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 Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:36 pm
Rei remained silent throughout the rest of the conversation, her hand still latched to Tomoe's and her eyes gazing at each of the other Kumiho in turn. Each time her...their new friend was mentioned, her grip tightened just a little bit. Holding his hand was not what was going to save him, but she just...didn't know what to do. Her tail had since begun to wrap around her injured ankle again, and when a healing circle was mentioned, then cast, she was torn. On one hand, it would be amazing to be able to walk properly again and to stop being on the verge of tears from the pain. On the other, what would happen if she let him go? Would they be able to save him if he was somehow yanked away- When she wasn't basically attached to him? Fearful not for her own sake, but for this being that she saw as innocent and in need of help, Rei stood completely still. Looking from the circle, to Tomoe, to their hands, then back to the circle. Mention that he would be able to stay with them as they rested somewhat alleviated her fears. Not enough for her to make the decision to let the Kumiho have his hand back all to himself again, unfortunately. Instead, she gently tugged at him, shuffling in the direction of the circle and fully intent on bringing him with her. "Friends don't...leave their friends...behind...so..." Was all she offered before falling silent again. As wonderful as it would be for her ankle to heal, the rest of her would be much harder to get back to normal.
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 9:43 pm
Coralie noticed Rei looking between the healing circle and Tomoe's hand, listening in closely to that her new friend had to say. She then decided to reach out her hand, close enough so she could hold Tomoe's hand instead ", friends help each other out, no matter what. I'll make sure Tomoe stays safe while you heal." She wanted Rei to heal up from the injuries they had gotten on the trail, but knew that right now Rei wanted to keep Tomoe safe. So she was willing to take Rei's place. Besides, she too wanted Tomoe to be okay.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 5:12 am
 Having said his piece, and still nursing his shoulder, Fidel moved quietly to the healing circle.
They were reconsidering, and discussing a meeting to address the current laws. This was as a by-the-book solution as he could have hoped for.
His antennae were wilted, tired from all the running about. He'd just wanted to investigate some undocumented plant life. But...maybe all this, if it all worked out, finding another people thought lost to the war, was...better than that.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 5:30 pm
Nadi watched quietly, gripping her walking stick tightly. It made her a little sad that these Kumiho could not see. Clearly the world wasn't at they remember it, and it didn't sound like they had too much time to change their minds about it. She shook her head.
At least they were going to heal those who were injured. Her legs ached a little from all the wandering she'd done that day, but she knew there were many who were far worse off that she. Like Nashira and Callixtus, who'd met the wrath of the bees.
She watched her fellow explorers going forward to be healed, and stood as patiently as possible. This whole trip really had become a nightmare. If only she'd just stayed Below... She smirked, as that was a thought she'd never have imagined having just a short time ago.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:49 pm
 Ayame looked down at Bebe, watching the much smaller girl with a curious expression. Patches question was of the same vein, giving him the perfect chance to answer both quickly. He, briefly, glanced at Nagoro, shrugging softly.
"As you'll be here for awhile I do not see the harm and having one of our own educate you, if you are interested." He commented, watching as Nagoro's circle started to finish up its job. Naoki grabbed Nagoro's hand when offered, giving a tired and weak yawn as he shifted slightly. It was clear the young child was exhausted.
Zahneel spoke and Ayame quickly answered, noticing Nagoro was currently busy at the time. "You may bring anything you wish."
Naoki looked tiredly at Aurora, giving a half shrug as he supported himself against Nagoro. "No. Should there be?" He croaked back, pulling himself slightly behind Nagoro in an attempt to block himself off from the others. He wasn't up to talking anymore, he was barely even able to stand!
Meimu took his grandfather's hand when it was offered - finally they were going to go home. He was tired, and these people just talked in circles. It was boring, honestly. As Aurora spoke up to them, he turned his visible eye to her. Being as tired and grumpy as he was, the look he fixed on her was one that might freeze the blood in some people's veins. Icy and completely unamused with her unwarranted and frankly, unneeded concern. Bad guys? In this forest? Nonsense. And obviously he was old enough to fend for himself, why else would they have sent him and Naoki with Tomoe of all people? Ugh. He wanted to go home and go to bed before any of the others could start talking about how "worried" they were. He didn't bother responding to her - just as before he remained completely silent and simply stared at her without blinking until Nagoro pulled him and Naoki along.
Tomoe, in the meantime, hadn't missed Rei's hand squeezes each time his name was spoken. His eyes had spotted her look from him, then the circle, then back at home, his mind slowly clicking together the pieces. She didn't want to leave him. For some strange and absurd reason she was glued to his side. Didn't she know he had caused all this? That she was probably better off in the Elders eyes if she stepped away? Not only that, but her ankle didn't look too good, either...
