Midsummer NiGHTopia [open, and still accepting characters, humans now avalible]

Lei-Lei was delighted that these two agree on participating, it would make her mission easier, only needing to find 2 more maren, but before they could make a full commitment, a familiar face interrupted the ordeal, Puc who stood at the arch of the other hallway, carrying the broken spirit of Eva, didn't understand there situation, it didn't matter to him, only the effort to heal Eva, "Chive, Eva collapsed on our travels. Please....I need your assistance....she's fading....."

"Fade-.." Exo stuttered breathlessly, staring at the lax figure of Eva hanging in Puc's arms, "...Ev-" but Exo was thrown off his train of though, a gust of wind blowing into his face as a blur when down the hallway, blowing past Lei-Lei at a pace only one of a family could ever muster..Chive.
"..Eva...?" Chive instantly called as he reached his older sister, who sat bunched up in her love's care, head resting on his chest, what was once a white face now nothing but a slowly growing pale light blue. "Eva...Eva, are you ill..?" Chive wanted to hear her say she's okay, say that perhaps instead of a collapse, it was just a mere trip backwards or something....but Eva wouldn't say anything to him, all she gave was just one single slow blink...before remaining still again, head slipping forward against Puc's chest more and more over time.
"...Take her to my room.." Exo announced quietly, recieving an awe-struck look from Chive, a look Exo wasn't proud of seeing. "...My room is closer...bring her in here.." As Exo moved towards his room and threw the door open, Chive once again let his shock go on stand-by, trying to keep his calm composure as he turned to address Puc, hands shakey. "Please take her to his bed, Puc.." Chive said with a quivering voice, drawing back towards his room to go and retrieve his brush, "Do not worry about going in there....you are to be welcomed in any room now.." With that plea shared, Chive turned completely, almost bumping into Lei-Lei before swerving around her and blasting into his quarters once more.
Eva...why did you let this happen to yourself...?!

"okay." Puc never expected Exo to ever be generous....yet somehow, he understand how terrifying this was, maybe he wasn't as heartless as he claims to be. Puc hovered past the two brothers, and the strange but familiar girl, right into Exo's room, the door already ajar, Puc flew right in and gently laid Eva down on his bed....he could only hope she doesn't truly give up on life.
Lei-Lei watched the worrying with no change of emotion, she knew the set up, she knew the cruelty to it....but it still wasn't worth preventing... "I see you two are now busy. You will be summoned when all 7 nightmaren are found. Until then....I hope for the best in her recovery." Lei-Lei left back through the portal, Wizeman will be pleased by these results.

All the comotion going around never reached Eva's concern, her mind still clouded by one thought, and one thought only...purposeless existance. Eva didn't notice at all as she was carried from room to room, didn't notice the nervous eyes and quickened movements following those who got a look at her discolored face, didn't notice at all that she had been brought into Exo's room, of all places...but what Eva did notice..made her wake back up. She felt herself moving....slowly, gently, but moving still, falling down with grace onto something below her. Eva didn't want to fall, she wanted to stay where she was, where she knew where she was, where she wants to keep being...within Puc's arms.
As she was lain down on the white of Exo's bed, Eva immediately brought a cold, gloved hand up and gripped Puc's sleeve, holding on with an empty look in her eyes. She doesn't want this....Puc..don't take Puc away..wherever they are, whoever's around...please, don't take Puc away...he's the thing to keep living for...without him...it's over..

"Eva?" Exo asked as he moved to his sibling, who lied staring with half-open eyes up at her Piglet, holding onto his sleeve with a trembeling hand. "Eva...Eva, what happened to you out there? Remember for me." Exo waited, but Eva gave not reply, all she continued to do, was hold onto her Piglet, and blink slowly.
Chive panted as he hurried in, brush balanced against his shoulder as he caught his breath, ready to do all he can to help his sibling become stable again...but..he looked at Eva..the same sight Exo seemed to be intrested in....their older sister, persona-less..in a broken heap...on someone else's bed.

it was difficult to bare this sight, seeing Eva, barely alive, barely breathing, and gripping tightly onto Puc's sleeve, she didn't want him to leave, especially if she's using her remain strength to keep him close. "Eva......" Puc's anger boiled inside him, his rage against Wizeman, slowly, returning.

