Just to keep things All in Order [Don't Post]

[Volthaire]

SKIP TO PAGE 2

[Volthaire]

[[ Garrett Intro Post ]]

Ĝarŗett Đaŋĭeℓ Quiηη

It was seven thirty in the morning when a soccer ball collided with the head of a soundly sleeping Garrett. It was, of course, Riley Quinn, all dressed for college, who had come to alert Garrett that he was going to be seriously late. “Garrett you hard headed numskull, your school starts soon and you need to get Fiona and Brennen to school.” With that, he was out, not even bothering to retrieve his soccer ball.
Rubbing his head, Garrett sat up. Under any other circumstance, Garrett would have thrown the ball back so hard his head would spin, but considering the time, and the fact that he stayed up late writing didn't help. It was only after a minute or two before the next person walked into his small bedroom. Garrett and Emmitt were the only ones in the family to share a room, since Riley was living at the college dorms, (only about twenty miles away from his actual home.) and Mrs. Quinn believed that there was no way she would make Fiona share a room with her twin Brennen. Thus, this forced Emmitt to share their room. Good thing for Garrett that Emmit was either working, or hitting up the library. Yes, his brother Emmit is a nerd.
“Fiona....Brennen..,” Garrett said with a rather groggy tone in his voice. Hearing the little footsteps running through the hallway, Garrett quickly grabbed a T-shirt from the top of his dirty clothes hamper to put on. Of course, the only reason he had put that T-shirt on was to keep his little sister from asking why his “boobs” were so big. However, the T-shirt he grabbed was Riley's, and ended up saying “WTF” in large neon letters. Swearing lightly under his breath, Garrett quickly put on a sweater right as Brennen and Fiona ran in.
“G-G, why is uur shirt on backywards?”Fiona was not dumb, but the fact that he older brother, and her favorite brother for that matter, was looking stupid in his boxers, T-shirt, and sweatshirt only half on was a rather odd sight indeed.
“Well Fiona, I am running late, and was not paying attention...” At that, Brennen laughed, and ran off to his room to grab some sort of toy that he could show off at school. The sad part was, was that it was the same toy he brought yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. You'd think that after two weeks the kids at his school would get sick of him showing off his toy transformers action figure..
“Fiona, go.....Go do something while I get ready. I just have to get dressed, then I'll walk you to school.” Fiona ran off into her room, every step she took her braids bounced in the air. Just the sight put a rather wide smile on Garrett's face as he watched her run down the hall and into the kitchen. With the room to himself, Garrett closed the door and striped down to his bright blue boxers. They had orange pine stripes on them, and they were his second favorite pair. Hurm. Hurm...Why are pants called a “pair”? I mean, you only get one thing to wear...maybe the part that goes around your leg is the “pant” and a pair for two legs...
Rummaging through both the dirty clothes hamper and the closet, Garrett found his favorite jeans, not caring that they were so holey they were almost transparent, and a gold and blue collared dress shirt. Considering the fact that it was summer, Garrett skipped out on the sweater vest, and just decided to slip on some socks and his over used black converse.

“Alright guys, It's time to go,” He called down the hallway, grabbing the thick black binder from his desk before leaving the room. Fiona came running first, making sure that she was the first to Garrett so she could have the only free hand he had all to herself.
“G-G, are we going to be late?” Fiona looked up at her older brother, a worried expression strewn across her face.
“Well, if Brennen will get his butt in gear we wont be.” Garrett put a much louder emphasis on 'Brennen' and right on cue the little boy went running through the hallway with this time two transformer toys.
“I'm all ready Garrett.” Brennen was a little taller than his twin sister, but not by much, and not nearly as tall as “Danny”. With a nod, Garrett grabbed a banana and what he thought was bread and walked out the door hand in hand with Fiona. On his way out, Garrett swung his backpack over one shoulder like he always did, and with just one hand, and his mouth, peeled and began to eat the banana.
With Fiona at his side, he should have felt awkward. A small, deplorably adorably six year old with a wide grin and purple ribbons in her hair would make any high schooler embarrassed. That is, if the high schooler was more worried about their reputation than anything else.
After a few minutes of a silent walk, Fiona at Garrett's side, and Brennen following close behind, Garrett arrived at the elementary school, and bit them both a farewell. With a smile, Fiona ran off into school, her hand now pulled away from Garrett's and was holding Brennen's as they ran into the small school.
Good thing Clemente is just three blocks away, or I would need to borrow Emmitt's car. Though, I'm not sure I could fit Fiona and Brennen in there with all the crap he has in that old thing. Garrett's brother Emmit had an old 93 truck, and it was full of so much stuff you could barely find the stick shift.
After another two blocks of just floating among the massive amounts of both college and high school students, Garrett finally was in viewing sight of the magnificent building that was just a beauty to look at. Stopping in the middle of the street, Garrett just took a moment to look at the building, only to be interrupted by a business man on his phone running into him. The collision knocked him to the ground, and the mans cell phone went flying across the street. Many simple mutters of “Sorry, Sorry” and “I'll help you with that” cleared up the problem rather quickly.
Getting back to his feet, Garrett grabbed his stuff and nodded to the business man as he handed him his phone back. With another smile and a nod, Garrett continued his adventures to school. On his way, there were many, many street performers, considering that his way to school was directly though the heart of the city. Some were just dancing, some were singing, and some were even doing mini skits. Every morning Garrett brought four dollars in change, and would put at least fifty cents in the money bin for every performer he saw. It was his own way to give back to the community, and he always enjoyed seeing the reaction of their faces when he handed them money without even staying to see the show.
Before he knew it, Garrett had already arrived to school, his banana peel had been thrown in a passing by trash can long ago, and the piece of “bread” he found, well, it wasn't bread . It kind of got thrown away just the same.
The moment he walked onto the grounds, he was insulted by the amount of people already. Okay, not really insulted personally, but the fact that he should have woken up earlier, so as not to be one of the last ones there. Sebastian is sitting next to Elodie, figures, Alice is....What is she doing? Oh never mind. Okay, Zinnia is over there as well, but...Maybe I shouldn't go talk to her. Maybe if I just play hard to get, and just talk to her when she talks to me I'll be okay. Oh who am I kidding, that is a terrible plan!
After a moment of just completely phasing out, Garrett noticed both Inelle and Seth, and his skin bounced up and froze at the same. He wanted to go over to Inelle and offer his simple, boyish smile, but how could he with that cold, smoking b*****d beside her. To bad for Seth. He will just have to deal with my optimism.
Garrett walking could be herd from over a block away if it was quiet, the mass collections of key chains, buttons, and other miscellaneous items falling out of his bag, clashing together, or just ringing were almost impossible to ignore. Being a rather cluttered person, since having 4 siblings made it hard to be organized, and the fact that he had an almost freaky obsession with random buttons and blinking key chains didn't help. Part of his obsession was the fact that he liked having things to mess with whenever no one is around to talk about, the other reason is that it severely pisses Sebastian off that he is so unorganized. With Sebastian's obvious OCD, messing with him is just to much fun for poor Garrett to avoid. In away, it it his own form of revenge against his best friend.
After a moment, Garrett was right next to Inelle, on the farthest side from Seth. With a wide grin, Garrett couldn't help but be nice to the girl, after the incident that happened at his restaurant. Is it really right to call it an incident? Oh who cares. I'll call it what I want.
From his cheerful smile, Garrett looked from Inelle to Seth, and back again, almost trying to avoid his glare, but partially knowing that in a fight he would win. However, Garrett only had Sebastian to back him up, and that really wasn't anything, while Seth would have people come in like the swat team after a bomb.
“Good.... Morning..... Inelle, Seth.” Even with just a simple sentence, Garrett was incapable of actually talking in normal, not stuttering sentences. Good thing he was cute, or he would have been turned down by more girls than he could count.

