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Three small steps; Center related thread (invite only)
Topic Started: Mar 10 2008, 10:17 PM (308 Views)
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Foundations were laid, an empty land without any form, just the potential to be more. This nestled corner of the mountain, huddled land that had been flattened by talented hands was worked upon by a restless heart. Sweat and blood were the price of creating dreams, it wasn’t everyday that someone would bring form to them and rarer still that they would come so far in one nights work.

Yet as the dawn rose, the mountain was being touched upon by golden light. Some would see a haze on the mountain, where dust and dirt clung to the air. See the dream brought form as light and earth concealed the imperfections, blurred the rough form and only showing though the house that would be home to the dream.

The building was like a giant staircase, three steps was all it took to turn foundation into a structure. Something that could be walked upon, something that could be felt, rather than the dream. Brian sat on the top of the third layer, his blue coat was coated with brown patches. His face smeared with dirt, yet he smiled, in spite of the red’s and gold’s of dawn. He was in a place where he could feel comfortable in spite of the dawn.

Resting his feet over the edge of the third level he looked down, taking in the work he had done. Feeling the soreness spread though his arms. He was still doing this wrong, he knew it yet during the whole night he couldn’t figure out another way to pull these chains. They were bound to the stone and could not move, only lash, grab and respond to him. He had to pull he had to shape.

Kicking off a section of stone he knew the work thus far was not perfect, it was almost spotty. This wasn’t his dream yet in those hours of night he had come so far. He knew he could always go back; always change the stone as he learned more about the ability. He had time, there wasn’t some peril facing the world. Students had gone on for years without his center a few months longer wouldn’t hurt them as he mastered this ability.

Brian stood up as the dust and stone began to settle revealing the three step staircase of building, with it’s rudimentary stairs running up the side of each layer. These stone columns were not hollowed out yet. Could not house anything but the basic form was there, three layers, three columns each shorter than the last stacked on top of each other in a round motif.
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The air was restless today as it idly pushed litter about or rustled through the trees. But air itself does not naturally have a restless nature or any nature for that matter. Today was different simply because the win was being inhabited by a being who did have a nature and was feeling restless. Or perhaps frustrated and just a tad bored might be a better way of describing it. In any case it had recently become Cyra’s ritual to sink into the wind when she felt overly useless and pathetic. It allowed her to see all the other lives on campus and their struggles and realize that there was a much bigger picture to think about than her own life.

Being wind itself also had the lovely side effect of forcing her thoughts in a billion directions and making it hard to think about any one thing. When she was attempting to fight in this fashion it got a little tiring but for the moment she didn’t want to think too much. Teo was in danger once again. And once again it was because of his own selfless and giving nature. It was because of this that she loved him but sometimes it also made her heart ache. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so useless if she actually tagged along more. Recently her priorities had been keeping her daughter safe and so she’d stayed out of the direct path of harm.

Rushing through the treetops she skimmed the water allowed her mind to stray. Despite her present location flashes of images still burst in her head from the nearby area. Then very suddenly every thought froze and refocused on one place and one person. As her vision focused she immediately found herself at Dragoon Mountain. Staying as wind she swirled around the area taking in the rock formations that were quite obviously not naturally made. Turning her attention at long last to the individual who’s presence had first drawn her here, Brian.

Teo’s current greatest obsession and the reason his life was now currently in danger once more. He had saved Brian’s life but Cyra would never tell the boy that. It was Teo’s choice whether to inform him or not and seeing how it might be perceived she knew the likelihood of that happening was very slim.

For a moment she was torn, debating whether to stay and make her presence known or retreat and not bother Brian. While they didn’t know each other that well she was well aware that her association with Teo was not seen as a good thing in this case. But then again, friendship or at least understanding had to start somewhere.

Reaching out with a tendril of wind she lightly tapped his shoulder while materializing behind him. Never let it be said that Cyra would use her skills to lurk about without others knowledge. A soft if somewhat hesitant smile adorned her face and she said in friendly voice, “Hello Brian.”

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It was time to move on, no doubt Raine would wonder where he had gotten to if she woke up alone. Center had made some progress, Three steps forward in fact, Brian idly chuckled at his private joke, trying to banish away what the red dawn did to his sense of reality. Brian might have leapt off of center, yet as the red dawn came Brian noticed the instinctual familiar generation of magic in the air.

