luke skypotter p.s.

[luke skypotter]

just in case you want to see my samples here they are.
please no posting xx

[luke skypotter]

in my wildest dreams
word count: 1678

When Thalia announced that she was going to skip dinner the night before the Games, Cale was tempted to follow her and asked her what was wrong - but, he knew. He'd experienced the very same thing just seven years ago. It didn't feel like that long ago, though, never did. He still had the same nightmares almost every night. Either that, or he had no dreams at all and either way, he always woke up tired. That was part of the reason he had begun to work out so hard when he came back from his Games. The other part? If he was bigger - stronger - maybe the Capitol wouldn't be able to get him again. Like that would work. The Capitol didn't give a s**t about anyone but themselves, anyway. Rubbing the bridge of his nose between two fingers in an attempt to dull his thoughts, he also excused himself from dinner under the excuse of a headache (not exactly a lie) and made his way to his room and locked the door. If he didn't, he was positive Gem would try to burst in to ask him what his problem is.

He hated this part. The waiting. At least during training he had things to focus on that were pertinent right then and there and preparations for the impending Games. Now, he was just sitting on his bed, waiting for morning to come so that he could finish rounding up his myriad of sponsors in preparation for when Onyx and Thalia would need them. At the moment, Thalia was pulling ahead as the favorite among the sponsors and Cale couldn't find any fault in their decision. Onyx may have been stronger and have a higher score, but Thalia was in an entirely different league. She was compelling and had a strength that came through no matter what she did - be it the interview or just walking in front of sponsors. The whole thing just made his eye twitch. And he itched to be able to go up and talk to Mitch, but he couldn't do that because Mitch had his own tributes to worry about and he was in a worse boat than Cale was, himself. Maybe the roof, but he didn't really want to go up there without Thalia this time.

He ended up taking the longest shower of his life. Back home, the water would have run cold by then, but this was the Capitol and they had endless luxuries and the water was still steamy when he finally reached out a hand to flick it off. By then it was probably the middle of the night, but he never really slept during the trip, anyway, and the last day was the worst. He had a fleeting urge to go out to the living room or up to the roof and just think, but he settled with changing the image on his window and using that instead. By the time morning came, he was still laying on a made bed, staring at the sky view of a city at night. Since his door was locked, all Gem could do was knock incessantly until he got up to open the door and then she barged in, rambling about how he should have been up an hour ago if he wanted to see the tributes off at the arena. Technically, mentors didn't usually go to the arena to see the tributes just before the Games - that was generally reserved for the stylists, but Cale was favored and he'd managed to sneak in now and again. This was one of those times.

The hovercraft over made him anxious. He didn't want to be late and for some reason, this year, the whole thing just brought back memories that he'd rather not have. Memories of his Games and the days before hand when he'd had to silently freak the ******** out.

"Your arm, please?" At first, Cale didn't hear her, but then the woman snapped her fingers and he automatically stuck his arm out for her. The tracker stung going into his arm and ached for a few moments after. It was weird seeing the light of the first couple beeps before it dulled and all he saw was the skin of his arm. He heard a snickering and turned his head to meet the glare of the male volunteer from District 2. Brutus. He would not be in the Career pack this Games, that much was clear. Even the girls looked at him like he was something to eat. But they would be surprised in the arena. He had gotten a 9 on his test. He could have pulled a 10, but he didn't want that big of a target on his back - that being the same score that most of the Careers had received. When the arrived at the arena, he was given the rest of his uniform - black shirt, black pants, black boots, and a brown jacket - leather and lightweight. When he got to the arena he realized that it was because it was cool, but the sun was high in the sky. He was surrounded by dirt and the rubble of a ruined city. Let the 92nd Annual Hunger Games begin.

He only managed to shake himself out of his thoughts when the hovercraft landed and he hurried through the maze under the arena. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't need to to get the chills just from the proximity. Knowing that right above his head 23 children were going to die in the next couple weeks. Shaking himself out of it, he first made it to Onyx's room, shaking his hand and giving him some last minute advice before leaving him with his trainer and heading over to Thalia's room, walking in and immediately making eye contact with Thalia. Terra just looked at the two before excusing herself. Between one moment and the next, Cale was holding her in his arms, tight. Maybe if he held her tight enough, she wouldn't be able to leave. "Come back to me," the words were out of his mouth in a whisper before he could stop them. She didn't seem to hear him, though, and he couldn't tell if he felt relieved at that or not. But then she was stepping back and saying that she would come home and he wanted to say more but she stepped inside the tube and was gone.

Hurrying through the hall, he stepped into a room with a few screens just to watch the blood bath and make sure that she got through it okay before making his way back to the hovercraft so that he could get back to the actual center where the betting happened and sponsors waited for him to make deals with them. However, back on the hovercraft there was nothing to stop his mind from skipping back to his own blood bath, the image of Thalia's fresh in his mind.

The buzzer going off barely grazed the back of his mind before he was flying across the dirt towards the golden Cornucopia, glowing under the sun. He was a few yards ahead of the closest tribute to him, his small frame and long legs were at least good for something. He got to the mouth of the Cornucopia with at least 30 seconds to spare and he took the time to grab a bag and a sword before turning and starting to run, having to take a slash at someone who got too close to him with a knife. The girl from district four stared up at him from the ground, blood bubbling out of a new gash in her neck. Gulping thickly, he forced his eyes away and took off without looking back, getting as far from the Careers as physically possible. He didn't stop to breathe for a good mile or two, by then he couldn't see anyone near him at all. Or hear them.

His breathing was shallow and rapid and he had a hard time catching his breath. It took him a couple moments to pull himself together, then he made his way to a building that had a partial roof still intact. Shade and cover to hide him while he sorted through his things. Opening his bag, he pulled items out one by one, growing happier with his lot as he did. A full canteen, a large back of dried fruit and nuts, a bag of dried meat, a serrated dagger, a roll of clean cloth, and a rope. Not a bad pick, considering he also had his sword. He let his head fall back against the brick wall behind his head as he took a small sip of his canteen. He needed to save it for when he actually found a source of water. From what he'd seen of the place so far, it was fairly dry. However, the Gamemakers never made an arena without a source of water. Suddenly, canons started going off in the distance. Twelve in total. It had only been an hour, and half of the tributes were already dead.

Cale had to wipe the sweat off his brow and run a hand through his hair when the hovercraft finally landed and he took off towards the Game center. His head was buzzing with memories from his own Games, along with what he'd recently seen in Thalia's. He hadn't been wrong, she was strong, but these Games were going to be harder. She was in a frozen wasteland and fire might be one of the only ways to survive, but also a good way to get killed. However, she was in a different situation than he had been. She was with the Careers and as much as he didn't care for them, that was the best place for her to start out. He just hoped she would be able to get the jump on them at the end before they could her. He would do his damnedest to make sure she did.

#389990

XXXXXX

[luke skypotter]

may the odds
word count: 1103

Reaping day.

Possibly the worst day of the year and definitely the most nerve-wracking. Peacekeepers, everyone
in the square, squished in with no room to breath. Terrified children. Sobbing parents.

This one was by far the worst, or at least it was looking to be. Not long ago, President Snow had popped
up on everyones television to announce the Quarter Quell. Only happening every twenty-five years, the
Quell was a big deal and even though she'd never had the displeasure of witnessing one, Valora knew
this, if only because the adults of the Seam had been whispering about the last one lately.

Excuse her if her brain was a little too frazzled to remember the details. She could barely remember
the last year's Games, though she did recall that it had been another Career win, which had hardly
been a surprise. They almost always won.

Taking a deep breath, Val looked up at the mirror as she ran the old brush through her hair, recently
sheared off. She rarely let it grow too long, it was too much of a hassle to deal with, even if it was an
unusual style for girls of District 12. She'd never really been normal, anyway. She had two parents,
but her father had began taking her out into the woods when she was younger, giving her some useful
knowledge on how to shot a bow and throw a knife.

She wasn't the best at the whole knives thing, but it would give her an advantage in the arena, at least.
And for a girl of the Seam, she was well-fed - not that that held much meaning. Most of the people around
her were starving, but she and her father hunted together when he was off of work on Sundays, and she
went alone the other times and they earned money and food. Plus, her mother was a fairly good nurse,
which was a skill that could be traded in for a few coins here and there.

Her mother still had some connections in the merchant village, at least. Her mother had been a merchant
before she had married into the Seam. It was frowned upon, but Val was never quite sure why - people
were people, even if some of them were poorer than others, right? Anyway, thats supposedly how Val had
managed to turn out with blue eyes - a stark contrast to the mostly gray of the Seam. Her mother had them,
too, and the blonde hair, but she hadn't inherited that, at least.

"Are you ready?" Val turned to see her father standing behind her and nodded. To be honest, she had to
lock her knees to even get them to move out of the house, two steps in front of her parents. This is the
only time she was actually happy to be an only child, that she didn't have another person to worry about
on Reaping Day, too. Except for May, but Val refused to think about that.

After checking in, Val took her place towards the back of the roped off section designated for all the girls,
ages 12 to 18. If she could just get through this year, she wouldn't have to worry anymore. But this year,
they'd be reaping four tributes instead of just two.

Just then, a hush fell over the crowd as the escort, Effie, stepped onto the stage, looking as ridiculous as
she did every year, if not more so. Everything was bigger and more dramatic at the Quell, apparently.

Val zoned out as the video played and Effie spoke once more. She only managed to pull her head back
into the moment when a familiar tension entered the hair and she looked up to see Effie twirling her hand
in the bowl of female tributes. Everyone held their breath as she finally grabbed one and pulled it out with
a flourish before reading it.

It wasn't her, thank god.

Moving over to the boys bowl, she picked out a name in much the same way and Val was surprised to hear
that she didn't know either of the first two tributes chosen. But then it was time to pick the second and Val
squeezed her eyes shut, as if that would change the results somehow.

"Maysilee Abernathy."

No. No, no, no, no, no. This couldn't be happening. The girl was her cousin, her father's brother's daughter.
Val had babysat her a lot over the years and they were practically sisters. She was only twelve.

Sucking in a breath, she opened her eyes to see the girl small girl stepping out of line and shuffling forward
nervously. That brought her back to the present and she stepped out of line with her hand in the air.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" She'd meant for the words to come out calm, collected, but she ended
up nearly screaming them. Effie looked shocked, to put it lightly. So did everyone else. Twelve rarely ever had
volunteers and no one quite knew what to do, so Val stepped forward and gave May a quick hug before she
guided her gently back into the crowd.

Turning to the stage, Val squared her shoulders and walked forward, keeping her jaw clenched in and effort
to not look as terrified as she felt. The next boy to be called was at least familiar. Peeta Mellark. He was kind
and Val had always thought that he was cute. She was genuinely sad to see him thrown into the mix, but
there was nothing that she could do about it.

At that, the four tributes were led into the Justice Building to say their goodbyes, Val took a deep breath and
thought about all the things she needed to say. They all flew out the window when her parents walked in and
she flung herself at them. They hugged and cried for a few moments before they were taken from the room
and Uncle Griffin and May entered in their place. Griffin thanked her too many times and May just cried and
told her to come back.

Val made sure to wipe her face and calm down before she was led to the train in front more cameras than
she'd ever seen. She was led to the room on the train, nicer than anything she'd ever seen, and told to clean
up for dinner. Wasn't she clean enough?

