Aria's Story

Isamu stopped when Aria grabbed hold of his arm. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, let out a heavy breath, then opened them again. "I am sorry... I am just in very bad mood right now."

Well, that was obvious. Isamu was usually quite calm and relaxed. His skin was pale but currently his cheeks were tinted red and his eyes looked more threatening than their usual softness. The feathers on the back of his neck indicated something else though. Some other feeling that was unknown to anyone else at the mansion. The tattoo on his write was surrounded by red marks from all the scratching that he had done earlier.

"Im fine just... some annoying pest is all..."

Aria looked at him sadly, she knew that wasn't all. She looked at his wrist (?) and saw the red marks around the tattoo. "If it itches I could get you something good to fix it." She said almost to herself. She was distracted by the feathers on his neck, like dark raven feathers. She wanted to help him, she really truly did, she just needed him to let her. "Isamu please, you're not fine and I can see that, something is wrong and I want to help you fix it." She looked at him with wide, kind, gentle eyes. "You can let others in, you can lean on people from time to time."

"I am not allowed to let other in," he stated as he followed her gaze to his. The bird foot print tattoo was swollen and scratched. It felt as though it were throbbing, causing Isamu to twitch. The feathers on his wings ruffled and he shook them a bit to release of the tension. "You... should go..." he stated as he looked away from her. "It's not safe to be near me right now... just... until I calm down..."

If things went bad, Isamu did not wan't her to be near him. His gaze turned to the stair well that led up to the third floor. The forbidden floor. He hated to go now, during the party, but if he didn't calm himself down then he would have to.

Aria watched him for a moment, weighing her options. She could tell he was in a dangerous state now but she worried he'd be a danger to himself. After a few moments of thought she sighed and stepped back. "Alright, but once you do calm down please come find me, I'm worried about you." With one last smile to him she turned and fluttered off down the hallway.

Warden was always sleeping, basically; for starters, he rarely opened his eyes since his new role as Acedia granted him 'sight beyond sight' to take care of that for him. For him, the world around him appeared as it did but as a blue-tinted, yet strangely picturesque, panoramic view of reality - aside from not being able to see colour unless he focused on the object, it was practically better than seeing since he had a larger field of vision. There were few other disadvantages as he was coming to realize, such as a lapse if he moved too quickly or being "blinded" by a sudden over-stimulation of senses.

One thing he'd missed was being able to access R.E.M. sleep as freely as he used to - it was now replaced with a low-energy state that granted him something like euphoria but the trade-off was that he couldn't be moving to access it.

Rambling aside, Warden did see when Aria came in but assumed that, like himself, she was tired. Surely, she couldn't have come in to speak to him, right? Besides, his toxic breath would make her leave - just like all his friends left him when he still lived in the Motherland. It made him self-conscious, that "gift", it wasn't really a blessing but a curse.

His legs slowly slid against the ground and he slumped against the door-frame as she left - it didn't matter. Any position was a comfortable position, right? And.. he didn't need friends either, right?

Aria decided that since she didn't have anything else to do she'd go and see if she could thank the boy from before, the one that had saved her. She walked into the room and found him slumped against the door frame. "Still asleep?" She wondered aloud. She smiled and sat down on the bed to wait for him again, the room still had that odd odor but it didn't really affect her. (As a fairy she can purify toxicities)

It was a surprise to the young boy that the girl had decided to come back to the initial scene of violence, he would've expected that she went off to do something else to forget that shadow thing as much as possible.
She said something in English that he didn't quite make out as his first language was Russian and he'd just started picking up the foreign language but still, whoever she was and whatever her intention was, she was close enough to him that he could assume she was talking to him and it gave him a start. This resulted in a visible flinch and he frowned just a bit, "Yes?" There, he responded.