Brian’s hand charged before he recognized he was still in the real world. His shoulder rotated as it brushed off a tendril of wind magic. Rushing out towards the condensing magic taking form before it burst and hurt him. Jukken palm ready to burst away the dangerous magic when suddenly form overpowered magic and Brian recoiled in a moment as fast as the energy gathered his hand clutched closed and the burst of purple energy was crushed in his palm.

The last time he had seen this form she was laying on the ground holding Teo, sheltering him like he was sheltering her from this very same blast. Brian pulled his fist back and stood facing Cyra, he’d remembered her being taller… and far more shapely. Though now she looked diminished in his eyes, like she had become less than was she was. Yet as Brian watched her shy smile, and her greeting Brian knew it wasn’t her that had changed. His eyes had changed, tinted by another woman over his childhood crush.

The warm memory was quickly locked away as he remembered again that Teo must be involved if one of the minaminnows was here to visit him. His wife no less, so Teo couldn’t be far, Brian’s head snapped around, searching dead on with his eyes for places that he might miss with his full vision. When he couldn’t find Teo, he finally let his focus fall on Cyra who had apparently come of her own volition.

Yet Brian looked at her he couldn’t find the right words. Part of him wanted to tell her to dart off and go back to Teo. That he didn’t need any of his family hanging around, especially not hanging around something as important as this center. Another part of him still respected the memory of the woman who had been a key source of the envy he had felt towards Teo in the beginning. He had also just about punched her in the face before she had rematerialized.

With the silence hovering without even a wind to cut it, Brian’s eyes watched her, examined the situation, peered close enough to trigger the twitching eye.
“What do you want?”

It came out far harsher than he had intended. What was said though was out, he did want to know what Cyra had come down to talk to him about. His Fear that he was being probed in some way for some new resource for Teo to take from him. His guard was absolutely directed at Cyra, she was the wife of Teo.

~~

The mountain climb should have been difficult for someone of his size, but he always traveled in style. This Mark 4 deputy was fresh off the assembly line and ready for action. The company had agreed to give this test model out under the promise that all the combat data would be returned to them. Regardless of how the mechanized robot came out.

Riding on the shoulder of the seven foot steel monster put him on top of the world. The green curled around his lips and peeked out from his long green nose. In his hands he read again how fortunate he was to have found out about this venture. Brian Ronin, a meta finalist in last years tournament, had forgotten a key point in starting a business, own it from the ground up. In his other hand was the other mistake the boy had made, his school records clearly detailed some of his ventures, leaving a big skeleton closest like the cosmetic cooperation 'lily' out for anyone to find was just bad business.
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It was instinct to move. Instinct that told her that she must either fight or flee the danger that was racing at her. It was trust that kept her feet firmly planted and a firm belief that Brian would realize who she was before he hurt her and that despite his distrust and hate for Teo he wouldn’t harm her. Perhaps it wasn’t the most intelligent decision to make but thankfully Cyra had never made any claims that she was a genius so that didn’t bother her.

She watched silently as Brian’s head snapped away from her prying the surrounding area for any hint of another. It wasn’t an unexpected reaction and she understood where it came from and what fueled his suspicions. Cyra let him search knowing that even if she claimed to be alone he would do it anyway. She also knew that eventually she would regain his attention for there was no one to find lurking in the shadows. It was a brief game of patience and understanding, a game Cyra had become quite well versed in throughout her life. After all, she was always waiting; be it for Teo, recognition, freedom, love, or anything else.

In a moment Brian’s gaze returned to her own and she wondered again why she had come to him. She was probably one of the last individuals he wanted to see right then. If she were honest with herself he was also one of the last people she wanted to see at that moment as well. Through no fault of his own but because of him all the same the one she loved most was hurting and not just because of recent events. So while Cyra didn’t blame him he wasn’t exactly her favorite person right now. Unlike Teo, Cyra didn’t possess empathy but she didn’t need to be an empath to understand that the same line of thought was currently running through Brian’s head.

"What do you want?"

The question was a good one and one that Cyra was currently asking herself as well. The obvious answer of, ‘I don’t know’ probably wouldn’t fly too well but then neither would the equally honest, ‘To become your friend’. In reality she didn’t really want anything, at least not in the way that Brian was thinking. Cyra hadn’t set out that morning with him in mind and had merely run across him by accident. She wasn’t on a mission to gather information but the current circumstances of things didn’t make her look all too innocent.

