Sorana

Mike hugged her back, clung to her for a moment like someone about to drown might cling to a piece of wood. She believed in him. "Thank you." He whispered and then finally let go of her. "I need to sort some things, and then I will ask you out. If you are still interested, then we can." But he knew, that he would never ask her. It wasn't his destiny to ask her. His path had been chosen, had been chosen when Ark sent him into that Alley so long ago. The light that had been his future had been snuffed out. "You are a great person, Seom. I am honored I met you." He added belatetly and then swallowed, looked back to Mr. Itiah, waited for his response.

Wita pulled back, when he searched for something and shortly afterwards placed a contact lense in his eye again. A red eye. He had a red eye. Awed she continued to smile at him. He was her friend. And he was special. Like the little fairy and Kira. Or Lewis, although she wasn't really sure what Lewis could do. "I won't tell anybody I promise." She whispered and leaned over, to make sure nobody else could hear her words. He was in disguise, that made him even cooler. Falling silent she looked at him again. He knew so much about her powers, about the others. He had to be important, someone powerful. "But you aren't a fairy as well?" She asked after a while, although she suspected that he wasn't. Still she had to ask. to meet two fairys at the same day, would have been epic.

Yes. Yes, of course I do. Mike stayed silent. He couldn't. Not as long as he wasn't in control of half the things he did during a day. Not as long as he was on the verge as loosing it completely. Quickly he shook his head, hugged himself and looked to the ground. He had to leave Seom out of this. The spikes were his problem, not hers. That he couldn't control them, was his problem as well. It was better if Seom stayed away from them. She was safer that way.

"Because it would have been a lie." Mike stuttered slightly, looked to the ground. "I wanted to go out with you, but then Porcupine died and Fox and Snake took over and I had to get away, had to leave all of it behind for a while." Wincing he closed his eyes. He had been afraid, afraid what she might say, when she saw how he lost control, how they dragged him down. For they did. Fox was there, always there, always present.

Hey Ark, could you please tag me/ one of the other AV-mods, once you've updated it, so that we can look the finalized sheet over? Thanks!

"Seom." Mike swallowed, forced a smiled on his face. She seemed friendly. That was good. Maybe. Women were... confusing. "I'm good, thank you." He lied and cursed himself for not bringing any flowers for her. He'd dumped her, and they both knew. "How are you, anything special happened during the last months?" He asked instead nervously and laced his fingers together.

Wita sat down next to Marcel and considered his name. Friends. "We are friends?" She asked and then hugged him, without waiting for a reply. Looking outside she waved at Kira to hurry up and get on the bus. The other man, Lewis had followed as well, and she waved at him as well. The fairy liked to wave and Wita copied the gesture from her, or at least she tried to. It had looked so beautiful when the fairy had smiled. Happily she hummed a song, still smiling. Friends. They were her friends. At least Marcel was, and the fairy. And maybe Kira. Lewis, she would see about Lewis. @Eluvianii @I think I am here. @Hope Spren

"Hi." Mike turned around, a happy smile spreading on his face when he looked at his friend. "Wes, you're here. You came." He wasn't sure if Wes would be alright if he hugged him in greeting, so instead he simply nodded, then nodded again. It helped to see a friendly face and Mike was surprised how much it helped. How much it soothed his inner conflict. "I'm glad you are here." He whispered and waved at Seom who had just entered the room. turning back to Mr. Itiah he put himself between Wes and the man. He still didn't know what was wrong with Wes, but if he was scared, then he could help him hide. "Is there anything else I can do for you sir?" @Sherlock Holmes

"Thank you sir." Mike grimaced slightly. Leader. Now Wes would be back to calling him sir, Seom. He sighed Seom most likely hated him for leaving her like that. He never wanted that position, never had aimed for it. He had enough problems already. Still snake gloated at the compliment and he smiled slightly in reglection of her pride. "Do you know if Wes or Seom will attend, sir?" He asked carefully, tried to come up with some good reason to stop talking to him. Mr. Itiah wasn't as nice as he seemed. He owned him a lot and yet, it was better to stay outside of your superiours attention.

