Aria was reminded once more how bad things in Eventide became. She didn't "survive" during the whole ordeal and fell into darkness for what it seemed like a while. To be saved by the Light Chaser in the end was bittersweet. He was her sworn enemy, yet she lived because of him. Not wanting to dwell on the ordeal anymore, Aria revved herself by summoning her keyblade. "Let's get to it boys!" she called out to her group. She lunged at the Darkside and came down on it with a Sky Dive, and then rolled away from the monstrous thing. She then raised up her keyblade, calling for the elements of Thundara twice, vanquishing ten Shadows. Aria used Sky Dive once and Thundara twice 90/100 Shadows Remain HP: 120/120 MP: 42/60 FOC: 15/28 FLUX: 4/4
Aria looked over Chrono's shoulder to see the one that he picked out for the group. "Blast from the Past... What's a Grandmother Willow?" she asked to mostly herself. "Oh well, that one looks kind of fun. Let's get to it," she said to the group. She motioned for the others to follow her and then moved into the room they would be battling in. Five rounds, she hoped the newcomers were up to the challenge.
Enzo seemed to appear out of no where. And why did he keep his keyblade in his pants? Such an odd duck he was. Aria noted that Chrono also wanted to join, and so did the newest guy. "Let's leave the crippling mortality for another day and just focus on the heartless," Aria offered with a slight smile. She looked at the options, see there were so many. "I dunno... why don't you pick Chrono." She nudged him in the shoulder and then looked to the rest that were left. "There's still one more spot if anyone wants to join us before we go in. Going oooooonce..... going twiiiiiiice...."
And they were whisked away to the dreaded basement once again. Aria tried her best not to focus on her uneasiness of being in tight perimeters, reminding herself how opened it seemed once the simulation began to happen. Tinarah was already off doing her own thing, and Torrin offered for anyone to join him. Knowing that his skill levels were far above her own, Aria didn't feel comfortable making Torrin and Boreas drag behind. "If anyone wants to, I was thinking of a small group? Start off easy, get a hang of this new thing, and then build up. Anyone want to join me on that?" she asked, hopping on her heels a bit before looking around at the group.
Aria was expecting to be called to a meeting but not so soon. She went along anyways, finding herself in the middle of the Council meeting. It was then she noticed Chrys there, but it was an inappropriate time to run up to her and give her a hug. She was the last to know of Chrys's change of sides and being under the protection of the Council. She wanted to catch up with her sometime, but all that's been going on, she didn't know if she would get a chance. Questions and concerns were brought up, some which Aria felt like were answered already. Tinarah didn't seem like she was in a good mood today... She then heard Kal's question and she glanced over at him. "Well... I'm not a master, but I see your point. But the fights we have been involved in, sometimes we had a few close-calls and almost lost. If we storm out there right now, the worlds would probably fall anyways and we would probably fall with them. Then who would be left to protect the remaining worlds? N-not trying to be a pessimistic, but we're not as good as we should be right now. If we run into the Light Chaser or one of his students now while trying to save the worlds, we're doomed. They're super powerful compared to us." She then shuffled in place and locked her hands behind her back, looking up at the Council. "So going along with Tinarah's question... are we going to be monitored and have a mentor for our training? Or are we expected to monitor and train ourselves and figure out what works best for us?"
“Of course." Aria wiped her tears from her eyes and stood up. She then approached Take and gave him a nice, warm hug. "I've been meaning to do this since we met up." She smiled a bit and then bowed to Master Gero. "I guess I'll see you later." With that, she nodded to the two and then headed off back towards the castle.
