[Zorolo] Rain Seraph's Training

OoC: Old training thread, just in case. Continuing from my last post in there :3

BiC:

It was a light breathing sound, a soft panting. The half-wolf, half-man lay on the soft, green grass, its whole body riddled with silver needles. The creature snorted as some green blades tickled its black snout. Its mouth was halfway opened, its tongue resting lifelessly on the ground. The creature’s tail twitched, unable to move more than an inch as a soft breeze swept through the small garden and through the werewolf’s silvery fur.

There was the sound of grass crunching under footfalls as a shadow was cast over it. The werewolf, with its eyes closed, seemingly felt the absence of light and knew who stood over it.

“Leave me be, murderer,” the creature snorted as its body shook, trying to ward off the shadow, “let me die.”

Rain frowned slightly as he stood up and turned away, responding with a soft voice, “As you wish.” But before the Grim Angel could say anything more, the werewolf made its last breath, silently giving up the ghost. Rain looked at the body again, finding the mouth in a position where it seemed to be smiling. But not just any normal smile, it was one that was rarely seen; only given when one has been freed of all troubles and miseries of the world.

The Grim Angel’s frown turned into a slight smile as he turned around, expecting to see the woman, his ‘teacher’. She had led him here and probably knew about the werewolf that was rearing up to attack. Rain wanted to know what this teacher had in store for him as he recalled the silver-haired girl’s warning he received just before he was introduced to Cadenza Madrigal. He remembered that the teacher was more or less silent, seemingly acknowledging that ‘actions speak louder than words’, which was probably the reason why she led him through the twisted vine hallway to this small garden, just to face the werewolf.

But when he turned, he saw what he was not expecting to see. The woman was gone, and in her place stood the familiar looking messenger, holding a small piece of paper in his hands.

“Are you finished, here?” he asked, taking a few steps toward the Grim Angel. But before Rain could answer, the man shoved the piece of paper in his face.

“This is for you.”

TEACHER TRANSFERRAL

Dear student,

Due to unexpected circumstances, your teacher, Miss Madrigal, has requested that you be in the care of another teacher from now on.

You are to remain where you are until your teacher arrives. You’ll know who it is when you see the person.

Best Regards,
The Dome.

A new teacher? But Rain hadn’t a chance to talk to his previous one as yet!

Suddenly, the paper dropped from eye-level as the messenger pulled it away, scurrying through the door, probably having other urgent messages to deliver. Rain walked slowly towards the door and reopened it, finding himself back in the twisted vine hallway. He looked at both ends of the long corridor, putting his hands in his pockets. The left side was where he came from, so, if one wanted to explore, the right side would be the place to go.

OoC: *Laughs* The Dome gives Zorlo too much credit. ^_^

Assignment 1:

Well, since Rain is going exploring, it saves him from having to wait for Zorlo for a long while. As for where Rain is off to now, Rain will wind up navigating the long corridors of the Gardens until he finds himself in front of a dark green door with swords crossing in the center. As to what he does before he gets to the door, that's up to you. Have at it. Minimum: 500.

It’s hard to explore when you don’t know where you are, really. Rain walked down numerous twisting corridors, all lined with vines from top to bottom. Most of the corridors twisted as the first one had done; the floor twisting in a way that it moved up onto the wall, and then unto the ceiling. If one kept on walking without really taking it into consideration, the floor would not move from under their feet. It was confusing, really, making it as if gravity was moving with the unnatural twist. Then again, everything in this place so far was unnatural.

Especially the part that boggled him; Rain had come across numerous intersecting corridors, all looking the same as the last, but aside from the vines, there was no other life to be seen or heard. Every intersection the Grim Angel had come across were exactly the same as the last, with no sign of beginning or ending; just long walkways of green.

He spun around, looking back to where he had come from. From what he could see, the hallway went on forever; the door that he had first followed Madrigal through was just a tiny speck in the distance. For a second, Rain stood in awe.

