Emilia blinked.
“Uh … I don’t think so. Pretty sure you’ve got the wrong Emilia Vantress here.”
When she pinched her arm, she had definitely felt it. One of the other options were to try and ignore it … right? Was that even how hallucinations worked? She could try sleeping here, maybe, and then she’d wake up that way. That didn’t seem right though.
At this point she hoped they’d just go away, whoever they were. She could feel her streak of inspiration and motivation slowly floating past her fingertips.
She turned back to her drawing pad. She probably shouldn’t think about this too much, though she did have quite a few questions. If she waited long enough, she might wake up. Time in dreams was always a little different, but it would pass quickly.
"Hmm, no, sorry. You are the one and only." Lazare shrugged and took a few steps into the room. "So…" They drew the word out, twisting a lock of hair around their finger. "What can I do to convince you that you are the chosen one? I mean, you already have a god appearing in your apartment. What else do you need?" They asked, waving their hand. A cup of iced coffee appeared in their hand and they took a sip, still staring at Emilia. A plan B hadn't exactly come to mind– they hadn't thought that she would hesitate so much. But it was probably a good thing she was a little cautious… actually, no, it was terrible. This was not going to plan. Then again, it happened a lot. Any plan Lazare made usually didn't work. A small part of their mind had anticipated this happening, but they'd chosen to ignore it.
She glanced back, “I don’t know what I’ve done to upset the heavens, but I think leaving on an adventure to an unnecessary death will never be on my bucket list. Sure, I’d love an adventure but one with some random self-proclaimed god, no context, most likely created out of a hallucination, and probably a higher mortality rate … no thanks.”
This was beginning to seem more like a joke now. Did her florist put something in the flowers? Did she do anything out of the ordinary today? She’d for sure made a few mistakes in her life, but not enough to have the gods take it out on her. What kind of chosen one quest would even exist in the modern day?
"It wouldn't be necessary. And you won't die, I guarantee it," Lazare said seriously, taking another sip of their iced coffee. "And seriously, you don't know me? I mean…" They gestured at their face, with the strange lime-green eyes and sparkly freckles. "I'm kinda unique." Lazare really hoped she knew about them… or actually, maybe not. The stories never really painted them in the best light, but they always tried to edit them a bit before sending them off to the public. So they reflected the truth, of course. "I promise you. The world needs you, Emilia." Of course, in this instance, 'the world' actually translated to 'Lazare'. But she didn't need to know that.
“Right … Yeah, I’m not buying it.”
Everyone out there looked different so it wasn’t like she’d remember anything that special. The dots were starting connect a bit, but the gods weren’t exactly in her top priorities.
“I’m sure there are plenty of better candidates out there to be this ‘chosen one’. You probably don’t really need me to fix the problem anyway, right?”
Emilia just hoped by now, that her memory would be wiped clean and that she’d be left alone. The day was going so well, and now she was supposed to up and leave to save the world? It wasn’t worth it to her either- to save a the worlds people. Her streak was as good as gone now.
Lazare listened to her totally reject them with growing disappointment. "I assure you, darling, you are the one and only chosen one. It's in the name." They shrugged and took a few small steps towards her. "Now, I don't know how much you watch the news, but I'm sure everyone has at least heard about Crin Marchesi." Yes, that was their big evil villain. A little weak, but powerful enough to be a real problem. She had been amassing an army and was threatening to overthrow the nearest ruler. Lazare wouldn't have even looked in her direction of she didn't own a magical, very powerful skull. "Well, she is going to, you know, murder a bunch of innocent people and take over the world if someone doesn't stop her. And you are that someone."
Emilia shrugged, “It does seem like something that could happen … but I still don’t see the need for me to go.”
This was very fishy. Some weirdo god, who seemed kind of familiar, just randomly showed up and told her to save a bunch of random people. She probably would be a pretty useless chosen one, and it wasn’t exactly like she deeply cared about this world’s people anyway.
