Oblivion

6 AM . . . Yesterday

Posted~ You can go ahead, Tigre.

6 AM . . . Yesterday

OOC

All of the dialogue in italics is spoken in Italian.

There was no other more inconvenient time for rain to fall than now. It pattered onto the window in an endless cacophony of tap-tap-tap before rolling down the glass and merging with countless other drops. The raindrops that fell onto the roof weren’t exempt from creating a racket either as they noisily dripped down onto the marble-tiled balcony floor. Unfortunately, the window was far too big; as it encompassed the entire wall, the noise was amplified.

While some people might have said that the sound of pattering raindrops was soothing and that even meditating to it was pleasant, the girl huddled under a grand total of four blankets begged to differ. It was irritating on a normal day; having stayed up all night perfecting a track made her crankier than usual. To top it off, she hadn’t even been able to finish the track. Why, you ask? The sole reason was Eugene Bellaire. The boy could not shut up, nor keep his hands off of Evanna’s things for that matter. Two broken headsets later, the heavy wooden door was promptly slammed in Eugene’s face and an exasperated Evanna headed to bed at two-thirty a.m.

And now the rain was determined not to let her sleep. Curled up underneath the blankets, Evanna stuck a hand out and after a brief struggle, breached the last of the barriers and snatched at the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was even harder to drag the small box-like clock through the tangle but after half a minute of wrestling with the thing, she brought it up to her face and squinted at the neon yellow hands and numbers. The hour hand was pointing just a little bit past five and the minute hand stood at one.

4:10.

Letting out a sigh of discontent, Evanna tossed the clock aside and contemplated on her situation. She had no clue about what to do at this point yet the options were clear – sit here in her cocoon listening to the blasted rain or get up and do something productive. On a good day, the preferable option was hibernating in said cocoon but as Evanna had no inclination to listen to the rain any further, getting up seemed like a better choice.

It took her a while to kick her way out of the tangle of blankets but all too soon, she headed for the bathroom. Squinting at the bright light, she turned the shower on and waited at the side, eyes closed and yawning every so often. Even in here she could hear the rain, pounding relentlessly against the glass. She didn’t appreciate the freakstorm, not in the least. Rain was irritating, made a mess and made a hell of a lot of noise to top it off. It brought in cold weather, soaked you to the bone and ruined things that were better off dry. Those thoughts persisted as Evanna got into the shower and throughout, mutters of why rain shouldn’t exist rang out through the bathroom. Those continued even as she got out, toweled her hair and put a fresh set of pyjamas on. Not even the sweet scent of whatever-was-in-the-shower gel (vanilla?) managed to shut her up, though it did calm her somewhat.

Now standing in front of the four-foot wide mirror, Evanna grabbed her toothbrush and squeezed some toothpaste onto it. It seemed rather pointless seeing how she’d brushed her teeth an hour and a half prior but it wouldn’t hurt to do so again, would it? Speaking of hurt, the bright light really was a pain. Evanna stuck the toothbrush in her mouth and headed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. If she had get up at this ungodly hour, then everyone else should too. She could practically hear her brothers’ grumbles through the walls.

As she bypassed the window, she couldn’t help but part the curtains a little bit and try looking past the rivulets of water running down the glass. Everything beyond was a dark blur, with the odd speck of light from the streetlights and car headlights here and there. The glass felt cold beneath her fingers; the coldness persisted even as she dropped her hand from the glass and moved over to hold the curtain open instead. She had to admit, it did feel a little bit refreshing seeing as how it woke her up a little bit more. She was even glad for the fact that she couldn’t make out anything more than a silhouette in the dark glass, for she knew her reflection would give away her sleeplessness.

In the silence of her room, her phone buzzed from its position on her dresser. Frowning, Evanna crossed her room and picked up her phone, wondering who could be IMing her at this time. It was 6 am, for god’s sake. No-one should be up that early and be sane. And even if they did, they shouldn’t attempt conversation with other (normal) human beings. It wasn’t an IM, however, and the notification only displayed a new email. Curiosity was the only thing that led her to tap the tiny email icon, opening up her email with 2874 unread emails. Precisely, 2874 promotion and spam emails. Signing up for all those games had its disadvantages.

