#self-paragraph

Nephi couldn’t help but feel that somehow, in some way, he had not used Valentine’s day to the full extend that it could’ve been used. He felt nervous and annoyed with himself that he hadn’t even given it a go, that he hadn’t tried. Sure, he had never been certain that Aylin felt anything for him, he wasn’t certain now either. She was just so kind, always, to everyone, he looked at her and he couldn’t help fall in love again because while she had grown older, she had become mature, she was still the one person who had extended a hand and kept holding onto it. She said she didn’t blame him for being send away to a private school, he wondered what their life would’ve been like if she hadn’t been, if her father had allowed her to stay. He recalled all the moments when his day was a hundred times better just because she smiled at him. 

And now, now he was afraid that he might be the idiot to force the smile to disappear again if he admitted he still liked her. Liked… that he loved her. An emotion so strong that he knew that had to be it, for he didn’t feel it for anyone else, he hadn't’ felt it in any of the relationships he was in before. 

He tried to throw himself into his shifts at work, tried to not pay too much attention to things he didn’t have answers to. Even though he found himself looking at her number a lot, he found himself questioning romance movies, he lay awake at night wishing he was stronger. Because perhaps if he were, he would be strong enough to tell her he hadn’t stopped thinking about her, that it hadn’t taken more than a few moments in her company for everything to come rushing back in. 

Then two days after Valentine, Nephi returned to a card in his mailbox. He stared at the red swirling font as he walked up the stairs, his hands automatically opening the door, setting his bag by the door while still staring at the card. He closed the door, turned the card around, and stared at the words, swallowing. 

Did he dare to hope now?

It has been a couple of days since Merrinyn and her elderly landlady found themselves seeking shelter within the Institute. At first, the triton arrogantly and mistakenly thought they’d be better off back at their own place. She argued that she could fight the soldiers off, even release her “friend” on them for a quick test or two, but after witnessing the chaos and confusion in the streets, hearing the panicked screams and fearful cries of the normal, every day citizens of Arx, she finally understood that there was no better place for her to be than within these walls.

In the form of a giant eagle, Merrinyn perches on a roof near the Institute. She frowns as she sees what remains of the once bustling and energetic streets. Just mere months ago, everyone was celebrating a festival. Now, everything is in disarray. From the corner of her eye, she spots a non-moving body on the street, face-down, while invading soldiers wreak havoc on the stalls and other lesser buildings they come across. 

It was a horrific sight, one that moved Merrinyn to despair and then anger. If she could, she would fight them all back, but she was alone and they were many. If she died right then and there, it would’ve been in vain. What would become of the elderly landlady without her watching her during this calamity? “I should wait,” she thought to herself. “Maybe the soldiers, some military help, would come for us soon.”

She flew back inside the walls of the Institute, swiftly through a barely open window at a height no man could reach without flying themselves, and reverted back to her true form. She quickly made her way back to her elderly landlady who was with the other citizens that have taken refuge here, most of them huddling in fear and waning hope. 

While the adults were well aware of what happening, the worst that could happen still, most of the children were confused. Merrinyn thought it was a pity, a shame, that they would be exposed to such trauma at a young age, at a point in their lives when they should be still carefree and protected, but truth be told, it was bound to happen due to their status as common folk. At the end of the day, they would all be the ones to suffer the most for the folly and greed of kings and queens, emperors and tyrants.

The triton lamented that fact as she walked through the halls, lost in her own thoughts, until she bumped into someone else. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. Are you all right?”

Her journey began in Whale Water Port in Arx. The locals there rarely bothered her, not that she would let them, not that they’d care more about the strange triton sage who had just recently made their home her home than their respective modest fishing businesses. 

One or two did try to sell her a trip on their small fishing boat a while back, only to be mercilessly laughed at. Merrinyn Delorsath didn't need a boat nor did she need someone else to get her out to sea. The sailors and their ships were of little help to her. She knew the seas herself, has them in her blood. The Blackmore Lady was no longer the only lady in this side of the biggest port in Hegaehend.

Outside of doting inside libraries she could visit, universities she could enter, absorbing as much information and education on history and philosphy, as well as the aptly named humanities, as she can, Merrinyn liked to spend much of her time, the few she could spare outside of her research, venturing through the nearby currents, exploring the waters of Arx. 

With her newly acquired trident in tow, Merrinyn decided to make waves, swimming as fast as she could, as far away from the shore as she could go, before settling on a quiet part of the oceans, deep within it, where she would just float with her eyes closed and at peace. Swimming, floating of course, has never been strenous to her, to any triton as a matter of fact. It was a way of life, an effortless activity their species grew up with, were attuned to. I missed this...

