After a few days of resting up and recovering after the stress of last mission Everette supposed it was time for him to show his face around the guild hall more and get involved with everyone again. He had spent most of his spare time trying to write up a recollection of what happened for his report, as well as journal for himself. It helped him keep track of things on hard days, writing it down cemented it into his memory better. He got Sam to fill in a few blanks for him, but even with that Everette tried to keep himself distant from Sam, give his friend time to relax. It was hard sometimes, for Everette to ask for help with things, especially when it came to his memory. There were a few older members of the guild that looked down at him for it. One even was convinced that he shouldn't be an S-Class, despite earning it the same as anyone else, even with his disability. Emerging and heading towards the main dining hall, he caught Lakoda and Conrad talking off to the side. A little curious, especially with Lakoda's frantic movements, he began to approach slowly, catching just bits and pieces of what she was signing. As he approached he placed a hand on her shoulder to make sure that she knew he was there before signing to her "everything okay?" He had a feeling from the way she looked, that it wasn't alright, he just hoped that he could help. "Hmmm. Is the boat going to be big? Like Daddies Yacht? That might be nice? It might be relaxing too." Thea pondered then thought about it for a bit more. "Hmmm. Can you turn into something fuzzy that I can ride there? Like a bear? That would be really cool!" Thea exclaimed. She honestly didn't care what she did as long as it wasn't as scary as last time. "Come on, come on lets go tell Mom- Uh I mean... um... Master Midarah." Thea urged. She was ready to ride a bear to a grand yacht. It would be great!
Sorry for the lack of Chorus last month. I ran out of energy to run one. That being said, Fall is in the air, and that means October is almost here. It is time for another Halloween Chorus special. That means it is time for you to nominate which Halloween song you would like to do this year. You have until September 30th to get your nominations in, voting will commence after that. Remember unlike the regular chorus all nominations for this month will be put up for a vote. I look forward to seeing what everyone suggests.
Totally late here, but here is the next chapter Chapter 6 The next time that I really had any time with Arcturus was several days later when I was finally well enough to get back to my chores and regular studying. After a single day I had given up hoping he would come back and visit again, assuming that the had continued on to his own life and whatever he had come here to accomplish. It was nice for the day, to feel like someone wanted me around and cared, a person who wasn’t obligated to look after me and teach me. It was nice pretending I had a friend and the promise he made me gave me something to look forward to, I had tried really hard to learn to read the book and had improved greatly in just the single night. However when he didn’t return when I thought he should, my mind instantly turned to the other side of things, believing that he wouldn’t come back around and I was just deluding myself. Standing in the kitchen, I was cleaning up after dinner, doing the dishes and stacking them on the side to clean and put away later. Since I had been away from chores for so long, I ended up cleaning the kitchen myself, giving some of the other students a break who had been pulling double shift while I was out sick. Suddenly there was someone with a towel in hand, starting to dry the dishes that I was watching. Glancing over Arcturus had taken up a spot at the sink next to me, drying the dishes that I was watching. Shocked I didn’t even know what to say to him. “Um… you know you don’t have to do that. Guests are not required to help around the temple.” I tried to inform him though I was sure he already knew such things. It was common practice most places from my understanding that guests were not expected to help with the chores. It wasn’t that I had been many places to know, and perhaps in his lands it was different, but as far as I could tell, it wasn’t. “I know I don’t, but I did say I would come visit again and since you are busy, I figured this was the easiest time. Though I suppose it isn’t the most ideal time for you to read me that book. You did make me a deal though.” Arcturus reminded me and I couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. It was strange really. The man spoke to me, like I am a normal person, not just a lowly acolyte. Now I am more than a little glad that I practiced reading that book for him. I wanted to learn the spell that he promised to teach me. I hope that he actually remembers to teach me it, he remembered that I had to read the book, so I am sure he would remember the other part of the deal. “Well… After I am done in here I have some free time before bed. I could read to you then.” I suggested a little