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Vega Sterre Delacroix

"Uncertain of my reason in existing, I idly drift by, surviving in isolation. But, I wish to find something or someone to protect, a purpose."

0 · 486 views · located in Aeval An Domhan

a character in “The Misguided”, originally authored by Jakuri-chan, as played by RolePlayGateway

Description

Vega Sterre Delacroix
Pyrope Garnet
Image
Pyrope Garnet


Theme Song: METHOD_HYMME_GRANZERO=SPEAR/. ~ Rekka Katakiri

I grasp for the light to rescue it
So that it may see tomorrow’s world
And summon it with my faith

A disaster scorches the surface of the world
And a girl lies frightened within the ruins
Forgetting everything, sighing in the darkness
But then, someone offers her his hand

And then the aftershocks come
And she confesses the worst of herself
Grieving over lives the world has stolen
But still he holds out his hand

So that we may protect this day’s precious feelings
Here and now
Let us pledge to this world
So that we may recreate the world as we wish

I grasp for the light to rescue it
So that it may see tomorrow’s world
And summon it with my faith

Inevitably, my power will fade and my body will wither
But my determination shall not die with me

I grasp for the light to rescue it
So that it may see tomorrow’s world
And summon it with my faith

Yes, she wished for his happiness
And he wished for their togetherness
Without end, hindrance, fear or despair
They loved each other

And they lived happily ever after


They sung of progress
They sustained the light and nurtured it
They let it live to this day
And they relit it by their faith

Everything I have ever believed in, I shall protect

Here and now, we shall promise to our nurturing world,
That we never lose sight of the future before us

I grasp for the light to rescue it
So that it may see the world of tomorrow
And summon it with my faith


Role: Pure Pyrope Garnet
Gender: Female
Nickname(s): Vee
Age: 16

Appearance: In terms of appearance, Vega is a tiny young woman whose height leaves her looking much like a child compared to most people her age. She’s small, and doesn’t weigh very much at all, leaving her body looking very thin and her build very much lacking. She does possess a figure, but it’s rather slight. Her figure is nothing impressive; she is still in the midst of adolescence, so she hasn’t fully developed. The way she looks, she has a very narrow build that almost gives her a lithe look. Yet, with how little weighs, she’s rather bony at her joints, and it makes her look frail, very frail. Vega’s skin is very fair, yet it has some scars here and there from battles she has gotten into in her past.

Her hair is a deep color of black, yet at the same time, it is very reflective and prismatic. Depending on the light she is in, Vega's hair can appear to be a deep red, or just appear black while tinged a shade of crimson. She always seems to keep her hair up in a high side-ponytail; even like this her hair falls to just below her knees, and if caught without it up, her hair falls halfway down her calves. Vega keeps bangs that are even cut, stopping just above her eyebrows; they seem to gap in the middle, revealing something she would like to keep secret. . . .

She has rather lovely eyes though, they aren’t a straight red, but are of a more crimson color, she has been told they shine like her given gemstone when she’s smiling or is in the sun. Her lips are a touch thin, and pink.

As far as expressions go, it’s not at all uncommon to find her with an almost bored look upon her face, because of her upbringing, she seems to find herself getting bored very easy. It’s pretty common to see her suddenly frown as well when things don’t go her way; also, you’ll see her get this dazed expression upon her youthful face, this means she’s gone off into la-la land. Yet, despite the fact that her facial expressions make her look rather spoiled, or serious, you will at times find Vee with a distant look on her face, loneliness etched upon it.

Like the rest of the gemstones, Vega’s given jewel is exposed upon her body, protruding from the very middle of her forehead, coming to a point. The garnet is diamond in shape and an inch by an inch from each side when measured; it looks like a very small horn and exposed for the world to see due to the gap that forms in her bangs.

Along with her usual clothing, Vega also carries a halberd on her person at all times, strapped to her back.

Preferred Clothing: Vega prefers her usual ensemble that you can almost always see her in, she doesn’t feel remotely comfortable in clothing other than this.

Height: 4 ft 11 ins (149.8 cm)
Weight: 85 lbs (35.6 kg)
Measurements: 30-22-31 (77-58-78)
Hair Color: Reflective Black/Tinged Red (Pyrope Garnet can be such a deep share of red that it looks black, yet it will change to looking as red in the proper light.)
Eye Color: Crimson Red

ImagePersonality: Vega is a stubborn girl who is set in her ways and it is hard to defer her opinions once she has formed them; but she is a cheerful soul who likes seeing people smile. She in genuinely sweet and kind, she never puts on a façade, nor does she fake how it is she is feeling. If she is angry, she sure as hell lets people know it; the very same can be said for however else she is feeling, whether she is happy, sad, scared, etc. In line with her bullheaded ways, she is not afraid to take a risk or two without considering the consequences; if she is dead set on doing something, she goes through with it! It is very hard to shake her opinions of people once she forms one.

If she believes someone is a good person, and truly kind she will not change her views for almost anything. She tends to maintain faith in people, even under the most horrible of circumstances. Frankly, it is hard to get her to truly hate someone. She knows people call her naïve for this, but she embraces it and often will just smile to their claims and say, ‘And I’m damn proud of it!’ Vega believes in people’s hearts; she truly trusts that between good and evil, people will choose the right path.

She’s highly spirited, rather blunt, she likes playing simple pranks on people she cares about from time to time, and she will sometimes do this to get them out of their doldrums or to release tension in a situation. Vega isn’t passed making herself look like a fool in order to get someone to crack a smile, to soothe a crying child, or to just dissolve a edgy situation; this involves her maybe tripping, falling in a comedic manner and possibly acting like she’s stupid. She considers herself a people person, likable and fairly charming.

Vega makes friends fast, and is able to bond with others rather easy, getting attached at the drop of a hat. Once she’s bonded with a person, she’s liable to latch onto them at random, give them hugs and at times, tease them.

She does have some drawbacks to her personality though, given her history and her upbringing, Vega can be a little domineering. Vega doesn’t mean to be this way; but she can get irritated if someone can’t come to a decision quickly enough, and if this happens she’ll take control of a situation herself and make the choices. Vee has this sort of arrogance to her as well, she sometimes views herself as superior to others. The natural conceit Vega carries causes her to assume defensive behavior when she is questioned; she lives by her pride. . . . This is also part of the reason she acts as if her feelings are the only ones that matter at times. . . .

She always makes the hardest efforts in whatever she tries, and no matter how many times she fails, she has a will strong enough to continue trying until she succeeds. Vega is a girl adamant in never giving up. One to believe she can accomplish most anything, Vega seems rather bull-headed to most, yet very confident in herself.

At times, if things don’t go her way, she’ll pout. Vega is a good girl with a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong; she is sensitive, bubbly and easily able to be moved to tears. And to anyone she deems important to her, she protects fiercely.

She has a secret shame; Vega is a closet klutz, apt to tripping and losing herself to Gravity. Because she IS a teenager too, it’s not entirely out of the question that she’ll take something with a second meaning, and wind up with her mind in the gutter. She’s extremely shy toward these matters and it’ll result with her having a reddened face, and going stark silent. If someone tries to talk to her when she’s in one of these states, she’ll tend to just whine and stutter out something that makes no sense.

Deep inside of her heart, Vega is lonely. She has spent much of the last year or so alone, and it makes her long for companionship, yet she is adamant about not forming any sort of bonds with people due to the fact that she seems to be a magnet for trouble. She doesn’t want to get anyone hurt.

Oddities: For being as small as she is, Vee has an unusually large appetite, she gets hungry often and tends to eat so much food, you’d think she’d be making herself sick. This couldn’t be further from the truth though, as Vega always seems perfectly content after a meal despite having consumed enough food for someone twice her size. The girl is a food lover, and appreciates a good meal, always being polite about it and showing her gratitude whenever she’s served or cooked for.

Vega has been told that she sleepwalks. While she’s not aware of if this is true or now, in several places she has stayed in the last year or so, people have claimed to see her wandering around the hallways of the inn, looking as if she were a doll because she had a deadened look upon her face.

She can’t swim, Vega simply cannot swim. The girl didn’t grow up around water, so she’s not able to even float, yet she puts up a brave front regarding it, and steps upon boats and anything that floats with a determined look upon her face.

Unlike many girls her age, Vega is not remotely frightened of insects or arachnids.

Likes: The sun, stars, reading, writing, peace, fauna, animals, games, shopping, stargazing, and friends.
Dislikes: Getting hurt, pain, suffering, darkness, prejudice, bitter and spicy foods, ignorance and violence.
Hobbies: Reading, writing, and stargazing.

Phobia(s):
Acrophobia - Heights
Aquaphobia - Deep water

Skills: Knowledge of anatomy and of medicine. Vega has learned how to treat wounds, and the injuries of people over the course of her travels. She has gained a very solid knowledge of how to make sure people can heal properly, and survive their wounds without incident, it’s become second-nature for her to know and understand the workings of the body.

Book-smarts; as someone who enjoys literature, Vega has read her share of books, both fiction and true. Though, getting her hands on books is not an easy task, Vee has spent a deal of her existence seeking out whatever text she could find, and digesting its contents as quickly as she could. Because of this, she is privy to many facts.

Fleet of foot; because she is so very small, Vega is rather quick, though she does not possess the stamina to maintain a top speed, she is still able to get short bursts of high speed out of her body to rush something or someone.

Power: In line with myths regarding garnet, Vega is able to control lightning and electricity; it was believed that garnets were formed during violent storms by lightning, and contained a spark of the element within itself, specifically speaking, Vega’s lightning is red. Also, she sort of acts like a lightning rod in certain situations. Lightning is drawn to the garnet on her forehead in thunderstorms, and if there is some sort of loose electric in the area, she'll draw it to herself without meaning to. Also, Vega lacks control over her powers. They seem to have a mind all their own, and it often leads her into having problems. If her powers perceive something as a threat to her wellbeing, they will undermine their host's volition and strike.

Vega is also able to purify the body of toxins, as well as small areas of land, and halt the flow of blood in the body to an extent. In line with the garnet's purification abilities; Vega has an inate sense within her body to feel whether a fellow gemstone is tainted or not. She does not understand this ability, and it gets away from her at times.

She is also able to foster a sense of peace between people, and provide them with a natural sense of solace.

ImageFighting style: Vega is a front-line fighter, no doubt about it. She fights using a halberd that she had crafted for her during her travels and will hop on into a situation without a second thought due to the fact that she is prone to wanting to protect people more than anything else. She’s a girl who is fleet of foot, but lacking in physical strength, her fighting style consists of her rushing the enemy and doing her best to get the first strike in to end things quickly. She’ll also connect her powers over lightning to her fighting style, at times, she will leap backward and summon a bolt of electricity to fire at her opponent from the garnet on her forehead, or imbue her halberd with the element, keeping it charged up so it’ll effect an enemy more than just an ordinary attack.

Personal History: Vega’s life started off normally, she was born to a set of loving parents, Judith and Abele Delacroix who loved her despite the fact that she had a strange ‘birthmark upon her forehead’. The parents were young at the time, just out of high school. But, Abele came from a rather well-off family you see, his father ran a rather successful company, and after Vega’s birth, his father stepped down as head of the company and put his son in charge, confident of his abilities. The family of three had everything they needed to live comfortably, and never need or want for anything. Vega had a mother and a father who loved, and cherished her dearly; they were always there for her. The girl never wanted for anything, nor did she ever have to worry about going hungry, or being without a stable home.

Unlike many, her parents loved each other deeply and there were no worries of them splitting up. She always had them; they were always there for her. Despite the fact that they were well-off, Judith and Abele did well to make sure their daughter was raised right, she was taught how to be humble, to not look down upon others, and to be thankful for her lifestyle. Vega was instilled with her parents’ values, and made to understand that her lifestyle was a luxury, not a necessity. Her childhood was normal, the garnet embedded in her forehead was often hidden by bangs or a circlet, she was bright and spirited going into school, and she was able to make friends with a few people who would be with her for years to come. Vega wasn’t ever lonely, and she never had any experiences that would traumatize her. Unlike many children, she never had to actually deal with things like death, because she never lost anyone in her family.

While in elementary school, Vega tried out many different things, music, art, sports . . . trying to find something she might take to and like. Vega never really found anything that she took a shine to, so she was sort of all over the place in regards to a hobby, but she had fun trying out for things and failing at what she did. She was supported by her parents, who always told her just to have fun in life. As such, Vega’s childhood is full of truly fun memories with her family and with her friends. . . . However, her life would not remain so happy as she reach the age of twelve. Things . . . things began to change for her rather drastically, while the problems were not from an outer source, it came from inside of herself.

Vega’s powers as a gemstone began to awaken. . . .

Whenever Vega found herself becoming emotional, she noted that strange things started to occur around her; you could feel electricity in the air. Vega didn’t understand it at all, she just noticed that things were changing, she herself would sometimes lose feeling in her limbs, they would tingle, go numb at random, causing her to sometimes fall down. Because she kept randomly falling over, her parents had tests run on her and observed by doctors to find a cause. After months of this, tons of tests, examinations and missing some school, Vega finally found the source of her problems when she managed to conjure up an explosion when she found herself frustrated with her homework.

She was attempting to do some algebra, when it happened, no matter what she did, for the life of the youth, she could just not figure out a specific problem, and in her mind she thought, ‘I wish my book would just explode so I wouldn’t have to do this anymore!’ and a few seconds later; the book spontaneously exploded with a bolt of lightning. She screamed, her parents rushed into the room and managed to extinguish the book with nearby fire extinguisher, when they asked what happened to her book, she told them she honestly didn’t know.

Deep down inside though, Vega felt that she was at fault for the sudden explosion . . . and over the next week she would attempt to conjure up again, however she would not succeed for some time. The first time Vega would consciously manifest her powers, it would be a simple happening. In her hand, she would spark to life a tiny flicker of electricity, no bigger than what you get out of a match or a lighter. The girl could barely believe it, but there it was, the small bit of lightning, floating above the palm of her hand; Vega couldn’t believe that she had the power to summon it to her will. After managing up the small bit of lightning, Vega kept on practicing and practicing with her powers, trying to make it easier for herself to actually bring a spark to life.

A little while after Vega turned thirteen, she had more or less mastered being able to summon small bits of electricity to appear at her whim. She was scared and curious about her abilities, she wondered what it was she ought to do in regards to her parents; she wondered if she should reveal her secret to them. After thinking about it for a while, Vega reach the conclusion that she would indeed show her mom and dad what she was able to do. Anxiously, she approached them, and stuttered out that she had something to show them. Due to her nervousness, it was a little hard for her to manage up a spark; but after a few seconds of struggling . . . she did it.

At first, Abele and Judith believed that she was doing some strange magic trick, trying to fool them since they knew that their daughter had an affinity for pulling pranks. But when that proved to be false, Vega’s parents were shocked, utterly stunned, but they accepted their daughter anyway. Sure, they couldn’t explain what it was Vega could do, but they loved her dearly, and she was still their little girl. . . . Her life remained mostly unchanged, until she was fourteen, she attended school like a normal child, her parents and her keeping the lightning charmer’s little secret.

However; one day . . . something horrible happened at her school, a crisis. Someone brought a firearm to school in one of her classes, it was her first time seeing blood, seeing people get hurt, and it would scar her mind. She became horribly frightened, scared, and in her terror as the gunman turned toward her in their insanity, she cried out loudly; her powers spun out of her control. Vega caused an electrical explosion; hurting several people and knocking the gunman unconscious. People believed that there was a leaking gas line in the school, and attributed the explosion to that . . . Vega was rushed to a hospital along with her classmates. She was scuffed up and had dust on her, but she was fine considering that she was the source of the detonation.

Following this event, Vega’s parents withdrew their daughter from school, and began to home school her for some time; but it happened that the whole event regarding the explosion caused by Vega had been caught on a camera . . . word of this strange happening caught the ears of people high up, people who one should indeed fear. Strangely clothed people began to appear around wherever Vega and her parents would be, following them until one point they were approached and told to hand her over.

Abele and Judith refused of course, and the end result was a rather violent encounter between these men and her father’s security. Vega found herself without control over her powers once more, and scared off the strange men with her uncontrollable powers. In the whole event, she wound up hurting her parents. Horrified with what she had done, Vega swore to never use her powers again. And because of these strange men who seemed to be threatening her parents; Vega wanted to move away from her mom and dad, to find out the reasons behind her powers and the gemstone in her forehead.

While they didn’t initially support this course of action, they understood there was no changing their child’s mind and obliged. Soon after, she had herself packed up and ready to go, bidding farewell to her parents she hugged them regretfully and said that she hoped to see them again someday. . . . At the age of fourteen, Vega set off into the world. She has seen many things in her time travelling, from what has become of the world that now lay upon the vestiges of death, to the fact that things in the world seem to go going downhill.

Vega herself lives a life of solitude, she has no friends and rarely interacts with people, unless protecting someone in a dangerous situation. It has been a year and a half since this happened, and so far everything has been going rather smoothly for her; she has had no problems getting by and there have been no run-ins with those people who wanted to take her away. Since she has seem people get hurt before, and injured her own parents Vega took on a new vow, to use her abilities and to protect people.