“Wow…” was all he could muster for now. He turned again, looking down the hallway, toward his supposed goal. A door stood at the end like another speck of dust in this distance. So far away, and with every step, it seemed to get even further. Of course, he had just been walking all this time and had not used a lick of his speed, yet.

“Alright, then.” Rain took his hands out of his pockets, while gently scraping the soles of his shoes on the vine-carpet beneath them. For less than a second, his whole figure blurred and then disappeared as he accelerated, the vines on the floor tearing up with the force of each step he took. He did not go at his full speed, only accelerating to a ‘few steps below Shinsoku’. If he did go with it all, he’d appear right in front of the door; but seriously, where’s the fun in doing that?

The vines tore up under each footfall, their pieces rising up, protesting the abuse which they were currently receiving. The dizzying ninety-degree twist in the hallway had been reached and passed in a second as the door got closer and closer. Freedom? Or another never-ending hallway? The Grim Angel put his hand on the doorknob and turned, pushing open the door.

He stopped in his tracks, refraining from taking another step. A sharp wind nipped as his cheeks and tugged playfully at his hair as Rain looked down, the sound of water swirling around filling his ears. The salty smell of the ocean filled his nostrils as he looked upon the vast expanse of water blow him.

There was the sound of gulls calling in the distance.

And then, it all fell silent. Everything stopped moving. The gulls stopped calling, the wind stopped blowing and the seawater stopped moving. Everything started to twitch and blur continuously, until finally, the illusion gave out like a dead television set.

Rain was now in another corridor, but it was quite different from the last. It was much larger and vines no longer adorned the white marble walls and green, cloth-carpeted floor. At the other end of the hall was an extremely large, elaborately designed door. It was about twice as tall as the Grim Angel himself, and had designs of dark green swirling vines and leaves covering the whole thing, but in the center was an ‘x’ made by two, shimmering crossing swords, each about as long as six feet. And what was more; they were not your usual katanas or broadswords, but rapiers.

Rain chuckled as the door reminded him of one person; a single person who seemed to have an obsession for the colour green. And who had a smile as sure and as bright as the swords crossing the dark green door.

“Oh man,” he kept chuckling, brushing his hair with his hands, “this will sure be…something. Hahaha.”

Good post. Not that I'd expect anything less.

Assignment Time:

Well, you've found ZOrlo's door, now then, getting to the Aura Master isn't so easy. You'll now have to traverse his home in search of his cabin where Zorlo is doing... something or other. However, giant serpents and insects are crawling all over the place. Have fun. ^_^ 600 word minimum.

OoC: 1023 words

BiC:

Rain rested his hand upon the door, running his fingers along the elaborate design of dark green vines and leaves. The material was rough, almost grating. It was like stone, but it seemed so much lighter and less dull. The man rubbed his fingernail against it and watched as small specks of white dust floated downward. After a second or two, he pulled away and looked at the dusty, filed-down fingernail. He set his lips and let air flow out between them, blowing the whiteness away.

Next, he ran his hands along the blades of the glimmering swords. They were not made of silver, otherwise the Grim Angel would have pulled away his hand immediately; but instead, they were constructed out of steel and cleaned to a point where one could see their reflection in them. The doors were closed, shut tight. There seemed to be no handles or knobs to turn and open them; which meant that the doors had to be pushed open.

Rain pulled his gloves out of his pockets and pulled them on tightly. For a moment, he opened and closed his fingers to make them get comfortable in their covering, while biting and pulling the cloth down tighter. With a flick of the wrist, he pushed against the doors, swinging them both open very slowly. What he saw beyond them made his eyes widen. He was instantly reminded of the vine-laden corridors from before but this... this was just overdoing it.

There were no walls, or doors. The whole room was not a room at all. The whole scene beyond the doors was one of a dense forest; it was even filled with the sounds of an actual forest. And that wasn't all, there was actual sunlight being streamed through the immensely thick foliage. The trees themselves were massive with their thick trunks and skyscraper-like heights. Their barks were also coloured dense green, due to the cultivation of slippery moss on them. Thick vines hung lazily from the high branches in upside-down arches, as if someone had hung them there for decoration.

