𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒷𝒾𝓉𝒸𝒽

[ayzrules]

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆 ☾

𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓃𝒻𝑜 ✧ 𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 ✧ 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝑜𝓇 𝒸𝑜𝒹𝑒

☽ 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ☾

𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒾 ✧ 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑖 ✧ 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝒾𝒾

☽ 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 ☾

𝓅𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 ✧ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 ✧ 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓈𝑒𝓉𝓈
𝑚𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑 ✧ 𝒶𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓉𝒾𝒸 𝒷𝑜𝒶𝓇𝒹 ✧ 𝑝𝑜𝑒𝑚 𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡

 
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

ꜰᴏʀ ᴍʏꜱᴛɪᴄ ʟᴀɪʀ: ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴏʟᴇᴘʟᴀʏ

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 ☾

❝ 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼'𝓂 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓁 𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝓊𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝒻𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓇, 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑔𝑜𝓇𝑒, 𝒶 𝒷𝓁𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒. ❞

☽ 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ☾

Her older sister was a powerful combat-Caster. However, she was reported as killed in combat when 𝐻𝐸𝐴𝑅𝑇 𝑂𝐹 𝑆𝑇𝑂𝑁𝐸 was thirteen ✧ 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑦 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐, all shifting shadows and deceptive rays of light ✧ A cunning strategist. Works closely with 𝐴𝐶𝐸 𝑂𝐹 𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝐿𝑆 behind the scenes ✧ Brutally analytical; unyielding. Can come off as quite callous ✧ Went missing for a few months when she was fourteen. 𝑁𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝐹𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝒩𝒶𝓂𝑒 •• 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑘. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝐿𝑎𝑖𝑟.
𝒩𝒾𝒸𝓀𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒(𝓈) •• 𝐹𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒, 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 '𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡'
𝒮𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝑒𝓈 •• 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠
𝒜𝑔𝑒 •• 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑖𝑠 23 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑙𝑑
𝐵𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒹𝒶𝓎 & 𝒵𝑜𝒹𝒾𝒶𝒸 •• 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑜𝑛 𝐴𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡 30𝑡ℎ, 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎 𝑉𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑜
𝒮𝑒𝓍𝓊𝒶𝓁 𝒪𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 •• 𝐴𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙, 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦? 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑦, 𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑
𝐿𝑜𝑔𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒾𝒸𝓈 •• 𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚 𝑖𝑠 𝑌𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑎𝑒. 𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑒 𝑖𝑠 #𝟖𝐁𝟏𝟔𝟓𝐃.
𝒯𝑜𝓅 𝒯𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒 •• 𝐿𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑎, 𝑅𝑜𝑠𝑒-𝑃𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑖𝑝𝑠, 𝑊𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ☾

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑘𝑛𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. She plays with light and shadow and air, creating precise, intricate illusions that can fool almost everybody into believing that what she's created is real. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑠ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟, she makes up for it with her tricksy spells and enchantments, woven together in the 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑙𝑦-𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑙-𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 that Chae's become notorious for.

☽ 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒 ☾

𝒫𝑜𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑀𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 ✧ 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝑀𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸: 𝒢𝓇𝑜𝓌𝓉𝒽 & 𝒟𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓎 ✧ 𝐼𝓁𝓁𝓊𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 & 𝒢𝓁𝒶𝓂𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 ✧ 𝑀𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝒷𝒶𝓉

In addition, Chae works closely with 𝐴𝐶𝐸 𝑂𝐹 𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝐿𝑆 to run a small, elite force of surveillance and reconnaissance operatives, led by Ace herself. Chae doesn't go into the field very often, but she provides the operatives with crucial magical skills and items.

☽ 𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐍(𝐒) 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 ☾

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒'𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑏𝑒, ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty, nor is she incapable of using standard weaponry (like the Lycans and Vampires), 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. Chae has a sharp, precise style of spell-casting, carefully planning and calculating every move she makes, down to the tiniest little adjustments. She's especially good at using illusion magic to her advantage, bending light and shadow (and even sound and smell and taste!) to her will in order to 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠' 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑠.