Lei-Lei returned sooner then expected, announcing her findings, "The nightmaren brothers Chive, and Exo, are participants 4 and 5, where else would you like me to search, Master?"
"I see....." Wizeman pondered, he had felt a strange pulse of a re-awoken nightmaren for sometime, "Go to the Dream Gate, you will find a nightmaren there, she is known for animating plant life, be cautious...." Wizeman remembered her...not by name....but by destruction...
"Yes Master, I will find her." Lei-Lei accepted, as she paralooped to the Dream Gate.

Exo didn't understand why Eva was responding to Piglet in her state if she's unresponsive to everything else around her...but whatever the reason for her doing this...Piglet probably knew why.
"Puc.." Chive began as he flew over to Exo's bed, kneeling down on the soft white next to Eva's free side, "...during her collapse..did she perhaps hit her head or something..? I...i do not understand this condition from a mere fall..." Chive trailed off, looking down at Eva again, her eyes almost all the way closed. She had to stay awake...just a little bit longer..she's in no condition to fall asleep with promise she'll wake up again.
Nothing minor could have done this to her, Chive knew that much to be true. He has never seen such soulless eyes before...it's like the will in them has vanished away, the only sign of a want of life being the cold hand gripping Puc's sleeve, not wanting to let go...but..why?

"No, she landed safely on the ground....but..." Puc was holding back from telling them anything, after all, Eva collapsed from what Puc told her....it's Puc's fault she's in this state.....but yet....Eva wanted him to be more honest, she also freaked out about Vaye's kiss...but easily recovered from that...."She laughed hysterically before her collapse.....discovering......that Wizeman has set her free....."

Neither Chive nor Exo could believe the truth that Puc had just uttered, both of them now trapped in their own unbelieving thoughts, leaving absolute silence to rule the room, with the only noise left being what air Eva would let herself take in. Eva..has been decomissioned...?
...Decomissioned...Eva was the top one out of the three of them,..and yet...she was decomissoned...let go of her duties...taken away from everything familiar, and cast into anything but...and now...she must feel as though her purpose is over, and thus, her existance should follow suit.......but..she can't go..they won't let her yet.

Eva felt her eyes slowing becoming harder to hold open, but before whatever happens happens..there's something left that she wants to do...there wasn't enough left in her to fear rejection. With a quick flick of her free hand, Eva sent a common signal to her siblings, a signal they were more then used to seeing her ask of them...to step out. Chive and Exo didn't understand why she would want to be alone in her shape...but with all that they've learned in from such a small statement...they would allow her a moment of alone-time if not just a secret moment to give time for them to think. And besides...it seems that Puc would still be in here...what, with Eva's grip still keeping him in her reach. Exo and Chive exchanged a glance before slowly rising up and departing out to the hallway, leaving Eva to give a hard swallow as she forced her eyes to open back to their half open state....she felt she at least had to ask now..the force that had assured her of that future coming true is gone..
".....Puc..." Eva began softly, looking up to him with empty eyes half closed, "...I've always wondered what life might bring along one day...but in the back of my heart...I've always had this idea of one thing that would last throughout the rest of it, bringing nothing but the purest of happiness to fill it...but since I am no longer under my right to have you as my partner, the force that held us together thoughout our time by manditory means is now dead, leaving that future without a garuntee...but...even so..." Eva let her gaze slip to the floor as she let out a sigh, trying to place the words she wished to say...but even if they were words from her heart...they still felt a little hard to repeat outside of her mind. "...Well...you see....I never really..asked you..but........well..." Eva bit her lip as she let her gaze come back up to Puc, a little shade of pink coming though the pale blue of her face as she gradually eased her cold grip on his sleeve, "...I..I always think about such a thing, but...if you wouldn't mind...I'd....like to spend my life.....with you..."

