Lacuna (Open

Aroma had an odd dream. . . A delusion that occured within her unconscious state. Of her being wrapped tightly by the constricting coils of a rather large serpent. It's decorative obsidian scales had dug themselves within her dream form, piercing through her phantasm flesh as the tightening force made her choke. It was as if she had physically experienced what it was like to feel suffocating. The coiling serpent body that wrapped around her body, caused her mind to panic. The sensation of being trapped and oppressed flooded through her senses, and trying to wiggle free only caused the serpent to press even tighter. The only thing that could manage through the woman's parted lips was the desperate sounds of her gasping, struggling to quench the thirst for the oxygen that her lungs was screaming for. Then with an oddly graceful curve, one that also announced a deadly performance, the head of the massive reptilian now faced hers. It's black beady eyes gazed upon the struggling woman. Just as a single word echoed through her mind, "Awaken".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now the vibrant grass cushioned the resting Viperis as she sat amongst the ground. She was merely a little ways from the training grounds of her beloved village. Her back was pressed agaisnt a tree, who's trunk possessed an uncommonly smooth surface. With a brief passing of her free hand, the blindfolded woman tucked away a strand of her lavender shade hair behind one of her ears. A soft breeze snucked by and tickled the small nose that sat upon her features. Despite the black eye bindings that hid the direction of her sight to anyone who was curious, the lowered tilt of her head made it obvious that the woman's attention was directed towards a book that was grasped within the fingers of her other hand. No doubt at first glance this type of situation would seem odd to one whom did not know her. The eye bindings usually mistaken her as an individual troubled with blindness, but then the fact that she was sitting here journaling her thoughts would prove otherwise. Aroma tapped the writing utensil that was held between her fingers, agaisnt the edge of her journal.

There was alot going through her mind, the unspoken message behind her dream that night had left her feeling a sense of duende, oddly enough despite the facts that the serpent had given the actions that would interprete killing her. It felt as if something was missing, from both her last night dream, the meaning of the deadly serpent's hushed words, and her life overall. This caused a pause in her journaling, as her mind began to freeze over the sensation of puzzlement. Aroma couldn't help but feel as if she was within a sciamachy of realization that she was nothing. Her life was merely an existence that didn't matter if it vanished in a puff of mist. It was her job to make it meant something, if anything at all. But for the time being, her life would be filled with many gaps and holes. There was so much missing that she couldn't grasp the concept of. As if her life was surrounded by numerous lacunas. Perhaps there would be someone or something to break her from this current trace.
{WC: 547}

The stones surrounded Ikari, each being bigger than the one before. The sun was high in the sky, beaming down upon him. Beads of sweat forming on his forehead, running down the side of his face as he glanced over the railing next to him. The cliff side was easily the best place to get the most beautiful view. Ikari stared at the rocks and he realized that he was growing bored of continuing the same work out again and again. He finally decided that he was going to go for a run, as he would when the sun reached the middle of the sky. 

His steps would hit the ground with a heavy thud as it would try to support the raging bastard with every step. His speed started out being outstanding, each step getting more and more distance with each stride. But as he finished his thirtieth lap around the village, he was beginning to slow and he grew tired. Feeling his control over his body begin to lose it's grip. His anger swelled within his mind and his body, causing his chakra to explode out of his body. With this new level of anger and determination, he would pick his pace back up. Legs feeling as though they were on fire, he was still pumped up and ready to keep going, trying to get the next step to get him farther than the one before.

Finally when he finished the fiftieth lap, he stopped himself to get himself a drink of water. Looking around his position he saw a new face from within the village, being busy with a book. He shrugged his shoulders and continued to drink from the fountain that was in front of him. He went back into the quarry that was directly next to the woman with the book. Looking around the rocks, he thought to himself which of the rocks he was going to try to lift to be the superset to complete his work out. 

