Welcome to Gaia! ::

I am gone from my home, my world...

"I-I am glad," he said, looking up through the bars of his cell.
"it has been a long while since I have last spoken to anyone... Can you tell me where it is I am? I mean, I know I am in a prison, and it is in a temple devoted to some sort of water god, but I have no idea where It is..." He trailed off.
He stood, the Orange of his eyes meeting the green of hers. She was not one of his kind, not a rakshasa, but she was still some form of Kin.
He was nearly naked, and the thought brought some bout of modesty too him. Surely, if not for the fur on his face, his blush would have been as red as the sun. He walked to the propped up bed- two steps, if that- and took a bed sheet, nearly too small, and wrapped it around his midsection, covering the tattered loincloth he had no recognition of.
"I know I am a prisoner, but please, allow me the knowledge of what happened to my equipment, and... my sword.." he said, unable to look her in the eyes.

I am gone from my home, my world...

"Thank you Ilithstrae," he said, smiling for the first time since leaving his homeland for the sword coast of Faerun.
"I can't ask you to stay with me for the while I am here, but I am humbled by your company."
He cringed a little, the emotion in his voice with the oddness of common.. it felt strange to him. He turned his head to the side -Too sharp. His wounds had yet to heal fully, and the muscles had yet to conform with the healing bones. That, with the pulling of fur from the bandages, made him slightly light headed.
The look on his face was visible yes, but not to the extent of milking it. He didn't want to cause these people harm... not anymore.
He was consigned with the thoughts of staying here, in this 'gaia'... for the rest of his life.
He let the metal bed down slowly, siting back down on it's legs. The bed was directly under the shafts of sunlight that worked their way through the bars of the window, just at ground level.
He sat down on the bed, and leaned back, his eyes glazing with reflection of his thoughts.

((yeah, but everyone else left him to die with the pink and blue mice))




As he propped himself back up, "Grh...ow...wait... a week? I've been asleep for..." was Xeiashi's stunned reply, cut off by a low grumbling noise. "err...you wouldn't happen to have any bread handy, would you? I do believe its time for me to eat something healthier than canned beans." he said, with a voice and body regaining strength just by being used. "And might there be any books nearby?"

Though his questions came in a rush, his body refused to assume the same pace. What could he expect? after all, he came within inches of dying before...err..."And...err...you have a name, right?" he said without thinking, most likely offending the girl. "Sorry...umm...I'm Xeiashi Zakariz..." he added as he attempted to offer a hand to shake. After rising a few inches off the bed, his muscles utterly failed him and it flopped lifelessly back to the mattress. "Sorry..." came his automatic response for what he saw as a slight insult against this stranger.





-Xeiashi Zakariz

Do I control the blades in my hands?

Cressa raised her eyebrow, eyes flashing with interest - and perhaps little amusement. As the man turned to speak to her companion she reached out sharply and balled her fists in the material of his wife beater, pulling herself in to him.

"Dinner sounds like a drag, she purred. smirking, her mouth centimetres from his "I'm hungry now."

Jessie - who'd been about to say that he, uh, didn't actually know how they were going to shift the boxes and had been discussing that just before he arrived - rolled his eye and clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

"Cressa, yoohoo," he said, hands on his hips "Things to do? Can't it wait?"

"I'm hungry now," she repeated, one hand snaking up from his chest to the back of his neck. Her eyes were fixed on his, and she smiled her usual wicked smile.

Jessie reached up to massage his temples. "Okay - compromise," he replied "If we can find some way of getting these home within the next fifteen minutes, will you let it wait?"

Now she looked at him, scowling. "There's no way we're going to manage that, so you might as well just let me have my f-"

A muffled voice in the indefineable language suddenly piped from the inside of her cloak. Cressa blinked.

"Of course," she breathed, looking back at Drax "Why didn't I think of that when I realised you're from Toril?! Oh, this is perfect!"

"What? What did Corie say?"

"How did we three of us get here, Jessie?"

A look of comprehension dawned on his face. "Oh. Well... that's certainly a... quick solution."

"Go inside and demand a means of transporting the boxes to..." she looked around, and spied a green mass rising above the nearby row of buildings "That hill over there. I'll handle everything else."

