Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rei continued his calm stride, meandering right past a crowd of people from which screams and shouts echoed, alongside the waving sounds of fabrics. Knowing the state of the city, it was likely some sort of fanatic choosing to disrobe in front of the masses or something. Not exactly something he wanted to see or be within miles of. But, their screams and shouts made his head throb. Seeing that mage fight with excessive screaming, and then whatever chaos he just passed was more than enough to make a headache start. And with the headache came a bout of disorientation. He felt his vision begin to rotate, his body beginning to turn. So, he took his staff, the brown one from before, and used it to regain his balance. He really did need to get out more. At the rate he was going, he wouldn't even be able to walk to the bathroom without bouts of something!

Since walking and spinning at once isn't very healthy, the Druid just stood there for a moment, regaining his balance. He sighed, his eyes closed. He sat there in thought, like some sort of old man, until the calls of children stole his attention away.

"Hello, little shaman boy!"

If they could tell that he was a shaman, they likely had some sort of combat experience. The typical passerby would just call him a mage and be done with it. As he turned around to face them, his eyes widened ever so slightly, shock rippling through his mind.

"Do come with us!"

...little twins asking an adult for help. Brought back some bittersweet memories, it did. Lugh and himself scampering about in the towns during the war with Bern, getting donations and supplies from villages, using their age (or at least Rei did) to get some stuff for themselves. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he missed Lugh. The kid had a nice air around him, once that'd end up dragging him out and about whether he wanted it or not. To see another pair of twins, peacefully coexisting like he wish he did with Lugh, it made him smile.

"We won't hurt you!"

...suspicious, it was. They didn't seem quite old enough to comprehend that the town seemed to be going insane, but maybe they just wanted to be nice in the company of the unknown. Well, Rei thought that, at least until he saw the rock in the boy's hand. Rocks aren't exactly nice...

"...Much."

...typical. The precocious children are out to get him. If it's not old allies or snakebitches or evil deities, it's children. It's always the ones that look nice. Always. Rei's mind groaned, irritated. It seems like he can't even leave the house without things going to some form of violence nowadays.

"And what are your names, children?" He'd been around Lugh for enough of his life that he surely knew how to appeal to the childishly natured. "Put the rock down, and put the muffin away. I'm not hungry." But bluntness would likely save the day this time around. If children were resorting to violence, there was likely a good reason. Crazies killed their parents, or maybe their parents abandoned them in a crazed fervor. Either way, it wouldn't end well, if he didn't n** the issue in the bud now.

"...so, what do you need me for? Wielders of arcane secrets like myself aren't exactly known for being benefactors of the needy." It was harsh, but it was true. And if they really needed something, he'd help them. Losing someone close to you, if that's even the case here, is likely better than never having them there at all, to be certain. "And where are your parents?" Rei decided it was better to get as much information as he could now, as opposed to having another blathering fool romp through and make things difficult.

(Isadora, the water is just idling. However, that's about to stop. She's using the wind to manipulate the water's form, messing with the air pressures within the air and water. Also, she's using dark magic to manipulate the gravity around you.)

Lethe tackled her to the ground, throwing off her concentration. The water stopped floating and splashed back into a puddle. The pipe faucet jabbed into Rad's right side. Things were getting worse.

"What in the black blazes happened?!" she exclaimed. She noticed Lethe on her, looking pretty fierce. "What in the world is this... cat human?!" In all her life, she had never seen a laguz. She was confused and annoyed, but couldn't help but want to know.

However, that would have to be saved for another time. Rad elbowed Lethe a couple of times to get her off, but it didn't seem to work. Unfortunately, she's not that strong. So, she resorted to her magic. Weights lifted from both girls, and Rad stood up and rubbed her side. Damn... things... The wind grew velocity and sent Lethe into Isadora, if she didn't stop herself. Not much she can do, it was an empty street.

"Why, we're Wesley and Abigail!" In a sudden bow, the two let their cloaks just flutter uselessly behind them, their faces bright and cheery with the thought of the impending chase and slaughter to come. Ordinarily, such eagerness to please and such sweet smiles would soften the heart of the ones they looked at! Alas, for this time, the older boy seemed more than happy to resist their charms. Thankfully, though, he knew how to butter them up.

Why, this older boy almost seemed nice!

"Oh. But... you don't want it? Really? It's so tasty!" Forgetting their prior (and not very well-concealed) threat, Abigail looked down sadly at the spurned muffin for a moment before trying again, raising her hand up to him. She shook her hand a few times, as if trying to bait some kind of animal, but lowered her arm when she realized that the druid wasn't going to bite the bait. A shame, too. After all, with the lovely little thing she'd put inside, if he ate a bite of that pastry... why, the raphides that she'd baked into the treat would tear his throat to pieces! Though she herself had no idea that the shards of calcium carbonate were the ones that did it, she knew well enough that people who ate the Dieffenbachia plant (commonly referred to as dumb cane) and its juices died from convulsions and liver failure!

