i hear you crying
open
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
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Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#1
KIADA
you love each other, you do, and here's the tragedy;
it's not enough.
I will be able to walk.” She hears the red headed man speak, and she nods to him looking back to the lamb. She hears as Caiside mentions she should carry it, but there’s something lingering in the back of her mind, something akin to betrayal if she were to care for this young Luxere while Khairi is nowhere to be found. But then, she figures that it’s just a wounded creature that needed help and likely nothing would come from it. So she nods, reaching around the fluff of the smaller babe to cradle it to her chest as she looks back to Isla’s body one last time.

But as she stands and prepares to move, she finds that the fawn starts to nuzzle into her as its antlers begin to glow and alight her chest and face in a swathe of light to ward away the darkness. With a deep breath, Kiada trudges through the snow and the darkness toward the Rathskeller. Her arms shaking by the time she reaches close to the Temple with the weight of the creature in her arms. But this Luxere is different, and she moves through the other herds that had returned, they watch as she carries one of their own but make no move to claim it.

It is then when she realizes that it is because he has claimed her. There’s a familiar sensation deep in the back of her mind and she struggles against it – struggles with her heart against it. That part of her mind, it had belonged to Khairi and his wit and guttural, gravelly voice that chastised her at every corner. Now, it was taken by something full of light that barreled its way into her heart and her mind.

She has betrayed Khairi. She has given his space to another, as if she has moved on and forgotten him to the winds and worlds she had lost him in.

And this one, her eyes well with a small amount of tears as she looks down to the glowing Luxere in her arms, nuzzling and happy to be with her, to be protected as it buries its way into her mind – into the only place of her she had tried to protect. But he seems content, to be connected to her despite the darkness and the bloodshed in her memories. The light, the help, in the darkness of her mind and heart. “Auni.” She breathes in her native tongue. Her light. Her help. For whatever else comes her way. He could never replace Khairi, but at least she’s not alone anymore.

She realizes, then, that when Longnight is over she must return to the cabin in the woods, to show Ru’in the event that had transpired. To watch his bi-colored eyes widen as she mentions she slipped out during Longnight and only came away with a companion and a minor set of chills. How she would need to reassure him that she was fine, and even though someone else had died, it wasn’t her. That she was here. She was with him, like it always would be.

Her arms quiver as she reaches the steps to the Rathskeller, the one that leads directly to the tavern. She sets Auni down on the ground beside her, the small fawn braying quietly while his antlers continue to shine. The glow reflecting off the door and minor scratches near the handle as she knocks. But it glimmers on something else, something bright and fiery, and she finds her icy gaze slipping down to the steps.

A note with a piece of bronze within.

Her brows furrow ever so slightly as she bends down – the world revolves in slow motion as her gloved hand extends to pick up the note and the item within. As she lifts it, it falls into her other hand and she inspects it before she looks to the note. It looks like a wing, or the sprout of a fire. And she makes a sudden connection that causes her stomach to drop like the weight of the world as it crushes her chest.

There is only one person that knows of her flame and her wings. There is only one person who crafted in bronze. There is only the one that held her heart for so long.

She disregards the note for a moment as she scans the door again, to see the scratches on the door and the bits of fabric that have settled like ashen snow around the door. She doesn’t know if she wants to read the note. Perhaps he had left it for her to find, to see him after. But why would he have left his home, the cabin in the woods for Longnight when certainly he knew the consequences. Unless he thought the patrons would let him in?

But he had known he appeared as a monster, with slurred words and unable to articulate things correctly. It is then that she realizes that she could have let him in, could have seen to it that he would be safe and loved and warm. But she had left.

She had left.

She had replaced Khairi with another, the fawn now huddling against her legs with the glow of the antlers reflecting off the bronze in her hand and the note as he whimpered quietly, urging her to open the door. She puts a hand to the door, her sorrow pooling like a fiery flame within her chest, snaking through her throat and constricting it as her eyes slip to the note.

Kiada.” It begins. Her heart thunders, hammering in her chest. Her eyes following word by word, as if he’s beside her and saying it with his slurred speech. Her eyes well with tears as she reads his words, a sorrowful smile pricking at the corner of her lips at the beginning. She knows he’s not good with words, but the idea of him trying for her makes it hurt even more.

The Basin was where we lived.” She thought of the mountains and the aurora as it danced above.

But home was wherever I was with you.” The tears swelled before they slipped down her cheeks, breaking a trail through the dirt that had accumulated there.

