Enchanted Lands: Apocalypse

[MiscChaos]

Against her will, Miyumi feels her spirits begin to soar with the goal in sight. Then a bench appears that holds an unfamiliar presence. She battles with herself about charging forward to the dojo vs investigating the presence, but her kind nature refuses to let her just pass someone by no matter the rush she's in. So she goes to the bench to greet them.

[berserkerhorn]

(sorry power went out...)

Djiin yelps in a bit of fear as the fox rises like a zombie from the ground “Me? I just touched this… and suddenly I’m here…” she says pointing to the thing infused on her body. “I might ask the same question for you. Who are you? And why are you here?” Djiin asks with a bit of panic in her voice. In the back of her mind however she keeps the real reason of why she was here a secret. <Let’s hope they can’t read minds…> Djiin thinks to herself

[daxtinator396]

Dax walked on in silence feeling a bit cowed by how Miyumi had snapped at him. The apology had helped but he was unsure of how to respond so onward he walked until the came to a small rest area and he finally said,"it's alright about you snapping at me before we're all under stress. Seems you more than most." He then spotted the golden figurine in the bushes and found it to be quite odd. Who would leave such a thing like this? His mind thought it might be a trap and he called out to Miyumi," Hey! I found something over here... its strange and I'm not sure if I should check it out alone..."

[MiscChaos]

Hearing Dax stopped Miyumi short and sent her into another dilemma. She wants to check out that presence she had sensed, but she didn't want to make Dax investigate whatever he found by himself. Especially after her shameful action towards him before. In the end, her guilt over snapping at Dax makes her say, "It would not be wise to investigate alone, I suppose." She turns towards Dax to look in the bushes together and hopes that the presence will still be at the bench when they're done.

[KnightVanilla]

Pulling his cloths back into place so it started to cover him up. That really caught him off guard. "First of all if you wanted to see it you could have asked. Your the first woman I met trying to tear off you cloths." Walking over to her to get a better look at the picture. Whatever she was hunting down for was a beauty, a bit showy for your taste in gems to sell and trade but still. Being offered a position to help wouldn't be so bad. "I wouldn't mind help one such as yourself to find this. However what exactly would I get for helping you? I mean me being other-worldly I need to know if what you have interests me first"

[Zender_Solarheart]

Yamato smiles eagerly, both enjoying the aroma of Kayle's cooking, and the chance to indulge her in his world's history. "The lands I hail from? Well, where shall I begin?" He pauses for a moment while he ponders where to start, then continues: "First off, where I come from, there's quite similar architecture to what your dojo is like. A lot of people there seem to focus on the monetary aspects of life, but there are still those like me, who have a more...'athletic' approach." Of course, what he's describing is more of a Japan-town section of Respite, but the mages' barriers keep it well-shielded with the rest, so he can train at his dojo there in peace. "We also eat with chopsticks, by the way. Might you have any of those around here, Kayle?"

[jayjaycaps]

Jason grips the hilt of his sword, ready to counter Salina, should she strike him. "I do come to bring destruction. I am a soldier of light and order, sent here to save my realm. For too long demons have poured into my world and wreaked havoc and chaos upon it's inhabitants. I was sent here to stop it." Jason prepares himself for whatever Salina will do, when a thought enters his head: Why am I doing this? Jason was a defender of the weak, and Salina hadn't really done anything wrong. Sure, she had hit him, but she stopped once she saw what she had done. Plus too, Jason was new to this realm, and had no idea where to even start. His two companions had left, and he had no intention on finding out about enchanted silver or whatever.

Jason let go of his sword hilt, and sighed, swallowing some pride. He very rarely apologized, so this was a little hard for him. "But... Perhaps I acted too rashly. You were only defending yourself, as I would have done. Forgive me, I am new here. I do not know where to begin my quest. We... weren't given much instructions." Jason outstretched his gloved hand, hoping Salina would shake it, rather than wallop him again.

[napsii]

Aleiyra looked down at her palm, seeing gossamer threads of crimson energy pulse under her skin.