After making the mouth, throat, and stomach inflame painfully with pus-filled edemas, of course. It was a death that would be steeped in agony, from the inside out.

"This is my lucky rock! I'd best be putting it my pockets, at least." Sliding the sheathed switchblade into a pocket in his tunic, Wesley looked up, his face still as sickeningly sweet and cheery as normal. Though one might have considered it a front- what with their prior records and all- they couldn't be farther from the truth. He truly found it joyous to be able to stand in front of this fellow young man, smiling as he looked at those brilliant emerald locks and those gorgeous cunning eyes. So full of fire, intelligence, and life!

All the better to snuff them out.

Listening to his last questions, the twins looked to one another for a moment, an entire discussion passing between them with just a single meeting of the eyes. Surely Rei, as a twin, would recognize those looks of instant communication! Each twin's tongue was their own, however, and their languages were never universal.

With a slight nod to one another, Abigail joyously held out the basket, her eyes beaming with excitement as she readied her hand over the blanket.

"You've just been so nice, we'll let you meet her! See! Mother, meet the druid boy!"

And with that, Wesley grabbed the blanket and tugged it off of the basket, unveiling the pungent hand to the world.

The stench of rot would be overpowering, but neither twin seemed perturbed by the odors that wafted out of that small basket. The hand itself was black in some parts, swollen from the bacteria and maggots that had made their home in the flesh that had not been buried, despite the demands that custom made to all of its citizens. Beneath the skin, there were odd little lumps that writhed and seethed beneath the thin layer of nearly bursting epidural tissue; pustules emerged from the breathing holes the maggots made while the entire hand seemed ready to fall apart at the proverbial seams at a moment's notice.

Only one part looked relatively presentable- a ring, housing one of the largest rubies that anyone in Eyris could ever hope to lay their eyes on. Even this, however, was tainted; the smell of rot would never leave it, not with its band marinating continuously in the juices of decaying flesh. The cloth beneath the hand was soiled, turning brown in some places and black in others. The tissue had long since stopped bleeding, and what muscle did show from where the wrist had been severed was now either black or dark green, mottled with spots of mold and the writhing bodies of pupae that had gorged themselves in the infected flesh.

"She's pleased to meet you, I'm sure! Wouldn't you like to know her better?" Wesley looked to Rei, his grin still as wide as ever. His smile, though warm, had a twist of something far less innocent to it- Abigail's smile was still as serene and calm as ever. Perhaps the pain triggered something in him- maybe it was the jarring pain.

"After all, after what she did to her last lover, I'm sure she couldn't shock us any more." Walking to Rei and lifting a hand to his face, it was a moment before Wesley drew back, letting his sister giggle and hold that basket proudly out towards the druid again.

Surely a practitioner of the dark would understand.

"Oh, mother? She's just a little sleepy. They said she'd wake up, if we bring her enough toys!" Abigail looked into the basket, then shrugged, batting away a few of the mature flies that buzzed around her face as she did so. It was just normal! Mother attracted flies, because flies were angel's kisses! Why else would flies hover around a battlefield, engorging themselves on the dead? Why, they were taking them to heaven, of course.

But still, kisses lead to little white squirmy maggots, and those were just obnoxious until the babies got their wings. Angels had to start somewhere, she guessed.

"Yes... pretty toys. The rest had gone and buried itself! You should've seen how long we had to dig, just to find this part of her! Wrapped up good and tight, she was, but her hand stuck out good and nice. She still talks to us, even if she isn't as tall as she used to be." Again with that naive, innocent smile and eyes that belied the fact that she had murdered before... and would happily murder again. The gentle smile seemed to say that she'd never harmed a soul, and yet the corpse that was just on the other side of town would definitely beg to differ... as would the face that was hidden in the blanket that Wesley had pulled aside. The young girl made several scooping motions with her hands, as if digging, then several brushes of her hands as she described the uncovering of her mother's corpse. Once she mentioned the hands, Abigail made a quick hacking motion- almost as if she'd used a shovel- and then held up the basket again.

Her children had hacked off her dead hand themselves!

"She was a witch. That's what they hung her for, you know." Wesley's tone was an attempt at that same sweetness that Abigail could pull off so easily, and yet there was a twinge of something more malicious that she couldn't quite place. His smile was tainted with something that she couldn't name, his jovial body stance ruined by the stiff way he held his body when he spoke about his mother's murderer.

Abigail didn't seem to notice this, however, and just kept cooing to the basket before motioning for the blanket. She put her fingers to her lips, as if begging him to be quiet, and took the blanket from his hand as he reached over to give it to her. With care that would have put an experienced mother to share, the young Abigail gently tucked in that rotting piece of flesh, the fetid tissue giving slightly with every ounce of friction but remaining surprisingly intact throughout the covering process. She hummed a faint song- one whose tune would sound terribly familiar, but with no words to go with her tune.

She sang for a few minutes more, her hums an eerie interlude to her brother's cold words.

