TWO YEARS AGO, A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION GOING BY THE NAME TEAM IMUM WRECKED CHAOS ACROSS THE LAND, DAMAGING CITIES AND KILLING THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS. While Imum itself has long since been disbanded, however, the region remains broken: entire towns have been laid to waste and the Association struggles to find homes for those who were lucky enough to survive the attempted genocide. Reconstruction trudges on as usual... but with three factions - the Association, the corporations, and the people - each wishing to take the rebuilding of an entire region down opposite paths, how long will it be before Lyeant's last leg gives out permanently?
03.01
first activity check is currently underway. regardless of your green status, please be sure to check it out and make extra sure your characters make it safe and sound after the eighth of march.
01.28
we're officially re-opened! come check out our event, the pokeathlon forever to enjoy some fresh restart activities. let leap know if there are any skin bugs, and they'll be sorted out accordingly!
Care to hear about our lord and savior Operation: Mindcrime? In all seriousness: Hello, hello! I'm Pharaoh Leap – or just Leap – local head admin and rock opera enthusiast. On the rare chance you catch me in a time when I'm not bawling about characters entirely written into song, you may see me actually doing work around the site, like skinning, making too many characters, and encouraging others to also make too many characters. I only know how to write angst, and in no fewer than six trillion words an app or post, so if you like dying while reading like I like dying while writing, I'm the girl for you. ;o
Howdy guys! The names Astro and I am your resident Brit & Red muse (you'll honestly see me more on him than any of my other characters). I'm a moderator and my main job is to make sure everything is running smoothly so the Admins can focus on other things, you'll often see me within the apps and shops, etc when I'm not on Red. What can I say about myself? Apart from being a Red fanboy I like music and games and yaoi huehue, I honestly never now what to put into these sort of things but ohwell, I'm more of a "ask me and I'll tell" sorta guy. Anyway, from my personally I hope that you enjoy the site and what we produce here but also if you're new, please look around and if you like what you see please consider joining for rad plots that everyone gives! :D
Hey there~ Nano over here! I uh.. Wait, I'm doing this right, right? Bleh. So I'm a moderator over here - fun, fun - who kind of just.. Keeps an eye on everyone. You know, the whole app thing and what not. Uh.. Lets see.. When I'm not doing school work (because I may or may not be trying to be a good student) I'm probably storming up new ideas like events and etc. Or plots. Plots are always good, too. As you can see, I uh.. Have the horrible habit of making way too many characters. I swear, I was tempted with plots, ships and angst. It's like, the holy trinity. Uh.. What else is there about me? Oh, right! Please excuse my obnoxiousness. I'm just really loud in general so don't be surprised if I start screaming as loudly as I can caps. So yeah. Nice meeting you!
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It was such a strange sight to see Olivia so affected by her words. Not just strange, no—it scared the redhead. It wasn't that she often disregarded her or anything of the sort, all seas forbid. Olivia had just always been the calm breeze to her tide, the pillar that supported and made her feel safe and home. But now? Anxiety, worry, dreaf, even terror: Nerea could see it all reflected in Olivia's eyes, a reflection she had trouble recognising as her own insecurities. She wasn't used to it, but then again she wasn't used to any of this. She wasn't used to looking out so much for someone else, either.
The question that followed would be the last drop, the one to make the water overflow.
"You very well know, Olivia,"
she almost choked out, a single stray tear slowly sliding down her cheek. Nerea didn't often take pride in her ability to conceal her emotions, but she certainly did wonder where it had gone in that moment. This was too much. She could feel her whole body trembling, and seconds later she also saw it as her hands sought support on a nearby chair that would move in unison with her.
After a few failed attempts at steadying herself, the psychic gave up and allowed herself to continue in that same sorry state,
"That afternoon, you came back to me bleeding."
She halted suddenly at the word, as if the act of even pronouncing it sent her back to another time of greater distress. Nerea could almost see the images that plagued her dreams for nights on end after Laney and Olivia left. A sigh escaped her lips, so heavy it also pulled her eyelids closed, and then a flurry of words she had been keeping in for far too long.
"I asked you not to go, to stay where it was safe—safer. Of course I wanted you to listen to me, but did you think I wouldn't be even more opposed to being left behind?"
There was pain, almost palpable, in her voice. There was hurt; there was accusation.
There was a very, very small frown adorning Nerea's delicate face, edging it with a slight annoyance that she refused to admit to either herself or her fellow Crown member. Had the choice been entirely up to the redhead, she wouldn't be currently dressed up in an impossibly hot and, most importantly, inelegant outfit. She wouldn't be doing so with a wailing child sitting on her lap, nor would she be staring blankly at his desperate parent.
