Welcome to Gaia! ::

Stripped. Foot steps ring out like bells, click clak clak clak. Light gathers and illuminates the room. It illuminates everything. A hand waved in the air, the screeching of metal. The children followed the sounds of his movement like cats. Kin. She slid word back and forth in her mouth like a hard candy and joined the cluster of darkness huddled around .

Hylusis wasn't sure she knew where she was. Her feet were on the ground, someone else was in charge. Movements flashed on and off in her head. There was a ringing noise. She pushed her hair off her face, pebbles crack loose down a steep slope.

Nothing out of the ordinary, nope, not at all.

Iamel: "To Shanuh," he directed his words. Tick tick tick. Shanuh. "I will cut off your head. Swear to God"

Hylusis didn't make a face, but wanted to. What was the point, now? She was a stupid kid. Just another boring day... Hylusis watched as a boy-Kin - older than her fall into line like a fish into the open net.

She dropped her head and felt like sleeping. Everyone murmmured in their heads like strangers. Outside, children were playing.

Savius was unaccustom to being around so many kin. Especially so many unfamiliar kin, chattering either out loud or in his head. It irritated him, enough so that he found himself wishing that it was only the teens with him. Those trained and dependable.

Even the birds and the children were Deaths. But they were...

Nevermind. This was the force he had been given. And going off alone (as much as he couldn't help but think that'd be better) was not an option.

Turning to survey them, he saw, but didn't really register the kiss. Here, even more so than at home, he had a difficult time understanding the little gestures that bled into love. Instead, he looked to Xaxis, "Keep left of center. Iamel, right. Anything looks at you funny, blow it up. Brats and birds to the middle."

His gaze swept from Hylusis, to Heron, to Vulture, and the others he knew less well. "Anyone good at killing s**t should let me know now."

And that was it. He headed out of the strange recreation of the shop, and into the brave new world.

Savius' demeanor made Iamel pause. Before moving to his designated area with the children, the woodpecker bounced to his friend, slinging an arm around his waist. "We'll move and we'll kill and we'll do it in the coolest way possible but take a chill pill, Savius, ok? You're kind of scaring me."

His other hands fingers moved down to pinch at Savius' side lightly, eyebrows arching up at the other. "Just take a breath and remember who we're here for - not the ojective only. Okay?"

Xaxis wasn't all that surprised to see Savius so . . . leaderish. His crimson aura, the colour and light that danced around his friend proved his power and ability. Savius was a leader, a fighter, a killer. Not only was it within his personality (look at his companion!) but it was written deep within his very essence. Savius was forever a hunter, a predator, a leader of men to kill men, of violence to persevere.

So any shock Xaxis felt was quickly forgotten. They weren't in the city any longer. They were somewhere else, somewhere completely new. Transformed in to what was pure and magical, it was no surprise if true colours in personality and thought were to develop.

Drifting over to his center position, he brushed his fingers lightly against Hylusis, than took a step closer to the Vulture. He wouldn't let them out of his sight, and if any of them so thought about getting out of line . . .

"Come along then," He quipped, both to the children and to Savius and Iamel. What was the hold up? They had a job to do, didn't they? It felt to Xaxis that they were getting nothing done by standing around the shop playing touchy-feely.

Besides, as much as he wanted to find Shanuh, the plague guardian was desperate to see what lay beyond the doors. His gaze was transfixed on the magic environment around them - no matter what they found, friend or enemy, Xaxis could hardly contain himself.

The raw energy that made up disease seemed to flare in impatience. It was a mixture of black, green and red - a reminder of phelgm and hemoraging. His aura wasn't bright, the colours muted and a bit on the grey side. Xaxis tasted of exhaustion, fever and overall misery.

And wasn't it grand!



((When Savius does indeed drag them out, here's what they'll discover!))

The OtherWorld was different. Chaotic was one way of summing up a generic description, but completely raw was another word! The transparant shop they'd once been standing in shrunk with every step away they took. It radiated and pulsed with energy. It had the feeling of Nikel, and that familiar copper residue continued to linger upon their lips. That was their return point, that was where their escape lie.

The sky was paper white, and radiated a lack of colour. There was no heat, and yet heat was everywhere. A mortal shell couldn't tolerate such temperature, but the Guardians were far from being mortal.

For a while their "walking" was more like floating. They were the only ones within the nothiness, drowning silently within the energy of the void. And yet . . . life shimmied around them.

One step, two step, was it a few breaths or none at all? A flock of energy swam overhead, schooling together like fish. Exactly what they were, it was difficult to discern. But with an explosion of glittering energy, the thirty "fish" suddenly scattered in every direction. What once was thirty quickly became sixty, then one twenty as the fish parted ways.