The latest one that had triggered the alarm was a rather enigmatic one. It didn’t seem like one of those forwarded spam emails, as Evanna didn’t have anyone on her contact list. No, this was her gaming/online-persona email. So why was she receiving seemingly random offers for a free Key and a game?

Hold that thought.

A game? Evanna tapped the email open as she brushed her teeth, reading over the email with mild interest. The first thing that came to her mind was opportunity. Conveniently, the second thing was exploitation. It didn’t sound too bad, not at all, she decided as she tapped the Key Shop app open. It led her onto a page where an uncountable number of keys and their corresponding key chains were displayed. Why did she even have to pick a key? Did it offer benefits? Evanna highly doubted that. A key couldn’t do anything except open doors. If its task was to open a door, any of these keys could open a door. Granted, there were probably a bunch of different doors but since Evanna knew nothing about said doors or what lay beyond, it was all a game of chance.

As she scrolled down, a key seemingly made of copper and innumerable loops caught her attention. It was attached to a feather; rather simplistic, but it wasn’t too bad compared to some of the other outdated, rusting or just plain weird keys. Shrugging, she tapped the key for selection and hit ‘Buy’. It would be a while before it would arrive so Evanna had plenty of time to herself.

Or not.

“Evan? Hey Evan. Evaaaaaaaan.”

The peace and quiet was ruined. Her peace of mind interrupted, Evanna put her phone onto the desk and placed her hand on top of it. She closed her eyes, mentally consoling herself in an effort not to lunge at the offending intruder and launch them out the door with her foot. Eventually, she ground out an irritated “What?” only to receive a thump in response. The sole light source in her room, the computer, was suddenly blotted out by a human torso and head. The sound of clicks, keyboard taps and the ding of incoming mail brought her back to her senses.

“Eugene…” She growled, yanking the toothbrush out of her mouth. ”Get out! I told you not to come back here –”

Eugene ignored her, still clicking at something on the screen. “Hey, I need to borrow your laptop for a while, okay? Alex took mine and he’s still in Paris for some reason.”

Evanna could practically her irritation starting to build. It was bad enough that she was bothered 24/7 by these creatures; now Eugene took the liberty of trespassing into her private haven – and a messy one – without even bothering to put on a shirt. One of the perks of being considered a ‘dude’ was being ‘one of the guys’, and her brothers never bothered dressing properly unless there was an actual non-related female within twenty meters. It only served to mildly irritate Evanna, however, as she’d grown used to it after seventeen long years with five brothers.

“Take one of the other two then; this is my most important one. And for god’s sake, tell him to give your shirt back too.” Evanna’s reply was coupled with a vicious shove that launched Eugene out of the chair and onto the floor. She was only able to see the faint frown on the teenager’s face before her laptop was snatched off of the desk, the mouse trailing on the smooth, tiled floor by a thin cable. ”What are you doing? Give it back! I have all my tracks on there.” Her hands shot out to grip the end of the laptop and pulled. Eugene pulled back and the two of them fell into a tug-of-war contest that Evanna was winning –

Scratch that. Eugene let go of the laptop, sending it flying. It collided with the curtained window and shattered the glass, landing on the nearly-flooded balcony and flipping over as it came to an ominous rest. The water ran off of the dented laptop, running into gaps and holes, probably in the process of utterly destroying Evanna’s most precious possession. The cracks of the plastic still ringing in her ears, Evanna slowly approached the boy, eyes burning.

Damn fifteen-year-old teenage boys and their incessant need to break everything.

"You - you idiot." Evanna hissed, slowly coming closer. It was even scarier than an explosion, as her quiet words carried threats and promises of remorse on Eugene's part. "Don't tell me you're as stupid as I think you are. Could you not understand simple words? You're going to pay, you hear? You'll pay for every single thing I lost." The last few words were enunciated enough to make the boy tremble.