As he looked around, he couldn't help but to look back at the violet-haired woman reading the book. He had never seen hair like hers before, and he was mesmerized by it there was no doubt. He tried to focus on the current task at hand and chose the rock that he was going to lift. He walked up to the giant stone, knowing that this was going to be his biggest challenge yet. The stone stood at 15 meters tall and was 8 meters wide. He stood before this massive stone and he felt his body tense up, his eye brows furrowed, and his fists clenched. His chakra began spilling out of him once again, surrounding him, swirling around his body in a sporadic and furious, much like the wielder of that chakra. His hair would begin to glow with the light of a bonfire, same with his eyes. 

When he finally felt ready enough to attempt the lift, he reached his hands out, grabbing on the rock. After bending his legs, he was officially ready to attempt the lift. With a loud yell and a growl his legs would begin pushing upwards. The rock would begin to shake as it slowly came out of the ground. The chakra swirling around his body changed its pace, the chakra was no longer swirling, but violently attacking the air around him. Exploding into the air as he continued the lift. The rock started off slow, but finally the dirt began to fall off of the bottom of the stone. Slowly the rock lifted completely out of the ground and Ikari slammed it back into the dirt. 
 
He let go of the stone, and he turned away from it and walked out of the quarry. As excited as he was, the workout proved to be too much, even for his body. His vision blurred, and his steps became more unstable. Finally he fell sideways, landing on his shoulder, and he laid there for a few moments. All he could see was the sky above him swirling around and the ground below him shaking, so he figured it would be better to juts lay there for now, without risking falling off the cliff that was directly beside him.

WC:709

With his broad back leaning against a tree Ichigo was sleeping off last night's hangover when he was suddenly woken up by an itchy feeling on his nose. When he finally opened his eyes he would notice that he wasn't the only one making it himself comfortable under the glowing sun, as a purple butterfly was taking a rest on the tall man's face. Not remembering how he ended up laying on the grass he tried to get the colorful insect on his finger. Enjoying the soft and ticklish touch of the butterly he then noticed a similar color in the background. Was he dreaming or did he really have too much to drink which caused him to hallucinate? Because if he didn't know better he started to believe that the butterfly came to life.

Rubbing his eyes a couple of times he finally got a clear view of what was in front of him. Not far from his position was a rather beautiful young woman sitting on the ground with a book in her hands. Her long lavender hair that grabbed Ichigo's attention. Not sure why, but he got the feeling she was lost in her own thoughts but then again, a woman's mind is a complicated thing. Maybe she just wanted to enjoy the warm touch of the sun touching her skin while reading one of her favorite books. Minding his own business he was about to close his eyes once more.

Planning to go back to his afternoon sleep if it wasn't for whatever sound it was being created not too far away from where he was laying down. "What the hell is going on?" One eye closed while the other one was trying to find out what just happened. Looking over he would spot a teenage boy lifting a massive rock. It reminded him of the times where Ichigo would go out to train his impressive physique, similar to what the young shinobi was doing right now. Once the stone was completely lifted, the boy would slam it back down on the ground, followed by the dirt enveloping the area he was standing in.

Typical for boy's his age the teenager was overflowing with energy, but a common mistake for the youth these days, they tend to overdo it from time to time. Having seemed to finally reached his limit the young shinobi started to wobble from left to right as he eventually fell down and landed sideways on his shoulder. Ichigo was all too familiar with the situation as it reminded him once more he was about to pick up where he left off, with his back against the tree and his eyes closed. If the lavender lady would decide to check up on the young boy's situation he would observe a little longer in case he was needed.