It has been a year and a half since this happened, and so far everything has been going rather smoothly for her; she has had no problems getting by and there have been no run ins with those people who wanted to take her away. Vega herself lives a life of solitude, she has no friends and rarely interacts with people, unless protecting someone in a dangerous situation.

To date, she has used her powers to an extent, using them to help people or to do simple things, and she does still not know of the reasons behind her jewel or powers. She lives as a wanderer, going from place to place, wherever she feels she is meant to go. . . . Vega does feel something calling her though; she can feel something summoning her with every step she takes.

Other: Money wise, Vega is supplied by her parents by means of an electronic card that is linked to one of their accounts.

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So begins...

Vega Sterre Delacroix's Story

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The sun was setting, the sun was going ahead and setting and it was getting dark. . . . And where was she? Well, she was still out wandering about like a loon. Well, maybe not a loon exactly, but she wasn’t walking around like a normal person, that was for sure! I just had to get around to leaving Halva late. . . . she sighed to herself, shaking her head. Halva; that was the last town she had rested at yesterday. Quite the little place it was, honestly just a stick and mud village, but it had an Inn. An Inn meant warmth, a bed, food and a place to bathe! It meant not having to sleep on the hard, cold ground . . . or worse, having to sleep in a tree because it was dangerous to be on the earth.

But still, what had she gone and done? She had gone ahead and slept in late, way too late. . . . And what had that caused? Well, it had caused her to get a very late start in continuing her travels. I probably should have just stayed another day, at least if I had just done that I wouldn’t have had to worry about potentially finding myself stuck in the dark with no place to stay.

It had been some hours since she had set out again, left the tiny village of Halva behind her, setting out to travel upon a rather old road, beat down by the weather, and dried up by the hot sunshine of the day. Sure, she had no idea where the road was suppose to take her, or where it lead, but then, Vega just didn’t really care. It wasn’t like she had anywhere she had to be, she had no place she called home anymore. There was no reason for her to worry about where she wound up in her rather random travels, she could take any path she wanted and it would all turn out the same for her.

Vega would just wind up in another small place whose name she didn’t know, surrounded by people who were nothing but strangers to her, and whose faces she would probably never seen again after the following morning. That was simply it, that was the life she had led for the last year or so. Wandering and wandering about, that was all she ever did since she had managed to go ahead and get her parents hurt with her weirdness. . . . At even thinking about the incident, one of Vega’s gloved hands wandered up and absentmindedly touched the exposed jewel upon her forehead. Damn thing came right out of her skin, right out of her forehead, and with the way her bangs always parted; the whole world was left being allowed to see it. Most people just assumed it was part of some sort of fashion statement; a stick on or something. Well, those people had no idea how wrong that was. The thing was actually a part of her, it grew from her very bones it seemed.

No one had ever been able to tell her parents why it was she had a gemstone stuck in her, but . . . she had always seemed a normal enough child, minus her rather diminutive size. Vega had always been intelligent, never had a problem with anything . . . except for the fact that it seemed like she could conjure lightning up to her will. Whether that in itself was actually able to be called an issue though, well, that was probably something that varied from person to person. To Vega, what she could do, the fact that electricity came to her beckon call, it was just a part of her. It was not a problem, but it wasn’t a blessing either.

It just always felt natural, like it was totally normal. the teenager found herself sighing, removing her hand from the gemstone, letting it laxly fall back to her side as she stopped walking and just looked up to the sky. The whole world looked so simple right now; all one color. It just looked . . . red. A deep shade of red, so simple, so easy. In the last year, she had grown very used to this sight, seeing the blood-colored skies slowly changing into something else, a black canvas that was littered with small twinkling bits of light, the moon draped across it like a luminescent pearl. . . . It was always beautiful, there was no doubt about that.

Regardless, that didn’t mean Vega felt like having to sleep on grass, and wind up cold tonight! The rather blank expression that had overtaken her face quickly changed as she shook her head, nothing but determination taking over as she sort nodded to herself. “There’s still some daylight left; and a town might be close by! If I hurry, maybe I can make it there before dark!” Vega assured herself, before she turned on her heel, and took off in a full out sprint down the worn road. She did not want to wind up sleeping on the ground.

This was how Vega always got when it came to her getting to a town just before night fell, she would always throw caution to the wind and just run as fast as she could. She would continue down the path she had found herself on, and hope that she found a place to stay that was indoors. However, if the sun decided to beat her in the little race Vega had decided to pit herself in against it, the girl would forfeit with a sigh, and settle into the most comfortable looking place she could find, and do her best at riding out the night as she could. If that meant being cold, she endured.

Once more, Vega threw all of her prudence out the window when she got into one of these states, she paid little attention to her surroundings, and only focused on moving ahead. While her breathing was a little bit off now from the sprinting, Vega felt like she might actually have been making some progress . . . and was also rather pleased that she had yet to trip or fall over. The world around her didn’t seem to change much, the scenery still looked the same as it had before, but she wasn’t doing too bad.

Though, it would seem that Lady Luck had decided to revoke the good fortune placed upon one Vega Delacroix around this point in time though, because as the sun sank into the skies ahead of her, the small girl found herself tripping over . . . something on the side of the road. Her foot caught on something that was definitely not a rock, and she found herself at gravity’s lack of mercy, hitting the dirt under her face first with a rather loud shriek of shock.

Her whole form hit the ground with a rather unpleasant thud, leaving the teenager herself in a state of shock, air knocked right out of her lungs while she tried to figure out what had happened to her, and what she had fallen over.

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I'll be damned.

That was the first thing that came to his mind after he was suddenly awaken, a runner digging their feet directly into his stomach before falling over somewhere to his right. Judging by the pitch of the shriek, he gathered that the runner was most likely a female, and that he did, indeed, have bad luck. He sighed before sitting up, undoing a pocket of the coat and taking out a small notepad and a pen. He got up to his feet and hovered the pen over one of the pages, preparing to write whatever came to his mind first before a glint originated from the girl's head caught his eye. He moved the pen into the same hand as the notepad was in, and used his now free hand to lower his hood, revealing his hair slightly ruffled.

Crouching down, he could make features much better. It was indeed a female, and she had a head of black hair. But it didn't seem to be just composed of black, he also saw some glints of red as he better positioned himself. Normally, he wouldn't have shown that much concern for a person that had just tripped over him, but she had (mostly) black hair, and it pulled on his metaphorical heart strings. She was clearly still conscious, and so he kept his hands to himself, figuring she could roll herself over if need be. But there was still the matter of the glint that had caught he eye prior, and he focused solely on her forehead, eyes soon finding the gem that stuck out of his forehead. At first glance, he probably thought like all the others, and figured it was some sort of jewelry glued to her head. Females were doing all sorts of crazy things with gems lately. But he knew better, and sort of had a gut feeling about it.

He set the notepad and pen down gently before moving his hands to unbutton his coat, and he quickly took it off, placing it on the ground and scooping the notepad and pen back up. He worked fast, scribbling furiously in the notepad. A few moments passed by of him scribbling, stopping, looking up at the girl, and then returning to scribbling before he help up the notepad to her, pen dropping to the ground. Underneath what was drawn, he had written four words.
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Same. Gem. Forehead. Chest.

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She was simply lying on the ground, head turned slightly to the side as she shook a bit, trying to bring some air back into her lungs. Even if she had definitely not hit the ground hard enough to do permanent damage, Vega certainly wasn’t happy. . . . That fall had hurt enough to annoy her, and to knock the wind right out of her for goodness’ sake. Her small body quivered a touch as she let out a soft groan, trying to lift her head up some so she could look around and maybe find out what the Hell she had tripped over. Even if she had been sprinting at full speed, Vega had been tell that what her foot caught on was definitely not a rock. No, too soft to be a rock. she thought, Maybe an animal? No . . . then I would have heard it growl, hiss or yelp. Vega sighed quietly and shook her head as she began the process of trying to peel her small body from the ground and return to protesting against the effects of gravity by getting to her feet.

That didn’t exactly work out how she wished for it too though. She wound up coughing when she tried to push herself upward, her breathing was still out of whack thanks to her pointless race against Mr. Sun, and she still hadn’t gotten all back that she had managed to lose in her little fall. When this happened, Vega just groaned in defeat and let herself remain on the ground for a minute more . . . not like it mattered if she did that now, the sun was down. Night was quickly setting in as the moon rose above, everything turning dark, yet there was still some light left. Still, what had she tripped over? Well, the teenager was about to get her answer.

From behind her, she heard something move, making the grass along the side of the old worn down road rustle a bit . . . footsteps, those of a human, that was for sure. Upon realizing this, that there was another person near her . . . little Vega’s body tensed up and a look of utter horror overtook her features, crimson eyes going wide. She . . . had fallen over a person! Oh snap, I so owe them an apology!

Soon enough, the rustles and the soft footsteps stopped, everything going silent again as Vega realized; she was being stared at. A look of embarrassment and shame took over her face, cheeks going a little red as she understood what it was she had done. Pulling her head up from the rough grass, her rather showy hair ornament clinking against itself, the black-haired girl found herself staring right at whom it was she had gotten her small foot caught on. Yep . . . looks like I was right about having fallen over a person. she thought in shock, finding herself wincing back in trepidation while the guy stooped down in front of her, holding onto a notepad and pen.

He was clearly older than she was, but then, even people who were her actual age looked older than her . . . compared to other girls who were sixteen, she looked like she was still thirteen. Even through all of her travels, Vega couldn’t recall having ever seen someone though, who looked . . . quite as ‘interesting’ as he did. Even in the fading light, she could make out the fact that he had an odd shade of green hair, what hue it was, Vega herself couldn’t name it, and it was kind of on the messy side, but then she had fallen over him, so he’d been laying down, that meant he had probably been sleeping? He also had eyes that were the same green color as his hair, matching almost perfectly. There was also the fact that he was just sort of . . . staring at her.

Vega just blinked, looking at him quietly, a clear look of confusion on her face. While she did notice the odd markings underneath both of his eyes, the inverted triangles, they really didn’t raise any questions in her mind. The only thing that really mattered to her at that moment, was the fact that he was looking at her . . . more specifically, looking at what was on her forehead; the red stone which was embedded into her very bone, the pyrope garnet that’s purpose remained a mere mystery to her.

He probably thought it was a stick on, or just a fashion statement like almost everyone else in the world. . . . Okay . . . this is getting more than a little bit awkward. Vega thought, beginning to push herself up again with her thin arms. She felt the weight of her halberd balancing upon her back as she did this. The thing was heavy as ever. The buckles upon her cloak clinked and make a noise as she managed her form up to at least sitting upon her own legs. A look of embarrassment still upon her pale face, Vega made a point of acting as if she were brushing imaginary bits of grass off the tops of her stockings, which were pulled all the way up to the middle of her thighs, where the rest of the flesh upon her appendages remained exposed until the main part of her outfit.

Honestly, one could call Vega’s manner of dress rather showy, maybe even inappropriate since without her cloak her outfit seemed like it was lacking much, including the fact it did actually show a bit of skin.

While Vega continued to idly work on getting her already-pristine stockings tidy, her red eyes glanced up back at the person to whom she owed an apology . . . as he seemed to be at work scribbling something onto that notepad of his, going from looking at it to her, and back again. Why hasn’t he said anything. . . ? she questioned. He’s really mad isn’t he? The jewel adorned teenager found herself sighing quietly at thinking that, she always had a knack for getting people mad didn’t she? She hated getting people upset, but she couldn’t act like it bothered her too much. Right, what had happened was just an accident; she would just apologize to him whenever he decided to speak and find a place to settle in for the night, continue on her travels in the morning.

A few more moments passed, and Vega heard the pen drop to the grass below, this caught her attention and she looked up from the tops of her legs, questioningly. Only to find herself looking at the man’s notepad, and what he had scribbled onto it, along with a drawing depicting the basic shapes and outlines of a person’s middle upon it . . . a vertically long oval being shaded in upon the middle of the chest.

She caught the words he had written below.


‘Same. Gem. Forehead. Chest.’

Vega looked upon this with confusion, barely able to even read the scrawl thanks to the dim lighting. But . . . she was still able to commit the four simple words to memory, along with the quickly done sketch. She let out a noise of uncertainty I . . . don’t understand. Blinking, she looked back to him and shook her head before pointing to the stone upon her forehead with her right index finger, did he mean. . . ? Did this guy mean that he had a jewel too? It was probably a faux stone, just a fashion statement. Sure, Vega had heard rumors of the whole current body jewellery craze being inspired by someone who actually had a real gem embedded into their flesh like her, but in all her travels, the teenager had never actually met another person like herself . . . so, she believed it to just be that; a rumor.

So, why would she have had any reason to think that someone she had just tripped over in the woods while trying to make it to a random village shared the same situation as her? Simple; she didn’t. There was no real reason for Vega to think that way. Even if she was a positive thinker, there was just no reason to think that way . . . none at all. Yeah, I’m sure he’s just got a gemstone on him as a fashion statement. she told herself with a sigh.

The black-haired teenager let her hand drop back onto her legs, and shook her head; at least he didn’t seem mad at her for what she had done in her clumsiness. That was always a plus, right? Her lips parted in uncertainty, and she took the chance to speak, her voice cutting through the unnerving silence of the forest. “I’m sorry for falling over top of you. I was in a hurry to try to find a village or something before dark, and well, I wasn’t paying attention while I was running. I . . . didn’t wind up hurting you did I?” she asked him. Wait; what if she had hurt him? What was she going to do then?! That thought hadn’t even crossed her mind before! “If I did injure you, then I’m so sorry! I-I can afford to get you treated if that is the case!” she prattled on, feeling mortified that she didn’t even think about the fact that her idiocy might have harmed someone.

Quickly, Vega ascended to her feet and began to frantically look around for any signs of civilization, she was panicking, not even giving the guy a chance to properly answer her, just assuming that she HAD in fact injured him.

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Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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-Edmund Liuva Audo-


Stupid girl.

Edmund sighed before snatching the pen back up and replacing both it and the notepad to their respective pocket. As he stood up, he casually threw the coat back on, quickly doing the buttons before shaking the hood out of any grass and leaving it down. As she rambled on about hurting him, he let out a noise of exasperation and placed his hand upon her head, in a sort of pat.

He wasn’t entirely sure if his mesmer would work on another gemstone, but then again, he couldn’t exactly be sure if she was like him. Regardless, he let the powers flow and tried to bring some calm to this woman, eyes meeting hers before he dropped his hand to his side. What he did next, he did slowly, hoping that the point would get across. First, he opened his mouth and began to run his hand along his throat, from the bottom up, and he flicked them out once he reached his mouth. Words. Talking. He flapped his hand like a mouth for good measure before tilting his head back slightly and holding his hands in a ‘X’ pattern across his throat. I’m not allowed to talk.

He stared intensely at her whilst holding hands there before dropping them once more, giving a nod like he had made his whole situation obvious. The contemplative look still on his face, he turned to look down the road, raising a finger to point along the direction he was gazing in. Just a moderate length down the road, there laid a village. One that seemed to have already made host to the majority of the others like him, though, this was unknown to him at this time. He still didn’t even know if this lady across from him was like him, let alone know that the town they were about to head into harbored multiple people like him.

Lowering his arm yet again, he jerked his head in the direction of the town, signifying her to accompany him. But before he began walking, he withdrew the notepad and pen and made one more sketch, one of a small handheld mirror. Underneath it laid two words. Mirror. Name.

He gave a curt nod and replaced the notepad and pen once more, hands remaining in his pockets before he began to walk down the road, in the direction he had just motioned. He didn't look back to see if she had been following him, he just held out his arm to the side and gave a thumbs up, answering her question about if he was fine or not. The arm fell back to his side after a moment, and he withdrew his other hand from his pocket and used them both to throw up his hood, his eyes changing tone.

What will I do if she is the same as I am? More importantly, can I convince her to buy me boarding? It'd be a nice change from sleeping on the sides of roads.

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Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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When she felt him place his hand on top of her head, she stopped acting as if she were a cat whom had just gotten wet. She went quiet, and found herself blinking questioningly, drawing her crimson eyes up to him, a definite look of confusion on her young face. A sort of, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ expression.

The man had his coat back on, notepad and pen seemingly put away, and he just had a . . . way too calm look on his face. Vega didn’t know quite what to make of it, or what he was doing, and why it was he was leaving his hand on the top of her head for so long. And though there were questions in the teenager’s head, something did register to her even though she found herself confused . . . and odd sense of serenity was setting in upon her from nowhere. Sure, she was already beginning to chill from her little freak out about possibly having hurt this guy, but what was coming over her, it was far too sudden and way too strong for it to be of a natural occurrence. And yes, Vega noticed this . . . and what did it do? Well, it made the girl feel almost sick in a way. A rather uncomfortable expression took over her features at this, despite feeling as if she should have been content.

This doesn’t feel right; it feels weird, very weird. she thought, a chill running up her spine from the feeling, and the fact that the coolness of the night air was getting to her. He’s doing it. I don’t know how, but he’s doing this. Vega thought, body stiffening up as the stranger’s almost jade-colored eyes met her own. A look of bewilderment, and discomfort remained over her features.