nervously but he was the one that brought it up, so it seemed fair. If he had not mentioned anything I wouldn’t have said it. So really I should be in the right with what I said and shouldn’t worry about it, but I sort of do. I guess I just don’t know how to talk to people outside those I have to. I am still learning, and I will learn as I go. “That sounds like a great idea Liliana. I would love to hear what you have been working on.” His tone was warm and encouraging, enough so that it made me smile as I nodded to him. An hour later we found our way back to my room where I found my book. My dwarven was still a little broken, but it improved greatly since the last time that I tried. I had thought I was reading it perfectly in my head, but speaking it out loud, and more than that, to someone made me stumble a bit. Even still it seemed that my reading skills were sufficient enough that Arcturus still agreed to teach me the spell that he promised. Showing me a small incantation, the writing was celestial, but under it, what I could only assume was the instructions on how to cast it, were written in dwarven runes. Looking up from the notes to him, Arcturus gave me a bit of a wry smile. “I thought this might have been a better reason to learn dwarven than to just read kids books.” He told me as he shifted to see the paper better. “First can you read the celestial?” Studying it, it was a word that I did recognize. “Hwul al.” The words slipped off my tongue with ease. The language that would be difficult for some, coming seemingly naturally to me. “Very good. Now what I wrote below here, it tells you what motions you must do with your hand. As soon as you can read them out to me, I will show you what it means by that.” It took the better part of an hour before I managed to fully translate properly. After about twenty minutes I began writing notes as I figured it out. Finally though I managed to get the entire thing in common so that Arcturus could show me exactly how to perform the spell. As it turned out, it was not too difficult to cast. The explanation that I translated was written in such a way that it sounded more complicated than it really was. A couple signs with my figures, then the incantation, then whatever I touched after that came alight. My holy symbol was glowing after the second try, and I smiled at him. “Oh thank you! This is amazing! Thank you so much Mr. Arcturus!” I couldn’t help but be grateful, it felt like the most useful thing I had learned in a long time. This was a spell in which I could actually see results and know, that I was indeed special, just like everyone had told me I was. It was hard to believe such tails at times when you didn’t see any evidence of them. This however made me happy. “You are welcome, now I think it is time you get some sleep. Perhaps we will have another lesson another day.” Little did I know another day wouldn’t come for another couple months. As the next morning when I woke up, he had left on an adventure of his own.
Right, introductions, she supposed that Karina didn't do a good job of introducing her to anyone, she kind of introduced her to Koa and then walked off. "Well it looks that he doesn't really need my help anymore." Dawn sighed to herself when she saw Koa taking charge and commanding that they were done with all the chatter and it was time to move forward. She would introduce herself to other people as the time came, for now as long as they all could work together for a while then it would be fine. "After you, leader." Dawn motioned for Koa to lead the way. What she was even meant to do here was another mystery that she supposed that she would figure out as she went. Though she didn't know how long she could be here, she worried about someone coming looking for her. She would deal with that when the time came though, there was enough of sitting around home and just waiting for things to happen. Seeing what Karina managed to do for herself, Dawn took inspiration from that and figured it was about time to move forward with her own life, and this could be the first step to it.
Not good, this was very not good, and if Tinarah knew anything about healing and she knew it was already too late and the couldn't waste too much more time before getting to Torrin, they had to hurry up. They didn't have time for all of this. The dragon creature was providing cover from above, but she still needed to do more, they needed to get in there and quick. Tinarah was off her keyblade glider before she even hit the ground as she summoned it to her hand, she would fight through them if she had to. A blast of ice spread out in front of her as she took it to her advantage. "We don't need to kill them all, but we need a path. I doubt Torrin will be holding on for much longer with the amount of blood I had seen. We have to do something!" Tinarah called out desperate to get through more, they had to keep going. The Flammie was clearing a path but they kept closing in, so Tinarah made sure she kept moving and made use of the space that the Flammie did buy her.