She sighed quietly unsure how to present a believable peace offering. Ironically she had the feeling that Keo, her eight year old daughter would have been able to pull it off without so much as pausing to think about it. That wasn’t one of Cyra’s gifts however. In general she was slightly awkward around others due to her upbringing and experiences over the past few years. She usually operated in Teo’s shadow, happy to be quietly in the background and absorb what was going on around her. One on one confrontations just weren’t her area of expertise. But she’d instigated this one and that meant she couldn’t run from it.

"I want nothing," she said softly. "I know I can’t convince you of this but I’m not here on some errand to gather information or keep an eye on you. I just…" she trailed off. How to continue when she didn’t know herself? "I wanted to try at least to just talk to you."
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Though Teo may not have been close he still felt like he was watching. As if Teo would ever let one of his family confront him without in some way watching the outcome of the situation. Brian knew fairly well that if Teo could, he’d have his mind always upon those people that he thought interesting. Even if he’d deny the blatant invasion of privacy, still it had been months since Teo or his family had been anywhere remotely involved with his life. Cyra’s appearance seemed most troubling of all.

In all the time Brian had known Teo, with each mounting hostility between them Cyra had never stepped out and tried to talk to him before. Something must be wrong with Teo if she wanted to talk, regardless of what she said, claiming she wanted nothing he was sure that she hadn’t come to talk. Years had gone by without a word, it was far too late for a talk to try and just make things better.

Brian felt the red dawn fade as blue wash over the sky, his mind brushed away the irritating redness that had invaded and he looked at Cyra even closer. He’d picked up nothing from her, nothing at least that his twitching eye could see for him. He had only her word that she was here to talk to him years too late to do any good. Brian’s frown was evident before he uttered a word.

“It’s several years too late. I don’t know what you or your family was doing while Teo made every attempt to win me over by offering me your family over upon me. Or where you all were when he decided to take something from my soul, but I’m done with him and his family. Teo has plenty of people to protect and to protect him. I don’t need him and I don’t need the Minaminnows.”

Maybe a year ago Brian would have shouted at Cyra, roared for all the pain Teo had caused him with his misguided help. Sought to hurt her emotionally for the things the man she loved had done. Yet Brian wasn’t angry anymore, Teo be dammed and he wanted nothing to do with him. Yet that didn’t mean he had to destroy Teo, the world was big enough to let Teo have his side, and let him save those people that had come to rely upon his salvation.

Brian turned his back on Cyra but looked over his shoulder.
“Mind the building you’re standing on. It may not look like much yet, but it’s mine.”

Brian leaped off the step down to the one below; his feat hit was a soft thud. Standing again he was about to leap to the ground level when a glint of metal caught his eye. Exiting the tree line Brian saw a humanoid robot carrying a small man on its shoulder. Center wasn’t even half built yet and already people were flocking to the site. Brian couldn’t tell if he should count his blessings or curse his luck. He was defiantly going to miss Raine this morning.

~~

The structure already built made Mr. Garcia’s mouth water, already this Meta had taken an empty lot and turned it into something that some rich man would call art. Three stone slabs standing tall and out on the open soil. The price value he could get alone on this land was already well worth what he had paid for to buy it out from under Brian.

The boy was there already, this would make things so much easier, all he had to do was present the boy with the deed, and he’d have leverage enough to get him to come work for him. Even if the work was unfavorable, from how much work this boy put into his project he surely wouldn’t give it up easily. This made him pliable to being pushed around a little bit.

Mr. G. “Hurry up! We must meet with Brian before he leaves. If you cannot meet that performance standard I will be sure to tell your creators about your poor performance!”

The robots legs swung a little longer, chugging along at a slightly faster pace, while Mr. Garcia was bounced around in his suit a little bit more. They were still far out from reaching the mountain path, but making good time to reach the site of Center.
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Normally Cyra made a rule of not overanalyzing a situation or thinking about what ifs when she was currently still in the middle of said situation. Her thoughts were behaving quite contrarily to this rule as they scurried back and forth over the past few minutes thinking how she might have possibly handled it better to create a more desirable situation at present. Sadly she had the feeling that it wasn’t the last few minutes but the last few years that she needed to redo. But there was really no point in dwelling since she couldn’t solve her problems by going back. The present what she needed to face, as badly prepared for it as she was.

