Azalea

Welcome to the Dark Hour

♥♥Subaru & Akito♥♥

A few hours ago
Akito waved hello to a young man with dark hair, who looked backed at him with confusion. The blond only smiled and approached the other male, who took a step back when Akito was within a few feet. "You don't remember me? You're horrible, Subaru!"he laughed.

Subaru just raised his eyebrows and kept his hands in his pocket. "Guess I am."he replied uninterested, not at all remembering the guy in front of him. There weren't many people with the same shade of golden hair that Gabriel had in this city yet Subaru still couldn't recall ever meeting this man. For some reason, the blond guy chuckled at Subaru again.

"You barely met me this morning! I sat next to you in that ramen place. I'm Akito."he reminded, and to his delight Subaru's expression indicated that he did suddenly remember.

"Oh...you're that strange guy who insisted on sitting with me. Right?"

Akito nodded his head and suddenly pulled Subaru's hand from out of his pockets. He tugged his arm and with surprising strength Akito dragged him towards Club Escapade. Subaru didn't really resist too much after Akito volunteered to pay for the drinks.

The Present
"AHAHAHAHAHA~! Hey Gabriel, I just left Club Escapade. I'm on my way *Hic* to the monorail station riiiiiggght about...NOW!"
After abruptly hanging up on Gabriel, Subaru was laughing hysterically for no reason except that he was drunk as he sluggishly trailed behind the sober Akito.

Akito shoved so much alcohol down Subaru's body that he got him to spill a lot of information. Akito now knew that Gabriel's team existed and there was a lot more persona users in this city than he originally thought. He couldn't get him to properly say the address of anybody's house, but Akito could find them on his own. Still, it had taken him hours to get the man drunk but Akito didn't mind. Now he could lead Subaru to the monorail, to Mizuki and Kieran, close to midnight and more importantly, the dark hour.

"The monorail is up ahead, you should be able to get home by yourself right? Subaru?"he asked with a friendly smile, but Akito's response from Subaru was more laughter and incoherent dialogue. "Eheh, perhaps that was a little too much I gave you there..."said Akito, who simply waved goodbye as Subaru stumbled towards the station.

Akito's friendly smile quickly faded and a cold expression replaced his cheery aura. He didn't need to be at the scene when the assassins did their business - he could back them up from his current location if he needed too. Still, that Gabriel man contacted Subaru earlier...Akito hoped that he didn't come looking for him.

♥♥Kieran♥♥

Kieran noticed that the transition to the dark hour had begun. The sky became green and puddles of blood appeared on the ground. Nobody besides him and his wife were at the station, so no coffins were in the area. Then, he saw the outline of a figure approaching the station an he turned to Mizuki. "I think thats him."he told her, but before he could hear her response, Akito's voice echoed in his head and probably Mizuki's too.

"I've gotten all the information I need from that guy and I've led him to you. Let me know if you need assistance. He has a persona, but he's drunk, so he's probably not a threat...Ah, it seems another person is approaching, besides the target...I think he also has a persona. He's going to get there before Subaru."

To Kieran's shock, the person he noticed earlier wasn't the target like he thought. "Him?!"he exclaimed.

♥♥Kyoya & Satoshi♥♥

Satoshi headed for the monorail station with Kyoya, who had finally picked him up at the hospital. "I said I'm sorry, Satoshi! Forgive me?"pleaded the popstar, but the manager just shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe."he said with a sheepish smile. "If you go through with what I'm about to say and promise not to back out."

Kyoya nodded his head over and over again, not wanting Satoshi to be angry with him again. This wasn't the first time his manager suffered because of the fangirls. "Yes, I promise!"cried Kyoya, causing Saotshi to burst out in laughter. When he finally stopped, Kyoya asked him what he needed to do.
"When I got my phone back, I had a missed call from some producer. They want you to be the main character of a movie where two men fall in love with each other. It's a tragic love story named A Billionaire's First Love."he explained, not mentioning who the co-star would be.

The popstar's face was priceless but he bravely stepped up to the challenge. "Fine! I'll do it to make up for the hundreds of times I've left you for dead on the sidewalk after fangirls attacked you."smiled Kyoya, who didn't realize his sentence could have offended Satoshi. When they finally got to the monorail station, everything around Kyoya transformed. He had lost track of time and he turned to his friend, who was now transmorgrified into a coffin. He sighed as he went to look for a bench to sit on while the dark hour went on; he couldn't just leave Satoshi behind again. Wishing that he had brought along Hibird for company, Kyoya walked off.

Kyoya headed towards the waiting area, and to his surprise, he saw two other people not in coffins. A man and a woman. The man seemed to recognize him, and while Kyoya thought it was because of his popstar status, he eventually recognized Kieran as he walked closer. "This is a surprise..."commented the idol, but he offered the two a smile. He didn't think that either were a threat, after all, Kieran had helped him earlier that day.

Dark Hour {Midorimacchi & Azalea}

ALAIR DI ANGELO
27 years old

Alair is the son of Aelia and Caesar di Angelo, making him a pureblood vampire. He is a hitman unaffiliated with any specific organization and currently hired by Kiyotaka Sanada. Alair doesn't mind taking orders from a human and is very interested in personas, shadows, and the dark hour. He doesn't use a persona himself, but he is awake during the dark hour and uses his guns to fight shadows that attack him or Kiyotaka. He isn't too concerned with whatever experiments Kiyotaka is doing with the shadows and sometimes captures some with Mosca for Kiyotaka. On Kiyotaka's orders, Alair is the one who killed Subaru Kururugi after he accidently ran into them on his way home and discovered something Kiyotaka wanted kept secret.

Alair's mother was a former hunter until his father changed her into a vampire, despite his hatred for hunters. As a human, Aelia never killed indiscriminately and believed the different species could live together without being enemies; only those who harmed others should be dealt with. Even after becoming a vampire she believed in that and passed down her ideals to Alair. On the other hand, his father refuted that belief and claimed that all hunters should be eliminated. Alair tried to take into consideration both his parent's opinions, but prefers to just ignore them both because he became fed up with their arguments a long time ago. One of the few things they agreed on is that Alair should know how to defend himself, so he was taught how to fire guns by his mother. He worked hard to become an exceptional shooter, which eventually led to him becoming a hitman.

He ended up in Japan after being curious about rumors and was startled to find everything bloody, electronics shut off, and people encased in coffins on his first night there. Unlike human blood, the blood disgusted him and monsters crawled around for an entire hour. As if time had stopped and restarted again, the city returned to normal as if nothing had happened. Alair was confused but he stayed in Japan, investigating why everything was so messed up. It was several nights later while he was fighting shadows that he met Kiyotaka Sanada and discovered the existence of personas. After a fight between the two of them, Kiyotaka hired Alair to work for him after realizing he was a hitman.

