![Senior [500]](https://i.imgur.com/Nmfn8cD.png)
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Word Count: 2037
Word Count Total: 2037/2000
Tagged: @
Music: LiSA - Little Devil Parade
٩( ๑•̀o•́๑ )و
Althea cast her gaze along the bustling streets of Talonia, making her way down its streets. She had donned a rather tattered looking cloak complete with a hood for that day, and not because of the frigid air. Such weather was reminiscent of that in the mountains, so the young girl actually quite enjoyed it. In actuality, she had a job to take care of in the city. Althea was in the discrete section of Talonia where doing otherwise suspicious things like wearing a face obstructing cloak was a common practise. After all, with all the guildless mages that floated there many desired at least some level of anonymously. And that's precisely why the person she had been asked to deal with thrived in such an area. From what she bothered to gather about them through the sheet briefing her about the job, they were devouring people’s memories. Their reasons were unknown, but the Magic Council didn’t like it at all. The slayer rarely took tasks straight from the council in the first place though, even though as a Rising Star she was obliged to do so. Most of them were all pretty boring stuff that focused on preventing problems from spiralling out of control rather than actual action. That isn’t to say she always goes for big combat oriented jobs, sometimes she even stumbles right into one on accident. Althea just did whatever struck her fancy at that particular moment.
But that brings up why she took the mission anyways. She didn’t think the task was interesting, she didn’t owe anything to the people giving it out, so why? Well, it was because she felt like talking to the person supposedly responsible for doing the memory snacking. Other mages had been dispatched to deal with them to no avail, but their memories of the perpetrator were left intact. Some would’ve probably been weirded out by the fact that they didn’t in order to properly clear up their tracks, but that would only draw more attention to themselves. Not only would the Magic Council be spooked enough by the prospect of fighting a force whose abilities were unknown but the press would be all over the “Memory Erasing Menace” stalking around Talonia.
But soon Althea’s job-centric thoughts were interrupted at the sight of a motionless cat sprawled out in an alleyway. She couldn’t begin to guess why it had popped out to her though. Its fur was so dirty it served as some kind of camouflage against the cement jungle. But either way it did, but it perplexed the blonde even more over the fact she had stopped in her tracks right in front of it. She could see the slight rise and fall of their chest, meaning that they were probably still alive. So, she bent down and tapped it, casting a healing spell on it. Good for the cat it also doubles as a detoxifier, because immediately afterwards it regurgitated a transparent muck. Then she simply stood up and went on her way. Althea hadn’t even thought about doing it before she just did, but typically one could say she always did that with everything. The difference that time around was that there was no real method behind her madness, no real tangible motive for doing what she did. But, as soon as the thought appeared in her mind she felt like laughing at herself. She had done it because she wanted to, there didn’t need to be anything more than that in the first place. Saving the cat or not wouldn’t have much of an impact on anything foreseeable, but she did it anyways because she felt like this. The young girl grinned, placing her bandaged hand over her heart. “That helped lots, so I guess it did make a difference.” Not that it mattered all too much. Once again, Althea felt like laughing at herself, so she did right there in the middle of Talonia’s streets. Either she chose not to or simply didn’t notice any the confused and suspicious stare she had directed at her, even after having stopped.
In no time, the young girl had made it to the memory-eating mage’s “hideout”, although it seemed nothing like that. Many buildings around weren’t all too bad looking, but you certainly couldn’t call them “brand new”, and that was why the contrast between literally everything else and the building Althea stood in front of was so great. White sliding with and quaint little plants that looked so well taken care of that they could’ve been passed off as fake, it looked like a newly erected establishment. And it certainly didn’t have the appearance of what you would assume was a memory-devouring person’s hideout. But despite its outward appearance, Althea still sensed a magical signature so it was undoubtedly the place. Or at least it should be, there was always the chance that it was just some random house. But either way Althea opened up the door, finding it already having been unlocked. And that was when she found herself within a large white room. Cold marble shone pristinely underfoot and the lights were unnaturally bright. A counter was located in the corner of the room, a hospital bed located on the other one. Standing behind said counter was a young girl with long, messy green hair tied up into two dense ponytails. At first her expression was friendly, seemingly about to greet Althea before she took a good look at her. “Hey Elodea. So this is what you’ve been up to?” The blonde called out to the nymph, removing her cloak and leaving it on the floor behind her.