☽ 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒 ☾

Although her preferred magic will always be casting illusions, she's very good (𝑠ℎ𝑒'𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒, 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝐿𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙) at all sorts of other magic types, notably 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑖𝑛 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 (especially in the context of manipulating fire and earth), as well as decay magic (growth has, and probably will always, elude her - especially with the whole partially-soulless thing); she's quite good at calligraphy; 𝑐𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 - 𝑠ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝𝑠 𝑎ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠; certainly not the most powerful Caster in terms of raw power, but she makes up for it with her 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑦 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠; can be extremely persuasive when she wants to be; can also be charismatic (albeit in a vaguely terrifying way); nobody has ever accused her of being less than perfectly attired; 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 and other forms of far-sight magic; has taken a liking to small, easily concealable throwing daggers

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 ☾

At a first glance, Chae has your typical cold (𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝐼 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑?) bitchy queen bee-esque personality. She firmly believes that it is better to be feared than loved, and she holds herself with an air of haughty aloofness. Chae is perpetually annoyed at something, though she rarely makes rash decisions because those take so much...effort. 𝑆ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑠' 𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠, ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, though there are certain subjects (𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑠, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤, ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟) that you really do not want to bring up in front of Chae. Chae can be impossibly snooty, and really, really mean, when she wants to be (she's just generally not a very nice person), 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 (trust me on this - werewolf claws have nothing on the metaphorical claws of alpha bitch queen bees. Nothing).

𝑆𝑙𝑦, 𝑐𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑤𝑑, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒'𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑝 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑 allow her to holistically assess any situation, no matter the circumstances. She is calm and collected under pressure, and she prefers not to mince her words, getting straight to the heart of the matter in the bluntest way possible. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑒𝑙, 𝑖𝑓 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠, and she's definitely not one to 𝑠𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑟-𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒'𝑠 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠. 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒, Chae has never been afraid of taking risks. She's not stupidly reckless, but nobody would call her a wimp, either.

𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑘, however, lies a fear of being seen as weak or pathetic or vulnerable; she hates being seen as 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑎𝑠 - 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠. Because that's what she's living for, after all; 𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟.

Chae doesn't speak of what happened when she ran away from home, seemingly disappearing into thin air, all those years ago, but never doubt this for a second: 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡. Every. Single. Second. And it fills her with hatred, boiling restlessly in her gut, and it makes her angry. 𝑆𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒-ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ☾

For the first half of her life, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒’𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟.

𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡, effortlessly winning the approval of both their family and the king and queen, and gods, yes Chae wanted to be like her, but more than that, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑, 𝑡𝑜𝑜.

And she did. At least, Chae’s pretty sure she did, anyway, because even though 𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 (and as a Caster, too! Everyone knew that Lycans and Vampires were more likely to join the ranks of the hunters), her older sister of ten years always made time for her. Ji-young was effortlessly charismatic, and smart and witty and everyone was always raving about her prowess on the field, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦, 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑. Not their parents, or all the fancy important people she worked with, but Chae.

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑. Killed in combat, they said. And thirteen-year-old Chae was shut in her room for most of the funeral, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑐𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔.

Chae went missing for two months when she was fourteen, almost an entire year after Ji-young died. 𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑝, 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑒, so everyone assumed that she’d been abducted by demons, and possibly killed. Her parents - 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 - managed to confirm that she was still alive through a series of complex rituals and spells, but thanks to whatever the demons had done to mask their presence, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

𝐼𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ, 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑡. It was stupid of her, in hindsight, but she’d read all sorts of stories about how they could bring back the dead. And so one night, wreathed in shadows, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦. What she found there was . . . worse than she’d expected.

𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔. Ji-young wasn’t dead, not really. She’d been turned into a demon after one of them ripped her to shreds in battle, and even though it had only been a year, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙.

Her sister, who was now a demon, was part of the group that confronted Chae as she moved deeper into demon territory. 𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠. Chae tried, desperately, to reason with what was left of her sister - because, while Ji-young was scarred and cut up in a million different ways and it looked like her hands had turned into talons larger than Chae’s head, she still spoke with her sister’s voice and her hair was still dyed the same platinum blonde with the same roots growing out and her eyes still looked like Ji-young - 𝑏𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 (𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑟?) 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟.

They brought her back to one of their strongholds and left her in the dark. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑦, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝.

