[center][h3][b]Group One: Ignatus, Targild, Kaleo, Kain[/b][/h3]
[@Paddiecake][@Mae][@Tenma Tendo][@Orpheus][/center]

[hider=Group 1] The gold flecks danced through a soundless breeze as the patchwork creatures finally dissapeared into the forest, their hungry, hysterical expressions imprinting themselves on the very air as they vanished beyond your sight. The leaves rustled, the grass bent in time, and had it not been the crushed husk of the third carriage behind you, it would perhaps have seemed like an ordinary spring morning. Why could this not have been your introduction to this strange land, and not the horrors of the last few minutes you had to face?

Truly, things had happened quickly, and you'd barely had time to catch your breath. But best not rest on your laurels - after all, just because you couldn't see the beasts didn't mean they weren't watching you. 

[@Paddiecake] Ignatus: Breathing is such a wonderful thing, you decide it is an art you would like to continue doing. It is something you have decided many times before, but there is never any harm in reminding yourself of the fact.

You know where you are, of course. It had been a blur of forest and grassland while you were running, but now you have a chance to get your bearings, it is beyond obvious you are on the route to Camp, what with the wall so close by and - you know - tributes and trains in your presence. It is not a far journey - perhaps a few hours at most, by foot - though whether you ever wished to return to that accursed place is up to you. Besides, you knew World's End better then most humans.

Things had a tendancy to change for the worst. 

[@Tenma Tendo] Kaleo: [i]...[/i] 

[@Orpheus] Kain: It would of been easier for you had you noticed the strange shadow that whisped up from Kaleo like a fine mist, but you didn't. It would of been easier if you had seen it snaking along the floor hiding within Targilde's own silohuette, but you didn't notice that either.

You did, however, notice the strange coolness that curled around your stomach as an inky black, slightly translucent face levelled with your own. Perhaps face was too polite a word - two gaping holes for eyes and one for the mouth, and a chiming voice that echoed,

[center][color=black][b]..."D Ǝ ᴧ O ∩ ᴚ    W Ǝ..."[/b][/color][/center]

[@Mae] Targilde: You had an oppurtunity to help, so why didn't you take it? The limp body of a sleeping girl in your arms, you watched the curling inky smoke rise off of her like mist off the sea. You watch it slink down her arms, you watch your own shadow stretch towards your new companion. Was it exhaustion, shock, or idiocy? Did you think it would be a good thing to " just watch and see what happens?" Well, that's exactly what you damn did. I hope you're happy with yourself.

[color=e6ade6]"Kain, are you quite alright?"[/color] Targilde actually managed to ask, as he watched the - shadow? was it a shadow? - curl itself around the man's waist like a bower constrictor without the deathgrip.

[/hider]

[center][h3][b]Group Two: Farran, Melanie, Castiel, Lloyd[/b][/h3]
[@Tenma Tendo][@Mae][@Fox of Spades][@SilverDawn][/center]

[hider=Group 2]
[@Silverdawn] Lloyd: He peared down at you with his tiny piggy eyes, rubbing a grody finger under his hairy nose. [color=forestgreen] "Ey up, lad. Thems be a real shame, thems be, I hate that blightin witch and her blightin crooked house and I was lookin' to gi'oer the one who shoved it to her a drink of the good stuff, dey addle et good."[/color] He slammed a fist against the weak wall, grabbing a handful of mortar and crumbling stone like a toddler grabbing putty, a gleefully childish giggle escaping him as he peered at the destruction. He turned back to you, crossing his burly, hairy arms over his chest and leaning in. 

[color=forestgreen]"Aint tha then there's nowt to do owt aboot et. Tha and thine bahn wither, ya gauvies, less tha gets gobbled up, aye?"[/color] He sweeped a hand out to the forest beyond the wall and stepped back out into the open, watching you expectantly. 

[@Fox of Spades] Castiel: While the water had never reached you, you didn't realise how slippy the top of the trains were. With their purely metal, slightly curved roofs, it only took a moment of distraction and the wrong shift of weight for you to find your grip suddenly slipping. You gracelessly find yourself going the same way as Only Farran and find yourself on your arse beside him.

The green beast starts laughing rauchously at you. [color=forestgreen]"Tha's be a blast, ent et!"[/color]

[@Mae] Melanie: Deciding to join Farran and Castiel in the falling down club, you wiggle out of Lloyd's arms and have an interlude with the cold hard ground. The three of you have sustained no major injuries from the falls, but some nice bruises to remind you of your shame. Congratulations, you're all balance-challenged.

