her own competence but she also had a healthy respect for the limits of those capabilities and she'd reached them here. Adjusting the diving cap she still wore over her head, the Gorgon followed in Lacily's wake, nodding at the other woman's wish that they make good time.

Maia looked at the park they came upon with the great interest of someone who'd had children and might someday have more. That fact led her to suggest "Constructed I think, or perhaps grown in place." Coughing once to clear her throat, the Gorgon added "Something that big in a park means it's probably a monument of some kind, unless it's a closed up facility. If the people who lived here were anything like us, they wouldn't leave giant blocks of coral lying around in a public park where kids could climb it and fall off of it unless it served a particular purpose."

The agent's suggestion at sample collection was met with a nod and Maia unsealed several of the bags she doubtlessly had, all the while making sure the camera clipped to her suit received good footage of what there was to see. She couldn't help but cough again as she went to work. So much moisture. She'd suspected the environment would be difficult for her when she'd agreed to the mission but the reality was something she had to push through. [/div][div class=text][/div][/div][/div][/div] [class=wrapper] background-color:#5e757c; box-sizing:border-box; color:#FFFFFF; display:inline-block; position:relative; width:100%; text-align: justify; [/class] [class=title] color: #262626; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:3em; font-style:italic; padding:0; text-shadow:0 0 1em; margin-bottom: 10px; [/class] [class=box] margin:2em 1em; padding:2px 4px 0px; position:relative; [/class] [class=boxBg] box-sizing:content-box; height:100%; pointer-events:none; position:absolute; width:100%; [/class] [class=boxBgLarge] top:0; left:-5px; padding:0 4px; border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.35); [/class] [class=boxBgTall] top:-8px;left:3px; padding:8px 0; width:calc(100% - 8px); height:100%; border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.25); [/class] [class=boxBgMedium] top:-4px; left:-1px; padding:4px 0; border:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.4); [/class] [class=boxInner] background-color: #5e757c; overflow:hidden; margin:0.5em; [/class] [class=statusBox] box-sizing: border-box; border-right: 3px dotted white; padding: 15px; float: left; max-width: 250px; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px; [/class] [class=text] padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:0.8em; [/class] [class=statusText] font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; margin-top: 5px; [/class] [class=characterPortrait] box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; border-radius: 20px; overflow: hidden; [/class] [class name=characterPortrait state=hover] opacity: 0.5 [/class]

 

[StoneWolf18]

Mara blinked a few times when she realized she was being spoken to. Directing her attention to Calliea, she would easily notice that her expression was considerably different than the blank one she normally wore. Instead, it was genuinely curious-excited even. Her violet eyes much more focused than the half-paid attention she normally gave.

“I... Partners?” The request came as a surprise. Calliea knew that she had been a horrible leader on the last mission, so why offer? The moment of self doubt lasted for a brief instant before Mara offered a nod, a rare smile appearing on her lips. “Sure.”

She fell silent, soaking in her surroundings again as Lacily sorted them into teams. The architecture here was... strangely reminiscent of that of Greco-Roman structures, though if societies could develop the number zero independently, it best not think too hard about it... still, she made a mental note.

“No, no questions.” Mara replied rather eagerly, before tilting her head slightly and gesturing deeper in the ruins. “Aside... from what that might be...” What she was gesturing to was a pile of bones at the base of a massive statue that stood in the center of a large courtyard. It took quite a lot of self control to keep herself from walking over to inspect it right away.

Epiphany Fable r e i

 

[DergTheDergon]

Xaira nodded as Jasper asked her to forge ahead with Rory, feeling confident the two of them could handle anything that might get the jump on them down here. Sang’s clear and understandable dislike of having Rory anywhere near her only gave the Dragoness that much more motivation to scout ahead alongside him. However, as they got a better look at the place and began to realize how barren it was so far, as if everyone that did live down here had suddenly vanished without a trace, Xaira began to wonder if the reason was some unforetold danger that may still be here somewhere. It did seem as though nothing with any semblance of life in it had been here for centuries until the team arrived, but one could perhaps never be too more careful. At the very least, Xaira felt like much more caution than she initially showed earlier was indeed necessary here. “What could’ve done this? Did they leave of their own volition or did something cause them to up and vanish like this?” She found herself wondering aloud.

The addition of the one who called themselves a “Great Old One” to their party made Xaira feel rather uneasy, but she didn’t really know why. SImply by the way Jasper reacted to their very presence earlier, however, seemed to indicate he knew of the race. She’d have to ask him about that at a later date. For now, she decided being nice to the creature was only warranted, especially since she was a new recruit. What she was to begin with wasn’t of much importance at the moment, Xaira figured. “Hi, welcome to the group,” Xaira told the being, waving and smiling at her. That voice and overall presence of hers would take some getting used to, but thus far, Xaira wasn’t sure why some of the others seemed to feel like she was some sort of bad Omen from the way they were behaving toward her. The term “great old one” seemed to ring a bell, but not much- more than likely, it was one of the races she was taught of by the elders in her Dragonkin Village. Xaira had honestly given up a lot of that knowledge in favor of knowledge of her own pursuits as she grew.