“It won’t go to my head,” Aria promised with a shake of her head. “I still think of myself as the girl who grew up on a farm, and learned to work and fight with all my might.” She was curious with the other news he had, but he told her he would speak to her of it later. She wanted to protest and have him tell her now, but she noticed where they were walking to and who they saw. Aria gave a smile and a friendly wave, “Good morning.” Aria raised an eyebrow when she noticed what was behind Take. Images of her past so long ago flitted in her mind... the gravemaker of her dear adopted cousin she never met. Aria stepped closer, seeing the names on each of the gravemakers. Her smile gradually fell when she read Mika’s... there was that familiar pain in her chest again. “I think it was Illiana,” Aria replied with a crack in her voice. “She wanted to show me something... this could’ve been it...” She approached Mika’s gravestone, crouching down in front of it and gently touched the surface with the tips of her fingers. Her eyes stung with tears as she glanced to the friendship bracelet from her dear friend. Sfter all this time, she unclasped it from her wrist, draping it over the stone. “This was very thoughtful,” she mumbled as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek.
What Gero said about her nightmare problem was pretty much the same thing Torrin had told her earlier. She probably was the one to vanquish this creature once and for all, dispelling it from her body. If she could accomplish such a thing, maybe for once in her life she would have a peaceful night's sleep and not worry about those horrible nightmares coming to reality. Aria continued to walk alongside Gero, listening intently to his words. Her eyes widened when he mentioned she was an actual princess and not just a princess of heart. "Me... a princess? A real princess?" She couldn't help but to smile a little and suddenly hug Master Gero. "Thank you for telling me," she half-whispered. To hear it from him instead of the Light Chaser was what Aria needed. Now she knew of her true heritage and where she had originally come from. Yet she made a different identity on Amerath; a farm girl who cared for every living thing and tried to see the best in others. She had learned humility, patience, to work hard, and how to help others. She wondered if she would have learned those lessons if she stayed with her parents and followed the ways of being a princess. She let go of Gero, wiping a stray tear from her eye as she kept her smile. "Everything has been so confusing since my time with the Light Chaser..." She cleared her throat and continued on walking, enjoying the fresh air. "You looked like you wanted to say something more earlier... What did you want to say?" she coaxed in a soft voice.
The girl was stunned at the mention of her parents. They would be proud of her? She never met them in her life, and rarely heard anything about them. Her fingers instinctively prodded at the ring she wore. It had her family name on it, yet as hard as she tried, she didn't feel such a strong connection from them. Maybe it was her imagination, but if she thought hard enough, she could feel a tiny bit of something there. She wondered if they knew of her, or Master Gero met with them as he had with her while she was growing up. Before she could ask though, a question put her on the spot. Her lips twitched downward and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, trying to think back to the time she spent with the Light Chaser. "He seemed... lonely. Secretive. He never showed his face." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked where Gero seemed to be gazing. "Maybe a little angry... or hurt. He felt like what he was doing was right, even with the doubts I voiced... with the whole plan of erasing all of the darkness from others I mean..." She glanced at her wrist, more naked now that the bracelet fell off. "Master Kaio told me about the origin of the bracelet this morning," she mumbled. She held her wrist in her hand and looked up at the old man she used to fondly call Grandfather. "I think I reminded him of her... That's probably one of the reasons why he gave it to me... It kept me safe for a while." Saved my life too, she thought the last bit to herself. Her eyes darted away, holding her hand close to her chest as she stared at the ground for a moment. "Where... did I come from Grandpa Gero...? No one's ever told me. I mean, what were my parents like. Or what are they like...?" So many questions began to flood her mind and she voiced them as they came to her. "And this... thing inside of me... The nightmare, infection... whatever it should be called... Do you know how or why it stays with me...? Even though I'm a 'pure of heart'...? Where it comes from...?"
Aria glanced up when she heard a familiar voice and her name being called. She saw none other than Master Gero standing at the doorway. She looked at Torrin and the others and shrugged her shoulders. "I'll see you all later I guess." She trotted to the door and clasped her hands behind her back. "Ready to go," Aria stated, walking out of the doorway. She nodded to Lumen, and then walked a ways away from the kitchen door. "Yes, Gran- I mean, Master Gero?"
