Fear And Concern In Sakuramori

With the chilling northern winds sweeping across the fertile flatlands in central Fiore, literal thousands of tonnes of produce being exported to all of the major cities within the country. What's more, Sakuramori’s glowing flowers finally ripen and bear fruit. Glowing spheres of poisonous, metallic tasting -- actually, similar to the taste of blood -- fatten the branches and hang lazily over the trails and plazas in the more constructed part of the reserve. To celebrate such an event, Black Rose throws an official festival -- well, party, more like -- in both the Silver Moon Inn and in an official guild site at Sakuramori (for those living in the nearby town as well as guild members residing there currently).

He, of course, was in the Silver Moon Bar, smack dab in the large dining room of the inn. Tables and chairs had been cleared away, opening up the large space into a makeshift ballroom where people can come and dance. Entrance is free, but the wizards partying also closely monitor the bustle. Aaaaand make glorious sums of tip money from the bar. Behind the safety of the bar, he wears a traditionally sexy costume. That of a vampire… Stripper? A sexy vampire, sure. The costume is pretty bare (and cheap, also), only including a red bowtie, black tights (which resemble any shitty halloween store bought spandex appearance), and a headband with cute bat wings coming off of each side. And a perfectly invisible shirt. He then adds to it, naturally, with a pair of colored contacts with slit pupils, red irises and glowing sclera as well as a pair of false fangs. Which look realistic. He supposed he could have simply altered his appearance with magic instead of making a costume but that ruins the spooky fun.

He’s busy making drinks and being catcalled on, when the mood gets dire. His phone vibrates in his back pocket, which is actually the elastic of his pants, and he reaches for it. Immediately freaking out upon seeing the message, he whispers the new to a nearby mage barkeep before slipping out of the bar and onto the stage. Politely tapping the singer’s shoulder, he takes the microphone from them and hushes the music playing. He gathers the attention of the partygoers and tells them of the situation, of the uncertainty of its danger, and that they’re safe inside the inn. Ever since the Tempest mess, he and a few other members have taken to placing a protective ward around the building. The doors will be locked and the curtains drawn, and anyone on the street would be let inside, and anyone inside would not be let out for safety reasons.

He looks on his phone again. It’s a short message. Something along the lines of ‘aces needed in Sakuramori’. He rushes into the basement of the inn, and into the guild hall’s depths, finding a warp lacrima set to Sakuramori. Using it, he is suddenly grateful to whichever mage toiled enchanting the lacrima with a long distance teleportation magic.

He flicks out of Rose Garden and into Sakuramori. The lunar mage looks around the small guild building which he spawned into. He walks forward to fiddle with the closed door. A hazy feeling in his head grows, which quickly turns into a persistent and painful thumming. He pushes outside and immediately looks up, compelled to by his more magical intuition. The moon itself, the deity Luna, and himself -- by some addition, multiplication, and some exponential extrapolation -- is corrupted with a negative light. Uh oh. He looks away, quickly, scouring the sky in hope that his ignorant eyes might have mistaken a grave occurrence. The sky itself also is an inky black. Almost pulsating, alive, evil. His eyes water, he itches them, pulling out the contacts almost by accident, where his eyes should return to their normal coloration. Although not noticeable to himself, his optics, pupil, iris, sclera and all have gone completely black, almost mirroring the state of the moon. He grunts slightly, black snow, the moon pollen by means he is unaware of, swirling around him, clings to his figure. Those around him look with surprise. They’ve seen weirder, surely, living in a magic world. Perhaps he is in fact the puppeteer of the great prank occurring in Sakuramori, masking the moon with his lunar magic and creating an elaborate costume with its black snow.

But, no, regretfully, he isn’t. He begins to sob, uncontrollably. Tears stream down his face as he wonders why. He isn’t sad or grieving. Or maybe he is? Oh. His physical form deteriorates into a literal shade of his figure. The partygoers seem to get the message. They look upon him with pity and fear. He screams insults inside his head. He would never usually. Perhaps the reflection of his personality is a result of the sinister magic. He can’t tell, but monsters descend from the sky. Pumpkin wolves, kinpups, as some have began abbreviating them as growl and terrorize the crowd. Among other monsters, a group of five approach Seth and any other mage near him.

