Open Black Moon Academy - School for the Gifted

((I think Renée could probably learn to absorb a familiar, but also that this would be a really bad idea. For him anyway. "Take up the Despair into himself" sort of bad.

((Could say that there's sort of a "field" in that the Qbeys are sending out some sort of telepathic signal that resonates through the soul. They are always sending out some sort of signal to keep in touch with other Qbeys or to pass messages along.))

As Quitterie led them through the beginning part of the woods, trailing the Hunter at a much slower pace, she kept an eye on the students through the familiars. That also ensured that the quiet-voiced students would probably be heard no matter how far she was from them.

The kid that spoke up was... Quitterie glanced at her attendance sheet. Going off the flame in his eye, she'd guess he was Renée Crowley, the only one that had fire in his listed ability. Parasitic pyrokinetic wasn't a very informative description, though. Set things on fire, yeah, but seriously, that other aspect. Which was apparently related to something about her familiars - emotions? Souls themselves? The physical composition of Quitterie's familiars wasn't very complicated.

"Ah... Renée, right?" She had a Qbey hop into her arms and petted it. "Weeell, according to the school my power is... eh? Necromancy?" She stared at the bottom of the list, which listed her name as the supervisor. "Hm. That's your answer then. They're made of marshmallows and dead people." She smiled. "Though you should think of it more like I'm giving certain souls a second chance at life. In return..."

The Qbey jumped onto her shoulder and faced the students.

My name is Qbey! Make a contract with me and—

She brushed the thing off, and it teleported to the ground, unbothered.

"...they'll do a bit of work for me. They can send messages to me through telepathy, and it's the same for some of you. If you heard that, you can send and receive messages on the Qbeynet. Isn't it cool? They report to me, though, so don't think you can secretly use it to cheat on your tests. Hm~ I guess the Hunters might be listening in so I shouldn't have said that out loud."

It took perhaps all of thirty seconds for Priam to decide that this second-year guide wasn't someone he was going to like, for one simple reason: her constant, overly cheerful attitude was too much like Serena's for his liking. Though at least Serena couldn't materialize little white critters out of thin air. Those... Qbeys didn't really bother Priam, as he had assumed Quitterie was only summoning them as nodes for her telepathic network. That telepathic network is likely why she was selected to guide us. Would let us easily contact her in case something does happen.

He noticed, a few moments later, that someone else had joined him in the back of this group: a girl with green and black hair. He didn't know her name, of course - Serena and Vidal were the only students whose names he bothered remembering - though she did have standout features in the form of her unusual hair color, as well as the... shining orb thing that had materialized after she had been... prodding at the air? Another telepath, perhaps? Or maybe the orb is a summon of some kind, Priam mused, only curtly nodding his head in response to her greeting. The orb addressed the girl as "Miss Winters," a name that seemed vaguely familiar to Priam, but he wasn't sure where he'd heard it before.

As they were walking on, Priam caught the tail end of the Hunter's conversation with another student. He didn't know what that student had asked the Hunter, but from the tone alone, he could tell that whatever it was, it regarded a subject that the Hunter didn't want to discuss, and made that much perfectly clear. There's an attitude I can get behind, Priam thought with a small smile, if all of the Hunters are like that, I doubt I'll have any problem with them at all.

Gundam stood near the entryway, maintaining a sneering face as Moriarty began his speech. In all honesty, a trip out into the woods wouldn't be bad - but it matched his persona well enough to look contemptuous. Moriarty's shenanigans failed to amuse him, anyway; for he, who with the Dark Gods had found the cafeteria so easily, would have no trouble navigating the horrid, dark, familiar land of the forest. And he had no interest in the seeking out the socialization Moriarty had suggested.

