The Crew

Sleep was mostly fitful for Wesley, the young man not able to fully relax even as the night set in. His eyes were closed, but he wasn't sleeping, every moment seeming to last even longer than the one before it as he waited for sleep to come. He wasn't all that unused to insomnia, but this night seemed particularly bad- it was as if his entire body was thrumming with excitement and there was no chance for him to get any actual good rest tonight.

Just before the sun started to rise, he had fallen into an uneasy sleep, little more than a nap, really, as things compounded in his mind and the dreams that plagued his sleep continued to grow further and further out of control. He twitched and gave small groaning sounds as he lay in his makeshift bed, unable to stop the dreams that were roiling through his mind, like a sickness or a poison.

//The sounds of destruction reached the young boy's ears as he looked up at the hole that replaced the front wall of their home. No light came in, as there was a Beast that lingered in the newly formed hole. The Beast's body was like a wide oval, and it had a mouth that slipped from one side of the head to the other, and as it opened that unnatural maw, it became clear that the upper part of its head wasn't attached to the lower by anything but a strong, tongue-like muscle that seemed to do little more than keep it connected.

Wesley heard his mother scream, before a long, sweeping gelatinous tendril shot out toward the woman, wrapping her its embrace, and leaving almost no chance for her to respond as a sickening 'crack' echoed through the house, and her screams stopped short. A door opened, and both Jay and their father entered the room. Fear and anger both were palpable in their father's voice as he called on them both to run. Wesley had been too struck with fear to do so, but he felt Jay's hand grab at his wrist, pulling him along through one of the side doors in their home.

Their father wasn't a combatant, but all the same, Wes could see the energies coming off of his father as Jay pulled him along. He had known that his father's Framework was an even split among the Four Elements, but that didn't mean that he was weak, necessarily. There was a lot of versatility in that sort of style- and it was one that he hoped to emulate when his Framework was Awakened.

But even as they ran, the screams of their mother followed them, the shouts of their father, telling them to run- they echoed around him, becoming a loud cacophony of noise. Overlapping and playing over each other again and again, it became nothing discernible, and before too long it had just devolved into static, sounding nothing like the screams or the shouts... but it was nonetheless terrifying to him.

It was as he looked to Jay to see if his brother was hearing this all again too when he realized that he was holding onto the same tendril of the Beast that had killed his mother, and looking at Jay, he saw nothing but the monster itself as the long, sinuous tendril began to wind its way around him-//

"-ude..! Dude! Get up!"

Wesley startled awake, currently in a wrestling match with the sheets and blankets on his bed, and unfortunately, losing. His brother stood at his bedside, watching him with a most unamused expression. "Man. You look like a wreck. Didn't sleep I take it?" he asked, and Wes merely paused before shaking his head. "Yeah. Figured. C'mon, get up. We gotta be down at the Training Camp in about an hour. Just enough time to shove some food in your mouth before we gotta get going."

At that, Jay turned and left, leaving Wes alone in his room. He let out a slow breath as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, feeling as if the weight of the world had decided to settle on his shoulders while he was sleeping. The lack of sleep wasn't the big issue so much as the nightmare was. It had been awhile since he'd had one.. and he was silently glad for his brother not bringing it up. It would have been the perfect time to poke some fun... but he wondered absently if Jay had also had some sort of bad dream?

Shaking his head, he didn't linger on the thought before he forced himself to his feet and made his way toward the kitchen area, noting that the stove currently had a pot of water boiling on it. He didn't need to glance at it to know that it was coffee. Death Elements had the ability to conjure flames, and as such, the stovetops were equipped with condensed Death Energy, which allowed them to rapidly heat the items that were placed atop it. It made up the majority of their cooking, although right now the coffee was far more important to the half-asleep Wesley.

"Grab yourself a bowl and eat up, man. We need to get going." It was just like Jay to be excited about something that interested him, unable to sit still at all.

"Yeah, yeah," Wes spoke, moving to use the ladle to spoon some of the coffee from the pot into a cup, before taking a drink of it, frowning. "Is this the government mandated stuff?"

"Yeah. We ran out of the good stuff a few days ago. It's all we got. Same with the food. Take it or leave it."

A frown flickered over Wes' features as he took another pull on the coffee, letting it settle in his stomach before he looked at the bowl that had been set out. Dried potatoes again. They tended to get quite a few of them because they were cheap and being orphaned, they didn't exactly have much worth to the government, hence they weren't given much to subsist on, money-wise. Wes always thought it was strange, given the fact that they were going to be the next set of soldiers to fight against the Beasts and to keep the uppity government folks safe... that there should be more done for them. But someone up top must have thought different with the pittance they received for food.

He began to shovel the food into his mouth, attempting to get as much of it down as he could, to give him the energy he needed through the rest of the day, before practically pouring the rest of the coffee down his throat. Emphatically, he all-but slammed the mug on the counter-top. "Done. Let's go," he spoke, looking at his brother as the younger of the two powered down the stove.