Dark Hour {Midorimacchi & Azalea}

KAGURA YUKIMURA
24 years old

A persona user on Gabriel's team, she prefers to use archery as her weapon along with her persona. She is a college student and constantly stressed out from multitasking both schoolwork and killing shadows, but Kagura perseveres in order to keep her home safe. In fact, beating up shadows makes her feel better and on nights the team does not hunt Kagura takes advantage of her extra hour to either finish homework (using her persona as her light source) or getting sleep. She is good friends with the rest of the team, but she can be pretty rude and critical towards other people until they get closer to her.

When she was younger Kagura was a figure skater but in her first experience in the dark hour she hurt her leg badly from a shadow attack, only surviving because she happened to awaken to her persona that night. This led her to quitting figure skating to pursue the archery club in her school, so she could protect herself from a distance if needed and it did not put as much strain on her bad leg. She was unaware of SEES because she secluded herself in her room during the dark hour out of fear of fighting off the creatures on her own. It wasn't until she heard humans outside fighting on the street that she found out there were other persona users, and she braved the dark hour to help them. After the shadows were defeated the leader introduced himself as Gabriel, and from that night on Kagura joined the group.

The Beginning of the End {Midorimacchi & Azalea}

ANGENEVA APOLLOS

17 years old
02/06/1188

Angeneva is an extreme follower of Belisario, alongside her brother Angelegacy because besides the regular loyalty potion given to newborns, her and her brother would be sung to sleep by their father almost every night. Her father Angelic's voice, when sung in certain tones and rhythyms, have hypnotic qualities that leave the listener a compulsion to feel loyal to Belisario. She isn't as affected as her brother, but hearing Angelic's songs daily during critical development periods in her early life has left her admiring Belisario and everything he does. She doesn't show this side of her often because she's shy, but she worships Belisario in private and made a secret altar for him in her closet.

Angeneva was blessed with a beautiful voice, just like her father. In her childhood her happiest moments were singing together with her father and getting praise from her parents about how pretty she sounded. She spent most of her time with her mother since her father devoted a lot of time to his career so Angeneva was never quite aware of how cold her father acted towards those who weren't family. Her mother stressed the importance of kindness and selflessness to her, teaching her values and morals that Angeneva took to heart unlike her brother.

She was a sweet child and was beloved by many of her classmates when she started school. A few were malicious to her out of jealousy, though Angeneva just tried to avoid those mean children because she thought they were scary. But as they grew older in a cruel world, most of her friends began to change from the innocent children they had been.

The other kids wanted to befriend her for either her famous father or famous ancestor, and had little interest in Angeneva herself. They wished to hear embellished stories of what it was like to have Angelic as a father, if she could get them autographs, or other ridiculous ideas she could not fulfill. She was considered boring to them unless she brought up something to do with her family, which shot down Angeneva's self-confidence. Some just outright disliked her kind personality while others felt jealously towards her for everything she had. Angeneva first became the target of bullies when she was eight and in the beginning it was just cruel words and taunts. But when she refused to argue back, and tried to reason with them peacefully, they were offended by her trying to befriend them and the bullies grew worse. Their treatment towards her was different than her older brother acting like a jerk towards her, Angeneva's bullies were genuinely malicious and sometimes escalated to physical violence. They started pulling her hair, playing pranks on her, and stealing her stuff. Angeneva tried to stop things on her own, not wanting to worry her family, but her parents finally found out after she was physically assaulted. She came home with a bruised face and finally confessed to her worried mother what happened. After a call from her mother, her father arrived home early with a scary look in his eyes Angeneva had never seen from him before.

Her father did not take the realization of her being bullied well and, Angeneva still has no idea what truly happened, but her bullies disappeared from school within a few days. Rumors of what happened circulated among the students; one girl's family was forced to live homeless after losing all of their money and possessions, another girl's parents were arrested for a scandal suddenly coming to light, and one boy was even sent to the healers after a terrifying accident left him paralyzed. Eventually her classmates noticed the connection between them: they all tormented Angeneva. Everyone began to feel wary of her afterwards and ignored her, not wanting to end up like her bullies.

Angeneva, too, felt fearful for her classmates. When she confided in her parents what was happening to her, she had been relieved when her father said he would "take care of everything". She had not realized that meant ruining their lives in revenge and she felt guilty over what was done to them, despite her father trying to explain that her tormentors deserved it. She voluntarily stayed away from her peers and they stayed away from her.

A few lonely years passed by for her and she did not have a single friend. Most people had already forgotten about the disappearing bullies and avoided her because she was the "weird loner girl" instead. Those who tried to befriend her were pushed away by her, so Angeneva gained a reputation of a snob who thought they were not good enough to spend time with her. The gossip escalated and the bullying resurfaced in her new classmates. But they were older and more dangerous than schoolyard bullies because they could use magic more efficiently. She was cursed with painful spells because they wanted to see reactions from her, and laughed when Angeneva cried or pleased with them to stop. When not physically attacked, Angeneva often had her emotions toyed with and people liked taking their anger out on her just because she never fought back. Angeneva was afraid to tell her parents what was happening because she didn't want them hurt like her previous bullies and her brother wasn't someone she felt she could confide in, so she went to extreme lengths to hide her injuries. She covered what she could with make up and spent her allowance on potions to heal faster. When asked about why she kept buying them, she lied and said she wanted to become a healer in the future. She told herself that she just had to endure the bullying until she graduated school. Angeneva genuinely liked learning and didn't want to leave, despite the bullying, because she was enrolled in one of the best schools that remained in Wiz.

The worst attack was in her last year at that school, when a classmate made fun of her voice, saying her singing was nothing compared to Angelic and cast a dark spell at her throat. It became painful for her to speak and the nurse was horrified when they discovered what Angeneva was attacked with. The spell on Angeneva's throat, combined with the trauma from her bullying and isolation from her peers, rendered her mute. Her parents tried their best to help her but she never regained her voice. Her father was especially horrified over Angeneva's condition and did not take the harm to her lightly. The wizard who attacked her ended up in prison, much to Angelic's displeasure, because in his opinion they deserved worse. Angeneva withdrew from the school on her parent's demand and she recovered for the next year, self studying at home with her mother's guidance. Angeneva was home schooled from then on and studied a lot on her own; she decided to become a healer, despite the idea being only a lie at first. She had taken to carrying a notepad with her in order to communicate. Angeneva was happy living with her family, but she felt lonely without friends of her own, especially since she could no longer sing.

She met her first real friends, Valarc Mancini and Weren Taiga, when she was 16 and her father took her to a birthday party he had been hired to sing at. But she had no idea whose birthday it was and her father told her about it last minute, so for a present she just grabbed one of her hair bows and stuffed it inside a gift bag. She felt embarrassed when they arrived and she learned it was a boy's birthday, since most guys typically preferred not to wear hair accessories, but it was too late to change the gift. She had nervously stayed beside her father the entire party, and when he had to perform, Angeneva stood behind the stage they prepared so she would not be forced to interact with anyone.