Chae had known what was going to happen, and she was absolutely terrified. Somehow, in some way, she ended up with the demon that her sister had turned into, and 𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 ℎ𝑒𝑟, 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙.

Chae remembers what it felt like. 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑠, all at once. But after a short while, it . . . stopped?

When Chae looked up, Ji-young’s eyes were staring intently at her. It was too dark for her to see anything else, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑤 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘.

Chae woke up in the middle of nowhere, and she slowly made her way back home. Everyone fussed over her when she returned, but she just wanted to be left alone. And when they asked about what had happened, where she’d gone, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡. Every time someone pressed her for information, Chae said: 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟.

{ 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉’𝓈 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝑒, 𝒾𝓉’𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝑒. 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝑜 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓃𝒻𝓊𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒸𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝑒𝓇. }

After a while, it became clear to Chae that something inside her changed. 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 . . . 𝑚𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑? Like she’s watching the world pass by through a TV screen. 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑠𝑎𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡. The only thing that still feels normal is the anger.

So that’s what Chae lives on, nowadays. 𝑆ℎ𝑒’𝑠 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒, and her ideas for neutralizing the demons are ruthless and cruel, even to some seasoned veterans. Chae’s learned how to hide some of the more jagged bits of her anger, 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒-𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑑, but people aren’t exactly 100% fooled - they call her { 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄 } for a reason, after all.

Whatever. Chae doesn’t care. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟, and she’ll be damned if anyone stands in her way.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

ꜰᴏʀ ᴍʏꜱᴛɪᴄ ʟᴀɪʀ: ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴏʟᴇᴘʟᴀʏ

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐏É𝐑𝐄𝐙 ☾

{ 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐀 } Percy and Chae's parents know each other, so the two of them became friends through their families. As children, they trained together and were actually fairly close, but 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑛 (𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑, 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑠, 𝑠𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑠ℎ, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡-𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑), 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑤 𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡. At Mystic Lair, they're sort-of rivals - Chae really, really, 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 doesn't care enough to acknowledge anyone at the Lair as a rival, but if she did, Percy would be rival #1 - 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠. Chae, for her part, doesn't actually know what Percy's been up to, but she thinks that she's flashy and frivolous and believes that she's constantly fooling around.

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡. Percy is a 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑙, flashy and forceful and unstoppable, while Chae, for all that she lacks Percy's brute force, is the 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑠, weaving her spells together to keep them hidden until just the right moment.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐃𝐔𝐀𝐍 𝐘𝐔𝐄𝐊𝐀𝐈 ☾

{ 𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐓 } Chae first noticed Kai when he was assigned to sit in on planning sessions that Ace held with her team (which includes Chae). 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝐿𝑎𝑖𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛, ℎ𝑒’𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒’𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟. She didn’t really care for Kai before he cleaned up his act, but once she did, Chae was appropriately impressed. Kai had originally approached her during his second year for some help with more theoretical classes, and once Chae saw that he was serious about it, she agreed to give him guidance. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟, and Chae trusts him to have her back in a fight.

The one thing that they occasionally clash on is Chae’s brutal honesty. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐾𝑎𝑖, 𝑖𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒’𝑠 𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒’𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, Kai will step in and try to lessen the impact of her words (as if doing that would solve anything!). Ace usually intervenes before anything gets too out of hand, but 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐾𝑎𝑖 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡.

𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔’𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐴𝑐𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝐾𝑎𝑖, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝐴𝑐𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠. 𝐾𝑎𝑖 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔’𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑡 𝐴𝑐𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒’𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑒.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐊𝐎𝐒 ☾

{ 𝐂𝐎𝐁𝐑𝐀 } Chae is pretty disparaging towards Halen, 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑚 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦. She thinks he's too flashy and too loud, but would freely admit that his magic is pretty damn powerful (followed immediately by a snub towards his general character, of course). 𝑆ℎ𝑒'𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙, 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝐻𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑡.