Eugene bolted out the door, leaving Evanna stand alone in the middle of the room and deal with the damage he'd caused. Eugene was dead. Every secret of his – she had her ways of finding out things – would no longer be a secret. His shenanigans would be plastered on the Times Square’s billboard if she had anything to say about it. This was way past blackmail – there was no point, he couldn’t bring her laptop or her tracks back. It was for revenge, and only revenge. She’d make him her personal servant for the next twenty years as a down payment, then figure out the rest of the details. Like how she was going to make him buy her a new laptop. And new musical equipment. And a new tablet –

”What’s the matter, honey? Why is Eugene about to cry – oh.” Lucia’s voice died down as soon as her soft blue eyes fell onto the jagged hole in the window. The curtains were being blown into the room by the strong breeze that came through the hole, making Lucia shudder as she observed the situation. An upset Evanna was never something pleasant to deal with but Evanna eerily calm. ”We’ll buy you a new one, don’t you worry. It’ll be alright.”

”Mamma, I had everything on my laptop. All my tracks, remixes, games, everything!” There was little that Evanna could do at this point but it didn’t stop her from blaming Eugene. ”He wanted my laptop because Alex took his.”

If only Alex hadn’t taken Eugene’s laptop. If only Eugene hadn’t decided to bother her. If only it wasn’t raining.

The doorbell chimed in the distance, on the other side of the house and a floor down. Lucia came closer and squeezed Evanna’s shoulder. “It’ll be alright, darling. Why don’t you go see who’s at the door and then we’ll talk about this.” Evanna didn’t even bother arguing and nodded in response.

She quietly went down the stairs, still disturbingly calm. How on earth was she supposed to replace everything she’d lost? More than two-hundred tracks down the drain. At least her progress in most of her MMO's would be saved with her accounts. By the time she reached the front door, the doorbell had chimed at least fifteen times. Without bothering to check who it was, Evanna pulled open the door, ready to get their early visitor out of here. What awaited her, however, was something far more interesting than a visitor.

She didn’t entirely recognize the box right away; its packaging was unaware and the guy who was supposed to hand her a clipboard to sign was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, Evanna didn’t feel like inquiring too much into it – it was probably something one of her brothers had ordered. Unless it was Eugene’s the box would safely make its way onto the kitchen counter to await its owner. However, the Key Shop’s logo on the small box made her stop and pick it up again.

It was for her.

’Wow, they’re fast.’

As she made her way upstairs again, Evanna pulled the box open after a big of struggle with the tape holding it closed. Inside were a key and a keychain, just as she’d expected. The key was crafted of beautiful copper that gleamed brightly underneath the yellow-tinged light. Its intricate design was especially intriguing; it held her attention for several long seconds as the traced the loops with a finger. It was enough to make her stumble on the top step but she continued down the hallway and into her empty room, slamming the door shut. The keychain was remarkably much simpler than its counterpart; a simple feather made of a rather dull-looking metal.

As soon as she was done inspecting the key and keychain, they were unceremoniously tossed onto her bed and she headed for the window. As she pulled the window open and took the ruined laptop back in, Evanna sat down on the opposite side of the room and opened it, pressing the power button and hoping for a miracle.

Nothing.

Several more pushes of the button yielded the same result and she slid the dead laptop off her lap, burying her head in her hands. Perhaps the hard drive could be salvaged? The chance was extremely slim with it was possible. The house was eerily quiet after her outburst; it seemed that even at 6:15 am, no-one wanted to bother with aggravating her any further.

A buzz broke the silence, making Evanna look up towards the source of the noise. In the dimness of her room, she could see her phone’s bright screen flashing repeatedly. Perhaps her phone was about to get destroyed too? It certainly seemed that every electronic she was coming in contact with today was either getting drenched or just outright dying. Nevertheless, Evanna pulled herself to her feet and walked over to her desk, sitting down onto the soft padded chair that she had spent so many hours in.

The Key Shop’s app had somehow opened by itself and had loaded onto the screen of her phone, displaying a single message.

