[Dr. Gustave]

As Helena and Cobe walked along the edges of the settlement, feeling the smooth stone wall as they went, they very nearly began to have second thoughts about the manner. Maybe there wasn't anything aside from the single door and maybe whoever built these walls didn't expect anyone to come from anywhere except from the direction they had come in.

This changed, however, as they rounded a corner. Ahead of them, fit snugly into the wall was... another wooden door. This one with the same bold and fancy lettering, the same large engraving of the settlements's name, the same size, the same width, the same everything, except for the color of the name. Where before the name had been in a bright neon purple, almost seeming to glow against the wood, this one was a deep black color that stood out against the wood despite the dark skies.

Malina: ShowHide

Malina looked around the amber lit restaurant with a mix of apprehension and relaxation. It shouldn't exist here, that much she knew, and yet it was a nice place. Perhaps the "date" hadn't gone anywhere, but the evening was still nice, the food delicious, and the service friendly.

She was suddenly cut from her daydream by a "- ma'am?"

She blinked quickly to wash the daze from her eyes and looked at the young girl ahead of her. She was shorter than Malina, no taller than five and a half feet, surely. Her hair was done up in a bun, but Malina could tell that it was a light bluish silver color, almost matching her deep blue eyes, which stood out against her black dress shirt and dress pants.

"I'm sorry?" Malina apologized quickly and furrowed her brow.

"Party for two, correct?" The young girl asked and gestured to the two menus she was holding in her hands.

"Oh, n-no, no. I'm alone."

The younger girl raised an eyebrow and looked to Malina's tail. "You... are Malina Nahualli, right?"

Malina paused for a moment before slowly nodding her head in affirmation, unsure whether or not to trust the girl.

"Then right this way!" The girl said cheerily and, before Malina could protest, began to lead her through the restaurant. As the girl turned, Malina noticed the white, fluffy looking dog tail sticking out from her lower back. "Don't worry, he hasn't been here long." She said as they rounded a corner to a set of two seated tables, one with a man sitting, his elbow on the table and hand supporting his head that stared out of the window the table was pushed against. "Here we go, sir!" The girl said as she placed the two menus down on the table and added a "You two enjoy!" before walking away to deal with other customers.

Malina stared down at the man before her as he turned from the window to look at her as well. He was... young. Not as young as the girl, for sure, but he couldn't have been much older than herself. He wore a blue winter coat, that seemed like it could be just as old or even older than he was himself, with it's cuffs rolled up over a brown vest with a white dress shirt underneath and brown dress pants. While his eyes were a deep blue, almost like the girl's, his hair was a dark brown and had two similarly colored dog ears perked up on it. He was someone Malina knew she had never seen before.

Calen: ShowHide

 The bartender set down two glasses in front of Calen with a "On the house, handsome." and a wink. She was young for a bartender, even in a place where drinking laws were relatively lax, it was odd to see someone tending the bar that had to be no older than Calen. She wore a black vest over a white dress shirt with a small red bow-tie and, although Calen could not see them yet, black dress pants and dress shoes. Her hair, which shone a beautiful silvery blue, was let down without restraint and her eyes were a deep blue color.

She seemed to begin to open her mouth to say something else before someone called from down the bar. She offered one last smile before turning to walk toward the customer, her white, fluffy dog tail slowly swaying back and forth behind her and she walked.

Not long after the girl walked away, Calen heard a chuckle from beside him. Turning to look, he saw and older lady sitting next to him. No... older wasn't right. Old. She was old. Had to pushing 80s or so by the look of her and yet... something about her was almost youthful. But maybe that, too, wasn't quite the right word. If it weren't, Calen didn't know what it was.

She wore a dark blue robe that reached past her feet and almost to the floor, a light green belt that had several beads hanging from one of the loops, and a white veil that covered, but did not obscure, her dark black hair. Her eyes, seemingly in defiance to the wrinkles around them, were not sunken in in the slightest and were a similar strong black color.

She took in a slow breath and gave Calen a genuine smile. She spoke in a voice that, just like her eyes, defied her apparent age. Although it was not the voice of a young or middle aged woman, it was still full of power. "You just got here, didn't you Calen?"

Teddy: ShowHide

 As Teddy stood dumbstruck by the object in his hand, several of the other customers that were in the store began to give him worried odd looks, though the boy didn't notice. He was too busy staring at something that should have been impossible, something that had no right to exist, something that-

His stupor was broken by the voice of a young girl. "Are you alright sir?"