“I could teach you another time,” Aria offered Torrin. “There’s easier recipes and techniques. And thank you,” she said to Torrin and Kal. She then blinked with wide eyes at Enzo’s take on the hot chocolate. “Um, wow! I never seen someone scald their whole mouth for the sake of hot chocolate. Here.” She took Enzo’s cup and headed to the fridge, opening the freezer part and pulled out two ice cubes. She plopped them in the cup, then poured in the steamy hot chocolate next. “There we go,” she declared, handing the mug back to Enzo. “It shouldn’t burn you this time.” And since Maka was out of the house while making this post originally and reading things wrong and forgetting certain elements and not having a clear vision of character placements, Aria noticed Qamar wandering into the kitchen to make herself things and greeted her with a nod. She even gave her a quick hug in return before Qamar wandered off again.
"Light Chaser," Aria emphasized with a giggle. "Think of it as someone chasing pure hearts. Like me. I'm apparently a pure heart. And pure hearts have light in them. Light that the Light Chaser wants for himself. A-Anyways..." She cleared her throat and clapped her hands together. "Hot chocolate time! Follow me." Aria led the group of boys to the kitchen where she glanced at the time. Morning was nearly over, but they could still have a nice brunch. Breakfast for lunch. Aria found an apron and tied it around her waist, getting ready to get down to some serious cooking business. She grabbed a pan, some eggs, slices of bacon, slices of bread, and some oil. She quickly got the breakfast started on the pan, and then went to go make the hot chocolate. She found a pot cocoa powder, sugar, whole milk, half-and-half cream, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. She placed the milk and cream in the saucepan and began to heat up the pan. She then stirred the cocoa powder, sugar, and cinnamon together in a bowl, keeping an eye on the breakfast cooking in the pan. "There's many ways to make hot chocolate," she mused out-loud. "And since I have the proper ingredients at hand, I can make my Aunt Anja's specialty. Well, not entirely. She made her own marshmallows fluff, but I'm not going to take the time for that." When the milk finally heated up, Aria took a teaspoon at a time and poured it in the bowl of other ingredients, mixing it together until it made a nice chocolate paste. Once that was done, she poured the mix back in the pot and stirred it until it was all mixed together again. With that ready to go, Aria focused her attention back on the breakfast for the newcomer and toasted the bread. She then scrambled the eggs and flipped the bacon, getting them ready to go. Once they completely cooked, she slid breakfast on a plate and put the slices of toast along side of the other breakfast ingredients and then handed it to Kal. "Here you go. If you need anything else, lemme know and I'm sure I can make it or find it." She then pulled out five mugs and a bag of mini marshmallows, putting the marshmallows in each cup. She put a dash of vanilla extract in the hot chocolate mix, and then poured an even amount out in each of the mugs. She turned off the heat on the stove, and then handed the mugs to Kal, Chrono, Torrin, and Enzo before taking one for herself. "I hope it tastes okay to you guys," she thought aloud. She then took a sip and hummed out happily, leaning against the counter. "I needed this... Oh, you said you already ate, but do you want another breakfast as well?"
"We'll find a way to best him," Aria chimed in. "We are going to start training soon, or so I heard. In the meantime, did you get any breakfast?" she asked the newcomer and then looked to Tinarah's brother. "Chrono? If not, I can make something for you really quick, maybe add some hot chocolate to the mix. You must be hungry." She was trying to be nice and considerate of the new guy. It sounded like he had been through a lot and needed a friendly face. Aria didn't mind helping out in that case.
Aria frowned when the newcomer mentioned he lost his world to the darkness. Lucky for her, Master Choma arrived just in time to help things in her world before they got out of hand. Everything was in balance when she left. She could only imagine what it would be like to lose all she had grown up with and loved in a massive wave of darkness... "Well actually, that's why we're all here," Aria explained. "We're fighting the darkness while trying to stay two steps ahead of this guy we call the Light Chaser. He wants to get rid of said darkness too, but uh, eliminate it completely. Meaning everyone with even a teeny tiny bit of darkness in them will go poof." Aria flicked her fingers out close to her face as if blowing a small cloud out of her mouth. "Poof... But it seems like he's sometimes five steps ahead of us." Not knowing how much the guy knew about their current predicament, Aria decided to stop there to not overwhelm him and lace her fingers behind her back, digging the toe of her shoe in the marble floor. "Glad to have you on board though... Even if it's not in the most favorable circumstance."
