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 Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:27 am
Alyosha came back out of the back room looking somewhat haggard. His eyes scanned the room and he seemed only a little relieved. Acia was not here, she hadn't come back. He knew that the resourceful Aerandir had probably found herself somehwere to hide but did she undestand the severity of what was going on?
Anthony missing too? God, what a farce this was, they really should have set up some sort of emergency procedures. An alarm perhaps? There had only been one response from the university, it had confirmed his fear. The rest of the communications had been cut off, however, by something which had hit the roof - most likely taking the sattelite with it.
He attempted to put on a brave face as he scanned the room. Most people were in the middle of the room, away from the windows, Foenix seemed to be recovering and the children seemed to be mostly calm with a few exceptions. All here an accounted for except Acia and Rahujo. He sighed to himself quietly and walked over to the glass doors. Reluctantly, looking at the dark skies and a few pyroclastic lumps as they thudded angrily into the ground nearby, he pulled down the metal shutters tightly and clicked the lock into place.
The Centre had been of a standard field unit type. It was built to withstand most natural phenomena as it's duplicate had to be built in all sorts of places. He worried about the fact that, being though to be a relatively inactive place, the Lodge had been constructed, with extra funds, to be a more pleasureable place, not really designed at all to withstand more extreme elements than a fierce storm.
He shut similar metal shutters on all of the windows as he thought of this. He hoped they were well outwith the blast radius - the initial sattelite data seemed t show that they might be. There would be a lot of downpour, the cinder-cone type always produced so much airborne material but luckily no lava. Thank goodness.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 2:01 am
Nyxa couldn't help but chuckle quietly at Ieyasu when he came sliding in through the door. It made her feel better that more people were around. She knew the loud crashes against the roof of the Centre couldn't be a good thing. And there were still some stragglers. Marli and Inle were nowhere to be seen, and that worried her. Knowing Inle, the woman was resourceful enough to care for herself, but the cabins held NO chance against the firestorm bursting forth from the volcano. None whatsoever.
Soon enough she realized she was pacing, and she moved to seat herself in the corner of the room. She wasn't one for praying, but right now all her thoughts were being sent Heavenward. They stood a chance if the Centre could hold up, and soon enough her thoughts moved to those on Ar'Idil. Would they be okay? Were they facing the same firestorm as everyone here on Cetalu did?
Drawing her knees up to her chest, she merely wrapped her arms around her knees and watched the children. Surprisingly enough, Luc had found his lifelong, long-lost pal, and it looked to be that he would be making new friends even while fire rained from the sky.
Aaaaaand we're posting in color, too. Just so it's easier to see Nyxa's thoughts and Luc's actions.
Luc quietly mimicked Osu's actions, greeting the others in silence. Shrewdly he eyed each of them. There were familiar faces, but none of them were recognizable. It'd been so long since he'd been around the others, but he knew for a fact that he didn't see Marli. Was Delta here? He merely watched for a moment before he, too, seated himself near the others, careful not to let Osu out of his sight. He merely patted the ground next to him, offering his friend a seat if the other Aerandir chose to take it. That being done, he turned his attention back to the group for introductions.
"I'm Lucius." That was all he said. He wasn't interested in coloring. He worried in the least, just unsure. He wasn't, in all honesty, a very social boy with strangers.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 2:46 am
Silently, Kiro watched Alyosha move about the room. The elder said nothing, but just the way he moved spoke of worry and foreboding. The neko-jin couldn't help but shiver a little, his right ear twitching compulsively the way it used to. But, in reaction to his shivering, he felt Tsu hug him tighter. The little boy knew Kiro was shivering... Kiro pulled in a breath and then sighed. He was supposed to be being brave for Tsu, and look at him... Oh well, couldn't be helped he supposed.
He then watched Nyxa pace for a little while before seating herself off in the corner. Her expression was worried, and Kiro cast a slight smile in her direction, hoping she would catch it. They'd be okay... they had to be... Kiro couldn't imagine what would happen if they weren't...
He sighed again, trying to stay his twitching ear as thumps continued to drop onto the roof above them.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:07 am
((Eh, fine. I'll do colors too.))
Nehanda knew who the boys were -they'd been pointed out to her at the Hallyween party- but she realized once Lucius spoke that they might not know her. "I'm Nehanda," she piped up, and she managed a grin for Lucius. "You gave me a flower when I was a whispy, remember?"
She winced at a particularly loud crash came from the ceiling above them, but focused on the paper in front of her. "It's kind'a funny that we all live pretty close together, but we don't see each other so often."
Foenix tried to concentrate on what was going on around her. "Kylara, could you maybe get something out of Nehanda's kit for my head? I can't tell what pounding in coming from inside it, and what's coming from outside the building!" As the jivvin hurried over to look through the little box, Foenix looked out the window at the debris that continued to fall around them. What a mess this was all turning out to be. She had planned to take Nehanda over to the mainland for Christmas to see the decorations and celebrations. THAT certainly wasn't going to happen now.
