GO Team Fighting Fish!

The girl, in short, was dwarfed by the large map she was holding onto. Her legs were crossed as she sat forward, a red sharpie in her mouth, features drawn over the expansive paper. It hadn't taken the pair long to find out that they were going to need a lot of maps, as Katie had developed a system to figure out hunting patterns. It involved push pins and markers, and made a map almost entirely useless after she'd gotten through with it. For now, there were large, squiggly circles drawn on the map she was looking at (the best she could do in a moving car), occasionally intersecting, and sometimes had large, thick lines jutting out towards an unintelligible caption. It made sense to her, and she'd fill in TJ when they stopped. Not for the first time, she was thankful that she'd chosen to wear her comfiest pair of jeans for the ride, and her blue short-sleeved shirt kept her arms free. The only accents of colour on the girl were the flashes of silver that were around her right ring finger, earlobes, and bracelet, where the silver charms shone from their black leathered bracelet, and her thick blonde hair, pushed behind her, although a few of the shorter strands had fallen forward and rested around her shoulders.

At the sudden noise from her friend's phone, her eyes flicked up, the brown orbs hyperaware for a moment, before the source was identified. Letting out a small breath, her eyebrows flicked up once, giving TJ a neutral look from the corner of her eye. A part of her still couldn't believe all of this was real; After all, it had only been a few months ago where they'd been exchanged overly capitalized pms on TDF while their daemons rolled their incorporeal eyes, fully believing they wouldn't meet for a long while yet, and relatively free from care. At least of the supernatural sort, anyhow. Still, Aasyla remembered all too well the events when The Trickster came to town, and the few changes she'd made to her lifestyle had persisted to this day. For example, her beaten messenger bag was still in the back seat, shoved behind her where a fourth passenger's feet could've gone, well out of the way, stuffed full with maps, some salt, a few wooden stakes, some iron, and a few other essential supplies. Her clothes were also folded up compactly in there, along with a toothbrush. For not the first time, Katie was glad that it was such a big bag. Of course, she'd kept the essentials in her jean pocket - her phone and knife were both within easy reach.

But with the added stress from having to take hunting on on top of studies, social life, and some semblance of a healthy lifestyle, there had been some blessings in disguise. TJ and Laefe were one of those, along with the bird in the backseat. Well, more accurately, he was on top of the headrest in the back seat, finding it easier to settle his talons on the headrest, even if he had to nestle down a little to be comfortable. Exasperated, Katie had more than once told him to just change forms to make things easier - one of their comfort forms, a small brown tabby cat - had to be a more cooperative passenger, but he'd just responded by growing fur from his feathers while staring with his unblinking red eyes, and she hadn't asked since. Still, Tobaeryn was reassuring to have around, even if he was so restless in the car. He'd perch in the back, then he'd hop onto the shoulder of the seat Katie was sitting on with a flapping of feathers, then he'd try the inside door handle, and back around. She knew he was just expressing the restlessness she was feeling on some level, but it didn't make it any easier.

Now, though, Toby had settled into his natural sleeping position in the back seat, eyes closed and breathing deeply, and Katie was beginning to really feel the impact. Her eyelids were drooping, having to blink several times to keep herself awake and focused, and the lines were beginning to blur together. She felt that if she could just have a few more minutes with the map, something would click, but with the other part of her mind dragging her down, that was impossible. Finally, covering a yawn with the back of her hand, Katie folded up the map, twisting around to put it into one of her bag's pockets, relishing the stretch. She didn't miss the opportunity to glare at her sleeping daemon, either. Turning around, TJ's voice pierced through her sleepiness, and the girl couldn't help letting a small smile peek through.

"Sounds great to me." She returned, taking her phone out of her pocket and tapping a few times. At first, she'd missed her black rubber case, but when hunting had become more of a prominent feature in her life, she'd upgraded to a case that was guaranteed unbreakable, by standard measures only. She'd still have to see whether the supernatural could break through the cover and get ectoplasm on her phone, but there had to be some adventure in this life, right? Her smile only grew wider as TJ continued, Katie's memory of desperately trying to sponge off other networks unsuccessfully was amusing, but not one she'd like to repeat. Unlike TJ, Katie still kept a presence on the forum, mostly within yaplet to let them know she was still alive, and a few of the hunter networks that had cropped up, especially the ones with practical uses of daemons in hunting. But that wasn't nearly as important as the research was, as they both knew.

"Do you want to get food first or after? I think my tolerance for granola bars is wearing thin, sadly." She quipped. The tantalizing idea of food beyond oats and granola was enough to wake her daemon up, even if he couldn't actually experience the food in the same way. One red eye reappeared from feathers, representing her own piqued interest. "Food is never a bad idea, even if you guys do eat like you're teenagers." "News flash, we are." She replied, before biting her lip in slight embarrassment. "Toby's saying we eat like teenagers." She informed her mindtwin, rolling her eyes. "Personally, I don't mind." Her last cheeky remark was accompanied by a grin of the same, daemon and girl sassmasters extreme. "Anything in particular you feel like?"