Sure, the world was host to a plethora of strange things, people capable of feats and things considered magic that Vega knew she could not fathom. Hell, she was one of the things most people couldn’t even comprehend being real, that much she was sure of, but to be confronted with the possibility of meeting another being capable of things. . . . That thought sort of sent a fright through her, even if she was something strange all on her own, an existence that sort of defied what was considered normal, and possible, she was still human in her rearing and the knowledge passed onto her. In her sixteen years, she had been a sheltered child who suddenly just struck it out on her own in the world in order to keep her parents safe, she went from knowing very little about the functioning’s of reality to having to adapt to a lifestyle totally foreign to her. But, that chapter of her life had only begun less than two years ago even, and she was still coping with the bizarre and outlandish.

If this stranger, this person she had tripped over, could do things on a level similar to what she could . . . what did that mean exactly? The written message and sketch upon that notepad of his, what she had assumed was just a comment about him taking interest in the body jewelry craze too, as it appeared she had with the red stone embedded in the flesh of her forehead, did that have another meaning to it?

A heavy sense of trepidation overtook Vega’s small form as it occurred to her that this person before her might be something beyond human, and that he also had over a foot on her as far as height was concerned. Why do I have to be so small? Honestly! she found herself cursing her own diminutive stature as she never ceased making eye contact with the green-haired man. At last, he removed his hand from the top of her skull and let his arm drop back to its place at his side. Vega felt a need to take a few steps back, that slight bit of fear eating away at her very skeleton. Yet, she knew not to do such a thing, even if she was afraid of the fact that this person might be something she was not ready to deal with, retreating was the coward’s way.

It was ironic in a way, the manner in which Vega was reacting to someone who was different from the normal given her own circumstances. She herself had a red stone growing from her bone, and protruding from the flesh of her forehead, and yet, just because a random guy she had met seemed to have managed to instill an unnatural sense of peace about her, she was silently freaking out. His appearance didn’t alarm her, the fact he had yet to even utter a word and seemed to communicate through use of a notepad. . . . Those things didn’t bother her, yet, the fact he might have used a force of ‘magic’ to simply calm her down, that of all things was what bothered her, when she herself could shoot a bolt of red lightning from her damn forehead. Well, that was something that wouldn’t make a bit of sense in hindsight.

However, when the man began a rather . . . odd routine of gestures regarding his throat, hand and mouth Vega felt most of the anxiety she felt sort of just vanish as she watched. Honestly, had it been a different situation, the girl probably would have let out a rather frustrated noise and planted the palm of her hand to the middle of her face, the frustration being at herself for thinking him a . . . threat. Still though, even if he looked really, really ridiculous with that routine of his, Vega knew not to let ALL of her caution melt away. Even if someone acted rather inane, that didn’t mean that they were not capable of acts unthinkable.

Vega just continued watching the rather asinine act of his her face rather blank now, all traces of her past incomprehension or dread gone. . . . .I thought this man a possible threat to me? she sighed to herself, a forlorn expression over her face as her neck and arms went a little limp. Recovering from said sigh, Vega opened her eyes back up and watched as he bent his head back and made an ‘X’ out of his hands over it. He just looked at her rather seriously, leaving his hands there for a minute or two while Vega herself just looked at him, appearing as if she were rather weirded out herself. How the hell was she suppose to react to that?

Since when did I look like I was an expert in charades? Vega simply blinked and just stared back at him, Geez . . . what sort of strangeness did I trip over? Really. . . ? I mean, I think I get what he’s trying to relay to me, crossing out his throat, him writing on a notepad; I presume he’s mute, or something? But I don’t actually know if I’m guessing correctly. Just as she made her assumption, the man dropped his arms back down, nodding to her as if he had just been crystal clear with his whole routine. Oh, how strong the urge was to roll her eyes. . . !

He suddenly pointed down the worn, old dirt road, the direction Vega had been sprinting down before falling flat on her face over him, to this Vega sort of tilted her entire upper body to the side and sort of peered down the pathway, as if she would be able to see what it was he was pointing at. Which, of course, she could not! Shaking her head a bit to herself mostly, finding herself sighing for the umpteenth time in the last few minutes, she went back to looking at the green-haired man before her, him ceasing his pointing, only to jerk his head in the same direction, as some sort of signal.

Does he expect me to follow him? she asked herself, before he pulled that notepad and pen of his out again, once more scribbling on it. Damn it, looks like my assumption from his little game of charades was right. He IS a mute. Vega realized, a frown forming on her face. While he was scribbling away, the teenager found herself sighing some, scratching the back of her neck as she set a hand on the side of her small hips, though the action went unseen thanks to her cloak. While she wouldn’t doubt whether this guy was nice or not, nor would she look down on him for being mute, Vega felt she did at least reserve the right to say the situation sort of did suck, and that communication was not going to be an easy aspect here.

In the fading light of the already sleeping sun, he held the notepad out for her to see again . . . and while she was barely able to see anything well enough to read anymore, Vega was able to perceive what he had written under the rushed sketch of a small mirror.


’Mirror. Name.’

She blinked, and looked back to his face. So, he called himself ‘Mirror,’ then? Okay . . . again, weird, but at least she had some sort of way to address him. That made things at least a little easier. The man gave a abrupt nod after this, placing the utensils back in their respective places in his coat it seemed, before he turned and started off down in the direction he had pointed to before, following the old road to who knew where. He had moved his head before, like he was telling her to follow him or something . . . is that what he expected of her?

Vega sort of remained where she was, watching him, that questioning look of before had returned to take over her features again. What have I gotten myself into this time around? she thought, letting the expression upon her features melt away. Melancholy overtook her face, a distant glint ran through her crimson eyes as she sort of let her head drop, casting her gaze to the ground. In doing this, Vega missed him giving her a thumbs up regarding whether or not he was uninjured.

The teenager didn’t move, her body felt stiff and unwilling to budge as a feeling of uncertainty settled upon her shoulders. She had no idea where he was going, but he acted like he was expecting her to tail along. Despite the fact he was weird as could be, Vega wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for her to be around him anymore, she already had a way to address him if the need arose . . . and well, in the last year and a half of travels, Vega made a point in not learning how to speak to people. She didn’t want to form connections with others, out of a fear that she might get someone innocent hurt because of her weirdness. In the past, she had managed to hurt her own parents with her own powers!

And, even if it looked like Mirror might have some weirdness all his own, Vega didn’t want to be responsible for getting him hurt because of what she could do. As she stood there, ruminating, a cold breeze stirred from behind, sending an unpleasant and rather unnatural chill through her body. She shivered at this, coming out of her doubting thoughts, she crossed her arms over her diaphragm underneath her cloak, and turned her head every which way, a glimmer of unease in her crimson eyes. I . . . feel as if I am being watched. she thought, biting down on her lip, the world around her silent and seeming but dead, save for that eerie breeze.

A sigh worked from her lips, as the girl’s jewel-adorned head raised up, and her eyes looked again at the back of Mirror, she wasn’t sure if this was the right thing for her to do. Being around him for too long could bring him in harm’s way, and if she got another innocent person hurt because of her own stupidity, Vega would again be unable to forgive herself for it. Yet still . . . she didn’t want to be alone right now, not while it felt like something unnatural were watching her. Tightening her arms around her middle, and chewing on the inside of her cheek, Vega made her choice. I’ll follow. . . .

With this choice made, the small teenager took off in a rather flighty walk, in order to catch up with Mirror who was far ahead of her due to her ruminating, and also because he was so much taller than her. He had an advantage over her because of the fact his strides were longer than what she could manage. It didn’t take her long to catch up to him, stopping her speedy walk when she managed to make it to his side.

Seeming almost timid now, she looked over at him before casting her gaze back to the ground, figuring she should introduce herself, given that he had more or less done the same earlier. Even if he was mute, he could hear and it wasn’t polite to go without proper introduction in a situation like this . . . or her parents had taught her as much. Her voice came out almost blunt, outwardly unattached. “My name, it’s Vega Sterre Delacroix. You gave me a way to address you, so I owe you the same gesture.”

“I get that you’re mute, so I don’t expect a response or anything, I just figured it was the right thing for me to do, in any case.” She sighed a bit, “I don’t know where the hell you’re leading me to, but I assume a town or something. If that’s the case, I might as well pay for boarding for you, as well as myself, at an inn, I did trip overtop of you, and thus, disturbed your slumber. It’ll be my way of apologizing, properly.”

As she spoke, Vega had nearly failed to notice the fact that she and Mirror were coming upon signs of a town, yet when she did manage to acknowledge this fact, she did not express the relief she felt at being within the grasps of civilization again. Thank goodness . . . a town. she did sigh softly in relief at this though.

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Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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~Edmund Liuva Audo~


Edmund offered no response to this girl introducing herself. At least, nothing more than a nod. But then when she went on explaining that she knew he was mute, he couldn’t help but crack a smile.

Oh, Vega. You have no idea.

They were just upon the city gate before Edmund stopped short in his tracks, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. He had the feeling of being watched, and turned his head to the source, eyes resting upon nothing but trees and hillside. When he turned his head back, however, there were two people. A man and a woman, a duo much like the one he was in himself. His eyes narrowed and ran over the both of them before the woman offered a wave of her hand and a ‘hi’.

She then went on to her introduce herself and her plus one, and then asked about any nearby inn. He let his guard down a little at this, ruling off any threat. Not that he’d be able to do anything if they were threats, he was strictly a pacifist. But he sort of felt the urge to protect Vega, even though he was certain she could probably do much more than take care of herself if it had to come to it. He, of course, didn’t offer up any words in return, and he frowned as the girl gave a little cough, and did a mere motion with her hands. Now, normally, Edmund would have just passed that off as what it was, but ever since meeting another gemstone, he was definitely more observant.

Maybe it was the way the composure of the girl changed after the cough. Before, she approached looking frail and rather shy, but after that cough, she seemed more confident. It could be anything, now that Edmund thought about it, but he was having a hunch of sorts. And that wasn’t only about the female; He also had a similar feeling about the man that harbored behind her. He had a look upon his face that made it seem he didn’t want to be there. Or rather, he didn’t want to be there with anybody else but the girl he was with.

Edmund remained silent during all of this, only raising his hands to rub at his eyes and give a barely audible sigh. He couldn’t be arsed to take out his notebook and pen to write a reply so he turned towards Vega, holding up one finger and pointing it to his chest, then her forehead, then at the two new people in front of them, moving it in between them. He put on a look that said ‘You get me? They’re like us, I bet you.’ and nodded in their direction as well before dropping his hand.

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Character Portrait: Akai Heitoriddo Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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The sense of relief that overcome Vega’s better senses was but a simple sentiment that all but ebbed away from the jewel bearing teenager in a matter of moments. It felt like her heart had stopped within her seemingly fragile body, as she simply stood still for a moment, eyes wide with shock, breath caught within her throat. Something overcame her, a feeling most unpleasant, sickening and vaguely disturbing. In that moment of surprise, Vega found herself having forgotten about the simple presence of Mirror, the strange green-haired man whom she had decided to follow after feeling as if she were being watched in the silent forest.

She didn’t understand that feeling, that terrible sensation that was slowly creeping through her small frame . . . the reason why it felt as if pins and needles were assaulting her very bones. Electrical build up? she questioned silently, as an expression of discontentment overtook her youthful features. Was that what this was? The sensation of pins and needles . . . it was something so uncomfortable, yet so familiar. Anytime she felt it, any time it felt as if her very bones were being poked and prodded by tiny sharp objects, it had always meant one of a few things, either there was a storm brewing overhead, or it meant that her body was building up its own reserves of the element, and readying itself to fire it off for some reason or another. And the sky was clear this night, so, it meant the latter of the two.

As the feeling persisted, little Vega’s small frame tensed up and relaxed at random as she did her very best to contain the sensation, the power she could feel building up within her body. No, she would not allow herself to lose control over her power in the presence of another, never again. She couldn’t get someone hurt, not someone innocent. But why do I feel this way?

An inaudible groan came from Vega’s lips as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps behind her, and Mirror. Was it the presence of a new person that was making her feel this way? Yes, over the years Vega had noticed a natural tread about herself and abilities, anytime there was any perceived threat to her being, any at all that even she herself could not consciously detect, it seemed her body did it for her. Physically, her gemstone would begin amassing a small reserve of power to use if the need arose to do so—and without her own consent, the blasted jewel would go ahead and use that reserve against whatever might be threatening her, even if someone innocent were in the crossfire. It seemed as if it wanted to protect her, and only her. Upon figuring this rather disturbing tread out, Vega had since managed to contain her powers and prevent anyone innocent from coming under harm thanks to herself.

However though, it were feeling as if that display of self-control was not going to be possible. . . . Yet still, she had to try, did she not? Not for my own sake, but for Mirror’s. I don’t know if he is ‘innocent’ or not, but I can’t just let him get hurt because of my own stupid choices. Vega chided herself, doing her best to still her now raging heartbeat. With her small form tense, uneasy and honestly, a little frightened at the prospect of losing control, Vega turned slowly on her heel and came to face whom it was who advanced from behind. The look on unease did not leave her features as her crimson eyes fell upon a teenage girl whom was probably only a year or two older than herself. In the pale light of the moon, Vega could easily make out the fact that she bore a rather starling hair color—a rather vivid violet that shone rather well.

There was a gentleness about her, a look of uncertainty and being hesitant . . . almost inhibited. There was no need to fear her, Vega could feel that, yet still, that feeling in her bones did not leave her. Her heart did not cease its erratic thumping in her chest, no, it was only growing worse. Vega’s face grew pallor, her expression becoming rather stern; betraying her youthful features.

The strange girl gave a small wave, Vega’s cold crimson eyes flickered over to the raised appendage before quickly going back to the woman’s face, "Hi." she started, before pausing as if to make sure that she had the attention of herself and Mirror. Her voice was undoubtedly full of insecurities, as if laced with a fear of sorts. . . . "Hi, um, I'm Ariane, and," When she paused, tilting herself to the side to look back at the companion Vega had failed to notice in her current state, the girl’s eyes widened a bit and she stopped breathing before Ariane continued speaking. "This is Akai. We were wondering if you knew where the closest inn was? And maybe what their rates are?"

Vega could only see his outline, just his silhouette made visible by the moon’s silver glow. Yet, there was enough luminosity from the suspended celestial orb to make out the fact that he possessed a head full of crimson colored hair, the same color as her stone. Only seeing this much of him was enough to make Vega’s heart leap into her throat, a terrible feeling attacking her body. That pins and needles feeling got worse, her feet and hands were beginning to tingle, toes and fingers growing numb. No, no, no. . . . she pleaded silently, tightening her small hands into fists at her sides as she fought the strange sensations and the gathering electricity in her body. Why? Why couldn’t she control this?

Ariane’s false cough shook Vega of her focus and drew her dazed attention back to the girl, breathing lightly; her crimson colored eyes fell back to her as she set a gentle hand to her chest. Vega could perceive the air of composure that she now bore after that simple action. She’d have been a fool not to. . . . Yet it didn’t matter. Whatever that strange girl did, it was of no concern to Vega, something more important was occurring at the moment, the fact that Ariane’s companion, Akai, or whatever his name was, was causing Vega’s powers to spin out of her control.

A sort of pained expression took over her face at this, the sensation of tingling was spreading up Vega’s arms and legs, slowly travelling to the point where they could be released . . . and the teenage girl was doing everything in her mortal capabilities to hinder its progress, to hold it at bay. Her efforts were, at best, only very slightly slowing the progress it made down; it was still winning against her resolve.

No, no, please no. . . . Chewing on her bottom lip, Vega quietly twisted her neck to the side, and looked at Mirror, a look in her eyes that bespoke of desperation and worry, a solemn sort of fear. He didn’t know about what she could do, about the horrors her gemstones could cause. . . . The damage she could unleash if she were not careful. Despite his peculiarity, and the fact he had more or less played a weird game of charades with her earlier to get the point across that he was mute, Vega knew there was something strange about him, something unnatural. Something that was similar to her own situation. . . . He had instilled a sense of serenity into her before, she was sure of it. Maybe he could help her now? If only it were that simple.

Mirror rubbed his eyes, sighing rather quietly before turning to her. Vega herself was now straining to breathe; the sheer trepidation that was overtaking her at the knowledge that she might soon lose control of her own powers was putting the weight of anxiety upon her chest. He pointed to his chest, to her forehead and then to the two newcomers before them. Ariane and Akai, one of whom is causing me to barely keep myself sane. she thought as Mirror gestured back and forth between himself, her and those two. Vega however just continued to look at the man with the same expression; blatant fear and unease. She couldn’t speak to him, and she couldn’t begin to comprehend what he was trying to communicate to her as she was.

Every second that was now passing, felt like a millennium, it was getting harder to stay in control. . . ! Akai stepped forward, standing at Ariane’s side—meaning he had drawn closer to herself and Mirror. This sudden action caused Vega’s vision to blur as her entire body suddenly felt limp, power surging into her suddenly. Still, she looked at Mirror, yet her eyes had widened and gone dull for a moment as an expression of shock played over her young face. It felt like everything had gone numb in her body for moment, like she were slowly losing control. It felt like her consciousness was being thrust from her body, and something else was taking over. . . .

