Blood and knives

Rhyolo had woken up in his hotel room when the the sun's light assaulted his eyes when they had first opened for the day. as his eyes adjusted he sat up straight in his bed rubbing the crusts out of his eyes. Once his pupils had gotten used to the sudden light change he hen took in his surrondings and began to look around the hotel room. He saw a nice little wooden table next to his bed. on the table was a vase with a single flower inside. The flower was a golden crimson and looked beautiful. hen then looked toward the tiled bathroom door where he saw his clothes thrown on the floor next to the doorway. He then looked at the source of the light. The fire mage looked at the open window and saw that the yellow curtains were flapping in the wind. Rhyolo then got up out of his bed and sleepily walked over to the window and closed it. He then stretched his aching back by pushing it forward with both of his hands. Once his back was stretched with a few satisfactory pops, Rhyolo then let out a relieved sigh.
He then thought aloud, "Why does my back hurt when I'm only 16. This doesn't make any sense. Either way it's life." Rhyolo then walks into the bathroom and proceeds to runs some hot water for a shower. As he waits for the water to warm up he goes ahead and puts the old dirty clothes in his bag after setting out the extra pair he had brought for himself. once the water was warm enough Rhyolo bathed himself and then proceeded to dry himself off after turning off the water in the shower. Rhyolo then put on his clothes.Instead of his usual Red hoodie and shorts, Rhyolo had put on a black sleeveless shirt with a read collars vest on top. He also wore long white pants. Rhyolo then put on his usual leather boots. the young mage then sat on the bed wondering what to do. He then decided to get out of his bed and go for a nice walk in the forest. He then heads out to the forest in the east of town and begins to walk.

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It was always refreshing when she could get out of the Guildhall since she spent a good deal of her time there as it was most efficient for maintaining the condition of things. Nyx really didn't have any complaints about her guild, but sometimes it left little time for enjoyment since she was still regaining her strength. Right now wasn't the time for an internal monologue nor was it time to slaughter everything in sight, at least not yet; Currently, it was time for a leisurely walk. 'A ghost went out to the forest for a walk' actually sounded quite like the opening some ridiculous joke, but this wasn't that sort of deal. Even if she was only a spirit now and lacked the 'functions' many of the living possessed, she still needed to stretch her legs sometimes.

The teenage appearing ghost had been walking for a while now, a good couple of hours most likely when she got the feeling she was not the only one in the forest. One of the other people? Felt as if they were nearby, she could tell easily, while the other seemed to be trying to keep themselves hidden. Since she couldn't really do much about someone hiding, for the moment she decided to get a little bit of socialization out of the person she could sense clearly. Tracking someone down was no issue for her and within a few minutes, she was standing a few feet behind what appeared to be a teenage boy, likely a mage by the feeling of things. "Hello." her voice came out easily, large muddy eyes looking at the back of the person she had spoken to, hands behind her back. "I'm Minx." Of course, that wasn't really her name but the young guildmaster was not just going to trust anyone with her real name. Those who knew her name? Had the ability to find out on their own through subtly invasive measures or where a trusted advisor to her. "What are you doing out in the forest today?" her brown hair bounced slightly as her transparent head tilted slightly forward at the comment, another step forward being taken by her tiny feet.

For the moment? She was going to pay little mind to the other presence she felt, as at the moment whoever else happened to be in this forest was not directly upon her. Honestly, it felt as if the third presence was perhaps a bit malicious, so she was perfectly willing to put that confrontation off for the moment. Someone being malicious feeling? Was different from a challenge to fight, but she had no doubt eventually the third presence would likely find them and attack, at which point she would prove her strength once more.

Rhyolo had been walking through the forest for quite a bit. He saw the scenes of nature stay the same around him but also change at the same time. He saw the tall trees stand there, rooted in place. He saw the branches sway in the wind, and heard the leaves flap. He saw rabbits, squirrels, deer, and other creature of various shapes and sizes pass by him. He didn't mind them. They went about their business in the order of nature as he went along his. He kept walking along the path and just observed nature and it order. Even though the young mag was leisurely walking he was on guard, he had sensed someone here, but he didn't know where.