Settling for brushing out her waves once more, she made her way out to the dining car, a little nervous to be
around so many people that she'd be fighting to kill in about a week.

one - #43bfc7 ;; two - #88ccc7;; other - #d8d8d8

[luke skypotter]

these ivory keys
word count: 2776

01230123

#00982a

tab Every day...the same thing every single day. Ever since he began classes at the college not to long ago, the nineteen-year-old had fallen into a kind of routine. It wasn't necessarily a good type of routine, either. It was the routine made by a person with a lack of interest in their surroundings, the routine that made you feel mindless in everything you do. Not to mention the arguments he got into with his parents at least once a week nowadays. They always seemed to be about the same things. He was too far away from home, he didn't come home enough, he wasn't using the money they were giving him properly (though he barely used it at all), he wasn't eating enough...and the most frequent of all. His majors. He'd decided to go for a double major, which normally would have thrilled his parents to no end, if only it weren't for what he was majoring in. They insisted that he needed to do something "useful" with his life, instead of going for music and performing arts. They wouldn't have minded about the music so much, if he'd double majored with something professional, like medicine, but no. He'd chosen performing arts, of all things. His mother, being a doctor, and his father a lawyer with his own firm were adamant about their little boy doing something that would help people, but Niall most definitely believed that music helped people. It had sure as hell helped him. But his parents thought differently. Hence, the pile of pamphlets for different, more prestigious majors lying on the desk in his little bedroom in the flat he shared with another boy. He wished he had the confidence and the courage to just reach over and dump the stupid things in the trash can, but even a thousand or so miles away, his parents still cared the absolute s**t out of him. You'd think a nineteen-year-old in his second year of college would let a little bit of that fear go...You'd be wrong.

tab "Niall? You have any classes today, mate?" his roommate, Jordan, asked curiously, peeking his head into the blonde's bedroom. He was obviously still sleepy by the way he was rubbing his eyes and stretching like a cat after a nap. On a personal level, Niall had no real problem with the raven-haired boy in front of him. They honestly got on fairly well, even though they had different ideas of fun. One one hand, Niall liked quiet and often stayed in his room at night with some food, his laptop, and his piano, testing out new ideas for songs and such. He also had his electric keyboard in the corner so that he could record things. He'd been lucky to have a roommate to split the rent and that let him have the extended bedroom, so that he had room to put his piano, keyboard, and recording stuff. He'd actually had to have a smaller bed and desk than originally planned, but he didn't mind. On the other hand, Jordan loved to party. He constantly was either out with friends or had people over, most of the time he ended up bringing some girl home and hooking up. Niall didn't care, really, as long as he couldn't hear them doing what they did. "Just one in twenty minutes or so, then I'll be gone for a while," he informed him, shifting from foot to foot a tad bit nervously. The same question always followed that information. "Where do you go, exactly? I mean, I don't wanna pry, you're just gone all the time," Jordan questioned, looking genuinely interested in the answer. Niall just sighed. "I'm going to my secret place. And I'm not telling you where that is. I'm not telling anyone where that is," he clarified. It wasn't anything personal, really, he just only had one place to go to really be alone for a while, without the hustle and bustle of college life following him around.

tab His special place was a building. Old and worn out in appearance, people generally never paid much attention to it, which the blonde would be eternally grateful for. He'd discovered the place in the few days during the summer in which he'd flown in to finish signing the papers for the flat and just basically setting everything up. While his parents went all out to make buddy buddy with some of the administrators at the school by taking them out for an expensive dinner, he'd snuck away for a while to explore the place. Seeing as how his flat was only a block or so from the main part of the school, it was a prime area to get to know. There were plenty of shops and cafes and all, but none of them really caught his eye. Only the majestic old building captured his attention and drew him to approach it and go inside. Though run-down looking on the outside, the inside of the place was impossibly white, pristine almost. Or, at least, it would have been if it weren't for the dust that had gathered. Of course, that had grossed him out just a tad (though it mostly just caused sneezing), and he'd been about to quit his adventure when he'd found the last room on the left. Inside it, covered in dust and grime, was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. A grand piano, made from wood so old, the tree it was made from had probably been ancient. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to just sit down and play it that day. It took him hours that day just to clean the thing out, and it was still fairly out of tune, which made it obvious that it had been sitting in the room for a few months at least without being touched, maybe since last fall or so. Not that it mattered, anyhow, he hadn't had time to even start on the tuning after cleaning it out, but he'd immediately done so when he returned. Luckily, the building had been dusted clean for the school year, so he didn't have to worry about the sneezing again. Instead, he set to work on fixing it up. It took him hours almost every day for just under 3 weeks to restore the instrument to it's former glory. Luckily, he had patience with pianos and years of experience.

tab He actually remembered the first time he'd ever plaid his hand on a piano. He'd barely been three years old when his grandpa had picked him up and set him down on his lap on front of a large concert piano, worn with age and use. He actually still kept it in his bedroom back home, in loving memory of his grandfather. Anyways, his grandpa had placed his tiny, baby fingers on the keys and pressed down. Of course, the sound had been the loveliest thing in the world to a three-year-old and he'd pressed the key down again and again before letting his grandpa move his fingers to a new key. That entire day, his parents couldn't get their baby boy away from the magical contraption that produced beautiful sounds at the press of a key, not even with the bait of his favorite meal for dinner. Something started that day. By the time he was six years old, he could read music and play it with all the skill a six-year-old could muster. All his parents' friends would tell them about how their son was a prodigy, though he'd had no idea what that meant at the time. At the age of eight, he attended his first big concert as a performer instead of a viewer, and at ten, he composed his first piece. Albeit, it was exceedingly short and bore an uncanny resemblance to certain classical pieces, but it was the beginning of a life-long love affair with creating music. It consumed his life, basically. He took singing lessons, though he never let any one but his instructor hear him, he taught himself guitar. Learned violin at eleven to have the skill for later compositions. But piano was his passion, his fire. It was piano that he took to the most, learning how to manipulate the chords and create something completely new, never before heard. Something of his own. His parents, though, his parents didn't like their son being so wrapped up in an object rather than a person.

tab They repeatedly tried everything in their power to get him involved in all sorts of activities, just so that he could interact with people his own age. It wasn't like he always wanted to be alone. No, he was actually quite the people person, he just found himself wrapped up in notes and rhythms, too much so to connect much with others. However, his parents enrolled him in dance classes first, but they kicked him out after a month because he kept tripping over his own feet and crashing into the other dancers. Next, they tried drama classes...he got flunked out of those in under a month. Despite his warnings, they insisted on signing him up for anything and everything, which he almost always got kicked out of. The only thing that really stuck to him was soccer. He liked the activity and the idea of the game, even though he wasn't the stare player on the team. He actually ended up tearing many of the ligaments in his right knee in a game, the year before his last year would have been. It still bothered him sometimes, but he was lucky enough to be able to walk again, so he wouldn't complain. Not to mention, he got to be an honorary member of the varsity team he would have been on, had he been able to play. Instead, he was stuck on the bench. It wasn't the most fun, but it was better than nothing. Despite not being able to play with the injury, his parents were satisfied with the years he'd put into it, as well as the fact that he was staying the honorary bench warmer, so they stayed off his back about the fact that he was still home most of the time, buried in his music instead of going out with his teammates. They'd actually expected him to finally listen and go to college for something they deemed important, but he managed to sneak some applications out with disks carrying videos of his piano skills (along with his various other instruments). And just a couple weeks before graduation, he was accepted to them, which gave him a choice about which to go to. And - of course - he chose the one furthest away from his bloody parents.

tab And now, here he was, a mostly free man with a nice place to escape to that - as far as he knew - nobody else knew of. How much more perfect could his little college getaway get? "Have fun with your class, then, I guess. And wherever the hell you're going to afterwards," Jordan shrugged, walking from the room and into the kitchen. Niall mumbled something in reply before grabbing his bag, slipping his phone into his pocket, and locking his bedroom door so that he could leave. It wasn't that he didn't trust Jordan, per say, it was more that he didn't trust the people that Jordan brought back to the place. So, he kept his room locked, precious things inside, and kept the only copies of the key with him at all times, one in his pocket, and on tucked into his bag. He had both in case the one fell out of his jeans, or his bag was lost. Thankfully that hadn't happened yet, but you could never be too cautious. His class didn't take too long to get to. In fact, it only took him a couple minutes to walk there in the morning sun, but it seemed to last forever. Maybe it was because he was looking forward to lunch with some of his buddies from the soccer team. He'd tried out and made it, but they made him take it easy so that he couldn't blow his stupid knee out all over again. They all ended up eating at a place called 'The Tilted Kilt', which had great food, even if the waitress outfit was a little...Well, it was practically nonexistent. And they kept trying to flirt with Niall and the others. The others didn't really seem to mind, of course, but Niall...Niall was a boy that took a liking to the same gender, even if he wasn't too open about it. He wouldn't be able to joke around with the boys like he currently did if he was.

tab After eating and paying, they all agreed on a place to meet the next week, and then Niall was on his way to the piano. He didn't even need to pay attention to the route anymore, his feet sort of took him there on their own. A couple blocks this way, a few yards that way, in the front door, down the gleaming white hall, and into the room at the end. Most likely it had been a ballet studio previously, due to the wall-to-wall mirrors. It didn't count for much now, though, he strode right to the center of the room where "his piano" sat, just the way he'd left it. Taking his laptop from his bag, he sat it on the instrument and dropped his bag to the floor before sliding onto the smooth bench he'd brought in at the beginning of the year. The worn, ivory keys felt natural under his fingers tips, and he let them just glide across for a moment, before opening his laptop and hooking up the recording instruments. He always did that when he played, in case he made any changes that he liked, or even that he didn't liked. He didn't have anyone to share his music with, so he might as well just share it with himself, right? Gnawing on his bottom lip, he opened up the file he'd put together just a few days before of the other parts to the piece, since he couldn't play them all at once. Taking a deep breath, he started into the piece he'd composed a few days after a fight with his parents. It was a bit more intense than his usual stuff, but he immersed himself in it, letting the music take him over. When it ended, he clicked off the recorders and decided to just play something new this time.

tab The piece he decided to play freely was one he'd come up with one night in the middle of the dream, and he'd gotten up just so that he could record it on his keyboard before he lost it. Good thing his bedroom had fairly decent sound-proofing, right? Without all of his recording things up and running, he lost himself completely in the flow of the notes. His eyes closed of their own accord, out of a sort of bliss he'd felt only when playing the piano thus far. When the last of the notes stopped ringing throughout the room, Niall let his blue eyes drift open, just as a voice sounded through the room. Okay, it wasn't such a loud voice, his hearing was just sensitive at the moment, due to recent music resounding through his head. The pale boy whipped around so fast he almost fell from the stool he sat on as he stared at the brown-eyed boy in front of him. "Uhm...thanks? My grandpa started me out, but I mostly taught myself, I'm not that good," he said softly, a little nervous that someone had found his little hiding place. And it wasn't even someone he knew...it was an incredibly attractive boy, with brown, short hair and tan skin. Quite frankly, it made him a bit irritated that his secret place wasn't his secret place anymore, but he hid it quite well. It was bound to happen eventually, anyway. It wasn't like he owned the place, he was just mooching off the quietness and the piano. "So...uhm...you go to school at the University...what for?" he asked awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot and trying not to stare at the stranger. It wasn't working too well, though. "So, anyway, I'm Niall. Niall Horan. I major in music and performing arts here," he finally introduced, letting his usual broad smile crawl onto his face and brighten his features. The situation was a bit awkward, but why not make the best of it, yeah?


OOC;; holy HELL. i apologize this is MUCH longer than i meant for it too be. i promise, they will NOT all be this long. stupid introductions lol. your post was great, it's really okay c:

xxxxx xxxxx

[luke skypotter]

the cry of a m o c k i n g j a y
word count: 1465

TAKE MY ＨＡＮＤ AND MY ＨＥＡＲＴ ＲＡＣＥＳ

FLAMES ILLUMINATE OUR ＦＡＣＥＳ, AND WE'RE ON ＦＩＲＥ

BLOW A ＫＩＳＳ TO THE ＣＲＯＷＤ
THEY'RE OUR ONLY ＨＯＰＥ NOW

WE'RE ALL JUST PIECES IN THEIR ＧＡＭＥＳ

ＭＩＫＡ ＡＮＮＡ ＳＯＰＨＩＡ ＭＩＫＡＥＬＳＯＮ
❝ｄｉｓｔｒｉｃｔ ｆｏｕｒ ｔｒｉｂｕｔｅ❞

arena:: [~] [~]xxxxxxuniform:: [~]

ooc:: this is bad d: sorry, my brain
is FRIED from exams

█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█

Mika simply blinked up at Bise when he explained about how he liked her and she was different. She couldn't seem to process the thought of Bise liking her back...But, he couldn't, not when she was going into the arena to die in the morning! Opening her mouth to say something, she immediately snapped her mouth shut when she saw how he was looking at her. And then he kissed her and it was the best feeling that Mika had felt in a long, long time. She leaned into it, cherishing the moment. It felt right in a world that had gone wrong a long time before she was even born. Letting out a soft noise of disappointment when he pulled away, Mika listened to Bise's question, the sad note in his voice making her want to hug him tight to her chest and not let go, not even for the Games. It was heartbreaking. "Things happen the way they happen, I guess...I'm not quite sure why, but they do. I'm not sad because I might never see you again. I'm just so happy that I met you in the first place," she said, her voice breaking a little as a tear slipped down her cheek. Reaching up, she rubbed it away harshly, suddenly angry at the situation lying before them. "It's just. I wish..." shaking her head at the lack of words, again, she pushed herself up and leaned down and kissed him again. It wasn't so soft and sweet this time, though. It was a kiss taken from pain, angry, and longing. Longing to stay with Bise instead of go off into the arena the next day. Pulling back, she looked down at him, her hair falling to create an almost-curtain around their faces. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," she said, a giggle spilling out from behind her lips. After that, she let herself collapse onto the mattress next to him, then curled into his side, his chest acting as her pillow. "You know, I'm actually...kind of...tired..." she sighed in between yawns, then finally closed her eyes and fell asleep for the first time since she'd been Reaped.

................

