[color=gray][CENTER][center][sup][color=#2e2c2c]_____[/color][color=#373534]_____[/color][color=#403d3c]_____[/color][color=#494644]_____[/color][color=#524f4c]_____[/color][color=#5b5754]_____[/color][color=#64605d]_____[/color][color=#6e6965]_____[/color][color=#77716d]_____[/color][color=#807a75]_____[/color][color=#89837d]_____[/color][color=#928b85]_____[/color][/sup][sup][color=#9b948d]_____[/color][/sup][sup][color=#928b85]_____[/color][color=#89837d]_____[/color][color=#807a75]_____[/color][color=#77716d]_____[/color][color=#6e6965]_____[/color][color=#64605d]_____[/color][color=#5b5754]_____[/color][color=#524f4c]_____[/color][color=#494644]_____[/color][color=#403d3c]_____[/color][color=#373534]_____[/color][color=#2e2c2c]_____[/color][/sup][/center][img]https://i.imgur.com/JPPcXdp.jpeg[/img][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=978184][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I]The Beach[/I] - [I]Pacific Royal Campus[/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=#978184][b]Welcome Home #1.039:[/b][/COLOR] [I]descension.[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][center][sup][color=#2e2c2c]_____[/color][color=#373534]_____[/color][color=#403d3c]_____[/color][color=#494644]_____[/color][color=#524f4c]_____[/color][color=#5b5754]_____[/color][color=#64605d]_____[/color][color=#6e6965]_____[/color][color=#77716d]_____[/color][color=#807a75]_____[/color][color=#89837d]_____[/color][color=#928b85]_____[/color][/sup][sup][color=#9b948d]_____[/color][/sup][sup][color=#928b85]_____[/color][color=#89837d]_____[/color][color=#807a75]_____[/color][color=#77716d]_____[/color][color=#6e6965]_____[/color][color=#64605d]_____[/color][color=#5b5754]_____[/color][color=#524f4c]_____[/color][color=#494644]_____[/color][color=#403d3c]_____[/color][color=#373534]_____[/color][color=#2e2c2c]_____[/color][/sup][/center][INDENT][sub][color=#978184][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I]everyone.[/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=2c2c2c][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [color=2c2c2c][I]TBD[/I][/color][/right][/SUP]
[indent][INDENT]	[i]She wasn't going to go.
She doesn't want to.

In hindsight she reflects on the muttered invitations that Katja mentioned about the dance, the banter traded back and forth and the subtle tensions that diffused through sand and surf and sun. The air peppered and drenched with colors of jaded longing and oblivious confessions that she noticed all too well. Thinly veiled were their words, both Katja and Harper, and whilst they traded innuendos, Amma's gaze had drifted back to the sea, gestures clasped against chilled aluminum, the waves beckoning forth -- 

 -- and somewhere on a sun-kissed breeze, she heard it once again.

[b]Tiamat.[/b]

She doesn't realize that the beer can within her grasp slowly disintegrates, liquid and manufactured components too suddenly nothing, as if it never was at all.[/i]

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The Alexandria Foundation's idea of an initiation was far more, for lack of a better term, harsh. A ten year old Amma had been thrust through rapid ascension to assess her powers. Spent and shaking and broken, a child knelt before her betters and carved lines of weeping red and silver through the linoleum; fissures of a broken soul illustrated through every crack and every coiling wisp of black that whips down her spine hunched over as she [i]screams[/i] -- 

She flinches.

Through the gloom of the banking sun, fire blooms and crackles to life, off set in the distance as she absently twines brass and silvers and golds on her fingers. Dexterous notions, through every twirl of her rings as she follows loosely after Katja who settled herself kindly around the fire. Blue eyes fixate through the rising flame, figures distorted through a collage of rubies and copper tones that match the first gaze she snags onto. A molten glimmer that punctures through the night as Amma pauses, head canted and body averted - as if to intend herself else where suddenly. 

Its a subtle vibration in her back pocket, tucked away into ebony threaded cuts off, that she pulls forth and eyes the illuminated scroll of a unknown number there. She answers on the forth ring, a muttered greeting whispering past her lips as she scales back, ambling around the group gathered around the fire.

What sounds through the line causes her spine to snap tight, her posture rigid as she says:
	[COLOR=#978184]"I'm working on it."[/color]

Amma crosses an arm over her bust, her figure donned in a cropped pullover that rises above her decorated navel, the pale sliver of her nape exposed at the back wherein the cotton thread drapes down to the top of her shorts. Straps cross over themselves at her slender ankles, thickly soled sandals carving a line through the sand as she rolls her weight to one side; visibly stressed.

	[COLOR=#978184]"I don't appreciate the demanding tone,"[/color] Amma drawls, striking eyes peering through her lashes fanned against her cheeks. A soft sigh and then, [COLOR=#978184]"I know. I [i]understand[/i]."[/color]

Without much ceremony, Amma ends the call, clutched fingers falling at her side, dead weight as she casts her gaze heavenward to the moon heralded in the night sky. The silver radiance she often envies, the glow fixated on the waves in the distance that whisper to her inner musings. The power it displays almost mocks her, that simple freedom lost in the toiling of the sea as she pivots on her heel and aims back towards those she now has to call teammates.

Amma catches the lingering voices of their goals and dreams, their futures admitted in shades of rose gold and she can't help but think of how relatively mundane it is. From desires to travel the world, to children and hopes of matrimony, to the uncertainties that life often gave the innocent and the cruel. Silent as her usual impression, she sits across from Lorcán and Aurora [she has to remind herself often of their names, but maybe not as often now] and tosses her hair over one shoulder, curiously tucking her phone away. Forgotten.

For now.

She procures the wine bottle noted earlier in the day, twists and flicks the cap away with a flourish and promptly takes her first drink for the night. It's a twist cap; some unknown, cheap label and much too heavy in tannins - clearly it needed to breathe, but who else was going to drink it aside from her. Not that Amma was one to even share. She catalogs every spoken confession and hopeful desire, tucks it away for later, their individual wants and aspirations reminiscent of a simpler time and a child suspended on her mother's every word.

And when Katja finishes - Amma speaks.

	[COLOR=#978184]"Do you really think any of that is going to happen. Do you think they'll just simply let you go. Once we graduate, what happens then. The Institute is breathing down our necks now."[/color] The fire sparks in answer at the mention of her former association, the hiss of drift wood punctuated by the sliver of crimson power reaping through the flame. Beneath her, the sand trembles, the grains shifting at her beck and call as her smile lances through her features akin to a vicious slash.

She finds molten eyes through the haze of the night and says:
	[COLOR=#978184]"The world outside of this perfect little bubble is cruel and it is dark and it is afraid. Afraid of you. Afraid of me. Outside that shield of fog,"[/color] Amma gestures abroad, lines of silver coiling betwixt her fingers, lighting the depth of her eyes to an eerie glow. In those chasms of blue lies a void; a never ending sky that collides with [i]something.[/i] Someone.

	[COLOR=#978184]"They lie in wait to take everything you hold dear. And they will. They always do."[/color] Amma's nails lance against the name inked into her neck. [COLOR=#978184]"And I welcome them to try. I will take everything from them. Just as they took everything from me."[/color]

	[COLOR=#978184]"But no matter what, this world will never accept you. They won't forget. They haven't forgotten. I doubt they will ever forgive."[/color] 

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