Derivative {Closed}

[SilentHades]

Gatekeeper
There was a bit of a cold bite in the air, drawing all life away from the harsh, circling winds. There was no life to be found in this bleak November save for a dark shadow moving across the dead grass towards his first destination of the night. There were five homes to visit that night, five empty rooms far below ground, and five reasons why he could not delay any longer.

In the dimness, his shadow hardly cast itself upon the ground, making him look like his own shadow with the black from his head to toes. From the gas mask and black hood he wore to his black jeans and leather gloves, no skin was visible. He had become his shadow in an unintentional means, his sport his medium for the art he created as he formed below an unlighted window.

There was a momentary silence as he lifted himself to look inside, finding the room vacant of its occupant- a woman by the name of Terran Ortega. He put his hands to the intersection of the window, pausing for a moment before removing the screen quietly. After that, he pressed his fingers to the glass and pushed upwards. The window slid open with an unnatural ease, almost as though gliding over oil rather than its tight framework.

He took a moment to jump into the window sill, putting his legs down on the opposite side of the window before closing it just as silently as it had opened. Now, all he had to do was wait.

[InfectedHau]

Terran||Female||27||Tagged: Gatekeeper

Terran knew this dream. Or at least she thought she did. It was all so fuzzy now. The pain was familiar, at least. The blood leaking from her travel-weary feet, the soreness and exhaustion pervading her entire body, the strange drive to keep moving, her body somehow knowing that succor lay just a few meters away, even if her brain didn't. Well, best to play out the charade. Her entire body screaming in protest, Terran began walking forward again, only to stop a few feet further into the forest. Looking down, she saw a slim pair of arms wrapped around her chest, their cleanliness providing a stark contrast to Terran's own battle-scared figure.
"Don't abandon me... Please... Don't leave me here alone..."
The words echoed in Terran's ears, far too familiar for comfort, and she woke with a start.

Terran sat up gasping in her bed, her arms searching frantically for the lamp on her bedside table, almost knocking it over before flipping it on, filling the room with blinding radiance. As she waited for her eyes to adjust, the history teacher took a moment to wipe the cold sweat from her brow and allow her heart rate to settle a bit. It was just a dream, she told herself, it wasn't real, it was just a product of work-induced stress, this was her first year teaching, she was bound to have some difficulty adjusting. It was just a dream. Still, Terran didn't feel like she'd be able to sleep for a while yet. Or, maybe the rest of the night. Who knew? Rubbing the crusts of sleep from her eyes, Terran got up, stretched, and headed downstairs, snagging a slightly less-than clean t-shirt from the rim of her hamper and pulling it over her lack of sleeping clothes as she made the descent to her kitchen.

At first, she didn't notice her home invader as she flipped on the light, still half-asleep, opening her refrigerator door and taking a moment to enjoy the cool air as it played over her face, then grabbing a styrofoam container of some sort of leftover foodstuff and going to shove it in the microwave for a few minutes. Then, she noticed him, as a black smudge in the reflection of her refrigerator's stainless-steel door, but thought nothing of it, strangely tired now that the shock of her nightmare had worn off. It was only after placing the aforementioned leftovers in the microwave, setting the timer, and allowing herself to be lulled into a daze by the appliance's soft hum, that she caught a reflection out of a gas mask lens out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see the black-clad figure standing by the window. At first, she failed to react, then the reality of the situation finally pierced her haze of sleep, and she let out a shriek of surpise and fear, leaping back against her stove top in fright. She usually kept a knife on the counter for just this situation, but she'd used it just that morning to dice up some peppers for her lunch, and it was now in her sink. On the other side of the room. Wonderful. "Wh- what do you want?" Terran asked, trying and failing to keep the quiver out of her voice. Even if the nightmare hadn't left her a little on edge, the guy was wearing a gas mask, for heaven's sake! What single woman wouldn't be terrified if a man broke into her house in the dead of night wearing a gas mask?

[SilentHades]

Gatekeeper
He didn't have to wait long for the dream to finish and the woman to head downstairs. Right on schedule, she wandered in a sleeping daze. The fact that she hadn't noticed him was a little startling to him, and he took a moment to think about what to do next. At some point she would see him, and he would prefer to take the path of least resistance. He'd first move to block access to the phone, but not in an overly threatening way, perhaps. Maybe she wouldn't be freaked out at all by the black-clad man by the window. If he didn't move, maybe she would find unease faster than fear. Yes, that will be a better course, he thought to himself as he stood there and watched her cook. His ignorance to the fact that simply watching her cook without her knowing he was there would terrify her made him calm down a bit. He would have never expected how she reacted at that point.

She turned as she caught a glimpse of his reflection, throwing herself against the oven. From the increase in her breathing rate and the sleep vanishing from her gaze it was obvious she was terrified. Perhaps she was angry, actually? Ah, emotions were weird. How should he know?