Talking to Elodea was indeed the reason she had taken the job, the “mage” in fact being a nymph. She had previously been a captive of some pirates, but during a mission Althea inevertantly freed her. But, when they met it was only briefly and then the mage was just huddling around until she needed to do something. And soon, Elodea had found the words to finally speak, “Y-You killed them…!” She exclaimed, moving from around the counter. “Huh? What do you mean by that?” The nymph looked close to tears, “On Blackbeard’s ship, the other nymphs died in the crash! It was something you caused, right? Yet you didn’t even come back to help!” Althea shrugged, “Oh right, guess I forgot.” Elodea’s sorrow slowly turned to anger, “Is that it? They lost their lives because of your negligence! And you call yourself a hero.” “The press calls me a hero, I’ve never said anything like that.” “What a load of bull.” The nymph replied coarsely, glaring coldly at the blonde, “The Council sent you, right? Either way, I’m going to make you repent for your mistake.”
“Hey, why are you devouring memories anyways?” Elodea scoffed, “Like I would tell you!” “Hey, I’m just curious.” “Well, I’m building up power. And I’m not even hurting anyone anyways. In fact I’m helping them. I first heal them of ailment they have and then go for their most painful memories before just take them away.” “Wow, it didn’t take much convincing for you to explain that. Could you tell me why you want power too?” “You don’t need to know that, but I have always wondered what it looked like in your head.” “In my wha-?” But suddenly Elodea was right next to her, close enough to utilize her magic that Althea had not yet experienced. ”Reprise.”
It was snowing, snow thickly blanketing the ground. Pine trees were spread about around Elodea, but she was only swerving around to see exactly what was happening in the recollection. And that was when she spotted it, the mangled body of a small child. Parts of them weren’t even there, and their mouth was left hanging open as it had been when they initially experienced whatever made them end up that way. “Hey!” Althea chirped to the incredibly sick looking Elodea, “This is what you wanted to know about, right?” “That’s you! Y-You’re dead!” Elodea whimpered, moving backwards while still remaining dumbstruck on the ground. “No I’m not, dead people don’t grow, silly.” “Is this supposed to be your most painful memory? What even happened?” “Oh yeah, it hurt a lot! Good thing it didn’t scar me or anything though, that would just look weird.” “Then is this just the time you were in the most physical pain?” “No, you don’t need to know that!” Althea replied, mimicking how Elodea had just said the same phrase previously. The green nymph then turned from the ribbon-donned mage, presumably to find what she was looking for, but she was stopped when Althea’s foot had landed on her head with a dropkick. “Sorry, but this is where I’m going to be catching you. I brought up this memory ‘cause there isn’t really anything significant to me for you to destroy. So,” The blonde slugged the other girl in the side of her face, causing her to get a face full of snow. “Let’s work some magic.”
Elodea grimace, wiping the soft flakes off her face, “So do you think you can beat me here? And it’s impossible for you to decide where I go in your head. I’ll beat you right here and now.” The slayer disregarded the nymph’s confusion, simply grinning and moving on to reply to the rest of it, “Actually, I’m not all to interested in fighting you here, so,” Althea replied, tightening the knot on her ribbon before continuing. “I’m going to cancel your spell, okay?” “What? You can’t-” And with that, the pair of them were back to Elodea’s weird office or something. Immediately the blonde kicked the green haired nymph off their feet. “Okay, I’m going to ask again, why do you want power anyways?”
“I doubt you would understand, but,” Elodea glanced at the lily blooming in the corner of the room. “I’m going to bring everyone back. I was the only nymph to survive that boat crash, I was also the only nymph to survive the disaster at my home.” She redirected her bright green eyes to meet Althea’s blue ones once more, her’s beginning to tear up. “I’m going to gain enough magic power to bring back through my own memories! If you want to get in the way of my goal, so be it!” Althea simply sighed, shaking her head. “What a complete waste. Are you stupid or something?” Elodea stared up at the young mage, at first surprised before agitation over her life’s goal being dismissed swelled. “How DARE you?! Everyone’s dead and I-”
The slayer interrupted her. “Trying to bring dead people back is always the biggest waste of time. Luck doesn’t favor people twice in a row, dummy, you were the one who made sure you stayed alive. Don’t feel like you owe it to people just because they died and you survived, that would defeat the purpose of any one of their potential sacrifices. Do you hate them or something?” “No! You don’t understand, I-” “Then start really living! You might as well be dead because that’s all you’re focusing on.” Althea shot back, her expression displaying her agitation. “Now if you will,” The slayer grabbed one of the scissors sitting on the counter and pierced them through Elodea’s hand and firmly into the ground underneath it. The green haired girl let out a scream of overwhelming anguish, but the blonde simply turned away from her, approaching the exit, “Behave yourself while I get some people to arrest you, okay?” She chirped before entering the streets of Talonia. Althea had already deduced that Elodea didn’t have any magic besides her memory thing, so she doubted the nymph could wiggle the pair of scissors from the place in the ground. And it was highly doubtful that she would injure her hand more than it w=already was ripping that out. She had healing abilities, but not ones great enough to perform a feat such as stitching together a ripped hand. So, the water mage had left her there to think things over a bit. After all, knocking her out at that point would’ve been just plain rude!