The Four Dark Gods were more than company enough. Jum-P had re-assumed his usual spot on his shoulder, seemingly considering the pros and cons of switching back. He eventually morphed into a sleepy, white and grey hamster and curled himself up in his scarf, making a little nest in the fabric. Jum-P was always lethargic, probably because of the constant use of his illusory powers. Gundam sometimes wondered if there was more supernatural in him than met his eyes; certainly more than met other's eyes, and knowing that they were fallible sometimes made him consider if he was as well.

His reverie was broken by an exuberant girl going by the name of Quitterie taking over for Moriarty. Her light-hearted warnings were less obnoxious than his, but he sincerely doubted their necessity. If bears were the worst the woods had to offer, he would be glad; animals were always easy to understand. Those assumed professionals, the Hunters, would be unneeded - especially if their title was literal. He would interfere, of course, if it actually was an animal hunting exhibition...

Something white and fluffy appeared in front of him, looking like no natural animal he had ever seen. He looked up at Quitterie questioningly, and there was a split second of awkward almost-eye contact as she stealthily called The Four Dark Gods - shame and dishonor on her for such daring- cute. He muttered a complaint about how she was blind of their terrifying visage and they would drink the blood of any who would dare insult their honor so, but made less of a fuss than he had earlier today. It simply wasn't worth it, and considering the distance between them, it wasn't feasible either.

So he looked down at the Qbey again, and tried to examine it like it was a completely new species - while being relatively discreet about it, which would be quite an impressive feat for him. The rings around Qbey's ears made no immediate sense - they weren't even connecting to his body. Since the creature was obviously a function of Quitterie's power, it made some sense that it didn't have to, necessarily, make sense. It was rather unnerving in that regard, actually.

Still, Sun-D seemed to have been curious about it; jumping off a fold in Gundam's scarf, she scurried over to investigate the Qbey. Perhaps a bad idea, as the necromancer admitted to it being a spy of sorts. Gundam shuddered slightly as she explained her power; she was certainly one to watch out for. Perhaps he would have left it at that, if he had not heard another message, coming from the Qbey rather than her mouth:

"...they'll do a bit of work for me. They can send messages to me through telepathy, and it's the same for some of you. If you heard that, you can send and receive messages on the Qbeynet. Isn't it cool? They report to me, though, so don't think you can secretly use it to cheat on your tests. Hm~ I guess the Hunters might be listening in so I shouldn't have said that out loud."

That was a bit too much to leave alone. Telepathy was the sharing of thoughts, so all he had to do to respond was think... <Necromancer. These Qbeys are clearly not natural creatures; how do they function? Are they the sinister demons their voice implies, or are they truly beasts, vicious but predictable?>

It seemed like the group was moving on. He trailed behind at the end of the pack, picking up Sun-D (and Qbey willingly following); once they were deeper into the woods, perhaps he would assume a leading role.

At least one of the first-years had a clear quirk, it seemed.

<It's a secret,> Quitterie said. <For now, anyway. Can't infodump everything at once. But they're one hundred percent safe. I'm here, after all.>

She wasn't looking, but the Qbeys communicated that the speaker was the person with the hamsters. Was that the... hmm... zoopath? Nestor McLane. He didn't look like a McLane, but, well, Rachel hadn't looked like a Warblade.

"Eh... I forgot to mention this, but you can send messages privately too," Quitterie said. "You'll have to make it clear to the Qbeys that's what you want or they'll project it to speaking range. Let's see... for entire duration of this trip, anyone with the ability to use the network can do so freely among each other. For those of you who can't... well, I guess you can still talk through the network, but you won't get any messages back."

Katie followed the group into the woods, feeling rather tired. She had drank as much orange juice as she had the time and stomach for in the cafeteria, which wasn't a huge amount; she was a bit late after Gundam had ran quite a ways ahead of her in excitement; fortunately the murmurings of the other students' minds were strong enough (and close enough together) to allow her to find the rest of the way on her own. She felt the blood flow to her brain increase, but it would hardly make a difference, just a sort of safety net as it were. Now they were going on a field trip; she was never going to get any time to do the research she had come here for. Katie made a mental note to talk to Moriarty when she got the chance, slipping back into the group next to Gundam quietly, so as to appear as if she had always been there.

