[[ Nyu, you're completely fine. >o< I think I see what you mean- Michael was.. always?.. in hard times, so he's unlike Seth for having a stable life to begin with- but their lives both ended up on the same path~? ]]

Seth nonchalantly kept walking as he saw a ghost-girl come into view behind Michael. He decided it was smart to stay out of the conversation and not peep a word about blaming Ariel for being out of contact if she was going to get so upset over Michael not staying in one place. Instead, he listened to their talk, perplexed by Michael's secrecy over his tattoo. "Michael~" Seth said, rather charmingly and slightly out of his natural character. "It's your turn~ what happened?"

[hai hai~ ^^]

If she could, Ariel would probably be 'bullying' the boy for scaring her so much. She blinked at Seth's question and looked at Michael, she didn't even know how exactly his tattoo came to be. Michael sighed softly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I was born with it. Every year up until a few years ago, it grew with my my body until it was the size it was supposed to be. Every time I use it, it's gets a little bit more powerful. Meaning, every time I'm in trouble, or someone close to me is, it activates and gets us out of trouble. Like earlier when we flew. That was the dragon doing it's job." The tattoo wouldn't grow anymore, but it would definitely come to life if it kept activating so much.

[[ Ne, which character out of any of your role-plays most fits you? *curiosity spike* ]]

Seth looked behind himself once more, seeing that the trees were starting to thin out. He was fascinated by Michael's story. The thought crossed Seth's mind that maybe, in a distant place, Michael was the spirit and Ariel was the human. He chuckled softly at this thought and turned his attention back to Michael. "Wouldn't that be fun, having your own pet dragon~?" he asked cheerfully. Seth never had any pets, but he heard that they could be as close friends to their owner as any human ever was to another. Thinking over the types of closeness that existed in the world, Seth found himself slowly reverting to think over his friendship with Alex. He also thought about the desire he had to be around Michael. 'Life used to be so simple..' he thought longingly. 'It probably still is, for most.'

[eh? O.o]

'It would definitely not be fun to have a pet dragon. If that thing comes to life it- it'll come after Michael to kill him unless he can harness the power himself.' Ariel grits her teeth, knowing that much about the tattoo due to 'knowing' his family. 'Michael's being used as a host right now, that's the only reason why the dragon is protecting him.' "Enough, all right? I'm standing right here." Michael pauses and reminds her with pain in his eyes before shaking his head and continuing to walk. Being a host who would be hunted afterwards was news to him. Ariel flinched a little she was reminded. 'Michael... I'm sorry- I didn't mean...' She lowered her head and hovered in place.

[[ My role-play characters always end up having at least one trait in common with me- some more than others- what about you? ;o ]]

Seth watched Ariel go off about the dragon tattoo with an amused expression. He adjusted his pace to fit Michael's- when Michael paused, Seth slowed to a halt, but when Michael began to walk again, Seth was hesitant. After a few steps backwards, Seth stopped completely and just let the boy nearly run into him. He planted his feet in the ground and put his hands on Michael's shoulders, leaning in close. "Hey," he whispered. "You and I are alike. We both saw what happened to your home, it was gone within seconds. It happened to me, too- Onyx does the exact same thing to people." Seth fought back the emotions that promised to be a nuisance to the situation. "But I'm still here, right?" he asked in his same soft tone, again searching for an answer in Michael's deep eyes. "If I can live to say so, then it would be fun to have a pet dragon."

[ohh~ right-o ^3^ most of characters definitely have at least one of my traits if not more x3]

Michael came to stop when Seth placed his hand on his shoulder. He sighs softly and looks at Seth, nodding lightly. His eyes were unreadable as the boy listen's to Seth's soft voice. "Yeah." He agreed, chuckling some with his comment about having a pet dragon. "It would be pretty cool, yeah?"

He glanced at Ariel. "You comin' short-stuff?" Ariel blinked a few times and smiled. 'Yep!' She hovered over to the two boys.

"Yeah," Seth said as he smiled. He took a step out of Michael's personal space and turned to walk forwards again. He pointed a finger out to the edge of the trees, where he could see a field and a few clouds hanging low in the sky. "We're almost there." Seth felt relieved to be away from the massive Onyx- 'Almost,' he reminded himself. Seth remembered that the Onyx had been quicker to move and find Michael's tree house, whereas his own looked like Alex had personally carried his curse around. Seth narrowed his eyes as he gazed out across the horizon. 'It's getting smarter, isn't it?' he thought. 'Stronger, too.' Suddenly, he felt extremely sick. He faintly remembered looking down at his injury and seeing a new feature prior to showing Michael- the 'black sun rays' that appeared to be reaching out from the center.. 'What if it's learning on it's own, learning how to get past my resistance?'

Michael followed Seth and Ariel followed behind him as the three of them walked.

Seth was extremely relieved to be out in a fairly open area. He knew that his only threat was the ground, and nothing was going to jump out from the sky. 'At least, not yet.' He turned to put his arms out in the sunshine and embrace the light, but the pain in his side stopped him about halfway through the motion. He sighed and looked around for a place to call shelter. The grass was tall, since they were out in the prairie-like fields, so worst-case they could find concealment there. Seth was somewhat annoyed that he didn't see a city nearby. I could've sworn there was a village out here..' He shrugged it off and continued to walk just a little further from the woods."This is about as good as I can get it. I know there's a village out here somewhere- if you ever feel like exploring." he said as he looked up at the sky. He took note that he hadn't seen angel feathers for some time.

Michael followed until Seth came to stop, that's when he fell to his butt. "I'm just gonna sit here for a minute..." He says then lays down on the grass and covers his eyes from the light that was left from the sun since it was still up. Ariel looked around. 'This place...' 'Something is seriously wrong, it's gonna get better unless we do something.' Ariel says quietly. 'Finding the source and taking it out might fix all of this...' She adds, thinking on her toes.

