The uniformed spirit went in in Aetherian, and everyone in the bus was paying rapt attention--except for one sleeping passenger in the back. Liya couldn't make heads or tails of what was being said, so she leaned towards Yoshi slightly.

"What're they saying?" she asked in a hushed voice. Yoshi, eyes trained on the speaker, started a bit.

"Well, er--'due to recent body trafficking activity at the Little Kelpie Tavern, the next stop has been declared unsafe.'" As he said it, Liya suddenly noticed the unease that had spread to the passengers around her; the children to her left were whispering to each other, brows knit, and the human-faced lion creatures to Yoshi's left were winding their tails together and muttering. "So, ah," Yoshi added, "We'll use the stop after."

Vlad's face had darkened; Shinobu's ears had gone flat to her skull, and as Vlad fished into his coat for something, she said rather anxiously, "Not Lindsay's tavern? She's got three children--they didn't take her, did they??"

Vlad had, very oddly, produced a grey cell phone from his coat. He flipped it open and appeared to check something. "No," he said after a moment, "Someone else, outside the tavern."

"Have you got your construct, Yoshi?" Shinobu asked suddenly.

"I think so," Yoshi murmured, now searching through his bag. He produced a yellow bird-like object the size of a tennis ball, with large glassy copper eyes and pink painted markings.

"What about you, Liya?"

"I don't have one," Liya admitted. Shinobu rolled her eyes.

"Of course."