"Terran, it's okay. I'm not here to hurt you. I need you to come with me, and I would pack a few garments if I were you," He nodded once, lifting his hands slowly to show he did not have a weapon of any sort. His people skills were extremely low, but when it came to gestures of aggression and peace, he had learned well. Even if she resisted and refused to go, he wouldn't need a weapon to detain her. He had gone through enough training to know exactly how to kidnap someone without harming them too much.

[InfectedHau]

Terran||Female||27||Tagged: Gatekeeper

He knew her name. How did he know her name? Was this premeditated? Was he one of her students, finally cracking under the strain and come to murder her? No, he had no weapon, but that didn't do much to set her mind at ease. He was still probably stronger than her, and unless she found herself a weapon, this was going to go badly for her should they come to blows. Kind words and empty gestures did little to alleviate one's fear, especially when the source was wearing a gas mask and standing in one's kitchen. He wanted her to go with him? Was he trying to kidnap her? If he was, it was a rather odd way to get her to go along with it. Maybe she could use that. Pretend to go along with it, get the knife from the sink, or better yet, get her switchblade she kept in her top drawer upstairs, sneak back down, and slice his throat out. No, God, what was she thinking? That wasn't like her, she wasn't the type to kill people, even in self-defense. What was going on with her? "Wh-who are you?" Terran asked, to cover the fact that fear and indecision had momentarily paralyzed her.

[Nightra]

Name: Loki Aragaki
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Powers: Wind, Lighting, Superspeed
Tagged: No One

"I love those moments.
I like to wave at them as they pass by."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Loki~
Really I have the worst of luck. No matter what I did it always seemed to back fire on me. No matter how I plan, or how I calculate it seems to never go right. No that is not right actually, it use to. Everything use to always go perfect, but lately this have not been going my way. Those stupid dreams seemed to be the root cause of it, or at least that is what I like to think. Ever since I had started to have those dreams my life has seemed to get even worse. It was never good to really begin with. My family is on the richer end of the world. We live in a nice fancy home with maids and servants. It is all rather nice, so then why do I complain. Well I guess you could say the cause is because of my sister and of my family. They are perfect, everything has to be perfect and that was what my sister is. She is beautiful, smart, nice, athletic, and perfect. She has everything, and I mean everything. I on the other hand am nothing special. I don't get good grades, but average. I don't look very handsome or anything like that. I not excel at sports, well I could if I tried. According to my parents nothing was right with me. I was the worst, the trash of the family. So I turned to the streets and rebelled and you know what they did. They did not care. I could come home in cuffs and they would just send me to my room not caring. I became nothing more then a simple shadow, then a ghost. They did try and make me perfect, make me like my sister, but in the end they could not. As a kick to the face my father legally changed my name from Micheal to Loki. Do you know the humiliation that I got from that. I had to move schools because of it. But I would never stop and bow down to them. They always are bickering at me, saying I need to be more like my angelic little twin sister. I need to be perfect like her.

I figure I will probably get the same speech from my father again, maybe even another beating when I returned home. After all I would not be returning home like a normal person would. With a sudden jerk I smashed my head up against the stone pillar. Ok maybe I did not really smash it, but I did hit it. Like I said before I had not luck lately. "Hands on your head, Put your Hands on your head. I repeat..." I officers yelled out as I came out from behind the pillar, placing my hands on top of the rather untamble mess of blonde hair that I had. I knew the drill, after all this was not the first or will be the last time that this has happened. One of the officers came over to me, pulling my arms down rather roughly as he placed the cold handcuff on my wrist. "Ey now not so tight please." I said to him in a joking matter. The Cop did not really like that for he purposely made them tighter. I just rolled my emerald eyes as he pushed me off to a cruiser.

The door slammed shut as I was finally sitting in the back of the cruiser, alone. A small sigh escaped my lips as I looked out the window watching some of the others that had been left behind being placed into different cars. You are probably wondering at this point what in the world was I doing to be getting arrested like this. Well it was rather simple actually. I had once more gotten into a group of thugs that where know for steeling sports cars for some street racing. They had offered me a good chunk of money for helping out and so I took it, had nothing better to do anyways. But it turned out there was a snitch in the group and so most of us where caught. Many of the older guys got away, but us little hired lackeys were all caught. I sighed again as the officer came into the car and looked back at me. "How many times is it now Loki?" He asked me as he turned on the car. I just shrugged and smiled at him. "Got nothing better to do anyways." I said to him as I looked back out the window. "Your families name won't always stop you from going to jail. You are almost considered an adult now. You..." The same old same old lecture from the cop started as I just leaned back.