She began to tremble where she stood, tears pricking at her eyes as she felt it slinking around her blocks again, the electricity was beginning to gather at that particular point in her forehead, her gemstone. No . . . no, I don’t want to hurt someone again! she let out an audible whimper at this.

When Akai strained to speak, trying to be as agreeable as possible, Vega’s vision blurred again, every muscle in her body jolting with edginess as his voice leaked into her ears, ”...it is a pleasure to meet you..." With this she moved, slowly, in an almost doll-like manner, and turned to face him, a look of dread upon her face. She could feel it all converging, all of the amassed power, all of it was forming at her forehead, at her jewel. And it was all thanks to him, to Akai’s very presence. . . . Vega didn’t understand it, why this was happening, why the feeling of danger was so strong, why it was she couldn’t even control her own powers a little bit at this point. Her eyes widened when Akai exposed his right eye, the gemstone that lay embedded in the socket. . . . And a sudden surge of realization shot through Vega as everything went completely black for a moment, he was like her in some manner, yet completely different. "...good evening, my name's Akai..."

A soft whimper came from Vega’s throat as she stared ahead with an expression of pleading upon her face. It got stronger, and stronger . . . that power. “. . . .n-no,” she whispered out quietly. Without warning, little Vega’s moved, face tensing up as her hands shot up and covered her gemstone, a desperate cry coming from her lungs. ‘No, no, no! Don’t lose control, don’t lose your control over it Vega!” she shouted, clutching onto her head.

Her forehead was growing hot, and suddenly, a pain roared forth from her gemstone, a sort of powerful shock that just jolted the girl’s frame; causing her limbs to grow limp and languid. With a yelp, Vega found herself down on her knees, eyes going wide as her head seemed to move, automatically taking aim as her garnet began to glow a fierce shade of red. Her breathing picked up in her as panic set in, realizing she was staring directly at Akai. NO!! Even if she sensed danger from him, she didn’t want to hurt anyone! Her body was completely frozen, not listening to any command she gave to it. . . . The blood pounding in her ears was all she could hear as but for moment, everything in her stilled . . . Vega knew full well what was coming next.

Squelching her face up in protest, the teenager let out a scream and forced her neck off to the side as a rather violent bolt of red lightning ripped from her forehead, narrowly missing Akai. Tears slid down Vega’s face as all of the amassed power was released in that one shock. Her eyes still shut, she heard the lightning hit something; a loud explosion echoed forth, along with the sound of something cracking and breaking. Trees, I-I hit trees. she realized, beginning to shake. I didn’t hit him, I didn’t hit Akai. . . .

A small crackle of electric sparked from Vega’s garnet after this, the girl didn’t move, tears still sliding down her face. By some miracle, she had managed to regain control over herself long enough to avoid hurting someone with her powers . . . yet at the same time, her strangeness was now known to the three observers; Mirror, Ariane and Akai. They had just seen what she could do. Still shaking, Vega opened up her crimson eyes and looked at the three with a rather frightened expression, from Akai, to Ariane and lastly to Mirror.

Her eyes spoke of a silent apology that she could not manage to muster from her own throat.

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Character Portrait: Akai Heitoriddo Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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Ariane glanced at Akai as he stepped forward. He seemed to be feeling slightly better about talking to these strangers after seeing them closer up. She gave him a little glance to make sure that he was alright and then turned her attention back to the stranger. The guy - the one with interestingly colored green hair - seemed to be regarding them carefully, and she regretted now having touched her chest to feel her jewel - she had a feeling that the movement had not gone unnoticed, and it was something that made her very uneasy. Information was power - she knew that very well - and knowing someone was a jewel was very powerful information - she didn't want anyone to realize what she was.

Before she could make a distracting comment however, her attention was caught by the girl - the one who had looked so young. She seemed to be trembling - as if in pain - although there was nothing in sight that could have caused her pain and she had seemed fine before Ariane and Akai had approached her. Ariane could feel something from her - something very dark, very hot - and very, very powerful - as if there was a fire - no, not a fire. It wasn't a fire. Fires were controllable for the most part - predictable in the way that they went for the fuel and burned what they touched - this feeling wasn't predictable and it wasn't innocuous as most fire was. It was deadly and it was certainly not there for normal purposes.

The feeling almost made Ariane step back, but she stopped herself, not wanting to seem suspicious. She'd approached these people, wanting to befriend them. She didn't want to start a friendship with a show of distrust. She just had to -

The girl whimpered. Ariane felt shock writhing in the back of her mind - what -

Akai introduced himself, moving just a bit closer to her as he did so.

For a moment, Ariane just listened to his voice - it was hesitant - but then, he hadn't really been up for talking to strangers - but it wasn't terribly reluctant anymore. Something had changed the way he thought about them. She wondered briefly what it was - wondered if he felt what she felt - that these people - or at the very least - the girl with the gem embedded in her forehead - was one of them - one of the jewels.

Something in her shivered very slightly as Akai's last word left his mouth, and she could feel the power in the air again, stronger now, so much stronger, not fire, not fire but -

What is it? Ariane wondered. What is that feeling? She couldn't placed it, and it bothered her, because it placed her in an ignorant position - and people in ignorant positions often got killed.

It was hard for her even to place where exactly the feeling was coming from - definitely one of the two that stood in front of her, but which one? Or was it maybe a combined thing from the both of them?

That question was very quickly answered as a strangled, "...No," slipped from the girl's mouth.

So the feeling was coming from the girl - and from the looks of it, the guy didn't have any part in it. And it was like the feeling had intensified, followed by a primal instinct in the back of Ariane's mind to protect herself, to activate the powers of the amethyst and keep herself safe from any magical harm - or better yet, to run away, to run far away from the two, run to somewhere there wouldn't be a chance of getting hurt, of possibly damaging her gemstone and getting herself killed. Run, run now - before it's too late, run, run, run -

Half-terrified, Ariane leaned back slightly, her amethyst burning hot on the right side of her chest, matching the alarming beats that came from the left side of her chest. In a few seconds, the shield would be put up automatically, and she was start to glow a cold, steady purple -

It was too late.

"No, no, no! Don’t lose control, don’t lose your control over it Vega!”

The words were followed by a scream from the girl - Vega, Ariane thought, panicked, her mind running out of control now, Vega, that's her name, that's what she just called herself - unless she was talking to someone else, maybe the guy? What am I THINKING ABOUT WHEN I'M ABOUT TO DIE?

Vega spasmed - a motion that looked like it was motivated by pain - and then her head turned until she was staring - not at me - The thoughts were coming wildly - not at me - Ariane turned her head to follow the gaze.

She was staring straight at Akai.

Akai? Why? Has she realized? She recognizes him as a gemstone. Ariane felt her stomach start to swirl as the logic began to throw itself together in blinding speed.

The girl was a gemstone - there was no way the glowing jewel in her forehead was a fake - and she was targeting Akai - against her own will or so it seemed - which meant that it was something the jewel wanted. Why would the jewel want to kill Akai?

There was only one good reply for that: Akai was seen as a threat, which meant that he was tainted gem. Pure gems - like her, and quite probably Vega - did not give off threatening auras. Even if a tainted gem realized the presence of a pure gem, his gem would not react physically/magically to the gem without consent of the gemstone. Only pure gems would act against the wishes of their owners to fight off tainted gems - to fight off what they viewed as a threat to the gemstone.

Akai is tainted, Ariane had time to realize before the attack began.

There was something in her - something that treasured Akai's brief friendship with her - despite the fact that he was technically her enemy - and made her extend a hand in front of Akai. Her body was becoming magically protected, although the glow hadn't started yet.

Red lightning forced its way from the jewel on Vega's forehead, shooting at Akai. Ariane flinched at the pure, raw power of it. It missed Akai by a hair's length, her barrier barely doing anything to even slow it down. The shock was so much for Ariane - she'd never been on the end of another gem's attack, even if in this case, she wasn't really the one being attacked - that she almost pumped up her shield as a response to the lightning.

But sense stopped her before she could do so.

Vega was distracted by her light - she hadn't noticed Ariane's barrier hopefully - everyone else should be distracted too, and the visible barrier hadn't appeared yet. She could still keep the fact that she was a gem hidden if she stopped now. Ariane did so, forcing her body into calmness, the amethyst cooling as she did so, the barrier quickly dissipating without a trace. She kept her hand extended, so as to not seem as if she actually did anything, and she kept the shocked look on her face - not that there was very much need to fake that.

The shock and the fear was still swirling around very prominently in her mind, and she wasn't sure exactly what to do.

This girl, who she had just met, had just gone up to - like a friend - had almost killed her and Akai.

Get away, Her mind told her. Get away from these people. They're dangerous. Go away. Find Nature. She will fix all of this. Walk away from this madness before you aren't able to.

But she couldn't. She was scared, but she didn't want to just ditch Akai, and besides, the girl - Vega - was now kneeling on the ground, looking piteously up at them all, even her own travelling companion, as if she expected to be hit. There was pain in her eyes, grief at what she had just did - a lot of grief - and Ariane felt pity for her.

I don't want to die, Something in the back whispered.

Very slowly, Ariane lowered herself to a kneeling position next to Vega and extended a hand to her, trying to look gentle and give off a gentle air. She'd dispelled all her gem's power, so if Vega's gem sensed danger and tried to attack, she would most definitely die at this range.

"It's alright," Ariane said, although she wasn't sure why. "It's alright." She hesitated and then asked softly, "Are you alright?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Akai Heitoriddo Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Caitlin Mai Elieve Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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Akai could barely dodge the red lightning that came across his way and he breathed heavily when he realized it only hit a tree and not his body or more specifically,not his right eye. Turning his head, Akai's eyes locked at the girl's form. She was trembling and her face showed a very familiar emotion - the emotion he himself had always felt when he was younger - when he was still being a slave to 'that' family - the fear. Akai had to restrain himself from gritting his teeth. Obviously, what the girl did there was against her own free will. He only caught a glimpse of the red stone on her forehead but he didn't need to be told to realize what it was. It was a gemstone. She was a gemstone. A gemstone liked himself. Akai was still standing there in shock, honestly didn't know what to do. He had heard the Chaos said sometime ago that there were others like him but he, of course, didn't believe it - at least not fully. He just couldn't believe something like that. How could there were others like him? But he just continued to search for them - hopelessly - like how his Master had wanted in order to please the Chaos. But here he was, standing in front of a living proof of what he was searching for so long. He was standing in front of another gemstone - another member of his kind. The better kind. The higher kind. The kind that would purify this earth from its corrupted kind.

But then...why? why did she attack him?

Akai's body trembled slightly with confusion. Why? Why did she attack her own kin? Why did she attack me? He searched his mind for a possible explanation - any kinds of explanation. He just couldn't...he refused to believe that she attacked him because of his purpose even if he still hadn't open his mouth and told her that he wanted to destroy humans. It was too...hard to admit. He wanted to believe that she also wanted to purify this Earth, too. He wanted to believe that she, herself, hated humans as much as he did, too. And so, his mind came up with the most possible reason he could think of.

The humans must have forced her to do it. The humans must have forced her to attack him for no reason at all.

Akai nodded his head. Yes, that must be it. That was why she attacked him. That was why she denied him. She must have been forced to do it by the humans even though he still hadn't figured how they had controlled her actions. But there wasn't any other logical explanations as to why she attacked him like that. And this time, Akai really gritted his teeth '...Those damned humans. Always destroy what I care for...' As his body was now trembling with anger and hatred toward humans, he wasn't even aware that there was a hand reaching for his face until the slightly cold hand pressed his forehead, not to hard but it was enough to pull him out of his thoughts. He flinched violently and attempted to squash the hand away when suddenly, he realized it was the other boy's hand. Strangely enough, he began to feel calmer and more in control of himself than before. It was only for a few second but it was enough for him. Taking a deep breath, Akai was torn between wanting to comfort the girl himself and wanting to step aside and allow others to do their jobs.

Finally, he had reached his decision. He knelt next to her, but with a longer distance than Ariane in fear of what the human might force her to do if he was too closed to her. He licked his lips and opened his mouth hesitantly, Akai spoke at last "...It is alright...I am not mad at you..." He didn't know that his words were enough to comfort the distressed girl and therefore, he added at last "...I understand..." What did he understand? He didn't know. It just felt... right to say it. He gave the girl a small smile and continued, a little unsure "...uhm...if you want, I can stand...farther from you..." He looked at Ariane and gave her a helpless look as if he didn't know how to act in this type of situation. Should he get away from her? But this was the first time he found someone like him. How could he abandon her like that? specially when the humans might control her actions or something...How could he abandon his own kin?

But truth to be told, he had no idea what to do, either. Maybe he should just leave her for a small amount of time, waiting for her to calm down and explain. He should give her some space. He stood up and moved out of the way without forgetting to whisper in Ariane's ears first "...I'm going to leave for about 10 minutes...call me whenever she seems to calm down again, 'kay?...I don't want to frighten her...I'll just be wandering around here..."

He walked away from the group, his head was filled with so many thoughts that he almost...almost stepped over something big. He narrowed his eyes and lowered his head to take a good look at it. The moon, which was covered by the cloud just a minute ago, was shining brightly again and Akai jolted slightly as he realized he was looking at a girl - a girl with...white hair? He looked closer and blinked again when he found out that she didn't actually have white hair, more like blonde hair but appeared white under the silver moonlight. She looked very god-like with her peaceful face and her smooth skin. Akai hesitantly reached out a hand but stopped when his finger was just inches away from the moon-goddess-like face. Should he wake her up? She seemed to be sleeping so peacefully, so soundly that he didn't want to wake her up from her dreamland.

A gentle wind blew past him and made her bang cover her face and this time, Akai's hand gently touched her face to get the bang away. His eyes widened and his breaths quickened slightly as he saw that, on her temple, just above her right eye, was a small, round and pale white stone - a pearl-like-stone. Was she another...? No, that wasn't possible, was it? He couldn't meet his luck twice today, right? Maybe that was just a piercing. After all, piercings like this were a fashion trend nowadays. He licked his lips slightly and decided that he should wake her up. Even if she was a gemstone or not, she reminded him of the moon and he loved the moon...and so, he wouldn't leave her here to become a delicious prey for the bandits. He shook her slightly, trying to keep his voice as quietly and still good enough to hear as possible.

"...Hey, sleeping beauty...wake up..."

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Character Portrait: Akai Heitoriddo Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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Ariane quite literally reared back as the young man took several steps forward and pressed a thumb to her forehead. Rivets of power began to cascade into her mind -

No.

The amethyst burned in the middle of her chest as it activated at her emotions, blocking off the power from her mind - the girl had attacked them, and even if she looked sorry for what she'd done, that didn't mean that the boy felt the same way - it didn't mean anything close to that, and she did not want to get caught unawares and get killed here, did not want to die, not now, not ever -

The hand fell from her forehead and the young man walked past her. Her power stopped as her thoughts began to race.

Her first thought was, Well, that confirms that he's a gemstone. The following thoughts went along the line of, What the hell was that? and Oh, fuck, he's another gemstone. Is he good? Bad? He has to be good if he's with Vega. Vega is pure - definitely and she attacks the tainted - so - he has to be -

And now the young man was walking back to Vega. He knelt down besides her and pulled his hood down, first looking up to Ariane and Akai - Ariane felt shock running through her veins - power, self-satisfaction - just a hint of narcissistic pleasure - and then he looked down at Vega, and his eyes changed ever so slightly, although Ariane wasn't quire sure if she had just imagined it or not. He was speaking now - his voice interestingly - Ariane couldn't describe it - strong, yes, strong, but not harsh...more -

Akai's voice interrupted her analysis. He was trying to reassure Vega, and he sounded calm, very calm - almost too calm considering that he had just almost been killed by the girl he was trying to talk into a calmer state. His voice was hesitant, as if unsure what to do, but there was no panic, no strong emotion in his voice.

And then that calm voice was next to her, whispering in her ear, Akai's breath blowing a few stray strands of hair across her cheek. "...I'm going to leave for about 10 minutes...call me whenever she seems to calm down again, 'kay?...I don't want to frighten her...I'll just be wandering around here..."

It was those words that finally broke Ariane's trance and pulled her back to reality. She looked at him, concerned, wondering if she should make him stay, but there was something sad and determined in his face, so in the end, she just nodded and watched as he walked away, quickly disappearing into the darkness. For a brief moment, the thought that she might never see him again crossed her mind - and unfortunately, it was a thought was probably destined to become very real, very, very soon.

If he really was a tainted jewel - Am I in denial? She wondered - she could not stay around him. He was too dangerous - even if he did no physical harm to her, he attracted danger - like the lightning from Vega. It was hard to imagine, hard to believe, but then...she had always had a bit of a problem with trusting too easily. She didn't want to be alone - no one did - it was something that all humans had in common. They were meant to live in a group, and that instinct was encoded in them down to the last strand of DNA.