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Just when he was thinking about it a girl had shown up behind him. Rhyolo had turned around to look at her when she introduced herself as minx. She looked maybe around his age with brown eyes and matching hair. The most noticeable thing about her was that she was transparent. Or translucent would be a better word. He could only see partly through her. So, she is ghost interesting. She would then introduce herself as Minx. He would then smile a friendly smile at her and say, "Nice to meet you, I'm Rhyolo." She would then proceed to ask him what he was doing here. He saw no problem with answering that question, so he did so, "Nothing much honestly. I came out here just to walk and look at nature. What about yourself? Why are you here?" There were also a couple of other questions he wanted to ask her. One was,"Are you a Ghost?" Another one was, "How old are you really?" Most of them were related to the fact of her looking like a spectral being. But, in the end he decides against them as he just keeps casual.

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She collected his attention easy enough but that was no major feat as anything was drawn to another creature speaking towards it. The boy introduced himself and she tucked the name backward in her head, just in case she would ever see him beyond this interaction. If the way her life went normally had any say? She would likely see this man again, she always seemed to meet random strangers more then once as if fate was trying to guide her or something. At least the newest random stranger in her rash of encounters with people she did not know and didn't kill? He seemed friendly enough, it was always a bit of a pain to end up killing someone if she got attached to them, but honor in combat meant seeing it through to the end, so if they attacked her it was their own sentence.

"I was just bored." staying inside the guild was not too productive to stimulating her mentality and even if she was alright with being lazy outside of combat, she still needed some degree of mental stimulation. Minx offered another small smile as she closed the distance she had left in precaution. "Join me for the rest of my walk?" she asked the question placing her fingertips together palms outwards in front of her chest in a somewhat confident but open gesture, already almost certain he would agree to accompany her.

Rhyolo thought she seemed fine enough. She seemed calm, nice, normal and happy. All of which seemed like normal traits for a teenage girl. When she asked him to walk with her he smiled a bit. He didn't know why but he was expecting it. He would have been feeling dumb if he was left alone and he was expecting her to want to walk with him. He then looks to her an smiles. "Sure, I'd love to. Better than walking all by myself."
He then noticed she had gotten closer and looked at her features more closely. Her hair was was short and a brown, like a milk chocolate color. Her eyes were around the same color but a tad darker.
He thinks about her being translucent and he wants to bring it up, but the nice part of him decides not to just in case she was sensitive to it. It didn't bother him like corpses did, those really bothered him. He really didn't know why, it wasn't even fresh corpses, it would be the ones that sat there and started to decay that bothered him.
He then tried to start some conversation with her as he began to walk with her. "So, what do you usually do on days like these? Me, I usually am training or doing a job, trying to make ends meet and pay my way through life by myself." All of that was true as he was currently a guildless mage, roaming about the land of fiore. His old guild, Infinity Hydra, had been disbanded and he was left alone with no friends. And his friend advent had disappeared somewhere and he couldn't find him. Probably wouldn't be likely he saw him again, he would really miss that nut job, he was one strange guy. But he made things fun.

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Quickly, this encounter was proving to be another one of those situations were she randomly found another 'drawn' to her or maybe it was her to them, but either way, it was as if she was doing no more then merely breathing in the way she somehow knew how to speak to them. The ghost had what many would call a silver tongue in spite of lacking charisma in the way many people described or possessed it. Minx wasn't the sort who just walked into a room with the intention to own it so to speak, she just wanted to meld into things and that was the thing that gave her the ability to socialize well on random as she was now.

Apparently, this one was a bit 'timid' or otherwise unwilling to comment on the fact she was a ghost, but that didn't really do anything to her considering it was only him who was worrying over it, she never paid it mind herself. However, it would have been delightful to have a new body if just to feel things like blood on her hands, she hadn't gotten the chance to feel it properly during her lifetime only when she was a feline had the female started accepting her own nature. "Most days." well she was fairly certain ripping someone's skull out would not be an acceptable response by the mannerism and appearance of this boy, not yet at least. "I'm a ghost, Soo, I kinda just do whatever." no one could really tell her what to do or make her do something, she was dead after all, she really only served herself so to speak. Of course, she couldn't be truly self-serving cause she'd never stop worshipping chaoris.

