A SONG OF WHITE FEATHERS † job, eris

Post 495 PG. 20
Sonata of Memories(One time only): Job Description

Iceberg.  "The place where all the ice and cold in the world is born and where it dies."  That description did not quite suit the country, for although it was ruled by a tyrant many lovely and gracious souls could both be born and thrive there.  Lacey herself had no declaration that she fit under one of those categories, but nonetheless the noir haired mage objected to calling her home country a frozen hell on earth.  Such a concept was possibly redundant and not confirmable, anyways, as she had never been to that awful place and wasn't sure if it was already cold as ice.  Either way, the point was that Iceberg was not quite such a bad place.  In fact, the young woman missed it already.  She had been residing in Fiore for quite some time now, at least comparatively so; two weeks was a brief span in the grand scheme of things yet for her it was already enough.  The nation seemed to be eternally on the brink of spring's shift into summer, with sunny days and occasional light showers of rain and balanced, never changing hours of light during the day.  Lacey could suppose that this had something to do with the place's location in Earthland, but as she herself knew not many countries beyond those directly between Fiore and Iceberg as well as the Pergrande Kingdom, she could not say for sure what the geography of this planet was.  In fact, the idea of it not even being a round sort at all had occurred to her more than once, but so as to not go mad the dark headed girl refused to entertain these musings for too long.

All in all, the main point was that she had been meaning to visit her lovely, freezing nation and feel those beautiful waves of nostalgia as she gazed upon the small village that she had originated from.  After all, Lacey had set out from the settlement several years ago, regardless of whether or not she had remained in the nation itself.  Being a country, the territory belonging to Iceberg and its ever tyrannical ruler was large enough to get lost in if one didn't care to get a grasp of one's bearings.  She, certainly, had not, wanting to assume the guise of a lost traveler with the name Lavinia Botticelli.  It was her name now; she would make certain that nobody knew otherwise, or even thought of the possibility of it not being so.  The young woman folded her hands in her lap, wringing them together tightly as her stomach clenched with the guilt of this eternal lie she was playing out.  What a hypocrite, really; to strive to create a sinless world while she could not bear to admit to her own soul the crimes she had committed and accept them to ask for forgiveness.  She breathed out a shaky sigh before loosening her entwined fingers and pressing the palms of her hands flat against the upholstery of the seat.  This train she had taken was rumored to lead straight through the majority of Earthland, bypassing any pesky foreign customs or other things that could possibly delay a traveler.  Since all Lacey really wanted to do was reach Iceberg as swiftly as possible-- mm, she could imagine the frost chill on her skin right now, and it was simply divine-- she had taken the magical form of transportation that was this newfangled type of train.  So far, it seemed to be rather the same, except for much more elevated in price.  Perhaps she was just a cheapskate or didn't understand the way the currency of Fiore worked, but 100,000 jewels for a single one way ticket seemed excessive.

Lacey inhaled another stuttering breath as she shoved her hands against the cushions, trying to find some kind of purchase to confirm her existence as a human.  There were no tanuki ears under her winter hat and nor was there a tail swishing around between her legs and being sat on uncomfortably right now; nobody knew a thing, and she intended to keep it that way.  Her hands fluttered around uncertainly for a moment before she lifted both up to tuck her scarf more securely around her neck.  This ride is long, she complained inwardly before her conscience nagged at her and she crumpled a bit inside.  Not that I have any right to complain and anyways, it is crossing several nations at once, she justified.  The dark haired mage smoothed down her skirt before pulling her heavy woolen coat more snuggly around her body, patting down all of her furs to make sure that nearly every inch of her body was covered.  Her ears were left bare, though, a fact that suddenly became blindingly obvious.  When she got to Iceberg, she would need to either pull up her scarf or find a pair of earmuffs.  Lacey twisted one corner of her lip between her upper and lower teeth as she thought hard concerning going about and acquiring such an article of winter clothing.  It was indeed a nation that always had freezing cold temperatures, but that was precisely why everyone already had winter gear; well, she would figure things out when it came to that, the girl supposed, although secretly she worried quite heavily.