Despite her desire to face the present she knew the past couldn’t be undone and obviously Brian did not share her wish to forget the past. It was her own fault. She had never really tried to get to know him before. Not because of any dislike for him but more because of her innate shyness. Add to that the fact that Teo had taken a special interest in him and she hadn’t wanted to intrude. Looking back that was her mistake but as they say, ‘hindsight is 20/20”. Though who this supposed they was she wasn’t sure.

Brian’s words made her recoil inwardly but she struggled to maintain a smooth expression. Whether she achieved this or not most likely depended on how observant Brian decided to be at that moment. If asked, Cyra wasn’t sure she would be able to correctly answer whether she was more affronted by the blatant hatred for her husband or for herself and family.

‘You knew all this before you decided to talk to him,’ she lectured herself. ‘Suck it up.’

Letting a soft sign out through thinly parted lips she forcibly perked up her drooping ears and smoothed her sad expression. Not that it mattered since Brian had turned his back to her and had apparently dismissed her though he did pause long enough to give a kind of parting shot. Though he might not have intended it to sound thus, to Cyra it seemed like he was telling her that where she was belonged to him and he didn’t want her there.

He needn’t have worried. Not one to stay where she wasn’t wanted she turned and was about to dissolve back into the wind when she noticed an odd robot with a little man coming towards both her and Brian. Although she had not been wind itself, she made it a habit to continually monitor the area around her; a habit picked up from living a life of unpredictable kidnappings and attacks. The pair had just stepped within her monitoring boundary and for that reason had only just caught her attention.

She knew neither of the approaching individuals and that in itself made her somewhat nervous. Though she didn’t know all those on campus by name, she knew pretty much every face in the immediate area and this man was a stranger. Spinning back around she pondered a moment, wondering whether she should leave or stay. She doubted very much that Brian would want her help even if she offered it but that didn’t mean she could just leave him if he needed it either.

For a moment she nibbled her lower lip, debating as to which course to take. Then with one last sad glance at Brian and a whispered ‘good luck’ she dissolved back into the air, appearing to leave him. In reality she stayed waiting to see what would play out. She knew this little charade wouldn’t fool Brian but perhaps it would give him an ally, as detestable as she was, or at least a witness.

But then, maybe she was jumping to conclusions and there was nothing to fear from the duo that came increasingly closer. But… better safe than sorry.
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The robot approached fairly quickly without enough steam to dislodge the rider, Brian was nervous enough. Seeing a robotic guardian approach wasn’t on his list of applicable warm welcomes. Rather than drop to the ground Brian held the high ground and let the pair approach him, looking down on them as they approached the base level of Center, he put on a smile.

“How can I help you, not many people come out this way.”

The green long eared person stood up on the robots shoulder looking up at Brian with a fire in his eyes daring Brian to remain in his assumed position above him. He seemed to ignore the question Brian had posed and dusted his suit off. Looking around taking in the land his green skin stretched to his own smile under his long nose. Then finally when Brian’s foot tapped impatiently did he muster his voice to Brian.

Mr. G “Well you see I made a sizeable land purchase the other day and I came to inspect my lands. I’ve heard of you, some good things, but you must know this structure here certainly wouldn’t do for my plans for this land.”

Brian stepped back, a confused crook to his head as his brow betrayed the instant frustration to what he had just heard. This ideal location for Center belonged to him.. only recently? He didn’t even think about the land… it was always assumed this was just free land, nobody owned it, he pitched his tents here but that didn’t mean he owned it.

“I’m… sorry but you own this land?”

Mr. G “Lock stock and barrel, this area is rich in minerals and I’m going to strip mine it for all it’s worth. There won’t be a mountain when I’m done. HA HA HA”

Brian clenched his fists beating energy along with the beating of his heart, he couldn’t do that, he needed this place like it was. Needed to build Center, it would be better than ripping this place apart! Garcia smiled as the glint in his eye caught Brian’s frustration, he would make his move now. Buy Brian so simply, for so dirt cheep.

Mr. G “Though you seem to have put a lot of work into developing this area. I mean I could see the building forming there. Not your average meta human for sure. All of them are better suited for demolition than construction. I’ll make a deal with you, for the deed to this portion of land…”

Brian looked relieved, all he had to do was make a deal, some easy labor or something, maybe he would trade the land for a statue. Brian nodded, held back the frustration in hope that he could win back the land he’d foolishly thought his. Mr Garcia felt his fish on the line.

Mr. G “Good good come down here, Brian, we’ll sign the agreement, you’ll come to work for me, and I’ll even help you develop this quaint future home.”
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