Mike looked up, when he heard a familiar voice. "Yes sir, Mr. Itiah sir." He replied and hastily walked closer. Neither Wes nor Seom were here yet, so he had no good excuse to pretend he missed him calling out for him. Wolf stirred at the thought of the other members of their squad and Mike pushed him away. "I mean, you never named me leader, sir, when you had us pick the name. You named nobody leader." Hopefully he wouldn't be angry that Mike corrected him, but to assume a position he'd never been given. No it was better to stick with the truth.

Althea was relieved when the Underlings came, when they did something, when the robot was killed. Finally. She exhaled and closed her eyes, absently minded leaned against a wall, looked over the city again. She had been doing that a lot lately, looked at her failure. Brashen hugged her neck and she touched him gently, pulled out her device and started to give orders. Look for injured, check the state of the hospital. Restore neccessary - her head swam and she handed everything over to Zokora for now. The light inside of her flickered when she slowly sat down, glad about the last bit of strength she could suck from the light. Her eyes rested on Max for a moment, with his glowing weapon. So he'd finally managed. It was good that there was a happy end for some. Some good and positive in this whirlwind of destruction. Her failure was like a thick blanket suffocating her slowly, she'd allowed herself to be distracted by Vesuvius, had been trapped by her fear and trauma. And it hadn't changed. She'd taken a step, but in the end one step forward and several backwards - what use was her oath, when she was still failing? When she was doing nothing but watch the city got destroyed. There was no excuse, no way out. She should have seen this coming. Or at least, she should have been here. Althea closed her eyes when her body sucked up the remaining stormlight, when her exhaustion slammed down on her, when breathing itself became difficult. She knew she had to get up, had to work, had to concentrate, but her thoughts fled her, when her body finally took what was his. Rest and respite. Making up would have to wait. =========== Mike watched the robot die almost distached from his own feelings. He took a step back, then another one, fled the roof, allowed squirrel to run for him, away, far away. He needed time, time to understand what happened, what he had done. Time to grasp what it meant and how he would change. He jumped down some stairs, his feet hitting the ground and he bent his knees, then ran foward again. Squirrel liked to jump and he surrendered control, almost flew down the stairs. Back to Oasis, get an assignment far, far away. Away from the destruction. Fox seemed to laugh and Mike hissed in fear, in anger. Find a way to keep fox in check. He could return once that was settled. Once hewas safe again. But for now he fled, he ran, ran from his problems, from his friends. Ran because he was afraid, unable to face his problems or to even talk about them. They would laugh if he talked about the ghost of a spike wringing control from him. Mike ran. For now he would run.

Shana followed Cassie for a few steps, then headed to James. "We need to talk. It's urgent." She told him curtly. Her voice shaking slightly. She was in control, for now, but she felt like mountain about to explode. Wrong. She had to be wrong. @Wyndlerunner

Shana shook her head. She'd known, but to hear it again, she turned away, clenched her hands to fists. It was her fault. She should have seen it earlier. She should have done a better job. There had been no need for Cassie to do that, to ask for power without the words. Because it was only that. Power without words, was power without words. She wasn't a Radiant. A Radiant was about the words, not the power. Joy, if Joy was alright, then she was, something in between? Cassie would know if something had happened to Joy. "Cassie." She whispered, then forced a smile on her face. James, she needed to talk to James. Stopping herself from running away, she looked back at Cassie, she was mor important. James would know, he was a Bondsmith. They knew these things. "Yes, I remember. You are right. I just freaked out for nothing. Let's go back to the others?" It's bad. Bad, bad, bad. Mahad sung into her ear. It's wrong. It's about the journey, it's only about the journey. She shook her head, signaled the little dragon to stay quiet. First get Cassie to the others, then grab James.

A dread so strong that it took her breath filled Shana, yanked at her heart and almost suffocated her. "Which point? Which point do you mean?" She asked intensely, her grip around Cassie's hand tightening. Don't see spren. Yes, but it was only a part, a small part of it. She hadn't spoken the words. If she'd advanced, used the Nightwatcher to advance. Silently she begged Cassie to prove her wrong, to give her something, anything that told her that she was wrong. She was a Willshaper. Maybe she was right and they did things differently.

