1x1 for Lady Ligea and Red

[Princess Porcelain]

To viewers: Please, feel free to stalk. But do not post on this thread unless Lady Ligea or I invites you to join the role play. That is all.

My Characters

Name: Light Yagami | "I'm Light. What's your name?"
Age: 21 | "Old enough to have a mate."
Gender: Male | "I'm 100% male. Only my mate is allowed to check, though."
Powers: Future Telling, Coercion, and Mindspeaking | "Well, I guess you could say I'm a bit manipulative." *wink*
Short Description: Light has light brownish-red hair, brown eyes, and rather pale skin. He is tall, a full six feet and one-half of an inch in height. He is also very muscular, something that he uses to his advantage with the ladies. His eyes often turn red when he is angry or on the edge of finally cracking up. (In the insane way.) | "Most people agree that I'm pretty sexy."
Main Animal Form: A black mamba, the second most poisonous snake in the world. | "All I have to say is be careful. I bite. Hard."
Other Information: He's been stuck in his cell since he was a kid. He just got matched with Anastasia Monroe and is now living in an apartment next door to his childhood friend, Edward Elric. | "What's there to say? My life's been pretty boring up to now."

Name: Moka Akashiya | "The name's Moka. Don't wear it out."
Age: 25 | "Old enough to beat the crap out of you if you don't stop asking stupid questions."
Gender: Female | "I'm female, idiot. Don't try to check or you won't wake up tomorrow."
Powers: Elemental Control, Empathy, and Mindspeaking | "Honey, if it was your business, I'm sure I'd let you know."
Short Description: Moka has platinum-blond hair, so pale you could almost say it was white. Her eyes are an odd color, appearing red most of the time. Her skin is extremely pale (paler than Light's) and she is tall, standing at five feet ten inches. She is extremely muscular, as she works out a lot, and will probably kick your butt if you challenge her. However, her muscles aren't all that visible, and she has an extremely attractive body, with large breasts and a curvy form. Most men would drool over her. | "Go ahead and take a look. But don't touch. You'll die."
Main Animal Form: Her main animal form is a large, glowing dragon made of flames with molten rock for a body. While in this form, she has the ability to breathe fire. When it rains, the fire on her scales goes out and the molten rock is replaced with glowing bright red and orange scales, fire on her tail tip, and a mane of fire around her head. She has the ability to make her form like this anytime she wants, though normally in her animal form, she prefers to cause as much damage as possible. | "Let's just say I have a rather fiery temperament."
Other Information: She has been out of the cells for four years and is mated with Dallas Bennet, whom she hates with a passion. | "I hate this facility. I hate my mate, I hate the other people, and I hate kids."

Name: Edward Elric | "The name's Edward Elric, but pretty ladies can call me anything they want." *wink*
Age: 24 | "Old enough to be married to the love of my life."
Gender: Male | "I'm definitely a guy. Just ask my mate."
Powers: Atom Manipulation, Empathy, Animal Speaking, and Mindspeaking | "I have one really rare one and then the rest are sort of mid-level."
Short Description: He is rather short, standing at 4'9" and has longish, shaggy blond hair that he puts up in a ponytail. His eyes are blue and due to the fact that he was in an accident some time ago, he has an automail arm and leg. His skin is considerably darker than Light's though not tan. He is very touchy about his height; don't mention it around him. | "I'm NOT short! All of you people are just giants!"
Main Animal Form: A silver unicorn. The way his form looks, though, you could almost believe his animal form was made entirely of automail, though when you come close it feels just like normal animal fur. | "I hate my animal form. It's girly."
Other Information: He's been out of the cells for about six years now and is mated with (and recently, legally married to) his mate and the love of his life, Adelaide Elric, whom he plans to have at least three children with. His childhood friend Light Yagami lives next door, too, which is something he's happy about. | "Happily married and living a fairy tale -- now all this king of the hill needs is for his wife to have a dashing prince or a pretty princess for him."

[Lady Ligeia]

Finished for now, though I'll add on to it as I think of more ^^))

Name: Anastasia Monroe| "Just call me Anya, please."
Age: 19 | "I'm as old now as I've ever been."
Gender: Female | "Female, for those of you who couldn't already tell."
Powers: Future Telling, Empathy, Coercion, and Mindspeaking | "Mood-swings from the Empathy, as if the Future Telling Trances weren't creepy enough."
Short Description: Anya's is slender and slightly taller than most girls. Her eyes change colours, but are most often a shade between green, brown, and yellow. Her hair is auburn in colour, and falls halfway to her shoulders. She has a thin, sly-looking face, accented by high cheek-bones. She is easily considered pretty. | "They do say that it's better to be beautiful than to be good."
Main Animal Form: A long-tailed weasel. | "Sly, clever, deceitful, what more can I ask for?"
Other Information: She had been in the cells for as long as she could remember before being paired with Light Yagami. | "I guess it's better than the cells."