Morning. The Games. Hell. Mika let her eyes open slowly to look out the window on the opposite wall. The sun was slowly working it's way up in the sky, casting orange and purple hues across the clouds. Looking down at Bise dozing, she let a tender smile crawl onto her face, then she leaned down and kissed him on the forehead before slipping out of the bed and the room to go back to her own. On her made bed sat a form-fitting pair of pants and a dark blue tank top, and black boots with thick, light gray socks. Gnawing on her bottom lip, she reached around for her hair and quickly twisted it into a braid that hung past her shoulder blades. Then she pulled on her new clothes and went into the bathroom to look in the mirror. She looked strange. Solemn, and...older, some how. Like she was about to walk through Hell's Gates and was determined not to flinch. It was scary, seeing herself dressed for death in the safe Capitol. Taking a deep breath, she turned and walked out of the room for what she knew would probably be the last time. Seeing Milo in the living room, she managed a smile and walked out with him,sparing one last look back into the building where Bise was probably still dozing. She closed her eyes for a moment and blew a kiss in his direction, then turned and followed Milo from the "apartment" and into the elevator. "Are you ready for this?" Milo asked her lightly, looking down at her with sympathetic eyes. She hated it. It made her feel like everyone else thought she was going to die, too. Sure, she knew she most likely would, but some confidence from other people would be helpful! "Not really. But it's happening, so I don't really have the choice not to be, do I?" she replied, shrugging her shoulders and staring straight forward, determined to think of something else. But Milo was staring at her, looking so sad and regretful for her. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you, Mika. So incredibly sorry." Mika closed her eyes against the sudden flash of terror. "Me too," she replied softly.

................

"Thank you, Milo. If you don't mind...I'd like to be alone for a few minutes," she said once her stylist had given her the temperature-sensitive coat she would wear in the arena. Milo simply looked at her for a few moments, hugged her, and then turned to walk out. As soon as the door shut behind him, she released the breath she'd been holding in since getting dressed that morning and crouched down to sit her elbows on her knees. Her arm ached ever-so-slightly where they'd inserted the tracking device, and she was starting to feel a stress headache behind her eyes. Hearing the door open again, she looked up to see Bise and let out another sob/sigh. "20 seconds," a robotic voice announced and her eyes widened. Stepping forward, she pressed a last kiss to his mouth and leaned back to look up at him with teary eyes. "Keep watching Elijah. We all...We all have to make sacrifices. That's why I'm...that's why I'm going for the Cornicopia. I have to try, Bise," she said as she slowly backed into the tunnel. As soon as her foot hit the inside, the wall started to lower and she looked up at Bise sadly as she was lifted up into the arena. Looking around, her jaw nearly dropped. They were in the middle of what looked like some Town Square. But it was in the middle of a decaying, ruined city overtaken with trees. Looking over at the countdown hovering in front of the golden structure, Mika leaned forward, ready to bolt. Looking over at Elijah, she made a gesture specifically telling him to run away immediately, then she was sprinting. Luckily, she was almost the closest to the opening, and she made it to the mouth before anyone else and grabbed 6 throwing knives and a dagger immediately, turning and slashing the throat of the guy behind her, the boy from 10. Without even blinking, she grabbed two bags - one for herself and one for Elijah - and turned to sprint away from the place, juggling her items in her hand.

Luckily for her, she got away with just a cut on her left leg, but only just barely. A spear whizzed by her head right as she turned a corner into the network of buildings and trees."s**t!" she cursed softly and slowed down once she got a block away. She'd stuffed her throwing knives into a pocket in the bag while on the run, but kept her dagger, and had picked up the spear for Elijah. Her hands were quite literally full, which slowed her down quite a bit, but she was so speedy to begin with, that she still got away. Panting from the exertion, she looked around frantically for any sign of Elijah, seeing as this was the way he'd run after the countdown. "Psst! Mika, over here!" a small voice whispered, causing Mika's head to snap around to see a blonde head peeking out of the first floor building with all the windows smashed out and trees growing through it. She hurried inside and shut the door, dropping the spear and the blue bag on the floor, she leaned against the wall to try and catch her breath. "Mika...are you okay?" he asked, gesturing to large amount of blood pouring from her wound and soaking the upper part of her left pant leg. "Yeah, but I suppose I could be better," she said, wincing as she stretched it out. Sitting down, she gestured Elijah to sit down so that they could sort through the bags. The blue one had food - dried, fruit, canned, nonperishable things - and water. The tan one contained rope, clothe, 2 extra pairs of socks, another water canister, and medicinal cream. Perfect. "The spear is yours, Elijah, the knives are mine. It looks like we hit the jackpot, friend," Mika grinned, rubbing some of the cream on her leg and binding it with the clothe. She'd still have a slight limb when it healed a bit, but it was better than nothing. "Well, this is a good start. A hideout, food and water, weapons, and we're both still alive. Can't get much better than that, can we?" Mika joked, trying to keep the mood light. It probably wasn't working very well. Not now that they were actually in the arena.

█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▌█

XXXXXX XXXXXX

[luke skypotter]

█ ▌◞ we danced all night to the ( BEST SONG EVER )
word count: 2158

xxx

"No, Lily. Robby and I...we're way over...What the hell do you mean 'I should take him back?'...What?!...If you forget he was with someone else, not me...I didn't even fancy him that much, you know my taste in guys is a bit...different...Okay, well if you're going to keep yapping at me to take back my cheating arse of an ex, I'd best be off...I sound mad, do I?...Well that's because you're bloody well pissing me off!...Okay, well, I've had enough. Goodbye, Lily."

Bloody hell, were all friends this difficult when you broke it off with your ex boyfriend, even if he was a complete arse? No? Of course not, just hers. But then again, her friends had a habit of getting a bit too attached to her boyfriends. The appealing ones, at least. See, Iris had a bit of a...odd taste in guys. Everyone called her a knockout, though she hardly believed it, and they always said that she could get all the "hot" guys if she wanted to. But...she didn't want to. She tended to like more...nerdy guys. Ones that had something unusual about them. In a good way, of course. So maybe they weren't always the most attractive colors in the rainbow, but they were always sweet and funny. And most of them were so stunned that a girl was taking interest in them that they didn't have time to run and hide behind a computer screen to calculate things like the mass of the sun or whatever. Okay, maybe not that, but...nerdy stuff. Now, you might have guessed that Iris really wasn't this type of girl. She was more of an artsy type, not a gamer or a smartie, or something else of the kind. No, she had an average GPA and took regular classes back in school. No AP for this gal. And she wasn't socially awkward or shy or anything like most people thought when they saw her with dorky guys. Nope, perfectly confident. It was just...the typical pretty boys didn't interest her. She partly blamed her brother, Leeroy, for her taste in men.

Take Robby for example, and the dozen like him she'd tried dating over the years. A pretty boy, he was everything you'd think of when hearing the name. Not very bright, not very modest. Very vain. Not what she looked for in a guy at all. They'd dated for roughly 3 months when she'd walked into his bedroom and seen one of her friends riding him like a bull at the bloody rodeo. And awkward moment to say the least. But neither of them had cared, really. They simply broke it off and had yet to see or speak to each other since. It was all rather sad, but Leeroy had taken to "comforting" her quite well. Since she lived with him in a small flat in the middle of London, it wasn't hard for him to constantly hover over her. Not that she minded. He could make the best cheesecake Iris had ever tasted, a recipe he'd learned from their grandma. Sighing, she took a quick snoop around the rooms and sadly realized that he must've already gone to work. Really, she wasn't quite sure how he did it. He was almost always up and moving, hyper, you could say. Iris honestly had no idea where he got it. Not to mention, he always put on a blonde wig when he went to work, along with his little pink headband, but he wore that a lot anyway. He was quite the flamboyant lad. He did seem calmer when he took off the wig at home, though. Iris sometimes joked that he had an alter ego, 'the Choreographer', who took him over when he went out and let him go again when he came back home. Lame, but she'd thought of it years ago, when he'd first started to major in teaching dance and bought his first wig.

With a sigh, Iris wandered into the kitchen, still in her PJs and everything, and then she caught a look at the clock. "Bloody hell, I'm going to be late for my meeting!" she cried, forgetting all about grabbing food and running across the flat to the bathroom, throwing off her clothes to shower more quickly than she ever had in her entire life. Then she jumped out and dried her hair while simultaneously trying to keep her towel wrapped around her, brush her teeth, and do her makeup. All the while, she methodically muttered the same word over and over again. [********, ********, ********, ********, [********] Not the most ladylike thing to do, but to hell with it. She couldn't care any less about the ettiquete at the moment. Not with 30 minutes to go until she had to be at the office to talk to Jonny and Harvey about the movie they wanted her to be part of. It wouldn't be bad, really, working around Leeroy a bunch, and the others. The only other person from the place was Veronica, one of the assistants. She was nice and really pretty, too. Couldn't get much better than that, right? With that thought in her mind, she fluffed her hair and pulled on the clothes she'd laid out the night before, luckily, and slipped on her heels. Sadly, in heels, she was average height or just above it. Standing a sad height of 5'3", her heels only lifted her to 5'6"-5'7" on a good day. Fortunately, today was one of those days, and she quickly grabbed her bag, phone, and keys, and headed out the door to her car.

The drive to the building didn't take as look as Iris had thought, thankfully, and she was able to find a parking spot in one of the garages within 10 minutes. And she only had to pay a few pounds for it. Nothing big, which was a relief since she was a tad low on money. Working at a cafe didn't pay well, and she was taking online Uni courses, and she'd also spent a lot of her money on clothes and hair and nails...What could she say, she was a girl, whether she liked it or not, and getting pampered every once and a while was part of being a girl, right? At least...that's what Iris liked to tell herself. Juggling her things in her hands as she tried to get them settled neatly without dropping anything, she hurried into the building with a smile, greeting a woman at a desk before continuing on until she found the familiar face she was looking for. "Good morning, Iris. Nice seeing you again." Veronica greeted and Iris smiled at her next, astonished question, after she'd assumed that she was there to see Lee. Guess the people there didn't really know that she loved acting and such. And she was pretty good at it, or so she was told. "That I am. And gladly. I was almost bloody late this morning, I was so out of it," she mumbled as she took the pen and scrawled her name neatly on the line. Taking the chair behind Veronica, she looked up as a loud bang sounded, followed by the elevator opening. Seeing the guy there, scattered papers at his feet, made Iris have to stifle a smile. How adorable was that?

Hearing him lecture Veronica about her vocabulary, she couldn't stop the soft giggle that passed through her lips, but then he was gone and she was left staring at the door he'd gone into. "Uhm...Who was that, exactly?" she asked, trying to sound casual. She wasn't sure if Veronica knew about her preferred type of man, but, even if she didn't, it was probably obvious by the way her eyes lingered on the door. "Do they always take they long to meet with their clients?" she asked, eyeing the door to the office where Jonny and Harvery were. They sure were taking their sweet ares time about calling her in. And to think she'd rushed through her morning routine just to be there.


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Another day, bright and early. Not that it bothered him. Quite the contrary, actually. Leeroy was almost always up just after the crack of dawn to do a little work out before getting ready for work. Couldn't have the Choreographer for the studio he worked at getting soft, now could he? Letting out a rather large yawn, Lee quickly grabbed an apple from the kitchen and walked to stand in front of the TV, grabbing the remote so that he could turn on his morning exercise routine. In all honesty, it was a bit like that zumba thing, but a little more...Leeroy-esque. It envolved a lot more hip swiveling and turns. All perfectly executed from repeated practice. "And here we go...5,6,7,8...swivel, swivel, swivel, kick!" he chanted quietly, so that he wouldn't wake Iris. She may sleep like a rock, but he still felt the urge to lower his voice and keep the TV volume down to bare minimum. Once finished with the video, he stretched once more to keep himself "loose", and then he was off to shower and such, and reflect on what he was to do today. Hm...

He knew that his baby sister was getting a job at the studio, which would be fun considering all the people there. Harvey and Jonny were pretty good bosses, Marcel was a total sweetheart, even if he was a bit strange, and Veronica...Oh, dear. Veronica. That one was complicated. See, Lee how known since the tender age of 13 that he was gay. Had even legally changed his name from Liam to Leeroy because it had more finesse. He'd never found a girl attractive in the least. Well, besides Iris, but he had to think she was cute, she was his sister. All that had changed, though, once he'd started at the studio and met V. She was the only female not related to him that had ever caught his eye and to be honest...he had no idea why. Sure, she was pretty and smart and...funny...and pretty. Woah. Getting a little off track. Anyway, even though she was all those things, she was still a girl. And Lee could not find girls attractive. Right? Sighing, Leeroy took a quick shower and then dried his hair. Right before he skillfully pulled his blonde wig over his head.

See, Leeroy liked to make a statement, and his hair...his hair made that statement. Granted, he wasn't brave enough to actually dye it blonde, but the wig would do. It sort of made him feel like another person. Like...Leeroy, Choreographer for the hottest movie studio in London. Don't ask why, it just did. After brushing his teeth, he pulled on his usual clothes. Jean shorts, a pink t-shirt, his white pull-over, and then his pinks socks with his shoes. And finally, his favorite piece of clothing. His pink headband. He'd had the thing for years, and he never tired of wearing it. He actually took rather good care of it so that he didn't have to throw it away and buy a new one. Once it was one, he grinned and practically skipped out the door, ready to head in for work nice and early. Well, by the time he got there he might just be there on time, but a boy could dream. Grabbing his things, he strutted out the door and to his car, driving the whole way to the building with the Burlesque soundtrack blaring throughout his car. What could he say, he was absolutely in love with that movie.

