Wicked Ways [Aradia's Intro- Open]

The forest was a far cry from what they taught children in storybooks. The wind, soft when the sun's rays beamed through the canopy, took on an ominous tone at night. A dark chill ran down the spine of any unfortunate enough to be caught in it - the bravest of men were left shuddering from equal parts cold and tension. The only thing one could see without a lantern was the fog, so thick that many a traveler had felt choked within it.

Fortunately for one Aradia Volterra, she had found a shelter.

Aradia's first guess as to the creation of this house was as a shack for one of the better-off folks in the village nearby, that had been long abandoned and left to rot. It must have served as a haven for highwaymen in its day: old, rotting bones and shards of glass littered the floor, and the table was dented with what appeared to be dagger-marks. The door's lock had long rusted past the point of repair, which left her with no choice but to bar it with a plank of wood from a bit of broken-off wall. She wondered if anyone ever thought that this house may have belonged to a witch - whatever the case, it did now, at least for the moment.

The witch sighed and took off her vest, leaving it hanging on the chair next to her. Her dimming lantern she placed on the table itself, and she used the fading light to scour her surroundings for anything of interest. There was an fur rug that she could use to sleep in. A far cry from the warm-bed-and-warmer-bedmate she was so fond of, but definitely not the least glamorous thing she had slept on in her life, or even in this week alone.

It was these long breaks from civilization that she despised. As much as she hated them for persecuting her, ordinary humans were just too much fun to be around, and she couldn't think of anything to do without them. She crouched down, kicked off her boots and lay in the fur rug, wrapping it around her. It was time to get some sleep.

Thud. Thud. THUD.

Aradia's sleep would be interrupted by violent and relentless banging on the front door.

"Hello!?" A gruff, impatient male voice yelled out. "Is anyone in there!?"

"Helloooo???" A second voice called out, this one much higher in pitch and much chipper in comparison, a woman's.

"Damn thing's locked," he said. "Looks pretty abandoned, too. Let's just bust it open."

The sound of a shotgun cocking was heard and was followed shortly by a gasp.

"L-Lyon! What the heck!?" the second voice said. "Lyon, you can't go shooting people's doors down!"

"It's abandoned!" the first voice said grumpily.

"You're not sure of that," the girl said. "As members of tje Grimm Guild, it's our duty to uphold the law and be proper models to the--"

"You're a stinkin' regular at the Fighter's Guild's weekly mead parties!"

The first voice was more than just irritated now. He was in a hurry to get in.

"It's cold, I'm tired and the fog's so thick I can't see you in order to bunk that thick rabbit skull of a head you have!"

A small silence followed, and then...

"On the contrary, rabbits don't have thick skulls, so technically speaking, you're insult is invalid and--"

"AAAAAARGHH!! SCREW IT!!"

Instead of the shot gun firing, though, the door was once again subjected to a series of thudding.

"Saki, just get this godforsaken thing open with your boots!"

The girl's voice sighed.

"Always impatient to use force..."

"Says the brawler !!!"

The thudding stopped momentarily and was followed by a forceful blow so strong the would barring the door would give in. The entrance would swing upon and the silhouette of a well-built man and a girl a foot shorter than him with rabbit ears stood in the doorway.

"See? Abandoned, Saki," the man said, not yet noticing Arcadia.

Aradia had awoken when she first heard the two knocking on the door. She rolled silently on the ground and crouched beneath the table. These two were members of the Grimm Guild, which meant law enforcement. Which meant trouble for folks like her.

She mentally struggled with the question of whether or not to cast a spell at them. They had done nothing to her - they hadn't even met her, so what could they have done? Aradia decided that sometimes when you didn't shoot first, you didn't get to shoot at all. Literally, in this case, considering the man's shotgun.

