Fantasy Howl's Flying Castle (Finished! ---Whoo! (*＾▽＾)／)

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Ocean Deep-
​

Lydia couldn't quite decipher James' face as it mirrored a strange internal conflict as she didn't want to just stare at him, having her own desire to hide her embarrassment, though as he covered his face, she looked at him a little more readily. Did her compliment just embarrass him as much as his usually embarrassed her? It was a nice kind of embarrassment when he told her that she was smart or congratulated her on a job well done, she was pleased that he had noticed her abilities where others had never taken an interest before. Of course since she had been with the group, there hadn't really been a lacking of people that appreciated what she could do, but when the compliments came from James... well they were even more special.

In the dim light below the surface of the ocean, one might be able to say that she glowed a little as James thanked her and told her how what she said made him happy. That made her happy. So it seemed there was a lot of happiness going around. Her smile brightened and she scrambled to her feet in much the same clumsy way she usually did, that kind of lack of grace that would have her mother acting as though she were going to faint. She had tried and tried to get Lydia to appear more as a lady, to act and move with grace, but that just wasn't who Lydia was and she didn't want to pretend to be someone she wasn't just to get the attention of a suitor who would only like her because she was putting on a show and not actually like her for the real her. Though she did definitely admire the poise that James showed, it just made her heart flutter.

She bounced up and down slightly, her hands clasped together just below her chin, "we can go out?" She spoke joyfully then tried to gain some composure so James wouldn't look at her too much like a kid even though she knew she was younger than him, she lowered her hands to hold them together behind her back as she blushed faintly, "um... then I would like to go for a stroll, Captain... please," she stammered slightly, glancing to him shyly.

Zer0

 

[Zer0]

- Training Room -
" Masters Sai & Mushi "​

"What the cuss have you done to my training grounds?" carried a deep woman's voice across the field.

There was a BOOM as the large wooden doors of the training grounds slammed shut, and there striding down the steps was a swordswoman wearing a long black scarf that trailed in the air behind her, and a panda warrior with a small gold shield slung on his back who moved gracefully despite being a bear.

All the soldiers immediately stood up and bowed. "Master." they murmured as the two passed.

The panda boomed in laughter. "This won't be no boring day after all!" he said in a gruff gravelly voice, patting his big belly.

The woman ignored everyone and seemed to have her eyes set on Echo.

"That's Master Sai, our instructor." whispered a bowing solider to Echo. "And that's Master Mushi the Drunken Brawler."

Sai pointed a finger at Echo. "Explain." The training field was littered with rock debris and some of the training poles were broken.

Katsuya

- James Pendragon -
" Shoflo Ocean Deep "​

"Take my arm." smiled James offering it like a gentleman.

He flicked his wand and the bubble dome squeezed, then from the top formed two bubbles the size of goldfish bowls that floated down to them. "These'll help us breathe." James pulled one over his head like a mariner's helmet before tapping it with his wand, which caused it to thicken like their arcane bubble dome, and he did the same to Lydia's once she was done.

"We're going out, Callie," said James in a muffled voice, rubbing the manta ray's back. Some air escaped from the side of the dome, which had thinned enough for them to go through like a bubble curtain, and James beckoned Lydia outside. "Ladies first."

It was difficult to have one's arms stay hooked under the ocean with another, so James let go. The water was pleasantly cool and he glanced at Lydia to see if she liked it and all she was seeing.

The coral reef was vast, as they explored it there were small archways and little tunnels where eels, sea urchins, and crabs peered out from the nooks and crannies. It was after swimming through one of these that they beheld a sunken ship, tucked away at the bottom of a sand dune surrounded by a cliff of corals and seaweed encrusted rocks.

Roleplay Skittle

OOC || Characters || Interest Check​

 

[Katsuya]

Echo jumped when a deep woman's voice was heard within the training grounds and Chenglei winced.

"Oh no...It seems the Masters are here..." The blond muttered.

When the doors boomed open with a woman walking down with a panda behind her, the fawn looked over with a deer-in-headlights face. She was intimidating and the panda ...can talk?? Echo bowed a second later than the soldiers, her ears twitching when one of them explained. She didn't notice the woman staring at her as she was bowing like the soldiers.

Ohh...So this is Masters Sai and Mushi...

