The crowd was thick and if Jaelyn was in attendance for any reason other than solidarity with her fellow Clairs—despite not being open about her status as such—she would have left. She didn’t actually mind crowds that much, it could be enjoyable to be in a bunch of people that didn’t really give a shit about you, freeing in a way. No one cared about you so you could do whatever you wanted. However, most crowds weren’t littered with people holding signs objecting to her very existence.
The first protestor she’d seen had grated on her nerves. The second had pissed her off. She lost count after eighty and by that point her blood was boiling.
It wasn’t like anyone had wanted this. Jae knew she sure as hell didn’t. People were terrified, herself included, but that was no excuse to hate something just because you don’t understand it. The words being thrown around—abomination and satanist and unnatural—were unnecessary and damaging to people that had already suffered and sure, she could name the amount of fellow Clairs she could name on one hand but that didn’t mean that they had to take this.
She was in the midst of a throng of people holding signs when the guy behind to her, twice her height but skinny as a beanpole, started screaming about how all Clairvoyants should be executed. She briefly thought about Kaleb, about how she’d feel if anyone said this kind of stuff about him, and reacted without thinking. The police couldn’t do anything, but someone needed to show everyone that people wouldn’t take misguided hate speech born out of fear and desperation.
Her fist hit his cheekbone before he’d even realized why she’d turned around and his sign—a piece of card board on a stick with “not in my present” written in blood red paint on the front—hit the ground as he brought his hands up to cover his face. “You need to shut the fuck up.”
For a second he looked as if he wanted to say something and as if hadn’t been expecting any resistance, before he lunged at her, his fist aimed for her stomach. She twisted out of the way, her height a benefit for once, and kicked him in the lower back, sending him sprawling on the ground. The grim satisfaction of a minor victory didn’t last long as he got up without much pause, looking more angry than surprised now.
“Let me guess, you know one. Well, let me tell you something, little girl, they’re unnatural, and unnatural things-” She cut him off mid-sentence with an upper cut that knocked him off his feet again. This time she didn’t wait for him to get back up, pinning him down with her legs across his thighs, one hand clutched in the front of his grey t-shirt the other in a fist.
She felt bones crack as her fist connected with his nose, blood spraying the grass beside his head. She pulled back to hit him again when she felt arms wrap around her waist, pulling her off him. Jae’s instinctive reaction to be picked up was to ram her elbow into the head of whoever had dared touch her, and she hit the ground when they dropped her. The anger was still running hot in her veins, and part of her want to push the small crowd of people away from the man that she’d attacked and hit him again, but rationality was seeping in and the reality was that would be the dumbest thing she’d ever done. Dumber than that time she’d tried to hide a stray cat in her bedroom when she was nine.
With one last scorching glare in the asshole’s direction she slipped through the crowd, wiping the blood off her knuckles on the inside of her shirt and wondering what would happen the next time something like this happened.
The masked rider soared throughout the sky, looking above from the battlefield occurring below. While he wasn’t too high off the ground, it was enough to scout the area-- the reasoning behind this? None necessarily. A breather was always nice and rarely had any strings attached, so here he is making most of the opportunity of his wyvern being reverted to her own full size.
An abrupt noise, akin to a growl, reverberateda from the confines of the lizard’s throat. A delicate hand brushed against the side of the companion’s neck, attempting to soothe the mind. Though this gesture had no affect, a sharp turn suddenly being maneuvered. As this proposed as unexpected, Gerome had almost lost his balance but a limb clutched on the reign refrained him from doing so.
Making a somewhat bumpy landing, a grunt escaped from the wyvern upon reaching the ground as the male hoped off. The sight of a woman accessorized with brown hair beckoned towards his sight, except her back was turned towards him. Not wanting to startle her, a voice of nonchalant and softness sounded. ❝... Hello?❞
With a steel axe within his grasp once more, he unraveled the ideal of being close to unstoppable. Cleaving and swinging said weaponry against all the enemies which stood in his way, not a single droplet of sweat produced. The task at hand didn’t pose as necessarily difficult, as the assistance of his full-grown wyvern had made it less tiresome by a large margin. In the midst of a heated battle, Minerva had decided to divert her own attention towards something else-- or rather, someone else.
An eyebrow raised in both hesitation and curiosity, unknown what the outcome of this sudden change of movements. The option of ignoring it no longer remained validated as his companion seemed set on her decision. Acknowledging the good that has previously come from following her instincts, Gerome decided to pause his battle in progress and trailed after said pet.
Soon the duo’s steps faltered and ceased, the sight of a familiar red-haired other being huddled into a nearby corner in hopes of escaping one’s general periphery. But due to the heightened senses, it was no trouble to seek out the individual. The two met at the previous flower festival, while they haven’t necessarily conversed completely, they are still acquainted nonetheless.
Shuffling towards her, bending his frame downwards; appearing as a person proposing to their significant other, almost. ❝Is everything okay, lady?❞
