Melody of the Abyss

the sudden cave in of the ceiling caused the girl to be separated from the current party, however, she managed to protect Ion pretty well with the use of Tokunaga to shield them from the falling debris above. She recalled seeing Commandant Grants, but at the moment they were all pretty much separated. She allowed Tokunaga to fall down to its smaller size on her shoulders as she looked over at Ion.

"You okay there, Ion?" she mused with worry.

Anise looked over at the blond, "Right, since it's Gloomietta, I guess she'd escape to the open area where her monster friends are," Anise agreed wit Guy. It seemed that there was the five of them, Ion, the Colonel, Natalia, Guy, and including herself were standing as a group here. It was better than nothing, though. At least they had the Colonel.

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"I'm fine, Anise."

It seemed almost peculiar that such a grand building could fall into disrepair so quickly. Was seven years really that long? It bothered Ion that Arietta had chosen this place for a rendezvous. It sort of made it look like she knew something they didn't.

Perplexing.

Being split into smaller groups complicated things as well.

He perked up at Guy and Anise's mutual choice of action. "If we can get to Arietta, I'm sure we can reason with her. I doubt she'd leave without seeing us first--it's the reason she chose to take a captive, after all."

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((psst... it's been 16 years since the building was used. It was abandoned during the Hod War, when the front lines came to close))

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[[OOC: Whoops! My bad! Ignore my faulty numbers. 8Db]]

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It seemed all of them failed to realized that Arietta had quite the head start on them, she wouldn't be on the roof, and a God-General would be smart enough to be able to cover her trail. Any trail they found would be one she wanted them to find, and would most likely lead to some sort of a trap.

But that all depended on what the point was in kidnapping Luke and even bringing him to such a place. The one thing they knew was that the pink haired girl did seem devoted to Ion, so she would most likely make an attempt to capture him.

He shrugged. "Arietta most likely has left the roof unless that is where she intends to ambush us all. The only trail she has likely left is to lead us to this ambush."

He didn't doubt for a minute that some sort of an ambush was planned. It was just the reason for why the God-Generals would go to such lengths, unless this was a personal vendetta of Arietta's against them for some unknown reason.

And then it didn't help that he truly couldn't fully trust the other two in the group, especially the blonde haired man.

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"She wants us to find her, and she wouldn't dare hurt Ion. This place was the summer home of a noble, it's not like it's small. I for one don't want to have to search the whole place, especially not when it's practically falling apart. We might as well head to the roof, and go in with a plan." Guy turned to Natalia. "Natalia, what do you think?"

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astralrain.livejournal.com

To think they'd finally found Luke, only to have him taken again so quickly! Natalia was, needless to say, not at all pleased with this recent turn of events. Nor was she pleased about having to work their way through the ruins of the Duke's former summer home--especially since they'd needed to separate after a trap had been sprung.

The blonde sighed. The only consolation was the fact that everyone seemed to have made it out unscathed. She could only hope they could reach the roof and meet up with the others safely.

"Forgive me, Colonel, but I must agree with Guy." She paused long enough to glance around the area they were in, then continued, "None of us are familiar with this place, so wondering around too much can be dangerous. As long as we follow the trail that girl--Arietta, you said?--left, we should be relatively safe." At least until they reached the God-General again, then it was anyone's guess as to what would happen. She had wanted the Fon Master, though, so she certainly wouldn't risk his life, right?

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Anise nodded in agreement, "Yeah, seriously. I don't want to get Ion hurt getting there, so we should just follow that path," she replied in a serious tone. That stupid Gloomietta taking Luke and leaving them a rather dangerous trail to pursue. She wouldn't forgive her.

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"Ah Anise, that is the problem here."

They didn't seem to realize, the number of God-Generals here was unknown. Arietta could well have a few of her comrades here. True, Ion was safe, but he doubted the rest of them were.

The girl would pick the most ideal location to capture Ion and to ambush any with him. At minimum, she'd want to keep them busy while she took Ion away.

"You see, Ion may be safe, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are. It is obvious Arietta wishes to lead us to a place that would be ideal for whatever she plans here, which is likely Ion's capture and the death of the rest of us. We also do not know if Arietta is the only one, or if she brought along the other God-Generals, or even how many monsters or Oracle Knights she has with her."

He wasn't exactly going to condone idiocy here. If they were headed into an ambush or trap, it was best to be prepared for the worst.

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This train of thought bothered Ion. Although Arietta was a God General, he wanted to believe that she wouldn't kill needlessly where he was involved. (She knew he wouldn't want that, didn't she?) Perhaps he could dissuade her from causing harm to the others. He wasn't certain she'd listen, but it was better than nothing.

"It doesn't look as though we have many other options, Jade."