I haven't been hurt. I haven't been hurt. A part of her mind started screaming, loudly, so loud that she had trouble to continue thinking. Srength before weakness. She had to be strong, she could be strong. It was the only way. "Cassie." Shana said carefully, slowly. "When you can't see spren anymore, then you aren't a Radiant anymore. Because that's what we do. We have spren and we speak oaths and we can see our spren." She tried to take her hands. "So there are two possibilities. The Voidbringers hurt you in some way. Their crystal, their powers, whatever. Anything. Or you aren't a Radiant anymore. Because you did something. Something, that went against the rules." Without realizing her tone turned begging, because everything would be fine if Joy was here. Maybe something else had happened, something she didn't knew about. "Please Cassie, where is Joy?"

The woman, Wes, another Wes as some part of her brain noted, spoke up, said nothing but her own name and winced in pain. Althea noted it, filed it away for later use. As she hadn't reacted with her own voice, it had to do something with the scar, or maybe the act of speaking herself. She would have to observe that for a while. She was about to dismiss her for now, to go on, walk deeper into the building, when she noticed the woman's eyes flicker towards her arm. Towards the tattoo, that was there, safely covered by long sleeves and a jacket. It wasn't surprising, there was probably exactly one white haired Althea in the whole city, and she'd deliberatedly decided against diguising herself. It would be easy, change her hair, use another name, and those that didn't knew her, would have been fooled. But a disguise was also a prison, a place where you hid. And she had stopped hiding years ago. If she went back to hide her hair and her eyes, if she started to be normal again, no, she was good the way she was. Hiding had only made things worse. Without saying a word she looked down at her arm again, and then back at the woman, without confirming the silent question. She doubted there was a need to do so.

I like that idea a lot. It fits the way Songbearer focused on kindness and it also supports the dockworkers. Maybe it is neccessary to add a maximum time frame for the pay, also to protect the employers from paying for employees that never will be able to work again. In the end this quickly leads to a whole health insurrance system, maybe with the employer paying the first weeks of recovery and then health insurance taking over. Not as a first step, but there is definitly room to up this throughout our journey.

Shana nodded and closed her eyes, fought the suspicion that rose at the back of her mind. Only Radiant's could see spren. If Cassie couldn't, then that meant that she was no Radiant anymore. "Cassie, where is Joy?" She asked and then didn't wait for a reply, instead she spoke quickly, hastily. She had failed, failed, failed. There were only two ways to loose a spren, and Cassie would never. They had attacked her, while Shana had been so preoccupied playing the hero, that she had ignored the weak ones. She had - Ask first, panic later. Mahad told her and Shana nodded. "Did they hurt you, is it the crystal? Did they take her away, or kill her or - what happened?"

Althea heard footsteps approaching her, and turned around. She made sure to move slow enough to appear calm and fast enough that she would have a change to react should the person want to attack her. Her mind streched into the braclet Devaan had given her, touched the stormlight swirling inside of it, readied herself to act. But they weren't acting in an offensive way, at least not now. A girl with long light brown braid and a cruel looking scar over her mouth was standing behind her, and so she stepped to the side, out of her way. Another one for the expedition. She looked her quickly over, noticed her face, the cloths, made sure she could remember her face for a later background check. Brashen was sitting on her shoulder as he usually did, holding on to a strand of her hair. Not that he needed to, but she'd noticed him doing that ever since the attack six months ago. It had been close, too close. Several times too close. And somehow her spren seemed different. Althea didn't mind him holding on to her, staying close but it made her thought about spren and their feelings, and the consequences of the surrounding world on them. They had talked for hours and Branshen seemed - fine. Different but fine. She formed her face into a polite, neutral mask, carefully hid her thoughts while a part of her immediatly regretting coming here. She should have sent Zokora instead. Zokora was better with people. At least she didn't dislike talking to most. Althea never had been the most sociable one. A good book in a quiet corner usually suited her better, although she rarely had the time anymore. Instead she spent her time talking to Ghostbloods, to strangers, to everybody she needed to talk to. "Hello. I'm Althea. Are you also here for the exploration?" She addressed the woman, went with something short and unassuming. Whoever it was, hopefully a short question would spark some kind of reply. @Voidus