Warden's accent was heavy but hopefully his words would still be decipherable and his breath not bad enough that she passed out; speaking of his breath, only a bit wisped out since he tried to speak quickly - for both their sakes; he didn't want to waste energy and she.. well, she'd be better off not getting a large inhale of it. If anything happened, he could always zoom off to find somewhere else to sleep; maybe the roof, hopefully no one would feel the need to talk to him way up there.

Aria jumped a bit, startled that he woke up from such a quiet comment but she smiled at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, I just really wanted to say thank you for saving me earlier." She looked down slightly, the memory hurting slightly. "I really thought I was gonna die." She looked back up at him and smiled at him again. "I was also wondering if there was something I could do for you. You know, as a sort of thank you."

While the most obvious part of his Extrasensory Perception was the vision aspect of it, his hearing was also a great deal enhanced. He adjusted himself on the floor - which felt weird, moving to change a minuscule detail about his posture - and looked up at her as she spoke to him. His vision maintained the blue-tint but he furrowed his brows slightly, focusing to see what she really looked like and it came as a small surprise that her hair was actually blue as well but.. hers was pretty though.

Warden smiled softly at her words, only understanding some of the English here and there.. 'Sorry', 'Thank you'.. that was about it, unfortunately. The young boy turned his head away, not wanting to hurt her with his foul breath and thought of his words before speaking, "Sorry. I..no English..русский." The last word was Russian for... well, "Russian" which, again.. coincidentally sounded close to the English (pronounced : Russ-ki).

Ah, the stupid language barrier. It'd be so much easier if he could just speak English, or if she spoke Russian.

Aria looked at him confused as he turned his head away realizing for some reason he didn't understand her. When he spoke she paused a moment then chuckled. " 'Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you didn't speak English.' " She said in fluent Russian. " 'As a fairy I have an adaptive tongue and learn languages easily.' " She smiled at him, he really was a good person. She repeated what she had said to him in Russian.

Well, if the language barrier was there then he didn't see what sense it made. It made Warden a bit sad to think there here was someone who was willing and open to be his friend - for the first time in his life after his change and he couldn't talk to them - he began to question why he left the Motherland.. aside from the crowds of radical Orthodox followers who wanted him dead for 'falling to sin'. His own friends and family.. he'd much too quickly been exposed to the real world.

"OH?" He'd said in shock when the first words of Russian left her mouth and much too excitedly, he'd responded, <<Oh wow, oh wow. That's so cool. I didn't think I would meet someone else who was from the Motherland as nice as you. Who are you? What's your name? How is your hair blue? Can you fly?>> Without realizing, he'd filled a good part of the bedroom with his smog and he stopped himself there, his cheeks reddening with his own chagrin.

Aria watched in surprise as a dark smog escaped his lips as he talked excitedly to her. She watched as it rolled and filled most of the bedroom, however the smog did not affect her in anyway besides a slight peculiar odor. She giggled at his boyish excitement. <<Wow, you should brush your teeth.>> She joked. <<In answer to your questions, no I am not from Russia, I'm from Ireland actually, I'm a fairy, my name is Aria, my hair is just naturally this color, and yes I can fly.>> She fluttered in the air to demonstrate.

Her look of surprise and not disdain or general sickness, as was normally expectant after inhaling the toxic substance wasn't a very large put-off for Warden at that point because for the first moment since his transformation, he'd found someone he was actually able to communicate with; a friend of sorts. Granted, the burning desire to sleep was still there but surely, it could wait until he had at least one little chat with this..fairy, was it? At this stage, she seemed more like an angel.. or even a character of the Slavic mythos Vasilissa, the Beautiful.

His face quickly fell though when she joked about his needing to brush his teeth; didn't she think he tried all that already? He'd spent countless hours brushing his teeth till his gums bled due to his Hyperactivity, he'd tried eating special herbs to remove the bad-breath and even tried drinking (and swallowing) entire bottles of mouth-wash.

Warden, being a child and extremely sensitive because of his sudden transformation, left. He sped off quickly; leaving her to talk to his fleeting after-images while he went in search of somewhere comfortable to sleep.