[Volthaire]

[[ Garrett Regular Post ]]

βųt ʈo { l ό ό k } þeȳoηd tɧe +głѳrȳ+ iš thę ✗hardest✗ pᴀrt,
Ᾱ { Ӈ e r ѳ ' s } šțreήɡtɧ is ɱěasuŗeʠ by his 【 Ӈ e a r t 】

Ĝarŗett Đaŋĭeℓ Quiηη

The touch of Inelle on his forehead made a quick almost violent shiver go down his spine. It took almost every fiber of his being not to react in some way that would get him hurt by the almost-mob boss next to him. “But what....don't forget about...What if...and then he...Hey!” .This is what I get for spacing out. She messes with my hair, oddly adjusts my backpack, and my shirt, aaagh. Not only does Sebastian twitch when he sees me, but now Inelle too. Just grumbling on about anything in any which way, Garrett looked at the floor, his fingers running in a figure eight on his thigh. Oh. s**t. These aren't my jeans.
Why can't Emmit put his jeans in the right hamper? They are far to short. Honestly dude, how the ******** can you be four inches shorter than me, yet five years older than me.
Looking at his feet, Garrett was so thankful that he had decided to wear his high tops, so that no one would be able to see the fact that his socks didn't match. One sock was a bright orange and white argyle, the other was completely white, spare purple and blue stripes. I think I might have grabbed my mothers socks.
“Well Inelle, this is what happens when you have two older brothers, and get woken up late. I think I got dressed in record time..” However, I did not even get the chance to comb my hair this morning. Rather self consciously, Garrett reached up to his head, running both hands through his hair, practically undoing everything that Inelle had just done to his messed mob of ginger hair. “You had to mess up the backpack..” It was a rather multi-meaning sentence, considering that there was no possible way on earth to mess it up any more than it already was. I like being a mess. I know where all my stuff it. Partly to piss her off, partly because he needed it done, Garrett reached around, removed the strap from one arm, and unzipped one of his backpacks compartments. It was only a little bit, but he liked it that way. It was as simple as that.
Living in a family with seven, Garrett has to be really fast with getting ready. For that matter, Garrett almost never takes a shower in the morning, mainly because he has to fight both Emmit and Riley for the shower, so in order to take his time, and actually get hot water, he has to take a shower before bed. However, even with getting a hot shower, Garrett was stuck every morning with severely intense bed head. Cow licks, split ends, and every so often a knot that would just make his day rather unpleasant.
“How can you expect to catch Zinnia's eye at all if you're putting yourself out there looking like a complete schmuck?” Hearing those simple words struck a cord, and immediately Garrett tried to re-fix his hair. Though, with those words in mind, the way she said it was kind of odd. Subconsciously, Garrett flickered his eyes back and forth, looking from Inelle, to the black haired beauty over by the bench. Garrett, even after a little while, still did not understand what exactly his relationship with Inelle. Are we friends, good acquaintances, just strangers with a secret? Oh I have no idea. She's nice, no matter what front she puts on.
It wasn't until after their one on one time at his parents restaurant that they became moderate friends, yet, there was something about their relationship that wasn't exactly equal. Something about how she treated him, and vise versa, made it seem like she was his mother almost, and in turn Garrett would do almost anything he said. “Yes'm.” With a sigh, Garrett looked down at Inelle, finally putting on his big goofy grin, the same one he gave to her when he took her home after she “spilled the beans.” Hopefully that look would strike the same cord for her as her mentioning Zinnia did for him.

a ✗ѵoiƈe✗ [ Ӄ ę ę p s ] saying
This is ῳhėrě I'm ɱeẵnt to be

[Volthaire]

[[ Caden Intro Post ]]

[T]he[C]heshire [C]at

"

W e l l x s o m e x g o x this x w a y , x s o m e x g o xthat x w a y x . x B u t x a s x f o r x m e x , x m y s e l f x , x personally x , x I x p r e f e r x t h e x shortcut

"