Vaye slept peacefully at the Dream Gate Fountain, after her encounters with the loud and rambling SPiTE, she deserved a good amount of rest, before returning to her scheduled plans of anything and everything she wants to accomplish. Lei-Lei arrived silently through the portal, giving a concerned face to her next target, the nightmaren that recklessly fights with plants in deadly ways. Lei-Lei approached her slowly, cautious of any traps set up, however...there were none, she easily walked up to Vaye, sleeping soundly.....pushing her into the fountain.

Puc could tell, even her family understood, being removed from Wizeman's command, is the worst fate a nightmaren, as loyal as Eva, can go through in life.... The brothers then left, Puc...had no where else to go, and stayed by Eva's side, listening to her softly spoken words....this was not like her....to talk like this.....does she really think......she's dying?
"Eva, Wizeman may have put us together as Master and servant, but that shouldn't mean our adventures end there. I was foolish to think you being free would be good for us, I have forgotten how much you cared for your Master.....yes, Eva....I will spend my life with you, and protect you......Always..." Puc kissed Eva, it was the only cure he had in her time of need.

Puc was right.....Puc was right..
Just because something in Eva's life has been severed...that doesn't mean everything else on that line has to be wisked away along with it...Eva..Eva might still be able to operate with this new order..she just has to figure out a system in which to live by.....Puc was right....and Puc was drawing up closer again..
At her kiss, Eva let her eyes slip closed, color flooding back into her cheeks, the pale blue slowly but surely transforming to white again. Puc said yes...Puc had said yes..yes to spending their lives together..yes to keeping their adventures alive....yes to showing Eva how to take steps on her own, and walk by herself for the first time.
Thank you, Puc...thank you. Eva wanted to sing those words out, tell Puc how much he truely means to her, thank him for showing her a way to keep taking another breath of air..tell him she loves him..but as their kiss ended, all Eva could do was give a smile, a tear coming out from one of her eyes as her head rolled gently to the side..finally falling asleep after the perfect day with Puc, that they almost had managed to pull off.

SPLASH! Vaye's eyes opened wide to notice she had been submerged underwater, and drastically swam back to the surface, gasping and grabbing a hold of the edge of the fountain, soaking wet, a voice spoke to her.
"Now that I've got your attention, I have an invitation for you, from your former master."
Vaye struggled but was able to get her way out of the fountain, and view the culprit, she seemed familar, and the only action Vaye took, was stare her down......she was however, curious...."An invitation to what....?"

Puc was releaved, the pale and distorted Eva returned back to her usual tone in flesh, her pulse normal, and she sweetly fell asleep, she needed her rest, and so did Puc. Eva understood, she can adjust...nightmarens can live on their own.....they just need someone of equal interest to share their life with......an interesting solution...
Puc left Exo's room floating down the hallway, releasing a sigh, calm once more.

Exo and Chive's heated debate on why Eva's position has been terminated was cut short by the opening of a nearby door, a quiet and sleepy Puc flying out from it. Not able to help themselves, Chive and Exo blankly let their eyes keep on Puc's back as he made his way to his quarters, hearing him utter that calming sigh before fading from sight around the corner...it made their curious minds go flying once again...but mainly...just Exo's.
Why would Piglet sigh? What's there to sigh about, Eva's going to get better...she is, correct? So, why sigh when there's no need to? Nothing has happened.................HAS SOMETHING HAPPENED??
Without a second thought going through his head, Exo shot into his doorway, viewing from a distance, a non-moving Eva, head limply rolled to the side...with eyes closed. "Eva??" Exo blurted, his grip popping the unfortunate door frame cletched in his hands, "Eva???" Still recieving not one reply, Exo raced over to his sibling, followed by a worried Chive, who stalled at the door breifly before flying in after his brother. He didn't want the grim news that Eva might....sister might..might have...no...! Don't take Eva!!
"Eva??!?!" Exo called out again as he held his sibling in his arms, her head hanging limply away, no life in her face as her eyes still remained closed...while a single, glistening trail leading away from her eye now showed off in the light. "...Eva...? .....Ev..a.....?" Exo couldn't believe it...is......is she gone..? Is Eva really gone...? It can't be...she's always been here...always been here to fight and bicker with him, call him absurd names whenever he voiced his logical opinons...always been here when he needs something...but..now...there's no way she could be gone...he...he--..
But Exo stoped, his eyes stuck in an enraged stare, lowering his gaze to his sister's face as he hushed the room to silence, waiting to see if what he had just heard was correct...and sure enough...he knew it..there it was.......a soft snore.
That little HAG!!! How DARE she put this feeling into him?!?!? Make him go through all that!!!! Convince him of something that shall never happen had happened!!!! WHY HE OUGHT TO-!
"Chive-" Exo ordered flatly, his rage still embeded into his popped open eyes, a scowl written across his face as he picked Eva up and held her out to him, "Get her out of here. I dont care where you take her, whether she wakes up wet or dry, or whether she wakes up with a Nightopian shoved down her throat....just get this hag out of my room."