She couldn’t think of some horrible crime she’d committed that was worth enough to be forced to save the world. So, there wasn’t exactly that much to try and convince her to do that. Especially the her day had been going so well, there would be a slim chance she’d go try and stop Crin. What would there be to do anyway? Though she probably wouldn’t get to know anything else unless she accepted this quest.
This was not working. Lazare needed to think of something quick, but their mind was blanking. What could they say to get her to listen to them? It didn't seem like there was anything else they could do. Her mind seemed made up. Time to reveal another part of the plan, though based on how the plan was going so far, the possibility of it working was slim at best. "Well, you see, Crin has this magical skull. It kinda gives her all this power– not good. And there's one thing that will combat the power of that skull. But a god can't wield it for stupid reasons. Only you can." That wasn't totally true– someone other than Emilia could wield it. But Lazare couldn't. And it was actually the only that that could destroy the skull. Maybe pleading for her help would work. If not… everything was over for them.
“Right~ … that seems totally legit,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “That is 100% happening. Yeah … but no? You’re probably just here because you can’t solve the problem yourself, right?”
At the very least, she got to learn about some more fake news. There was no way any of this was true, and she still didn’t want to help out some rando’ who broke into her apartment. Emilia had no reason to go with this person, and it would probably be better if they got someone to betray Crin … if this was even true at all. It makes sense to see someone as an enemy, but to find some other random person such as herself to help … no sense at all.
"It wouldn't be sensible for me to help out some rando' who broke into my apartment either."
"Well, of course I can't solve it! Do I look like the chosen one?" Lazare asked, gesturing at themself. "No, I do not. Because the chosen one is you." They stared at Emilia, eyes narrowed slightly. It appeared that their hopes and dreams were crushed. Life was meaningless and nothing mattered anymore. Their eyebrows shot up at her last sentence, however. "Okay, first of all, I'm not some 'rando'. My name is Lazare. I'm sure you've heard it." Lazare dropped their iced coffee and it disappeared with a pop. "Second of all, I didn't break into your apartment. Check all the locks, they're perfect. I simply… appeared in your apartment because I need your help. Technically, it wasn't breaking in." They shrugged. "But fine, be sensible. Being sensible is never any fun. You miss out on all the fun stuff that comes with just living." Lazare sighed dramatically and turned towards the door. "And if you don't believe me about the whole skull thing, try researching 'The Skull of Finlai'."
“Yeah, sure …” she muttered under her breath.
What’s their problem?
If that was Lazare, it made a bit more sense. Coming up with some shabby plan like that to tell her she was the chosen, was definitely chaotic. A glittery letter and then trying to argue with her was going to get someone nowhere. She couldn’t trust a god anyway, why would she? She might as well just be one of those ‘innocent people’ who die in Crin’s evil master plan.
There was a whole lot of gaps in this story too. Why would Crin want to rule the world? Why do they need some magic skull to do it? Why was she the ‘chosen one’?
She turned back to look at her flowers. She hoped that her streak would return before they wilted, because even if she was ‘financially stable’, she didn’t want to spend so much money on flowers.
Okay, they'd lost her. Lazare leaned their head back slightly and glared at the ceiling. "I told you guys one of you should have done it." They muttered, not bothering to be quiet about it. "Guess I just need to cross her off the list of chosen ones and go find the next one– oh, wait. There isn't a list." Lazare stopped in the doorway and looked over their shoulder. "If you change your mind and decide to actually believe me, call me." There was a popping sound and Lazare disappeared. A business card appeared in the air where they'd just stood and floated to the ground. Printed on the card was their name, their title (The God of Chaos) and a string of truly magical words to say if anyone wanted to try and summon them. Usually, the card was decorated in large amounts of glitter, but since Emilia didn't seem to like glitter, they'd taken it off.
Emilia nearly sighed with relief after they’d left. Hopefully she’d just be left alone now, since her streak was gone too.
She put her drawing pad down and went to check the time. Turns out, she’d wasted too much time at this point and her aunt had sent her a text. A whole section of her drawing time was gone, so she could just go for a walk now to spend the last bit of time before she’d head out again.
