Heartless in the Rain

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Pointless, pointless, pointless.

Ain stared at the girl, Elaine, as she ran out the door. He must have hit the mark, it was magic she used which made her a witch or a sorceress of some sort. It was certainly true that he had not met a good person that could use magic in his life, it was always spells that could destroy and wreck havoc on the worlds in very destructive ways. As he laid there he turned his head to look up at the high ceiling, the heartless were probably drawn by the darkness in someones heart but it was likely that that person was no longer around or alive. Yet, they would linger long after like ghosts without guidance, was he no different?

"I burned the candle at both ends and now I can't move very much." he said as he tried to get up on his own and ended up laying down for a bit more. "Those things are called Heartless, I'm not sure what exactly they are but maybe it's more accurate to say that dark lingering attachment is what they are made up of."

Closing his eyes he relaxed almost into a daze, his words having much more emotion then Caroline must have seen from him.

"They seek hearts for some reason, peoples hearts. They crave it like creatures and attack without warning and without fear of just about anything. I have been trying to understand them for a long time, I still understand close to nothing." he turned his head and sighed. "Don't take what I just said seriously, I'm just guessing but know this- Heartless are dangerous and should be destroyed on sight."

It took him a while but he managed to sit up with Caroline's help and sat against the pillar that was cracked above. He was not physically injured luckily but exhaustion was his worst enemy. "I'm pretty tired, but I will be just fine" he said, not saying as long as heartless don't come back for obvious reasons. The sound of rain from outside soon ceased, making the timing of coming here pretty pointless if they had only waited a hour. "Unless you want to wait for me, you should check outside. It stopped raining."

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I don't like the sound of this.
--

Caroline listened to his explanation and her heart beat a little faster in fear. She didn't like the sound of that at all, and the mental images she got disgusted her... those black creatures, literally tearing hearts out of peoples' chests. She didn't even know she was capable of imagining such dark images. Of course, Heartless didn't steal physical hearts but she wasn't aware of that.

Really what scared her was... what if Ain and that woman with the fireballs hadn't fought them off? Sure, she'd taken one out herself but she counted that as a freak occurrence and didn't think the next time she would be so lucky. Maybe she would feel safer once she had her weapon with her... she would feel even better when she finally got home. Home was the ultimate safety for her. She couldn't wait to get back to her own house, her own bed, with her family and her tasks.

Speaking of which, she had things to do now. She glanced at Ain, just to be sure he wasn't injured and then rose to her feet and went over to the door. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be checking for, but she stuck her head out and looked around. Looked good to her. It wasn't raining, she heard voices and knew that people were starting to emerge after the rainstorm. There weren't anymore Heartless. They were safe, for the moment being. She walked back over to report her findings.

She put her hands on her hips in a dutiful kind of way and said "Well, I think we're fine now. We should hurry. There's work to be done. Can you move yet?[/color]"

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Caroline is not a normal person....

Ain jumped to his feet as soon as Caroline came back and nodded. Pulling his damp jacket down to fit it better he looked down at her before looking around a bit, her couldn't be certain that they defeated every heartless and at any moment they could find another batch. What he really wondered however was what was up with Caroline, that slap was something special- no, to be exact Caroline was something special wasn't she. She may not have realized it yet but she carried so much strength and talent in her small body behind that pink dress and cute blond hair. He would not suggest this but she had the potential to fight heartless with a bit of training.

"I'm fine. I suggest we look around town some, maybe we can buy some provisions." he stated dully, as he walked past her and towards the door outside. "Be very careful, there might be more heartless nearby."

Exiting outside, he was greeted by the sun and damp ground scattered by puddles here and there. He looked back at the church, he only knew the name of the world but the city he wasn't so sure of. It would be easier to get someone from here to show them around and only one person came to mind- The Witch that they met in the cathedral. It wasn't likely they would find her but he would keep his eyes open just in case. "Caroline, back inside you destroyed a heartless." he stated as he did not look at her. "No normal people can do that. Let's go."

[Oathkeeper Emi]

provisions?
--

Hearing "buy some provisions" cheered Caroline right up. She was happy to hear she and Ain were on the same track about that. As they walked outside though, his deadpan comments about her destroying that Heartless and not being normal unsettled Caroline. She wasn't... normal? And the way he said it, like it wasn't that big a deal... she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Her smile went down a few notches until she was frowning. She had to stop frowning, though, because when she thought about it she realized it would give her wrinkles. They walked out into the town and Caroline distracted herself by looking around. In her mind, she was thinking about what she wanted to cook. She enjoyed cooking. And she still owed Ain an apple pie. So, she started looking for apples. There had to be someone selling fruit around here, right?