At last....time to rest...Puc entered his room landing directly on his bed with a second guess, and dozing into his slumber, too much had gone on to make Puc consider wonderful, he got his ability to fly, Eva puts her self through a near-death experience, and above all, he had been able to get Eva to see the brighter side of things....the solution to all these problems....how long he has waited for this answer....

"To a tournament, I've been sent to find Wizeman's choices to be competing, and he has requested you to join in battle." Lei-Lei reported, still staring down each other...
"So all I have to do is beat the others and I win, sounds simple.....but what's the prize?" Vaye asked, her greed being her greatest concern towards objectives.
"One wish, granted by Master Wizeman." Lei-Lei said bluntly, as Vaye giggled with joy
"One wish.....I could wish for anything......oh....yes, yes, I'll be apart of it." Vaye danced around fountain as Lei-Lei left, such an opportunity, any desire can become true....

Managing to exit out of his brother's room before he slammed his door shut, Chive stood with droopy eyes in the center of their hallway, holding onto his sleeping sister, feeling her warm again...how he wants to keep her. He still hasn't a clue why Eva has been dropped from service..she seemed to him like one of the most admiring of Master since day one...but if he had decided to let her go......she must have screwed up.
Ever since the begining, Eva has helped Chive with what to he can do to make his existance count, to complete the task asigned to them as the subjects of their Master, to see to it that he is truely satisifed, and undergo his demands with a smile. She'd always tell him that their purpose is to make Master pleased with everything, and when that day comes, they can die happily with the knowledge that they had done their job...but...wait..perhaps Eva never did screw up.......maybe she had managed to achieve that level and satisfy Master to which he gave her a gift of her own life...but that line he has always been told..."die happily"....he always thought she ment if that day ever came...not...right after..
Reaching Eva's bed with warm Eva still in his care, Chive regreatably let his sister down, covering her up with her covers as she nuzzled her face into her pillow.
"...I may not understand what you think of your duty in life..." Chive began sadly, looking at his snoozing sibling...watching her smiling face, "....but..thank you for staying...thank you for staying, Eva...please, never die." Chive bent down, and for what might be the first time in all his memory, gave Eva a hug...an awkward one at that, but a hug is a hug..wanting to have her within sight for just a minute more, before he forced his scurrying self out, back to his resting quarters, closing Eva's door on his departure...and not noticing at all, as Eva watched him leave...before shutting her eyes again.

Once again, Lei-Lei arrived in Master's chambers, bowing to her Master, "Vaye is the 6th to join us, who shall I find as the last participant, Master?"
"There is no need to search for another, it seems one nightmaren heard of this already, making Vaye the 7th."
Lei-Lei was puzzled, was there a spy who caught this info from her....she was careless if an unnamed nightmaren was added to this event without her knowing.
"Now rest Proto, tomorrow, the ritual begins." Letting Lei-Lei resign for today, Wizeman had to focus on the finishing touches to his ultimate personas.

