[Freezair]

((Alright, let's see if I can pick this up...))

The streets were crowded today. A large group of people seemed to have gathered across the street from Kane's, and they were making several large, appreciative, and frightened sounds as they huddled around a something-or-other they were keeping out of sight.

"Hey! What's that thing?" Kyhorlet asked.

"Dunno," Curt said. "Think we should go check it out?"

Tiamazu tried to levitate high enough to see it, but couldn't. Predictably, Zaedia, who could have flown over to it, did nothing.

[GrayGriffin]

"Well, that seems interesting. But there's a crowd..." muttered Coco.

"No problem, dearie!" hissed Tono, rushing forwards towards the crowd. He lashed out with a wing, making several kids scamper away. Coco and Nin both rushed forwards to stop him.

"That, dear brother, is NOT how you disperse crowds!" snapped Nin.

"Oh bother," groaned Terra. Gray nodded in agreement.

[Freezair]

((I'm thinking the crowd can be surrounding more ArtyWorld/Evelon shenanigans. Since you're leading right now, would you like to write what they are?))

Freezair shied back from the crowd. Even after her experiences in "the Zone," as she fondly referred to her old new world, she was not a person of crowds.

Nothing such for the bold, occasionally standoffish Kyhorlet. "Move aside!" she cried, blazing ahead into the crowd. Her feet kicked dramatically, and twiggier individuals pressed back from her thickly muscular arms.

"Must be one of them lady bodybuilders," one person whispered. Kyo shot him a dersive glance.

"Oh boy," Zaedia whispered to Artemis. "There she goes again..."

[GrayGriffin]

(I dunno-I'm kinda uncomfortable with leading stuff like this.)
Gray shrugged, sprouting wings in order to fly. Lorisa and Arion quickly drifted up after her, gazing over the crowd. Coco, Nin, and Tono also joined in, although Nin paused to allow Terra to get on. Sta simply charged after Kyhorlet's path. Artemis, frowing, followed after the deer, who was helping to keep the path open.

"Ow! Watch it!" snapped a lady. Sta nodded an apology, then continued pushing.

[Freezair]

((Weeeaaalll... Errrm... Here goes naught, I suppose... Hope you don't mind!))

"Stand back!" a low, growly voice bade the crowd. Freezair did so. Kyohorlet plowed closer.

"I mean it!" the voice said. "There's a big one comin'!"

Curt leaned over Freezair's shoulder. "A big what?"

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFFFTTTTTT

An immensely rude, immensely loud sound wafted over them, accompanied by the stench of damp earth and... unpleasantness. Freezair's entire body went tight, and her hair seemed to stand on end. "Sweet fancy Moses!"

"Arrrrrrggg!" Kyohorlet tumbled backwards, pinching her nose.

Both oddly silent, Tiamazu and Zaedia wafted their fins and wings in front of their faces. Curt said, voice tense: "Someone. Get. A very, very large match."

[GrayGriffin]

Gray screeched in pain as the smell hit her nose, sending her tumbling. Arion quickly wrapped bandages around his own nose, stopping the horrible stench from penetrating too far. The birds were luckiest-their sense of smell was poor, but the mere blast still knocked them back. And poor, poor Sta was out cold.

Artemis rubbed his nose, blinking tears from his eyes. That voice and smell...very familiar. Too familiar.

[Freezair]

The people cleared out. Very, very quickly.

A small, squat man with a wiry-looking beard was helping them aside. He was fiddling with the seat of his pants--they couldn't see what he was doing, and nor did they want to--and hammering his jaw at them, telling them to move. It was almost comically large, that jaw--like a heavily stylized artist's depiction, instead of an actual mouth. Freezair stared at him.

"Who...?"

The man looked up. "Ah. Arty. I see you've gone on a little 'trip' too, eh?"

Zaedia stuck out a wing. "You know this guy, Artemis?" she asked blandly.

"How curious," Tiamazu said. She drifted up in his face.

"Hey! Get away from me, you flying carp!"

She reared back, cowed.

"Hey! Don't you talk to my friends like that," Kyo snipped.

"Who died and made you king of the world? he replied. "And even if they did, I should warn you--I have a healthy disrespect for authority."