She didn't expect a woman to be the instructor considering that some of these men wasn't really open with her and the other girls being in the training grounds. Though that doesn't change her view on her; She's still a master and the person who will shape her up to be a better fighter. So the fawn hoped that she could get better at fighting hand-to-hand combat.

"I-I see..." She whispered back. Echo flinched when she heard Master Sai's voice and looked up to see her finger pointed at...her...Oh...

Standing straight to answer back, Echo's ears folded back. "I was headbutting rocks and practicing on blocking, however...I accidentally broke the poles..." Then she bowed again as an apology to the masters. "I'm very sorry for breaking your training equipment. It will not happen again."

Zer0

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Shoflo Ocean-
​

An excited grin graced Lydia's features as James offered his arm, her own hand extending somewhat hesitantly to hook behind his with the mannerisms of a real lady. She watched as James' used his wand to summon down the bubbles they would use to breath, the expression on her face showing that she was obviously and unabashedly impressed with him. She nodded as he explained and mimicked his gestures as he situated one of the bubbles on his own head, casually glancing at him as he thickened her own bubble.

Her arm on his tightened slightly for a moment as he beckoned her outside, but she loosened her arm again as she slipped through and while she didn't really want to, she fairly naturally let go of his arm as he released hers. Sitting on Callie and watching all of the wonders of the ocean was much different from being out among it all and the temperature of the water served to remind her just how far below the surface they were, which is the farthest she had ever been beneath the surface of any body of water.

With each new creature they came across, Lydia would look to James and ask him what it was called if she had never come across it while reading her books. Otherwise, if she could remember a creature because she had seen it before, she would try to remember the name and vocalize it, sometimes maybe not remembering exactly the proper term and likely being corrected by James a few times.

At the sight of the sunken ship, reason went out the window and she swam a bit ahead of James, "Oh! James!" She glanced back to him excitedly, "can we...?" She assumed that he knew what she was implying though she didn't use any hand gestures to signify what she meant, only her positioning and the wide eyed look of expectancy that brightened her features.

Zer0

 

[Zer0]

- James Pendragon -
" Shoflo Ocean, Shipwreck "​

"Yes, go ahead!" encouraged James, gesturing a hand forward. He was having fun floating above an octopus that could camouflage itself and was trying to poke one of its tentacles that blended seamlessly on the reef. He followed behind her.

"Can you shine a light underwater? Let us invent signals. Continuous rapid blinking light means danger we have to leave, rapid blinking with one second intervals means help come at once, two blinks means come, one blink means stop?"

The ghostly sea ship was so mysterious and eerie, every creak and crack sounded loud under the sea. It seemed to be a galleon from more than a century ago, when much of the world was unexplored and pirates thrived in the oceans. It had been sunk by storm, and there were holes and gaps all along the boat that were big enough for a man to swim through.

It seemed that Lydia and James were the first to discover the ship, for most of the rusty, barnacled doors were locked, including ten chests that they found all over ship. There were antiques and finely decorated silverware. This had been a cargo ship judging by the faded letters of its rotten crates, that had been carrying spices from a far off land.

James marveled at the old bronze cannons. He used a very old cloth as a bag and collected a brass seeing-eye glass, a gold broach, a gilded bracelet, a clay pipe, some ceramics, and a couple of old perfume bottles. He examined a small locked chest as fishes and jellyfishes swam pass him, and after failing to open it with a rock, decided to carry it under his arm.

"Lydia, look at this!" he showed her a rock made of compressed gold coins that seemed to have been crushed together from the underwater pressure. "Isn't it Au-some?!"

Roleplay Skittle

​

- Training Grounds -​

"With your head?" repeated the panda, surprised, looking at her forehead and all the rocks scattered around. He looked over at Johnny who had come over and also bowed. Johnny became confused as the panda kept looking at him for a long time like he did something wrong.

"It's really true that behind every angry woman is a man who has absolutely no idea what he did wrong." he muttered at the instructor; Master Sai did not find anything amusing.

"NEW FOREIGN RECRUITS ASSEMBLE FRONT AND CENTER!" she commanded. "Thanks to your friend you will spend today cleaning up this mess and replacing every single boulder with stones from the sea. You will dive for them, carry them on your backs, haul them up the airship and carry them again to the training grounds. And you will not eat until your task is done. Am I understood?"

Katsuya

 

[Katsuya]

The fawn looked away from Johnny's confused glance as she was embarrassed from the trouble she's already causing. If only she could calm down...