Being called back into her world of white as the night drifted to day, a yawn and a stretch were soon given by the occupant of this white prison, soon followed by the sound of something ploping blankly into a pillow... and coming along not one moment after that..a moan. Waking up alone...waking up with a throbing head...not a teriffic way to start the day....but it's not like Eva will be given a place to go anymore, so why even bother getting up...
...No..wait...she told herself she wasn't going to think like that anymore, Puc had told her everything wasn't over...and Eva was going to believe him...things aren't all over, just greatly depressi-...diffrent.
Rolling onto her back as she stared up to the ceiling above, Eva gave a quiet grunt, studying herself in the reflective stone above her...but what she saw...couldn't be right...it almost looked like her persona wasn't even on her face. How silly....she'd never let it come off without her knowing so..this must simply be some form of illusion, a trick on her eyes, some mistake of the reflection's part...but putting a cold hand up to her face to place a true test to rule out this absurd appearance...what was left of Eva's tired ol' heart killed over instantly. Persona is gone....her persona is gone...why isn't it there...? When had it stopped being there? She has to find it...it's all she has left of her decaying world...she has to find her persona...she has to get the last of what she has left back...!
With a throw of the covers and a leap from her bed, Eva fumbled with her coat, putting it on backwards in haste as she tried to remember where...where it might have gone, where it had been taken from her, where it had been stolen......and then she remembered. That shiny thing on the hill after her tumble down...that glistening metalic peice of perfection that had made everything around it appear hideous in comparassion to its beauty...the hill has her persona...that stupid, stupid, sweet dream.
With a shot backwards Eva traced herself a portal back, back to the start of the trees, back to her path to the hill, but taking a step forward unkowingly onto her backwards coat, Eva tripped, landing on her side with a hard thump. She knows...she knows, coat, she knows. ...She should just stay here and let the persona go, she knows...but she can't....she just can't yet...she wasn't ready to say goodbye...and if her coat is stopping her...then so be it......it can stay here; and with a regretful sprint off into the trees through her portal, Eva left her coat sitting on the floor, slopily folded.

Puc awoke, something was amiss, having only gotten enough sleep to stay stable, he sat up, first thought going through his mind, if Eva was stable herself, after being put through her unforgotten experience, it would still be difficult to tell......if everything was back to normal again. Puc just had to know, just had to.....gliding out of his room and down the hall, his heart raced....was Eva feeling better?

Eva scrambled through the path she had toured with Puc the day, breath heavy as she felt her heart grow cold. She didn't know if it was bad of her to come and get her persona, something that will end up hurting her more than helping her...but something in her told her not to let it go, she has to keep it with her still....even if it means nothing in sentimental value now. Maybe...maybe if she just hurried, no one will be any the wiser to her little run...it will be as if she had never even set foot in this horrid, horrid place again..she just has to hurry...just hurry...
Thowing her weight over the fallen trunk that rests at the end of the trail, Eva once again headed for the parting light glowing from the end of the trees, knowing that the other side must have her persona waiting for her, still stuck in the side of the hill, patiently waiting for the person it was crafted for to come back and polish it, care for it, make it more important than life itself...but racing into the open...stoping herself at the top of the hill...her persona was not lodged into the earth..no, no...it had fallen free of the clumps of dirt holding it up...must have slid down the hill end over end until ending up where it is now...right into the leaning flowers that Eva had rolled herself into..a shining piece..missing.

Meow?, rustling through the hills covered by flowers of blue and yellow...
Meow??, a rouge cat sneaked through the floors, search the grounds at its master's command.
Meow!, something had caught it sight, it rose up from the floors, the cat itself, just a head and a tail, balanced on its tail, and looked curiously, a nightmaren was here.

Puc knocked on Eva's door, only waiting for second before asking, "Eva, are you awake?" a pain gripped in him....Puc was worried, anything could have happened to her in his time of sleep......well, not everything. Puc had to calm down, and be patient, the answer would show itself in due time.....Puc still remained impatient.