Birdsie

Sang did seem particularly downtrodden, Xaira noticed, glancing back at her for a moment. She didn’t know what to do to help the demoness, especially since she seemed to wish only to sulk for now. However, soon after they’d gotten moving, she glanced behind her to see that Jasper had begun speaking to her in a hushed manner, his body language indicating kindness. Xaira smiled a bit at that, and found herself refocusing on the task at hand with all her attention now that the demoness was taken care of.

Rory’s sudden feat of athleticism startled Xaira a bit. “Huh, nice jump,” she said. It was rare for her to compliment another being’s aerial prowess, so when she did she always meant it sincerely. she found herself smiling amusedly, apreciaciating the idea while internally laughing at the amusing fact that someone who’s last name was actually Red, and whose skin tone made him more liable for the name than her now that she thought about it (not to mention the same of Sang on both accounts), called her by the nickname Jasper coined for her to refer to her hair. He must’ve had trouble remembering her true name, as foretold by the look of concentration he gave her before seeming to give up and settle on the only thing she’d heard her called, despite it being his own last name and skin color. The thought prompted a smirk as she locked eyes with the man. “Name’s Xaira. You can call me Red if you want but, I imagine that might get a bit confusing with both you and Sang around. But yeah, we might be able to benefit from me scouting from above a bit, but I’ve gotta be careful how long I fly. The air’s so heavy down here it starts feeling like I’m trying to drag my wings through mud after a while. I’ll leave it up to everyone’s discretion, but for now I’m going to hold off until we think we all need it. Either way, the light’ll definitely help.”

With that, Xaira kept observing her surroundings, now with the aid of Rory’s light, looking and listening for anything suspicious and putting forth her best effort not to let her guard down, no matter what.

Tarmagon June Verles Noble Scion

 

[Noble Scion]

Shortly after her cousin joined their team of misfits, the one named Jasper soon made his approach towards his rather terrified group member and first of the two demons to join their merry band, Sang, bringing with him questions that were logical, yet Sang found difficult to answer. "He's.. I dislike him." she said, shakily breathing in before continuing, attempting to focus on talking rather than the possible death by water that seemed persistent on looming over all of them. "I won't give you the history, but no, he can stay, I can tolerate him, and I am perfectly capable of handling this on my own. I am not weak like most of your species." she growled defensively to the mage, her pride still making it quite clear that it wasn't gone, merely hiding from her fear, even though she doubted her own words and seemingly finding insult at the idea that she may not have the strength to carry on, going so far as to throw an insulting jab back, despite the mage having no ill-intent. The rumour running true that demons had a rather shocking amount of self-regard, especially in Sang's case. She did feel a bit guilty after speaking the words, but since being exiled from her family, she'd gained a much more protective attitude of her self, given that nobody else had spoken a kind word to her in what must have been a decade.

Sang followed after the other two in their group alongside Jasper, maintaining a smaller stance, lacking her usual dominant swagger, slouching over and holding her arms instead of the usual standing up straight with good posture and clenched fists, her footsteps light and staggering compared to the defined straight and heavy steps usually taken by the princess of the Red. The demoness' skin was still pale, yet it didn't seem quite as bad now that there was at least air, yet the mere fact of knowing that she was underwater still held the terrorizing burden of the ocean above her. Surprisingly, she didn't care about the tight-fitting suit she wore alongside everyone else due to the fact that most of the clothing she wore was equally and sharp on her figure, the only thing she found rather displeasing about the clothing being its texture, and the fact that it did not allow her talons to be free for combat, despite the hope that there would be no need for it, the Brightside being that they hadn't cut through the fabric recently, and that it did not seem like they were going to anytime soon.

Meagrely, Rory's cousin watched him leap upon one of the housing district's building with a surprising amount of grace, which she pinned down to the fact that he had lived with those mountain goats called satyrs for the most of his life, from what she had heard, and while him performing a feat that she could not do did cause a small spark of jealousy, her talents lay elsewhere, primarily in the 'pummelling people into the ground' area, that, along with her small anti-magic capabilities, but ever since her exilement due to learning such things, she hadn't put it to much use as her physical traits had been more than enough to deal with most problems. The mention of her name brought her eyes up from the floor briefly to look at the dragon-kin with the pained expression that hadn't left her face since entering the abyss, before returning the two piercing topaz that were her eyes back to the ground, another grimace darkening her face as another wave of "Oh my god, I'm at the bottom of the ocean" rattled her mind
Fable DergTheDergon June Verles Tarmagon

 

[r e i]

Calliea saw that Mara was confused, and surprised at her. Well, it was already known about her massive failure at leadership. She must have thought that no one would want to be even close to her. She wasn't exactly wrong. Calliea was just different, she didn't judge a person on the one mistake that they may have made. That would be very judgemental of her and nothing like her father has taught her. A smile appeared on her face before she agreed to her request. Then the Agents in charge sorted them into groups. Calliea was just happy she was in a group with Mara at least.