A trail of undiscernable colour wafted behind them, before fading in to the nothingess of the void.

Another step, another twist, and the floating sensation stopped to become that of falling. The air whisteled around them, their hair stood on end, and their stomachs all jumped up and doubled as the G-Forces seemed to overwhelm they.

They weren't falling though - they were still trecking onward, even if every foot forward brought them floating down.

Down, down, down. . . Falling. Or perhaps they were floating upwards, but backwards? Where they were exactly was hard to say.

The world seemed to exist of madness crammed in a bottom dresser drawer. Magic glittered around them - creatures appeared and disappeared within a blink of an eye! The heat of raw energy burned, and yet a lack of shell left no pain. Disorientation was the best way to describe the sensation.

((Ok - it's trippy right now. REALLY trippy. I mean, if you guys want ot make up s**t that glows and is magical, GO FOR IT. Since this is their first trip between mortality and immortality, between the living, the dead, and all the rules in between you can say the gorup of them are experiencing . . .shock.

On a spiritual/magical level.

Give it a post or two, and things will start to clear up. The chaotic nature will tone down a smidge, or at least be bearable. They'll eventually get a concept of the forever-changing-map they're travelling. Haha. x3

The more these guys visit this realm, btw, the shock-factor will grow less and less until this place sort of becomes a second home. Not that traveling here is a good idea, or a safe one! But . .. just an FYI for future reference. :3 ))

Hylusis felt a gentle tap on her shoulder, pallid and yet warm with fever. Obediently, she felt herself falling in line with the other silent children, lined up in rows like church bells in a tower. She was impatient, too, her field of vision blurring in and out of view. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than to venture into this space unknown. Her thoughts squirmed around in her head like worms. She wanted to liken the world outside to a summer squall in the city, with bright lights blurred by streaks of water and fogged windows. Like looking up at the sky from under the ocean.

Hylusis let her mind wander, her thoughts slip in globules down her face. Light from outside creatures played on the other’s features. The world shook in a high-pitched vibrato, quivering as if in anticipation for its new guests.

The lapping of water. The rumble of dust. The soft sound of silent white. Entranced by the sensory energy garden, Hylusis began to assign for each of her companions a different set of sounds and colors. Light dripped off an overhang far above them, like a waterfall. For a moment time stood still, the voices inside screaming. Was it pleasure, or pain?

Hylusis watched with droopy eyes, mouth closed, as the players traced their ways across the world in preperation. Her head singing. She stuffed her hands in her pockets. Kill? Be killed? Though she already knew the answer, she said nothing to the kestrel’s exclamation. A child's goal is to survive, and to become. Nothing more, nothing less. She ran her hands along smooth stones. They made the sound of earth when she rubbed them against each other.

Oh yes, Death was a very tangible, opaque existance. It sent slow undulations of energy forth from far corners. From all sides. Slow but sure. Gaining strength.

As the Kestrel seemed uninterested at taking the rabbit, the Heron resumed his former positioning near Diacyn. If the bird was embarrassed, he sure was doing a good job at not showing it - for at the gentle words of his better, he smiled and went about tearing off one of the rabbits hind legs.

Ah, such beauty!

Scarlet tendrils wove themselves through the stark white strands, the warm, sticky liquid clinging to them whilst all at once moving forwards to consume everything that it could reach. Frayed ends of taunt sinew protruded from the torn mass, barely visible through the constant ooze of blood. The glory didn't come from liquid nor delicate fibers though, but in the lovely bone that peeked out through it all to expose bits and pieces of cartalidge still clinging to it from the joint at which the Heron had so nonchalauntly pulled it.

Would you like a leg?

He offered it to Diacyn.

It isn't as tender as, oh say...the belly, but you'll grow fat from eating such unused bits as that. This would suit you much better, albeit lacking display...

Ah yes, display. An artists true passion to ignite the fires within the captive souls of his audience and stir the primal fears of ages long passed into nothingness. The Heron frowned a little at the rabbit.

Perhaps one day.......one day I'll be as good at magic as you.

((Ok - to keep things moving, I'm just going to go ahead and post. I figure Savius would keep them trecking in Shanuh's direction. There's no sense of distance, really, just an overall idea that he's that way. But how close by none can tell.))

Things were slowly starting to settle. As the group continued onward, their bodies seemed to adjust. The sickening falling sensation had begun to settle - instead of falling, they felt more weightless than anything. A floating sensation, but this time more controllable than the initial drop. Another breath, another moment and instead of feeling as if they were lost in a space full of nothing, the world around them began to become more defined.

