Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

The doorway leads to a cold brick staircase down a floor, then the hall opens up to a room filled with the fake guardians, hundreds of books lying around, and various replicas of guardian weapons... or at least replicas of lower quality.
“We know what you do to humans, especially humans who try to appear as you do. Please, have mercy on us.” The man says in a hushed tone, though a fake air guardian seems to have overheard him and vanishes almost instantly, leaving a slight breeze behind.

 

Katie seems rather surprised, speechless as she takes it all in.

 

The “guardian” who brought her to the room suddenly looks embarassed as a faux fire guardian approaches him and Katie.
“Seriously? We have two jobs. You read about the last killing. Why’d you bring her here?” She asks, narrowing her eyes as she points to Katie. “I-I... she-“
“Their deception. There’s a reason we hide, and it’s her.”
“She promised not to hurt anyone...”
The fire guardian laughs.
“Right, the daughter of a ruthless pirate isn’t going to hurt anyone. Are you alone, girl?”

 

Oh god. He's massive.
I thought he was like a dog.

 

He acts like a dog.
He is not a dog.

 

Katie nods, seeming a little concerned for her own safety.

 

She eyes Katie a bit before backing off.
"She's telling the truth. I suppose rules are meant to be broken..."
The man lets out a sigh before the fire guardian gets back in his face.
"Introduce her to all of us, and yourself. I'm taking note of this."
"Y-yes... u-understood."
"Welcome to the fan club, Katie." She sighs before turning away and heading into a back office.

 

I pictured him the size of a dog.

 

Well, he's... the size of a giant hound, I guess.
Let's rewind a bit...


"That sounds adorable, but I'm guessing he's bigger than you."

 

"F-Fan...club?" Katie asks, somewhat to herself, startled.

 

"Yeah. He's a friendly giant. Probably twice my size."

 

“So, ever since you and your friends came here, we... wanted to learn what a guardian was. Once we started, we wanted to... well... be guardians too, or at least be the guardians of the respite. We studied ways to mimic some of your powers, but we went into hiding when we discovered what... well, what you usually do to humans.”

“Holy crap... has he accidentally hurt you in the past?”

 

"W-Well...Artemis always told me that a guardian's job could only be performed by us because we know the proper balance of our elements. Humans don't understand that, and their greed would drive them to abuse their powers to cause harm and imbalance." Katie recites, before becoming a little more fearful as she realises she may have offended and angered the faux-guardians.

 

"No. Not that I remember."

 

The faux-guardians joins her in the recitation at the end.
“...greed would drive them to abuse their powers to cause harm and imbalance. We know many guardian recitations.” The nearby group says.
“We do, however, know that we have very little and very limited space. There is no room for greed, only for ruin to spread.” The water guardian adds.
“Some of us barely trust ourselves, since your kind is skeptical and often seeks to cleanse ours.” A faux-forest guardian says after a pause.

“I... still barely understand why you’d want something that big as a pet.”

 

Katie seems to grow ever more scared and disturbed as she looks around the faux-guardians to listen, as if they're false copies of her friends, made to torment her.

"W-Well...uhm..." Katie stutters, unable to find words for a moment.

"I-I, um, d-don't know if you...uhm...Well, I'm not sure if Gaia..." Katie tries to say, attempting to keep it together.

 

“We hide in hopes she never comes... if she does, we... well, we’re already all dead, according to the respite records.” The water guardian sighs.
“We don’t mean to offend or scare you.” A death guardian adds.
“Your people maintain the haven of nature your planet has. We need that, desperately, or at least something to maintain the respite.” Another forest guardian adds.
“Many of us have left our families behind to study your kind and preserve what we have. If your Gaia wishes to punish us for it, let ‘er come.” A fire guardian adds, somewhat in a challenging tone. “Go on, sell us out. Go home and bring however many human-slaughtering guardians you want. We’ll wait for our ends.”

 

Katie tries to say something, but ends up tearing up and crying instead; the fire guardian's words affecting her strongly.

The air turns incredibly cold, ice forming and spreading from Katie's feet, both outwards and up Katie herself as she cries; scared and hurt.

 

The fire guardian keeps their half of the room warm as the faux water guardian rests his hand on Katie’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought you here.” He sighs.

 

The faux fire guardian can just about stave off the cold so they're not affected.

Katie jumps as the faux water guardian touches her, freezing her instantly and trapping the hand along with it.