Qingshe:Qingshe would privately admit, the brief surge of nervous pheromones that drifted into the air as a result of her teasing almost made her purr in anticipation. Although... She resisted the urge to raise a single brow at the youngest Arms Master among them, the almost frail-looking girl, who now huddled in fear.
Well,
more fear than she already was.
The raven-haired girl had been practically
oozing tension from the moment she'd stepped into the transport, tension Qingshe could quite literally smell. It had only gotten more pungent the moment the girl had caught sight of her shadow's helpful antics. The timing was far too coincidental to be anything else, and Qingshe lightly pouted at the conundrum.
Just what was it with small creatures and running away from her? Well, obviously, what other response to a predator was more natural? Not that she was a predator to
these people... not this time. Children should be allowed to be children. Even the ones that weren't quite apparent...
She glanced at the snowy-haired younger
woman girl currently inhaling the fresh ice cream... and chewing on the hankie... and acknowledged her thanks with slitted eyes crinkling into a warm, amused smile of amber. "Oh, my
pleasure, dearie~."
The Downward Descent would have had a field day with such a precious feral thing. Ah- Aaaand, just like that? There went her good mood. Just thinking about those
animals was nearly enough to send her into apoplectic fits, not that it showed outwardly. Even so, the air seemed just a touch chiller than it was before, this time not at the frail girl's behest.
Regardless, she all but
slunk into a seated position to Hannie's left... atop the thigh of one very (un?)lucky regular soldier, who made strangled noises of protest(?), as she wriggled and made herself comfortable, looming over the frail girl with a feline laser-focus to her serpentine gaze.
She leaned forward till no more than inches separated her face from the girl's pale visage, humming cheerily with a low purr that could barely be heard over the rumble of the transport's movements, certainly not by those more than a single seating away. The soldier she currently availed herself of as a cushion swallowed audibly to her perked ears.
"Lucky bastar-" she heard another soldier mutter before being firmly elbowed in the gut by his neighbor, much to her amusement and mildly restored mood.
Her shadow burbled silently and thrummed with a barely perceptible electric hum, as she smirked and idly played with some of its mass that had spread to the seat and wall next to her, the ebony and lurid green deforming and resetting mindlessly in her grasp.
The delightfully cloying scent of fear was almost overwhelming so close, intoxicating even, and Qingshe had to resist the urge to deliberately stoke it higher. Some instincts... really were too troublesome sometimes. The price of progress perhaps. Instead, she pouted and allowed her shadow to wriggle away into near nonexistence, only maintaining a small puddle on the floor, out of visual sight of the huddled child.
The sound of the checkpoint inspection was acknowledged and discarded, as she heard all she needed to from it. "Lei Qingshe: A-rank, Hannie Cavalet: C+-Rank and Nil: C-Rank. No last name on that one," the driver rattled off without hesitation. A couple wide eyes from eavesdropping soldiers turned her way, to which she cheekily wriggled her fingers.
Beyond that, it wasn't much the serpentine woman's concern, as her golden gaze -having briefly drifted to the front of the vehicle- snapped back to the girl she sat beside. "
Hannie Ca~va~let~ That's you, huh~?" her lilting Chinese accent sounded out inquisitively in a manner that gave the distinct impression she was tasting and
savoring every last syllable, like merely the act of learning something so simple was a delicacy of verbality.
NPCs:The checkpoint opened, with the soldier in charge remarking in Filipino, "It seems we have a chance, then."
His compatriot remarked, "Yeah; 'the kid' would be happy to hear about that..."
A reference to Second Lieutenant Noel Alonso.
Hannie:Hannie considers, from a variety of standpoints, the good it might do not to respond to her name. She could just stay curled up here and keep crying and never let anyone move her. That'd be nice.
It won't happen though, will it?
She extricates her face from her coat, wipes her eyes, sniffs. Maybe some other time.
Her ears, and the eyes of most of the men in the truck, have told her that Qingshe is speaking from beside her. That's enough - she doesn't need to look. It's like a stalking panther or a monster in a dream. It'll get aggressive if she looks. Even at the corner of her vision, those slitted eyes so close...
Her reply is quiet, and has to push through a few false starts in her tightened throat.
All that for a little, "mm-hmm."
She watches Nil teething on a sheet of fabric. It's the least confusing, dreadful, imminently frightening thing there is to watch right now.
Nil:Nil had become a bit curious about the other Arms Masters, especially since their names were told outloud by a soldier to the checkpoint guard. Hannie Cavalet and Lei Qingshe, both female names but one was from the west and the other chinese, so it was probably the two other girls in the truck, odd how all the girls had NAs. It became became clear who was who when they started talking with each other again, not like it would be hard to tell who came from the west and who came from china.
Qingshe left had left her ice-cream-making shadow on the ground, why didn't she dismiss the shadow entirely? why is a chinese here to fight other chinese? will the shadow make more sweets? Nil pondered these questions while gulping the rest of the hankie.
NPCs and Noel:The truck finally arrived at their destination, and opened its door to allow the people inside out to where the temporary HQ of the defenders were. A soldier led the way inside, before gesturing for the Arms Masters to come in.
Sison Auditorium in Lingayen was once the cultural center for the entire region (which in turn was made up of two to three provinces), a neoclassical building from the 20s and renovated twelve years ago back in 2010. Now, however, it served as a makeshift barracks for Lingayen's defenders, including the Arms Masters, at least temporarily. At least the stage saw some use, though, as the projector screen showed the situation all over Lingayen Gulf and the rest of the Philippines.
A boy was giving the lecture, his unique clothes and armor marking him as an Arms Master, and the Second Lieutenant's chevrons on the shoulder of his sleeve marking him as their commanding officer. Upon seeing Qingshe, the boy nodded in acknowledgement, as though to a superior, and spoke, "Your coming here means a lot."
He then looked at Hannie and Nil and greeted them with a wave, "You two; I'm glad to have your presence as well. I presume the trip went without any problems?"
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