6 AM . . . Yesterday

I'm getting to work on a post now so it might be until tomorrow until it's finished. Nevertheless I'm excited to see what Bear will do ^^

Twisted Redux

I'm back. My exams finished a few days ago but I had to travel for a little bit. I'll start catching up with what I missed in the IC.

Sanctuary Character List

Noel Ethaise

Name: Noel Ethaise
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Nesae, Gaia
Current Home: Somewhere in Sovereign

Personality: Generally very easy-going, Noel is a very free-spirited person who does what she wants. While she couldn’t care less about rules or limitations, she doesn’t deliberately break them for the sake of breaking them. In fact, it’s almost always an accident and her reckless impulsiveness is often the culprit. Being a very indecisive person, Noel’s logic has taken the back seat, allowing her to simply react by instinct. When faced with a tough situation, Noel follows her gut and does what needs to be done in order to escape, or reach the desirable conclusion.

Furthermore, her tendency to take the easy way out is another defining characteristic. The few exceptions are things she cares about, of which there aren’t many apart from adventuring. When it comes to things she deems insignificant, she’d rather coerce someone else into doing it for her instead while she runs off doing whatever she feels like.

Because of all the opposition to her adventurous and easy-going nature, Noel has developed a horrible temper. Sure, it’ll take a quite an effort to get to her lose her temper but once she does, the target would be lucky to leave unscathed. Her impulsiveness also leads her into doing daring things, things a normal person would think twice before doing. Otherwise, she has a pretty weird sense of humor, laughing at her own jokes and deliberately provoking people just for the heck of it. She talks at an alarming pace and usually has to be asked to slow down.

The sole reason she doesn’t believe generic rules apply to her is because she cannot stand being in one place for too long, or doing the same thing – routine is her worst enemy. Noel is the very definition of a free spirit – she needs a way out, always, without boundaries or restrictions. She isn’t limited by people’s rules and lives life without any difficulties, issues or commitments weighing her down, flitting from one thing to the next. Her intuition is practically unrivalled, and the only reason for that being her own fast-paced, lightweight outlook on life.

Bio: Born in a quaint little town situated in Gaia's northeast end, Noel's family moved back to their place of origin as soon as she was born. Back in Icespire, Warshire, Noel grew up with nature right on her doorstep. Her family was well-off, enough to let them live a comfortable life and not worry too much. As the eighth child in a family of nine, she was left pretty much unchecked and roamed around Icespire, exploring every curiosity the town had to offer. All seven brothers encouraged her to do what she wanted, even embarking upon dangerous adventures such as mountain climbing with her. Her older sister and the eldest child of the family disapproved of their antics; she frequently tried to tell on them to their parents but like the rest of the children, Noel’s parents couldn’t care less.

Left to her own devices, Noel ran amuck and took part in progressively more dangerous stunts as time went on. At the age of fourteen, Noel was the only person in town who had dared climb the mountain overlooking the settlement. Rugged and steep, the mountain was one of the highest peaks in Warshire and a hassle to climb, something Noel set upon herself to do. Along with her 21-year-old brother Nico, they scaled up Haradris and made it to the top alongside another group of climbers from Wintra. On the way down, however, a mild blizzard gave way to an avalanche, right behind Noel and Nico. While Noel had the sense to duck down and be covered by nearly two meters of snow, Nico got pushed a little bit away from her. Unbeknownst to her, she was lying a few meters away from a steep cliff-like ledge, opening down onto a ditch that gradually led down all the way down the mountain. This was where Nico fell, tumbling down with enough force to completely shatter both of his legs. Even after Noel dug herself out, she couldn’t help and instead bolted back to town, calling for help. Almost two days later, Nico was extracted. He was alive, but frostbite had gotten the better of him and his leg was amputated.

