Topic: "For a friend.."

Lain Amthras

Date: 2006-08-07 15:35 EST
It wasn't the right kind of day for this. Sunny, birds. Let there be clouds or SOMETHING. It would seem that no one gave a damn for her. Tilda didn't know how close to the truth that was.

She nodded as the stone was set in place, the word requested etched in frilly writing accompanied by a rather delicate looking flower right next to the 'S'. Tilda sniffed, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"That's it, miss?"

"Yes....thank you."

"Sorry fer yer loss, miss. I should get outta this business. To much emotion for me," he attempted at dry humor, but when Tilda sniffed, he cleared his throat, laying a callused hand on her shoulder for a few pats. "Truly sorry."

"Aren't we all." Tilda stared down to the stone, scuffing her toe at the dirt that was piled in somewhat of a mound. She knew there was no body in there, she didn't even know what happened to the body. Her best guess was that it was liquified, or....just was blasted to kingdom come.

Sure, she'd known Lain for only a day, but she felt for her all the same. The thought of what had actually happened up there brought even more of those tears to her eyes, and she kneeled down, dropping a single flower on the stone's surface.

"I so sorry, Lain. I wish I could have helped you more....Even if you DID destroy my shop," she had to chuckle to this, lifting her watery eyes as the footsteps plodded away. "Din' know you too well....but you seemed alright. Well..."

"The shell....disintegrates....memories left for pondering." Tilda swirled around on her knees, plunking down to her bottom and just....staring at the girl. It was a girl, right"

It was a girl, Tilda. Mostly known as Cateforical, she phased and blinked into view, her long hair sailing outwards over a shoulder to the breeze that'd picked up. "What....what in sam hell..."

"Faded....existance....Gone but not....truly vanished..."

What in the hell was this chick all about' She flickered like one of those....lost technological wonders. A....well, whatever she was, having someone else here with her made Tilda feel a little more at ease. "You knew Lain, then."

"Acknowledged....yet not....registered."

Maybe they'd just stop talking....Tilda barely understood a word the child said anyway. Categorical's body bobbled up and down, and she stared to the stone with wide violet eyes, giving a solemn nod.

"All....not lost....The return....to repeat."

Alex Ravenlock

Date: 2006-08-07 17:11 EST
'lex had to find out the news for himself.

Not of Lain, of course. But of a certain other that Lydia had been told about several days before. It was the main reason he found himself wandering through the cemetery when he did.

He didn't have anything with him. No flowers, no sentiments. Words. Harsh words. And a urged feeling to scream "HAHAYOUDIEDGOTOHELL!"

As he arrived, his eyes panned about the general stones that were erected for the various that had died over the years. He didn't directly know any...so he didn't rightfully care where he walked. Be it over a grave, or not.

He panned the various stones, eyeing the names that were listed, waiting to physically come across Gwydion's stone. He wouldn't come across such a stone, because the strange appearance of a small girl solidified just nearby. A small girl that he knew. His actual sister. Categorical.

Pacing steps, he leapt and bound over several tombstones as he quickly moved in her direction. He wasn't familiar with the woman that was with Cat, and perhaps with good reason. He hardly ever knew the people Categorical chose to be around. Lazros was vast, and those she selected as helpers, or friends, were those he'd simply accept. But, this seemed different. Dark. Out of place.

"Cat!" He'd stammer behind pounding lungs as he lugged himself up to her. "What are you doing...."

Those words never finished. His eyes shifted from his sister, and down to the small lettering upon the stone, itself.

And all that was twisted in the world broke. Or, in this case, all that was twisted in his world that was rapidly dwindling, broke.

Like glass to cement with a velocity of a train-wreck, his interior shattered as though something intact, packed, tight, and frightful had been torn from him. Torn from him, and released from him. Such was quickly losing containment, already. Already...