While she listened to the...mission briefing and the introduction of Quitterie (that was a fantastic name, never heard of that one before), Katie noticed that her appetite had severely decreased. She had only had time for a handful of mixed nuts and half of an uncomfortably dry bagel, so of course she was still hungry, but at a much lower, more manageable (read: ignoreable) level. Definitely there was some sort of psychic...what word was appropriate, field? Haze? There was some sort of mental interference around the whole academy. The faculty were inscrutable, she felt hungry precisely when the assignment was to find the place where the food was kept and stopped feeling hungry (stopped feeling as hungry, but) the moment she found it. If she had to guess, she'd say that Moriarty was behind it; he certainly had the air of someone who couldn't be outwitted and after all, acute psychic perception was the best defense to the element of surprise--but it wasn't an invasive field so much as a filter, it seemed. Still, it did seem to adhere to Moriarty's agenda; of course the faculty would have powersets here as well--perhaps not the janitor, but the professors? And to share a name with the most diabolical of literary chessmasters, well, that could hardly be a coincidence, could it?

The new arrivals' thoughts were too scrambled to be read properly, so Katie stuck to offhandedly probing around the minds of the people she had already encountered, minus Moriarty of course (though he disappeared quite soon). Nobody had any further idea that she did what was happening, so that was a good sign holy shit what is that

The group was suddenly surrounded by a precisely-spaced ring of...well that was impossible. Or at least impossible to describe; the best Katie could come up with were large white rabbits with bangles on their ears. And the consistency of the creatures--she couldn't tell from here, but they didn't seem very furry. More...squishy. Qbeys, that's what they were called, and apparently they were...made from marshmallows and dead people. The real red flag there was that Quitterie's power was classified under "Necromancy" (Katie briefly wondered what they had categorized her as, and how denotationally accurate their generalizations were) so they might actually be made from dead people, but marshmallows certainly seemed more accurate.

As Quitterie cut off mid-sentence, there was a telepathic burst of a lot of people thinking the same thing at once, which was bizarre. Not bizarre because of the act itself, but bizarre because they all seemed to be reacting to something one of the Qbeys had said--but Katie hadn't heard anything. And the word telepathy was being thrown around, and telepathy was an integral part of Katie's abilities. Was this part of the mental filter vicinity? She tentatively reached her mind out to one of the Qbeys, which looked blankly past her. Nothing. Not like there was a block there, not like someone was keeping her out, just a completely blank slate. Same for the next one, and the next; Katie sighed and massaged her temples, irritated.

"Um, excuse me, Quitterie?" she said, half-raising her hand timidly. "From what you said I understand that it's not a hugely uncommon thing for someone not to have access to the Qbey network, but I'm telepathic on my own. Shouldn't I definitely be able to hear them?"

Quitterie glanced at her list again. Actually, there wasn't anyone listed as a telepath. Though sometimes people had different abilities than what they thought they did... and also the school didn't always know the best way to describe everyone. She'd thought they'd known the root of her power was Despair, but if they were focused on the recorporealised souls aspect... hm. Did they not know about the humans in her network?

She pulled herself out of further musings and said, "No. Our powers work differently." She slipped into a lecturing tone. "In a few weeks you'll get a lesson on how every power has a single fundamental core. 'Telepathy' is often descriptive of the outcome of one's power, but in practice there are multiple ways to influence the mind such that messages may be sent and received." And more casually, "Basically, if person A is psychic and B's power works on the physical brain, their powers won't have any special interactions. My power isn't true telepathy, but it's close enough for any non-psychic. Someone in my year is a telepath incompatible with the network too. It's not that strange."

By now they'd left most of the sunlight behind, and the air was noticeably cooler. Dusk wasn't too far off either, though.

