John

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

This way. That way. To the left. To the right.

Hakuren was running, in circles and at a rather high speed, around the scene of mossy, slippery, and very potentially unstable rocks. She had no idea why he was doing that, while being slightly amazed by the fact that he was able to do that. She knew also that it was making her quite disoriented, with Luke trying to continue holding her while spinning along all the while.

The turn of events came rather quickly. The other members of their group of humans arrived at the caves as well, the cloaked people demanded the list, and - Leila wouldn’t have said “the next thing she knew”, for she was fully aware of the chain of events - The not-so-much-of-a-negotiation, Harper being hit, the lunge and the sound of two individuals splashing into the glowing lake; the calls for actions to be taken, the division of unspoken plans of offense and defense, complete or incomplete, comprehended as different future courses of actions by different parties...all of that, piled and mashed together with some cries and grunts and the sound of swinging weapons, became the mess that was currently undergoing in front of her eyes, perceived through that ever annoying curtain of messy hair dangling in between. There was also Haku, who flashed in and out of her range of sight as he continue his little, apparently calculated dance around the pair of captive and captor.

And then she felt the shove - the hooded figure behind her had, perhaps to get rid of the distraction that was the effort to maintain a captive, or for that he had otherwise decided that she was no longer needed, let go of the cuffed girl, and - intentionally or not - sent her staggering towards the incoming attacker.

With nothing to aid her with her balance or to divert the direction of her motion, and, in footwear and clothing that was absolutely not fit for maneuvering across uneven terrain, there was not much Leila - as she struggled to maintain balance - could do, besides from only realizing that her wobbly footsteps were on a course that led to an unavoidable collision.

Flop.

Translation to and from a non-inertial frame of reference was always an annoying thing to have to do.

With her hands still held together behind her, Leila let out a series of huffs and grunts as she rolled downwards on the slightly sloped surface of rocks. She stopped, some five or six revolutions later on the damp ground aside a puddle of water.

”...uuuuugh.”

every part of her body protesting in disapproval - bruises, joints that feel like they aren’t fit together properly anymore (the old injuries from the Star Fisher was still there...), and certain pieces of skin that throbbed in a light, stinging pain that, together with nearly unnoticeable smears of red on the terrain around her, indicated that even the not-overly-severe rigours of her roll down the slope was too much to bear for the protection provided only by her clothing and her skin. Gravity, pointing roughly downwards sloppily, provided a guideline as to the directions of up and down, yet the other directions were almost impossible to tell apart. Angry cries (the voice was...Jasper?) and the sound of collisions in the distance implied an ongoing fight. The lack of a mystic, vaguely philosophical rant implied that Haku was nowhere near her - where was he? That probably wasn’t the most important thing now, he’s probably fine - past observations of him being fine suggest that he was likely still fine.

The first two attempts of Leila trying to get back up ended in failure, with her just flopping over onto the ground into another direction, her not yet adjusting properly to the lack of freedom to use her arms. She then spent about half a second pondering the viability of the decision that she just stay there on the ground - it seemed rather tempting to her as she was already rather tired from the initial hike to the caves. Then she decided against that and gave it a third try - directing her legs downhill first, she managed to push herself upright, ignoring the discomfort from the friction of the rocks that supported her back, and stayed standing after a couple of staggery steps. To her amazement, her hands were free when she instinctively shoved them out to correct a balancing act. A ring of cracked solid substance coated in red and white stripes still wrapped itself around her left hand, with its mirrored counterpart - half of it missing, shattered somewhere on the ground, dangled from a chain that connected the two segments.

”Rock candy.” She mumbled as she looked at the cracked pair of handcuffs. She tried to pull the other half off as well, yet it seemed that it wasn’t damaged enough to break. Soon she gave up and decided she might as well have it hang there for another while - who knew when they’d suddenly need food. She also remembered to brush the strands of her hair back into a relatively orderly state - in fact, she did that in a fashion that made it look like she had been waiting for a million years to pull the fuzzy dark lines out of her range of sight.

Returning her attention to the fight nearby, which seemed to have come to a brief halt, Leila looked around the scene as she found a place to stand beside the humans (facing the right direction!).

"Today we charge into battle! No-one leaves, not until we have the list."

The cloaked attackers announced. Leila stared blankly, partly in amusement and partly in confusion.

Was piggyback riding even a valid fighting style?

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Working on reading up on the current IC posts. A lot happened.

I see Leila is still grabbed and Haku is hopping in circles around her captor, while the captor tries to utilize Leila as a weapon by shoving her into a collision path.

...what?