☽ 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐀 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍 ☾

{ 𝐒𝐄𝐀 } 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑡 𝐸𝑙𝑙𝑎 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛, 𝑎𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜. In all honesty, Chae didn’t really notice Ella at first - she was just so much younger, and didn’t really seem all that special in comparison with the other kids her age and older. 𝐼𝑡 𝑖𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝐴𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 for an especially talented student that Chae really notices Ella. She only needs to see her in action once to realize how Ella could be a valuable asset to the team

As time goes on, Chae recognizes her potential, so much so that 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑎𝑖 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐸𝑙𝑙𝑎’𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑓 𝑠ℎ𝑒’𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚, Chae immediately jumps to her defense. And she does care about Ella, in a way - she reminds Chae of herself, when she was younger. 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑙𝑙𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛, if her sister was still alive, and if she was still wholly, well, alive.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐂𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐒 ☾

{ 𝐖𝐈𝐃𝐎𝐖 } Chae doesn’t know what exactly her deal is, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡. At all. Of course, she doesn’t know anything about Charlotte’s background (other than the fact that she’s the daughter of Selene’s king and queen), but really. 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟???

Naturally, the two of them met at a fancy official event when they were younger, 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠. In fact, Chae doesn’t recognize Charlotte as anything other than a total slacker until a training mission gone wrong, when they’re ambushed by demons while out in the field. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 (𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒) 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟, and it all comes out: the reason behind Charlotte’s fear of demons, and how this manifests itself. 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛, and she herself confesses about what happened when she went missing. They don’t become BFFs overnight, but they finally reach some sort of understanding.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐒 ☾

COMING SOON

 
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

ꜰᴏʀ ᴍʏꜱᴛɪᴄ ʟᴀɪʀ: ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴏʟᴇᴘʟᴀʏ

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

☽ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ☾
𝑀𝑜𝓃𝒹𝒶𝓎, 𝑀𝒶𝓎 𝟣𝟣𝓉𝒽, 2020

‎‏‏‎   The first day back at Mystic Lair. It was Chae’s second-to-last year, so she had a pretty good idea of how shit worked by now, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑜, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎’𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠ℎ𝑒’𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ.

‎‏‏‎   Chae couldn’t even begin to fathom how Eleanora felt about the entire thing. She remembered what she herself had felt after she got the news about her sister: 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟, 𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑓. Perhaps there was still the consolation that the missing brother in question was still alive, but with the demons, who knew how long that would last.

‎‏‏‎   Chae was itching for a chance to ask about the details – she was sure that she could help, in some way - but unfortunately, that would have to wait until lunch. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑆𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑎, 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝐿𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔, which meant sitting through the requisite orientation as he went over the rules. Chae had heard them enough times by now to have them memorized, but she tried to pay attention nonetheless, in case there were any changes from last year.

‎‏‏‎   Chae’s schedule for the upcoming semester were standard Caster fare, for the most part. 𝑃𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟, as brewing the Elixir needed to defeat demons was always going to be a top priority. Her Theories of Magic class might prove itself to be a difficult, because although Chae had decay magic down pat, 𝑠ℎ𝑒’𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐. Probably had something to do with losing a good chunk of her soul to a demon, but sometimes it just be like that.

‎‏‏‎   Illusions and Glamours would be a breeze - in fact, it would be one of Chae’s favorite classes if it was anything like the other illusion-casting classes she’d taken in previous years - 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡. It was no secret that Chae wasn’t the traditional combat-Caster; her sister, Ji-young, had fit the mold better than Chae ever had. She had the raw power to back up her magic that could blindside an opponent in less than a second, and as much as Chae hated to admit it, 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑏𝑟𝑎, 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑙, would always be better suited for fighting demons in a head-on fight than she would ever be.

‎‏‏‎   Chae’s specialties were a bit less flashy and forceful. 𝐼𝑓 𝐽𝑖-𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑙𝑑, 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, then Chae was quicksilver; her magic played with light and shadow and air to cast intricate illusions, unpredictable yet deadly precise, and gone in a flash. Chae knew that she’d never be a typical combat-Caster, but she was fine with that - so long as the others accepted her as one of their own, she was happy to stay out of the spotlight, providing less obvious forms of support with her tricksy illusion magic.

‎‏‏‎   Perhaps that was why she’d liked Eleanora from the start, even when they were still ‘Ace’ and ‘Stoneheart’ to each other. 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑟, 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙-ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦, 𝑛𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑜𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒. She didn’t care about other people’s opinions, so long as you gave her enough to form her own.