She glanced across the room and the little girl, and a smile crossed her face briefly. Nehanda seemed to bearing up so well. she was being very calm, and very brave. At that age, Foenix expected that she herself would have been in tears.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:05 am
For the sake of narrative...
A few hours passed.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:30 pm
The Centre continued shaking and vibrating, sending chills through Fae. She watched Kiro's ear flick violently for a few minutes, wanting it to stop. Somewhere inside her she felt sorry for him. Slowly, she reached out to lay her hand on his shoulder and gave a 'It's going to be alright' sort of smile.
For once, Pueblo lost interest in coloring. There was too much going on, too much noise. She wanted to know what was happening outside! But she feared straying from her guardian. So instead, she watched everyone, curious to what they were doing. Seemed like they were introducing themselves. One ear flattened while the other stood up. Didn't they know who she was already? She already knew all of them, or at least one point in her life. But as soon as she was about to say something, she paused. Silence flooded the room.
...
Fae's hand slid off of Anakiro's shoulder and looked up. She held her breath, counting the seconds of silence between the firery rock hail storm. It was lessening, lessening, until all was silent. She blinked and looked around for someone to have an explenation. "D...did it stop?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:53 pm
Ieyasu was now sitting off in one of the corridors, a little out of the way of the gathering in the main room. Fortunately, Alyosha had a small supply of cigarettes and had been able to give him a couple earlier. He'd actually had a few in his jeans' pocket, but Osu had rendered them all but useless when he drenched his clothes just before the eruption. Ah well. He'd make it up to Aly later - send him a bottle or something.
Resting his hands on his knees with the half-finished cigarette held loosely in one of them, Ieyasu leaned back against the wall and shut his eyes for a moment. He'd decided to go a little way away from the gathering in the main room to smoke - he didn't think it would be appreciated if he lit up in the middle of a crowd of kids afterall. Osu had been quite happy to sit with the rest of the children and draw scribbly pictures while he disappeared for a few moments.
As he exhaled a stream of smoke, something dawned on Ieyasu. Opening his eyes again, he glanced up at the ceiling overhead. It had been rather quiet for the last little while..
Giving Nehanda a happy grin as she introduced herself, Osu had settled himself down on the ground next to Luc. Quite happy to chatter away to the rest of the children, he had also managed to acquire a piece of paper and a red crayon. Osu loved bright colours. Red, orange and yellow were his favourite ones too! For the last couple of hours, he had been scribbling away at his piece of paper. Not understanding what exactly was going on, or thinking that there was anything at all to be worried about, Osu had shown no signs at all of being scared. Rather, he seemed to be treating the whole thing as a rather grand adventure. Afterall, what was better than being able to make so many new friends at once!? Although.. he wasn't sure why so many of the grown-ups had looked unhappy. But, maybe that was just a grown-up thing. They were different, afterall.
From the clumsy scrawls, it was quite clear that Osu had little in the way of drawing talent. On his paper, there were several little messy blobs, with various wobbly lines radiating from them.
"Look! It's us!" Osu announced, waving about his finished 'masterpiece'.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:08 pm
Kiro had blinked at the hand on his shoulder. Quietly, he returned Fae's smile with a slightly shaky one of his own. Geezus, why did he have to be so obvious all the time...?
Then, he too noticed the quietening of the thumps against the roof, almost holding his breath as he failed to notice Fae's hand slipping from his shoulder. He looked up, his ear still twitching as he waited for someone else to say something. He then briefly glanced down at Tsu, who was also looking upwards, his soft eyes now large and round.
After a few more seconds of silence, Kiro stood up, gently removing Tsu from about his waist. "I think it might've stopped..." He wanted to suggest adventuring out of the Centre to find out... but he wasn't bold enough to actually say it...
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:14 pm
Nehanda grinned at Osu's picture. "That's great! Those are good colors." As for the picture actually being of their group, Nehanda decided not to comment. She didn't really think she looked like a random blob. Holding up her own paper, she showed her own drawing. It . . . wasn't that much better then Osu's. It looked like a large, spiky green monster with a purple head and several purple limbs.
"It's my new flower," she explained. Turning the paper so she could look at it herself, she giggled. "It looks a lot bester in real life, tho!"
Foenix had spent much of the past few hours napping on and off. Now, at Kiro's words, she sat up and looked around. The thumping of debris had tapered off, so that there was only an occasional light clatter. Stepping near a window, she peered out. "Hey, guys? I think he's right. It might have stopped." Glancing over her shoulder, she gestured toward the window.
The air was dusty, and the sky overhead was obscured a bit by clouds of smoke and soot from the volcano. Visible from the Centre were several small fires around the clearing . . . but that was all. The rumbling of the earth had died down as well.