"Hey! Hi, um, hey..I see you're up and going already. I'm a little jealous of your energy," Veronica greeted as he strutted through the door happily. "What can I say? There's just so much to be energetic about! And might I just say. That blouse goes perfect with your eyes," Lee complimented, trying not to think about how cute V was so that he could focus on whatever it was it was supposed to do that day. Waving goodbye to the tall woman, he suddenly stopped and turned around, smiling. "Oh! I was wondering this morning if you, Marcel, my baby sister, and I could go out tonight for dinner and a drink or something? I could use a fun night out on the town," he offered with a smile before flouncing into Marcel's office. He knew what his reaction to Leeroy asking him to hang out would be, so he went for a more...direct approach. "Hey, Marcel. You're coming out with Veronica, my sister, and me tonight for some drinks and some food. Maybe a good dance. And don't refuse, 'cause I'll drag you there anyway. See you tonight, dress casual!" he announced, and then he was gone from the room, practically skipping towards his studio to meet with the cast for the newest movie Harvey and Jonny would be filming. Honestly, Lee couldn't think of anything much better to do.


ooc;; rather extensive, i apologize. first
posts ya know d:... [[ iris's outfit ]]
fa8072 - leeroy // 8cb6d2 - iris

[luke skypotter]

:i am selfish ! » i am *brave
word count: 2023

MATTHIAS K. PATTIN
ABNEGATION xTURNED xDAUNTLESS

x█ ▒ x ❝ becoming fearless isn't the point ❞™
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxTHAT'S x IMPOSSIBLE.
xxxxxxxxxx⊁⊁it's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it ☚



tab Today is the aptitude test. Personally, Matthias wasn't as nervous as everyone around him seemed to be, but he'd always been good at smothering emotions in any case. That's what ended up happening, though, when you were stuck in a faction in which you didn't belong. Matthias grew up in Abnegation, and, though he respected the quiet manner his friends and family chose to live their lives, he wasn't a part of it. Instead, he watched the other factions and wondered what it might be like to live like them. The Erudite, reading and studying all the time, but being so intelligent it had to be against some law of nature. The Candor, always brutally honest with everyone - that must make things so much less complicated. The Amity, peaceful and happy and in sync (or so it seemed to Matthias) with their surroundings. And then there was the Dauntless, brave and reckless and definitely the faction he pictured himself in someday. Well, not really someday as opposed to the next day. Damn, he was so close to leaving his faction and starting a new life somewhere he didn't need to constantly think about other people and forget himself. Like now, for instance.

tab Matthias! the blonde-brunette heard his twin sister whisper viciously into his ear. He'd been spacing again. Turning his head, he watched blankly as she jerked her head sporadically until he finally caught on and stood to let a fat Candor man sit in his spot. And then he was left standing for the remainder of the bus ride. Damn it. You should really pay attention, Matthias! The aptitude tests are today and you wouldn't want to screw something up and end up in the wrong faction, his sister, Marie, grumbled quietly, just as she had been all morning. I know, Marie. I'm just thinking about what might happen, is all. And who knows, maybe you'll end up in Erudite, he replied with a casual shrug and smiled at her withering look his way. Erudite was not an option for Marie. Before Abnegation, their mother had been an Erudite (their father had always been Abnegation) and they sometimes - however rarely heard tales from the faction that left them extremely wary about it.

tab Once they reached Upper School, Matthias managed to stop by one of the many windows to sit and watch the Dauntless jump from the train. It was a wild act and he could practically feel the rush of wind on his face and hear it in his ears. Yes, he was most definitely born into the wrong faction. With a sigh, he grudgingly pulled himself from the view and made his way to classes before they were led to the cafeteria to await the tests. Being Abnegation, Matthias would either be tested by a Dauntless or an Erudite. He prayed for the Dauntless. When his name was called, he walked into a room built of mirrors so that he could see himself - blonde, pale, and clothed in gray - shuffling into the room with the woman in blue. Okay, so the nerves were practically biting into his flesh by now. Deep breaths. Matthias remained wary as the Erudite woman attached wires from a monitor to him, then to herself, and gave him the clear liquid to drink. By the time he felt the coolness in the back of his throat, his eyes were blinking open and he stared at the empty cafeteria. Choose. He about asked what they meant, but turned to see a table with a block of cheese and a large, sharp knife. Immediately fascinated, Matthias reached for the knife and pulled it from the table, watching the light gleam off of it.

tab However, even with the weapon in his hand, he was not prepared for the vicious dog to come bounding out of nowhere, snarling and snapping his slobbery jaws. Dropping the knife, he immediately lied out on the ground before the dog as he had read in one of his mother's many books. Vicious turned to simply vivacious in an instant and Matthias was left dumbfounded. That is, until the girl came running at the dog happily. Reacting on instinct, he grabbed the knife and pounced on the animal, plunging the knife into it's neck. The whimpering was unpleasant to listen to, but Matthias never owned a pet as a child (too self indulgent for an Abnegation) and he wasn't as bothered by the dying canine as other kids might have been. After the dog situation, the situations continued until, finally, his eyes opened on the mirrored room and the woman behind him was frowning. When he asked if something went wrong with his test, she replied, Your results were inconclusive. At first, when you picked up the knife, Amity was removed and Dauntless potential was shown. However, you then dropped the knife and reacted to the dog much like an Erudite would. This becomes a problem when you then killed the animal and later crossed out Erudite. In the last simulation, you removed Candor from the possibilities. Your actions in the simulation reveal that you have an aptitude for both Abnegation and Dauntless. Matthias later learned that this was called Divergent, but he couldn't reveal that to anyone because it was "dangerous". He wasn't sure why, but he figured it would not be a good idea to ask. So, he left the building and began his trek home.

_____________________________________________________

tab The Choosing Ceremony came next and Matthias stood in the line of sixteen-year-olds, wondering what in the world he was going to do. Marie stood at his side, gripping his hand with the strength of ten men and sweating profusely. He couldn't blame her, though, because he believed she may have been proven to be Amity instead of Abnegation. As a child she liked to pretend she was one of those "flower-children" as my father called them. Too bad flowers weren't allowed in Abnegation. Wouldn't want any one area looking prettier than the others - it might make people think of themselves. Taking a deep breath, Matthias watched the Candor man giving his speech before all the teens were called, in reverse alphabetical order, to walk up to the front of the room and stand in the middle of 5 large, metal bowls, each with a symbol for each faction. Glass for the Candor, gray stones for the Abnegation, soil for the Amity, water for the Erudite, and lit coals for the Dauntless. Each teen used a knife to slice his/her hand, and let their blood fall into the bowl of the faction they choose. Matthias would have to go before Marie. When it was his name being called, he managed to jamb his nerves and anxieties into a small room in the back of his mind and slam the door on them. He slowly made his way forward and took the knife from the man dressed in black-and-white in front of him and slowly sliced a line down the middle of his hand - not deep, but enough to draw blood. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to the two bowls on his right, Dauntless and Abnegation and halted in between, stealing a last passive glance at Marie and his parents before allowing his blood to sizzle on the coals, letting the collective gasp from Abnegation fill his ears.

_____________________________________________________

tab The ceremony ended when the last girl called chose Erudite instead of her home faction, Candor, and then Matthias was following the other Dauntless initiates out the door, stealing one last glance at his sister, who would be remaining in Abnegation, not brave enough to leave her home behind. But Matthias was brave enough and he would leave it. And then he was running down the stairs with the other kids, most dress in black but with other colors mixed in. He was the only person there in Abnegation grays. Outside, they all sprinted towards the train tracks and began to lift themselves up into the empty cart. All considered, Matthias did fairly well, only banging up his shoulder a little before pulling himself into the cart. Once he was in, he saw a girl begin to fall behind, so he reached out a hand for her, grabbed her wrist when she sped up to reach him, and yanked her off the ground and halfway into the cart before falling on his a** and leaving her to wiggle in the rest of the way. Oh, thanks! I was about to fail initiation back there and you pulled me back! I owe you one! My name is Olive, from Amity, and you are? As she spoke, Matthias began to regret being the one to pull her up, seeing as he wasn't much of a people person, but he managed to reply anyway. Don't mention it. I'm Matthias, from Abnegation. Yeah, makes sense, you risking your neck to pull me in and whatnot. Do many Abnegation transfer to Dauntless? And on and on the girl blabbed about whatever came to her mind, it seemed, until finally a few shouts disturbed him and he stood from his resting place, watching the kids in the carts in front of them begin to jump onto a building. Now this was what he signed up for.

tab Standing he finally smiled down on Olive and held out his hand to pull her up. I think that's our stop. Come on! It'll be fun! he said, a wild gleam in his eye. This was the kind of rush he'd been dreaming of since he was old enough to watch the Dauntless and understand what it was they were doing. Are you sure you came from Abnegation? Let's do it! Matthias chose to ignore the question and instead took a few steps back before sprinting forward and pushing himself off the train floor and flew threw the air. He landed hard on the ground, his knees wobbling a little before they gave out and he sank to the ground, laughing with the adrenaline high he was on. And then a big, big man with a gun was telling them to step away from the edge of the building, where, now that he looked, Matthias could look down and see two oddly shaped lumps on the ground, one black, one blue. Two people dead, already. Gnawing on his bottom lip, he began to follow the others to the other side of the building where another large, armed man stood telling them about Dauntless and the next task. Jump off the building and into the big, dark hole. Already filled with adrenaline, Matthias strode forward, peeling off the baggy, gray pull-over that hid the tighter gray shirt underneath, which presented to the world more of his wiry shape than he had ever shared, even to his parents. Throwing the jacket off the building, Matthias soon followed, hurtling downwards and enjoying the free fall up until his body hit something rough, which gave under his weight. A net.

tab Full off exhilarated laughter, Matthias pulled himself from the net with the help of a few unidentified hands, aware that his hair was longer than normal (his parents believed they'd have the next day to cut it) and wildly set around his face. Welcome to Dauntless. What's your name? And remember, it's a new start. You can be who you want to be. a dark-skinned girl said next to him and he smiled. My name is Matthias, but just call me Matt. Simply Matt had been much too informal in Abnegation, but now that he was somewhere new, he felt like he should try it out. Plus, Matthias was a bit of a mouthful to say all the time. First jumper, Matt! Very impressive, Stiff Yelling the first part, the girl turned to Matthias for the second part, which seemed to be a compliment, but the word 'Stiff' added an edge. Smiling broadly, Matthias looked up as another person - Olive - fell from the sky with a loud shriek and landed on the net. Oh yes, he was going to enjoy his new life.

[luke skypotter]

he walks in beauty, like the night ~
word count: 739

ＥＲＯＳ ＴＨＯＲＰＥ ♥ ＣＵＰＩＤ
x

lives in paris cause city of love and doesn't know the guardians are coming but might just shoot someone in the butt

Eros was used to people ignoring him, but that definitely didn't mean it got any easier during all of his 221 years as Cupid. He died when he was seventeen, and while the details were blurry, he had a vague idea of what happened. He was a student, studying in Paris during the French Revolution in 1793, and he met a young girl who reminded him of his sisters back home in England. It was during an outburst from the "revolutionaries", not long after Louis XVI was guillotined, and there were some fools in the crowd hassling the poor child and Eros intervened. He got her to safety, but was shot in the process and barely made it back to his home before he died. Then un-died. However that worked, exactly.

These days he toiled in the craft of love, desire and all that gushy stuff. He didn't mind, he held a fascination for couples in love, and helping them along never hurt anyone. Of course, every time Valentine's Day came around, he couldn't help but get a bit touchy about his image. I mean, a fat, naked baby with angel wings? Who thought of these things?

He considered himself an average-looking male (in the conventional sense - as cupid, he reserved the right to express some vanity). He had brown hair, green eyes, was average height, and he wore jeans with a simple gray t-shirt, and a red hoodie. He tended to remain barefoot, though - a preference left over from his mortal life, and his so-called "wings" were scars on his back from being attacked while on a date a few months before his death, though they resembled jagged birthmarks - they did not aide in his flight whatsoever.

"Would you look at this view?" Eros suddenly heard in French from the woman in front of him. He'd continued his residence in France even after he died (though he did travel often), and he now stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower because that seemed to be the major place for romantic dates. It just so happened to also be Eros's favorite "hangout" place. What a coincidence, right? "I prefer the view right next to me." And there it was. The ultimate cheesy line in Eros's playbook that always seemed to work.

