[center][img]https://s28.postimg.org/mzfbcqoa5/Header.png[/img]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[img]https://s27.postimg.org/7sxm0nddv/Header_Final.png[/img]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
𝔇𝔦𝔞𝔩𝔬𝔤𝔲𝔢 𝓒𝔬𝔩𝔬𝔯 || [color=#18B150]#18B150[/color] ||| 𝔗𝔥𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥𝔱 𝓒𝔬𝔩𝔬𝔯 || [color=#ADB984]#ADB984[/color]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬[/center]

All things considered, yesterday had been almost shockingly ordinary - so ordinary that Victoria hadn't even been able to find anything worth truly hating in it, which in and of itself was almost upsetting. She'd awoken as she was accustomed to, gone through her morning routine in the same amount of time it always took her, walked to school without anything notable interrupting her trip, and then had attended all of her regular classes, none of which had contained anything of any especial note. There were no major upcoming assignments, no surprise quizzes, no long-term projects, and no classes canceled or schedules otherwise altered. There hadn't even been any run-ins with her more brazen antagonists to give her anything to be particularly upset about or preoccupied with. While normally she'd have appreciated such peace, combined with the complete lack of anything else of note, it had almost felt like the entire day had simply slipped by without her noticing.

Of course, she hardly intended to complain. Peace was a luxury she was rarely offered, and boredom was certainly preferable to misery. But by this point she was so used to the latter that the former almost unnerved her more. Of course, she would hardly have called herself a believer in the karmic notion that bad would follow good and good would follow bad so that all fortunes equalized in the end. While it was reflective of a general statistical tendency of the sort that disproved such superstitious notions as "luck," such things were hardly scientific facts. And yet, when she'd gone to sleep that night, she hadn't quite been able to shake the notion that her peace today had been bought at the price of pain tomorrow, and that something terrible would await her in the future.

So, when she awoke in an empty park, several songs from her favorite album suddenly stuck in her head and inexplicably associated with words she didn't understand, Victoria almost managed to tell herself that she'd been absolutely right in her doubts, and felt quite vindicated before it fully set in that this wasn't just some sort of particularly bizarre dream conjured up by her own paranoia. Where exactly was she? She sat up and began glancing suspiciously back and forth, her unease only growing when she realized she was surrounded by other sleepers only just beginning to wake. Had she been abducted in her sleep? It seemed like the only rational explanation for the bizarre situation in which she now found herself, since if she'd simply sleepwalked, there wouldn't be other people in the same situation as herself, now would there have been? She was used to garden variety misfortune, but... really? An abduction?

...No, really? The more she thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. If she'd been abducted, then surely she wouldn't have come to her senses in the city park, with nothing to restrain her and nobody to keep watch over her. Besides, why would someone like her be abducted in such a peaceful city as this, anyway? None of it made sense. And why...

...Why exactly was the sky a shade as red as blood? And why was there a witch standing over her? And why... Why did this all feel so natural all of a sudden that she could hardly find it in herself to question it?

[i]The hands that push away the world.[/i]

[i]Irrational means used to defy the irrationality of the world.[/i]

[i]An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.[/i]

[i]A way to make it stop, a tool for the prevention of pain.[/i]

In simpler terms, these sorts of happenings, the sorts of thoughts she was now thinking, the thing she desired above all else... These could all be called "magical," yes? She had neither the faintest clue or notion of what was happening, but as thoughts that shouldn't have been her own aligned themselves, she began to understand what she was now capable of, and what she had to do.

Rising to her feet, she dusted herself off, and inspected her attire. A hoodie and a long shirt worn as pajamas, thankfully sufficiently oversized to maintain her modesty. That, or her own body was sufficiently undersized... She never thought she'd give thanks for her own tiny stature, but for now, it seemed like an advantage, at least. In any case, she had bigger things to worry about, like what this "Naraka" was, and what exactly this witch-like woman meant by "not in danger [i]at the moment.[/i]" Hardly a comforting choice of words, that, and yet for some reason, Victoria felt... Was that hope? It was almost as if... Almost as if she was on the cusp of getting everything she ever wanted, if she played her cards right. It still seemed far too strange to believe, and yet...

[color=#18B150]"'If it be thus to dream, then still, let me sleep,'"[/color] She murmured to herself, an ever-so-faint smirk forming on her lips as she inspected those around her. She had a gut feeling that the reactions of the others caught in this place with her could tell her a great deal about where she was... and about what the "danger" the woman had spoken of might have been.