Name: Dallas Bennet| "It's a name. Not much more to say."
Age: 25 | "Old enough to have been stuck in this place for 9 years."
Gender: Male | "Male. Take my word for it."
Powers: Coercion, Animal Speaking, Mindspeaking | "Basic, pretty common powers."
Short Description: Dallas is of average height (he hates that Moka is as tall as he is) with a subtly muscular build. He keeps his glossy golden-brown hair long and shaggy, a consequence of his dislike of barbers. His eyes are a vivid green and seem to glow in night. He is very handsome, and well-aware of it. | "Who says that looks don't matter?"
Main Animal Form: A large griffin with golden brown fur and blazing green eyes. | "It's a great form. Almost makes up for the horrible powers I have."
Other Information: Dallas had been in the cells for five years before finally being mated with Moka Akashiya. | "I loathe Moka. Loathe, not love. Complete loathing."


Name: Adelaide Astor Elric| "It's Adelaide, but I go by Lady."
Age: 23 | "And that's years young, of course."
Gender: Female | "Female, girl, woman, or, to make a bad pun, a Lady."
Powers: Memory Seeking, Empathy, and Mindspeaking | "I love being able to connect with others, especially with Memory Seeking being a rarer talent."
Short Description: Lady is beautiful in a very delicate way, like porcelain. Her hair is a light blond, her eyes a pale blue, and her lips a pastel rose, as if she had been drained of any brightness of hue. Lady compensates by wearing very bold prints and bright florals. She is petite with a very slight build. | "My friends used to call me Lady Pale, which seemed clever at the time."
Main Animal Form: A light grey timber wolf. | "It makes a nice compliment to Edward's unicorn."
Other Information: Lady has just legally married Edward Elric, the absolute love of her life. She wants at least two kids of each gender, maybe more. | "Romeo and Juliet with a perfect ending."

[Princess Porcelain]

[That's fine. We can wait till you're finished to start if you want. c:]

[Princess Porcelain]

[I will go ahead and start.]

Light stopped pacing the living room for a moment to stare out the window at the courtyard beyond. A miniature city, complete with a grocery store, barber shop, coffee shop, two restaurants serving a variety of foods from all parts of the world, a home supply store, and a library. Beyond that was an attractive garden filled with rare plants and animals. Doubtlessly, at least one had to be another experiment. Bored as usual -- being a genius had its pitfalls -- he turned to the television, which was playing some sappy romance movie. Apparently, it had just ended. Finally, Light thought with relief. How he hated romance stories. They were too filled with treachery and unfair endings. Then again, as they say, all's fair in love and war. Not here.

Light looked over to Anastasia, his mate of two days. He barely knew her, yet he was expected to have some sort of relationship with her. She was attractive, at least. That much was apparent. She might actually be useful to him in the future other than for making sure he wasn't killed. He cleared his throat. He ought to at least try to get to know the girl, after all. He was going to spend an eternity with her. "So, what's your animal form?" That would give him a good grasp of her personality -- animal forms were dictated by personality. He was intelligent, sly, manipulative, and somewhat threatening, so his form was a black mamba, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, second only to the green mamba. He liked his animal form. In his opinion, it suited him. At least he thought so.

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Moka growled, realizing that she had woken up late again. She pushed the bedsheets off of her body and looked down the hall to where her mate had been sleeping. Honestly, it was a wonder she hadn't killed him yet. He made her so mad most of the time she just wanted to wring his neck. He was lucky she hadn't, too -- she would have done a good job of it. However, she had more important fish to fry. Pulling a pair of jeans, a black tank top and a pair of converse shoes out of the closet, she shuffled to the bathroom adjoining her bedroom. She'd made it clear to her mate about a year ago that she would be sleeping in the master bedroom and that he would not be sleeping with her. Having collected her clothes, she took a shower quickly and then walked over to the living room, where her mate was sitting on the couch. "I'm going out," she mumbled. "If we're out of anything you want to eat, you should let me know before I leave."

That last sentence surprised even her. When was the last time she'd actually offered to do something for him? And yet, she wasn't positive she wanted to take it back, either. Maybe she could play with his mind for a few days and make him think she'd finally developed feelings for him. That would be fun. She waited for his reply, standing just behind the couch, purse and leather jacket in hand, ready to switch to her animal form as soon as possible. There were still scorch marks on the walls from the last time she'd done that in the house. She remembered the event with a laugh. One morning, after she and Dallas had had a fight, she was so angry, she turned into a dragon right in the living room and nearly set the apartment on fire. She had used her ability to control water at just the right time though, and managed to prevent utter destruction.

