Working together they managed to get that last blast, that last bit needed to take out the headless horseman without too much of an issue. First she noticed his horse disappear, it wasn't until it was too late that she notice that he was trying to get away, injured but not dead. Nanaki was the first to run after him, but Aislinn wasn't far behind. "Hold it!" She shouted after him, too late to stop him before he slipped into the portal and out of there sight. "Damn it!" She muttered to herself before glancing back over at the conflict nearby between the natives and the white men. Pocahontas put herself in a dangerous place trying to stop her father from hurting John, but with the horseman gone, whatever dark influence that was on his heart seemed to disappear as the Chief agreed and released John. Not everything was good though. What was growing in Ratcliffe's heart did not come from the headless horseman, no it came from him and he wasn't going to stop there. Aislinn was too late to stop the gun from going off, but then next thing she knew was that John was in the way taking the blow for the Chief. Crap, crap crap crap. This wasn't good. Aislinn took off running towards John. "Luna, Kel stop Ratcliffe from doing anything else stupid!" She called back as she ran to John's side and knelt down starting to pour healing light into him. "Come on, come on you can live. Just stay with me. Come on John." A quiet prayer under her breath as she did everything she could, barely even looking at those around her, not caring what the chief might still think of them. She was a protector and she had failed on so many levels during this adventure. She would not fail here. She had to do something. OOC: 20/31
There was noise from upstairs. It sounded a bit like panic and confusion. Even as Sasha was nearly asleep the fog filled the room and up to the main floor as she tried to pretend she was nothing, shrink back into the shadows where she would go unnoticed by most. She wanted to be back in that world but she couldn't now. Finally a quiet sob broke from her throat and she couldn't stop it. She couldn't bring herself to be concerned with what was going on around her, not at that moment. She didn't care what the people hiding them were thinking about all this fog, it made her feel invisible again, hard to see, and she took comfort in that.
Sasha shifted further back as the Prince spoke to her, trying to blend in with the fog, which now had filled the room and seemed to be seeping beyond it. "I am no knight. I don't want to be a knight or anything. I am a servant girl, that is it. I was just doing what was expected of me, nothing more, nothing worth any praise. If I had to die to protect you, I would have because that is what is expected of me and no one would miss a servant girl." She told him quietly trying to convince him how little she was worth. She was always raised knowing that she wasn't worth anything and that didn't change now. She was content, even happy being a servant girl. That is all she could ever see herself as and she was honestly scared of the world beyond, she was comfortable with where she was at in life and wasn't so ready to except the change. Harry then brought up her parents and Sasha couldn't stop the tears that started anew as she just lay on her side curled up trying her best to just forget everything. She wished she would wake up and find out this was all a dream, but that wasn't going to happen, she knew it as well as anyone else.
Alright well I haven't added anything in a while, so here is what I have added for myself The Other Side Original | Instrumental Inner Demons Original | Instrumental
Raelyn ground her teeth and bit her tongue as another person came up to talk with her, asking if she was alright. "I'm fine." She napped, her tone a lot harsher than she first anticipated, but didn't care. She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to be asked any more about it. She didn't want to share what she now knew about herself. She didn't want pity and she didn't want to be judged. If she shared she walked by as one of their group got bullied, for a reason that she couldn't remember, they would hate her. If she shared that no one wanted her then they would pity her before finally turning around and using it against her later when they too got sick of having her around. She didn't want to get anywhere near that. At the very least she was getting the answer to her question. It didn't sit well with her, but she could accept it. "Alright so we do what we can to get you guys memories back. Fine." She commented putting heavy emphasis on the "you guys" part of it. She didn't want any more memories if that is what they held for her. No she would rather avoid that if at all possible. There was nothing good that could come of getting more of her memories, nothing that she could think of that would actually be helpful, so she would avoid it, as long as she could and then maybe she wouldn't have to suffer any more than she was just finding out what memories she already got. As they managed to get near the next memory shard a gust of wind hit and Raelyn was forced to cover her face trying to ward off the sharp pain that came with the blowing wind. Getting barely a glance up she could see that there was a figure and he was running off with the crystal. She watched as Rex tried to go after them, use his magic, only for it to fail. This wasn't looking good. Raelyn searched her own mind of what they could do. Maybe if fire didn't work, water would. If he was going to use a tornado to escape, perhaps she could counter that with one of her own. Putting all her remaining strength into running, Raelyn tried to get ahead, close enough to actually do something, before she stomped on the ground, creating a tornado of water, swirling in the opposite direction to the one that this other person had going. Once that was done Raelyn slowed and fell behind again, her head giving a slight pound trying to tell her that she wasn't ready to be exerting herself in such ways yet, but she didn't care. If that was what they had to do, then so be it.
