[align=center]?? Folklore ??

One wouldn't believe that they had ended up in a fairy tale.

Once upon a time, you have.

 

There are those in the Netherworld that want to uprise and take over the land of the dead and the land of the living. Led by those from the Overworld, they have grown stronger and stronger.

There are still Messengers and others that can travel to the Netherworld that want to prevent this overrule and restore the balance.

Will both worlds live happily ever after?, or....

 

Rules:

Please, don't:

Will raised a hand to his smarting cheek, startled for a moment, before he cleared his throat and pulled himself together. "You're going back?! You'll get yourself killed!!" he yelled at her, forcibly grabbing her arm and trying to yank her back, away from the portal.

 

Defenceless, Raiden could only move out of the way the best he could- throwing himself to the side and rolling hard against the ground. Instead of making it close to his weapon like he'd hoped, he still wasn't anywhere near close enough to make a dash foor the thing.

Eliza didn't even bother to glare back at him. "Well, I'm an idiot, aren't I?" Shrugging her arm out of his grip before she continued speaking. "So what if I die? What do you care?" Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, her cloak clothes faded from it's meadow-green color to black. "I have a job to do. For Evany." She proceeded in stepping through the portal.

 

The will-o-wisps proceeded to turn around, but before they could return, they faded away. Before conjuring another attack, s'Arina discovered Raiden's intention. Smirking, she questioned teasingly, "You want this?" Snapping her whip, the end wrapped around the dagger. "Here," she said as she lunged the dagger-tipped whip directly at Raiden.

Will clenched his fists, holding back the urge to swear at her or do something stupid like go after her. He turned, storming away- only stopping close to the exit of the cave, and with an angry yell swinging his arm back and punching the cave wall. "...You're all idiots,"" he hissed, not even noticing his knuckle split and start to bleed.

 

Raiden didn't quite realise what s'Arina was going to do- and didn't have the time to get out of the way. Clutching the wound the blade had created with his left hand, he grit his teeth and decided to bear it until he healed. Throwing his right arm out towards her, he sent lightning crackling through the air, crying out in pain as his arm struggled with the current.

s'Arina pulled the whip back and snapped it, literally absorbing all of the lightning that came towards her. "I find it unfortunate," she began as she set the fully-charged whip on fire, "that this must end so soon." Flinging her wrist, she shot the whip directly at Raiden.

Suddenly, Bargest was summoned, standing in the way of the attack. Despite all of the damage that it took, it swung its claws at s'Arina before fading away. The very arm that got a slight scratch on was the one that recieved the damage. "Rgh!" s'Arina grunted. "What the...?" Turning around, she saw Eliza standing in front of the portal.

Raiden turned, at first confused and shocked, but his mouth set into a grimace when he caught sight of Eliza properly. Stumbling and swaying a little as he got back to his feet, he dropped his hand from the wound. It stung, but he knew he wasn't going to go and leak blood everywhere since it had healed enough by that point. He could feel his heart hammering against his chest- although whether it was really happening or whether he was just remembering how it felt, he didn't know.

"Eliza... I told you not to come back," he scolded, but he couldn't hide how grateful he really as she'd been there to stop the attack.

Eliza just stood there, glaring at s'Arina. "It's my job to keep both worlds safe," she stated rather coldly.

s'Arina smirked, replying, "You humans' very existence puts both worlds in jeopardy. It's my job to berid of you." Catching the whip on fire, she flung it directly at Eliza. It scorched her arm, but Eliza didn't even do much as flinch. She continued to glare at s'Arina, who began to grow wary.

"Fight fire with fire, huh?" Eliza questioned, slightly smirking. Suddenly, she summoned Gargantua, a tank-like Folk.

"Be careful!" Raiden yelled at her, squatting to tug his dagger out of where it had landed in the dirt. "Last time you summoned big stuff, you passed out, remember?" He almost ran and attacked s'Arina, but the Folk made him reconsider and keep his distance- he didn't trust his luck, and knew if he ran at s'Arina the Folk would probably hit him along the way.

"Testing our willpower, eh?" s'Arina questioned Eliza. Instead, her response was three shots of fireballs from Gargantua. However, she swung her whip in a whirpool-like way. She managed to deflect it, but it pushed her back by about a foot. She snapped her wrist, bringing the whip to a halt. As soon as Gargantua disappeared, Eliza had summoned Volcano, a small Folk, which stood behind s'Arina. Without notice, except for a giggle, it shot a flamethrower at her. At first, she seemed to be in distress. However, as soon as Volcano faded away, all of the fire was absorbed into her whip. She rolled around her head, acting as though she didn't go through that much.

Urgh, that's so unfair... How can she take hits like that and just brush it off?! Raiden thought, still maintaining the distance between himself at the fight. Believing s'Arina would be too busy focusing on Eliza and her summons, he sent a burst of lightning at her. After what had happened when he'd thrown his dagger, he didn't really want a repeat act of that.

 

(Sorry- I've been at an... attitude adjustment camp thing with my cousin. He drove us into town today, but I'm not around much...)

(( Ah, I was slightly worried when you weren't coming on. :'D That and I had nothing to do on this site. :'D ))

 

Upon receiving the unexpected attack from behind, s'Arina grunted. "Rgh... Being ganged up by kids..." Eliza then summoned Garbera, a Folk that appeared to be a hunchback woman. Garbera summoned four gusts of wind and sent them at s'Arina. Despite the powerful winds, the woman merely stood there.

Suddenly, a smug look came onto her face. "On second thought, I'll leave you to kill yourself off." Snapping her fingers, the gusts were pushed back and a door popped up. (( I recently bought the game, and I've discovered that the portals tend to be doors with reddish vortexes in them. :'D )) Smirking, s'Arina stepped into the portal.