An hour passed before the car pulled up to a rather large house and some servant came walking out of the door. The officer exited the car and spoke to the servant. He seemed a little peeved about something. Reluctantly the officer came and opened the door. He helped me out before taking off the cuffs and going back into the car. With out a word he drove off. I watched him go before I looked to the servant, "Let me guess no one home." I said to him. With out even waiting for an answer I walked off heading into the house. They where probably off doing something for Neha like always. I walked into the rather large house before going to the kitchen and getting something to eat. As I ate a meal I looked to the clock to see the time. It was pretty late out and decided, since there was nothing else to do, that I would head off to bed.

I moved through the rather large building, coming to my room which I opened up and walked inside. Closing the door behind me I looked at the rather plain room. I hated this place and so I never tried to make myself feel at home, besides no one else did either. I stripped my cloths off before just flopping down on the bed. It did not take me long at all to fall into a deep sleep and back into that unforgettable world.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

[acacia.]

○○○The corners of his mouth were tugged upwards into a smile as he leaned down to pick up the paper plate. He'd somehow forgotten -- today was Friday, and Friday meant cupcakes. His building was mostly full of younger kids, so it wasn't often that you saw anybody older than 30. But there was an older lady down the hall that had taken a liking to him, especially after her sons death a couple years ago. So once a week for the past year, he came home to a small, Saran-wrapped plate of sugar on the tile outside his apartment door. Sometimes there was more, like the dinner on Thanksgiving and Jack Daniels on Christmas. He didn't particularly like whiskey, but he could never bring himself to tell her. But the cupcakes -- they were the absolute best cupcakes he'd ever eaten.

He unlocked his door and shuffled inside, letting it swing shut behind him. And he was home to his studio apartment. High ceilings, a window wall, dark color scheme, and nearly no furniture -- great for parties. He slipped off his shoes and plopped himself down on the couch, white work suit jacket and all. He checked the clock. 3:20 a.m. It had been a long night, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, even if he wanted to. Since he began getting it, the dream had been slowly gnawing at the back of his mind, making its presence more and more daunting and pronounced. It was something he had to force himself not to think about, something he had to force himself to ignore. Because even a second of thought dedicated to trying to piece together what it meant already seemed like a second too much. He'd began to treat it like any medical condition he ever had -- try to ignore it and hope it goes away.

Time for Netflix. He had finally made it to season four of Scrubs, which is something he'd been trying to do for months. He had finished shedding his suit jacket just as the opening theme started. He tossed it over one arm of the couch before slouching down, burying himself deep into the cushions, plate of cupcakes propped against his chest.

[SilentHades]

Gatekeeper
He could almost watch the thoughts churning about her. He hated to admit it, but it amused a part of him he didn't like to admit he had and a small smile crept onto his lips beneath the stifling heat of the mask. After a moment, however, he forced it back down with the confirmation of her fear. Her voice trembled, and that was not the best thing for either of them. A frightened woman would be harder to convince. Would he have to knock her out? Would that only make things worse in the long run? Why were people so difficult to understand?

"Terran, don't panic. I'm truly not here to hurt you. My name is Gatekeeper and I've come to help you. You've been having dreams of another world, haven't you? A girl within it pleads for you to stay. Look, it's not just a dream and I implore of you to give me a chance," He said, trying to soften his voice. Although his voice wasn't the deepest for a man, it vibrated through the filters of his mask, giving it an inhuman metallic ring that did not help his current situation. It was less likely for this woman to feel at ease when he didn't even sound human, but it couldn't be helped. He couldn't take his mask off, after all.

He watched her closely for any signs of rebellion. Although he did prefer her to come willingly, he also knew he' would subdue her if he needed to. She had that look in her eye that seemed half focused on him and half focused on the possible means of escape or self defense she could access. Like a cornered animal, she wouldn't just give up.

[InfectedHau]

Terran||Female||27||Tagged: Gatekeeper

Terran's fear faded a bit, replaced by cautious curiosity. This Gatekeeper kid knew a bit too much about her to be an average, run-of-the-mill thug, and besides, he'd broken into her house and she was still alive, so he couldn't be all that bad, could he? The answer was yes, of course he could, she'd read and seen The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, but she didn't feel like he was. Really, it was the mention of the dream that helped set her mind at ease. She'd read plenty of books where things like this happened, the otherwise average heroine had some sort of terrible dream, and was greeted by a mysterious figure that seemed to know everything about it. It's just that usually said figure took the form of a wizened old man, not a kid wearing a gas mask. She didn't want to get stabbed, but she wanted to find out what her dreams meant more. She'd go with him, but that didn't mean she had to trust him.

