Today's Assignment: Stay Hidden

[Purity116]

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| Lily
| Gender: Female
| Age: 18
| Mythical Creature: Unicorn
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He seemed to be reacting well enough. Lily turned her head toward him to whisper, "A few rows back from the front, at least, probably more toward the middle really," she tightening her grip upon his hand, readjusting the placement of her fingers so that their palms were pressed even more flush against the other, "because the front seats are likely already taken, but they're up front worshiping currently."
She was actually a bit nervous herself. New church, new people, possible blasphemy, but she pushed those fears and the anxiety away. There was a peace that had settled deep within her that implied everything would be all right, so she clutched at it and held it near. Ace didn't need to know of her own nervousness, not when he needed her to be strong right now. She took charge a bit again, directing their footsteps toward a row with only a few people on the ends of the rows, and only one person on their end. "Excuse us," Lily smiled as she quietly sought permission to slip by the woman. She nodded and smiled, stepping back flush against her chair. Lily smiled more gratefully, and pulled Ace with her as they passed, walking toward the middle of the row before stopping and turning to Ace, "This good?" The screens and stage were clearly within view and not too difficult to see, so she didn't think he'd have any problem, but she wanted to ask anyway. The song slowed to and end and the next began as she asked her question, and inwardly she practically squealed as she recognized it. Immediately after she asked, she couldn't help throwing a glance at the stage and the screens which would soon begin to show the lyrics, lyrics that hovered at the fore of her mind that she might sing along when that happened.

[Guardian-Angel]

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Name: Kyle Merrill
Age: 18
Creature:Manticore

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Kyle's cheeks turned a light shade of pink at her words, although he wasn't sure if he was reading too much into them or if that had been a subtle hint for...marriage. He hoped the latter wasn't true. He was in no way ready for a relatonship like that. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he was ready to date yet. She wasn't only his first girlfriend, but one of his first best friends, so he wasn't exactly used to having any type of relationship. Of course, she could have meant nothing by it. Maybe she just accidentally said the wrong words? "Ex-ex-exploring would be fun," Kyle managed a small, nervous smile. However, his excitement soon prevailed over his nerves. "It would be so cool to explore a forest on top of a mountain full of snow! And I would love to see all of the creatures that live up here - I bet they are so beautiful and fun to watch. And if I were ever to live here..." he trailed off, realizing what he was saying a little too late. "I-I-I mean if...I were t-to b-build a house here, aw-way from everyone, then I would have to learn my way around here," he tried to make a recovery, although it was quite weak. Hopefully Mairianne would just think that he, like her, had accidentally used the wrong words. Hopefully.

[Purity116]

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| Mairianne
| Gender: Female
| Age: 18
| Mythical Creature: Griffin
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A few moments passed of such thick awkwardness, where she chewed the inside of her lip as she was perfectly aware of how red her face felt by the abundance of tight heat there. Welp. She'd essentially just sunk the idea of them taking things slow, hadn't she? Lit a match to straw. Unless she could think of something fast, there would always be this tension and expectation of something more to happen, something else. But nothing was coming to mind! This entire situation was utterly ridiculous. How on earth had she gotten herself here? It was almost laughable.
Actually, if she thought about it, it was pretty hilarious. Hilariously embarrassing, hilariously serious, just altogether, horribly, ridiculous. A slow smile took over the blush and once she laughed a little, a tiny whisper of laughter, the tension drained from her, like a deflating balloon. She laughed a bit more, closing her eyes a moment just chiding herself for letting some slipped up words and a guy she liked make her feel so utterly, stupidly embarrassed. "I know what you mean," she smiled brightly at him to calm his fears, shaking her head slightly, before looking down to giggle a bit more. What she had got across to him in her tone and knowing smile was that she'd caught it, but understood it was just a mistake. Mairianna just laughed it off a little bit more before she pulled her giggles into herself to smile in a somewhat more controlled fashion. "We'll definitely go out in the snow after dinner, since you love it so much." Mairianne tried to wash the previous moment away in her mind, throwing it into the trash bin of her mind that never actually got deleted per se, but that she didn't often willingly recall. If she didn't think about it, it'd be more difficult to remember to remember later.