"Nerea. You're scaring the children."
All right, perhaps the blank stare would have happened either way.
She sighed, tired of keeping up an act, tired of failing to keep up an act. Nerea's eyes flew tiredly to the woman she was sharing Santa duties with.
"If one so experienced with freightened faces is to say it, Mrs. Delano, I am no one to deny it."
Whether the not so subtle jab would be taken badly or not, despite the soft tone with which it was voice, she didn't quite care at this point.
"Young fortune-hunter, listen to me,"
she said, turning back to her current task: the child. Her voice was more assertive this time, as if she were to reveal the secrets of the world to him. Perhaps she was. She certainly could try and brush her words as such.
"Seek the comfort of salt water as much and as often as you like, but forget not that the young man with the camera over there is waiting, and that this present won't arrive home with you until he deems you've earned it."
Was threatening young children a good course of action for a publicity mission? Hardly. Was it effective? Well, the way the kid in question sobered up, got his picture taken, and scurried off with his present in one hand and his father's hand in the other, she was inclined to believe that yes. Eyeing the laughing woman beside her, already on her way to the next child in the roster, she wondered once again how it was that she returned alive.
Nerea nodded at her guest's distracted words of thanks. Something else was on her mind, she could tell, but the topic of what exactly that was remained a mystery for the redhead. A slight frown made its way to her face. They really had gone way too long without sharing their thoughts with one another, and it showed all too painfully in their current interaction. Thank the stormy waters in Hoenn that they were alone in a private, closed space that had come to be known as Nerea's quarters. Subjecting anyone else to this sight—and, by anyone, she mainly meant her homologous for the group's scientists—would be too much.
She watched silently as the brunette gave herself a moment to think, following with her eyes the movement of her hands from the moment they leaned her cup over for a sip, to the moment they let the shiny crown to rest on the table. A small smile grazed her lips when she noticed the casual attire Olivia was wearing now. Even though she looked stunning in her coronation gown, she had always looked the most comfortable in pieces like that tank top or those jeans. In Nerea's eyes, she looked the most radiant in them.
"The burdens that may come from this glamorous headpiece are nothing short of feathers floating in the wind. Gone and unnoticed just as quickly as they appear."
Yes, she was afraid so. With a peculiar and most certainly unwanted thumping in her chest, the redhead's eyes settled on her tea. She watched it ebb and flow in tiny ripples when she switched her position, and saw nothing. Of course she didn't. Many of the other members, every one of them none the wiser, thought her visions took place on any watery surface. They were wrong, but at some point Nerea had decided that letting them believe so would keep them away from her longer.
"You are far too selfless,"
she proclaimed, tone soft and serious just like when she gave voice and made tale of her visions.
"The wind may not always dance to your favor, my friend. It might rise against us, one day, it might bring unwanted ashes back."
Nerea's visions required sea water. Of which she had a small bowl in another of the tent's compartments, thanks to Olivia. She had sent for some to be retrieved from Eastern Irisia, and replaced everyday, without Nerea ever asking for it. It was one of the reasons she knew she could trust Olivia: she remembered and anticipated her needs. She remembered. It was also one of the reasons she could not stay put about the ceremony that made everything official.
Putting aside all flair she had been taught to speak with all those years ago, when she was small and weak and vulnerable, she spoke up again,
"I worry for you, Olivia. I believe in our cause, I believe in you, but it doesn't stop me from worrying."
Her lip quivered as her mind pondered whether she should continue or not. She was about to swim into dangerous waters, from which she knew there was no coming back. But her heart had already been set. Olivia was right; she hadn't called her simply to talk about some prop.
Sighing profusely, taking another sip of the water that had fooled many before her; it was all she could do to delay the inevitable. Finally, as last resort, Nerea closed her eyes. As if that would help her escape from the terrible, terrible things that the water whispered to her.
Finally. Things hadn't been quite as tranquil as she'd hoped they'd be when Olivia came back, bleeding and with no marine biologist on her toes. Nerea's eyes grew with confusion and worry, wondering not what had happened but rather why her brunette friend—were they still friends?—was standing in their front door, so many days after the Sea had shown her Olivia's demise. This stupor lasted only until the post-humous apparition coughed out words that sounded awfully like an apology and a plea for help, which was when Nerea ushered her back into their humble home by the beach, although it no doubt would have lasted longer had she been left to the orchestra of a rising tide.
Nerea had never before seen a ghost in her life, but her family had been a superstitious kind for generations. It really wouldn't have been odd for her to believe this to be her dear old friend's spirit seeking some sort of closure for the things she never got to do in life, for the things she never got to achieve. But her ghostly figure felt too real, her wounds looked and smelled way too real.