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Ed smiled at his mate, who was now his wife. Though she was slightly taller than him, which still bothered him, she definitely wasn't when he shifted into a unicorn, which presently, he was. He whinnied softly, his sapphire-blue eyes sparkling. He was still baffled as to how he had a unicorn as his animal form. He was nothing like a unicorn. The only thing good about his animal form was that it appeared to be made of automail, like his arm and leg in his human form. He tossed his head from side to side, trying to get his forelock out of his eyes. He looked at Lady, mindspeaking to her. "Don't you find it odd that every time we've been to the garden in the past three months, not one other experiment has been there? There used to be so many people in this courtyard that it was crazy, but now everyone else seems to have gone somewhere. Where do you think they're all going?"

Lately, everyone had been disappearing, and it seemed as if Ed was the only one that had noticed. First, it was his brother Alphonse and his wife, Nellie. Then it had been Winry, his childhood friend. Her mate had died in an accident several years ago, so he hadn't gone anywhere but the small graveyard in the center of the garden. It seemed as if now the only people from his past that had been here before were now gone, except his mate and his friend Light, who had recently been brought up from the cells and mated with some girl. He wasn't sure who the girl was, but he certainly hoped that their relationship went all right, unlike the relationship of Moka Akashiya and Dallas Bennet, who could be heard fighting all the way across the courtyard and sometimes late into the night. He didn't know them personally, but he had heard from an old friend who was their neighbor that they hadn't been at each other's necks until a year ago, when their relationship had apparently started going downhill. At one time, they had apparently been all lovey-dovey, but rumor had it that Moka had ended up pregnant and had had a miscarriage about six months into the pregnancy, which had caused problems for the two. Ed wasn't positive whether it was true; even before a year ago he had never seen Moka and Dallas together in public. They didn't appear to have any chemistry at all, though Moka certainly had many admirers, some of whom he'd seen her out on dates with over the past four years. Whatever was going on between her and her mate, the sooner it was resolved, the better.

[Lady Ligeia]

Anastasia sighed as she disinterestedly stared at the television. It was playing some atrocious romance film, a typical boy meets girl, they hate each other, boy and girl learn to love each other and happily ever after. Predictable. She hadn't bothered to change the channel after the last movie that was on, a classic that she had always liked. The chances that anything any better was on was unlikely. She reminded herself to stop by the library later that day. She'd been forced by boredom to quickly finish her thick paperback that she had hoped would last the week. Maybe I should ask if he wants me to pick him anything up or should I ask if he wants to join me?
Anya turned as she heard Light speak. "So, what's your animal form?" Anya grinned. She was about to ask him the same. It was an excellent first question. Not too personal, but a perfect revelation of character. "A weasel," she replied. "And yours?" Hers wasn't the largest, fastest, or strongest animal, but she always felt that it fit her perfectly. She was clever, sly, and a quiet rebel, never afraid to bend the rules that stood between her and what she felt she needed. There was nothing wrong with that, not in Anya's mind.

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Dallas thumbed through Time magazine, barely skimming the articles. He thought that Time was about the most boring publication ever put to print, just long stories about things that didn't affect, nor interest him in the least, but he was bored of watching the television, which was on a playing a news program. Water pattered from the bathroom. Moka must have woken up and taken a shower. He sighed, thinking of the argument that had just ensued the other night. He never slept well after going to bed angry. He tried to just avoid and tolerate his mate, but their fiery personalities were a volatile combination.
He didn't look up as Moka entered the room, just continued to "read" Time. He only looked up to her when he heard her voice. Did she just ask me if I wanted anything while she was out? How long had it been since she had last done that? Was it a full year ago? "We're out of pasta and crackers, if it isn't any extra trouble," he replied, dismissing the urge to ask her to pick up something-anything- better than Time andhoping that the words came out right, neither too eager, nor too cold and brisk. He was suspicious, but didn't want it to be overwhelmingly obvious to Moka. He would rather error on the side of caution, than be made a fool of.