"Hm...? Oh. Alright then.” Aria wondered what Torrin was going to talk to her about, but she didn’t want to push it. His mood seemed to drop a bit, so she assumed it wasn’t her place to pry. As they walked, Aria perked up to see Chrono still there with the new guy. “Hi there!” She called with a wave. She then glanced to Torrin and shrugged before bounding to the pair, stopping a short ways from them. “Sorry for earlier,” she said with a bow. “Leaving like that in a rush. I’m Aria, this is Torrin,” Aria introduced them both to the new guy. “And it seems like you and Chrono already know each other.”
“Master Kidemonas? That other master said Master Kide did something to my room... that’s how they knew I was in trouble this morning. I couldn’t even scream or call out...” Aria trailed off as she hugged herself, following alongside Torrin. She listened to his explanation on how they were to train, and she couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow a bit. “So it hasn’t been tested... is it safe?” Aria stopped at the top of the flight of stairs leading down. “I’m... not so sure about it...” she said. Honestly, she didn’t want to go “underground” where the stairs were leading to. She had a hard enough time on the boat and the Horned King’s Castle and their tight spaces. "Huh? That's...kind of creepy." Torrin commented, scratching his cheek. "Safe? It should be. The guy seems to know his stuff...probably...I actually don't know. This kind of tech is beyond my understanding." He shrugged and slowed down after taking a few steps when he noticed that Aria had refused to go down the stairs. "What's wrong? I've heard of people being scared of basements but this looks like the rest of the castle. Less windows and more artificial lights but..." He looked downstairs and yet more similar hallways stretched out. Thankfully this was as far as they needed to go. "Still...I guess it is kind of creepy that this place looks so...so...samey." Torrin frowned slightly at the basement level. "Is that what's bothering you? Or is it the whole dangerous untested training room thing?" “I don’t like to be in places I feel I can’t get out of easily,” she admitted. “That’s all...” she sighed and made herself walk down, taking in a few slow deep breaths. “I’ll be okay once we get training started,” she decided. She looked down the hallway once she reached the bottom, seeing that indeed it did look the same as the upper half. “Maybe they got tired of trying to make it look unique?” Aria suggested while waiting for Torrin to lead the way. "Hm. I don't either but that's an issue of paranoia more than anything." He began to walk ahead. "Maybe. It just makes me wonder what all the other rooms are for." "Mostly storage these days." Around the corner the two were heading towards stepped out Kidemonas. "In the past there were times all these rooms were used for housing refugees from other worlds." The man looked at Torrin then Aria and then back at Torrin again with a disappointed expression on his face. "Why did you bring her? Master Gero would be furious if he knew she was participating. Maybe she should-" "Leave? That's a little counterproductive." Torrin interrupted. "Just don't throw the biggest baddest thing you can make at us and it'll be fine." Torrin suggested. "Hm..." Kidemonas scratched his chin. "Fine. I can't do a beta test myself and run my analysis at the same time. But there will be no word of this to Master Gero, agreed?" Not tell Master Gero what was going on? Oh boy... She could figure out a few reasons why it wouldn't be alright to go through with this. Still, she wasn't a child anymore. And if she was going to face the Light Chaser again, she needed to be ready. "Not a word...." Aria repeated, glancing at Torrin for confirmation of her choice before looking back to the master. "So... what's going to happen exactly? I guess I mean, what should we expect?" After the two of them agreed to his terms Kide led the two down the hall he had come from and almost immediately there was a sudden change in design. The white walls were no longer covered with doors but remained plain and the farther the three walked the more the walls diverged from each other opening into a larger circular area lined with heavy-looking metal doors each with an electronic display affixed on the wall beside the handles and a large number glowing green over the doors going from 1 to 15. "Those numbers are green when their room is not in use and red when they are." Kide explained. "The control panels are--H-hey what are you doing?" Kidemonas's eyes widened as Torrin walked ahead and started fiddling with the panel to test the interface for himself. "How did the Council obtain records of what we fought? There's