Maha‘oi [Mission]

"Glad to see you're finally figuring out your place," Verona teased at his calling her "queen", and sat back up despite her top being slightly twisted. She looked over at Richard to poke fun of him once more, but their closeness made her feel uneasy and she scooted away immediately without bothering to speak. Last time they had been this close he had kissed her and she wasn't looking to relive that experience ever again. A breeze sharply ruffled her hair as it passed and the girl impatiently pushed her hair back out of her fast. And then she heard the screaming.

As soon as she heard it, it scared her. A mother nearly yards away was frantically searching for her son. Verona had associated this trip to be a vacation, so it didn't occur to her that this could be the effect of the very creature she had been sent to defeat. The brunette got to her feet and shot a nervous glance at the blonde next to her. Sure he was annoying, but he was the only company she had right now and this woman's reaction was frightening. "Excuse me," she called out, as she slowly approached. "Are... are you okay?" As soon as the words left her mouth she felt stupid, but she wasn't sure what to do in this situation. This was very awkward for her.

After Richard was done with trying to tie Vera's swimsuit together, he sat back down where he was and just stared at into the water. He didn't really want to swim, but something flashed in his vision, but it was gone before he could even comprehend what it was. Thinking it was just a shadow from a bird above their heads, he went right back to leaning back on his hands and enjoying the beach breeze as the waves rolled onto the sand until Vera had gotten up and begun to talk to some lady close by. He looked at the two for just a second before going back to minding his own business. He didn't even hear the woman yelling until Vera decided to get involved. Oh, whatever. Rolling his eyes, the poor little Dickie went right back to his book because yelling women was never a good thing. He had learned that the hard way.

The woman hadn't hardly noticed when Verona came up behind her, her eyes blurred from tears and in completely hysterics. With shaky hands, she covered her mouth, trying to hold back her sobs - it was obviously hard for her to breathe. "N-no. My son." The words stumbled out of her mouth, "My son was right here and now he's gone. My son, Daniel - my baby -" She ran a few steps forward, twisting around and looking for him again - for any sign of him, or anyone who could've seen him, but she got nothing but estranged looks as she called for child.

"Annie?!" Another scream was heard faintly, farther down the beach. An older man was twisting around looking rather frantic, screaming at the top of his lungs for another, much like the woman in front of them. "ANNIE!" An annoyed beach-goer threw an empty can at him, telling him to shut up. He didn't react well, swinging a fist back at him before continued to scream for this 'Annie'.

Verona stared at the woman helplessly, dragging her foot back and forth in the grainy sand. She was in one of the most calming places in the world, and yet she was surrounded by the frantic voice of a parent longing for their child. "Oh." Verona said, looking around for any sign of a lost child. "I could help you find him." Although her offer was more of an attempt to soothe her own nerves more so than the woman's. "Wh-what does he look like?"
At that very second, another voice joined in the frantic search for their own lost child. Annie. What the hell was going on here? "Do you think you could help?" Verona said in a frantic and frustrated tone to the boy sitting lazily on his chair just reading. The tone was clear, she wasn't asking. She was demanding.
How could he just carelessly waste time on some stupid book when people needed help? This led to the further conclusion that Richard was in fact, an ass.

When he finally joined her, and assuming he had made it speedy (Verona was becoming scary frustrated), the girl turned to him. Her eyes were narrowed, but it was clear to see how scared she was. Two kids had just simultaneously gone missing, that was pretty freaky. "What is this all about?" She asked him, gesturing to the beach of frantic parents around them. It was unlikely that Richard knew anything about this strange occurrence, but he was one of those book nerds, he had to know something.