Alone in the depths, Merrinyn spent an hour floating, with the trident in hand, in complete darkness. When she opened her eyes, a smile formed across her lips. She had never been good with such a weapon before, but a trident did seem like the perfect accessory for a triton out of water. 

Slowly, actually more clumsily, yet carefully, Merrinyn began to practice with the weapon underwater, wielding it and brandishing it around her like she would a quarterstaff. She doubted she’d be very good fighting with it, without anyone proficient in the weapon to teach her, even just the basics, but it was well worth her effort to get used to carrying it around with her. In the end, she should still be able to harness its magical potential. And what greater potential is there than making new friends from old places?

This takes places just before S2E4

~

Seeing his grown son’s tear streaked face had made cute Richard deeply, even though it wasn’t his fault. It had been a long time since he saw Ben cry, and he didn’t even hesitate to rush over to his son’s apartment when the latter asked. 

This takes place after S2E3′s events. 

~

Ben slammed the door of his apartment furiously, the walls shaking as he did and dropped his bag that contained the Shockwave costume. Now that the protests over Compound V had quietened down, he’d gone home, feeling it was safe for him to do so. 

In the dead of night the door silently opened. In the darkness Rohan was alert, all his senses sharpened by the day’s investigation. Now he’d entered his sleeping chambers where the safety of the Knighthood was provided, yet he was still slow to relax. It had always been so and he’d always liked it that way. After all, the moments after the day’s battles were the moments he could savor them in peace. Of course, investigation was nothing to the dusty iron smelling sweat of the colosseum. Every muscle screaming I’m alive. 

And so, Rohan began his unwinding routine. He removed his shoes, setting them aside ready to be worn again. Reverently, he untied the straps that tied the wings of his best fairy fighters to his back. He set them down on the bed, carefully unstacking them so that each unique pattern was visible. Like a clockmaker cleans, polishes, and winds his creations with detail, Rohan too lit a candle and cleaned and inspected every wing before wrapping them back together in linen. They would lay by the bed, waiting to be strapped to his back again tomorrow. 

Barefoot and naked from the waist up, Rohan began his slow dance-like stretch which marked the end of battle and the coming of rest before a new battle begun. And as he danced for Gaveron he said,

“I have fought and survived. Gaveron, Child of Aberadus, I hope to have pleased you with my combat today and may my survival please you again tomorrow.” 

As his dance to Gaveron comes to an end, Rohan places a hand to his heart and to Armand he says, 

“I carry you with me my brother, and my victories are yours. Gaveron give us the strength to make our names known.” The tip of his finger traces out the name Armand and Rohan over his chest, and as always, he ends his prayer with another wording of his geass: “there is no impossible because we can make everything possible.” 

Date: May 30 Time: Midday Location: Temple of Doom and Despair, Myrefall Status: Self-para/Open 

Runswick has become Cinder's home in Hegaehend. His travels outside the city have been far and few in between, a measure he himself put in place as an attempt to anchor himself in one place and prevent his old vagabond habits from his homeland to follow him here. Don't get Cinder wrong: He loves traveling, believes it to be a good way to learn new things and expand a person's horizons. It's just Cinder has stopped trying to learn new things, expanding his horizons, ever since the Sais' tragedy. His departure from his homeland, his self-imposed exile, was more of a punishment than a cause to travel. 

Fortunately, there's always a good bounty at Lunacrest and often times an even better reward. This was one of those times. Cinder felt the Myrefall earthquake from around six days ago through a rich and pretty bored noble who hired him and a couple of others for an expedition of sorts. The shifter didn't actually understand what kind of expedition it was nor did he care. He only said yes because of the money, which was why he had a wide grin on his face as he sat on the back of a wagon with the other bounty hunters en route to the scar. "Money, money, money!"

His enthusiasm, however, slowly waned when they rode nearer and nearer to Myrefall. Stories of curses and strange phenomenon reached them but they were already too close to turn back: People transforming into something else, a human turning into a goblin and a goblin turning into a human; undead flooding the city, a few covered in strange flora; and even steel becoming red-hot in an instant with no apparent or visible cause. Cinder found himself worried about these stories but not worried enough to abandon his need for coin to seek safety elsewhere. In fact, he agreed with the others to insist on asking for a raise from their benefactor, which the latter gave, until a misguided attempt to clear the undead in the city led to that same benefactor dying and the rest of their party routed.