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Lady had a small, sad-looking smile on her face as she looked at Ed, her mate and, recently, husband. They were both in their animal forms, hers a white she-wolf with pale eyes, and his a glittering unicorn that, in this light, was impossible to distinguish from automail. Most people found it hard to believe that her animal form was a wolf when she first told them, but it always made sense to her. She was noble of heart (her grandmother's phrase) and an excellent team player.
"Thinking about it," Adelaide replied through mind-speak, "You're right. This garden always used to be so full of colour and life. Maybe the foggy weather has driven people away?" But as she suggested it, Lady knew that it wasn't a little fog. It had only blown in earlier that morning, and people had been disappearing for over three months. "By the way, Edward," she added in a very strange tone that she couldn't quite place herself. "Have you heard anything from Alphonse lately? I haven't seen Nellie in ages! Her sad-looking smile returned as she though of her missing friend, one of her the select few people that she was close to.

Finally Finished! ^^))

[Princess Porcelain]

Light yawned before giving his answer. Having been absorbed in his thoughts for the past few seconds, it took him a moment to register Anya's question. He ran a hand through his hair, saying, "Oh, nothing special. Just a snake." Really, though, his animal form was special -- it was the second most poisonous snake in the world, next to its cousin, the green mamba. This fit him perfectly -- physically, the snake was attractive -- beautiful might even be a way to describe its glossy, bluish-black scales. But inside, it held a poison that would kill you in less than twenty minutes unless medical help was received immediately. Light, as such, was an extremely attractive young man -- muscular, tall, handsome -- and he used it well. However, he was also extremely intelligent, and, like a snake, sly. He could manipulate others into doing just about anything for him. Normally, though, his keen sense of justice would kick in before he ended up blackmailing someone.

Like a snake, he often ended up hurting others in the process of protecting himself -- an unfortunate circumstance, but sometimes necessary regardless. He was rather cautious, not taking risks unless absolutely necessary. If needed, sometimes he would get others to do things for him to avoid possible harm coming to him. The resemblance to a snake ended there, though. When one looked at him in human form, there was nothing about his physical appearance that suggested that he might be in any way related to the limbless, extremely poisonous reptiles that slithered across the African plains. He was rather pale, with light brown hair and caramel-brown eyes, which, according to his friends and some of the scientists in the facility, would turn blood red when he was angry or on the verge of insanity. Not that he minded, though. He saw it as a gift, a way to warn his friends. "Get away!" This little sign seemed to shout. "Your life is in danger here." Often when he was angry, he threw things, shouted, and wreaked such havoc that one would be surprised he was actually human. That was why he preferred that as few people be around him as possible when he had trouble controlling his emotions -- public safety, not self preservation, came first in his mind. Justice would always prevail, regardless of the circumstances.

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Moka nodded, mumbling a goodbye as she walked out the door. What's gotten into you today, Moka? she thought to herself. You never treated him like this before. Why now? Maybe, a year or more ago, she would have been like this toward him. Not just tolerating him, but caring whether or not he was actually alive when she got home and vowing a painful, slow, and bloody death for anyone who wanted to harm Dallas. Nowadays, she could care less. One of her exes wanted to kill him to get her? Go ahead. It's not her problem what Dallas did to them, after all. Lately, she'd been switching from guy to guy once every other week or so -- she'd date one, leave him, then date another for awhile, and so on and so forth. She didn't know why it was that she kept doing this. She just couldn't seem to find one she liked and stick with him. She'd actually dated Dallas for awhile -- two or three years -- and they'd gotten so close she was almost positive he would have asked her to marry him. Things went downhill, though, as most relationships do. She'd gotten over it quickly, but Dallas still hated her. She'd never been pregnant, as most people suspected. It was another guy, actually. The mate of some girl named Winry Rockbell -- Dallas had killed him.

They'd only been dating for a week or so at the time, so Moka didn't really mind that he was dead. She was just disappointed that she didn't have the chance to manipulate him into doing a few things for her. The only real reason she'd dated him was to get Dallas's attention -- he'd been ignoring her at the time, and she hated to be ignored. Her plan had backfired, though -- again, not her problem. She shook her head, realizing she'd been standing outside on the balcony for ten minutes. She shifted into her dragon form, letting out a loud, bloodcurdling roar as she sailed down toward town, a gigantic reptilian fireball swooping through the skies. It was a good thing the balcony was fireproof, or else it would have burned up the moment she shifted. Being made of molten rock had its perks. She released a plume of fire from her maw before swooping down and shifting into human form just before hitting the ground. She remembered when she and Dallas had first been mated -- how he had always thought that her animal form was majestic and beautiful. Those days were long past; they were so far gone that they were now no longer even nostalgic memories. She walked down the street to the cafe, where she met her latest boyfriend, who, ironically, was named Dallas, just like her mate, only he was a lot more shy and a lot less fun to annoy. She chatted with him for about five minutes, then announced that she was breaking up with him and left to go to the grocery store and buy some food.