Serena and Renee quickly stood next to a very skittish Echo, bowing to their new instructor before standing straight. When Master Sai told them what they have to do as punishment, the fawn gaped at the instructor as she didn't want to drag her friends into the mess she made.

"Wai-wait! I-!"

"Echo..." The fawn felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned a bit to see Renee smiling at her, like it wasn't her fault. The red-head looked over to Serena, to see her lop-sidedly grin too, shrugging her shoulders a bit. Then the Pendragon sister bravely looked at the strict woman with a serious frown.

"Understood Master Sai." The three girls replied though Echo's tone was more of a mumble.

Once the instructor left, the fawn's ears folded back, almost hidden into her hair as her green eyes looked away from her friends' and boyfriend's faces. "I'm so sorry, guys...I didn't mean to drag you into this..."

Zer0

 

[Zer0]

- Training Grounds -​

Seth and Johnny stood up from their bows. "I am so going to prank her." muttered Seth, eyes narrowed mutinously.

Johnny rubbed comforting circles on Echo's shoulder. "Fret not, love, we're not miffed." he said, tilting her chin up gently to look at him. "Would it make you feel better if I . . . well, stripped to my shorts and danced when we get to sea?" he chuckled teasingly, a little pink on the cheeks.

Seth suddenly looked like he had an idea. Maybe he should do that too around Serena? Come to think of it, James wasn't around. This is a good opportunity to impress her with his swimming and speed, and perhaps even casually help her carry some things while accidentally-on-purpose brushing her hand.

Surely, once she sees his sleek muscles toned in a panther-like grace, and recognize his devil-may-care roguish appeal, she'd prefer him over his nerdy, boring, lanky older brother.

Katsuya

 

[Katsuya]

Serena giggles at Seth's ire before patting his head gently. "There there, Seth. She's just doing her job as a strict mentor...I'll be back. Gonna get the brooms." She mentioned and walked off to find the broom closet that's nearby.

Feeling the comforting circles on her shoulder, Echo let Johnny tilt her head, her doe eyes looked up at him as he teased. Her face felt warm as it turned pink, giggling at the idea. Somehow seeing Johnny in his trunks while dancing the Oriental's kabuki dance is definitely a funny image...but then she remembers long time ago, when James lifted Johnny's shirt and revealed a cute and fluffy sheep's tail...

Oh, look: It got hot all of a sudden-!

Softly placing her hand over Johnny's that on her shoulder, the red head made sure that the instructor wasn't looking to kiss his cheek briefly and smiling at him. "I-It's okay...Thank you, love."

"Um...I think the ones who are going underwater should wear trunks and swimsuits...while the ones who are going haul the rocks up should stay dry." Renee awkwardly said, not wanting to ruin the couple's moment but she had to be blunt about their punishment. The white-haired Pendragon just didn't want to go in the water because it might wet her feathers, dragging her down and the memory of Seifer hugging her while falling down the waterfall has popped in her mind...

Why is she blushing?! It's just a memory!! Stop!

"Here's the brooms!" Serena said, carrying the broom sticks up and passed one to each person. Then they started to clean the space from the rock pebbles and broken pieces. The violinist made it as a small game with Renee to see who can clean better than the other, which she agreed to and competed. Echo could only shake her head in amusement at her friends' silliness.

Zer0

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Shoflo Ocean, Shipwreck-
​

Lydia gave James an amused grin, she reminded him of a cat as he poked at the octopus. She then swam ahead of him, she paused slightly as he asked about the light, considering it for a moment. She wasn't sure if she could actually shine a light while under water because she had never tried, it wasn't like she went deep sea diving often. She supposed she could though since the spell she used for light was technically a controlled light spell so she nodded to him and continued to the ship.

Her feet kicked somewhat cautiously as she swam through the ship, her bright green eyes as big as an owl's as she looked around the ship, taking in what she could. She would pause every now and then, her shoulders shrugging upwards with each creak and groan as the sounds startled her, but she continued to explore. She spent her time unlocking some of the doors that were locked and collected her own souvenirs from the trip which included a complete set of silverware intended as a gift for her mother, a hand mirror, and hairpin decorated with pearls.

She had found an old burlap bag which she placed all the items in, turning to James as he showed her his find and laughing at his pun, "it is..." she became somewhat distracted by the chest he carried under his arm and gestured at it, "do you need me to open that?"