"No! No, stop!" Eliza shouted, even though the portal had been gone for a few seconds. "Don't you run away!" She stomped up to where the portal used to be and summoned Quasarilli numerous times, slamming down onto the earth as a hammer. "Get back here! Get back here, dammit!"

"...I don't think she's coming back, you know," Raiden commented, cringing at how obvious he sounded. "Don't waste your energy, idiot..." He studiously started cleaning his blade on the edge of his shirt, scrubbing uselessly at the dried blood and mud strewn across it, getting more frustrated the more he tried and carried on making no difference.

Eliza froze. She was still staring at the ground that she had been beating down on many times. "... You're right," she said, "I am an idiot." She jerked her head up to look at the sky. "And someday, my idiocy will get the best of me, but until then, I'm going to continue this way." She began laughing, almost in a sadistic tone.

Suddenly, Scarecrow appeared and viewed the situation. "Uh-oh, that's no good," he said before looking over at Raiden. "Hey, if you don't mind, could you knock her out? I'd do it myself, but... Kwe-heh, I don't want my soul taken, now do I?"

Confused, Raiden stood there awkwardly, completely unsure of what was going on with her and what to do- until he heard Scarecrow and turned on his heel, glaring suspiciously and raising his dagger, pointing it at Scarecrow. Realising it looked kind of pathetic- using it like a sword only emphasised how small it was- he lowered his arm, glancing back at Eliza. "...What's up with her?" he asked, not even bothering to try and question Scarecrow on his being there. "I'm not knocking her out for no reason, knowing my luck, she'll get brain damage or something."

"Well, as you may know from... personal experience," Scarecrow began, "something is wrong with the Netherworld. Not that this hasn't been the first time, but the effects are certainly more serious. I'm not one that tends to be involved, but I believe it may have to do with the Netherworld Core. Anyhow, whatever is wrong is even infecting Messengers. It's surfacing their strongest emotions and memories, like the only lingering thing of the dead. I believe that it's especially effective via the cloaks."

Raiden subconciously hugged his stomach, nodding and glancing from Eliza to Scarecrow. "Infecting them, huh... If I knock her out for you, will you answer something for me? It's just... something that's been bothering me." He bowed his head, turning ashamed as he thought of what would happen if any of his family were witnessing... well, any of this. He was supposed to be helping them, stopping the messengers... But, he was too interested in the answer.

With Eliza still laughing in the background, Scarecrow exclaimed sarcastically, "Gee, don't I feel like... Gah, whatever you kids call it nowadays. Back to the point, sure." Scarecrow switched from standing on one foot to the other.

"...I'll ask afterwards, because I guess I probably can't be trusted, right...?" Raiden bit his lip, but headed over to Eliza, slightly wary. Darting towards her, he smacked out at a pressure point in her neck, apologising even before he moved to knock her out.

"Who's to say that I can?" Scarecrow said, throwing in his signature laugh before Raiden walked over.

 

Upon being hit, Eliza paused. However, it seemed that the hit wasn't hard enough, for she turned her head sideways and looked at him. Faintly grinning, she stated, "You hit as hard as my mama. Papa hits a lot harder." She began laughing again. "They called me an idiot, but I guess I was only an idiot because I didn't follow him. I was an idiot for leaving, because now people die because of me."

"I... Are you saying I hit like a girl?! I bet I hit harder than you!" Raiden snapped back, before groaning and telling himself to pull it together. Getting het up about the slightests of digs wasn't going to help anything- especially the fact he was missing the entire point of what she was saying. Irritated, he tried again, hissing another string of apologies even though he knew Eliza probably wouldn't care if he said it or not.

Eliza continued to laugh until Raiden hit her again. Whether his hit was actually successful this time, or she conveniently passed out from all of the energy that she had wasted, it didn't really matter.

"Well," Scarecrow finally said, "that's good. Now, could you at least toss her out of this world? Again, I'd do it myself, but I don't want my soul sucked away."

Catching Eliza, Raiden went to head for the portal they'd entered the realm through earlier, but paused. "Wait. My question first. You could just close the stupid portal, for all I know." He hitched Eliza higher up in his arms, trying to get used to the weight. "If..." he kept hesitating, stumbling over his words and searching for the right way to put it. "Is there... ever a way that people who've... not passed on like me... Could I ever be alive again? Properly?"

Scarecrow paused. His permanent grin on his face slightly lessened. "I'm not too sure... But then again, many things are going wrong, the process between life and afterlife can be reversed. Not a thing to give one's hopes up for, but nevertheless." As his grin turned to its normal state, what seemed to be a smug look appeared on his face. "I am quite curious, though. What could you possibly want to return to in the land of the living? What purpose could you possibly serve?"

Raiden hesitated for a long moment. "I just... hate this half life. And I kind of feel like I got cheated out of having a life in the first place- I mean, if it weren't for all this screwed up death stuff, I'd probably be healthy by now. And, more importantly, alive."

Suddenly, as though he wasn't paying attention at all, Scarecrow exclaimed, "Oh yes! I must meet Charlie tonight at the pub. It's been a few decent decades since I've last met him. Hopping on his foot a few times, he then disappeared into the air, but not before adding, "See ya!"

(You're meeting my little brother at the pub? :'D)

 

Raiden made a grumbling sigh, then headed for the portal. "I have to go back to him sometime, you know. He's going to notice I'm not around, and since I can't die, he's going to come looking for me," he complained aloud, even though he still thought Eliza to be unconscious. His hair was falling into his eyes and was starting to irritate the hell out of him, but he couldn't push it out of the way without dropping her. He tried flicking his head, but it didn't work, and, if anything, made the bangs settle even more annoyingly over his face.