#closed!starter

     “Stop being so serious,” Dmitri spoke from his place atop the table. A large tome in his lap as the dangling silver chains that adorned his neck and wrists chimed with each page that turned. He’d promised Boram that they’d find the spell she was looking for but to this point had no luck. “Why is this so urgent that this couldn’t wait until the next moon?... We are in the middle of harvest before the cold comes and I take my leave.” the earthen warlock asked as green orbs rose to meet her.

O cansaço do dia já lhe fazia visita. Sooyun tinha a cabeça repousada no ombro do Wenhao enquanto segurava um espetinho de camarão, um bocejo ou outro saia de sua boca, ela observava os outros trainees interagindo e se perguntava como seriam os dias dali para frente, levantou o rosto e tirou o celular do bolso. Sooyun mordeu o espetinho para segurá-lo em sua boca enquanto digitava. Espiou Hao pelo canto dos olhos e voltou a guardar o aparelho que muito em breve seria tirado de suas posses. Ela o cutucou com o braço três vezes, tirando o espeto, agora sem camarão, da boca. Assentia com a cabeça na direção do celular do amigo. Era um costume bem velho que teria de se acostumar a perder durante o reality, mas ainda tinha algumas horinhas. Sooyun sorriu para si mesma. Faz trança no meu cabelo?, ele encontraria na mensagem.

Magenta hues seeped from every object in the room, a haze mixing and pooling over the floor like a fog. A fog that seemed to have a mind of it’s own as it crawled back up the walls and into Shiro’s bed covers.          “Shiro?”

The paladin felt his throat tighten. Out of anticipation? Or was the fog really trying to strangle him? The ghost of cold metal fingers traced his throat, but there was nothing when Takashi looked. Fear pulled at his chest.          “Shiro.”

Grey eyes snap open as his body jolts, the familiar voice snatching him from the dream. Lips parting as he tries to steady his breath, Shiro searches for it. Grey hues landing on violet and relief floods through him.

"Keith?"

We, uh... might have a problem. 

Unblinking eyes stared up at the ceiling over head. The blankets that had once covered the child’s body had been tossed to the foot of the bed, and its occupant remained motionless for what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few minutes at most. The only real sign that the girl was alive was the steady rise and fall of her chest with each breath she took. Her heart was pounding noisily in her ears, but only she was privy to that sound.

Behind her eyelids while slumber claimed her subconscious, her once pleasant dreams warped and twisted into the likeness of the nightmarish landscape she had accidentally fallen into ten years prior. Though she knew what she had just seen was only a replica of that frightening place, she could never forget the way it had imprinted itself upon her body – even if the scars were invisible to the eye. It left her feeling afraid and uneasy.

But now she was cradled in comforting familiarity. The gentle humming of the Calnus murmuring in her ears, the muted glow of starlight hidden behind the lowered window-covers catching the corners of her eyes, and the reassurance that one of her comrades was soundly sleeping across the room all served to help soothe away her fear. Still…

”Faize,” the Lemurisian uttered the young man’s name in a voice that could hardly constitute as a whisper. And as expected, there came no apparent reply from his bed.

Though the vision that had plagued her was merely a nightmare, Lymle couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling she was experiencing. Willing herself to sit up, she fought against her limbs’ reluctance and silently slid from atop her mattress. The floor felt cold beneath her thinly clothed feet, but not at all bothered by it, she crept across the room on whispering tiptoes to Faize’s bed.

Even in the darkness, she could make out his form peacefully resting beneath the blankets; he didn’t appear to stir in acknowledgement of her presence, and that was somewhat relieving for the girl. She didn’t quite yet know what she wanted to do, but the one thing she was certain of was that she didn’t want Faize lecturing her while she was trying to decide between her options.

Ultimately, the choice was pretty clear; Lymle only needed a moment of pondering before she reached the inevitable conclusion.

It wasn’t that she liked Faize or anything; she was just lonely and craved a little bit of comfort. She wouldn’t even have to touch him or anything; there was already plenty of room left on the bed for her to crawl up and just fall asleep beside him. There would be no harm done, after all. This was a completely reasonable line of thought, and delicately, the girl placed her hands on the mattress – readying to hoist herself up.

However, Lymle hadn’t forgotten about what transpired between her and the Eldarian earlier that day. He had been so mean to her – calling her a spoiled baby because she just wanted to take a little nap with Ee-tan. What was wrong with that anyway? With the memory suddenly in the forefront of her mind, Lymle was hesitant to lie down with Faize. In fact, she almost felt dejected as his words replayed in her thoughts. Why couldn’t Rei-tan be her roommate instead?

         "I dreamt that it didn't work." A simple sentence to describe the way she had woken up. In a panic with her heart pounding in her chest, her throat thick with unshed tears and a feeling of dread in her stomach.

         It had been so vivid and so real and so much more believable than the truth that even waking up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar city hadn't been enough to push it away. She'd crept down the hall and stood outside the door to his bedroom until she heard him move.

         Even then, she hadn't ventured back to her borrowed bedroom, but padded down the hallway on stocking feet. She made her way downstairs to the living room and curled up in a chair by the fire with a full glass of bourbon. That was where she was now, and though she appeared calm her mind was anything but.