They started to walk. She glanced around, hearing weird things. It sounded like creatures, animals almost like. Yet she couldn't understand them. She closed her eyes groaning, as the voices grew louder with each step. It was another language entirely. One that surprisedly she doesn't know. When the time to ask questions came around and instantly shot up her hand.

"There are creatures around here ma'am. I can't...understand them. It's like another language. One that I haven't even heard before. " She says as she held her head in pain. She looked towards Mara who was curiously looking at that statue. Something instinct told her that they should check it out. Also, the voices seemed to quiet down, as more she headed towards that area. "I also agreed with Mara. The creatures voices seemed to just quiet down as the closer we get to that statue. It's almost like they are scared..."

location: underwater cavern 'palace' tags: StoneWolf18 Fable Epiphany inventory: bo staff, and her backpack. and the equipment given to her.

 

[Tarmagon]

"Very well Sang," Jasper replied, his voice level and neutral, despite the implied insult. "Your word is good enough for me. If you change your mind about anything, I expect you to let me know. And just for the record, there is no dishonor or weakness in asking for aid."

Jasper would have said more, but demons could be notoriously touchy, and despite Sang's current temperament, he didn't want to trigger a blind rage trying to be helpful. All he could do was be there. Of course, if she did something to jeopardize the team, well, things would get very unpleasant very fast. As they approached the housing area, it became obvious that it was fairly well preserved, many houses still having thatched roofs despite the obvious age and horrid environment. There was no way these had been under water. Xaira and Rory seemed to be having minor difficulties with the environment, but were bearing up well enough. Once they entered the housing proper, Rory hopped up on a sturdy looking wall, turning his light up to full intensity.

"I'll hang up ere' to provide better lighting for everyone," he said. "Up ere', I can spot for... Red... if she wants to take to the skies. And any of ye mates who wan' overhead light."

Jasper chuckled as Rory used his nickname for Xaira and her gentle correction. Humor was good, it kept people's nerves from getting the better off them. Examining Rory's position, Jasper nodded. He could work with this.

"Listen up!" he called, making certain everyone could hear him. "Rory is our center point. Spread out around here and look for anything written or carved that's small enough to bag and tag. Only enter a building after inspecting the outside to make sure it's sturdy. Don't go out of sight of Rory's light except to check a building, and only for two minutes unless you get someone to cover you. Rory, you're overwatch. Anyone goes out of your sight for over two minutes, raise hell. Be back here in, twenty minutes. Call if you find anything really interesting. Document everything. Let's do this."

Suiting actions to words, Jasper examined the walls of a small hut, checking for cracks and weak spots, before heading in. One and a half minutes later he emerged, bagging a small pottery jar that had visible carvings along its sides. Waving to Rory, he looked around for another interesting tidbit of knowledge, wondering what the other teams were finding.

DergTheDergon June Verles Noble Scion

 

[baddervibes]

Pryce, Caddigan

Location: Market| Interacting with: Fable ; et al| Mentions: Phayne Lexielai Zaxs

"Best of luck on your first mission, Agent Pryce! Don't let us down, Agent Pryce! Know that we're always watching, Agent Pryce. Fuck off..." Caddy grumbles, shaking the water from his hair as he stepped up on to dry land. He hadn't been that deep in the ocean since that merfolk hitwoman tried to drown him. Ah, what a night that had been. He had told her that she had beautiful eyes, like two pools of water, under a chilling summer moon. She had tried to stab him in the neck, shoved his head under a bed of coral, and cursed him to be taken by the waves. A beautiful love story if Caddy had ever partaken in one.

"Couldn't have just sent me with the Great Old One. They just really had to do a mission briefing and take all the security measures on this piece of-" He's cut off by a quick and shrill 'beep' from his security anklet. Bringing up the hem of his pants Caddy is able to see that, though soaked, the little green light was still on: a constant reminder that, yes, they were always watching. He sighs, running a hand through his damp hair as he drags himself up through the narrow archway. Annoyed that any trace scent of Si-woo or Lacily SMITED had given him was washed away by the swim, Caddy was relieved to find a near-dry trail of water that was able to lead him to where paths started to diverge. Though there was no sign of Lacily, he had managed to pick up a faint scent from Si-woo, and had to only walk for about a few minutes before entering the market district.

Caddy passes the rest of the team and notes that, though he had seen the three of them all at least once during his short time at SMITED, he had yet to speak with any. Caddy was still new after all. What a strange feeling...being "new". Well, that would have to change soon: especially if they were all going to be working together. He gave the lot a cheery smile as he approached an inquisitive Si-woo from behind.
"Why would they leave something as valuable as this?"
"If I had to guess? They probably didn't want to." Caddy chuckles, leaning down and clapping the merfolk on the back.

