☀ The Last Defense ☀ no longer accepting! ☀

[SunnyJustice]

Lasagna was on the main course for today's lunch. Alder set out plates with everyone's name on them, except the plate labelled "Wayne" was purposely and blatantly empty.
This was Wayne's last day in the Training Caves. He was getting expelled today. His wasteful behavior was the last straw.
Alder rang the lunch bell, letting it ring throughout the entire cave system, before disappearing back into the kitchen to eat his own share.

Tags: EVERYONE

---

Runt wasn't even embarrassed by the laughter. She rolled over onto her back as Xia approached her, putting up the pinky finger in a derogatory gesture.
"You tiny disgrace!!" She purposely ignored the very obvious fact that Xia was taller. Her friend had even reminded her. Of course, Runt pretended that it wasn't true.
She pretended to dramatically die when Xia poked her with the trident. Runt rolled sideways off the slab of debris, rolling to a stop at the bottom, where she lay sprawled out idiotically. She couldn't play dead for long though. The laughter started and then it started to hurt to maintain this position. Runt scrambled to her feet, shaking her head like a dog shaking off water.
"Oh my god!!" She exclaimed as the lunch bell rang. "Give me all the food, Alder!!!"
The idiot sprinted forward, but collided with the lieutenant. "Whoops! I'm sorry mom!"

Tags: Liv, Xia

---

Parlando noted that Lawrence was somewhat irritated. Maybe she had been sleeping in the supply closet, which explained the silence. There wasn't many other possibilities. It was far too dark to read in there, far too cramped to shoot a bow. They must have woken her up.
"We just came out of the washroom. I remembered hearing somewhere, 'only girls go to the washroom in groups.' I don't think that's true," He chuckled. "I was telling the story of the moss lamp."
The bell rung for lunch, and Pearl kept up a calm face, even though he wanted to sprint down the hallway. The unappetizing scene with Wayne led to an unsatisfying breakfast. Although the pancakes were delicious, he would have enjoyed them more without the rude boy's behavior. Lunch was bound to be much better.
"Come on. I hope there's salad." He kept walking down the hall at the same pace.

Tags: Lawrence, Kevin, Ant

[honeybee.]

Lieutenant Liv Brie//18//Location-Training Cave//Tags-Xia;Eletha:Runt;Commander Alder
Liv applauded as Xia poked Runt with her trident, winning the fight. Just as Liv's stomach was alerting her to the fact that it should be nearly time to eat the lunch bell rang, echoing into the cave Xia and Runt were in. Runt crashed into Liv in her eagerness to get to the food and Liv staggered back from the force. It was probably a good thing that this had happened though. Liv shook her head and held her hand out in a gesture preventing Runt from running off again. "No worries." She told her, when Runt apologised (calling her 'mom' again), "But you're gonna have to help me clear up this mess and make the floor relatively flat again or Alder's gonna be mad at us all." She gestured at the ruined piece of floor, before turning to Xia. "You too ,Xia. It should only take us a few minutes, just clear away the rubble and pack earth in the hole or something."

Ant Lithorn//16//Location-Training Cave//Tags-Parlando;Kevin; Lawrence
"Our hands were all syrupy." Ant added to Pearl's words about them all going to the washroom together, "We we're hardly going to go one at a time." He clapped his hands together when the lunch bell rang out. As trainees who spent half of their time practicing for a fight against the Hellborn, food was incredibly important to most of them. After all, they didn't have a whole lot else left.
"I hope there's garlic bread." Ant followed Pearl towards the food, breathing in the scent of lunch. "I'm sure I can smell garlic."

[darcy_jensen]

✦ A E R I S S A ✦
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[seventeen] [bisexual] [water manipulation] [tags; sage]

with a gentle sigh, aerissa clambered out of the pool and grabbed the towel she'd brought. wrapping it around her long, blonde hair, the teenager flashed a smile towards sage, before noticing her uncomfortable expression. "are you okay?" she asked softly, frowning as she examined the girl's appearance. with a chuckle, ari realised that the younger girl was probably cold, only to be increased by her damp clothing and soaking hair. biting her lip in concentration, she raised her hand towards sage, focusing on the droplets of water that lay in the fabric of her bathing suit. "come on," she muttered quietly, stretching her arm further in front. a look of wonder and excitement graced aerissa's features as the water separated itself from sage's clothes and wobbled in the air, glimmering in the artificial light. she then moved her attention to the girl's brown hair, pulled up into a soaking wet high ponytail. fuelled by her newfound confidence, ari managed to extract the water from sage's hair as well. with a grunt, she moved the water to hover above the pool that the pair had just occupied, and let it fall down with a delicate splash.

throwing an excited grin towards her friend, ari began to walk back towards the entrance to dry off and change before rejoining with the others. "so to answer your earlier question," she laughed in delight, turning back to face sage, "my power seems to be water manipulation."

