faithfulflame | Eleventh Prayer: Burning Brightest [Action/Video] May 26th to June 1st

[Rei's head swam, her entire body swaying dangerously as she staggered through the forest. Something wasn't right. Nothing was. The last thing she remembered was talking to Helios, and then...nothing. The kidnapping had thankfully been quiet, and she'd been taken in her sleep but the return? This...this was something new. Her body felt off, too tall and heavy. Lean. muscular. Older. She had new memories, her head a jumble of them. Being young in Luceti...leaving it...and returning older. Almost as if it'd been no more than an afternoon or two.

Her body, still not adjusted to the changes suddenly brought by an extra fifteen years, found something else. The wings she remembered. But not the enormous ones. And from what she remembered they were grey, not orange. Making her way out of the forest, she felt a sense of loss. And a cooling sensation as well. And then there was the heat. The sheer raw heat that surged in her. She could feel Eferin even more keenly than she had before. Something was not right, she could feel that. But the power and heat? She wanted that. Walking out of the forest, heat shimmers distorting the air around her, Rei made her way home. To what had once been her home anyway, some...eighteen years ago.

Staggering inside, she all but collapsed onto the floor in her New Feather Dress.]

I'm...back.

Video

[After she's had some time to collect herself, Rei makes a short broadcast. The voice and accompanying video are a good deal older than when last she was here. Her elegance and beauty are only amplified by time. Maturity has been quite kind to her, it seems. To say nothing of the angelic wings sprouting from her back. Angelic things patterned in red and gold that wrap around her as she addresses the camera.

Her voice is somewhat brusque but excited as well, her eyes sparkling with interest.]

Good Afternoon, Luceti. This is Rei Hino, and I seem to have returned. It seems that I've only been away for a few days here, but it's been a number of years for me. But it seems there are quite a lot of strange things going on. I don't remember the wings being quite so large.

I'm pretty certain that unless I'm imagining things...there's something going on. I'd like for anyone with information, or experiencing strange symptoms with their Filial magic to please contact me or come by the shrine. Unless of course some fool's managed to burn it down or the caretakers didn't bother to keep it up while I was away.

[There's a rueful tone there, as if she didn't really expect anyone to do what she asked.]

If you want to catch up, I'll be there as well. It's been a while for me, and I'd love a chance for a tea ceremony or even Western tea with old friends, teachers, or even family. I will be providing fortune telling too, for...[Her smile grows nostalgic] old times sake.

[Rei'll be at the shrine during most afternoons, but she'll also be taking some time to explore the town again, curious to see what's changed while she's been away. Of course...it's only a kidnapping, but she believes she's been at home for 18 years. Feel free to catch her pretty much anywhere, though Sona and Twila possessed people beware. She's got a strong connection with Eferin and it's amplifying her already strong tendency towards being argumentative and zealous about dealing with what she perceives as darkness!]

((ooc note: Rei is returning from a mallynap for a while as well. She's currently 35 years old, under the full belief that she returned home and came back. That is to say she'll be played based on the end of the manga, mixed with a bit of her Parallel AU self.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I suppose that it has something to do with the increase in wing sizes too...

[She taps her chin]

I wonder if it's possible to expel a spirit.

The question is, do you really want to? This doesn't seem like it's totally random.

Some of the bigger wings also changed color. You've been here longer than me-- Okay, you were here for longer before you left and came back. Does the color Black mean anything to you?

[Nevermind that his own, normal sized Luceti wings were black.]

Black? Black is usually associated with Darkness. But...I don't think there's a dark spirit...or there wasn't.

There was that mess by the tunnels. Whatever happened there must be connected to all this.

You think they found something?

It's possible, isn't it? In that secret room from before.

Secret room?

[He's still new-- that debacle was before his time.]

There was a room opened in the tunnels last fall. And a locked door in that room.

Hmm.

I'd like to go down and take a look myself, but that does sound like a pretty good theory. It's a new thing, and this is a new thing. Though, I'm wondering if those two who just showed up in the village the other day were the catalyst. Something would have happened back then otherwise, right? Unless it's a time-release...

Wait, what happened?

Two people came to plaza just before this happened, a man and a woman. They both were dressed like officials, and the man wore some sport sunglasses. And, for some reason, the man was on crutches. I'm not sure what happened to him.

It wasn't my place to bother with them, so I don't know much more. Does any of that ring a bell?

Specialist Davis, perhaps? Was he black?

Yeah, he was. You know something?

I've met him on a mission and a draft. Nothing more than that. He's...working with the Malnosso Security Forces, if I remember correctly.

Security Forces. That actually makes sense, with his outfit and all. But, why would they even bother coming to this place? Unless it had to do with that room in the tunnels.

Edited 2013-06-06 03:53 (UTC)

It could very well have had everything to do with that. The Malnosso do strange things.

Oh, gee. And now everyone can fly because they wanted to interfere with the natural progress of society.

Is flying bad?

Nope. Them interfering is.

[Never let it be said that Cliff never thought about the UP3, even if he didn't stress too much about accidental violations.]

Well, yes. But this seems relatively benign, doesn't it?

It does, right now. I've gotta hunch that there's more to it, but...[he sighed,] that's hard to say for sure.