She spotted a cart full of them and broke out into a grin, and ran over. Distracted by looking for the perfect apples, she completely forgot about all of that stuff with the Heartless, and the magic, and her not being normal.

"These look great,[/color]" she said, unaware that the fruit merchant probably couldn't understand her.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Language barrier D:

Ain walked over next to Caroline while she looked at the apples, he realized immediately that their was a language barrier to pass before they could buy anything. What was the language that they spoke, up to this point only English was used in the worlds he had been to. He however saw the prices listed for the apples- 2 munny per apple, that much he understood but he was bad a body language. The merchant looked puzzled but knew that they were customers. "Avez-vous besoin d'aide avec rien?" the merchant said, not knowing what he was saying his mind pretty much went blank and he said nothing. "Avez-vous m'entendre, mister?"

Turning to Caroline he just didn't know how to deal with this situation. "Caroline, Let's just pay the man and take what we need. Unless you understand what he is saying." he stated dully, feeling pretty useless for once in a long while.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Thank you, Google Translate.
--

Caroline held up a hand, the universal sign for "wait a minute". She never thought her lessons at school would come in handy, but they were lucky she had paid as much attention to it as she had and even went out of her way to put in extra work. "Je vais prendre trois pommes,[/color]" she said to the merchant slowly, building confidence. She turned to Ain. "I believe we owe this man six munny,[/color]" she told him, picking three apples from the cart. To the merchant: "Je vous remercie beaucoup.[/color]"

She felt... proud of herself. She was helping them. While Ain was feeling useless for the first time in his life, she was feeling useful for the first time in hers. Doing something worthwhile, something that wasn't her chores felt good. Her skills were being put to good use, finally, and that along with her previous defeat of her first Heartless... she grinned despite herself. She would get even more chances to help out once they got back to the ship. That room still needed to be cleaned, dinner prepared, pie baked... she had a busy evening ahead of her.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Lingering feelings always remain even if it's dulled.

Ain simply nodded to the surprisingly helpful Caroline, was there anything this girl couldn't do. He sighed very lightly, his expression not changing from his dull straight face he always showed and payed the merchant. Bagging the apples he threw the bag over his shoulder without much thought and glanced at Caroline. "How do you say thank you in whatever language this is?" he asked quietly, he was not one to show manners outwardly but he knew when to express some gratitude- at least some of the time.

Other times he could be accused of being dense.... XD

As he stood there he saw a few people that looked different from the regular townsfolk, among them dancers to earn money from passerbys. It was interesting to watch the kinds of dance used in this world but at the same time he felt that just like most places he has been. The rich have everything, while the poor must work hard on the streets for darn near nothing at all. His life was once like that and even though his body wasn't moved, deep down he knew that he hated the people that walked over them. Just as the dancer started to earn money, a few guards came and ran the dancers off.

"I don't like it here..." he mumbled to himself, before looking back at Caroline and the merchant.

[Fate]

Don't Know What I'm Doing~

Out of Notre Dame as fast as possible, yet pausing as soon as she reached the outside; Lanie couldn't quite figure out what she wanted to do. The man back there looked sort of hurt after that battle-- maybe she should go back and heal him. No, that wouldn't do! She had already run out of the building and anyone possibly looking onto the scene would have seen her. Now she needed to walk, not run, to the bakery and buy some bread. And then she would return home, forget this ever happened, and continue on with the monotony of her life.

Yes, that sounded about right. Elaine did just that and went straight into the market, buying her bread and leaving the baker. The rain was gone now, which meant she could actually stay outside for a bit instead of go straight home. Yes, mother would be wondering why she hadn't returned home yet, but this was the most freedom she had had for a long time. Even though it was just the marketplace and it wasn't that far out of her house, it was still something.

And then, of course, as she was walking around, those two happened to come into her line of vision. They seemed to need stuff as well, apples being the first thing. Maybe she should actually be kind and thank the man for his help earlier in the church as well as the girl's; that would be the right thing to do. Sighing, she decided to do this, walking up to the two with a shy way about her. She tried to keep eye contact as she spoke yet again in English.

"Thank you for your help," she said politely, "I am sorry for running away. Maybe I could... heal you?" She was never the most eloquent person and she hadn't even asked for their names yet, but she would get there... eventually.