Aislinn helped with Trinity Limit Ooc 19/31
"Oh he isn't going to be happy." Aislinn mumbled as she started to get ready to strike, but stopped thinking about her own and her teammates health, instead she cast another barrier on them causing a halt in combat. Aislinn used Reluctancy OOC: 18/31
"You got her? Good. I just need a moment." Aislinn told Kel as she started studying the creature again trying to find another weak point Aislinn used Magnify OOC: 17/31
Chapter 1 “I am so proud of you Liliana for making this step. I am proud that you want to study so you can help people. But remember no one is forcing you to go. If it is ever too hard you can always come home. I will be waiting for you with open arms.” Rosaline knelt in front of her young daughter, a six year old girl with big brown eyes who stared at her with a sort of unexplainable sadness to it. Her chestnut brown hair still falling in her face a bit despite being tied back in two neat pigtails. “It's okay momma, you don't have to lie. Last time dad was home I heard him and you talking after I was in bed. I heard him say that, at this rate next time I get sick and you bring me to them, they might not let me leave. He said you had to remember the promise you made, and you said you didn't want to force it on me. So you aren't, it is my choice. Besides you always told me what they do here helps make sure dad comes home safely all the time and I want to help with that.” My words so calm and sincere, can my mom see how scared I am taking this step? I meant every word I said but it still terrified me to give up the life I had completely to Torm to take up a life in his servitude instead. Are they going to send me to war too when I am older? I want to help with the war against the orcs, but I don't want to be fighting in the front lines with dad, I would never be strong like him, I wouldn't survive. What I could do though is learn how to serve in the temple and heal like the priests have healed me times before. It might not have ever been anything serious, but according to my mom, I get sick more often than most children should. When that happened she would take me to the temple of Torm, my fathers temple where they would help me get better. Moving there, serving there wouldn’t be a big change in my life I don’t think, but it still makes me nervous. “I… I just was so scared of losing you, I said whatever I had to in order to make sure that you were going to live through that fever, you were still so young and it seemed bad. When you healed up, and came home, when I saw your bright smile, I couldn’t give you up. I wouldn’t force you to be away from your family. It wasn’t my life to give. I had hoped that you would choose this for yourself, but if you didn’t I would fight tooth and nail for yo-” Rosaline was cut off as there was a force against her nearly knocking her backwards as two small arms wrapped around her neck. “Don’t cry momma. It will be okay. I am choosing to go myself. They will take good care of me. I know they will, they have before. Besides you will come and visit right?” “Of course sweetie, of course I will visit you. My little flower, you are so brave and I am so proud of you. If you ever need me just shout and I will come running up here as fast as I can. I will never be far.” Reaching up she moved a stray strand of hair from my face before hugging me once more and kissing the top of my head, lingering until I started to squirm. It wasn’t that I didn’t cherish the time I had with my mother, but as the old man in grey robes looked down at us from the top of the temple steps, I knew it was time to go. As my mother let go of me, I tried to hide my tears, only to turn and see that she herself was crying. Taking one step away, the despair I could see in her eyes, watching me leave, broke my heart more than it already was. Was this the right choice? Was this what I was meant to be doing with my life? Should I have not gone? Did I even have much of a choice? All these questions and more circled in my head as I tears fell from my eyes as well. A trail of tears marked my path to the steps of the temple and up to the entrance where I finally looked up to see the face of the man who was in charge of my care from this point forward. A kind older gentleman, High Priest Simiel. “Come my child. There is nothing to fear here.” The elderly man ushered me inside. I glance back at my mother one more time before disappearing through the doors. There is a deep sadness in her eyes as she weeps, and regret. All I can think is that this is my fault. I caused her this pain, it was my choice. If I had chosen not to go through with this, she would have found another way out for me, and I could live with her instead of here, but the choice is made and I fear, if I retract it now, Torm will not protect my father from the war that he faces nearly every day. If serving here is what it took to make sure my father always came home, then that is what I would do. I would do anything just to make sure I get to be in my father’s arms again, and to see him hold and laugh and kiss mom. Perhaps offering me to the church was a mistake, but it is a life that I have to live with now, and one I will embrace, if it means protecting my family.