She bought the pasta and crackers for Dallas and also some fresh fruit, meat, and vegetables -- she hated food that wasn't fresh. Spying several cans of tomato soup, she bought those as well, deciding that that would be her dinner for tonight. When she had her bags, she flew back to the apartment and quickly dropped them off without allowing Dallas to see her. Then she flew back down to town, where she stopped by the library to pick up a book to read. Normally, she would play video games when she got bored, but this book wasn't for her. For some reason, she had the sudden and unexplainable desire to get him a book. She checked out an interesting book that she thought he would like, then walked outside and with some difficulty shifted into a hawk and flew back to the apartment with the book in her talons. The moment she arrived home, she threw the book on the coffee table in front of Dallas, mumbling, "That magazine looks pretty boring." With that, she plopped down in the seat farthest from him and turned on the Wii, beginning to play Halo.

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Ed shook his head as he listened to Lady's reply. A little fog wasn't enough to drive away several hundred humans with a rare genetic mutation. There used to be so many people here. The lack of them now bothered him. He cringed a little when his wife mentioned Al. Ever since his little brother's disappearance, he'd been more and more depressed. Al had been everything to him -- there was nothing he wouldn't do for his little brother. Nellie had also been a good friend of his when they were kids -- it seemed almost inevitable that she and Alphonse would be mates one day. He hadn't been at all surprised when it had actually happened. "Al and Nellie have been missing for months now. I'm beginning to think those scientists have done something with them," he mindspoke in a hard tone, trying not to sound too disturbed. He knew Lady missed them too and that she needed him to be there for her. He was supposed to let her lean on him when she was having trouble, not the other way around. He stamped the ground uneasily with his front hooves, blowing thick plumes of white air out of his nostrils and nickering softly. Something in the air smelled different, and he didn't like it. He searched the area with his mind, trying to locate whoever happened to be nearby. He whinnied in a warning tone, saying to his mate, "Lady, shift and hop on my back. There are three scientists with tranquilizers in the bushes behind us."

He altered his form slightly, growing wings from his sides quickly as he waited for Lady to hop on. His wings seemed to be made of automail as well, though he didn't have time to speculate about it. He'd only tried to grow wings in his animal form once before and had crash-landed on top of the library. Hopefully, things wouldn't go as badly this time. They needed to leave and leave quickly. Already he could hear tiny shuffling sounds as the scientists loaded their tranquilizer darts. He waited tensely, ready to leave as soon as Lady mounted.

[Lady Ligeia]

Sorry that this has taken so long for me to finish. My wifi kept loosing signal whenever I tried to post.))

Anastasia's eyes narrowed very slightly as she listened to Light's response. He was one of the types that didn't resemble their animal in the slightest. Nothing about him, physically, at least, brought to mind the slithering coils she always associated with snakes. In fact, he was very attractive, though in a far different manner than his animal form. He was tall and handsome, not cold with the dangerous grace and beauty of snakes. Her tall, thin, but graceful figure and high cheekbones, on the other hand, often seemed to remind people of a weasel.
She still wasn't entirely satisfied with Light's answer. "Just a snake," was far too vague to even really hint at his personality. For all she knew, he could have been one of the harmless corn snakes she loved to catch as a young girl, a lethal viper, or a massive constrictor. What if he's hiding something? The thought was out of the blue, and a little unfounded, but she couldn't seem to dismiss it. But, in her typical fashion, she refused to let on any of what was going on in her mind, instead just smilingly as oh-so-very-sweetly as she could manage and asking, with just a hint of her Coercion, "I've always loved reptiles. You wouldn't mind opening up and telling me the species of snake, would you?" A little more direct and obvious than she preferred it to be, but, then again, it could also be interesting to observe how he reacted to the question.

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She has to have some sort of ulterior motive, Dallas told himself over and over. She wants something, she's manipulating you. But no number of repetitions of this little mantra could shake his desperate little hope that she had gotten over the... mistake he'd made. It was a full year ago that it happened, but she still seemed to dwell on it. He knew that he had moved on, and there was nothing that could convince him otherwise. He was always a tad bit stubborn. Just stubborn enough to still delude himself into thinking that he could patch things back together with Moka and completely forget the mistake.
And it truly was a mistake, or at least he was fairly sure of that. Nothing more than a slight slip of the hand at the workplace. He may have been angry, but he wasn't that angry, he was certain. And it was mostly true. He had no real intentions to harm, except on a primal, subconscious level. Did it still count as wrong if it wasn't truly a choice? If there was no intent? He didn't have the answers. And as much as he tried to convince himself otherwise, he still blamed Moka for the accident. She definitely had a part in it, but it was no one's fault, not directly, anyway. You're overthinking this, Dallas, he told himself as he cleared his thoughts.
With a sigh, he returned to Time and skimmed a dull article on socioeconomics. He didn't notice Moka's return until she dropped the book and spoke. He picked it up and glanced at the title. It was Stephen King's Cujo, one of his favourites, with a slight, ironic relevance. "Thanks,"he muttered to her. He didn't open it until after Moka had turned the Wii on. He wanted to say something more, but the words to do so wouldn't come.

