(New thread!)

[marimo.]

Arys Slate // 18 // Female // Straight // Behind stage // Tags: Naevys
Arys whirls around sharply in surprise, only to see Naevys. She lets out a sigh of relief. Her senses, especially at this time of month, are on edge. The littlest thing puts her on edge, and she hates it. "Oh, Naevys, you scared me." Laughing, she continues, "Thanks. You did amazing as well! And your brothers are so funny."

[cocogerber13]

Caleb Oxenbera——————————
♠︎ // Phoenix Squad Recruit // Beast Summoning // Tags: All on stage

Caleb held a sharp gaze to the audience until the curtain fell, pleased with his peers and himself. They had all done great, and so had their commander and everyone behind the scenes. Despite this positivity though, the boy felt the pressure drop on his shoulders like a boulder. They’d start the mission briefing so soon? The dark-haired teen swallowed back an anxious remark, his eyes darting to the shifting curtains every time someone moved to congratulate a friend or family member.

Naevys’ siblings seemed nice, if not a little obnoxious. Caleb paid little attention because they probably deserved to fuss over their little brother. The other person who had entered was unfamiliar to him; she clearly new who Lanette was, and upon seeing the two hug, the beast summoner finally connected who it was.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for something else to draw his attention away from the group’s impending fate, Caleb exhaled and glanced back to the other recruits. Talking to someone else seemed to be the only option for distraction, and suddenly Caleb was hit by a memory from only moments prior. His green-blue eyes rose to Apollo’s face, then the hand at his side. He had burned himself, hadn’t he? The dark-haired teenager’s brow furrowed as he quickly considered his next movements. Apollo and him had never really been close- at all, really- and frankly the other kid had been a complete pain to a few of his friends. They were still teammates though, and even without any sort of healing power Caleb could probably figure out something. One more glance around told him that people had focuses elsewhere and the chance was likely that Caleb’s concern for the other wouldn’t draw attention. Apollo didn’t seem like the type to appreciate any kind of embarrassment, and Caleb felt the same.

Caleb slipped through a few of his friends over to their hot-tempered teammate in question and stopped far enough away to give Apollo a comfotable amount of space before asking in a low voice, “Hey man, are you okay?” The question was accessorised with a discreet head tilt towards the other’s hand.

[comeonspiderman]

Apollo Torres ♦ Pan ♦ Fire Manipulation
Location: Stage ♦ Tags: All, Caleb
Apollo watched the curtain close and instantly felt more relaxed without his mother's eyes on him. Once the commander had dismissed them, he stood their for a moment unsure of where to head. He was about to turn to leave and deal with his hand on his own where no one could see when Caleb stepped in front of him. He raised his eyebrows when asked about the hand. Quickly, he waved the hand in a dismissive motion. "Why wouldn't I be?" Where he usually would have made a dig at Caleb, he fell silent, too wrapped up in his thoughts. Apollo had hoped no one had noticed. But knowing that Caleb saw made him worry that his mom had too. He couldn't have any weakness. He moved to turn towards the backstage, hoping that would be the end.

[hellb0und]

➴x────────────────────xxＪＥＮxx────────
NAME. jennifer dire ` ABILITY. fire manipulation ` TAG(S). the crowd `
xxxxxxxx𝐈 𝐀𝐌 𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐒 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅.

xxxxxxxxHer face remained still for the remainder of the time. Apollo followed her speech with a sentence of his own, nothing grand, but something. Her patience was fading, and she was growing increasingly tired of standing still while people spoke, on and off. The curtains closed, finally, shielding the long line of recruits from the crowd who was still as loud as ever. Jennifer went ahead and exited the stage, going into the dorm she shared with Lanette to take care of the cut herself. She washed it off and applied some disinfectant, but didn't cover it up. The blood that had hardened over time now gone. She disposed of the red-stained gauze in the trash and left the room entirely. Deciding she'd go ahead and roam the hallways with the remaining twenty minutes she had left before they were called down for their next assignment.

[cocogerber13]

Caleb Oxenbera——————————
♠︎ // Phoenix Squad Recruit // Beast Summoning // Tags: All on stage

Caleb stared after Apollo as he spoke. Caleb assumed that perhaps the dismissal was because of the other’s pride, or maybe the fact that it wasn’t as bad as the intentional scars they were all given. He would’ve guessed that fire stung more than a blade though. He also found it weird that Apollo hadn’t taken a verbal swing at him, which only alerted the shorter haired male that something was wrong. Unlike himself Apollo wasn’t one to get stunned from the stage.

Instead of outright mentioning the hand though, since this situation was obviously hotter than a small burn, Caleb took a step forward to match Apollo’s turn. “You seem distracted about something, and if it’s a problem then I don’t want you to face it alone..?” He tried, his expression not changing. His voice was still low, both in volume and when it came to attention. Caleb didn’t pay too much mind to possible consequences at this point, since he’d had his fair share of injuries and didn’t know of anything in his past that could be dug up to strike a nerve.