He was about to break his hand from hers in an attempt to gently guide her to safety when Rei seemed to have another idea, tugging him along towards the circle. He didn't hesitate, immediately keeping up to her pace so she could reach the circle in time. When Coralie approached he didn't let go of Rei's hand yet, as if afraid to let go until she was ready. Would it be rude? Still, he offered a smile towards Coralie. Instead, he awkwardly gave Coralie his other hand, cheeks flushing a bright pink. Once they reached the circle he deliberately avoided Nagoro's gaze, tails curling around his hips as he just basked in the fact that two people liked him enough to hold his hands.
"Thank you." He whispered towards both Coralie and Rei, mouth curved into a gentle smile. No, these people were not dangerous. No matter what the Elders believed, these people were kind, and he trusted in their words. If the world they came from could produce such kind and accepting people such as themselves then he almost wished he could see the world outside of the barrier. It had to be beautiful.
Time passed slowly, it seemed, but eventually those who wished to approach the circle were healed. The Elders had pulled aside to discuss quietly amongst themselves, the small children held close to Nagoro's side. Eventually, they pulled apart and Ayame approached the group.
"It is decided we will offer a place for you to stay for the night as we decide both Tomoe's fate and what to do with your group. You will be assigned to two houses we reserve normally for festivals and given food for the night. You do not have a choice to reject our offer." With this, the Elders moved forward. It seemed staying at the spot was not an option.
As the group walked through the forest the Elders kept to the front, busy talking to each other in hushed voices. Naoki, occasionally, turned around to look at the group, large eyes blinking curiously before he'd turn back around. Tomoe had grown quiet again, faintly smiling at anyone who spoke to him but lacking in verbal response.
It took about ten minutes for the darkness to slowly creep into light. The group found themselves transferring from grass to stone path. The path brought them to a dimly lit village, yet they didn't have much time to gaze around them. If the Elders claims were true, they'd have all the time in the world to get used to their surroundings. The Elders were not going to stop to let them take in the sight.
What the group could see was a small and old-fashioned village. The houses were made of wood, some supporting thatched roofs, some tilted. The doors looked as if they were made of paper, lacking any notable handles. A small pond could be seen to the side, but the group couldn't get close enough to see what was inside.
They were led to two houses connected by a singular porch. The Priestess, who had kept at the back of the group, approached, beginning to circle the houses as the Elders beckoned for the group to enter. The door, which was a sliding door, was eased open by Naoki.
"You will stay here for the night. There is a spell that will go off if either Tomoe or any of you leave the porch of this house. You'd be wise not to test it." He paused, nodding towards the inside.
"There are sleeping mats for all of you. You may decide to stay in either house. You will find various fruits and meat inside. We prepared earlier when we discovered there were intruders, so while the food may have grown cold it is still edible."
He gave them time to enter the homes, watching the priestess at work. When she gave an affirmative nod he stepped off the porch, gesturing for Naoki to return to him.
"We will come for you in the morning."
Currently, everyone is now within the two houses. The houses are connected by one singular porch, so the group can freely split up between the houses and still communicate with one another.
Both the village and the house are themed off traditional japanese villages. The houses both have a sunken fireplace with a tea pot resting above it. The group is free to use it. The village is dimly lit with lanterns and it seems to currently be still as a mouse. Those living within the village must either be asleep or avoiding the group.
This is a rest period. Group members may eat, sleep, or talk. They can not leave. The food left for them is mostly rice, fish (unknown to the group what kind), and various fruits. It isn't a surplus of variety, but there is definitely enough for everyone to have their fill.