Aria noticed that he wasn't there anymore and felt saddened. Did she offend him? Did he not like what she was? She sighed and left the bedroom to go look around in the hallways. She wondered if she'd get to see the boy again in order to apologize.

Aria made her way down the hall, worried and upset, wondering what she'd done to upset the boy from earlier. She let out a slow sigh and made her way down the hallway. Her wings were drooping sadly.

--Darla--
Darla had actually missed seeing both Tawny and Tarik on her way going to and coming from the dressing room so changing was uneventful for her. It would've been uneventful either way since her doggy-mind didn't care if anyone saw her naked; granted, her human-mind did care but it was often overwritten by her animal instinct in this matter, for the very least.
Upon returning to the Celebration Hall, she padded along and kept her tail in her hands to avoid having it swing and bump someone's drink into them as had happened earlier; poor Darla already had enough attention as it was wearing the kami-shimo.
But.. she would need to see Mr.Barlo, wouldn't she ? He'd chosen the Noh Mai dance, a traditional Japanese dance that normally had men playing both the roles of men and women but she would have to alert that she were ready anytime he wanted her to perform. It was then though.. that tragedy struck.
As she stepped closer to Mr.Barlo and the tiefling, the glass broke and the ultra sharp projectiles flew everywhere, Darla held her hands in front of her face defensively but nothing happened to the young inu - by her own power or otherwise. The creature stormed in and a burning anger filled her, just what was this thing and why would it hurt all these people? Not all of them were her friends and the only nice one was probably Mr.Barlo but.. but... why? Her hair bristled on end, she wanted to growl but she couldn't.. so she kept her glare fierce on it until it left.
--Warden Kerovski--
The only /real/ place to find any sleep was, of course, going to be in the Celebrations Hall, Warden didn't want to risk being seen by that girl again who'd made fun of his Toxic Breath - partially because he was embarrassed of how he acted and partially because of the aforementioned fact that she'd made fun of him once so she would probably just do it again.. that's typically how he was treated. The sounds of glass breaking and people screaming reached his ears even before he got into the grand, decorated hall.. just what was going on today? First that girl, now this? Perhaps it would've been better to just leave and head somewhere else that didn't have so much chaos going on.

Regardless, he sped into the hall, almost being flattened by the creature that was on its way out and followed after it - there was likely nothing he'd be able to do in there but maybe he'd be able to put his Toxic Breath to good use if that beast had caused so much suffering inside.

Damakos is caught off guard by the perplexity he’s experiencing. He expected an answer like this and he thought it would make sense, but it does not. This is especially true while pondering every occurrence leading up to their encounter. It is not good when an answer raises suspicious questions. It annoys him. The second question serves to further irk his nerves because it implies that Mr. Saifforo knows more about the Tiefling than he is letting on. It is as frightening as Jordyn stalking him; damn near the same concept even.

His prepared response is interrupted by wind beating furiously against the large windows. Damakos can only glance above with his jaw agape as nature impedes his exit the exact night he plans to leave! The most frustrating aspect is how it came literally out of nowhere, almost like magic.

An equally interruptive thump causes the Tiefling to follow Mr. Saifforo, but does not turn away immediately when he does from the window.

He squints at a mysterious creature tapping against the glass. It is easy to spot from inside due to his Dark Vision, even with the chaotic flurry of snow. “Everything is not well” he affirms, glancing back to the man. His suspicions are confirmed through the bursting of glass, scattering debri and the people with it in a fit of panic.

Damakos used his quick reflexes to evade the significantly larger shards. He then catches a glimpse of the creature direction before it goes down the hall. Having ignored Alice, Airi and Jordyn earlier, he is unaware of the danger they were in. The only person whose life counts at the moment, besides his is Mr. Saifforo’s.

"If you need help training guards" he grunts, "Then start by sending them after that beast".