"I make a personal mission of not losing my way to enigmas." she said tersely, her words more nondescript than was common for her. She wouldn't debate what the spirits had to say, knowing they were correct. But she was not intimidated by this living mystery. Of all the tales and legends of old, the mightiest and the most memorable pushed the unknown. Cynicism brushed against the front of her mind, just for an instant. The spirits' perceptions of humans were correct, even she -- a wholly non-speculative person -- would admit that. Humans had always thought of knowledge and progress as material, but her teacher had instructed her to think of her life as something cerebral.

Patience, she thought, was the only footpath here.

"But you would already know I did not come to debate my intentions," she said pointedly, looking between the two spirits, "If it is in your characters to do so, then your assistance would be welcomed." she said.

[Taria]

Djiin
The shadowy hooded fox spirit watches emotionlessly before speaking. "I am a guardian, and you are tresspassing in my space. Seeing as you are not the only newcomer appearing her so suddenly I doubt you just accidently happened upon advanced teleportation."

Dax/Miyumi
A manic high pitch giggle emits from the figurine before it suddenly spews smoke at the two of you. Someone behind you seems to find this profusely entertaining. "Hehehehe, eek eek eek." The spirit is a lanky monkey man wielding a long staff. He plants his staff into the ground as he climbs upon it, twirling around as he hangs from the top. "You new creatures sure are easy to fool."

Milanor
The parrot woman grins pleasantly. "Well what is wealth to one such as yourself? I've got silver, copper, gold. I always can take you across the seas. What are ye here for anyways?" She turns her head the other way to eye you with one eye just like before.

Yamato
"They're the only things I use." She states pointedly as she tosses you a pair befoe grabbing at her own food with her chopsticks. Kayle eats her food pensively before responding to your earlier comments. "Yeah, I guess the attitude of those kinds of people is really the reason to get away from it all out her all alone." Kayle's floaty dragon whiskers twitch spasmodically as she looks alerted to something. "Ugh... That laugh." She murmurs aggrivatedly. You think you can hear the faint shrieking of a monkey.

Jason
Salina looks at your hand as if you were handing her a dead fish. "So you thought you'd just come here and start killing everything? What do you even know about the beings invading your world? Why are they invading? Where do they originate to being with? You're just rushing into a situation you don't understand without anyone to have your back." She turns back around, heating her blade with her firery breath and bending it with a mighty swing from her giant hammer.

Aleiyra
The harpy woman delicately preens her wings as she says dismissively, "If you want secrets and powers, you must go out and seek it on your own. They will not reveal themselves to you on their own."

[Thaedael]

Lia had pulled away from him, her body tense as she begun to talk to the newly discovered girl whom had ventured into their world, presumably to find spirits. She spoke down to the girl, almost as condescending as it was dismissive, or so he thought, something he did not like to see his partner do. After all, it was the him of old she reminded him of, the one that always thought he knew better than anyone else, the one burdened the most by the weight of responsibility. Arrogance and pride is what forced him to sell his units lives, one at a time to protect the crumbling remnants of humanity as it carved it's existence against the onslaught of the monster's invasion on the human world.

He paced in place, altering the weight of his stride from one foot to the other, before turning to the prism harpy. A couple of short strides found him to be behind her, his arms hooking under her wings and around her torso, before leaning the cleft of his chin in the nook of her shoulder. "Now, now, who do you think this young girl reminds you of?" he asked Lia with a hint of disbelief in his voice. He continued to prop himself against the beautiful harpy, his eyes going from side to side as he tried to formulate as straight-forward of a response as possible, trying to cut the cryptic nature of his mannerism.

He took a deep breath, before turning to face Lia's cheek once more. "I guess I have become too spiritual and preachy in my old age." he muttered to her. He pulled away from her warm body, before walking towards the girl from the other dimension, his body tense around the shoulders. "I get it, I really do. You are so singular in mind and purpose that little else matters." he said slowly, pausing as he continued to refine the conversation that had taken place in his mind.