Glancing towards the bare hilltop, Jessie nodded, before ducking back inside the shop.

If Storm wanted to follow him, he didn't get the chance. Cressa was upon him again the moment the other drow's back was turned, her hands slipping over his torso and lips grazing his neck. "I'm so sorry we have to get this ordeal over with first," she mourned, left leg sliding up his right, her hips locked together with his.






(( Sorry for the longness and crapness and lack of interaction-ness. D; I just want to get this going in the direction of the teleportation. ))

The trident met the stone floor with a restless rattle and the fawn-haired recruit ran her hands up her hair in frustration, drawing in a sharp breath as she paced back and forth. No. Nonononono. Dwelling on depressing thoughts would do her little good; there were far more important things that warranted her attention. Like... Like...

The Overseer. It didn't come as much of a shock to her when she found out that he'd disappeared. His return was all so... sudden, so convenient. Too convenient. But even so, that did not change the fact that this was a man they worshiped, and he was lost to them again. Search parties have been sent out to look for him, and for Bapp as well, but a week has already passed and not a single person has seen hide nor hair of either of them. They may have to expand their search to the mainland, if this keeps up...

Letting out an exasperated sigh Coline glanced over to the trident on the floor gleaming beneath the sunlight that poured in from the open ceiling. She muttered a small apology as she took the weapon back into her hands, resting it carefully against the wall before directing her eyes back to the ruined cave. The last time she'd searched the area she couldn't find anything significant, but perhaps she might have overlooked something? After all, only the wisest would care to turn the same stone twice.


[Training End: Defending Aura]

[Training Start: Battle Cry]

"Hurry it up, hurry it up!" Cressa commanded, tapping her foot on the grass; hair blowing in the nippy wind.

Jessie sighed, sliding the penultimate stack of boxes off the industrial hand-trolley. To Cressa's right, Storm mirrored the action with the final load. "I'm glad to see you're back to your usual self."

"Well, I can't go performing such magic as this while moping, can I? I need to be able to concentrate on my work!" she aggrandised, lifting her arm theatrically. "Now, if you're both quite finished, perhaps I can begin the true preparations."

Pulling from her sleeve a container of salt she'd slipped in and taken from a diner down in the town, she began a slow walk in a circle around the large area filled by high-stacked boxes. Three times she made the revolution, carefully constructing an unbroken line of the white sodium compound. Once satisfied, she chucked the now-worthless container somewhere off to the side - outside of the circle - and produced from her cloak a bag of jangling objects.

"Cressa doesn't have a very good track record with teleporting," Jessie muttered, arms folded, to the other man "Be prepared for anything."

"What's this? Spreading slander about your old friend?" she prickled "I have ears, you know! Long, pointy ones!"

"Well, just take this as a warning," he said, raising his voice "I don't want Coline's gifts ending up anywhere except in her hands."

"Bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh," she mimicked, tipping from the bag to her hand a few faintly glowing gems much like the ones Feline picked up in the Professor's office "The little runt - I mean, precious little piglet - is lucky she's getting anything at all."

"I will choose to ignore that, as I am used to your blatant rudeness about everyone aside from yourself, not my kalye'chev in particular," Jessie replied icily, jaw set "Just tell me, then, are you sure you have a good fix on her signature?"

"Yes, MOTHER," she replied petulantly, waving the bag in a gesture for silence "Now shut up! I need to concentrate from here on out!"

And she really did, apparently. Her circling began again. This time, she carefully scattered the brightly coloured gems along the unbroken line, placing them at intervals of around a foot. All in all, she used about a quarter of the bag. As she went, she seemed to be muttering and humming to herself - magic of this complexity nearly always requires words to recall it. Pacing back to the middle of the circle, she began to move her arms as if conducting an orchestra, apparently singing a quiet song to herself.

Jessie's skin began to prickle. The wind seemed to have stopped - inside the circle, at least - and yet he could feel strands of his hair being lifted slightly, as if being plucked at by invisible fingers. He could see the same thing happening to Cressa, and though Drax's hair was too short to be lifted he could've sworn he saw some small unnatural movement. Cressa came to a break in the spell, drawing in her breath and closing her eyes.

