Tala

"Git gud scrub." Wow Koga very original. She didn't even respond with anything more than a stare or disbelief that he was even going to stoop that low with her of all people. She was going to have to get him back for that one wasn't she. Once more, her health dropped, but this time dangerously close to the match being over. Well, this wasn't going to work for her at all now was it.

His hit, like the entire time they've been fighting, did a sliver of damage. But now, well, now she was slightly irked at her brother. Mainly for that dumb comment, and he wasn't making it any better on himself right now. Sure, she had stumbled, but still. She righted herself after Koga pushed her away, "So, wanna try that again?" If one was to be standing beside her, they might have heard the small growl that came from her then.

She took a moment to calm down just a little bit before she charged for him. She was going to hit him and she knew it. The moment she was in range, she took the short person way out, slashing her blade across his right leg.

@Koga

Oh look, she has a request. She didn't think anyone would come by while she was on the seventeenth floor doing that challenge but someone did. Either way, she put the Apollo's Lyre up before she looked at the request. Ah, this was the same thing that she was thinking of crafting for herself but didn't. She was certain that she would be able to get it done for someone else. So, she grabbed her materials and started upon her new project of getting this request done. Out of the four crafts, she got one uncommon and one rare song. That wasn't horrible, perhaps that challenge had been worth it.

"Hmm, nothing! There's nothing else. Just two dudes, getting some food, ya know. Normal stuff! Oh look a material!" She buried her forehead into one of her hands for a moment. "Um, well, you see. We also... did that other quest together, that one. Is anyone else noticing the small pond over there?" Now, she just has both of her head buried into both of her hands. She might need to teach this boys a lesson or two about learning how to lie to someone.

Lifting her head from her hands, she smiled as she grabbed a couple of shiny materials before she turned and looked at the two of them. "Ya know, you both suck at lying ad distracting." She looked at the pond and nodded, "Yes, that is a pond." Looking back to the boys, she tilted her head to the right. "So, which one of you wants to tell me the truth, hm?" She gave them both a pointed look, but the one that she gave Koga just screamed his real name at him.

@Koga

At this point, it didn't surprise her that Apollo knew that she had some business that she needed to get done. It was probably written all over her face during that last song. But, she regretted nothing. She looked at the satyr as they left Mt. Olympia though. "Thank you." There was no word from the satyr, but there was a grunt sound that it made. Ha, typical, she thanks someone and gets nothing. But then, she didn't deserve anything in response this time.

"Also, I'm sorry for being rude to you on the way here." Okay, perhaps this challenge has done more to this woman than one would initially think. But, she was going to work with it. She was going to think of a way to make it up to everyone for hurting them. But how, well, that might take a little bit to truly figure out. It didn't take long until she was back in town, saying goodbye to a satyr, and back on the first floor. She headed to her studio to start thinking.

Thread Summary:

Apollo just seemed to be standing there, with something in his hand. Oh right, he was giving her something. She took the item and looked at it. "What is it?" This made Apollo laugh. "That is my lyre. It is proof that you have completed this challenge and have earned my respect as a Performer." She looked at the lyre and instantly knew where she was going to place it in her studio back on the first floor. For now though, "I must go home."

Apollo nodded and looked at the satyr. "Escort her back will you. Make sure she gets back to do the things that she realized she needs to do." The satyr nodded before looking at Tala. "After you." He motioned for her to go back to the studio that she had been using here. She bowed lightly to Apollo, the first true sign of respect that she has shown anyone in the game in the past two years, before she walked through the door.

There was nothing but silence for a few moments, fear starting to bubble in her. At least, until she heard a single person clapping. That was when the rest of the people watching started to clap. She let out a small breath of air and looked at Apollo. The God was walking over to her at the moment, still clapping. Had he been the one to start it? "Now that, Tala, is what I am looking for in a Performer. It is sad to see that it had to take this long to bring it out in you though."