The air around the woods was just starting to get an orange glow about it. Professor Pope stood beside an old oak tree, gazing into the trickling creek not ten feet from him. It was a small creek, to shallow to even soak through your shoes, but it was cut deep into the ground, essentially running down a tiny trench. There were no bridges, as the trench was only about six inches across. Pope gave a sigh as Moriarty slid down the oak, and broke the serenity of the place with the sound of his heavy boots landing on the grass.

"Well, looks like we're good to go. Everything's in place." He said.

"Good." Pope didn't look at him.

"Don't tell me you're worried? Still?"

"I'm always worried." Pope finally turned his eyes to Moriarty, shooting him a glare.

"Yeah, I kinda' noticed that on day one." Their conversation ceased then, as the sound of the students became audible. "Well, looks like they're just about here." Moriarty grinned. "Let's give 'em a good time, eh?"

As the students approached, Moriarty clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Welcome, students, welcome! Pay attention, alright? This is a test to see how resourceful and clever you can be." From his pocket, he produced a small silver figure, just a bit smaller than his pinkie finger. "This," he said, "is a Praetorian. I'm sure you know a bit about them. Now, throughout these woods, there are other artifacts like this one; little silver soldiers out of time. Samurai, Spartan, Apache, British Regulars, you name it. Your job is to go out an find one of these figures, retrieve it, and return to this tree." He tapped his knuckles on the oak. "Once your palm is flat against the bark of this tree, you will have completed your test."

At this point, Pope stepped forward, clearing his throat. "The artifacts have been contained to a one mile radius. If you approach that boundary, there will be a Hunter, or Quitterie, to stop you and get you turned back around. Believe me, we have eyes everywhere. If you wish to travel and search in a group, then you are free to do so. But every student must acquire their own artifact. And one last thing before you go – remember to always remain focused on the objective. Get the artifact back to the oak tree. Do not try to bowl over your obstacles. Go around, keep moving, and remember your goal. Quitterie, this is for you." Pope offered a small earpiece to the second year. "We wish you the best of luck, students." Pope gave a small formal bow, and Moriarty clapped his hands again.

"And use your heads! Now, let's go! Get moving! Rapido! Go, go, go!"

Nick took a few steps back tentatively, then turned and strode into the woods. He looked behind to see if anyone was going to follow him. He wouldn't mind company, but neither did he feel he needed it. He was heading to the south of the tree, trying to think where these artifacts might be.

Given their size, Moriarty could have gone about hiding them two ways. He could have wedged them into hard-to-see places to really test their thinking, or he might have made them very clearly visible, with some sort of obstacle to get in their way. A trap or something of the sort. Hm. Maybe company would be good for this exercise. Two heads might do better than one... Perhaps he should say three was better than two, though, considering the Shade's presence.

((I realize this is pretty open-ended, so if anyone needs guidance, ask me about it. allitersonance is also pretty aware of what's going on.))

Priam continued the rest of the walk in his usual stoic silence, not even as much as acknowledging the Qbeys beyond his brief glance that he'd made when Quitterie had first summoned them. Perhaps, if he cared more, he'd ask that Winters girl if he'd heard her name before, but that would indeed require caring more about that girl's story, and Priam, to put things bluntly, did not care. All that concerned him was whatever the purpose of this "field trip" was.

They soon reached the clearing, and Priam listened intently as both Pope and Moriarty explained the purpose of this particular test. Another scavenger hunt, Priam thought grimly, suppose the cafeteria search was simply the prelude for a search of this scale, he adjusted the sleeves on his jacket, still, if we're to prioritize the task above all else, then I suppose we'll have to cut and run from any hostile forces... fine by me.

When Moriarty gave the signal to go, Priam only paused a moment, to take a quick sip from his flask, before closing the bottle, and turning and running from the clearing, clipping the flask to his belt in the midst of his run. In the low light, finding these is going to be tricky. Perhaps they expect us to work together... no, if each of us are to retrieve one singular figure, and they're scattered... teamwork would be discouraged. Once again, fine by me.

