[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Eg1Hsjp.png[/img][/center] The plane had an unsettling calm over it, Mindy noticed that no one talked or whispered, no babies seemed to cry, no kids seemed to scream. Everything held an air of bated breath like the entire cabin was waiting eagerly for something to happen. It made Mindy anxious, she hated the silence. Looking around, she noticed the man slumped on her arm sleeping, though he looked to be snoring loudly, didn’t so much as mutter in his sleep. The seat was cramped, but then again, so was everything else on the plane. Mindy was more concerned with the silence than the seat space. She couldn’t think with how quiet everything was. It made her want to scream, which she knew would be seen as an extreme action, but it still nagged at her like when she was back at the hotel. She bent her body out into the aisle to get a better look of the plane, hopefully trying to catch the attention of one of the steward’s. The front of the cabin wasn’t empty, but none of the attendants were very attentive of their surroundings. One woman had her head lolled back, drool forming on her uniform as she slept soundly, but quietly. A man in an apron with the flight logo on the front leaned lazily against the cockpit door, not minding that he was potentially blocking a path to the pilots. No one but her seemed to be fully aware of the atmosphere on the plane, and this unnerved her even more so than anything else. She gulped, anxiety slowly bubbling to the surface. She could feel that something was wrong, like a perfect painting with a few missing details, there was just something off about the whole scene. “Silence is supposed to be a calming attribute.” A voice rang out through the quiet. It was feminine, yet deep and slightly accented. Mindy couldn’t place where the voice came from in relation to her seat in the plane, but she knew the accent was definitely Nigerian. “I can feel your heart racing from all the way down here, what’s wrong?” The voice asked. Mindy made as if to speak, but found that she couldn’t. Her own voice had grown tight with worry. “Ah, my apologies, young doctor. Allow me.” A moment passed, and that tight feeling went away. The anxiety was still there, but her voice had returned. [color=slateblue]“Who...Who are you?”[/color] Mindy asked, quietly. She didn’t think speaking loudly would be appropriate, despite the woman talking cleary as if she were next to Mindy. The woman laughed. “I am...many things. A God is what you should think of me as. I rule over the earth, you know.” She explained. [color=slateblue]“You’re god?”[/color] Mindy asked, awed. More laughter from the woman. “Not the one you’re thinking of, doctor. I am my own God. They call me Dexarte, Goddess of the Earth and many Trails.” She said. “It’s a long title.” Mindy scoffed. [color=slateblue]“To be sure.[/color] [color=slateblue]Well...why are you here, Dexarte?”[/color] She asked. [color=slateblue]“I know I’m a doctor, but there’s only so much I can do.”[/color] Dexarte chuckled lightly. “I am looking for someone.” Dexarte said. “You know him by the moniker ‘Phoenix’. We’re supposed to be looking for someone else together.” [color=slateblue]“I do know Phoenix.”[/color] Mindy said. “Of course. I know this already.” Dexarte explained. “I am a God remember?” [color=slateblue]“Then you will have no trouble finding him, right?”[/color] Mindy said, smugly. “Well now, I didn’t say any of that. I do need your help.” Dexarte said. “Tell me where Phoenix is.” Another moment of silence passed before Mindy spoke again. [color=slateblue]“No.”[/color] She said simply. Dexarte sighed, with a hint of amusement. “I see you are braver than I thought.” She said. [color=slateblue]“I will only tell you if you reveal yourself to me.[/color] [color=slateblue]Stop hiding, wherever you are.”[/color] Mindy said. Dexarte seemed to think it over, because Mindy did not hear the Goddess’ voice for quite sometime. “Very well.” She said, finally. A soft snap of fingers could be heard from somewhere in the plane, and when Mindy looked next to her near the aisle, she nearly jumped from fear at the sight of a woman standing there straight backed as if she had always been there. Dexarte made for an alarming sight. Her skin was dark, and her hair was a light, stone gray. It curled in excessive amounts down her back, in a poofy, frizzy train. She wore a short, cream colored dress that ended at her knees in the front, but continued onward in the back; tiny bows and butterfiles were littered here and there along the dress. Mindy looked at the womans face, and saw that she had quite some years on her. Wrinkled laugh lines formed around her eyes, as she smiled down at Mindy’s startled expression. Intricate, sprawling golden tattoos were etched onto her face, around her grey eyes; they looked like ancient henna designs to Mindy. Suddenly, her meeting with the detective comes to mind. “What’s the matter, doc? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Dexarte joked. [color=slateblue]“Or a God.”[/color] Mindy smirked. [color=slateblue]“So you really are a...Goddess.[/color] [color=slateblue]Not just some super with a fancy outfit?”