<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Who: Cadium Skiver When: 36 Mia 81380 Where: Machina Ruins</td></tr></table> It was proving to be a fine day. The sun was out and the sky was devoid of any clouds or precipitation whatsoever. The hardly humid air made the atmosphere quite pleasurable in the mild, temperate afternoon. Winter was in full swing, but in his native land in the western hemisphere of Boreios Sudesha, there was little, if any, snow to be found. Cadium hated snow and the fickle cold. So when there was no sign of it to be found, he gratefully rejoiced inside his one-track mind. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason for his visit to the ruin. He was more or less out of anything to do and figured it wouldn’t be a bad place to check out. Go figure. While walking down a curvy sloped hill that wasn’t very steep, he got a bright idea to see how many cartwheels he could do that would roll him down the rest of the decline. Cadium started a cartwheel, but instead of rolling down the hill, he tumbled into a ball and fell the rest of the way. After brushing himself off, he stood and shook his head to relieve himself of the headache that he was presently suffering from due to the fall. It probably wasn’t the brightest idea and he scolded himself for being so childish. He couldn’t help it though; he was just a bit young at heart for his ripe age of twenty-six. Hands shoved in his pockets, he continued to traverse the rocky terrain that was littered with various broken structures and random pieces lying about. The ash and dust, that covered most, otherwise grassy, ground, rose as he drug his feet along. He bent over and pulled out one of his hands to pick up a shiny, round pebble of some sort. As soon as it grew to the temperature of his hand it changed color. A crooked grin crossed his mouth as he realized just what it was; a mood ring or part of one. He squeezed it rather hard and opened his palm to watch it change from its previous blue-green to a vibrant reddish orange color. Throwing it up and then catching it, he pocketed the sparkly jewel and began to walk towards the large crop of destroyed buildings towards the center of the machina ruin. Cadium ran his palm over one of the broken fixtures whose edge moved along it a crooked line with jagged points here and there. He then jerked his hand back to his body, wincing some as he revealed a nice sort of paper cut; only he hadn’t cut it on paper. Pulling a random piece of cloth from his pocket, probably what was supposed to be a handkerchief, he wrapped his hand and then tucked the last loose end under the rest of the wound up cloth. Why did he seem to be having such an unwanted turnout of the day when everything, even the weather, seemed perfect? Oh well, he would only have to manage and keep truckin’.
<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>This looked lonely. Hope you don't mind me joining in... :)</td></tr></table> <font face=tahoma> Stina was an architect, therefore her interest in the Machina Ruins was rather obvious. It was a place that had once flourished, a place that she would have visited when it was thriving to see the designs on the buildings. Now, though, it was a disheartening place of rubble and destruction. A reminder of war that no one really needed to see. Yet she found it immensely interesting. It was, after all, a place of historical significance, and some - a very few - bits and pieces had survived the city's fall. These were the ones that she sought out with eager eyes, though there was always a flicker of sadness in her eyes. That such a finely crafted place should now be nothing but debris... it reminded her of the futility of trying to make something beautiful to last forever. Inevitably, this train of thought brought her back to Vincent. Even though he was supposedly dead - and she had visibly accepted that - there was a part of her that never could. Sti's wings shifted uneasily on her back. This was something she had come here to avoid. When she was in cities, she couldn't help but try to discover if he was still alive. It wasn't as if there was anyone at the Machina Ruins who had information on Vincent's whereabouts. Sometimes, she even got leads. Leads that ended abruptly or went cold after a bit of poking around. That was probably because it was bad or unrelated information, yet Stina sometimes wondered if it was a conspiracy. If there was something far more sinister going on behind the scenes than she had suspected at first. Something that had affected her husband so deeply that he had disappeared. As she moved on to a different portion of the dead city, she was surprised to see someone else nearby. A younger male someone else, she noted with interest. It was unusual for there to be youngsters around here, they had a tendancy to have their heads in the clouds. Although she supposed it was possible he was here to see the devastation, rather than the underlying beauty or the history of what had once been. Her own kids would have come along, if just to be beside their mother, but they were in school. Sometimes she missed them so. This guy wasn't their age, though, so he could hardly be compared to her children. Maybe she was just growing old, as he bitterness toward the younger generation had started to intensify. Really, though, it was probably moreso that she had forgotten what it was like to be young. To distract herself from these self-depressing thoughts, Stina walked toward Cadium. When she was at a conversational distance, she spoke. <font color=white>"Didn't think I'd find anyone else around here. Too nice of a day to wander around a broken city."</font> She commented, rather congenially, her lips curling into a faint smile.