She did not notice Valarc, the birthday boy, until he started opening gifts in front of all the guests. To her embarassment, when he finally got to hers, he stared at the pink bow in bewilderment before saying it was the BEST GIFT EVER. He demanded his exasperated best friend, Weren, to put it in his hair immediately and Valarc wore the pink bow happily on his head the remainder of the party. Her father just looked amused, especially when Valarc tracked her down afterwards to thank her personally. She had no idea why he liked it so much, but felt glad she had made him so happy with her gift.

Even though she could not speak, Valarc didn't seemed bothered by her silence or having to read off of paper to communicate. He introduced his childhood friend, Weren, to her and asked if she had any hair accessories for him too so they could match. She offered him a hat she had been wearing earlier that she stuffed into her bag once she entered the party. Valarc thanked her and Weren resignedly wore the hat on his friend's insistence, but they continued to speak with her the rest of the party Valarc was especially enthusiastic to spend time with her after realizing she admired Belisario to an intense degree just like him. They exchanged numbers once the event ended and Angeneva has been friends with them ever since, usually with Valarc dragging Weren and Angeneva to each other's houses to hang out. Valarc constantly gets into fights and is rather rude towards most people, but she is unfazed because she's so used to her brother's personality, while Weren is often her partner in trying to stop Valarc from doing something stupid. Even though she usually has to heal them afterwards with her healing skills whenever they spend time together, Angeneva has fun hanging out with them and she no longer feels so lonely anymore.

relationships

Father: Angelic Chael Apollos
Mother: Angelique Charlotte Apollos
Siblings: Angelegacy Apollos

Paternal Grandfather: Angeles Apollos (deceased)
Paternal Grandmother: Aurelia Zolnerowich (deceased)
Uncles: Angelexis Apollos, Angiel Apollos (deceased), Heron Grayson, Pericles Santiago Alexius (in-law),
Aunt: Perinni Sansana Alexius, Flaery Aliana Suga (grand-aunt, deceased)
Cousins: Angelica Evelynn Apollos (deceased), Evelzar Angrael Cherubia, Persefron Alexius, Perrica Alexius, Flarynn Suga (1st once removed)

Friends: Valarc Mancini, Weren Taiga

☆☆ Not This Again

BELLEROPHON
He may have a point, he did not have everything he needed yet...after all there were still several figures Bellerophon had yet to buy. "Yeah, I guess so..." he agreed, although they were apparently not having the same conversation. But he became slightly startled and then flustered by Trixxtal's romantic words, he even blushed when he realized just how close they were to each other.

Perhaps, Trixxtal could have succeeded in his quest if it wasn't for the fact that Bellerophon loved anime as much as he did. When Trixxtal's fingers suddenly stroked his cheek, Bellerophon's first thought was Wow...Isn't this the kind of thing that would happen to a character in a romance anime? The sakura petals are even still fluttering around him. Am I...am I experiencing a real life anime moment?! Unfortunately for Trixxtal, Bellerophon forgot he was there as soon as he compared them to anime characters.

He tuned out the rest of Trixxtal's flirting because he was distracted by his thoughts about different rooftop anime scenes. What other scenarios happened during a rooftop moment? Bellerophon immediately thought of friends eating lunch together. Well, Bellerophon had no real world friends, and unless Trixxtal handed him a bento they could not re-enact a scene like that. The bento directed his memories to girls pouring their heart out to make the hand made meals for their cherished senpai, handing the lunch to them with a blush on their face. Bellerophon then remembered that he had been reminded of a romance anime in the first place by Trixxtal, whom he had completely forgotten about and stopped listening to. He snapped out of his daydream and finally paid attention to Trixxtal, who was in the middle of saying something he didn't quite hear except for the random french word tacked at the end of the sentence.

"Sorry, I stopped listening, what were you saying?" he asked, but then became distracted again when a sakura petal carried by the wind had stuck itself onto Trixxtal's face. He was curious if those were actually real, because Bellerophon could still barely believe how they kept swirling around them like in anime, so he leaned forward to take a closer look. "Wow, these petals aren't fake...? It's happening naturally..." he mumbled to himself in awe.

But then, Bellerophon heard the door open so he turned his head to see who had come to the rooftop. That happened to be a mistake because they were already close together so when Bellerophon moved, his lips somehow accidently crashed into Trixxtal's. His mind went blank. All he could think about was that ridiculous accidental kisses like this only happened in bad fanfiction. Now all that needed to happen now was for the worst person to catch them like this, and just on cue, Bellerophon heard a voice.

"Hey, Trixxtal! Are you here-"

And at that moment Bellerophon pulled away startled and, wanting to look anywhere but at Trixxtal he turned towards who had spoken, revealing Jecht Rutella staring at them in disbelief.

JECHT
He opened the door and stepped onto the rooftop, smiling as he looked around. "Hey, Trixxtal! Are you here-" he called out, only to stop midsentence when he spotted Trixxtal. Only, Trixxtal was in the middle of kissing another person.

"What...are you doing? What is going on, Trixxtal?" he asked in disbelief, his hands shaking as he pressed his bento against his chest. He looked at Trixxtal, to the random boy (who was probably one of the most beautiful people he had ever seen, which only added to Jecht's dismay), and back to Trixxtal. "You were...kissing...Why?"

He felt tears already beginning to sting his eyes. His friends had warned him that Trixxtal was unfaithful, but he didn't believe them because he trusted Trixxtal wholeheartedly. But...he could not ignore what he saw with his own eyes. He wanted to yell and scream, demanding answers, but Jecht wasn't that kind of person. He wasn't violent or confrontational and he didn't know how to deal with catching his boyfriend in a compromising position like this.

"How...how dare you, Trixxtal, how could you?! I thought you loved me!" he cried, tears streaming down his face.

ETHAN
"It feel like we're watching a shitty live action soap opera." Ethan said, bewildered by what he just saw. He felt sorry for whoever the dark haired guy was, but he had zero pity for the fake French accent douchebag from math class. More importantly, the two of them could finally get out of here without becoming involved in an awkward situation if they were sneaky enough to not get noticed. He had already been involved in an embarrassing situation today and he did not want to experience any more. "Anyways, they're distracted now, let's sneak out the door!" he whispered, eyeing the stairs with determination.

Vampirates

NEMESIS & CEPHEUS
Before they all left, Nemesis noticed an annoyed looking Cepheus approaching them, and concerningly pale. But clutched in his hands was an empty bag and Nemesis thought it was perfect for stashing their stolen goods! "Ooooh, just what I needed, thanks!" she gleefully snatched the bag from Cepheus's hand, earning an exasperated look from the man. "And weren't you supposed to be with Jecht? We just saw him run off the ship."

Cepheus rolled his eyes at her question. "What could you possibly want that bag for? That was supposed to be for collecting trash off the floor," he drawled, but all he received was a laugh and 'just throw the debris in the ocean!' from her. "But whatever. And you will not believe how much Jecht was whining back at his room, I had to listen to that while fixing his bandages. Then he insisted he was healed enough now and yelled at me when I insisted he stay, then he ran off." he complained, but Nemesis nodded in understanding. She wouldn't be able to stop angry Jecht from leaving either.