“Caden...Caden sweetheart.” His mother swooned over him, taking a seat on the edge of his bed as she put her arm on his shoulder. “Caden....Honey it's time to get up for school. Your dad is already gone hun, and I have to get going. I just wanted to see you off on your first day..” All of a response his sweet mother got was a small groan as he attempted to sit up in his bed. Like always, he slept in his flannel pajama pants, no shirt, and he had accidentally left his socks on. “Mum, I'll be fine, you don't have to see me off.” His eyes still closed, Caden managed a rather meager smile, that is, before his mother leaned over and planted a kiss on his forehead, which obviously made him relatively irritated. His mother was wonderful, though she was only home late afternoons and super early in the morning, she made an effort to get close to her son, even buying him random 'Geek' toys to clutter his room.
Come to think of it, Mrs.Callahan had just last week bought Caden the new poster from Star Trek Zero, you know the one. With all the characters in the badge, yah, that one. For some reason, Mrs.Callahan, as well as her husband got it into their head that he was a huge 'Trekkie' and proceeded to buy him items as so. Which is probably why he never has friends over, since his room is covered in Checkov and Spock posters. Personally, he is rather surprised that the walls are even visible.
His mother took one last look at him, and gently rubbed her hand up and down his. It was odd, something so weird for other people always calmed Caden down, and boy did his mother use it. With one last smile, she got up off his bed, said “I love you”, and left the house to work.
“Love you too mum...” It was a bit of a delayed reaction, not because he didn't want to admit his love to his absolutely adoring mother, it was just because it was early in the morning, and he had stayed up far to late doing random somethings or others. Slinking off the bed, landing on the floor with a thud, Caden let out a rather irritated smile. He hated mornings, it meant no more sleep, no more warmth, none. Why can't I just live in California? It was wonderfully hot at the con, and the fact that everyone thought it was insane when I walked through the doors in a black pea coat made it all the better. Getting up off the floor, after untangling himself from his own bedsheets, Caden made his way over to the closet, where all of his nice clothes were. Grabbing a pair of dark blue jeans, he wiggled out of his pajama pants, replacing them with the fancy Calvin Klein jeans. They fit him like a dream, making absolutely sure that every curve, front and back, made him look just so, and they did. Taking off his socks, they were yesterdays socks after all, Caden fished through his top drawer for a new pair of socks, which after he found were immediately placed on his feet. Since he was doubly jointed, he liked making excuses just to get himself into odd positions. Hey, he likes attention. Bending backwards, Caden placed his socks on without ever bending forward, going so far as to have his feet come to his hands. It was quite a feat, and if he didn't have almost perfect balance he would be on the floor by now.
Making his way over to his closet, Caden pondered the many blazers, jackets, vests, and sweaters. It is a relatively warm day, so no real need to go all out with a grey pea coat and a colored scarf..No no no..The gray vest and the white dress shirt..No need for a tie, it isn't a formal school. However, this is a great opportunity to wear some cuff links..Yes, I think I will.
Due to the many museum shows his mother took him to, Caden had acquired a rather diverse wardrobe of very formal clothes. Having over thirty dress shirts, twelve pairs of dress shoes, and all together he had more than twenty-five bows and ties. Those numbers don't even incorporate the stuff in his jewelery box. Yes, he did have a jewelery box, but it was just a simple black square wood that he kept all of his pins and cuff links organized. I'm wearing black and gray, so I would have to say silver cuff links, and my....Hurm, possibly the lightning bolt pin. Yes, that shall work nicely.
Removing both the cuff links and the pin, Caden proceeded to place the links neatly on his shirt, then the pin on the right side of his white lapel. Now to the hair.
It was his favorite part of the morning, messing with his hair, it gave him something to do, and there was just the fact that being clean just made him smile. At the sink, Caden spent one rather self absorbed moment just making sexy faces at himself. Yes, it was odd, but they worked on anyone, especially the ladies. Most of the time he just made the faces to get a 'swooning' reaction from the girls, and when they would come ask for his number, he would crush their hopes by giving them the totally false answer of , “Sorry ladies, I'm gay. I was making faces at the cutie behind you.” That always got the best reaction out of the girls, one even slapped him, but he took it with pride, and when she was gone even laughed so hard he almost peed.
Okay, lets get down to business. Grinning at himself in the mirror, Caden grabbed his Aussie mousse, and ran it through his hair. It was an 'up' day, for he felt like having his hair looking nonchalantly messy, that always looked good on him. You could tell what days he was being lazy, usually when it was raining, where he would just water his hair down and add a bit of hairspray, (the humidity), so as to not have any stray hairs.
After running the sticky foam through his dark brown hair, he successfully styled it into a form that was halfway between a duck tail and a pompadour, though it didn't matter what it was called, for it was just so ******** sexy.
Once his hair was done, Caden went on with moisturizing his face..Yes, almost gay, but after you get past the fact that he has skin moisturizer, feel his face. You will never laugh again. Ever. Running his hands over every part of his face, messaging his ears, and even onto his neck, He smiled at the mirror, always something he enjoyed.
With a quick run over, his mental hygiene check, Caden grabbed his orange toothbrush (His mothers idea) and proceeded to completely cover all the bristles with not one, but two types of toothpaste. One for your everyday cleaning, the other was the Arm and Hammer whitening toothbrush, made specifically for teeth whitening. You would think that his teeth were white enough (The dentist said that electrolysis would just wear out his enamel), but no. It was a bit of an obsession with Caden, perfect teeth meant a perfect smile, which in turn meant that he was better than those who were killing their teeth with smoking and drinking.
To bad for them. By the time they are thirty, they will have no teeth, while mine will still sparkle.
Looking at the clock, Caden just about had an aneurysm. Oh s**t! It is already past eight in the morning! The only time he would ever run was when he was late. Running meant bad things, yah it helped you stay fit, but it made you sweaty and totally made your morning beauty routine a waste of time. Skidding out of his bathroom, he grabbed some dressy shoes, black ones as usual, and slipped them on as he hopped/ran out of his home in the suburbs of Chicago. Good thing his keys were always in the same place, and that he didn't actually take any of his stuff home from last school year.
His shoes on, and tied thanks to the amazingness that is Caden, he ran out of the home, grabbing his keys that were hanging on the hook outside his door.
His car was the brand new 2010, mustang GT, in the Kona blue. It was a combined Christmas/birthday/all other holiday gift, and boy would he not trade it for anything in the world. It was fancy, it was fast, it was powerful, and boy did it have a nice purr. Running into his car, Caden pressed the button to open the garage door. Waiting for the slow doors to open, he messed with the mirrors, and took one last look at himself in the rear view mirror. Driving was one of his favorite things. Yes, he was alone with his thoughts, but he didn't have to think about those thoughts. Just focusing on the road, no memories or thoughts to get in the way. It was all about the car, and he was completely alright with that.
It was an easy drive to the school, especially since so many people, in and out of cars, stopped to gawk at his amazing veichle without noticing the green light, or even the “don't walk” sign at the crossroads. Every look, every gaze just fed Caden's enormous ego, and there was nothing that could pop it.
He loved the purr of the engine as he floored it to his school, for some reason even going more than ten miles over the speed limit, sometimes thirty, he had never been pulled over. There was just something powerful about a person driving a mustang, something mesmerizing about the amazing power of a Michigan car. Michigan may be hurting still, but boy can they make one hell of a car. The purr of the V6 engine lulled him into a sense of awe, and if the nagging thought of being late for school wasn't hanging over his head, he would have just driven, no real place to go.
Pulling into the school parking lot, Caden couldn't help but let out a small swear as he noticed that almost everyone else was already there. Damn, I guess I am a bit later than I normally like, but school hasn't started, so it is all good. Straightening his clothes, Caden got out of the car, and locked it, making sure that the car alarm was set on super sensitive. If anyone were to touch his baby, he would probably have a hernia, or worse, turn into a football fan and tackle whoever did such a horrible act.
Scanning the school, he didn't see to many people he normally hung out with. Then again, Caden didn't normally hang out with anyone, he was a loner, and no one could tell him who he could hang out with, or who he could associate with. He talked to everyone, and anyone.
Taking his pick, Caden made his way over to the bench near a tree, where the amazingly tall Martin Moteire was sulking all in his misery. He looked upset as always, but mostly Caden didn't care. He could be cutting himself and Caden would walk over with the same serious disposition and say exactly what he was about to say right then and there. “Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. And whoever knows it, wants it not.” Leaning up against the bench next to Martin, Caden didn't even bother looking at him, he wasn't going to waste his time on someone so...irritated at everything. Part of Caden didn't even know why he walked over to Martin, maybe it was because everyone else was taken, and maybe it was because he wanted to be a hard a** and be the first one to talk to such an estranged character. Either way it didn't matter, it just mattered where Caden got punched. If I get hit in the face, I am suing his hard a**.