Her attention was diverted all of a sudden as a blonde girl, rather petite and in fact short to the point of it being a noticeable physical trait, barged into the train car.  The place was actually most empty aside from Lacey herself as well as a couple other passengers; nothing compared to the other cars, which were leading to more desirable places than Iceberg, she would assume.  "I've accepted a job to help this chick out, her name is Alyia or something.  Her family doesn't remember her and there's other fishy business going on, but the point is, I need a couple replacement because my gang and I gotta head back to Fiore and help out our guild with some darkies.  Help a few strangers out, will ya?"  Immediately following that announcement, the blonde departed from the car after taping a wrinkled sheet of paper onto the sliding glass door of the tanuki's compartment.  Naturally, Lacey opened up her door and stood in the aisle, ignoring for the most part the stares of the few other passengers in the car.  She did notice their glances but was focused on reading what ended up being the job description.  "Ask some people in the city about what is going on.  Figure out if anyone remembers Alyia and why the city is different."  Lacey tilted her head to the side slightly as she contemplated the mission; not actually being an official resident of Fiore could end up being a problem if the Magic Council questioned why she was taking on mage work here without even a permit or whatever, if that was necessary; however, the requester seemed to need help.  "Is anyone possibly a mage here and could assist me?" she asked the general bystanders in the car curiously.  If all else failed, the blonde and her friends had probably come through other train cars to get here and she could inquire as to if people from there wanted to group up and visit Alyia's home town.

1222/11250 Words~ 2/50 Posts~
Not rolling because it's the first post, and an introductory post~

"Greetings, noble huntress," the sky eyed female said with a respectful nod of her head. It was a very opportune occurrence, her meeting with this stranger; Lacey might even regard it as a miracle having been sent. The ice mage of course wanted to finish the strange group's job and help out that blonde who had taped the paper on her window; however, since she was barely even a citizen of Fiore yet, the young woman assumed that she would require assistance to actually take on any missions. [color=#828282]"I have a request from some body named Alyia, who would like us to visit. . ." the girl blinked with dark azure eyes at the job description, trying to pronounce the name within her own mind before butchering it to all of the listeners.

". . . it's a village in Earthland, up in the mountains. There are directions listed here; I'm certain that the train will stop a place at least nearby where I intend to go, and the conductor of this automated travel vehicle can direct us-- that is, me and perhaps you if you are willing to accompany me?-- to choose the best possible stop. My name is Lavinia Botticelli, but you may feel free to call me whatever makes you most comfortable. Lacey is the preferred shortened version of my name for a great deal of people," she introduced and recommended with a soft smile as her head led her torso into a slow bow. "I hail from Iceberg," the raven haired young woman continued, her eyes trained on the stranger to search for any changes in expression. "Please forgive any errors in speaking, but I would be so grateful if you would come." It was purely for this desire to not make any such mistakes, however, that the female talked so slow and steady, also for the purpose of not giving away all of the her jittery thoughts that clamored around in her head when she spoke or tried to put any thoughts into real verbalization. That, of course, only worked in combination with the mage's already quiet and usually solemn demeanor, although she was indeed a friendly soul inside.

Deciding to leave her attempts with interaction with the strange, unnamed mage for now, the ebony haired female crossed through the aisle of the train, dipping her head politely to every person she passed regardless of whether or not they gaped rudely at Lacey herself. Once she had reached the front of the car, the female blinked around at the area, searching for a certain person she had in mind. "Hello, if I could have a word with you, m'am?" she inquired, gently tapping a uniformed woman on the shoulder in order to receive her attention as a customer. "I'm heading to a certain place called--" it was at this point that the female broke off and went to gesture down at the sheet apologetically before remembering that she had taped it back to the window in case the huntress had wished to read it. Lacey wouldn't dream of asking someone to participate in a possibly dangerous mission without his or her prior knowledge of what exactly he or she was getting into, at least to the best of her ability in what was under her control.

"Pardon me, m'am, it was just-- here, I can spell it for you." She wrapped up her wavering words with a bow and a slight inward wince at her incompetence when it came to these proceedings and attempts to get directions and knowledge of the proper train stops from this helpful conductor. All of this having been done, she began to spell out the village name in halting letters that were barely those of Fiore's alphabet; for some unknown reason natives had a unique way of pronouncing the letters that made them actually sound like short words. Lacey was terrible at it and had not captured the accent yet, which showed heavily in her voice. "I am so very sorry, m'am, but perhaps you understand? I, uhm. . ." she trailed off as she was met with a blank and rather unamused stare. If only I had spent more time among official seeming people, this wouldn't be a problem, she thought desperately as she was stared down by the intimidatingly uniformed woman.

"What I mean to say, m'am, is that, uhm, I hail from somewhere other than Fiore. . ." her words died away as she was met with an even less forgiving expression. The woman's eyes seemed to say of course you're from here, do you take me for an idiot? and that had Lacey feeling exceedingly uncomfortable. "I was hoping you could help me find my way here?" the dark haired young woman tried before repeating the name of the village in one cohesive word, giving up on her attempts to maintain the integrity of its pronounciation. The conductor finally gave her a vocal response and simply said that it was the fourth stop after the next, after hearing which the girl with ocean eyes bowed with all of the enthusiasm yet mainting collectiveness, which she could muster. "Thank you very much, m'am," she forced out slowly in the common tongue before hustling back to her seat. "Will you take the mission with me?" she asked the huntress outright, eyeing the other female hopefully although not with altogether too much outward showing of her desired intentions. It wouldn't do to end up coercing her to tag along if the magic user didn't want it, if her personality would go along with such bending.