Her aunt wanted her to water the outdoor plants because she wouldn’t be able to. For whatever reason. So, Emilia stepped around the business card that had been left behind, not wanting anything to do with it, and got her shoes out of the closet.
Okay, confession time. Lazare hadn't actually left the apartment, just turned themselves invisible. Sue them, they were curious about whether Emilia would actually take the card or not. And… she didn't. Great. Time to scatter those things all over her apartment. They stepped out of her way and fluttered their fingers. Invisible business cards flew everywhere, slipping into pockets and shoes and under dishes and into corners. They'd turn visible at random points for the rest of time, and stay visible if she ever picked one up. Yes, this was a very bad idea if they wanted her to like them– which they did– but she'd given them no choice. Satisfied that Emilia would never go anywhere without a card, they actually disappeared, reappearing in the nearest park. A snap of their fingers and they were disguised as a normal human, with black hair and dark brown eyes. Lazare collapsed onto a bench and looked around. It was time to take out their feelings on humans they deemed deserving of their wrath.
Emilia finally left her apartment building after removing a couple of business cards from her shoes. She might have slightly angered the heavens by now, but if she just needed clean up a couple of cards … it should be okay.
If she walked a longer path she could probably just spend all her time and then walk to her aunt’s place. One of them at least, where she’d be able to water the plants without leaving the city.
As she thought about it more, it became more and more of a better idea to stay at her aunts tonight. That way she wouldn’t have to walk back, and she didn’t need to worry about ruining the plants because she was in a rush. Her aunt wouldn’t be there either, so she could keep her silence. She also kind of hoped that her apartment wouldn’t be filled with more business cards when she returned. Though, it seemed likely, and she wanted to avoid that.
Lazare was draped across most of the bench, which earned them a few dirty looks. They hadn't found anyone worthy of anything a little malicious, which didn't help their bad mood. Instead, they changed people's hair colors by a few shades and slipped glitter into their bags, purses, and shoes. But that didn't cheer them up. Lazare heaved a huge sigh and summoned themself a cup of iced coffee. They took a mournful sip and added bright pink stripes to the underside of a passing woman's hair. This was getting boring quickly and wasn't helping their sore heart in the least bit. They took another sip and glanced around the park.
Emilia had put on her sunglasses now too, to hide her eyes so she wouldn’t look weird staring straight ahead. People wouldn’t care but she just felt weird, and she didn’t want unnecessary eye contact.
Another business card was in her pocket, so until she reached a trash can at some park, she have to hold onto it. At this point, everything seemed pretty real, so she excepted the fact that there were a ton of cards. Not really anything else though.
Her aunt’s plants had too priority right now though. She owed her aunt a lot so she needed to repay her as much as possible.
Lazare set down their cup and pulled a phone out of their pocket. They started typing quickly, glancing up every once in a while. They were busy typing out the rest of their plan, just in case Emilia changed her mind, when a commotion caught their attention. In the center of a grassy area stood a woman wearing a weird mask and holding a fancy sword. She was yelling something about the end of days and everyone dying. Perfect. Lazare smiled and shoved the phone in their pocket. They stood up and sauntered over to the woman. "Excuse me, but you are causing a scene. If you could just set down the sword–" The woman turned towards them, her mouth curled in a grimace.
"You are all doomed," she hissed, taking a few steps towards them and thrusting her sword straight through their chest before they could react.
(I meant to reply earlier but I got drowned in house chores and zoom meetings, sorry!)
Emilia rounded another corner, knowing she was going in the wrong direction. If she wanted to take a longer path she’d need to make a loop around most of the buildings.
She got to another park this time with some trash cans on the other side. A random commotion was starting across the street, and Emilia gave no heed to it. People did things like that all the time.
She tossed the cards into the trash and kept walking.