"And now," she whispered "A few trickles of Outsider blood."

She opened her cloak and reached inside, pulling out the bird, who made no movement, complacent towards her required role. Jessie leaned around the woman, producing a small dagger, which Cressa accepted in her free hand, slipping him the final required gem for safekeeping. He then stood, waiting to pass it back to her, as the woman held the crow on her back and slowly pressed the blade to the center of her breast.

Blood spilled forth, and the bird jerked suddenly. "OUCH! You cut too deep!"

"Hist!" her mistress commanded, flipping the bird forward to allow the blood to flow into her free hand. Soon, there was enough, and she released the bird, who flapped away, sqwauking. Jessie popped the gem into the bloodied hand without a word, before stepping back into line next to Drax.

As Corie found refuge on the drow man's shoulder, Cressa took a deep breath, putting both her palms together. The gem began to grow hot in her hand. Then, astoundingly, it started to drink in the spilled demonic blood.

The air grew warmer, buzzing with energy. The gems around the circle began to glow brightly, dimming the air around them with their own miraculous luminescence. Cressa raised the final bead above her head. Her fist was closed around it, but it too was glowing so brightly that the light shone straight through the woman's flesh as if it were paper, leaving only the eerie framework of her skeleton visible as a dark shape. The sorceress' face expression was drawn in concentration... and yet strangely serene.

The tone of the magic sparking in the air around them seemed to change in pitch. It was time for the final stage - for all the different energies to come together in one and propel them on their way.

Cressa gave a small cry to signal its coming, raising her arm even further as an indication of what was coming next. Corie, darkly brooding this whole time, chose that very moment to let out a loud sneeze.

The gem was thrown to the floor, smashing despite the softness of the ground. Everything within the circle, including the circle itself, vanished.





~~~~~~~




Well, Cressa seemed to be improving, at least. Every single intended item made it through the vortex. They didn't appear in Sigil, or in the middle of a Blood War battle, or seven miles west of where they intended, or over the ocean, or nowhere at all. They came out, in fact, only a few metres directly above their intended destination.

From the hole in the ceiling of the cave, it began to rain drow, Bhaalspawn and neatly wrapped giftboxes.

Jessie sat up in the heap of boxes, dislodging himself in doing so and toppling down the side with a very unwelcome bump. He gave a small cry as the disturbed pile toppled down on top of him, and he was quickly submerged. On the other side of the mountain Cressa experienced a similar fate, having attempted to crawl out from under the mountain, only to find unpleasantly that her body was apparently one of the major supports.

"Suru! Usstan elg orn dos! Dos hass'l'ulu xun nindel!" *

Groaning, Jessie struggled to sit up, pushing the pressing pile off of him and gradually getting to his feet.

"Coline," he gasped, whether from the exertion of escaping from the mountain or from general exasperation at the day's events is anyone's guess "I'd like to say that-"

He was cut short as a single straggler of a box - and a large one at that - fell from the sky and directly onto his white-haired head. He yelled, losing his balance and stumbling to the side, arms reflexively shooting up to cover himself. Cressa, having disentangled her upper half from the pile, found this absolutely hilarious - as it was.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

Karma, however, is a wonderful thing, as another section of the mountain collapsed directly onto her head.

"-AUGH!"

Ah, yes. That certainly reminded him. Rubbing his head and growling, Jessie turned and staggered towards her, fishing out her arms in order to extricate her from the mountain. He pulled her up roughly, boxes toppling off of her, before marching her to where Coline stood.

"I believe someone wishes to apologise to you," he told the girl, stepping back to look expectantly at Cressa.

The sorceress eyed him pleadingly for a moment, but he wouldn't budge. With a resigned sigh, she took a single dejected look towards the girl... before throwing herself to the floor, stretching her body out in the deepest bow possible for a humanoid.

"I apologise for my earlier comments, Lady Coline. They were entirely inappropriate and exceptionally cruel. I can only throw myself onto your mercy and pray that we are able to make a fresh beginning to our relationship. However, I would also understand at this point if you do not desire any contact with me whatsoever again. I am a disgusting creature not worthy of your grace."




(( * "Bird! I'll kill you! You did that on purpose!" ))