Rain stepped through and found himself no longer standing on the white marble tiles, but on soft grass, which grew out from dark, moist dirt. The green leaves under his feet made small squishing noises as he moved through the winding forest, but that did not drown out another, softer sound. It was a mild buzzing that seemed to grow louder and then fade away swiftly, as if whatever was making it was darting forward and backward or in and out of certain noise-dampening areas.

Rain stopped in his tracks, a tiny mosquito annoyingly buzzing past his ear. But that wasn't it; the buzzing was too harsh to be that tiny annoying thing. It got louder and louder, until finally, the sound was so much that almost nothing else could be heard. Rain looked up, finding himself staring at what seemed to be a large rapier, like the ones at the doors. But what was holding it, or rather what it was attached to, was not human in the least. The beast hovered a few feet off the ground, beating its wings furiously.

Rain's eyes widened in disbelief as he muttered, "A...giant mosquito?"

It seemed to snap at that comment. The mosquito pulled back its head and needle, ready to plunge it into the intruder. The Grim Angel reacted quickly, side-stepping and grabbing the beast's weapon before smashing it hard into a nearby tree trunk. As soon as the wing beats died, another sound became apparent. It was more of a thundering, this time, like thousands of horses' hooves hitting the ground in an enormous stampede. Rain stepped out from behind the tree, kicking aside the thin leg of the dead insect. He looked left and right, as if he were about to cross a street, taking note of the closing thundering as he did so. His eyes fell on an extremely large, circular clearing. As he looked at it, the clearing lifted slightly by itself. Like a crack in a door to the void itself, only with eight huge, glimmering eyes glaring right at him.

Rain froze in his tracks once more as the thundering reached up on him. A humongous centipede stampeded past him, heading absentmindedly for the trap-door spider that Rain had just seen. As soon as it reached close enough, the spider leapt out of the ground and grabbed the huge centipede with its equally huge, hairy legs. The thing wriggled violently, screeching loudly as the arachnid plunged its large fangs, each about as large as Rain himself, into the thing's belly, while simultaneously dragging it back into the spider's home beneath the surface.

The Grim Angel gulped as the spider raised the door slightly, peering at him once again with eight unrelenting eyes.

"That way," he pointed at the spider, "is out of the question." As soon as he turned to walk, a loud hissing sound filled his ears. "Come on," he wiped his face with his gloves, "enough of this."

In the distance, a snake was slowly winding its way...away from him. Rain squinted his eyes at it and what it was heading towards. In the midst of everything, stood a tiny log cabin with a single window. The cabin had a single window that gave off light, signifying that someone was inside. Rain watched as the snake closed in, flicking its tongue against the cabin, tasting it, possibly savoring the taste inside. The beast's forked tongue reached the window, finding its way inside. After a second, a green flash shined out of the window making the large, diamond-patterned snake recoil in fear. Swiftly, it slithered off into the denser part of the forest, as Rain carefully made his way over to the cabin. The Grim Angel grinned as he approached the front door. He had a guess about who was going to be behind the doors as soon as he saw them; the green flash -- the Aura flash -- just confirmed it. He calmly put his hand on the doorknob and turned, expecting to see an old friend.

Good take. Now then, to move on. ^_^

BiC: The door swung open as a figure, mumbling something akin to, "I wonder why the barrier is down today. Normally nothing gets within twenty meters of this house." The man was looking at the ground, or in this case, at someone's feet, and slowly looked up to meet the eyes of his old friend. "Ah, Rain, you've caught me at a bad time. Give me a few moments and then I shall better address you," the fencer stated as he snuck past the Grim Angel and headed over to the incense lanterns and checked them.

Two of the incense wards had gone out. Well, that meant the incense just needed replacing. The fencer disappeared back into his cabin for a moment before emerging with a few sticks of incense and lighting them, placing them in the long, spike-like things rammed into the ground. After lightning the new incense, all manner of violent life began to withdraw slowly. "Sorry about that, I'm so busy I forget to check these things," he told the vampire, looking at him.

