Freaky Forest

[Basil]

"Don't call us freaky. We love you!"

Welcome to the home of the oddities of the human mind! Instead of heading over to the Musehatten like the rest of the muses, they have opted to band together in their own little enclave somewhere within the forest.

[Κομμα]

"Everything new thing's gotta go through prototypes, and most prototypes have their hiccoughs. Call it bad luck, call it whatever the hell you want; I just call it existence." The swirling mass of red opened, and a shinigami stumbled out with something attached to his back, yelling loudly, "Personal space, personal space, dammit!" He barely regained his balance on a nearby tree before falling over. A small bird on the branch nearest gave a startled tweet and flew off; the tree itself seemed to rustle in aggitation. "What in the actual fu-?!" "Do you imbeciles realize how lucky you are you didn't destabilize the gate and send yourselves to the End of Time?" Akino turned, trying to shrug Nyx off of his back, to look at the blue-haired sorcerer. He was leaned against a tree, arms crossed, looking rather unperturbed about this fact; perhaps the slightest bit disappointed that they hadn't been sent off somewhere beyond time, but not much else. "While I'm certain the old man there would have appreciated the company, you would have been stuck there until I saw fit to get you back out." Akino shrugged. "I could have just opened my own portal to the Shinigami realm and come back that way. This brat," he added, jerking his skeletal thumb in the direction of Nyx, "would have been stuck." This made him almost wish they had been transported there; he shook his shoulders again in vain. The small imp perched on his head gave a "Skree-ree!" of agitation, and it scurried down his arm and into the messenger bag at his side instead. Akino gave an irate sigh, giving up. "So..." He looked around, past the strange gray cat in his bowler hat clawing at the tree Magus was leaned against. "This is the past, huh?" "Yes. Exactly the time you asked. Should you happen to change history at all while you are here, we will both be held accountable." "Yeah, yeah. So I owe you one. Just let me know if you need anyone killed." He reached down into his bag and pulled out, after a mild scuffle with Impy over it, a green apple, and bit into it. He looked around again, wondering which way to head first. You have created a rift within me Now there have been several complications That have left me feeling nothing I might say, you were wrong to take it from me Left me feeling nothing

male // c. 14 bil. // 8'7" // shinigami // Ben Barnes
Numb © Disturbed
post format by

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[Basil]

“But I want a piggy back!” Nyx protested.

The demoness protested as she clung onto Akino’s back for awhile longer. It delighted her no end that she managed to irk the death god. A year passed since they last met and she hasn’t lost her touch. Nyx dreaded her father influencing her. The hermitage was absolutely stifling. There was nothing to do! Any kid would go crazy in no time.

The spectral child bet would have if it weren’t for her furry little friend. Rixy, the tiny were lynx, gave her something meaningful to do. Taming a feral child kept her mind off things – particularly her father and his sagely ways. She hardly found the old demon to be wise. She felt he was closer to being fossilized. Still he was alive and she wasn’t, in a very literal sense.

The kidling let go and floated through the tree the blue haired man had been leaning on. This was one aspect of the past she wouldn’t want to miss. Emogami was here for a reason, and she was determined to find out. She stuck her head through the tree briefly. Rixy seemed to be entertained for now. She smirked.

“See you later, Emogami!” The demon child called.

She didn’t intend to wander too far. That would be stupid. After all, she had intended to spy on Akino to find out why he was here. Whatever the reason, it would be more entertaining than pickling plant roots.

[Κομμα]

Behold. Everything is at the bottom of the ocean. The eternal kingdom of dreams, Zeal... Incredible, to think I would regain it in such a way only to lose it once again.

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Akino was glaring after the girl who had floated through the tree. "You probably should go after your girlfriend before she changes history." The shinigami mock-gagged in response to this, then went on to take another bite of his apple.

"If that was a joke, then it was worse in taste than shinigami realm apples." He looked once more around the clearing in which they stood. "All right, gate's there..." he observed, looking at the small, nearly unnoticeable red splotch floating a few feet off of the ground. "I think I'll go this way." He turned around and started to head off to the forest. "Nyx won't go off anywhere. She hasn't seen me in a year and she's not going to miss the opportunity to bug me. I bet she'll be following the whole time. And if she doesn't," and with this, he scoffed, "ain't my problem. She can just stay here."

"Fine. As you brought her, it will be your responsibility to correct anything errors in time if she meddles." Akino halted at the edge of the clearing, and looked over his shoulder at Magus through the charcoal bones of his wing.

"I brought her here. Are you actually serious? She tackled me through the damn gate while my back was turned, I'm the victim here!"

Magus rolled his eyes and straightened out away from the tree. If the gods in his home realm were anything like this one, it certainly answered quite a number of questions. "Fine. Let us go, then."

Grumbling, the shinigami crossed his arms and continued hovering out of the clearing. Magus followed. It might have been wise to leave someone near the gate, but it was wiser to keep an eye on this shinigami. Akino had agreed not to do anything that could change the course of things in even the slightest, to not take anything back with him; yet the short time Magus had spent in his company told him he could place no trust in this being on a matter so crucial. On a regular basis Akino lied even to the king of his kind, one of very few beings with the power to destroy him, to wipe him entirely from existence. Yes--it would be much wiser to follow. The odds that any being in their vicinity had knowledge of red gates were very slim, anyway.

