Story~

Azalea watches as Derik and Eris disappear down the sloping cliff. The others hang around, watching, confused. 

The others...plus one. Azalea starts, but she doesn't have time to think about that now. Instead, she reaches into her purse for another pre-written note, and rather hastily draws it out. She checks herself before throwing, taking a deep breath; letting her fingers open slowly. The pink butterfly tumbles off of her hand and into the air, where it sails down the cliff. This time, the butterfly has two distracting eyespots on its back. 

Her work completed, Azalea began to gather the folds of her bright pink shirt. The sleeves spread wider and wider, until suddenly, she jumped off the branch and into the thick of the forest. The thin limb quivered behind her.

Air rushed against her face. Calmly, she withdrew her spyglass from her pocket, pausing for a second to blink a strand of hair out of her face.

She would have to confront them soon. Assuming they actually found the cave.  

Sorry for not posting! My family and I had been celebrating my birthday. 

* * 

Eris notices from his spot below the cliff that new people had joined. Eris waves at them.

"Hello! My name is Eris!" He shouts, cupping his hands to his mask. This seems to make his voice louder despite there still being no hole in his mask for a mouth.

A girl with dark hair nervously looks down at Eris, then back at the others. Her eyes a stormy, rather moody looking, and wears a necklace with a silver teapot. "I'm Violette... What are you all doing here?"

"While I would like to say its a coincidence, I'm afraid someone may have led us all here," Eris calmly replies. Eris looks toward the other two newcomers. "And what about your names?"

"I'm Emmalyn!" A cheerful girl waves at everyone, adjusting the blue glasses on her face. "And this is Isadora!"

"Hey." The tall girl glares at everyone. She's friendly.

"Alright, enough with the introductions," A girl with a huge scar across her face growls. "If you haven't noticed, a pink slip just told us to jump off a cliff and I intend to do that."

She climbs down the cliff, landing on her feet easily. Corvus, who had arrived a little before her, looked at her face with slight alarm. She snapped, "Is that what you normally do to complete strangers?" Touchy.

Eris raises a hand toward her. "I don't think we had ever been properly introduced, I-"

"You're Eris, practically everyone knows that already," The girl narrows her eyes at him. "What, do you expect people to like you even though you have this incredibly weird mask attached to your face?"

Well, that was a bit hypocritical, considering her own face... Eris managed to keep that to himself. Eris looked up at the others still lingering at the top of the cliff. " I don't suppose you all will come down anytime soon?" 

Reluctantly, Isadora, Emmalyn, Avalynn, and Violette climb down the rocky slope. Eris helps the last person down before turning to everyone.

"As you may have all noticed, we probably have been brought here by forces beyond our control," Eris begins, closing his eyes thoughtfully. "And by forces, I mean people or person.

I think it would be wise if all of us could tell why we were here. Perhaps we could then draw connections between each of our stories."

Corvus~

No one spoke. Corvus let out a small cough and jumped as everyone turned toward him.

"I-I'll talk first," he said, flinching. He took a step forward. "I'm C-Corvus. I'm the property of Mr. Gray--" 

He broke off and shook his head. "Sorry, no. I'm not his property anymore. I chose my name before I left his home. Corvus. It reminds me of my mother. My mother was a good woman. Even though she hurt many people."

Corvus realized that he was rambling and blushed. "Sorry. Sorry. Anyway, I'm not... normal. That's why Mr. Gray took me. But I can do this!" 

A few indigo trails of darkness appeared around his hand. A couple of the others gasped. The scarred girl's lip curled. Corvus put his hand down, huddling back.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have showed you. Please don't leave." Corvus said, nearly whispering. 

Violette~

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have showed you. Please don't leave." Corvus says, the inky darkness disappearing..

For whatever reason, I'm not bothered. "It's fine." I mutter, still nervous about all the people. "My Aunt says that everybody has their quirks, and some people's quirks are just stranger then others." To demonstrate, I reach into my backpack and take out a small bit of paper. Within seconds I have a perfect cherry blossom sitting in my hand.

"Um, I just kind of live in this town? My mom died about seven years ago, and my dad couldn't support me and my brthers, so we moved here to live on my Aunt and Uncle's farm. And today I felt like taking a walk. So... yeah?" I finish, knowing that none of my information is particularly helpful.

Not knowing what to do with it, I toss the origami cherry blossom into the air.

They're all here...they're all looking for something...

Azalea put her binoculors up to her face. Instead of zooming in on the world around her, a very different scene came into view. She was looking through the eyes of one of her butterflies.  

~Emmalyn

This experience might get me more than an interesting story.  After I watch Corvus's rather . . . unusual power and Violette's origami, I feel like I might have to offer something.  "I can write," I say, drawing attention from people.

I don't have much to say after that.  "Like what?" Isadora asks flatly, and I glance away.  I look up, and spot a small pale pink butterfly.  It lands on a rock next to our group.  My eyes follow it unknowingly.  It almost looks like it's watching us, I think.  I barely recognize that I said it out loud until someone asked "What's watching us?"

I mentally shake myselfout of my trance, and walk over to the stone.  "That butterfly," I say, pointing to it.

"There's nothing there," Corvus says.

Someone else says, "What butterfly?"

I suddenly feel like I've made a horrible mistake. 

~~~

Emmalyn is kind of a self-insert of personality, so she cracks under pressure like I do. 

Eris was fairly amused with the situation at hand. It seems as if Corvus has some strange powers. While not surprising, it's still interesting.

Eris shook himself out of thought as Emmalyn started pointing at thin air. "That butterfly." ...Is she insane or is there something there that none of the others can see? Eris might have a mask that would be useful for that. Wait, nevermind. That's to see beyond the veil. Probably not the right situation. 

"What does the butterfly look like?" Eris questioned, walking over to the rock to inspect it.

"It looks like... Its made of paper," The girl shifted on her feet. "It's... Pink."

"The color pink... I think that's a symbol of the unseen in some culture." Eris said, pondering. "Oh wait, that might be purple. Perhaps a purple pink?... Is it a purple pink?"

Eris got to his feet. He might be able to have some fun with this. Suddenly, however, the ground began to shake. Eris held onto the nearest tree to steady himself. The world felt like it was breaking apart. This might become dangerous. Eris began to take out a mask from his backpack. This should be able to transport him to the place where he last slept.

As Eris began to switch between masks, the rumbling stopped. He looked up at the others, then smiled and shrugged. "Why, wasn't that an adventure? I do wonder what is happening here."

They looked shocked. What, something on his face? Eris turned around and let out a slight, "Oh."

A cave had just emerged from the ground on the cliffside. It was large and gaping, with rocks gutting out like large teeth.

"Hm. An earthquake of this strength shouldn't have been able to create a cave. Or at least, one of this size," Eris tapped his chin thoughtfully. He started to look for signs of a spell around the mouth of the cave, completely forgetting about the others.

"There is definitely an aura..." Eris muttered quietly. He turned back to the group. "Well? I don't suppose this cave is here for nothing!"  

* * *

Decided to move the story forward. Sorry if too controlling.