"Let me guess, you were one of Cadenza's students, right?" Zorlo asked with a smile. "Well then, it's time we get to work then, isn't it?" the Aura Master asked as his door appeared at the boarder of the defended area. "Let's go find you a room."

OoC: Since I'm not sure if Altamira gave you a room, let's get that part over with.

Simply put, this lesson is a description of your room. Your character will be told to find his/her room. Each room is different and unique. Take some time and describe the door; the secret to the Dome is its many doors. Each door is unique and elaborate, and gives a clue as to what lays beyond its closed surface. Afterwards, your character will enter their room, which reflects the character in some way. Take your time and describe EVERYTHING. That means furniture, colours, décor, etc...EVERYTHING!! I want you to SHOW me the place, so I can imagine what it looks like. This post is all about description, NOT necessarily action. For help, check out other people’s training threads. Minimum 600 words.

OoC: Thank yew to daughta for all her help, but I think this could be posted in here now so she could take it down from her dA . Daughta <333 :3 Also... this room will be shared by Rain and Raisha.


IC:

The first thing he had noticed was the door, or doors. They seemed simple, like any other pair of doors. They were large; about twice the height of Rain, and they were simple enough. Designs were present, yes; similar to the designs he had seen on Zorolo's door to the forest. The doors were made of thick wood, heavily varnished crimson; almost as if blood had been spilled onto the trees before they were cut down. But at the same time, they brimmed with elegance; the intricate carvings of vines running up and down along with falling leaves engraved on the doors, down to the golden-plated handles--not doorknobs! Handles. The decorations on the wood seemed to climb down to the handles and wrap around them, engraving themselves into the metal in one fluid motion.



But that... that wasn't what drew his eyes to it. At the center of the both doors was a horizontal slit that began to open. Slowly at first, the wood began to creak loudly as it opened... just like an eyelid. In fact, as it opened up more, Rain saw that it was an eyelid. And that the eye could see him as he moved. The Grim Angel tested this for himself; moving left to right and watching the red eye following him. It was odd, though--the thing did not seem scary at all. Its gaze was calm and friendly--there was pleasantness to it; most of all, the eye seemed almost girlish, as if it belonged to a pleasant, soft-spoken young woman whose eyes expressed serenity and wisdom.


It was not hypnotic in anyway, but it only served to make him even more curious about what was behind those doors; which were supposedly supposed to lead to his room in the dome. He put his hands on the handles and turned, the wood creaking abruptly as the eye swiftly shut itself, seemingly not wanting to be torn apart by the opening of the doors.

The Grim Angel pushed open both of them and walked through. At first, he was blinded and his eyes had to adjust, as if he had just walked out from a dark building into glaring sunlight. But when his eyes had adjusted, he saw nothing different. There was no glaring sunlight, or bright chandelier lights—although, there was a large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It looked like a fountain that had a bright light in the middle with water flowing all around it. The light shimmered and flickered against the smooth crystals which magnified the soft light and gave the room a magical feeling, making one feel that they should speak in whispers or tiptoe onto the soft, plush carpet.

That was another thing. The carpet stretched from one wall to another; and it was like thick, royal blue grass that reached just higher than your toes. It was thick and rich and looked just amazing to roll around in or even step on! Rain actually took off his shoes and left them by the door to walk bare-footed around the room. The carpet seemed to swallow the soles of his feet, but it was so soft, like walking on thick, light cotton. He smiled at the feeling, almost dragging his feet along as he walked over to the bed.

The bed was fit for a king; large, soft and covered in all manners of purple, red, and blue rich-looking sheets. He frowned at this as he moved them off the bed, going through a few of them before finally reaching the thick, comfortable looking mattress. He brushed his hand along the smooth covering before touching the pillow. It was cased in a similar rich cloth, but he was less inclined to take that off. Rain sat on the bed and looked around the room. The bed was basically in the centre, with the head almost up against a wall. Across from the entrance, there was a massive bookshelf bolted to the wall. It went from the ground to the ceiling, and there was no space for any other book to fit. Packed with tomes of knowledge, literally, to the ceiling.