Aux ignored her after that, but Karina decided that it was likely for the best, of they didn't talk to each other, they couldn't yell at each other after all. Meanwhile Beuce had looked over to her, chastising her for being late. "Well you know I still had a few things to take care of. Mark of Mastery for one. No more holding that title over me now." Karina smiled a bit and nudged Beuce jokingly. "Then there was the matter of not leaving the team high and dry. I called in an old favour, so waited around for her before my left. And I couldn't leave them without a leader since Lea had to go and disappear, so.... I think Luna picked a good one. Koa will be a fine leader, and he has someone to stay alive for, so I don't have to worry about him going off and dying on me." Karina glanced over at Luna as she spoke of Koa, wondering what she would think of her fiance now leading the black coats. "And then, before I hopped onto that raft, I had to get something, a thanks..." She explained. "Buuuut I will tell you about that when we have a little more privacy." She didn't feel like having an audience when she tried to figure out how to Thank Beuce for everything that he did for her. "It was amazing that we all found each other again, but now we need to figure out where to go from here." Karina added to Beuce's statement to Ariel. She figured she shouldn't completely ignore the new person, but she still wasn't all that good with dealing with new people. She did her best though as she tried to readjust to how things were done here, usually a little less upfront than with the Black Coats. She had to watch her mouth a bit more, and that would be the hard part.
"Just because you have a few inadequacies right now does not mean I trust you in any sense of the word." Karina responded as she watched Aux try and swim around, not well mind you, but he tried, and very quickly found himself losing to a fish that stole his hat. Karina essentially ignored the mermaid that was there, in favour of watching Aux chase the small yellow fish. "I guess really don't have anything to worry about if you cant even catch a fish. No matter what twisted orders your master has you under this time, I doubt you will stand much of a chance at achieving your goal." Karina chuckled as she watched him swim around and Luna try and defend him. "Luna do you remember who threw us into the Realm of Darkness in the first place, and why? I wouldn't go trusting him so easily. But if that is what you guys decided after the battle, I suppose I can attempt to be civilized." She wasn't going to like it though. She watched as the fish swam another lap around the area, and not wanting Aux to embarrass himself, and by proxy, them any further, she snatched the hat back as the small fish swam by. Tossing it to Aux right before he could do something else stupid, she rolled her eyes at him. "There you go, happy?" With the toss she caught a glimpse of what was wrapped around her wrist and glanced at Beuce. She would have to give it to him, but later perhaps, now didn't seem like the best time. Perhaps when they didn't have an audience would be better.
Thea finally managing to rest for a few days and was back on her feet, eagerly looked at the job board. She was tired of sitting around doing nothing in particular besides spending time with Izra and healing up properly. She spent a lot of time bothering Samuel and Everette as well since the last mission had left her so shaken. She didn't want to tell anyone, so instead she spent her time with whoever would put up with her around. Thankfully most people were used to it by now, but she wouldn't touch her magic for days afterwards. She remembered the golden flames, how spectacular they were and how devastating they were. She didn't know what to think of that attack. Finally Thea looked at the board and found a rather nice sounding mission. She didn't want anything too stressful this time, no big scary monsters trying to take children. Pet sitting sounded nice. Slowly Thea took down the poster for that mission and looked around. "Um, does anyone want to do this with me?" She asked glancing around feeling like no one would want to work with her this time after what happened last time. There was no real reason for that feeling but she was still nervous, hopefully someone would come with her.