(WC: 474)

The sounds of a harsh yell, followed by the rumbling growls protruding from the throat of a male, drew the woman out of her wandering trace. Her eyes behind the bindings tied around her head, lifted from the open journal within her grasp and towards the disturbance. Purple hues met the scene of a young boy wrestling with a rather large rock. Aroma couldn't help but feel the growing arch of one of her eyebrows, that lifted in indication of curiosity. Watching as his features took an interesting turn. Both the boy's hair and eyes produced an odd glow as the efforts in what seemed to be his training increased. Aroma tapped her writing utensil against the edge of her journal a few more times, before folding the journal closed and tucking the utensil away. If one was to happen upon her little journal and read it's contents, they would probably think differently of the woman. Her journal was commonly used for her to track details of different poisons and how each one of them effected the body or mind differently. Realizing that the lavender haired kunoichi wrote about the contents of poison rotting one's insides would perhaps make her delicate image look deceiving.

Aroma was commonly seen as an aonaran with a delicate sense of posture. She was the type of individual that tend to keep to herself and possess a dern attitude. Viperis members commonly kept their history and background to themselves and held the skill of being a very fluent liar. That and with the ability to be surprisingly seductive if she so desired to be, makes her a fairly convincing character. Her little hidden background and intentions is what made her out to be orphic; mysterious and entrancing, but definitely one who's level of trustworthiness would be unknowing.

The boy that captivated her attention succeeded in the lifting of his boulder, but resulting into the collapse of his body after pressing the fragile boundary of his limits. His body went crashing to the dirt and Aroma felt herself instinctively raise to her feet. The woman wasn't one to display empathy, but she had the basic morals to introduce her help, even if bluntly. With a quick sweep of her perception, Aroma scanned the area as she proceeded to make her approach to the collapsed individual. There was another man nearby. One who seemed to be at peace of trying to rest with his back against a tree. Someone who she can ask for help if the situation called for it. She continued to venture towards the fallen boy, her head tileted down in his direction. Her booted feet would now be in his line of sight as Aroma stood before his form. With a soft sly voice the woman spoke, "I understand the passion to grow stronger. . . but I insist of valuing your body a little more as well." With that she would offer her hand, to give the boy the option to allow her in helping him to his feet. In a funny sense it was that she was speaking about valuing one's body, when her's had scars that brutally decorated the inner portion of her thighs and back.
{WC: 534}
{TWC: 1,081}

Still leaning and resting against the massive tree, Ichigo couldn't help but look at what the lavender haired girl would plan on doing. Not being able to resist, the muscular man decided to keep an eye on the event that would start to take place in front of him. Just as he expected it didn't take long before the young woman jumped up and made her way over to the teenage boy who had collapsed due to his fatigue. "Maybe not all hope has been lost just yet." He would say to himself, thinking the new generation still knew how to act when one of their peers was in trouble.

As he was getting up, Ichigo noticed a couple of bottles lying around on the grass. His memories of the day before started to come back as he slowly began to remember what took place last night. No doubt in his mind about the fact that those bottles were his. Who else would pull some dumb shit like that and end up falling asleep against a tree? Oh well, it wasn't the first time and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last either. Feeling like he had recovered long enough he would stand up and brushed the dirt of his clothes. The mountain of a man didn't plan on getting involved in other people's matters and normally would mind his own business, but for some reason he found himself walking over to where the lavender woman and the teenage boy were standing.

Once he arrived at the same location as the other two people he would check up on how they were doing. "You young ones all right?" Ichigo figured it wouldn't take more than five words to grab their attention. Scratching the back of his head he would wait for either one of them, or both, to respond. More often than not people would get intimidated by his appearance. Standing at 192 centimeters he usually towered over most people. The three scars straight over his right eye that led down his cheek and his tattoos would often make others believe he was some kind of delinquent. Granted, he wasn't quite the prime example of how one should behave, but he was far from the image people would associate him with. Anyway, it was up to the lavender haired woman and the teenage boy to decide whether or not they would respond.