[C]aden[D]imitri [C]allahan

[Volthaire]

[[ Caden's Regular Post ]]

"

W e l l x s o m e x g o x this x w a y , x s o m e x g o xthat x w a y x . x B u t x a s x f o r x m e x , x m y s e l f x , x personally x , x I x p r e f e r x t h e x shortcut

"

Maybe I should have just asked him to punch me in the face. I would take that any day over his insentient babbling. With a sigh, Caden ignored the fact that Martin was able to solve his riddle right off the bat. It definitely wasn't something he was to happy about, but it really didn't matter. He had many, many more up his sleeve.

As Martin talked, Caden's gaze floated to his group of random people. Seth, Damien, Inelle, and....Blue? Hum. Oh, right, she was probably dragged over by D. Yah...That sounds about right. He has that thing where he likes to always be surrounded by at least one pretty girl. Sorry Inelle, but you don't quite cut his tastes.
“The warriors...How intriguing,” the sarcasm in his voice was almost painful to listen to, but he wasn't even done. “listening to your babbling is almost quite fatiguing.” As Martin questioned about what his first hour, Caden's right eyebrow slowly crept up his face as if it was a point of inquiry. Classes, First hour would be.....Oh. Right.

“Calculus first is where I am, then after that is up to 'the man'.” With a sigh, Caden looked up at the rather tall Martin and nodded his way. He was done with the young Motiere, since well, there really wasn't much more for him to say. However, to his comment about Stranded New Yorkers he gave a sigh. Making clothes, I would rather model them.. “My preference is to model them, making them is as much to condemn.” He didn't mean to condemn anyone else, just the fact that Caden making clothes would be like Carinna making cars. Yes, they went together, but could you actually picture either of them doing either? I thought not.

It was peace Caden really wished, however, Damien's loud outburst was enough to give anyone a headache. "CADEN! Hope you haven't made plans to be a loner tonight, cuz sounds like Seth's got something in mind! And what the hell man, where's my morning riddle, hope you haven't fed it to Martin there. I'd be insulted." Why must I pick the talkative ones to be my friend? Or for that matter, the loud ones. With his friends loud words he let out a rather depressing sigh. A night with Seth and Damien. Raising his hand to Martin in a very mellow wave, Caden walked over to where Seth, Inelle, Blue, and Damien were. It really didn't matter who all was there, just as long as none of them were pissing him off, and it took a lot of effort to piss Caden Callahan off.

His eyebrows went up at the sight of Damien with his arm around Laurie, his fingers tangled in her hair. I thought you liked the bookish type..Regardless, your problem if she wants into your pants. With a shrug, Caden gave Seth a respectful nod, since it wasn't quite in his nature to address anyone unless being addressed first. To Damien's question, Caden forced a moderate smirk, making sure to show at least a little bit of his perfect teeth.

“I have nothing to do tonight to my displeasure, we can take my car, it would be my pleasure.” His attention flickered from Seth to Damien, and then back again. It stayed at Seth, his eyes practically pleading for the answer of “What are we doing tonight”. He didn't need to say anything when it came to Seth, and Caden was pretty sure that Seth definitely appreciated his quiet nature. The young Callahan didn't bother saying hello to anyone else, he didn't know Blue, and him and Inelle were just kind of...Acquaintances.
Placing his thumbs in his pocket, Caden stared into oblivion, looking almost like a model striking a pose.

[C]aden[D]imitri [C]allahan

[Volthaire]

[[ Keiji Intro Post]]

He was not happy. Not happy at all. Keiji's biggest pet peeve was being late, and that was what he was. Late. Well, in all actuality he was right on time, but in his mind, if he wasn't there first, he was late, and something was telling him that he was in fact late. The carriage he was taking took too long, it was slow, the man directing the thing pulling wouldn't shut up, and Keiji stepped in something so now his shoes were messed up. It was just not his day. On top of that, on his way out, Hitomi just about had a heart attack because he told her that he was refusing the Dai Li to escort him. Hitomi tried to get him to accept the Dai Li's offer, but at the mention of the subject, Keiji would have no business with such a group. Even if her father was the director.

It was ridiculous, Keiji could see the wall of Ba Sing Se, he could see the mass amounts of empty space between them and the outer wall. With a very frustrated grumble, Keiji got out of the carriage, and grabbed his things off the back, while it was still moving. It wasn't all the difficult, and not to mention the fact that Keiji would have far, far better luck getting there on foot. Luckily that was exactly what he was thinking, and off he went.

“But...But sir! Your father ordered me to get you to Ba Sing Se safely!” The man holding the reigns was old, his back crumpled, and his face covered in the standard, bushy mustache. The look Keiji gave the man would give anyone chills, his brow was furred in a very unhappy fashion, and his face was only lightly a frown.

“You honestly think that I need some old man to help me get to Ba Sing Se safely? I've lasted weeks in the desert. I can survive the two thousand yards from here to the city.” This is ridiculous. Do I look that much of a pansy that an old man thinks I can't survive this little walk to the city. Keiji just kept on grumbling, his side slinging bag slung over his shoulder, his hand grasping it tightly, his knuckles turning white. This is all the Avatar's fault. Having gone gallivanting around the world, and then things start happening. Damn you avatar. Perfect ******** timing.