It was why they made the perfect pair. Katie never would've thought to get one map and just laminate it for all of their future hunting uses, and TJ saw the solution immediately. Simple and yet brilliant. Her scribbles could get confusing to the outsider, it was true, but they always made sense to the one scribbling them, and at some point, she'd sit down and explain what was going on in that head of hers. Katie trusted TJ's driving skills enough to not need to look up while they were cruising, and so the lane change's prolonged duration soared literally over her head as she studied her phone. Three new messages - she needed to get back to her mother, who thought she was on a road trip with her friend ("Technically true!" Katie argued!), and several snapchat messages. From the looks of it, two were from Jessie, one from Emma, and three from Anna. All notifications that would have to wait for wi-fi to come around.

All the same, Katie smiled even wider, happy to get a small laugh from her mindtwin. "We're going to need a new on-the-go snack food. Any ideas? I'm thinking trail mix. Or we could maybe get a small cooler and get some real food?" It would be nice to have some real sandwiches they could store on-the-go, and maybe even stop and have a civilized lunch. And cold drinks... there was only so much luke-warm water Katie could take, although the 2L bottle she'd bought for this exact purpose was definitely holding up just fine. For a moment, Katie allowed her mind to run away with her, wondering how they could manage to get some tea on the go, as the liquid was definitely something she missed - and wasn't exactly strong and silent about it.

But she was brought back to reality when TJ's voice cut back in, and her brown eyes flicked up to see what had caught her mindtwin's attention. Scanning the signs with a passive expression, it was a frequent problem that she didn't quite express what she was feeling. Luckily enough, a flutter of white feathers from the backseat got the bird-brained girl to quirk a smile. "It looks like this could be the place where the wi-fi inventor's parents met for the first time." She joked, but the quip was her stamp of approval. The girl rolled her shoulders back and half-closed her eyes, muscles stiff from the long drive. She opened one eye to peer at Laefe in the back as his voice cut in, and she pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, all before she turned around to face her bird. "Don't you dare." She warned, expression playful even through her tiredness.

"What?" Toby asked, voice the picture of innocence. "I was just going to say it was a good one." Her daemon finished, ruffling his feathers in his satisfaction at getting his point out for all to hear. Katie gave TJ a look that practically said 'And who thought having corporeal daemons would be easy?', before she undid her seat belt and opened the passenger door, seizing her phone as she stood up at long last. "Might as well check it out." She said, stretching from side to side as she waited for TJ to join her. "Besides," she added, opening the back door for their daemons, "it's been forever since I've had a milkshake."

At hearing her hunting partner's approval of the cooler idea, Katie couldn't help but let out a smile, which turned more into a smirk when the quips between human and daemon began. Not only was it amusing to her mind, but it was also reassuring to hear the same kind of bantering between her and Toby recreate with TJ and Laefe, on more than one level. It meant that TJ and Laefe weren't overly stressed at this point, even though that emotion was all too common. And, certainly, it meant that the dialogue between Katie and her own daemon wasn't completely batty. Still, the cooler would definitely be an asset, to their morale and their diets at the very least. She had to force herself to not start making a mental shopping list in her mind, and found distraction in Laefe's fur that was fading away. One of the first few things she'd noticed when they started hunting together was that whatever came off of their daemons (fur, feathers, etc) disappeared in different ways. While Laefe's fur resembled the last hints of a dying fire, Toby's feathers emitted a soft glow, growing in size until it encompassed the entire object with soft light, and then faded, taking the feather with it. She'd tried holding onto a feather as this happened, and it was as if she was grabbing something easily the tenth of the thickness of paper, but it certainly felt like a feather. When the glow began, it just caused a warmth to spread over her fingers, and nothing more, until she was holding onto nothing.

Between the two of them, Katie and Toby had also done a few experiments with what they could affect together. Things that were pure energy - fire, electricity, etc - were easy to change, to either increase or decrease, when the two of them were focusing intently. Water was a little harder to move around as well, but possible. Still, Laefe's thoughts had started Katie thinking, and her brow furrowed as she mechanically snapped the lock shut before the door closed. "That could explain why the fur and feathers fade, but there's still that moment where they exist without you and can be felt. I wonder why that is?" She mused, voice low enough for only the assembled party to hear, eyes flicking towards the diner entrance. "I don't know if you guys were on the forum at the time, but there were a few daemians who found out how to put their daemons into fire or electricity and effect it that way. They could even hold onto the flame their daemon occupied, and that fire, if I remember correctly, was able to burn curtains and the like." Tobaeryn had perched on Katie's shoulder after he'd soared out of the car, and spoke aloud for TJ and Laefe's benefit. Mentally, Katie made a note to check if daemons could communicate with each other without speaking, but as she stood beside TJ, her face darkened, leering at the diner.