Right now, could have been the best part of the day. The sun wasn’t nearly as high, and today there was little wind. So, Emilia was glad she chose to take a long walk. She could enjoy nice weather, and she also hoped that she would become inspired enough to get her streak back. If all went well, she could get back to drawing tomorrow. Since she had been waiting for her flower order for a while.
Lazare gasped, though it was more in shock than in pain. They looked from the sword to the woman… and grinned. Before she could pull the sword out, they grabbed the handle and pulled it out themselves. Despite the fact that they were quite a lot shorter than the woman, they managed to rip the sword out of her hand. The woman's mouth dropped open.
"What… I killed you." She stared at Lazare, her eyes wide.
"You'll have to try harder than that," Lazare said, swinging the sword towards her neck. There was a flash of bright white light and the woman fell to the ground, her skin slowly turning to stone. The people watching all gasped and backed away. Lazare sighed and turned their attention to the sword. There was a design on the base of the blade depicting a skull with some sort of flower sprouting from one of the eye sockets. Crin. Lazare shook their head and turned, walking towards the edge of the park, the sword still clutched in their hand.
Emilia pushed her sunglasses back up so they sat correctly on her face.
She was for sure relaxing a bit more now, since the weather was certainly helping. Though, it was still present at the back of her mind, of the incident with Lazare.
She still wasn’t really sure if any of that was real, but it also didn’t really matter to her. As long as she’d be left alone, she’d be okay. She also hoped that by the time she returned to her apartment, everything would still be okay. Since there was the possibility that everything could be burned down or covered in glitter when she got back.
Putting it all into factor, she was probably staying at her aunts subconsciously because she didn’t want to face that scenario.
(Sorry, this rather late– I got distracted with my response and forgot– but you're good. Again, sorry, I'm awkward and don't want you to think I ignored you or something! :)
Lazare reached the edge of the park, whispers following them all the way. They ran their hand over their hair and it changed to its natural white color. Their eyes faded to like green, and the berth people have them got much wider. But Lazare's mind was focused on the sword. It wasn't new to see doomsday fanatics and all those types, but one with a sword emblazoned with Crin's symbol? That was definitely unusual. Maybe this situation they'd blown out of proportion was actually as big as they'd said it was. If that was true, it really wasn't a good thing that Emilia had turned her back on the quest. They could always get another random mortal– maybe someone a little more gullible– but they still wanted it to be Emilia. Even though it was foolish and obviously never going to happen. Lazare was about to launch into a monologue about how unlucky they were, but the sound of a distant explosion shattered whatever metal speech they were about to compose.
(It’s chill. No worries!)
She passed a flower shop now. The same company she originally bought her flowers from, just a different location.
In the window were all the same beautiful but overpriced arrangements. Anything simple wasn’t really shown in the windows. The arrangement she bought today was of course just as a reference with high priority. Her favourite flowers to buy were Iris, Orchid, and Peony. Though because they died eventually, she just got them for special occasions. She could always go to her aunts place to look at the flowers too.
Emilia smiled a bit to herself, her mood improving with the passing moments. She should let her mind rest for now, so she focused on the relaxing evening to come.
Another explosion rocked the air, the sound echoing around the buildings and down the roads. People stopped in shock, all looking towards the sounds of the explosions. Lazare only hesitated a moment before taking off towards the sounds. They wanted to make sure it wasn't anything to do with Crin. If it wasn't… meh. If it was, though, people were dying. If they could get their hands on them, that is. People were starting to run away from the site of the explosion, though Lazare couldn't quite see it yet. They were still carrying the sword– it was proof, just in case they ran into Emilia again. It was unlikely that would happen, unfortunately. Though it might be fortunate in this case. They really didn't want her near an explosion. Lazare reached an intersection and looked right. Where there once had been a police station was now a pile of smoking rubble. A crowd was forming near it, though law enforcement was already moving them away. Lazare turned invisible and slipped through the crowd and under the line of police tape. The building was pretty much destroyed, but on a half-destroyed wall, painted in red, was the mark of Crin.
Another commotion was starting now, not necessarily by people arguing.
