(Or "How I learned to stop worrying and love these doppelgangers")
Atrum had had another run in with His 'clone', the thing had chased him from the Worth Woodsea all the way to Hosenka, then back up pass Gallowstown until he lost it in some mountain range. He must've gotten The local Wyvern population probably helped him out of that particular jam, at least now that he had time to erase his tracks and set fake ones leading to the ocean he was going to relax in Grand City for a while, He needed to make up for lost time, find a library and see if he can create the portal he needed. That thing would probably kill him otherwise, life was just great right now. The Giant ran his hand through his blonde hair and gave a unwinding sigh the tension leaving his body. Morro popped her head out of his pack and nuzzled against him reassuring him that he was safe, her senses were better than his and she was smarter than him on his best day she'd know if danger was approaching.
"Thanks Morro I shall be relying on those senses of yours for a while longer. Glad you finally think we are safe though. Keep a good watch out while I get some more rest I have been running non-stop for like ever now..." He complained shifting his pack off his back and moving it away from his head as he laid down, his partner snuggling up against his head. She gave a yip at the giant and he smirked at the canine, this was nice after the gods knew how long he had spent running. His muscles ached in protest to his lack of movement, they have been moving for so long that moving actually dulled the pain a bit. He shoved the pain to the back of his mind not really caring that he was sore. After he got some rest he'd have to get up and get something to eat, He'd have to wait though if he ate now his body would work to digest the food he wouldn't get the rest he needed. He'd have to deal with the protests of his stomach for a while. "(Blazing abomination once I figure out how to get that portal working I'll get strong enough to take it on without having to reteat...)" He complained in his own language knowing that unless a family member was listening in Morro would be the only one to understand.
Last Edit: Oct 24, 2015 18:28:57 GMT by Atrum Furea
Larke was standing a few feet from her favorite snow cone vendor - a place she'd been with Razhiel before she'd become brave enough to talk to the man. Now she was there every few days - The young teen was probably the man's best customer. They were friends now, too. It was nice to have a constant home, even if she or her dad had to run errands to other places.
She was wearing her white and pink hat, watching the people going by curiously. She wasn't the most social girl, but people going about their everyday lives were interesting to her. She'd spent her whole life that she could remember wandering, never settling down until her "father" had found the job and home he wanted. People with normal lives that she could see from day to day... those were fun. They had such small personal worlds but such big plans for them.
"Huh?" Larke glanced up when she heard a man speaking in a language she didn't understand. She understood several after her time wandering (or was it the time before?), but this wasn't one of them. The words were accompanied with the smell of a dog and the sight of an incredibly large man.
Larke gulped. That man was... intimidating. He didn't seem unfriendly though. Either way, she decided she wanted to see if she could figure out where he was from. Not from asking, gods no. She wasn't brave enough for that. So instead, she decided to keep her distance. If she followed she might learn something. She just had to keep her dist-
The brunette slammed into a guy carrying a crate, having not been paying attention to her other senses as she tried to listen in on the man talking to the dog that was in his pack. "Oof!" she fell down hard on her rear, the crate falling to the ground next to her with a thud. The man himself was quite upset with her. "Sorry! Sorry!" she fished around to find her hat that had fallen off as she sat there, too stunned to get up at the moment.
Atrum blinked as he heard a crashing noise and turned his head towards the disturbance, some girl and a guy had apparently run into each other, and now the guy was being angry with her. He blinked, a crate was on the ground, the giant gave a sigh and sat up. He figured as much, someone was a bit clumsy and the guy dropped his box, and now there was shouting people really needed to relax life was too short. Or in his case to insane to waste getting angry over stupid things. He strolled over to the angry man and put a hand on his shoulder. He gave the man a small squeeze to let him know that Atrum was in fact the size of a rather large statue.
"Greetings friend, now I realize that you might be angry, but the box is fine and no one got hurt, so I would appreciate it if you stopped scaring the little girl and let me continue my nap." He said with a kind smile and a friendly tone. Atrum looked from the man, who's appearance was so general he kinda forgot what he looked like as soon as he looked away and gave a glance at the young girl on the ground. He froze, several facts and ideas bounced about in his head as took in the young girls appearance. On the outside nothing changed but on the inside he was panicking. He was sure it had only been four years, no way Kotone could've had a child this old by now unless she got pregnant a looong time ago. Which he doubted, which meant she wasn't her child...so who was she? A little sister? She did have siblings right? He didn't know the answer all he knew was that he just spent the better part of three days running from a doppelganger and now he meets one for Kotone? "You are not hurt right little one?" He asked the koto clone with an upraised eyebrow. Well he was in this situation now. Hopefully she wasn't anything like his own doppleganger.
