The YWS Grand Re-Opening Storybook!

Scarlette

I clutched my cane and looked at Rydia icing the cake. I hope she washed that sword before she started the icing. I chuckled inwardly. Knowing Rydia, she might just not wash the sword to pull a trick on people. Of course, she could've and just made it look like she didn't.

She was always mysterious like that. No one really knew if she was deliciously evilor if she was always that sticky sweet.

Sticky...Sweet... I really must be craving a slice of that cake. I smiled a tiny bit, then veered away from my musings to look back at Rydia and the cake. She wasn't there. I hobbled over to the cake and swiped a small bit of icing. Hmm, coconut-raspberry typhlosion. Tangy. I was licking my finger when I noticed that the party had died down. Everyone was sort of crowding around the front door, and i could barely see Rydia, Kay, and the Animal (Oh he was just a soft, cuddly bear sometimes) backing away from the wide open door. I hobbled closer to the crowd, darn eyes, always failing me at the most important times.

The Nothing. There it was, a shadow of a being, but there in all of its mighty fear. I knocked into someone on my mindless hobbling, and she shrieked a little. It was Lady Morada. "Oh, sorry." She pulled a piece of hair from her eyes and almost dropped her bowl of ice cream. Sweet caramel layered with sliced bananas and hot fudge. Hmm, now that was a woman who had taste in deserts.

Oh, I had seen their kind before. No, not the ice cream (Well, yes, I had been privy to eat some very wonderful and tasty deserts), The Nothing. They were lifeless creatures, always wandering about, causing trouble to us. Seers hated them especially, because we almost always go into freaky Sights when they're around---

I clutched my cane, but it was not enough, and I fell into Lady Morada, whispering "Stop, Methrirr." As he pushed his way through and vainly prepared to battle. I grabbed Morada's arm, and her and I both started to fall as my Sight started.

Little Author

I was sitting on the floor looking for decorating icing for Rydia. When I looked up and she was gone. I sighed as I slowly stood to see a figure in the door.

Darn it. I thought as I turned to get my bow. I ran as fat as I could down the long hallway. I found my bow where it always was. Leaning on the wall by the supplies closet. I picked it up tossing my arrows over my shoulder into my quiver. I held my bow in my hand and ran back down the hallway already stringing my bow.

Methrirr beat me to the scene and was already running to fight The Nothing. I drew my bow and gave him a bit of back up. I walked in front of the gathering crowd and followed the monster's every step. I ad a clear shot at it's arm so I took it. Right though the shoulder, perfect.

Methrirr had enough time now to stab the beast and finish the battle. I smiled and let my arm drop to the side. Everyone leaned in to take a good look at The Nothing and I hung back to make sure I didn't damage my bow running. I turned to go put it back when A hand dropped onto my shoulder.

"Keep that with you, just in case." Said Disk who turned me around to face him. I nodded and slung my bow over my shoulder next to my quiver.

Lady Morada.
"Scarlette!" I cried in surprise as he fell into me. I couldn't bear the weight and we both fell to the floor. My bowl fell and, to my dismay, splattered all over the ground.
I sat up and helped Scarlette to sit up too.
"Are you alright?" I muttered, glancing at the remains of my ice cream.
"Yes, yes...quite alright, dear." He didn't seem to be but I took his word for it. My attention, which had been directed towards the now melting ice cream, had been averted towards a battle that was ensuing.
I could only sit and watch as Methrirr fought a creature and, finally, destroyed it.
'It was one of those things, wasn't it?' I asked myself in my head. When the battle was over I was grateful to see the creature die.
Then I grabbed Scarlette's cane and handed it to him.
"Thank you," he said with a smile.
I stood and offered my hand to help him up. I sighed and picked up the sticky bowl.
"I guess I can get more," I said. "But first I should clean up this mess..."