[@Tenma Tendo] Farran: It's hard to tell what the beastly uneloquent creature is talking about, but you manage to keep an eye on his movements at least. [/hider]

[center][h3][b]Group Three: Oxe, Humphrey, Alexis, Crusz, Viola[/b][/h3]
[@Paddiecake][@Mae][@Haru Nyan][@Fox of Spades][/center]

[hider=Group3]

[@Paddiecake]Alexis: The chairs paused at your request and immediately began unstacking themselves until you found yourself back down at the bottom, a single chair sitting atop the table. 

[@Paddiecake]Oxe: It is hard to gauge the personality of a usually-inanimate object such as a chair. They have no faces for expression, and yet as they spread out and give the three of you space, you begin to wonder if they are trying to be [i]polite[/i]. Was it because Viola and Alexis were talking to them so politely? Or were you just imagining it, because chairs being polite is a ludicrous idea.

[@Haru Nyan] Crusz: The fabrics flop onto the floor as you and Humphrey process the weird experience you just faced.

[@Mae] Humphrey: A creature approaches through the mists, a towering 7"3 silohuette stands a little way away from you, a glint of yellow sparking from where it eyes perhaps were and two circular-somethings curling around it's head. It hadn't seen you and the small red creature, and perhaps it would of ignored you completely.

But then you had to go and sneeze. It turned those eyes on you, stepping forward into view before you and Crusz, a demonic looking creature with skin as black as coal and eyes that seemed to search your soul.

[@Fox of Spades] Viola: Was the chair sad or insulted that you had left it's fine embrace? Oh well. At least it wasn't kicking you off the ground like they had tried with Oxe. [/hider]

[center][h3][b]Group Four: Wakana, Rowen, Diane[/b][/h3]
[@Tenma Tendo][@Kore][@Moonlit Sonata][/center]
[hider=Group 4]
Fractures, splinters, spiderweb cracks, crawling up the sides of the train, trickling through the air like fingers of broken ice. They curl through your vision, cradle your spine, zip along your hands like you are made of dried clay. They break through your skin and it is nothing, you are nothing, there is no blood and no flesh but space between pavement slabs and empty air. 

The world does not so much blur before you as it shatters like delicate crystalware, like a husk of an old dried up corpse of ancient glass that dare not take bear another moment of time's cruel march. The world compresses into swaithes of colour and abstract dream concepts that zip through your mind faster then you can process them, the dying breath of a broken database that spins, splutters and melts into a fine goop.

You feel the sunshine against your eyelids and the cool grass and soft earth beneath you. Birds call overhead, insects buzz around wildflowers, and the morning air - while cool - feels refreshing against your skin. There is a wetness against your head, a goopiness, and when you reach up to feel it you find jelly between your fingertips.

[@Moonlit Sonata] Diane: You are the first to awaken. It seems you are sitting in a sprawling field, a forest on one side and the wall on the other. Smoke is in the air, and nearby you see the crashed train engine compartment crushed against an ethereal, white willow-like tree. Translucent tendrils dance to their own rhythm, free of gravity, as you watch the inner workings of the trunk, long tubuals ferrying energy to different parts of the tree. This place was calming, and above you fly golden and purple jellyfish lazily through the air. They seem to have no rhyme or reason to the ways they drift, and though their gentle drift was mesmerising, it did not take long to realise that they were starting to crowd around you in particular.  

[@Tenma Tendo] Wakana and [@Kore] Rowen: The creature that sat upon your head was now a jellyfish corpse. Swaithes of goop come off in your fingers and hair, ebbing with a last dying light as they finally disintergrate and free you from your illusionary prison.[/hider]

[center][h3][b]Group Five: Michael, Druuk, Sinéad[/b][/h3]
[@Burthstone][@Duskshine749][@Orpheus][/center]
[hider=Group 5][i]Including Sinead's last post as well[/i]
The Aether was... indescribable, really. Seona keenly felt the lacking range of her vocabulary when they had arrived in the starlit city, and she had spent what short moment they had out of the train staring wildly at her surroundings, in awe of the celestial beings that shimmered through the air. Would it be too much to ask they stayed here instead? She was sure that whatever they were supposed to find at the end of the train tracks would have a hard time surpassing this area in beauty, if even to come close to doing so. She also supposed she looked frightfully foolish- Seona caught herself in the middle of yet another stare at the twists of light curling just out of hand's reach. Right, there was a King here. Did she curtsy already? What did the others say? 