[/color] Mindy asked her, raising a skeptical eyebrow. Dexarte nodded. “I am indeed a God. And now that you have seen me, you will tell me about Phoenix.” She said. Mindy cocked her head to the side, she was feeling a little more brazen than usual, and that’s a wonderous statement considering the more recent events in her life. [color=slateblue]“What do you plan on doing to him?”[/color] Mindy asked. [color=slateblue]“You don’t exactly seem dangerous, but I’d bet everything that you’re keeping this whole plane quiet right now all on your own.”[/color] She gestured toward the plane passengers. Dexarte swiped a finger across her tattoo, underneath her right eye. “Sharp eyes. I am doing just that. I only need to speak to you, after all.” She admitted. “I already told you why I need to see Phoenix. To find an old friend of ours.” Mindy nodded. [color=slateblue]“Yes.[/color] [color=slateblue]But who is this friend of yours?”[/color] She asked. It was the first time Mindy saw the Goddess’ easy demeanor slip a little. “I’m afraid that’s none of your business doc.” She said, tense. “Why do you want to know?” Mindy looked away from her, self conscious. [color=slateblue]“There was someone I once knew who...well, he had connections to strange people.”[/color] Mindy began. [color=slateblue]“He passed recently, and I had no idea what to do.[/color] [color=slateblue]However, I’ve been told something very revealing about him that makes me highly suspicious of you.”[/color] She explained. Her hands clasped the sides of the seat tightly, as if the plane were falling at mock speed. “I am certain I could not have known this friend of yours.” Dexarte laughed, quietly. “I may be a friendly God, but I don’t fraternize with everyone I meet.” [color=slateblue]“I understand.[/color] [color=slateblue]But he has certainly met you, he just wasn’t...aware of it.[/color] [color=slateblue]You appeared to him in a different light.”[/color] She said. [color=slateblue]“In a different body, with a different voice, and a different name...even a different gender.”[/color] Dexarte squirmed uncomfortably where she stood. [color=slateblue]“You could’ve met him when you were someone else, is all I’m trying to say.”[/color] “Yes. Perhaps. What was his name?” Dexarte asked, frowning. [color=slateblue]“Darius, Darius Winters.”[/color] Dexarte’s eyes lit up in recongnition. “That name...is familiar. I have met him before, you were right. He has passed you say?” She asked, sadly. “I used to work under him, as an assistant in his lab. Are you the same as me? An assistant?” Mindy shook her head. [color=slateblue]“I was a student, I guess.[/color] [color=slateblue]This detective mentioned him meeting someone like you a few weeks before he was-”[/color] She stopped herself, and Dexarte looked away. “This detective of your’s is right about a lot, it seems.” She said. “He didn’t mention my name, I presume. Otherwise you would’ve recognized me.” [color=slateblue]“It was just a small description, but it’s stuck with me for awhile.[/color] [color=slateblue]I thought at first that the detective meant a super of some kind, but to see an actual god…”[/color] She sighed. [color=slateblue]“It’s been kind of a hectic week for me.”[/color] “I can tell, just from looking at the trail you’ve left behind. You have had quite the exciting life.” Dexarte said. “But still, I need to know the whereabout’s of Phoenix. I’m sorry about your friend, really, but this is important.” [color=slateblue]“Phoenix is with a friend.[/color] [color=slateblue]In a town called Provence, New Jersey.”[/color] Mindy answered. [color=slateblue]“So...you don’t know anything about how he could’ve...died?”[/color] Dexarte shook her head sadly. “I’m afraid I didn’t even know he was gone until you told me just now. I’m sorry.” She said. [color=slateblue]“It’s fine.”[/color] Mindy said. [color=slateblue]“I was just hoping.”[/color] They both sat there in silence for a short while before Dexarte moved. She bent forward, directly in front of MIndy’s face, and grabbed the girls head in her hands. Dexarte then proceeded to lightly trace something below her eyes, along the bridge of her nose, on both cheekbones. “If you ever need me for anything, trace along your eyes and I will be there.” She said. “I have to go now. I don’t have much keeping me on this plane, except for this.” She held out an ingot of iron from her pocket. Mindy felt along her face where Dexarte had touched her, very confused, but willing to hopefully try it out when she got the chance. Dexarte smiled at her, and waved, before she disappeared again entirely. MIndy looked around for her, wondering where she could’ve gone, but stopped when she realized the plane was filled with noise. The man next to her was snoring loudly, two kids were playing games in the next aisle back, and passengers chatted while the plane flew them to Goergia. Mindy’s thought’s were far from home, though. …………………… [color=thistle]Welp we are slowly but suely getting there folks, I welcome you to Dexarte (Day-Shar-Tay) Goddess of the Earth and many Trails.[/color] [hider=Tonight’s Atmosphere][url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmbly6uoFv4[/url][/hider] [color=thistle]I've been listening to RWBY's soundtrack again, so here.[/color]