Wordcount: 854/3000
OoC: probably some grammar errors within ;)

Itazura ♠ Black Rose ♠ B-Rank ♠ Aruzati
S o   I v e   l i e d   a n d   I v e   b e e n   t r i c k i n g   e v e r   s i n c e

Unlike most people on this festive day, Itazura didn't wear a costume, just his usual getup. A short sleeved hooded jacket over a brown shirt, paired with a pair of jeans and boots with an excessive amount of buckles. The reason that he didn't wear a costume wasn't because he didn't like the holiday or festival or just didn't want to wear one, he would gladly wear a costume any day or week of the month. He frankly just didn't understand what was going on, he has always been more of a recluse when it came to large events and just in general. And when it came down to it, he wouldn't ask what something was about until it was right in front of him. Not that he really remembers what people tell him anyways, but he feels like he would remember being told about a holiday where everybody dresses up as something they're not, along with going from place to place getting excessive amounts of sweets. At least that what he's managed to figure out it was from asking random people that actually gave him the time of day. He wasn't very good at listening, even when he wanted to listen, so if that wasn't right he wouldn't be very surprised.
In, what I guess is actually more important news, he had been given the job of dealing with exterminating unknown monsters from Sakuramori that didn't belong there. Which was a job that was right up his alley, he was good at killing things, it didn't task his brain to much. Not that he wasn't smart, just had a short attention span and battle was something he was easily able to keep up with, physically and mentally. Words and paperwork tended to bore him, and he couldn't really handle being bored all that well. Which is why if he ever has paperwork, which wouldn't be strange for an ace to have considering their position, he never does it. Doesn't help he's near illiterate, minus the very few things he was taught by Seika ages ago. He hasn't really talked to her lately, he'd have to make a point of finding her and bugging her again sometime soon. Probably after this whole fiasco was over, whatever this whole fiasco was.
The glowing black dust gently coated him as he stood still, though most of it fell onto the cherry blossoms in the tree that he resided in. He shook it off of him in an animalistic manner, shaking the hood off his dirty blond hair in the process. The dust was weird, Moon Pollen he believed he heard it being called, it gave off a weird feeling that put him off. Whatever effects they tried to have on him didn't work, but did succeed in making him slightly uncomfortable at the very least, which was a hard task considering who it was. Not many things weirded the weasel out, intrigued him usually, but didn't usually succeed in much more then that. Though it didn't dissuade him from being curious as to what it was. This and the blacked out sky, completely dark no matter the time of day, these strange occurrences, even for him.
On a different topic, the reason he was in the tree the begin with, was well first of all he just had the tendency to chill out in trees, secondly he was supposed to meet some people. Two other aces of the guild he hadn't ever bothered on meeting, he hasn't been the most social critter these days. He actually hasn't been doing much these days, just an off month for him I suppose. But on the topic at hand, he didn't really know what they looked like, kinda forgot that little tidbit of information. Guess he would know sooner or later. What he did find, was what he was supposed to be fighting, at least that's what he assumed they were. Because he's never seen any living creature like them, well kind of, but we won't get into that right now. Ghostly gourds, candle wolves and pumpkin... what he also assumed were wolves but could be anything honestly. Guess he'd have to get to work before he met the guildmates he was supposed to be working with.
Unsheathing his six inch silvery claws from his fingertips, he leaped from the branch and slashed downwards at thew first odd floating creature he saw. Landing in a squatting position, he dug his claws into the creature he just slashed, gripping it tightly before proceeding to throw it at one of three of it's friends. The other two he slashed at it with slices of wind, two each for the two of them. While he wasn't paying attention, the one that he threw the dead on at, attacked his leg, which didn't feel the most pleasant. "Well that was rude of you" he said plainly, you could tell he wasn't all that bothered by the pain the odd creature brought him. He twisted on his heel, and stomped on it repetitively with the leg it didn't attack. Being more attentive this time, he twisted back around and grabbed the other two before they proceeded to also attack his legs and ankles. Painfully impaling the both of them. Dropping them to the ground, he retracted his claws and wiped his hands off on his pants. "Now who's next" Itazura asked nobody in particular as he surveyed his surroundings for more of the strange creatures.

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Somewhere within the mess of his public… Breakdown… Corruption? He stumbles to a common location. To a familiar face. His body returns to normal, sort of. He falls to the ground, all who gawked at him earlier, left. Something feels sort of off. It’s indescribable. Somehow stumbling into a clearing, he meets with Victoria. Smells of essential oils and incense hang in the air. He makes eye contact with the local officer. She looks away.