Regulus looked up as a woman approached the trio of them as they talked. He identified her appropriate garb as the starlings whizzed around the trio as excited children do. If his eyes could light up anymore then they already did, perhaps they would have.

[color=fae74a]"My deepest apologies, I did not realise there was an enchanting lady such as yourself here."[/color] he said softly, taking her hand in his if she would let him. He bowed his head, his lips brushing lightly across the back of her hand. Regulus looked up at her, his otherworldly eyes glinting with mirthful light.

... Michael had carried on a conversation, while Sinead had been away, at least. She ought to do whatever it is she could to catch up. The noblewoman walked closer and, when appropriately close to the ethereal monarch, swept into a flawless curtsy. Her hands fumbled as she pulled on her skirts, which she hoped His Majesty didn't notice... However, her nerves didn't just escape royal notice- it was that and then some. She [i]didn't[/i] expect the warmth of her welcome. It left her gobsmacked and flustered, to say the least. Seona was used to royalty- her whole life was spent to serving the Empire's grandest family after all- but..

[color=fae74a]"I do so hope my little ones have caused you no trouble, madame. Please forgive us, I hate to imagine the smallest fraction of displeasure straining your enrapturing, beautiful face."[/color] there was genuine admiration in his tone as he lifted his hand back to his heart, sweeping into a royal bow.

 [color=fae74a]"I am King Regulus. My lady, may I ask your name? Please, it would bring me great joy if you would consider me your personal servant here."[/color]

A whoosh of breath escaped Seona's lungs, and she snuck a disbelieving look at Michael- and Druuk- before responding to the King. Who was now BOWING. To her. What a day! "... I am speechless at your kind words, Your Majesty. Truly. My name is Sinéad Argent, Seona if it please you." She managed another short bow- for formality's sake this time, to 'accept' the prior one Regulus made- then gestured at the starthings, her cheeks flushed ever so lightly. "There is nothing to forgive, sire. They were wonderful companions. In fact... It is I that must commit an infraction- I would hate to disturb the mood, not to  mention disrespect this glorious city, but may I ask how we can arrive to our camp from here?"

Seona brought her hands together, the picture of a worried mother, and in a rueful tone added, "As tributes, I confess I fear what awaits us there."

Regulus gave a slow, thoughtful nod at her words. [color=fae74a]"My dear, it would please me greatly to speak on such affectionate terms with you. S-i-n-e-a-d it is."[/color] He articulated effortlessly, the words rolling off his tongue like he was appreciating a fine wine. He hastily steadied her arm denying her the second bow, shaking his head gently. [color=fae74a]"Please, dearest Sinead, it is I who should be bowing to your beauty."[/color] he gently relinquished his grasp and took a step back, looking over the mortal trio as he clasped his arms firmly behind his back.

"Keep them, keep them, live in the stars!

[color=gold]"Play with us!  One of us! Stars always!"[/color] the starlings singed, and with a quiet Tsst sound Regulus quieted them. They giggled without shame.

[color=fae74a]"Why, the children stole you. I am deeply sorry for any inconvenience it has caused. I would love to keep you safe here, and perhaps if circumstances had been different...."[/color] he trailed off with a sigh, and then regained his composure. [color=fae74a]"Unfortunately the folly of children should not be rewarded. I must not encourage their urge to collect mortals. We must be delicate in approaching matters of worldy events."[/color]

He approached them again then, capturing both of Sinead's hands in his and looking intently into her eyes. [color=fae74a]"Though that is not to say I will leave you in the lurch. For the younglings to take a liking to you all, means you are special people. Please, examine the place where I kissed your hand."[/color] he said, holding those delicate fingers in his for a moment and drinking in the vision of her. Reluctantly returning one hand, he curled one the other around her fingers and pressed a thumb against Michael's forehead.

[@Orpheus] Sinead: You find the faded shape of a small cream star against your hand.

[@Burthstone]Michael: A golden star now sits on your forehead. In the dark, it glows slightly.

[@Duskshine749] Druuk: When Druuk arrived, Regulus patted him gently on the shoulder.[/hider]