"We're going to steal little Tori some new clothes! We're getting supplies for the ship too. So this bag is perfect to stash the loot in. Wanna come with us?" she asked, and Cepheus shrugged before looking at Tori who was hidden behind Nemesis for some reason, making him wonder if Jecht had scared him again. He gave the child a reassuring smile.

"Alright, I'll come along." he agreed, worried about Protettore getting caught up in all of this but if he was going to be a long time guest on the ship then he needed multiple sets of clothes. "And besides, Jecht didn't bring any money with him...we'll have to bring him some so he doesn't cause a scene at whatever bar he runs off to. The last thing that needs to happen is him getting into a fight and aggravating his injuries." he pointed out, cringing at the thought of his friend getting into worse trouble. "What is the currency, anyways?" he asked, puzzled. When they actually purchased things legally instead of stealing them Jecht usually took care of the finances, so Cepheus barely had any idea of the different currencies of all the places the crew travelled to.

"I don't know, but who cares we can just steal some money, no big deal!" said Nemesis.

CHARLIE
Their encouragement did not completely lift his spirits, or terror of Jecht's threat, but it was enough to at least make Charlie feel more at ease. "Right..." he mumbled, praying that they were right. As he stepped off the ship with them, Charlie looked towards the others to lead the way.

"Hmm, let's go...that way! There's bound to be plenty of pants for little Tori there." he heard Nemesis as she pointed in a seemingly random direction, until Charlie noticed a few large buildings. Hopefully, one of them would be a carpenter they could steal from otherwise Charlie might as well prepare for his journey to the underworld.

"Okay, listen up little Tori, here are some tips to keep in mind." he heard Nemesis enthusiastically explain to the child, who Cepheus was currently holding by the hand, causing Charlie to feel pity for the innocent child the crew would no doubt end up corrupting, "Be aware of your surroundings! Keep track of any noises and move carefully so you don't make sound bumping into something, we wouldn't want you from getting caught. But don't worry, Cepheus here can smell and listen to everything in the house when he goes dog. And normally, we'd scout out the area beforehand, but we don't really have time for that right now so...Oh well! And walk carefully, breathe slowly through your nose...hm...what else?"

Charlie sighed at her advice, which Nemesis seemed to be thinking and blurting out at random in no particular order. "Um...Nemesis...you're telling him to do all of those things, but you haven't explained how to do it..." he pointed out hesitantly, not wanting to offend her or anything. Thankfully, Nemesis didn't seemed bothered by his intrusion to the conversation.

"Oh, right! Sorry Tori, I'm not the best at this. Jecht is the one who explained this all to me, he's a pretty good teacher haha! How did he say it...?" she wondered to herself, pausing a moment to recall the captain's wisdom. "Keep your arms close to your side so you don't accidently knock anything down when you move through the house. And if you need to jump, when you land try to be crouched in a balanced position. If you want to move quietly, walking in a slightly crouched position engages all of your muscles. That lightens the amount of force that hits the ground when you make contact with the ground. And you have to distribute your weight evenly when you walk. Walking heel to toe helps, too! He was a very harsh teacher though and expected me to learn to walk silently...I had to walk across the floor, and every time he heard me take a step, he would send a bolt of lightning at me! It's funny now, but I was terrified at the time!" she continued explaining to the child, but at this point Charlie was tuning her out. He shivered as he remembered his own torturous training with Jecht.

Welcome to the Dark Hour

♥♥Cleafen♥♥

“Sweet dreams, dearest.” cooed the young boy, emerging from the shadows of the room. A locked door wouldn’t keep Cleafen from his lovely Fleance. “I am always with you.” he reminded, slowly stepping towards the edge of the bed. He stopped. He smiled.

♥♥Pikachu&Hibird♥♥

While Shinji and Kyoya discussed what they needed talk about, Pikachu sat in front of Momo’s room. Hibird rested on top of his head and the small yellow creatures stared at the doorknob, knowing it was locked. That would not stop them from finding a way to harass Momo, but Pikachu couldn’t blast the thing open, knowing it might alert the object of his torment. “Pikachu?” muttered the rodent, scheming with the bird. “Chirp chirp, tweet!”

Hibird opened her beak and a key emerged from inside her. Pikachu did not question Hibird and took the key, amazed that it wasn’t slimy or anything. “Chirp!” alerted Hibird, one of her wings pointing to the doorknob. Pikachu, understanding her instructions, jumped up and tried to enter the key into the doorknob. Sadly, he was too short and Hibird had no hands! Momo was still safe, for now…

♥♥Sousuke♥♥

Since he’s from Japan, he had the sleeping habits of a vampire. Sousuke was usually awake during the night and what surprised him was the dark hour. It still occurred, despite the time difference and the fact that he wasn’t in Japan!

He first noticed this when the airplane he was on froze in midair and the passengers all became coffins. Luckily, it was just stuck there and he didn’t come crashing down to his death. Sousuke felt anxious for duration of the flight.

♥♥Kyoya&Shinji♥♥

“Thank you.” Kyoya replied to the boy, slightly surprised that his music didn’t work on the girl. Maybe he should have tried Lovi Sky’s song? Many girls had a thing for both of them; he knew this fact well. One morning, Kyoya woke up with photos and papers taped all over his body. Every single item was explicit yaoi fan fiction and photo shopped pictures of him and Lovi Sky together, courtesy of his manager. Kyoya learned never again to anger Satoshi, especially since he had access to all of Kyoya’s fan mail. He shivered at the thought.

Shinji, impatient with his cousin’s random silence, just decided to leave. Already his popstar cousin caused a commotion! He didn’t want to deal with him right now. As he turned to go back upstairs, Kyoya sensed his cousin’s boredom and reached for his pocket, determined to catch his attention. He whipped out a photo and held it out like a duelist showing his YuGiOh card to his opponent.

“Look dear cousin! I found this picture of you on the ground when I was hiding out in your school.”

Shinji gave Kyoya a strange expression and an even stranger one appeared when he looked at the photo in the popstar’s hand. “What the hell?” he muttered, snatching it from his hands. It was definitely him, this was his yearbook picture! “God, are those creepers at it again?”

Shinji was unaware that he had a fan club at school, but he did notice a creeper from time to time.

♥♥Satoshi♥♥

On the edge of a sidewalk, an unconscious man’s body was sprawled against the pavement. The redhead couldn’t save Kyoya from the crowd this time, so he hoped that the popstar made it to the dorm. The last thing his eyes saw before passing out had been a blurred outline of an approaching figure.

So when he woke up, Satoshi was not surprised to find himself in a hospital. The white room stung his eyes a bit and he winced, despite being used to bright lights of a stage whenever he observed Kyoya’s performances. Eventually, some nurses explained to him some information that he didn’t particularly care about. Where was Kyoya? That’s what he wanted to know, but he didn’t know where his phone was.