Still, he had no idea as to where he might look, so his plan of action was simple: pick a direction and literally run with that. As of now, that plan was already in motion.

"You missed, like, all sorts of chances at foreshadowing there," Quitterie said to Moriarty as she took the earpiece. He did have a sense of drama, but... it was just so unfashionable. Gosh. Basically the same thing had happened last year, and probably many years for a long time, and they still didn't have a perfect speech down. How boring.

She waved after the kid that was outright running off. Maybe he'd find himself almost a mile out and still be the first to find his trinket anyway.

Then she turned to the kids who hadn't dashed off yet. "We had painted Battleship pieces last year. Yours might actually be worth keeping, eh? Oh, and... this is sort of like a race, you know? The bit about touching the goalpost, that'll be important if you're racing someone. Don't be afraid of smacking into the tree or anything. We've got healers. Also..." She pulled a digital camera out of her pocket. "...I'll be waiting."

She dropped the display. "I meant the thing I said before, about having fun. I'm pretty sure it bothers those guys" - she jabbed a thumb at Moriarty - "when you're having more fun than they are."

Then her eyes found one of the Qbeys, and she nodded. The Qbey bowed its head in return and disappeared.

...and anyone who could sense a Qbey would find that there were many more than expected, not clustered densely but spread out distantly. Enough for Quitterie to have had to sacrifice a certain amount of her network for.

It was unlikely anyone would be able to sense the line of familiars trailing back to the school, though. That line had been following them ever since she'd entered the woods. Though the professors probably wouldn't be surprised, since she always needed an unbroken line of Qbeys. Not that she expected them to be unconcerned about everything...

<"I am not going to go running around after you guys and ruining my shoes, but the Qbeys will be around and I'll hear about things some way or another. If you think you're too far to get a message through, you're probably wrong.">

This time, those close by who could hear her telepathy would have the eerie experience of hearing through their ears not quite simultaneously with the messages entering their brains. Those farther out would hear the telepathy alone, or nothing if they simply couldn't. And it continued:

<"Anyway, this is about the time for me to quote something trite, right? Eh... oh, I know.">

She adopted a pose not unlike that of Professor Moriarty. And, even if not her voice, her tone too was spot-on.

<"Fun fact 1: Your mind is your greatest asset. Fun fact 2: The solution to any problem can be found by thinking creatively, but sometimes the answer can be staring you in the face.">

She grinned.

<"Have a nice hunt.">

~Reneé

Reneé sighed slightly, he figured that they were primarily soul, but felt that the hold on them was rather weak, as though Quitterie had no concern of losing control of what happened to the soul. Reneé quickly released his fist, and immediately re-clenched it, calming his eye properly. "Not to be absorbed, eye. They aren't quite free from life..." Reneé thought to himself, only to find a second voice say something. A quizzical expression found a response from Quitterie, briefly explaining the use and purpose of the anime inspired lagomorphs.

Reneé watched as Moriarty emerged from the door, and explained the task at hand. The small figure in his hand immediately caught Reneé's attention. They were each expected to find one of these and return to the tree. A race/scavenger hunt kind of thing. A flurry of footsteps denoted one of Reneé's classmates had already taken off, clearly having no intentions of finding help in another. Reneé made his way to Raisa, figuring that room-mates may as well work together. Suddenly, several more messages entered Reneé's mind, and he found himself scowling slightly, not appreciating the intruding voice.

"Hey, Raisa, as much as we each need to find our own, I figure that we should work together, something of a way to better get know each other, and learn to work with each other's abilities. Remember, I have fire, so I can easily light the way, as well as clear any brush." Reneé proposed to Raisa, his lighter now in hand. "And I'm willing to bet that Brighton's visual sensor's wouldn't miss anything as we go."

