Burger

Cross Gear

The arrival of the group to the TK Group's office was heralded by Hyun-jin. The moment they became visible through the glass walls, the young Korean diver charged towards them. The look on his face was one of that of pure excitement, like a kid in a candy store. With a surprisingly loud thump, his torso hit the handle and the surprisingly heavy door launched less than a foot open. After his failed greeting, he opened the door the rest of the way. The glass taking such an impact with nothing more than some shaking.

"Come on in, come on in!" Hyun-jin said, already amped up to leave to the Night City.

The group entered the lobby, the smoking woman refusing to approach them. Instead, she kept a healthy distance between herself and the rest of the hunters. With the cigarette still aimlessly drifting and filling her surroundings with the smell of smoke, she elaborated on the job.

"There's two injectors by your contracts," she pointed at the table containing everything they needed, "your job is to inject what we've come to call 'The Duke'. After that, get a sample of whatever comes out. Doesn't matter if Duke's dead or alive when he's injected. The former might be easier because the injector can't pierce his armour. Though we give you two, this part's the most important: only use one. Once he's injected and you collect a sample, destroy the other. Burn them, crush them, whatever you do, make one hundred percent sure that the injectors are unusable. When you're ready, head up that elevator and get on our carrier."

The table had contracts for all of them. The mostly held words of accountability and NDA. The divers couldn't speak to another soul about what was going to happen and would be held severely responsible for any injectors left usable after it was all said and done. Next to the contracts was a picture of the duke. Such a title fit for this kind of outsider. While the image quality was poor, noticeable details could be made out. More man than monster, the duke stood on two legs. While his proportions certainly weren't human with short legs and a massive upper body, he was still more human than many monsters. A gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, four eyestalks with slits that looked more mechanical than biological, and a massive horn protruding from his forehead. The Duke was almost pure white, save for fists and legs stained red. His entire body appeared to be covered in an otherworldly armour.

Besides signing the contracts and asking for any elaboration, there wasn't much to do save for entering the elevator to the roof.

Cross Gear

Me being busy and rationing my time horribly, mostly.

You Can Become a Hero!

Eugh.

The feeling of disappointment that washed over Yoru wasn't apparent at all. She hid it well beneath a friendly smile and carefully chosen body language. To say that she wanted someone else would be an understatement. The overly friendly nature of the pastel-haired girl made her want to throw up. The perfect roommate would have been someone friendly, weak-willed, and kept to themselves most of the time. Haruhi wasn't this. Having someone else call out others in that incessantly friendly tone was gross. It didn't help that she also had short hair. Even though she was uglier than Yoru, it encroached on her own value.

The names of the previous pairs didn't quite matter to Yoru. She still remembered everything they said because, again, there was some value to memorizing them. She didn't hold any sort of familiarity with the names. Obsession with the hero scene wasn't something that Yoru possessed.

Well, she might as well answer the questions that Aia asked.

"Of course, Ishin is an amazing school after all!" Her tone came out was just as perfected and rehearsed as before. "I suppose I'd call myself a student, ha~"

It was the perfect introduction. With that quick response, she managed to say absolutely nothing while words came out of her mouth. The joke at the end was so mildly funny that nobody sane would laugh at it. At best, it'd get a mild eyebrow raise or a slight nod. It wouldn't change the mood of the group nor force some kind of class clown reputation.

An absolutely milquetoast introduction, specifically formulated to not create any sort of negative impression of herself.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

this is the power of having 3 noble-like characters

Lostman Graffiti

@Crowvette

Northwest District - Spice Tea

The relative comfort of Spice Tea made for a great place for Aya and (more importantly) the child to rest. The cool water did wonders for her own state. This worrisome state of child welfare the duo found themselves in was changed by the child seeming no longer in distress. It wasn't just the heat, which was good. Maybe it was worse, considering the state the girl had to be to get to this point. She was sleeping peacefully for the time being.

That changed slightly with the arrival of a bald yakuza. Was he yakuza? He was well dressed. Besides being bald, he could have just been an ordinary salary man. Maybe he was balding and shaved it off for the sake of taking the plunge. Fumiko was instantly filled with distrust, apparent from her words to the man. Well, Aya wasn't partial to strangers either. It was pretty weird to have a kid fleeing for no reason.

For the sake of not quite sharing Fumiko's distrust of others, she abstained from adding more. If needed, she'd ask questions and maybe take a photo or two. She didn't want to just up and hand over the girl to her apparent uncle. Not yet, at least. She was still curious about why the kid slammed into her and kept running, after all. Usually a kid would flail on the ground with a snot-spewing noise or, at the very least, apologize. The girl wasn't even wearing clothes suitable for sandals.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Operation: Ground the Harpy

Civilization felt like a massive breath of fresh air for Lilliane's mind. Even though the country was crushed underfoot, they were—at this moment—literally out of the woods. That drop that felt like it took an eternity was no more than a vivid memory. For now, they were at peace.

Despite not really having enough time to change or get new clothes, Lilliane's outfit for the morning cafe was different. This time around, she wore a herringbone tweed suit. Much more well-loved than the one before, the cuffs and edges had been frayed from use. Though, for the time being, the jacket had been placed on the chair's back where Lilliane had sat.

Out of some sort of obligation as a guide, she corrected Chloe. "No, we're still in Orleans. Paris is still a hundred and a half kilometres. My apologies for the butter, though. War rationing and whatnot." She replied, different from the day prior. The stress of meeting some people she didn't trust in the middle of the forest was no longer there. But, you know, being shot at and subsequently protected by people who could flip around flesh and summon tanks tended to give at least a modicum of trust.