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"Well, now that you put it that way, Colonel," the girl sighed a bit. IT was true. Arietta probably was planning to ambush them. If they continued to follow her trail, they might end up in a trap. It wasn't sounding very good at the moment, and Anise didn't think they had much of a choice either, though what will they do?

"Then, Colonel, what do you think we should do?" she inquired.

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That was the problem, there was no good solution. Though knowing they were walking into a trap or ambush helped, it meant they would all be prepared.

"Well, in a case like this where there may be danger ahead, usually one is sent to scout ahead. Guy would be ideal for this, since he obviously can take care of himself. He can go ahead of the rest of us who will all stick close to Ion and move at a slower pace."

That was really the best they could do. If Ion had protection, the rest of them were less likely to get hurt. Then Guy could warn them easily enough if something dangerous comes.

"Not the best of plans, but likely our only choice. We can't risk endangering Ion, or also the Princess."

((ooc: Of note, since we didn't quite cover the introductions, if Natalia asked to be addressed informally by Jade and the others, then he would do that, I'm assuming using a proper form of address since Jade wouldn't outright disrespect her, especially on a mission for peace with Kimlasca. So basically if she would have said that, then he'd call her Natalia here.))

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Guy didn't like the plan, but without anything else to work with, they really didn't have a choice. And, out of who they had, he was the only close-combat fighter other than Anise, and Anise had to protect the Fon Master.

"Alright," he said. "I'll scout ahead." He turned to look at Natalia. "Stay near the Fon Master, Anise and Jade will protect you."

He looked at the others and nodded, and started heading toward the stairs, making sure that he was within range if they needed him to run back and help, or if he had to call for them.

[I suppose at this point we're good at any time for Anise to jump on Guy, should probably happen before he gets too far away, or they get too close to the roof]

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OOC: I'll do it right now. Hopefully that's fine. Sorry if the post sucks ass>>

Anise nodded her head and followed after Guy, though that lingering thought about him being afraid of women, was starting to get to her. She wondered if that was true? It was odd to think that someone would be afraid of women, but what did she know. She kept the Fon Master close to her as she followed right after. Though, she strayed a but further away because she wanted to test it out. She had not seen him flip out, yet, so she assumed it was just a joke, but right now, she wondered, was it really?

Anise quickly made a jump to land on Guy's back, just to test he own lingering thoughts, with a rather devious look on her face as she jumped on him.

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[ooc- of course, as I just happen to have a icon from this scene...]

Guy's eyes went wide as he felt someone on his back, and a flash of memory that he couldn't quite remember sent him flailing, flinging Anise from him. "Aaah, no!" he screamed, clutching his head and stumbling forward until he could make it onto his knees.

He panted a few times, his eyes still wide, trying to get himself under control again.

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Anise let out a small yelp as she was tossed backwards onto the ground, right on her butt. She frowned a bit, "Ow, that hurt," she replied with a bit of pain. She didn't really expect that to happen at all. He REALLY was afraid of women. She was sitting there still on her butt trying to figure what just happened. So, what they said wasn't a lie. Way to confirm the wrong way. She slowly rose and patted her bum, how it hurts right now.

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Guy's strong reaction was startling, to say the least. It seemed like one second he was fine, and the next, he had fallen into a fit of sheer terror. Ion offered a hand to Anise, then turned back to Guy, who seemed to be recovering from the sudden shock.

"Are you going to be alright, Guy?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

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Well, that was rather interesting. A man actually afraid of women, but that would be something to keep in mind in the future since there was a God-General who so closely resembled the blonde.

"Well, at least now we know how to tell if we have an infiltrator in our midst or not." Jade said with his usual sarcastic grin.

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"S-sorry, Anise," Guy panted. He'd never reacted that badly before... Nor had he ever almost remembered something. His phobia had to be rooted in those memories, but Guy had been trying for years to remember his family's death, no no avail.

He glared briefly at Jade and then gave Natalia a reassuring glance. "I'll be fine. I'm gonna head out again. You, uh... might wanna stay back a bit, I guess." Guy headed again for the stairs, hoping that the potential dangers would snap him out of the slight shaking he was still having.

[[ooc- I suppose, at this point, Guy is effectively written out of the scene for a bit, if the rest of you want to have discussion of what happened without him. Do we want to have them reach the roof in this scene, or make a separate scene with that? If we wanna do a separate scene, I can start it when I get home from work (or after I get word), and you guys can finish this at a more leisurely pace]]

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"It's okay, I guess, no harm done~" she replied trying to be a bit chipper, but not really. Though she was hurting, she knew the truth now. At least Anise knew better than to do that again. She really didn't want to get thrown off like that again. It hurt.

She patted her clothes a bit a looked around, "We can go now, right?" she mused after Guy's retreating form. Surely, they're able to move smoothly now... or not?

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