Meanwhile, Jasper....???

And only now do the image reference of the attackers show for me.
What a magnificent band of overly-attractive bastards.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Exams turned out ... much worse than expected.

Which, however, means I get some time to read up IC and perhaps make some posts.

Why do things always have to get intense only when I'm not here? ;-;

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

I come back, it's exam week (the three following days), and this is going on in the Midnight Train:

- The word "duskdawn" is canon.
- As is the word "hommun". Hommun is the new Human. Hommun Sapien.
- Gorgeous art in the OOC.
- Fight scenes.

Oh well.

I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to drop a post in in time to join the fight scene thing. Will try.

@The Shakespearean: suddenly, feels. Fox why.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Headphones said Please, don't hit him on the head again! Or anywhere else for that matter! =< For this chapter, at least.]

THIS IS FUNNIER THAN IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE HELP

And whoah Kimichi that is some pretty art. Way intense.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

As Fox finishes finals my midterms approach. Dunno how much I can write next week, will try.

Is information on the kidnappers available anywhere-info site perhaps? Can't seem to locate it.

Also, on the topic of Mrs. Cinnamon Bun:

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Best of luck to Fox.

Meanwhile, posted. Not satisfied with writing, but posted.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

‘Haku, do you think that-”

Tok.

They say that you think and react faster when you’re afraid or under stress. but given the fact that Leila was completely unaware of the happenings behind her at the entrance of the second cave, it was probably no surprise that the attackers were met with essentially no resistance as she was grabbed and held down. And it was only until moments later that Leila fleshed out the details of the succession of events that just took place, and realized the fact that her hands were locked together behind her, a cool metallic texture pressing against the skin on her wrists as she attempted to separate her hands.

She let out a slight grunt - something that sounded more like a rather pathetic whimper emitted through her voice - as the figure in a cloak secured her grasp on her, and as the other members of the group emerging and being instructed to capture the rest of the lot of lost souls.

”Where is the list?”

One of the attackers proposed a question. Hakuren, as usual, offered a response in cryptic language about dancing bears and unmannerly young ladies, which was impossible to make sense of.

Leila would almost agree that Hakuren deserved that knock on the head.

In the mean time, she was also slightly irritated by the state she was in herself. Her cuffed hands were still grabbed and her head and shoulders were bent forward and held down to prevent sudden attempts of escape - not like it was that she was figuring out any. That, however, unnecessarily prevented her from anything that she could do to keep the messied strands of her hair out of her eyes.

Ugh.

She did almost somehow felt like she needed to writhe around randomly, seeing that all the other people were doing the same. It hurt, however - her shoulder and elbow joints locked in quite uncomfortable positions, not to mention the effort needed for her knees to continue to support her arched stance properly - and she soon gave up the idea.

She strained her ears and listen to the conversations among the groups, instead of watching it. It then turned out that she was incapable of actually making out much of it (although it seemed like she did succeed in decomposing some segments of it in to combinations of sine waves).

It seemed like she really was handcuffed - she also only reached this conclusion now. it was hard to construct any useful picture of an object when all available information was to be gathered through the sense of touch. Doing the topology was alright, although she questioned the validity of it since, topologically speaking, her hands should’ve slid right out of the cuffs.

Leila sighed. The grip of the attacker, which had slipped off a bit overtime, tightened again in a series of brief jerks - Leila nearly toppled over again while trying to remain balanced on the ground with a confined range of action.

Meanwhile there were other questions. Who were these people? They seemed more human than anything Nowhere. They likely planned this attack, they knew of and asked about the List - the Living List. It didn’t make sense of her. What would they need that for - given that only the fate of their little group themselves depends on the completion of seeking-

Wait.

Oh.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

He who speaks in the language of poetry is in a state of sin. The celery spirit will not tolerate such blasphemy.

I would compose something for Phones' poetry thing. If I actually could. Haha. (sheds a single tear for appreciating music but apparently not having the talent/hadn't taken the effort to actually become good at it).

Welp.

Writing going slower than expected. I might just miraculously be able to post despite exams, but it'd be short and not we'll-written enough and I'm struggling to reach a conciliation.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Just got home from the trip, haven't got time to read up on everything IC yet but when the content of that spoiler showed what was going in my mind was literally "oh dear baked celery cheesecake no"

And is it just me or HOW DO HAKUREN POSTS STILL BE THAT POETIC WHEN HE'S BEING HIT IN THE JAW WITH A METAL PIPE This is ridiculous and uttERLY UNACCEPTABLE.

Gonna try to write a bit still, although It'll take longer because exams and stuff.