‎‏‏‎   Chae also had to admit that Eleanora was very good at keeping her emotions in check. She’d seen her stay calm and collected in every situation imaginable, thinking everything through with a detached sort of logic so that she could get her team back safely. 𝑆𝑜 𝑖𝑡 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 . . . 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡? 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑢𝑛𝑐ℎ.

‎‏‏‎   Chae, Ace, and Kai usually ate together, going over plans and strategies in the mess hall. All three of them had jam-packed schedules, and the headmaster had made it clear for them: their work as an elite surveillance and reconnaissance unit would take precedence over all of their other studies. Still, it was good to take advantage of free time, such as lunch.

‎‏‏‎   When Chae sat down with her tray of food, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒. She was doing a good job of hiding it, of course, but Chae had known Eleanora for long enough to see straight through her.

‎‏‏‎   Sure, it’s her brother, Chae thought to herself, but her family’s been grooming her to be a hunter since before she could walk. Is it something else? She told me that the demons hadn’t hurt him yet, but did they change their minds? Did they already kill him?

   Kai, who Chae knew as the Hierophant, joined her at the table before Eleanora arrived. He sent her a sidelong glance; Chae duly ignored him. She knew what he was thinking: 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑏𝑙𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡. Well, fuck that, Eleanora was her friend. She wouldn’t be insensitive (or she’d try not to be, anyway), 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝑠𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑝𝑎𝑦.

‎‏‏‎   ”Ace,” she said, quietly. Eleanora looked up, seemingly realizing Chae’s presence for the first time.

‎‏‏‎   She smiled faintly. “Hey.”

‎‏‏‎   Chae gave her a scrutinizing look. ”𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔? 𝐷𝑖𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑝?”

    “Supernova’s giving you a hard time again?” added Kai, smiling sympathetically.

‎‏‏‎   Eleanora hesitated, then shook her head. She sighed heavily, and gave Chae and Kai another faint smile. “No, I - it’s just been a long morning,” she replied. She poked and prodded at the unidentifiable food on her tray, then got up. “I’m going to go see if I can find the professor who teaches Incantation for the Dark Arts. We’ll probably need one of their students for the next operation.”

   She paused, glanced back at Chae and Kai. ”𝐼’𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛?”

‎‏‏‎   Chae nodded, unsure of how to proceed. Kai looked sympathetic, and he was saying something to Eleanora, but Chae couldn’t bring herself to pay attention to the rest of the conversation. 𝐼𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 ℎ𝑒𝑟, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠, 𝑜𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑑𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔.

‎‏‏‎   Chae turned to Kai, after Eleanora had gone. “Is it just me, or does it feel like she’s not giving us the full story?” she asked. “𝐼 𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 - 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐼’𝑚 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒.”

    “Her brother just got taken away. She just needs more time,” Kai said in a low voice. He cut a piece of chicken and stuffed it in his mouth.

‎‏‏‎   Chae hummed tunelessly in agreement. Then, carefully, she asked: ”𝐻𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢?”

   “Not really. I didn’t see her at all during training this morning. Why?”

‎‏‏‎   Chae was quiet for a moment. She wasn’t entirely sure how to explain the feeling she had. “𝑁𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛. 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠. 𝐼’𝑚 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑, 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙.”

   Kai smiled at her, again. “Nothing to worry about. Those demons have nothing on us. If we have to get a rescue mission going, we’ll do just that.”

   Chae let the corner of her lip twitch upwards in a faint smile, despite herself, and laughed mirthlessly. “Well, you’re right about that,” she said. “Though I’m sure that if a rescue mission was a plausible course of action, they already would have put one together. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒."

   Kai seemed to consider this for a moment. “Possibly,” he said, finally. “But I reckon Ace would have said something about it. At least, to any of us.” He shrugged. “𝐴𝑛𝑦𝑤𝑎𝑦, 𝐼’𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑛𝑜 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟.”

   Chae sighed. “I suppose you’re right,” she admitted.

   Then, Kai’s glance flickered downwards to the food on her tray. “Are you going to eat that?”