some stuff here too that looks unfamiliar to me...and some stuff that doesn't look totally accurate..." "Don't mess with that!" Kidemonas nudged Torrin away from the control panel and nervously inspected the device to check if Torrin had somehow damaged it. With a sigh of relief Kide turned to answer him. "Atmos and Thallasa filled us in on what happened and as for other sources...well...just be glad you guys will have a new way to train, alright?" "Yeah...and what about those sensors installed in our rooms? Should we not ask questions about them either?" "Moving on! To answer your question, Aria, expect to see Heartless that you've fought before and other familiar foes. None of it is real in the sense you're familiar with but you can get knocked unconscious if you're not careful. Nothing here is supposed to be lethal but treat the simulations as if they were nonetheless. For some of the simulations like that clown I've programmed some responses to keep battles from going dull but none of the enemies who might have spoken during battle will be nearly as talkative as they once were." "Good to hear. My battle banter isn't what it used to be." Torrin commented. Aria smirked at Torrin's remark and then looked to the man. "Treat it as if it's real, but it really isn't real... Got it. So, once we start this thing, how do we stop it?" she asked as she tilted her head looking at the door. "Do we have to defeat all the enemies that come our way before we can tap out?" "Just shout End Program and the simulation will end if you're not feeling up to it." Kide answered. "Though doing that or getting knocked out will reduce your medal count severely." Torrin blinked in confusion and looked at Aria as if she had any answers. "Oh! Right. You wouldn't know that. I came up with a way of quantifying the increase in skill a person gains after training. I have since dubbed this quantified experience as Medals." The man explained simply. "Why not just call it experience? Experience Points maybe?" "Did you spend months building this?" Before Torrin could answer Kidemonas shook his head and continued speaking. "No. I thought not. Medals are what they will be called and that's that. Anyway, let's get this started, shall we? Let me load up the first round." The master turned away to tap the control panel by the first door a few times and after a few beeps and boops he nodded in a satisfied manner and opened the door. Beyond was an empty white room that, when the two stepped through the threshold, changed the scenery around them so that it appeared as if they were on the outskirts Eventide Town in an open field. The only noticeable difference between it and the real thing was the fact that a rectangular opening where Kide still stood remained allowing the two to have a glimpse of the room behind them. Aria listened to the banter back and forth, shrugging her shoulders when Torrin seemed to look to her for answers. She waited patiently as the room was loaded, and then saw what was beyond the door. "Eventide," Aria breathed out. She hesitantly stepped inside the room, gawking at the scenery around them. It had so many details and little things that this almost looked real. She remembered when she first came here how her and Illiana teamed up, and she called her bread girl because she didn't know her name. This was also when I was separated from... Her thoughts trailed off as painful memories came to her mind. Trying to hide her discomfort, she summoned her keyblade and waited for Torrin to join her on the other-side of the door. "Even the breeze feels the same." Torrin spoke as he stepped into the simulated world and took a deep breath. He looked up at the sky almost expecting to see Quietus above them but there was nothing but the wispy clouds overhead. Looking to see that Aria had already called for her keyblade he followed suit and summoned his own in his left hand. "Alright. I need to shut the door to commence the first match so just call out End Program if you feel it's too much. Got it? Good. Good luck you two." Kide spoke quickly and closed the door without so much as waiting for a response. "Well...I suppose this wouldn't be the worst place to get trapped in if that door doesn't open again." Torrin joked. Before them in giant bright white letters appeared the phrase "Round 1". A few seconds passed and the words disappeared and soon they were replaced with "BEGIN". The instant the word vanished from sight a small group of ten Shadow Heartless materialized before them. Torrin lowered his keyblade not amused by their sight. "Sorry! Loaded the wrong test! Let me get the real thing in here!" They could hear Kide on the other side of the room call to them. The Shadows remained frozen in place