"Melora damn this place!" Cinder screamed as he found himself pursued by two of the undead. He managed to escape the bigger crowd, though his own wilted from three to just himself. Even his rage could not keep them off of him for so long. His wits did, though, and the shifter slunk safely within an undergrowth where his pursuers could not find him. Steeling himself, he kept quiet for as long as the pair of undead stayed. Thankfully, they did not stay that long. 

Soon, Cinder went out from his hiding place, knowing he needed to get out of the city as soon as he can. He tried his best to stay hidden, moving closely to the shadows, though he was seemingly drawn to a specific direction. Cinder did not know where he ended up, only that the garden of flowers around it smelled sweet. Catching a sight of stray dogs and even cats, the shifter assumed it was a place hospitable to the tamed creatures of the city, the domesticated pets. Some of them even walked beside him towards the same direction he was going, completely unaware or rather ignorant of his present. At the sight of some clergy from a safe distance, Cinder stopped. He stood alone, observing them. "Is this...her temple?"

He saw one of the men turn towards him, noticing his presence from a mile away, and the others followed suit. Cinder smiled. This could be home. At least, for the time being. He was in the middle of taking his first step when he felt something hot from within him. Was it the beast within trying to get out? He swallowed air as he slowly realized it was something worse. It was his okurimono, but something about it was strange, very strange indeed. He turned towards the men of the temple and thanked Melora they were a safe distance from him.

A bright streak flashed from within Cinder, blossoming with a low roar into an explosion of flame.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?  

The secrets of life are revealed in the laboratory of Merrinyn Delorsath, wherever that may be this week, with her research notes plumbing and cataloging nature's wonders. At least, that's what the triton likes to believe. Her original self-imposed mission was to discover new ways to improve and augment existing issues involving health, but her time on the surface has led her to believe that complete health, of individuals and of the society as a whole, depends on the mutual adaptation of nature and civilization with one another. Suffice to say, biological experimentation has always been among Merrinyn's greater interests.

Her approach to her mission has mostly focused on the incremental progress towards a utopian ideal of thriving biology, remaining more aloof from politics than other researchers, which was why she was able to bypass, rather ignore, the otherwise necessary courtesy call to Myrefall's ruling body. Instead, Merrinyn just made her way directly to the area of the magical...scar, desperately hoping to study and learn what could be welcomed additions to her notes. "When I said I wanted to visit Myrefall, the city didn't have to welcome me with such a magnificent development. A wonderful detour, this is, if I say so myself."

As soon as they were close, Merrinyn wasted no time in taking out her Journal of Easy Noting and dictating her thoughts to it, its magic quickly writing down everything she had to say. "This is marvelous. The surrounding area of the earthquake that had unexpectedly welcomed us on our way to Myrefall has, well, changed, for the lack of a better term. I'm assuming, from the looks of our coachman's face, the width of his opened jaw and its distance from the ground, that this deep chasm, a hundred foot or so, was not always here... A literal scar across the earth, left by the eruption." 

She turned her attention to the roots sprouting from the chasm, squinting, poking at them with a stick, while she continued to take notes. "Roots, seemingly unbreakable, have sprouted from the chasm, clawing into the nearby ground." Taking a closer look, she catches a whiff of an unpleasant scent and coughs, almost gags at least once. "There's a garden of strange flowers, too, oozing viscous liquid, smelling like...entrails? That's new. All around, the grass have changed colors as well, mimicking the shades of the rainbow." She yelps as birds suddenly dive into the chasm from behind and above her. "Now that isn't anything you see every day. Birds are diving straight into the chasm, and without any warning, I should add."  

Merrinyn spent the next few hours making more of the same observations. The coachman she had hired to deliver her to Myrefall had wanted to leave, afraid of the uncertainty this geographical intrusion was presenting, but the promise of more coin ensured his loyalty. At least until nightfall. Still, he returned to his carriage and insisted he'd wait for her a safe distance away. The triton could only grin. Small men, small surface men, always fear what they do not understand. 

That is why she was here in the first place, to understand what this was, to ensure that there was nothing to fear. Of course, the surrounding trees wilting and re-growing half a dozen times did not help matters with the coachman, but the possibility to harness that sudden growth, Merrinyn believed to be useful in her research. "Just imagine... We might be able to regrow limbs by isolating this specific event. We could help hundreds, thousands... Not just in Myrefall but beyond."

Unbeknownst to her, she was fast becoming lost in her thoughts, unable to notice someone else was now closing in on her.