Half a year had passed since the incident at Alleycity, half a year that had been spend with repairing, rebuilding parts of the city, a work that while it had been started with eager hands was a long way from done. Still the Ghostbloods looked into the future and now it was time to come together, to look back at those that had fought for them, had stood against the enemy. It was time to focus on the future and to stride there full of pride and strength. Mike stopped in front of the guards and handed his invitation over, looked at the huge open door behind them. Golden light spilled outside at the street and around him he could hear laughter, people greeting each other, hugging each other. Some wore black to honour their lost ones, but most were looking forward to the ball, to a bright evening looking at things that were to come. The guard gestured for him to step inside and he did, looked around in awe. He had been in the meeting hall before, but never when it had been decorated like that. The huge ceiling was partially covered with long stripes of cloth, and candles, as well as intelligently places lights covered the whole room in a warm light. A band had set up their equipment in a corner and were finishing some last preparations, there even was a place to dance later on. Whoever had planed this, must have taken a lot of time and thought to arrange everything that the meeting hall looked more like a ballroom. Food and drinks were prepared at one side of the room, as well as tables and of course a huge stage. For now the stage was empty and instead he idly started to walk around, look to see if he knew anybody. @Truthless of Shinovar @Ark1002 @kenod @whoeverelseImissed @I think I am here. @Lord Furret @AonEne @Sherlock Holmes

Temeria walked through the ruins, fear clenched down on her stomach. This place, how had she managed to end up in a ruin? She saw that in some places rebuilding the area had already started, but there was a long way to go. Still she stayed quiet, concentrated. Panic would only lead to her death. And she knew about death. Instead she had braided her hair back, had removed her cloak, as it was warm around here and started to walk through the streets. Strange noises were all around and the cloths the people wore - terrible. A new world and thankfully she had experience ending up in a place where she didn't belong. She would sort this out, and hopefully one day she would understand how all of this travelling between world worked. New world, new things to learn. A new live. She had asked around for a tavern, anything where she might spend the night and in the end, she had ended up here. She looked at the building and then nodded to herself. Unknown territory, so the first thing she needed was a base, some food and water. Then someone to explain what had happened, maybe what was going on, and what these awful loud things were, that were all around. And then she could ask for a way back. Lifting her hand she knocked at the door, her body tense, one hand not too far away fro mthe handle of her weapon. Who knew, who might live here. @Voidus @MacThorstenson

Althea had heard of the ACE. At first she had thought about sending someone else, a spy someone to report back to her, but then she had decided to go herself. The last time a new organization had appeared, it had ended with a war, and she'd decided to take a closer look on things. Form her own opinion. If she went along with whatever they had planed, she would see that later. She could always send someone along. For now, it was more important that she had a clear picture of what was going on and that meant going herself. Besides, maybe it would be a good change to simply be there and to see what happened. Something different for a chance. She arrived at the building and then stepped inside, looked around for a sign showing a way where to go. @ZincAboutIt

I think, that we should act in a decisive way. Show that we have an opinion. Otherwise the way we acted during the council will seem strange. And additionally it might move us into a position, where we might push the others to interact with us. I like the safety regulations for the worker, it also fits our background. Additionally you can never have enough libraries. The one with the colours is terrible. Even to find everybody wearing a wrong colour will most likely cost more than the tax will be. Therefore I vote like that: Tax on clothes dyed a Returned’s colours - Coinspender [X] For [X] Abstain [X] Against Impose new safety regulations on dockworkers – Firesoul [X] For [X] Abstain [X] Against Build a new library near the slums – Brightweave [X] For [X] Abstain [X] Against I don't have a good idea for something we might have the others vote for right now, but I'll add that, should I think of something. I'd like to have something around the whole be kind topic, so maybe some stricter laws around some crimes. Or to punish some actions, that weren't punished so far.

