Lotsa Parties ( Current location: Termina field) Thread 5

Deciding to push his luck and lighten the mood a little more, he walked over to Jillian and ruffled her hair.

"We'd be lost without you too, don't forget."

He looked up again and glanced across to Calcifer. He wished Ruul would hurry up in the temple.

Calcifer rolled his eyes off to the side, a scowl on his lips, his cheeks and ears flushing just slightly. "Oh shut up." He was lucky it could easily be taken as disdain for the fact thrown out and not anything else.

It took Aero a minute to understand. She misunderstood and thought Kairo meant "lost" as in "I-don't-know-where-I-am" rather than "gone". She felt like face-palming herself.

The monk couldn't help but utter a laugh at Reina's confusion. He nodded approvingly towards Jillian when she made an effort to preserve her innocence.

Reina looked to Chaos. "I don't get it. What's so funny?"

*Bumping for interest*

"Whats taking Ruul so long? Asked Trace "Is it because time travel is so complicated?"

The monk smiled apologetically under his hood, "It is complicated, but that is not the reason. First he must ascend to the proper level of the tower. Rest assured it isn't the very top. There his conviction must be tested. And as of recently, due to the dying out of the last line of oracles, some among us would like to ensure his safety through various tests. The ritual itself could take longer than you may like, but there is no danger." He fixed Chaos with a knowing look beneath his hood decorated with Roman numerals. "I know what you flee, and how far it is and how crucial it is that you stop it. There will be time enough for the Glazälfr to ascend and send you all back in time."

Kairo sighed heavily and sat on the ground, a little away from the rest of the group. He closed his eyes and let his forehead rest on his knees.

"Let the waiting begin," he muttered.

"Hmph," Calcifer huffed, crossing his arms and leaning against a large stone slab covered in vines foreign to him. Several wayward orange and purple-hued berries were scattered along the plant. He plucked a few and held them in his palm, taking one and rolling it around between his thumb and index finger before popping them into his mouth. He sighed quietly.

Aero decided to plop down in a small grassy area, still mulling over the monk's robes. Beautiful pattern. After a few moments, she realized at the angle she was at, she might be able to see his eyes, so she glanced up to his face again and leaned forward just a tad, curiosity getting the better of herself.

If Aero peered close enough, she would be surprised to see that in the middle of his face, where a nose should have been, was a bright yellow hawk-like beak.

Aero gasped, her hands going up to her mouth. She blinked. ... Well, it wasn't all that strange, considering a dragon-man had decided to come with them. She wondered what all-sorts of creatures and people there were in the world that she'd never even seen-- never even heard of! She wasn't scared, but she mentally willed him to move his head just slightly or something so that she could see more. As amazed as she was, it was difficult not to gawk or look like she wasn't staring.

With his eyes closed, Kairo kept alert to the sounds around him. He heard Aero gasp and looked up at her. She was looking at the monk with a child-like fascination he hadn't seen for years.

OOC: Steff says he's not going to post and let others respond to the past few posts, but I suppose no one is going to so I'll go ahead and post. If someone happens to have not seen this and wants to reply to something "before" the events that I post, just tell me and I'll edit or something.

IC:

Calcifer screwed his eyes shut and then opened them again, blinking and raising his brow for a moment. He felt a low throbbing in his head, and decided to stand up and walk around to clear it. His stomach did flips that he tried to ignore.
Aero snapped from her hypnotic gaze and turned to the fire mage for a moment. "Where are you going?"
"Just... taking a little walk around. Curious."
"Okay!" She didn't want to turn straight back to the monk, so she just fiddled with her hands as she stared into her lap. "Well..." She paused, "What's your name, sir? Where are you from?"

Reina watched Calcifer walking away and knew that now was her chance. She stood up and followed him. While they were close to the group she followed him from a distance and made sure he didn't notice her. Once they were out of sight from the rest of the group she came up beside him. "Hey." she started awkwardly, trying to talk with him she suddenly felt nervous. She cleared her throat and tried again. "So Ruul and I had a talk. He said he thought I was being unfair to you. If that's the way you feel then I'm sorry. I suppose we just got off on the wrong foot." She extended her hand nervously, she felt stupid for getting out of sight of the group to do this. He was so unpredictable that her trying to apologize might have pissed him off. She hoped her hand was steady enough that he didn't notice her shaking. "Will you give me the opportunity to try again?"

