The Lure Awakened (Private, Xald and Lani, Joinable with Permission, T-LG)

Roanoke Island
July 1st
11:44 PM
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The air was still, unnaturally so. Where one would expect to hear the sounds of nature, there was silence. Deep in the woods, where 2 old paths crossed, the air sparked and hummed. A circle of ancient magic power, lying in wait for nearly have a millennium, finally heard its call. Throughout the north-eastern United States, any Kishin would feel the mark drawing them to gather on the island, promising things dark and twisted...

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Death City
July 2nd
1:32 PM
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Noelle checked through Justice's bags once more, visibly excited for her little niece's mission. "Don't forget to take plenty of pictures for me while your gone. Oh, and be nice to your weapon. Your weapon is your partner. Always be friendly. Oooh, I'm so proud of you Justy~ If your parents could see you. Quick, stand against the door, I'll take a picture and send it to your mom!"

Claire set her bag next to the door and let out a sigh, turning to Jazz and little Lucia, resting so comfortably in her 'papa's' arms. She leaned forward and gave Jazz a soft kiss. "Don't cause too much trouble. And don't forget to feed her. Or bathe her. Or...anything." Claire said, trying not to panic so much about leaving her two girls alone.

Justice let out a groan in response, hetero-hued eyes rolling as xe leaned back against the doorframe, brow raised. "Auntie, you know mom doesn't care as much as you think, about this mission stuff..." Still, the meister humored xir relative, "And I won't Claire, Ellie..."

Jasmine laughed once more, shaking her head and leaning forward to press a tender kiss to the top of her girlfriend's head. "I know, I know, and I know, Angel." She shook her head, grinning, "Tony will be by when I'm not here, and you know neither of us will neglect her."

"Well, that's her own problem." Noelle said, snapping a couple photos with her phone before handing Justice xer suitcase. "Alright, you better hurry so you don't miss your flight." She said, blowing her niece a kiss and waving her goodbye. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of Royal while you're gone."

Claire let out a soft chuckle and turned towards the door, her hand resting on the door. She turned towards Jazz one last time and blew both of them one more kiss before turning towards the door, opening it, and slipping out, heading down to the ground level to meet Justice

The smile broke across xir androgynous face, and xe smile, grateful. "Thanks, Auntie." With that, xe stepped out of the apartment, sending a quick text to Johnathon to let him know xe was leaving.

Claire sat out in front of the apartment building, pursing her lips and looking at her phone. She texted Justice a brief message asking how much longer she was going to be before she pulled up Jazz's number, quickly texting her. How is everything?

Justice used xir voice commands to pull up a call to xir partner as xe moved into xir car. "Claire~" Xe said upon the answer, "Auntie held me up for a while, there. Are you packed and ready? I will be over in five."

All is well, worry wart! You'll turn into a toad at this rate. <3 ;D The text was clearly from Jazz, accompanied shortly after by a selfie of her and little Lucia, curled on the couch and watching cartoons.

Claire answered the call, putting Justice on speaker when she received Jazz's text and smiling at her family. "It's alright..." She said, still smiling at the picture. "I'm waiting outside on the steps. See you when you get here..."

"The girls alright?" Xe asked, the phrase seeming habitual as the aux cord was plugged in and the car running. "Stupid question, but worth asking."

"Yeah, they'll be fine... Won't stop me from missing them though..." She said wistfully, still looking at the picture before putting her phone back up to her ear. "What about you? Is Royal gonna be ok?"

Justice shrugged, turning onto her block, "Auntie's got him, at the moment. John is there quite a bit, as well, for obvious reasons."

Claire let out a sound of confirmation, hanging up her phone and standing and waving at her meister. She slipped into the front seat and craned her head to watch the house as they left. Soon enough they were at Death City International, and after close to 5 hours split between being on a plane and layovers they were in Virginia. From there it was a simple matter of renting a car, which was easy given that they were from the Academy, and driving to Dare County, where strange reports had been flooding in from. Arriving there in short order, they found it easy to find a hotel room, and once they were there, Claire promptly set about connecting her laptop to the wifi so she could spam Jazz's skype with questions about the house.

Justice, however, was busying xirself with local newspapers from the passed several weeks, the television turned on the news for the same purpose --- research. Besides xir sat xir cell phone, pinging every so often from John, Aurora, or family (and remaining absolutely silent for the remaining 99% of the time that xir aunt decided to spam).

Claire, once she was absolutely sure that there was little to nothing to worry about at home, started to do the same, using the internet to delve more deeply into the history of the area. The disappearance in the 1600's was well documented, but it didn't hurt to get some more information on the specifics. As night started to roll around, Claire closed her laptop and looked at her partner sitting on the other bed. "So... Should we go out for some reconnaissance?"

"Late night excursion?" The agender asked, looking over, already unpacked and about to ready for bed. "If you wish to, I will not turn it down."

Claire pursed her lips, then looked out the window. "Well, I mean there's only so much we can learn in here, and only so much we can learn during the day..."

Justice nodded, digging through the bottom of the bag for the leather bracers that, honestly, were made for LARPing purposes, but they were sturdy enough to offer some level of protection. "Get yourself ready, then. I suggest pulling your hair back." As xe spoke, the meister set about lacing up knee-high combat boots, rolling the jeans back down over them afterwards. Xe checked xir shirt, satisfied that it would stay close enough to xir thin frame to not have too much issue should combat ensue. "Aaaand I am ready when you are."

Claire gave a somewhat devious smile, a bit of a holdover from all of her time with Jazz, and as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail she began to glow, the form of light hopping over in front of Justice until all that remained was an ornamental golden scythe adorned with a singular angelic figure and clouds at the top and bottom of the staff.

"Oh, so I'm going out armed?" Xe asked, laughing to xirself. "That wasn't what I thought we were doing, but as you wish, I suppose." With that, xe retrieved their key, pocketing it within xir chain wallet, held tightly to xir pants. "Where do you think we should start?"

Claire's reflection appeared in the blade, and she stroked her chin. "What about one of the parks? If I were something strange, I'd congregate in a wooded area like that."

"You are something strange," Justice reminded her, shaking xir head as she headed out the door, taking the easy-access back door out to avoid the annoying looks of 'why is that here.' Still, xe made xir way over to where one of the town maps was posted by the street entrance, looking around at the visitor attractions. "You really might like Leila, ya know," xe said, chatting idly, yet still quietly, as xe looked. "I know I said she's a handful but..."

Claire was silent for a while before mumbling. "How bubbly did you say she was again?" She asked, as her soul tapped Justice's and waiting for xer response, wanting to glance around using Justice's soul perception.

Justice paused for a moment, letting xir basic soul perception activate, stronger with touch but fully operational with sight alone. "Extroverted out the ass, for starters."

Claire paused, her form giving a slight shake as, for a moment, there appeared to be a small group of Kishin somewhere south of them. "Did you see that?" She asked her partner, her reflection vanishing from the blade.

OOC: Pronouns

Justice turned towards the source, flaring the perception only to retract it fully, holding Claire in a defensive position. This done, xe went into a low run, heading towards the source and using the momentum of xir speed to gain elevation through parquor tactics.

Claire's soul edged along Justice's, a silent request for resonance so that they could, in addition to it being practice, deal with whatever threat awaited more clearly. As they grew closer to the source, a pavilion deep in a nearby park, the number of enemies became more clear. There were 6 of them in total, one of the souls being stronger than the others.