There was a small smile that crossed Tinarah's lips as she was able to pet the dragon. He was soft and friendly. Then it turned and approached her brother, nudging him. Tinarah actually laughed at the site of it, honestly she thought it was cute. She didn't care what Take thought of them, Tinarah couldn't figure out why he would hate it so much, it was like a giant dog from her perspective. Even as it trotted off to sniff her brother, Tinarah followed and started to stroke it again enjoying the soft feeling of the dragon, different from what she would have ever imagined. Suddenly it's ears twitched and a blast of wind pushed down on her as the Flammie took off into the air, circling around. She watched it closely before following behind Boreas on his lead. If they Flammie did indeed want them to follow it, then it was likely important. She summoned her glider back to her and took off into the air. "Alright, lead the way... boy?" She didn't know the gender but she could at least guess for now.
Slowly nodding to the command that she saw the request as, Sasha tried to pull up the memories of her mother singing the song in her home language. Finally she started to sing a rather pretty lullaby, quiet at first as she was still feeling out the lyrics in a language that was foreign to even her, but slowly getting more confident as she went on. (But in another language obviously) When she was done she looked at Harry with tears in her eyes. She knew that she would never get to hear her mother sing that song to her again, or anyone for that matter. She would never hear the beautiful sonf voice of her mother again, even Sasha's own paled in comparison to that. She really was truly gone now and Sasha had escaped, prince in tow. She supposed that she should have been dead along with everyone else and she needed to figure out to do with the gift of life that she had been granted instead.
Sasha didn't want to think about why she knew it. The hurt was still far too great, but even still after a long moment she mumbled "it was my lullaby. My mother used to always sing it for me when I was a child growing up. I don't know where she learned it though, but I think it might have been something from her lands. She didn't always sing it in the common language." Sasha admitted, switching to the words she had memorized in another language, but the language itself was something that she had never fully learned. Living in the castle there had never been much use for another language, and some people got uneasy if they couldn't understand what was being spoken about.
Everything was dark and quiet, there was a light, she thought that was the end, but her lungs hadn't given out on her yet, she was still managing to hold out. It took her far too long to realize she was breathing. Slowly opening her eyes, they adjusted to the clear blue water, the salt of the water did not burn her eyes. Slowly ever so slowly, Karina let go of the necklace as she sat there but watched as a secondary chain sunk to the bottom of the ocean. ****, she couldn't lose that. Diving down, Karina tried to kick her legs only to realize that they moved in one fluid motion, together, there was no separation there. What was going on? She would figure it out, but only after she managed to fish the golden necklace out of the sand below. As she got closer, Karina stopped... kicking... or whatever she was doing as to be careful not to disturb the sand itself and bury the necklace. She could see the gems in it glinting brightly as she gently picked it up and admired it before wrapping the chain around her wrist a couple of times. Finally with a chance to inspect herself she saw the tail that took the place of her legs. Blend, of course that would explain being able to breath. Okay so the next question was, where was she, and what happened to Arctus? Voices in the distance drew her attention as Karina started to focus on her surroundings. Who was there? As far as she was aware she was still in the middle of a random ocean. Keeping back she tried to observe closer what was happening, but her eyes fell on familiar silver hair. "Beuce?" There was relief and excitement, but confusion on how she had gotten there. Swimming closer it was not exactly the most graceful swim but she eventually closed the distance between her and Beuce as well as the people around him. Luna was there, and Steel, and.... Karina's eyes narrowed Aux... She didn't know what to think of that. She knew that they were deciding what to do with Aux when she left but to see him here made her uncomfortable, forgetting about the gift that was dangling from her wrist. "I hope you haven't hurt any of my friends." She glance to the others. "Let me know if he has done anything to you guys, I will kick his ass." She knew they were all much better people than she was, so they would likely not tell her even if he did, but she wanted to know, she was not ready to put up with Aux yet.