[/size]

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Second encounter with "The Witch"

Ain stood there a while as the merchant gave back some change, though his eyes stared straight ahead he wasn't paying attention to anything but the side alley. The memory of that one horrible month lingering and tearing at him no matter how much time had passed, with his mother gone life was never the same but in retrospect it gave him a true reality check- one that he wouldn't realize until many years down the line. He cried a lot back then, sad to think he was probably a little momma's boy but no more. Things were different now, and cold as stone.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar face, it was the girl from the cathedral from earlier. She ran away so fast that he didn't think that he would see her again, the girl that used black magic, turning to her he stared at her dully without a shred of emotion in his face or eyes. Elaine acted awkwardly as she tried her very best to speak English, her words however kind of surprised him. How did she know that he was injured, he hid that fact the best he could yet the girl must have seen through him. "I see you noticed." he simply replied as he turned slightly and lifted the back of his jacket, on his back was bruised gash from when he fell in the cathedral. "You said you can heal, is that perhaps ma--"

Before saying the word magic he remembered what she told him, don't tell anyone about her magic was what he thought he heard. "My name is Ain, I'm from the world: Atlantica" he stated blandly, wondering how Caroline who was standing next to him would react.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I can handle this myself!
--

"I've already thanked him,[/color]" Caroline said as she took the change from the merchant. She was busy counting when she noticed Ain was being quiet. Well, more quiet than usual. And so, she looked up and who did she see but that girl back in the cathedral. The one with the fireballs, the witch. She was instantly filled with a sense of unease and was silent while she thanked them, apologized for running away and offered to heal Ain, who apparently had been more injured in the cathedral than Caroline had thought.

She felt awful for not having noticed, but that man was good at hiding things. She almost interjected that they didn't need her witchcraft, and that she was more than capable of taking care of her travelling companion herself. However, she kept her mouth shut and smiled a little. Ain introduced herself and Caroline did the same. "Caroline Slay,[/color]" she said, extending a hand. "From New Orleans, Louisiana. Pleased to meet you. Enchanté de vous rencontrer.[/color]"

She thought maybe speaking in her language would help lighten some of the tension.

[Fate]

So There Are Other Worlds Out There?!

Well, both of these people seemed rather nice. Though, they both spoke in a sort of odd way. One of them said they were from the world Atlantica and the other from New Orleans, Louisiana. She had never even heard of those other places. They didn't exist as far as she knew. Wait, that meant that they could be from other worlds and not just this one! That would explain why their clothes stuck out and they spoke in a different tongue than everyone else. That explained everything! Elaine couldn't help but smile at both of them.

"Enchanté," she replied, taking the extended hand and shaking it, "Elaine Beaumount. If you follow me, I can heal you. So sorry for running out before." She couldn't hide the happiness from her voice. Finally, she had met someone from another world: two people! She was definitely sure of it this time. But, now she had a question. How did they get here if they were from another world? Surely they didn't do the same thing those creatures did, right?

Once they were sort of out of sight from the rest of the crowd of people, Elaine took out her rod again and muttered "Guérit." Warm, green flames emerged from the rod and circled Ain. Hopefully, that would be enough to heal him. Before anyone could see, she put her rod away again and turned to the two. "So you both are really from other worlds? I have never met anyone else from outside this one."

[Battle Report:
Elaine used Guérit
For posts until next use, four uses remaining]

[/size]

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

I wonder sometimes, I'm not very normal. Am I really a....

In a split second that he looked away the pain was gone, not only that but it also relieved some of his fatigue from using his powers. It was a strange feeling to be magically healed and couldn't properly figure out how it was even possible to heal with magic. He let the thought pass, but wondered if telling this person that he was from another world was the right move to make- he didn't really think about it and now he had to answer for it. Taking a soft breath, he tried to figure out how to properly handle this.

"Thank you for healing me, Elaine." he stated dully, his eyes not once blinking as he looked ahead at Elaine. "We are currently traveling and were forced to make a stop on this world while I make some repairs on my ship. We must leave shortly but I must ask how you came to learn such magic."

Ain stood there unmoving except for his mouth, despite his visual lack of interest he was actually quite interested in the magic arts even if he could not use magic himself. Instead he carried a ability counter to almost all magic though he only knew it as a defense mechanism rather then anything truly useful in regular battle and life. To him it was a most useless power that he gained somehow, then again he wasn't exactly sure how he came to learn anything. What exactly was the source of his powers? It probably was better left to answer another day...

[Fate]

-I thought ships stayed in the sea. I am so confused...-

So Ain was from another world and him and Caroline had stopped to make repairs to his ship. Elaine thought about that for a second. How could one get a ship that traveled from other worlds into Paris? It wasn't exactly a port city and, since this ship was from another world, it would be really difficult to hide it anywhere. Maybe they used magic to hide it? That would make some sort of sense she supposed. But how did they get it to fly? The Seine wasn't exactly made for sailing large ships on and that was the only other option she could think of.