Little one? Larke blinked as her gaze went from the man who had been yelling to the man who she had been intending to spy on. Uh oh. He was even more intimidating up close! “Uh, no…” she shook her head before standing back up. Her hat was placed on her head, her amber-colored eyes glued to Atrum. “Thank you,” she nodded as she adjusted her headwear then brushed the dirt off of her pants. “… Er, you know, for helping me.” She sighed and blew her bangs out of her face while she watched the man with the crate walk off. She hoped he wouldn’t be mad at her if he saw her again in the near future.
Her gaze returned to the giant. “I don’t do so well with people who yell at me.” Usually it meant she cried. She had her own temper though, and it occasionally shined through if she had enough reason. “I was just, er…” Should she tell him she was stalking him? She wasn’t one for lying… ever… so she supposed she had very little choice. “I was distracted because you were speaking in a language I don’t understand and I know several. And you smell different from any person I’ve been around in other countries too.” Her dragon slayer senses were as good as any true dragon slayer – partially because unknown to her, she was one, if only through weird science mumbo jumbo.
“Oh!” Her eyes widened. She gave a slight, formal bow to Atrum. “I’m Larke Housen.” Her accent was different from Kotone’s as well. It was hard to place, seeing as how she traveled a lot before now, but thanks to her “father” it had a decidedly Valland twist to it. “Are you a wizard from some place? I keep thinking I smell a kind of burning smell around you…”
Atrum gave the small one a fatherly smile and nodded at her, tiny non-violent Kotone was throwing him off his game so hard he. How did one react to this situation? do they just come out and say it? 'you look like a firend of mine'? Or do they dance around the subject? Screw he wasn't one for social tact anyways, being blunt got straight to the point anyways. No reason to hold back just because he wasn't entirely sure how to handle this tiny version of Kotone didn't mean that he had to bee on his back foot the entire time.
"That is good," He began. "It would be a shame if you had been harmed." He said before his ear caught the sound of her talking abut his native language. He took a single step back and reached across his chest to button up his shirt a bit more. "Ah, so you were distracted by the language I was using. That is the language of my people. The Furan War Tribe. We are not particularly important anymore, so few people even bother to learn about us much less learn to speak our language." He waved his hand back and forth waving the idea away. He gave the small Koto a bow and flashed her a smile. "My name is Atrum Furea of the aforementioned Furan War tribe and yes in fact a member of Farytail." He said snapping his finger a small flame appearing above it. The flame danced around his hand and changed colors and shape, a small demonstration of his abilities. He snapped his fingers again and the flame disappeared.
"And this is my partner Morro the Vargr." Atrum said as morro ran over and circled Larke excitedly yipping at her. "Do not let her appearance and friendly demeanor fool you she's a rather frightening canine." He said earning himself a glare from the currently tiny Vargr, he shrugged back at her with a smug grin on her. "So Miss Larke Housen If I may ask, are you aware that you share a striking resemblance to Kotone the Spell breaker?" He asked flat out, finally remembering what he was going to d earlier. Focus back under his belt and composure returned, he let Morro do as she pleased, not like he really could stop her. "Are you perhaps my Favorite dragon slayer's little sister or something? You look like a miniature version of her."
Last Edit: Oct 30, 2015 17:53:02 GMT by Atrum Furea
"I'm uh... not that easy to hurt..." Larke explained awkwardly. She'd figured out over time that girls her age were often considered more fragile, and though she could be whiny she rarely ever got more than scrapes and bruises. "Furan War Tribe..." Larke looked thoughtful for a long moment, even placing a hand on her chin, resting it on the other arm that crossed her torso. She had never heard of his tribe before, or if she had that memory had been lost along with anything else before a few years ago.
"Oh! Uhm... nice to meet you..." She was being rather polite, but she was nervous around most new people. Razhiel had been one of the only ones to successfully make her more at ease, if only because Larke knew her somehow without ever having met her personally that she remembered. "And nice to meet you too, cutey," she giggled, waving at the dog. Atrum had her attention again within a moment, asking her what had to be the weirdest question she'd heard. "Kotone? Who's...?" she shook her head, "I don't have anyone but my dad. He's a scientist and we moved here from Valland, so... I don't know who this Kotone is..."
It was only after that that the mention of dragon slayer hit her. Her mouth partially opened and her tongue brushed against her elongated fangs. "Wait? This Miss Kotone is a dragon slayer? I was told by a lady a little while ago that I had dragon slayer magic!" she reached out a palm and she concentrated for a moment, placing the other hand over it before pulling them apart as she revealed a rather innocently adorable heart of ice. "Is it anything like this?" she asked. "Do all dragon slayers have magic like mine?"
The giant blinked and gave a small nod before taking a small limp back over to the bench picking it up and bringing it back so he could sit down and rest on something other than the ground. He reclined giving out a sigh that spoke of exhaustion. He cracked his neck as he prepared to answer the questions she posed to him. That small heart was too much for him, he needed to sit down because young women being unnecessarily adorable was bad for his heart, he gave a small grunt before beginning to answer.
