Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is the final chapter to the rather lengthy Somebody's Eden meta plot. Lurkers and guardians alike are welcome to join in.

[location]: The Twilight Designs shop, about midday. Reyna and Mystic are running the shop in Athan's absence.

[timeframe]: This RP occurs simultaneously with Amethyst's growth by Ezra. You can read about that and the entire timeline here if you need to catch up.

[purpose]: Amethyst's sudden growth will send a shock wave of magic out that can be felt by the Shadows (and their guardians to a lesser degree). Ezra is on his way to the shop to "show off" his Shadow and also to stir up trouble. Expect chaos and a potential battle.

[additional info]: Immediately following this plot update will be a mini-quest-type event blended with a scavenger hunt. Details will be posted once the final events of this RP wrap up.

Nephrite had mostly made her way to the shop, darting from shadow to shadow nigh invisible as only her kind could be, when a powerful surge of magic hit her seemingly out of nowhere. Screaming out with pain and close to complete panic, Nephrite was utterly convinced she had just been attacked by her red-haired nemesis.,She hurled herself into the nearest hiding place. Her grey eyes darted frantically from here to there as she tried to make out her attacker.

Nothing.

Nothing whatsoever.

She looked down at her trembling fingers. Dark energy still sparked across the surface of her skin like static electricity and then slowly faded, as did the intense pain. Something was off about how that attack had felt, she realized as she slowly began to calm down. It had come from . . . within?

Yes.

Like a current that had flown across her bond with— No, not her guardian. Though surely he must have felt it too? No, it had come through that other, weaker bond which connected her to Athan and her fellow fiends. But what did it mean?

She couldn't help but feel something terrible was about to happen. Something Hawk could have warned them about had he not been captured. Something she could have warned them about, had she not been so scared.

She had to hurry. She was already close to the shop, perhaps she could make it before worse things happened.

In her home, Miranda felt it too, and for a moment she eyed the blender she'd been using to prepare herself a smoothie with a suspicious look. Had Rutie tinkered with it? But no, this had not been an electrical shock. Gods knew, she totally knew what those felt like by now. Besides, as she quickly ascertained with another tentative press on the pulse button, the thing was obviously still working. Things that Rutie had tinkered with generally didn't—at least not for long.

There was a violent crash next door, then Verne zipped past her with a frightened yowl to hide behind the cupboard, and moments later she was barraged with—

—painconfusionpainpainpainfearwhatisgoingON?!

Speak of the devil. "Rutie, calm down!" she called, wondering what it was going to be this time. It definitely felt worse than when he'd stuck his fingers into hot clue a little while ago. Or decided to check if the soldering iron had already heated up. Again, with his fingers. "I"m coming!"

The crash had clearly been her keyboard kissing the ground. The monitor had gone black and wafts of smoke were coming up from it. The computer itself, mercifully enough, seemed to still be running, at least the LEDs were still on. She couldn't help but wonder for how much longer.

Rutie was cowering on the floor, clutching his head with both hands as he looked up at her. 'Did not do anything!' he declared preemptively. 'Only watched things. Things with marbles. Got zapped! Pow! All phasers on stun!' He threw up his arms, which still had some sort of dark energy crackling across them. 'Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrts!' he lamented.

He was looking so pitiful with tears welling up in his big eyes, Miranda really just wanted to give him a tight hug and tell him everything would be alright. She could very clearly sense his fear and confusion bleeding over through their bond. She hesitated though, not sure if it was safe to touch him in his current state. Perhaps it worked like static built up and could be discharged by—

Rutie seemed to have thought the same thought—or perhaps he had picked up hers—as he reached to slap both hands on the sides of her computer. Some of the dark energy crackled across the case and dispersed. There was a nasty, grinding sound which she could only assume to be her HD dying, and then the LEDs flickered and died.'Better!' Rutie declared, and then promptly looked for something else to touch to provide relief.

