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[sub][@Ruler Inc][@Fernstone][/sub]
[code]Town Hall[/code]
[hr]

Penny was bossing them around again. It wasn’t like Billy was going to refuse to listen to her, but it still felt weird taking orders from his younger sister. He sighed deeply and stopped pretending to look through the archives. He had almost made it out from behind the shelves when he caught a glimpse of some purple tear in their world ripping open. Immediately, he ducked down behind a thick stack of boxes as a bunch of robed people carrying staves and swords emerged. To Billy they looked like they had just accidentally been teleported from a Ren faire, although one of them headshotting the Mayor made it quite clear that they weren’t just a bunch of nerds. 

Penny locked eyes with her brother as she turned to face the Watchers. She tried as best as she could to not shake, although it wasn’t out of fear. She was furious. She blinked and her abstraction clicked on, a grimace forming on her face as the tiniest movements bombarded her with an overload of information. If she had only powered through the crippling migraines she might’ve had the reaction time necessary to spot the arrow and blast it away before it had murdered the Mayor. Her nails bit into her palms. If only the Mayor hadn’t been so goddamn cryptic and warned them that they were about to be invaded. If only the Watchers weren’t an organization that exclusively accepted assholes. Which one of them fired the arrow? She’d love to seem them try that with her.

No, no, no, no. A fight was a bad idea. Penny released a held breath and with that vented some of her anger as Amethyst and Britney began to bicker back and forth. She listened and picked apart their argument in her mind. Britney came from a long-line of power hungry schemers? Yeah, most rich people were jerks. Point Amethyst. Britney prevented them from meeting the Watchers, but they would likely been dead if they did? Well, the Mayor was there with his damn eye shot out and their little gang was still standing, although not without casualties. Penny called that a draw.

The argument started to become increasingly about pointing fingers at who wronged who. Penny couldn’t help but feel mildly embarrassed—she could’ve seen her old self doing this exact same thing. John Reid was so powerful that the Glutton killed him, yet Britney was somehow able to kill him? Stupid. Hell, even if Britney had killed John Reid he had murdered a ton of people. Point Britney. She couldn’t absorb his abstractions and that somehow woke up the Glutton? Come on. That was grasping at straws. Point Britney. Also, the assholes from Glint were why the Glutton was trapped in their mountain anyway, so wasn’t pinning everything on Britney just another attempt at dodging responsibility? Point Britney. 

“Alright, look,” said Caelea. “I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t really trust Britney and, honestly, I hate her guts. But, I trust you even less. You waltzed in here and straight up killed someone. You look like you’re from the fucking middle ages. I don’t see any reason to believe you. And whatever, she may have fucked up, but there’s no way someone lies that well for so long. So no, I don’t trust you”

Point Caelea.

“I’ve heard enough,” said Penny. Her voice was calm but strained, as if she was trying to keep herself from joining the shouting match. “You make some compelling points, Amethyst. My name is Penny, and these are my people. The...Campers.” Penny scrunched up her face at the sound of that name. Why had they never come up with a mysterious name for their group? “I’d love to sit down one day and explain to you how on, uh, Shimmer we generally don’t open up a parley by shooting someone in the fucking face with an arrow since it tends to make everyone just a little tense. Unfortunately, we actually have to go reseal  the Glutton back inside of its cave, so…”

[i]'Lynette, shit, I hope this works. You got those glyphs in place if this goes bad, right? I’m a shit negotiator,'[/i] said Penny telepathically, hoping that her old friend would be able to get the message. 

“So, Amethyst,” continued Penny, her controlled speech slipping as a mix of desperation and amusement broke through. “Why don’t we just call a temporary truce until after this whole Glutton thing is handled and then we can hold a trail or something? Seriously, I’d love to hear everything after our world is no longer on the “most likely to be devoured” list.  You can even feel free to tag along. Come see the civil war destroying our town, maybe toss us a portal or two so we can avoid the snow, heck, punch out an avatar of destruction with us and I’ll even give you the key to the city since you guys killed the person who normally does that,” she said, her words falling flat. 

“Otherwise, just…” Penny flicked the back of her palms at the Watchers, as if to shoo them back into their portal. “Ya know, get bent.”   


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[sub][@Ruler Inc][@Fernstone][/sub]
 [code]Library[/code]
[hr]

One second Rita was hurrying out of the library along side of her friend and then the next second she was—[i]Oh my fucking god what is that.[/i] She screamed as the long-clawed monster pierced her collar and hoisted her up off of the floor. The overwhelming amount of fear was beaten back only by the utter feeling of helplessness as the monster wrapped it’s claws around her neck. She was going to die. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. Rita grabbed at its claw. No way. No way. She had to live. She needed to know the truth. She had to, she had to, she—for a brief second Rita actually thought she had struggled hard enough to escape the wendigo. Then it just threw her. 

Rita hit the ground hard, although thankfully she heard nothing snap. As she tried to pull herself out of her daze, she felt the heat from Justin’s Soul-Self, heard the book shelf crash down, and listened as the wendigo screamed in frustration. Rita began to pick herself up, pain racing through her body as she struggled to her feet. There was a crash, and then another crash. Thuds from above. Somebody yelled run, but she didn’t need to be told to do that. Justin’s phoenix was back, and it served as a beacon of safety as it carved a path for them out of the library. 

Rien shouted about how even once they got outside, they wouldn’t be able to keep those things inside. That was a problem for someone who wasn’t running for her fucking life to worry about. If they were able to make it to the school there was the chance that the others would already be back and could help Justin fight them off. Who had picked these groups anyway? Her face tightened in pain; her side hurt bad. She ignored it. She cast a look over her shoulder to find Tuyen and Tuyen’s shadow tossing wendigos like they were ragdolls. Maybe their group wasn’t as helpless as Rita had first thought, but still. No time for thinking. Only time for running.