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Lady sighed with the memory of Nellie and Al, who had always been a perfect couple. She had known Nellie for years. They had befriended each other at the summer camp they both attended yearly until high school. She couldn't believe her eyes when they were reunited in this most unlikely of places. "I don't even want to think about the possibility that it's the scientists!" Lady replied with a shudder. What reason would they have anyway? She wished she hadn't said it. Horrible images of cruel experiments flashed in her mind as soon as she had. She was tougher than she looked, but that very thought made her stomach churn. She had little time to dwell before Edward pointed out the scientists.
Her thoughts raced as she silently morphed back into her human form and slipped onto Ed's back. He was right. Had the scientists heard him? If they had heard, would something, for lack of a better word, bad happen to them? Ed's wings didn't help her nervousness. She could only remember one other time that he had grown wings, and it hadn't ended well.

[Princess Porcelain]

[That's fine. I've been rather busy as well.]

Light sighed, shaking his head as he felt the sudden desire to reveal the rest of the information about his animal form. Stupid mind powers, he thought with contempt. At least she wasn't using a whole lot of coercion; he could still fight back with a little of his own, which he had honed to perfection in the cells by convincing the bugs that they shouldn't bite him because he was poisonous. Of course, he could have turned into a snake and just eaten them, but that was much less tasty and much less fun. At some point, he'd discovered that if he tried hard enough, he could control bodily functions via coercion. It was fun watching the bugs and rats die in various ways. Such an amusing thing. He hadn't really thought about it, but now he wondered if it was possible to control thoughts with coercion. Maybe he could convince Anya not to think about his animal form anymore. With that thought in mind, he spoke in a honey-coated tone, smiling pleasantly as he put more power into his coercion than she had into hers. It was already wearing off; clearly she couldn't use it very well. However, since he was being forced to say something about the species either way, he decided to put it in a way that left things up to speculation. "Well, to be honest, no matter which way you look at it I'm a pretty attractive snake. Shiny scales. Bright green eyes. Perhaps you should try to come up with the species yourself? Just watch me and you might find out." He winked after the "you-might-find-out" part, trying to remain in character. He had discovered that coercion always works better if you combine it with the right body language and tone of voice. People want to do what you say if you can say and do things that make you seem attractive and friendly.

That wasn't his whole personality, though. He was extremely brave, manipulative, and intelligent to be sure, and had he not been kidnapped at thirteen and taken to this rotten place, he would have started law school long ago and become one of the world's greatest crime investigators. Justice was his first and only love, next to his old girlfriend Misa Amane, and it clearly didn't exist here, which made him rather angry. And since he was so intelligent, he was often bored for lack of something to do. He would always daydream about what his life would have been like if he hadn't been taken here -- beautiful wife, a couple of kids, a good job and a steady paycheck, and a great education. Unfortunately, he hadn't even had a chance to get to finish high school -- he'd skipped a few grades and would have been in his senior year the year he was taken. But, a week before the semester started, he got taken away. Boy, did he miss Japan. If only he'd had the chance to make a life for himself. If he didn't have these powers, that chance would have been all his. Maybe, though, just maybe he could have some sort of life for himself here. His old friend, Edward Elric, was here. He seemed to be having a good time. Apparently he was married now -- Light felt bad that he hadn't been there to see the wedding. Instead, he had been in the cells under Courtyard Five, being experimented on every Thursday and getting gross, bad-smelling meals at what must have been sunrise and sunset. That was not the place to be when your best friend was having a wedding.