Serena was still fawning over her designated Qbey when they reached their destination. Moriarty and Pope both had some... semi-interesting things to say. Really, the only thing Serena took away from it was that she was hoping her figure would have a horse.

Priam was gone in a flash, and Serena frowned. There went her partner. She probably could've caught up with him easily enough (he didn't appear very athletic), but she decided against it. After Quitterie gave her final word on everything, Serena followed the first person she thought of besides Priam. Which was the boy walking away briskly, with long hair. Nick. Yes, she'd gotten caught eavesdropping with him.

That sounded about right. She went into a run for a few moments, and caught up with him. "Hey, Nick. My roommate kind of bolted. I was thinking we should look together! You know, might as well." She said. "I mean, even if we aren't roommates, it's good to get to know each other. This is kinda' like the Cafeteria Hunt, huh?" It was remarkable that at that moment, she got a message from what she could only assume was the Qbeynet. She giggled at the imitation of Moriarty. "I like this Quitterie girl." She told Nick.

Katie arched her eyebrows. Praetorian? Not an altogether incorrect term, but an extremely uncommon one. And wow holy crap those things were small, and unfortunately not sentient at all or otherwise detectable. She was going to be absolutely useless out here.

One more hoop to jump through, she thought, her only consolation; they couldn't possibly keep throwing challenges at them this late. She reached around to find out who didn't have a partner yet, taking in Quitterie's instructions, because there was no way she was going to be able to do this on her own. Especially as it was getting dark; where was Gundam? It seemed like a lot of people didn't have partners yet, at least it wasn't some sort of race--

"Oh, and... this is sort of like a race, you know?"

Well shit.

Katie groaned and looked around for a remotely familiar face, someone who could hold their own against obstacles and who could access the Qbeynet. She decided on this Nick fellow, who she remembered vaguely from the combat challenge; he'd done pretty well, and from what she had gathered in that first hour or so he had a pretty versatile and useful ability (if ability was the correct word). Katie approached him nonchalantly.

"So, um," she said, waving shortly. "Do you want to pair up for this?"

After following them for a while and listening to the messages, she let her Qbey go. She'd still be able to hear every message passed through telepathy.

But of course, Moriarty had something for them to find. In the dark, with or without a partner. Aimee sighed, she'd rather not be alone in the dark, wandering around the woods. She'd definitely need to find a partner... one she thought may be interesting was the girl she had seen earlier with the sphere-man. Taking a few steps toward her, Aimee began with "Excuse me, Ms. Green-Haired lady-" before cutting herself off when the boy with hair covering his eye approached her and started talking. Now what was she going to do, they had both probably heard her, and she didn't want the attention from the boy.

She gulped but took another step forward, hoping the girl would notice her before he did. He already had a scary air about him Aimee would rather avoid.

Nick turned his head to look at Serena. "Yeah. Sure." He couldn't complain that she was clinging to him whenever her roommate was busy. He would probably need the extra help.

Wonder what happens when we find one. He thought. Maybe I should just leave her when we do. Let her find her own. But everything in him hated that idea. He didn't care for the zeal that his parents had tried to grind into his brain, but they did teach him some manners.

He turned his head in surprise when another person approached him. He remembered seeing her a bit here and there. There was only one things he remembered about her. "Your roommate is the freaky guy with hamsters isn't he?" He cracked a smile. "Sure, you might as well come along." He shrugged. "I don't know how they expect us to find these things, really. Unless they're all in obvious places. Hell, Moriarty could have them all in his pocket for all we know. Another stupid mind game."

As he walked, he kicked over a rock. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing underneath it. He scoffed. "I need some eyes in the air." He mumbled. But he didn't want to Summon the Shade. The consequences, as usual, outweighed the benefits. "Don't suppose either of you have any brilliant plans?"

((This is my third time trying to post this.))