It was an honor to be chosen out of all the people in the earth kingdom to go on a mission to find the avatar. He among ten other benders were chosen, and they narrowed it down to him because not only could he bend earth, but sand and metal. The king of Omashu called him into a special meeting just less than a week ago to tell him that he had been chosen to go off to find the avatar. Part of Keiji resented his father for nominating him, Keiji still had a lot of work to do with bending, and on top of it, he really didn't care about the avatar's disappearance.

Keiji walked like he was made of a ton of bricks, not a lot of grace in his movements as he stormed off towards the outer wall. The meeting in Ba Sing Se was not his idea, if he had a choice, they would have grouped as close to there destination, the library. Apparently that was where the Avatar was missing, and Keiji didn't have a problem with it. He was comfortable in the desert, it was dry, and it was full of things he could fight with. If anyone tried anything, they would be down faster than they would understand what happened.
The man in the carriage guided the horse-bear to follow Keiji, the clickity-clack riding on Keiji's last nerve. Click. Clack. Click. Clack. Click. Clack. With every step he could hear the horse-bears hooves, and every clack made Keiji's left eye twitch in irritation. With every step Keiji thought of different ways he could get the man and the carriage to go the opposite direction he was heading.

I could stomp my foot, an he would go flying, but..I don't want him injured. I could break the carriage wheel...No, that would leave me responsible for getting him to the city. With an exasperated sigh, Keiji stopped in his tracks, causing the following carriage driver to stop the horse-bears as well. Turning around, Keiji looked at the driver, and offered him a look of apology. “Sir....I am quite qualified to make my way to the city on my own. Please, turn back and give the king a status report.” With a respectful nod, Keiji turned back around, and picked up the pace, tempted to just launch himself into the outer wall without any remorse.

He only had half of his supplies, the other half was with his extended family within the inner ring of the city. He had put the Dai Li to good use there, having them take all his supplies to his family so he could pick it up there. He had grabbed so much stuff it was insane, if someone didn't know he was a bender, they would think he was insane. With the stuff on his person, he had just his clothes, and his green bag, looking much like an earthkingdom nobleman, a very unhappy one at that. He had the green and gold clothes on, and everything was neatly pressed. His hair was just kind of there, for just like every morning he didn't bother to do anything with it, nor did he even take the time to put on his green headband, the same one sticking out of his pocket.

After about twenty minutes of walking, the carriage finally going the other direction, Keiji was at the outer wall. “Oh no...How will I ever get over this?” Being painfully Stomping his right foot, up Keiji went, a flat platform of rock under his feet, raising him over the wall. The Dai Li were waiting, and they were almost about to throw things at Keiji, but the moment they realized whom he was, they dropped there rocks, and just bowed respectively.

Like always, Keiji didn't bother bowing back, he hated the Dai Li, and refused to bow to them. They were inferior to him, or so he viewed them, they couldn't even metal bend, and they looked up to Master Nakata like he was god. And he was anything but. With not even an acknowledging nod, Keiji made his way over to the train station, wiping off the dust from clothes, Keiji found himself in the Train station, quickly scanning over the people fluttering in and out of the trains.

It was obvious who he was looking for, considering that he was the only person in water tribe clothes in the entire area. With a small sigh, almost a laugh, Keiji walked over towards the water bender, hopefully he wouldn't be mad that Keiji was late. Raising an eyebrow, Keiji let out a small cough to make the water nation man aware of his presence. With a respectful bow, Keiji looked at the man in front of him, not quite sure what to think of the one he as going to spend the next few months with. “I'm Keiji Kazushiro..Earth bender from Omashu.”
Throwing his bag on the ground next to Aka, Keiji wasn't sure where to go from there. Make small talk? Wait for the other two in our caravan? I'll take the latter.. Taking a seat on the bench next to the water bender, Keiji went people watching, just looking at all the travelers going in and out of Ba Sing Se.

[Volthaire]

[[ Keiji Regular Post ]]

K e i j i ----- H i j i me ----- K a z u s h i r o

It was his domain. The sand, the heat, the lack of any sort of life. However, just like every other bloody situation Keiji was stuck with people whom he couldn't care less about. His arms flowed in a string current, swirling the sand under the glider. It was almost like surfing, the sand flowing through every little crack and nook in the wood beneath them.
“Keiji, do you know exactly where you are going?” Her words were blatantly ignored, for Keiji needed to focus on the task at hand. It wasn't as hard as it looked, and in fact it was a bit less physically exhausting than metal bending. However, it was one of his favorite things to do. The head, the dry weather, the sand, everything he liked all in one bit. However, he would like not to have to worry about overheating and dieing, for if he died, everyone else would die soon after.

“Oh my gosh keiji! I can't believe there is Sand bending, and that it can be used this way! It is supersupersupersuper cool! I wonder what kind of sand castles you could make! Like.OOOOH! Could you totally like, make the air temple, or, or, or...YOU COULD MAKE OMASHU! That would totally be super, super super cool to see! Like, really, I have never seen it, and you would know it better than anyone! But with all he sand here and the sand in Omashu and all that super fun stuff I really think that this would be lots of fun with the whole people and the things and the messes and the walls and.....What else is there? I wonder if there are sea cucumbers in the desert! I mean, they are in the sea, what about sand-cucumbers!” With every single word Keiji could feel his mind melting little by little. He was seriously, seriously hoping that somehow, someway he could get her to shut up, but, no luck. Either he went running after her on the glider, not only stopping them in the middle of the desert, but also making himself tired, which depletes there water supply, which could lead them to death.

He hated being the only one adaptable to being in the desert. Yes he completely understood how and why Aka was just kind of sitting there like he had just seen his mother naked or something, what the way he was rocking back and forth ever so slightly, holding the bottles of water. Keiji couldn't help but stare at Aka as he swayed his arms back and forth. However, Keiji didn't stop, for if he stopped he knew exactly where his arms would be next. It took him about another hour or two to get where he assumed was the 'drop zone', where the library was buried over a hundred years ago. It was barren, it was quiet, and just like everywhere else, the view was nothing but sand.

Slowing his bending down, as not to make anyone go flying off the gilder if he were to stop on a dime, Keiji took a few breaths, and a little bit of water to drink. His arms were moderately sore, but it wasn't much of a big deal on his part. Keiji sat on the edge of the glider, removing his relatively fancy shoes and rolling up his pants legs. Mai Son was talking, but nothing she said was registering in his mind, for all he could hear was the mild wind running along the desert wasteland. That is...Odd...There usually isn't such a light breeze.....Looking up, Keiji realized that it was in fact not weird, but it was Mai Lin talking so fast she was creating a very small breeze in his direction.