The satyr beside Apollo seemed to lightly punch the God. Oh no, was the satyr about to become a meal? She was starting to like him. But instead, Apollo merely nodded. "This, Tala, is for you. You have completed my challenge and impressed me with your raw emotion. If you promise to show that in all of your work, I won't have to come to the first floor just to visit you to remind you of this day." Wait, was that a threat, from a God?

But now, now was the real kicker. She slowed down her pace on singing, mainly to relish the next few words that she was about to say. "The smile that you gave me, even when you felt like dying." There were two people in her mind when she sand that, Yukiro and Koga. She had hurt them both, and yet they tried to give her a smile. She could always see through Koga's smiles like that, but seeing it mimicked on Yukiro's face, seemed to make the tears start rolling down her face.

"We fall apart as it get dark. I'm in your arms in Central Park. There's nothing you could do or say, I can't escape the way, I love you." She had to pause for a moment to catch her breath and even out her voice then. "I don't want to, but I love you." The final words being sung, she hummed for a few more small verses before she looked around the crowd. Some were crying and others smiling. That was good, right?

"Up all night on another red eye. I wish we never learned to fly." The humming sort of sounded like the letter i as she hummed. Her mental images flitting across the three people she had hurt. But soon, the image stopped solely on a hurt and crying Noctua. "Maybe we should just try to tell ourselves a good lie. I didn't mean to make you cry." At first, perhaps Tala had meant to make Noctua cry.

But now, now she didn't want to see that image. "Maybe won't you take it back. Say you were tryna make me laugh and nothing has to change today. You didn't mean to say "I love you". I love you and I don't want to." Back to humming. Her voice was starting to rise and fall with the words, giving them more depth and meaning. More emotion. Something that the crowd and Apollo haven't seen from her. Something that was giving the song actual meaning, and not just empty words.

"It's not true, tell me I've been lied to. Crying isn't like you." She hummed lightly right then as she first thought of her brother. She knew he has cried, but she couldn't prove it. "What the hell did I do? Never been the type to let someone see right through." Another soft hum. This time, she was picturing Yukiro. He was holding his familiar, Yumi, the little sugar glider. This brought a small smile to her face.

"Maybe won't you take it back. Say you were tryna make me laugh and nothing has to change today. You didn't mean to say "I love you"." She was still thinking on Yukiro, only now, he was joined by those whom she had hurt. The ow- no her name is Noctua. Noctua was standing there, but not next to her brother anymore. But her focus went right back to the image of Yukiro for a moment. "I love you and I don't want to." Another soft hum.

She walked onto the stage, the tears no longer falling. That was a good thing. But as she tried to sing, she stopped herself. She had chosen a different song before she came out, but, she wanted to change it right now. The other song just..didn't feel fitting to the new found mood that she was in. Nor with the feelings that she wanted to portray into her song. A throat was cleared and she jerked her head to look at Apollo.

He seemed to be smiling, but also tapping his watch. Right, she was still supposed to perform wasn't she. But why was he smiling? She noticed a small satyr-like form behind him and she smiled lightly to herself. The all knowing Gods had their informants didn't they. Either way, she closed her eyes for a second before she opened them and started to hum a small little tune, just to get the feeling of the song started.

She didn't say anything else. Had this satyr been muted? He wasn't saying anything either. She just stared at him, and that was when she felt the first warm tear drop on her face. She couldn't believe it, she was crying. That was a new one. She was like her brother and didn't cry much, and never in front of others. Well, guess there is a first time for everything. "I need to win this challenge, and try to fix things. I just don't know how." Her voice was a mere whisper at this point.

The satyr stood and put a hand on her shoulder for a moment, "Show that to Apollo. This is what he has been waiting to see." Wait, did that mean that this challenge was purposely to help her figure her stuff out? If that was the case, it was perfectly timed. Either either, she nodded and looked at the countdown. Five...four...three...two...one....