"Do you think it would be safe for us to go outside?" Foenix looked over to Aly, waiting for his reply.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:14 am
Pueblo rose her eyebrows at Osu's picture. "Colors match us good..," she murmured and smiled in the corner of her lips. Of course she could appriciate any kind of art, his was just...different. But of course everyone's 'style' was different. She guessed he was more into abstract.
Now looking at her best friend's picture, she looked at it closely. "You drew this before," she half smiled. She guessed Nehanda must've liked the flower. Despite the traffice jammed lines and scribbles, the way she described it sound beautiful. Suddenly, her ears stood up in alarm. "Lets go see if your flowers are O.K.!," she said a little too loudly. She grabbed for Nehanda's hand and pulled her for the doors of the Centre. . .
Fae stood up and exchanged looks with Kiro before walking over to Foenix. She peered out the open window and stared. It looked so different outside... there was sand all over grass, broken earth, and cooling miniture fires everywhere. Something in her heart felt weak.
Kmpfk!
Was that...the door opening and closing? Whirling around, she watched the flicker of two Aerandir scurry outside. Her eyes widdened in disbelif and looked around the room. "Pueblo?!?" She wasn't in the room! Her heart hammered. "PUEBLO!!" she yelped and ran steadfast to the doors.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:07 am
Foenix turned at Fae's cry and was horrified to watch Nehanda's long tail swish through the door. "Nehanda!" Grabbing Fae, she hurried as fast as she could -which wasn't very, considering that she was still a bit dizzy from the blow to her head- toward the door. "I'm gonna kill her. What the hell were they thinking to run outside like that?"
((Since the kids are outside, I'm moving the rest of this post over to the general Cetalu thread.))
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:47 am
Alyosha looked torwards Foenix, was about to answer her question when the children ran outside. Foenix dissapeared before Alyosha could get a word out, followed by Fae.
He walked forward himself, stub of a cigarette left in his hand. He'd have to go out and survey the damage, he guessed, if it was indeed safe. The rumblings and thuddings had stopped and with the exception of Fae's motherly wails, there was very little screaming or the like from the others - suggesting they were not writhing in pain and agony.
He walked out of the door to the Centre, intent on studying the damages and to find Acia in the proccess. He hoped the Aerandir was well, she was resourceful enough to have found somewhere to hide surely? And this was her element afterall.
Heading to the main Cetalu thread, too. >D
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:24 pm
"Thanks!" Osu grinned, before looking at Nehanda's picture curiously. That looked awesome! "That's cool!" Leaning back over his drawing, he added a few finishing touches with a bright orange crayon. His bushy tail swept back and forth over the floor as he concentrated on it.
Stubbing out his cigarette, Ieyasu exhaled a last stream of smoke before rising to his feet. Just as he was doing so, there was a sudden commotion in the big circular room. Entering into the room from the corridor, the kitsune saw Foenix and Fae abruptly disappear through the open door, with Alyosha following after.
Must be safe to go out now, then.. Ah, well... time to see the damage then.. Judging by the rocks hitting the centre's roof, Ieyasu figured the rest of the village might now be just a little on the battered side. Bracing himself for what he might see, he headed through the doorway.
Seeing everyone start to go outside now, Osu stopped scribbling. Looking towards the door, he thought for a moment. Pueblo and Nehanda had gone outside, and so had Yassu and the purple man.
"Luc, you wanna play outside?" he asked his friend, pushing himself to his feet. You couldn't really run about much inside here, and they'd been cooped up for a while. It would be fun to play a more energetic game now!
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 5:39 pm
Nyxa peered around, noticing that the others were moving outside. She'd been trying to block out the noises of rocks hitting the roof; perhaps she'd even dozed for a while. Checking for drool, she rose to her feet and dusted off her butt, checking for Luc while straightening her clothes. Moving to the door, she motioned for Luc to follow when he was ready, and she slipped outside before him.
Luc grinned at the picture Osu had drawn, "I like it!" He was so happy to have found his pal that he really wasn't even paying attention to the others. It felt nice to be around his friend again, and after such a long time, he wasn't going to let Osu run off without him in fear that he'd not find him again. So when Osu asked Luc if he'd like to play outside, Luc beamed at the other boy and rose to his feet, as well. "'Course, Osu. Whatever you wanna do!" Devilishly grinning at the other boy, Luc abruptly shouted, "Race you!" before thundering towards the door.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 5:50 pm
Not quite ready for Luc's challenge, Osu was caught just a little off guard. "Hey!" he yelled, dropping his paper and crayon. Spinning around, he charged after the other boy, determined to catch up.
Giggling happily, Osu pelted out of the door out to Cetalu village. Luc had too much of a head start on him, but it was good to be running about after a few hours of sitting (relatively) still.
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