Highball stood apart, leaning on her rake-turned-cane, exuding an attitude remarkably light in the midst of a singularly repulsive world so indomitably dark.  Compared to the others, she gave off the unmistakable air of not taking the overarching situation as seriously as it seemed to demand.  In this manner, she spectated the choices the others made, less out of consideration for the individuals and more so that she might catch a glimpse of more fascinating weapons.  The first man to step up and accept Rotting Bone's invitation, Donny, disappointed her with his choice of an unremarkable hatchet after some some promising rummaging.  She looked on as he produced from the great pile even more rope, which he began securing to his person.  

At the same time, a figure from the back of the group came forward to secure his own armaments.  Highball quickly recognized this man to be the same who'd attempted conversation with her.  He withdrew from the pile a long spear with a crossguard, and Highball nodded approvingly.  The sight of the long weapon led her to believe, perhaps recalling from her previous life, that people didn't give spears the credit they deserved.  Spears were practical, easy to work with, and most importantly, safe.  A spear's range meant that it could damage creatures beyond the range of their own claws and fangs, keeping the wielder same from harm.  [i]Smart fellow.  The bloke who chose a tiny axe will have to be inside some monster's mouth before he can hit with it, but spectacles here will strike from afar.  He doesn't seem very loony, either.  Maybe I'll tail him.  Two hunters would be better than one.[/i]  She moved on when Kenji ran off, though she cringed to hear the moist, thick sounds of vomiting from where he disappeared.  [i]Yuck.  If this were real, I'd say the reality just dawned on him.[/i]

Meanwhile, others had moved forward.  Highball spared an incredulous glance at Donny, who appeared to have selected a [i]guitar[/i] for a secondary weapon, before her eyes landed on Paul.  Skinny and plain of color, he seemed oddly aristocratic in his slow, measured movements, and his selection of a cane sword and a pistol only fomented that observation.  When she witnessed his snakelike smile, however, she looked elsewhere.  Very conspicuously, a huge man with whom Highball did not imagine herself resonating at all ignored the weapons, selecting only a badge to stick to his belt.  Her top hat bobbed as she suppressed a condescending laugh; did this dolt really think himself man enough to kill beasts and beings beyond reckoning with his hammy mitts alone?  [i]This brute won't last an hour if this World of Waking Dreams is anything more deadly than a petting zoo...unless it operates on some sort of ludicrous cartoon magic, as some dreams do?[/i]  Rolling her eyes, Highball shifted gears.  Paul, Donny, and Sinthe crowded around the porcelain killer to bombard her with questions.  Kenji, meanwhile, fled the building.  

Deciding to go after him, Highball took two steps before looking back at the rest of the group.  She observed a woman a few years older than she in a blue tunic, a blonde teenager who'd look more at home in a middle school than a nightmare, a swarthy man in brown with a feather in his hair, and a cloaked fellow with unkempt hair who seemed as much of a child as the blonde girl.  None had made so much as a twitch or uttered so much as a peep since coming upstairs; they struck Highball as a rather dull lot, not as fit for survival as those who'd already chosen weapons.  [i]Well, we have our supporting characters to die within the first half hour.  Pitiful, really.  That feather-haired chap isn't half bad looking, and he's dressed almost as stylishly as me.  Hopefully he'll live a while.[/i]  With that, Highball dashed away, energetic and eager in her naivety to begin the hunt.

She followed in the footsteps of Kenji and exited the ruined chapel, trotting up beside him to give him a companionable nudge with her elbow.  Surprisingly in sync with his walking pattern despite her shorter stride, the behatted woman joined the bespectacled spearman for his first steps into Iredele's gloom.