Crossing her arms, Katie didn't have to say anything before Toby took off from her shoulder, a soft breeze from his wings ruffling Katie's hair as he soared up, up, and above the diner, making his rounds. His scan was two-fold; he first made sure he couldn't see anything resembling a demon, hellhound, or devil in any capacity, and then, much like what Laefe did in seeking a scent, Toby put forth more of a sensing question. At times, the girl wondered if her inability to smell anything herself hindered Toby's ability to, or whether he could and just transferred it into a medium Katie could understand. Uncrossing her arms when Toby rounded out of sight, the girl slipped her hand into her pocket and palmed the hilt of her folding knife, taking some reassurance in the heavy and solid feel to it. To her relief, the bird came soaring back quickly, his expression neutral before perching on top of the diner's sign, head almost tilted in a cheeky manner. "Nothing on my end. Does Laefe have the clear?" Toby asked his girl silently, as Katie slipped her knife back into her pocket. "We're not picking up on anything. You guys?" She asked, casting a glance around with her own eyes.

Taking a deep breath in, Katie watched Laefe for a moment, biting her bottom lip until he shook his head, and the girl let out the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. She quirked a smile for TJ's benefit after her crack of humour, flicking a glance to her daemon before following her mindtwin to the diner. "Thaaank you." She said as the door was held for her, drawing out her vowel just slightly longer than the usual for humour's sake. While walking through the doorframe, she had to make a conscious effort not to check over her, as she so often did, already knowing what Toby would be up to. Diving down from the sign, he'd likely race her in, diving away from the door and trying one half-loop before a right-turn to level out, and quick change to a sparrow before the door had opportunity to close. As a sparrow, they'd quickly found out that the rush of wind mysteriously ruffling Katie's hair was much less noticeable, and stuck to that form for small spaces. Besides, as Katie noticed with a sympathetic grin to her mindtwin, it was much easier to sort out spacing with a small, flying daemon than a large, walking one.

Reaching the booth, Katie slid into the side with the eye on the door, her now-sparrow daemon hopping onto the top of the back of her seat, beady black eyes shifting around the room, warily. It made very little sense, but Katie found it almost harder to read her daemon's expressions when he was in forms he didn't take unless he needed to, even if they were both bird forms. It was just one of those daemon things that she didn't question anymore. Taking the menu, she offered another thank-you to the waitress, her Canadian manners bleeding through a little too conspicuously, even if her accent was only slight. Still, she lay the menu on the table, every flap unfolded, and brought out her phone again, giving TJ a wink when she'd asked the waitress for the password without Katie even asking. They didn't call each other mindtwins for nothing, after all. After plugging in the password slowly and deliberately, Katie's eyes narrowed as she swished down to check her email, focus caught between the menu (the $3 shakes just might be worth it after all!), and her phone as it buzzed at her once more.

"Spam, spam, ad for viagra, ooh, someone responded to my RA~" Katie muttered under her breath for TJ, eyes lightening at the mention of the latter. Even though she was stable and fairly certain she'd be settling as a Black-Winged Kite, it was still a lot of fun to be sure of her form. Following the link, she hopped onto the forum on her phone, scrolling down to the RA section when another post caught her eye. Shifting her posture to get closer to her phone, she sat up straighter than before, casting a quick glance around the room before giving her mindtwin a meaningful glance. "Careful what you wish for, chica." Katie murmured, her tone a little darker than she'd liked it to be, before opening up the link to read the message.



Frowning, she scanned the post once quickly, picking out the key information to store before reading it over again, more carefully this time. Through it all, her eyes remained narrowed, a frown on her face, and body completely still, focused entirely on the content of what she was reading. A few moments later, she moved to swipe the screen further down, to see another reply that had come up:



Letting out a hiss of breath from between clenched teeth as her lips parted, Katie put her phone down on the menu, rubbing at her eyes with her thumb and fingers. She already knew from Toby that no one was watching them, and the girl brought one of her legs underneath her as she used it to lean in over the table, gaze meeting TJ's as she lowered her voice. "Check it out - Jessie put up a post a little while ago - a TDFer's missing. Apparently it's really out of the ordinary. She's flying up to Vancouver - the American one - to check it out, and she'd like some help." Deciding that was all she could say aloud, Katie placed the phone in front of TJ, allowing her to read the screen for herself.