Teddy looked up to see a concerned looking employee. She seemed to be around his age, not too surprising considering the job, and sported a black apron over a yellow shirt and black pants. Her hair was done up in a high ponytail that reached down to her upper back and was a wonderful silvery blue color. Her eyes, full of concern and worry and maybe just a little apprehension hidden behind those were a deep blue.

She cocked her head to one side as her white, fluffy dog tail drooped slightly. "Sir?"

[nathan67003]

Instead of the response she was expecting from Cobe, Helena got a barely audible one from Calen. One that would've been adorable and, under other circumstances, would've easily made her blush at least a bit. Now, though, she only replied - loud enough for him to hear - "You stay safe too!", the thought of replying to the compliment entirely slipping her mind.

Afterwards, she started advancing again, although she put the arrow she'd had nocked back into her quiver and the bow, slung around her torso. Odds were that Artemis wasn't exactly the most suited thing for close encounters.

Oh, speaking of which, after walking around the wall for quite some time, a door appeared - apparently different from the first one, at least judging by its position and the lettering on it. The latter gave her shivers; it was simply too black, as if it were systematically absorbing every photon unfortunate enough to hit the text. She briefly glanced around her - did Cobe follow her? Well, he was within sight, but he seemed oddly distracted, as if lost in faraway thoughts or something. Welp. Helena turned back towards the door and, taking out Shi, flattened herself against the wall next to the handle before attempting to open it as hard as she could, eyes closed.

[Kingnoname1]

Raising an eyebrow at the show of generosity from the rather young bartender Calen gave his most charming smile replied. 'I'm not going to say no but you might want to go get your eyes checked.' Slightly disappointed as the bartender got called away Calen started working on his first glass while taking a mental note to tip at least the cost of the drinks. It's probably a trick, give the new blood a few free drinks and they'll stay a lot longer than they planned and definitely spend more. Calen mused internally, he wasn't offended by the perceived manipulation although it did serve to remind him there was a purpose to him being here. Turning away from the bartop Calen started studying the room, or more accurately the people drinking, trying to find someone down on their luck for whom his second drink might be worth a few answers.

Just as he spotted someone who might be worth risking that drink on Calen heard a chuckling coming from beside him. An old crone. Calen shrugged off the woman's actions, not giving her a single look and was about to get up when she started talking. Calen tried to hide his surprise as best he could although he still visibly tensed. Taking a sip to give himself a moment to compose himself and track through his memories trying to find if Teddy or Malina refered to him by name while in Jackson. Finding none Calen settled back into his stool and remarked. 'Already famous am I? Can't be helped I suppose. Although you do have me at quite the disadvantage would you mind giving me your name Madam, just to even the playing field.'

Only looking at the crone through his peripheral vision Calen found the woman to give off quite a strange aura. Easily enough to excite Calen's curiosity, information gathering could wait a few more moments, the gaunt boy relaxed slightly and took another sip from his drink. Given his empty stomach and minimal body weight Calen is quite the lightweight when it came to drinking, as such he was already feeling a bit of a buzz despite only getting half way through his first drink. Also although looking forward to his continued game with the old crone Calen let his free hand drop under the bench out of sight so he could check his weapons.

[SonicCraftX]

So if my theory is correct, then that is... "You gotta be kidding me."

Cobe said as he rounded the corner, basically keeping his body against the wall.

"Alright, one of us is going to have to... Oooookay, I'm coming with you then.

Cobe said as Helena tried to push the door open, Cobe then slammed on the door next to her, full force with his shoulder, in an attempt to break it down.

[Dr. Gustave]

As Cobe slammed against the door, he flew through onto the ground, the door had been opened, with some excessive force, by Helena and Cobe seemed to only swing it open with his body. As he quickly got to his feet and tried to recover, he took a quick glance around at what he had stumbled in on.

What lay ahead of them couldn't be more different from what the other three had walked into if it wanted to be. While the last door had lead to a town filled with neon lights, crowds of people, and large buildings, this door had lead to something different, something more peaceful. Though there was still a light rain falling from dark clouds above, the buildings were all relatively low to the ground and primarily wooden structures. These Asian style builds were lit in the faint glow of street lamps that dotted the dirt road that stretched ahead of Cobe, ending in a taller building than the rest. This one was in a similar style, but stood at least twice as high as the other one story buildings and twice as wide. His first guess was that is was a temple or some place of worship but something inside him made him think that wasn't quite right.

