The Copycats!

The castle was how she remembered it. Obscured in shadows, the odour of dew faint within the air, and the largely built fire place nestled at the end of the hall. This place was the last thing she could recall. It was as if a giant fragment of her memories had been taken and placed elsewhere. Every individual she may have encountered vanished on the whining fold of wind, even her own name - briefly - was nearly lost. It was a wonder as to what had brought her here in the first place. The horrid marking across the outside of her hand layered over knife-made scars was - through intuition - the insignia of this guild. This place was her only answer. Her only clue to remembering. But as of now it appeared completely abandoned, scare of any life that may have dwelled here. It was only assumable that perhaps that snakes of this faction were all slithering about elsewhere.

Descending into the seat nearest to the fire, she immediately went through the task of warming herself up. Her mind wandering back to the bossy little fox that had been accompanying her, evidently a close friend as he was the one that told her of her true name. Because of this castle's location, and the treacherous weather that coated this mountainous land, orangey - as much as it seemed to vex his nerves - did not pursue closely behind the "apparent" young woman. Instead he promised almost forcefully that he would wait for her from the outside. There was doubt in that confession due to the demon's rather cold and violent nature she had noticed throughout their brief time together, yet, she figured she might've been alright without him anyway.

A sigh disembarked past her lips, figure leaning further into the nicely cushion chair. She could feel the muscles along her feet ache, an obvious sign of overworking herself through the consistent journey from one mission to the next. The lids of her eyes felt heavy, the raven of lashes fluttering downward as she gradually fell into the darkness of sleep. Sparks of embers crackling faded into the dreams that swept her away. One with the fox and a little boy. Who was he? She felt strongly that she knew him, but her conscious disregarded her interest of yearning to know. After all, this was hardly a dream. But a broken memory. Missing of its many pieces. Even his face was blurred out, though, a voice reached her vividly. Natsu stirred within her sleep, urged back into reality as if some sort of force had shoved her back there in the first place, desperate and strict with her poking around.

ALL I ASK OF YOU IS BELIEVE

HEIR TO THE THRONE OF YOUR ORIGINAL SIN

The shadow watched on from atop of a beam on the ceiling, a sly smile covering her face. The girl watched on as the lady below simply feel asleep in the middle of the guild hall. She gently jumped down to the ground of the guild, her feet making a quiet but deadly thump as they hit they ground. She calmly approached the fire place and gently let a spark of ember float into her hand. It was hot yet innocent, far more than anything or anyone else in this guild, including herself. The girl, Jade, was a monster. She cared not for anyone or anything unless it held importance to her. She willed for the world to go down in darkness, she wanted them to feel pain. She would kill anyone or anything that would stand in her way to becoming a god. The girl hated weakness and wanted to rid the world of it.

She turned to the woman sleeping in the seat and walked over to her calmly, and getting over her. She sat in a crouched position, almost straddling the lady. The shadow giggled to herself "So pretty, so innocent..." she muttered gently as she twirled the orange hair between her fingers. She sat down gently and proceeded to play with the girl's hair a little bit, humming a tune to herself as she did. Jade stared down at the girl calmly and smiled. This girl in front of her was just like the fire, innocent. Jade did not yet know the woman but she did give off a nice and relaxing vibe. The make-shift god placed her hands on the girls shoulders and lowered her head to smell the girl. She inhaled and exhaled slightly. She put her head back up and felt the girl stir a bit "Hmm?" Jade muttered to herself as she tilted her head a little bit "Just when it was getting fun too..." she muttered as she hopped off and sat at the edge of the seat, pouting a bit. After a couple of seconds she glanced back at the woman "You gonna wake up or not sleepy head?" she chuckled a little "It's not safe to be sleeping in this place alone... Someone might try something." she licked her lips as she said it.

Word Count: 385

MADE BY MINNIE OF FTS & GANGNAM STYLE

As she awoke from the brief slumber, sudden company had made its appearance just next to her on the couch. One whom was much to close to her liking. With her shoulders jerked, the slender body of the youth shifted away to the other end of the comfortable furniture, eyeing the white-haired girl suspiciously. From what she could remember, this place had always been crawling with trouble, and from this stranger's comment and odd behaviour, it seemed intuition was as usual; correct. Her brows furrowed lightly, intense blue eyes not faltered from the facade of innocence that this younger girl acted upon. She didn't trust anyone here, regardless if they were but a mer child. The scar across her hand, layered over by the marking of snakes had come from this gloomy place, and from what she just said, it was not safe here.

"Who are you?" with this question her shoulders relaxed slightly, a shiver still teasing at her back. The fire was not hot enough to warm this stone-cold place; they should've at least instilled a better system for keeping warm. Then again, a bunch of villains probably didn't give a damn about anything but killing or rebelling against the government... but she could put herself into that category and quite possibly say that warmth was a nice thing, even for someone of wicked intentions living in the middle of a blizzard-like desert. "If any of you snakes tried to do anything to me, I'd taser you to the point you'd have to crawl." she muttered out, lastly turning to face the flames that danced before them. Unfortunately, this was the only place that she remembered, and it was her only source of knowledge to figuring out who she really was. As much as she hated being here, this was the only place that could've been considered her home.  

