Welcome to Gaia! ::

The situation is dire enough as it is. A beloved daughter has been abducted right before her mother's very eyes, leaving an atmosphere of bewilderment and tension. Already the world seems emptier with a number of significant figures embarking on a search for the girl. Others have withdrawn to shelter, fearing the ill which their misfortunes bode, clinging to all sorts of items and hopes in order to achieve sanctuary.

There is a stillness that presses upon the realm. It is, however, not a stillness that heralds the passing of the storm. It is a stagnancy which pervades the collective conscience of life, a thrumming emptiness that sings of the tempest to come. This is the calm before the storm.

Does Learania ever wonder if its neighbors must suffer as it has?

So many are drawn to their own troubles that there are a scant few which notice the unusual behavior in friend and stranger alike. There are a number of citizens, whether of the poor or the aristocracy, who have taken to muttering at thin air. Some wander wide-eyed and flustered while others chase their hallucinations in a frenzy.

For the most part, they seem harmless.




There is a man wandering the streets of Eyris, pestering all those who come into view. He is blatantly unhygienic and hasn't a single copper to spare. But passersby would simply ignore him if it were not for the fact that he was behaving even more bizarrely than the usual peasant. He waddles everywhere, hands cupped and glossy eyes staring through everyone and everything, begging not for gold but for attention.

"I told you they exist!" he proclaims to all he captures in his unseeing eyes. The beggar holds up his invisible fairy for all to see. "I told you they exist!" His voice is high, wheezing, hysterical. "They always have! They live behind the veil of humanity! Look, look under your skins! You will find them there — in the dead of winter! In the etches of leaves! In the grooves of the earth when the rains come!"

The beggar shakes his open hands at some poor, unsuspecting fellow, who is quick to dart off. "I told you they exist!!"

There is a ripple in the stillness, a distortion in the uneasy peace. This man will soon not be the issue.

A thing jumped out of an alley, and started stabbing stuff with its face, a face modified with many sharp objects attached. He hit a few people, causing blood to drop down his face, and screams, running, sprinting, jumping, confusion, and all sorts of chaos among the street. His name is No Arm Aeton, as as his name suggests, he doesn't even have shoulders. He was caught butchering, so as a punishment, his arms were removed. He ratified the urges by having others attach very sharp devices onto his face, while he himself behaves much like a mace.

Long after his nerves were destroyed, the knives, glass, rocks, and scrap metal gleamed on his head with a pearl red glint. No Arm Aeton ran around hitting anything he could possibly see with his head repeatedly, causing some deaths, and some building mutilation. Lamp posts were cowering in fear of this guy.

They were only a few minutes away from the city now. That was Valter's best guess, anyway. The wyvern knight began to reminisce about the days he had spent in Eyris with what could only be called friends. He was happy to be coming home. Well, happy wasn't quite the right word. He was feeling better than usual, but not quite happy.

Even that small feeling of contentment died, however, when he finally arrived at the city. It was all so... quiet. It was as if the entire population had been obliterated by a sudden plague. Valter was shocked by the sight. It's not like he hadn't seen worse; hell, he'd performed worse acts than this with his own two hands. It was just that he had come expecting the familiar hustle and bustle of a major city. Now, to see his own home in this condition... It was almost humbling.

Kain sensed his companion's distress, but he knew that there was nothing he could do. The two decided that it would be a good idea to look for any sign of life. Anything at all. So they maintained a low altitude and flew over the streets, only to discover that they really were almost completely devoid of life. The few people wandering the streets were babbling to themselves as if they were insane...

After what seemed like hours, Valter finally found someone he recognized. It was Rei, the dark mage that he'd seen so often before. He let out a sigh of relief, and Kain knew that his rider would most likely appreciate a chance to talk to a familiar face. So he touched down in front of their comrade, and Valter dismounted.

Valter had no idea what to say. Eventually, three words managed to escape his lips. "Rei, what happened?"

Rei glanced up, a humored sigh creeping out as he scanned the page he was on before closing the book again. He hadn't seen Valter in far too long. He reclined against the wall, his eyes drifting up the wyvern, back down again, and towards the armored man. "Well..."