"Life is a great mystery, an enigma we are all thrust into, the burden of mortality weighing down our actions, and as a result of it the worth of our actions." he said sounding suddenly even more cryptic as well as weary, as if his exterior contained a life time of experiences within. "Just as there is no book you can read upon on life, there is no answer to becoming a monster hunter. Losing yourself to the enigma while both finding and maintaining your way, that is the path one must take. Experiencing the ebb and flow of the world, chasing the connection between two people, sharing the joys and pain of living, that is what it means to stand apart from humanity as it's protector." he extended his arms in both directions away from his body.

"All this means something, to open yourself to the experience. If you are too singular in mind and purpose, one day you will open up to find out you missed out a lot in life. Missed the opportunity to realize the importance of people in your life, or forgetting to savor the scent of dew off a rose's petal" he turned to Lia, "Or to have known what it means to love". He turned to face the new girl once more, walking closer and closer as he continued to speak. "To become a monster hunter, you bind your existence to another being, one that is as alien as it is familiar. Drawing out powers from your partner, and as an extension, the magic of her realm, you will fight. This means to trust them implicitly, to share the same mind and soul. That is why we can only speak in cryptic language, for it is truly only something you can earn and learn about." He put a hand on the top of her head, ruffling her long hair with the calloused palm of one hand. "I only recommend you learn to be more open, or one day tragedy will befall you, and after throwing everything away that you ever believed in and held dear, you will end up crestfallen and disenchanted." he said.

Akito turned on his heel, his simple sandled foot kicking up dust from the craggy barren wasteland that he had somehow found himself in, as if the realm they had found themselves in was a warped reflection of his psyche and regret from all those years ago. His white kimono continued to flicker from side to side, catching the ethereal breeze of the realm, the red silk flare of his naginata drifting along the same invisible stream. "I can't solve it for you, that is the nature of an enigma. All I can say is, you walk on your own two feet, and to remember why you truly are here." Not opening up also makes you a senile rambling fool he thought to himself, lessons taught by his dad in his early youth echoed in his head to let people speak instead of always ranting. He rubbed his knuckles on the back of his head, laughing to think the wisdom his dad had often dispensed were the very things he ignored, and as a result were the things he himself preached,

He beckoned to Lia with outstretched arm, her feathers looking as clean and beautiful as always. "It seems that after all this, it was but a false alarm. Fallen spirit sightings have been happening a lot more lately, but to think that in times as dark as these the guild would send more people to learn, even though it has been a while. Might as well return to the enchanted lands and let the rest know."

[MiscChaos]

Miyumi sighs inwardly as she coughs out the smoke. Once again, her kind nature has gotten her in trouble. If she'd just ignored Dax's discovery, she probably would've discovered the monkey man behind this. She'd felt his presence, she'd known someone was there, she just ignored it in order to appear kind to some stranger she had a name for. As soon as she's capable of breathing again, she walks off towards the dojo again, in no mood to continue this foolishness and seeing the end of what she thought were near endless reserves of patience. Well, snapping at Dax earlier should've been a sign of that. The way she feels right now, she could suppress her demon using nothing but repressed anger starting to bubble to the surface if it wasn't already being done for her.

[daxtinator396]

Dax coughed as the smoke blinded them and he fell backward out of the cloud,"Ahh! What's the big idea!" He said alittle annoyed at how easily he fell for the trap but spittle glad his intuition was right and it wasn't so dangerous. He turned to the prankster in question and found a monkey man hanging from atop his staff and his laugh was a little infectious and he began to laugh alittle too and spotted Miyumi going back towards the dojo,"Hey wait! It was just a little joke played on us! I shouldn't have let my curiosity get the better of me..." He said realizing he might not get her to come back and he would be alone in this strange land. He felt bad and went over to the monkey man and introduced himself,"Hello Mr. Prankster. I am Dax Sierra. "

[berserkerhorn]

“You’re a guardian huh? I’m guessing the music player is the being you’re supposed to be guarding?” Djiin says raising her eyebrow slightly. “Well no… I came here because I was sent to destroy a threat that is going to hurt my race.” Djiin says. She picks up her supply bag off of the floor and puts it on her back. “Can that being talk?” Djiin asks tilting her head curiously at the musical being behind the black clothed fox.

