Welcome to Gaia! ::

When Shik first strode through, he wasn't sure what he had been expecting. Maybe another annoying gargoyle to give him a task, but certainly not one in a . . . purple hat. Alright then.

Dirk Bladegod was an eccentric fellow, but at least a more useful one. Shik paid attention to his new little guide. A party, huh? so he couldn't simply solo this . . . damn it. Making a soft exasperated sigh, the executioner crossed his arms and pondered his choices. there were four doors, one which required more keys than he had available. He could simply go exploring right now, though . . . bah. He had to trust the odd gargoyle's advice for now, because strange or not they were the locals; it was wiser to listen and heed.

Sighing (and feeling idiotic), Shik mumbled, "Ell Eff Jhee," and looked inward, or . . . whatever the thing actually meant. Just give me capable warriors.

"Ell. Eff. Jhee? What is..." Yuzhi was wandering forward, her brow furrowed in confusion. She wasn't sure what to make of all this. She sort of tripped her way inside and then paused staring at two figures before her that she sort of recognized.

Her memory often felt like a kaleidoscope where random fragments of things piece together and made sense or didn't depending on what triggered them. There was a quiet 'hmm' from her but otherwise she was still.

Did she...should she? .... Talk to them...?

She opened her mouth to greet them but what came out instead was a quiet, 'Ahh'. Yuzhi's expression darkened and her face flushed with color. Why did it feel so strange to interact with others sometimes?

. . . Really?

Shik stared at the lot of them. Stared long and hard, individually, as a group, individually again. And then he sighed to hide the weirdly relieved feeling he had. He remembered Shaheen of course, and one memory of Thrain had him calling the guy his brother. The girl, however, he was drawing a blank, though she also felt vaguely familiar.

At any rate still couldn't talk to Shaheen about things and stuff.

"Yes it's me," he grumbled. "And yes I know some of you. This does not matter now. What matters is that we get to the task at hand and we do so quickly. I don't care if you pair up or go into different doors, or whatever you might feel like. What I do know is that I'm going to go fetch us a red key. We can discuss what madness might be here later."

Pause.

"I am Shikoba, but you may just use Shik," he added, brushing past to the smoking red door.

Considering the noise behind the door, Shik wasn't surprised to see a child behind it: what was actually surprising was that the child was the spitting image of him despite it coming from a mirror, from the contemptuous look to the feathered hair. This one did not look pleased to see him.

Unsurprisingly, it was met with violence.

Shik grunted as he flung the mirror image off his arm, caught off guard by how swift the colt was.

"Do you even know who you are?" the little one spat. "Fed all these memories like grain to a horse, can you even picture what a mess of a man you truly are?"

"I don't particularly care to know," Shik replied bluntly, sword in hand.

"Really?" The younger Shikoba scoffed before lunging, his own tiny claws scraping into the larger one's skin as they scrabbled. "Because it's happening even now: our childhood friend tells you she loves you, and what have you done about it? Run away like a coward, called her a b***h.

"That's because you know. You know no-one should bother taking a chance on you because you're so out of touch with yourself that you'd rather just fight and fight until the problem goes away or you kill it. You'd rather make people hate you than deal with the opposite.

"Father would be disappointed. You can't even handle your own issues, let alone a woman. How emasculating is that?"

Something snapped inside Shik, and with a feral growl he nearly cut the kid in two.

"Shut up."

"Shik." The other man received a nod from Thrain before he nodded at the woman, then also down at the girl. "Yuzhi. Hello." Hugs? Wait no augh-- "I am Thrain." The offer of her hand made him smile just the slightest and as gently as he could he wrapped her hand in his palm. A small motion up, then down was enacted, the man going so far to bend down just a little bit. "It is good to meet you." For a moment he let his smile grow a bit bigger, but it turned back to a straight line as Shik spoke. With a small sigh, Thrain stood back to rights and let go of the smaller girl's hand.
"It seems as though Shik will not wait for us." That caused him to shrug once before he gestured to the doors; They should not wait either. After a moment of pause to let her lead the way as he followed, a small look given back to the blonde woman. He knew her, that was Shaheen, they were friends. The smile she gives him when she speaks his name is returned.
"Shaheen. Be safe." He tells her before he turned back around. There were three doors to chose from, one with water, one with melancholy. As he wanted neither of them, Thrain stepped forward to open the middle door, quick to step back so Yuhzi could go first.

As before, he does not expect to see this place.
The room is large, almost cavernous in feel, with long wooden tables lined neatly in rows, their surfaces scratched and burnt in places, worn and mildly weather beaten. There are five tables, but they are all empty save for one. It has been decorate with a blue and silver table cloth, something once elegant but now worn thin with years of wear and celebrations. The plates on the table are full of savory smelling meats, fresh fruit that was a delicacy nearly unheard of and there are cups of various drink behind each plate.
The first cup Thrain reaches for smells of spices and matches the amber of his eyes, which makes him smile curiously at it before he drinks it.
"Cold and snow! That's your initiation!" The old man laughs a wheeze, a joke the others share in. "Innit it cute how they're still shiverin'?" The other laugh at that too. But the group of young men and women who have come to train in the cold do not laugh. They either freeze with their decision, or burn with dedication. Thrain finds himself lukewarm, glad to have come but not yet quite sure this is going to work out.

Next is a roll, a simple thing, but colored various shades of brown and crisscrossed on the front. This is eaten with relish, still warm in his hand.
The snow is an enemy, but it is a teacher too. It hardens their resolve, and it makes them grateful for the warmth and their furs. To get a new one, to succeed in battle, even against something as silly as those white bears that roam their training grounds is an honor and Thrain has found it not so cold with his pelts.

There are more, bits of beef and jerky, even a sweet apple that he nearly eats the core of just because it tastes so good. They come with more memories, more instances that are all edged in a frigid chill and woven together with steel and laughter and camaraderie. But as the man keeps eating, as he continues to find more food, the memories begin to sour. They turn bitter and sad and eventually when he bites down too hard on a burned bun he realizes the loss contained within. It is stark and sudden, harsher than he expects and the bread falls from his hand. For a moment he chokes on the last swallow, but once he can breath again another gargoyle has found him.
This one receives a fierce frown, but he's quick to take the mint before it can start gabbing at him. There is a key underneath it that he also takes, but the mint brings clarity, if in a hazy sense. Yes, the cold wasn't all that bad, once you got used to it.

The door swung open, and on its other side she was faced with a pool.

What. Why was the water golden? Wait, best not to think about it too much. Staring down its length, what mattered most was the key around the gargoyles neck on the other side. She would apparently need to swim down there and get it, because there was just no possible way she could fly across.

Yep, this was going to be great.

With a long and heavy sigh, she slipped into the water and began on her way, taking long and what she assumed were powerful strokes, ones that would carry her to the other side in no time fla---

OH! What in the name of the goddess???

......

Shaheen tried very hard to get away from the shark after that.

HP: 67.5ish

Flailing and gasping for air in the water, she managed to inhale the golden liquid, and began to choke on it.


HP: 22.5