Kay
I stared at the dead shadow creature, the Nothing, as Rydia called it, and said weakly, "I wish somebody told me you guys have archenemies before I joined." Someone gave a short bark of harsh laughter.

I kneeled on the ground beside the creature and pressed my hand against it, curious to feel what a solid shadow would feel like. The moment I touched it, however, it dissolved into a smoky substance and dissipated, with a faint smell of roses. The arrow in it's shoulder clattered to the floor. I gaped. "That's biologically impossible."

Disk Elemental:

"Impossible? I suppose so," I said, pushing my way through the ring of gawkers. I rubbed a bit of the smokey substance between two gloved fingers, it was so slippery. Which could only mean one thing, then I caught Rydia's gaze, it seems she had come to the same conclusion I had. Following my example, Kay reached for a bit of dust, before I quickly slapped her hand away. "Don't touch it, don't ever touch it with bare skin."

"Why?" She asked, rubbing her hand sullenly.

I drew my revolver, and checked the cylinder, "if we survive the next twenty minutes I'm sure someone will explain it to you."

"If we survive?" She said, growing a little pale.

"These things hunt in packs, if one of them found us, the rest should be right behind." My statement was punctuated by a loud crash, from the other end of the house. Without a second's hesitation, Rydia, and a few other members took off towards the source of the noise.

"Cover the windows!" She yelled, before disappearing around a corner.

Heeding her words, junior members scattered in all directions, leaving me alone at the front door. The walkway to the front door was straight, narrow, and lined with hedges, a perfect killing field. A small group of ghostly black figures came into view at the end of the path.

Then the shooting started.

Methrirr

For many reasons, this was one of the most interesting parties he had been to. For one thing, he had noticed Rydia using her sword to ice the cake. He was very tempted to make a joke that may have gone along the lines of "Will that make it taste like the blood of your fallen foes?" but he doubted it would have been appreciated. Instead, he just stood there. The party may have been going smoothly, were it not for the sudden interuption made by the appearance of nothing.

Rather, THE Nothing. One of them had appeared at the door, the wispy shade of it's silhouette still contorting into the shapes of men, and other creatures, as though unsure of what it was. Naturally, Methrirr had to be the first to try and kill it. He drew his sword, and advanced towards it, declaring confidently "Stand aside! I'll handle this one." as he strode towards it.

It was almost no contest. From behind Methrirr, an arrow had pierced the creature, it's black flesh absorbing all light around it so that it just looked like a strange hole in space. It lashed out feebly with what may have been a deadly weapon, but Methrirr was able to dodge it. After stabbing it several times, it fell to the ground, apparently dead.

Methrirr almost felt sorry for it. It hadn't even done anything, just showed up. He pictured it's thoughts. It probably took the YWSers for a bunch of racists. Then logical Methrirr's voiced echoed through his head. It's doubtless that this Nothing was not alone. The others need to be hunted.

As he walked away, people came to examine it's body, which promptly disapeared. To rejoin the swarm, he thought darkly. He sheathed his sword, and made a grab at the guitar on his back. He laughed to himself at the irony of this. He was the bard of this party. Nonetheless, he strapped on his guitar, and made it ready. It's voice would be needed if there were more.

And there were more.

A voice behind him made him turn. "THRIR." it called. The normally timid voice of Megs was unmistakeable. For some reason, Methrirr brought out the confidence in people, if not the annoyance.

"MEG." he replied, without turning around at first. When he did turn to face her, she was walking towards him. She wore a look of foreboding, as though she knew, or expected, something bad was going to happen.

"There was... there was a nothing." she said. "And you killed it."

"Yeah," he said, striking a mock-attractive pose against the wall. "no big deal." Meg laughed despite the situation. Yay for smiles, Methrirr thought weakly. But now wasn't time for jokes. He had to focus. "But it can't have been alone."

"How can you be sure?" she asked.