"Well To answer your questions in order... Kotone is the Dragon Slayer of Ice, A mage of Lamia scale, and probably one of the countries best defenders. She also happens to look like she is your older sister, not sure what to make of that." He said answering the first question in a vague manner if only because he wasn't entirely sure how to describe her or if he even should. Morro leaped up to the bench and gave Larke another yip, Atrum rubbed her behind the ears with his index fingers in response.
"Well I am not sure if it is exactly like that, it feels similar... You said you are hardier than normal and your magic is elemental based. Well if you can eat Ice as a power source than it's definite...but your magic feels off somehow..." He trailed off the power coming from her spell didn't feel like the slayers, certainly similar, but different enough that he wouldn't immediately assume Dragon slayer. "Some lady told you that you had dragon slayer magic? I am not sure she is wrong but, I do think that it is pretty similar." He said giving her a kind smile, that hid the skeptic idea that someone might have mislead this little one a bit.
"Most Dragon Slayers has a very easy to notice set of characteristics. An elemental affinity, things like fire, ice, water, and so one. Enhanced physical abilities, more strength and endurance than peers of same age. Harder to hurt. Immunity to damage from that Element, and the ability to literally consume their element for sustenance. Slayers magic is powerful and people envy their power greatly. I on the other hand find it a bit annoying." He said shrugging, leaning back back popping causing the giant to flinch. Hells that freak of nature did a number on him. "But do not mind my ramblings, anything I can clarify?"
"... I like snowcones..." Larke's eyes widened - she'd had a snowcone before she slammed into the random angry man! She looked around, only to find the now mostly melted slush and paper cup on the ground where she'd fallen. That was a major bummer...
Larke sighed, telling herself that the snowcone wasn't a big deal. "I mean, like a lot. And I usually feel better after..." Larke's eyes widened as she thought. Maybe she could find out about her magic once and for all! If this guy know some Kotone who resembled her for some reason and who was definitely a dragon slayer...
"I'm pretty strong too! I'm always breaking things on accident cause I don't really know what I'm doing with it!" she looked around, trying to find something to prove it, but she only had Atrum near by. She wasn't one to try to pick people up or the things people were sitting on without their permission. "Er, I mean, I just kinda want to know for sure since you actually know a dragon slayer person..."
Atrum blinked at the small girls enthusiasm, The giant watched as her eyes lit up as she explained that snow cones made her feel better. He imagined that most young kids enjoyed how snow cones felt, but he decided that until they had a source of ice to test with he would take her on her word on it. The giant gave her a confused look in response to her expectant meaningful expression. She had just got done explaining how she was strong, was she asking for permission to demonstrate? The giant blinked and shrugged before slipping off his vest. He handed the reinforced piece of clothing to her.
"Here tell me how heavy this feels." He said simply, the fabric was made out of the wool of a Furan forest sheep. The giant resisted shuddering at the thought of the creature. The fabric was incredibly soft but durable, not invincible no he had some flexible plates thrown in for that. But it was heavier much heavier. Overall this vest was easily one hundred kilo's in weight. Heavy as hell especially for a young girl, his other clothes were similar but none of his other stuff with the exception of his hat got anywhere near that heavy. "Be careful with it though it is a bit heavier than it looks." He said added so she wasn't caught fully off guard.
"Huh?" Larke's eyes widened when Atrum took off his vest. She recoiled a bit, mostly out of nervousness. Her arms raised, but she dropped them after her eyes appraised the large man's vest. To all appearances, it was just a vest. What else would it be? "Uh... okay..." Larke took the vest, taking a step or two back to compensate for there being more weight to the object she was supposed to be grabbing than she expected before putting it on her shoulders. She carefully held onto the part that would be dragging on the ground if she let it (since it was obviously much, much too big for the girl).
"Uhm... I guess it's kinda heavy..." She even managed to shrug, looking at the clothing. "Is it normally heavy? I don't really know how heavy things are supposed to be to people..." she admitted. Larke shrugged off the vest, folding it over before handing the neatly folded vest to Atrum with both hands. This time it barely seemed to affect her; she'd reacted before like one might react if they expected a bag they were handed to be empty and it wasn't, more than as if it was as heavy as Atrum said.
"That is about two hundred and twenty pounds, about as much weight as an rather heavy person. Someone your age normally couldn't hope to lift it, but you barely feel the weight, I would say you qualify for weird dragon magic strength." He said a smirk on his face, patting her on the head after taking back his vest. "To be perfectly honest this is the only way I know how to make clothes find a durable fire resistant material for the cloth and work a hard flexible material into it so it's tough and warm. Unfortunately that makes it hilariously heavy for the average person out there." He said chuckling, he gave a shrug and leaned back.