Behind bared, gritted teeth, he spoke. "Leave us..." Swirling emerald pools shifted to look up towards Categorical, and the woman that was nearby. He didn't care about the woman's sake, but he was already, once again, fearful for Categorical's quick return. He was thankful his sister was here...but not under the circumstances.

Cat didn't offer much in a response, other than collapse upon herself as though reality's jaws snapped her up. The woman slowly backed away, and didn't turn to run until the very ground beneath him, or them, began to crack as though a fissure had formed underneath the surface of a body of water.

Small cracks formed about his frame, as though surrounding him were panes of glass, like a museum. What followed those cracks were small ripples that widened to reveal blackness beyond. Depths to an unknowning.

The party cloudy skies swelled, causing thick, bellowing waves of cloud cover to drape over head, loom over head....amassing to the air and groud pressure that his body had built up. The sun was blotted out, causing the once bright afternoon to succumb to a very early, and perhaps very brief, night time. Strugging to contain.

There, he knew it. He knew why he had sealed his emotions off. Why he had turned everything off to him in the world.

Because.....one day.....it'd be too much.

Like a sudden nuclear impact, a silent, tremoring shockwave pelted the very land beneath him, just as he took a single step back from that stone, swirling pools narrowing as he stared at it. And what followed was nothing more than what would resemble a shattering dream. Perhaps as what Ghaleon did to Dyne's years upon years ago. He desecrated it. His left hand shot out suddenly, upwards into the air, sending it into a small circlular motion. What followed that precise movement was a towering pillar of power that came streaking from the depths of that thick cloud cover, and slammed into the very earth just in front of him. The aim, his aim, was direct, and precise...striking the tombstone and causing the very stone to split in half. The ripping power of the beam burrowed beneath the stone, and into the earth, causing a large wave of earth and dirt clumps to rise up into the air before him, sending a vast earthquake across the portion of the graveyard, and no doubt towards Rhy'Din city, itself. Harmless for much else besides those that may be standing nearby.

A glimmering hint of a radiating aura burned about his frame, as he spun around moments after the impact was made, swirling pools regarding the area just by him. "All. For me. You didn't have to, dearest. You really...didn't. I am not worth...a life. Not yours." Snaps and crackles of residued power seeped upon the battered and cracked land beneath him as he took several leaping teps to jump from small land mass to land mass as he escaped from the grave. And made his way from.

As it would seem, yet again...something vicious had awakened.

And, the casual saying would go, "What else is new?"

Lain Amthras

Date: 2007-02-09 02:21 EST
Curiosity. That alone was what had her pushing through the gates of the quiet boneyard, shifting around delicately through the light layer of snow still clutching onto the landscape despite the wind. Short silver hair plastered itself against her cheeks, causing her to lift her hood up upon her head and jam her hands into her pockets as she moved off to the left for the map and registry building. Within a few moments, she was following along behind the clerk at a brisk pace, obviously showing that he didn't want to be outside almost as much as she didn't.

They trekked up a couple slippery hills and followed along a winding path eastward until they neared a giant, lone tree towards the far end of a row. He pointed her down to the end, where she saw a giant fissure in the ground and high dunes of snowy earth packed up around the area. Whipping around, she'd opened her mouth to speak, but found him hurrying back down towards the small enclosure. With a slight scowl, she continued forwards.

It wasn't until she was almost at the site did she see someone sitting there. Against the blackness of the tree trunk, she made out a small tendril of gray smoke. They, whoever they were, were twiddling a long stemmed flower between their fingers. Lain's eyebrows lifted as she saw that they were seated right down in the snow, seemingly not caring if their ass was frozen off. Nearing the figure, she reached down, tapping them on the shoulder.

"Hey."

She jumped, turning her frosty silver gaze upwards to Lain, who froze instantly, staring. It was Tilda..

"Hey yerself," she said, the thin clove dangling out from her parched lips as she spoke. "Did'ja know Lain?"

