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Face your demons rolled 1 100-sided dice:
64
Total: 64 (1-100)
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 Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:21 am
The Lotus Pavilion Setting The Lotus Pavilion is actually a series of floating pavilions, small in size, that hover over the water, covered in hundreds, thousands of blossoming lotus and lotus leaves. The bridges arch over the water, connecting to each other in series. This is considered a ceremonial spot for lovers, though it is often cleared during banquet hours for the Imperial family. Currently, the setting is empty, there are very few Conquest clans people milling around.
If Amarus didn't know that lotus flowers needed water, she would have sworn that there was nothing but an endless field of Lotus blooms, carrying the pavilions off into some kind of paradise. Because for Amarus, a Lotus Eater, this was paradise. She had known nothing of the clans, so that she had gotten led to this place was a complete accident. A very lucky, wonderful accident. Her face, which was normally mirror-blank and without expression, had a soft smile permanently affixed. Anyone who was to talk to her in this state would find that her speech was unusually soft, almost dream-like.
Because her aura hadn't been casting, and now she didn't seem to need it. She wasn't called a Lotus Eater because her kind devoured them now, she was one because the region from which she'd come had so many lotuses that it was steeped into their very essence. Hence, when Amarus' essence was shed, it created a disorienting, hypnotic effect. Even when she didn't shed her own essence via a wound, her aura gave off an odourless, colourless smoke that made mostly anyone around her feel at ease. That was her natural ability.
Here, natural abilities seemed to be switched off. She wasn't able to do that, and it made her uneasy. Sure, she was left with her internal calm, but that was because the lotus wine was her own essence. In the end, it wasn't until she wandered into the Lotus Pavilion that she felt quite right again. Not just alright, but amazing.
She wasn't sure if any of her friends would find her here, or if maybe she could meet anyone new... but that was hardly her primary concern, at the moment. She heard weapons clashing in the background-- a testament to how focused and relaxed she was at the moment, however, she did not even go look at the training grounds. For now. That would come later. "It smells so nice.." she said. Even if there was no particular smell, she felt it. That was probably why she had been so awful at Kumiko earlier; every scent was lotus to Amarus at the moment.
Amarus looked both ways, then checked behind her, and slinked over to the edge of the particular bridge she was standing on. Then, when she was quite sure no one was looking, she knelt down and begain to swirl her fingers through the water. Overcome by a strange impulse, Amarus checked one last time to make sure no one was looking and she eased her own self into the water.
Fingers gripping the edge of the bridge, her bound hair resting over the flowers, she was nothing but a pair of blissful silver eyes and a shock of pink hair.
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:16 am
To say that no one was in the vicinity and watching was a correct statement, but did not mean that she had been alone. Having come to this place, Jack had found a calming feeling just about striking a harmonious tune in the very core of his existance, everything about everything was just perfect, almost as if the fates had aligned correctly for once in his short life. It would be very easy to consider this a place to come home to, if not temporarily.
Thusly so, Jack had found a small place in the pavillion to stuff his large and awkward teenage body, his legs up to his chest almost, shoes digging in to prop him up as he worked on sketching what he saw - the ideas of cameras and skellyphones completely foreign to him, and so it was up to him to capture it the best he could for the Kitsune he had left back at the school. This was perfectly her place.
The sudden change in the sounds of the water what originally set the cat's attention away from his art, it was nothing at first, like as if something had temporarily upset the water, like a rock or one of those birds he had the displeasure of warring with earlier, but when then upset became more prominent and different, Jack had to know what was happening.
Twisting his body around, he looked through the wooden beams of the bridge, his eyebrows raised (well mostly, one of his eyebrows was always a little big paralized from the scare that adorned his face), and called out curiously.
"Who's playing with the water?" he sung softly, his tail thumping on the ground softly.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:54 am
So this was what "Conquest" was.