[Guardian-Angel]

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Name: Ace Gilbert
Age: 19
Creature: Dragon

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"Yeah, this is fine," Ace nodded and gave her a small smile before facing the front. His eyes immediately went to the screens, which he could thankfully see rather well. As he waited for the lyrics, although he still wasn't sure about singing, his mind wandered to thoughts of his parents. What would they think about him going to church continuously? Well, his mom would obviously be happy. She had always gently pushed him and Silas towards church and Christianity, but, understanding that faith couldn't be forced, she had ultimately left them to decide what they believed in. Just thinking about her reaction made Ace's smile wider. Maybe he could call his mother after church and tell her that he was making his way towards being a Christian.
However, there was no way he was going to tell his dad.
His father was...difficult. He wasn't bad, just very traditional and opinionated. He believed he was always right and everyone that opposed his views and opinions were wrong, which had led to many arguments between him and Ace. He especially disliked discussing religion, and always disproved of his wife going to church. He simply couldn't stand religion because he didn't want to be held accountable. At least, that was Ace's theory. Either way, telling his dad was probably not the best idea, unless he wanted to get yelled at and receive a long speech about faith supposedly being useless. He sighed internally, just imagining the anger in his father's eyes as he went off on a rage-filled tangent. Oh well. He would still have support from Lily and his mom, and probably Silas, who had always leaned more towards believing in God than Ace had. He pushed away the last of his worries and doubts, clearing his mind as he tried to refocus on what was in front of him. Now wasn't the time to be concerned about such matters. Instead, it was the time to be worshiping God...which meant he would have to sing.

[Purity116]

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| Lily
| Gender: Female
| Age: 18
| Mythical Creature: Unicorn
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Since Ace seemed to be fine, Lily stooped to set her Bible down beneath her chair, and stepped to the side a little, away from Ace, as she began to sway with the music, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she sought to wholly devote her attention and self to the music, the lyrics eager upon her lips, finally bursting forth with a stream of happiness within her as the first stanza began. She had a nice-ish voice - she'd been in church choirs from a very young age - but her voice sometimes cracked on high notes when she couldn't really hear herself like this in worship. They were far enough back so that she didn't kill peoples' ears with accidentally too-high notes, but not back enough to have full range of her voice. It didn't really matter; she'd long since learned to not care about what other people thought most of the time. Lily only worried about her voice because she wanted to please God with her singing. She tried her best to sing well as a way of her expressing her love for Jesus.

"He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane,
I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy."

She easily raised her hands to her sides, out before her and to the side a little, her fingers relaxed in a staggered open palm, her eyes slipping closed. Much of the time she would watch the lyrics upon the screen, reading the words she sang into order to further engrave their meaning and themselves into her mind, to understand exactly what it was she was saying while she sang to her Lord, but for this song... Lily knew the lyrics too well to do that. It was redundant when they ran behind her eyelids and she knew from years of singing the song the meaning of the words. Ace nearly washed away from her awareness, though he remained a small presence in her mind, not wanting to scare him off with this craziness that was worship (or may appear so to the outside world). Hopefully, since she was doing it, and he trusted her, he wouldn't be too freaked out or think it too strange. Besides... she probably looked kind of pretty worshiping Jesus like this. The thought brought a little more of a smile to her already relaxed and happy lips.

[Guardian-Angel]

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Name: Kyle Merrill
Age: 18
Creature:Manticore

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"Is-is-is it that obvious that I like snow?" Kyle's smile returned, relaxing when the awkward moment finally seemed to pass. Snow was something safe to talk about, right? It was at least much safer than talking about living near the forest. So, desperate to forget about the last couple of minutes, he decided to ramble on about snow. "I never really got to do the fun stuff with snow, like build forts and snowmen and have a snowball fight, because it was always too hot for it to stick to the ground. But up here...it's everywhere! We could create an army of snowmen and make a castle for ourselves to hide in while we attack the snowmen with snowballs! If that's possible...is it possible?" He frowned, tilting his head to the side slightly as if he was considering the question. However, not giving Mairianne a chance to answer, he quickly went on to say, "Either way, we should try to do that - oh my gosh we could make snow angels! That would be so fun, although cold, but snow in general is cold and we are in the mountains, so it would actually be freezing...oh well. Wait, what about making an igloo!? I've heard that they are actually warm inside, although I'm not sure how, but maybe science has some explanation?" His shoulders then slumped as he let out an exaggerated sigh. "If only dinner would get here faster. Well, technically the end of dinner," he corrected himself, looking up at Mairianne with a grin.