Much to her sister’s delight, Noel was subdued for a while after that, only venturing into their snowy backyard. The trees were climbed, forts were dug out, piles of snowballs grew by the meters yet despite the guilt, Noel was unhappy. Living a stationery, routine life was the absolute worst someone could do to her, and she eventually decided to do what she loved: adventuring. Bidding her sister goodbye, Noel and another brother, Lucius, set off towards Arcarus. Not for the knowledge, but for the experience. For almost two years they illegally scaled buildings together, outwitted the police and hung underneath shuttles as they flew across the city. Noel and Lucius even performed stunts for a living, climbing high-rise buildings with nothing apart from minimal equipment. Noel, in particular, loved playing with fire.

What truly sparked her free spirited and nomadic streak was Lucius’s marriage. She felt betrayed when he married an Arcarus girl and settled down to have a family and in a fit of rage, she kneed him in the stomach and left Argos. Valira was her next stop; performing the same eye-catching stunts (minus the high-rise buildings and technology) for the Valiran people, Noel amused herself by travelling across the landscape and enjoying life as it was. Wintra came next, a reminder of her former home. She befriended people left and right, only to abruptly get up and leave.

After enduring another one of Wintra’s unforgiving winters, Noel travelled to Gaia and much to her delight, Sovereign was perfect. From the hundred-story buildings to the shuttles, Noel thrived. Free to go wherever she wanted and do anything she pleased, Noel spent the better part of two years experiencing life as it was, be it hanging upside down from the balcony on the eighty-ninth floor or dancing with flaming batons. It gave her a thrill like no-other and she drifted along, content, until disaster struck.

The opening of the Void Gate unleashed a swarm of Kages upon the land, and Noel wasn’t exempt from their invasion. Having been poised on the roof of a fifty-story building, ready to jump onto the roof of a passing shuttle, the destruction unleashed rocked the building hard enough to dislodge Noel from the edge and right onto the shuttle. The shuttle tumbled down ten seconds later, bringing Noel down with it. It didn’t explode, sparing her the painful death but as she lay on the wrecked roof of the shuttle, a fiery orb of light collided with her hard enough to knock her out.

A day later, as Noel awoke to the ruins of Sovereign, all was quiet. For the past year, Noel has drifted here and there, mainly keeping to herself and avoiding trouble, keeping away from other hosts. She’s been successful so far as her strategy of moving camp every two days has paid off.

Appearance:


1 2 3 4 5 While originally sporting a shade of very light platinum blonde hair, common in Warshire, Noel decided it stood out too much in Sovereign and dyed it a more inconspicuous brown.

Special Traits/Weapons:
- Extremely agile and flexible
- Intuitive
- Experienced and can hold her own in hand-to-hand combat
- Elusive
- Light and fast on her feet

Weapons: A mismatched pair of daggers hidden in her clothes. The location varies.

Theme Song: Take Me Away

Kage Type: Onikage (according to Noel)
Kage Name: ?
Kage Primary Power: Noel’s Kage has the ability to generate and manipulate a type of fire that is white-hot and intense to the point where its temperature is much higher than normal fire. She should be able to regulate the temperature but as of now, she can’t; her Kage attributes this to poor control. Her body temperature is constantly higher than normal unless she gives a conscious effort to lower it and her skin is often searing hot. In a manner identical to pyrokinesis, Noel can create this type of fire in varying quantities; ranging from a small flame to an inferno or a firestorm, though the latter drains away her spirit quite fast. According to her Kage, Noel should be able to have the ability to ignite herself and even have her body dissolve into fire, but her refusal to consider it makes it impossible. As of now, all she can do it ignite and explode objects; again, range plays a factor as the closer the object and/or smaller the object it is, the less spirit it takes.

When asked exactly what kind of phenomenon this fire was related to, her Kage replied with, “Plasma.” and refused to elaborate any further.

Kage Secondary Power: A more passive ability, the Kage has honed her senses to extreme accuracy, particularly hearing, smell and touch. She can pick up distant sounds and things you normally wouldn’t hear but as the range increases, it gets harder to sense.
Kage Personality/Description: Her Kage shares Noel’s sense of humor, albeit his being sharper and more cynical. He tends to add his two cents in whenever he feels like it, often in the worst of times. He has shared nothing personal with Noel – his name and Kage type are a mystery. It’s hard to tell what he is, as his indifference towards humans is deceptive enough to make Noel bounce back and forth between Kamikage and Onikage. He neither loves nor despises humanity and clearly doesn’t care enough to reveal himself to Noel. His indifference was what made Noel declare that he is an Onikage.