Serafina admitted, inside, that she might have been jealous of the Four Clans. Everything was so beautiful... here, at least, within the Isles of the Clan of Conquest. Everywhere seemed to be constant beauty for her eyes to absorb, beauty that made the alive and active spark of envy filter through her ghostly veins and pulse like a beating drum.
She missed when she was as beautiful as the world around them as at the moment, and knew with a frown it was a beauty she would never quite obtain, not with this ugly apparatus over her lips, the one she could never rid herself of if she wanted to be even somewhat passable in everyday life and circumstance.
Wasn't so easy to infiltrate when no one could get their eyes off the gaping hole that your mouth had become, a cheshire cat smile that was never really allowed to leave.
She motioned her hand over her green-coloured surgical mask, and sighed softly. This wasn't the time for that.
Her steps had easily taken her down to the Lotus Pavillion, attracted by the sweet smells and beautiful colours of neverending Lotus, beautiful bridges and crisp, clear water she couldn't wait to sink her toes in. She had heard this place was for lovers, too, something that had perked the constant gossip's ears. Perhaps she didn't really know anyone here--she heard that most of the students here were from Amityville, and that certainly was no place that Serafina had attended--but that just meant there were more juicy stories to unravel and participate in.
Speaking of, who were those two over there?
Brows raising, Serafina casually slipped over to the shock of pink she saw in the water, accompanied by the creature she assumed was some kind of cat creature--no better way to explain the ears and the tail which thumped against the ground. She would hazard a guess that they didn't know each other previously, which probably would make the events unfolding even more interesting.
Oh, how exciting!
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:52 pm
At first, Amarus didn't even move, she just... basked. A couple times, she rubbed her face against the blossom's soft skin, her eyes fluttering in bliss. It was extremely strange behaviour for the lotus eater. Definitely less decorum than even she usually displayed. While she'd checked to see if anyone was watching at a normal height, she hadn't thought twice about anyone who might be hidden away.
Which was definitely why she hadn't noticed JackB sitting there, until he thumped his tail against the bridge, sending Amarus underwater for a moment in shock as her fingers slipped from the bridge edge. Thankfully, she could swim; she'd learned this a while back, though before she'd been content to merely use her ghostly species to walk along the bottom of water.
She swam under the blossoms, as carefully as possible, until she made her way to the place under the beams from which she'd heard the sound. "Shhh, JackB, it's me," she whispered to him, when she resurfaced, after scanning the area to see whose voice she'd heard.
"And I'm not playing with the water, I'm playing with the blossoms. Don't you want to? They're so pretty," Amarus sighed, happily. She floated around amidst the blossoms, looking like she'd died or fallen into a very deep, happy sleep. "What are you doing there, anyway?" Amarus had only met the boil briefly, before. Still, she recognized him.
Playful, and often slightly irritating, Amarus flicked water up at JackB and laughed quietly.
Until she realized someone else was watching. Some kind of ghoul who had just arrived. Silently, she ducked herself into the water as far as she could go, her silver eyes still surveying the ghoul.
Inconspicuous. Really inconspicuous, Amarus.
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Boozver rolled 1 100-sided dice:
98
Total: 98 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:52 pm
It took their breath away. Completely. Impossibly. Left them gasping. Left them wanting to cry. It was so different from anything Wylfenne ever experienced in their limited Wild Hunt life. And at the same time, this intricacy of line, this twirling curves as if caressing a lover, this wilderness of fantasy was so familiar, so close to the violent orgy of riding through the white fog with the Family. Well, the Clans were horsemen, weren't they? The fae wondered if they had their own wild hunt and if she could participate in it.
Wylfenne shivered with joy and uncanny feeling of kinship. And the Clan of Conquest, weren't they sort of nobility? A powerful ally? Shouldn't the horsemen feel the same recognition, this awkward trembling, this eagerness to fight and fright and flight - no, stop it, stop dreaming, this will lead you nowhere. Wake up!
Wylfenne stood there, shocked, unaware of temporal and spacial reality, unaware if anyone was there, forgetting about their mission and their training. Then, shaking their head, as if jumping out of a very difficult dream, suddenly coming to recognition of the reality, the fae looked around and noticed other students. 'Should I make myself known?', a though formed in their head.