[Zender_Solarheart]

Yamato's smile widens a little as Kayle points out her personal insistence on chopsticks, and catches the pair she tossed him mid-flight. Her whole dojo is almost like being back home...well, back home didn't have any dragon-girls, but it's not something he'd complain about. Anyhow, he starts eating his own helping of meat and rice-balls, finding their taste quite to his liking (I'm assuming Kayle made some for him, too, as it'd honestly be rather rude of her not to). Then he notices her whiskers twitching a bit...did something catch her attention?

(A laugh? I don't hear any...wait...) Yamato thinks to himself, catching the faint sound of a monkey's shrieking in his ears. "What is that?" he murmurs quietly, thinking aloud without quite realizing it. Whatever that "laugh" is, it seems to be irritating Kayle...

[KnightVanilla]

Milanor looked at her quite curiously his job was to explore the land then report back. So being allowed to travel on the ship would be good. Money however he had enough of that back at home. Examining her up and down before he gets down to think about her offer. "Treasure I have a lot of that in my realm already. Being able to cross the seas with you doesn't seem to bad of an offer, but I would be a shame if I didn't have your company while I stayed on your ship."

[napsii]

Aleiyra focused on the older man in the kimono. He was no spirit -- human, without any question in that regard -- and the young woman wondered what knowledge he would have to share. She knew she was not the among the first generation of people, hunters, dispatched to this realm by the power of the portal gems, but the man seemed old indeed. Far less sanctimonious than his friend, at least. But Aleiyra was beginning to feel impatient. She had a threshold for chatter, much less being fed advice, and although she respected what the man in the kimono had to say (insofar as she silenced herself) the tendency of her youth made it hard to let any of this soak in. The abstract advice made her ponder, but she was left wordless by the end. Admittedly, one of her biggest failings was a want for any conversation to be material; either she knew what to say, or she left.

I would have rather collected this from a book. she thought, although not unkindly. Perhaps a bit arrogantly, she hastily concluded that if the man was right, then there was no use standing around.

That notwithstanding, it became clear these two had an agenda... and so did Aleiyra. She wanted to sigh mentally, knowing that, objectively, it was in her ultimate interest to not dismiss the abstract wisdom of what the man in the kimono had said. What had been recovered from the ruined shambles of The Guild dictated the powers of spirits.

"You're right. But it's important that I succeed," she said, recalling her mission, "Without the power of this realm, I believe Respite will be overrun. I do not know how long you've been absent from my world, but many are becoming desperate. It was only recently they found the portal gems." she recalled, in the back of her head also wondering what motivated her to take up the challenge. Perhaps she thought that, just as a lich's phylactery gave it immense power, so would the ancient powers of the portal hearts open her to new knowledge -- new capabilities. But perhaps it had also been the desperation of their world. The town of her birth had once been in the most fortified reaches of human territory, but now, barely twenty years later, it was already overrun and Aleiyra had found herself straying no farther from the land around Respite than a loyal dog would stray from its owner.

[Thaedael]

Aleirya had seen right through him, recognizing him for what he truly was, a human. He turned on the ball of his heel, pivoting himself round as his kimono caught the wind, flipping up and away from his body. "What an interesting girl indeed. I never did get your name, did I?" he said with piqued interest. Slowly he once more strode out across the clearing, the ground sheltered by the bones jutting forth from the ground.

"Once again I see you are going back to a singular mind and purpose. Yet, tell me this young one; what is success? How is it even measured?" he asked once more talking in rhetoric and with experience. "Is it measured in the people you save? I know that for every person I saved, several more died. Is it measured in how many volumes of books you filled? For surely there must be a limit to how much one can account for in this world."

He sat down in the dry dirt, crossing his legs under him, one under the other as he took up a thinking pose. Slowly he raised both his hands to meet above his chest, coming together; fingertips touching fingertips. He closed his eyes as he continued to speak; "Of course, like I said earlier, there is no right answer in this world. Like everything, success is what you make, nothing more nothing less. Are you here to succeed and save others? Or is it something more selfish than that, such as furthering one's self? Can furthering oneself even be considered selfish, who am I to say?"