Everything happened so fast. One moment Tinarah was preparing to head in the direction of the place the man was pointing, the next he tried to attack Take. Before any of them could do anything to react white flames came down hitting only the man who had hurt Torrin. Tinarah was still recovering from the shock of that when down when Take attacked the creature that landed before then and Boreas made his move to stop him. Tinarah stopped and blinked for a long moment as Take and Boreas argued about the intent of the dragon, before she finally looked to the dragon itself, seeing it's wagging tail. After a long moment of looking at it, Tinarah stepped off her glider and slowly started to walk towards the dragon. Slowly she lifted her hand to it. For some reason Tinarah found the creature interesting and cute, she wanted it to be friendly and it seemed friendly. "What brought you to us?" Tinarah asked quietly as she reached up to try and stroke the dragon, it looked like it would be so soft to pet, she had to try.
Karina smiled, a rare, genuine smile. "God damn it Arctus. I won't hear the end of that will I?" Karina asked as she braced her hands on the side of the boat, trying not to fall overboard. "If you hand over the oars I will try and get us out of here fa-" It was too late though, the storm was too fierce, there was no way that they were making it out of here. The boat flipped and Karina found herself reaching for Arctus, trying not to loose him in the wind and waves, but it was to no avail, as something was pulling at her foot dragging her under, deep into the ocean and out of the sight of Arctus. When she realized struggling was useless, she gripped on to her necklace, closing her eyes. "Sorry Beuce, guess I couldn't keep my promise after all."
"I... uh.." Karina's face went red, bright red. She put her hands in her pocket gripping the necklace in her pocket, thinking of the one she wore, then looking to the man in front of her. She hated herself, hated that she didn't understand these feelings and how confusing they were. Since she left the big battle after getting her keyblade back, all she could think of was the promise she made Beuce, she had almost forgot about the kiss. It was lie when she had said it didn't mean anything but she didn't know what it did mean. She didn't want to say the wrong thing here. "I... that was my first kiss." She admitted to him. She had no interest in guys on her home world and denied her husband-to-be if her father had his way. Sighing, Karina rubbed her hands over her face. "I don't know how small or large of a blip in my life you will end up being. I don't know where our adventures would take us from her and how things will go with this group, but I will always remember it... and you." She tried to respond, it was the first thing she could think of to say to him. "And I will never forget how you reacted to that kiss." She teased him trying to lighten the mood, trying to make things less awkward between them and know what to say to him. It was the best she had got for the time being at least.
Seeing worth in herself that was something she was still struggling with, but the promise the she made Beuce was what was keeping her going for the time being. "I can't say I know what they saw in me, but I made some promises and I need to see them through, so at least it is a start and maybe I can learn from there." Karina admitted, she smiled slightly as she spoke of Beuce, something about the thought of him and what he did for her, how he brought her to this point. "I won't let their sacrifices go in vain, that is why I am returning." Staring out to the sea beyond she could see a storm forming but ignored it in favour of the current conversation. She had to say she was interested in what Arctus might have learned from her but first there was a more important matter to deal with. "I don't want you to be what you aren't. Besides it was that happy go lucky Arctus that I wanted to punch. I think you are safer brooding." She admitted to him. When he was joking around and getting on her nerves it was a distraction, one she needed but not one that should be kept up. "So what did you learn from me. I will be surprised if it was anything good." And yet it sounded like it was, it made her wonder what it could possibly be.
How was she to explain that being leader made her scared, walking a fine line of becoming what her father was? "Well some one had to take care of them didn't they? That group was kind of helpless on their own, and without Lea there it just fell on me. I had no choice unless I wanted to watch them all die." Karina admitted. If Lea was still around she would likely still be struggling to lead them, the loss of him was a big hit but he was right, it made her grow fast. She had little choice in the matter. She watched him lift his hand and then drop it again. She didn't say anything but part of her wished he had placed his hand on her, or hugged her or whatever he planned to do. She wondered if he, or anyone else realized how much she longed for human contact. She held that back though, she wouldn't let it on, it would make her seem too desperate. Arctus still didn't know the full story though. He said she wasn't a failure, but he didn't know that, he didn't see what brought her here and as he pressed about her name, Karina let out a sigh knowing that it was time to admit the reason why. It would be harder to dodge the question, not impossible, but not worth it. "I needed to change it, because Karina... the name.... I was trying to run away from myself. I hated myself enough that I not even I could stand being around me, much less expect anyone else to respect me. What was I supposed to do when I fell so far into a pit of despair and self loathing? Lea suggested I take a new name, so I did." Karina tried to explain. Her head bowed and she stopped rowing. "I ran away from home, I was a failure there. I joined SOS, was hated by everyone, caused one of the nicest people there to lose his arm to save me, then I lost my keyblade. Trying to get it back I had to face an illusion of my father. There was a man named Vincent with me and he died trying to defend me from my father. From there the illusion faded and I was unable to summon my keyblade. It was then I decided that I couldn't even pretend to be okay with myself and gave up on it all." She admitted.