Lain shook her head, coming out of her thoughts with a few nods after that. "Uh....yeah....More'r'less," she said, scratching at her temple. She wasn't quite sure why she didn't reveal herself. She almost had previously, but thought better of it at the last second. Tilda tapped the snow to her left.

"Then pull up some terra," she said, rummaging in the breast pocket of her bomber jacket and holding out another clove to Lain with a lighter. All of this was done without even one glance towards her. Lain took it hesitantly, shileding the breeze from the small flame as she lit the thing and Tilda continued. "How did you know her?"

To buy herself some time, Lain stared intently at the crater just before them with a scowl, many possibilities for who could have done something like that running through her mind; and puffing on the clove. She finally settled her smoking arm on her knee, exhaling the smoke in a long stream. "Here'n there, yanno' Went t'some'o her shows in B-Town. She owned on that thing, man," she said, chuckling. Her ego didn't need anymore inflating, but a little bit wouldn't hurt. "Heard she died 'round th'same time this building blew itself t'smithereens. Dun 'member what it's called, though...Some kinda bookstore'r sommat."

Tilda snorted lightly and Lain dared a glance her way. "It was called Library. It was my store."

All of it was feigned, of course, but she had to try and make it believable. Crystal blue eyes widened as she looked at Tilda. "So you're Tilda" Wow....I've been by yer place, never gone, though. What happened?" Tilda shrugged.

"Dunno. One minute I'm there talking to her. The next, I woke up in the street with rubble all around me. Somethin' strange went down, though," she said nodding. Lain cleared her throat as silently as she could. The mention of that brought back some memories she'd liked to have kept supressed at that current second, so she redirected her attention to the crater as once more, Tilda continued speaking. "Before I woke up street-side....Lain told me to buy a stone for her with the word 'Schway' on it. An' what happens the day I do' Some idiot decides to destroy it."

"Th'clerk din' tell me nothin' 'bout what happened t'this thing," Lain said, voicing some of her bottled up resentment towards the culprit. She nudged a small pile of snow with her sneaker as she flicked some ashes away. "You were there?"

"Of course I was! The damned thing was barely in the ground ten secs before..." she sighed forcefully, scratching at her spiky silver hair for a few moments. "Sorry.."

"I'sch-....no prob, man," she covered nervously, taking one last, long puff on the clove before she flicked it into a snow pile.

"Jus' get really annoyed every time I think about it.."

" ...if'n ya dun' mind meh askin'....what happened?"

Tilda sighed forcefully once more, eying Lain sharply before nodding. "It was a regular sunny day, of all things. The stone had just been set when this little girl showed up and started speakin' all....cryptically. I had no idea who she was or what was going on and was in the process of asking when this giant of a man comes bumbling up to us. He takes one look at the stone and just goes insane. Clouds billowed, thunder crackled. I ran for it when the ground split, but I stayed close enough to watch him completely decimate my hard earned money's worth of gravestone. Not to mention the chick's last wish. Who the hell does that?"

Lain had been staring at Tilda from the moment she started on about the cryptic speaking little girl. She only knew one of those...And then the giant of a dude....she had one guess, but she didn't think Alex would...She had to ask, and it came out more urgent than she had wanted to sound. "What'd he look like?"

"He was damned tall. Giant, even, as I said. Muscled, not that bad lookin'. His eyes were an eerie bright green, and his hair was long and this weird shade...I don't....it looked white, but I don't think it was.."

"Lavender," Lain muttered, feeling the color drain from her cheeks. The cold wasn't even felt as she mulled all this over in her head. But....he'd seemed fine when she'd talked to him afterwards...She didn't have any idea.

"Yeah...." Tilda said, eying her once more with a cold stare that made Lain look away quickly. "What did you say your name was again?"

Lain smiled some after a few moments, using the tip of her finger to dab away a slight drip of water from the corner of her eye. "S'Lain, Tilda," she said to her, clearly enjoying the look of disbelief and surprise on her face. "Ya come here often?"