Jay snorted before he sat up, stretching his arms up over his chest. "Not gonna bother changing? Well, whatever. Let's go," he spoke, the pair heading out from their home, not bothering to tell anyone that they weren't going to be there going forward. After all, they'd find out soon enough.

-

"There's a lot more people here than I expected," Wes spoke as the pair drew close to the Training Camp they'd been assigned to. They'd gotten the letter some weeks ago, with the directions to their assigned camp and the time they were supposed to arrive. There were ten camps, one for each month in the year, and everyone that came of age during that month was assigned to that particular camp. "I guess there were more people born in Second Lapse than I thought."

As the Elements were paramount to their world, their months had been named after them, as First Life, First Death, and so forth through one rotation of the months. Between the first and second rotation was a month known as First Lapse, and then after the second rotation of the months and back to the first was Second Lapse, which was seen as the final month of the year. That was the month that the pair of boys had been born in... and the rest of these people, apparently.

"Attention, new soldiers of Haven! In order to get through your Element Scan and Awakening in the most expedient way possible, you'll be sorted into groups of five! If you can't find four other people to get into a group with, you'll be forcibly put into groups!" The woman near the front of the gathering yelled, her voice carrying clearly over even the din of conversation- a clear sign that she was some level of Space Framework. "We open the doors in fifteen minutes- find your groups before then!"

Wes and Jay looked at one another as she finished speaking. "Well, we've got two at least," Wesley spoke, before he blinked, looking at Jay. "Isn't Sasha supposed to be here? I thought she was born a few days before us."

At that, Jay nodded. "Yeah I've been looking for her, but I don't see her. She's a bit short though, so-" he began, when the pair paused, noticing a rather uncomfortable-looking fellow approaching them, his gaze moving to and fro as he came closer. "Can uh... we help you? You wanna team up?" he asked, Jay preferring to get straight to the point.

The fellow blinked, "Ah...yes, if that's all right. I don't really...know many people here," he spoke, his tone both quiet and slow, as if he needed to think things through before he spoke them. "I have another friend... she had to use the restroom... but if she's welcome... we would only need one more."

Wes looked the fellow over before he nodded slowly. "We have a friend that we're looking for too. So if we can find her, and your friend, then we'll have our five. I'm Wes," he spoke, extending his hand toward the mousey fellow.

"My name is Theodore... but you can call me-"

"Teddy!" a call came, and a rather spritely young woman ran over. "You found friends!" she called cheerfully, before she turned, looking at the brothers. "Hi there! I'm Evie!" she called, not at all seeming to show any of the hesitation that Theodore had in his greeting.

At the girl's excitement, Jay couldn't help but to smile, clapping his brother on the shoulder. "I'm Jay. This is my brother, Wes. Wesley if you want him to get pissed at you," he spoke, earning a mild sound of annoyance from him at that. "So Ted? Teddy? And Evie, right?"

"Ted, if you wouldn't mind..." he spoke, and Wes took a second to look between the pair. They didn't look like siblings, but they were both blonde. Granted, Ted's hair was far more pale and he seemed almost sickly, but at the same point, Wes felt a genuine kindness coming from him. Freckled and with light blue eyes, he looked like a heavy breeze was going to knock him over at any time. On the other hand, Evie had bright green eyes that seemed to be loaded with mischief, and in the early morning sunlight, there were clear signs of red in her hair, giving her an almost strawberry blonde color.

"Yep!" the girl called, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, "you got it! So we got four people. We should just go grab someone random for the fifth person so we can be ready to go," she spoke, clenching both hands in front of her, a wild grin on her features in her excitement. "We gotta go kick some Beast butt!"

"I can't believe that you two were just going to go and leave me behind for 'someone random'," a feminine voice spoke from behind the two young men. They turned, and saw the beauty that was Sasha standing with her arms folded over her chest, her hip slightly pushed out to the side. "I've been here for at least an hour- where the hell have you two been?" Her golden eyes were narrowed, and the girl's chocolate brown hair spilled over one shoulder, her fair features currently twisted in a scowl.

Wes shrugged slightly in response. "Didn't sleep well," he spoke, before he reached his arm out and punched Jay on the shoulder. "Quit staring," he spoke, earning a small scoff from Sasha and a happy little giggle from Evie. "We were about to look for you when these two showed up. You just happened to find us first, that's all."

"Glad we ran into you though. I wouldn't want to form a team without you," Jay said, and Wes had to very much suppress rolling his eyes at his brother.

Sasha snorted. "Whatever. Look, we've got five. Let's get up to the front so we can get this over with," she spoke, pointing a finger toward the front.

"Sassy Sasha! I like it!" Evie spoke, and clapped her hands. "Come on, come on! Let's go!" she spoke, ushering Theodore forward, pushing him forward, despite his protests. "Everyone else hurry up! We can't be last in line!"

Sasha watched the two go before she moved to follow after them, the skirt she wore barely going past the knees, and as she went, Wes absently reached out to smack his brother again. "Stop staring. Let's go get in line," he ordered, and began to move along... ready to see exactly what his Framework would look like, and what Tier he would end up at...