cursed but continuing

Aquaticus looked at her, an eyebrow raised. Playing a game? While Aquaticus was not opposed for such activities to pass time, it was a surprise to see a human ask him to partake. He was not bored, he had plenty of books and thoughts to mull over. But perhaps this would be a nice change of pace to his usual routine. Plus, he had been meaning to observe that curse placed upon Felicity. The one that she was likely unaware of.

“Chess sounds fine,” Aquaticus replied bluntly, standing up and brushing a long strand of hair over his shoulder. Without another word, Aquaticus began to walk off to the front desk, where several time-wasting games were kept underneath in case a patron wanted an activity. He fetched out a regular chess board, along with the necessary pieces kept in a large, velvet bag.

He walked out to one of the tables and began to set up the board. On one side were white pieces that depicted the typical roles. Knights, king, queen…all human warriors. On the other side were the black pieces, though each piece instead represented different monsters. The pawns were woolies, the knights were orcs, and so forth. Most importantly, the king and queen pieces were represented by dragons.

Aquaticus comfortably sat himself on the black side and motioned towards the other side, “I believe that white takes the first move.”

She hadn’t expected him to agree. A cool stare or suggestion, perhaps, but not an agreement. Felicity is placed off-foot as she watches Madara rise and immediately get to work. It’s almost, oddly, a helpless feeling. After a moment she follow and seats herself at the table, keeping quiet. It’s wrong, a reversal of roles, for her boss to set it up. Felicity just lets it happen. She doesn’t feel inclined to speak right now.

Felicity has never seen these chess pieces before. Her own ones are the usual lot: gallant knights, graceful royalty, pious bishops. The ones Madara chooses are monsters. She’s never seen a real, untamed monster before. The detail in the carving sends a chill down her back. Eyes resting on the king and queen, she idly comments, “You know, I don’t believe in those dragon gods.”

@thepelagoislands

A grey card that seemed to shine and sparkle the more you look at it is sent to every known address in both Arcadia and Leuda. There is no return address, no envelope, or anything else whatsoever. There was only a single message printed on the card:

It served as both a hello and a warning– a welcome for himself. His persona as Phantom Skye was not yet known in Pelago Islands, but soon they’ll know of his name like all the other cities he’s went and graced with his presence in the past. There were only a few notable targets that he’s gathered from so far- the known richer families a definite target. But who knows what – or who– he’ll find in these islands? 

At her not-so-secret heart, Felicity is a romantic. The talk of destiny makes a charmed smile curl her lips upward. The quote promotes a lovely thought: that one day you will meet the people who are right for you. Who hopefully, have nothing but good intentions.

The midnight part, she has no idea about. That’s a bit creepy.

But, Phantom Skye... it’s a terribly cliche name. Frankly she has no idea why this has been sent to her (other than perhaps she has a secret admirer...?). It’s nice, however, like something out of a fairy-tale.

“Yes, it has been a rather slow day,” Aquaticus spoke, though it honestly didn’t matter either way to him. If a lot of people visited the library, it was easy enough for him. And if nobody visited, then he had more time to peruse the selection of books. The days were very much a blur to him.

“History of the Norad Empire. I’m finished with it, if you’re curious,” Aquaticus answered, holding the book out to Felicity. That was a partial lie, though Aquaticus could easily find the book again if he wanted to pick up where he left off.

No matter what she says, this guy doesn’t seem to care. There has to be something behind it. Maybe he’s just on the verge of losing his cool all the time. Like a long-haired Bruce Banner. The thought makes her bite down a smile; green is not Madara’s colour. Blue, yes.

She takes the book as he holds it out to her. It’s heavier than she expected, and she has to hold it with both hands, propping it against her chest. It’s a tad embarrassing, but Felicity is used to her illness. She chews on her lip as she reads the title -- of course Norad had been an empire once. But she could have sworn he has half-way through. Maybe Madara has read it before? She glances at him out of the corner of her eye. Maybe he’s read all the books in here. “Um, thank you.”

@felicitythefuture

School was tough.  The curriculum at Arcadia Community College was vastly different than her old school. While she learned all about geology on the mainland, here she was studying to enhance her magic.  It was a completely different ballgame than before, especially since Cecilia was still learning about her powers.

Still, she knew she had to study hard.  Being the Headmaster’s daughter meant that she was looked at with a more critical eye than most.  It was almost embarrassing for her that she was still in the beginners classes, but to be fair, her powers only started manifesting a few months ago.  Still though, she needed to try her best and work hard at it.

It wasn’t all stressful though.  She was happy here, and she made a few friends.  What struck her the most though was seeing someone she didn’t think she’d ever see again.  Even just by a side profile, Cecilia could identify the dark-haired girl.  It took her a moment to register exactly who it was, but as soon as she figured it out, a wide smile spread across her face.