(WC: 403, TWC: 877)

The fact that the Viperis wore black eye bindings would make it easy for the young boy to not make eye contact with her, for her eyes was not visible to him. Aroma helped to lift the boy to his feet and couldn't help but notice his attention being drawn multiple times to her hair. Maybe he didn't know how to look at her? Since eye contact was out of the question due to the eye bindings. The boy proceeded to thank her, and questioned for a name to call her by. For a moment the lavender woman would bring her arms across her torso, as she hugged the journal to herself. A first name wasn't a last name. . . so it wouldn't hurt. "Ikari is it? Well you can call my Aroma~" She decided to be truthful with her first title.

The sound of gentle footsteps suddenly brought her eyes shifting to the side, in the direction of the faintly distinctive sound. A rather large of a scruff man was making his way towards them. Her eyes examined his form quickly, taking notes of his characteristics, before shifting to where the man once sat by the tree. To her surprise there would be some bottles laying about in where he once napped. "I determine that your not much older than I am, sir" Aroma responded to the stranger's words with a soft voice. Of course she wasn't completely sure, but the man looked rather in his late twenties range. With that the woman had no idea how to go on at this moment.
{WC: 263}
{TWC: 1,344}

ignore

The hair the woman had on her head was truly mesmerizing, Ikari felt his mind drift off in thought about the beauty that it contained. Shortly after he was helped up, he heard a man’s voice speak from behind him. He whipped around to see just who it was that was creeping up behind him. The man stood about the same height as Ikari did, but was far more slender than he was. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” Ikari looked the man up and down and he was honestly unsure about him. He didn’t know whether or not because of his look or his mannerisms, or if it was because of the empty alcohol bottles that were strewn around the ground that he must have been lying in based on the indentation in the grass. 

“Who are you anyway?” Ikari asked in a semi hostile and curious matter. He wanted to know exactly who he was dealing with, and just what he could expect from such a man that passes out in the training grounds due to the night of drinking. Would this man be a lowlife with really no aspirations in life? Would he be a troubled soul that drowned his sorrow with drinking? He didn’t know, but he was sure that he was going to find out soon enough.

WC:220

Sir? How long had it been since the last time someone called him that? "No need to address me in such a formal manner dear, Ichigo will do just fine." Usually people wouldn't bother responding to him as he resembled a delinquent too much. Ichigo knew this all too well. Heck, he didn't even blame them. His scars, the tattoos,.. All the more reason people avoided him. It didn't really help that he often would be seen drinking with every chance that he would get. Not that he cared, it's not like he bothered anyone with it. The man could hold his liquor and would never drink on official business or when he was out on a mission. 

Not much older than she was, claimed the lavender haired woman. It was true that it wasn't a child standing in front of him, but a beautiful young woman. "Apologies, I hope I didn't touch a soft spot." His attention would then be directed towards the young boy who had almost passed out moments ago. Fearless with a touch of arrogance, just how a boy his age should act. Afraid of none, ready to take on anyone. Ichigo himself used to be like that when he was younger. Reckless, acting without thinking about the consequences. "I'm sure you heard it earlier, the name's Ichigo. Glad to see you feeling better." 

The tall man was aware that it wasn't the best first impression he made, walking up to them shortly after waking up from his hangover while the bottles were still visible. Not exactly the prime example of a shinobi. So he would understand where the boy came from asking those questions. "Worry not, I'm not just any drunk. Don't let my appearance fool you but I'm actually a shinobi of Kumogakure." After all those years he was still a genin, was it a lack of ambition or was he simply not good enough? It was something he was struggling with lately. All he was certain of was that he wanted to aim higher than where he was at now.

"Enough about me. What about the likes of you?" He would then direct himself to the teenager. "It's obvious why you're here. You want to grow stronger. But what about you miss? Simply enjoying that book of yours or did you come here trying to escape something?" Ichigo had a feeling the lavender haired woman came to the field with more reasons than just a good book. Whenever he had something on his mind he would just go out and drink. But it wouldn't be something he would advice to this young woman. That's why if she needed to get something off her chest he would listen to what she had to say. 

(WC: 460, TWC: 1337)