Instead of an endless universe, the world around them felt more like a snowglobe. Occassionally, if one looked up or around the horizon, flickers of shadows moved around the world. As if, beyond the existance, there was something more. Perhaps this dimension wasnt entirely opaque - the sky around them appeared semi-transparant. What exactly the shadows and blurred splotches of colour were, none could tell.

But maybe it wasn't important.

Creatures of light, energy and magic (for the most part) ignored the group. Beasts that confused the imagination flitted in and out of existance. Some faded with distance, while others seemingly disappeared or flickered out of energy.

Nothing was constant, everything was change. Chaos was a great word to sum up the environement.

Upon the horizon there was a challange. A city scape, the skyscrapers and sillhouette of buildings the first familiar sight. Smoke from factories could be seen billowing, and a giat tower rose like a beacon from the center. Even from such distance, energy and raw, uncontrolled magic could be felt. The magic seemed to tangle within the Kindreds own, tugging at it, caressing it, alluring them closer.

All, of course, save one.

Appearing only to Hylusis' eyes hopped a two legged arrow. It was small, about the size of a kitten, and jogged over to the girl. Hopping up and down, it pointed west, off the trail of glory that they headed.

"Blankity blank blank blank! Blank! BLANK blank blank."

Gibberish, really. Fluttering away from the girl, it beckoned her to follow.

Something twisted within Hylusis, a gut feeling that maybe -just maybe - she should follow. The city didn't look nearly as appealing to the earth-mage child. Savius was as ignorant of the trail as any of them.

How did he know he was choosing the best path?


The arrow flickered in, and out, of existance. Scurrying back and forth, it was persistant!

"Blankity blank! Blank! BLANK!"

Above the words, stained like ink to paper, the words ShA n Uh.

Whatever was a girl to do?


((That's right - Hylusis, you're the next contestent on What Do You Do?? No one else sees the arrow, no one else sees ANYTHING but the cityscape befoer them. Do you stay quiet? Do you announce this to the group? Try to go off aloen? Question Savius judgement?

Dun dun dun. Good luck! x3 ))

(( biggrin DD I win the prize! I wonder what will happen (laughs) well, who knows... ))

The sky hung in the air, stagnent with the smell of ozone. Clouds of energized electrons-if there were such things in this realm- swirled overhead in large gray clusters like compounded chaos, magical energy flickering through them like fish. Ahead, the murderous Savious lead the band of children towards a looming fortress of a city.

Inside Hylusis' head, the sky was swirling above. It was about to rain, she could tell. The teenagers were flirting with each other, the birds were traveling leisurely through the air, and the children were looking lost and a little vomity.

And then she saw it- an arrow. With two legs. Like on a cartoon show back home. Only maybe a little more serious looking. Her eyes widened.

"blank blank blank BLANK!" It urged her, directing itself westward, away from the city and the place the group filtered toward, tripping over bumps of magic and gnarled roots of force. The words seeping through it like black ink stuck in her eyes, her mind flashing with sudden recognition: ShA n Uh

ShA n Uh. Shaaannuuh.

Quickly, quickly. She hesitated, looking towards the city, looming up on their path like a factory. A few small Deaths spilt past. She had avoided being too close to Iamel or the other teens. Their warning words suddenly filled her mind.

Of course she resented authority. But she wasn't dumb. Instead, she recalled what Nikel-object of her utmost admiration- had said. Don't be fooled by your eyes.

Up ahead in the city, she could sense a huge force of energy pooling. But she could also feel a small tendril of energy wafting from the frantic arrow. Small, thin, fragile, but clear and bright.

She didn't know. Maybe it was just rebellion, maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was forsight- it was just a gut feeling. There was nothing else to be done. She heard the stones clatter about in her pockets as she slipped a small gilded mirror from their depths. Hylusis had obtained it while she was still a bird, and had Luis inscribe on it a few words. Her eyes roved through the faceless group of Deaths as they spilt past onto the grease-stained earth, searching for someone who she could trust.

Her droopy gaze rested on the downward-thurst Ciyrul, wandering beside her, deep in thought. She brushed his shoulder, stopping him. She lent in, hoping no one would see. Words formed in her mouth and were out in a quick expulsion:

" Give this to Iamel if I don't come back, okay?"

She thrust the mirror into The older boy's hands, whether he wanted it or not, and sunk into the shadows, sliping behind a flock of glowing orange behemoths. And she went, with the sound of pebbles slipping down the mountainside.

She found the arrow still waiting for here, drawing her closer, like Alice down the rabbit hole. There was nothing else to be done. She gave one last glance towards the troop of creatures floating forward, and waited for the arrow to guide her down her own path, wherever it may lead.