Now, it's time to take out that ring I know you have in your pocket and pop that question, he said to himself with a small smile. Slowly, as though others would see him, but he knew they wouldn't, he pulled his bow from where he'd hooked it on the his shoulder before reaching back to slide an arrow from his quiver. The arrow was golden, except for the the point, which was a shimmering red color. The bow was dark, strong wood with swirling reds and golds running up and down it. Pulling back the arrow, he blew out a steady breath and was just about to release when he was hit in the head with what seemed to be...a snowball?

Of course, this made him lose his concentration and he let lose the arrow - only it traveled in the wrong direction, hitting another woman, rather than the one he'd meant to. Immediately angry, he pulled another of his infinite arrows and aimed at the white-haired boy before shooting, all in less than a minute. It took a moment for Eros to realize who he was staring at - The Guardians, but he was too angry to care. I'm thinking it's kind of in my job description, what are you doing throwing snowballs at working people, Frosty? he near-growled, purposefully making a reference to Frosty the Snowman upon realizing who he was talking to as he stomped closer to them.

Letting out a hissed breath, he turned to the other Guardians and forced a smile. Eros, at your service. Feel free to call me Ero, he smirked a bit at his bad pun. Now, what service may I offer to you blokes? In his forced amity with the people in front of him, his original English accent, which he'd outgrown ages ago, slipped into his words, but he ignored it in favor of shooting an emerald glare up at the taller white-haired imp in front of him. Maybe we should take this to the Pole so North can help explain? Katherine suggested suddenly in the silence and Eros wrinkled his brow, looking around expectantly for an explanation.

ooc:: that's all good. late is fine ^^



❝ i have no notion of loving people by halves; it's not in my nature ❞ tab

[luke skypotter]

♚⋯ » WORTH THE FIGHT ─ ✱ PRIVATE
word count: 1622

"And that wraps it up for this week, Youtube! Make sure to subscribe to my channel for weekly videos, follow me on twitter, tumblr, and all those social sites - the links are below! And don't forget to head over to CityGossip to check out some of my videos there. Speaking of which, tune in tomorrow for Sherry Compton's and mine interview with the cheeky 5SOS blokes from back home - Sydney, Australia. See you next Wednesday, interweb!"

The seventeen-year-old redhead smiled as she put the finishing touches on her latest video and at last hit the upload button for Youtube. She'd been vlogging for the last four years - having started at the tender age of thirteen - and now had over a million followers and counting after one of her videos had blown up a couple years back. Now she had a job in New York, almost 10,000 miles away from her mum, dad, and baby sister. Thankfully (or perhaps not), she had her older brother, Daniel [27] in the city with her, though he lived with his American fiance, Joan. And Rae? Rae lived by herself in an apartment, owned by her Aunt Maria. Her aunt was a fairly wealthy woman - a CEO of some magazine company or another - and, while Rae's parents didn't speak to Maria much, Rae had actually found herself quite bonded with the woman. Also, Rae had Sherry. Sherry was an American vlogger from Ohio, who'd also been offered a job at CityGossip, and, though she was a year older than Rae, had been doing video blogs equally as long. When Rae had just come to the States, Sherry had introduced herself immediately and they became fast friends. Of the unconventional sort - that was unquestionable. However much Rae missed being home at Sydney, she was able to visit over the holidays and there was no way in bloody hell she was letting go of this job. She worked hard for it, made good money from both her personal videos and professional ones, and she was only seventeen. Sure, when she was a child she had dreamed of being and actor, singer, or musician, but what child didn't? She could post skits, covers, etc. all on her channel and still enjoy herself doing it!

"Knock-knock, anybody home?! Rae?" Rae smiled at the familiar voice and walked from her room, blocked from the rest of her apartment by a half-mirror, half-window, though the window part was impossible to see through. Just across from her bed was the small hallway with closets on both sides for her clothes, and then the bathroom at the end of the hallway. "Sherry! What brings you to this side of the city?" she asked with a smile and the tiny blonde in front of her smiled and shrugged. The two girls were around the same height - a mere 5 ft. 3 in. - and had almost identical personalities with their own quirks here and there. They had two completely different styles, though, and yet somehow got on like a couple of lifelong pals. "Oh, you know. Just happened around here on my way to interview 5 Seconds of Summer and figured I'd check in and see if you were ready perchance - which you are not. So. Planning on changing out of your pajamas today?" Rae snorted at this before wandering back to her room, Sherry hot on her heels. "You know. The interview isn't for another three hours. It's only nine! I have plenty of time, I'm not planning on getting all fancy or anything," she said teasingly, her accent thickening her words. Sherry mumbled something about how Rae was always like this before a light flashed behind her eyes, alerting the world that she had an idea. "We still have some paperwork to fill out and file before we start the interview! So you better get ready!" Rae simply laughed at her friend, before grabbing a towel from her cabinet and pulling off her over-sized t-shirt and batman boxer shorts to step in the shower and flip on the water.

She wasn't one to mess around, really, when she had things to do, so she hurried it along, making sure to shake cleanly so that she didn't show up in front of a celebrity looking like an unkempt a**. Her hair never took long to dry - perhaps a side effect of blazing red hair? - but she decided to style it with a few loose curls since she'd planned on wearing a beanie outside. It was the best way to add a bit of her everyday style to anything she wore. Next came all the maintenance chores - teeth, deodorant, perfume (which smelled strangely like tropical fruit). Ignoring Sherry, who averted her eyes when Rae dropped her towel to pull on her outfit, Rae bustled around, pulling on this and that until she was almost ready - just jewelry and makeup left. And after that, shoes and bag. Finally stopping to smile at her friend, Rae raised an eyebrow. See? It doesn't take everyone multiple hours to get ready, that was only one! Now come on, we'd better get ready for the boys, you slacker," she joked with a sarcastic smile and Sherry huffed, but stood and they left the apartment together, heading down to the official CityGossip studio, where all the interviews and the majority of the other videos were planned, scripted (sometimes), and filmed. Rae was absolutely in love with the place, but was a bit dismayed when she pulled in and spotted a crowd of teen girls around her age, younger, and older. It got like this much of the time when they had particularly famous people on the show, and 5SOS's rising fame definitely caught the attention of a large majority of the CG fans. Pursing her lips, she and Sherry gave each other a look before climbing out of the car and heading towards the crowd so that they might be able to enter the building.

Of course, she got a few exclamations of notice from the fans, but most were too busy anxiously looking around for a sight of the boys, who wouldn't even be arriving for another hour and a half. Enough time to wrap up their desk work and get their questions right. Thankfully, Nigel, their coworker, always took care of the scripting issues and had most things ready by the time they came in on the day of. "Well that was an eventful entrance. I feel important," Sherry announced sarcastically once they were safely inside the elevator and on their way up towards the seventh floor. "I agree with that. I dunno why they're all here so early. And the stars interviewees generally come in through the back, yeah?" Agreed on this unknown fact, the girls exited the elevator after the ding and made their way into the large section of the floor devoted to video interviews before dropping her bag in the far corner - behind the camera set up - where a group of office desks and Macs sat, ready for work. They wasted no more time chatting and were deep into their workload when a knock sounded at the door. "The boys are on their way up now. You girls ready?" Nigel asked as he stepped through the door. Sherry and Rae both nodded as they grabbed their freshly printed off cards of twitter questions to ask. They'd just begun to flip on the cameras and finish adjusting angles, as well as testing the mics in the room, when four young men walked in and Rae smiled. They were all absolutely adorable.

"Okay, boys, you can have a seat on that couch, there. We're almost finished setting up," Nigel told them and the girls just looked at each other and hid their grins. They'd interviewed stars before, of course, but never ones as adorable as the 5SOS boys. Plus, they were in the same age range - not something that can be said about a lot of the people Sherry and Rae are given. Once they were finished pulling all last-minute details together - not five minutes had passed - Nigel herded the girls over to introduce themselves before they began filming. "Hello, boys, I'm Sherry Compton, it's nice to finally meet you in person." "It's quite difficult to get a sense of a person through a computer screen. Lovely meeting you, I'm Rae Connors." It was a good thing Sherry and Rae tended to be very go-with-flow types, or else the first introductions of interviews could be very awkward. And the boys were quite easy to speak to, as well, which made things much, much better. Rae found them all quite attractive, but she couldn't keep her eyes from straying to Luke more than a couple times before the girls took their seats on either side of the couch, the boys between them. The couch was quite long and curved a bit at the ends, so the girls were find of facing the boys but also sitting relatively close to them. Seeing the camera men give the thumbs up that they were ready, Rae turned her eyes to the lens and smile brightly. "Hello, people of the internet, today CityGossip has a special treat for you. Sherry and I have between us a group of Aussie boys whose fame is quickly rocketing upwards - 5 Seconds of Summer! Rae introduced before the camera panned out, showing all six of them. "Okay, we've taken some questions from Twitter, submitted by your fans and just give us the answer straight, alright? First question is - how incredibly cliche of us: What do you look for in a girl?"

OOC // OUTFIT IN THE GIF xxxxxxxxxxxxx

darker green - #89C35C ;; lighter green - #C3FDB8 ;; blue - #9CBAB5

[luke skypotter]

Meet Me In New York xx
word count: 1051

"Nathaniel Caine Stewart! Did you use my towel again?! Nate couldn't help but bust out laughing from his place on the living room couch as Luke walked out, dripping wet, naked except for the soaked towel he clutched in front of himself. "I have no idea what you're speaking of..." Nate replied, taking extreme amusement in his best friend's trouble. "Yeah, I'm sure you don't. How many times have I told you not to use my ******** towel? Luke shouted, stomping over to the bedroom, where both of their beds were stuffed, along with two small dressers and one large closet. "I'm guessing about as many times as I've used it. And mine was dirty!" Nate countered, standing as he wandered over to the little kitchen, where their few bags were stacked. They were getting on a plane to head to New York City later in the day because they had a gig the next day. They were in a band with two other guys, Tyler and Matt, and their band had been getting rather large as of late and they could book larger venues.

"There is such a thing as a washing machine, you realize that, right?" Luke asked, coming out of the room in jeans, pulling his t-shirt over his head. "Who's got time for that?" Nate asked sarcastically, tossing a pop can over his shoulder, which he knew Luke caught by the sound of the tab popping open. "Not you, apparently," Luke retorted, walking into the kitchenette and bumping Nate's hip with his own. Their easy banter continued for the couple hours they had left before their departure as they made sure they hadn't forgotten anything important or something likewise crucial to their upcoming performance. On the way to the airport, they sat in silence, picking up Matt and Tyler on the way, the pile of bags steadily growing. Luckily, their manager had asked Nate's older brother to take the band van and drive it to the city with all the instrument equipment a couple days before since he was already heading that way, so they didn't have to worry about all that stuff getting lost on the plane.

"So, who's this girl you're wanting to meet when we hit the city, Nate?" Tyler asked once they were in the air, sitting directly next to him. Nate kind of flinched at this question because the guys had all been skeptical when he'd told them that he wanted to meet Zoë, a girl he'd met and connected with on this blog website called FREESTAR. He'd started his blog a few years ago, and Tyler and Luke had one as well, so they'd seen the girl's blog, but they were still a little wary about the idea that she'd be meeting them in New York. Apparently she was, too, though because she'd told him that she was bringing along her friend Rik. Not that Nate minded, the more the merrier, really. "Don't be coy, Ty. You know who she is. I still can't believe you guys think Zoë is going to be some creepy old man looking for someone to take home with him. Honestly, if that were the case, I'm sure she would have asked to meet alone in the middle of Central Park at 3 AM. Instead, Luke and I are picking her and her friend, Rik, up from the airport tomorrow in broad daylight. And she wants to meet you bastards, too, though who the hell knows why," he grumbled, looking out the window, but he refused to admit that he was pouting like a damned baby.

"Oh, calm down, Nathaniel. We just don't want to see you disappointed if it's not what you think it will be. We care about you is all." Luke didn't mind that Nate was so excited to meet this girl, though you could maybe say he was a tad jealous. They'd been a thing once upon a time, and their bond was slightly closer than one normally between two male best friends, but they'd decided they suited one another better as best friends, despite the occasional hook-up at a party or whatever. They were almost indecently comfortable with each other, in the words of the guys, though the whole band was pretty close. Luke cared about Nate deeply and the fact that this other girl was on Nate's mind so much was slightly annoying in his opinion. "Yea, chill, we're just looking out for you. I'm sure she's hot and will be great for you," Matt added in and Nate smiled, but Tyler and Luke just gave him the look. The rest of the plane was spent in easy silence, either sleeping or chatting lightly. When they finally hit the city with all their bags in tow, they managed to grab a cab which took them to the hotel they'd be staying at. Matt and Tyler in one room, Luke and Nate in the other.