"It's just not possible that a Nothing deemed it wise to come and crash a YWS party alone. We're gonna need to mobilize. You seem to be better then me at the whole planning part." he said. "We're gonna need all the help we can get if I'm right." He couldn't have been the only one with these suspicions, after all.

She thought a moment, while adjusting a brightly colored hat. "Alright." she said.

Megs

I was wondering once more why I had even come when I saw Rydia frost the cake with her sword. This simply wasn't my kind of party... but no party is my kind of party. Things only got worse when... a Nothing broke up the party. Indeed, that was worse than being the wallflower.

When Methirr ran to stab the Nothing, which at first I thought was nothing, until I didn't look directly at it, I shouldered my way closer. He killed it, without gaining a scratch, and simply walked away. I followed Thir, wanting to congratulate him on his new achievement. "THIR," I called, less nervous around him than I was others. He replied in like and made a joke, but quickly became serious again.

"It's just not possible that a Nothing deemed it wise to come and crash a YWS party alone. We're gonna need to mobilize. You seem to be better then me at the whole planning part. We're gonna need all the help we can get if I'm right."

I frowned and played with my hat. Thir was kinda crazy, but he actually made a difference, actually impacted events. I wanted to do that. I nodded. "Alright."

Which, of course, was the cue for complete chaos.

Near the door where Thir had killed the Nothing, gun shots had begun. Thir ran to join and- please don't ask me why- I followed.

A group of Nothings were gathering in front of the house. I tried to back away, completely unnerved, but there were people behind me. I saw a Nothing lunge forward and tried to scream but could only stare in horror. She flinched and closed her eyes, seeing the end of her life playing out behind her lids.

And nothing happened.

She cracked one eye open and looked down at the Nothing, an arrow sliding through the blackness. Jerking her head up, she caught the eye of the brown haired archer. The girl cackled with a salute and resumed firing arrows.

I began murmuring, trying to form sentences that made sense, that would vanquish the Nothings.

The Animal

Animal thought that the elder member of YWS will bring down the Nothing. As the members of YWS were busy fighting, Animal went back in the kitchen. He saw that cake. He resisted the feeling, but the hunger overpowered him, he quickly lifted a fistful of and shoved it down his mouth. He took another fistful and shoved that down quickly.

Soon, the members were done fighting. Animal quickly wiped his hand on his T-Shirt, to clear out last of its evidence. Everyone was tired enough to notice the Animal coming out of the kitchen. But then Noni stared at Animal like she has never seen him before.

She said emphasizing on words, "Where have you been?"

"Umm... Me? Around."

"Like you can bluff me, Animal?"

"Bluff? Yeah, yes, I have been, umm... I have....And yes, it's THE Animal, give me some respect!"

And then, Rydia joined in, "Looks like you have left evidence."

"Umm... evidence? What evidence?" Animal said turning all around seeing his hands and his T-Shirt.

Noni said, "Well, done bluffing?" as Rydia moved forward and wiped Animal's face.

Little Author

I was glad I kept the bow with me. A few moments after the first The Nothing was dead, about 10 more crashed our party. I quickly whipped out my bow and started firing through the air.

Once we had finished up our job of killing The Nothings. We all let out a cheer and Rydia went off to find The Animal. She came back a couple minutes later with a sour look on her face.

"Well Somebody," She spoke emphasizing the somebody. "Ate the cake."

Animal walked out of the kitchen with a shirt covered in icing and cake crumbs. I groaned and glared at Animal.

"Sorry," He said loudly shrugging. I sighed and sat down on what was left of the couch. I took off my quiver and started to count the amount of arrows I had left. 8. Only 8? It was still enough for more fights but I could collect the arrows I used from this battle.

After I picked up all of the arrows I used I had 12. That's more like it. I Thought smiling. We started to clean up the damage from the battle and Rydia went to fix up a new cake.

Kay

I scanned the room as I swept, looking for the YWSer who pulled me away from the decayed Nothing. I didn't know his name yet, being fairly new here, but that was quite a distinctive appearance. The hooded jacket made him easy to spot, working to get rid of the dust of the Nothing while avoiding touching it.