It is unclear whether he likes his host or not. He has an infinite amount of patience but, unfortunately, he possesses an equal amount of sarcasm and cynicism. Their abrasive personalities lead to clashes and he does tend to tire of Noel and her deliberate trolling (often aimed at him). Unlike her, he is more laid-back and goes with the flow, disliking her incessant need to go at a pace he can hardly keep up with.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

This is probably the time where I need to back out, at least until the 16th. I'm literally panicking my head off because they decided to lump the hardest exams together, to the point where I have to devote every moment studying. Please move Leon along for me, feel free to use his powers and pray for meeee D:.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

It was strange, how lately all Leon could do was find more and more reasons to dislike perfectly normal – normal for Nowhere, at least – things like it was his job. First the baby dragon that had knocked him over and made his back sore again, then the banter between Hakuren and Inadi. It was more amusing than surprisingly, really, as Leon expected no less from their portable psychologist. However, it was slightly cruel on Hakuren’s part, rather unnecessarily so. Nevertheless, it didn’t seem to be entirely seriously so Leon shrugged it off.

Being dragged behind another boulder wasn’t his cup of tea, particularly when his back ached so much. He almost felt like an old man, sitting hunched over and trying to get comfortable. He momentarily forgot the ‘be quiet’ rule and mumbled to himself, “Stupid dragon.” Only a few seconds later did he realize the witches on the other side had started talking about them. Luckily, Lesley’s knee had popped before Leon’s words, providing Leon a good excuse to point fingers lest they were caught. But, if the witches decided to kill them all with a wave of a hand, pointing fingers wouldn’t really matter as you can’t do that if you’re dead.

Thankfully, they managed to escape back to Sol, and Leon heaved a sigh of relief the moment they were back in the safety of civilization. Even as Prince Tobias concluded that the baby dragon probably wasn’t under the witches’ control, Leon was wishing for the pain in his back to go away. It seemed luck didn’t really want to be on his side, as another trek up the mountain yet [/i]again[/i] was announced, much to his chagrin. “When am I ever going to get a break?” He muttered to himself, transferring most of his weight onto his staff.

Watching Lesley get dragged up the mountain by a guard gave Leon a similar idea, and he hobbled up to a muscular-looking guard. “Hey, mind giving me a lift?” The guy was surprisingly nice and knelt down, allowing Leon to latch onto him and be carried off piggy-back style. For most of the trip, he snoozed, not too worried about the events surrounding him. As long as they got the amulet on the baby dragon – curse that thing – he would be fine. Then hopefully they would toss the witches off a steep ledge or something, in return for causing all that trouble.

Being a very light sleeper, he awoke several times to the sound of the other humans’ voices, discussing this and that. This time, they had woken him with a discussion on Hakuren, and Leon exhaled a puff of air. Being so close to the guard, the man felt the gust of air run over his neck and he freaked, dropping Leon onto the ground like a sack of potatoes. The man knelt down again, still mildly creeped out by the hair-raising feeling. “Sorry mate, you scared me there,” He said as soon as Leon got back on. However, being dropped ignited the pain in his back, just as it was going away. It didn’t allow him to sleep, so he just listened to the other humans speak. Eventually, he chipped in, for reasons unknown.

“He may state the facts harshly at times, but he means well. I think. It’s pretty amusing to watch if it’s not you he’s aiming at.” Sleep came back to him at this point and he yawned widely, careful to keep away from the guard lest he be dropped again.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

I'll make a post tonight~ just have a little bit of studying left.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Lesadi is now my new OTP <3

Also, how on earth do you make a dragon laugh? I was thinking Leon could tempt it with his crown, like "Look at the shiny!"

On another note, Phones, maybe ZE plan will make it laugh? :3

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

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There is nothing truer in this world.