"Okay, well I'm going to get some sleep and we can get some breakfast in the city before we pick up Zoë and Rik tomorrow, yeah?" Nate said, Luke managed a little 'whatever' from where he stood in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. Nate sighed and walked over, kissing his cheek and giving him a hug before heading over to his own bed to settle into sleep. Luke stayed in the bathroom for a little while longer before crawling into his own bed, flipping off the lights and thinking about how he needed to find someone for himself as he drifted off. Of course, neither of them woke up until Nate's phone alarm went off for the third time and then it was rushing around, trying to find the right clothes and all that before heading out of the hotel to find a quick place to eat before they headed to the airport. "Alright, this is where we wait, right?" Luke asked, definitely feeling better than he had the night before - probably due to the run-in he'd just had with an attractive waiter. "Yea, look, I can see her hair," Nate pointed, laughing a little bit, both nervous and excited about meeting the girl he'd been talking to non-stop for the past few years of his life. Taking a step forward, he grinned, trying to hide his nerves.

OOC // this is god awful, i'm so sorry ~

nate - #3ea055 ;; luke - #9cbab5 ;; tyler - firebrick ;; matt - tan

[luke skypotter]

♚⋯ » END UP HERE ─ ✱ PRIVATE
word count: 1325

tab †xx ❝MY LOCATION❞xx { the party } tab †xx ❝MY JAM❞xx { i found - amber run } tab †xx ❝MY OUTFIT❞xx { fashion }


• 
  tab Living in LA was one of the highlights of Rae's young life so far. Despite the fact that she had grown up in Australia, she had a few different family members scattered throughout the city and the surrounding areas. She didn't speak to most of them regularly - only her Aunt Hilly, who owned the apartment building that she lived in. The fact that she could even stay in one of the apartments was a miracle in itself - they were unreasonably expensive and she only got to live there because her aunt made enough off of the others to give her an (extremely) discounted monthly rate. If it weren't for that, she would most likely be stuck in some dilapidated building on the outskirts of the city or something of the sort. Her main profession - making videos and running a blog - didn't pull in much of an income compared to a lot of the Los Angeles prices at first; so, she'd put her skills in writing, video editing, and graphic design to get small jobs here and there until her blog and Youtube channel caught some attention and she was offered a job with Hollywood NOW. She'd been there for a little under a year, more or less a paid intern, but she was working her way up and actually got interviews and stories now. Of course, it was a bit difficult juggling work, friends, and the classes she was taking to get a degree in Journalism, but she made it work.
  
  tab At the moment, she was on break from classes, even if it was only for a week or two. She was reveling in that fact by sleeping in when Alex began to blow up her phone and the damned thing wouldn't stop ringing. Grumbling under her breath, she finally grabbed the thing from the table next to her bed and stabbed the green button with unnecessary force. "What do you want?" she grumbled, sitting up in bed reluctantly and rubbing the burn of the sunlight from her eyes. "Good morning, best friend, it's really great hearing from you, too." The usual sarcastic tone did little to make Rae's mood more pleasant. It was fairly safe to say that she wasn't a morning person; to be honest, she abhorred them. "You know, if you don't make your point soon, I'm going to happily go back to bed." "No you won't. Because then you won't hear my amazing news." "I'm waiting, Al." Rae sighed when she heard the breathy sound on the other line she knew to be her best friend's laugh. "You know what, my news will be better in person. You drink some caffeine and I'll be up in a few."
  
  tab Rae rolled her eyes when the line went dead. Sometimes she forgot why she was friends with Alex. But then she remembered her first few days in LA and how she'd felt entirely out of her depth until a tall, dark-haired weirdo randomly invited her out for lunch and they got to know each other. Alex was part of the reason that Rae had gotten a job at Hollywood NOW. They worked together quite often nowadays. So, adjusting the messy bun on top of her head, she pulled herself out of her bed and dragged herself to the kitchen to brew a cup of coffee. Rae had just poured herself a cup and was starting to sip it when Alex strode in, brandishing the spare key that Rae kept in the plant outside of her door. "Please tell me you aren't going to wear that to the party." Rae looked down at her pajamas for a moment before the actual context of what Alex had said hit her. Her head flipped up and she smiled for the first time all morning. "Did you say party?" Alex just smiled, smug with herself. "I knew it would be better in person. Yeah, Jamie is throwing it and he said that he'd convinced some stars in the area to come, but it'll mostly be fellow vloggers and bloggers." Rae felt her morning begin to brighten infinitesimally. She loved a good party.
  
  tab Looking at the clock, she was a little surprised to notice that it was after 10 - she normally couldn't sleep past 8:30 or 9. "What time is it at? I've got to edit something for posting, and we could see if Jamie needs anything." "Jamie says 9, but you know it won't really start until 11 or so. Now, you shower and finish your article, I'll ask Jamie if he wants us to help with anything." Normally Rae would have snapped back some comment about taking orders, but she was too preoccupied running over the piece she had to edit in her head as she pulled her hair down and quickly showered. Rather than get dressed right away, she pulled on her robe and sat down at her desk, logging in to her Mac. She'd gotten further than previously anticipated in her editing, so she finished it roughly by noon. Once it was finally posted, she stood and headed back to the kitchen, startled to find Nora sitting at the counter, scrolling on her phone. "I thought you'd left." "Nope, but if you go throw something on, we can grab a bite for lunch." They did exactly that, walking to the closest cafe and grabbing something light for the moment. Rae would most likely eat something again before the party - she had a tendency to eat more than she probably should.
  
  tab The rest of the afternoon was spent mindlessly cleaning up around the apartment while Alex went home to change into her "party clothes" so that they could pick up a couple things for Jamie before heading to the party. By the time Rae actually pulled on an outfit for that night and threw on some makeup, the sun was starting to set, which she watched from the balcony off of her bedroom. She had a wonderful view of the city and she loved looking at it as it got darker and the lights began to turn on. It didn't last long, though, before Alex was pulling her out of her own place and into her car. They made quick work of grabbing the things that Jamie had asked for before they pulled up to his place. He had grown up in LA - his parents were some sort of successful movie producers or something - so he had a fairly large place, which was perfect for the parties he liked to throw. He welcomed them in gladly since there were already some people milling about, talking over the music. Within the hour, the place was fairly packed and Rae had backed off with her drink, watching the chaos.
  
  tab At least, she did until her eyes landed on a familiar-looking Sasquatch standing nearby. She listened to his band a lot while she was working on papers and such and she'd even seen them in concert with One Direction the year before when they were in the area. She'd never had the pleasure of interviewing them for Hollywood NOW or anything, but she was hoping to get the chance sometime in the future. Then again...why not just talk to him now? She might never come face to face with the guy in a semi-relaxed environment again. Gnawing on her bottom lip, she made her way over to him with a smile. Of course, she had to say the first (and only) thing that came to her mind when she saw him up close. The handsome ******** made her brain forget how to transfer thoughts to her mouth. "I like your shirt." She nearly cringed at herself. She usually wasn't awkward around people. It kind of went against her profession to be that way. "So, what do you think of the party? Oh, uhm, I'm Rae." There, that sounded better. Somewhat.
  
  ooc:: xx
  

rae - #89c35c ;; alex - #c62953 ;; jamie - #db7d4e

[luke skypotter]

💥 the ↔ f a l l o u t 💥
word count: 2163

█████████████████████████ █████████████████████████ █████████████████████████

tab He hated waking up in the middle of the night. It happened all too often. Constant night terrors plagued his sleep and he almost always ended up like this, staring up at the ceiling he couldn't see in the dark. His memories of what the dreams actually contained were, at best, fuzzy. Something about the war and his family. It wasn't hard to guess why, really. His mother was publicly executed for some small crime or another - just a distraction from the war for most people. His father and younger brother were both killed in the last battle of the Great Wars - whereas he survived. He didn't even get to see them before they died - they were all three in different teams the day of the last strike. His brother was only thirteen, himself seventeen. But the Allies didn't care about that - they just needed bodies to hold guns and shoot. And so, his family became statistics in a brutal fight for power and land and he was left to feel guilty for surviving. He would have lived a hermit's life, but his brother's best friend personally asked him to lead the tribe when he was only twenty because their previous leader had died and they were suffering power struggles. He did so only to honor his father's memory. His father would have been a leader. But that was all over a decade ago and he was still left staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night. It had been days since he had last gotten a full night's sleep. It occasionally happened that he would pass out from lack of sleep and get some rest, finally, but he was lucky if it happened more than once or twice a week.

tab Despite his own problems, he kept up the facade of strong, dependable leader because that's what the people around him needed. The threat of war with other tribes was looming and no one wanted that. No one could handle that, this soon after the Great Wars. More power struggles would likely wipe his tribe off the map, whether they had good warriors and plentiful allies or not. Heaving a tired sigh, Birch pulled himself up from his bed and lit the lantern by his bed with the ease gained from countless repetition. His room was a good size. Bigger than some others, but not ridiculously so. He had his shutters closed so that no one could see in - that was the case most of the time. A lot of the people here didn't even know his full name. Jay, his brother's best friend, was the only one and he never called him by his first name in public. In fact, Birch hadn't heard the name "Lucas" in reference to himself in years. Not that he minded. Seeing Jay, a fully grown man of twenty-four was enough to make him want to cry, no matter how feminine that was. If his brother had lived, he would have been twenty-five and from how things were going when they were younger, he would have looked a lot like Birch did. Shaking the thoughts away, Birch pulled on a shirt to cover the battle scars on his back and torso and made his way out of his home and into the small "village." The place was dead, with only the guards and such out of bed. From the look of the sky, they still had a few hours until day broke and Birch decided that he needed to dispel some energy. Making sure to avoid contact with the guards by whistling his position like he specifically taught them to, he made his way out into the woods.

tab The guards were well-acquainted with his habit of taking runs in the middle of the night. They probably thought it was for some important purpose, or to keep himself sharp as leader, but it just tired him out and made it easier for him to sleep. It also got rid of some of his tension. He stayed out until the sun was starting to rise before making his way to a nearby pond. He kept a stash of clothes and soap in a nearby log and always made sure to wash before heading back to the village. He couldn't be a leader that smelled like sweat and BO. Then again, that might drive away the rather persistent women that sometimes followed him around. When he finally got back to the village his hair was still drying and he handed off his laundry to the hut that did that for everyone. They were mostly older women and younger girls who had volunteered for the job and refused to retire, no matter how many times Birch prompted them to. They said they needed to feel as if they had "purpose." Birch didn't argue with it - he didn't mind having someone else tend to his laundry. Hoping for a peaceful day, Birch spent the rest of the day in his hut, working through different strategies to improve their defense. Despite the numerous members of the tribe who wanted to strike back, Birch refused to go on the offensive. He was convinced that it would just cause more trouble for them all in the future. It was rare that he spent so much time inside. Usually, he was out helping the other men and boys collect wood and hunt, but there was no helping it that day. Leader Birch was in higher demand than Worker Birch.

tab Birch was rather hopeful that the rest of the day would be peaceful, but his hopes were dashed when he heard urgent knocks on his door and opened it to find one of his watchmen bruised and bloodied in front of him. "What the hell happened?" he asked, his voice slightly gruff from misuse that day. "We found a woman in the woods within our grounds. She's not from this tribe." Birch grumbled under his breath at that, but grabbed his sword to sling across his back and his knife to holster at his hip. When they headed out he prayed that she was some scarred, buff, warrior woman that he wouldn't feel bad locking up, but - as usual - his luck was not with him. She was beautiful. And bleeding. He frowned at that before looking around. Many of the guards were beaten up as well and he found himself mildly impressed at that. At least he knew not to mess with her. He felt a flash of recognition when he met her glare. He remembered those eyes. The last time he had seen them, he had been seventeen and injured. Carefully keeping his expression stoic, he nodded to the guard, who tied up her hands more firmly and waited for his next move. "You've cause a lot of trouble here today. You know where to take her." The guard nodded and they began to drag her down to the cell they had made in the ground. Birch followed quietly and when they got there, he grabbed the chain attached to a metal fixture in the wall and snapped it around her ankle. "You can leave now. I'll stay and interrogate her." The guards all nodded and turned, leaving him alone with a pair of blue eyes glaring a hole in his skull. As he carefully untied her arms and quickly stepped away, he smiled. Turning to her once more, he cocked his head. "Hello, Angel. Long time, no see."

tab At first, he was happy to see her moving to give him a hug, but then her ankle caught at the end of the chain and she withdrew like the metal had burnt her, looking hurt at the fact that he had chained her up. He felt awful and was quick to explain himself, inching towards her. "No, no! I'm going to unchain you, I just had to reassure my guards that you weren't a threat anymore. I want to talk with you, catch up. If I recall correctly, you saved my life once, Angel, and I intend to return the favor. Please, don't attack me. I'm going to take off the chains." He carefully reached forward to kneel at her feet, glancing up at her and smiling gently, attempting to reassure her. She had definitely grown up since he had last seen her. She wasn't the same fourteen year old girl who risked everything to save a wounded soldier. Once the chains were unlocked, he took them from her ankle, running a hand over the skin to make sure that there was no chafing, and then tossed them away from her, as far from her legs as they would go. Standing, he held up his hands to show that he wasn't a threat. He didn't want to spook her. "You're probably hungry. Let me go get you some food. I would like you to stay here tonight. It isn't safe out there at night. I will return, I promise." Hurrying out of the cell, he made sure to secure the door behind him, checking on her through the small, barred window in the ground. People who knew where it was could see in, but not hear what was said unless it was shouted. After returning to his home and grabbing some food from his dinner in a bin, he made his way back to the cell, letting his guards know that he would be down there interrogating for the night so that they wouldn't come looking for him.