With learning, that is. She is entranced, engaged, enthusiastic. If she could do anything with her life, she would spend the rest of it studying, soaking up all the knowledge the world has to offer. But she does have to take breaks -- for her health, and for her relationships.

It’s strange, how life works. Sometimes people you never thought you would see again resurface. Sometimes you end up best friends with people you never imagined. Sometimes you end up strangers with the people you thought you would spend the rest of your life with. Felicity is always pleasantly surprised. 

After one of her classes Felicity was walking out, head full of what she would write for next paper. Being a, well, normal person at a magical school had its advantages and disadvantages. Felicity has so much to get caught up on. Some parts of magical culture she knows she cannot understand.

Then she hears her name.

The best sense a human has is hearing. She knows that voice. It takes one glance, her eyes landing on the caller’s face, for Felicity to recognise them. Then she double takes because, wow, Cecilia is gorgeous. 

It made Sonja feel happy to watch the way the girls face lit up when she received the flowers, that had been exactly what Sonja had set out to do after all.

When the girl began to untangle her hair-flower and hold it out to Sonja Sonja’s own expression faltered a little, she hadn’t wanted to make the person think they had to give her something back, and now she just didn’t look right.

But then she had an idea! Sonja took the flower, tucking it behind her ear. “I don’t know if I’m a queen, but you’re the flower princess!” She giggled, “I’m Sonja, what’s your name? Are you busy now? Do you wanna hang out? I actually had a thought.” Sonja spoke a mile a minute, when she met someone she liked she just couldn’t stop talking… Not that she really stopped, anyway. “If you’re not busy do you mind giving me a couple of those flowers back? Or we could pick new ones! I wanna braid your hair, like, with the flowers, so you can be a pretty flower princess.” She paused, “I mean, you’re already pretty! But, like, more pretty!”

When the corner of the girl’s pink lips began to quirk down, Felicity shook her head rapidly. Shoosh-shoosh, her hair flew. Felicity raises a hand to draw it back from her face. “Give and receive!” The flower looked right behind this girl’s ear.

Not girl – Sonja. Felicity can’t stop smiling. Flower princess! A warmth gathers in her chest, a bubbly excitement. “I’m Felicity!” Sonja. 

Felicity grins, shaking her head at what the girl is saying. What a day! What a lucky person Felicity is! And yes, yes, she wants to hang out. “Yes, here you go—“ Felicity laughs, holding out the flowers, before what Sonja says registers. “You think I’m pretty?” Felicity blushes as pink as Sonja’s hair.

@felicitythefuture

Spring was Sonja’s favourite time of year, not least because of the nature and life in the air. Being a flower mage Sonja felt particularly in tune with this season, and it always brought a smile to her face. Not that she often didn’t have a smile on her face, Sonja’s spirit was practically unbreakable, it seemed.

Today she walked with a bouquet of wild flowers she’d picked from various spots on the island, she would’ve brought some of the ones she’d grown at home but then she wouldn’t have any pretty flowers in her house, and that would be no good at all. Sonja was on a mission, a mission to brighten somebodies day.

Felicity was caught off-guard. With complete surprise she blinks at the flowers being held out to her, the words said. First she registers the bright colour of the flowers, then the vibrant pink of the girl’s hair, then the beaming smile on the stranger’s face.

[✿] — Raguna glances up at the voice, surprised to see a girl approaching him. He hadn’t really noticed anyone entering the fields, but then he guesses he was too absorbed in his work to notice much of anything, really. 

“Oh, okay!” He responds, more out of a lack of knowing what else to say, and watches as she moves through the meadow. In the corner of his eye, he notices Gin stirring from his nap, and then remembers–

Gin.

Not many people took well to silver wolves. They weren’t exactly native to Arcadia, and most people considered them dangerous. Gin himself was pretty nice for one, but that still didn’t stop the misunderstandings. The farmer looks back up as the girl nears him, and immediately launches into an explanation before she could freak out or anything. 

“H-he doesn’t bite or anything, you know? Gin here’s really friendly, so, uh…” Please don’t freak. “…yeah. There’s nothing to worry about. Haha…” Tapering off into a sheepish laugh, he raises up the flower crown he’d been weaving. “So– you wanted one of these? Did I hear that right?”

Felicity has her bad habits. Easily stirred to emotion, for one. It’s only when she’s nearing the stranger, close enough to make out features that she realises how childish she must seem. Whoever this man, he has a kind, reassuring face and Felicity doesn’t want to scare him off. She’s kind of in need of a – friend.

As she approaches, he has a ramble of his own. An Arcadian accent, deep, lilted, a bit rushed. He’s cute. And so is his dog. “No, no, it’s fine!” Felicity holds up her hands, shaking her head and smiling. Then she looks at the dog – wolf. A massive beast, with a jaw she’d rather think less about. She’s fine with looking but not touching. But the colour of his coat… “Hey, you said Gin, right? Is that a play on silver?”