[DetectiveLunar]

Sherlyn "Sher-sher" Hernandez//Female//16//Tags:Luxen Xyrcan brothers (She's just like: Well WTH are they doing?!)

Sherlyn gave both Ryker and Naevys a look. "I trust that both of you will stop making fun of him not just one and I hope that you two have learned a lesson from this." She said in a almost emotionless tone. She didn't want them to know she was worried. She was worried that Evren night be broken and that Giovanni just might not be able to fix him... Giovanni looked at Evren with a slightly worried look. "It'll be fine. If I don't get it I'll try to get it!" He told Evren in a calm tone. "You don't have to be happy all the time. Who said you had to be happy all the time? People have their ups and downs. It's ok to cry or feel down sometimes,Evren. You control your emotions. You can feel whatever you want to feel." He wanted Evren to know that this was normal. That he could feel all these emotions. That it was ok. He was going to keep on talking trying to cheer him up but Evren was now on the floor hugging his knees. What he said shocked Gio a bit.."You like girls.Not boys." He smiled and sat down on the floor so he could do one thing he hoped would cheer him up. "You don't know that." He said before wrapping his arms around Evren,trapping him in a hug.

Giovanni "Gio" Persad//Male//15//Tags: Evren
(Look at Sherlyn's post)

Sage Moonstone//Female//14//Power:Teleportation//Tags: Aerissa

Sage watched in amazement as Aerissa separated the water from her and put it back in the pool once again. She didn't feel uncomfortably wet anymore and smiled at her. "Thanks. That was really cool too." Sage said kindly to her. "Hopefully I'll get to master my power and not end up danger because of it." She said giggling slightly.

(Sorry I have writer's block for her!! Aggghh!)

Kevin "Flower Boy" Fernandez//15//Male//Tags:Ant & Parlando

"I hope I'll get to see them one day." He said kindly. Sunflower's taller than the Jin family? Kevin would love to see that. He laughed a bit at Pearl's story,"Well hopefully none of you got burned." He told him kindly before turning to Ant. "Well if she did murder us then someone would find out because of my screaming." He said,giggling a bit. His screams were actually pretty loud and would probably somehow echo throughout the place. "That would sound nice. Salads are pretty healthy." Kevin told Pearl following him down the hallway before cringing a bit at Ant's guess. "Uhh..I don't know about you but I hope not. I don't really like garlic or anything that taste like garlic!"

(I have responded!!!)

[TheFae]

Faline Salvaje
17
Power: Big Cat Shifter
Location: Cafeteria
Tagged: Alder

Faline couldn't help but try and rustle Alder's fur, so to speak, as she walked into the cafeteria. "Is this a heart on my plate, Alder?" She giggled, winking at him. She had to run off for a little bit until she could gain control of her emotions so she could shift back. She had stayed in her room, shifting back and forth between cat and human so she would never get stuck again.
"So, what did I miss, Alder? Thank you for allowing me to go back to my room to learn how to shift without fear of hurting anyone. I have it down pat, now." Faline smiled, truly appreciating him bending the rooms for her slightly.

Coahoma Salvaje
17
Power: Sound Manipulation (not found yet)
Location: Cafeteria
Tagged: OPEN

Coahoma had laid low the past few hours, just lost in her own thoughts. She saw the food fight, and Alder had been enraged. It was a bit of a shock because Coahoma wanted to have started the food fight. She would have been the one being thrown out. Yet, instead of fear pulsing through Coahoma's veins, it was the prospect of a challenge.
Coahoma would need to find something that was fun enough to be talked about for ages, but not to the point where Alder kicked her out. If he could even get a hand on her, that was. The very thought put a smile on her face as she started scheming again.

Ettore
15
Power: Temperature Manipulation (not found yet)
Location: Cafeteria
Tagged: OPEN

Ettore was quiet as he kept to himself, nodding to Alder in greeting as he grabbed his plate. He grabbed his lasagna, and sat down, munching on it as he stared off into space.

