[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheThe world around became a warm, glowing buzz of orange and caramel. Below him, in the center of where the table was empty underfoot, a light — like a warm bonfire — sparked to life. At either corner of his eye, the shapes of people, of children and adults, blurred into vague silhouettes only barely present in the rest of the background. The bench stayed the same, and the blank paper — segmented where it would fold around the base — remained unaltered.

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heheClaudio rested his cheek on the table, sitting it just beside the paper. God, what was he doing?

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hehe"Well, you're not 'doing' anything, to be fair. P'etty sure that's the whole p'oblem, hight?"

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heheAt Claudio's side where the seat had once been empty, a whirling mass of red dust formed, coalescing and shaping into an impermanent, ever-shifting figure. Like sand falling over itself, it couldn't maintain anything more than a vacant shape of mass; a something of a being. Its words were tinged by an echo, like the grains within the mass — whatever core it held — each spoke over the rest in one fleeting chorus.

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heheThe mass shifted towards him with a collapsing tilt, with some of the grains falling onto the bench. Was it looking over the page?

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hehe"I mean, you al'eady know what you want to do, hight? So why dance around it?"

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heheClaudio kept his head to the table. His hair lazily twisted upwards, ebbing and flowing with the little traces of the wind flowing past, as the student closed his eyes.

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hehe"Dude, it'sh not heally about that." He dragged a hand through his hair. "It'sh about being genuine, y'know? It'sh like... It'sh like eating prope'ly, I guess. Ya have to be mindful and undershtand the deal, eshpecially if ya wanna stay healthy, but fo' thish... I don't know, it jusht feelsh wei'd to me, like it'sh completely alien. But at the same time, it seemsh so fun..."

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heheThe dust passed beneath the table, picking up on the opposite side's bench and, with a crooked accuracy, propped what seemed like an arm on the table. It rested the top of its misshapen form — what one might consider a head — into its crumbling palm, falling together into a mess still entirely unrecognizable as anything known to move, living or otherwise.

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hehe"I know what to w'ite, but everything else... Even without you' name, I want it to say so much about you."

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","likedotitle2"]Stat Upgrade/Purchase

[attr="class","likedosub"]Precedent - Float like a Cloud (Fighting Style)

[attr="class","likedosub"]Current - Float like a Cloud (Fighting Style)

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheA murmuring hustle and bustle, a wave of people — of families — stepping along the bay and its nearby marketplace. Lights littered the place, both from the bayside pathways and from the hands of the people walking, resting, and swirling along. Some lights, still unadorned or detailed, rested atop benches as their families decorated. They weren't just lights, after all; they were lanterns, lanterns etched in remembrance, shapes and colors strewn across warmth, yet burned nearly identically to one another in that same, shimmering yellow just at the cusp of becoming an orange. Lights that existed before but now continued as the memory amongst the ones set to light them again.

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heheSome of the younger ones, near benches and on flatter ground, scribbled on their yet-to-be lit lanterns. Some of their parents chastised them for the crassness, some others encouraged their work — and some of them were even beautiful in that same, childlike way, contributing to the memories they only barely grasped.

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heheAmongst them, and with no such guardian to praise or chastise him, the Playful Cloud himself sat doing his own. His lantern was still just sheets as it currently stood. The base sat off to his side as he tapped a pencil to his lower lip. Tap, tap, tap, tap... God, what was he going to do? Was starting like this the right way to do it? Ma hadn't ever taken him to anything like this before. No visit he could recall ever taught him how this was supposed to be done, or really what this was supposed to be. Apparently, back home in Brazil, Obon was celebrated too, yet, despite his Japanese descent, his mom hadn't ever taken him, or even really told him it existed to begin with.

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heheFrom what he'd found in a quick, 10-second Doogle search, it was meant to be a day of remembrance for a loved one. A gone one, maybe a gone-too-soon one, or maybe even a long-since-gone one — whoever he decided to make it about, if he chose to make it about a singular person at all. That's right, if he really wanted to, he could make it about barely anyone at all! Who was gonna stop him, huh? He could write (almost) anything on this and send it off, and no one would be the wiser! He could write a name not his own — what, they were gonna ask for his name? He could lie there, too — and simply move on, saying he had the experience all the same.

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heheBut would that be any fun? Really? Sure, he could, but what was the point in that? It was just mean to be mean, pointless to be pointless — not that there was anything wrong with that necessarily, but it would just be such a spiteful memory for such a wondrous thing.

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heheAs Claudio looked look out to the lanterns wading out into the waters, he trained his focus on the names. Some drawings, too, and some rather masterful patterns occasionally set amongst them, shadowed the light for their display, keeping both the ink and the light visible to everyone watching them follow down the stream.