Now that instinct had led her into danger - she couldn't afford to stay close to a tainted gemstone. It offered the chance of danger, pain...death. She had to separate herself from Akai. Maybe it would be best to just slip away now. After all, he would be waiting for her to call him back, and she would have at least ten to fifteen minutes to disappear before he realized that she wasn't coming and came back by himself. And she was lucky. She could probably hide out somewhere and then get to another town in a few days or just hang out in the woods. Akai would never have a chance of finding her again.

But - to be alone -

And - he was nice to me...


Ariane shook her head and then returned her attention to Vega and the other gemstone. She looked him over - green hair, green eyes - emerald maybe? But it didn't seem like quite the right shade. And the girl - her gemstone looked startlingly similar - almost like Akai's.

That made a slightly bitter smile come to Ariane's face, though she quickly wiped it away.

Wouldn't it be funny if the person who had attacked Akai, chased him away, was his counterpart? The pure gem to his tainted?

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Character Portrait: Akai Heitoriddo Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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How could it have come down to this? Why, just . . . just why was it that she couldn’t control herself? Even after so much time had passed, since—since she had managed to hurt her parents, she still couldn’t control her damnable power! I almost hurt someone again, but I didn’t . . . I-I didn’t. she told herself, whimpering quietly as she shut her eyes and let her head drop. Tears still trailed down her face, falling from her shut eyes as the poison known as fear continued to eat away at her small frame, at her very bones. Vega’s heart was hammering away in her chest, her head was throbbing. . . . Somewhere along the lines of the lightning building up in her body, she must have been getting a rush of adrenalin and not have known it, because she was feeling strange, shaky, and her body was quivering. She felt . . . felt as if she was being suffocated for some reason, like she needed openness, and isolation, to be alone again.

A flicker of electric emerged from the jewel upon her forehead as she remained frozen, head drooping downward, body seeming languid, barely supported upward from the effects of gravity by two little thin arms. . . . It went unseen though, as everyone seemed to be concerned regarding other matters. Vega felt it though, that small spark, and it caused her to tighten her hands into fists below her. A rush of terror struck at her as she felt her body trying to build up another reserve of electricity, to try to lash out at Akai once more. A small whimper sounded out from the girl’s pale throat, eyes opening wide as she felt herself losing control again. NO! she mentally ordered.

No, no, no, she wouldn’t lose control over herself again; no matter who Akai was. . . . She wouldn’t let her powers up and hurt someone, not again, her powers wouldn’t undermine her volition again. I don’t know who he is, I don’t know who Akai is. All I know right now is the fact that something about him makes my powers react in a violent fashion, it makes me feel unsafe, and like I need to attack. . . . Even if that were true, even if Akai made her weary, uneasy and dreadful, that didn’t mean she could hurt him without proper reason. All he had said to her was a simple introduction, a greeting. That was it, he had not tried to bring harm to herself or Mirror, and he was apparently travelling with the girl Ariane who did not seem to set Vega’s powers on high alert. . . .

I’ve hurt enough people with my carelessness, she reprimanded herself, I won’t let it happen again! A soft sigh came from Vega’s pale lips as she suppressed her powers, forced them back and refused to allow her body to try to amass more electricity to hurt Akai, or anyone else for that matter.

Ariane’s gentle voice broke Vega of her thoughts, startling the gemstone-adorned girl back to reality. "It's alright," she offered words of solace, of comfort. To this, Vega looked at the violet-haired teenager confused, uncertain, a glint of questioning running through her crimson eyes. She was kneeling down next to her, hand extended outward . . . Vega sensed terror, a need to escape, yet . . . sincerity in her phrase. But . . . why? Why was it that she had not left, why had this strange girl not runaway? Same for everyone else, for Akai and Mirror. Ariane spoke again, offering the same words of comfort once more, before asking of her wellbeing. ”Are you alright?”

To this Vega, felt a flicker of fright spark to life in her pounding heart. Why fear? Why was there a sense of terror in the small girl when someone was showing her consideration, even after almost killing someone? Because of that; because of the kindness. Of all the reactions to be expected, Vega did not think ‘kindness’ was something she would be receiving. I could have killed anyone of these three, easily. If I hadn’t regained control over myself when I did, Akai would be . . . he would be dead, and she very well could have joined him, having been so close. She thought, beginning to quiver at the very notion. Guilt was beginning to haunt her, settle itself upon her shoulders. . . . The kindness being displayed to her now, it was only making it worse. I shouldn’t have elected to follow Mirror, no. I should have just—just stayed in a damn tree tonight, if I had just done that, I wouldn’t have almost killed someone again.

Feeling this apprehension filling her soul up to the brim, Vega had to force herself to look away from Ariane, she couldn’t bear looking at a face holding so much benevolence after what she had almost done. I deserve to rot in Hell for this. she told herself. By showing me any sympathy, it just makes this worse, it just makes me fear what I nearly did, and what I am more than capable of doing in the future. Vega understood something about herself in that moment. She had no control over what the hell she was, of the powers her strangeness bestowed upon her, and that made her a danger to everyone around her. To Mirror, to Ariane, to Akai. . . . She could hurt people she didn’t know, people who very well may be innocent souls who were just trying to get by in the world. And, with that thought laced in her mind, she became fearful once more, failing to notice the movements of Mirror, and his interactions with both Ariane and Akai.

Vega kept her crimson eyes shut to the world, tears still falling down her pale cheeks, until she felt a hand upon the top of her skull again. Again, the pyrope garnet found herself startled, body tensing up in reaction to the sudden contact. She knew who it was, she didn’t have to be told, nor did she even have to look upon the person . . . all she needed to know was that an artificially sentiment of tranquility was being placed into her heart, quashing out the fear she felt. It was Mirror again, using his own strangeness to try to force her to feel secure about own peculiarity, to feel confident in herself, despite the fact that she had just almost killed a person with her lack of control. True, it did work, it did rid her of the fears and the seeds of doubt in her mind for the moment, but. . . . Vega didn’t like it. It wasn’t natural, forcing the things she felt away. Even if those sentiments were unpleasant, they were genuine, and what she needed to feel, and to sort through on her own time. . . .

When his hand receded from her head, Vega didn’t really react . . . she kept her gaze cast to the ground under her, fully able to feel the falsities implanted into her starting to take effect. Her fear was beginning to retreat into the depths of her mind, into the darkest corners of her heart. The self-loathing left . . . being quickly replaced by a sense of calm. So, Mirror really did have some serious weirdness to him, just . . . like her. This left Vega to wonder something, about Akai, he wasn’t normal, obviously, there was something about him that set her powers off, made her feel dreadful and like she needed to draw out her halberd and strike him down. That sensation, the sentiment, the notion of feeling like she needed to do that; that wasn’t normal. And she had seen it; that red glint where his right eye should have been. A color so much like her own stone. . . .

She didn’t know what any of this meant, until now, she had adamantly believed herself to be the only freak of nature who bore a damn jewel on herself that actually seemed to come right out of her bone. But, it seems that I’m not the only person in the world like this after all. . . . Akai had something in common with her, even if he did set off alarm bells, and Mirror, he also seemed to have something more to him as well.

It was when Mirror knelt down in front of her that Vega actually bothered to look away from the ground; the movement was merely instinctive, at the sudden action, Vega’s hair ornament clinked against itself. The traces of fear left behind in the wake of her own self-doubting thoughts, the trepidation instilled into her by Ariane’s sudden and unexpected sympathetic words, it was fading away rather quickly. Yet a few tears remained upon her youthful face, her small frame still trembled a bit with the recesses of what she had experienced.

Mirror was looking right at her, smiling for some reason. Why? Was it because his bizarreness was taking its toll upon her and forcing her to lock away the fear? When he reach out and wiped the remnants of her tears away, Vega found herself flinching away from his touch. A look of discomfort spread across her face, and a new bit of fear began to make her chest ache. All of this, all of this was just . . . unbearable, tiresome and just—just unnecessary. All of this could have been avoided if she had just slept in a tree for the night. Yet, here she was, surrounded by three people, two of which were like her, the third uncertain still, and one of the former two had just touched her face. Finding herself shaking a bit as Mirror ascended to his feet once more, Vega simply remained as she had been when he wiped the tears away from her face. That look of unpleasantness remained upon her face.

Not a true thought passed through Vega’s mind for the moment all was quiet after this, not until an unfamiliar voice happened to surface in the silence. ”The hell was that, Vega?” At it, the dark-haired girl tensed up, and her breath hitched in her lungs, heart skipping a beat in surprise. Eyes wide, she looked up at Mirror, for the moment, all coherent thoughts were wiped from her mind. Had . . . had he just. . . ? While it was most certainly not the most pressing issue at hand, the fact that Mirror had just spoken . . . when she thought him a mute. . . . Well, that was certainly a bit of a shocking experience.

She simply blinked in surprise, crimson eyes wide with surprise, she found herself unable to muster up a proper vocal response to his question, and in the moments that followed, Vega found that someone else had decided to go ahead and speak. "...It is alright...I am not mad at you..." Akai, he had finally spoken about the incident . . . about her nearly killing him. At this, Vee’s attention was drawn to the boy, her eyes still wide. How, how could he not be upset with her for what she had almost. . . ? "...I understand..." he continued on, giving her an uncertain smile.

Yet, Vega didn’t understand what he meant by that? What did he understand? Does he mean that . . . I instill the same sort of feelings into him as he does to myself? Do his powers almost spiral out of his control because of my mere presence? she questioned silently, eyelids lowering a bit as she didn’t understand any of this. Firstly, she was not as alone as she believed regarding her little gemstone situation, and secondly . . . the one who she almost killed was not upset with her, and was going ahead and acting as if he could sympathize with her. However, the short distance he held from her now was causing her body to try and do what it had done before, amass more energy to attack with. . . . Feeling this, Vega forced her powers back down. Not again, she would not hurt him. No matter what she felt from Akai, she wouldn’t hurt him, not unless she had a damn good reason for it.

"...uhm...if you want, I can stand...farther from you..." Akai spoke again, to which, Vega nodded silently, though she heard the uncertainty in his voice. There was almost a sense of . . . longing there? Was she wrong about that? But still, distance, she needed that from him, she needed to have some distance between herself and him. . . . While she didn’t understand why it was she was having such a reaction to his very being, Vega understood that Akai needed to get away from her in order to not be harmed. If he remained close, she’d lose her control again.

So, he got up and moved away from her, saying something to Ariane that escaped her ears, though Vega did not miss the forlorn look that seemed to encompass the violet-haired girl’s face before she shook her head, and proceeded to examine Mirror. . . . Before looking at Vega herself. Akai was her travelling companion, and my peculiarity managed to stave him off, to force hima away. Vega realized, eyes glinting with guilt, heart feeling heavy again. She is upset, and bitter.

Sighing, Vega’s head dropped again, her gold and ruby-adorned hair ornament clinked against itself again as her short bangs blocked her eyes from view . . . a bitter smile all her own had arose over her lips. What had she gone and done, or, almost done? Mirror had even spoken, the fact that lightning had come from a girl so small must have been enough of a bombshell to elicit a vocal response from someone who claimed to be a mute. Remaining on the ground as she had, Vega felt her heartbeat returning to normal, her body no longer quivering. There was still a fear in her, and guilt, but . . . she found her physical state of being growing weary.

Even her own powers, which were still trying to react to Akai’s nearby presence, seemed unable to muster much more up than what they had before. Seemed that one bolt of lightning was her limit for the time being. It had been a powerful round, perhaps the strongest bolt of electricity she had ever unleashed in her time. . . . Maybe then, maybe that meant that Akai could be around her now and not be in danger of dying, for now at least. The fatigue she was feeling showing in her eyes, Vega craned her neck up and looked up at Mirror; that embittered smile still upon her face, which showed signs of the weariness she now was feeling. All of this, all of this was just so exhausting. . . . Even as she felt calm, there was no shedding that guilt she still bore.

If Mirror had gone and spoken under more normal circumstances, when she felt as herself, Vega probably would have freaked out and nearly gone on a tangent . . . but right now, the best reaction she felt she could muster to him was a very dry, and weakly sarcastic remark. “So . . . the Charades Wizard can actually talk? Figures.” She laughed, “What the hell that was, what I did . . . it was my own oddity trying to execute that which was perceived as a threat to my life.” The smile vanished from her face at that, as she shook her head with a sharp exhale. “I didn’t want it to happen, t-to almost hurt him, but I could barely control it, and for my own lack of control, I am sincerely sorry.”

Without saying another word, Vega ascended to her feet in a languid motion, arms dropping to her sides as her gaze was cast downward, to the ground. The buckles upon her cloak jingled and clinked against themselves as she moved around, she sighed, “I should have just slept in a tree tonight. . . . If I had, then none of this would have happened, and I wouldn’t have nearly taken someone’s life again.”

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Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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'Nearly taken someone's life'? Ariane thought. And then, 'Again'? Her heart was starting to beat fast again and this time, the flight factor was just a moment away from taking control of her body and hurling her out of that situation - there was nothing here for her. Only danger with an out of control gemstone who shot lightning at anything perceived to be a threat. She could easily die here.

Coldness, darkness - a sleep that she would never wake from.

Ariane flinched backwards as Edmund started towards her, his hand held out. She didn't react in time to avoid the jab entirely, and his thumb pressed against her forehead, sending a flood of emotion through her. Again, she felt the amethyst starting to warm on her chest, her protection blossoming around her. In the back of her mind, she wondered what was going on. Why was he trying to push something into her again - had he realized that it hadn't worked the first time? Was it maybe something that was supposed to send her away? That would explain why Akai had just decided to leave - why he'd been so calm. Maybe it was better for her to walk away, better to walk away than deal with this.

But that would mean losing a chance to gain protection. Traveling alone could be just as dangerous as traveling with an uncontrollable girl. And if she had the girl - Vega, Ariane reminded herself, Her name is Vega - the boy had confirmed it - if she traveled with the girl she could not only gain protection - not many things looked like they'd be able to stand up to that kind of power, and she had her own protection as well - but she would also have the chance to interact with other pure gemstones. They could find Nature with her - they could help her make the world beautiful again, make it all right.

A scent of wildflowers danced in her nose. Flashes of color ran in front of her eyes, and she could taste fresh water on her lips - water that hadn't been filtered, hadn't been touched by humans. Water from the sky, drops of purity dusting the dark ground - moist and fertile, full of life and waiting for the right time to allow the seeds in its heart to come forth and bloom into a bright beauty that would cast light on everything. There were no shadows, only brightness, no pain, only joy, no tears except those that were shed in joy - and joy was all there was. A perfect world. A world where every flower in the world could be touched and through every flower, one would be able to taste the power of Nature, taste the power of life and live through it all without fear of the darkness - the eternal sleep.

Her heart hurt as the illusion faded and she was left looking at a young man, his head cocked to the side, his face open and curious, as if waiting to see if his power had worked on her and behind him, partially obscured by his slim frame, a tiny girl, frail, delicate - but still strong.

The young man was looking at her curiously, and Ariane vaguely realized that her gem was slowly fading in heat - it had done its job. It had prevented the power from doing anything to her - she was unchanged. As far as she knew anyways. And now she had a decision to make. Was she going to stay here? Stay with these gemstones? Or was she going to walk away now?

One's first impression is often the right one.

A favorite teacher of Ariane's, back when she'd gone to school, had told her that. Well, she thought, her determination slowly growing, my first thought was that I should talk to these guys - that I should be with them. Her thoughts flicked to Akai - what about him? She pushed it away. Later. She would decide when she saw him again. If she saw him again.

She took a deep breath, bringing everything back in and then looked dryly at the boy. "I'd appreciate it if you would stop jabbing me between the eyes." She rubbed her forehead mockingly. "I have a sensitive head." She glanced at the girl and then squatted down again, so that she was on her height. "You know...most of the time when I meet people, I say 'hi' and they say 'hi' back." She tilted her head and smiled a bit. "But you know, lightning bolts are pretty cool, too."

Ariane wondered how to proceed from here - introduce herself to the girl, who still seemed a bit out of sorts, or the guy, who according to the words of the girl, didn't really talk that much.

She held out her hand to Vega, giving her a warm smile. Now that she'd committed, she could start to feel attachment building inside her already.

"I'm Ariane. And you're...Vega? Right?"

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Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Edmund Liuva Audo
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Vega herself remained silent while an expression of melancholy played across her weary features. Crimson eyes cast downward, she stood as she had after apologizing and ending her last forlorn statement, there was nothing else for her to say, and nothing else for her to do here . . . so, should she just leave? Put some more distance between herself and Akai so that she really wouldn’t wind up hurting him with her untamed powers? That might be for the best, even if he were like her in some manner, and even if Mirror were like her in the way of having some oddness to him that gave him the power to manipulate emotions. . . . What it was she could do, it was very dangerous, something too entirely fear. Something for even herself to be frightened of.

I really should go, even—even if they are not upset with me, my very presence puts them in danger. she told herself, a cynical smile played over her pale lips. It is ironic, I’m someone who just wants to protect, yet the best way for me to do this is to keep myself away from others. Just as this last thought happened through the dark-haired girl’s skull, she was ready to move without a warning, to leave Ariane and Mirror behind her without a single word. She had only known them for a short time, barely beyond the knowing of their names among a few other matters. But, before she could even twitch a muscle in her effort, Vega had to remain still.