"Do you think this to be some sort of game? Do you think that these past two performances make you worthy to be among my ranks of performers? Just what do you think you are doing?" With that, she went back to her studio, but she wasn't alone. The satyr was right behind her, with a serious look on it's face. She closed the door and looked at the satyr. "What? Come to offer me a front row seat to my fall out? To my break down?" The satyr didn't say a word, instead, it sat down on a spare chair and just looked at her.

"I don't deserve this." A small sigh as she slumped into her chair. She was finally admitting it. "I did wrong. I broke the hearts of three people. Hell, who am I kidding, four. I destroyed the good that my brother had. I used a guy to make that happen and I even fell for him. I had blind hatred for someone who I never bothered to get to know. You know what kind of person that makes me? A crappy one."

What she didn't see, was Apollo starting to get mad, and she wasn't going to see that. "Count my cards, watch them fall. Blood on a marble wall. I like the way they all scream. Tell me which one is worse." She kept her eyes closed, trying to drown out the impending doom that she was starting to feel. She was starting to doubt herself in this song, mainly because her brother's heartbroken look kept coming to her mind. She didn't know what to think on it.

She just wanted to keep singing. She wanted to fix things. But she couldn't. Not here. Not right now. So, once again, she pushed all of the to the side and continued with her song. "Living or dying first. Sleeping inside a hearse. I don't dream. You say, come over baby. I think you're pretty. I'm okay, I'm not your baby. If you think I'm pretty, you shou-" "Enough!" Uh oh.

"You should see me in a crown. I'm gonna run this nothing town. Watch me make 'em bow. One by one by, one." She was slowly getting into the song, but not in the way that the crowd seemed to truly want. She was being vocal and she was giving it her all, but there was still something that it was missing, raw emotion. This was the moment when she could be told to get off the stage and try again, but no, she kept going.

"One by one by. You should see me in a crown. Your silence is my favorite sound. Watch me make 'em bow. One by one by, one. One by one by, one." She smiled as she sand the song. She thought of how she just got rid of that blasted owl for once and for all, and it made her happy, then sad, then happy. But she wasn't showing this in how she sang. No, she was blocking all of that out. The words, while meaningful, held no emotion to show that meaning.

Five...four...three...two...one...

She didn't even bother to wait for her name to come out to be told that she was to start her performance. She was just geared up and ready to go. Blocking out those earlier thoughts and doubts, she started with her next masterpiece of a song for the crowd, and this stubborn and picky God, Apollo.

"Bite my tongue, bide my time. Wearing a warning sign. Wait 'til the world is mine. Visions I vandalize, cold in my kingdom size. Fell for these ocean eyes." She had her eyes closed as she sang this song. She didn't want to look at the crowd, see their faces. No, she was scared of the faces that they might turn into. She wasn't about to break down, not here, not now. No, she was going to work through all of this pain that she was suddenly feeling.

She soon put that pain back to the side and continued on with her performance that she thought was going to win her the competition.

Three minutes. Well, that was going to give her just a little bit longer to try and think things through. She wanted to win this challenge, prove that she was able to be the performer that she knew that she was. To prove to herself that she is the person she is. She wasn't going to believe the doubt and the nagging feeling, they were wrong. She was right. She was a good person and she did things the way that she did them on purpose because she is a good person.

Tala sighed lightly as these thoughts crossed her mind. She didn't want to believe them at all. She just wanted to believe and know that she was going to get back on her brother's good side. Why did life have to be so darned difficult? She just wanted things to be easy. She ever had to pull some kind of elaborate plan like this in the real world. But here, here she had to. Here she had to use more than one pawn. That wasn't right.

Did Apollo just say that she sounded like crap? Was that the truth? Currently, she had a strong feeling that she was a crappy person, but a crappy singer? She sat on the chair in the studio and looked at her hands. No, she wasn't a crappy person. Sure, she used Yukiro, but that was beyond the point. She wanted to save her big brother, and well, she did. There was a new five minute countdown above her head and she watched it slowly tick.