Miranda could only watch, mouth hanging ajar, as in quick succession her large flatscreen, Blu-Ray player and gaming console became corpses to be buried on the electronics graveyard. She groaned. Her insurance was NEVER going to cover all of that.

Rutie looked at his hands, noting with satisfaction the strange energy seemed to be gone. And he was no longer hurting! 'Fixed!' he announced happily, holding up his hands for Miranda to see, and then darted towards her to hug her. 'Broke,' he admitted sheepishly, pointing at the computer. 'Not done watching, can have phone?'

"No!" Miranda protested, cursing the day Amon had shown him a video of a—admittedly pretty awesome—marble machine, and thus introduced him to the wonderful world of Youtube. It had been a bane and a boon. It kept the fiend occupied for hours, allowing her to get a good night's sleep, but unfortunately it also gave him all sorts of ideas. And judging by Amon's mischievous grin, the man had known precisely just what he had started.

She went to pull the plugs from the broken appliances—better to be safe than sorry—and discarded the still smoking monitor in the bathtub where it was least likely to start a fire. All the while Rutie held onto her, content to let himself be dragged along to wherever she went.

Eventually she sat down cross-legged on her small couch, with the fire extinguisher settled right next to her, and reached for her phone to call the shop to inform them she'd likely be late for her shift. And also, oh, did they have any idea what the hell was going on with her fiend?!

"So. What should we play next?"

'Hide and seek!' Smokey suggested immediately, without even thinking.

"No," Anjali said. "You always win."

Smokey made a face. That was true, and she could see how that would be no fun for the others. 'Let's play tag, then?'

"No," Anjali repeated herself. "You always win that too. Besides, phasing through walls like Kitty Pride is cheating. Arjun got bruised up really badly the last time."

Smokey rolled her eyes. 'Well, that was his fault for not paying attention,' she said.

"It was cheating," Anjali insisted stubbornly.

Smokey did not protest again. More than anything, she wanted to belong, so she generally made as little use of her special abilities as possible. It was very easy to mistake her for yet another one of the many dark-skinned kids who liked to play out in the backyards of the bazaar quarter, as long as one did not look at her face too closely. But since she rarely ever stepped out of the shadows, and her hair was generally quite the mess, it was easy enough to miss.

'How about we play treasure hunters?' she suggested.

Anjali made a face. "That is a boy game," she said, but with some reluctance.

'That's bull,' Smokey said instantly. 'Lara Croft is not a dude. Or Sydney Fox. Or Scarlett Marlowe.' She crossed her arms.

"That list is awfully short," Anjali couldn't help but point out. And she only knew one of the names. But then she paused before she could completely discard the idea. "Can there be jewelry in the treasure?"

'Sure. Jewelry, a crown, magical pendants, whatever you w—' Smokey never got to finish the sentence. Without warning she screamed out and collapsed to the ground.

Anjali gasped. "Smokey, are you . . .?"

No, Smokey was very definitely not alright. Darkness engulfed her seizing figure, and she had reverted back to her original jinn-like form. Anjali dropped to her knees, gingerly reaching out for her friend. She did not know what to do. But her friend looked like she hurt, badly, and she wanted to help.

The seizing stopped abruptly, and Smokey's eyes snapped open. More than anything she looked furious. 'Don't!' she snarled at Anjali, and backed away from the human girl, withdrawing deeply into the shadows until only her eyes were visible. They appeared to glow ruby-red as if they burned with an internal fire. 'Don't touch me!' she warned. Then she swiftly turned and was gone.

'Uhm,' Nephrite made, and nodded automatically. Even if Reyna hadn't said anything, she would have remained rooted on the spot, not as much 'watching' Mystic, but rather blatantly staring at him. It was Mystic, but HOW WAS THIS MYSTIC?! He was even speaking—or yelling rather—with a normal voice.

Nephrite's eyes widened when she realized the obvious. A face. He had a real face.

