A Chance at Light (Open)

[Shio]

The amazing thing, Shio decided, was that everything was so clean. This place was not like the moon, cool sand and dirt and the trees she had shaped everywhere, full of hiding places and little hollows to rest in. It was a lot like Earth, the world she had left behind, where Soma and Leader and Alisa and Sakuya and Kota all were - except she knew what it looked like. Cold wastes and buildings with holes in them, roofs caved in and walls crumbling, glass shattered and skeletons of metal things everywhere, left behind. The walls here weren't anti-Aragami, or anti-anything, as far as she could tell.

That was the strangest thing. She would have heard the hunger of other Aragami if they had been here, but... there weren't any! It was wonderful, in a way, because no Aragami meant people were alive and safe and that was why everything was clean.

But it meant she was alone again, and she didn't like being alone. She couldn't feel Soma's Aragami at all, or God Arcs... was she just in a different city, or was this some bigger Fenrir base?

But no... that didn't fit. Nothing really did. That not fitting part was scary when she thought about it too much, so she tried not to. There were people everywhere, without weapons, walking around without any tension at all - and that didn't fit either and they stared at her when she stayed out in the open, so she tried to hide in the alleys or on the rooftops. There was lots of food, though, little animals that couldn't run or fly fast enough, and lots of things people just tossed aside that tasted perfectly fine to her.

She wouldn't be hungry, at least.

Humming to herself, she edged a little out of her chosen hiding spot, eyeing the road. Surely it wouldn't be a problem to just walk across it -

One of the metal things that kept moving past screeched alarmingly as it swerved to avoid her, and she reflexively leaped back, onto the top of another of the vehicles. Just why were they making so much noise? It was weird.

[lindow]

Another vehicle drove past at a blistering pace, the driver gripped by panic as she sped away from the center of town as quickly as possible.

More came, all of them speeding past the girl nonchalantly standing on top of the car, none of them noticing, all focused on the single goal of getting distance between themselves and-

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!

-the abomination tearing down the highway after them, leaving a trail of devastation and carnage in it's wake. Chasing after the cars, it swept them off the road with shadowy blades that extended from it's wrists and devoured the occupants like scraping food from a tin.

The creature was merciless. Bigger than a truck, it resembled a black and golden dragon wreathed in shadowy mass, rampaging through the roads immune to the efforts of law enforcement, killing and eating at random. At stalked down the road in search of more prey, more knowledge to devour, so that it could learn to take on an even deadlier shape.

Taking on the best shape was all that mattered. It was the only way to acheive evolution...

Spying a lone human standing in the distance, the creature the Fenrir branch had designated Corrosive Hannibal charged forward, making the ground tremble with the weight of it's footsteps as they cracked the stone and tarmac indescriminately.

It was only as it got closer that it began to notice the white hair. The tattered flag with a pattern. It remembered snow, and cold, and an explosion at a base in the far north... and then it remembered singing... and a name. Shio. It knew Shio, enough that it paused to hesitate, halting the charge meters away from her and regarding the white-haired girl with dawning comprehension.

Don't you dare... you son of a bitch... that was what the voice inside was telling it.

"Shio?" it growled in a manner that would be incomprehensible to a mere human. However, this girl... was definitely more than a mere human.
"You have... a song?" Glaring and trying to focus on the elusive memories, it supressed the voice whispering inside it's mind.

Why was Shio... not food... why had it stopped?

[Shio]

More vehicles, more panic - it was enough to make her shrink back. A fight? No... more than that. She could feel the hunger of something approaching, something large.

Another Aragami. Its presence seethed, but despite the danger, despite how strongly it resonated with her, it was a little comforting to find another here. It meant not everything had changed. This was not the moon, and it wasn't the Den, but if there were Aragami... then everything was normal, or as normal as she cared to think about.

That train of thought continued right up until it approached, staring down at her. Even with the car she was using as a platform, it towered over her, and she had to tip her had back quite a bit to look at it properly. Shio couldn't say she felt scared, not really - even with strong Aragami, she could usually make them leave her alone without too much trouble. But this one... it spoke, and she blinked in surprise, taking a step back.

Aragami talking was not new.

Aragami knowing her name was entirely new.

"...Yes? I'm... I'm Shio." It wasn't hurting her, or trying to eat her. Even its hunger was slightly muted, as if talking was higher priority. And... a song? What use did an Aragami have for songs?

"I have a song. Do... you?" Was it like her, or like Soma? But its shape... the contradictions were making her head hurt, and they didn't really matter, right? It was talking and it didn't want to hurt her right now, so... they could talk!