The Imprisoned City

   Eliza jumped at the sudden touch being reminded of her surroundings once more. She bit her lip. Embarrassing. Her eyes met with the blonde's, almost appearing despondent at first before forcing a spark of life within her features. "Quincy?" she drew her eyebrows together, a puzzled expression crossing her face as her scattered thoughts tried to piece together the face that matched the name. "O-Oh. Yes..." Her glimpse of the poor girl was when she was charging towards the Captain in a frenzy with her new... "assets", flailing about. Truthfully, seeing Quincy's slow transformation after she had just done that was unnerving, and only served to cause a bigger stir in her stressed brain. It wasn't a result of Marsh's doing, but just of her own actions as a whole. 
   
   "You're right," she nodded regardless, "Don't worry about me. Let's go to Quincy." With that, her feet started towards the desolate girl as she sat cradling herself as though she were a child. With every step, the hair on her arms grew more visible, more real to Eliza as she winced at the sight. In an attempt to ignore the newfound features as she approached, her pupils shot to the floor instead. However, a frantic gasp escaped her lips as the sight of scarlet was smeared across the pavement, leading up to Quincy herself as Eliza held her palm over her lips. She met an abrupt halt in her tracks, shutting her eyes tightly for a moment before peeking them open, only to realize-

   There was no red trail.

   A wave of relief washed over her, but alas confusion struck her mind. Had she imagined it? She shook her head; there wasn't a trace to be found. At least not in the manner she had seen the fluid lathered. Now's not the time. Florence had been following closely behind, there was no purpose instilling worry where none was needed. A trick of the mind was not something to fret about, after all.

   Eliza continued over to Quincy, observing as the girl clutched her pendant with pursed lips. "Hello..." her hand rubbed the back of her neck, admittedly a little lost on what to say. "I- we- uh, came to see you..." her hand gestured to the blonde behind. "May I sit near you?" her voice pleaded, taking care to not provoke the girl into a deeper state of distress. 

Jintama is looking through her stuff, finding some food that will help out the group. It's the least she could do. And......


Well, fuck.

Jintama only has sour fruit such as Green Apples, Limes, and Grape that will benefit her powers. Shit.... Well, maybe they will be good for a food source?

She looked around and see what was going on with Quincy. At the moment, Jintama did felt a good amount of guilt from what she did earlier. Way the fucking go, you jackass. You're no better than your friend, Hipayo. She slightly banged her head against the wall.

"Jintama, you fucking moron..." She silently muttered to herself. She is pretty lost on what to do. This is probably what happens if you don't have any healing properties...

At the moment, Jintama heard another voice. It's ......Vervain?? Anyways, Jintama nodded at his question and hand him one of the green apples.

"Uh.. Yeah. You can have some if you like." she spoken, a little bit flatly, while grabbing a lime. "I will warn ya, they are pretty sour. I only need them to regain all the energy I lost in any battle. This one included."

Jintama took out a pokect knife from her skirt pocket and started pealing like an orange. Once that's once, she puts said device away and started to eat the lime.

"Aww, so sour, yet refreshing." she looked back at Vervain "Anyways, you can help yourself to some more. That is, if you wanted to."

"We aren't going to kill you." Florence whispered, reassuringly. "You're okay. Don't worry." Florende knelt down in front of the girl, a warm smile on her face. "We're gonna get you help and get whatever is inflicting you out! We won't let you turn into a beast!" She spoke confidently, despite her words being hollow promises.

Florence had seen it all too often in the past week. Civilians only showing partial signs of sickness, whether it be a tuff of fur on their arms or feet, an extra eye popping up where it didn't belong, or any other abnormality. Unfortunately, they all inevitably transformed into the sickly creatures that plagued the city or.....disappeared, taken out by The Silver Eyes. The girl shuddered a bit, remembering a chilling day near the beginning of the scourge when a man was dragged out of his home, wailing for mercy as several people in silver masks did their best to silence him. The intensity of his emotion was enough to transform him in front of the King's secret service.

Florence's blood ran cold with the recollection at what happened next, trying her best to block it out for the time being. The thought of the Silver Eyes, however, prompted Florence to look away from the girl for a moment and around the room once more. At the very top of the stairway, in the archway of one of the halls, a figure slunk away into the darkness. The gunslinger tried her best to convince herself it was just one of the students Gwynolis had mentioned, but knew all too well that that wasn't the case.

A sudden thought popped into her head, the girl smiling and turning back to Quincy. "OH! I know! The elected official in the Iommu District! Father Connelly! I heard people saying he's been curing people of the sickness! I bet he can help you!" She exclaimed, excitedly. "You're gonna be fine!!"

"Yeah yeah!!" She stood up, excitedly. "He's this big priest dude! He's like...some sort of prophet or...something... But when I was throwing these fliers everywhere in the Iommu district, I saw people lining up at his manor, saying that he has the power to heal them! He'll be able to help for sure!" Florence proclaimed as she placed both her hands on her hips. 

"Its settled then! The next district we move to is the Iommu district! That is.... once we all have some down time.. hehe.." She chuckled as her knees began shaking beneath her due to the battle prior. She collapsed back down onto the floor, letting out a long sigh. "Yeah... everything will be fine." She chimed.

Vervain graciously accepted the apple. Turning it over in his hands, he marveled at how purely green the pome fruit was. Vervain, given his field of expertise, was very familiar with plants. He nodded when Jintama explained the reason why she carried perishables on her person. "Yes, in addition to providing energy, apples are quite good for ridding the body of toxins and speeding up natural recovery. They're also good for weight control. Some people call them the 'fruit of life'.

He then held the apple up to his mouth, thanking Jintama for the fruit. "Oh bother-" Vervain said, the acidic juices of the apple filling his mouth. The absolute tartness of the fruit drew his eyebrows into a 'V' shape, his face scrunching up immediately. "Wow! That's probably the sourest thing I've ever had!" he said when he finally regained control over the muscles in his face.


After Vervain finished the apple that was given to him, he gratefully accepted another from Jintama. "So," he said in-between bites, "What do you think of the group?"

Florence was bewildered by the goblin's words, looking between him and Quincy before finally setting her sights on Pippin. "N-no.. That can't be. I saw him just the other day! It was like..." She looked towards the ceiling as she began racking her mind for what day it had actually been, given it became harder and harder to tell with the sun locked into a single position. 

"The Iommu District was the last one I went through, and when I was there he looked all fine and dandy!! There were people crowded around his manor getting healed and everything! I wouldn't be surprised if the entire district were healed by now!" She boasted. "So don't you worry, bud! Everything will be a-ok!" She grinned.