A new meta post will come when we finish writing this. This stage is primarily to rest up your characters.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 11:12 pm
 The whole ordeal had completely overwhelmed the usually confident Dryad. She had stood silent, having no idea what she could possibly tell a race who had isolated themselves in order to hide from a war long past. She had of course wanted to argue for Tomoe's sake, but the words just did not come, and as things progressed it had felt wrong to interject. So silent lurking was the option she stuck with, and eventually the situation seemed to at least come to a point where they weren't quite as tense. The Kumiho led them to their village. It was quaint and rather old in it's style, but rather adorable in Lillith's mind. They were led to a pair of houses, and told that there would be food, which was a good thing considering that her stomach felt quite empty. Lillith sat on the porch of the first house, waiting to see what the others would do.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 2:50 am
 As the elder spoke to her, you could see the hybrid psychically deflate. The little confidence she had was once again gone as she withdrew into her slender frame. "T-that's not what I..." But that was what she meant. How presumptuous of me... She just wanted to be useful, but it seemed she wasn't contributing anything to them now. Maybe she was just a one trick pony. Clutching her phone, Harley made her way with the others to their permitted houses. She was grateful that they were providing them with a roof over their head and somewhere warm to sleep, but this could indeed be the place they would spend the rest of their lives if the Elders were firm in their decision. This forest... This village... A prison. And Tomoe.... The hybrid shook those thoughts out of her head. Harley's hooves tapped lightly on the wooden porch as she entered one of the houses. It didn't matter much to her since she figured she wouldn't sleep. It was nothing new, but who could sleep with all this going on? She grabbed a piece of fruit and milled around near the sunken fireplace, considering if it was worth the effort to make tea or curl up, close her eyes, and hope for sleep.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 5:04 am
 In spite of her fretting, Zahneel looked around curiously as the group moved through the village. She would have liked to stop and test the air, to try and find something to help all of this feel less frightening and overwhelming. Instead, she kept moving until the elders stopped at a pair of houses.
Moving onto the porch, she stepped aside slightly, letting those who were the most tired go inside first. Besides, the porch was big enough for her to sit outside for a little and compose herself. Though the scent of food drew her inside briefly. Eating just enough to keep from feeling sick, she silently headed back to the porch and sat down to watch the rest of the sleeping village. Then, she set her headphones on her head and turned her music on as she drew her knees to her chest, rested her forehead against them and let the tears flow as gentle strains of piano music filled her ears. The grimm wrapped her tail tightly around her feet and allowed a tiny, exhausted sob to escape. Eventually, her body would drop into sleep, but for now, she was simply too wired.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 6:16 am
 Aurora sighed these kids, they feared nothing, Aurora shrugged she had read a lot and seen a lot. In this case, she had come across things that could really hurt a kid, even if they weren't monsters what if someone had wanted to hurt them, was their only one village in this land?? Aurora shook her head "I don't know Naoki, do you?? If you have time sometime and would tell me what your homeland is like, what your teaching is like, scrolls or books?? That would be great." Aurora liked kids and clearly, she wasn't going to make a connection with Meimu he hated her, she didn't hate him, and she tried to express that, after every trick he played. She still managed to get past it and tell him she cared about his safety. Aurora figured sometimes you could get a more honest direct answer about how things were from a child, then an adult. Aurora wasn't bothered by Meimu's staring match. No matter how tough he played it, he was still a kid in Aurora's eyes. Wacky kid, but still a kid. Aurora followed the others back to the house and said. "Thank you, I wish the circumstances could have been a little less crazy, but your land and home is beautiful." Even if they asked her to never write about this place, it would always be with her and she loved it. She still hoped as talks progressed they would come to the academy and write their own books and allow her to write about her adventure in this land. Now that Aurora had, had time to calm down she wouldn't name anyone by name, in case they did decide to come back home with them. Aurora still had hope, that they would figure out how to go home. Aurora sat down and got a cup of tea, still moving slowly, after everything her ankle had been through. She also got a bowl of rice and some fish, to eat before picking a spot to lay down to sleep. Aurora fluffed her tail, looking around for her friends, before closing her eyes.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 7:07 am
 Well... This whole ordeal was definitely more than the grimm had bargained for. All the same, he was admittedly happy when the cheesy --yet still adorable as it was started by Bibi-- circle had broken up. Of course, these were all thoughts Ghester had as they were all ushered to the two houses that were strangely prepared for them. Creepy. The grimm stuck close to both Bibi and their new pal, Gaius, as to not be separated from the two.
Though the guy was far from thrilled about the current situation, he couldn't help the perk of his ears and the grin on his face when he wandered into the house, seeing all the food! "Oh my gods... I was worried I'd melt away to nothing!" He turned to Bibi and Gaius with an even bigger grin. "Man... I dunno about you guys, but cold or not, I'm hitting this s**t up hardcore!" And with that, the all too eager senior made a mad dash to the food, grabbing whatever dishes were available and piling it high for starters!
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 11:09 am
 Niamh listened to all of the explanations, and sighed a little. Well at least they had a place to sleep, and food to eat tonight. She looked over at Xerxes, as they arrived at the two houses, and leaned in. "I'm going to go make a plate of food for myself, and also for Tomoe... Want to join me?" She smiled at him, and nodded towards the food. She went over, and put together two plates with a selection of the foods, then walked over to where Tomoe was, and settled on the floor in front of him, offering him a choice of the two plates.