“So…you were trampled on by a stampede of Kyoya Legacy fangirls?”asked a blond policeman, giving Satoshi a questionable look. Soon all the officer received were one worded responses from Satoshi but he still kept asking questions. Officer Sohma eventually left the room, satisfied with the information he gained. Satoshi sighed and laid his head against the soft pillow the hospital provided, planning his next revenge on Kyoya for abandoning him. He could have at least sent somebody to find him, hell even that strange Hibird would have sufficed.

♥♥Jonathon♥♥

"I need a new job."complained the waiter, watching strange men do The Creep on Club Escapade's dancefloor. Earlier, the strange rodent scurried away so he decided to forget about it, having way more important things to worry about. Jonathon's shift ended and he headed towards the dorm, planning to chill there.

♥♥Michael♥♥

Michael didn't know what doctor the child spoke about, but he nodded his head anyways. He normally did that whenever Milton rambled about something he didn't understand. "Yes, he is real."he lied indifferently, taking the boy's hand. "Ah, the custom of humans, the handshake, I have heard of it."he commented, his strange speech patterns making him pause after every other phrase. "I am Michael. I do not understand what this 'hang' is that you speak of, but you should introduce me to it one day. If you should ever need to locate me, look for a velvet door that only certain individuals may see. That is, only if you possess the potential to find it."

Despite his riddled speech, the silver haired man offered a smile at the young human before letting go of the handshake. "I am off to buy the shampoo that has been requested by my master. Farewell, Ryuu."

The airport didn't look like the stores Milton always sent him too, so Michael's intuition told him that he'd have difficulty finding the bath product. In the middle of the airport Michael summoned a door, but instead of leading to the velvet room or some other random place, this time it led to the familiar Japanese store in Japan he always went to. Oblivious to the stares of the people in the airport, Michael stepped through it without worry.

♥♥Subaru♥♥

"I will take this, thank you."

Suburu could only watch as another man pryed the shampoo he had been holding away from him. A blank stare was on Subaru's face, dumbfounded as the silver haired man walked to the register and bought the shampoo he had been planning to purchase. "Man oh man..."he mumbled quietly, his voice was full of awe rather than bitterness. "What is going on today? I'm encounting strange people left and right...No matter."he sighed, turning around and grabbing one of the other dozens of shampoo bottles laying on the shelf. Surprisingly, he didn't see that strange man after he left the store, so Suburu just decided to go home. The monorail was a bit far away because he visited Kagura this afternoon and she lived somewhat far from him, but the station was the fastest way to his house from this store.

♥♥Kieran♥♥

Kieran was about to enjoy eating a sandwich when he heard Mizuki yelling for him. His mouth was full of delicious bread, peanut butter, and jelly, so he couldn't answer right away. He quickly finished the sandwich and drank an entire glass of milk, scurrying to the sink to put his dishes away. After that, Kieran walked into the living room and smiled at his wife. "Yes?"he answered calmly, not wanting to anger his obviously angry wife even more. "I'm ready."

♥♥Kenji♥♥

"Finished!"exclaimed Kenji, who had decided to correct and finish the rest of his homework while Hikaru left the room. He smiled and proudly put his papers away, zipping up his backpack. For once he stood up and headed towards the door to leave Hikaru's room. He went into the hallway and saw Pikachu and a strange bird on its head. "Ah, what is that?"

Mafia {Azalea & Midorimacchi}

Tala Stiles
21 years old

He is an omega werewolf and moved away from America after breaking ties with his pack over an intense argument. He was bitten as a child and always resented the fact that he was turned into a werewolf, so he feels jealous of normal humans and wishes he still was one. He doesn't hate other werewolves, or even other supernatural creatures, Tala only loathes his former pack and the werewolf who bit him. He moved to Italy for a fresh start once he saved (and stole) enough money to live on his own. He currently works at an amusement park in what he considers "the most boring job" as a rollercoaster operator, and he stands in the heat all day wishing he could be having fun riding the rides instead. His job was where he met his co-worker Adrien Szetella. Once Tala heard that Adrien was an orphan living in a shelter, his story made Tala remember how he wished he could have had help when he first lived on his own, so he gave Adrien an offer to be roommates.

They don't always get along because, according to Adrien, Tala is an "annoying obnoxious roommate" who constantly plays loud music that bleeds through the walls of his room, leaves trash all over the aparment, always eat Adrien's food, and takes his things without asking or replacing them. But Adrien could never bring himself to seriously complain because Tala is being generous allowing him to room with him, even covering some of the payments Adrien missed. Therefore, Tala is under the impression that Adrien is a "real chill dude" that doesn't have a problem with his behavior and is only joking when he acts annoyed.

The Beginning of the End {Midorimacchi & Azalea}

NOEM ADONIS SIRAN

115 years old
16/12/1090

1145-1151
Noem was torn between the two sides during the rebellion. The royals were his former companions but they sent assassins after him once he escaped execution and he could not be with them if he wanted to. On the other hand, the rebels were once his enemies but they had saved his from death and people from the past he had left behind were once again in his life. He had people he cared for fighting on opposing sides, and had no idea how to handle fighting against his old and new comrades. To make things worse, he was also constantly on the run from assassins. After Pemendra tracked him down in The Under, killing his caretaker Amerii and orphaning her children in the process, Noem avoided staying in one place for too long. He did some missions on behalf of Seraphion at times and helped when he could, but most of his time was spent evading the assassins.

1151-1161
When the end of the rebellion came and Seraphion emerged victorious, Noem felt incredibly happy for Belladonna when she became queen. Still possessing romantic feelings for her, he had complete faith that she would be just what Wiz needed to heal. Seraphion, having taken control of the council, gave Noem a pardon and he was finally free of assassins chasing him. He spent his newfound freedom aiding in rebuilding areas of Wiz that had been destroyed during the fighting, and volunteered to aid Symphony help young orphans.

When Belisario arrived on Wiz years later, many of Seraphion’s former rebellion members were killed by demon forces. Noem managed to fend off those who came after him but to his dismay many of his friends, including Symphony, perished in the attack. Symphony’s death filled him with the most despair he had ever felt in his life and as he mourned over the fallen corpse, he vowed to avenge his friend’s death. Noem was already losing control of himself because of Symphony and he probably could have reigned himself in, if it wasn’t for the fact that Belladonna died so soon after.

Belladonna’s death filled him with grief, but more importantly rage. He hated Hades and Belisario with every part of his being for killing his beloved queen. His love for Belladonna was one sided and he never acted on his feelings, but that did not make his feelings any less real. It was that love, combined with the wrath born from his grief, which pushed him towards the path of revenge.