[SunnyJustice]

Runt whined in frustration as she eyed the destruction she caused. At least, she thought, cleaning this up is less scary than the lieutenant getting mad at me.
"Of course!" The usual perky attitude was back. Runt was not a whiner or a moper. She loved life, and almost everything about life. She could force herself to love chores if she had to.
Runt leaped towards the rubble and did a bellyflop, like she was jumping into a pool. She hit the rough stone with a sad thudding noise. That didn't particularly do anything.
"Oww," Runt laughed as she rolled over onto her back. "I almost felt that."
She rolled over again, then crawled onto her knees and punched the nearest protruding boulder. She expected it to smash into smithereens, but instead her tiny fist put a clean hole through the stone. Her ridiculously small hand was like a bullet.
"What the heck!" Runt pulled her hand out and stared at it, totally weirded out. "How do I make the floor flat again? I want dinstructions!"

Dinstructions: Mispronunciation of "instructions". In her case, might mean "instructions on how to un-destroy the floor".

* Tags: Xia & Liv

---

Parlando's stomach rumbled discourteously as Ant mentioned garlic bread.
"Haha, sorry. I hope that didn't scare your socks off," Pearl chuckled. "I really do love garlic bread. Papa used to joke that his extra-spicy garlic bread gave Mom her fiery personality."
He laughed a bit harder at Kevin's comments, both the screaming and the hatred of garlic bread. "Don't worry, I'll trade you. Your garlic bread for whatever's non-garlicky on my plate."
As they entered the cafeteria, Parlando quickened his pace until he reached the serving area. The plates were labelled with everyone's name.
"Look at this," Pearl laughed. Wayne's plate was empty- spotless. "It's the only clean thing with Wayne's name on it."
He took his own plate, and he would have handed the other boys' plates to them, but his own plate was too big. Alder seemed to be extra generous this lunch for some reason.
"This smells so good. Do you think I'd be allowed to save some for us to share later?" Parlando mused aloud. If he could get a container from the kitchen somehow, maybe he could stash some of his own lasagna away. Then he and the other boys could share for a midnight snack.

* Tags: Kevin & Ant

---

Wayne was in the storage room, and he didn't know why. Maybe Alder locked him there. It didn't matter, that guy just thought he was manly, but he really wasn't. Wayne was much tougher than that sissy. He yawned and went back to sleep.

* Tags: None (and I'll literally have him sleep here until it's time to kill him off, which will be soon.)

---

Commander Alder entered the cafeteria to take inventory, just in case the kids started something again. Fortunately there was no airborne food and no objects getting wrecked. And no Wayne.
He turned his head when Faline addressed him.
"A heart on your plate?" He deliberately narrowed his eyes at her food, looking it over. All the while he had a completely straight face and emotionless voice. "Maybe mine is there. That'd explain my temper, huh."
The stony expression gave way to a faint smile. He had learned the ridiculously serious mannerisms from his sister. Acacia would always be a part of him, whispering her memories when he needed them most. Alder couldn't afford to be stupid. He couldn't afford to disgrace her memory by losing his temper like a hormonal teenager, or by trying to block out her presence. He had already done that for two weeks.
"You missed me thrashing Wayne. And I'm impressed with your quick learning." Alder had already finished his own lunch, so he sat down in an empty chair. He didn't have to worry about his food getting cold (and that was less important).
"Capture the Flag starts soon. Liv reassigned you to my team, but I'm already the Commander. Think others should have a chance to lead."
Olivia usually let a trainee on her team lead. Normally Alder would be opposed to this, but now it seemed silly to think his rank could be threatened by a game. Let the trainees have a chance to shine.
This one especially, there was something different about her. She wasn't afraid of him. Normally that would have ticked him off, but it could be an asset too. As long as she respected the chain of command, she would be an incredibly valuable soldier. She wouldn't be afraid of her enemies either. But, ah, they'd be afraid of her when she struck them down under her claws.
"So, how about it- Team Captain Faline?"

* Tags: Faline

[passione]

ＴＨＥ ＬＵＸＥＮ ＸＹＲＣＡＮＳ
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[ training caves ] - [ soon to be speed / photokinesis / telekinesis ] - [ crossbow / crossbow / longbow ]
[ tags - sherlyn / giovanni / sherlyn ]
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Ryker said nothing. He didn't need to. Sherlyn didn't know them well, but judging by the guilt on his face, written in his eyes, she would have been able to tell that from now on, Ryker would be treating his younger brother like nothing less than a king. Naevys was different. He merely nodded in agreement, though his heart wasn't in it. He had been picking on Evren all his life. He truly did feel bad, but maybe this was taking something away from him. Maybe it was taking away Naevys' ability to vent. Ryker had always been right. Never take your pain out on someone else. He was just so deep in regret now that he couldn't pay attention to Sherlyn— let alone say anything at all.