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:59 pm
A clans member passed by, muttering something Wylfenne couldn't get. The fae raised her archbrows haughtily, confused, angered, trying to hide feelings, trying to seem polite and noble. The clans man slowly ambled off, muttering to themselves. Was it a defeat? A failure to produce the right impression?
Anyone, help help me out! - the fae cried silently to themselves. Would it be better to turn into their male form? Everything was so peaceful and so beautiful, but Wylfenne felt lost.
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Boozver rolled 1 100-sided dice:
13
Total: 13 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:19 pm
I should be going - shouldn't I? Wylfenne asked themselves. But it was soo fascinating to stare at the lotus flowers, to forget about the world, as if she were some weird floating creature, staring at their own reflection in the water, their male self adoring their female self. How much time did they spent here?
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:50 pm
It was kind of a nice sound anyways, the splashing around and sudden ker-splosh that came when the Lotus Eater fell in to the water, Jack's eyebrows staying at the pinacle of their points while he heard her swim under the bridge, he contorted his body back over so that he could meet her on the other side, eyes lighting up against the water's reflection, before it was broken by the entrance of Amarus - he awarded her with a soft smile as he leaned forward, so his chest touched his knees and his arms dangled a little over the bridge.
"Admittedly, I am a little enticed in to enjoying the flowers, and the water - I actually fancy the stuff, unlike what you hear about cats." he murmured down to her, ears pinned forward to hear whatever she had to say. When the question about his own being there, he pointed at the pencil in his hand, smiling. "Drawing what I see because I don't do well with the skellyphone contraptions to send my friend back at Amityville pictures. I figure this'll be well enough, you know?" He voiced out, hoping it didn't seem too odd.
"How is the water, anyways?" He wanted to know, before he jumped in, but his question was a few seconds late, and when she bobbed her head back in to the water, his eyes followed her nearly invisible gaze, watching the ghoul who had made her way in also, smiling at her.
"Hello!"
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:05 pm
The look that the Conquest clans member, just an attendant passing by, gave the students swimming in the water was absolutely priceless. It looked partially like they were about to explode, and mostly likely they were about to explode on the students.
"Children," They were all officious sleeves and long flowing robes as they walked to the edge of the platform, "These are sacred waters! Please do not- do not - stain these waters with your filth, these lotuses can only be bred by the purest of Fear, cultivated through a hundred years of growth."
Their face was slowly turning from an angry red to a deep shade of purple.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:38 pm
There was some kind of weird student wandering around, and it was very distracting. Amarus didn't recognize them, but whoever the ghoul was, she was weirding her out. Thankfully, Amarus was too happy in the lotuses to really care. Once she was certain that neither of the ghouls would interfere with her activities, or rat her out, she re-surfaced to keep talking to JackB. "Really? You like the water? Why?" Amarus asked him, with the biggest smile on her face. She sort of floated around a bit more. "Ah, I feel for you there-- I do not even own a skellyphone. I have never figured out how to use them at all. Then again, I cannot draw at all. When I'm out of the water, if I promise not to get it wet, may I see?"
It didn't seem odd at all to Amarus, that he would want to show his friend this isle. It was beautiful, after all. Besides, how weird could it sound to someone who was currently swimming in the supposedly romantic lotus pond of the Isle of Conquest? "It's perfect, you're really missing out," she told him, blissfully letting herself slip back underwater again before re-appearing.
Amarus was so pleased to be so close to this many lotuses that she did not really feel upset when the Conquest clan member told her not to stain the waters with her filth. No wonder the lotuses were so lovely. Amarus sighed and swam over to one of the platforms, so that she could grab on and pull herself up. However, she had started to giggle, and couldn't quite catch her breath. She did have to go to class like this, after all. She looked over at JackB and, imploring, asked "Mind helping me out? Seems like the fall was a little higher than I remember." Easier down than up, after all.
