Carlos keeps an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, whatever that meant in this line of work. People always revealed themselves with food so he tried to see what wasn't right, who's heart wasn't in it.
Kavax approached the food like it was offering a challenge. It probably was. There was a lot of food.
Shaking the memories away, she kept moving, tracking.
Carlos wondered why no one noticed... If it had caused so much friction, why was that the case? He started thinking about it but figured it might be chalked up to something else on their mind, or maybe even their nature... That doesn't track though. The expert began to doubt himself.
He waited on Kavax. Should they not get any information from this, he was going to just ask out loud and see their reactions.
Jessica frowns, her eyes flickering between human and inhuman. The interest in balance was stirring something in her other half.
Charly, unlike the Captain, turns beet red when she sees Jackson take off his pants. She quickly turns around and floats down the trail to see if there's any signs of the teens' passage. She feels silly as she does so. She'd been warned, but that isn't the same thing as expecting it, and she is certain that Jackson and the Captain probably think it would have been better for her to be left behind with the others or to not have have come at all.
Why do I keep messing everything up, she thinks to herself as she remembers what's happened to her this year.
With the formalities out of the way, Kavax simply took the opportunity to really eat some food. It wasn't that often that he had a chance to actually sate his appetite without it being horrendously rude. Or expensive. Or simply impractical.
"Okay," Jessica says. "Thanks for talking to me, Andy. I'll let you get to the feast."
She steps away and confers with Jerry. "Summoner. Did you notice the werewolf kept talking about balance? I think something's influencing him. Like, there's some force that's manipulating these packs."
She rubs her face. "Ugh, I feel weird." She shakes her head to clear it. "I'm going to find Mr. Garcia, see if he's with the others who are chasing down Ethan and Kaitlyn. I'd take you along, but I don't want to risk losing you along the way. Okay?"
She takes a step and is gone.
Jessica is suddenly standing next to Carlos. "Hello, Mr. Garcia. Oh, you're here." She sounds a little disappointed, looking around. "I thought you'd be with the others looking for the lovebirds."
Her attention briefly turns to the feasting. "Wow, that looks intense. Hey, um, I think there's another clue Jerry and I found. The Boiseville Pack leader is under some sort of influence, that seems to want everything balanced. Got any ideas about that?"
Kavax faltered for a moment, but wasn't about to throw in the towel. He could eat a lot at one sitting, and was just getting warmed up.
His inner furnace lit up. Smoke trailed from his nostrils as Kavax started to really devour the feast, consuming the meat bones and all, and even crunching up at least one plate.
As Captain squatted and made her way inside, she couldn't help but think that if there ended up being a "lake", "shards", or "pearls" emanating magic in here, then the universe would be trying a bit hard. Penlight in hand, she also hoped there wouldn't be any fire or "earthquakes" this time around either...
Charly, being petite, finds it little trouble to squeeze through the gap, especially since she's floating and can snake her way through like an eel.
She listens out for the voices and the echos, trying to get a feel for where they are coming from and to see if she can make them out.
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"How did you notice?"
"It was the one on the blue-rimmed plate. Which he, you know, also ate."
"Oh. S***."
"Okay," Jessica says. "Thanks for talking to me, Andy. I'll let you get to the feast."
She steps away and confers with Jerry. "Summoner. Did you notice the werewolf kept talking about balance? I think something's influencing him. Like, there's some force that's manipulating these packs."
Jerry nods as he responds. "When I was talking to Keefer, earlier, he and his men were pretty spooked about something. They were down-right afraid. It's probably related and something we need to figure out."
She rubs her face. "Ugh, I feel weird." She shakes her head to clear it. "I'm going to find Mr. Garcia, see if he's with the others who are chasing down Ethan and Kaitlyn. I'd take you along, but I don't want to risk losing you along the way. Okay?"
Jerry points. "He's right over th--"
She takes a step and is gone.
Jerry shifts his gaze slightly to where Jessica was to where she is now before blinking once and turning his attention back to the nearby Andy.
"Listen, we were brought in to help, but there's something happening that we're not understanding. If you want to give us some information, even if it's on the sly, we'll listen."
Charly decides that she wasn't likely to get a better chance to find out how the two teens feel, so she gets as close as she dares to listen in.