Evren, too, was quiet. He looked up at Giovanni with eyes that said "will it? will it really be fine?" The thing was, Evren wasn't used to being a pessimist at all. He was the bouncy ball of sunshine in his family alongside his youngest sisters. So, when he finally shows someone his negative side, it all comes spilling out, neverending. Evren didn't even realize he had this inside of him. "Yeah... Yeah..."

Now, the question was, where was this coming from all of a sudden? Giovanni Persad was being kind to him. Awfully kind. Didn't he always think Evren was weird for being so clingy? Wasn't GioGio a strange nickname to him? That didn't seem to matter anymore. As soon as Giovanni wrapped his arms around Evren, the usually golden boy released his knees, just so he could return the hug. It's ok to cry or feel down sometimes, Evren. Maybe those words were enough.

Evren pressed his face against the crook of Giovanni's neck and clung onto him as if this very moment with his crush was his last. It started with a few whimpers, but those whimpers grew into sobs. Evren couldn't tell if they were happy or sad anymore. He really would have continued with this release of emotions. He really wanted to, but the lunch bell rang.

ＲＥＩＤＵＮ ＯＬＳＥＮ／ＸＩＡ ＡＲＧＯＮ
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[ training caves ] - [ aura manipulation ] - [ trident ] - [ tags - eletha, liv, runt ]
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Xia was laughing. There were a few snorts here and there but they weren't audible over the lunch bell that had rung just then. Thank god. After that playful brawl, the aura manipulator's stomach was growling like crazy, demanding to be fed. She was just about to run off with Runt, but the Lieutenant stood in the way. Yeah, Liv was nice, but she was also responsible, which unfortunately meant that the floor had to be fixed before they actually had lunch and played capture the flag.

There was no butting out of this job— Not that Xia wanted to at all. However, she was quite tired compared to Runt which was an energetic little puppy who seemed to have no limits. Xia nodded to Liv, giving her an enthusiastic salute after dropping her trident to the floor. "C'mon, Runt! This should be an easy job for you! I'll try and flatten the floor out with like.. Energy and stuff, I guess. I dunno, I've never tried it before. Then we can all grab lunch!"

[TheFae]

Faline Salvaje
17
Power: Big Cat Shifter
Location: Cafeteria
Tagged: Alder

Faline's stomach flip-flopped and her heart pattered. To say she liked Alder was an understatement. She's been practically in love with him since she's first met him. His face was so emotionless, his voice so monotone, she almost missed his words.
"Maybe mine is there. That'd explain my temper, huh."
Her face filled with hope for a solid second, her inner feline purring, especially when he smiled. She put her tight leash back on her emotions, making sure she still looked infinitely amused.
But she couldn't help thinking that Alder was beautiful. She was so distracted by his slight smile, she almost missed the compliment.
"It helps when you have a good incentive. Like good food." She smiled, digging into her meal, noting he had already eaten. She listened to him talk about Capture the Flag, and Faline was already planning in her head what she would do, but then she coughed as she choked on her food.
"Excuse me?" She asked, blinking. She slowly smiled, her eyes darting back and forth as different scenarios rushed through her head.
"I'll make you proud, Commander." She smiled, beaming even. And she would. She would spend every waking moment to do so. Alder, out of all of them, was the most deserving to be happy, to be proud of something. "The lasagna is also good. If you ever find you don't want to be a commander anymore, cooking should be your next job."

Coahoma Salvaje
17
Power: Sound Manipulation (not found yet)
Location: Cafeteria
Tagged: OPEN

Coahoma had laid low the past few hours, just lost in her own thoughts. She saw the food fight, and Alder had been enraged. It was a bit of a shock because Coahoma wanted to have started the food fight. She would have been the one being thrown out. Yet, instead of fear pulsing through Coahoma's veins, it was the prospect of a challenge.
Coahoma would need to find something that was fun enough to be talked about for ages, but not to the point where Alder kicked her out. If he could even get a hand on her, that was. The very thought put a smile on her face as she started scheming again.

Ettore
15
Power: Temperature Manipulation (not found yet)
Location: Cafeteria
Tagged: OPEN

Ettore was quiet as he kept to himself, nodding to Alder in greeting as he grabbed his plate. He grabbed his lasagna, and sat down, munching on it as he stared off into space.

[SunnyJustice]

Runt loved anything that involved laughter. As soon as she heard Xia laughing, the tiny stick of a girl joined along, screaming laughter like some sort of rabid hyena. She scurried over to Xia's dropped trident and picked it up with two fingers, just because she could now. It didn't balance though. She ended up dropping it onto her foot, and there was a loud clang, but Runt stayed smiling like nothing had happened.
"I'll help!" She exclaimed as she wriggled her foot out from underneath the trident, and jumped towards the destruction again. She stomped around like a kid throwing a temper tantrum, just much less angrily (and ironically, much more dangerously). Some protruding jagged parts got tamped back down, but she wasn't making too much progress.
"How do you reattach the little rock parts back together?" She asked, stopping to hop around as she picked a rocky splinter out of her foot. She nearly fell over, but managed to right herself as soon as she removed the stone.
"I'm great at wrecking stuff! ... But I dunno how to turn the floor into one piece again."