Freezer meals. Whenever you cook make extra and buy those tin take out containers. Fill your freezer with your left overs so you just have to come home and throw them in the oven days that you don't want to cook. It doesn't take much work to make extra food, when you decide to cook and it saves you cooking every night or having to eat the same meal for a week.
Following the lead of Kel, cherry blossoms fell and Aislinn darted forward near in tandem with Kel. "A promise is a promise." She smiled. Aislinn uses Zantetsuken Ooc 16/31
She really hated not being able to help more just Aislinn knew that she needed to do something about her health. "Kel I will help next time, I promise." She swore before healing herself. Aislinn used Curaga OOC 15/31
I got it out of a book
Hope. You cannot steal it, no matter how many you rip from their homes and enslave. And you cannot break it, no matter how many you murder.
"Hang in there Kel, we can do this!" with that Aislinn cast cure on Kel. Aislinn used curaga. Ooc 14/31
So I am doing this in hopes that it will push me to continue writing this story. At the time I was super hyped to write it, and I still am, but I get distracted easily. I am no where near the end and I passed the deadline I set for myself, so now I am trying to find another way to keep myself accountable and I also want to write another story at the same time. I need to finish one before starting the next. I plan on posting a new chapter every Wednesday, at least one chapter. I am 17 "chapters" in so far but barely feel like I am anywhere. There is so much more to write, so much more I want to share, I just need someone to hold me accountable, and hopefully this will help. Since it isn't a Wednesday I will leave you with the prologue. Prologue The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That is how the saying goes, but no one realizes just how true it is until there is a pain burning in your eternal soul. It isn’t a physical pain, no I can’t feel that anymore, but the emotional pain, and the separation, it burns deep inside me. His laugh still echoes in my mind, the shedding of the skin that I knew. I had to watch him kill my friend, thinking that what he was doing was for the good of our world, thinking it was what it took to save our world from the demons, but that wasn’t the case. It was me, this was my fault, I collected those skulls and brought them together. I failed to save my friend so he is likely also stuck in the same state as me. I could have… I should have saved him sooner, I should have done more, and I never got the chance to apologize to Tallak, for failing him. I was a cleric, it was my job to keep my friends alive, like it was theirs to keep me safe, but I failed. I pray that Saitama found peace. I pray to Torm that his sacrifice let his soul be released to go beyond and that Torm’s blessing falls upon him, that he is not trapped like I am, tied to a creature of the dark that I cannot control. If I could cry, I would, I would cry for all who I have failed. I would cry for Terry, who we never returned to like we promised, who tried so hard just to keep his bar open and running and was always there for us despite everything we brought his way. Apparently I wasn’t the first dead body that was brought to his inn and brought back to life. Saitama was there before me in the same situation. I was impressed, by the end not even bringing in my pet dragon had sent him running. Oh Tseng, I wonder what happened after death. I wanted to bring him back, I had the daimons ready for the ritual, all I needed was time, but death found me too quickly after. Did he reincarnated back at the proving grounds? The place that I had first rescued him from after defeating the adult version of him? Did his soul get released and he found peace? I am just glad that I didn’t ask Arcturus to take care of him and leave him at his house like I first planned. To have that thing… to leave Tseng with that. Under the incorrect guidance it would bring terrible destruction, though that seems inevitable now. What was released upon the earth, I don’t think it is even in the same plain of existence from what I grew up with. If I could have I would have sent him to Allen, another man who had gone through so much and helped us despite everything that he had to go through with us. Three months. We had disappeared for three months together after our ship was wrecked by pirates and our gold taken. We had found our way into the Feywilds, where we had to save it from a creature corrupting it, taking life from the tree that sustained