If she said yes, then Lacey would explain her magic with as few words as she could possibly come up with, not wanting to muddle up the waters more with her heavily accented speech. Actually,
the young woman would do so regardless of whether the answer was a clear affirmative;
the journey would be long either way, and she would appreciate any company. Exchanging some basic and mostly harmless information-- after all, Lacey didn't plan to go about battling strangers for probably no reason at all-- would be a decent ice breaker type of conversation. "I use Kiah Lake," she would say, "Perhaps more commonly known as Special Snowflake Magic," she might correct if the huntress's face didn't show recognition, and that would be the expected occurrence for the following reason which the raven haired mage would try to vocalize in her following phrases. "It originates from Iceberg and involves mostly using ice and creating sturdy things," the young woman would sum up to the best of her ability. Defense and just overall utility was the general goal of her spells. After finishing up her brief explanation, the female would fall silent and offer the huntress a brief smile. If the two were going to work together on this mission, then she might offer her a bit more information and would say something like "I am not a citizen of Fiore, but I intend to help Alyia-san if I can," as well as the instructions the conductor had given, "As soon as the train stops next, we have four more before we reach the client's village." Otherwise or even just after these words had been spoken, Lacey would ask the huntress briefly about her day and perhaps her travels. It wasn't just anyone who chose to use this nationwide and even Earthland scale train.

2462/11250 Words~ 8/50 Posts~

Lacey smiled at the huntress's words, true joy and relief lighting up her face. The other female would come and seemed to be quite ready for any type of adventure that would approach the two. Her name, Eris Sytry, was also given . . . the raven haired female found that to be a right curious sort of name; it was rather defined and playful at the same time, with the lilting way she found she pronounced Sytry in her mind. That was a sign never to say it out loud or else her accent would be the end of her. It was nice to hear that the woman was from Joya, although the fact simultaneously made Lacey slightly uncomfortable. Being from a cold winter land, she like to melted in any strong kind of heat. The mage couldn't help but hope that this mission would take place in a more temperate climate, for the sake of both of them; she had her own doubts about whether Eris's clothes would be sufficient should there prove to be snow. In fact, the huntress stated so herself after also saying something vaguely worrying about running off if the mission wasn't fun enough. Rather, she said she would not-- so long as it was not the most boring thing she had experienced so far in her life time.

Lacey could only offer her a reassuring smile and hope that if such a case came she would be alright on her own; the female couldn't hold a grudge against anyone who wanted to live out their life in pure excitement, even if she would never think that way. Wonder was still, of course, one of the characteristics that she put a great deal of love into, that joy of seeing the world and simply living and reveling in the fact that this is indeed a beautiful place. A small smile swept across her lips at the thought before it disappeared as she focused back in to listen to huntress's words concerning the magic she had spoken of. Eris recommended that she not worry about the nature of the warm skinned mage's magic, so the icy young woman nodded in response. She would trust in her new companion's skills and simply leave alone asking any nosy or unwanted questions. It could possibly be seen as bit awkward in some opinions that the huntress had begun talking about backstabbing so early in their. . . partnership, could she call it? But Lacey could appreciate the straightforwardness. Especially, that was, considering how the jungle seemed to have opposing views on ice magic versus the citizens of Iceberg. Such should be expected.

What made her more curious than she probably ought to have been, however, was the idea that there were multiple living souls around Eris, or within her; one of the two. It was difficult to comprehend exactly what that meant. Considering how Lacey did not actually possess any abilities that would allow her to view such soular activity-- okay that wasn't funny-- she would mostly just ignore it for now. Thankfully, her attention was next diverted by the female's following statement; perhaps it was thankfully, perhaps not since what she said. . . "I do not have anything that allows me to fly," the girl said although she was hesitant to do so. Such a question was rather foreboding in her opinion.