He blinked and turned to the ground and slipped his vest off again he lifted it up and and motioned towards it. "A demonstration." He said simply dropping the article to the drop a loud crack sounding from the ground as the vest connected. He lifted the vest off the ground and dusted it off slipping it back on. "So yeah elemental based powers, snow cones make you feel better, you are impossibly strong. And your father is a Scientist from Valland... Huh." Atrum blinked at that though new thoughts occurring to him for a bit before he gave a shrug and smiled. "Yeah I would say that you are definitely close to being a dragon slayer." He confirmed for her. "Though I do not know what you can really do if I am honest."
"What I can do?" Larke looked confused at that one. She had no idea what Atrum was getting at. "I can make ice and um, break things, and I'm also good at carrying heavy things dad doesn't want to or can't carry..." She was Kotone's clone, whether either of them had come to that conclusion or not, but her attitude and upbringing were nothing like the real dragon slayer's. She flinched at the sound of Atrum's vest dropping to the ground, but recovered quickly.
"If I take some of dad's special medicine first I can ride trains and things without getting a stomach ache." She was still listing off the most random things. "I'm good at drawing cats... I don't really think most of the things I can do are really that helpful to what you want to figure out... so uhm, what is it you're trying to figure out if I can do?"
"Well what I meant was mostly magic based since as far as I know that is how Dragon Slayers are different from everyone else. Their magic works differently than other elemental mages. For instance I am a fire mage, and I suppose if I work hard I can do a lot of cool things with fire, but since I am not a slayer I will never be fully immune to fire, I can not devour flames for sustenance, and at similar levels of power a fire slayer will always have the edge in raw power. I suppose that is why people are after them all the time. They are definitely more impressive than the average mage." He said shrugging, not entirely sure if that explained it properly, he was after all not native to fiore and speaking this language wasn't exactly easy for him all the time.
"I am a foreigner and my people are violent by nature a lot of what we notice is through fighting or if applied to combat in someway. Maybe there are some more mundane differences I suppose my limited view wouldn't know." The giant responded simply, Morro hopped onto Atrum's lap and got comfortable. "Fighting is how I understand things, I believe someone said I was a meat head. I am too tired and broken to fight though so I guess talking is all I have. Though I guess something specific would be if you get more magical energy back from eating Ice or something. How strong your magic is compared to a comparable ice mage?" He gave another shrug and patted Morro on the head. Wow his body hurt.
"Uhh... I don't know about any of that..." Larke probably should have tried to find a book or something about ice dragon slayer magic when she found out about it, but she had refrained just to make sure that her father wouldn't find out she knew anything just yet. He was extremely protective of her and always extremely vague about her past, insisting that she's much happier and healthier now and that was what mattered. She was hoping for a chance to get to talk to Princess Razhiel again, if anything. "I mean, I'm a foreigner too but I'm hardly violent... on purpose..." She had to add the last part when she thought of the time she threw a ball and it crashed through a kid's wall. It was hard to control her abilities at times. Good thing she was more of a nerdy type than a physical one, she supposed. It meant she was less likely to hurt someone.
"I have strong magic, but I don't really have any training in it, not beyond learning a bit about focusing it from Miss Razhiel." She refrained from saying princess just in case. "I mean, except for that I guess I'm pretty normal. Unless I'm mistaken..." she adjusted her white and pink hat on her head, biting her finger idly in thought. She didn't know that many people on a personal level, so how normal was she? Where was her basis? Her experience was with small amounts of many cultures, so what did she have to compare to with her limited memories?
"From what I have seen Dragon slaying magic is based at least partially on your emotional state, Discipline is a good thing to have in that case." He mused before giving Larke a friendly chuckle. "Little one let me tell you what I have learned since I came to this country, Everyone is weird. This place is just about the most accepting place I ever been, Dragon slayers of all weird and conflicting personalities. Old super spies, terrifying magic council members, I have met so many weird people. Do not worry about being normal, just worry about being yourself It is a much better philosophy anyways." He said smirking at her mention of being normal, being acceptable to the vast majority was a bit pointless if you had to change yourself. Most people just asked you be a decent person anyways no big deal.
"Heh, well hopefully This Razhiel can teach you more than I can, I am a terrible wizard after all." He laughed, before giving a shake of his head and a sigh. "So Larke this may seem like a dumb question considering, but do you not know much about your own magic? Or is it that you simply do not know what your magic is called? I am happy to help you learn more about dragon slayers and your magic if you think I can help, but it is a little strange walking into someone who doesn't fully understand their own circumstances." He queried deciding that he'd rather listen to her instead of talking as much as he did. He had a bad habit of just talking on an on when someone got him going.