tab "It isn't a lot, but I can get you more if you're still hungry after this," he explained, pulling a plate from the bin before putting the other contents on it - some bread, cheese, fruit, and sun-dried meat. He felt badly that there wasn't more than that, but at least he had managed to grab his water for her. He sat back and watched her eat, happy just to take in everything that had changed about her. When they last said goodbye to each other, he had kissed her on the cheek in thanks. Of course, she was just a girl, then and he was barely starting to become a man. Now, he was nearly thirty and she was obviously a woman. A beautiful one, at that. After she had finished the food, he sat the bin aside and settled on the floor, smiling at her as they talked and caught up with one another. They ended up falling asleep together sometime in the night and he actually slept, which was something he hadn't done in years. Of course, that could have something to do with the ball of warmth curled against his side. He had to squint his eyes open in the rays of light that came through the small window in the ceiling. The rays just so happened to be aimed right at where they were sitting. Trying to stretch a little without disturbing her, Birch arched his back and raised his arms above his head, feeling the muscles stretch and hearing a few joints crack and pop as well. He wasn't used to sleeping in such a cramp position, if at all. Moving slowly, Birch managed to disentangle himself from Angel without waking her and he pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket, along with the pencil he kept with him at all time. Scribbling a quick message, he headed out to pick up the fruits and bread that was left in his home for breakfast, along with the pitcher of milk.

tab It was strange seeing people up and about when he had only just woken up. Normally, he was awake to watch the sunset. While he was at his place, he changed clothes quickly and attempted to fix his hair, which was disheveled to the max. It was a futile effort and he ended up just settling for the tousled look. He also grabbed a washcloth and wet it with warm water before hurrying back to the cell so that Angel could clean up a bit if she wanted to. He thought she looked beautiful as she was, but she couldn't be comfortable with dirt and dried blood stuck to her skin. However, he was intercepted by Nix on his way, asking about the prisoner. "Blue eyes, dark hair. Haven't got a name, but she has the tribal crown on her neck, so she's from the Hardy tribe." He was as honest as he could be before dashing away, locking himself in the cell with her before anyone could follow him and ask anything else. She was awake when he got there, which he was thankful for. He handed her the food and the wet cloth - still warm, thankfully - and leaned back against the wall as he watched her while munching on an apple for his own breakfast. "How did you sleep?" he asked with a smile.


ooc:: xx

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[luke skypotter]

{he}'s got a method of killing
word count: 1047

"Michael, I'm sorry...I just don't feel this anymore...I'd better go...See you around, Mikey"

Those words cut through Michael like a knife. Normally, he liked to keep himself in his own little shell, protected from things like that, but Ashton had been different. Ashton had swept into his life a year and a half earlier and mixed everything up. That curly, blonde-brown hair and those eyes just made Michael go all weak in the knees. Too bad the feeling didn't seem to be mutual. Ash hadn't been Michael's first boyfriend, nor was he likely to be the last, but it still hurt. It always ******** hurt.

Sometimes Michael wondered if people ever actually didn't suck.He hadn't had a good impression of him in his eighteen years and it was a wonder he hadn't moved to Antarctica or something just to get rid of all human interaction. He was pale enough, anyhow. Watching Ash walk out of his apartment made it that much more real and cut that much deeper. How could he be so calm about it? So blunt? Walks in, they go at it, eat some lunch, and now...what? He had just decided that it wasn't good enough for him? What kind of s**t was that? Michael glowered at the door that had shut behind Ash and lashed out, violently knocking his school books from his side table. Not that they mattered. His marks weren't great, anyway. Not that he was stupid, just didn't care anymore. He was more invested in his music than anything else.

Blowing out a rough breath, he shuffled to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Same green hair, same green eyes, same pale face. No, Ashton was the only thing that had changed. Scowling at his reflection, he pushed roughly at the green locks on his head. He'd change them as soon as possible. The green had been Ashton's idea and as much as he loved the color, just looking at it ticked him off. Red. Something like that seemed more suited to his mood at that moment. Blowing out a long breath, he just shook his head and hopped in the shower, trying to wash off memories. Sadly, it wasn't that easy.

That's about when he remembered that Derek was throwing a party that night. Michael didn't fancy the guy much, but he'd rather be grated on for being a "f**" than stay at home and mope all night. Besides, there was no more beer in his fridge and he wasn't really in the mood to get any more for himself. Might as well encroach on someone else and steal their alcohol. He needed it. Maybe it would get him out of the slums and diminish his anger. He was already sick of feeling it and it hadn't even been that long. He preferred feeling how he usually did - positive and full of jokes. At this point, he probably couldn't crack a joke to save his own life.

Once he was out of the shower, he just pulled on one of his usual black tank tops, showing off the tattoos down his right arm, as well as the smaller ones on his hands. Black skinny jeans followed, along with black boots. He tended to wear a lot of black. Almost always black skinny jeans and black shoes, though he did occasionally mix up the rest of his wardrobe. Not tonight. Once he'd semi-styled his hair, he gathered his things and headed out the door. Derek didn't live that far away, so he decided to walk. Why drive if he planned on getting hammered? And he doubted he would have wasted the gas anyway.

The sun had dipped below the horizon when he made it to the guy's house. It was fairly nice, nothing to go crazy about. But still better than his own place. Sighing, he wandered into the kitchen and swiped some alcohol before retreating to a random room and downing it all. It was a while before he needed a refill, and he just brought the cans, dumped them in the kitchen trash, and grabbed some more when he did. He did that a few times, wanting the buzz, but not the social aspect of a party. Around the fourth or fifth time he'd wandered back to the kitchen, he caught sight of someone who turned his insides in a bad way.

Lucas Hemmings, eternal p***k and perpetual pain in Michael's arse. Of course he was there. No rest for the wicked, right? Grumbling under his breath, he just grabbed a few more cans and made his way back to the room, plopping on the bed to wallow in his own misery. A pitiful way to pass a party, but Michael didn't see much else to do. His friends didn't know about him and Ashton, most likely, and he didn't want to talk about it, anyway. Didn't want their pity. Hell, he was starting to sound like one of those depressed people on those drama shows. Taking a quick trip to the adjoining bathroom, he returned to pick up his beer just in time for the door to open and the last person he wanted to see walk in. And the nerve of the dude to ask what he was doing there.

"Surely you aren't that dim, Hemmings. What's it look like I'm doing? I'm getting drunk,"/ he muttered matter-of-factly, a wide smile on his face. It dropped after a few moments, though. "That's what a newly single fellow does in these parts, or am I wrong?" Purely sarcasm, now. Yeah, so he could be a d**k sometimes, what of it? Everyone has their moments and Michael was sure it was a pretty good time for that side of him to rear it's ugly head. "Why don't you scurry off, Hemmings. I'm busy." Maybe he changed his mind. "Actually, this is not a good night. I am tired of your s**t, mate. It ends now." He carefully sat his can on the side table and rolled his shoulders. His fist shot forward before he fully realized what had happened. It may have made him feel the tiniest bit better, though. Luke was attractive, and the fact that he was so arrogant and obnoxious grated on Michael's nerves. Time to get it all out.

ooc:: boop

#990012

[luke skypotter]

fathoms // below ⚓
word count: 1550

Staring out at the water, he got a little lost in his own head. It was a common thing, really, when he was looking at the ocean. He couldn't stop images of his family, his friends, from creeping into the back of his mind while he was distracted and then pushing themselves to the forefront in moments like this. It reminded him of the first time he'd seen a storm from the land, a couple days after he'd gotten there. It had scared the s**t out of him, almost to the point of diving right back in the water to escape, until Mary had beaten some sense into him and practically tied him to a chair. He was glad she had, or he wouldn't have met Leo. Wouldn't have learned everything about this world that he hadn't known before and wouldn't have ever gotten out from under his parents' fins. He hated that he couldn't see them. Hated that they would disown him if they found out he preferred feet over fins and found a human male attractive. Even without knowing what he knew now about all the possibilities in the world, he highly doubted he would ever have fit in with the clan again.

But that was okay now because he had Mary and Leo and friends that didn't snivel at him because his parents were just below the king in status. Even if Leo's parents were apparently rich and powerful or whatever, he was no king's son - not like Mav, who sometimes took his place in the hierarchy for granted or just expected Finn to follow along with him on principle. He'd even gotten a tattoo upon Mary's prompting after his first week there to solidify his departure from the clan, even if it was a sort of tribute to the clan's "crest," as his cousin called it, with a compass added in. She'd given him enough alcohol after he'd drawn it up from memory for her that convincing him to do it was easy. Maybe he should regret it, the permanence of it, but he really, really didn't.

A new start. Something he'd always desperately wanted. Even if it hurt just a little bit.

Forcing a long breath out of his chest, Finn took a sip of the room temperature orange juice he was absentmindedly clutching. The flavor was distasteful without a chill, the citrus stinging in the back of his mouth just a little bit before sliding down mostly smooth. Mary said citrus didn't sit well with merfolk. She wasn't wrong, in any case. Finn didn't much care, in any case. He did, however, almost choke on it when he heard Leo's voice all of a sudden. Hadn't he been in bed?

"Maybe I would have, but I thought you might have still been in bed." He felt himself fall back into the comforting pattern of conversations with his roommate. He didn't want to think about how refreshing it was, even compared to his relationship with Mav. He didn't want to think about what that meant for him and what exactly it was that he was feeling in that particular moment, but Leo speaking made it easy(ish) for him to push the thoughts away. Far, far away. "Nope, totally satisfied with this room temperature orange juice." He'd learned over the weeks what sarcasm was and how to properly inflect it, had even gotten good at it, liking the way it sounded and felt. He did so just then, taking a sip of his drink and trying not to wrinkle his nose too badly at the sting and then the after taste. "Aw, I knew you liked me," he teased before Leo walked out and graciously discarding the orange juice in favor of the colder, more refreshing citrus. Even if it was more sour than the orange juice and left a near-permanent tingling in his gums.

"That sounds potentially like fun. What's better than carnival lights, death traps for children, and cotton candy?" he agreed offhandedly, taking another sip of the lemonade through his half-smile. Which promptly dropped off the face of the Earth when Leo's phone buzzed and he checked it. Just from the look on his face, Finn knew who was on the other end of the messages and it made his stomach twist uncomfortably. He'd never liked Lydia, not from the first moment he'd laid eyes on her and immediately wondered what his half-stranger of a roommate saw in her other than her obvious feminine assets. Which weren't even that great, by the way. But maybe he was biased. Just a little bit. "Doesn't sound like you're the one being terrible here to me," he grumbled, drinking down the last of his lemonade before deciding to clarify a little. "You managed to get yourself out of the life you didn't want on your own because it was what you needed to do. You shouldn't let someone you can't stand half the time drag you back in. Trust me, I know all about that world and it sucks a**. In the end, it's up to you to decide how you want to go about things; but I'm just saying, don't do anything that's going to make you miserable." He offered up a genuine, trying-to-be-comforting smile before deciding to break the tension. He'd never been good with tension, with uncomfortable silences and difficult situations.

"Alright, here's what's gonna happen. We're both going to get cleaned up and changed, and then we're gonna head down to the beach for a while, and then we're gonna check out that new carnival stuff. Maybe some food in there somewhere if I decided I like you enough." He managed a wink at the end without blushing and stood, patting/slapping Leo's knee on his way to his feet and trying not to let his hand linger any longer than necessary. He was mostly successful. He hoped. Was there any definite way of knowing?

No matter the case, Finn made his escape towards his room, rubbing a hand over his face roughly, attempting to get rid of the tingling in his gums, the confusion, the knots twisting up his insides. Maybe he just needed some air, right? This whole situation never usually got to him quite so badly. But, then again, he usually ran right to Mary when he caught wind of anything remotely like Lydia and Leo together and she set him straight. He was trapped now, a day of Leo and himself and hopefully nothing else. When he finally managed to lock himself in his small room, a sigh forced its way out, deflating him and making it a little difficult to focus long enough to change out of gym shorts and into an old pair of ripped, distressed jeans that Mary had given him from an old boyfriend. They were a little loose around the hips, but nothing too bad, and they fit his legs damn near perfectly. Mary said they made his a** look great, but he refused to put much stock into anything she said to him - she had a tendency to exaggerate things. Next came one off his many tank tops and then he made his way over to the mirror hanging on the back of his door, the one that had been there already when he'd moved and and had freaked him out to no end at first. His hair was starting to curl in the front, but didn't look to bad all in all. A good thing, seeing as Finn didn't think he could stand to scrub the feeling of salt water out of his pores again. It made him feel itchy from the inside out, uncomfortable in a skin he wasn't exactly born in, but the point still stands.