She knew that next song that she was going to sing. This one was going to work, she knew it. But did she? This was starting to be more of a doubting session than a prepping session. She shook her head to try and clear her thoughts of all of that just to be able to focus. She wanted to win this challenge and well, she was going to do everything that she could do to be able to win.

"Today, I'm thinkin' about the things that are deadly. The way I'm drinkin' you down. Like I wanna drown, like I wanna end me." She stopped watching the crowd at this point, it just wasn't worth it. It was starting to make her feel down. Feel like she wasn't worthy. Wait, was this the point? She didn't know, but the show had to continue. "Step on the glass, staple your tongue. Bury a friend, try to wake up. Cannibal class, killing the son. Bury a friend, I wanna end me." She was singing the best that she could in the moment, but that wasn't going to be the best that Apollo wanted was it?

"I wanna end me. I wanna, I wann-" She was cut off by Apollo holding her hand up to her face. "Enough. Tala, that was horrendous. How do you ever plan on becoming a true performer when you sing like that? Enough, go back to you the other room and prepare for round two. And this time, Impress me." With that, Apollo was gone and the crowd was laughing at her. She spun on her heel and quickly walked back to her recording studio here in Olympus.

"What do you want from me? Why don't you run from me? What are you wondering? What do you know?" She started her performance, hoping to be able to impress. Though, even she could tell that there weren't any emotions being projected into her voice, and if she could tell, she knew that the crowd would be able to as well. "Why aren't you scared of me? Why do you care for me? When we all fall asleep, where do we go?" She was going at the pace that she remembered from the song.

She was trying to keep it as close as possible, while still giving the song her own flare. Something that she learned to do in the real world. But there was nothing coming from the crowd yet, and this was starting to discourage her. But she wasn't going to let it completely stop her. "Say it, spit it out, what is it exactly you're payin'? Is the amount of cleanin' you out, am I satisfactory?" Still nothing from the crowd, or even from Apollo.

Five...four...three...two...one... Now up next is Tala!

That was her cue. She walked out the door of the recording studio that she was in only to realize that the door directly connected to a stage. She thought that she would have had a bit longer to be able to prep herself. Take the walk to clear her mind of everything but the sing lyrics. You know, the kind of things that make a person calm down and be able to do what they needed to do.

But no, she didn't get that luxury just now. Instead, she was staring at the crowd and she sighed. There was no way past this. But then again, did she actually agree to this challenge? She didn't recall, unless her following Apollo was how she accepted the challenge. "Tala, either start singing soon, or this performance will be considered a failure." She took a deep breath and nodded, before she started her song.

Apollo was now gone, and there was a countdown. Five minutes. She had that long to prepare for the first performance. She sighed as she went back through the songs that she knew. She scanned and scanned, of course it being in a pure mental way. Wait, that song was going to be perfect, and it fit her current mood. She did basically just bury Yukiro, so the song was going to be the best thing. Wait... was it bad that she was connecting dots right now? She was in this mood because she let Yukiro go?

Or was it because she destroyed her brother's life? She knew that she had, she didn't even need the report to come in from the goon to know this. Tala sighed as she watched the countdown hit sixty seconds. It was almost time to go out and do this first performance, but did she have the heart to actually do it was the question. That was going to be the problem, finding a way to make sure that she was bleeding her emotions into the music. She had spent so long lately hiding her emotions, that it was going to be hard to do.

Thankfully though, that wasn't cutting down her song selection. She knew plenty of songs by heart that she could sing, so she just had to find the right one to woo the crowd. "Who is this crowd going to consist of?" Apollo laughed. That wasn't a good thing was it. "That 'satyr thing' and his human farm." Wait, you've got to be kidding right. Please say that you are kidding. "And if I fail?" Apollo stopped walking and look her right in the eyes. "Then I demand that you change professions to no longer make this one look like a fools job."