But that brings up why she took the mission anyways. She didn’t think the task was interesting, she didn’t owe anything to the people giving it out, so why? Well, it was because she felt like talking to the person supposedly responsible for doing the memory snacking. Other mages had been dispatched to deal with them to no avail, but their memories of the perpetrator were left intact. Some would’ve probably been weirded out by the fact that they didn’t in order to properly clear up their tracks, but that would only draw more attention to themselves. Not only would the Magic Council be spooked enough by the prospect of fighting a force whose abilities were unknown but the press would be all over the “Memory Erasing Menace” stalking around Talonia.
But soon Althea’s job-centric thoughts were interrupted at the sight of a motionless cat sprawled out in an alleyway. She couldn’t begin to guess why it had popped out to her though. Its fur was so dirty it served as some kind of camouflage against the cement jungle. But either way it did, but it perplexed the blonde even more over the fact she had stopped in her tracks right in front of it. She could see the slight rise and fall of their chest, meaning that they were probably still alive. So, she bent down and tapped it, casting a healing spell on it. Good for the cat it also doubles as a detoxifier, because immediately afterwards it regurgitated a transparent muck. Then she simply stood up and went on her way. Althea hadn’t even thought about doing it before she just did, but typically one could say she always did that with everything. The difference that time around was that there was no real method behind her madness, no real tangible motive for doing what she did. But, as soon as the thought appeared in her mind she felt like laughing at herself. She had done it because she wanted to, there didn’t need to be anything more than that in the first place. Saving the cat or not wouldn’t have much of an impact on anything foreseeable, but she did it anyways because she felt like this. The young girl grinned, placing her bandaged hand over her heart. “That helped lots, so I guess it did make a difference.” Not that it mattered all too much. Once again, Althea felt like laughing at herself, so she did right there in the middle of Talonia’s streets. Either she chose not to or simply didn’t notice any the confused and suspicious stare she had directed at her, even after having stopped.
In no time, the young girl had made it to the memory-eating mage’s “hideout”, although it seemed nothing like that. Many buildings around weren’t all too bad looking, but you certainly couldn’t call them “brand new”, and that was why the contrast between literally everything else and the building Althea stood in front of was so great. White sliding with and quaint little plants that looked so well taken care of that they could’ve been passed off as fake, it looked like a newly erected establishment. And it certainly didn’t have the appearance of what you would assume was a memory-devouring person’s hideout. But despite its outward appearance, Althea still sensed a magical signature so it was undoubtedly the place. Or at least it should be, there was always the chance that it was just some random house. But either way Althea opened up the door, finding it already having been unlocked. And that was when she found herself within a large white room. Cold marble shone pristinely underfoot and the lights were unnaturally bright. A counter was located in the corner of the room, a hospital bed located on the other one. Standing behind said counter was a young girl with long, messy green hair tied up into two dense ponytails. At first her expression was friendly, seemingly about to greet Althea before she took a good look at her. “Hey Elodea. So this is what you’ve been up to?” The blonde called out to the nymph, removing her cloak and leaving it on the floor behind her.
Talking to Elodea was indeed the reason she had taken the job, the “mage” in fact being a nymph. She had previously been a captive of some pirates, but during a mission Althea inevertantly freed her. But, when they met it was only briefly and then the mage was just huddling around until she needed to do something. And soon, Elodea had found the words to finally speak, “Y-You killed them…!” She exclaimed, moving from around the counter. “Huh? What do you mean by that?” The nymph looked close to tears, “On Blackbeard’s ship, the other nymphs died in the crash! It was something you caused, right? Yet you didn’t even come back to help!” Althea shrugged, “Oh right, guess I forgot.” Elodea’s sorrow slowly turned to anger, “Is that it? They lost their lives because of your negligence! And you call yourself a hero.” “The press calls me a hero, I’ve never said anything like that.” “What a load of bull.” The nymph replied coarsely, glaring coldly at the blonde, “The Council sent you, right? Either way, I’m going to make you repent for your mistake.”