Though, before she could ask that question, and the many others that were in her head, he asked ho she came to learn magic. She couldn't say she was surprised with this question-- it had been the first question her parents had asked her after they found out. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing to explain though. "Er... je ne sais pas," she said at first, slipping back into French. "It's hard to explain. I learned it when I was a little younger. I had to teach myself how to use it when I found out I could do it. But I couldn't tell anyone. People in... this world do no like magic."

Referring to this place as her "world" was quite odd indeed. And talking with two people from other worlds was even stranger. Both of them seemed like nice people, even though Ain seemed rather strict in his whole demeanor. Caroline seemed almost the exact opposite; though, how in the world did she slap a creature that hard to make it disappear? No one had been able to do that here... or what Ain did for that matter.

"If you do not mind me asking something before you both leave," she started to say, figuring that this was only just a short stop for them, "How were you able to do what you did in the church? I'm sorry, but I have never seen anything like it." Mental note: learn to speak English better so it's less awkward.

[/size]

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Is there...something wrong with me?
--

Caroline trailed behind Ain and Elaine, clutching the apples to her. For obvious reasons, she was wary. Elaine was leading them off to a side street, out of sight. Caroline jogged to keep up and stuck close to Ain. On the inside, she was still feeling bad that she hadn't even noticed his injury and frightened that he was willing to let a stranger with magic heal him. She stepped away when the healing begun and shook, feeling as though she wanted to slap her hands away, especially when she seemed to be using green fire. Caroline, like most, had come to associate fire with pain, not as a means for healing.

It was over soon, and she didn't want to seem ungrateful to Elaine for healing Ain, so she murmured a thank you. She took a few steps back over to join them again, and listened intently to Elaine's explanation. It put the older woman's mind to rest. That is, if Elaine wasn't lying. Caroline felt a little better that Elaine had been born like this and hadn't sold her soul to the devil or something. It bothered her a little, because if Elaine was born like this... what could have been wrong her? Caroline quickly shook her head. Mama always told her not to say things like that. Everyone was different and she wasn't to judge people when God made them just like they were.

And of course, now she was being faced with the origins of her own power. Power she didn't even know she had until this afternoon. Before, she had to call for her father or one of her uncles just to get a jar of blackberry preserves open. Today, she had slapped a monster so hard that it hit a pillar and exploded, leaving a crack in the stone pillar.

"I haven't the faintest idea how I was able to do that,[/color]" she finally said. She placed the apples by her feet just so that she could look at her hands. Palm up, they were the hands of a lady. Slender and pale, without callus or any kind of scar. It wasn't that she didn't work, because she did. Back at home, her place was in the kitchen but in comparison, this work wasn't hard. She didn't look like she could possibly possess that kind of strength, and suddenly Caroline was terrified. Unlike Elaine, Caroline didn't think she had been born with this.

So what power was it?

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Memories are fickle...

Ain didn't know how to answer Elaine's question, for him to give one would mean he knew the answer as well but he didn't know anything. It just happens, though he has control over it and can use it effectively enough. His thoughts drifted to Caroline who must have been having a hard time dealing with so much at once and now she had to deal with s strange power that she may or may not have. Then there was Elaine who possessed magic of both black and white, living in a place that sees it as witchcraft- trying her best to hide it. The more he thought, more people popped into his mind including the key wielding mouse, Mickey and the Crazy Girl Loru who had incredible strength. Even though he thought of these things heavily, his body remained stiff and his expression never moved.

"That's a hard question that I don't have a answer for, but one day not too long ago, I just didn't realize that I already knew how to use these powers." he stated dryly, as he lightly patted the left side of his chest. "Deep down I might have always been able to without realizing it or had realized it but didn't notice."

His eyes blinked once, his dull tone in his face made you wonder what exactly he might be thinking beyond that as he lacked many expressions. Turning slightly he lifted the back of his jacket again to check his back, looking carefully he noticed that the wound was gone- how exactly was fire able to heal him? Either way he was in perfect condition now and ready to go back to the ship. Glancing at Caroline he nodded to her, and stood up straight. "We should probably get going now, Caroline. I need to make adjustments to the navigation systems on our ship." he stated quietly before looking back at Elaine and nodding to her as well.

"Your lucky to have magic, Elaine." he simply said as he looked at Elaine without a blink and stood there patiently- waiting for Caroline.