And Our Screams Will Crack The Sky (Amethyst and Delicia, PM for Invitation)

"Tarsi, throw me that thingy."

A scoff. "'Thingy'?" A gentle laugh escaped the girl's lips. "What's a thingy?"

"You know exactly what I mean," the blonde boy grinned. From underneath the new sink in the new, white and clean kitchen Alexander's voice crawled out with the fervor and tenacity of a chick hatching from an egg. The cheeping of each syllable was deeper than the chirping of a baby bird, significantly more base from the physically fit young lad. His beige cargo shorts contained a plethora of tools from hammers to wrenches, but not the large pipe wrench he required. Not the wrench that he passionately, loving referred to as 'that thingy'. No, that wrench was caressed in two soft hands, attached to thin, wonderful arms and a gentle, genuine smile. 

"Nope," she chuckled, "not a clue." Her smile hung framed upon two pink lips that protruded from a fair-skinned face. No blemishes to speak of, he long, straight raven hair fell over her shoulder with few strands that gently wicked away at her cheeks. Upon her cheeks sat two big, green eyes that glistened like some of the finest emeralds, reflecting a value that she had willingly instilled into the person before her. He poked his leg with the wrench, and a shirt much to large for her shifted awkwardly upon her frame. The collar had both her neck and left shoulder within its grasp, hugging the two of them comfortably as a loose-fitting shirt should. With the touch of cold metal upon his calf Alexander shivered a tad, shifting himself out from under the sink and reaching for the tool, an expression of delight hanging from his brow as though it too fit loosely.

His face now fully revealed to the world, his gray eyes fell upon the girl before him, as he stared up at her and made a grabbing motion with his hand. "Gimme." Those deep, slate-gray eyes flashed up to meet her green gaze as she deposited her sight firmly upon his spiky head. 

"Not until you tell me..." she teased. She waggled the wrench at him playfully, and he brought his hand to his hair with an embarrassed smirk worming its way under his nose uncomfortably. 

"I thought it looked sexy?" His statement was more of a question than an explanation. He was looking to her to see if she approved of his change in style from what was previously long, billowy hair that in her words, 'made him look like a cherub'.

"Bullshit," she cooed. "You like one of those fools from the east end!" She twirled the pipe wrench in her fingers, handing the red shaft to Alexander as she wound up clutching the jaws of the thing. Alexander rather briskly retrieved the tool, in a hurry to tighten up the final part of the sink's piping. 

"One last thing, Rosebud. Then we're finito, dig?" He laughed as he made the strange, foreign sounding accent. Tarsi kicked him in the leg, biting her bottom lip to hide her chuckle. Alexander's surprise at the kick caused him to drop the wrench. From underneath the sink, a clatter came to Tarsi's attention as Alexander called out an expletive, and he placed her hand to her mouth and began to contain a fit of laughter as it became apparent that Alex had dropped the tool atop his own head. 

"That's what you get," she stated, "when you talk like some uneducated dimwit!" She placed a hand on his knee softly, though her grip was firm and apologetic. Her laughter calmed to a small, coy smile. A few more small clinks, and Alexander crawled out with a new red brand across his forehead. He very calmly placed his blank expression upon Tarsi's lips. 

"Ow," came his words. Simply an utterance to express the pain he had already cursed over. An attempt to be cute by most measures, and a successful one it seemed. Their mouths pressed together briefly as their faces rushed to meet, smiles broad and lips taut but soft. He pulled his face back a tad, far enough to be a tease. "All better." The two laughed lightly. As his eyes and hers were still locked green to gray, he stated, "And all done. Our little home is now complete." Tarsi helped Alexander up, taking one hand as he placed his other on the marble counter. He pushed himself into her, flinging his free arm around her and embracing her tightly. Excited gasps and sighs of relief came from both of them as the buried their faces into each other. "Told you we could do it," he whispered. 

Still embracing one another they traveled to the Kitchen window with their feet patting softly against the cold, tile floor. Alexander and Tarsi looked out over their city, gleaming golden in the sunlight. Majestic, mighty buildings seemed to span forever on for miles. Around the buildings sat a plethora of white clouds, bearers of mist that brought cool, still shade to sections of the city at a time. "Aramayt's beautiful from here," Tarsi said in a tone akin to one of disbelief. Alexander smiled at her, and she back at him as they gazed at their reflections in the glass. "It's so easy to believe that we're in the sky." 