“Hey, why are you devouring memories anyways?” Elodea scoffed, “Like I would tell you!” “Hey, I’m just curious.” “Well, I’m building up power. And I’m not even hurting anyone anyways. In fact I’m helping them. I first heal them of ailment they have and then go for their most painful memories before just take them away.” “Wow, it didn’t take much convincing for you to explain that. Could you tell me why you want power too?” “You don’t need to know that, but I have always wondered what it looked like in your head.” “In my wha-?” But suddenly Elodea was right next to her, close enough to utilize her magic that Althea had not yet experienced. ”Reprise.”
It was snowing, snow thickly blanketing the ground. Pine trees were spread about around Elodea, but she was only swerving around to see exactly what was happening in the recollection. And that was when she spotted it, the mangled body of a small child. Parts of them weren’t even there, and their mouth was left hanging open as it had been when they initially experienced whatever made them end up that way. “Hey!” Althea chirped to the incredibly sick looking Elodea, “This is what you wanted to know about, right?” “That’s you! Y-You’re dead!” Elodea whimpered, moving backwards while still remaining dumbstruck on the ground. “No I’m not, dead people don’t grow, silly.” “Is this supposed to be your most painful memory? What even happened?” “Oh yeah, it hurt a lot! Good thing it didn’t scar me or anything though, that would just look weird.” “Then is this just the time you were in the most physical pain?” “No, you don’t need to know that!” Althea replied, mimicking how Elodea had just said the same phrase previously. The green nymph then turned from the ribbon-donned mage, presumably to find what she was looking for, but she was stopped when Althea’s foot had landed on her head with a dropkick. “Sorry, but this is where I’m going to be catching you. I brought up this memory ‘cause there isn’t really anything significant to me for you to destroy. So,” The blonde slugged the other girl in the side of her face, causing her to get a face full of snow. “Let’s work some magic.”
Elodea grimace, wiping the soft flakes off her face, “So do you think you can beat me here? And it’s impossible for you to decide where I go in your head. I’ll beat you right here and now.” The slayer disregarded the nymph’s confusion, simply grinning and moving on to reply to the rest of it, “Actually, I’m not all to interested in fighting you here, so,” Althea replied, tightening the knot on her ribbon before continuing. “I’m going to cancel your spell, okay?” “What? You can’t-” And with that, the pair of them were back to Elodea’s weird office or something. Immediately the blonde kicked the green haired nymph off their feet. “Okay, I’m going to ask again, why do you want power anyways?”
“I doubt you would understand, but,” Elodea glanced at the lily blooming in the corner of the room. “I’m going to bring everyone back. I was the only nymph to survive that boat crash, I was also the only nymph to survive the disaster at my home.” She redirected her bright green eyes to meet Althea’s blue ones once more, her’s beginning to tear up. “I’m going to gain enough magic power to bring back through my own memories! If you want to get in the way of my goal, so be it!” Althea simply sighed, shaking her head. “What a complete waste. Are you stupid or something?” Elodea stared up at the young mage, at first surprised before agitation over her life’s goal being dismissed swelled. “How DARE you?! Everyone’s dead and I-”
The slayer interrupted her. “Trying to bring dead people back is always the biggest waste of time. Luck doesn’t favor people twice in a row, dummy, you were the one who made sure you stayed alive. Don’t feel like you owe it to people just because they died and you survived, that would defeat the purpose of any one of their potential sacrifices. Do you hate them or something?” “No! You don’t understand, I-” “Then start really living! You might as well be dead because that’s all you’re focusing on.” Althea shot back, her expression displaying her agitation. “Now if you will,” The slayer grabbed one of the scissors sitting on the counter and pierced them through Elodea’s hand and firmly into the ground underneath it. The green haired girl let out a scream of overwhelming anguish, but the blonde simply turned away from her, approaching the exit, “Behave yourself while I get some people to arrest you, okay?” She chirped before entering the streets of Talonia. Althea had already deduced that Elodea didn’t have any magic besides her memory thing, so she doubted the nymph could wiggle the pair of scissors from the place in the ground. And it was highly doubtful that she would injure her hand more than it w=already was ripping that out. She had healing abilities, but not ones great enough to perform a feat such as stitching together a ripped hand. So, the water mage had left her there to think things over a bit. After all, knocking her out at that point would’ve been just plain rude!