Of course, as soon as another frantic voice entered Richard's ears, he quickly became concerned. First one parent loses a kid, but then another? But suddenly Vera was all over his case about not wanting to get into other peoples' business and she did not sound happy. Putting the book down, he quickly got to his feet and walked to where Vera was, looking between the panicked mother and the frantic father not too far away from them. Yep. Now he was getting a little weirded out. But as soon as he began trying to figure out what possibly could have happened, Vera turned towards him asking him if he knew anything about what might have caused the disappearances. Looking back at her with a rather confused look, all Richard could do is shrug his shoulders. "I really have no idea. Unless it has something to do with that mission we're supposed to be investigating. What did that lady call it again? That creature thing that was kidnapping tourists?" He honestly couldn't remember. He had been listening, but he must have blocked more than he thought. He really didn't want to have to deal with that thing yet if it was even a real thing, but it seemed like they were already sucked into it.

"Dammit Richard, I don't know!" Verona said in a panicky voice, shifting her weight around nervously and looking around for the lost children. The very atmosphere itself was enough to send her into a panicked frenzy and she didn't even know these kids. "You read all the time, didn't you like... read the file or something?!?"
Her behavior was very weird and un-Verona like. She was very seasoned when it came to keeping a calm composure and it pissed her off that Richard was able to maintain a stable expression, when her emotions were dragging her everywhere.

"What are we supposed to do," Verona asked, after a few calming breaths. Although her eyes remained shifty, she was much more at ease than in the beginning. It was clear this question was directed to Richard and it was weird that for once Verona was letting someone else be in charge and of all people, Richard. But Verona just had no clue what she was supposed to do. And the thought of having to help people just made her even more anxious. Especially when her gift could do nothing at this point. She hadn't even thought to bring her daggers to the beach and her hand to hand combat? Ha. What a joke.

Well this was quite a surprise. He had never seen Vera act this way before. It almost hurt his heart to see her act so freaked out over a couple of kids who had disappeared. Of course, the more that she panicked and the more that he listened to the parents, the more he was beginning to freak out himself. It was very nerve-wracking to think about to kids just up and disappearing without a single witness on this crowded beach. And honestly, he hadn't read the file on that thing. As soon as they got to the hotel, he tossed it on his bed. Vera had talked so much about going to the beach and after wanting to spend some time on the beach in Hawaii, he had forgotten all about it until now, but there wasn't anything they could do for the time being.

Grabbing onto her shoulders, he looked straight at her. Not in any way other than to try to get her to calm down. "First thing we are going to do is calm down. Unfortunately, there isn't anything we can do right now. So take some deep breaths, and chill out. We have to think this through," he told her in a relaxed voice, although inside of it, there was a little bit of his own nervousness. His throat was a little tight, but he tried everything he could to keep his composure because if both of them panicked, nothing would get accomplished.

ooc; *whistles* nothing to see here folks >>

Verona felt his hands on her shoulders and she looked down at them. They were warm and calloused, and although were meant to be an attempt to calm her down, her heart immediately began racing at his touch. She opened her mouth in attempt to talk, but quickly closed it. She had nothing to say. The girl looked up at Richard, her mind boggled. So many confused and scared and angry emotions fought for domination inside of her head, that she was left with nothing to do but give a curt nod and shrug out from underneath his hands. "Duh," She finally mumbled, trying to play off the moment as though she was completely unphased.

Not daring to meet his eyes, Verona took to evaluating the beach. The frantic parents had now evoked the emotion from other empathetic families, who were now calling out the names of the missing children. It was then that Verona came to the decision, that if they were to find these children and get them home safely, they needed to read this file. They were sent here for a reason and surely the sudden case of a possible child abduction was no coincidence. "I'm going to get the file." Verona said finally, turning away from Richard and sprinting towards the direction of their resort.

It took her nearly fifteen minutes for Verona to successfully find the file and come back to the beach. She had spent what seemed like forever just fumbling with the key, trying to get in and then spent another imaginary eternity locating the manila folder. "H-here--" Verona said painting, handing Richard the folder and grabbing at her side stitch. It was times like this she wished she had taken gym more seriously, but c'mon... no one liked jogging!

"Well?!? What does it say? Come on Dickie, we don't have all day."