"So hard to believe that we're finally on the west rim," Alexander said back to her. "The Edge of the City. If we headed into another room, we'd be able to see the infinite blue sky and ocean, and some of the land in the distance." Tarsi gave him a glance.

"Is that a suggestion?"

"Was I so obvious?"

Wow what a neat little place this was! A city in the sky that was shut off form the rest of the world. Dante had wandered into it while flying around having a little fun zapping the clouds with his electricity. He landed and wanted to see the sights as quickly as possible, so what else to do than make one of his identicle little buddies to wander around the other side of the flying city. With two guys it would be pretty easy to take it all in. How big could it be?
Every one here was so frendly too, at least twelve people stopped to say hello to dante. He felt bad that like six people spoke to his clone but all he could make the copy do was smile and nod or wave.
At the end of wandering the rather large city it was about time that he met up with his other half and merge their memories. when the two met up it was a short and sweet meeting where the clone turned into a small ball of electricity and was absorbed by the original Dante. With that he had a better understanding of this funny little society. They had a good hand on things up here. This reminded dante of some of the fae cities and the floating crystals and stuff they had. The part dante didn't know was what was the name of this cool place. Maybe he should save up some of his money to get a vacay house up in here!
After a good time looking over his new 'stomping grounds' he became pretty hungry. He ended up seeing a store looking thingy and it had one of his favorite little fruits. He walked past the apples grimicing. He had eaten apples and that was it while he was growing up. His fae name was 'Avalon' which means apples were pretty much his least favorite food now. Mango on thew other wing, was too freaking awesome to resist, their smell and their juicy taste ruled. With a mango in hand he began to walk away whistling an old fae song as he heard a terrible, blood curdling scream. He turned around to see a woman being really really happy that she found the last mango, Dante looked around at everyone else around asking 'did that seem out of place to you?' with his eyes.
Something so innocent as 'found it' would trigger an earthquake.
"well I think i just found out who the dragon-born is." Dante said as he began to hate himself for making the joke. This was a city in the sky, and the earth shook because of plates right, then why did a city in the sky shake?
"Alexander?"
"Tha- that was the bar-barrier." That guy with said. "I think that the barrier just failed."
"Failed? Against what? That barrier took a meteor impact just a few months ago!"
the entire time these two were talking a dark thick clody looking substance entered. dante did't know what was going on, but this darkness wasn't your typical everyday cumulo-dimbus. dante knew that wasn't right but whe was a littel frightened by the clouds. This wasn't the work of a dark fae was it? People began to run all around like idiots and dante decided to fly up a little bit and see what he could see. It didn't look good, he turned to fly away as fast as he could, when he heard some people screaming. The chick he made the dragon-born joke about and the guy she was with were on their knees. Their chest was glowing like magic was infused in their hearts, or magic was focusing on their hearts. he felt the darkness gainin on him and he turned in the air and braced himself as he used his dark fae shield to block whatever was coming at him.

Shi had a vision, a city in the Sky. It was a brief but disturbing vission, one that would haunt his waking hours for days upon end. There was a city in the sky, a place where the dead were bruned and then recommited to peices of floating rock and dirt to feed the plants that could sustain the life within the city walls. There was a bright crystal, and this crystal was glowing a harminous shade of pink. It was then that Shi had seen a man and a woman, they were close in heart and life was well. They were going to gather a rarity that was desire by many of their city, and then suddenly the crystal broke, and then all that could be seen were the ghostly sould of the entire city bleeding from existance and being swallowed by a cloud of darkness.
This vision was a message from the other spirits, for they anticipated where the Evil would strike next, and they had given him their knowledge and insight to the situation. SHi would depart form O.C.E.A.N Headquarters with a hardened heart and a purpose. He must stop the events that would transpire, failure was not an option. Shi knew he would likely feel the wrath of Sailerya for suddenly vanishing without warning. It was a chance he would need to take.
Getting to the city was a completely different issue, and so he 'borrowed' a jet and departed to the city in the sky, but when he arrived it was already too late, the Darkness had begun it's consumption of souls. This was a battle that would unfold for the ages. Shi had finally come face to face with the very entity that had controled him so long ago, and he was not prepared. He jumped from the jet, and landed safely on the ground. With a shadow step he rushed ahead through the crowds and hardened his resolve, saving a few humans from the smog of darkness by rotating his blade at speeds higher than that of a helicopter blade, compelling the darkness back. He looked to see a man with his chest glowing, and Shi's own heart broke. The man was losing more than he knew. The pain and agony he was feeling was only the beginning.