Slowly the world around them grew a little more vibrant, the dry air suddenly becoming all the more dry, the ground cracking further as moisture begun to pull from the ground itself, dry lightning running through the clouds as they crashed into each-other one at time. Quickly his hair begun to get lifted off his brow, the kimono whipping around as unseen winds pushed against it. Pulling away his hands a blue glow begun to appear, a realm within a realm.

The ball of blue light begun to shift, it's blurry edges giving way to an image of a farming community, tea leaves and wheat growing on the grassy banks of a hill. A young boy slaved away at the fields, his body covered in dirt, his brow full of sweat. Suddenly the image jumped forward, an army marching through the fields, kicking up dirt as far as the eye could see as they marched to the city center.

With a crackle the image once more transformed, the boy signing a paper, surrounded by the army, before marching away with them from the community. The image blurred once more, the view point continually shaking, static playing across the images, people fighting with wooden swords in grand halls, rooms of students studying. The image begun to fade to red, before turning to a blood red orb.

Violent images begun to flood the orb, screams of pain echoing inside the girl's head as untold battles began to unfold, the image of a man in armore standing above the corpses of monsters and humans alike, his armored form covered in the gruesome trade of war. He begun to wield magic, his body rippling as energies blasted before him. The image continued to shift, as more and more people fell at the gate of a city, refugees running past the ever dwindling line of humans dying to protect them. The image cut out, and once more Akito's eyes opened, their amber glow revealing itself under the starry light.

"It is natural that you would like to find your way in life. You seem like a decent person. Just remember, ink and earth clean away from hands much easier than blood. You will go far, make your own success, and live a fulfilling life, just be aware of the decisions you make."

[Taria]

All of you portal hearts pulse weakly as you sense your presence is begining to fade from this world. (except for Akito of course)

Yamato/Miyumi
Having finished her meal Kayle states simply, "An annoying prankster." She gets up and begins stomping out of the dojo. Meanwhile from Miyumi's point of view, she has almost reaches the foot of her destination before an annoyed looking dragon woman begin tromping out and bumps into her. Her Inflection changes from annoyed to curious as she pauses, steps back, and then asks, "Oh, hello there. Who are you?"

Dax
The monkey man climbs off of his staff and swings it around dexteriously. "They call me Wong, and I am THE MONKEY KING!" He does a spinning backflip to accentuate his statement. "By any chance are you afraid of snakes?" He asks you all of a sudden.

Djinn
"You guess correctly, creature." The fox woman states calmly as watery maiden warbles softly but incoherently. The fox woman turns her head towards her and listens to her intently, as if understanding what she has to say. "She can talk creature, you just aren't able to understand her."

Milanor
The ship captain rolls up her map and puts it away someplace safe under lock and key. Turning back towards you, she grins widely and reaches out a feathered hand in handshake squacking softly before saying, "Then we be havin' a deal?"

Aleiyra/Akito
Lia looks across the barren landscape silently as the two of you converse. She pays no attentional at all to Akito's framing refrence as she seems lost in her own thoughts. Her clay-like wings grow stoney spikes as their form seems to harden into a more petrified state.

[daxtinator396]

Dax smirks and says," I don't see any of your subjects Mr. King of the Monkeys. Are they just as hood at hiding as you? I'm also not afraid of snakes since you ask. But I'm not sure why you did. Not planning on dropping me into a pit of snakes are you?" He says suddenly sure the man would if he thought it funny enough.

[MiscChaos]

Miyumi steps back when the dragon woman bumps into her, both to prevent from falling and to create distance. "I apologize. I wasn't paying my full attention to where I was going." she says with a bow. She was still annoyed with the monkey's antics and had somewhat zoned out on her surroundings. "I am Miyumi. A pleasure to meet you. Are you, perchance Kayle?" she fingers her charmed collar while she asks, an action she realizes she's going to have to stop immediately before it turns into a nervous habit.