A slight frown graced his face, disappointment visible in his eyes. "There was a party a bit ago. And this raven bursts in, right? She steals Alihi's daughter, causes some chaos and disappears." His face then turned into a lighthearted smile. "But, there's a group going off to Sentria to rescue her, I heard. So, nothing to worry about..." In actuality, he was smiling for an entirely different reason. Despite the sadness for the mother and child, Rei was absolutely elated that the mishap had nothing to do with him for once. No near-death encounters, no curses, forced isolations, anything like that! His inner thoughts reverberated with laughter, disregarding the cruel undertones of the origins. Things would work out anyway, like they always do, so there'd be no point in looking on the dark side of things.

"And here... things are really calm and quiet. The fiasco really calmed the town. People staying inside, streets are barren, stuff like that. Doesn't seem too major, though..." His gut, on the other hand, was saying the opposite. The calm before the storm, one might say. Things always happened. Always. And to say that they do not would make things more prone to not happening. So, in order to pass the time until the inevitable insanity, he cracked open his book once more, trying to read as much as he could in between bits of conversation he'd likely be having.

"I told you they exist!"

Derrin was still in the library reading various scrolls and trying to get to the bottom of the strange going-ons.

"Hmm so if this is true then...."

They always have! They live behind the veil of humanity! Look, look under your skins! You will find them there — in the dead of winter! In the etches of leaves! In the grooves of the earth when the rains come!"

Slamming the book he was reading from with a bang he pushed away from the table he was at. Shoving the doors to the library open he saw the man who wouldn't shut the hell up father down the street from a druid and a wyvern knight.

"I Can't concentrate with you screaming so shut up!" Derrin shouted at the begger man.


"The end is nigh!" He called back

"I said shut up!" Derrin screamed hucking the book he was holding at the begger. The book connected with the fool's head and knocked him straight out. "For the love of Latoya! I send Jaren out on a simple errand and he still isn't back!" Turning his head the grumpy mage strode towards the wyvern knight and the druid. "You! Have either of you seen some fool in a cow suit.... most likely doing something monumentally stupid?

No Arm Aeton reached the part of the street where the lamp posts were hiding. One was huddling in a corner, another in the designated place, another off to his left, the rest in the columnated rows across the street. He started taking them out, as they clanged and shook, the lamps on top falling off. Aeton didn't give a damn, he was doing what he did best, smack stuff with his face. He'd find more people to murder later, anyway.



In another part of town, near Rei and V-V-V-Valter(Rev the v's before you say it, it sounds cool), a man in a black bandanna and large brimmed hat came around the corner. "Calm before the storm, eh?" he said in a rugged and slightly raspy voice. He was dressed rather oddly, his steel greaves clanking against the stones of the road. He had a long and baggy shirt, many colors, all dull from the sun and weather. "Is it going to rain?"

He approached the two, movement sparking under his shirt. He revealed a slingshot and cocked it with and odd looking rock, a little gray, with peculiar etchings. It seemed to glow, but faintly.

Before Derrin could get an answer a strange man mumbled something behind him unable to hear what the man said Derrin spun on his heel. "What? You want a tome to the face as well?" THe man then produced a slingshot with a weird little rock.

"Tch a rock?" Derrin pulled his fire tome from his robes. "Go ahead shoot me with your rock... And I'll set you on fire." Derrin was pissed for many reasons if this man was asking for Derrin to take his anger out on him then Derrin was happy to oblige.

Derrin flinched back from the flying rock expecting something big... but instead the man made it rain. "Thats it? You can make it rain.... Just because I can't set you on fire now dosen't mean I cant beat you to death with my tome!" Derrin said angrily at the strange man who called himself Jasper... unless it was the rock that was called Jasper... with crazy people you never really knew.. Derrin advanced on the rock naming man holding his tome like a bludgeon. "Remember? Ill smack some memory into you!" Derrin then ran almost slipping on the wet stones as he raised his book and swung downwards at the crazy sling-shoteer.