The man whom she had titled ‘The Charades Wizard’ and taken to wagging his index finger right in front of her face, a gesture she had only ever received from her mother. A questioning look upon her youthful face, Vega looked up to Mirror, only to see him shaking his head back and forth, as if he were silently chiding her. Chiding her for what? The fact she had almost killed someone again? Or, was it for sarcastically remarking about the fact he could speak? . . . .not like the reason mattered, Vega was going to be off soon enough anyway. She wasn’t going to stick around with people she’d nearly done in.

A hand was placed upon her left shoulder, crinkling up the hood of her cloak. Sighing to herself softly, Vega cast her gaze back to the ground again. She really didn’t understand what it was Mirror was doing . . . nor did she understand why it was he forced himself to be mute when it was obvious he could speak. He had just acted as if he were chiding her, and now he was displaying a gesture that was meant to reassure someone. Both of said actions were only something she had experienced before leaving home after nearly killing her parents when someone tried to force her from their care. Only her family and friends had ever displayed any concern for her wellbeing. While she had encountered good people in her last year and a half of travelling, Vega never received any sort of concern from them in the least because she was just a passerby. Nothing more.

Yet still, was she not little more than this in regard to Mirror and Ariane? Both of whom had shown some level of worry for her after nearly hurting them? Even Akai had displayed some semblance of sympathy. . . . Vega knew she had barely interacted with any of these people, and yet, they were showing her concern. Why? It only makes it worse. she told herself, having to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from almost crying.

The fact that people were showing her any compassion was hard enough, but to realize that she was being shown genuine concern . . . that was almost enough to tip the scales, which were already pretty unbalanced by all that had transpired before. The lightning bolt, not understanding why Akai set her powers off so, and the fact that she understood that she were not so alone in her weirdness. . . . It was all so much to take in at once. It was almost painful. Still looking every bit as tired as before, Vega idly stood where she was even after Mirror had gone ahead and patted her shoulder before stepping forward, toward Ariane.

She needed to go, she needed to leave these two before she lost control again. Even if she felt tired, there was always a chance that her power could sneak up upon her without warning and strike out at any sign of danger. That was always possible. Always.

But, was it right for her to leave? Even knowing that she could very well wind up hurting Mirror or Ariane, Vega questioned whether or not running from the two was the proper course of action. One part of her heart said that she needed to leave in order to protect them from herself, while another part told her no, that she had to stay . . . there was a very defining reason that she needed to stand her ground here and now. Reason being unknown, however. There were things going on around her that didn’t make sense, forces at work that she didn’t understand, but something was transpiring, a sort of mythical force that was incomprehensible to a normal human. Something divine. That’s what a part of her felt anyway.

It turned out that she wasn’t alone, her oddness was a shared trait among people she didn’t know, though it manifested in a way different than her own. Mirror could alter one’s mental state, and Vega couldn’t begin to imagine what it was Akai could do, obviously he was dangerous enough to set her powers on auto-attack mode, so that was notable. Then . . . there was something about Ariane that she couldn’t quite grasp. If there were two other people out there who shared in the peculiarity she bore, then it wasn’t impossible for the violet-haired teenager to also be a part of all of this as well. Vega still was not sure of what would be the proper course of action, even with these reasons to remain.
Even if she shared something in common with them, at the same time, the jewel–adorned adolescent knew well enough she was very dangerous.

To all of this, Vega simply found herself sighing, hearting just sinking further and further into the depths of her stomach as she became all the more conflicted by what course of action was proper. Each path had its own upsides and downsides. That much was apparent. They’ve shown me sympathy even. . . . Vega thought, shutting her eyes with a shaky intake of air, People I barely know anything about, and almost hurt, showed me kindness. As she mulled over this, a sort of tingle shot up her spine—the sensation of anxiety she had felt in Akai’s presence. Well, not quite the same.

The feeling was a disturbing one, something very uncomfortable . . . a cautionary sentiment, yet it didn’t seem to make her body want to amass an insane amount of electric to fire off at an unknown threat, for the moment at least. It felt as a simple warning to her, a warning to be careful. Though, the sense of alarm instilled into Vega was enough to break the pyrope garnet from her thoughts about Ariane and Mirror, and the situation at hand, about running away from them. What was setting her oddness off. . . ? Nothing seemed to be nearby, in fact, the entire surrounding forest seemed to be completely desolate. As the whole of the night, there was not a single noise coming from the nearby flora. So, what was it then?

Vega weakly looked about for the source of this feeling, but knew it was that she would not locate one. There was just nothing in the woods that would set her off, so, that meant it had to coming from the town, right? Lost in her own thoughts, Vega didn’t quite hear Ariane’s disdainful words toward Mirror for poking her forehead with his thumb again, and only came back to reality when said teenager wound up leaning over so she was at eye level with the dark-headed girl. Vega felt another jolt of warning run through her body, telling her that something was wrong nearby. Where is it coming from?

"You know...most of the time when I meet people, I say 'hi' and they say 'hi' back." Ariane joked, before she bent her head to the side just a touch and offered up a gentle and sincere smile, "But you know, lightning bolts are pretty cool, too."

To this statement, Vega looked at her questioningly while part of her mind was still preoccupied with the matter of her strange feelings, the sense of urgency. Ariane went quiet for a moment after this, a look of contemplation upon her face, as if she were trying to figure out how she should proceed from there . . . from telling a joke about something that almost took her life. Vega herself didn’t know what to make of her for this, for openly joking about a rather serious matter. . . . But, then, there wasn’t much else to be said was there? She was probably just trying to break the ice, and to relieve the tension in the air. Perfectly normal behavior.

A benevolent smile surfaced over Ariane’s face once more, and she held her hand out before speaking again, ”I’m Ariane. And you’re
 Vega? Right?” she asked, causing Vega to blink in surprise. When had Ariane managed to catch her name. . . ? Honestly, the dark-headed teenager didn’t know, but it weren’t as if it truly mattered at the moment. She knew her name, and that was that. The most important matter at hand for now was the fact that Vega felt something unpleasant gnawing away at her bones, her powers were alerting her to something dangerous again.

Frailty bellying the reality of her existence, Vega looked every bit as delicate as ever, her appearance giving little inclination of the fact that she could fire off fatal bolts of lightning. This fact must have been what did not frighten Ariane off, the fact she looked so weak. . . . Vega simply looked at Ariane for a moment, examining the girl’s features—her smile. Nothing about her appearance gave Vega any reason to doubt her sincerity, the sympathy she was showing to her now. Also, she noted the fact that the girl was lucky, she actually looked her presumed age and she was quite lovely as well. Tearing her crimson eyes away from Ariane’s own mauve ones, Vega sighed before extending one of her thin arms out from underneath her red cloak, and took hold of the girl’s hand with her own small one.

Uncertain of why she was even doing this, of why it was she was going ahead and furthering the connections with the people she had considered running away from before. It didn’t really make any sense, but, in a world where a tiny little girl could fire off a bolt of fatal lightning from a gemstone embedded into her forehead, did anything really make sense?
“My full name is Vega Sterre Delacroix, if you want to know.” She spoke; her voice carrying a tone of pride to it not present before, her expression remaining firm and rigid. And just as soon as she had taken hold of Ariane’s hand, she had let it go only after giving it a light squeeze.

Before another word could be said though, there was a noise—something shattering from a distance. It sounded like a window had been broken, hearing this, Vega turned on the heel of her boot and cast her gaze into the town, all the buckles and ornaments upon her person clinking together and making noise as she moved. A spark of trepidation echoed through her body as her red eyes scanned the seeable buildings from the entranceway of the town. Heart beginning to pound in her chest as she knew not what to expect, Vega remained quiet for a moment as she spotted someone against the lightly colored side of a building plummeting toward the ground.

Though her body was fatigued, Vega Delacroix could feel the rush of adrenalin pumping through her small body again as she witnessed this, and without even hesitating a bit, she reach to her back and from underneath her cloak, she pulled something out from there. A jolt ran through her body again; fingers and feet beginning to tingle with that familiar sensation of amassing electricity. With a sharp movement of her thin arm, Vega was to found clutching onto a rather intricately designed halberd, from sharp tip of the blade to the blunt end of the handle—said weapon was easily taller than its wielder, yet it did not look strange to see Vega holding onto something taller than she.

A serious expression upon her youthful face, Vega let out a harsh breath before her feet moved underneath her without a warning, and she was off, her eyes remaining locked upon the building she had seen someone fall from moments before. Hearing nothing but blood pounding in her ears as she moved, she said not a word. It was close by, maybe a block or two away. she told herself, going ahead and rounding a corner all of a sudden, buildings passing by her in a blur as she picked up her full speed at last. While it might seem strange to think of Vega suddenly speeding off to get into something that was not her problem, the fact remained that whatever evils may lay ahead, they were something bad enough to make her powers respond once more, and making matters worse, the source of these feelings were located in the middle of a populated area.

It was in her nature to protect people, it was the reason she sought to even live now. Craning her head about as she seemed to reach a rather desolate plaza in the middle of the town, Vega slowed herself down, breathing heavily enough. How long had that taken her? Maybe under a minute? Halberd in hand, the girl’s jewel-adorned head turned about, eyes moving just in time to see something leaping from the balcony of a building. Some sort of canine-like monster; something the likes of which Vega had never seen in all her travels.

Heart leaping into her throat at the very sight of the hulking beast, Vega felt a rush of power flow into the tips of her fingers, that sense of danger strong. Taking in a breath and steeling herself, Vega clutched onto the steel handle of her halberd with both of her small hands, holding the duel blade of it out before her.

With this, the monster landed before someone; a someone Vega had failed to notice until that moment, Must have been the one I saw fall. she thought, flinching as the wolf-like fiend released a terrible bellow from its gullet. Primitive and blood-lusting; that’s what Vega felt from that thing’s cry. It was out to take life, it wanted to taste something’s blood—and it would if not stopped. Like hell I’m going to stand by and let that thing kill someone! Vega swore, and with this she took off at the monster, letting out something akin to a war-cry, which caught the fiend’s attention, which was a part of her plan.

It’s disproportionate muzzle turned from the heaped form of the person before it; eyes illuminated the same color as the moon, it stared at Vega’s approaching form a moment before snarling and turning to charge her. As the instant arose where the two would meet, Vega deftly turned her small body to the side and avoided a lumbering attempted strike made by the monster with a strangely elongated claw-bearing arm. An uncertain look on the teenager’s face, Vega did not stop moving as she turned to circle around the fiend, having to again dodge another attempted strike made by it while doing so.

Halberd blade facing the monster as she continued to sidestep and circle it, Vega took careful steps, avoiding any attack made on her by the monster lithely. Crimson eyes holding their gaze upon this Hellion, Vega could only wonder what could have possibly spawned such a thing. It’s form was unnatural, utterly wrong. . . . Something about this thing was beyond the realm of reality, the way it moved, the fact its body even functioned as it did, it defied what seemed to be basic laws of physics. Not to mention that it moved far too fast for its size—Vega could just barely keep ahead of its blows.

Agilely dodging another attack, Vega noticed a slight opening in the moment the beast was recovering from the failed assault and took the chance. Crying out, she thrust her halberd ahead of her as quickly as she could . . . and dug the blade as far into the monster’s diaphragm as she possibly could. At the strike, the fiend snarled out in pure pain as Vega struggled to remove her weapon from its body, noting the fact that a very unnatural black-colored blood was oozing from the monster’s wound. Damn, I can’t get it out! It’s stuck! she cursed, pulling and pulling with no avail.

All her focus centered on trying to recover her weapon, Vega failed to notice until a second too late that the monster had swung at her again. The beast’s clawed hand connected with her small body, getting her right in the side and sent her flying a good distance as she let out a yelp, feeling a shock of pain resound through her as the air left her lungs. She was airborne for a moment or two before she hit the cemented ground with a thud, rolling to a stop seconds later. “Gah, d-damn it.” She hissed loudly, looking up with a glare at the hell-spawned hound that was now actually pulling her halberd from itself. Vega lay uselessly on the ground, pain assaulting her better senses and making her vision blur in and out. This is NOT the time to black out!

Releasing shaky breaths, Vega hurriedly forced herself up to her feet, pushing through the throbbing aches in her side. She assumed an offensive stance as a metallic clang came from near the hellhound and it roared at her, angered it had been injured. Still oozing a notable amount of black blood, it once more charged her with all it had, though it was apparent that it was suffering from its inflicted injury. Vega stood her ground with a determined look upon her face, and consciously summoned her powers to her this time.

With the sense of danger backing her up this time, her conscious calling of lightning was made an easier process, her gemstone began to flicker to life, sparks coming off it as the monster leapt into the air, Vega felt it—her body tingling with power. A bloodcurdling howl sounded from the muzzle of the fiend as it was upon her small form; completely obscuring the pyrope garnet from view. There was a crunching sort of noise a second before there was a flicker of light; a crimson bolt of lightning again fired off into the skies, going through the bleeding form of the hellhound.

There was a loud clap of thunder following the release, along with a sudden burst of hot air, and the smell of something burning as the canine’s form seemed to still and all went silent.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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The girl responded with silence. Her golden eyes... turned away from him, to the earth.

Lysander’s breath caught in his throat, why? Because she does not trust me, he realised. It is because of them, the others. The other gemstones had offended her greatly... I suppose this means they will not all be on my side...

His face remained serene, he had been tutored his whole life in courtly manners. She was the lady and he the stranger. The burden of introduction, and proof of trust was upon his shoulders.

He placed his right hand upon his chest over his heart while bending at the waist, he tore his gaze from her lowering his head in a respectful bow. “I am Lysander.” He slowly straightened, drawing his hand from his chest and lifting it to her as an offering. (Lysander had learned that in this land equals meet one another by clasping hands.) “I am very glad to meet you.” The moonlight was shinning upon his back, illuminating the stray whips of his mattered hair. Lysander wondered if he looked a fool for presenting himself dressed and dirtied as he was.

He decided not to bring up the gemstones right away... likely, that is how the others had begun their conversation. That had ended with disastrous results, if he attempted the same thing it would give her more reason to distrust him.

Lysander was about to find out exactly how disastrous...

Lysander’s head snapped away from the Lady Lapis, (if she had taken his hand, it would slowly slide away as he turned his back to her...) and his eyes hovered to the north...

There was a sudden light, and deafening CRACK in the air. His eyes widened in amazement as he witnessed a ladder of lighting traverse the earth and sky on a cloudless night.

He grabbed the edge of the window still and leaped onto it’s frame. Squatting on the wide ledge, he braced his hand across the frame, the action also seemed to shield the girl from the strange weather.

There was no more lightning, Lysander kept his guard up for the next few quiet moments until a tiny, reeling string of thoughts pulled at his attention. He found them at the Lady Lapis’s feet. What is the rabbit doing here?

He switched his attention to the inside of the building. He saw the other inn guests worrying over the sudden storm (that was not actually there). “Something has gone wrong...” but where was the danger? Outside the inn or within? And where was that boy? The rabbit’s master?

There was an inhuman roar accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. The boy in question fell from the sky surrounded in shimmering broken glass. He landed on the earth hard, harder for any man to withstand.

He wasn’t a man, he was a living gemstone.

The gemstone's thoughts were of pain, and (strangely) relief ('he’s safe'). Is he thinking about the rabbit? Then... fear...

The Fear followed from the sky. A monster like a wolf (but all wrong) as if from a nightmare. What shocked Lysander about the beast most was not it’s dilapidated physique...

It also had no mind.

What IS that thing?

Lysander cursed himself, realising he had forgotten his weapons in the alley. How could he have been so foolish? He had also left the Amethyst there. Where was he now?

The beast spittle spewed over the prone boy as it howled over him. There would be no time...

Then the wolf’s cry was answered by another... a girl’s cry. Lysander saw a rather small girl with a rather large weapon headed straight for the monster.

Upon her head was a glimmering red gem.

The beast took notice of the girl, charging her. She had given Lysander his chance...

He turned towards the Lady Lapis, his blue eyes flashing “Stay back. inside.” ~Stay Safe~. “I will return.” he promised, and leaped from the window. Lysander loathed to leave her in the midst of such danger and uncertainty. He swore he would never part with his weapons again.

While the wolf and girl did battle, Lysander skirted along the wall of the inn towards the alley.

~Amethyst?~ He called with his mind, (he did not want to speak with his voice, and draw unwanted attention) ~Alexius?~ But he neither saw nor heard the boy in the shadows.

He found his supplies where they lay forgotten on the ground along the wall. He grabbed the long hilt of his sword with his left hand and tore it from the sheath, with his right hand he quickly groped the inside of his pack... but his other weapon was gone. Did the Amethyst take it? There was no more time to search. He left the sheath and pack behind, the the sharp naked blade and ancient etchings on it’s broad side would be enough for now.

When he came to the mouth of the alley, he saw the girl and beast; she was disarmed, and both were injured. Then the air began to change, as if before a storm. Sparks began to crackle around her gem and body as the monster leaped towards her. Before Lysander could act the light struck the roaring beast.