[comeonspiderman]

Apollo Torres ♦ Pan ♦ Fire Manipulation
Location: Stage ♦ Tags: All, Caleb
Apollo kept looking straight ahead. To avoid the coming spiral of thoughts about his mother, he tried to focus his thoughts on getting out. He hoped that ignoring the other boy would grant him some privacy. But as Caleb continued to walk with him, he knew this issue wasn't about to just be dropped. The presence of Caleb caused his thoughts to circle back. She's eagle-eyed. There's no way she didn't see the mistake. Apollo took a breath. I'm a disappointment.

As they stepped backstage, Apollo spoke over his shoulder, "I said it's fine, beast boy." He could feel his body starting to shake and temper heating up. He clenched his fist to attempt to keep from physically lasting out at his teammate. The moment he placed a light pressure on the small burn, Apollo winced. He picked up the pace and headed in the direction of the dorms, hoping Caleb wouldn't notice. Running his non-burned hand through his longer hair, he tried to redirect his thoughts again. Just get to the room. Get away from anyone else.

[Pistol Annie #1 NPC]

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Lanette Lane
Female ♟ Pansexual ♟ Pacifism
Tags: Ella

-----Lanette approached a blonde mark-giver and lowered her head, remaining still as the woman cleaned her wound. She put up a hand of protest as the mark-giver took out a large band-aid. "Is it alright if I wear the scar out? I really like it."
-----"Of course, sweetie," said the mark-giver, softly patting her on the arm like a child.
-----Lanette beamed at her. "Thank you, ma'am."
-----The pacifist turned around at a noise, and was honestly not surprised when Ella careened through the closed curtains, clearly having been shoved by a force. Mia was the likely culprit - no way would that adorable little troublemaker stand idly by after the Marking Day ceremony. Despite expecting this, Lanette raised both her eyebrows in an expression of feigned shock before her expression shifted to a fond smile.
-----She walked forward into the arms of her very beautiful friend and made herself comfortable, head tilted slightly to one side as if listening to the familiar heartbeat she'd missed. Ella was a little taller than her, which made for the perfect snuggle height during a hug.
-----"Thank you," Lanette said as she looked away, a little embarrassed to be complimented so strongly. The cherry colored blush on her cheeks gave that away. "I wouldn't say I'm a savior yet, but I guess I'll have to live up to my name now! Anyway, I'm lucky to be friends with the Princess of Delra. Believe me when I say I'm a little jealous of Prince Alastair."
-----Okay, that was a little too forward. Lanette laughed quietly and changed the subject. "Speaking of that, how in the world did you manage to escape the palace?"
-----Coming back to headquarters definitely counted as escaping. The thought of a life in the Royal Court sounded more stressful than prison. At least you wouldn't have to worry about the Emperor in jail. Unfortunately for Ella, being betrothed to the Emperor's son meant the dictator probably loomed over her life like a constant shadow.

████【♫】████

Gavotte Lane
Male ♫ Heterosexual ♫ Hydrokinesis
Tags: He and baby sis are open

-----Gavotte returned to his original mark-giver and waited patiently as she took care of his newly etched scar. It was best to let the professionals handle this. Gavotte didn't trust his canteen water for disinfecting open wounds.
-----Finally, she pasted a bandage over his still-stinging cuts. Gavotte murmured a thank-you and made his way towards the gaping doorframe Naevys had blasted with his telekinesis. It was such a relief to leave the glaring spotlights and too many voices. Gavotte sat down on the crate inside the room and leaned his back against the wall.
-----"I know, I know. This kind of stuff is too loud for you, isn't it?" Came the voice of his baby sister. Gavotte nearly jumped, but pretended he wasn't surprised as he turned to Kayla. The younger girl was sitting in a corner, eyes glowing a faint pink as she stared at him. Curse her empathic abilities.
-----"What are you doing in here?" Gavotte put on his best disappointed father face. It was nice to see her, even if his words and attitude didn't show that. Kayla would know anyway.
-----"Waiting for Lanette to quit flirting and play with me." The empath's eyes faded back to their regular hazel, bright and eager as she pulled something out of her pocket. "Look at this, Gav!"
-----Gavotte had never seen anything like it before. It was a blue-and-yellow plastic toy consisting of two rounded discs. Kayla pulled a string out from the middle and looped it around her finger. "It's from Delra. It's called a yo-yo, but I can't figure out what's it do. Can you help me?"
-----The water-manipulator sighed and rose from his seat, approaching his baby sister. This would be a long twenty minutes.

(If anyone's stuck, feel free to join Gavotte and his baby sister in that backstage room!)


