ARC

Kuruth'Ondor can sense more to the question than the words on the surface, but his answer is what it would be no matter what. He keeps his voice low.

"An army can function without trust, but not for very long. Its strength is in the bonds forged by those who fight in it. Weakening those is a terrible idea. I would not deceive my troops unless it was to save their lives." He pauses. "Maybe not even then. It is better to die with honour, and with full knowledge of what you're facing." He tries to keep the suspicion from his face as he glances Dr. Taylor's way.

JunJun stumbles, nearly falls over, but regains herself. Apparently her second-to-none balance isn't working quite up to par yet. She holds a hand to her forehead. "What... happened... ?" she says groggily.

ah, he's catching on...guess he might not be a complete waste of time Juno speaks here speaking of wastes of time...if her natural reaction to adversity is to faint, she's useless in any real danger...more of a hindrance than anything...oh hey the fish is back...not sure if that thing's shifty, or just does its own thing...both of us could kill each other without twitching a muscle, so I doubt she'd try anything...or would it make it more likely?...stay on her good side for sure...

"Do you usually faint zis often?" she asks of Juno, looking worried for her wellbeing, hiding her actual annoyance

JunJun blinks a little. Then she realizes that Saalima is actually talking to her.

Urgh, it's you...

Her expression hardens, but she turns away.

Wait, what did she say? Did I... aw, NO.

The mist.

NO... NO, NOT THAT...

She takes her hand off her forehead. Did I really faint again... ? Great, now I probably look useless. Oh hey, she's probably being all concerned, and actually irritated. Why am I not surprised... that's how Ceres always is...

JunJun blinks.

Ceres... sister...

The memory of her sister goads JunJun into speech. "I'm not... usually this bad, alright?" she snaps. "I don't know what you've been through, but I'm not adept at handling so much... weirdness at once. Maybe I'll get better. I don't know. Just leave me alone right now."

She turns her back on Saalima and marches to the wall, leaning her back against it and trying to figure out what the red mist did to her...

"That's a... that's a very interesting question. And also an interesting response. I'm sure we'll get to discuss it in depth, eventually," Dr. Taylor comments, wringing his hands.

Ixtli returns.

"Oh, hey, your friend came back! Yeah, so I'm gonna go check on Gus and see about getting you all over to Haven, maybe they can help you out." He takes several slow steps backwards as he speaks.

JunJun looks up and sees the doctor shuffling backwards a little. "What's the matter with you?" she snipes, with more emphasis on the 'you' than the 'matter', so as to try and not be rude. She raises an eyebrow as she says it, too.

"What?" Taylor freezes in place. "Oh, don't worry about me, just... uh... just one moment. Everything will be okay." He takes a single large step backwards and begins to turn around.

Okay, yeah. I'm not the brightest star in the sky, but MAN that's shifty... !!

Instinct tells JunJun to immediately chase after him. She takes a single step away from the wall and shouts "Yeah, sure, everything will be okay as soon you tell us what's going on!!"

"There's no need to panic. Please, just keep calm. Just... keep calm." He seems to talking more to himself than JunJun at this point.

Gus limps around the corner into view. "Hey guys!" He calls down the hallway. "So, uh... anything interesting happen whi-"

"Go away, Gus," Taylor interrupts.

"But-"

"Not. Now."

"But I called-"

"I know you did! Go... go wait outside or something. Please."

"Oh... uh, okay. I can do that. Yeah..." Gus mumbles as he limps away.

Kuruth'Ondor takes a couple of steps forward. Juno's instincts are correct. Whatever he is hiding, it is not a trivial matter.

"You look burdened," he announces, two of his hands casually rising until they're near the hilts of his swords. "I really must insist that you unburden yourself to us."

Taylor freezes again. His face begins to turn red when he realizes what Kuruth'Onder is doing. "I am contractually obligated not to discuss these matters! I'm just trying to stay employed! I ask that you think about your actions before you go and do something rash..." he pleads.

"Engineering to Taylor," comes a voice from his pocket radio.

Taylor stares at Kurth'Ondor, afraid to move too suddenly.

"Engineering to Taylor, come in please."

A few seconds pass, the only sound is the alarms ringing throughout the facility.

"Engineering to Taylor, this is an emergency. Our power supply has been stolen. There's not much in reserve."

Contractually obligated? What the... what does he... you know what? I don't care anymore!

"Stay employed, huh?! And WE'RE trying to stay alive!! So - !!"

JunJun gets cut off by a voice. And it's coming from Taylor himself. JunJun falls silent, and listens.

...

Power supply? Uh... this guy's really incompetent and I don't care much for him. If I didn't know better, I swear I'd kill him myself... but what did that mist do to me?! Someone has to tell me... please?

"So, look what's hit the fan," says JunJun. "Now what?"

"You will fix this problem!" Kuruth'Ondor roars, gesturing towards the strange talking lump in his pocket. Is there a small person in there who gives him instructions, or is this more magic? "We will walk there and you will lead us, and while we walk, you will tell us. This situation has moved beyond your job. It is now one of survival."

Taylor squeals unintelligibly before regaining his wits.

"Okay, okay, come with me! I'll tell you what I know." His voice is a slightly higher pitch than earlier. He cautiously moves through the group and heads further down the hall. The party follow him, and he begins explaining as they walk.

"So, again, I'm really not supposed to talk about this... you have a point though, this is about survival now. Anyway... the mist. It's something the Haven folks have been trying to keep quiet about. I-"

"Engineering to Taylor, please respond!" The voice from the radio cuts him off.

Taylor grabs the radio out of his pocket. "I'm on my way down, shut up!" he shouts into it. "Sorry... where was I... right. It started as a myth. One day, about six months ago, some kid said he saw this red cloud floating around. Nobody else could find it. Over time, more and more sightings were reported, but none of them could be verified, and it became an urban legend of sorts."

The group rounds the corner.

"Then the suicides started," Taylor continues. "Haven officials started dropping dead left and right, just... killing themselves in all manner of horrible ways. It was a homicide investigation for a while because of how suspicious all these sudden suicides were, but nothing ever turned up. The surviving officials put out a statement to the public that is was all just an unfortunate coincidence, which only gave the conspiracy theorists more material to work with. Now, nobody ever found conclusive evidence linking the red mist myth to the suicides, but if it's a body-snatcher like you said... well, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence against this thing, I guess."

Taylor leads the group down the flight of stairs at the end of the hall. Saalima floats down and gives Taylor an apprehensive look. He doesn't notice, and continues to speak.

"Nobody is actually sure where it came from, or why it appeared when it did. I have my own theory, but so does everyone else who knows that it's real. The fact that it seems to be working with Spring Corps now is... unsettling. Makes me wonder how they managed to control it. Or if they created it. Or about a hundred other awful things. I really should st-"

Footsteps echo from below: loud, almost metallic-sounding, but unmistakably human. They're getting closer.

(Saalima 's still in her wheelchair btw)

She notices the footsteps, and focuses on them, ready to either react, or play the part of the helpless cripple, depending on what the situation requires