KARINA HP: 90 MP: 7 STR: 22 SPD: 15 DEF: 15 MAG: 12 RES: 17 AP: 42 930 Strength = 72 30 Resistance= 20 50 Defence= 20 30 AP = 45 New Total HP: 90 MP: 7 STR: 72 SPD: 15 DEF: 20 MAG: 12 RES: 20 AP: 45 Karina claiming Prizes for achievements Item Ticket, Job Ticket, Moogle Badge, AP Up, Titan Chain, HP up, Auto Aura 1 Now : HP: 95 AP: 46 Karina is Equipping : Combo Level 5 Air Combo Level 5 EXP Writer III Damage Syphon Second Wind Reload Boost Second Chance Critical Plus Auto Aura I High Jump Dodge Roll Berserk 48/46(+2) Karina is obtaining Dark Knight Equipping Oblivion (+6) Equipping White Fang and SOS Ring
"Oh bite me." Tinarah muttered back as Ardyn looked over to her. She had enough of this it would get them nowhere and they needed to get to Torrin they needed to save him. "And I don't suppose a gentleman like yourself would mind actually pointing in this other direction. That is a wide range to cover and you would hate for such a young child to die." She was annoyed that was clear enough, but Tinarah was already also summoning her keyblade. They needed to get to Torrin, it could be a trap, but if there was any chance of saving someone she would take it. She didn't care if they were almost enemies at one point she wasn't dumb enough to think that they didn't need him to continue this journey and stop the future she had seen from coming to pass. Even if they were on a complete different time line, she still felt like they were walking a fine line of this switching. Tinarah was already on her glider ready to go, there was no use staying here longer than necessary.
Oh god, oh god, here it came. He was actually going to admit it wasn't he. Karina found herself biting at her lip and turning a little red despite herself. She didn't want to show how embarrassed that she was but she couldn't stop herself. Then he said Fond and Karina seemed confused for a moment. What did that mean? It was such a vague term, what did it actually mean? Did he mean like friends or like more than friends? She couldn't tell and it didn't seem to be the thing that she needed to worry about as Arctus wasn't done speaking yet. The words clanged through her as he said what he was and what he could do. Karina could only stare at him blank faced for a minute. She didn't know what to say to him. She didn't know if she was more mad at him or Lea. "All this scheming and he couldn't bother to let us in on anything? He couldn't tell you why you were there and he made me leader when there was someone clearly more capable hiding there. And with that more capable person he didn't think to let them know why they are there. Speaking of leaders, why the hell didn't you stay and lead them. Lea clearly wanted a keyblade wielder there who was actually able to keep their keyblade. Why would you walk away on that and follow me." The moment it left her mouth she realized how pathetic it sounded and it upset her even more. "Well if there is one thing we still have in common, it is the mess. I am not going to hit you. If Lea was here I would hit him." She snarled. "Gods why did he leave me in charge I don't know what to do with it and now I feel like I am a failure." Karina ran her fingers through her hair. "I am still calling you Arctus by the way. Too weird to change now. Speaking of names, I assume that is why you knew mine, it wasn't just a really lucky guess." She pointed out wondering, thinking back to those tense early times.