Seth looks at Victoria. He takes a deep breath of the cool air and forces it out, realigning his emotions and putting on a neutral, friendly face. "Hi," he says back to her. The guard briefs them on the situation. He ignores her, nodding along to whatever she said. He glances at the creepy sky every few seconds. The state of the it, the moon to a larger extent, concerns him. His magic kind of depends on the sun and moon.

After a few more minutes of talking, they begin walking. Focusing on the officer, he follows her for now. “And we contacted Black Rose, since you technically own this property. It’s within our precinct, but a lot of our officers are scared of Sakuramori. Rumors circulate. Carnivorous trees… I don’t believe them. But they feel more comfortable letting your guild handle it. Well, not having to handle it themselves.” Seth snaps back to attention, lifting his head to meet eye contact. "We don’t mind. It’s a duty as being part of the family, protecting Sakuramori," he says, stopping his gait, his ears perking up slightly. Well, as much as a set of human ears can perk up. He shivers in response. "Stay still," Seth says, "You said mutated, aggressive is a concern, right?" He looks around, pupils dilating, and eyes squinting into the darkness. "Stand on guard."

Out of the flowery forest, pale, wispy fires sway maliciously in the distance. The moon pollen, which is still falling at a steady rate, catches and burns as the flames draw closer. Slowly, shapes of vicious wolf-creatures emerge into view of the party, each snarling, their tongues lolling out of their fanged maws. Drool… No, hot candle wax drips onto the ground below them, sizzling and solidifying.

He eyes them down. He opens his left palm and tries to connect with his lunar magic, but then glancing upwards, he decides against it. The moon was the catalyst for this whole event, and utilizing its corrupted power probably brings upon some unseen consequences he blesses himself with the grace of ignoring them. He focuses for a second and thinks of the sun. Although its presence is greatly reduced with the introduction of the pitch black cloud cover, he can still sense that it’s even there, at least. His hand glows. An small golden flame ignites between his fingertips, quickly expanding into a sphere of magical light. He moves it over his head and launches it at the candlewolves. It dissipates into a haze of shining light, glimmers of icy looking particles damage the wolves as they growl with pain. What is first an aggressive curiosity turns into outright strafe. The wolves lock their eyes onto Seth and those around him and prepare to attack.

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Itazura ♠ Black Rose ♠ B-Rank ♠ Aruzati
S o   I v e   l i e d   a n d   I v e   b e e n   t r i c k i n g   e v e r   s i n c e

The kamaitachi turned his head at the sound of his name, guess it wasn't to hard to guess that he was the one they were supposed to be working with. Considering he was the only person around among an array of monster corpses. "Pleasure to meet you." He said, a smile painted across his expression. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, despite them still being lightly coated in monster guts and entrails, though most of the remains were wiped off on his shirt. He didn't care if he was messy, he wouldn't even put in the effort of cleaning himself if normal people weren't bothered by him being dirty, and maybe covered in blood. Victoria, she called herself, spoke again, referring to the strange creatures that laid in front of the two Black Rose mages. "I would assume so, I sure hope I didn't kill something that didn't need to be killed." He said, a giggle followed, everybody was treating this as a serious situation, but he frankly couldn't care less. Just like how he couldn't care less if he wasn't supposed to kill something or not. He wasn't really very legal mage like was he?
Itazura noticed another mage, though he didn't appear to acknowledge or even notice the weasel. He gave a quick wave to him, just to be polite, cause that's what he learned he was supposed to do. He didn't learn things, like etiquette and how to act properly civilized, very easily. Was the waving really appropriate at the moment? Probably not, but at least he was trying. Its the thought that counts... I guess. The yokai turned his hazel gaze to what his fellow ace was looking at, he'd already sensed the presence of the wolves, but since they weren't attacking him he wasn't worrying about them right away. But I guess their job was to deal with them, so he should be paying attention to them, but he got distracted, as he often does. He figured it might as well be time to jump back into battle, he got ready to do just that, but waited until Seth launched his flashy attack. He didn't really want to be hit by it, so once he saw it had done it's damage and the wolves' attention was on the caster, he lunged. In almost a split second, he unsheathed his six inch claws and darted right to the flank of the front candle wolf.
His claws raked through it's side like butter, this gathered the pack of three's attention real quick. Though considering how damaged they were already, he wasn't too worried. Not that he'd be that worried anyways considering he was, well, himself. The boy leaped backwards to avoid any close combat attacks from the canines. Which was good for him because they all, in unison, went to attack him with their claws and teeth. As he continued to step back he took a deep inhale, then with a harsh stop, he exhale. But instead of just a simple exhale of breath, he exhaled fire. The harsh red and orange flames encompassed the wolves, melting their waxy horns and teeth. When he ran out of breath, the large plume of fire stopped, but it left quite a bit of damage. He managed to nearly kill the wolf he clawed earlier, and all three of them were on fire. Along with some cherry blossom trees around them, but he didn't really worry about that. He doesn't have particularly fond memories of his last trip into Sakuramori, so if some trees burned down because of him? He didn't care.