All at once, the city seemed to fall silent. Most of the citizens toppled of instantly as a thin cloud of black fog touched them, and sapped their life away. As the black, massive cloud inked out across the city silently its caustic presence caused many of the buildings to start to decay, as though they had been abandoned for years. Like a wave it came, surrounding Tarsi, Alexander, and the outsiders present. It moved around them flooding the poison air with a choking, vile intent and spreading its dread freely. The air closed in, straying from contact when a face would shoot out to greet the people enclosed in the clouds, glowing orange eyes seeming to stare into their very souls. A whisper would escape its smokey lips.

"Boo." The smoke would withdraw wildly, whipping back to the other side of the city with almost lightening speed. The few that the one, Shi, had managed to spare the smoke fell over dead anyway, as some unknown force seemed to reach out and crush them, sickening snaps heard as bones cracked and bodies became as a pulpy mass. A sick giggle echoed through the city as some where far, far away from the group the smoke began to take shape. "Alexander," a sinister voice cooed. Alexander's head looked up. That voice-- it was familiar. To him, and to Tarsi. Both of them stared upwards into the bloody sky fearful eyes and confused expressions.

"Jericho?" The voice came as a whisper from Tarsi's lips, and Alexander turned his his pained gaze at her, still clutching his chest as she clutched her's.

"It is," Alexander confirmed aside to her. The voice they had heard was warped and bitter sounding, but it was indeed their friend long lost. It was indeed their Jericho who had vanished suddenly some months prior. A well of emotion stirred up inside the two. Confusion, and fear. Sadness. Anxiety. Excitement. Alexander stood, clutching Tarsi and helping her gain footing as well. He stared at the light glowing from her breast, and placed his hand atop it. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know," she replied while returning the gesture. This was an expression of her concern for him, as the two stared bleakly into the other's eyes. "What happened to him?"

Alexander shook his head, indicating that he was at a loss. He looked at the two other that has apparently survived the... flood, as it were. "You guys... we have to find shelter. We have a home nearby. I need to take Tarsi there and fetch our things as we come up with a plan to get out of here." This was an implied invitation to join the pair, as Alexander decided that these two had survived for a reason. In the distance, a mass of tall buildings that stretched high above collapsed and Alex bit his lip. "That's the business district." He stated blankly. "It looks close, but its far away from here. At least a few kilometers. I think we have time before he arrives." He took a step with Tarsi's arm around his neck, but she started to pull herself free so that she could stand. "Can you walk?"

Tarsi nodded at Alexander. "Yeah," she replied with exertion think in her throat. "I can stand at least, I'm certain I can walk the couple of blocks back."

Alexander put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't hurt yourself."

"I won't."

"Okay." Alexander motioned for the other two to follow as he clutched his hand over the glow on his breast. What was with this light? It was burning in his core, making his body numb in the fingers, toes, and ears. His face itched and his abdomen vibrated, but he couldn't place why. He had a lingering feeling of nausea, and his nose started to bleed. He felt like his body was falling apart... but that couldn't be, could it?

An unrelated series of events brought Amethyst to the crucible of another person's destruction.  It hardly seems fit to tell, but it starts by following a rough trail of oddities moving from the mundane to the supernatural.  When wandering through Florida in search for supernatural inquiries, you can hardly throw a rock without hitting someone spewing on about the Bermuda Triangle.  To the unsuspecting, they are just harmless delusions rambling off conspiracy theories or doomsday predictions; to Amethyst, they are just the people she wants to see.  

Diving through the odd encounters with an eclectic assortment, a few stories surfaced of a lost people hiding within the storm clusters of the Triangle.  It seemed unlikely.  It seemed downright ludicrous to assume a group of people could either live within a storm or conduct a shelter strong enough while still going unnoticed to any meteorological society.  Of course Amethyst felt more confident in magical entities to show a way than mumbo-jumbo science.

Once you dig through enough archives and libraries you start putting together a pretty good means of knowing if something is true or not.  And then, sometimes you land in the middle of not knowing if something is worth knowing if it is true or not.  Pressing her finger to a spot on a map repeatedly, Amethyst decided if anything would happen in this place, it would drift along these winds.  It followed a pretty stable path, but didn't make too big of swings into the open.  Now, she just needed to know where exactly in the clouds this thing would show up.