But there was a break in the bookshelf. At the centre of it, close to the ground, there was a mirror instead of the shelf, bolted to the wall. It was set up in such a way that the mirror seemingly took the space of the shelf, forcing the wooden structure to arch over it. At first, Rain didn't recognize it as a mirror; he thought it was an entrance to another room. But after a short while of staring, he saw that the bed he was sitting on looked exactly the same—he couldn't see his own reflection, for very obvious reasons.

He looked away from the mirror as he got off the bed, looking straight across from it, to the wall opposite the furniture he was sitting on. On the wall hung a large painting of a lush garden. There was, in the middle of the picture, a glass table with two chairs under it, on top of the low-cut, neat grass and surrounded by neat, tall hedges decorated with yellow and purple flowers. A little way off stood a fancy stone well, with arches over the white-washed stone. The whole thing had a bright blue sky and white clouds as a backdrop.

He took a step back suddenly. Something moved inside the picture.

Rain squinted, looking closer at the thing. It was... it was the eye! And it moved along the hedges in the distance! The Grim Angel put his hand out and immediately, he was pulled through into the garden. He spun on his heels, looking back at the painting of his room that hung on the hedge. It was an enclosed area, but there was still room for the chirping of birds and the wind. He wanted to walk further in, but decided that he should go back to the room for now... this was a little bit...unexpected. He had expected the Dome to come up with something outrageous, but not outrageously good.

Rain was drawn over to the bookcase, now. He looked over the towering thing, wondering how he would reach the ones that touched the ceiling. For now, his finger hooked one and pulled it out. He didn't read the title of the grey book, only flipping through the pages that were filled with images and words; something about another Earth, with places like "Rochester Republic" and "Zhenghe" and "Cordelia". These were places he had never heard of before; and he thought it was all fiction—until he realized where he was standing and smirked.

He closed that book and attempted to drop it on the floor and move on to another, but just before it hit the floor, the book shot into the air, closed itself and fit right back into the spot where it came from. The Grim Angel looked at it, his eyes wide and his lips slightly apart. Experimentally, he hooked another book and pulled it off the shelf, letting it fall. It, too, took to the air and rammed itself right back into its space.

Rain smirked again.

And out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red streak fly across. Swiftly, he glared at the mirror, finding the eye inside it. Without thinking, he reached out to the mirror and touched it, sending a silver ripple all around. It was cool, but not as much as mirrors are usually, but like still water. It felt like it too; and it felt as if one could just...walk into it.

He inhaled deeply, taking a step forward into the mirror. It was thin, and one step was enough for him to arrive in the mirrored version of his room. And not only was everything the other way around; the room had the same properties as the original! The flying books, the portal painting, and even the eye! But the doors... they were left open in the original room, but they were closed in this one. Rain walked over, intent on opening them; but froze in his tracks when they opened for themselves and in walked a familiar looking silver-haired girl with sea-green eyes.

She smiled politely and bowed, "We meet again, Sir."

"Ah, it's you..." Rain returned a smile. This silver-haired girl was the first person he had met when he had entered the Dome. The same one that had directed him to his first teacher, Cadenza, even if she didn't teach him for very long.

"My name is Altair," she bowed again, "I know who you are, Mr. Seraph."

She seemed less energetic now, and more like a robot. This caused Rain to frown a little; he liked her energy, earlier. But now, she seemed like a tool of the Dome. Altah-irr . Rain pronounced it in his mind. It was Arabic, he noticed, and began to speak to her, still a little sad that she had lost her brightness.

"The Flying Eag--"

The girl's eyes lit up at that very moment. "That's correct!" All the life she had seemed to be flooding back into her, and Rain wondered if it was because he thought about it. "And I'm basically your errand girl, made by the Dome." She spun around and landed softly on the bed, sitting on the edge of it.

She hopped off the bed and pointed to herself, grinning, "So if you want something! Ask me!"