#jade01

Since being back in Covington, Devansh had happily connected with a lot of the people who'd made the place more tolerable as a young teenager and one of those people happened to be Jade. She was someone he'd admired for a long time when he'd been younger. His parents couldn't afford to get him horse-riding lessons as a kid but his interest in the animals hadn't diminished and he'd often spend time out by the stables which was precisely where their unlikely friendship had developed from. Seeing her compete on such an international level had been a thing of pride for Devansh, simply because he knew her but she was someone he sought out when he returned, wanting to catch up on her life and accomplishments in person.

As he rode side by side with the other, he couldn't help but glance at her once more with a grin, "so--do you prefer to ride in silence or can we talk? I feel like if we were going to be silent the entire time--there's no point in doing this together, you know?" A grin was on his face as he waited for her response.

You spent a while on the surface of the SEA OF NECTAR. It’s a beautiful little land, jewel islands dotting a sun-dappled sea (not dissimilar to how you imagined the Land of Light and Rain), but unfamiliar. The soil is wrong, the heat too intense. The plants you know wouldn’t have a good time here.

So: garden in your room. Shelves full of plants and planters. No problem. But how? Whoever fitted out your apartment neglected to furnish it with things like compost, spades, or seeds. Very short-sighted.

You tapped off a question to CODEX PROTOCOL. You got the answer. 

So here you are now, one train ride later, in the SEA OF TRANQUILITY. Trees as wide around as houses hold the sky off the loamy earth. You’re halfway up one of them, wandering around a bustling little villa made of platforms and bridges and rooms carved straight out of the living wood. 

It’s a bear market. Bears hawk pears and pumpkins and fresh-caught trout. Bears roll barrels of cider around the veranda. Fragrant coffee is being brewed (by bears) somewhere near. 

He pushes up his glasses before looking pointedly towards the landscape, all dreary and sprawling. “What do you think of this place?” They would be watching, they said. With what method would they use for surveillance? It would take too much manpower to have all eyes and ears at every corner of the city. A mechanism would have to be used - and yet he knows no kind of fontech that could do such a feat.

Yet if this is truly a different world, then the natural rules he has studied decades for would be for naught. His capability to perform artes was the first thing he checked once he was free - and it was hampered. He felt the muscle memory of having a fon slot curse placed on him. Yet he’s not sure of its source: is it due to the lack of fonons in the area, or is due to some other mechanism?

And there’s also the matter of being lab rats at hand.

There hasn’t been much time as of yet to scour the entire area to do a proper evaluation, but he has formed his own opinion of their current debacle. The colonel wonders where the others may be - and what they think of being in destiny’s palms again.

@gaidios

There’s the man’s trademark glasses adjustment.

"What do I... think of it?” It wasn’t uncommon for Jade to ask for Guy’s opinion, and in a sense, it was somewhat comforting. The sense of familiarity was nice, and though he was typically flustered by Jade’s tendencies to throw him under the bus, this was different.

After all, they hadn’t seen each other for awhile.

“It’s... definitely something,” Guy finally replies. “I’d like to know how they found us, also how they managed to bring us here. It couldn’t have been an easy task, or at least, I’m having trouble imagining you letting them drag you here without a fight, Jade.”

On the other hand, allowing himself to be captured for the sake of satiating his curiosity also felt like something the Colonel would do.

If your last conversation with her was anything to go off of, you two hadn’t left off on the best of terms. You’re more than sure she was desperate to get away from you, but here she is. She hadn’t started walking away from you yet either, maybe you should leave first?--

Too late. You’re already speaking. Goddamn it, Strider.

DAVESPRITE: jade? DAVESPRITE: what the fuck man DAVESPRITE: did they kidnap everyone while i wasn’t looking DAVESPRITE: yall cant go a few minutes without some sort of bullshit happening to you guys can you DAVESPRITE: wait who am i kidding there’s always some sort of shit happening to you guys its kinda unreal tbh DAVESPRITE: i mean... DAVESPRITE: uh

     — [♌ ] — You have to do a double-take when the dark-haired, olive-skinned girl walks by -- the animalistic ears protruding from the top of her head make you think she's Blake from behind. But, no! She's one of those humans, you think -- the one Dave described to you, but you didn't actually get to meet. You step up behind her and tap her on the shoulder.