"Agent Caddigan Pryce, but god please call me Caddy, reporting for duty. Sorry for the delay, my good man! The agency was quite thorough with my mission briefing and-" He pauses, jingling his anklet with a shake of his leg "-security maintenance. But! I am here now, so... what are we doing? I didn't listen to a damn thing those people said."

code by Ri.a

 

[Birdsie]

Hearing Si-Woo proclaim its assignment, the little horror nodded gleefully. "Yes, sir!... ma'am... sir? Sir. Definitely sir.... Right?" It appeared the creature had issues with discerning gender but accepted the order nonetheless.

Quinn moved over to Jasper's team and joined up with them. When Xaira welcomed her, Quinn blinked once, unsure how to respond. An introduction? "Hello! My name is Quinn Johnson!" it said, with that same humming rumble in her voice. It was caused by an imperfection in the vocal chords since Quinn had only adapted them recently.

Mortal customs of verbal communication were incredibly fascinating to Quinn. The gist was that one unit produced acoustic radiation in the atmosphere using an organ that vibrated air at an adjustable frequency. These frequencies (sounds) had different meanings attached, and a sequence of them launched consecutively formed a 'word.' Then, a collection of words made a sentence. The receiving unit decyphered the words and, finally, processed the message. This form of communication was stupidly inefficient.

Many Great Old Ones communicated through touch, conveying billions of feelings at once; content, context, and intent were layered into each other with perfect clarity, removing any and all possibility of confusion, misinterpretation, or miscommunication. And since all information was derived directly from experience and given context, this meant that Great Old Ones would never 'argue' with each other over what is the best approach. They would simply share their experience and determine it through co-processing. Perfect cooperation to create a perfect, united society. All of this in less than a second.

Individuals in that kind of civilization could only argue with each other if their relationships were antagonistic, like that of prey and predator, or two predators with only one source of food, or simply belonging to opposing factions.

Quinn did not yet develop the touch receptors necessary for this kind of communication, only having nonverbal means to communicate with her brethren.

Other, more evolved Great Old Ones and even Outer Gods went past that and outright used telepathy to remove the 'range limit' for this perfect communication. This was light-years beyond Quinn, however. It'd take at least a thousand years of incessant metamorphosis to obtain an ability reserved for the high and mighty Great Old Ones.

However, Quinn re-adjusted herself to focus on the mission. Jasper gave out a series of instructions, and Quinn properly put them at the top of her eldritch priority list.

Quinn looked around in search of a good mark and approached the nearest house. Seeing cracks along the walls, she laid her hand on it and a trio of micro-tentacles sprouted from it and slithered up the cracks, applying a small amount of tensile force to their insides. When the cracks visibly didn't expand, Quinn deemed the building safe to enter.

She walked inside.

Written or carved... written or carved... written or... Quinn wrapped a tentacle around a vase in the corner of the room, which had elaborate cuneiforms scribbled on it. Furthermore, it was in pristine condition! She bagged the object then walked back out, twenty seconds before the two-minute mark was up.

Quinn was curious if whatever wiped out this civilization was still around, a poignant thought. Civilizations don't disappear overnight, but cities can; Pompeii learned that the hard way. Some great catastrophe must've befallen this city, leading to the disappearance of the inhabitants. The nigh-intact state everything was in suggested it wasn't a natural disaster, but an intelligent force that had no interest in destroying buildings.

In other words, a creature. Perhaps it was a magical beast or some kind of powerful spirit or monster! It might've even been a Great Old One. In any case, there was a tiny chance that whatever did this was still around, and if it was, Quinn doubted they could slay it. A creature that slays a city > a team of supernatural investigators.

If they did slay it, well, that would say some interesting things about their power as a team.

Tarmagon DergTheDergon Noble Scion June Verles Fable

 

[Fable]

(Team Updated Roster. Jasper, Xaira, Sang, Rory, Quinn. Lacily, Maia, Mara, Calliea, Adrian. Si-Woo, Morrigan, Cain, Yue, Caddigan.)

Lacily's Team - Heading to the 'Palace' ( Epiphany StoneWolf18 r e i Remembrance )
Lacily listened to Maia's words, but Maia forgot something, "You're applying modern thought to an ancient civilization. To us this may be a park, but to them who knows. I wouldn't call this constructed either, at least if it was they did a damn good job replicating coral. Take a scrape sample of this as well and we'll let the lab determine natural or synthetic." Her attention was pulled away from the coral structure when Mara spoke, pointing to a towering statue in a large courtyard with what seemed to be a pile of bones.

"Tread cautiously," Lacily warned before Calliea mentioned she could hear creatures, that she couldn't understand. "If there is something here scaring them, be ready for a possible fight since we don't know what predatory animals may live here."

Lacily lead the team to the statue where the pile of bones was at the base of the female statue. There was an inscription on the statue base and the statue stood quite rigid like. In form it was a perfectly proportional human, but unlike more commonly known Greco-Roman statues where they tried to simulate natural movement, this seemed more stiff like those of ancient Egyptian statues, but without the animal heads or normal Old Kingdom attire.