Rhyolo smiled an nodded as she gave him a brief answer. She seemed to pause a bit, indicating she thought a bit. He didn't want to assume she was hiding something but he couldn't help it. He guess she could if she wanted to, he was only a guy she had just met. Even though he had this rational thought he couldn't help to feel hurt on the off chance she was hiding information. He didn't know why it did, it just happened. He felt there was more to this ghost girl than she seems to let on. But, for the time being he would only scratch the surface of her, metaphorically that it. It would be rather weird and rude to scratch someone. But he did have a felling if he did literally scratch her she might give him an angry look.
"Well, how is it being a ghost? Kinda always had a curiosity about it." Truth be told he actually was genuinely interested. He had always eared not knowing what happened after you die. So, learning this could potentially help him with it. Rhyolo then wondered for a second why most of his fears were related to death.

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He seemed maybe a pinch intuitive seeming to find subtle concern in the pause her reply had required, her brow rising slightly in a veiled response to the 'worry' that had entered with his a smirk accompanying the gesture that was so brief if one blinked they may have missed it. She would have to think a little less with this one, but that was fine, she didn't do the absolute best actively thinking in the moment, most of her 'planning' on things was done within the confines of her room at the Guildhall with her reference books. What was often considered by others to be freakishly accurate 'split-second thinking and analysis' in the way she used her brain? Was truthfully an extra set of senses, she didn't think about any of it, simply felt and knew, intuition some may call it, only hers was highly evolved and supercharged by her life state.

"So the danced around question finally comes" she made the comment with another brief smirk, showing she had known the entire time he wanted to ask about it and simply decided to wait until he brought it up. "Apart from the fact we don't really need to eat, drink, sleep or such, it's really different for each ghost." she had seen so many different kinds of ghosts back when she hunted them and yet she was still different from any other ghost she had ever seen. "Likely vastly different in my case, I'm not like any other ghost I've met to date." with this comment her transparent hand lifted and set itself down upon his shoulder. Everything he and most people knew of ghosts? Would suggest her hand was meant to go through him, but that didn't happen, instead her limb just rested on his shoulder the weight of it almost as if she was solid although she let off no temperature.  "Even other ghosts capable of it can typically only do it when triggered by intense emotion or by spending most of their energy to maintain the ability for only a few brief minutes. I'm capable of materializing and remaining this way on my own whim unless I've taken too much damage to do so." and even more ghosts simply used remnants of psychic energy to throw items, she could simply interact with the living world as if she was still of it, and use her psychic abilities as normal. "It's effortless and at this point doesn't require any energy from me to sustain it." unless she was weakened like when she had implanted her guild into the between? She was almost living, but honestly, she felt more alive dead then she ever had during her actual life.

Rhyolo smiled a bit embarrassed when she would acknowledge the question. She either was used to people asking her or she had read Rhyolo like a book and guessed what he was thinking. Did it really seem that obvious. He then nodded and listened as she began to explain and answer his question. She explained on how they no longer needed nourishment from food or sleep and how that was usually the only common thread between ghosts. That had made some sense to them. like most humans, or humanoids like himself, only had the essentials in common. When she had said she was different and nit like any ghost, he had expected her to explain she was the only one with her personality. But instead he had been surprised when she put her hand on his shoulder. He had had a bit of a reaction when she touched him and his shoulder flinched. Her hand felt like light, not like a ghost's almost non-existent hand, light like the hand of a normal girl. He then listened once again as she explained how that worked, she had said it was effortless to her to be tangible. He couldn't help but to wonder why this was. What made her so special that she can do it without effort? Did she practice it or was it some other outside factor? "Well, that seems cool and interesting. Do people ask you about being a ghost a lot or did you just read me well enough to know I would ask?" Rhyolo was pretty good at reading people in terms of speech pattern and body language. He didn't know why but he seemed to be good at it. He was only 16 but he was just innately good with people. No person who he had met had managed to hate him, let alone not like him, except for maybe Advent, he didn't really know what he felt or thought, one of the people he could never read actually.