He cautiously approached the stilled body. Normally, he could tell by the activity of the mind if a foe were truly dead or not... but this beast had no mind in the first place.

The beast did not move, certainly the lightning had cooked the beast clean through. The smell of burned flesh and hair was oppressive. His eyes left the thing to the girl, she looked young but her power was great. He gave a quick nod, a small bow of the head to respect her accomplishment. “There may be more.” he warned. He cast a suspicious look over the white-haired boy; Had he brought this upon them somehow?

Suddenly, the body of the wolf leaped into life, lashing out in pain and rage. The wolf caught Lysander off guard, caught his shoulder under his razor claws and drove the Lapis-man into the ground. Lysander growled in reply to the beast and pain, driving his sword upward, he felt the blade slice flesh and hit bone in the beast’s massive foreleg. The trampled straight over the boy, dashing away.

Lysander grunted, forcing himself up. His shoulders were bruised and slashed from the claws... he was lucky.

He backed from the wolf and the girl (though he respected her power, he still considered her a potential danger). He sought the Lady Lapis (if she had moved from the window he would follow her) while he opened his mind, seeking more signs trouble.

If the wolves had no mind he would not hear their thoughts. He could, however, hear the thoughts anyone the wolves might attack. Like the rabbit had moments ago, it would be the best warning Lysander would hope for against them.

“If there are more creatures, I may not be able to sense them.” He told Lapis, his voice was roughened by urgency and resentment. He did not like to admit his weakness to her, he did not like that she had witnessed him weak in battle. But, she needed the information for strategic purposes should they be attacked again. “Are you well, Lady Lapis?”

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Keira Grey Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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#, as written by Renmiri
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Or not an hour. My sense of time is obviously messed up. She hadn't noticed it before, being caught in the midst of her own little musical world, but the mass confusion around her was nearing very well to the point of 'all hell breaking loose'. From what Keira could gather by adding the bits and pieces she could catch, a suicidal young adult had fallen out of a hotel window; accompanied with some sort of assumed rabid beast. Then, quoting the words of a panicking group of gossipers seated the table beside, 'I heard thunder --with clear skies, mind you!--, the devil's howl, and a young woman's scream, one after another! This has to be some sort of sign! I knew I shouldn't have eaten that steak!'

Hm. Suicidal young adult? I wonder who that could be. It's like he attracts trouble. Rather than what could normally be thought, Keira wasn't exactly incredibly worried. After all, a gemstone couldn't die by any other means than the destruction of their gem. And, if her earlier assumptions were true, a four-member group of such gemstones were very close by; not to mention the unseen gems that could possibly be gathered as well. Which means he has backup. And Lapis heals, doesn't she? But nevertheless, the talented musician got up in some version of being hurried, took hold of her violin (because she refuses to leave it alone) and bolted in a beeline to the door; the ends of her red scarf flying like a cape behind her as she dodged hysterical customers.

And, upon leaving, a bystander could probably tell that Keira left much the same way as a certain other, younger female just moments before her. With the exception of a fluffy white bunny. Although, of course, the thoughts running through their minds were probably very, incredibly different. Why the hell was a gigantic animal in Halley's room? When did it even get there? Did he make some sort of enemy, who'd target him with the use of hungry beasts? But attack him now, of all days? That soup was a death sentence already! Such speculation continued, between the source of this strange occurrence and motive, until she reached the scene itself. Needless to say, she wasn't --and hadn't been-- even the least concerned for the possibility that death could've come that night. Not when, in all fairness, there was one competent healer (plus one much less competent) that just happened to be around.

As it was, the first thing that she was compelled to do upon entering the field of an evident fight's aftermath was to stagger, while coughing almost uncontrollably. Both of which Keira didn't do, for appearance's sake, but by moonlight she could see the origin of the eye-watering stench that filled the air. I.. probably don't want to know what that thing really looks like. I'll just pretend it's a completely normal wolf and be done with it. The position that she happened to be in, at the moment, was slightly obscured to those standing farther in the clearing; as she happened to have come along a trail to be directly behind Lapis. Being covered by shadows also decreased the visible outline of her form; although the absence of sound of her footsteps and presence, all the while, probably contributed to the vague sense of her actually being there. And she took advantage of this viewpoint, settled to see all those around besides the beast's corpse, surveying the scene.

Three casualties? No deaths. Well, besides that thing. Nothing looks life-threatening yet. From the symptoms and stench in the air, Keira concluded that one casualty, the black-haired girl (or at least in the dark), had somehow shot a bolt of lightning at the wolf; killing it in one hit. Or that other guy. Halley didn't say he could shoot a couple million volts, so it couldn't be him. I don't even think he'd be the type not to brag if he could, anyway. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when the incredibly disproportionate beast came back from the dead; slashing viciously at 'that other guy' before dashing away. Do necromancers exist? Because I'm pretty sure that was dead. A sense of adrenaline rushed through her veins are she watched the wolf stall in the middle of the clearing; her fingers twitching to react with a barrier at the slightest notion of more danger.

It was then that the just-injured male approached Lapis with a little bit of friendly conversation, ending with the blue healer proposing to.. well, heal. Perfect timing. Because, at that just moment, the wolf had caught sight of the girl --who, as Keira finally noticed, was carrying an overly large.. spear? It's hard to tell at night.-- and was promptly beginning a mindless charge. With no time to waste, a translucent green barrier (not quite as noticeable, in the dark) was erected first around the injured girl, coming into existence so suddenly that the wolf could only crash headlong into it. Then, with hardly any more time to waste, a semi-circle block of green barrier appeared; walls that encompassed all those in the clearing from the beast that stood just beyond. The targeted girl's barricade had been absorbed to become part of the large structure, so as the whole thing to be seamless and able to move around in without hindrance.

Expelling a pent-up breath, Keira pulled the edge of her red scarf to cover her chin as she moved to be able to be seen. Well, then. No time better than now. "Hey. It's safe, for now. Strategy-and-healing time, anyone? I can help her-" At this point, she pointed at Lapis. "-out with healing, if someone here has less-serious injuries." Her tone remained friendly, the same as the soft smile on her face; calm and not the least ruffled. Which was in complete contrast to the enraged wolf, who had recovered and was beginning to illogically ram into the barrier. And although her outer appearance didn't change much at all now, the gradual increase of the wolf's ramming strength would take a toll; as with strain that she only showed now, through clutching the handle of her violin case behind her back.

"Unfortunately, this barrier of mine won't last forever. So how about it? I'm Keira, by the way."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Keira Grey Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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#, as written by Esana
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Vega's voice, when she finally responded, was stronger, more determined and with a touch of something that Ariane normally classified as conceit, but on this girl, looked more like simple pride. Her grip when she took Ariane's hand was strong, but lasted for only a moment, before she let Ariane's hand go.

Ariane looked at her hand - it was tingling, little sparks flying lightly, although in reality, she knew, there were no sparks, only her imagination. She looked back up at Vega and opened her mouth -

Something foul was entering the air - Ariane's nose wrinkled in disgust, and then, as a shattering crack came from a distance, she realized that the scent was an emotional one. Something was not right.

Her eyes started to dart frantically around, searching for the source of the noise and fear. Her search was interrupted by Vega pulling out a long, slender pole with a blade attached to one end - a halberd. It was cut to fit Vega's size and yet, seeing the petite girl hold a weapon was still a shock for Ariane. She stepped back and then stopped as Vega turned and raced down the street, heading for the source of the noise - she was fast, something that surprised Ariane. She definitely didn't look it. Her little feet carried her quickly across the pavement and then, there was a slight pause as she turned the corner and vanished from sight.

Uh... was Ariane's first thought. ...Should I go after her? She looked at the young man - I still don't know his name. Inconvenient. Ariane pointed after Vega. "Do you...wanna go after her?"

Before he could answer, a terrible cry tore the air into shreds.

Something hit the back of Ariane's ankle and she tumbled backwards, landing hard on a combination of pebbles and dark grass - she had retreated so - so instinctively that she hadn't minded where she was going. There was a stinging pain in her heel now, where the Achilles' tendon lay, but it was quickly fading. Ariane had other concerns.

That - that sound - Ariane shuddered. There was blood and thirst and darkness and happiness in the cry - no anger. Whoever had made the sound was not angry, which meant that the bloodthirst she could feel was natural - natural.

How disturbing.

Run. Ariane scrambled to her feet and turned, taking a step back into the forest, back into the darkness. It's time to run. I've stayed way too long here. There's -

An image of a girl flashed in her mind - a girl with dark hair, reddish, and deep red eyes. She was small, slender, holding a halberd, her face turned away from Ariane's inner mind, moving away from her - heading towards the source of the cry.

How can you run away?

Nails dug into the skin of Ariane's palm as she clenched her fists, the pain making its way partway up to her brain before it got cut off by a twisted swirl that dominated Ariane's thoughts. A heavy feeling - guilt was it? - and something itchy - irritation, nervousness -

Dammit.

Furious with her stupidity, irritated at Vega for running towards the thing when it was so obviously dangerous, and terrified out of her mind, Ariane turned around and began to sprint for the corner where she had seen Vega turn. She could feel her heart starting to speed up again, and her amethyst was growing hot again - it had warmed at the scent and the crash and then again at the crazed howl, but now, it was rising again, and Ariane was fairly sure that if she had touched anything that temperature normally, she would have gotten some very nice third-degree burns.

Courage, she thought as she neared the corner. She took a deep breath and then let it out before jerking around the corner.

-

Nature help me, what is that smell? followed by, Is that a dog?

If it was, then Ariane was fairly sure that it would never make it as a popular house pet. Definitely not. It was too large, its fur standing up at ends, black and tufted and almost electrocuted-looking, something that was supported by the fried smelling coming from it. It had eyes that shifted - there were no pupils, only whiteness - a kind of sickly white, as if the moon had gotten a cold and tried to do its job despite the fact. And its limbs - almost human-like, with claws so sharp and polished that Ariane could seem them glittering in the moonlight - it was throwing itself at a pale green barrier, one that shimmered in the moonlight and one that Ariane knew, instinctively, came from another gemstone.

Wow, we're like guppies today.

But the faint bemusement and horror at the sight of the hellhound didn't have much time to sink in before the hellhound noticed her.

Every muscle in Ariane's body turned to ice as its head slowly moved on its neck and its pale, pupil-less eyes stared directly into hers.

Why did I come here? Cause she was brave? Who the hell cares if other people are brave? I don't need it. I don't need to be brave and die young. I don't want the glory. I can't - I won't - run, run, run, run, run, get out of here, get out before that - that thing -

It opened its gaping maul and roared at her, and the sound, this time, contained a whole heck of a lot of anger.

Oh, Nature, mother of us all, I'm going to die. Oh Nature - damn - damn - damn - damn -

The amethyst burned at the right side of her chest. There was a pulsation from it - almost like a heartbeat - and then heat streaked down Ariane's body, creating a small bonfire under her skin. The air around her actually started to hiss as she heated up so fast that she vaporized some of the oxygen around her - she coughed and the heat died down a little until it was at a manageable level. And with it had come a sense of strength, underlying everything, but still always, always there.

A long, deep shuddering breath racked Ariane's body, and before she had finished exhaling, the hellhound leaped at her.

She waited for several long moments, waited for it to get close and then ducked and kicked out at it fast, striking it at the place where its hind leg connected with its main body. It yelped and landed a bit awkwardly, although it wasn't a severe wound by any means. Still, the blow had been enough to make it just a bit wary and it approached more cautiously this time - no more random charging - not for this hellhound.

It paced nervously back and forth as Ariane waited, her heartbeat slower now, but the gem on the right side of her chest pulsating waves of warmth and power through her limbs - courage - she could do this.

Once again, the hellhound leapt forward. Again, Ariane dodged and kicked, although this time, she went for a continuous strike, hitting the hellhound's leg again followed by another, harder blow and then an elbow in the hellhound's unprotected stomach. Its claws tore at her, but Ariane managed to dodge the blow. She retreated for only a moment before rounding to the side and launching another serious of punches to the hellhound's back leg, trying to weaken it as much as possible. The hellhound lashed back at her, tiny cuts springing up every other moment on Ariane's arms. They were minor, superficial, and the adrenaline was running so high that it let Ariane ignore them for the moment.

And then the hellhound kicked backwards as Ariane was going in for another punch. The talons tore up her right arm, rending the skin into little shreds and slashed across Ariane's upper chest - right above the amethyst.

In her normal condition, an accident like this would have caused her to either fall over, screaming in pain or panic and then run for all she was worth - she was fast - she could probably have gotten far enough away to find a good hiding place before the thing she was running from had even realized that she was running.

Unfortunately, Ariane's amethyst didn't like that option - and it definitely didn't like being threatened.

A ripple of heat spun itself through Ariane's body, and the only thought in her mind was, That damn bastard.

She lunged forward again, mindless of the blood running all down her right side and grabbed the leg yanking it back as hard as possible. The pull along with the blows from before, were enough to dislocate the joint, pushing forward another tearing howl from the creature. While it screamed in pain, Ariane turned around, heading towards the pile of broken glass. There was a young man around - and Vega too - and she could feel the presence of more gemstones, mostly from the alley from she had seen the green barrier that the hellhound had been attacking before it had noticed her.

Without care, Ariane leaned down and picked up a large, sharp piece of glass, mindless of the fresh cuts that it scored down her already bleeding hand. Her mind was racing with purple heat, but even that couldn't make her look at her injuries - that was for later. It was only pain - just pain, the amethyst seemed to reassure her. She would not die from just pain. Being who she was, she wouldn't even want to die from the pain - she wouldn't die - she would be okay.

Turning, Ariane strolled back to the hellhound, anger, heat, boiling in her blood as she raised the piece of glass above the struggling beast and then stabbed down. It snapped at her - Ariane punched it with her left, unharmed hand. It was not a hard blow, but it was enough to distract the creature as she stabbed again, this time getting a good lodge in its black neck. She lifted the glass and then stabbed again - and again - and again - until she was holding a piece of even more broken glass, dripping blood onto the ground.

Slowly, she looked down at the hellhound - it was a bloody mess. The glass hadn't cut evenly, so the skin was torn and raggedly, with blood trickling in a small pool onto the ground. It rippled as Ariane dropped the glass into its depth, landing with a soft puh-lunk - and quickly becoming immersed in the liquid. She stared down at it for a long moment and then turned her head to look at her arm.

It looked much like the hellhound's leg - shredded, blood running down her arm - it had made the glass slippery to hold near the end, the blood, and it was still running, starting to drip. She could feel the energy of the amethyst running out with it - the amethyst's job was done. She was safe.

Safe.

Ariane collapsed, her eyes fluttering shut.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Keira Grey Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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#, as written by Eyeris
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Astounding. More and more living gemstones seemed to simply appear from thin air.

How many of us are there? Lysander wondered. He blinked his azure eyes, envisioning an army of living gemstones. Each with superhuman powers and abilities beyond imagination. Together, as an invincible force, they tore through the world...

Lysander saw the woman waver, then faint. He dashed forth, rushing across the courtyard to where she and the beast lay.

He gathered the woman in his arms... she was smaller than he had expected... He made sure not to take his eyes from the wolf. He saw the gruesome work the girl had done to it’s bloody-shaggy-carcass.

The wolf had been fried by the littlest girl, crippled by himself, trapped by Keira, then cut to smithereens by this newest apparition. The body was truly a gruesome sight. It’s mouth hung open, rows of razor teeth shimmered, as if in denial of defeat, gilded by moonlight.

He hastened, retreating back to the others. He wondered that the fierce warrior who had the strength to face such a terrible beast seemed now not more than a rag-doll in his arms. Bloodlust made people look different, seem different. They were different.

Feather-light as she was, the effort was a strain upon Lysander’s wounds. His jacket sported long slashes on each shoulder where the claws had rendered them. His blood had seeped into the fabric, and now the girl and wolf blood spread over his sleeves and torso, redying his jacket a sickening deep red.

He reached Lapis, keeping the pain from his expression. (It was a Wonder that she had named herself for her stone.)

“Her firstly, but--” he turned his face to glance over his shoulder. The monster still lay where the girl had left it. “We need to be sure it is dead.” He recalled his own near-fatal mistake. “It is no ordianry beast.” He was lucky to only be wounded by its claws, not torn apart by it's teeth.

The boy, Hailey, still lay upon the ground amidst the glass, next he studied the frail-looking violinist that had raised the barriers. It seemed that Lysander himself or Vega would be the best to check on the thing. “Well done Keira. I am Lysander.” He introduced himself as quickly as possible, so that they could attend to the danger at hand. “How long can you keep the creature contained?”

He decided to keep hold of the purple haired warrior for the time being. The area was not yet secure. It was possible that Lapis required time to conduct such a serious healing. They may have to leave in a hurry should the wolf or some other danger suddenly present itself.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Keira Grey Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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The Great Pearl was surrounded by his shimmering stars at long last.

The little girl with the red gemstone in her forehead -

'What power!'

- assaulted the beast with a surge of electricity so strong Halley could feel the humidity in the air pick up. How on earth, he wondered, could such abilities be attained? Small and pathetic, she looked ridiculous holding a weapon that was much too large from her - like a kitten trying to be a tiger. But that power...As Halley took in her appearance, he couldn't decide if he found her to be threatening, intriguing, or dislikable...perhaps it was all three.