Carlos expected Kavax to eat a lot, but well... He wasn't ready for that.
Seeing the looks on the others' faces he was certain that his looked the same.
"Want some water with that amigo?"
Considering that rapport would be needed to get information - especially with the type of information needed and their limited options for other tactics, she chose to wait back with Charly at least for the moment. If time went onto long, or they discussed something that Captain knowing could put either at risk, she'd be more obvious.
Initially, Kavax barely noticed that he'd consumed some very spicy food... until he was struck by a strong urge to cleanse his palate with fire.
"...Excuse me, I need to exhale a torrent of flames somewhere very soon. You got something you don't mind seeing incinerated nearby?"
Jessica is suddenly standing next to Carlos. "Hello, Mr. Garcia. Oh, you're here." She sounds a little disappointed, looking around. "I thought you'd be with the others looking for the lovebirds." She leans over and sees Jerry way on the other side where she'd just been standing. Her cheeks color slightly and gives him a little wave.
Her attention briefly turns to the feasting. "Wow, that looks intense. But anyway, um, I think there's another clue Jerry and I found. The Boiseville Pack leader is under some sort of influence, that seems to want everything balanced. Jerry also said that Keefer was spooked about something. I wonder if it's all related. You got any ideas about that?"
Carlos is shocked and hops for a second when Jessica appears. "I have to say, I don't think I can ever get used to that." Giving her a glance, he tilts his head a little, "I think the Captain can have that covered, besides, Kavax could use another set of eyes." On him, or with him?
Shaking his head he listens to what she has to add, "Another clue?" He considered what could very well want everything balanced, but it could be anything from an accountant to a mad titan.
"Not sure... Do you sense the influence? Can you feel it?" It wasn't much to go on, but he waved to Jerry over the crowd, "Let's see what we can find out."
He looks for a quiet spot.
After Jerry listens to any response from Andy, he moves over to Carlos and Jessica.
Jessica shakes her head. "No, I don't feel it myself. I probably wouldn't have even noticed the influence on Andy if I hadn't been... like I am. I mean, when it comes to retribution, balance is pretty fundamental. Eye for an eye, vengeance for a wrong, punishment for a crime..." She gets a far-away look in her eyes, and her expression turns hungry and dangerous.
It fades as she focuses back on Carlos. "Cool, are you going to do magic?"
"I'm OK," a tired sounding feminine voice replied, "I'm almost there. I just need to keep things like this a little bit longer. If they can't come to a conclusion-"
"Then there might be a war! We can't let that happen. Everyone we know could get hurt. Get killed!"
"It'll be OK. We won't let that happen. It can't, as long as I can keep things balanced."
The voices don't sound far in, and they are Werewolves. It's only a matter of time before they sense you. But they're very distracted - it might take a while.
"Probably not," Emile declared as she approached. "You're welcome to light the night's bonfire a little early, if it'll bring you some comfort."
If you can work out more about what's going on, however, you should be able to use a smaller magic to simply get a sympathetic magic reaction from whatever the source is.
Nothing about this sounded good. While eavesdropping might get them more information, there were too many gaps unlikely to be filled when they knew everything between them without words.
She didn't want to young people to feel further threatened - her mind rattled through keys of communication methods, and the one that teens typically wanted most: autonomy, she needed to give them the ability to approach and see how distracted & distressed they are are.
Hands still full, she stepped backwards and kicked some pebbles towards the opening, scuffed along as scattered by walking. She waited without a word for their reaction
"Thanks."
Kavax hustled over to the unlit bonfire and let loose an impressive gout of green-black flame, then a second smaller one. The remnants of the capsaicin thus seared away from his tongue and mouth, he felt much better.
"Whoof, got to remember to avoid spicy things in public. Would have been really awkward indoors. At least doing that clears things out much better than drinking milk ever could. Though I am a bit thirsty now, anyway."
Nodding at Andy, Jerry heads over to Carlos and Jessica.
Jessica's attention is briefly drawn to Kavax's burst of flames igniting the bonfire early. She watches it for a moment, admiring the colorful flames, then turns to see Jerry approaching.
She waves him over. "Sorry about that; I thought Mr. Garcia was with the others going after the kids. I still don't have a connection to the Captain or Charly, so I can't just go to where they are."