He simply slipped on his most worn pair of Vans or whatever they were called, and headed out to the bathroom to quickly brush his teeth, avoiding getting too much water on his skin because he didn't think he had the concentration to keep his tail away just then and shifting with pants on was painful and just not a good idea, overall. Blowing out a breath at his reflection, he turned and headed out to the living room to wait, deciding to turn to his usual tone of voice - a defense, of sorts - just to make sure he didn't sound nearly as nervous or embarrassed as he felt. "C'mon, Cinderella, the ball's waiting." An ironic choice of words since a couple weeks ago, he wouldn't have understood them at all. Not until he stayed with Mary for a weekend and she decided it was her duty to introduce him to every single Disney movie in existence that they could fit into a two days. She hadn't even let him leave her living room for food, ordering in everything. He shivered a little at the memory. Sure, he was more educated now, but the experience hadn't exactly been like frolicking through the flowers. Another series of thoughts to lock in the back room of his brain as he leaned against the arm of the couch and messed with the new phone Mary had given him, on her plan, that he still hadn't entirely figured out while he waited.


OOC;; this is kinda terrible (but finn is still my smol bean) and took a long time
and i'm sorry but i hope its out just let me know what to change!

finn - #e55b3c

im fluent in meowing

[luke skypotter]

one part brave, three parts fool
word count: 2545

Having the ceremony be over was a relief to her. The whole day had flown by so quickly that she hardly knew which way was up anymore and while she hadn't had very much of an appetite earlier, she felt her stomach practically nibbling at her spine just then. It was nice to be able to step down from the stage as the room was quickly rearranged to suit their needs - a special dining hall rather than a ceremonial one. Her legs were still shaking, though, as she took her seat between Archie and the previous Queen, Igraine. When she felt Archie's hand land on her knee, she couldn't stop the small smile that spread over her face. She heard the old Queen giggle and felt a slight nudge in her side, but she was fairly indifferent to it. All she wanted in that moment was food and then alone time with Archie. Despite the mating flight having ended already, the mood was still there, as was the desperation. It was different, though, now. It felt more like wanting to fly on a bad day - wanting to get away from everything and be free.

When the food was finally served, pouring out of the kitchen in waves, Rho sat up straighter in her seat. If she were any hungrier her stomach might literally growl. There were dishes of all kinds: soups, roasted lamb, all types of potatoes, and more. Enough food for the entire weyr to eat off of for days and they probably would. She took a serving of just about everything that was offered and dug in immediately, trying to style the suddenly ravenous hunger that gripped her.

"You should eat with more care. There are some who would criticize a Queen who eats with ill manners."

Igraine's soft voice invaded her peaceful food-bubble. She knew, logically, that Igraine didn't mean it in a rude way, but Rho still felt herself stiffen at the perceived criticism. Her eyes subconsciously scanned the room for anyone who might be judging her and she found no one. Good.

"I've never heard complaints about my eating style before. Besides, what does hunger say about the reign of a Queen, anyway?"

She sounded a bit petulant, even to her own ears.

"Nothing of significance, but it's noted by some as a lack of control. And that is one of the most important and valued qualities of a successful Queen."

Rho couldn't argue with that logic. Even though Igraine had been the perfect Queen, some people had constantly searched for any little detail to criticize her over. Some people in the weyr wanted power more than they respected their Leaders.

"I suppose you're right. My mood has been a bit...off these past few days. Forgive me."

The words came out mumbled, and she felt her hand tightening its grip on Archie's leg instinctively.

"No need to apologize, I remember those feelings very well."

Igraine's soft, pitying smiled mae her want to throw the silver crown far away and run, despite having been practically raised for the honor of being called the Queen.

__________________________________________

The next morning, after the feast and celebrations, Rho woke up curled into Archie's side in their new chambers before the sun had fully broken the horizon. Everything had already been moved over while they had been preoccupied the day before, and the space was much bigger than both of their old rooms combined. The ledge was big enough to fit both of their dragons (who were already utilizing it, curled together sleeping). The biggest advantage was the private hot spring nestled in the back corner. It was the only one in the weyr besides the large, public springs that everyone used to bathe together. Rho had missed the privacy of bathing at the Temple when she first acme to the weyr. So used to seeing her body as something sacred, or secret, she often wore her swim clothes when bathing in the public springs, at least when there were others present. No one else did that. She seemed to be the only person in the entire weyr who was concerned with hiding her body. Perhaps it was due to the curling symbol on her on her breastbone, and the constant lectures from the Priestesses to keep it hidden until it was "time".

Stretching out her limbs in a cat-like fashion, she carefully rolled away from Archie so as not to wake him. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping and she hated leaving him again. However, she had another full day of responsibilities awaiting her and she wanted to go to the temple first. It had been much too long since she had rayed or cleansed herself in the Temple's Pembersihan Luaran*. What had one been a daily ritual was no barely a biweekly occurrence, if that. She felt terribly guilty abut having let herself slack so much in her duties. She had once been a devoted Priestess-in-training and now she could hardly make time for the Temple. The High Priestesses insisted that it was understandable given her new station, but she couldn't shake the guilt. She pushed those thoughts out of her head as she put on her old, white robes and a set of riding letters for the journey. If she had more time, she would've preferred to walk, but the sun was already inching over the horizon and her to-do list was long. She eyed the silver circlet where it sat on a stand on a table next to the wardrobe. She briefly considered wearing it so that the High Priestess could bless it, but in the end she decided against it. There should be no signs of status in the Temples.

Once she was strapped into her riding leathers, she made her way over to where Aithusa was curled up with Abraxas. She could feel the resentment in their bond when she ran a hand along her dragon's eye ridge to wake her.

Why must we go to the Temple before the sun rises?

Rho just gave her a look and Aithusa huffed, but wiggled free of Abraxas and stood to stretch before they left. Rho ran a hand down Abraxas's neck when she walked past to sooth him so that he wouldn't become angry or anxious about their leaving. Then she climbed on Aithusa's back and they were off. She hadn't felt the need to put any sort of saddle on the dragon for such an important trip. It was chilly that morning, though, and she wished she had if only for the jacket that she normally belted to it just in case. The Northern Temple was nestled in the hills about a mile or so outside of the weyr. Seeing the white stone structures after weeks away made her smile. She knew that the Northern Temple could be intimidating to those who were not raised there, but it only pulled at an old sense of nostalgia in herself. All the intricately carved stonework on the front building glinted in the sunlight and she could see herself at six years old, running her hands along all the dragonesque figures. The entrance of the North Temple, often called the White Temple, was a bit macabre to the untrained eye, but Rho knew that it depicted the first battle waged with humans and dragons as partners. She also knew that the large, curved stones that framed the entryway were not stone at all, but the claws of the very first Great Dragon who had bonded to the First Queen. They had been much bigger then.

There were four Temples altogether, sitting in each of the cardinal directions and each one was close to a different weyr so that the inhabitants could have access to it. The North Temple was by far the oldest and most important of them, being sat in the prime direction and next to the largest weyr. They were all different colors as well, though it is unclear why. All of the Temples were built before the time of The First Queen, when dragons and humans lived together but were there were no bonds between them. The closest they could get to a reasonable explanation would be that each of the Temples represented the different cardinal directions and, by association, the four different seasons most associated with each direction within the weyrs. In the South there was the Golden Temple where it was almost always warm, like an eternal summer, and the people were less hardened. To the East was the Green Temple where a majority of the people were healers and almost none were warriors - many of their own healers went there to train (though several still stayed to study at the White Temple). And finally, to the West was the Stone Temple (sometimes called the Brown Temple by those less than satisfied with that part of the region). Though the Stone Temple stayed peaceful during the war, the weyr that sat next to it tended to be the root of all war evils. They were a cruel people who were jealous of the other weyrs and that is why they were waging war on them, as best anyone could tell.

Rho led Aithusa to the field next to the Temple with a simple thought and slid off of her back in one smooth, practiced movement. She slowly unstrapped all of her riding leathers and sat them next to Aithusa, who was now rolling around in the long grass like she had an itch. To her right she could hear the falls of Bukit Naga*, the mountain the Priestesses climbed once a month to give offerings to Naga Ibu* and to worship the Ikatan* - the bond between dragon and rider. Naga Ibu was somewhat a deified version of the First Queen, but also a spiritual representation of the very first mother dragon. She was depicted on the walls of the Temples as a beautiful woman who often transformed into a silver dragon. Once she was stripped of her riding leathers completely, she wrapped her hair in a white cloth and made her way to the entrance of the Temple. As was required, she left her boots at the entrance and continued on barefoot. She met several Priestesses along the way, especially was she was crossing the covered courtyard, but she simply continued past them with a greeting in the Old Language of the Temples - "Hari diberkati, selepas kematiannya."* Rho was by no means fluent in the Old Language, but she had been taught the necessary phrases and prayers for life in the White Temple. The only people who studied enough to be even semi-fluent were the Priestesses, but the only person truly required to be so was the High Priestess.

When she finally reached the last portion of the Temple, she came upon the person she had been waiting to see. Aleris was kneeling on the stone floor in front of the carved doorway of the stairwell that wound it's way down to the Pembersihan Luaran. Of course, in front of the stairweel, in the middle of the room, was a large stone statue of Naga Ibu in her dragon form, coated in silver. It was awe-inspiring to see, especially with the light reflecting off of it and giving it almost an ethereal glow. She didn't dare interrupt as Aleris knelt praying, whispering in the Old Language and making familiar gestures. Rho recognized this prayer, asking for peace, and she stood quietly to watch until Aleris grew silent and finally stood.

"Hari diberkati, Dianne. It is nice to finally see you again. Leadership suits you."

Aleris greeted her with an amused smirk pulling at her lips and Rho almost blushed in embarrassment to see it.

"Hari diberkati, selepas kematiannya tinggi. I've missed you, Aleris, I am so sorry I was absent for so long. I came to say a few prayers and cleanse myself in the Pembersihan Luaran before the war meetings today. Something tells me I am going to need the blessing of Naga Ibu."

Aleris nodded her head in agreement and gestured for her to continue on, as was her way. She had never been a woman of many words, but she was as close to a mother figure as Rho had ever had and it was comforting nonetheless. In an odd show of affection, Aleris laid an again hand on Rho's shoulder as she passed and squeezed gently. Immediately, Rho felt better than she had in weeks. Pushing back the urge to hug the woman, Rho nodded and made her way through the opening in the stone and down the winding stairway, lit with lanterns that never went out. It was a long walk downward before she finally turned and entered a cave-like structure was a small, bubbling pool in the center. It was almost like the hot springs back at the weyr, but it felt more pure. There was no odd smell attached the pool, the water was much clearer, and the steam that rose from it smelled like dragon fire. If the tomes were to be believed, the pool at always been here and the Temple had been built on top of it, as it was considered a sacred place. She slowly pulled off all of her robes until she stood in nothing but her skin and then she stepped into the water. The water came up to the top edge of her shoulders. Murmuring prayers under her breath in the old tongue, she cupped the water in her hands and poured it over her hair and face. At the end, once she'd recited all that she needed to, she let all the air out of her body and allowed herself to sink into the water.

The air outside of the White Temple felt almost too cool against her damp skin when she emerged after redressing. A distance away from the Temple, she could see Laut Dalam*, it's waters just as dark and choppy as they nearly always were, despite the warming weather. Normally she would go visit the shore before leaving the Temple, but she had regrettably already spent too much of the morning there and she had too much to do. Grabbing her boots and riding leathers, she put herself back together and took the cloth from her hair before waking Aithusa from her nap and starting off towards the weyr once more. She was lucky in the sense that even once she returned after what felt like hours, the weyr was barely stirring for the day. Perhaps she had not been gone as long as it seemed. Returning to the new chambers, she wondered if she had time for a nap before the day truly began. Surely the council wouldn't wake the new Queen so early the morning after her ceremony, would they? With a sigh, she changed from her white robes into a pair of fitted black pants and a large, white tunic and could possibly have been Archie's but she didn't care enough to check at that particular moment. She threw herself onto the bed with a quiet groan, buried her face in the down pillow, and promptly drifted back to sleep.

*BUKIT NAGA - dragon's mountain;
*NAGA IBU - dragon mother
*IKATAN- the bond
*HARI DIBERKATI, SELEPAS KEMATIANNYA (TINGGI)- blessed day, (high) priestess
*PEMBERSIHAN LUARAN - cleansing pool
*LAUT DALAM - the deep sea
#7bccb5
#307d7e - aithusa // #BCC6CC - aleris

with [ aleris; archie, aithusa, & abraxas ] lucamalachimoore mood [ happy; tired ] lucamalachimoore location [ the northern temple; the chambers ]