"Take a few smaller bones, they will help determine if these are animal, or well... other. These bones are all old though," she noted. These didn't have any moisture one would expect to find on fresh kills. There was no caked blood that was drying still or rotting flesh. Whoever had done this for whatever reason had done so long ago. "Maia, be sure to capture as much detail of the statue and bone pile as possible with your camera. Mara can gather the bone samples."

Lacily didn't want to push them to rush, but they still had a ways to go. "Once you're done we need to push forward if we don't want to be late to the three hour check-in." She lead them onward once they had completed their tasks

Si-woo's Team - Market ( Zaxs Phayne Lexielai baddervibes )
Si-woo nearly jumped as Caddigan answered his question that really was more theoretical and thinking out loud. He turned to the stranger defensively ready to punch the shit out of him if needed. Only agents from SMITED were supposed to be here so who the hell was-

The agent then introduced himself and also pointing out the security anklet on his person. So, this was a criminal being put to use for the agency. It was rare, but SMITED wasn't above giving certain individuals a chance to serve the agency. SMITED was... morally ambiguous for certain missions, though this wasn't really one of them that needed a criminal, did it? Oh well. "Archaeological and artifact gathering, basically. If it's something you can carry back or take a video or photo of, do it. Everything gets checked and documented to help figure out what the hell this city is, why it's here, and what happened to the populace. And yes, your idea of why they would have left these valuables is possible, it's odd. They would have taken something. If they had to leave in a rush, nothing would be this... clean. I mean, look at the size of those crystals, that one is taller than I am and it looks like a fucking ruby!"

(This is the most inactive group, let's get it moving guys. Remember there is a bookstore, trinkets, clothing, etc. If it can be sold there is a shop, go explore! - Si-woo's team)


Jasper's Team - Housing ( Tarmagon Birdsie June Verles Noble Scion DergTheDergon )
Jasper's team splitting up was sound because it was the largest district, indicating there had be at one time a decent population count. In the lesser more meager houses there was nothing written. Perhaps they - like previous ancient civilizations before - had been illiterate or unable to afford education. It could be a sound assumption, but without living breathing people to observe it could remain a mystery for ages while SMITED investigated the ruins.

In the more middle-class dwellings there was an increase in trinkets, art, decorations and even books and scrolls; none of which could be read due to the language barrier. Sang would manage to locate some odd diagram written on a scroll. Rory, a thick book bound in a hide similar to that of alligator or crocodile. Quinn, a vase and later on a stuff octopus doll. Xaira, what appeared to be a leather journal. Finally Jasper would stumble across the most important clue; words scratched into the sandstone wall of one of the dwellings; an entire single wall of the next building he entered.

This house that Jasper was in a mess unlike the others. Items were smashed, furniture flipped over or broken, marks from the door on the inside that looked to have been scratched by either nails or claws. Something had happened here.

 

[baddervibes]

Pryce, Caddigan

Location: Market| Interacting with: Fable ; et al| Mentions: N/A

That was all? Just...snapping pictures? Writing notes? Collecting old rocks? Caddy was told this was a field mission not a field trip. He was hoping to ride a sea monster or sword fight Davy Jones or...like...do something actually fun? This was some first grade show-and-tell bullshit. The man sighs and watches Si-woo enthusiastically examine the colored crystals in front of them. At least someone was having fun.

"Oh, well, maybe they knew something was coming. They might've left before there was ever a panic." Caddy shrugs, turning towards the rest of the abandoned market.
"Maybe they thought they were coming back."

He takes a look around, breathes in the heavy smell of damp rock and sea salt, and weighs his options. Book store? Boring. Textiles? Nah. More shiny rocks? Si-woo's got that covered. Food? Ooh, food. Caddigan's stomach rumbled at the thought. A SMITED agent had reeled him away from breakfast that morning: a warm english muffin and two blood sausages now cold and sad in the break room. If Caddy couldn't learn anything about this society's diet then he might at least have a chance at snacks.

"Call me if you need me, Chief. I'm taking a lunch break." The man licked his fangs, waving to his superior as he heads towards a small gathering of food and produce shops.

code by Ri.a

 

[Phayne]

Cain Hawkins
-The Scarecrow-
​

Turning to face the newest addition to the group, Cain merely watched as the formalities were exchanged momentarily between Agent Caddy and Agent Si-Woo, their brief exchange stirring little interest from the scarecrow, his interest drawn elsewhere.

Cain marvelled at the large ruby colored crystal before him; his eyes drawn to it long before Si-Woo had even needed to point it out to Caddy. Whilst the mission scope was to gather intel on these ancient ruins, Cain could not help but get sidetracked as his hand glided across the smooth surface of the large structure. The crimson color of this large mineral was almost a mirror image to his own crystal; the gem like prison which held his soul captive. Could the two be linked? he couldn't help but think, these ruins did after all hold many secrets and perhaps it was possible that the crystals here held several of their own.

....