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heheHe turned back to his sheets with sigh. What to do, what to do...

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","likedotitle2"]LOCKER ROOM APPLICATION - Claudio Bernardo

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheThe maître d' lowered his ladle. The rest of the men, too, who rose their heads to what had become of their final guard, held their breath. Their eyes followed the magazine to the floor, tensing their bodies as it clattered and bullets spilled out. All of them, every single munition, was tipped with rubber, falling out from their loaded assortment into a loose, dotting pile of metal, gunpowder, and nonlethal points.

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heheClaudio held the gun. Looking down to it, twisting it in his grip, he hummed a low, thoughtful sound before reaching his hand over the top. He pulled on the slide, a deft maneuver of at least some familiarity, and launched from it the bullet still in the chamber. With a quick laugh, he snatched it up out of the air, gripping it in the center of his loose fist.

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hehe"Nah, it'sh not that serioush." He offered a grin. "Not my firsht bullet, rubbe' o' otherwize! They're neve' fun, don't get me w'ong, but I can deal. Though–" he tucked the bullet into his pocket before reaching the same hand across the restaurant for Elijah's prosthetic– "it'sh uzually easie' when I don't gotta change the bullet'sh t'ajectory; otherwize, you'd have jusht gotten hit through me, y'know?"

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heheClaudio yanked the arm out of the, by this point, fully unconscious man who stole it in the first place. He handed it to his classmate, holding back the urge for the punchline. "I'll get rid of the gun, too. I would just leave it, but, y'know, had to grip it out of the hand, touch it with mine, all that kinda stuff... Don't worry too much about it, though."

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heheAs they walked out of the restaurant, leaving behind the slumped and disheartened men, Claudio pocketed the gun. "About the gun... about all that, heally!" He patted Elijah on the back. "At the very leasht, the people got out! It ish a shame that we didn't get anything to go, though... That chili wash p'etty good, if you were curioush at all."

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time

[attr="class","likedotitle2"]EVENT REWARD SUBMISSION FORM - SPRING SEASONAL EVENT

[attr="class","sixShoutline"]

[attr="class","sixShlyric"]

have a laugh!

[attr="class","sixShcred"]SELKIE

[attr="class","sixShly"]
Dragon's fire, prayer and thunder will not change my mind

[attr="class","sixShpost"]heheClaudio only laughed harder as Shion curled up into the fetal position, his lungs beating against his ribcage as his voice grew louder, louder, and even louder. He barely even heard Shion's words before he began his laughing, but from their accompaniment with the absolute pinnacle of sinking into the floor, his howling now became a matter of coughing his guts out.

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heheWhile Shion was curling into a ball on the floor, Claudio was falling backward onto the very same mat, pounding his feet into it and continuing his uproar. Tears, unlike Shion's, burst out from the corners of Claudio's eyes, streaming down his face as he reeled towards the ceiling. Could he breathe? He wheezed sounds out. He couldn't seem to pull in. No, definitely not; he was certainly stuck pushing out. He slammed a hand against his chest, squishing it like a balloon, bouncing it, and raising it up again for air.

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heheFinally, he sucked in a gulp of air, and with it came the clarity of words fueled by his stretchy, rubbery chest.

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hehe"You thought I wanted to have sex with you!" he hollered. "You thought a wei'd st'ange', who wash sitting in the tea hoom before they'd even seen you, wanted to have sex with you! You're an alien! You're a succubush! You absolutely get around too much fo' you' own good!" He clapped his hands up towards the ceiling, raising them like a set of cymbals. "You' super weird!"

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heheHis voice had grown too loud. Throughout his bellows, both in the times now and the cackling that came prior, a pair of steps came down along the hallway. And now, as the man stifled his cheer, the sliding door was thrown open with a loud crash, and on the other end stood the woman from the entrance. Looking upon the pair — noticeably more towards the cloud — she stomped into the room and grabbed Claudio by the back of his tank top.

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hehe"Alright, brat." As she pulled his shirt, the collar reached up and pushed against Claudio's neck, tightening around it. Claudio struggled as he gripped the collar. "You were weird before, but I tolerated it. Not the first eccentric person to walk in here, not even the first to cause a scene, but I figured it would be fine. But what do you do?" She tugged harder, even dragging him across the floor towards the door. "You become so loud that the entire shop is complaining about you."

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hehe"Wait, let me at leasht walk out on my own!"

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heheShe continued to drag him, turning her head away from him and out along the path.

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hehe"Well, uh, bye, Dummy!" As he was swept down the hallway, his hand stretched to continue waving, even as his voice grew further and further away. "It wash g'eat meeting ya! Hope I see ya again!"

[attr="class","sixShly"]
holy water, stakes and hunters — you're losing your time