Katie winced subtly; she hadn't realized she was thirdwheeling on Serena's offer to pair up. Still, the girl seemed nice enough, and the more of them there were to overcome "obstacles" the better. Besides, it was about time she got to know the rest of her class, especially now that there were a slew of new ones and the only one she really knew was Gundam.

"Eyes in the air?" Katie smirked wryly; maybe she wasn't a deadweight this tie around, after all. "I can help you there. If we can find somewhere to safely dump my body, I can cover us up above. Let me just do a quick probe around for any hints to make this go by faster." She reached her mind out to Quitterie in particular; she seemed to be running the show, but was apparently listed by the Academy as a Necromancer, which mainly served to indicate that her powers involved deceased people but also implied that she was not, in fact, a member of the faculty, and therefore probably wasn't completely inscrutable thanks to this psychic vicinity-barrier that prevented her from hearing Moriarty or the Doctor (after all, the rest of the students were all open books (not the greatest metaphor for mindreading but) so it stood to reason that--

"Aah!"

A whole second of absolutely zero sensory input, and Katie found herself suddenly stooped over, hand against the tree nearest her. A cold sweat had broken out, and she spat onto the forest floor.

"I'm fine! I'm okay, it's fine," she said hurriedly, without bothering to register their reactions. She rubbed her arms; just like before with Gundam, there now sat like a stone, in every perceptible plane of her memory, a blank moment, a deliberately and subconsciously blocked experience that was not to be remembered or explored, and now it was clear that the source of this was Quitterie. Katie shuddered as fresh goosebumps sprouted on her wrists, promising herself that she wouldn't try to do that again.

<It's a secret. For now, anyway. Can't infodump everything at once. But they're one hundred percent safe. I'm here, after all.>

Unhelpful, but expected. Gundam considered skipping out on the field trip, and instead stopping to investigate the Qbeys--it was certainly a task more suited to him, he thought. But the more he considered it, the more these creatures being dragged from the depths of Hell to be her servants and spies... made him uncomfortable, in the part of him that wasn't admiring. He looked at the Qbey behind him; its expression was blank as always. Rather disturbing; "poker faces" were, so to speak, also an invention of humankind.

The hunt had begun. Quitterie had quoted the same infernal thing Moriarty had said regarding the last challenge; surely a sign, although his only thought was that then, modifying his approach would probably be unnecessary. He looked to his side, expecting to find Katie where she had come in minutes ago, but she'd already left. It seemed like she pairing up with... actually, he didn't know their names. Did he know anyone's names here, save for Quitterie, Katie, and Moriarty?

Unlikely.

In any case, he didn't need a partner, did he? He was the Malevolence of the Age, with the Four Dark Gods of Destruction by his side! He already had four partners to assist him in his search.

"Sun-D and Jum-P," he murmured, sounding like he was casting an ominous spell, as he always did when commanding them. "Your efforts will be needed here. These Praetorians, commanders of the dead and leaders of figures of legions impossible to comprehend, must be found. The sun is fading, Jum-P, but you must soar high, and use your keen eyes to locate the treasure! Sun-D, your shining aura can be used here. Although it is typically used for the destruction of light, tonight we shall create a starry supernova! Please, lead the way and I will follow."

Both of them complied, Jum-P transitioning to falcon immediately and taking to the skies. Sun-D took off with a start and ran further into the forest, her location being broadcasted around her by a bright white glow. "Cham-P and Maga-G," Gundam said, sprinting to catch with her, "You two shall branch off of Sun-D's path. It seems wiser to say within her line of sight. Considering your stature in full size, Maga-G, it may be necessary to stay within the confines of this form. This is a forest, full of trees and smaller creatures... also, you might step on a Praetorian."

Priam hadn't made it all too far when he "heard" the telepathic voice of the Quitterie girl - both giving the same advice Moriarty had given earlier that day, and warning them that she would be staying at the clearing. Makes sense, Priam thought, slowing his pace to a brisk walk, if she's helping the faculty and has that long-range communication, logic dictates she'd stay with the faculty. Though her reasons might be rather superficia- no, focus. Can worry about unimportant details later. Need to search.