Zer0

 

[Zer0]

- Shoflo Ocean -​

"You're welcome, Echo." said Johnny, caressing her cheek with a thumb and giving her a peck there. "~Mwa!"

Unbeknownst him, though Echo probably saw, Master Sai's eyes narrowed when she saw Johnny's show of affection and looked irritated. As if the training grounds was not the place for mushiness.

The two guys agreed with Renee's advice, and the twin immediately volunteered to be one of those going underwater together with Johnny.

They weren't allowed to do magic, but cleaning up just took a little more than an hour. It was the diving and looking for proper boulders that was difficult. Since they weren't allowed to do magic, there was no way they could look for stones without diving into the water and Seth and Johnny weren't exactly swimmers who could hold their breaths for long periods of time, but all Master Sai, who was supervising their punishment, would say was, "Figure it out."

They were lent a scout's air ship and a couple of oriental pilots and crew to take them to the ocean. Master Sai taught them how to assemble the ship's rope-and-pulley system for heavy cargo and also told them that they were going to pilot the ship, which had made the crew members nervous.

Seth was excited about flying and volunteered to learn first, which almost ended in disaster because he wanted to go fast and pulled up so high that the engine failed and for a dizzying terrifying moment they were all spinning down from the sky as the real pilots took over to restart the engine; Master Sai never flinched.

Eventually, they spotted a pair of rider-less gryphons resting on the surface of the ocean, which turned out to be a coral reef where there were huge spiky stones bigger than the boulders in the training grounds that Echo could probably break.

They had no idea who the riders were, but as the ones going underwater dove, they saw a very familiar white light coming from a very familiar looking ethereal manta ray that was floating in place near the entrance of a coral tunnel some meters below the reef.

Katsuya

****​

"Yes." said James, offering it to her. It was a simple looking chest that bore a coat of arms. On the side was the engraved name: 'Capt. Blake Stolp' and it seemed that a simple enchantment that didn't feel dangerous was on it.

He calmly hovered over Lydia's shoulder to observe her spell work. She didn't know, but James actually wanted the chest opened when they were back on Callie in case the enchantment on the chest was something related to water-proofing its contents and would be broken once the chest was opened, but he just couldn't say no. He quite liked making whatever excuse to be this close to her and just share any experience right at this moment.

​

Roleplay Skittle

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Shoflo Ocean-
​

Lydia smiled happily and took the chest from James, holding it in both of her hands, examining it, "Captain Blake Stolp?" She read aloud and tilted her head to the side slightly before she glanced back to James, "it feels... magic? Like there's magic on it... do you really want me to open it now?"

She felt a sort of residual attunement to magic after the incident with the core, like it was something she was aware of and now that she felt the enchantment, she wasn't sure if she should and after James' response, she set the chest in her bag before they swam back to Callie.

Once they were safely back inside Callie's bubble dome and without their own individual bubbles, Lydia sat cross-legged on Callie's back and drew the chest out from her bag before casting her spell to open it. In her excitement, she tried a different version of her typical unlocking spell, placing her hands on the chest as she closed her eyes and focused before reciting, "Open this lock for me, Skeleton Key!"

Nothing happened. Or something did, rather, just not what either of them were probably expecting, "Serena likes James!" Lydia gasped as her green eyes grew wide and she slapped both of her hands over her mouth, looking at James in a mixture of shock and horror.

Zer0

 

[Katsuya]

"Well...I should have realized that Little Seth might be too free-spirited to drive that ship." Chenglei said amusingly to the Master who's watching over the foreign children do their punishment, lightly gripping on his sheathed sword's handle that's around his waist. The masters know of his job from the prince however the masters also denied him to help them do any of their share of work, which he was fine with. The blond soldier's only job is to watch over them after all, not baby them.

Renee was working on putting the pulley system, testing what goes where and remembering how Master Sai showed them how while sitting on the coral reef they found. She ignored Seth's almost death-defying attempt at driving the scout's air ship as she is used to his crazy antics and the explosions. So knowing that he rode an air ship and almost crashing it is just another day of the twins' antics again...but this time it's one twin. More manageable.

"Are you okay, Seth?" Renee yelled out as she finally got the pulley system together and Echo could only shake her head in disbelief. "How are you used to this?"