He hated the cells with a passion. And yet, for all the amazing things up here in the courtyards, Light would have expected more people. After all, according to those whacko scientists, the facility had been up and running since three hundred years ago, when some guy named Dr. Kane started it up. Apparently he'd had a kid here with a serious case of amnesia and an animal form. Even if she didn't know he was her dad, what kid of guy puts his daughter through stuff like that? Or anyone's kids, for that matter? This whole place was just sick. He'd heard from Ed the other day that people had started disappearing over the past few months. Where were they all going to? Back to the lab? To other courtyards? To another facility? Light shook his head. Whatever was going on here, it was nuts and he didn't want a part of it. He just wanted to live long enough to get out. That was all that mattered. Once he was free, he could finish high school and college and have the life he'd always wanted. He'd find Misa -- wherever she was -- and ask her to be his girlfriend again. They'd get married and live happily ever after. And he could forget this place...Everything...At that moment, he zoned out completely. He cussed himself out in his head. Why'd it have to be future telling? He saw blurry images: Misa laughing and smiling, as if she was having a grand time with someone she truly loved, a gigantic flaming eagle -- or was that a dragon? -- flying through the sky, all of Courtyard Five going up in flames and thick black smoke. More images followed, scenes of battle and blood that were so disturbing Light's stomach churned. As more images passed through his head, Light thought about Misa's expression. She'd never looked at him that way before. Who could she be with in the future that she loved more than him? Images continued pouring into his mind so that he remained in a semiconscious state for nearly an hour. It was a nightmare -- so many people dead, including Ed. He wanted to change it, had to change it -- he just didn't know how.

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Moka didn't pay attention to what Dallas was saying; she just kept playing video games. There was nothing fun to do in this place -- no one here had a sense of adventure. She wanted action, and the only place she could find it was immersed in a virtual world. She turned off the Wii after playing for about two hours and went to make herself some lunch. She took stock of everything available and after some deliberation decided to make a large garden salad with fresh vegetables, chunks of grilled chicken, and her favorite dressing and a delicious fruit smoothie to go with it. There was plenty of salad left, so she put it in the refrigerator. Some of her smoothie was also left over, so she put that in the freezer to keep cool and decided to go to the classroom to practice her shifting skills. She was okay at shifting into animals that weren't her main form -- provided of course that they had wings. She'd tried shifting into a ferret once and instead had ended up looking like a rat with bat wings sticking out of its head. Another time she'd shifted into a butterfly and almost been eaten by one of the local spiders. She really needed to get better at it; that had become apparent over the past few months. She closed the door and set up a mirror next to the gigantic aquarium that was on one side of the room -- it was large enough to fit three dolphins snout-to-flukes. She went to her bedroom to change into her swimsuit -- no use getting perfectly good clothes wet. With that, she hopped into the tank, which, thankfully, was filled with warm water, as if she were swimming in the waters off the coast of some tropical island. She closed her eyes and tried to grow gills. Opening them, she was pleased to see four sets of gills on her body: two on her neck and one on each arm. She used them to breathe so she wouldn't have to keep coming up for air as she shifted -- or attempted to shift -- into various forms of marine life.

The first one she tried was a swordfish, which, unfortunately, ended up looking pretty terrible. Then she tried a salmon, which, while she looked all right, probably wasn't the best form to be in if Dallas decided he wanted seafood for lunch. Then she tried a bottlenose dolphin, which failed epically as she ended up looking more like a deformed porpoise. After spending about half an hour trying to shift into various sea creatures (and mostly failing) she hopped out of the tank as a rabbit (again, with wings -- she couldn't seem to shake them as a land animal) and landed on the floor, shifting into a puppy and shaking the water off of her body. She then shifted into a small orange and gold dragon, hovering a few feet off of the ground and setting herself on fire to evaporate any moisture that was still on her and then shifting back into a human, still wearing her swimsuit. She walked into the bedroom and put her clothes back on. That was enough shifting for one day. If she shape-shifted again, it would be into her main animal form, a flaming, fire-breathing dragon made of molten rock that torched everything it touched. At least her animal form was pretty cool. She was a destructive sort of person, and her form reflected that. That was good. She liked fire, especially if she was the one that sent the things up in smoke. She thought about Dallas. She was sure that he thought she was manipulating him. There were perks to being able to read minds. To be honest, she wasn't completely positive why she was being nice to him -- well, at least what could pass as "nice" in her case -- today. She hated him most of the time and wished he would just turn into a worm, dig a hole, and die in it a lot of the time.