As he took a second look around he noticed that not a single person was on the street and not just that, but every single house was without lights save for the large one at the end of the road. His first thought was that it made sense, it was night time after all. His second thought was remember that it wasn't night and that it should only be about 10:30 in the morning. His third thought was of Helena and the outside and how he had a deep feeling in the very pit of his heart and mind that he shouldn't leave.

[Mikelobmike]

Teddy blinked a few times, finally realizing that he was around what he thought might be people. There had to be some explanation for this. A dream, a hallucination, a trick, a trap, a flashback, something, anything to try and make sense of what was happening around him. After an incredibly tense second to think, Teddy set the snack cake on the shelf. "S-Sorry, ma'am. I-I seem to have lost my appetite." he said, taking a step back. He gave a small bow to the worker before turning around and walking out the door with a brisk pace.

Teddy decided that the mission had officially gone off the rails. He quickly pulled out his scroll as he made his way to the exit of the store. He needed backup, and he needed it quickly.

[Dr. Gustave]

Malina: ShowHide

"Well come on, I don't bite." The man said as he gazed at Malina's apprehensive and curious face. His tone was one of friendliness and almost some sense of solemn recognition, almost like he was sorry for being here.

Malina, saying nothing, pulled the seat out opposite of him and slowly sat down, finding the seat to be much more comfortable than it's hard wooden backrest would imply.

"I know you're probably a bit confused an-"

"I don't k-"

"-Know me, no you don't."

Malina crossed her arms and lowered her brow in annoyance. "We're starting over." She said plainly and leaned back against the wooden backrest keeping strict eye contact with the stranger across from her. "You know my name, you know about my tail, I'm gonna assume you know a lot more than just that, and I don't know a god damn thing about you."

The man drew in a long breath before exhaling sharply. "That's not- that's not entirely true." He began to say, his friendly demeanor replaced by something nearing anxiety. "That I know a lot more about you, I mean. I just know what Augur told me and from what I saw back i-"

"What you saw?" Malina leaned forward again, anger more present in her voice now.

The man flinched back reflexively before laying his elbow on the tabletop and ran his fingers
across his eyes. "It's... complicated. Very, very complicated."

"Then let's start with your name."

The man sighed before bringing his hand away from his face. "Zeffre Dawkins."

Calen: ShowHide

 The woman laughed again, though this time just barely noticeably weaker. "Very well. One last game." She turned fully to Calen in her stool and rested her left arm on the bartop with her right supporting laying atop it. Now with the woman's full face turned to him, Calen noticed that the wrinkles he'd noted earlier, while still there, were softer than he had at first suspected.

"You can call me Aisa." The name hung in the air for just a moment before the woman nodded toward the drinks in front of Calen. "Do you think you'd want something to eat with those? I'm sure it'd be on the house too, hmm?" Aisa smiled knowling as she gestured back to where the bartender was talking with another customer.

[spoiler=Teddy]The girl looked slightly disappointed as Teddy put the item back but quickly put the conversation behind her and went back to work.

Teddy fumbled through his scroll as he hastily made his way out of the store, trying to contact the backup he'd been promised in secret by Sophia before going out on this mission. Lock screen, swipe, main screen, swipe, contact page-

Teddy stopped feet from automatic sliding doors, just beyond its range, and stared down at his scroll.

Two choices glowed on the hardlight screen, "Local" in full color and "Global" in a faded out grey. But that couldn't be right, he thought, that's not how the contact screen worked, how it was supposed to work. You click on the contacts button and it brings up a list of others' scrolls that you have the codes of, there wasn't a global option and there certainly wasn't a local option.

After a moment's hesitation, he tentatively tapped on the "Local" button. A new screen popped up with three names in a list, each with a face next to it.

Malina

Calen

Cobe

As Teddy stared down at this screen, another oddity caught his attention, this time from somewhere behind him.

"I think I saw him go this way? Or... yeah, yeah, toward the entrance." A young but gruff voice, sounding like it had come from an behind an isle somewhere, cut across the other sounds of the store not by volume but instead by some sixth sense Teddy felt in him now. Aura perhaps? He didn't have time or motivation to ponder it much longer.