But she read further, rereading the lines before she read the last two sentences. “I love you.” She mouthed the words as if she could respond to him there, that he’d show up waiting behind the bush to surprise her. But he’s not there, there’s nothing there. Except for the last sentence of the note, and the bronze in her hand that she clutches like a lifeline.

Will you marry me?

There’s silence before the world picks up again, and her mind and heart are numb though the tears continue to drift down her cheeks as rivers. She doesn’t feel her hand as she pounds on the door now, that darkness within her breaking open like a dam to flow within her. She could have lived a happy life with Ru’in, with a man she’d loved since she was a child. A man she had seen before her eyes die once before, only to be given a second chance.

And she had wasted it.

OPEN THE DOOR.” She shouts at the door, the pounding increasing as Auni presses against her side in worry. She needs to get inside, she needs to inspect the bronze and pray it’s a stupid joke someone put on her. She needs to find out what exactly happened while she was away.

There’s a sudden craving for blood that wells in her mind, for justice, for something to atone for everything that has happened to her. Her pounding increases and she bites her lip hard enough to draw blood as it drips down her chin. Her eyes bright yet awash with pain and despair and torture that every world she’d been in had given her.

When would enough ever be enough?
you are allowed;
to watch the sun swallow him whole and burn him up,
to stain your fingers to the bone holding him together.
to count the constellations in his eyes as they blink out.
but you are not allowed to save him...
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Seiji Okura
Musician

Age: 32 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 10 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: kae Offline
Change author:
Posts: 149 | Total: 255
MP: 0
#2
S E I J I
He knows.

He knows what can happen, what has happened, to those who opened doors to this room before. The image of Celosia engulfed by shadow is stamped on the inside of his skull, a stain as dark and as permanent as that of her blood on the Rathskeller’s wooden floor. When the knocking begins, this is his first thought. Every muscle tenses in Seiji’s lithe frame. He braces, and turns away from the sound. Not again. How many days left in this hell?

But here is something else Seiji knows: “Kiada?”

Could she have gone? His dark eyes flick across the room, searching for her face. When did he see her last? He has been preoccupied, battling his own thoughts. Why would she have gone, though? To where? Slowly, he turns toward the door. Waiting for someone to speak. To move. But now his own feet are moving, carrying him nearer and nearer the noise. Half of him waits for a hand on his arm, for someone to stop him. It’s too dangerous. Of course it is. One life outside is not worth all the lives in here. No; pragmatism wins the day, doesn’t it?

But he knows her. And he knows she once offered him kindness.

Warily, Seiji approaches the door, his expression torn. “Kiada?” he calls more loudly, knowing every second weighs against her safety. Knowing the wrong choice could be the end of him, a light snuffed out in less time than it takes his heart to beat once. He wants… he wants someone to tell him what to do. Someone older, wiser. He pauses with one hand lifted, fingertips pressed against the wood, as if he can divine truth from the dead timbers.

More quietly, a breath. A whisper of sound. “How did she get outside?”
The rain is full
of ghosts tonight
Melita Najya
the Honeybee


Age: 26 | Height: 5'6" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 10 - Strg: 57 - Dext: 58 - Endr: 58 - Luck: 57 - Int: 1
FANGORN - Mythical - Vampire Gourd SILA - Mythical - Dragon (Fire Breath)
Played by: Heather Offline
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#3
 
M E L I T A


Melita has always been one to play dangerous games – reckless and hasty, the creature that would look before they leaped. She’d dance on flames if someone told her not to, she’d curl and coil and unleash havoc and hell to protect those closest to her, and her ambitions, her aspirations, were mercurial coals. Opening a door was temptation, even though she’d heard the stories, the myths, the legends, and then the realities floating to the surface, healing in the infirmary. How many had ventured out, never to return? How many screamed beyond those wooden frames, lost and forlorn, begging for absolution, for deliverance, from the monsters outside?

She could hear the chaos building; her body, her mind, was used to the frenetic pace, to the vast unknown, to the sharpened, heightened sensation of bedlam coursing through veins and bones. The yell was a combination of keen notes and blunt force, commands and demands; one she didn’t recognize. So there was the tribulation and trial: to let them in, or keep them out? Was it a deceitful act, carried on by demons and infidels yearning to gain access? Longing to cut them open? Wanting to bleed them dry?

Another unknown figure approached warily, and Melita’s eyes, Fangorn’s eerie stare, narrowed. What were they supposed to do in this situation? How many times had it occurred, and folly was met? How many had disappeared into the murky night, doomed and consigned by their own brethren? She clenched her jaw and curled her fingers back into her palms; the apprehension ghosting away, giving in to the petulant boldness rolling its form through her limbs.