And then there was the blonde man, dressed in rags with a blue, sparkling gem upon his forehead as well. His sword cut through the beast, but he, himself, was injured -

'Fool. What was he thinking?'

He didn't show any abilities yet, but there was his gemstone stuck on his face. The color reminded him of Lapis' stone.

Keira had shown up and erected an impressive barrier around the group. Outside, another person - a girl with purple hair - was locked in a gruesome duel with the remains of the beast. Soon, both of them were lying lifelessly on the ground. Had she truly defeated the beast?

'Hmph. It was probably so weak from fighting me.'

Halley attempted to stand when a surge of pain coursed through his upper body, his breath catching in his throat.

"D...damn it..."

Not here. He couldn't let the pain get to him now, not when -

Lapis. Lapis was standing nearby, her eyes wide with empathy and concern, like pools of clear water...and Pippin was in her arms.

"Pippin!"

'Thank goodness!'

Halley gritted his teeth and wiped the trickle of blood from his chin. The pain seemed to dissipate as he jogged over the crunching broken glass to where Lapis stood. Standing before her, Halley clutched his side and looked straight into her eyes. His gaze was like steel and his voice was stern - tones of anger laced with worry...

"What do you think you're doing!? How did you get ahold of Pippin!?"

He grabbed the rabbit from Lapis' arms and cuddled it close to his chest.

Standing there, amidst a scene of chaos and surrounded by a motley league of gemstone-wielders, his shoulders soaked with blood and holding a pure white rabbit, Halley had to have been a ridiculous and amazing sight to behold. None of it mattered in the moment, however, as the boy rubbed his face into the bunny's soft fur. Tears welled up in the corner of Halley's eyes, but did not fall.

Pippin was safe. Hell had broken loose -

'A wolf in my hotel room for f**k's sake!'

- and he was definitely hurt, but he'd won. Pippin...the beast dared to go after the one thing he loved most - and paid with its life, may it rot in Hell.

Eventually, his pulse began to return to normal and Halley finally got a good look at the others surrounding him. Five gemstones, counting himself. Was that it? Was this the gathering of the world's finest that The Voice had foretold of? What now? Would he hear it again, at long last?

Life, for the moment, was good. A smile lit up the boy's face and he was about to turn and speak to the others when the sharp pains returned, making him shudder. The world around him spun and blurred and Halley's stomach lurched. Perhaps the blood loss was finally taking its toll? Halley took a deep breath to stabilize himself before turning back toward Lapis.

"Hey, you said you could heal, right? So what are you doin' just standing there? Let's see some healing, Lappy!"

A short huff of laughter escaped Halley's lips and he looked at the girl with a condescending smile.

"Don't tell me you're completely useless," he laughed playfully.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Keira Grey Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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Huh.

Edmund stood rooted in place for several moment after his company had abandoned him for whatever threat they perceived. And then, he walked after them.

Yes, he walked.

Not because he wasn't worried, but because he had to force himself with every ounce of his being to take a single step each time. It was a greater struggle for him to walk towards conflict than it was to simply run away from it. Which, in this case, is normally what he'd do. Sometimes he liked to observe, but that was only in situations where his life and other lives were not in danger. Basic scraps, fisticuffs, tussles, that sort. But nothing that involved scrawny girls wielding halberds going after some beast that made scrawny girls wielding halberds necessary.

One foot in front of the other, Edmund.

See, naturally people were instinctual and programmed with a little feature called 'Fight or Flight', which is the basic human response to any dangerous or life threatening situation. Do you run and cling to the life you treasure so highly like a coward, or do you stay and fight for it, ultimately putting your life in danger for the better good. Edmund didn't have that. He actually didn't believe it existed at first, because he had never felt it. He only learned about it through observation and reading. All Edmund had was Flight. Not because he was a coward, albeit, that is a slight factor. But because he was never programmed with the alternate option, Fight. Edmund recalled the term for a person that doesn't fight, and refuses to engage in anything dealing with it was called a 'pacifist'.

Yeah, pacifist. That's what I am, right? I'm sure they can handle it, I wouldn't be much help anyway...

Edmund stopped in his tracks, raising his eyes to gaze out from under his hood ahead of him. The others were in sight, and they would surely notice him run. He recognized only one of them at first, the Ariane female. And there was three others, which he almost immediately linked to being like himself. He had already met three like himself, and it suddenly didn't seem so far-fetched that four more stood before him. So that made five, but there should have been six.

Vega.

He did another quick take before following the gaze of some, and having his eyes find where she lay. He tilted his head slightly at first, as if it all was just some illusion. As if he had been under a spell and he was just hallucinating. He recalled a story he had been told when he was younger, about a young adventurer sent out to rescue some princess. It was a rather cliche fairy-tale, it even had a evil witch in it. Still, the adventurer had been placed under the evil witch's spell, and she allured him. What she had used was very similar to his mesmer, now that he thought about it. Anyway, it wasn't until the adventurer had seen the princess in peril that the spell was broken.

Before he knew it, Edmund was walking forward. As if he had lost all control of his body, and somebody else was moving him instead. He could only silently watch his feet as they picked up pace, the walk turning into a sprint, and then the sprint turning into a full on run. But it wasn't away. No, it was towards. Into the heart of the danger he didn't even know was quelled yet. Straight towards Vega.

Is this my spell being broken?

He stopped right in front of her, closest to a strangely familiar blue haired girl. Edmund realized that she had been the one he had seen running in such a fleeting passion, away from the night. The one he had seen prior to falling asleep and being tripped over by the girl that now lay at his feet. He lowered his hood, and even worked at taking off his coat before dropping it to the ground and crouching next to Vega. Her left shoulder appeared to have been bitten through by whatever beast she had set up against, and there was blood seeping through the wound, drenching both the front and back of her clothes. Her clavicle also appeared to be broken and Edmund offered a slight frown, eyes filling with a sense of pity.

"Hey, you said you could heal, right?"

Edmund turned his eyes towards the speaker at this, then his eyes to the girl the speaker was addressing. The blue-haired one again. She can heal? Edmund moved rather quickly, standing up and doing a sort of pivot towards the blue-haired girl, and then grabbing her gently by the wrist and pulling her down with him alongside Vega. As he dropped back to his knees, he held onto the girl firmly so she didn't fall flat onto her backside, and would come down in the same position as he did, but on the opposite side of Vega.

He held his hands over Vega's chest, hovering them about an inch above her left shoulder. He nodded his head frantically at them, motioning at the girl he just dragged down with him to place her hands upon his. His eyes were desperate, and his hands began to glow a bright green. They weren't doing any healing yet, but they were getting ready to mimic some.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Keira Grey Character Portrait: Aysu Muirgen Dikeledi Character Portrait: Halley Raynehell Character Portrait: Ariane Valois Character Portrait: Vega Sterre Delacroix Character Portrait: Lysander
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What pain; her shoulder. It hurt, it hurt so bad. . . . The hellhound, before she had managed to fire off the bolt of lightning she had worked at summoning, just before, the damned beast managed to get its wretched jaws around her shoulder, and bite into her with its all. Vega felt her bone snap in that quick instant, the pain withholding itself from her until after she had managed to strike the beast with her crimson electricity. As soon as all of that power left her small body, the pain washed through her in full force, nearly causing her knees to buckle out from underneath her, even with the cooked wolf’s jaws still clamped upon her body. The terrible burnt smell of the monster hit her, but it was one of the last things on her mind as every bit of her consciousness was devoted to her injured shoulder. Shaking, and breathing unevenly Vega haphazardly moved her right arm up and forced the beast’s mouth off her—she assumed it dead.

A whimper coming from her throat at this, Vega stumbled backward and away from the hellion before she fell to the ground on her bum, and resorted to clutching onto her wounded shoulder through her cloak. Her body still tingled with remnants of electricity, fingers and toes half numb from the power while the rest of her simply ached.

I was, I was a second too late. she thought, beginning to huff from the throbbing in her shoulder. Blood was beginning to seep from the wound, soaking her silk clothing and thick cloak, going right through the glove upon her left hand. Damned beast must have gotten its teeth through an artery. . . ! Vega realized, resorting to squeezing her hand on the wound tighter, in some strange effort to quell the bleeding, even though it hurt to do so, the pain from the broken bone was something terrible, but Vega did her best to power through it. It was after all, a broken bone . . . and they could be well mended. She herself had just taken a swipe to the side and a bite to the shoulder from that monster; those were injuries that could heal, no matter the pain. The one whom she had diverted the beast’s attention from before, what of their state?

With her eyes cast to the ground before her, a clear look of discomfort upon her features, Vega was ready to draw her eyes up and to the one who she had seen falling from the hotel building earlier when she happened to spot yet another person. His presence sent a jolt of worry through Vega’s body, not quite unlike what Akai had made her experience earlier, yet the sensation did not feel quite as severe, as terrible. Yet still, there was that sentiment of ever-present danger. . . . Though he was distanced from herself, Vega could very clearly make out his rather dilapidated state of dress and dirtied appearance, and the fact he was clearly brandishing a weapon all his own.

His vividly blue eyes were looking between the fried wolf-demon and herself, before giving her a curt nod. He is not expressing any trace of outward alarm for the fact that I just electrocuted this fiend. . . . It was so strange, tonight was just so bizarre. People like her, first she found out there were people like her, and nearly did them in, only for them to turn around and show her sympathy, then took on a monster for the sake of a stranger . . . only to cook it through and have someone acknowledge what she had done again without fear. Why? Why was it after so many lonely days that she would come to find this?

”There may be more.” she heard him warn, casting his gaze to the one who had plummeted down to the earth through a window earlier.

To his words, Vega’s crimson eyes fell back upon the supposed corpse of the fiend before her—the pyrope garnet had a sinking feeling in her gullet regarding his words, and why it sounded as if he knew more than he seemed to be letting on with the situation. There was also that sense within, that gnawing sentiment regarding him that bespoke of a certain sort of danger, a threat the likes of which she could not at all comprehend. So . . . who was he? Before Vega could speak even a word in response to this stranger’s observations, the thought dead hell-spawned hound suddenly moved again, seemingly resurrecting itself from death.

Adrenalin surged through the girl’s small body at this, seeing the damnable thing move at all, yet, before she could even react in the slightest, the wolf had lunged itself toward the new face upon the scene, the one who made Vega feel trepidation. It was upon him so quickly, the thing defied the very essence of all physical laws with its speed and ill-formed body. . . . Vega managed her body up to her knees by this point, still she clutched onto her injured and bleeding shoulder. But she was too late to act, as the beast had already been staved off at the cost of injury to the blue-eyed man. In a state of panic, the canine-like monster scrambled away from its attackers, off to who knew where.

Seeing it flounder off, Vega’s heart jumped into her throat, as she knew that beast could bring harm to an innocent soul if not taken care of. She let out an audible noise, as it seemed to get away, moving forward a bit in this effort without giving concern to her own injuries, Vega’s useless harm scraped against the ground; sending a jolt through her, causing her to freeze in place where she was as she remembered her physical state. Face going stark white, the girl could only stare forward with her eyes wide as the pain returned to her, becoming the foremost thing on her mind as it almost felt as if her soul had detached from her body for a moment.

Pain; it wasn’t something to which Vega was very accustom, even after her times of travel. Loneliness, self-imposed isolation . . . those sorts of things were what she had become conditioned to, not physical injury. Breath hitching in her throat, Vega’s form stilled and she stopped breathing for a moment before her vision blurred and her muscles began to loosen in her legs as something warm began to trickle down her side. . . . I’m . . . losing too much blood. . . . she realized, eyes dulling as a rather passive expression overtook her face, her mind going vacant. She heard more words, that stranger who set off alarm bells in her head, speaking to someone, but the words simply would not register in her brain. Nothing was coherent.

Body growing limp, Vega was no longer able to support herself upon her bony knees and her small form swayed, and lolled until finally it gave way to gravity and she fell backward to the cold cement below. The jewel-adorned girl grunted when she made impact and continued holding onto her bleeding shoulder. Was she going to die from this? Had . . . had the wolf’s bite been severe enough to have been fatal without her knowing? No . . . no, Vega was sure she wasn’t going to die; she knew enough about human anatomy to know that the thing’s teeth shouldn’t have given her an injury bad enough to kill her. Yet still, she wasn’t fairing well. Every second she lay there upon the ground, Vega was fighting to remain conscious.

Her body continued to lose blood, and continually was trying to force her into the depths of forced sleep so she may recover. But that was not something she could allow, no. Going unconscious was not something she could afford to do now, not as things were. The monster, that monster was still roaming around and there was someone. . . . Vega’s thoughts were shattered when there was a sound of a body smashing up into something nearby. And for the first time, the girl noticed the translucence around her form, the light green, almost glass-like dome that encased her, keeping her safe from the returned fiend. The thing seemed to not know when to give up. . . .

As much as Vega wanted to finish it off for good this time—the best she could muster up was simply looking at its disgusting form as it crashed into whatever it was that encased her from it. A look of discomfort upon her features, pain glinting through her crimson eyes, Vega’s only thoughts bounded between keeping herself conscious and the fact that the monster before her did not seem to know how to die. Where the barrier had come from did not even cross her mind in the state she remained in, the amount of blood she had lost had made it hard to think. Breathing harshly though, the teenager’s consciousness finally relented and began to fade away. Eyes rolling back into her skull, Vega’s small body relaxed, and she stopped gripping onto her shoulder so firmly. Blood still leaked from the wound as things occurred around her without her knowledge.

A new gemstone arriving onto the scene, well, new to Vega, who offered to heal people as well by the name of Keira, the apparent death of the beast at Ariane’s hand, and the taunting words of the one who had fallen from the hotel room earlier. She missed it all, only to begin coming back around seconds after the last of the man’s words had been laughed from his throat. Breaths coming around shakily now, Vega’s eyes half opened again, though it was clear that she didn’t quite grasp all that was going on around her, simply that she could acknowledge it.

Without making even a noise, the girl simply stared up at the dark, star-littered sky above, mind blank, devoid of thought. Her body felt numb, her head felt light . . . she couldn’t even really remember anything. What had happened to her before? And what was she doing? She just didn’t know at all. Bite mark still bleeding, Vega simply drew her hand away from it and allowed the soaked hand to drop back to its intended place—her right side. I feel warm and wet. she thought idly, realizing that her front was sodden while her back lay in some sort of puddle. With no rhyme or reason, she attempted to move her arm some, only managing to twitch a finger as her whole form felt heavy. So, it seemed she couldn’t even move.

Silently, the dark-haired girl continued to look to the stars above her without knowing why, not knowing anything at that moment. Only when she heard a set of footsteps approaching her, getting closer to her than anyone else, did she manage to react to anything besides what was above her. In a rather lax fashion, Vega’s head turned with her dull eyes, looking to see who it was. It took a few moments for her brain to register the familiar figure, to get her to realize it was someone she owed a certain debt to in the way of having almost taken his life earlier. Mirror . . . followed me? Vega thought slowly, feeling weak surprise at this. Why did he follow her? He had no reason to; after all, he and she only exchanged names and well, the incident with the lightning.

Vega blinked, very slowly, and by the time she had opened her eyes again, Mirror was kneeling above her, no longer alone, as there was yet another unfamiliar face above her. A beautiful woman with marine colored hair, fair skin, eyes of gold and a tear-shaped marking under her eye. She was someone the pyrope garnet did not recognize either, yet this was a fact that only occurred to her after several moments of looking at her face. So many people, so many people she didn’t know, and several of them were like her. . . .

Why was all of this happening now? After so long. . . ? Why?

A harsh breath came from the teenager’s lungs as she rolled her head back to the other side and looked at Mirror, her hair ornament jingling, confusion playing over her pallor features. What . . . what are they doing? she thought quietly, her eyes only half open. Thought was a rather inoperative process for her now; even the simplest of things were puzzling for her. She watched as Mirror placed his hands just above her form, near her wound. Nothing passed through her mind at this, not before his hands began to take on a gentle sort of radiance to them, aptly green. Vega saw him motioning to the other girl to do something, of what, Vega wasn’t sure. The only thing that was passing through her was a dreary sort of shock at seeing Mirror’s hands sort of just light up like they had.

So . . . she had been right about him. There was no doubt about the fact that he had his own oddness about him as well, he was like her; one-hundred percent. Sure, she had assumed him strange in his own special way before, but she couldn’t have been completely certain. Still, Vega’s body was rather numb to the pain from her wound, so she managed up a rather diluted laugh at this thought and turned her eyes up to Mirror’s.

A weak smile played over her lips as she opened her mouth to speak, “Hah . . . so, you are like me in a way. Though, I can’t quite say I was expecting your strangeness to manifest itself in the form of you turning into a festive light.” She half joked, her voice strained and quiet. “So . . . I fire fatal bolts of lightning and you light up,” Vega sighed softly, and looked back to the sky, “I wonder what it is others like ourselves can do. . . .” Her voice trailed off as her eyes shut, once more she lost herself to unconsciousness.