Stalking over to him, I said icily, "Don't you dare touch me again." I could swear I heard quiet, chilling laughter as I turned away, but it always could have been my imagination. Besides, the mask would muffle the noise anyway.

I was still curious, but I hated seeming stupid for not knowing things, and the man with the mask was not the person I wanted to ask. Finally, I found Scarlette. "Why isn't it safe to touch the dust of the Nothing? What happens?"

Rydia

If anyone had asked, Rydia would have gladly told them that she had washed the sword before icing the cake and they had nothing to worry about, honestly! But now she had bigger worries on her plate.

Like The Nothing.

Rydia quickly commanded people to cover the windows and tried to get the party goers mobilised. "We're under attack!" she insisted, battling aside party balloons and trying to spread the word.

They were at the door. Rydia heard the gun shots and charged back in that direction, sword raised and an intense anger in her eyes. How. Dare. They. Ruin. Her. Party!

But the first wave were few and the battle was short. Many of the bodies went down with arrows in their lack-of-chests, while others were felled by- "Was that a tea pot?" Rydia looked up to see there were YWS'ers launching objects from the upstairs windows.

After they were dead, the Knight went back through to the kitchen where she confronted The Animal about eating the cake. "I can't believe you- urgh! Now I'll have to start all over-" Shaking her head, Rydia walked back to the hallway.

"Well Somebody," she said. "Ate the cake."

Rydia turned away, mumbling under her breath as she grabbed an apron, but all the time her mind was on other things. Those were only scouts. If those were only scouts, this could well be a full scale invasion. A full scale invasion would really ruin her party.

"We need more imagination," she mumbled as she reached for the flour.

"I think that's flour,"DiskElemental said, coming into the room.

"Disk! There's going to be more on the way." Rydia paused in her mixing and fixed a worried gaze in his direction. "We need to feed them all cake."

It would be easy for someone to think Rydia had gone mad, but much better than that, she had a plan. A plan that might be enough to write The Nothing out of existence. But she would need time and how much damage could they do in the meantime? What- what if they uncreated the Earth?

Methrirr

The battle had been won, but that's why Methrirr was so worried. They had suffered no casualties, and few people had been injured, he included. He had suffered a deep lasceration in his left shoulder, having been the idiot that he was. He laughed to himself as healers dressed the wound. It may have hurt five minutes ago, but now the pain was replaced by a cold numbness. And it didn't bleed. Methrirr, according to the healers, was showing all the symptoms of having lost alot of blood. But he hadn't bled more than a drop since having recieved the cut.

He always fancied himself the warrior, but he was a dumb warrior. He could tell you that he fought on the front lines, but anyone who was there would tell you he was lying. He fought so far past the front lines, that he often came out of battles barely alive. And that was how he liked it. He was a very risky fighter in groups, and could have easily been mistaken for a small storm, his sword whirling at ridiculous speeds as it rent through the enemies without mercy. It is in this way that he is dangerous. However, he's probably not even one of the best fighters at YWS. Just the luckiest.

It was after they had finished dressing him that Megs came to his hospital bed. His head was swimming, and his skin was pale and cool to the touch. He was tired. And hungry. Particularly for some cake which, he bitterly remembered, was already eaten.

After looking horrorstruck at Methrirr's shoulder, Megs managed a meek "Hi, Thir. How you feeling?"

"Super." Methrirr replied on instinct, his voice heavy with fatigue. It was always super. "You?"

"Fine." she said. "How's your shoulder."

"I can't feel it." he said. "It's cold, and numb, and... wierd." he said, nodding weakly. His guitar was in the corner, leaning against the wall. Despite it being an electric guitar, he rarely played it with an amplifier. People complained. He only used an amplifier when he was alone, or somewhere very public. He was sometimes asked to perform, but never very seriously. Mostly for the fun of it, or for small crowds consisting mostly of friends. But when he was bored, he would take it out andplay with it. Now felt as good a time as any to do so. After a moment of silence, Methrirr suddenly turned to Megs. "Could you hand me my guitar?" he asked.