Emilia looked over her shoulder, in the distance was smoke and quite a few people running away. A building had probably exploded, and how she ignored that, who knows. She didn’t want any part of the trouble that came with a broken building, so she kept walking. Though the passerby’s screams and shouting didn’t help keep a serene environment.
Emilia didn’t feel bad about ignoring the situation either, since there was probably enough people and authorities on the scene already. She nearly brought back the idea of Crin and Lazare and the whole ruling the world thing. It seemed a bit too close, but with a city full of people, lots of stuff could go down. She had no reason to think Crin was connected to this either.
Lazare ran their fingers over the paint and found it to still be wet. It appeared that the culprit had painted it on after the building had exploded, based on how clean the paint looked. Lazare closed their eyes, trying to find where the person who'd painted this had gone. They got a slight ping a few blocks down, moving slowly. Probably walking as to not draw any attention. Lazare dropped their hand from the paint and turned, weaving around the rubble until they made it to the sidewalk. Once they were a decent way away from the explosion, they appeared again, following the trail. Hopefully, it would be a follower of Crin and not some random person who thought her symbol looked cool.
Emilia moved back to thinking about flowers and plants.
If it wasn’t too noticeable she could probably take some clippings from her aunts. Though, she needed to take plants that wouldn’t die very easily. Since she knew they would very much end up dying.
It might be a bit too risky to take some clippings of the plants though. She could ask … then her aunt would just tell her to become her gardener. It would probably be taken the wrong way, something along the lines of ‘If you want some of my plants so badly, just take care of the ones here for me’.
They were gaining on whoever had painted on Crin's symbol. Only a block away now, and gaining fast. Whoever it must've been walking at a glacial pace. Good for them. Lazare dodged around a group of people and sprinted across a street, narrowly avoiding being run over. The sounds of honking followed them as they kept going. They were close now, almost right in front of them. Lazare took a few more steps, only to pass them, somehow? Glancing over their shoulder, Lazare noticed a small alleyway snaking between two buildings. Lazare slowed down, still looking over their shoulder, only to run straight into someone. They stumbled backward, a look of annoyance on their face. "Sorry." The word was short and sharp, more to make sure no one slowed down their pursuit of the bomber than anything.
Emilia yawned, covering her mouth as she did.
Thinking about doing more work for her aunt was tiring in itself. She probably should be properly and regularly taking care of those plants anyway, putting it all into factor. It definitely showed that she was slacking off a bit. Though, it didn’t help that her aunt financially supported her in that department.
Other alternatives could be for her to just take pictures of the plants. She could buy fake ones too. Her aunt might be offended by that though. Her money being spent towards useless and meaningless decoration.
Or at least that was how it was viewed. Emilia could technically just use different decoration though.
She blew a strand of hair out her face. Maybe she could have chosen a slightly shorter route, though she did want to stay away from whatever had happened. She could’ve brought headphones too.
Lazare started down the alley, their eyes finally fixing on a figure walking down the alley. They slowed down, keeping their footsteps quiet. But they weren't exactly the stealthiest being, and the person noticed them. The bomber turned around, his mouth turned down in disappointment. Lazare stopped a few feet away from him and gave him a quick once-over. They didn't see anything obvious that proclaimed him part of Crin's… whatever, but they didn't rule out that possibility. The man also looked them over, his eyes widening slightly in surprise when he saw the sword in Lazare's hand.
"You're part of the group?" He asked slowly, looking from the sword to Lazare's face. "No… you're not."
"No, but you are," Lazare said, pointing the sword at him. "Why the blown-up building, darling?"
"To make a point. People need to know what's in store for them." The man grinned wickedly and held up something that looked a lot like a hand-held detonator. "I thought I might be followed, so I have a backup plan. Shouldn't have followed me, kid." The man pulled out a package and tossed it at Lazare's feet. "Bye!" He clicked the button and ran. Lazare stared after him in shock, then looked down at the package. And then it exploded in their face.
.jpg)