████【➹】████

Ardai Fairchild
Male ➹ Heterosexual ➹ Invisibility
Tags: Apollo, Caleb, Jen

-----Ardai was delighted. The Commander hadn't rejected him outright, which in his caveman sized brain, meant he had a decent chance with her. To celebrate, he was gonna do something "interesting". Of course, he had no idea what exactly.
-----In his rush to get offstage, he nearly smashed into Caleb. "Sorry, man," he laughed quickly before shouldering past the dark-haired boy.
-----Ardai caught a glimpse of Apollo as he disappeared around the corner. What was he up to? A grin slowly formed on the redhead's face as he decided to follow his roommate.
-----Being an idiot, he took a wrong turn in the hallways and ended up coming face-to-face with Jennifer instead. Ardai waved at the blonde, still grinning. He knew not to flirt with this particular girl though. "Hey, what's up?"

[honeybee.]

⋯⋯⋯⋯🥀⋯⋯⋯⋯
Ella Brie
Location: HQ Cafetorium -> Stage - Tags: Lanette
⋯⋯⋯⋯🥀⋯⋯⋯⋯
When Lanette made herself comfy within Ella’s hug, Ella sighed contentedly. It was if the final space in her heart was being filled in. The pain of missing her family and her friends had been so constant that it had almost felt natural but no, this was what was natural. Even if she hated the metres of earth that separated them from the sky this was where she belonged, wherever the people she loved were. It made her dread going back to court even more but simultaneously she knew that if this was going to let them all be together in freedom she would do it gladly.
Seeing her modest friends cheeks colour from her compliments made her laugh a little but she pulled a face when Lanette responded by calling her the ‘Princess of Delra’, which was her correct title but still. “I still don’t know how that happened.”
At hearing the name ‘Alastair’ Ella scowled in an exaggerated fashion. ”He’s so unfathomable and frustrating.” It took her a few moments to realise the connotations of what Lanette had just said but when she did her cheeks rapidly turned pink. She was glad for the next question to help hide the tiny grin was threatening to betray her heart. ”It wasn’t really a daring escape, I don’t think the Emperor cares too much about what I do with my spare time. I just asked the Prince if I could go visit my family and he agreed. I got escorted down South on the train but they let me make my own way to our old farm.” This was the farm she and her parents had lived in before the formation of headquarters. ”Then I scrounged some of mum’s old clothes and took a train back up North. It was actually surprisingly easy.” It had been surprising, she’d never expected to be able to make it back to headquarters. She’d only asked in the spur of the moment.
”What about you? How has your training been?” Ella truly wanted to know everything she’d missed in the time she’d been gone. ”How are Gavotte and Kayla?”

[cocogerber13]

Caleb Oxenbera——————————
♠︎ // Phoenix Squad Recruit // Beast Summoning // Tags: Ardai, Apollo, open

Caleb noticed the prankster out of the corner of his eye as his shape moved towards him and narrowly stepped back to avoid a collision. A small grimace had found its way onto his face upon remembering the red-head’s speech. “All’s fine, Ardai. I’m just glad you weren’t invisible.” The darker haired boy replied smugly before his attention drew back to Apollo. The fire user had sighed to himself— something was definitely up.

Caleb tried to think about what it could have been- certainly not stage fright, and probably not regret from what he had said to Naevys before the occasion. The only things the man could summon to his mind were concern for their mission and embarrassment from his burning himself; if it was the former than Caleb assumed that Apollo would have expressed concerns beforehand.

He kept his distance now and stood still while Apollo stormed off a few steps. They were further away from the rest of the group, so speaking up louder wouldn’t be too noticeable compared to the more personal congratulation wishes some were getting. Part of why Caleb did this was respect; the other more obvious reason was that Apollo did seem to radiate embers at this point, and it would be a lie to say Caleb wanted a new wound on his person.

“You know, I wouldn’t worry too much about anyone else seeing. I was merely standing in the right place. Plus the audience was too fired up from everyone’s words to notice.” The late teen reassured, moving to sit down on the ground. He leaned his back on the boxes of props and podiums, his stare still lingering on Apollo.

A little brown weasel had materialised next to him, ready for his command should Apollo leave his sight. Caleb didn’t want Apollo to try anything dangerous if he really was in a sticky situation.

[comeonspiderman]

Apollo Torres ♦ Pan ♦ Fire Manipulation
Location: Stage ♦ Tags: Caleb, Ardai
Apollo paused. Gritting his teeth, he debated for a moment whether to snap at this bug that wouldn't leave him alone. Finally, he turned to face Caleb, who was now sitting, and stomped closer. He didn't pay too much attention to the nearby trickster. His focus was only on Caleb. "Listen to me. I don't know what you think you saw. Nothing happened. Got it?" Apollo crossed his arms as he spoke, hoping to hide his shaking. I am Not about to have another attack in front of this, this... His mind was too caught up in the oncoming anxiety that he couldn't think of an insult right away. But that didn't matter. Caleb needed to understand that there was nothing wrong and that Apollo had no weak spots.