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1,520 ♠ 3,000

The trees catch on the flames of Itazura’s spell. Seth can practically feel them scream in agony. He would have to provide a large meal to the carnivorous trees if they were to recover completely. Or he could ask Esialeth to use her nature magic to help the trees recover to full health, if she ever solidified her spells. She was always editing and moving between different concepts and elements. It’s frustrating.

The officer with them had quickly returned to her station and brought back several other officers as well as several fire extinguishers. As they spray the trees, the mental screams stop. The year long blossoms of Sakuramori is one of Black Rose’s proudest aspects. Some even joke that the guild should be renamed ‘Black Sakura’.

He refocuses, visibly returning to attention, as he often does. His mind tends to wander in his downtime. He turns towards the other, two mages, seeing Victoria applying a soothing salve to a wound on her face, then covering it with a bandage. He breathes in through his nose. Smells like aloe vera. "I can help," he says. He walks up to Victoria and asks, "Do you mind?" He gestures towards the bandage and pulls it off, not actually asking for permission. His healing magic is derived from the moon, and with brimming curiosity, he decides to test his luck. Before applying it to Victoria’s face wound, his hand glows slightly, increasing steadily to a light blue color. Luckily, nothing seems off, despite the moon’s corrupted appearance.

He raises his left hand and moves it just above Victoria’s face, the light spreading from his fingertips to her wound. It closes, and leaves a minty tingle behind on the skin. "There," he says, "Don’t waste your first-aid supplies when I’m around," he quips. He turns toward Itazura, "And you," he begins, drawing in a short breath, "Nice to meet you. My name is Seth," he says, not extending his hand or showing any other sign of skinship. Mentally, he scolds him for igniting the trees. He doesn’t say it outwardly. There are certainly more destructive mages in Black Rose. And Seth has water magic, as well.

"I agree," he peers up, looking at the skill-darkened moon, "There still is evil nearby. Sakuramori can protect itself, but unfortunately, not as much the people." A sudden breeze disturbs the falling moon pollen. Instinctively, Seth turns toward the source of the wind, his eyes squinting slightly to cover his eyes from the breeze

Mangled snarling and howling originates from the source of the wind. Which actually spells of a pumpkin pie, which he realizes after a large breath of the pungent air. The breeze turns freezing cold and out of the grotto, six kinpups appear, bearing their teeth and with a clear anger to the group of mages. He gestures to the more familiar officer -- the one who escorted them into the forest -- to leave, along with the other officers who were busy dousing the flames.

He extends both of his arms in front of him and opens his hands, his nails glowing with a magical light. An intricate spear, with a wide bladehead, made of light appears in his hands. Bounding forward, he holds the bladed end of the lance in front of him, with the blade resting just above his knee, and holding the butt end just above his head, allowing for optimal defense as well as offense. As he reaches the snarling wolves, he vaults the pole around his body, the shaft spinning around his waist, managing to slash two of the pumpkin wolves. The lance disappears, and in a flash of blue light, he teleports back to safety, to the area around. He reveals his wings and beats them a few times, taking off into the sky, "I’ll support you from up here!"

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He heard Victoria’s call for help. He’s close enough to see the details of her wounds, but can clearly tell how much pain she is in by the tone of her voice. No time for sparkly introductions or complicated rituals. He dives in, close, between the enemies and Victoria, and glows with a gold light. Pulsing with the beat of his heart, the light grows and diminishes every few seconds before exploding in a shockwave of magic in all directions around him. The nearest kinpups get knocked back, as well as the light enveloping Victoria and closing her wounds with its light. “Are you okay?” Seth says as his wings disappear as he lands, his shoulder blades still sparkling with mana as they flicker away from the visible eye. The nearest kinpup leers at Victoria and Seth before sprinting at them, snarling viciously.