[Kingnoname1]

Finally turning to face his new companion Calen quickly studied his drinking buddy, carefully filing away all the things which seemed ...slightly off about the old woman. The mention of a game magnified Calen's interest a hundred fold but he knew better to spoil it with direct questions. Finishing his quick study of Aisa Calen took another sip before responding. 'I appreciate the advice Madam Aisa but I really don't think I should push my luck, not for something as bland as food.' Calen remarked shooting a lecherous glance over to the distracted bartender. Not 100% selling his interest Calen took another sip before looking back at the crone. 'Although.' Calen continued. 'If you were looking to share I can give you something in the meantime.' Calen passed over the untouched glass to Aisa.

Calen took another sip leaving only a small amount in his glass and placed the glass down on the bar top, although he would try stop any attempt to refill it, and coughed into his hand to clear his throat. Calen may not have been able to legally drive anymore but his movements maintained their purposeful precision as he stretched out his limbs. 'So if you can recognise who is new that would mean you've been here for a while. Any places I should take a look at? Nothing too touristy preferably but something to get more to grips with the town.' Calen asked Aisa smiling, even the slight blush from the alcohol stood out clearly against Calen's pale skin.

Despite his friendly persona Calen was getting increasingly worried. He was sure he had walked in to the bar right after Malina but she was no where to be seen. Furthermore there was the giant walls outside and this too-familiar-but-not-familiar-enough sensation still made Calen's skin crawl. Continuing to hide his left arm under the bar top Calen slowly moved that hand around one of his knives. He couldn't risk looking around too much with his eyes so he had to rely on his other senses. Slowing his breathing Calen made sure he could call upon his Aura at the slightest provocation while trying to isolate any sounds which are out of the ordinary.

[nathan67003]

The first thing Helena noticed is Cobe rushing into the door at breakneck speeds right after she'd opened it, making the poor guy slam down on the floor outside of her field of view. "Oh my gods, I'm so sorry about that, Cobe!" almost automatically flew out of her mouth, slight worry tainting her voice - worry which had more than one source. Now, although he was inside, which was - as previously demonstrated - really bad, there may still be hope. She may be able to get him out yet.

Walking away from the wall surrounding 'Jackson' for about three meters, she swiveled on her right heel, the boot easily sliding as the drenched dirt gave way into a thick mud. First thing's first: recall her teammate. She said "So, uh, can you come back out and tell me what it's like in there?" with was was almost entirely her usual, cheery voice, taking the opportunity to simultaneously take a very small gander at what was through the door. It looked far closer to what she'd expect of a village in such a location - the rain was still present, though she couldn't tell about the clouds or lightshow from where she was, and what little she could see from the building fit the general Vale-but-almost-Mistrali feel of the location, with at least one small lantern lit within line of sight.

Yeah Cobe needed to come right out, right now.

[SonicCraftX]

Okay, something is not right here.
was Cobe's first reaction after slamming head first into the door, only to find it open, and crashing to the ground. After took a moment to clear the stars from his head, he got a good look at his surroundings. He practically saw the color drain from his own face.

"No fucking way, this is impossible..."

[nathan67003]

Oh. Oh gods. Oh gods, no. No, no, no, no, no. This is bad. This is beyond bad, actually, it's utterly terrifying. Going inside pretty much instantly made Cobe tilt or something, as he outright ignored her. Not that he hadn't before, but never when she was so close by.

Helena started trembling slightly before slapping her cheeks, bringing herself back from whatever state she'd been in the process of entering. She needed to find whatever she could, maybe a service door or something, but at least something that'd let her fuck up whatever was wrecking havoc with her party's minds. And so, she started running, continuing her clockwise journey alongside the stupidly high wall, opening every door she came across in the same manner she just did.

This time, nobody was there to watch her back.

[Mikelobmike]

Teddy was beginning to panic. Okay, he panicked more than he had a few seconds ago. Nothing in this town made sense to him. There had to be something up. And no matter what was actually going on behind the scenes, he knew he needed to do one thing: get the fuck out of there.

Picking up the pace, Teddy moved out of the store. He tried recalling the exact route that got him to the store, but that was a lost cause. He decided to pick a direction and go for it with the hopes that it would lead him outside in some way. He checked his weapon as he moved, making sure he could easily grab it in the case of trouble. Considering the circumstances, trouble had to be expected.

[Dr. Gustave]

Helena: ShowHide

The next fifteen minutes were a blur of motions for Helena. Four more more doors stood between her and where she came from and for each door, a new town. Panic set in with full force as she came to each door and left it far behind, running ton the next, and the next, and the next.