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It was kinda adorable how easily some people in the world were embarrassed, growing up she had never really gotten to experience that considering her psychic powers often saved her before such situations could take place. The only thing's she was ever ashamed of? Was the hateful way she had lived her life before death, and the weakness that had allowed someone to use her second body in order to commit acts that were against the morals of her god, that she had been so weak. Minx was used to reading people, and it was a common question for someone to ask the dead, so she really didn't see the reason for embarrassment, only noting it down as a hint he may the bashful sort of person. Of course, she hadn't told him about her abilities, so that could also have explained some of his reactions, the boy had no idea she was psychic. Minx had no intention of telling him, still the kind to keep the powers she had once been ashamed of close to her chest.

He seemed to be very curious and intent to the words she spoke regarding what being of the ghostly state was like. At the moment? It didn't give her enough to decide if he was interested in the afterlife or afraid of it, but she'd figure it out eventually, nothing to stress over. The flinch of his shoulder beneath her hand was enough to let her know that the boy was like everyone else, entirely unsuspecting that anything spiritual could interact with the physical plane as if it was part of it. However, his shock and flinch didn't seem to bother her whatsoever, Minx was used to the reaction. Of course, normally the reaction was more panicked as most of the time when someone found out it was because they were fighting her and she was about to kill them.

"It's pretty common, considering most ghosts can't freely move and interact in the way I can, it leaves me one of the few ghosts people get to interact with and thus one of the only ones to answer their questions." normally, spirits were somehow bonded to something it could be a place or a person, but the soul bound itself to something in order to prevent itself from passing on. However, in her case? She was simply incapable of passing on as she had fallen out of the normal cycle when she'd been overtaken, possessed by another during her second life as a Kasha, when the other had been killed she had been left behind and as far as the universe was concerned she had passed on. "I'm also just good at predicting people." not reading people, predicting them, she couldn't actually read other's well just rationalize what she saw, it was the prediction and feeling from her latent abilities that truly helped her interact with others.

Rhyolo listened to her once again as she began to speak. Of course Rhyolo knew that most ghosts couldn't move freely, that was kind of a given. From what he knew, most of the time when a ghost hasn't passed on to whatever the next life is, it is because they have not made peace and their soul is restless. And more often than not their soul lingers in the place that they either die in or a place they have a strong connection to. Rhyolo looked to minx and thought a bit. She doesn't really follow any of the rule I have heard of about ghosts. She is special, no doubt. I wonder what maker her that special? Maybe it was her circumstance of death?
Those thoughts took about a second for him to think. If she were really good then she would be able to tell he was thinking. But to most people his actions would go unnoticed as the common person didn't pay enough attention to see the slight change in focus. "Well, Minx. I think there's more to you than meets the eye. Something is special about you but I can't put my finger on what." Rhyolo's feeling of unease had come back. No, it was not from the ghost girl in front of him but from another presence out in the woods. It was faint but it was there. Their blood lust was pretty obvious. "Do you sense that? I may just be paranoid but I have a felling someone is here, and the aren't here for a gentle stroll through the woods like we are." Rhyolo's voice had been quieter just in case they were within earshot of the person. As he tensed up his aura faintly appeared. It appeared as a red and orange flame. His aura was weak as he was not all that powerful, but it still might scare the normal person.

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After finding out about all he had currently received from her mouth, the natural progression would be for him to wonder why she was an exception to so many things that normally rang as true rules for ghosts. Honestly, the guild master wondered that sometimes herself as she had never expected to become what she was now, her human self would have never believed where she ended up. When it was all said and done after her internal reflection gave way to the truth she already knew? Nyx was well aware of the reason why she remained, it wasn't hidden from her although she often refused to directly address what tethered her to the earthly plane in the way she was. The woman actually cared little for her own lingering, even if she secretly did understand the whole thing.