and after a moment of silence they simply popped out of existence and in their place a Darkside instantly materialized stuck in a strange pose that caused Torrin to stifle his laughter. The Darkside stood upright with its arms spread wide out apart looking like a giant T. "Aaaaaannnnndddd there! Fixed!" As soon as Kide spoke those words the Darkside came to life and began to move, bringing its fist down at the two keybladers. Aria tilted her head as she saw the shadow heartless freeze, and then disappear. Only to have Darkside suddenly appear and be frozen in place too in a weird position. "Well this is amusing." It then came back to life and Aria dodgerolled out of the way of the first blow. She then sent a Thunder spell at it, trying to get some damage off of it. "You know, the Light Chaser had me fight this off with Chrys! To help me train? I'm not sure." She moved back away from the Darkside, waiting for the next wave of attacks to come. Torrin had leapt backwards to get out of the Darkside's reach and transformed his keyblade into a bow to fire at the Darkside's head several times before it stood back up. "Really? Well it's a good thing you're in better company now." He spoke, not referring to himself but the entire group they were a part of. "These guys aren't much of a challenge compared to everything we've seen lately. Still better than Shadows." Torrin shrugged and eyed the Darkside as it leaned backwards to begin firing off dark energy orbs from the hole in its chest that tracked them down. Torrin sidestepped one and cut another with his keyblade sending it flying back at the Heartless. Aria split her keyblade into twin katanas, ready for action. She moved out of the way of the orbs, zig-zagging left and right. She finally sent off another wave of electricity, letting the currents take care of the darkballs heading her way and then dropping back to a defense position. The Darkside hunched over after having been struck again by Aria's magic and Torrin took the opportunity to move in and attack. He sprinted forward and slid under a an orb of darkness the came down at him and when he recovered he leapt up into the air holding his keyblade high. Torrin brought his keyblade down right at the Darkside's head and just like that it blinked out of existence...before his keyblade ever made contact with it. Torrin crashed into the ground with a hasty roll to recover from the whiffed attack. The room returned to its previous state and the simulated Eventide Town disappeared leaving the two in an empty white room. "Oops!" Kide called out from outside. He opened the door to let the two out. "Thanks for the assistance. Caught a bug during your battle and the training rooms should be ready before the end of the day." "You could've warned us you were ending the trial." Torrin glared, calling off his keyblade to rub his knee. "Couldn't have spared us a few more seconds?" "...No." Kidemonas answered simply. "You guys are free to go back to whatever it was you were doing." "And just like that, our training got ruined by someone else." Torrin sighed. "That's okay, we'll have plenty of time to train, yeah?" Aria unsummoned her keyblade and followed out of the dark room with Torrin to head back to the outside world. "Thanks for letting us give it a spin Master Kidemonas." Aria bowed politely to the man before heading to the stairs. The faster she could be back in the open, the easier she would feel. "I wonder what the others are up to by now... I hope Illiana isn't mad for me ditching her all of the sudden..." "She'd probably be more upset with me for dragging you away. Though she did hear me say Gero needed you so...maybe she bought it." He hadn't thought about how Illiana would have felt for having Aria suddenly pulled away but even after considering it, he still couldn't find reason to be too concerned about it. Though the thought did serve as a reminder about the other reason he wanted to pull Aria away in the first place. As they went up the stairs Torrin had remained silent for a while as he considered telling Aria what he had kept to himself. The only people who knew what had happened were Boreas and Choma. "Aria? There's something..." He hesitated. 'I killed Mika. Just the same as the me from the other world did. Oh but that was just her Nobody so you don't have to worry about me being the same!' He shook his head knowing that whether he was blunt about it or not, there was no way it could have sounded good. He trusted that Aria would have kept it to herself but even then. How would she look at him after hearing what he did? He decided to keep quiet about it for now. "Uh. Never mind. I forgot what I was going to say. Let's just get back to the others and see what's up."