She started when he spoke, and made her way around the bed, and handed him the guitar. He held it weakly, still laying in his bed, and played a chord. To his shock, it was loud, the sound coming from in his chest, reverberating beautifully. There were almost effects on it, the perfect tone and chorus mixed into the pure voice of steel string. He felt light. That's weird. He played more, noodling a few bars, and the pain returned to his shoulder. But he felt stronger. He pulled out his pick, and played stronger, and slowly his strength returned. As he continued to play, his complexion returned. He could hear nothing else, but the music that continued to flow from his chest. E, D, C, repeat. It was amazing. With no amplifier, the sound was loud and clear, the entire room filled with it's voice. Everyone was quiet, the only sound in the room, the only sound that could be heard, was Methrirr's Guitar. And gradually, his music came to a slow halt, ending with a single note that sang alone, untill it too fell quiet. Megs was speechless, as were all of the other patients.

In fact, there was too much silence. It took a while for people to realize that they had stopped coughing, and bleeding. For nobody ached. Nobody pained. It was like...

"Magic." Methrirr muttered. And it must have been so. How could it have been... Was it the appearance of the nothing that brought magic? Or the other way around? He had no way of knowing. Only that it was there.

He removed his bandage. There wasn't even a scar.

Disk Elemental:

"Cake." I said slowly, making sure I hadn't misheard her.

"That's what I said, we're going to feed them all cake," she replied, frantically pouring milk into a bowl.

Rydia has always been a bit . . . off, but this seems too far, even for her. "Are we hoping that the omnicidal cosmic horrors are diabetic?"

That's when Rydia explained her plan, in its entirety. And, besides the fact it was stupid, risky, ill-advised, dangerous, idiotic, and likely to get us all killed, it was a pretty fantastic plan.

"This is a good plan, I like this plan, and I'm excited to be a part of it."

"If you're going to be sarcastic, do it somewhere else," Rydia said.

"For once I'm not being sarcastic. If they're," I nodded towards the living room," all that stands between The Nothing, and Earth, then we're going to need something to tip the odds. Is there an apron around here anywhere?"

"Uh yeah, in that cupboard. I just find it hard to imagine you willingly putting on an apron."

"Do you know how hard it is to get flour out of this material?" I said, tying the strings behind me.

"I don- huh, come to think of it, what is your coat made out of?"

"That's not important, just trust me when I say it's very difficult."

So, as the world was ending, we made cakes.

Scarlette

The Nothing. I could see their eyes. No, it wasn't their's. But it was. It was the Writers. No one, not even the Seers, knew how The Nothing came about. It was eyes filled with sorrow and longing. Underneath it was something darker, something worse than both of those combined. Resignation. They knew there was no turning them back. Beneath that black prison was a Writer, long dead, but still alive.

The eyes turned red, and my vision panned out, taking me through walls and metal, out into space. It was a ship that I went through, but it wasn't alone. Seemingly one with the void all around them, dozens of ships were stalking the asteroids around them, following them like shadows, mimmicking their every move.

I counted four, maybe five dozen ships that I could see at all times, and about three dozen more that floated in and out of my view, with probably four times that out of the reaches of my vision.

The ship I zoomed out of turned flashed red, tinting the black metal with a blood color, making it look even more menacing. Others around it did the same, and it rippled through the asteroids like a crimson wave of terror, of death.

Slowly, like they had all the time in the world, their ships fazed out of the asteroids, inching ever closer to Mars, where YWS' old Station lay in desertion. The red planet blocked Earth from view for a small moment, but it soon moved out of the way, the sun shining its rays on Mars again, giving it the same gleam as the ships.