"Why I'm so special in terms of ghosts is a long story." and that was because just one event would not have lead to her being this way, she was well aware that. Retelling the story of how she had ended up in this state? Would likely take more time then this encounter had left, as she could feel the creeping sensation of the third presence once more looming closer. Would they really have the nerve to attack when an innocent bystander was nearby if they were after her as she was beginning to suspect? "There is someone else here." she wasn't going to lie to the boy, not when he also seemed to be capable to some degree of sensing out their unwelcomed company. "We should just keep going, they may be a mercenary or such traveling through and not after anyone." if they were after her, then she had a major problem that needed to be cleaned up, no one should know this appearance so if someone was hunting her in this she had to tie up the lose end.

Rhyolo nodded as she gave a brief statement as to why she was so special. He guess it was either a really long story, or she didn't like telling the story because of something that happened. But guessing from her cool demeanor and calm personality it would mostly likely be the former. she didn't seem to be the type to not be honest and tell everything without a good reason. That brought him back to questioning if minx was even her real name. Rhyolo looked to her and saw she wasn't too stressed about the presence in the forest. That, or she was hiding it well. He thought about her suggestion on what they should do fro a moment and agreed, if the person were going to come after them they would do it wether they were moving or not. He would just make sure to be on guard as they continued to move on, if they were an assailant then he would be ready. He then smiled to her and shrugged. "You are right. Even if the worse happens we just need to be on guard, am i right? I may just be too paranoid." He then laughed a bit. He then continued to walk alongside her through the forest, keeping track of anything out of the ordinary.

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Once upon a time in her past, the ghost had not liked recounting the story that led to her death, these days she didn't really mind. Nyx eventually came to realize that she had deserved the death endured by her formerly human self. Without noticing such a thing? She would have never been able to develop into the existence she had become at the current moment. Across the largest portion of her time, she was brutally honest about everything, lying was something she didn't see much point in. However, in cases like not using her real name, she had very good reasons, most notably in the situation of her name it was to protect her mother who still lived and had nothing to do with the 'dark' path her life had turned down.

"A little bit of paranoia is healthy to keep one's self or one's allies safe from danger." she was happy for her cautious nature allowing her to consider how dangerous being attacked beside someone else could be. Some random person learning about her true identity? Did not bode well when considered by her internal feelings and logic. Nyx knew very well if someone knew who she was that it would be nothing to go after the one living person she would do almost anything to protect from who she had become as Nyx knew that her mother would never be able to live with who she was. "Staying on guard is often wis-" one knew she was going to call it wise, but her final word was cut off suddenly and unexpectedly. While they walked? She had purposefully fallen behind him a few paces and was now glad she had.

The assassin that they had sensed? She now knew was after her for sure because of the pain from a sword digging right through her shoulder, a foot kicking the center of her back sending her into the ground. Nyx now knew she had a problem, someone had managed to arrange an attempted hit on her in this form, she had to get the thread tugged back in before her mother could somehow find out. However, first thing was first, taking care of the would-be assassin who was currently cussing over missing any essential location on her.

Rhyolo had continued to walk as she spoke. She made sense to him with the paranoia. He just had to m make sure he wasn't going over board with it, assuming everyone is and enemy. Nor,could he go around without being wary of who to trust. Because either one of the extreme ends of the spectrum could lead to his ultimate undoing. Either it would be him losing his one great ally and them turning on him, or him getting back stabbed. As he was thinking he would have noticed that Mink had fallen behind and got stopped mid sentence. He would then turn to see her getting back stabbed in the shoulder and kicked to the ground by the presence they had sensed. The young pyro had cringed when had heard the thud off her hitting the ground. In a moment, he didn't know why, but he felt pure rage. Less then a second would then pass as he charged the attacker, sending a kick to his midsection with his right foot. A flaming aura would be visible around his foot as he had a mixed look of anger and focus on his face. "Minx? You ok?"

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