"Have you ever seen a man devoured alive? A woman slicing through entrails with her teeth?" Wesley trailed off, drawing the switchblade from his pocket again and tossing it into the air. Lazily, the handle would arc, twirling around two or three times before falling back into his hand. Thankfully, the blade never opened- but it didn't matter, really, for he would have simply caught it by the blade, anyway. Looking up to Rei with a grin on his face, the boy started to circle around the druid, flipping that blade rhythmically in time with their steps. Abigail had been all too quick to fall into the pattern.

Click. Click. Click.

"He hit her. Just once, just once. But who cares? Once, twice, a hundred times? He hurt her. She was teaching us to listen to our Voices, and her Voice... well. It just took a hold of her. And it was ever so hungry."

He flipped open the blade, and ran the sharp side just above the skin of his neck, pantomiming the tearing of flesh as he licked the blade's length. Abigail had drawn out a small danish, this time, and seemed perfectly content with holding it- nothing like what her brother was doing.

"He should've listened to her keepers. The ones who kept her in that padded room. But he thought he could silence her Voice, chain her, keep her for himself."

Wesley's cold laugh rang through the still air, even as he paced around the magic-user like a deranged, rabid wolf.

"The Voices don't like it when you try to silence them."

The cloaked person tackled the woman, surprising her from behind. Now it was her chance to knock the mad woman unconscious. Isadora charged forward.

She flipped her spear around, ready to strike the bald side of the spear. But before she could smack the woman's head with her spear like smashing watermelon with a wooden sword on a hot summer day, she felt the shifting of her weight again.

Isadora hung the reins tightly as well as her feet dug into the stir-ups. She was not going to be flown off from her saddle the third time. However, what she didn't expect was the cloaked person heading toward her.

She let out a shocking and sharp gasp as she felt her body getting hit by the cloaked person. Isadora held tightly on the reins, fearing that she would lose her balance. When the body slid off from her horse and onto the ground, Isadora looked down to see if the person, whether deranged or not, was okay. The paladin gasped surprisingly.

It was a female cat laguz. But which one? She had heard stories from Tibarn about his homeland, where he made acquaintances with laguz and beorc. But she never thought she would meet one.

"Are you okay?" Isadora asked. Although the paladin was concern, she was also trying to stay alarm. She was still unsure if this laguz was mad or not. Speaking of mad....

Isadora turned to the woman. She hadn't forgotten about her. However, the paladin needed to think of a way to stop her. Somehow, not only did that woman have control over water and air, but also gravity too. Then there was one thing she had to do.

"If you like to aid me, help me take down that woman." Isadora spoke to the laguz before charging again. As she galloped toward the mad woman, Isadora flipped her spear around. Concentrated on her target, Isadora rushed forward. She had a feeling of what was that deranged woman's next move was. But could the woman figure out what was her move?

“What in the world is this... cat human?!”
She should not have said that. Rad definitely should not have called her that. It insulted the laguz as much as being called sub-human. “What did you just call me,” Lethe hissed loudly. “You better not hurt or kill any beorc,” her sister warned just before Lethe left the house. “The crew would seriously get mad.” Lyre’s words tried to as a conscious for the older cat. Sadly they weren’t working. The feline wanted to use this human as a scratching post.

Suddenly she felt herself and the insane woman being lifted up. Seconds later after being flung in the air by strong winds, Lethe collided with Isadora then fell to the ground. She landed on her hands and knees with minimal damage. The cat growled once again. This mad magic user was getting even more on her nerves. “Just peachy,” she replied with an irritated tone when the paladin asked if the cloaked woman was alright.

“If you like to aid me, help me take down that woman,” the dame knight said just before she charged. Lethe knew this was probably another attempt to knock the unreasonable woman unconscious, but she decided to go along anyway.

Noticing that the water was starting to evaporate, the cat laguz began to grin. There wasn’t enough liquid to drench her goldenrod-colored fur any more. She discarded her sister’s cloak then shifted to her animal form. While Rad was distracted by Isadora, Lethe began to charge as well. If the insane woman was tackled again this time, she was going to have a much harder time getting the now larger and heavier feline off. Of course that is if she wasn’t hurt by the force slamming her down against the stone streets.

Elly looked up for a moment and grabbed the hand offered to her. Pulling herself up behind the horse with Tristai's assitant. "Once..with my brother..but..its been a while actually" admitting something. Hopefully she remembered how to at least fire on the horse, last time was probably hunting.

She can provide support, that's probably all that mattered at the moment..with the current situation that WAS the best bet. The suggestions were given and Elly had to agree. Scouting right now was probably the best solution to do at the moment anyhow "I would hate to do someone else's job too" Elly agreed. "Lets scout the area then, maybe there will be some people that are ok. If we happen to run into the source while we're at it, then heck" well..if they did run into the source, most likely thrown into battle was going to be another.

Not that the sniper was afraid..more like probably those who have at least seen her..seen her timid and shy would likely be surprised by the outcome of what there is of her. She shrugged, shaking the feeling off.