[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/houzIW1.png[/img][/center]
[center][color=MediumSpringGreen]Here we go again…[/color]

[color=888888]-Ashley Avenir[/color][/center]

[center][hider=Ashley]
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5656356]Ashley Avenir[/url]
Max MP: 50 Current MP: 50
Casting: N/A

Gear: Clip Light (4) Taser (4 shots) Medical Supplies (4 uses) Flash Bang (4) Kevlar (Coverage 4)

Leveraging: N/A

[/hider][/center]

Ashley sighed as she looked out the window of her and Mika’s room at the Golden Trove. The sky was a clear, vibrant blue, and the entire city seemed to gleam in a bright, super-saturated way that made the world outside appear not quite real. That was unsurprising, with Dan’s magic spell having turned Pax Septimus into a warm-weather beach resort, despite it nearly being (US) Thanksgiving. If she was being honest, the Knight of Tomorrow had mixed feelings about that development. On the one hand, the city was finally the pleasant, safe, and peaceful place she had always hoped it could someday be, one free from crime, monster attacks, or violence of any kind. However, on the other hand, that peace was [i]forced[/i], not voluntary, something Dan’s most recent, passive-aggressive “invitation” only served to accentuate. Thus, it wasn’t truly real, but merely a facade, like the one the shark man had draped over the formerly cold, dilapidated city. [i]Real[/i] change couldn’t be affected simply by waving a magic wand, or snapping one’s fingers. It needed to be [i]worked[/i] at, and for Ashley and her teammate, it was time for that work to continue.

[color=MediumSpringGreen]“I don’t particularly care for it either,”[/color] the high-tech heroine replied to her feline-themed subordinate. [color=MediumSpringGreen]“Especially in light of the others’ disappearance, but this is the only way we’re going to get any answers.”[/color] As instructed, they had played along with Dan’s whimsical ways for the past week, but now, with the director and other members of their team having vanished, it was clear they needed to take a rather more proactive approach. [color=MediumSpringGreen]“I know he was brought here by a member of The Hand, but if Dan’s really as devoted to pacifism as he claims, I doubt those who’ve gone missing are in any danger,”[/color] she added. [color=MediumSpringGreen]“That said, I still want to know what he’s done with them. If [i]he’s[/i] even the one responsible to begin with…”[/color]

While certainly powerful, there was another, perhaps even [i]more[/i] god-like being at work besides the cheerful shark man. Indeed, his presence in the city was a direct response to that individual’s still-not-fully-understood plans, plans Ashley, or rather, her [i]grimoire[/i], was central to. Yes, if anyone else could cause the leaders of both Maverick and GEMINI to vanish without a trace, it was (the also missing) Sharr Webber. Yet, since Dan seemed to have knowledge of and control over most everything else that was happening in Pax Septimus, with any luck, he would also be able to shed some light on [i]that[/i] mystery as well…