Her gourd companion bounded out of the way as she advanced, her features a crisp, gilded tempest, reaching for the door because she couldn’t stand it; the nuances of danger, the signs of treachery, the unfortunate beings locked and trapped outside. She couldn’t remain idly by, she’d never been able to. It was a flaw and a virtue, depending on the potential, ominous outcome. The youth nodded towards the stranger, wild and savage, inveigled by the anguishing possibilities, looked him in the eye briefly, noting the whispers conjured, spoken, twisting and turning the vindication, the convictions, in her skull. “If you know her, we should let her in.” Her hand reached for the locks, fingers swift and quick, pulling and pushing at them one-by-one, brows furrowed in a determined fissure.

If they were wrong, and they’d waltzed into a trap, she’d take the fall.





Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#4
KIADA
you love each other, you do, and here's the tragedy;
it's not enough.
She clutches the note and the bronze like it’s a lifeline – like if she can get inside it’ll lead her back to him. She knows it’s impossible, but she can’t let it settle into her yet. That he’s gone once again. She doesn’t realize she’s holding her breath while the tears continue to track down her cheeks, while the blood continues to drip down her chin. She continues to beat on the door in a frantic manner that matches her heartbeat.

She does not settle for pleases and thank yous, instead she continues to beat upon the door with an ever growing shout hovering on her lips. Perhaps they wouldn’t let her in either. Maybe it would be better that way.

Maybe she could see Ru’in again.

She’s taken from the thoughts as Auni braces against her, trying to nuzzle her and show her that her thoughts would drown her if she’d let them. She wants them to, though, and the pounding of her arms stop slowly just seconds before she can hear the locks clicking out of place. The door opens and suddenly the world is slow again, revolving as the seconds pass and she spies a young woman first with fiery hair and Seiji.

A whimper leaves her lips as she bursts through the door with Auni in tow, the Luxere fawn hobbling in and leading the way. The glow of his antlers fading ever so slightly with the light, but the clack of hooves against the hardwood pounds loudly in her ears. She can’t hear the chatter of the bar, the flickering of the flames, anything that Seiji or Melita might say. She doesn’t even turn to close the door after she enters, instead she sinks into herself further. Clutching the bronze pendant to her chest and ducking her head until she can compose herself.

She doesn’t even have the pleasantries within her to tell them thank you for opening the door for her. Auni is whimpering slightly, brushing up against her to try and comfort with a wide eyed look, trying to press into her with his budding antlers to get her to move, to not cause a scene he’s certain she’s about to. She doesn’t even pause to tell everyone what happened, that the Luxere was hers and welcome within.

But she doesn’t know if Auni, too, will leave after Longnight with the rest of the Luxere.

And then she’ll be alone again, like she should have been from the start.

She looks to Seiji, her face tearstained and dripping a mix of tears and blood and clutches the pendant harder. “Nobody let him in…” She begins, a quiet, shaky, and breathless sob that leaves her lips. “Nobody let him in and he died out there.” She finds that she’s shouting now – her eyes shuttering and darkening as she leaves his face (never could she think it was Seiji’s fault for not letting him in, it was everyone else’s). She looks to Melita then, then to everyone else in the Rathskeller as if she were memorizing their faces.

When she turns back to Melita and Seiji, she’s shaking despite the comfort Auni is trying to give her. She looks back down to the note in her hands with the bronze pendant, taking her gloves off and throwing them somewhere, to hold the bronze piece against the palm of her hand. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” She nearly whispered. What did she ever do in all her lives, in all her worlds, to deserve all of this?

Her knees shake as she takes a step forward, as Auni moves out of her way with lowered ears and a quiet bleat of comfort – but she doesn’t want it. She wants Ru’in back, she wants those that let him stay out there, thinking he’s a monster. She would have gladly opened the door and welcomed death if it had come in the form of Ru’in.

She clutched the note tighter and quietly sobbed.
you are allowed;
to watch the sun swallow him whole and burn him up,
to stain your fingers to the bone holding him together.
to count the constellations in his eyes as they blink out.
but you are not allowed to save him...
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Seiji Okura
Musician

Age: 32 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 10 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: kae Offline
Change author:
Posts: 149 | Total: 255
MP: 0
#5
S E I J I
One moment, Seiji is considering. The next, he is addressed by a woman he doesn’t know. She’s just a cloud of fiery curls, a brisk admonishment, and then her fingers are on the locks. He steps back, fear a heady jolt in his system. If you know her — but the things outside cried out in human voices, too. Could they not have stolen Kiada’s? Seiji’s own voice catches in his throat. But then the door is open and Kiada spills in, a breathless whirlwind.