Seeing as Agent Caddy had found a reason to detour from the group, Cain sought to do the same, though his reasons were not solely for the purpose of this mission. Whilst he held no intentions of ignoring the mission completely, Cain could not deny that the ruby like gem before him had grasped his immediate attention more so than the actual reason they had come here for.

"Agent Si-Woo, If I may, I'd like to search the area for any smaller fragments of these crystals. Perhaps like these luminescent plants, they may hide unique properties not found in commonly mined gems and as much as I'd like to, I highly doubt we would be able to lug around a sample of this size." spoke Cain, turning to face the superior agent with his palm still firmly pressed against the gem.

Fable baddervibes

 

[June Verles]

Rory sighed and started rubbing the back of his head at Xaira's response, only now realizing that people might find him quite appropriate to the name of Red, skin complexion and other things. He's lived for over a century away from his natal clan, at the beginning because of a clash of ideals but as time passed on the idea of a "Red" started to disappear Rory's life and it became nothing but a last name, one that he didn't even have to recollect that much considering the rarity of his first name.

"Ye... guess it would make sense, Red don't mean that much to me no more so I forget. Xaira it is then?"

Luckily for the demon, the potential awkward silence was avoided by Jasper's intervention, assigning overwatch to Rory. Doing a simple salute as to gesture his understanding of the assignment he begins walking forward with the rest of the team, providing spotlight when requested.

Once there after a bit of light recon, Rory saw some scales from the corner of his eye. Thinking it was possible life he slowly pulled out the harpoon from behind his back, ready to throw it at the possible threat. Once the light shined on the thing he found that it was a book, letting out a sigh of relief he calls out to Xaira;

"Lass! Pick up the book over yonder won't ya?"
Tarmagon DergTheDergon Noble Scion

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper paused in his perusal of the homes to watch the other members of his team as they spread out. They were moving with purpose, keeping within sight of Rory except when they would duck into a building, emerging within his requested time limit. Not bad, not bad at all.

"Despite it all," he thought, "They're functioning as a team."

Jasper couldn't quite suppress a chuckle as he heard Rory call out to Xaira. Something about a book. That would be invaluable if they managed to crack this civilization's language. Smiling, Jasper examined the outside of the next house. Huh. The door looked a little ascew. Basically solid though, so he entered, shining his light onto, chaos. This house looked like a tornado had struck it, but only on the inside. Smashed items and furniture littered the main room, and what looked like, claw marks? covered the inside of the door.

"What in the nether hells happened here?" Jasper asked the destroyed room, turning slowly to survey the wreckage. As his light slid over the right side wall, figures appeared, like they had been carved into the very wall. Moving closer, Jasper saw that there were words in some strange language carved into the entire surface of the wall. Before he could puzzle out anything, he realized he was getting close to his own time limit, so he hurriedly stepped back outside and into Rory's field of view.

"Team!" he shouted. "Gather whatever you're currently looking at if it's portable, then gather on my position. Rory, light this building up! I've got something here that needs more than one pair of eyes, and more than one camera on it."

June Verles Birdsie DergTheDergon Noble Scion

 

[DergTheDergon]

Xaira found herself feeling visibly regretful of her word choice at Rory’s embarrassed-seeming reaction to her quip. It was true that he’d been a pot calling a kettle black (or red in this case), though in hindsight, pointing it out so bluntly may not have come through his ears in the friendly way the Dragoness’d meant it. Also, Xaira saw Sang’s gaze out of the corner of her eye as she spoke, only to see her stare back at the ground when she turned her head toward the girl. Deeming to leave her be for now, Xaira found herself giving Sang an apologetic look just in case she might see or at least feel it, before looking back up toward Rory as he spoke in turn.

It helped Xaira to refocus on the mission, however, when Rory seemed to recover after a moment and reply in a rather matter-of-fact way. Xaira nodded as she said “Yep,” beginning to grasp for something else to say as a follow-up but not seeming to think of anything appropriate.

Just as thankful for Jasper’s interjection into this conversation as Rory had been, Xaira turned to face the man and listen as intently to the Mage’s instructions as she could, noting them mentally. His words began to carry a subliminal message of getting things done efficiently and in the most cautious and aware manner possible that her mind echoed, the Dragoness taking a deep breath and ensuring to do the best damn job down here as she could, whatever this excursion may or may not bring her.

The sheer detail and thoughtfulness contained within Jasper’s orders caused Xaira to smile a little as she nodded her understanding, giving Jasper an enthusiastic salute. “Aye-aye, captain,” she replied after JT had finished his instruction. He seemed to be a natural leader thus far, carrying an authoritative, one-for-all vibe that she could really get behind. She certainly wouldn’t mind serving under him if he rose up the ranks before her, which the Dragoness felt was rather likely, in all honesty. Xaira could lead the charge, sure, but when it came to the logistical side of leading (or thinking in general, from her observations thus far and her own self-opinion), JT was certainly the better fit, Xaira felt. The moment that he gave the word to move out, she was already excitedly scanning about for anything that caught her eye as a potentially valuable clue in regards to the mysteries contained down here.