The attendant's face seemed to change colour. In her giddy state, Amarus wondered if it was their natural ability, or what. What a useless natural ability. Once she was out of the water, she bowed as if apologizing to the attendant, dripping wet, but mumbled under her breath: "I may as well be a Lotus, anyway." It was true. Her essence was steeped in them, so it wasn't like she had really sullied them. In her opinion.
Trust Amarus to get in trouble on her first day on the isle.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:06 pm
Wylfenne was about to indicate it haughtily to the clans attendant that as far as they, Wylfenne, were concerned, they were definitely not swimming and wouldn't even care too, as they were no child, then the somewhat purplish face of the attendant amused them. With a mischievous smile they jumped into the water and addressed everyone politely as if expecting an answer: - What a wonderful day it is today, isn't it? That done, the fay felt a pang of fear. Not only noone seemed to pay attention to them- they also remembered that they were taught to act politely under all circumstances. Besides, the attendant was surely their superior. So they went out of the water keeping their grin in place and bowed to the attendant: - Excuse us for taking your time.
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Boozver rolled 1 100-sided dice:
9
Total: 9 (1-100)
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:41 am
The next day Wylfenne popped up at the floating gardens again. They were in their quietest of mood, no sparkle of evil humour breaking through impeccable demeanour. Besides, they still felt rather awkward for their silly behaviour yesterday, and even thought about finding the horseman attendant and making it known to him that they understand the inaccessibility of their naughty-haughty tricks. After all, they are no child!
But when they entered the Lotus Pavillion there was noone to be seen. So they sat there for a while trying to concentrate on remembering those scents from kumiko - it didn't look like they are getting any better at it....
Something distracted them, something they could not quite get. They looked up at the roof of the pavilion. Its paintings probably depicted the glorious deeds of the Clan.. Wylfenne smiled: in their family they also had visual material to illustrate their glamorous past, albeit they knew quite well how far from true these painting were back at home. Here, in the Pavillion, the scenes on the floor seemed also peaceful and bright, but one painting is oddly out of place: of a Conquest member slaughtering several what look like humans rather graphically.What could that hide? Why is it so different?
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:31 am
Jack could only shrug at the original question, looking down at Amarus. "I'm not sure, I've never seen any reason to dislike it or fear it - it's just water." He figured, grinning. "It's not going to hurt me, and I like the feel of currents and flow, it's kind of calming." He figured, splaying his hands out in a "you see. . ." kind of look.
"Of course, you're very welcome to view any of the sketches I've made --" he started, before the officiate came over in all his bliss and glory, his red face and scornful eyes showing the cat that they've probably done something wrong. His smile diverted to the sweet, charismatic grin that came around when he knew he had been caught red-handed.
Lifting himself up to kneel over to offer the requested hand to Amaris, he grabbed the dainty Lotus Eater and pulled enough that it would pick her up, but not enough to harm her. Murmuring softly enough that only she could hear, he stated; "That's okay, I'm sure you'll help the lotuses bloom better, now that they've been able to make a friend." In which he emphasised with a wink, before letting go when she was situated back on her feet.
After he made sure that she would be fine, he looked to the clans member and gave a curt little bow to him, showing his respect. "Forgive us, kind one, we just figured we'd make friends with the beautiful flowers your clans have worked hard for." He serenaded them, giving them an award winning smile, with just the slightest bit of pout in it. "We'll be more careful next time, my friend here accidentally slipped over the banister, we weren't told otherwise."
He wasn't sure if this would do anything in t he long run, but he could try!
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:37 pm
((Sorry this took so long guys! I've been busy the last few days, so I was just focusing on the classes <333 Please forgive me!))
Like she couldn't see the eyes peeking above the water.
Right.
Serafina giggled a bit, bending down to offer a small wave at the fellow ghoul she spotted in the water, not at all deceived by the way she attempted to hide herself down and under. Sure, her hair certainly blended rather well with the lotus, but that wouldn't fool her, no sirree! If she wanted to talk to someone, she was going to talk to someone, whether they liked it at current or not. They would certainly like it after she had begun talking, hm?