Priam suspected that these figures were concealed in such a way that they'd fit under the "answer staring you right in the face" vein - hidden in plain sight; perhaps wedged into a tree branch, or hidden on the forest floor. Shouldn't rule out tree hollows either. Very obvious hiding place, so much so that one would instinctively rule it our due to how obvious it was. He stayed close to the trees, partly out of street-honed instincts to find cover, but also because the moment he saw a hollow in one of those trees, he was going to reach in to check if anything was there.

He briefly wondered how many others had taken off when he did; he found it likely that Serena was the first to begin searching after he made his move, given how active she'd already demonstrated himself to be. In that vein, he also suspected that she'd be among the last to return with a figure - in her energetic searching, she'd probably walk past at least four hiding spots for the figures.

Allowing himself a smile at that notion, Priam continued on his way, eyes constantly on the alert for anything that might possibly conceal a figure.

It wasn't a surprise when Reneé made his way over to her. She raised a brow though at his eye, which she actually noticed this time, a soft glow beneath the hair he covered it with. She wondered how his hair didn't catch fire. "Hey, Raisa, as much as we each need to find our own, I figure that we should work together, something of a way to better get know each other, and learn to work with each other's abilities. Remember, I have fire, so I can easily light the way, as well as clear any brush." He pulled out that zippo of his again. "And I'm willing to bet that Brighton's visual sensor's wouldn't miss anything as we go."

What was the surprise was the girl that approached her as well and almost at the same time. Raisa just guessed that she was interested in the friendly glowing blue orb. Made sense at least. "Excuse me, Ms. Green-Haired lady-"

She nodded to Reneé. "That's why I took him out." She gestured to the floating VI beside her. "I hadn't been able to really test him outside of well, testing. So I thought I'd actually take him out, rather than just use his program." She then turned to the girl. The girl looked pretty young, probably why she called Raisa "Green Haired lady". She seemed nice enough. "Eh, I prefer Raisa," she said to the girl, a small smirk on her face. "I recolor my hair pretty randomly, so probably not the best thing to remember me by." She glanced at Reneé. "I think it's up to Reneé here what-"

She stopped when a blue blur zoomed past her face and toward the girl. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance miss...?"

Raisa facepalmed. "Geez Bri, save a little mystery in life would you?"

Flinching back slightly when the orb came in front of her she looked between it and Raisa, he was friendly but... actually pretty creepy.

"U-Um, Aimee, my name's Aimee..." She stepped away from the orb and closer to Raisa. "I was just... wondering if you'd want to partner up, but... I see you've got him and I wouldn't really want to intrude..." She pointed at Reneé, her hand shaking slightly before putting it back down.

"I just didn't want to... do it on my own in the dark..." Wow, she sounded pretty pitiful asking this. "But I didn't want my own... roommate either... I'm the lucky one who gets stuck with the one in the hazmat suit..." Shuffling her feet she looked down, expecting either Raisa to tell her to do it or her own or this Reneé to say something to her.

~Reneé

Reneé listened to the new girl's request, but allowed Raisa to respond initially as she looked rather uncomfortable even looking at Reneé. Of course Raisa decided to bestow the role of group leader on him, i.e. make him choose whether or not this new girl, Aimee apparently, was going to join in on the group effort.

"I see no trouble in it. I was always raised with the idea of 'The more, the merrier.'. Not that I necessarily partook in that all too often, but still. Sure! Also, Brighton and I should be able to create a wonderful amount of light." Reneé replied with a beaming grin. He was starting notice how uncomfortable she was though, and without hesitation (or much thought) asked, "Um, I get that you got the short end of the stick for room-mates, but given that he doesn't seem present, what's eating at you? Is it my eye? I can try to dim it if that's what's bothering you..."