that world. What was no more than three days in the Feywild plus travel time. Over all from when we had left the north it should have taken only a week, but there we were three months later returning to Tulip Bay, it took a day before we realized how long we were gone. When Allen came running into the tavern we were staying at, talking about how his wife was freaking out. I gave him a necklace to help him make it up to his wife. I was going to have the refugees sent up to him, but the poor man has been through so much, I don’t know if he would have been able to handle all that, all those people showing up at his door, sent by two people he barely knew, just the only man who had agreed to take us through the passage to the north, all to find another skull, the same skull that I happen to be trapped in now. We lost a dear friend on that trip too. So much loss on this journey to save the world, only to bring destruction to it. Everything we did, all the sacrifices made, they were all in vain, they were all to do the very thing that we were trying to prevent, and now I am left stranded, trying to hold on to who I used to be by looping through my mind who I used to be, where this all began. Trying to remember the Arcturus I looked up to, admired above anyone else in my temple. Trying to remember the man who saved my life. I think… I think his soul was still trapped there. I think that he still lived, even with that demon, the moments we had, the hugs, when he brought me back. I refuse to believe that was fake, I refuse to believe that was all just part of his plan to get me here. He didn’t need me here and he didn’t need to threaten those around me to keep me safe. Perhaps if I was needed for the sacrifice, but no, Saitama took that upon himself. All this, why would he have done all this, keep me around? Why would he have come whenever I called and helped all ways that he could if he wasn’t there somewhere. I missed my Arcturus, my mentor, my teacher. I missed the temple I spent most of my life, the warm touch of Torm, I just want to go back. I want to be taken back to those days, I want to see my mother smile as I set off into the temple doors where an old man in grey robes awaited me.
They would have to slow down on damage. They needed to just make sure everyone was okay, and Luna certainly wasn't okay. "Hold on. Just a little longer Luna!" Aislinn called out as she cast curaga on her. Aislinn used Curaga on Luna OOC 14/31
They took off running after something, but Raelyn wasn't ready to run like that. She only did it to not be left behind by the others as they went after the memory crystal that was now moving. "Hey... um isn't there like plenty of these things. If it is moving, doesn't that imply that someone else has it. Shouldn't we just... you know, let them have it since they are already there?" She wasn't beyond playing dirty to get things she wanted, but she wasn't going to steal it from them if they already had them, not when there was plenty of opportunities for them to get more if she thought correctly about how this would work. Still jugging to keep up Raelyn wasn't able to focus fully. Her mind was spinning with all that she had learned about herself and she felt like none of that was good. Sadly she stayed back of the group just following for the sake of it trying to get her swagger back as soon as she sorted through everything there was to sort through.
Tinarah watched as Take and Boreas threw out their challenge and marched outside. Things were going to go over well, but Torrin thought it best to leave them, so instead she tried to continue the conversation that she was having... or at least attempting to have with Torrin. "Master Stamatis taught me how to cook.... We... grew most of the food we had. Sometimes Uncle Fost would bring us supplies, but not often. The kitchen we had was better than this one." Tinarah tried to make conversation. "Um... maybe next time I should try and help... hopefully." Tinarah didn't trust herself to be in the mood to cook, or have the energy, but she could try again one day and make more than just toast like she had the night before. She then sat there picking at her food more, looking down. "I'm sorry... that I am so difficult to get along with." It was her best attempt to be a little nicer.
They managed to get him down low, but it isn't going to turn out well yet. There was still a lot to come and things weren't going well for her. If it wasn't for Luna she would be screwed, that is why this time she was going to protect herself. Aislinn used Healing Guard OOC 13/31