Calcifer stopped and watched her, eyes wide. Needless to say that he was surprised-- but he found that his pain was increasing sharply, and it was hard to process what Reina was saying. While she spoke, his brow furrowed, and he eventually brought a hand up to the side of his head, hints of pain beginning to get etched into his features. "I-- uh."
"Yes." Under the circumstances, he was a little hasty with his words. But then again, the girl sounded like she was shooting it all out of her mouth like no tomorrow. And when he spoke, Din above, did he realize how his own voice hurt ringing so loudly in his own head. "Y-yeah, the wrong hand--foot. Foot. Sorry." He reached out his free hand down and took hers, holding it firmly without a shake.

"A-are you okay?" Reina asked nervously. "You look like you're going to be sick."

Calcifer didn't really know when his bottom hit the ground, but at least he didn't drag Reina down there with him. His arm was long enough and her height short enough that all it probably did was cause her arm to crank downwards-- and it wasn't like he let go. His hand tightened around her tiny one for a moment as it felt like a knife was being drilled into the back of his skull. "B-blood!" It was all over his hands. Pooled in the grass beneath him. Splattered on the girl's chest, drying and caking in her hair.

"Hey hey!" Reina yelled as Calcifer began spazzing out on the ground in front of her. "Calcifer!" She grabbed his shoulders and and tried to shake him to his senses. When that didn't work she pushed him on his back. She knelt beside him. "Now am I supposed to roll him on his side or leave him on his back? He's breathing so that's a good thing but what do I do if he stops? Oh God, I don't know what I'm doing!" She rolled him on his side. "HELP!" She screamed, "Someone help!"

At Reina's call Chaos immediately darted over with Fist right behind him. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He asked urgently. Fist knelt down to check on the two. "What the hell happened?" She asked as she started looking Calcifer over.

"I don't know we were just talking and then he fell over!" Reina was shaking. "I put him on his side, that's right, right? That's the recovery position?"

Jillian wasn't far behind Chaos and Fist. When she saw the scene she looked at Reina. "What did you do?" She asked. "You can't just attack people Reina. I know you didn't like him, I don't either but come on!"

Reina's eyes widened. She hadn't even thought of how this must look. "No! I didn't do anything I swear. We were just...just talking and..." Her voice weakened as her defense sounded less and less real even to her. "And he just fell and started acting like that." She couldn't stop herself, she felt tears of panic streaming down her face.

"I am known here as Brother Dairo. I hail from... A long ways away." He was interrupted by Reina's cry, "What's the matter?" He asked, stepping closer.

Aero sprung up and ran towards the shouting. She dove down next to her friend, hands hovering above his torso, unsure what to do, eyes darting for some indicator of what was happening.

Calcifer yelled at the flood of voices, clasping his hands over his ears tightly. The landscape took on a deep dark tint to it, and the people around him's forms took on shadow-like, monstrous shapes. The sky above him seemed to morph and convulse in an unnatural manner, like a cloth being tossed in the wind. He still heard garbled voices behind the faulty covering of his palms, and he shut his eyes tightly, shuddering.

"I'm sorry," Reina cried. "I don't know what happened. I'm sorry." She knew it wasn't her fault but she felt like she owed Aero an apology anyway.

"Well it's not anything external." Fist said after checking him over. "Looks like he's losing it." Chaos said, trying to think of a cause. Times like this he'd regretted never taking advanced medical training. "Has he ever done this before?" Fist asked while feeling Caclifer's forehead

"No, nev--" Aero was cut off by another wail, louder this time. Calcifer revolted at the touch to his forehead, eyes snapping open. He scrambled backwards, panicked, begging-like, yelling mostly incoherent words, but "Stop," and "Liar," could be made out once or twice.