Private Finished What does the fox say?

Yoka did not text and drive. That would be illegal.

So she texted before she got in the car and then she put her seatbelt on because she was a responsible adult. Then, she hit the gas and watched her car accelerate from 0 to 90 in a matter of seconds.

She wasn’t going that fast when she pulled up before Murphy’s place of residence. In fact, she’d slowed down considerably—you could always say drastically because she slammed the breaks and let the car fishtail. The front end collided into Murphy despite her best calculations, but it was okay because when he flew up onto the hood of the car, Yoka hit the gas again.

She grabbed him and pulled him in from the sun roof and aimed him for the passenger seat.

“Buckle up,” she said. “It’s click it or ticket, and I haven’t gotten a ticket in 357 years.”

Yoka conveniently ignored the fact that there hadn’t been cars 357 years ago. It’s not like she was getting a ticket when she was driving covered wagons. Her phone was in the cup holder of the car and she nodded to it.

“There’s a number in there that says Steven,” Yoka said. “Text him for me and tell him to be outside in five minutes.”

Once she said this, she put her foot back on the gas and zipped down the road.

The front of her car wasn’t even dented. What luck!

“How are you today, Murphy?” she asked him. Then, she said, “And how are your ribs?”



@Steven @Omino

"Well, it may be unfortunate for you, but I'm quite glad you're alive," Yoka said. She adjusted her rear view mirror, glancing in it as though she expected someone to be chasing her, but of course there was no one.

Yoka liked to walk into rooms as though she owned them. She liked to appear as though she was immortal when, really, there was not much difference between herself and the young man sitting in the seat next to them. They could both die at any moment.

Of course, if she managed to keep herself alive, she would never have that fear again.

"We need to pick up Steven before he makes plans for the day," she said in lieu of an answer. To Yoka, that was an answer, but she never stopped to consider that it might not be the answer Murphy was looking for.

They were outside the residential area of campus when Yoka pulled into a spot and blared the horn. She managed to pound the horn in a way that seemed she was commanding rather than angry. NOOOOWW, NOOOOOWWW, the horn blared.

She realized Murphy was holding a pack of crushed cigarettes. She adjusted her cigarettes over the edge of her nose. They were cats eye shaped and accentuated her cheekbones.

"You smoke?" she said. She wrinkled her nose. It could have been mistaken for disgust, but it wasn't. It was thought. Yoka was surprised he didn't have lung cancer. She pointed to the glove compartment and said, "You can take what's in there."

They were cigars. Big fat ones made from tobacco leaves farmed by centaurs. They were overly pungent. She had a vague memory that one or two of them might have been laced with something that would make physical sensations feel twice as pleasurable, but she was pretty sure she took those with her to Cancun.

Yoka rolled down the window and stuck her head out of it, looking for the familiar face of the man who once rescued her. Her car was black and polished, a clean audi with sleek, sharp lines.

On an island where very few people drove, the car was certainly attracting attention.

"STEVEN," Yoka shouted, when she thought she saw him. it was hard to be certain and she couldn't exactly scent him over the smell of exhaust. "GET IN THE BACK SEAT."

Yoka waited until Steven was in the car and buckled before she reversed and backed out of the parking lot, driving in a reasonable manner until they were back on the roads.

This was a school zone, after all.

Yoka hit the gas once they were on the way. Her dark hair flapped behind her thanks to the open sunroof.

They were doing introductions to each other which spared Yoka the need to. That was fine with her. She was taking the roads outside of town until they were coming closer and closer to the woods which, it would be important to note, didn't actually have any real roads in them.

"Steven saved my life some time back," Yoka said. "And Murphy is a valuable employee and I should probably give him better health insurance."

Did he even have health insurance? Yoka couldn't remember. She'd need to look into that.

"So today, my good people, we are going on an adventure, and rapidly, because I paid a lot of money to get my car there and I don't want to miss our window," she said. She pulled off the side of the road and rolled the window down again, leaning almost comically far out the window, her plump rear and the stretched seat belt being the only things holding her in. Finally, she seemed to find what she was looking for, which was an oddly shaped toadstool on a tree. Yoka hit it and a portal opened, flickered for a moment, and then came back.

"Ugh," she said. Shoddy portals. She drove through it quickly and then-—

—-then the car was inside what looked like a horse barn. The location was clearly somewhere in the woods, although they wouldn't' be able to tell that until they were out of the car and the barn.

"Our grand opening is coming up," Yoka said. "So we've got the place entirely to ourselves until then. Thank god its the weekend and I don't have to worry about classes."

She opened the car door and said, "This is my new day spa and hotel. We're going to check it out. And then we're going to relax."

She grinned at them both through the open windows and said, "Does this sound like a plan?"

Yoka realized the question about the portal made sense.

"Well," she explained. "There's not exactly a road out here. I wanted this onsen to be exclusive, something you needed to earn, so I am making able-bodied folks walk to here. It's accessible through a nice jaunt in the woods."

Steven linked his arm with hers and she gave him a mischievous grin, then glanced over her shoulder and wiggled her eyebrows at Murphy, as though saying and perhaps I have more notorious reasons for bringing you two out here alone?

She did, of course, but it wasn't lewd.

"Plus, I want to leave my car here for the spring season. I don't drive as much until the rain storms are over. I hate washing mud off that baby. That's why I have a tank."

She'd almost forgotten she'd bought a tank.

"Murphy you don't know how to drive a tank, do you?" she asked. She led the two young men out of the barn and through a garden path. It was still under construction, or at least, a few of the statues and other garden decorations were not fully set up yet. Parts of the pathway, which would eventually be stone, were still being laid in. She picked her way through it carefully.

"I plan on making these facilities available to students for free once a month," Yoka explained. "In education they spend a lot of time talking about self-care, but they don't really give all that option. Self-care isn't just sitting and indulging in an expensive spa, but it is nice. Sometimes, self-care means eating your first healthy meal after weeks of fast food, or getting a good nights sleep, or doing the laundry that you've put off."

They reached the fork in the road that led them up to the hotel, a rustic Japanese style building. There was a young woman with a sharp nose and glossy black hair working the counter. yoka gave her a curt nod and the woman smiled back.

She'd been one of Yoka's former Cross Fox employees who'd let the business slip while Yoka had been traveling in the states. It was surprising she was still alive. But Yona was a hell of a masseuse.

"Do you lads have a preference?" she asked suddenly. "For rooms and bath, I mean. Floor futon or actual bed? And mixed bath or single gender?"

She reached over the counter to grab the keys.

She tapped a long, red-painted nail against her equally red painted lips.

Murphy, she thought, probably should not be left in a room alone. Yoka hadn't exactly warded this place against ghosts and if he died, she wasn't sure if his powers would hold over. I mean him being dead would also suck, she rather liked him, but a bad-luck-specter haunting them for eternity?

Yoka frowned and said, "Unfortunately with the renovations you'll be sharing a room. But you still get your preferences for beds. We can accommodate both."



ooc: sorry for the delay everyone! I was consumed by THE EXAM FROM HELL but it is over now! I'll be back to posting regularly again soon.