ALL I ASK OF YOU IS BELIEVE

HEIR TO THE THRONE OF YOUR ORIGINAL SIN

The white haired God Slayer would stay facing the flames as the girl before her spoke. Jade raised an eyebrow at the woman's words "Those are strong words coming from someone who just ended up here." she said with a bit of harshness to her voice. She closed her hand into a fist and took a breath "And besides, if I wanted to try anything on you I would have done it already." she spoke with a mature tone now as she gently moved her hand over to grasp the peculiar woman's hand gently. She studied the hand with focused eyes grazing over it "My name is Jade and by the looks of it you're one of us." she said placing the hand down.  

She eyed the woman, cautiously scooted over to her, placing her hand around the woman's shoulder and resting her head on the ladies shoulder "I know, it can get a bit cold in here sometimes but you get used to it... it took me a while." she was being gentle to this person because she actually sort of felt bad. She glanced up to the woman "So, what's your name, how did you get here?" her crimson red eyes would scan the ladies face sternly as she spoke, cautious of being so close to the woman but still she was relaxed.

On the small table in front of her there lay a small envelope on it addressed to anyone in the Azeron Alliance. Jade knew who these people were but she didn't exactly know anything about them. She lifted her head off of the strangers shoulder and grabbed the paper envelope and opened it "I hope this wasn't for Mom..." she muttered underneath her breath before reading the letter out loud.    

"Normally we don't bat an eye when a group of unknown thugs are killing and plundering, in fact we would even encourage such behavior. Anything to keep the Council and their knights busy, instead of going after the dark guilds. If it wasn't for the fact that these particular group is waving the flag of the dark guilds every time the commit a crime.


It is an insult to think to the dark guilds, and creates unnecessary and unwanted attention to our own activity. So what we need you to do is to scout the area, and take out all the member of their petty little gang.


We don't care how you do it, you can surprise them by acting as if you are one of the traveling merchants who traverses through the mountains. Or you wait and follow them back to their hide out. Either way works, as long as the result is the same.

- The Azeron Alliance

Jade thought about putting the letter down for a second before snapping her fingers together "I have the perfect idea. Let's get to know each other! Maybe going on the job will help you maybe settle into this place and maybe even learn more about us!" she said happily. She assumed that this girl did not know where she was or even what they were so she invited her out on a small job "This shouldn't take that much of your time, maybe a day or two." she spoke with a pleading voice now.

Word Count: 549

MADE BY MINNIE OF FTS & GANGNAM STYLE

This kid certainly wasn't afraid to break the boundaries of personal space. As much as she felt uncomfortable or awkward over the few that had no trouble with touching or being so settled in close proximity– on the other hand she was much different. Raised in an environment where table-manners and learning how to act lady-like was proper for someone of royalty, had evoked her eventual rebellious and stubborn nature. Yet that judgemental and arrogant demeanour seemed to stick by; she couldn't deny that fact.  

Just as she was not afraid to be so brutally straightforward– this silver-haired girl was the same in regards to reaching forth and expressing herself with traces of touch, rather than with voice. "Jade..." –an interesting name. She'd wonder if it was just a nickname, if its short yet simply pleasant layer of letters had been sorted intentionally. Either way it wasn't the sort of common title she would hear often; regardless for her often approach of wanting to remain alone. Azure irises glimpsed over at the hand that had been released, frowning barely enough for it to have been considered an expression– as fleeting as a shooting star.

Beneath that glove was a marking, one bared by scars and unable to be recognized. The memory was vivid, clouded by hate and fury– but it was as sharp as the knife that had caused such a permanent thing to latch to her hand. Why?– as much as the snakes got onto her nerves, she couldn't understand why she hated them enough to take a blade and pierce her own flesh. Perhaps it wasn't out of anger. She'd have liked to believe that. In fact she convinced herself that there must've been some reasonable explanation to joining the vermin in this gloomy castle. After all she wasn't the type to do things aimlessly.

"I'm..." –hesitation, what was the correct answer? She remembers what the fox called her and speaks again, "Natsuzora..." but wasn't it something else? The name feels alien when it rolls from her lips, yet at the same time, it's almost as if she had heard it to often. As if she was distraught by it; skeptical to so openly identifying herself. "Does it matter how I got here?" she'd exhale, turning away, "I'm one of you. That should be enough to suffice your curiosity–!?" muscles tensed, even more uneasy over the fact that Jade had drawn so close to her again. Is she part cat?– it certainly felt like it.

Ready to tell the still somewhat stranger of a girl– to get off, she'd shift towards the table before them, reaching out to grasp onto a letter. It may have been a good idea to get up and leave, but the voice of the other was already beginning it's pursuit of going over what had been written on that worn piece of paper. Her stomach would churn inward in a sign of worry; moving away from the youth with snow-tainted locks. "I'll never settle into this place, so don't even bother." she'd mutter, searching for a way out of this situation.

Natsu had already been exhausted from the job she had just returned from. The one that had– ended quite strangely. Fingers wandered to the centre of her chest, recalling the time it was once alit by a heavenly white light. Yet, she'd peer over at the area of this castle, knowing full well that she'd rather be somewhere else than in here. "...But... I guess I'll come." pulling away from the comfort of the couch, posture would straighten, "Better than being cooped up in this cheerless place." yet the thought of heading outside and away from the dancing flames was a bit of a nuisance.

ALL I ASK OF YOU IS BELIEVE