Stepping onto the sand, keiji took a minute just to let his feet slightly sink into the sand, his toes in the hot rocks, his eyes closed as if he was listening intently. Taking a few steps out, Keiji sharply opened his eyes, the very, very subtle feel of something beneath the ground was sensed, and he took a relatively short moment just to look into the ground. Kneeling to the floor, at this point not caring about his clothes getting dirty, Keiji put his hand in the sand, just feeling the hot rocks made him let out a small smile.

With a deep breath, Keiji looked behind him at his caravan on the glider. With a nod, Keiji motioned for Akahata to bring as much water as he could, and from the way Akahata reacted, he was sure that he wouldn't have a problem with his silent request. Standing up, Keiji Stamped his floor and waved his hands ever so slightly, so the start of a very steep tunnel was in the work. His main problem was keeping the sand from flowing back in once he got far enough in. “Mai Lin. The tunnel is only big enough for us to go in single file. Please pick up the back, so that if too much sand leaks in, you can air bend it out.” As he spoke, he didn't bother looking her in the eye. It was genius on his part, giving Mai Lin a simple task so she would shut up, and so she would be far enough back in the tunnel so he could ignore her even easier.

-

He stopped mid stride as the white walls of a library showed up in his view. With a light smile, Keiji stopped his bending, rather positive that his tunnel would stay in tact. Taking a step backwards, Keiji smiled as he finally had the chance to let out his frustration by kicking into the wall, the side breaking rather slightly.
“Why didn't you just look for the door..?” Azraela was being rather sarcastic, and he really didn't feel like dealing with her. Not at all, for in his mind the answer was as obvious as the large building ahead of him. Removing a long rope from his pocket, as well as his headband to tie around his head, Keiji took one end of the rope so he could 'ground' it into the sand so it was stable.

The moment he had crawled down to a place with footing he could stand on, keiji looked in awe at the grand room. It was huge, it was quiet, and best of all, it was loud. Too bad Mai Lin had to go and open her mouth again.
“Holy cow! This place is bigbigbig! I have never seen a library this big before! I wonder if they have any books on flying bison? Or how to make a fancy fruit tart!” With every word, Keiji grimaced, him attempting to shut her up by not saying anything. It didn't work. “Oh my gosh! This is ama-” At her sudden stop of sentence, Keiji spun around to look at whatever had kept her from her pointless blather. It was an Owl, or, it was the spirit of an owl, It was big, it was black, and it was rather intimidating.

The owl made a slow motion towards the group, and Keiji took a defensive stance out of habit. “My library has been hidden under the sand for a reason, and you break into it. What is your purpose here?” Keiji made a motion to talk, but as usual, Mai Lin beat him to the finish line when it came to any race involving voice.
“Oooh oooh ! Me Me!” She was bouncing up and down with her hand in the air as if the Owl spirit was a teacher. The spirit glanced over at Mai Lin, his expression was clearly emotionless. ”We-We are looking for a clue on the Avatars location, and someone told someone, who told someone else that she was going this way!” Keiji was just kind of staring at her, his jaw almost ajar as she just kept talking and talking and talking.

The Owl wasn't impressed, but the fact that he knew what she was talking about was clearly on his aged face. “The avatar...Yes, she was here not too long ago..However, unlike your...Friend here, she did not break my wall.” Keiji shuffled his feet on the floor, hopefully the Owl wasn't going to hold too much of a grudge against him. ”However, because you are here in search of the avatar, I will allow you to use my library. However, I require some sort of knowledge from each of you.”

Keiji immediately reached into his bag, and slowly walked over to one of the pedestals. With a pen, Keiji began to write one a list of things to give to the owl. Even as he wrote, a smile broke out of his face, almost laughing. Mai Lin handed the own some sort of pie recipe, probably custard, but Keiji didn't care. Az handed him.....Something, keiji wasn't paying attention. It was Keiji's turn to hand him what he had written, and he strode back over to the owl, attempting not to let out a smile.

Twenty ways to pick up a girl.
1- “Hi, my name is chance. Do I have one?”
2- A boy gives a girl 12 roses. 11 real, and one fake and says “I'll stop loving you when all the roses die.”
3- “You must be a general, for my privates just snapped to attention.
4- “Do you sleep on your belly at night? If not, can I?”
5- 'It's a good thing I still have my library card, 'cause I'm totally checking you out.”
6- “Are you a pirate? 'Cause I want your booty.”
7- “What's a nice girl like you doing in a dirty mind like mine?”
8- “Lets play carpenter. First we get hammered and then I nail you.”
9- “If I could rearrange the alphabet, I would put U and I together.”
10- “Your father must have been a thief, for he stole the stars and put them in your eyes."
11- "Do you have a mirror in your pocket? 'Cause I can see myself in your pants."
12- "I'm gay. think you can convert me?"
13- "Wanna make babies?" "Want to try?"
14- "Do you know what winks and screws like a tiger?" " Rawr."
15- "Your so hot the devil would sweat."
16- "Your eyes are bluer than the ocean, and I'm lost at sea."
17- "I don't know much about desert, but DAMN you make my custard tart."
18- "Your like a prize winning fish, I don't know whether to eat you or mount you."
19- "The word of the day is 'legs' lets go back to my room and spread the word."
20- "There are 206 bones in the human body, do you want another one?"

The owl's expression was more than priceless. It was as if he was trying so hard not to be amused, but that little twinkle in his eye was too much not to catch. Keiji was hard pressed not to smirk, and as the owl accepted his “knowledge” he was more excited that what he knew about girls was just that. Knowledge.

[Volthaire]

[[ Braden Intro Post ]]

Some things we don't talk about
better do without
just hold a smile
we're falling in and out of love
the same damn problem

Braden Russle Gifford Walton

His internal clock was still going off. Get up. Get up. Get up. Just like his digital clock back home, the same tone and everything. It was quite irritating really. It was a Sunday, there weren't any classes, he didn't have to deal with teachers, or strange smells, or people if he really wanted. I just want to stay in bed....And so he did, regardless of the fact that his internal clock had been going off for over half an hour. Braden grabbed his covers and pulled them over his head as if he could ignore the clock that didn't physically exist. It was Sunday, and the big game was happening. He was so excited, Quidditch was his second favorite game to watch, first being football. Braden Gifford held high hopes for his house winning, since well, it was only the Slytherins, and well, he really wanted them to actually get a taste of the badgers rage.
Even though it was just the beginning of the school year, Braden slept not only under his sheets, but his comforter as well. It was crazy, it was insane, but the fact that he had something to grab onto in his sleep comforted him, and had done so for all of his life, so no way would he stop in the summer, even if the heat was sweltering.