He cursed his fate. He cursed his life. His whole world had shattered yet again. The first was the abandonment of his parents, forcing him to live on the streets as a child. The second was his failure in protecting Bellona, leading him to a life on the run from assassins. Finally, this third time was the death of Symphony, Belladonna, and everything Seraphion had fought for – the war they had fought almost seemed meaningless now that Belisario had usurped the throne. Noem could have walked the path of peace and turned away unnoticed, never giving Belisario and Hades a reason to make note of him. But Noem’s path of revenge led to him battling with Hades – and he nearly won, but in the end Noem experienced defeat once the demon’s bodyguards finally found and stopped him from killing Hades. With him gaining Hades’ attention, Noem sealed his fate into becoming the minion of those he hated most in the world.

1161-1164
Instead of killing Noem, Hades saw an opportunity to gain a powerful wizard on their side and imprisoned him instead. Many wizards felt the same as Noem and were not happy about demons crawling around after killing the queen and the council. Tensions between demons and wizards were high, and hatred for demons and Belisario were not uncommon. To Hades loyalty was one of the most important things to inspire in followers so he was determined to make every single wizard loyal to his husband, even if he had to fabricate it. He would not allow the hatred, disloyalty, and tension run rampant in the kingdom. Therefore, Hades turned Noem into a test subject for developing a powerful loyalty potion. Noem hated them and was magically powerful as well as resistant to loyalty potions due to his time with Seraphion during the rebellion, since all rebels were given antidotes and counters to loyalty potions. In Hades’ eyes, this made Noem the perfect subject.

He was imprisoned in an isolated cell, fed loyalty potions to see how effective they were on him. The first batch was completely negated and had zero effect. Hatred or anger could break a person free if they had enough of it towards the person they were being forced to be loyal to, which Noem had plenty of. The next few potions were altered until they finally found one strong enough that lasted consistently and he could not break free from. But the experiments did not stop there; Hades wanted to measure just how much anger it would take to render the potion useless. Noem was tortured brutally and painfully, getting healed then tortured then healed then tortured in a vicious cycle. They wanted to make him despise them as much as possible and tortured him to increase his hatred. Whenever he had enough anger to break free of the potion they merely wrote down their observations, fed him another potion or an altered dose of it, and increased the torture. After months of testing his limits, the “perfect loyalty potion” had been developed. No matter what was done to Noem – the physical, mental, and emotional torture – he never broke free from the enchantment. It was this potion that Hades used to create the hypnotic spell used by Angelic and was the prototype for the loyalty potion eventually given to newborns.

But this was not the end for Hades’ experiments with Noem. He was fascinated by the effects of the potion, of course, but he wanted to challenge himself. He wanted to see if he could convert Noem into a loyal subordinate without using a potion, despite all that had been done to him. Hades fed him the antidote, and Noem felt his head clear before memories of what the past few months had been like for him rushed pass. Noem utterly loathed Hades, and for putting him through months of horror, could easily say he despised him more than Belisario. Noem vomited on the floor thinking of what happened; there were memories he felt no concern for while under the influence of the potion that disgusted him now. They messed up both his mind and body; there were even a few scars still visible that the healer could not completely remove. He felt his anger spike as Hades just laughed at his pain, and Noem was horrified to learn that Hades still had plans for him. He didn’t want to be imprisoned anymore; he wanted to escape, but Noem felt that the only escape for him would be death.

But he didn’t want to die; he was terrified of dying. Terror gripped him and he began to have a mental breakdown over what had happened to him and what he feared would happen. The laughter from Hades thankfully snapped his mind back to reality, somewhat, but he still felt uncomfortable being in the same room with the person responsible for his state. And he could not fight back; even if his magic had not been suppressed, Noem could barely find enough strength to stand.

Noem was physically beaten by Hades until he was near unconscious, and he was forced to face reality that his situation was utterly hopeless. There was nothing he could do anymore to escape; there would be no miracle like the rescue from his first imprisonment when he was to be executed for his failure as a protector. But as if Hades could tell Noem had finally broken on the inside, the pain stopped coming. The demon abruptly began to heal him and treated him very gently, saying words in sweet tones, although him cooing degrading phrases like “You’re like a broken doll now, Noem. Utterly worthless. Poor you, I’ll help you get all better…I’ll save you, and make you worth something again. You’re crying, but that’s alright. You were treated so terribly…those who are loyal to Belisario won’t ever be hurt like you were. I’ll help you become loyal so you’ll never be hurt again…don’t you want that?” frightened him. But despite Hades’ sinister words, those were the first somewhat kind things he had heard in months after continuous torture and Noem couldn’t help put place his hope in him. Hades moved him into a nicer cell – a nice bedroom that reminded him of his old quarters during his time as Bellona’s protector – and with a promise “be loyal to Belisario, and you won’t be hurt again”.

Noem still hated him, but he felt too relieved over Hades’ mercy that he didn’t try to attack or escape. He compliantly stayed in his room with a lingering fear in the back of his mind that he would get even worse torture if he did anything wrong and get sent back to his previous cell. Unknown to Noem, Hades’ manipulation had already begun to set, to the point where he wasn’t even protesting his imprisonment any longer. Hades returned the next day with a bracelet and gave it to Noem – and warned him that if he showed any disloyalty to Belisario, his followers, or Hades himself, he would get shocked painfully by an electric spell. Noem made the mistake of giving Hades an angry scowl at that information, which ended up with him getting mildly shocked. It was the first of many, since Hades would purposely antagonize Noem or put him through degrading tasks that ended with Noem getting shocked. Those shocks were usually the only time Noem was ever hurt, however, so it did not take long for him to subconsciously understand that pleasing Hades meant safety, no harm, and no pain. And what pleased Hades was loyalty, obedience, and devotion to serve him and Belisario. Sometimes Hades would even secretly send a subordinate to harm Noem and let Noem get hurt, and then Hades would suddenly appear to “rescue” him while saying reassuring words like “I’m sorry, I should not have let this happen, I promised to protect you from harm. I won’t let this happen again, I’ll keep you safe”, in order to manipulate Noem’s emotions. It took a few months of this conditioning, but eventually Noem began to fear showing any type of disobedience and felt genuine terror at being thought disloyal towards Belisario. If he believed he did something wrong, even after the bracelet was removed, Noem felt phantom pains as if he was punishing himself.

Like a victim of Stockholm syndrome, Noem began to think of the demon in a positive light because Hades always made sure to reward him after good behavior and treat him kindly. Additionally, Hades was usually his only contact during his imprisonment. Every word out of the demon’s mouth was used to manipulate Noem in some way, and while Noem was aware deep down that everything was wrong and Hades was a liar, he was broken enough to stop caring and allowed Hades to rebuild him however he wished.

1164-1176
After three years of imprisonment, Noem had been successfully conditioned and brainwashed into a loyal subordinate. Hades could taunt Noem about Symphony or Belladonna’s death right to his face and barely get a reaction from him. And if he was ordered to do something, Noem would do it without question. Hades took full advantage of Noem’s obedience; it was one thing to be loyal, but to be devoted and obedient was another.