"I'm going to go get dressed," Terran said, just now realizing that she wasn't wearing anything apart from her nightshirt, "If you're still here when I come back down, I'll go with you, but I expect some answers, is that clear?" Without realizing it, she'd slipped into her "serious teacher" mode she used when her classes got out of line. Most people wouldn't expect that a 5'4" hispanic lady could be threatening in any way, but she somehow managed it. Only the toughest of customers could withstand her death stare. Having said her piece, Terran walked out of the kitchen and headed back upstairs. Ten minutes later, she came back down, in her standard outfit, a long, curved Khopesh sheathed at her back. She had planned to only take her switchblade, but something had made her take the ancient Egyptian sword as well. She wasn't sure why, it just felt right. "Now then," she said, confidence back in her voice now that she was armed, "While we're going wherever it is we're going, why don't you tell me exactly who you are, and how it is you know so much about me?"

[SilentHades]

Annika {Tar} Pastors
Tar sat on a bench in the cool night air, a white jacket pulled over her, open to reveal a dark blue turtleneck sweater beneath. She had on white sweatpants, her feet bare on the ice and snow as her shoes and socks sat beside her on the bench. The cold woke up her distanced mind, drawing her attention outside of herself to see the gravestones surrounding her. She read the familiar names in front of her, but they conjured up no emotion as she stood to face toward the entrance of the cemetery. She did not know the owners of the graves, and besides, she didn't come here to visit anyone. She had come to leave something behind, to let the weight of her stress begin to slip a little from her shoulders onto the deadened ground.

She walked the streets in silence, her blue eyes set in a hardened stare at the world around her. She gazed around fence corners, stared down areas of shadow, and checked behind her frequently. As usual, this paranoid behavior was more a force of habit at this point than any true fear. She had abandoned that fear long ago, only to replace it with her livid anger for Todd. It didn't matter who or what came after her, she wouldn't go before he did. She needed to put him down like the dog he was, and that was not going to change.

Part way through her walk, she stopped in front of a house whose lights had already shut off long before her arrival. She balled her hands into fists within her pockets, even though her eyes remained deadly calm. Todd had once lived here with his parents, and she remembered him leading her here several times. After the incident, he had moved out, obviously on the run, and now only his family still dwelled within the now same walls. She had stopped by several times on her walks home, allowing herself to dwell on his memories. She never forgot, and she hoped he wouldn't either.

She drew in a deep breath eventually, as though inhaling her solitude in this mission of hers, and began to return home. It didn't take her much longer than ten minutes before her home rose before her like prison walls. She frowned at them, solidifying her resolve before she turned the handle and walked inside.

Her father was sitting on the couch just inside the door, watching her with those same blue eyes she shared, his tight-lipped glare proving their relation. She didn't even spare him more than a glance as she began towards the stairs toward her attic room.

"Annika," The name froze her in place, but she said nothing, "Where have you been?"

"Burying the dead, Rick," She answered him, not turning. Her hand stayed on the cold wood of the guard rail, her own frozen hands doing nothing to provide warmth to either of them.

"That's not funny, Annika. It's past curfew. Do you want another status offense to your name?" He demanded. She could hear him rise from his seat, the wooden planks of the floor protesting his movements. She said nothing as he approached her, but she did turn to him.

"I'm going to bed," She told him, looking into his eyes, "I'm tired."

At that moment, she vanished up the stairs, locking the door behind her. She could be taciturn and callous to him, but when she had needed him most he had blamed her for everything Todd had done. He was nothing to her now.

Gatekeeper
As soon as she had gone upstairs, a sigh of relief reverberated through the respirator. He folded his arms again, leaning easily against the wall as he regained his usual relaxed demeanor. It was always so troublesome to convince people of his innocence, but he couldn't afford to remove his mask so he had to deal with the consequences. He was glad that she was so quick after the mention of the dream to trust him. It made things so much easier. Perhaps that should be his first topic of discussion with the next person he collected. He thought he knew which one to grab, too.

"That's a nice sword you have. Reminds me of someone else I used to know," He shrugged and straightened from the wall, "I have a van parked out front for us. I have a few more people like you that I have to pick up, and everything will be explained when you are together. Hmm, weird question, but would you mind wearing a blindfold?"

He paused for the answer for a split second before changing his mind and shaking his hands in front of his face.

"No, never mind. Don't worry about it for now. That was a stupid question," With that he began to head towards the door, no longer having to rely on a window. There was a front door that he could utilize.

[InfectedHau]

Terran||Female||27||Tagged: Gatekeeper

When Gatekeeper asked her to wear a blindfold, Terran stared at him like he'd dropped from space. Which he might have, anything was possible at this point. Did he not see the sword? What made him think that she was going to wear a blindfold? He needed to spill a lot more before she gave him that level of trust. "There are more people like me?" She asked, unlocking the front door and stepping outside. There was the van, which didn't really help Terran's vague notion that she was just allowing herself to be kidnapped, and she headed towards it, standing by one of the doors. "Who are they?"