Felicity crouches to get on eye-level, hem of her dress trailing in the dust. With any hope she might have a touch of colour in her cheeks. “Sorry for yelling. It’s just that I’ve never seen anyone make one of those before – flower crowns.” She giggles. “It’s like something out of a fairy tale!”

Maybe she’s talking too fast, making a terrible impression, but Felicity really does want to break the ice. Someone to talk to would be lovely. Especially someone who evidently likes flowers, just like she does. It all does feel so natural, like she’s done this before.

[✿] — They did it. They actually did it.

After what felt like forever, sunshine had finally returned to the archipelago, and Raguna’s good cheer along with it. Waking up and seeing the sun rise on a brand new day had done wonders for his spirit, and the farmer felt newly revitalized and ready to take on whatever the world threw at him. With the sun back, his crops would start growing properly again, the monsters could graze– everything at Kardia Farm would finally start to pick up again. 

The nice weather had given him a huge boost in motivation, and with the help of his equally uplifted monsters, Raguna managed to get all of his farm work for the day done with lots of time to spare. Of course he decides to use his newfound free time to take full advantage of the nice weather, heading out with his silver wolf Gin to the nearby flower fields. The flower fields was one of Raguna’s favorite spots in town, and he always felt at peace there.

Even though the flowers had somehow still been managing to bloom in the darkness, the atmosphere was thick with a sense of danger and foreboding… like with the random attacks on businesses, anything could have happened at any time, and they would all be helpless in the face of the Shadow’s might. Because of this, Raguna couldn’t bring himself to feel at ease until everything was resolved. 

But now, it was. The Shadow was with Frey now, and the sun was back. The flowers blooming in the fields looked a thousand times more beautiful under the light of the sun, and Raguna smiles contently as he sits off on the outskirts of the meadow with Gin curled up next to him, seated under the shade of a tree and humming lightly to himself as he weaved a few flowers from the field into a flower crown.

Strolling around on one of her habitual walks (long due, she’s afraid), she wanders to the flower fields. Even growing up on Leuda, Felicity has always worn a flower in her hair. Moving to Arcadia had certainly been the best choice for flowers. They were brighter, bigger and more beautiful than any flower she had ever seen on Leuda. Felicity keeps stopping to gape at each new, wonderful plant she sees.

Could she live here forever? Among the flowers, yes!

Across the field, in a shade of a tree, the glimpse of a person catches her eye. Intrigued, she draws closer. What are those colourful circles in their -- his -- hands? Oh. A flower crown! She breaks out into a brilliant smile. The flowers on Leuda were never strong enough for those; their stems always broke.

It was always interesting to see how mortals would rewrite history in order to further their own agendas. 

Aquaticus sat in a corner of the Grand Oak Library, leafing through a small historical text detailing the rise of the Norad Empire. Most of it was as accurate as humans could make it, though there were several events missing. Unfavorable events that would reflect badly on the empire, the downplay of certain rulers as opposed to others, and the complete obstruction of the poorer citizen’s historical history. At least this was a step above some other texts he had read.

As he flipped another page, he heard a footstep. Someone attempting to approach him. He abruptly closed the book and turned his head, a long strand of hair falling over his shoulder.

Nothing she can explain. Nothing she can lay out with hard facts and spreadsheets or proof. Just something, nonetheless. Gut instinct. But a girl needs a place to work and Felicity loves knowledge more than anything else. 

“It’s a slow day,” she replies, looking away from Madara’s gaze. She isn’t timid and yet she can’t meet his eyes. Maybe it’s because of how detached he is, or how tall he is.. “No one wants to come to the library, it seems. They all want to stay out in the sun!”

“Honoured?” Rosalind tilted her head, “I’m pretty sure you mean honoured.” She stuck her tongue out playfully, and then listened to the girl’s next theory.

One thing no one could deny was that the girl definitely had an imagination, but Rosalind wasn’t quite sure how she could’ve been cloned. “But… Surely if that happened at least one person in the world would have met their clone? I mean…” She trailed off, this was too much to think about.

“Honoured,” Felicity repeats slowly. Then she breaks out in a grin. “That’s what a secret means, silly Rosie!”and she reaches out and taps Rosalind’s nose. Got your nose! She thinks to herself.

    It’d started as a text from his father (whom, mind you, Gill never received text messages from) about the amazing new Snorlax he’d caught and how he wanted to get together with his son to go on a Pokemon adventure. Gill, being entirely confused, immediately jumped into research and downloaded the app. This had happened merely a week ago, and already he knew this was the worst mistake of his life.