Noem did jobs on behalf of Hades and Belisario. And most of the time, they were terrible jobs that Hades didn’t trust with assigning to other wizards, but discreetness was needed and his demons could not blend in as successfully among the population. Noem did not enjoy most of his missions, but he kept telling himself that he could not afford to displease “Master Hades and Master Belisario”. Among some of his jobs was being a part of the team tracking down the wizards on King Belisario’s hit list, including his siblings, and Noem did not dare ask why they were assassinating members of the royal family. He also felt too afraid to ask why people from the noble families were being kidnapped, and forced himself to look away when his old comrade Angiel and his daughter had their hearts sacrificed in some bizarre dark ritual by the king.

1176-1180
Belisario had been declared the Dark Overlord soon after, and with his power so great and his rule unquestionable, there wasn’t as much for Noem to do anymore. Hades mercifully allowed Noem free as a reward for his services and loyalty, as long as he would return if he was ever needed for something. Noem had no idea what to do with himself after so many years of servitude so he went back to Candiland, where he was welcomed by Peppa and rehired as an Éclair under the name Adonis Ludo. Noem spent most of his time in Candiland and had no desire to do anything else with his life. After all the fighting and pain he had been through, Noem was tired of it all and going to take advantage of any peace he could get. But his peaceful days became a lot more eventful with the arrival of Symphonia Zylan.

She was the niece of Symphony and Symphonia had been interested in Noem ever since she saw him speaking with Symphony one day, so when she found out he worked at Candiland she started requesting him. In addition to her connection to Symphony, Noem became quite fond of her after seeing her so many times so he wasn’t too annoyed when she became pregnant. He had no interest in being together with her romantically, but Noem made an effort to help her through the pregnancy and be there for the birth. He felt surprisingly happy when his son Noel was born and took a leave of absence of his job for a few months, so he could help raise the baby while Symphonia recovered. They took turns taking care of Noel, but it was mostly Symphonia watching him since she had no job.

A year into their arrangement he was caught off guard when she gave him full custody of Noel, and she started to spend less and less time with both of them. He didn’t ask what she was doing, even when her vanishing for days turned into weeks and then months. The few times he saw her she had a serious expression in her eyes, and Noem grew concerned when she began to look pale and feel constantly sick. She closed herself off from him and Noel, even her mother Symphaerie and her siblings. He decided to not think much of her situation, but he regretted this decision when one day he suddenly received news from a distraught Symphaerie that Symphonia had died. All they were told was that she was in an "unfortunate accident” and Noem never uncovered anything more about her suspicious death. Or rather, he did not try to. In the past he had caused several “unfortunate accidents” for Belisario so Noem had a feeling he was better off never figuring out what she had been up to.

1180-PRESENT
Noem moved in with Symphaerie Zylan, so that Noel could get to know his grandmother and that he had a free babysitter while he worked. They became good friends and Noem was sad when she passed away of an illness in 1184, when Noel was only six years old. Since Noem didn’t know any of the Mancinis that well, Noem just brought him to Candiland and let him play in the recreational areas until it was time to go home. Besides a few intimidating visits with Hades or an occasional random job for the demon, raising Noel were the most peaceful and fun years of his life and Noem felt happiness he had not had for a long time.

After seeing how strong the half demon child of Valiance Mancini was even as an infant, Hades gave permission for demons to freely pursue a relationship with wizards; something he had restricted before and allowed only with special permission. So much time had passed since Belisario took over that demons were not as discriminated against by the wizards and newer generations fully accepted them as a part of society. Despite all of this, Noem was still surprised when he ended up in an odd relationship with the demon Anhura. Demons had tortured him for months when he had been imprisoned by Hades so Noem always felt a tinge of fear when around them and he never expected to willingly spend time with one.

But spending time with Anhura was so unlike what he was used to. She wasn’t exactly kind, but she never hurt him the other demons. In fact, she couldn’t even hold his hand without feeling faint from nervousness, and literally paid a large amount of money just to talk to him in the room at Candiland. She told Noem that she was only at Candiland on a bet from her twin sister, and she didn’t care how pretty he was, she would never let him touch her. He was confused, but accepted the explanation and easy money. Of course he tried his best to persuade her to come back and said to request him anytime, like he said to all his clients, but Anhura just called him a disgusting wizard and ran off embarrassed.

After that strange encounter Noem didn’t expect her to ever return, but she came back a week later and then the following week, until it was normal for her to just be there once a week. She had become strangely obsessed with spending time with him and Noem didn’t mind at all as long as she was a paying customer. The more time he spent with her the less he started to fear demons. He eventually became attracted to her personality, finding it hilarious how she blushed when she called him rude names and how annoyed she became whenever he teased her. It took Noem months for her to even accept a kiss on the cheek from him and Anhura was shy getting a hug, so he never expected to eventually have children with her. Their first daughter, Noesferatu, was a surprise and he got full custody of her since he already had experience with children. Noel finally met Anhura when Noesferatu was born and while his son thought Anhura was weird and did not like her much, he instantly liked his little sister and declared she was ten times cuter than “that evil demon baby cousin” of his. While not in an official romantic relationship with Anhura, she still takes the time to see him at Candiland, which led to the birth of their second child Noebella.

He adores all three of his kids and they live in the house Symphaerie left to Noel, though his daughters do worry him because they are extremely competitive with one another and start fights over trivial things. Once, they argued about who had the better favorite color and Noem came home to the living room furniture half destroyed, the room colored in a mix of blue and pink paint, and an unconscious Noel on the floor. Another time, Noesferatu had been using Noebella's large stuffed animal as a pillow but accidently ripped it in half with her horn. As soon as Noem saw the stuffing fall out, he knew that it was not the only thing going to be ruined that day, and after a difficult struggle he was forced to take Noebella to her mother's house while Noel took the toy to his uncle Vallix in hopes he could sew it back together. The absolute worst was when Noebella got gum in her sister's hair and in retaliation, Noesferatu tried to cut off Noebella's hair. Noel, his brave son whose bratty tantrums as a child never compared to the girls' vicious fights, was caught in the crossfire trying in vain to stop their fight and had to visit his grandfather to fix his hair afterwards.

Despite all of the trauma and horrible experiences in his past, Noem is content with his current life and tries to forget all of the bad things ever happened. He is haunted by nightmares and there is always a dark thought in his mind once in awhile, wondering if his happiness is real or the result of another potion, but he just has to take one look at his children to feel reassured that his emotions are his own. Noem is sure that without them he would have died along time ago and all alone without anyone caring he was gone.

Hold My Flower

BELLARINO
Bellarino smirked at Kyuubee. Sure, pulling pranks never failed to amuse him…but why should he go to the work of setting them up when he had a perfectly capable servant right in front of him?! Besides, ordering people around was one of Bellarino’s favorite things to do.

He watched, eagerly anticipating the entertainment of watching Belladon fall prey to Kyuubee’s spell. When an obnoxious melody briefly sounded loudly throughout the hall he immediately checked his phone, a sinister smile on his face when he read the message. “Kyubunny, the loser is on his way, hurry up!” he warned, pocketing his phone.