Seiji has enough time to glance at the stranger, and at the door, and move to shut it if she does not — immediately. But then his eyes flick to the calf, back to Kiada’s face, to whatever she grips in her hands. He died.

“Who?” Seiji asks, his brows drawing together anxiously. He moves toward her, wondering if he should touch her — a hand on her elbow, steadying. She smells of cold, of darkness, Deepfrost clinging to her clothes. When did she leave? And why?

“Can you sit?” he tries to draw her farther in, to the nearest chair. She does not appear injured, but his eyes rake anxiously up and down her frame anyway, searching for a limp, a stain. Then they dart away again, scouring the room. Surely someone else in the room knows her? Knows what might have happened? He gazes around imploringly, hopeful. Tries to catch the eye of the redhead. What is happening now?
The rain is full
of ghosts tonight
Melita Najya
the Honeybee


Age: 26 | Height: 5'6" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 10 - Strg: 57 - Dext: 58 - Endr: 58 - Luck: 57 - Int: 1
FANGORN - Mythical - Vampire Gourd SILA - Mythical - Dragon (Fire Breath)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 2,913 | Total: 10,646
MP: 9824
#6
 
M E L I T A


Grief swallowed and consumed – devoured another’s soul in different ways. Reactions differed; she’d openly wept and screamed and howled the moment reality had clambered its way into her membrane, had tried to reopen the portal just to get back to her mother, just to return to shadows, dusk, and death. Clementine had taken hold of her with that soft, gentle disposition and they’d rampaged through the evening, gathered up by those who’d survived the stretch of chaos and bedlam, others who’d been deceived, other’s who’d been wretched and incapable of saving long-lost souls. She clenched her jaw, here and now, caught in those inescapable traces of bleak heartache and torment; the anger and anguish splintered off the Rathskeller in waves, pervading, surrounding, a choking, throttling nuance from a woman she didn’t know. The youth didn’t even have time to react to the child luxere trotting in; everything pressed, a weight bounding across her shoulders. She found it hard to breathe, suffocated in the molten, raw unknown.

Her hands grasp hold of the locks and arrange them back into place, considering all the while about how to react, what to do. They are all strangers, and she’d rushed in because she thought it was the right thing, but now she’s been caught in those lapses of judgment, has to see it through. The gilded set of her eyes flicker once to the woman, to the man, catching the bits and pieces, the he died out there and nobody let him in, expecting some cycle, some spillover of wrath and outrage – Melita would be the same, sparking off in different directions and pledging vengeance. In fact, she’d probably have already marched back out into the decadence, into the ominous, deranged world, spilled whatever blood she could’ve put her hands on, spear into, before becoming another one of the massacred. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this echoed and murmured for a few moments, and Melita had half a notion to say It never does; but that came from a time of bitterness, moments of rancor. There was enough acidity clinging to the rafters, she wasn’t going to escalate it.

So she breathed in, a deep inhale, before proceeding. The honeybee girl embodied her sister, who would’ve flung headfirst into any soothing, assuaging qualities imaginable, gathering a blanket, asking for some warm, calming tea, and advancing when she thought it’d be safe. The man attempted to steady the sobbing one, and Melita nodded, voicing her encouragement with the action, maneuvering to a chair nearby, hoping they could manage to get the woman to sit there. Her eyes spotted the note clutched in her eyes, but said naught otherwise – maybe a precious artifact, the only thing she had left to cling to. Fangorn watched from behind the decided chair, hesitant to come forward when all hell might have broken loose. Melita placed her wares on a table, except for the blanket, which she hastened to drape and encompass the other youth’s shoulders. Afterwards, however, she didn’t know how to proceed. Should they be probing for answers, for names, for occurrences? Or was it all too much, and the more they pressed, the worse it would become?

The confusion was likely displayed on her face, but her gaze wandered around the room too. No one seemed to be claiming the girl, stepping forward, extending their arms and hastening her into tender, tranquil embraces. Her stare fell back to Seiji, quietly confirming they’d have to be the ones providing aid and inquiry. The conviction established, the vow pressed within her soul, the girl settled, affirming the necessities, ready for the few answers they might be granted.  “How can we help?”






Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#7
KIADA
you love each other, you do, and here's the tragedy;
it's not enough.
Seiji breaks through the turmoil in her head – his voice like a beacon in the dark spiral of her thoughts as he asks who, who she is referring to. If it had been anyone else, she likely wouldn’t have said his name – the thought of it falling from her tongue causing her throat to constrict further. “Ru’in.” She manages to rasp, a small gasp slipping through her lips as she hears it in her tongue. But when he asks her if she could sit, she feels confused with the idea of sitting and doing nothing. Even if she can’t do anything, she doesn’t want to sit and forget. She wants to move, to do something with her hands.

The girl, now, asks her how they could help and she shakes her in a violent way – still clutching that note to her chest. She scans the Tavern again, her eyes seeing yet unseeing and her heartbeat thunders violently in a sea of despair along her ears. She can feel it pulsing in her neck, and Auni is attuned to it immensely, continuing his paths to rub against her legs, to cause her some kind of soothing comfort. His budding antlers glow with the effort, as if the light of his antlers could make her happy – could bring him back, could let her see him again.

Infirmary.” She croaks, wanting to gesture with her hands to the floor above, but she doesn’t know why she wants to go there. Perhaps silence, surrounded by others that had been wounded would make her feel better. Outwardly, she’s mostly fine. Covered in dirt, tears, and a bit of blood, but relatively fine. Inwardly, she feels like she’s dying a slow and painful death. She looks back to Melita and Seiji, reaching up with her empty hand to brush away her tears – to hide her emotions the best she can though they're written along her every movement. "I want to go to the Infirmary."
you are allowed;
to watch the sun swallow him whole and burn him up,
to stain your fingers to the bone holding him together.
to count the constellations in his eyes as they blink out.
but you are not allowed to save him...
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Seiji Okura
Musician

Age: 32 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 10 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: kae Offline
Change author:
Posts: 149 | Total: 255
MP: 0
#8
S E I J I
Kiada is so deeply distraught — the word — Ruin — shuddering on her lips. But Seiji cannot fathom what she means. He watches, helpless, until she speaks again. Infirmary. Is she hurt? His eyes skate up and down once more, searching. Seiji nods, anyway. It is a good idea. He has met Isla once before, and thinks her trustworthy. “Infirmary,” he agrees, and offers an elbow if Kiada should need it.

With a glance at the still-nameless stranger, Seiji gestures up toward the Rathskeller steps. They should be relatively safe taking the stairs up to the temple. It is all enclosed, and should be quiet. They seem to have this tiny luxere, too, which has attached itself to Kiada.

What has she been doing in the dark? Seiji’s head swarms with questions, but he dares not ask them just yet. Instead, he concentrates on steering Kiada toward the stairs, up the stairs, to what he hopes safety.
The rain is full
of ghosts tonight
Melita Najya
the Honeybee


Age: 26 | Height: 5'6" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 10 - Strg: 57 - Dext: 58 - Endr: 58 - Luck: 57 - Int: 1
FANGORN - Mythical - Vampire Gourd SILA - Mythical - Dragon (Fire Breath)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 2,913 | Total: 10,646
MP: 9824
#9
 
M E L I T A


Melita caught the name but didn’t recognize it, like so many other titles and monikers trailing around in murmurs or yells. Ru’in, she memorized; wondered how deeply the calling had spelled disaster and oblivion for them, if it had been a sign at his birth, if all this hell and devastation is pre-determined, and no matter how hard she fought against it, it wouldn’t matter in the end. She gritted her teeth at the notion, and shook her head, curls waving wildly, trying to turn her attention back to the nuances at hand.

The girl wanted the infirmary, and before the honeybee child can do much else, the male gestured in the direction of the place for soothing, for healing. Melita had yet to venture there, ever; the Rift had never had places of remedial care. Havens had been spawned from darkened caves, sanctuaries had been where they could settle and regather themselves for the night, and kingdoms, strongholds, had been in their long-lost dreams, scattered amongst memories of Helovia before it blackened, dampened, and died. But it appeared as though she wasn’t needed or required; not now, not anymore, as she watched them walk away, and she stood, trying to collect the remains of the moment. “I’m Melita,” she called to both, but they may not have even heard her, despite how boisterous, how loud, how raucous she could be, overshadowed and overwhelmed by the force of the Rathskeller, by the shards of haunting poignancy and death. Her hands knitted themselves together while Fangorn ambled closer to her, proffering a quiet hiss, a sibilance of comfort when she wasn’t sure if she required any; out of sorts and out of place, lost in the crowd, in the fold, incapable of doing anything. Perhaps that was what bore the frustration at her brow, working its way, twisting and turning, through her gut. “Let me know if you need anything else,” she tried again, then bent down, grabbing hold of Fangorn so that he was collected in her arms, coiling back to their sanction of the bar.







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