"You try living with the twins. I'm sure if James was here, he would just glare at Seth and try to prank him for being a crazy 'prat'." The Pendragon sister let's go of the pulley system to do signal air quotes with her fingers, looking like how James would glare at the twins before giggling a bit. The red head, once again, shook her head in disbelief before taking her stance and kicked the rocks lightly to only crack the surface. It'll be easier to break the stone off the reef.

Serena chuckled at the response, wearing a tight blue swimsuit with shorts on as she volunteered to dive as well. "Well, at least life is exciting that way, right?" With a nod from the two girls, the violinist ran of the reef and dove, holding her breathe and closing her eyes as the cooling waters hit her face first. Then she blinked to see the pretty view, smiling as she swam closer to the fishes. Then she saw something.....glowing white??

It looked familiar too...

'Callie?' Serena thought curiously, tilting her head a bit as she swam closer to the manta ray, not expecting to see people sitting in the Manta's air bubble to be there.

Zer0 Roleplay Skittle

 

[Zer0]

- James Pendragon -
" Shoflo Ocean Deep "​

" . . . " James, who had been eagerly anticipating the opening of chest looked up at Lydia ever so slowly. He looked like he thought she was saying some kind of joke, but after seeing her expression for a few minutes, he looked confused.

" . . . Why would you say that?" he said slowly, sounding slightly disgruntled for some reason. He watched her expression carefully.

Roleplay Skittle

****​

Johnny dove down with Serena. He had borrowed some goggles and was marveling at all the colorful fishes and corals, before spotting the white glow too.

A bubble of air escaped as he gasped, seeing the silhouette of two people inside Callie's dome bubble, but Serena was too far ahead of him to stop. He knew Serena liked James, but that from James reaction yesterday night when he prevented him from talking about his exes in front of Lydia, that he had taken a liking to Lydia. The violinist might get hurt, and he didn't want that. Plus, angry women equals drama and he didn't want that for James either. It might tear their group or something.

"Serena!" he called, but knew that she had probably spotted them too.

Katsuya

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Shoflo Ocean Deep-
​

Lydia looked like she was going to cry and after seeing James expression, she only felt like that more so. She quickly looked away from him, her hands still over her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut, 'Lydia! Why? Why did you decide to try and act smart! Show off!' She just wanted to retreat and hide, but it wasn't like she could run anywhere, they were at the bottom of the sea in a bubble dome. She couldn't even properly hide.

She slid her hands from her mouth slightly, she didn't even know what to say, but she couldn't just sit there in silence either. Her hands remained hovered over her mouth and she didn't have the courage to look back at James so when her eyes open, they were hidden by the veil of her dark lashes as she stared at the box where it sat on Callie's back in front of her, "I... it..." she whispered shakily. She felt horrible at having divulged Serena's secret to James. How would she face Serena?

"The... the spell... I'm sorry."

Zer0 Katsuya

 

[Katsuya]

As Serena swam closer, the blonde took a double take at who's in the bubble dome and squinted her eyes. Now she's pretty sure that at least one of them saw her, considering that she's close by, but she didn't know what's going on.

How come they were together?

Why are they swimming alone?

How come Lydia looked like she wanted to hide?

What's going on?!

The blonde floated there, not knowing what to do or how to act in this situation as her heart felt a pang of...Jealousy?

Zer0

 

[Zer0]

- James Pendragon -
" Shoflo Ocean Deep "​

"The spell . . . that was spell failure?" said James looking like he was gauging Lydia's truthfulness. "You're not messing with me?" he sounded like he believed her, but wanted to make sure. He had this expression as if he was afraid to get hurt by her.

He tilted his head slightly to continue watching Lydia's face, and in the process saw Serena. At first James thought he was seeing wrong, then he blinked, shocked. "SERENA?" he blurted.

Katsuya Roleplay Skittle

 

[Katsuya]

Serena flinched back, frowning as his reaction to her being there was...offensive? That never happened before...

Maybe she should leave them alone as her heart broke at the thought of James falling for another girl when she thought he was liking her...

'That's what I get for opening up...' Serena thought bitterly as she her face contorted into one that everyone in this group of theirs never saw. Her eyebrows furrowed as her sky azure blue eyes darkened in fury and her frown turned into a scowl as she swam away from the pair. She didn't stop to face Johnny nor did she stop if anyone called her out.