Hawk had talked about how Mystic was 'changing', but that . . . had been somewhat of an understatement.

Hawk.

Nephrite slapped her forehead. Just what was she doing, just hovering and staring? She had come here for a reason! 'Reyna!' she called out, the moment the demoness re-opened the door to the back room. 'Someone took Hawk!'

Reyna shot Nephrite a look of confusion. "What? Someone took Hawk?!" she exclaimed. One did not simply take a Shadow Fiend anywhere unless you were their guardian (and were subsequently stuck with the little buggers), or you were Athan. Because Athan reasons. "Do you know who took him? And where?" she asked as she tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

The demoness ran her hands back through her hair. "Well, s**t," she muttered. This situation was rapidly becoming quite dire. At least it seemed for a moment that Mystic had stopped shouting. He was instead gritting his teeth against the pain and had his arms wrapped around himself. Reyna's head tilted to the side with a look that was mixed both with morbid curiosity and confusion. Dude actually has teeth... weird...

Mystic stood from where he had been crouched on the ground, flinching as he did so. He didn't feel right. His limbs felt heavy, and he was unsteady on his feet. There was also this nagging voice in the back of his head that would not shut up. He closed his eyes and exhaled raggedly. He glanced back up with Reyna and his expression seemed to mirror hers almost exactly. Was he... breathing?

"Soooo... I'mma say that Athan will be here momentarily. He has this curious ability where he shows up when things get weirder than usual," Reyna said as she motioned towards Mystic with one hand, "I'm pretty sure this qualifies as weirder than usual."

"Yeah," Mystic agreed. One of his hands shot up to his mouth in shock at the sound of his voice. It sounded strange and a little garbled because of how misshapen his face was, but it was a real voice. More real than the half-telepathic, half-gravely sound he had been making in more recent times. It was surreal.

Reyna's visible eye widened slightly. The man she described was someone she knew. She didn't know him personally per se, but he had lurked around the shop a time or two. He even had a Fiend of his own.

"Seriously. The amount of not good in this situation is starting to snowball pretty quickly," the demoness muttered darkly. She looked as though she were going to continue complaining, but stopped short when she thought she heard someone enter the shop.

There was a familiar dark presence and very quiet foot steps that followed. "Ah," she said, "Athan must be here." She turned away from Nephrite and Mystic and headed towards the front of the shop.

One thing that Trivii had learned in the last few months, is that like Nephrite, Carnelian took her shopping very seriously. Pulling on the reigns or diverting the child's attention was nigh on impossible. But she had started to get her girl to at least make lists... with lists these excursions could be less frequent.

This particular trip however, the cat girl felt that they could take their time and just enjoy some mommy/daughter time. The farmers market was one of her favorite places, and the lists of things that Nell was looking for always seamed a bit more realistic, obtainable and.... short, a lot shorter.

Fluttering and drifting ahead of Trivii from one stall to the next, a small hemp backpack over one shoulder, already collecting the weight of various treasures, Himalayan pink salt crystals and essential oils, tucked safely away. Heading towards another botanical shop she spun in a series of circles to music only she could hear, bracelets chiming merrily.

Thump, thump.

The fiend slowed and started to look back at Trivii, her movements slowing unexpectedly. Bright green eyes, all but swallowed her pupils as her eyes constricted sharply. And it was like someone had super heated a chopstick and was proceeding to try and force it into her head. Tears welled and she just couldn't move.

'Help!'

Trivii watched the sudden change in Nell and darted forward as the echo of her little fiends pain and discomfort rolled down their bond.. to the sometimes admittedly detached Trivii... Their bond wasn't as close as some, but every maternal instinct she had started to kick into gear. "Its okay," she pulled the girl as close as she could getting them out of the walkway, before producing a cell phone and dialing Twilight Designs. She wasn't exactly bosom pals with Ms. Reyna... but she couldn't very well take a fiend to Durem General..