Okay, hey! Who said told the God that she was doing horribly? That wasn't fair! She was still new to this. Besides, it's hard to get an instrument to sound correct in the recording crystals. It was like it wasn't meant to be...oh. So that's why he said no instruments. She needed to better her singing to actually be able to craft songs. Well, this was going to suck wasn't it. "Don't worry, I know your singing isn't the best. That is why I issue this challenge. To better yourself. So pick your songs wisely." With that, she noticed that she was now standing in a recording studio.

Right, so she has to perform against the Greek God of music. This is going to be interesting. Also, don't ask her how she knows this, because she wasn't studying up on ways to be mean to the owl by using Greek culture. No, not at all. Either way, Apollo started to walk and she figured that she needed to follow, so that is what she did. "Now, this performance, you have three tries to woo the crowd that will be there. It is a competition, but not in the sense that you have to beat me. Merely impress me. Show me that you are worthy of being a Performer."

Okay, that didn't sound too horrible. She already had a song selected that she was going to do. Now, she just needed to see if the crowd was going to like it. But first. "Are instruments allowed." There was a pause, as if Apollo was looking over her instrumental skills. "No instruments. Voice only." Crap. She nodded though and continued to follow him. Okay, so no Mozart today.

Someone cleared their throat and it made Tala jump as she looked to see who it was. That was when she saw Apollo standing before her. Or at least, she was going to assume that it was Apollo and not that damned human farm owning satyr. Perhaps she should have a talk with Apollo about that. "Welcome to Olympus, it's time to start your challenge." She held a hand up then, not really caring that this was a God that she was doing it to.

"Hold up. First, who the hell are you. Second, why was your satyr thing threatening to throw me into a human zoo. Third, why am I even here?" The God standing before her just stared at her for a moment. She half wondered if he was just going to smite her right here and now. That would save the world a lot of trouble wouldn't it? The writer too. But no, Apollo merely sighed. "First, I am Apollo, the quest giver for you today. Second, don't worry about him, he is like that for all humans who annoy him." Ouch. "Third, you are here to compete against me in a performance."

Wait...what?

"No, I mean usually if you drop by it's 'cause you want something." She opened her mouth to say something, and promptly closed it. Maybe he had a bit of a point on that one. She should probably fix that shouldn't she.

"You're telling me you went to Floor Four...and didn't know what it was?" She stared at him for a moment. "I also hadn't planned on going to the fourth floor brother dearest. It was a spur of the moment invitation to fight the Avalanche. And well.... I was in a damn skirt that day... and no I didn't know the fourth floor was an ice box." She shivered just thinking about that quest, that she hadn't even done anything on. Did she mention that she was just standing there as he and NIGHT beat the thing up?

"Yeah, don't piss the mob off and get killed." Oh the sarcasm, it ran in the family, and his still made her laugh. Next came his talk about her patience, she couldn't disagree with him there. "Well, you know what they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." She smirked as he disappeared. She wondered what it was that he was about to go and grab. But, she looked around and noticed that the owl had left while Koga and Tala had been talking. Good.

"These, dear sister, are for you." She looked at the two items. She was about to ask what one of them did but her brother beat her to it. "The Spyglass makes tameable creatures appear more often. And I think you can guess how the Rabbit's Foot will help. Here." She took the items from him and nodded lightly. Right, things can be made easier, awesome. She walked out of the shop after him and quickly used the Spyglass before she looked at Koga. "Alright, let's get going."

She nodded before she started to head out of the town. But there was still one minor detail since she failed the first quest, the gypsy had to be found again. Well, she looked in one direction and the gypsy all but smacked her on the head from the opposite direction. "Looks like you need a fam-." Tala turned and looked at the lady. "We went through this maybe an hour ago, can I just have the stuff please." The NPC looked offended for a moment before thrusting the food into Tala's hands. She didn't even look at Koga, knowing that he was probably going to chastise her for that before she headed out of the town again.

@Koga