[GrayGriffin]

"Yes, I know him...unfortunately," added Artemis. "He's always like that, to almost everyone."

"I still want to eat him, but I don't want to get indigestion," said Tono. "You're friends with him?"

"More like...not enemies," replied Artemis.

Sta was practically unconscious. Coco quickly fluttered over to revive him.

[Freezair]

"Nice to see you too, Arty," the squat man said. He ruffled the thick hairs on his beard.

"Er..." Freezair muttered.

"So. Who's the entourage, eh, Arty? Ain't like you to make friends this quick." He sized up the slightly towering Kyhorlet. "You'd be a right fit in with the pixies, you would, curly purple hair like that..."

"HEY! Who you callin' pixie, dwarf-boy?"

"Oooh. 'Dwarf-boy.' I'm so hurt."

"Kyo couldn't threaten anyone if her life depended on it," Curt sighed. "Well. Verbally, anyway. She flexes those muscles--that's pretty scary right there, 'cha?"

"I'm Tiamazu," the "flying carp" said.

"Freezair," Freezair waved.

"Curehtas," Curt said.

Kyhorlet and Zaedia lifted their noses away and refused to look at the man.

He gave a stink-eye up at Kyhorlet. "I'm not sure you need to know my name," he said.

[GrayGriffin]

Gray landed, her wings quivering slightly. "The name's Gray," she said, without any emotion. This little man...was quite repulsive. She wasn't sure how Artemis had managed to stand the smell. Sta had already run away, and she guessed he was trying to get rid of the smell. The three birds landed, glaring at the dwarf.

"Tono," said Tono. "And this is my sister Nin, and my mate Coco."

"Hi," said Coco gently.

"They're just the first people I met, and they seem alright," said Artemis by way of explanation.

[Freezair]

"'They seem alright?' Artemis Fowl, gettin' cozy wit' random stranges just because 'they seem nice?' You're going soft, Mud Boy. Well--I already knew that. But softer than I expected."

"'Soft?' Dunno, he seems alright to me," Freezair said. "This is speaking as a normally aloof person myself here..."

"Care to explain him, Arty?" Curt shrugged.

"'Arty!' Oh boy--you really have gone soft! Soft in the head, I expect..."

[GrayGriffin]

[It LIIIIIIIIIIIVES!]

Lorisa snapped her beak a few times. "Less of the lip, little man. I don't mind eating something like you. Or maybe you'd prefer my lover to take your soul."

"You know I don't do stuff like that..." muttered Arion, bobbing up and down. "I never would..."

"Shut up and pretend!" hissed Lorisa. "Males-they can be so dumb sometimes."

Artemis frowned at Mulch. "Well..."

"We kinda forced him to tell his name and come with us," admitted Gray. Her tail flicked back and forth nervously.

[Freezair]

"Plain coercion, workin' on ol' Artemis Fowl? I still don't believe it," Mulch growled. "And as for lip--hear hear! I could chew you up and spit you out as fertilizer, I could! Or would you prefer that I--" Mulch reached for his pants flap.

"NO!" Freezair shouted. "I wrote the Gamiches Wiki article on this subject," she shuddered.

"The what?" Curt looked at her, baffled.

"I'm guessing you're going to reply with, 'never mind,'" Tiamazu said.

As predicted, Freezair replied, "Never mind."

Kyhorlet bent over to squint at Mulch. "How do you know Arty, eh?"

Mulch sneered up at Artemis. "More like, 'how's 'e know me, eh?' He certainly seems to be feelin' oddly palsy-walsy. Why don't you go and explain us all, eh? You're certainly being oddly friendly. Turning into a cuddle-puppy, are we, Artemis?"

[GrayGriffin]

"Well, he's from my wor-" began Artemis, but was cut off by Gray.

"You mean bringing you here has opened some temporal rips? That more people could come through at any minute?"

"Er-" he replied, not used to being interrupted.

"It should be alright, though. The caustic rips have a set radius. I think this stinky guy was right on the edge of it."

"That's quite an area to search..." replied Terra. "As long as no one falls on our heads."

She really shouldn't have said that. It was like tempting disaster.