At first, as Xaira poked around inside the closest half-ruined, dusty building, she found little besides watery eyes and a cough that occasionally caused smoke and small Dragonfire embers to escape her mouth and nostrils. Thankfully, enduring the plentiful airborne contaminants didn’t come without any potentially useful discoveries. As she rifled through a desk-like piece of furniture with drawers, she found a tucked-away leatherbound book that with a look inside she noticed was clearly handwriting. The scrawlings weren’t legible to her of course, but finding out what it said wasn’t her job; collecting it and marking it down was. After ensuring she hadn’t skipped a step in bagging and tagging it, Xaira headed back toward the source of Rory’s light and began to group up with the others, moving quickly to ensure she was back within the glow the demon was casting nearby within the timeframe Jasper had allotted the group for straying from said light.

As Rory called to her from above, the Dragoness already clutching one possibly invaluable source of Ancient Mer writings to her chest almost protectively, he alerted her to another. Her gaze first settled on him, and then where he’d aimed his light. There it was, among the wreckage; another book. “On it!” She called back.
June Verles

Xaira just about ran up to and examined the tome, which seemed to be bound in the hide of some reptilian sea-creature. It was thick, which meant that if SMITED could decipher it, they had a chance of learning a great deal about Mer culture from just it alone; especially if it was a history book or other such nonfiction, or perhaps a book of folktales or the like that might provide its own kind of deep insight. It may even help them figure out what happened here so long ago, as may that journal she’d found moments earlier. This is what she’d joined SMITED for: discoveries, deeds and the like that could be of benefit to society as a whole, both Supernatural and Mundane. As she bagged and tagged the item, she spoke up, glancing over at Rory and holding up the journal she’d found for a moment. “we’re finding a damn good amount of intact literature for a place this old, not to mention very vulnerable to water damage.” Her excitement was palpable as she said this and finished cataloging the larger tome.

Just as she’d stood and started glancing about for another object to peruse, the scale-speckled Dragoness then once again heard Jasper’s voice carrying through the damp cavern air. His words made her eyes light up in curiosity. “You heard our fearless leader, folks, let’s roll out.” She might’ve almost seemed akin to a small child in a candy store the way she ran toward Jasper’s position while sporting an excited grin. In reality, she was deeply excited for the discoveries they were making and the sheer possibility of what just one of the teams had found, not to mention the myriad of other treasures the others could be unearthing at the very same moment.

The Dragoness’s enthusiastic forward march came to a screeching halt, however, when she saw what was inside. “W-woah… that… doesn’t bode well…” she said, her tone quietly emanating a sense of dread from what she saw. “Ruins are going to be in disarray, but compared to everything else I’ve seen down here so far… this is a crime scene, or an omen, straight out of some horror flick.” She began to snap pictures of the wall and surroundings as Rory’s light shone upon it, marveling aghast at what she saw all the while.
Tarmagon Noble Scion June Verles Birdsie

 

[Noble Scion]

Shortly after her little aggressive murmuring, the wizard simply left her to her own devices, giving the demoness an unexpected, rather supportive comment, which did lead to a small bit of blushing by the sickly demon as she listened to the various orders called out by the very same mage, "Right.." she mumbled, shuffling towards one of the houses and giving its exterior a brief look over to check for any signs that it would crush her upon entry, and while the idea itself of death via pulverisation made her feel sick given how frail she felt underneath the weight of the ocean and her current doubts in her own strength, she took a deep breath and stepped inside, flicking the small light of hers on while she did so and sweeping it throughout the building.

The condition of the houses was rather surprising given how old Sang could only guess that they were as she wandered around the sandstone structure, making a judgement that the person that had lived here must have enjoyed reading with all the scrolls scattered around. She gently touched one of the pieces of fabric out of fear that it might crumble into dust at her mere touch, yet it seemed perfectly preserved as it merely quivered at the sensation of her talons. The princess of the Red gently lifted up the scroll, quickly took a glance at its uninterpretable symbols and stooped out of the building about 30 seconds before her three minute timer would've been up, begrudgingly raising a hand in a half-hearted wave at Rory, her older relative and temporary watcher as she made her way back, treasure in-hand.

Upon returning to her team, she found yet another new addition to their numbers. A young child which made her stomach feel more unsettled than it already was. "There's a kid.." Sang muttered, yet continued no further, expecting that they had just as valid a reason to be down here as she did, given how ridiculously out-of-the-way this place was. Of all the things that were bothering her, however, she was certain that this child was the most confusing. Hopefully it would be explained once they returned to the surface, until then, she was gonna contemplate her imminent demise and ponder how long she had left until the angry water gave her lungs an internal hug.