Then, she found her way up to the city.  All of her research really amounted to nothing when a low life group of tomb raiders caught wind of the idea.  If only she had started by digging into the underworld of relic stealing brigands she could have saved herself a few days of looking-- oh wait, it looks like those thieves used her works to find it.  Oh well, she decided hitching a ride stowed away in their equipment would only be so right as they would never of even guessed the location without her.  

After getting a good seat holed up with an industrial sized drill, Ame spent the rest of the three hour flight wondering what possessed her to think any of this was a good idea.  Flying through a storm cluster, surrounded by criminals, looking for a city ranging anywhere from the bottom of the ocean to the stratosphere.  She breathed in a little easier when the storm broke into a calm, but then became alarmed again when two men came back to see if the equipment needed any tending to.  

Thinking ahead but a few steps behind, Ame pulled out an invisibility potion and began to press it to her lips, when the hand of an assailant grasped over her mouth.  The vial crashed to the ground before it could do her any good, and counter productive to her endeavor, the burly man holding her called out to his partner.  "We got us a stowaway."

Feeling the caress of her teeth against his fingers in a less than pleasing way, Ame slipped out of his grip and pulled out a potion from her pack.  Moving quickly in a tiny plane awarding no advantage to the quick, Ame pulled the potion to her nose, hoping to smell the aroma of an invisibility potion.  Sadly, the putrid stench of one of her ill conceived Potions of Overwhelming Stench began to seep out.  In for the dollar, in for the dime, she though, and with little thought tossed the potion onto the ground.  

A rancid smell began to permeate the senses of everyone in the cargo bay, as Ame made her way to get behind a netting to keep out of the burly man's grapple.  

"I'm opening the hatch!"  The smaller man called out with his hand around his nose.  He coughed furiously in between words and stumbled drunkenly to the control panel.  Pressing insistently upon the glowing red button on the dangling control panel, a loud pop burst in Ame's ears as the pressure from outside forced its way onto everyone inside.

Failing to grasp the strength the pressure of the storm would exert, the man holding the control panel fell forward.  Grabbing only the console, the figurative and somewhat literal weight of the world broke upon his grip and sucked him powerlessly out the back of the plane.  With the vicious vacuum acting against the occupants of the bay, the power of the man ran through the netting and grabbed onto Ame.

Latches snapped and popped under the turbulent pull of the catastrophic rift making its presence known through the plane.  Free from its restraints, the drill swung around on an increasingly quickening center of gravity.  Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the wide eyes of the belligerent man caught the swipe of the drill as it rotated to his ominous end out the back of the plane.  

Feeling better about her predicament, Ame knew she needed to close this bay door to add several decades to the number of years she planned on living.  A flashing green light began to flash as the doors started to close.  A pilot switch or some other remote device spelled out trouble, but Ame really couldn't tell if it was more or less.  Always the third option.

Still roaming free on its path of destruction, the drill punched a hole through the side of the plane, sending the plane into a controlled dive.  Crates began to flutter around the craft and pull towards the powerful suction of the tear.  All of the power of the plane held it barely still, while the force of the suction tried to pull Ame from the grasp of the netted canopy.  Pressing her luck, she pushed herself just far enough to reach her hand out to grab a parachute from the wall.  It only lasted so long before the parachute slipped from her fingers  and out the side of the plane.  

Out of the problems Ame failed to take into consideration, a new one crept into her lungs.  The low amount of oxygen began make her lose vision and focus as no amount og grasping for breath could remedy the situation.  Letting go of the canopy, Ame found herself rushing through the air, barely missing the rigid shards of the gashed opening along the side of the plane.  As she began to contemplate the remaining seconds of her life, she came into contact with something forever changing her life in more ways than one.  

While her impact broke upon the saving grace of a vat of spiraling water, it looked like her best moments of the day lay behind her.  Overcome with the knowledge her death was not only stayed, but a vat of water going through a filtration could only mean she found her floating city.  She let out a cheer, but found herself losing the battle of staying afloat.  The swirling waters pulled the direction of the vat towards a narrow opening in the bottom.  Fighting with the current of the flow, Ame flung herself to the edge and grabbed on to the metallic side.  

Coming out into the open air of the majestic city, she caught a different view than what she expected.  In front of her she could only see some manner of beast wrecked not only havoc, but absolute destruction upon a defenseless populace.  Still dripping from her previous situation, Ame adapted what she knew best and began to conjure up a ward to help defend against dark magic.