Then everything went black, with only one thought echoing the slow movement of the dismal ships: Soon.

~~~~

I came back with a jerk.

"Are you alright?" Morada asked. She looked at her all too good, and now wasted, ice cream.

I could feel the tortured soul of that Writer calling out to me still. It broke my heart, and made me forget about anything dessert-y immediately. "Yes, yes." I muttered, not sure if I actually agreed with what I was saying, "Quite alright, dear." Morada pulled me up. Boy, she was strong! "Thank you." I said quietly.

I staggered a bit until she handed me my cane, which I applied my weight to immediately to keep me from falling. She looked at the sticky mess on the floor, sighed and muttered something, walking away with a saddened look on her face.

I tried to crouch to help clean a little bit, but I obviously couldn't. Someone tapped my shoulder, and I turned to see Kay, a bright young student, new to YWS, whom I teached a little while back.

She had a distressed look on her face. I could tell she was in an annoyed mood. ""Why isn't it safe to touch the dust of the Nothing? What happens?"

I sighed. She was a bright student, perhaps too bright for her own good. "I would have to tell you the entire history, however short or long it may be, and that would take too long to explain it just to you, dear." I smiled, hopefully sending a small reassurance to her.

I don't know if she recieved it, because no awknowledgement came across her face, but, as I hobbled across the room to Rydia, the others, and the cake the mysteriously disappeared, she followed me. I don't know if it was because of her curiosity, anger, or my small smile, but she followed me.

"Why are we going to Rydia? To talk?" She asked quietly, walking alongside me, precariously trying to avoid my cane from stomping on her toes.

"I need to tell her something. I don't know if she realizes it, but the danger is far more extreme than one of them. They are planning their final strike."

The Animal

Animal was plotting over to take the world. He wanted to steal all the chocolate chips cookies from the world and sell it at heavy price.

He was aware that the Nothing will get him if he don't imagine. He went upstairs, that was the bedroom of the leader, but Rydia had not come there for a long time as she was very busy cooking and fighting. Animal has turned the room into a laboratory.

"EUREKA", he shouted slowly. He had made a machine gun which can fire fruits. He put in a lots of bananas and aimed it at the painting of Mona Lisa, Rydia had just bought by bribing some officials.

"Eat bananas, Mona." The machine fired and Mona was all banana soon while Animal shouted, "Die! Die! Die!" Soon the machine choked and started backfiring and Animal was all covered in bananas.

He thought that if The Nothing were diabetic, then he could fire sugar cubes but he came over with a new idea. He called Meth, and Meth said, "I have never seen this room, such a mess, is it your room. I thought that Rydia had her room here."

"Yeah. This is my room or lab. Umm... kind of."

"You are messy."

"Thanks, but tell me that do you want to take revenge on The Nothing, for nearly killing you?"

"Yes!" He said with enthusiasm.

"Do you want to save the earth?"

"Yes", He showed even more interest.

"Do you want to bash their heads off?"

"Yes"

And seeing the perfect timing, he revealed his machine, "I have this for you."

"What is it? And by the way, is that original Mona Lisa?"

"Original? No, it is just a poster and this machine is-"

Meth interrupted, "It looks so original! Never mind"

"Thank you! This is a banana shoo....No, it is a umm... NSM or Nothing Slaughter Machine, but wait for it to cool down, or it will umm...backfi....jam.

"This is cool"

Animal stuffed all things he could find in the machine and said, "Good, now we this you will either kill them all or ....get killed" and then in a motivating voice he added, "ARE YOU READY?"

"Yes, I will either kill them all to save the earth or die doing so."

"That's the spirit" and then he added slowly, "There is no sacrifice greater than someone elses."

"What?"

"Umm... Nothing. And if you come without killing them all or dying in the attempt to do so, remember that will be my sister then and I will ask Rydia to lend you some of her frocks. Understood man?"

Meth didn't reply and Animal left the room in hurry with a wicked smile.