She points to Carlos. "He's going to try to figure out what's going on with that force that's affecting Andy and the other werewolves."
Carlos pondered, a thing he seemed to be getting known for. "Okay Jessica, I think I found a couple ways to do this." He holds a finger out, "One. A large magic ritual. It is definitely not subtle and would require me to make an unbroken circle around the whole area, and with partying werewolves I have a feeling that this won't be the best way to do it." He taps the side of his glasses, "Two. If we can find more about the situation, a smaller spell should suffice. It's like tracking, if we have that first scent it becomes easier to find the others... If not we need to do a large scale sweep."
He hears the gasps from the crowd, "So the question is, where should we investigate next?" The hunter chomps into a burger, "We need to find something that could be providing these affections."
Waving to Jerry, he beckons him closer, "So my friends, what do we know about this force?"
Jessica's mouth twists while in thought. "Well, it's got Andy thinking that everything should balance. So... if we knock things out of balance somehow... maybe that will cause whatever it is to show itself?"
She tries to, well not think, so much as feel. What does her 'other' find as things to be balanced. Retribution, obviously, but pushing that aside, what other things need to be balanced? Good/evil, order/chaos, male/female.
"I... don't know. Whatever's going on in Andy wants the status quo. Which is weird, since we're brought in to keep the peace, right? So it should be on our side?"
Jessica shrugs. "Well, unless we want to try to tip things out of balance to see how the thing reacts, I'm not sure what else to do."
[spoiler=McFeasting]Jerry nods at the explanation. "It's got Keefer and his crew spooked, so it's powerful or it has a specific angle on them. Its possibly violent."
Jerry thinks about anything else he's observed that could potentially give more clues about this mysterious force.
Kavax returned to the conversation around the table, though he was considering going for some more food soon.
"I'm not sure I've caught all of what you're talking about, but if you need something opposed to Balance, I could probably help. Actually, might have already, depending on if that fire counts. I'm pretty heavily aligned to Chaos myself."
Carefully picking her way back through, listening out for the pair's footsteps and other concerns, she quietly offered some explanation to his comment on what she wanted and made an attempt at putting her mind at rest, "I want to give a recommendation with the most benefits and least risks and I want to avoid anything that might encourage agreements to be broken or creates misery, so I need your help in figuring out possible solutions. I haven't spoken to your parents, don't intend to, left that to the others, she motioned slightly to Charly, "so I could do this with as clear a path as possible. I don't want anything that could put you at further risk so I won't ask about abilities or similar and don't want you disclose that kind of information unless absolutely 100% needed to understand something. I've worked with a lot of different types of people, you tell me X can't work or you need B, I don't need a detailed map explaining why unless we keep hitting road blocks. This isn't the worst logistical mess I've seen by far, though there does seem a lot of uncertainty, particularly about what each of actually wants."
The hunter considers. "Let's toss things out of balance then. How can we do that without getting turned into the next course however...?" It was a tightrope, one with a huge price for failure.
Carlos gave a quick good luck charm to himself and walked to where the food was being cooked.
He channeled some magical energy and sprinkled what looked like salt and ash from his pockets, hoping to make the next bout of food taste... wrong.
The lady who had been leading the cooking effort approached Carlos. "What did you do to my food?"
"I introduced a little anarchy into the mix." He sheepishly grins (and he is definitely not thinking about how he might look to a hungry wolf), "I'm under the impression that there is something here. It won't last long, but I think the chaos might bring this unknown force out."
He looked for Jessica and Jerry, "There is something afoot here. I just need to feel what it is... Don't you find it odd that everything is going too right?" Giving a breath he holds his hands out, "There are two lovebirds who are missing, a society that could be on the verge of civil war... And yet there's not a worry around."
Jessica listens to Mr. Garcia's reasoning. She bites her lip, wondering if there was any way she could help out. She could travel between places she'd been, and summon a flaming sword, but this was magic. She couldn't do magic, except Charly had pointed out that what she could already do should be considered magic. Could she do something else?
"Okay, I'm going to see if that did anything. Let me see if I can, I dunno, sense anything."
She recalls her wings, and everything inhuman about her. Rather than repressing that side of her, she lets it flourish. Already strengthened by the ambrosia she'd consumed earlier, it comes easily.