Sadly, as with most wishes, that one just wouldn't come true. She was stuck with him. She wished one of her exes would decide he wanted her back bad enough that they would come push Dallas out the window. She gave a humorless laugh as she realized that if this facility was in Texas, she could truthfully sing the song "All My Exes Live in Texas" by that country singer. Who was it? George Strait? Tim McGraw? She didn't know. The last time she'd listened to anything country seemed like a lifetime ago, before she came here...She had been nicer back then. As a matter of fact, she had been the polar opposite of who she was now, a bubbly, social, talkative girl who was popular with everyone. Back then she would dye her hair bright pink and wear contacts that made her eyes bright green. She had been with the love of her life -- Tsukune Aono, a cute Japanese boy whose family had just moved to Austin, Texas from Tokyo, Japan. He was popular with the other girls, too -- Moka had constantly been fighting off Mizore Shirayuki, Kurumu Kurono, Yukari Sendo, Koko Shuzen, Moka's younger half-sister, and Ruby Tojo. Of course, Tsukune didn't have a crush on any of them; they were just extremely attracted to him and would probably have torn her apart to get to him. Moka wondered what Tsukki -- that had been one of his nicknames -- was doing right now. Perhaps he had started dating one of the other girls that liked him. Maybe he was even married by now. If he was married to one of those girls, it was probably to Kurumu, who had always let him know that she loved him the most. Or Mizore, who stalked him so much it was creepy and probably threatened to creep him out for the rest of his life if he didn't date her. He could be with anyone -- and he was probably having the kind of life with her that they had always talked about having together.

That didn't matter, though. The past was the past; she had to live in the present. That thought in mind, she went to the computer and began watching anime on YouTube.

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As soon as Lady was on his back, Ed galloped as fast as he could while flapping his wings, trying to gain enough speed to get into the air. He flew for as long as he could before landing a few yards from the elevator. He was so happy that the scientists couldn't shift into animals and even happier that he hadn't crash-landed into anything and caused harm to Lady. He stood, sniffing the air for any more scientists. Good. No one was around. He waited for his mate to dismount so he could shift back into a human. Unicorns wouldn't fit in the elevator.

[Sorry for such a short post for Ed-- I'm rather low on muse for him today.]

[Lady Ligeia]

Anya narrowed her eyes while staring at Light. She easily recognized his resistance to her weak coercion. It would have been near effortless for anyone who recognized her coercion to resist it. When she put even slight effort into it, her Coercion was very effective. Back when she had lived in New York City, she had mastered the craft practicing on her teachers. She had a brilliant mind, but had always found her schooling to be dull and unnecessary. It was very easy to convince her teachers that she was late for an excellent reason, or thatht she had to skip calculus because of other commitments. That was the very actions that brought her into the attention of the facility. The boredom of calculus class held no comparison to the boredom of the cells. By the time she was finally paired (the cells seemed so long ago, even a day later), her cell was covered with doodles and little writings.

His answer annoyed her. Even more so because of the Coercion. She was able to fight it off, perhaps only because of her stubbornness and curiosity. She would fight Coercion with Coercion. Putting on her biggest, sweetest smile, and using her sweetest most honeyed voice, she spoke again. "Oh, come on, can't you just tell me? I've never been good at guessing." She broke off, but thought of something else to add. "And you didn't have to point out that it was an attractive snake. That was a given." Her smile almost faded with his possible reactions if he saw through her manipulations. Am I this difficult to speak to? she wondered. Or do I just overthink things?"

Her answer didn't come, though. She recognized Light's eerie trance as future telling, an ability she shared herself. She rarely fell into the trademark trances; her premonitions almost always came in short bursts, that told her very little. Anya didn't know what to do. She figured it would be wrong to just leave him. After some debate, she draped a blanket around his shoulders, and sat on the couch. The TV was on, but she didn't pay it the least attention.

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Dallas looked down at the book and sighed deeply. What had happened to change him so much? In school, he was always bright, but more a jock. He was on every sports team, and a star soccer player. But an avid reader? Not so much. He had little choice in this centre; they were a good escape from reality, and the only choice due to his dislike of playing video games. That had come about when he and Moka still spoke. She always beat him, no matter what game it was.

He shook his head, like he always did, to clear his thoughts and resumed his reading. He didn't glance up again until he had finished the book. It made him grateful for the centre's vaccinations against rabies and all the other animal diseases. He was unlucky enough to be susceptible to human, feline, and bird diseases.

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Lady clutched to Ed's mane, hoping that her hands wrapped all in his mane didn't pull at his hair. Her last intention was to harm him. She sealed her eyes shut against the wind and to quell her urge to look down. Normally, she had no fear of heights, but this was different. She was terrified to think of what would happen if this second attempt also ended in a crash landing. She thanked the stars above when they both safely landed just feet from the elevator leading to their apartment. Slipping off of Ed's back, she managed a very weak, thin smile. "You were right," she told him, a sad tone slipping into her voice. "It is the scientists. They've been taking other experiments. Why? Do you think they'll come for us?" She turned to him with a fairly panicked look on her face.

((That's okay. I've gotten a bit of writer's block for Dallas))

[Princess Porcelain]

[Sorry I'm taking so long with replies -- my second semester of college just started this week so I won't be able to post much until the weekend.]