Green door.

Helena practically slammed into the door as she stopped her full on sprint, careful not to turn the handle and fall into the hell that lay behind. After a moment's hesitation, she turned the handle and pushed inward, stepping back as she did so. Before her was what appeared to be a dense forest of evergreens with a single small cottage further in.

Helena's breath left her lungs as a single light in the cottage turned on and a shadowy figure appeared to be looking from the window. Her movements were not her own in that moment, but not like the others. She ran. She ran along the wall under the spell of her flight or flight response. She kept running and running before stepping several steps short of another one.

Patterned door.

The lettering was the same as the others, but the name "JACKSON" was now in a diamond patter of yellows, greens, and purples. Another moment of hesitation as her mind flashed an image of Malina, Teddy, and Calen disappearing into a crowd. She shook of the image and tightly clenched the handle and turned, swinging it inward.

The town this time was... different. The black door had been an abandoned looking town, sure, and the green door had lots of trees, but this... it seemed like an old town. A very old town. Bricks stacked into square looing pyramids stood in the distance with huts lining the pathways between them and Helena. Large jungle trees grew in and around the buildings, breaking through holes and sprouting from cracks. Some of them seemed to bare some sort of fruit while others simply existed. The weirdest part, however, was that it wasn't abandoned. Dark skinned humans and faunus were walking from house to house, talking with one another, or just standing around with modern looking umbrellas and scrolls. They didn't even seem to notice her as she shook her hand and backed away from the door and began to run again.

Yellow door.

There was no hesitation this time and the rush of it all almost made Helena trip through the door as she came to a screeching halt and opened the door, only catching herself on the door frame. Beyond that door frame stood a desert town. Small huts with tarps protecting their roofs from the rain stood around a small oasis. Several of the huts had light and smoke rising from them and the succulent smell of food drifted into Helena's nose. For a moment she considered walking through the door, her stomach practically begged her as it growled and groaned within her, but in a moment of better thought she turned and quickly ran from the door, just like before, but not quickly enough to miss the faint reflection of the moon in the oasis pool. As she ran once more she looked to the sky and saw no moon. There couldn't be a moon, it wasn't even noon yet, it couldn't be night. Thoughts raced through her head before being utterly silenced as she approached her next door.

Crimson door.

This door was wrong. The wood was the same, the engraving was the same, the name was the same aside from the crimson coloring, but it was still wrong. Helena took a deep breath and stood in her place for a moment, catching herself from the running she had almost constantly been enduring. After the moment passed she slowly reached toward the handle, dimly aware of the similarly crimson red eyes staring in at her from just beyond treeline behind her, and turned.

It was another old village of some sort. Old wooden structures held up by mud and archaic rope, all surrounding a center of town where a large basket of bread and fruit sat. A man kneeled down, facing toward the basket and away from Helena, with his head bowed down in what appeared to be some form of prayer. Helena looked around for a moment and saw not a single other soul in the village before returning to the man. Though it was dark and far away, she felt she could make out the faintest image of curly red hair and ragged brown robes. That wasn't all she felt. She felt something else, something more abstract. She couldn't put her finger on what it was perhaps thanks to her being on the other side of the door, but a single thought crossed her mind in genuine curiosity.

"Is it fear?"

Malina: ShowHide

"Alright, Zeffre. How do you know these things about me?" Malina leaned back into her chair once more, though this time her hand fell to her side, gripping to the holstered staff.

Zeffre paused a moment and looked out of the window into the rainy street, awash with color and people making their way toward whatever building they felt they needed to be in. "Like I said, it's complicated." He said as he turned back to Malina. "Most of the stuff I know I learned from Augur."

"And Augur is...?"

"You'll meet him soon, I think."

Malina's eyes glanced to the side, looking around the room to watch for anyone watching the two of them. Her eyes met with a waiter's before they broke away to speak with another table. "Is he here now?"

A chuckle escaped from Zeffre. "No. No, right now he's probably off fighting someone back in Mistral."

"How much did he tell you about me?" Malina's grip on her staff tightened.

Zeffre paused again, trying to figure out how to say what came next. After a moment he locked eyes with Malina and she saw the nearly sullen look in them. "A lot. He knew a lot about.... Well, almost anyone. He had a knack for information gathering."