Hex Magic - Nausea

Aradia crouched down and exhaled a cloud of black smoke from her mouth. She had spread it thinly across them: it wouldn't harm them permanently, but it would make escape a bit easier in case things turned sour. The dimming lantern-light barely illuminated the smoke, but she felt confident enough in her evasion skills, and by the time they noticed it would be too late. She prepared a spell with one hand - the man did have a shotgun, after all.

[OOC: Just a correction, Grimm Guild isn't law enforcement. That's the Expiate's job. But yeah, they'd turn in a Walpurgis if they saw one since they're paid for that.]

As the two stepped in, their features would become more apparent. The man looked rather young, perhaps somewhere around his late teens or early twenties. He appeared to be considerably fit with the way his leather jacket's short sleeves tightened around his muscular arms. He wore trousers, black leather boots, and light mail over a white shirt under his jacket. His dark brown hair was long and spiky, a few locks winged against the sides of his temples. His icy blue eyes scanned the room.

His partner, a girl of long brown hair, chocolate brown rabbit ears, olive skin and amber eyes looked around curiously as well. She wore a white short sleeved shirt with belt straps that crisscrossed over the chest and back with a round metal plate at the center. She wore brown shorts that reached only to her mid thighs, shin guards, and metal-clad boots. On her waist was a utility belt of sorts and large metal contraptions hard to identify rested at each side of her waist.

"Ugh, Lyon, do we even want to rest here?" she said giving the place once more glance. "I'd rather sleep on grass."

"And get attacked by Incantii?" Lyon scowled. "Are you crazy? We'd be dead meat in this weather and--"

Before Lyon could finish, he hunched over and began to gag.

"Oh, god..." he said. "I feel..."

Saki herself seemed alarmed. "L-Lyon, wh-what's the matter--"

The nausea soon hit her, too. She tried to keep herself standing. Why they suddenly felt sick was beyond her. Did something die in the house and--

Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness. Lyon probably wouldn't see it (he wasn't part rabbit), but Saki did. A thin, gauze-like dark fog. Saki clapped her hand over her mouth and tried not to breathe. She looked around.

"Lyon..." she said. "It's a spell."

Lyon's eyes sharpened and he clutched his rifle tightly. Steeling himself, he tried to stand up and look around.

"Alright, who's there!?" he demanded. "Show yourself before I decide to shoot anything!"

He glanced at Saki.

"Saki, see anything else?"

Saki tried to move, but she still felt nauseous. This was worse than the time Mira cooked and she ate all the aservings to be nice. She scanned around. "A little light might be helpful."

Lyon sighed and touching he cast out an illumination mark using his Cantus-charged fingerless gauntlets. Saki started walkicng in Arcadia's direction slowly.

Lyon's light would soon be met with a glowing, crimson one. Aradia struggled out from under the table and attempted to look intimidating, which would probably be much more convincing if she weren't in just her leotard and stockings. The source of the new light was in her left hand, signifying a spell being prepared.

"Shoot at me and we'll have ourselves a little trouble, now. Won't we?" she chuckled.

The two intruders she could see more easily now. The man was young, and the girl younger still - perhaps they were siblings? She thought the rabbit ears a little strange, but then again, she had seen stranger: she was the witch, after all. And speaking of which, these two were Grimm Guild, which meant trouble for her. So she glowered even more menacingly, her eyes widened and mouth scowling, and wagged her spell hand at the two.

The young man gritted his teeth.

"A Walpurgis," Lyon said under his breath.

As she started to cast another spell, Lyon quickly turned to Saki.

"Saki, do it!" he said.

The rabbit-eared girl made a brief salute before stomping one foot on the ground. Her amber eyes glowed red and as her mouth opened a burst of force as she shouted. Anyone who knew Enkidus knew their special ability to "roar" which temporarily cancelled out magic for a few seconds. It would also be strong enough to force Arcadia a few steps back or to tumble over if she wasn't keeping a firm stance.

While Saki did this, Lyon would take another strange weapon that was latched to his back. It looked like a sort of canon and from it shot out not an explosive but a net that would try to aim at Arcadia's feet.