Fear raced through her body, her throat constricting while her feet hit the ground when she tried to flee. Flee. Althea ran as fast as she could, tried to lure them away, tried to do something. They were hurting them, and she was helpless, useless. They were killing and she could do nothing. Her legs burnt from running far and fast, her arms felt weak from wielding Brashen. Powerless she watched as the flames consumed them, listened to their screams, felt her own life slowly drip out of her. She woke with a start, her hands shaking, her throat raw from screaming. Nightmares. They had returned after the invasion, had thrown her back to the place she’d been after the whole incident with Sephtis. For now she was mostly grateful, that Max was away, that he hadn’t heard her again. She knew he worried about her, knew that she needed time to recover, for the wounds to scab over. Tiredly she pushed herself up, her arms barely able to support her that much, but she grit her teeth, forced herself to stand up. It would be easy to inhale stormlight, to feel its fury and wrath, its endless power, but she’d used so much during the previous days, if she relied on it again, she would never recover sometime soon. On shaking legs she made her way to the kitchen, glad that she arrived there without several breaks and fetched some cake. Healthy food was something she would worry about later. When she was good again. For now, chocolate cake was more than enough. Sitting down while she started to eat the cake, she activated a device and started to read through her messages, replying now and then. The first calculations were there, how much it would cost them to repair the damages, to rebuilt what was destroyed. And at the same she opened another mail, that caught her eye immediately. Their losses. The list was long, so many dead, so many injured for life. She looked it through, ordered her secretary to come up with a plan how to support their families and then turned the device off again, unable to look at it any longer. She had failed. Failed in a way she hadn’t done before, and she hopefully would never do again. She had one job, one single job, and she hadn’t even been able to protect her members, not talking about the innocents in the city. The thought hurt, hurt more than her current condition ever would. Trying. She had to stop trying and start doing. She finished her cake, then stood up and walked outside, sat down in their garden. It was mostly grass, with a few plants here and there, that didn’t need much care – and a sunflower. She’d ordered it, had it brought to her place because she wanted, needed something alive, something bright amidst the dark mess, that were her thoughts. She looked at the plant, sat there without moving, watched how it slowly moved its head, followed the light of the sun. Her face softened, when she looked into the future, at the plans she had made. Camping with Tena, and a birthday vacation with Max. To Iri. The next six months would be good. They would help. She needed time, her guild needed time. To recover, to heal, to get rid of the nightmares again. To be able to walk without feeling like falling. And then, then she could face whatever the future would throw her way. ============================= Mike looked down at the invitation, then towards the wall and the gates looming in the distance. Oasis City. It was the first time, that he returned here after the invasion. He had left all of it for a while, had needed to get out. Fox was there, waiting, snatching control from him now and then, but for now Squid, and surprisingly Squirrel kept him in check. Mike slowly walked towards the city, could hear the sounds of the harbor, the shouting, saw the people in front of the gates. A normal day. But he wished it wasn’t. Wished for a reason to not return, to turn around and walk away forever. Going back, back to his friends. Seom, Wes. Hopefully they would be there as well. The thought to go back to humans, back to those caring about him rested heavily on his shoulders. He had been glad over the opportunity to leave and work somewhere else, to quietly do his job, without anything world changing happening. Tiredly he closed his eyes, then took another step, and another step. He walked towards Oasis, because he had to, because he had been invited. He had to stop hiding for a night, only for a night, then he would leave again. Back to his assignment, back away from people. Sharp claws cut his palms open, blood dripped on his pants, but he didn’t care. As long as it only was claws, he was fine. Mike walked, walked towards the city, because it was his duty, because he had nothing left but duty. ========================================== Lena smiled when she watched woman trash on the ground. She’d known how the poison would act, but she’d decided to poison her anyway. She needed to think. And thinking was easier with a good poisoning. Stretching she twirled her pen around in her fingers and smiled, then took some more notes. She had spend the last months at the forge, helped Alask to rebuild the place. They had gone out hunting now and then and she liked Shez more and more. He was nice. Mart seemed better now that he had a real home again, and she was relieved and happy at her chance to watch him strive. Somehow everything had worked out at one point, and while she suspected that Alask knew, that she ignored his rules, she didn’t care as long as he kept quiet. She kept her corpses out of sight, acted quietly, and he didn’t mention them. It was a good agreement, one she enjoyed a lot. Her smile widened when she remembered the last nights, the woman she had met again. That change was even better. It had been years, since she had a partner, that wanted the same. Some fun, some hours to forget, some time together. Tapping against her book she laughed loudly, then turned around, left the woman behind. She would most likely survive, Lena doubted that she’d gotten the amount of poison wrong. For now, she had an appointment at the harbor.