* Tags: Xia, Liv

---

Alder could feel Faline's heart fluttering, like a caged bird with a cat prowling below. He wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Her expression wasn't one of anger or defiance, so it couldn't be the adrenaline that preceded an outburst.
The problem with having Acacia as a teacher? She was, quite frankly, terrible at anything that involved normal emotions. So Alder was equally stumped. Even if she was listening now, even if she could answer him somehow, they would both be at a loss.
He nodded in understanding when Faline talked about incentive. That was something Alder understood. His grandiose incentive to save humankind, originally that was Acacia's, not his own.
Although, Alder knew he would find his own incentive one day. Something beyond the memories and motivations he shared with the fallen heroine.
Concern showed in his dark russet eyes as the girl let out a choking cough. Fortunately she was fine- it seemed to be his 'Team Captain' offer that had jolted her.
That didn't surprise Alder. It was a first after all, he used to hate giving anyone a chance. He would have sooner smashed in their head. Acacia's memories had finally smashed some sense into his head now, so he was taking small steps to... finally be a good commander like her.
"... Make me proud?" He chuckled as the kid spoke, then closed his eyes for a moment.
What is this feeling...?
... It's warm, like...

Her smile reached her tired russet eyes as she looked past King Haden, towards the light he couldn't see.
"... I can feel sunlight on my face.
"... it's so warm...
"... I'll see you again... where the sun shines.
"..."
Ash fell gently onto the flowerbed. All was silent in the garden, and the veil of sunflowers hid the quiet tears of a king mourning his most valiant knight. No, a father mourning his daughter.

... But...
You weren't speaking to King Haden, are you?
You were speaking to me.
... And whatever this means, I'll take it as a good sign.

"..." Alder nodded his approval. His smile, too, reached his eyes.
Make me proud?
"... I believe in you."
He let out a hearty laugh as Faline complimented his food. Alder hadn't laughed in a long, long time. At least it felt like forever. He decided laughing more often was good for him.
"When all the Hellborn are sent back to hell," he said, "I'll retire and be a cook. How's that sound?"

* Tags: Faline

[honeybee.]

Lieutenant Liv Brie//18//Location-Training Cave//Tags-Xia;Eletha:Runt;

Liv put her hand on her hips sternly when Runt whined after being told to clean up but it wasn't necessary. Within two seconds Runt was eager and cheerful again. Liv winced as the younger girl just dived onto the shattered floor. "Please..." Runt pummeled her hand straight through a solid rock, "..be careful." She finished with a sigh as the girl began to demand 'dinstructions'. The lieutenant chuckled at Xia's salute and nodded approvingly at her encouraging idea for Runt. The pair's laughter was enough to set Liv into peals of her own. "You don't need to reattach the rock together, Runt." She told her, still chuckling a little, "Just make sure it's not going to kill anyone. Flatten it out as best you can for now and I'll try and find some earth to pack into the hole after we've eaten. We live underground, I imagine there'll be some lying around."
Honestly, Liv just couldn't bear to watch Runt try to put the pieces of rock together like a jigsaw when the delicious smell of lunch was wafting in. "Let's go eat." She told them, "Just stick that trident in the hole so everyone can see it's there."

Ant Lithorn//16//Location-Training Cave//Tags-Parlando;Kevin

Ant had sniggered at Kevin's comment about the difficulty of murdering them because of his screams. "I reckon you'd sound like a banshee if we were ever in real danger."
When he mentioned he didn't like garlic bread, Ant gasped in faux horror. "Garlic bread is the best bread." He said matter of factly, agreeing with Parlando's love of the food.
When they reached the cafeteria Ant's eyes widened at the vast amount of food on everyone's plates and he sniggered at Pearl's joke as he picked up his own. It was pretty heavy for a plate full of lasagna.
"Just what Wayne deserves." He admired the completely spotless plate, stark in contrast to the crammed plates on either side of it.
Ant led them to a table and slid into a seat, digging into the lasagna the moment he sat down. "Ask Alder!" He told Pearl eagerly, after he'd finished savouring his first delicious bite, "If he's ever going to let us save some, it'll be today! He seems to be in a remarkably good mood, beating Wayne up must've really lifted his spirits."