To his surprise, the prince caught in the trap was not Belladon, but Belisario! Bellarino watched Belisario fall to the ground, like a complete moron, and begin to cry. He laughed at the scene before him, pleased with the turn of events. “Hahaha! You’re such a dumb bastard!” he jeered at Belisario.

When Kyuubee retrieved the rose, Bellarino felt smug once the flower rested in his hands. The plan was a success! He could not wait to show Belvedere and conjure up plans on how to best torment Bellerophon. But the prized rose would no remain in his hands for much longer. Bellarino heard body hit the floor with a thud and his eyes widened at the sight of his twin fallen amongst the trio.

“Belvedere?! You stupid Kyubunny, what the hell did you do, fix him now!” he cried out, the flower forgotten as it slipped from his hands in his rush to Belvedere’s side. Unfortunately for Bellarino, common sense seemed to flee at the sight of his twin’s distress, and when he reached out to pull him up…Bellarino tripped over Belisario and ended up in the trap with them.

“What the fuck?! Kyubunny you’ll pay for this!” he shouted, the gross feeling of cold water enveloping him.

EVELINA
Evelina could have held back Bellarino back if she wanted to, but she could not resist watching the brat princes getting a taste of their own medicine. “Don’t speak, it activates the curse.” She informed more for Cordelia’s sake, but she had a feeling most of them would not hear her. Once she saw the protector begin to calm, Evelina eyed the fallen rose on the floor. The ridiculous rose had caused this entire scenario and Evelina decided it would be best to pretend she did not see it.

CORDELIA
Cordelia was surprised when she fell to the ground alongside the two princes. The spell was simple, yet difficult to see through. She knew her magic was no match for Kyuberos; apparently it was the same for his brother.

She panicked when she heard the distressed cries of both her charges and tried to bury her shame in allowing them to get caught in a prank. Thankfully her fellow protector brought her to her senses and Cordelia took a deep breath as she readied herself to prepare a counter spell, gripping her wand. She began to mutter a spell, steeling herself against the sensation of freezing water pouring over her, trying her best to ignore the effects as she continued her casting. She was unsure if the curse had deactivated on its own from the time limit, or if her spell was actually helpful, but she felt relieved when she no longer felt the water.

The curse’s removal did not seem to soothe the twin’s wrath, however. Cordelia grimaced as she heard Prince Bellarino, who was clinging to Prince Belvedere’s arms protectively, yelling at Kyuubee for letting them get caught in his prank. She sighed and turned to Prince Belisario, helping him up and apologizing profusely for allowing all of this to happen.

“I’m so sorry, Prince Belisario! Even if it was a simple prank, I should not have allowed things to escalate this far…”

VALEXANDER
“Hah? You mean…bullies?!” he asked alarmed. But before Valexander could demand their names so he could tell their mother to beat them up, Valalee’s next words halted his questions. He immediately felt relieved and gave her a reassuring smile. “Oh, you beat them up? That’s great! You’re so strong now, just like mom!” he exclaimed, proud of her winning a fight.

But his eyes once again caught sight of the mark on her cheek, and his worries resurfaced, along with new suspicions. Now that he saw it up close Valexander could recognize a burn; Belshazzar, after all, constantly hurt himself with his weird science experiments and his burns were some of the injuries Valexander saw frequently. “Okay, let’s go visit grandma! She should have some herbs to help that burn on your cheek.” He agreed.

Plus, he also wanted to avoid going home right away…with him getting arrested by that lame protector and running out of the house without warning…Oz help him he would be in so much trouble with their parents. “You might have to plan my funeral soon though…” he mumbled, and prepared to step forward, before pausing. Valexander turned his head in all directions before smiling awkwardly at his sister. “Haha hey sis how do we get to the shop from here?”

LAVELLE
Lavelle quietly stepped through the infirmary door, unable to hide the concern in her features over the entire situation. She had been standing outside the room monitoring the entrance until another guard finally arrived just now. “How is she?” She asked softly, gazing at Bellona. The queen seemed to have fallen asleep and Lavelle figured she must have been exhausted from recovering plus the endless amounts of concerned visitors. Lavelle had to personally escort Prince Arius away three times before he finally decided to leave after seeing Valiant arrive, believing she needed privacy with her brother.

ABIEL
As soon as he stepped through the door, Madriel immediately addressed him and he could sense underlying paranoia in his words. Abiel nodded and tried his best to push down his own fear over their upcoming mission. With a flick of his wand he did a quick spell to assure they would not be overheard before he spoke, “Yes, the arrangements have been made and he’s already prepping the Cupcakes for their mission. Phase one has already begun. We just have to wait for phase two to begin.”

Phase two, and their only remaining involvement with the plan, was escorting Noem and staging the attack. Phase three was Noem escaping the castle through the planned escape route, and it would be up to him alone to successfully reach phase four. The final phase is to find the Cupcakes at the meeting point and have them brought to Candiland in disguise. Abiel hoped the plan would go smoothly, but he knew things rarely ever do and dreaded having to deal with any complications.

“If there is nothing of concern to address, we can head to the cell now…”

JUDICAEL
From the Wizard Council building, Judicael stared wordlessly at the file in front of him. His signature was the death warrant for all those charged with execution. With slight hesitation in his fingers, Judicael scrawled his name across a dotted line and finalized the paperwork of the execution. His eyes looked back to the name of the damned written at the top of the paper: Noem Siran.

He left Noem at the castle dungeons during his arrest; determining that it was too dangerous to immediately transfer him to the council building. A powerful wizard like him, not to mention his understanding of how the prison and restraints worked, would no doubt manage to escape his cell without extreme precautions. Judicael had to personally restrain him with magic draining cuffs to weaken him in order to prevent his escape. Once he was sufficiently weakened, Noem could be transferred to the execution site without high risk. Judicael believed that wizards strong enough to become the royal protectors of the king or queen would easily find a way to overpower any guards he assigned to them when imprisoned. Noem was no exception.

At the prince’s request, Judicael had assigned Bellerophon to be the executioner but he had not arrived to report in yet. Judicael frowned as he thought of the prince’s tardiness and sent him a short text, demanding an explanation. Before he could investigate further why Bellerophon was not present, his attention was shifted when he heard a knock on his office door. “Enter.” He called, and stared at the executioner who stepped into his room.

“Priest Symphony reported his completion of his duty, with no issues with the prisoner.” Explained his subordinate, and Judicael nodded as he listened to the remainder of the report but stopped them from leaving.

“Any news of Executioner Black’s whereabouts?” he asked, and frowned when he received a negative response. There was no answer on his phone, either. Once his subordinate left his office Judicael decided to send the message ‘Where is Prince Bellerophon?’ to Kyuberos instead. The execution would be delayed if Bellerophon was not present, but Judicael was hesitant to anger the prince by switching executioners.