As Eva slowly made her way down the hill towards her waiting persona, her waiting comfort, her eyes drifted into the thin hole it had pressed into the land, a glistening shine still coming from the space. With a heartbroken bend down, Eva let her fingers press into the hole, gripping something metalic before pulling back...the upper left-hand edg of her persona coming out along with her hand. She couldn't believe this...never has she felt so small, so insignifigant to the world..so defenseless. Her mask, the mask the mighty Eva once used throughout the days she was blessed to honor its meaning..it's broken..chipped, cast away into two pieces..why..? She still doesn't understand...Master didn't even tell her himself......but she's supposed to be 'free'? She doesn't know what a free person is supposed to do..what they're supposed to think..what they're supposed to look like, and yet...she's to live as one? How....how..?
Reaching the bottom of the hill, Eva gently knelt down, picking up the whole part of her persona as she sat herself down on her knees, cradiling the two pieces in her hands. What is she supposed to do...? The only person who can help her isn't even here right now..she missed him....the most perfect thing in all the world..

The cat continue to skitter through the flowers, slowly approaching the red nightmaren, the cat paused for a moment, judging the scene....it could feel the emotion from Eva, strong and deep......she longed for something to return. The cat grinned, its teeth cheek to cheek, and appeared in front of Eva, acting innocent as it rubbed against her leg, purring.

Eva wasn't sure what to make of this strange cat's odd appearance, but judging by its affectionate actions...it seemed like it might be harmless enough..
"Well, hello there..." Eva whispered quietly to her visitor, bringing one of her hands up to scratch it behind its ear, the gentle purrs easily winning her crumpled trust, "..I wonder who you could be..." Eva has never seen this being before, let alone any other cats then the highly ranked select few...but at it's odd entrance...Eva wasn't sure what to think..but the little comfort this cat has provided isn't something she'll ever complain about.
It did make her wonder what this thing is doing out here...

The cat purred louder, enjoying Eva's touch. it was time to take a chance, this broken-heart nightmaren was in need of assistance, maybe a deal could be struck? The cat pulled away from Eva's grasp taking a piece of the broken persona in its mouth and slinking off through the flowers.

Puc couldn't wait any longer, Puc floated back to Exo's room, Eva had yet to respond, something was up. He opened the door, "Eva, please wake up!" floating back in he saw the bed......Exo slept in it........Puc blinked.......he didn't know....that Eva was moved somewhere else....and now.......Puc might have awoken an angry Exo......

Being woken up is one of the most annoying things in the world to Exo...and unless Piglet somehow has turned into Master, and is requesting his presence for an assignment...he'd better dissapear before Exo turns himself around. "Piglet-" Exo drowsily snorted, still lying turned away from him, his purturbed eyes staring daggers and swords at the wall, "Of all places...your hag should be in her quarters, do you not agree? I honestly don't care what you want from that hag, but for the love of Wizeman...I shall only count to three...and by then....you had better be gone and out of my quarters...or so help me, I shall not take responsibility for how fast you fly out that door..."
Exo was grumpy, Exo was sleepy, but most of all, Exo was still angry from what Eva had done to him before...all events making for such a wonderful combination, and unfortunately for Puc, the one that had poked the bear ends up first on the dinner plate unless he can manage to get himself up and out of Exo's space before the bear stands.
Sure, Piglet has no trouble barging in his room...yet he doesn't even go and peak in Eva's first....intelligent little thing she's managed to pick up, isn't he..

"Wh-.." Eva breathed out as she felt the weight in her hands suddenly become lighter, a glistening peice of metal trailling out of the cat's mouth as it sunk into the flowers...taking away what might be the only bit of her old self along with it. "Where are you going with that-!?" Acting before anything else, Eva followed after the cat, keeping it in sight by where the flowers shifted. This cat wasn't going to take anything away...she's tired of having things taken away..she's going to do something about this.
This cat won't escape her.
..it won't.

Puc didn't dare apologize, just did as Exo said, and fly straight out of there. Exo was right, it would have been obvious to check Eva's room first, but after yesterday's events, the last time he saw Eva was in Exo's room. Foolish of Puc to think Exo would even dare share his bed to his sister.....Puc soon arrived at Eva's door, knocking on it and calling for Eva.......silence again.......

The cat popped up from the flowers, seeing red, now peeved nightmaren following close behind, the cat dove back into the flowers, quickly and surely, arrived at its destination, letting the nightmaren traveled closer, as the cat stood still, preparing to jump high....