The black coffee in front of her was a welcome reprieve from the previous day of dry bread and suffering without much to drink.

"Also, feet off the table. We just trudged through hours of dirt and you didn't change your shoes."

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

i didnt realize i posted in the IC with an OOC post so early post to remove my dumb

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

---

While the offer of potion from Artemisia was polite from her, Locke simply passed the half-drunk vial back to the noble spearwoman. Drinking from something that had touched another's lip was a no go, especially if it was someone that was most likely a lowlander. Perish the thought of such a thing happening. Besides, his fairy could tend to his wounds after it finished with his clothes.

With the young Ciel's terrified introduction, Locke no longer felt as though squeezing the breath out of the boy's neck was necessary. No, the boy wasn't some insidious bastard looking to turn every situation to his advantage. He was just an absolute idiot. A blithering fool who followed them out of cowardice. Locke no longer wished to spend his energy on choking out the fool. He could be doing something more important, like sitting idly and doing nothing.

As his torn threads mended, the fairy switched focus. Slowly, his bruised and battered spine was filled with relief as he rose from his position on the ground. He didn't want to spend more time than he had to in these horrid ruins. Though, leaving instantly was sure to get him riddled by the arrows of those who wished to get the treasure inside for themselves. How would he escape? He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

You Can Become a Hero!

Scoping out the other first years, Yoru wasn't exactly impressed with the lot of them. More specifically, she wasn't impressed with the foreigner and squidhead. While the majority of students were acting all buddy buddy with each other, the two of them were the worst. Rather than sit down and wait like good little students, they decided to spend at least part of the pre-preamble being generally unpleasant. The girl with purple hair could at least sound innocent when her venomous tongue wounded others, which was actually pretty funny. Squid and foreigner just seemed more bitchy with a capital B. Probably not good to associate with those two, especially for her own image. Well, what was the likelihood that the two of them ended up in the same class as-

Her thoughts were interrupted by an old man's literally chilling appearance. Soon, his monologue began. Despite being considered interesting by no party, Yoru still listened rather intently. If it came down to it and a teacher asked about the monologue, actually showing that one listened to it would increase her standing. Someone getting caught with their pants down only made them look like a idiot. You could probably spin lovable ol' goof into an incredibly popular identity, but not when you're just a student and especially not a student in Ishin.

At least, not yet.

In any case, his monologue came to a close and Yoru was left without much guide as to what to do. The upperclassmen seemed to know, but they didn't really tell them either. Thankfully, it didn't take long for a bunch of upperclassmen to begin to shout out for their respective groups. Class 1A, the girl's voice rang out. That's where Yoru was.

It wasn't much surprise that Yoru's face almost instantly contorted into disappointment and annoyance that she saw the people she was trying to avoid. A couple of the others seemed nice, sure. But those bee-eye-tee-cee-aitch-eee-eses were there too. Yea, sure. Yoru played nice with others, at least most of the time. Her standing was much more important than endless verbal dunkings on fools. That didn't mean she enjoyed it. It was going to be a long school year, unless they were secretly enjoyable to be around. The chances of that? Pretty low. Well, she'd bite her tongue. At least, while other people were watching.

Extending its arm, she wheeled out her suitcase from under her chair. Wasn't really much point in dilly-dallying. Fixing whatever expression she made, she walked towards the girl calling for them. She won the genetic lottery, so it'd seemed. Natural cat ears were super popular. Better than patchy-fur, ugly eyes, and a deformed face. Though, there were always different strokes for different folks. People on the internet often enjoyed weird things.

Which was weird.

Nonetheless, she joined up with the 1A group. Between the general passive aggressiveness of a few notable people and not wanting to get onto the wrong side of drama, Yoru decided to not start shit so early. Plus, she didn't exactly etch out the useful people to be around. The only people that she paid close attention to before the intense old-man monologue were the people she wanted to avoid associating with. Besides that, she could only see the more friendly groups. Well, she might as well introduce herself to the entire class, even with the instantly odd atmosphere of two girls about to go at it. Following the example of another girl with pigtails, she put on a well-practiced smile. Not too intense, not too mute. Just enough to maximize approachability.

"Hello~!" She said in an introduction that could only be described as melodic."I'm Genkuro Yoru. It's certainly a pleasure to meet all of you. Let's have a good school year, no?" It was executed without so much as a stutter or slip. Not really out of an innate talent of public speaking, but from days spent dedicated in front of a mirror.

Lostman Graffiti

@Crowvette

Northwest District

With a less than great heave ho, the two of them lifted the conked out girl. Aya made sure to get a good grip. After all, dropping the girl on her noggin' was probably a horrible idea. Traumatic brain injury stunted brain growth. Probably. She didn't actually know if that one was true, but it definitely sounded true. She'd believe it if someone told her it.

The worried look on Fumiko's face almost made Aya feel guilty. Almost. It was just a joke, after all. No police officer would arrest the two of them for trying to get a heat-stroked girl to safety. Probably. Most of them had something better to do. Still, announcing that it was a little white lie would probably distract the entire getting-the-girl-into-shade deal, so she would hold off on squelching her worries.

For now, she'd just do what Fumiko offered: getting the girl into Spice Tea so she wouldn't die in some freak, chased-by-bookstore employee accident.

"Easy does 'er," Aya aimlessly said to herself. She really didn't want to drop the kid, especially on the hard concrete sidewalk.