All she wanted to do was..

Zer0 Roleplay Skittle

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Shoflo Ocean Deep-
​

She nodded her head slightly, but she couldn't bear to look at him again, which inadvertently likely made it more difficult to gauge her truthfulness. It wasn't as though she were lying and saying that what she said wasn't true, she was just disguising one truth with another. She couldn't come right out and tell him that what she said was true because it wasn't her secret to tell in the first place and she hadn't meant to tell it at all.

Her hands had moved from where they were in front of her mouth, her fingertips having been curled up slightly, to being placed on either side of her face as she sat mildly stunned. Though her body jolted as James exclaimed and she quickly looked up from Callie's back, her own expression of shock scrawled across her features as her mouth popped open slightly before she grimaced and curled into her default ball form to hide her face against her knees.

Zer0 Katsuya

 

[Zer0]

- James Pendragon -
" Shoflo Ocean Deep "​

James jumped to his feet and watched Serena swim away from the edge of the dome as though he wanted to follow her, but didn't command Callie to move. He glanced at Lydia, then back at Serena's retreating figure. His hands clenched as though he made up his mind, and bent over his bag and began keeping his things and shipwreck trinkets.

"Let's resurface." he quietly said to Lydia, and told Callie to swim up; Johnny swam pass them signaling that he was going to follow the violinist.

When their bubble dome broke the surface of the water, they were at the area of the reef where their gryphons rested. "If you don't want to talk or want to be apart for a couple of days for Serena's sake, I understand. I'm going to go ahead." said James, hoisting his bag up the saddle of his mount. He hesitated for a moment before adding. "Thanks for today, I had a nice time."

Roleplay Skittle

****​

"Serena!" called Johnny, bubbles escaping from his mouth. He wasn't even sure if she could hear him underwater. He followed the violinist keeping a safe distance of twenty feet until she had to come up for air.

" . . ." He carefully waited for some time before saying timidly, "Serena, d-do y-you want me to tell them you want to go back to the warship, o-or would you rather be left alone?"

Katsuya

 

[Katsuya]

Serena surfaced, panting heavily as she hears someone else resurfacing too, Johnny's voiced out a question. She tensed up, not turning around to face the other entertainer as she knows he's terrified to go near her. The blonde preferred it that way right now...

"..."It took a moment for her to even respond without yelling at him, her shoulders visibly shaking as her wet hair curtained her face. Johnny could hear her audible gulp as if she was trying to swallow something desperately. "...Tell them I'm going back to the warship..." was her quiet and heartbreaking answer and she swam back to the scout's air ship, ignoring Renee and Echo's concerned faces as she boarded up and told them to let her go back to the warship.

Once she reached the warship, Serena walked to her own private room. Every person who was walking in her path moved aside as they could tell without looking at her expression that she is on a warpath of her own...

...and no one is safe.

The others who stayed managed to finish their punishment before dinner and returned to the warship too, though some confused while others are concerned about what's going to happen now.

Zer0 Roleplay Skittle

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Shoflo Ocean Deep-
​

She didn't budge, though she only assumed that Serena had left because she didn't hear her. What was she going to say to her? She wasn't even thinking about the current situation. The fact that she was alone with James. It hadn't occurred to her how this might look because while she liked James, she was still trying incredibly hard to remind herself constantly that he was her friend and that their outing was a perfectly fine thing to happen in a platonic relationship. She was trying to tell herself that any little things that happened between them that made her heart flutter were just happy coincidences and James being a gentleman and not to get carried away and let her feelings carry her off.

She nodded her head slightly, raising it after a moment. She didn't really know what to say. She rose and began to collect her own belongings, drying with the towel she had brought along. She really just wanted to face Serena as soon as possible and tell her that she was sorry. She honestly wondered why Serena had left so quickly and upon seeing Johnny, she frowned slightly. Her mind searching for answers before it dawned on her and she remembered the frequent drama between the maids and the male staff at her home.

Lydia felt like all the blood drained from her face. She had completely done what she had never meant to do and it was completely unintentional. Now she had to find some way to fix this misunderstanding and as she thought about this, she heard James speak while he was preparing his gryphon, herself just standing there in shock for a moment. She glanced over at him, "I..." she didn't really know what to say. She accepted the idea, keeping away from each other so as not to upset Serena further, but at the same time, she couldn't accept it. If not for her own tender heart, but for the fact that she still needed his help in regaining Seifer. She decided not to bring that up right now and her smile turned a little warmer as he thanked her for the day, "me too... James."