Get up. Get up. Get up. His internal clock would not go off, no matter how hard he slapped the sleep button. Throwing his covers off of him, he sat up, trying to go as slow as possible waking up. Ooh......Why can't it be Saturday again? Then it wouldn't be Sunday, then I wouldn't have to wake up early tomorrow. Braden ran his hair through his blond hair, his grey eyes crumpled together, his mouth attempting to stifle a yawn. With a stretch, Braden forced himself to stand up, his black and gold pajama pants loose around his waist. Unlike a lot of the hufflepuff guys, Braden was completely fine with sleeping shirtless, he wasn't ashamed of his scrawny-ness. Yah, he didn't have a six pack, but he wasn't a complete wimp. Okay, that was another lie. He was a wimp, but not physically, he had muscles on his arms, but his abs weren't quite...Filled out.

Letting out a rather loud yawn, he stretched his arms into the air. Sauntering rather slowly into the bathroom, Braden was astonished at his reflection. He had bed head. That wasn't permitted. No, not at all. With a rather irritated look, Braden went back over to his bed, going to the trunk to remove some clothes, and some hair care stuff, as well as a few other artifacts of the hygiene variety. Back into the bathroom he went, smacking his tongue on the top of his mouth as he went. Grabbing his toothbrush first, Braden scoured his mouth with the whitening toothpaste, going very fast, and very thorough through his teeth. It was weird watching him brush his teeth, for he always made faces at himself in the mirror. Spitting the remnants of the toothpaste, and continuing by rinsing his mouth off, Braden slipped off his pajama pants and pulled on his freshly pressed dark blue jeans. Normally he wasn't one to wear blue, but they were the first he grabbed out of his trunk, and he didn't really feel like surfing through his endless wardrobe.

Pulling on his yellow and black dress shirt, leaving the top two buttons undone, Braden grabbed his comb and his tube of peach smelling gel. It was his favorite, and once every other month his mother would send him a package with hair gel, toothpaste, and vanilla or lemon cookies, whichever she felt like making. Running a comb through his hair, he made it so the blond locks were able to be worked through with his fingers. Putting some gel into his hands, Braden ran his fingers through his hair, leaving the front into an almost superman-like twirl.

With a satisfied expression, he smiled at himself in the mirror and used his wand to throw everything back in his trunk. “Windgardrium Leviosa”, his words were accompanied with the usual 'swish and flick' taught in the first year. His stuff flew across the dorm, and landed perfectly into his trunk. With another small spell, his trunk closed, and locked so he could be on his way. Repeating the spell once again, he made his newest Calvin Klein catalog come out from under his bed. It was the fall edition, and there was no way he was ever going to miss going through every single page. It was his absolute favorite, the clothes, the scarfs, the accessories, and, well, the guys of course.

Braden always had that sneaking suspicion that all of the Calvin Klein models were gay, or at least bi, because no one could look the sexy modeling in a catalog made strictly for the male eyes. Or at least, for clothes for the male variety. The catalog made contact with his hand, and he put the wand into the pocket of his jeans. There were little sticky notes all over the edges of the pages. Red ones, orange ones, blue ones, and green ones. The red ones were things he really, really wanted, and it went in color order from importance to him, red being “OMG, I HAVE TO HAVE”, green being, “This would be cool to have I guess”. He would eventually narrow it down to just three outfits, his yearly Christmas gift from his mother.

Flipping to where he left off, which was marked by a white sticky note, Braden stared at the image as he left the common room, his eyes switching from the catalog to the direction he was heading. The clothes were just fantastic, his favorite to wear for anything. Speaking of which, both his jeans and his shirt were both of the Calvin Klein brand, even his polka dotted boxers were labeled with Calvin Klein.

Sauntering out of the room, slipping on some converse, the ones that didn't have laces, Braden casually walked into the common room, hoping to catch someone, hopefully Nathifa, before he headed off to breakfast. On his was out, Braden made sure to grab his Hufflepuff scarf. Wrapping it around his neck, he let out a small laugh, and commented on his own appearance “Well...No gray today. I'm astonished at myself. Hufflepuff pride I guess.”

With a rather happy smile, he made his way into the common room, where he saw the one and only, Nathifa Sheriti. A rather giddy grin appeared on his face, enough for him to put away the Calvin Klein catalog, or at least close it. Just like him, she was wearing black and yellow, just for hufflepuff he presumed. With a smile, he took a rather deep breath, and walked over to his good friend. Hopefully no one would be watching him, he was already uncomfortable around people as it was. With a smile, he hid the Calvin Klein catalog behind his back, making sure that the front cover was smothered in his clothes.
“Why hello there Naty!” His words were cheery, but as usual, quiet as he took a seat next to her. She was wonderful, and she was smart too. Good thing Nathifa is such a sweetheart, or I would probably have gotten a worse score in Ancient runes than I did. Naty I love you! With a grin, Braden used his freehand to wave a finger between the both of them, a stupid grin on his face. “Hey...We match.”

The early morning... the city breaks
And I've been calling... for years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
You never sent me no letters
You got some kind of nerve... taking all I want

[Volthaire]

[[ Braden regular Post ]]

Some things we don't talk about
better do without
just hold a smile
we're falling in and out of love
the same damn problem

Braden Russle Gifford Walton

“Morning Morning Moooorning!” He said his little chant in a very sing song way, his mind totally forgetting about how he was embarrassed to have the stickey-noted Calvin Klein catalog, so he just placed it neatly on the table, not caring whom would see. He was so thrilled to see Nathifa, his best friend in his own house. Well, I guess you could call Braden and Finch friends, but things were just awkward around each other, so he preferred to be near either Nathifa or Kumiko, for there attitudes were exactly what he loved. Luckily for him, there was absolutely no sexual tension between the blond German and the dark haired African, so that was another huge reason he loved to be around her.
Unlike most of the girls he knew, like Lauraine or Dominique, or even Ceci, Nathifa was easy to talk to, and she was one of the two girls he was at least moderately comfortable talking around. The other one was a beautiful and kind Kumiko Saitou. She was the cutest little doll, and Braden just wanted to hug her until she was sick of being hugged. And if anyone knew Miko like he did, he knew that that day would never come.

“I like matching. Makes things easier to find.” The statement muttered from his lips didn't really express what he actually did, for his belongings were a mess, the only thing that was color coded was the sharpies, and that was only because they were still in the original box they came in.