Pet Sitting "Well she ain't a fan of spiders. But who is? And she don't like cabbage. I guess it's the smell," he said as he scratched his cheek. "And no one has tried to bother ol' Fluffkins. That's why I trust to leave her with mages. Wish I could take her along, but I wouldn't be able to pay much attention to her like she likes while I'm selling the crops at market. And you guys can sleep here outside, or in my cottage. There's a guest bedroom in there. And a comfy couch you can make into a bed." Lost Voices "Heh? Mr. Levimu Drove? Oh, you young whippersnappers are here for that one job, eh?" The old man kept the pipe in his mouth while he made up the bags of candy for Everette. "Terrible it is... We just had another attack yesterday. Poor family... Lost one of them boys. One of them miraculously survived. Mr. Drove should be with him now at his family's place. Just up the road here at the inn. Family don't feel safe out on the farm anymore..." The old man shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Poor souls." He then looked to Maria, since he was also selling jewelry along with candy and smiled. "That one there will cost ya 10,000 Jewels. The jewels come from Starfall Mine. Apparently a beast was guarding the jewels. Why, they twinkle like stars don't they? And that'll be 1,000 jewels for the candy young man. 500 jewels each bag." The woman that Conrad approached did happen to be the Farmer's wife. She looked tired, maybe a bit ragged. "You don't need to flatter me, son," she said as she turned to him with a basket of food on her hips. "Funny you asked me. He's with my boy right now just up the road. We were attacked last night by the beast that seems to be prowling in the woods. I can take you to him if you need to speak with him," she said with a sigh. XTREME FISHIN MISSIN' Master Midarah approved the mission for Yukyo and Thea to head out. She was a bit skeptic since it was just the two of them, and Thea had barely recovered from the last mission. Nonetheless, she let them go, knowing that Yukyo would keep an eye on Thea. When the two arrived at the docks, it was almost noon and there were many impressive ships to behold. They were to keep an eye out for Paul Tater, the master baiter. He was the one that gave them the job and that was who they needed to look for.
"One, Master Gero doesn't seem to like you so much... No offense. I imagine he would have sent someone else to come get me to talk to him." And he's not the same man I knew growing up, Aria thought to herself. That was apparent with the previous interactions she had with him before going off to find the supposed last Princess of Heart not in the LC's personal collection. She blamed that partially on the Mirror Relam that Master Gero seemed to have ended up in all these years. Either that, or he just wasn't the man she thought he was. "Two, yes, yes I did. Thank you," Aria ran her hand through her side ponytail, smiling as she did so. "My old hair was kind of trashed from battles. And three," Aria playfully shoved Torrin in the shoulder with her elbow. "Don't call me princess. Otherwise I'm going to address you as Prince Torrin," she teased, curtsying to add to the mockery. She then stood straight and rubbed the back of her head. "I'm okay," she said quietly, looking out of a window. "I get random waves of cold air here and there, but I think that's just my head playing tricks on me. I'm ready to do something to take my mind off of things..." She lowered her hand and stared at the friendship bracelet that was on her wrist, clenching and unclenching her hand as she stared a moment. "Maybe some training?"
"Huh?" Aria raised an eyebrow when Torrin seemed to know where exactly Illiana was taking her. She blinked in surprise when he said Gero wanted to speak with her, and was torn for a moment to keep entertaining Illiana, or go with Torrin to see the man she knew fondly as a grandfather figure. She looked to where Torrin looked and saw a newcomer and waved. "Hello new person!" she called out. But then Torrin started to walk away, and Aria lowered her hand. "Er, have a good day! I'll meet you later!" She then looked to Illiana and smiled a bit. "I guess you can show me later. I'll see you around," she said to Chrono and the young lady. She then trotted after Torrin, slowing down to his pace as she walked along side of him. "Getting tired of talking to others?" she asked with a hint of amusement since she noticed how fast he bailed when the other new person showed up. Torrin seemed to have been very busy this morning. "Does Gr-Master Gero really want to see me, or are you just using that to get me to follow you?" she asked with a slight all-knowing smile.
Aria perked up when she heard another familiar voice join them. "Hi Torrin," Aria greeted with a smile and a little wave. "Illiana asked me to humor her," Though it seems to be backfiring, she thought to herself, "And Chrono just joined us." The girl was relieved she wasn't alone with Illiana much longer. After the morning she had, she couldn't handle being shut down or have too much negativity. And Maka really doesn't know what else to say or post, sooooo we'll end it here.
