Transform, and Roll Out [Makoto, Elyss, Julian]

"Please don't bite me."

It was obviously a joke and Makoto knew that, but it was also Makoto and so she gave jokes from most people a less than humerous response to discourage them towards her.

"Thank you though."

She acknowledged the praise but she did not accept it. She'd just be sure to make sure that she was better prepared for next time she was down here. Something about praise discourages growth because one gets slack from ego or something like that.

Maybe she will, maybe she won't. She hadn't really gotten a good grasp of it yet, maybe if one of her friends came along. If it was Shishiyuki or Abalia she'd feel a lot more inclined to take the offer of the beach. That didn't extend to Elyss yet though, Makoto was still just tolerating her over actually enjoying her presence.

"I'd prefer not to."

They were here for a mission, that's it. No goofing off or playing games, especially when Makoto still had the memory of their last engagement somewhat fresh in her mind. She didn't like going back on something after she had said it, so now she was stubbornly sticking with what she had said out of frustration.

"How far away are we now?"

That special someone? Makoto tried not to blush at that comment. She only had one 'special' person and that wasn't going to be admitted, especially not to Elyss. That was for herself and not something she wanted to share with others. Though she supposed it might be nice with Abalia, preferrably just the two of them since it felt a lot easier to show herself and speak easy around her about most things. Maybe not to the same extent as she was comfortable to share with Shishiyuki after last night, but still more than most.

"I'll consider it."

She wasn't shooting it down but she didn't sound overly enthusiastic about the idea either. There were more important things and the hotel came into view, excellent. Makoto looked at it thoughtfully for a moment before she continued onwards and made her advance, not really acknowledging the smug look and expecting praise for doing her job. She wasn't a fan of people that needed praise as motivation.

"Good afternoon sir, my friend and I were wondering if you had three rooms maybe- eh? Only two of us, well yes but my brother will join us later. He's doing some tasks, ah. You don't have three? What two? Only one? But two beds, alright. Thank you very much."

Backing away from her discussion she gave a sigh and put her hand on her head to relieve her mind of frustration. It was inevitable, wasn't it? Too much to ask for.

A good deal of searching had provided Julian with relatively little, in terms of results. That hadn't particularly surprised him, but at the very least, he'd been able to narrow down a few areas that seemed of note. Most particularly...

"Oh, perfect, I was wondering where you guys were."

Entering the hotel with a small smile, Julian gave a wave to Makoto and Elyss, his casual demeanor seeming wholly natural as he entered, even in spite of how radically different it was from the norm. He had, after all, been something of a master at subterfuge for a great many years. To act as if he were a wholly different person was hardly difficult at all.

"I asked around a little bit, talked to a few people and checked out the maps. Pretty sure Cousin Abby was in this part of town, least for a little bit. She was definitely in the part of town that got totally messed up in the war recently, so we might need to see if we can get a tour or something."

Frankly, he could have passed for any average American.

What a drag. Having to share, she was almost going to ask Elyss what good it would do searching around those areas when they had zero clue about how Abalia even looked in her current state. Why would a hollow care about that stuff? If she was a plus, why would Abalia hang around there too? She was currently working on the fallacy that the missing piece would either be distorted and monstrous like a hollow and unlike Abalia or it would be like another copy of Abalia.

"Messed up in the war.."

Was she dead? No. She couldn't be dead, if Abalia's missing piece died then what could that even mean.

"Alright. I got us a room! One of us will need to sleep on the couch though but we can decide that when we get up there. How's that sound?"

Makoto was no master like Julian but she had many years of trying to act a better person than she was, talking and engaging with people while hiding her awful attributes underneath layers. They just peeled away sometimes by accident but on a mission? There was nothing to make them peel away. Right now she was the chirpy little? sister of this man here with their friend to tour the area.

It was probably uncomfortable how different she seemed from her normal demeanour that was either serious or gloomy. Once they were out of public view though, she'd drop her facade that was how she was.