    Naturally, he’d picked team mystic, and in only a week he was one of the top players on the island. Now, nobody knew it was him exactly, but they knew the username, and with it came the trail of cheers or cries depending on the team. Every path he took in his daily routine was marked beginning to end in team mystic gyms… except one.

    City Hall

    He’d been trying for days to snake the gym out from team valor, but with all his higher level pokemon keeping point in the other gyms, he just couldn’t win. He was always wiped out before he could even try, but today would be different. Somehow, on his way from the church to work, he’d picked up a Mewtwo. A fucking Mewtwo. Not only that, but a CP 3500 Mewtwo. Gill, thanking the Goddesses for this blessing, immediately began leveling up his newest prize to the max CP it would go. Upon arriving to work, he had a CP 4100 Mewtwo. A bloody miracle.

         But he had to wait…

         No.

    Something took hold of him as he sat at his desk, and before he could protest his own whims, his phone was in his hand and the app was launching. He kept a cool composure on the outside, but inside he was vibrating like a giddy schoolboy. He was just within range of the gym, so he launched straight into battle. After just a few measly taps and swipes, the gym was his. He’d done it. Breathing out a heavy sigh, he leaned back in his chair, his phone still in his hands. Then, his head turned and it happened.

    Felicity Benn was glaring at him with the rage of a thousand burning suns. His own icy gaze flicked down to the phone in his hands and he fumbled to hide it before quickly turning back to his work.

Felicity looks down at her hand. Carefully, she unsticks her fingers from where they were gripping the device. She doesn’t want to break it, but here’s the fuming truth -- with her current team, there is no way she can beat that Mewtwo. Search your feelings, o young politician... what else can you do? What other tactic?

She glances up at him. She could spike his coffee. She could delete all his files. He looks like the kind of guy who probably has a political masterplan to take over the world hidden somewhere. But no -- such sneaky tactics are beneath her. She can do better than that.

So she takes the direct route. Standing up, skirts sweeping around her, she makes her way to Gill Hamilton’s desk. With a sweet smile on her face, she hopes she looks bloody terrifying. Because in the world of office politics, the norms are inverted. The people who are nicest to you are the one to watch out for.

But once he hears her speak he knows exactly what the score is, and gives her a menacing glare in response. “No worse than you humans and your general stupidity.”

He has half the mind to knock her back down to the ground as she struggles to get up. But seeing as how she was clearly a pathetic and weak girl (heavy breathing from just that little fall?), he decides against. As much as he couldn’t stand humans, Jake was not one to prey on the weak.

But words? That was something he could use. Sticks and stones. “You obviously need to.” A derisive scoff. “With the pathetic shape you’re in, you’ll need all the exercise you can get.”

Felicity does have to admit internally at least that the exercise comment stings. She used to be a pirate. It’s not her fault she got sick. Her mouth tightens. But of course, do elves even get sick?

While she doesn’t reply to that comment, she replies to the next with an arched brow: “I think you mean young women don’t want to be accosted by elves with a mean deposition, hm?”

“O-oh, uh… thanks.” He says, caught totally off guard by the compliment. Lily called him that all the time, which got a little annoying sometimes, but it was nowhere near as embarassing as when this girl did it.

But then again, Lily never hit on him, and he had a feeling that this was what this was.

Of course, Raguna tries to shrug it off, like with most other things in his life, as the conversation moves on to the next topic. Unfortunately, this topic wasn’t exactly one that sat too well with him, either. “Ah… I was on the mainland.” He says, not really sure whether his own words were true or not, “Never stayed in one place for too long, though. Did a lot of moving around. I’m… an orphan, who eventually got moved here.” 

But Felicity isn’t a politician-in-waiting for nothing. She can tell when someone is lying to her, or omitting information. There’s always a reason for someone doing that. It can’t just be because of nothing. Was it something she said? She asked about his parents -- and he doesn’t have any... ah,w ell. Not her business to pry. All of these thoughts happen in a millisecond, not showing on her face.

“You must have seen quite a few places, then,” Felicity remarks. “I never left Leuda until I was eighteen.”

Nami blinks in surprise at Felicity’s question, biting her lip absently. Nami knows exactly why she feels trapped her, and it’s exactly why she’s never been away from the islands either. she looks away, eyes cast to the crowds passing absently by.

But her attention is drawn off her own problems by Nami’s next reaction. Nami looks away and Felicity’s heart sinks, because she knows that whatever is coming next, it can’t be good. Her dad. Felicity understands how it feels to have family matters -- because she is the family matter in her family. Felicity doesn’t say anything, because it can come off as pity, but she reaches out one hand and places it on Nami’s shoulder. With one meaningful look, she then withdraws it, communication done.

Felicity takes the subject change and turns her head to look at her apartment building. So this is where she is meant to live. She’s a little disappointed that she’s arrived so soon -- but she can see Nami another time, she’s sure of it.