He lowers his stance, the frosted grass crunching under his footstep. Opening his palm, a spear appears. The beast approaches him, bounding forward still, unaware of the lance awaiting it. Pushing his left hand forward, it slides through the grip of his right hand, grafting into the neck of the pumpkin wolf. He then vaults the lance around his body and hits the wolf with deadly sideways force, knocking canine like a ragdoll far to his right. Seeing the results of the previous defeat of a kinpup, he flashes a safe distance away, back towards Victoria and covers his ears. The pumpkin wolf turns a bright red before exploding. Luckily, Seth and the others were outside of its radius. Not so lucky for the wolf’s canine companions. Seth’s spells are mostly crowd control, unlike Victoria’s or Itazura’s, he’s noticed. Three kinpups remain, with one more injured than the rest. Planning his next step hastily, he begins levitating a few inches off of the group. Yes, that sounds good. If he can juggle them with weaker attacks, they will be unable to defend themselves or attack, while also whittling down their stamina. Then, he can paralyze or stun them, taking out one with a decisive attack. The pumpkin wolf would then explode, and hopefully start a chain reaction as the other wolves are damaged in the explosion, each setting off their own personal explosion.

His body contorts and twirls around gracefully in the air, dark magic oozing from his hands, creating a circle in the paths of his arms. “Lunares Ira!” It dimly glows with a purple light and shadowy arms race out of its dark circles.They twist around in the night air, before gripping the remaining kinpups, some on their arms and some on their torso. The shafts of the shadow arms detach from Seth’s magic and fall to the ground. The hands start to pull each of the kinpups to the ground, each fighting back, biting and clawing at the arms, while straining their legs to resist his magic. He pulls right in front of his body, making a long, sweeping stroke, pulling water out of the humid atmosphere. Seth catches the water with his other arm, manipulating it into a loop around his body. With a forward thrust of his left arm, the water shoots forward at the currently immobilized kinpups, hitting one of them before he moves his hands in a dancing motion, circling back the offensively used water into the loop orbiting him. He continues this pattern at a remarkable speed before the amount of water in the spell becomes too small to use anymore. They snarl in fury and claw at the confining brambles of Seth’s spell.

He kisses his hand, which leaves a golden kiss mark on his hand. "Mitus," the golden kiss morphs into a heart. He grips the heart, and holds it in front of him, "Solis Amor," he chants as the heart pulsates. Seth spins around and throws it at the pumpkin wolves. Golden light envelopes their bodies as they freeze into place, where they were unable to even express their pain. The pumpkin wolves look exhausted in their paralysis, with a large crack in the jack o lantern head of the most injured.

"Let me show you what can I do," he says, where his horn, just above his hairline, appears and glints in the dimly light Sakuramori lights. He glows in a silver light, his arms and legs glowing white also well as his torso lengthening into that of a horse, with his whole form following. He unfurls his wings and his horn brims with magic. His form quickly retracts into his humanoid shape, but with his tail, horn, and wings remaining. He spins around, outstretching his left hand, where a cylindrical mass of mana materializes into a long wand. He grips the wand, where the handle sprouts cute, tiny replicas of his wings. He holds the wand to the tip of his nose, where the gemstone glimmers with a pure light. "My heart is singing." The gemstone absorbs light from the nearby area. He steps forward, and pushes the wand in front of him. Light crests around his arms and wand and shatters. The light turns to icy shards that fly towards the most injured pumpkin wolf. They dig into its gourd flesh, where after a quick few seconds, it explodes into a mess of festive pumpkin. Big chunks of orange chunks hit the pumpkin wolf closest to it, hurting it enough to explode in its own festive mess. The last wolf, the one who was formerly the least injured, bombarded with the two previous explosions, dies in its own explosion. He looks at the fragrant mess of pumpkin that lay before him and Victoria. Weirdly proud of his work, he plants his arms on his hips and sighs contently. "I think that's the last of them, at least for now," he says. More local mages and town guards began diverting into the more populated parts of Sakuramori, guarding whatever stragglers who haven't made it to safety yet.

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