"Tomoe... when all of this is over, if you want to come with us to the outer world... You should come to the Academy with us." Her two tone eyes were focused on him, treating him as another new friend. "If you do, I promise you'll have lots of friends there, and I bet you you'll love it. We've lots of people, of many races, and so many of us like meeting new people." She beamed a warm smile at Tomoe, then added "And of course, if you want, I'll be there whenever." She clearly saw no irony in this, despite being a junior speaking to a senior. She just wanted him to feel cared for, and welcome.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 11:19 am
 Naosu was, needless to say, not a happy camper. Her antennae drooped and so did her wings as she dejectedly went to the houses given to them for their use. It was better than nothing and she knew that, and other than the current situation itself they really weren't being treated that badly, but the anger she'd called up had fled again and left her emotionally wrung out. She couldn't even find tears, and her eyes felt dry and irritated anyway.
Her eyes settled on Tomoe then, and compassion weakly bubbled up. How terrible it must have been for him know he couldn't trust his own kind to help him, that he felt he needed to go to outsiders for assistance even though he had to have known what the price would be. Their fates were apparently uncertain, but him they would kill. Reluctantly the anger came, but since it was a useless and fruitless thing, she chose on a different course of action instead and simply went over to sit by him and lean against him if she could. She couldn't save him, but she could try to comfort him at least. He deserved to know kindness in his last days or hours.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 12:55 pm
 Once Tambre was inside, she couldn't hold it anymore. She growled and punched the wall hard enough that when she pulled away blood was pouring from her wound. She pulled her hand back, clenching her fist as if she hadn't even noticed. "So we're to be prisoners?!" She was clearly pissed and wanted to do something about it, but she knew that acting right now would put the group in further danger.
"I know a lot of you don't agree with me, but this is bullshit! They better come to a good decision, I'm not about to sit by and watch them keep us against our will." She slid against the wall and wrapped her knuckles in some gauze she brought with her. "I swear to the Nine, they will wish they had never met me if they keep us here!" She was resigned to waiting out the rest of the night since it was so late, but she wasn't going to keep herself quiet for long if they kept this up.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 12:58 pm
Xerxes frowned as he watched Niamh move over to the food and gather a couple of plates full. When she headed over to Tomoe, he shook his head and made his own way over to the spread. The chimera really did seem to make friends easily — or at least thought of people as friends a lot sooner than he did. He quickly gathered up some rice and fish and moved over towards Niamh and Tomoe. Xer wasn’t in too much of a mood to strike up conversation, so he just settled down and listened to Niamh talk and ate his food in silence. The moment the elders had shown up, Xerxes had started to regret signing up for the trip. He should have known better — they had been messing with the unknown and that always seemed to get people into trouble. Now they were stuck here and there was no telling what would happen to them now. He sighed as he took another bite of rice and fish — at least the food was tasty enough.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 2:23 pm
 Bridgette frowned as she looked at the sleepy kids. She sighed the kids needed sleep even if they had been messing around and trying to play pranks they were still kids and needed the rest. She looked around at the others and felt relieved when her injured friends were healed. That was great. She had been so worried about Rei and Aurora with their ankles. She watched Tomeo glad that Coralie was with him when Rei couldn't be. She looked around more rather tired but didn't want to rest till everyone was safe. She frowned more when they were told they had to stay in two homes connected by a porch. Why? But then again at least Tomeo wasn't dead and neither were they so that was a plus. She headed over to the home her friends went into and looked around for them. She smiled as she saw Aurora curl up to sleep. She walked over to the food and grabbed a piece of fruit to eat. She spun around fast when she heard a loud bang. She spotted Tambre and watched her friend take her hand away from the wall. Had Tambre punched it!? Why had Tambre punched the wall? She heard her words and frowned. She didn't like this anymore than Tambre did but agitating everyone right now was a bad idea. Everyone needed sleep and that included Tambre too.
She rushed over and knelt down next to her. "Tambre! Are you alright? Let me look at your hand. Please." She reached out her hand slowly and carefully to try to get a look at the knuckles. She could smell blood and frowned more. "I don't like this anymore than you do Tambre but for now save your strength till we know more. Let me get you something to eat and drink then rest. You'll need all your strength when we find out what is going to happen to all of us. No point in rushing into that barrier exhausted. Better to find out what's going on then we will know how to respond and want to do." She looked at her friend very worried her ears down and she wanted to help. "Please." She spoke softly and we eyes looked into Tambre's pleadingly.
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