As if on cue, the server Malina had locked eyes with earlier stopped at the table and set down a bowl in front of Malina before quickly leaving the table without even saying a word. In it was a mixture of corn, rice, and greenery along with  bits of grilled chicken mixed in. The smell of strong spices drifted up into her nose and she took in a long draw of breath.

"For example, I know your favorite food is spiced maize."

Calen: ShowHide

"Well... yes and no. I haven't been here that long, but I know the place." Aisa said as she lifted the glass, nodding after taking a small sip. "And I don't think you'll be here too long, but a good place to check out might be What's Mine's Mine. A little... hole in the wall, let's say. Out the door, turn right, straight down the road, you can't miss it."

Down the bar, the bartender suddenly stopped helping one of the customers and turned, wide eyed, to Aisa for just a fraction of a second before turning back to the customer and, slowly this time, pouring his drink.

"How are you liking your new friends? I was surprised that you all split up, especially the scorpion... though I suppose she has her own path."

Teddy: ShowHide

This place was like some sort of labyrinth, it had to be. Nothing seemed familiar, nothing. Teddy turned back once to see if he could see the grocery store somewhere behind him, no luck. What he did see was a large man looking back at him from far away in the crowd, his hazel eyes locking with his own for just a moment. Long enough for Teddy to know he needed to speed up and, without looking, charged ahead, only to collide with one of the other people on the street.

A meek "Sorry." was all that escaped his lips as he tried to push past them with his head down and keep moving, only to have his shoulder gripped onto by a tight hand as he passed them. Time moved in slow motion for a moment, at least to Teddy. The hand began to pull and turn him around, he gripped his weapon, ready to strike out, he locked eyes with the woman who grabbed him.

It was Malina.

He thought it was Malina, anyway. It was her face and her hair, but she was different than she'd been when he'd last seen her... how long ago was that? The choker necklace she had on with her symbol on it was gone, her tail way gone, her pants had been replaced by a black skirt, and she wore a small half cloak thing that had sleeves reaching down halfway to her hands, full of those weird symbols that her blouse had had earlier. The most drastic change, however, was the large gash through her corset and shirt from her right collarbone down to the left of her stomach. Dried blood crusted the corset and shirt around the gash and beneath the clothes a plethora of wrappings were bound tightly to her skin, tinted a light red color in the middle.

Malina, this Malina, placed her other hand onto Teddy's other should, locked eyed with the boy, and breathed out a barely audible "Teddy."

Cobe: ShowHide

Cobe stared silently at the pathway ahead of him in utter disbelief. It couldn't be, it couldn't possibly be. But here it was. Why?

As he stood, stunned and struck with disbelief, the door of the large building, far at the end of the pathway, swung open to reveal what appeared to be an empty house. Or, at the very least, one where someone had hidden as soon as they pushed the door outward.

[SonicCraftX]

Cobe was still registering the fact that this town was here. No. It had to been an illusion, it had to be. He pinched himself, then he checked again.

Nope, it's still here...Okay. This mission just went off the rails big time.

Cobe was really beginning to panic, his thoughts to Helena for only an instant, before coming back to the fact he was standing in a town, which looked exactly like his home. The houses, the street lamps, everything was the exact same. Cobe refused to believe it was the town itself. Moving an entire town would impossible, right?

Luckly, he had just finished this train of thought when he saw the door open, Cobalt Dawn was in his hand almost in an instant, he loaded it and yelled down the pathway.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING BEFORE I OPEN FIRE, YOU'VE GOT 10 SECONDS!"

Cobe kept as still as possible, trying (and for the most part, failing) to keep a cool and level head.

[Mikelobmike]

For a brief moment, Teddy actually missed fighting that massive grimm earlier. At least that made sense. From what he could tell at the time, there were two possibilities as to what was going on. First, Malina changed clothes and became injured because of something in this god-forsaken town. Second, this is not Malina, and it is some apparition caused by this god-forsaken town. In the first case, the proper course of action is to assist her and try to get out of the city. In the second case, you still want to try and help because you do not want to give away that you know the whole thing is a sham, but getting out is the priority.

With that in mind, Teddy put a hand on this Malina's arm. "M-Miss Malina, are y-you alright? H-How did you get hurt?" he said, trying to support her as he moved the both of them away from the crowd. Teddy's heart was going mach 2 and he was sweating bullets. Thankfully, panicked concern was the proper response to seeing your superior suddenly injured. In any scenario, he had a first aid kit that might be able to remedy some of the issue.