[Purity116]

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| Mairianne
| Gender: Female
| Age: 18
| Mythical Creature: Griffin
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"It takes a while for lasagna to cool enough to taste its best. I mean, if you'd like, we could go outside for a few minutes now?" She suggested shyly, not entirely sure if it was the best of ideas, but... he was simply so adorable!!! If she hadn't only just been reminded by those awkward little marriage-maybe comments to take things slow and be cautious, she probably would have tackled him in a cuddly hug and shower him with kisses just squealing on and on about how absolutely, positively, without a single doubt, adorable he was. "And if you're really worried about the cold, we can just shift... I mean, you'd probably be warmer with your lion fur than in wet clothes, right?" Her voice was still very soft, especially for her, as she was somewhat unsure of her ideas and didn't want to offend or suggest bad ones. Besides, it was difficult to not attack the poor boy under the guise of his adorableness. It was a miracle she kept her voice as normal as she did, instead of reverting into the speech pattern adults affect while speaking to a child, toddler, or infant. Geez. Seemingly manly one moment, cuter than a button the next: boys were weird.

[Guardian-Angel]

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Name: Ace Gilbert
Age: 19
Creature: Dragon

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Ace read the lyrics silently to himself, trying to get a feel for the tune and melody. However, if he was honest with himself, he really was trying to avoid singing. He recognized the song, having heard his mom sing it to herself several times, but he wasn't comfortable preforming such an act in front of strangers. Glancing at Lily, he raised an eyebrow, surprised at how engrossed she was. She appeared to be completely focused on God and worship instead of worrying about the people around her. Her confidence, her sureness, and even the way she was singing were so beautiful in that moment. Finally regaining his own confidence, he turned back to the front and began to sing quietly. His sonorous voice was able to match the melody and notes decently well, although he did sing an octave lower because the higher notes were difficult for him. But how he sounded didn't matter. This was about God, about worshiping Him. With that thought in mind, he sang a little louder, focusing on the meaning behind the words. He could just picture a tall tree bending from the strong wind, unable to handle its magnificence. It really was just like God's love and mercy. Both were astonishing and overwhelming, but also wonderful and perfect. Both were things he wanted to desperately believe in. The screen changed with the next set of lyrics, Ace putting his heart into it as he sang:

"And all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me."

[Guardian-Angel]

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Name: Kyle Merrill
Age: 18
Creature:Manticore

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Kyle jumped to his feet, looking down at Mairianne as he continued to grin. "Can we!?" He bounced slightly in place, trying hard to stay still, but he was full of excitement and energy. "You could make huge snow angels as a griffin, or would they be called snow griffins? Either way it would be really cool! And I could make snow lions..." he trailed off, realizing that if he were to shift into a manticore, she would actually, physically see that he was deformed. "It would be really weird to shift though since I haven't done it in so long, especially in front of people...but you're nice and, well, I guess my girlfriend, so I'm sure it would be alright?" He frowned slightly as he spoke his thoughts out loud. He was nervous, but his mind was more focused on his excitement than fears. Besides, earlier Kyle had offered to show her his true form and she seemed fine. Plus wouldn't this help him overcome his fears and bring him and Mairianne closer?

[Purity116]

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| Mairianne
| Gender: Female
| Age: 18
| Mythical Creature: Griffin
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"I'm sure it will be too," Mairianne rose with a small, amused smile, "It'll be fun." She buried her arms into each other across her chest, cocking her head slightly at him. "So what are we waiting for?" She smiled, by her body language of waiting and head tilted in amusement and veiled excitement, she expected an answer, and for him to make the first move; she refused to push him on this. If he loved snow enough, he would take the lead and it would last for a bit before she'd really have to do anything. If he didn't want it that badly, then there would trouble when they actually got to the shifting part. He needed to decide on his own, without her prodding.
On the bright side, there were already spells set up everywhere so she wouldn't have to cast a spell to be invisible.
Actually... was it just her imagination, or did her true form already feel cramped up in its hiding place? Of a sudden, she was extremely excited herself to stretch her muscles. And those griffin angels, man...