Seth sat down cross-legged after Michael did and put his hands together underneath his chin. He watched Ariel float around and raised an eyebrow. "If it's the same presence as at the tree house, then I proudly proclaim that I am the source," he said sarcastically to her, grinning. "-Though I'd appreciate it if you spared my core; I'm not an apple." he added, making sure Ariel both knew and understood that he was partially kidding. Seth really wasn't in the mood to have a spirit after him. That wasn't his job, picking fights and all.. 'Never mind the core, if it tattoos my skin then it's already in my freaking blood.' he thought before checking on Michael who had taken shelter from the sunlight.

"Really, Ariel, what do you think it is?" Seth asked in a more serious, down-to-earth manner.

Ariel glances at Seth and smirks, picking up on his joke rather quickly then blinked at the mention of the tree house as if it just reached her ears, shaking it off she hovered above the ground in a sitting position near Seth. 'I don't know- someone had to have created this stuff that devours whatever in it's path and maybe infected a crystal or something so now it's contaminating our home.' She straightens her legs and starts to hover-pace.

Seth frowned and unclasped his hands when he realized that Ariel hadn't completely gotten the insider. He took a breath and tried to figure out how to literally put his explanation into words. He'd simply shown Michael that he got cut up- that was enough to get the point across. If he unwrapped his gauze now, Ariel would probably think Seth did it. 'But..' Seth knew that if he told Ariel straight-up exactly who did the crime, there was a chance that she would go after Alex and get herself killed- or worse. Seth shook his head and sat up straight. He had an interesting list of priorities. Seth would get himself killed in order to protect Michael from death and impurity, whereas he would get himself killed for the sole reason of keeping Ariel away from impurity, even if it meant death. 'This is going nowhere,' he thought.

"You're clever- that's about right.." he started to say, thinking through Alex's reasoning for a moment before returning his thoughts to the subject he'd brought up. "Is that what feels 'seriously wrong?'"

She did get the insider, but she wasn't going to doing anything about it, for once she didn't want to start a fight. 'Yeah, basically...' Ariel answers as calmly as she could.

Seth's worried expression snapped quickly into one of a more casual tone. He took his jacket off and stood so that he was closer to Ariel's height in the air. Seth let out a single-noted laugh as he slipped his undershirt off as well. "I never got to show you, did I?" Seth asked curiously while unwrapping his old gauze to reveal the serious gash. Even though the bleeding had just about stopped, he was still taken back by the black 'sun-rays' that had grown in numbers and reached further throughout his body. Seth wondered if it was three dimensional, but deemed that trivia useless after a few seconds of thought over it. "I got a little close, I guess," he muttered, masking the entire event for the time being.

Ariel gazed at the wound then quickly looked away, things like that tend to make her stomach churn. She was completely and entirely speechless. Michael slowly stood and started walking towards the strangely familiar cemetery that wasn't too terribly far from where they sat after staring at it for a few minutes.

Upon noticing Michael's change in motives, Seth threw his shirt and jacket back on. He tightly rolled the gauze and put it in one of his jacket's pockets. 'It's really not bleeding anymore, is it?' he wondered. He then began to follow tightly behind Michael, checking for the whereabouts of both him and Ariel. Seth felt obligated to make some sort of basic rules or safety guidelines for all three of them.
'I wonder where he's going..'

Ariel hovered after the boys. 'Michael~ where are you going?' "Where there's a cemetery, there are people not too far off." He replied. She didn't quite follow, but she shrugged it off and stayed close.

Seth squinted his eyes in the distance. He couldn't see people just yet, but he trusted Michael's words and continued to move forwards. Seth wasn't sure exactly where he and Michael were anymore- that was never a good sign. He sighed and looked back to check on Ariel again, getting the vibe that they were both in the same 'where-the-heck-are-we-going' boat.

Michael walked passed the cemetery a few miles away a village could be seen. One that triggered something that Michael managed to push passed subconsciously. Ariel hovered right behind them.

Seth smirked when he noticed Michael had spotted out the village. He could see tiny little block-like structures that must have been houses or other buildings in the occupying area. Since Seth was nowhere near the horizon, though, he jumped back into reality and did what he usually did when walking by a cemetery. Seth held is breath the entire time until he was past the last tombstone. It was an ancient habit that he'd started practicing since his parents started filling his head with wise-tales and myths. Seth saw it as a payment of respect for the deceased, to show that one was not simply running across another's burial site- not that any of it made sense. "You found it~" Seth said, congratulating Michael over the simple task of finding a village.

Michael continued to walk until entering the village that still had some life left in it. The townspeople didn't seem to pay the visitors any mind. It was depressing really, as if someone important had died or something. Ariel hovered around, seeing how no one could see her.

Seth walked a little closer to Michael than he had before when they entered the city. He scanned the area for any sign of people that could see Ariel- if there was any harmony at all- but there was no one. Not a single soul in town possessed that ability. Seth kept his guard up, ready for almost anything that could jump out. The village was small and run-down, though Seth never learned why. "Michael," he murmured. He felt a little like the entire place was 'off'. Maybe it just made him uncomfortable.

Michael kept close to Seth. One girl finally screamed, causing Michael's heart to nearly jump out of his chest, and Ariel came flying back. 'Scary lady!' She cried. The lady came out of her hut and looked at the two boys. "Visitors?" She asked quietly, coming back from her panic.

Seth looked over to the source of the scream in frustration and shook his head. 'I will never understand girls.' he thought. "Ariel what did you do?" he said under his breath, trying not to look like he was talking to air. Seth put his hand over his pocket knife- the one weapon concealed beneath his jacket. He watched the lady go out from inside her hut cautiously.