In surprise from the feeling of claws attaching themselves to his back, the blue-haired man tripped, and caught himself with help from the same tree the shinigami had stumbled into a moment ago. A moment later, there was a gray cat in a small bowler hat attached to his shoulder.

Mittens meowed, and Magus sighed.

He would never be quite sure what it was that made cats so insistent upon using him as their climbing post. He straightened out once again and followed the shinigami at a slightly quicker pace to catch up, summoning his scythe into his hand as he walked; wandering through the thicket of a strange forest was hardly something he would have liked doing unarmed.

And now my bitter hands
Cradle broken glass
Of what was everything
All the pictures have
All been washed in black

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male // 30 // 6'2” // demihuman
Black © Pearl Jam
post format by xDawnie

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[Basil]

[September's POV]

“Un bel dì, vedremo… levarsi un fil di fumo…” September sang happily as she skated along the sidewalk.

The happy-go-lucky girl spun on the spot. Not caring about the attention she was attracting. Today she had to sing Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. It has been such a long time since she felt so free. Last week’s series of close-calls had led to two days in hiding. It almost drove her nuts. No one but her piano to keep her company. With renew vigor, she continued as she stood outside her favorite cafe.

“Vedi? È venuto! Io non gli scendo incontro. Io no.”

The waiter stopped and gave her a friendly wave. She returned the gesture, but she didn’t stop singing. Finally, an audience. Nothing can spoil this moment. Her concentration had to perfect. Yet a feeling of unease stirred within her. There was something nearby. Magic of sorts.

Air skated to and fro, as she continued to enthrall those listening to her. To her audience, she was merely skating in tune to the music, however she was actually trying to detect where exactly was the source of magic. She paused awhile to catch her breath. The young woman focused on the spot she had been looking at earlier. There it was – a floating red and black swirling circle. She smirked, music completely forgotten.

“Too bad for them,” she thought rather callously.

The singer reached out to touch the circle. She was mesmerized by the swirling red and black. She gasped and backed away. The circle expanded till it was approximately the height of an average person. Bits of white can now be seen mixed in with the black and red. Her best guess was that this had to be a portal of some sort. September turned around and pouted. The café patrons had gone back to their lunch. She took a deep breath and sang the last verse of the song. Some heads turned to look at her.

“…Tienti la tua paura, io con sicura fede l'aspetto.”

As she stretched the final note of the song, she threw herself backwards. She screwed her eyes shut as she felt herself being sucked in. It wasn’t too rough, but it was enough to give her a slight shock. Air grunted as she felt her back hit the ground. She continued lying.

“Of all places to go, why choose a forest?”

[Κομμα]

[BASIL! I FINISHED IT! :'D]

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[atrb=background,http://i39.tinypic.com/987nyc.png][scrolly:w(415),h(350),as(overflow: auto; padding: 15px 10px 0px 80px)]The further the mage wandered into the forest, the more he worried he became. Certainly, he had learned to stabilize the red gates quite a bit more in the realm than what he had been capable of when he first arrived here; but the fact remained that there still were glitches, hiccoughs in their function. Though less unstable, they were still unstable. Their power source did not exist in this world; only parallel to it. It took quite a lot of energy for that sort of power to be spanned across such a distance. Perhaps he should have stayed behind. "Wonder what I'm going to name it.... Hey, Periwinkle." Magus glared as the shinigami turned around to face him, continuing his floating through the thick brush backwards. "What do you think I should name it? It's kind of like a puppy, so maybe a dog name..." Magus quirked an eyebrow at him. "You're completely serious about this." It was more of an observation than a question. The sorcerer offered a mildly amused laugh under his breath in response. "I suppose it at least should be interesting to see what transpires from this." "How about Max? I'd call it Spot, but it doesn't have spots. I'd have to paint spots on it myself and that's just too much trouble." "Call it whatever you like." Still, he was against the idea of Akino taking the death note back to the present, but what could be done? The shinigami was stubborn; perhaps that was the piece of their authoress' mind that had exploited into him, as she was one of few Magus had seen bother trying to argue with Akino; and one of even fewer who had won arguments against him. The tiniest change in the past could lead to a whole set of problems in the future in his own world. There was the Black Omen; had he never gone back, that was one event in history likely never to have occurred. It likely had been his fate to die at the hands of Lavos; but fate was insubstantial and could be altered as the individual saw fit; fate was an honest reality only for the poor souls in El Nido. "Whaaa-!" Akino stopped in front of Magus abruptly, though the yell hadn't belonged to either of them. "A--Akino--what are you doing here? I said I'd look for it. I still am, I promise! Ah--p-please don't kill me?" The timid voice of the Japanese detective floated to the demon king's ears, and he stopped short. Akino, however, was snickering under his breath. Here was the first changing of events; Matsuda was never supposed to have met Akino in the forest on this day. Already things were becoming altered, it seemed. "M--Mittens!" The cat perched upon Magus' shoulder perked up at the sound of his name. "What are you doing, Mittens?! You weren't supposed to run away from me while I was--huh?" Matsuda blinked for a moment at Magus, then looked at Akino. "Who's that with Mittens?" The shinigami apparently could take no more; he burst out laughing, almost doubling over. Magus sighed, rubbing at his left temple with a single gloved hand. The shinigami likely had wanted this to happen; keeping an eye on him wasn't going to do any good at all.[/scrolly]