Jennifer allowed her otherworldly nature to flow outwards. She could could feel the world around her, but took herself out of it so she could examine it, like an artist examining a canvas. She can sense how the area has been...twisted, just a little. Reality itself altered to demand the status quo must remain. But reality itself was not weak, and Time demanded to move on. Even this much was straining whoever was causing it, the trail leading away from the party.
But Jennifer could sense/see/smell/taste the ambrosia laden mead that Emile had removed from the party, hidden away now in the house...and it sang to her.
Captain looked at the young pair for a few moments, trying to remain as neutral and calm as possible. It was difficult for her as the memories started to flit around her thoughts. Just a bit more time, just this one more thing and we can solve everything... if only it was that simple as often as people liked.
Eventually, Captain said, "Then we need to set a deadline and an agreed plan for if you two go over that time. There is no room for vagueness here, for every person like me who works to avoid chaos and conflict, a dozen more are circling, waiting for one of yours to reach out to them wanting their support in a conflict. They will use the loopholes they wrote to profit at your expense."
At the 'your expense', her gaze went from the pair, to firmly on Ethan. Both because he would end up with a big target on his back as a valuable acquisition, and because he had been cut off. Captain needed a bit more information before she could start forming questions to investigate, before she could form a recommendation, "Ethan, what are your thoughts?
"Whoa..." Andro-- Jessica opens her eyes and blinks away their inhuman-ness.
She points in a direction away from the party. "That way. Whatever's causing it, it's not here at the feast." She takes one last longing look at the house where the ambrosia is kept, then shakes her head.
"Mr. Garcia, Jerry, Kavax? You want to come?" She starts heading in the direction where she sensed the trail was.
"Not yet. If you want to tell them, go for it, we have something to discover here."
He looks toward Jessica, "Yeah, let's go. We have our lead so we can't squander it."
Kavax nodded.
"Sure, I may be of some help in this. If nothing else, my presence may cast any forces of order into sharper relief, and I'm good at breaking seals and bindings if that becomes useful."
The girl added, "Look, we can fix this. I swear. We just need to keep things stable a little longer. Balanced." Ethan looks less certain, but nods. It's clear enough they know something about what's going on that Captain doesn't. It's also clear they don't want to explain.
She also hears someone behind, and with a glance over her shoulder spots the other hunters crossing the river.
Jessica waves at Captain Rose, and gives the tall werewolf a much more reserved wave when he smiles and nods.
"Looks like the Captain found our Romeo and Juliet." She employs her wings to cross the river without getting her feet wet.
She sighed as she looked between the the two teens. Apparently they still needed to be taught what 'no room for vagueness' means.
As she considered how to impress on them the importance of specifics, and tried to ignore nagging memories, her attention was brought to the others. She nodded at Jessica's wave, as if she was expecting her and the others.
She turned back, voice low, still trying to make progress with the stubborn teens, or rather, one stubborn-scared teen and one scared-lovestruck one.
Captain tried to talk calmly but quickly before the others got too much closer, "The other guests of Emilia's I mentioned before. I can ask them to wait back if you want. I can understand wanting to deal with whatever yourselves - but I need more on what you want and need to make a recommendation in your favour, and an indefinite amount of time to fix things just... last time I had someone swearing she's going to fix everything with a bit more time, I ended up dealing with missing people, a blown up mountain and over 40 packs ready to go to war with multiple international groups involved. She should never have been in that position, you both are thankfully in a much better position with your packs and now have a group of people with a range of experiences in dealing with the unbalanced oddities and preventing catastrophes wanting to help. Together, we can come up with a plan to recommend for you, rather than whatever Jessica, her with the wings, and the others got from the adults who I'm guessing don't know about this need for balance." She shifted back, trying to give them more space, trying to appear nonthreatening, remembering why she used to be the silence enforcer as much as negotiations were often more useful.
Ethan's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, a mountain blew up!?"
Kaitlyn shook her head. "Be that as it may, you can't help. You don't understand, so you can't help." She looked determined, but was clearly nervous.
Ethan responded, "But if we're talking about mountains exploading-"
Kaitlyn cut him him off, "Sweetie, I don't think she meant that was happening here. The lack of mountains makes it very difficult to blow any of them up."