Looking down at the menu while she waited for TJ to finish reading the menu, the girl realized that she wasn't particularly hungry anymore, placing her hands into her lap with a distant frown, gaze fixed on the weekly special. She knew that Jessie was protective of her friends, but she also knew that she wasn't alarmist, either. Jessie knew her friends, and if she said there was a problem, well... there most likely was. Still, there was a knot in her stomach that wouldn't be ignored, and she remembered all too well the last Incident that had TDFers start to go missing. The lucky ones were listed as runaways as they ran with their daemons, inside bodies of beloved pets, to seek shelter with The Trickster. The unlucky ones... killed. By some trick or another, every daemian had lived through that experience, but so far there was no indication that he was involved again - and he'd have let them know by now. No, it was more likely that there would be no second chances, no time loops... if anyone were to die, it would be for good.

"Earth to Katie. Paging in from Planet Pessimism." Toby's voice cut into her mind's ear, and Katie's eyes widened as she heard it. She knew as well as he did that her kite-turned-sparrow soul didn't have to tell her that there was no point worrying about it right now. Que cera cera, and they'd deal with it when they got there. She knew she was letting her mind get ahead of herself, and best case scenario was that Jessie would post in a few minutes having crashed a much needed R&R vacation. Still, both daemon and girl knew that the knot in her stomach came from experience, as much as she would hope otherwise. Luckily enough, she hadn't been one of the daemians who'd died, but it hadn't been easy to get away from the demons that had gone after her and Toby-in-Riley's-body.

Sighing seemed to be something she was doing a lot, and now was no different as she brought herself back into the moment, ignoring how the room had just gotten a lot colder to her. Goosebumps had risen on her skin, but she knew by now that if it was something supernatural, Toby would've let her know. Crossing her arms on the table, she leaned on them as she readjusted her seating, waiting until TJ had finished before speaking up once more. "What's your thinking on this?"

When Katie and Toby had fought the demons a few years back, they'd been unsettled, even though they liked their otter form well enough at the time. So along with all of the other unsettled TDfers who'd been involved in the fight (and some of the settled ones too, as they still found that their daemons could change), they'd taken on big, terrifying forms, like tigers, lions, wolves, bears, oxes... anything that had the capacity to rip and shred. Besides, as a raptor, Toby could easily give a fair warning of a demonic presence before diving and changing mid-flight - that was what Katie and Toby had decided, anyway. Still, talons were not the least effective thing in the animal world, and they still felt secure even if their form was small. Still, right now both of them knew that if circumstances had allowed it, they'd take on a bigger form for comfort.

Katie couldn't help but offer her mindtwin a small smile, the right corner of her lips raising in appreciation. It hadn't even needed to be asked, if they would go and help Jessie out with the search for her friend. Of course, Katie already knew that she'd wanted to help from the instant she saw the post, but wanted to clear it by her hunting partner and driver first. Once her phone was back in her possession, the girl lifted it and began tapping lightly, already forming a response. "Hey guys," She began whispering her post under her breath for TJ's benefit, "TJ and I, by some miracle, just passed the Vancouver city sign an hour ago. We can be there in around an hour-"[/i] At this point, she paused, looking back to her mindtwin for the moment. "Maybe morning after all. Gives Jessie some time to do what she needs to do, and if Molly's in the area, there's no point in her paying for the night if we're not going to be doing anything." She finished her thought out loud, before getting back to her post. "first thing in the morning. Does that sound good to you, Jessie? And Molly, I don't know where you are, but if we're passing your way, we might be able to pick you up on the way?"

Sitting against the back of the seat now, the girl watched for a moment as her daemon hopped forward on the table, eyes smiling as he noticed Laefe's new bird form, tilting his head from side to side. While her daemon was active, Katie was not, letting the pensive mood settle over her. Usually, dinner was one of her favourite parts of the day - everyone was happy to get food into them, and happy life-chats were the norm. It was just one of the perks of traveling with one of her best friends, after all, but today, the post had quenched the mood. While TJ had adrenalin through her veins, Katie had ice, and was filled with more of a nervous lethargy than anything else. Refreshing her phone almost absently, she was surprised to see another reply from Molly and one from Elsie already. Usually, she'd make some comment about it being a full house on this hunt, but she just passed the phone back to TJ, showing her the latest updates. Toby, to his credit, had decided to settle on top of a picture of a tuna sub sandwich, and made no secret to Katie that a grilled cheese was definitely in order, even if her stomach was not up for consumption.

Finally, she forced herself out of her worry and stretched her neck from side to side, as if waking up. Toby, in a small flutter of feathers, moved to her shoulder as Katie shifted once more, closing her menu. "I think that sounds good. Besides, it's not like ghouls go anywhere." She added, knowing that the cemetery they'd been heading to was most likely where the reports of hauntings were centred. All in all, it had been a while since Katie had had to deal with a demon - just the excitement with Cereberus had been the last time, and she hadn't been eager to start back up again, but if there was a TDFer missing... she had no problems putting aside her emotions for the task.