Arriving alongside the child and Xaira with Rory remaining above, each of trio carrying items of their own, Jasper called for their assistance, to which Sang wandered over damply and took a look around a destroyed room, which quickly made its way to the top of her "most unnerving things found underwater", beating the strangely perfect child by a cup of water. "I don't like this" Sang growled at the walls, displaying the strength of a rather ferocious creature, which she assumed was some kind of leviathan, which reminded her that fighting underwater was most certainly not going to work out well in their favour, and furthered her lust for them to leave all the sooner, yet her mouth remained dry and the others made their own comments. At least she wasn't the only one stressed, even if it was for different reasons.
DergTheDergon June Verles Tarmagon Birdsie

 

[Epiphany]

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[/div][div class=statusText]Location: In the 'Park'
Interaction: Lacily, Mara Calliea
Tags: r e i StoneWolf18 Fable [/div][/div][div class=title]Maia Sarif[/div][div class=text]Their elven team leader's critique was worth thinking about. Though in Maia's experience, a city was a city. Her homeland was built upon the ruins of cities thousands of years old, yet every settlement had its parks and plazas, its places of commerce and its places for families. If that coral was grown, it was grown with a purpose and that purpose was likely to be decorative, a memorial or something to do with a park or public space. Still, there were experts for this kind of thing. Maia had spent many years in college, teaching college, and she had great respect for expertise. So she simply nodded at Lacily's orders and moved to take that scrape sample while the others moved on to the statue.

When she joined the rest of her team at the statue, Maia paused a moment to study the statue and admire its composition. Then she swept her camera over it, taking several long still shots as well as gradual passes and sweeps. At Lacily's instruction, she drew close to the bone pile and made sure to capture every detail before they started removing bones from it.

With her survey complete, Maia smiled at their team leader and her hurry. "It's a big city and there's much to see. After you?" And then she followed in the elf's wake.

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[Fable]

Lacily's Team - Heading to the 'Palace' ( Epiphany StoneWolf18 r e i Remembrance )
Lacily turned to Maia just before her watch began to beep to indicate an hour had gone by. She brought a radio close to her mouth, "Lacily and team checking in. Found some statue with bones, no fresh kills. Will continue toward large building." With that she put the radio away and sighed, they didn't have much time left. "Okay, we're going to have to keep going at a quicker pace now and hopefully not run into anything else attention grabbing."

"Mara, grab the samples and let's go," Lacily ordered before turning to being to head in the direction of their target. For a while the buildings weren't anything special, they seemed like houses, but eventually they stumbled into yet another park looking area, but this one was vast compared to the smaller one. There were white flowers everywhere, and entire field of them, a large pond that seemed to shimmer with some movement.

"Seems like liked their green space," she commented, moving to set through the field of flowers only to jump back with a group of fluttering bugs appeared out of nowhere. They were butterflies with translucent wings and bodies, making them in this dim glowing light nearly invisible. They weren't aggressive though at least. Lacily - now that she knew what those bugs were - continued toward the pond to investigate. "What do you think could be making that light? Algae? It wouldn't be moving like that if it was though."

(C'mon team! Let's get posting stone, korol, rem)

Si-woo's Team - Market ( Zaxs Phayne Lexielai baddervibes )
"We can speculate all we want about what happened, just... even if they were leaving because of something coming, wouldn't they have taken some things with them? Even if they thought they were coming back, why would merchants risk their stuff being looted?" Instead of the conversation continuing on the task at hand Caddigan left saying he was going for food. "You really think you're going to find anything edible around here? This place has been empty for a long time, any food here is probably either rotten or just dust," he calls out before sighing. He hated having to deal with criminal-types. They were horrible with following orders, but at least that little anklet also meant he could track him wherever he was.

Si-woo turned to Cain who inquired about gathering the crystals from this shop. "Go ahead, you might be right. Not to mention only in deep caverns are gems this size actually found. Makes you wonder where they were sources from. They still seem to be valuable to whoever lived here, but the scale and amount... it's strange."

Si-woo's watch beeped and he heard Lacily check in. "Si-woo here, got a new felon on my team. Found some very large gemstones here in the market. Cain will be grabbing samples and I'll be heading to the bookstore."

Jasper's Team - Housing ( Tarmagon Birdsie June Verles Noble Scion DergTheDergon )
The team wouldn't find any tool that would have been used to scratch the words into the walls, it was roughly done and seemed more like nails or claws had scratched in the words on the wall.
It was clearly some sort of message. What the message held was unknown and showed that whoever or whatever had been in here was literate. Everything else that would have been of possible archaeological value was a wreck. Anything that had been written was shredded. If the team was to look around they wouldn't find any remains of whatever creature had done this, but one of the windows had scratch marks around it which could lead one to assume it had gotten out. Where would it have gone?

The team had a choice now. See if there was a path of destruction to follow or investigate further into the housing district where the first class citizens dwelled. They would perhaps have more artifacts of interest. The choice was up to Jasper, but the team could give in their two cents on which path to take.

Any further investigation of the current house they were in would be futile. The message seemed incomplete as whatever had scratched it into the walls seemed to drag aimlessly across the wall.
Team members could always take fragments of items, such as the ripped paper of broken vases if they so desired.