3028/11250 Words~
Was going to make this longer but it seems you have ideas with the flying thing
Shall leave it up to you!~

The flight was amazing and breathtaking, there was simply no other way to describe the experience. That was, at first. Soon as the two mages flew onwards, other adverbs sprung into her mind with the vigor like a hole had been poked into an overblown up balloon, but it was only the size of a pinprick. Rapidly more and more "gas" would leak out until the balloon's thin plastic wall was shriveled and no longer gleaming, round, or full. All of the words had toppled out along with each bit of air. "Chilly" also came to mind-- not a bone tingling, clattering cold but rather the kind that made a person's jaw ache just as if he had eaten a sweet whose sugar was so potent it had then become wrenchingly painful. The kiss of a gale's murmur across her forehead and cheeks was so soft and crisp all at the same time. It was even fairly addicting, and the girl made a mental note to acquire wings of her own at some point in time very soon. Unless it was a qualified sin to enjoy getting lightheaded and almost giggly on pure atmosphere, Lacey was determined to end up in this position once again. That was, if it ever ended: the ride was pleasant in the huntress's arms even if her position was rather familiar and close for two people who had just met. Yet, a trust between strangers was a novel and beautiful thing that she supposed could stand to be around more in this world; she didn't mind having to depend on Eris for now. The female did have her own strengths that might reveal themselves later on.

And now they were landing far too soon, and it was another smooth experience-- smooth sailing, one might say. nothing at all was it like to taking a train or even a smaller car and breaking to a stop, with both of their shuddering, stalling halts. When her feet finally touched the ground and the surface of the earth underneath her feet was as solid as the high mountains, a smile flashed across the mage's face before it fled to give way to concentration on their goal and the mission. The cold up here did feel nice, oh so very nice, but the pair had work to do. Lacey turned to her partner, who began to step towards the raven haired mage until she suddenly stopped in her tracks with a questioning glint in her eyes. Then the golden haired winged one asked a couple questions that made the ice mage's blood run even colder than it had been before; funny that should have happened, because Eris inquired about the freezing temperature, too. The milk skinned female blinked during the silence that followed before she scraped up as genuine and straightforward of a response as she was able. "I'm Lacey, your . . . " she searched for an appropriate phrase, "Partner?" she disliked how that had emerged as more of a question than a solid statement. "My name is Lavinia Botticelli, and you're right, it is cold up here-- we're in the mountains to help out a girl named Alyia, to investigate about her past and with her family. We should actually get going now," she commented, smiling as gently as the mage could manage. These final words were left to hang in the air until the huntress should speak, because the ice wielding witch was already heading down a nearby trail that she had spotted. It was a clear enough way to venture, with only a few branches littering the path here and there along with perhaps several kilograms of crunchy fallen leaves. The terrain itself was nothing special but quite typical of more of a hill than a rugged mountain, with loose soil in places that scrambled under the soles of her feet.

She finally reached a plateau in the path, and upon which lay a gate. That was probably the entrance to the village that the pair had been able to spot earlier from the air; they had likely landed with getting inside at the forefront of their minds. It was, after all, that place that Alyia had supposedly originated if she was to be believed over the apparent beliefs of the inhabitants. The ebony haired young woman felt the reassuring rush of frigid air into her lungs before she tentatively shoved against the iron gate-- the wrought metal was freezing cold-- until it swung inwards. Glancing behind her to meet Eris's eyes, the girl then continued forwards until she was standing in the middle of a wider path than that of the foresty and underbrush chocked wild. Surrounding her in a half moon shape in front of her was a set of whom she assumed to be citizens, although Lacey did try to minimize her assumptions. That was a dangerous slope to slide down, especially on a mission. She greeted the group with a slight smile and a look of polite interest in her eyes to accompany her ordinary words.

"Hello, my name is Lacey. We heard that this village had been demolished in a prior incident, and one of the former citizens came back to pay her respects to find that it is truly in impeccable condition," she paused to smile kindly at the beautifully crafted buildings and smaller huts or houses. "My partner and I were wondering if you should know anything about what has happened from that point, the incident?" A stately woman with greying hair stepped forwards, her gaze mistrustful and trained on the ice mage. "Nothing has happened to our village that might cause it to be ruined," she said with lips that were almost pressed together. The frosty tone continued as she said, "What person claims to originate from here?" Recalling that the client had said she was not remembered, Lacey nonetheless gave the name. "Alyia," she said carefully. The female's eyes flashed as she turned away, her dress whirling around her ankles. "We know no one of that name. As the headswoman of this village for decades, I would know." drifted over her shoulder as the entire group departed, leaving the foreign mages standing in the dust. "Eris? Do you think this is what Alyia meant by nobody remembering . . . anything? Should we check around and talk to a few, other people, maybe from stores or houses to see if they know anything? Maybe the woman was hiding something . . . " she hadn't exactly seemed suspicious, but it was difficult to tell because they had so little information about what actually was the correct set of events and occurrences.

4144/11250 Words~ woman's color is #cccccc
You can write about talking to shopkeepers, Alyia's family, and heading to the night, etc. if you want
If you write about heading back to investigate during the night roll some dice and we can start fighting <3