At least, the cat-like one seemed to like her enough, immediately offering a hello. Her eyes glinted cheerfully, and she moved to wave back, lifting her arm and waving, almost over-excitedly, at finally getting to meet some people! Were these ones from Amityville? None of them looked familiar, but then, she went to a rather quiet school...
What did it matter?
More people to learn--
Oh, crap.
Serafina's eyes widened as she turned to look behind her, watching as an attendant marched up to them, the sleeves themselves almost telling of the level of irritation she seemed to hold. Were they not supposed to be here? From what she knew, it was absolutely fine to just walk around here. No one had said they couldn't, and she was certain there would have been some type of warning if there was a problem, right? Serafina's brows knit a tad as the woman began talking, but she quickly moved away from that, attempting to hide her expressiveness under the guise of the pleasantary politeness she had known so well at ... some point. She learned her lesson at times, see?
Apparently they weren't supposed to be in the water, hm? Serafina's eyes flicked down to the ghoul with pink hair, watching as she explained that she practically was a lotus. What was she, then? Serafina's mind wondered as she looked over the silver eyes, soon moving up to become a more full head, though she didn't seem very inclined to leave. Uh-oh. Could that get them in trouble? Serafina hoped not. The last thing she wanted to deal with was trouble; that was not a way to get on anyone's good side to find out more about them and their daily lives...
...To tell about others...
Okay, so maybe she was a bit obsessive...
Serafina seemed to breathe just a bit easier after the cat-like one had offered his excuse. She slipped. Right. That was a perfectly reasonable excuse. The question was, though, how did she explain herself? It didn't look like she was particularly trying to help anyone up; she was just walking about, no mind to the world until she had saw them--aha! That was the perfect excuse. She had saw them and had come over. Right. She stood with her back just a bit straighter, looking the attendant in the eye.
Her voice filtered from her surgical mask easily.
"I apologize ma'am!" That was... hopefully the right assumption... "I simply saw them, and noticed that she was in the water! I thought I could assist in helping her out of the lotus!"
As an addition, perhaps to kiss-up, she added, "I love it here, by the way. These lands are gorgeous, by Jack~"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:53 pm
JackB had a funny way of looking at things. Amarus didn't mind, though; in fact, she was pretty happy from the flowers, so very little was going to phase her for a bit. Or, rather, she was able to feel something, for once, which made her pretty happy. She wasn't certain the lotus blossoms would be happy they made a friend in her, given friends shouldn't really swim through and around each other (she assumed). But it was still a nice reply.
Once they'd straightened up and been chastised, Amarus was still kind of dripping by the end of it. She missed being able to reduce her opacity enough to just shed all the water. This whole being wet and soggy thing was unpleasant. She didn't really want to wait until the attendant had left to wring the water out of her clothes, but she was already kind of pushing it. Really, she was letting JackB do all the talking-- he seemed like he was a lot better at this repentance thing than she was. She was fairly certain if she opened her mouth, she'd just ruin it all. Probably an accurate assumption, really.
"Clumsy, clumsy me," she managed to add to the apology, before straightening from her bow.
What was up with the ghoul that had seen her swimming earlier, though? Looked like she was finally around and all, but she seemed to be trying to cover her own a**. She wasn't even the one in trouble. Weird. She would be, now. Amarus' face was mirror-empty again, her silver eyes scanning the ghoul, then looking at the attendant, then back again. "--but weren't you just saying how nice it would be to take a swim?" Amarus asked the ghoul. She couldn't help it. It was either that, or shove the ghoul into the water, but she really did love those lotuses; Amarus would never harm them purposefully.
In the end, she shrugged, and leaned in towards JackB. "Think we can go look at that drawing soon?" she asked. And, unspoken: Because I don't really want to stick around and see if I get in trouble. Then, added on, she said: "Thanks for helping me out of the water, by the way."
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