"Oh, mighty Sea,"
she exclaimed once Olivia was safely resting on a chair, her already pale face losing all color and expression. It really was Olivia, but barely hanging on.
That had been a few months ago now. Nerea questioned nothing and nursed Olivia back to health. She did not ask about the whereabouts of the other woman, the scientist she knew as Laney Delano, either. It was partly for fear that it would trigger unpleasant flashbacks not only for Olivia, but for the psychic who saw her closest friend die days before she presumed she had, or would have, it did not matter; and partly because there simply had been no time. Despite the redheaded woman's desire to stay in the safety of their summer house longer, to stay in safety at all, they found themselves on the move again. A new region, a new conflict between sparring factions, a new scenery of misery, and weeks passed between either of them noticed it.
The scientist, now Lady Commander of the Court Physicians or a similarly silly title, had made it back somehow, sometime along the way. Nerea closed her eyes, throwing her mind and body at the menial task of pouring tea for her and their newly crowned Queen back in their tent. Now rid of her ceremonial costume, she felt more comfortable now; she felt free. The frown that had invaded her pretty face at the thought of Miss Delano slowly faded away. She did not matter now. Not right now. Right now, it was only Olivia, Nerea, and this calming tea. Nobody else.
Finally, they had some time for themselves.
The young seer noiselessly placed one cup in front of her friend—they were still friends—before taking a sip of her own.
"Olivia,"
she called, the worry she felt for once betraying the composed coldness of her voice. A gulp went down her throat, disguised in with the warmth of another sip of her earl grey tea. A hundred and one thoughts flashed through her mind, questions and concerns and demands—mostly demands—that had been floating around her head and shoulder-length strands for months.
"Does the weight of that crown compare at all to the weight of the burdens it attracts?"
She couldn't voice them, not her questions or concerns or demands. So, instead, she tried to ask her about the coronation from that very day, she tried to break the ice. It was funny, actually. Five months ago, she would not have fathomed the need for breaking the ice. The two were still friends, but they had grown distant. She had to admit it, even though she certainly did not like even the idea of that. Something had to be done about it.
AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT, HOW DARE YOU TRASH TALK PEOPLE WITHOUT ME????? I'M SO OFFENDED RN YOU KNO LIKE I DON'T THINK I CAN EVEN INSULT YOU FROM HOW UPSET I AM, I HOPE YOU'RE PLEASED WITH YOURSELF. But ye I'm totes up for that 3-way thread. That rivalry thing with Akemi Ocasio sounds super cute, as well! So much conflict, I love it already. Poor Nerea, she did not sign up for this.
ALSO. ARTICUNO'S GOT SASS. I LIKE IT. We definitely need the rocky start and not simply because I love bickering and it's super fun but also because I wasn't aware your aesthetic was so... pedophilic. Tute, please. We'll have to figure out a way for Nerea to actually notice Lamey wants a crown of her own because she isn't perceptive enough to notice this during the coronation, not with most of her active neurons being focused on how uncomfortable the clothes are and how conflicted she feels about it, but seeing as the group itself is called the Crown and the thematic's going to be recurrent there should be plenty of opportunities for this over time. Over a long, long time, which hopefully is just as long as their differences will stay. I want all of the conflict!
Last but not least, and I'm sorry if this isn't all that relevant for their current setting, but if Lamey ever decides to retire, ERIN CAULFIELD will gladly welcome her back at you know where. #TeamAquarium will never die. (What is dead may never die.) That, and there's an AU board shhh.
TUTE. TUTE WHY aren't you talking to me. Tute talk to me. Tute stop trying to aesthetic and talk to me. Tute I will even offer you cute lesbians if you talk to me. I will also keep spamming your plotter until you talk to me. Tute. I thought you loved me. I will even personally arrange for Lamey to get a paper crown of her own, somehow. I promise. If not from Nerea, from someone else. (In all seriousness, I want to see her react to that.)
I DEMAND angry Laney/Nerea threads in which Nerea tsuns at Laney (or as much as she can tsun, which is very little, more like she kuus at her) for stealing Olivia away from her and throwing her at the fangs of danger and getting them both killed, you foolish scientist, she warned her not to go. Maybe it's just a calm, peaceful night at camp and they just happen to cross paths.
The girl clearly has attachment issues and bickering, even if one-sided, between the two lady commanders would be kind of cute, don't you think? The best part is articuno would be so confused and consider this petty human to be simply annoying and just :') thread with me, Tute, give me the threads you never gave me WHEN I WAS TRYING TO TROLL YOU.