   Chae rolled her eyes, but pushed the tray towards him. “You can have it; I’m not very hungry. In fact, I should probably get going myself.” She was gathering up her things when someone else approached the table - what was her name again? 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔; 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟?

   In any case, Chae didn’t stick around to find out. She left without acknowledging the other girl, letting Kai talk to her in peace.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

   Chae was so distracted by Eleanora’s strange behavior that she didn’t even notice Percy - er, 𝐿𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑎, they weren’t friends anymore, and she really should stop thinking of her by anything other than her assigned codename - sitting right there as Chae brusquely brushed past a group of people on her way out of the mess hall, accidentally jostling someone’s bag in the process.

   ”Hey, watch where you’re going!” one of the vampires called irritably, and Chae snapped herself out of her reverie to turn and glare daggers in their direction. Lucifera was sitting next to the vampire in question, and looked about as happy as Chae did to be seeing her. 𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑦, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙.

   Chae’s gaze skipped over the other vampires to meet Lucifera’s. For a few seconds, the two of them glowered at each other, before Chae simply turned on her heel and left, without saying a single word.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

   𝑃𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠, but Chae found that after her busy morning, she was more than happy to simply let Whistler’s words flow through her as she tried to forget about her hunch regarding Eleanora.

   Unfortunately for Chae, it wasn’t long before they were being assigned partners for the potion-brewing labs. She sighed and rubbed her temples - 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘, and by the sidelong glances the other cadets were shooting her, they all knew it - and Chae listened closely until she heard her name.

   ”Heart of Stone and Storm-Maiden,” Whistler read off her list, and Chae let her gaze flit across the room until she located the other girl, a dark-haired Caster who was almost an entire head shorter than she was. Have I met her before? Chae wondered herself as she gathered her things and walked over to their assigned table. I remember her family, but not Storm herself.

   Once everyone had gotten settled, Whistler started explaining their task for the first class. 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚. Storm was doing the same, and as they worked to prepare the ingredients, Chae didn’t bother with pleasantries or small talk. Potion making wasn’t her greatest strength, but Chae was by no means bad at it, and she noted that Storm herself seemed competent enough. Good; that would make her life a lot easier, once they started delving deeper into the course.

   When they were dismissed, Chae once again didn’t bother with pleasantries or small talk. After briskly ensuring that everything was put away, 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙-𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚.

   Her friend and comrade looked up as Chae walked through the door. As expected, the room was still empty. Eleanora smiled as Chae walked over and stood beside the chair she was sitting in.

   ”Hey, Chae. What’s up?” the Lycan gave Chae a small, tired smile, brushing a strand of her dark brown hair out of her face.

   Chae was quiet for a moment. “How’re you holding up?” she said, finally. Then, “𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘, 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡?”

   Eleanora, like Chae, was quiet for a moment before she responded. “I know,” she replied, softly. “Thank you. I . . . I know that you, more than anyone, would know what it’s like.”

   Chae glanced down at the reminder of her sister. She drew in a breath, and gave Eleanora a wan smile. “Yeah,” she replied, ”𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑎, 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 . . .“ she trailed off, and Eleanora gave her another small smile.

   ”Thank you,” she said again, and then the two of them fell silent as the other hunters started filtering into the meeting room. It wasn’t long before the meeting got underway, and as Chae had expected, the top priority was recovering Eleanora’s younger brother. 𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝐿𝑢𝑚𝑦𝑛, 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑚, and that information could prove itself to be dangerous, depending on what the demons already knew.

   Overall, it wasn’t a very productive meeting. The higher-ups bickered amongst themselves, and Eleanora was still being uncharacteristically quiet, so it fell to one of the other Lycans to provide their perspective on things. Chae chimed in when she could, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟, 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑦. It grated on Chae’s nerves, but for Eleanora’s sake, she kept her temper in check.

   When the meeting was over, Chae was positively exhausted. And it was still only the first day of the semester.

━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━

ꜱʜᴏᴜᴛᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴏ @ᴀᴇɴɪʀ ꜰᴏʀ ᴋᴀɪ'ꜱ ʟɪɴᴇꜱ!