She put her things on her own gryphon and made up her mind to go find Serena, she decided it was better to get it out of the way than to prolong it. She was only just seated on her gryphon by the time James had flown away on his own and she watched him as he went, urging her own gryphon into a glide over the water as she sought out Serena, but to no avail as she was only able to find Johnny and the others and probably by the look on their faces, she'd be able to judge that everything had gone awry. She gave them a halfhearted smile before turning to go back to the warship.

Zer0 Katsuya

 

[Katsuya]

A loud panting could be heard echoing in one of the training rooms the prince had given to Renee and Echo to practice in, blackened scorch marks decorated the walls and floor as if a wild fire had engulfed the whole place, touching and burning anything in it's path. In the middle of all the burn marks is a blonde girl, holding her violin in a tight grip with her white-knuckled hand as she faced an invisible enemy.

With another war cry, Serena played her fireflies song, however the tune wasn't calm like it usually was; It was raw-filled anger and it fueled her manna to make her fireflies swarm in a huge amount that anybody outside could see a bright glow as the tiny light bugs blew up! The darkened blue eyes had a shine thanks to the fire she lets out before the room gets dark again.

She hated this. She really hated this. She thought she could control her anger now with her violin. She thought she was able to calm herself down if she just played. She thought she could just believe in her own judgment about others.

'I was wrong! I hate this!!'

"I HATE THIS!!!!" Serena screamed, sounding like a wounded animal as she let out another fire attack at her invisible enemy, a trail of fire left behind on the floor. Then she stilled for a moment and slowly dropped her violin and bow.

Serena could not play with this violin anymore...

Zer0 Roleplay Skittle

 

[Zer0]

- James Pendragon -
" Atelier "​

Minutes later, in the atelier, James hastily stuffed his belongings pell-mell in his sleeping bag. Ever since they got here he had not used his private room except for baths since he preferred sleeping wherever he worked, just like in the flying castle.

He quickly scribbled a note to Lydia saying he was going to research the part on souls and experiment on the philosopher's stone and tucked it under her journal, then walked out the door trying to balance all his things and research material which were stacked high and wobbled in his arms.

He made his way to his private room which was adjacent to the room holding Seifer, and balanced precariously as he opened the door with his foot.

Finally inside his quiet chambers, he dumped his things and just sat, sighing on the bed, not minding that he was still wet from the sea. He covered his face. He had not misunderstood Serena after all.

Katsuya Roleplay Skittle

 

[Roleplay Skittle]

-Master Warship-
​

Lydia had seen neither James nor Serena when she first returned to the ship. She had gone first to her room to properly dry and change as well as put her belongings and treasures aside for the time being. She wore her black flower petal reminiscent dress that fell to her knees and hung loosely about her arms and torso with her usual black and white striped stockings and granny boots. As she hurried out of her room, she tied her hair up in the high ponytail she typically wore before she began searching the ship for Serena.

After asking several servants and guards that looked slightly taken aback at the question, Lydia was finally led to Serena's location, though she didn't enter immediately. She could hear the sounds and see the lights coming from within and they caused her to be hesitant. Was this really the right time? She could only imagine what Serena was going through because while she liked James too, Lydia wasn't so accustomed to expressing anger over such a thing and she already had resigned herself to just quietly liking James and never intentionally showing it. She bit her lower lip as she looked at the floor in front of her. This was her fault and she had to fix it, even if it meant hurting herself.

Her brow furrowed with determination and she nodded resolutely as she stepped nearer to the door once the ruckus within had seemingly halted and she her the violin hit the ground. She drew in a deep breath and slowly opened the door before whispering timidly, "...Serena...?"

Katsuya

 

[Katsuya]

Serena didn't move when she heard the door opening nor did she move when she heard Lydia's whisper echo in the now quiet room, now sounding like a yell to the violinist. Her hands curled up into shaking fists, squeezing tight.

"...What Lydia?" The blonde responded quietly, sounding very much like a rough growl as she's trying to not yell at the witch. Even though what she really wants to do is just punch her face or actually, punch everyone's faces because she just doesn't care anymore. Not when she felt this angry...

It's been a while since she was this mad...and upset...

Roleplay Skittle