However, on top of being silly, his comment implied that not only did he like to be found, but if someone matched, everyone could identify whom they belonged to. He had gone out with his brothers, Christoff and Klaus, somewhere, he couldn't remember, but their mother was so absolutely distraught, that she insisted on them wearing the exact same T-shirt, bright blue with black stripes on them. It wasn't all that bad, but it juts reminded him of matching. The Gifford brothers matched, but now that Braden wasn't legally a Gifford anymore, he felt almost out of the loop.

The weird tangent in his head quickly reminded him of a certain someone, his younger brother hovering over at the Ravenclaw table. He turned so he could take a good look at the table, and sure enough, there was Klaus Gifford, with a book in his hand and an apple hanging out of his mouth. Shaking his head in amusement, he turned back to Nathifa, a sweet smile on his face.
His mind was off in other places, so many things to think about, so many things to ponder and wonder, so many things to infer, but the first few words out of Nathifa's mouth the second time around made his face explode. “I made something for you!” Braden perked up, and looked eagerly into her eyes. He always loved gifts, and since Nathifa did such nice things for her, he always repayed her with some sort of desert, his talent. The rest of what came out of her mouth went in and out of his mind, other than that most spectacular word. “...Scarf...” He immediately, as if it was a natural reflex, removed his Hufflepuff scarf, folded it, and shoved it in his lap, very, very eager to see what Naty was to pull out of her magic bag. His eyes grew to the size of saucers, his mouth curled into a smile that almost reached his ears.

“You........You told your dad I liked scarfs, and you both did something special for me?” His face was aglow, his smile going from completely ecstatic, to completely and utterly flattered. Nathifa was by far the nicest person he knew, ever, and he would love to go meet her father, the fashionista.

The moment she took the scarf out of her bag, his fingers started twitching beneath the fabric of his wool Hufflepuff scarf. It was gorgeous, it was shimmery, and it was just for him. The former made him more excited, quality was best, and the fact that he had an original Nathifa-Mudada design just made his grin grow even bigger.

He was speechless, and his hands itched to grab the silk cloth that was in Nathifa's hands, but his eyes couldn't stop focusing enough to let his mind take control of his hands. It was pastel colored, it was amazing looking, and boy was Braden flattered. He had seen Nathifa sew before, and he knew how tedious a task it was for even the simplest designs, but this one, this one just took his breath away.

It took his brain a few moments to register his response, and as a result, he let out a rather loud “OH MY GOSH!” and immediately, but gently, grabbed the scarf and wrapped it around his neck. It felt like a dream, and on top of it, it was light colors and it was made of silk. Nathifa knew what he liked, and she knew him well. With a rather giddy laugh, he leaned over and just grabbed her gently around the shoulders in a very large bear hug.

“Nathifa,” His words were fast, jumbled together through all the excitement in getting something so special from the beautiful Hufflepuff. He just kind of let his arms stay there as his mouth kind of ran off on a tangent. “it is fantastic Nathifa! Just gorgeous! I have never seen such a pretty scarf in all my life! It is like wearing a dream! I've got my own little piece of heaven and I have named it Nathifa!” It went on a little longer than that, his praising her and his loud, very fast talking but the words were no longer audible. It took a few minutes of hyper-ness to calm himself down, but after a few moments he was taking slow deep breaths, and just rubbing the soft fabric in circles between his forefinger and thumb. It was like a cloud, and a very shiny cloud.

His calmness was rudely interrupted by the sudden lack of visible light. Before he knew it, there was a pair of hands over his eyes, and the voice of someone with a cheery disposition behind him. It was the lovely Kumiko Saitou, and because it was her, he had to instantly forgive her with a wide grin. “I believe it is Kumiko and her sassy attitude.” He knew he won, and as his prize he grabbed her wrists and looked back being him, and up, into her eyes. She looked upside down from the view, but regardless, she was still as pretty as ever.

“Hey.....Hey.....hey Kumiko...LOOK WHAT NATHIFA MADE ME!” His hands instantly let go of her wrists, and went right to the edges of the silk scarf. His arms danced a little, hoping to make the fancy fabric do just the same. “You look super sweet today Miko! With your skirt...AND jeans! How bold!” He was teasing the girl of course, but she knew that. However, just to be sure that she knew he was just teasing, he sealed the deal with an upside wink, and made a sweet kissy face at her before sitting back up straight.

The early morning... the city breaks
And I've been calling... for years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
You never sent me no letters
You got some kind of nerve... taking all I want

[Volthaire]

Lauraine Regular Post

☂

It was almost silly, to watch, for she was dancing around the dorm. Then again, how could she not in such a very pretty white dress, one of the exact same quality of Marilyn Monroe. It should be the exact same, for that was exactly whom she was dressed as, or, who she would be dressed as. Pen was skipping around the dressing room, spinning and attempting to make the same kissy face expressions as the blond pop star did. She didn't have her shoes on, like usual, for high heels were the shoes that she avoided wearing for long. However, it would never, never be a true Marilyn Monroe white gown costume without the silver heels. Pen almost looked the part, she had the makeup, she had the gown, and the pretty silver shoes were sitting neatly under her bed. However, her hair was just like it normally was. Long, and wavy, just laying flat against her face, still slightly wet from her shower. She only had an hour left, and just like every other dance or party, she let time escape her.
“Fuuuuccckkk. Oh s**t. I want to mess with my hair, but if I set it on fire, I'm screwed. And no way am I going to take that risk. Luckily for her, Cecilia Nott was coming to assist her in a way that no one else could. Pen had received a small message from Ceci just a few minutes before, and had eagerly written back. Hopefully she can read my chicken scratch handwriting. Even with a bit of a frown on her face from the thought of her hair being a moderate concern, she kept spinning, watching as the white silky fabric floated in the air like it was lighter than air.

Pen sashayed into the bathroom, grabbing the makeup bag that was on the bed to go and touch it up one more time. Her lips were rosy red, almost too red for her tastes, but when it came to the forties/fifties, and Marilyn Monroe for that matter, the brighter the lipstick the better. Pen took her large white disk earrings out of her bag and put them in her ears, admiring her makeup job as she did so. It was strange, her obsession for making weird faces in the mirror and putting on makeup, even if she wasn't all that big of a girly girl. Of course she liked being able to wear dresses, but the fact that her parents didn't allow her to wear anything but dresses and skirts got on her nerves. Never once has she worn pants, spare her pajama shorts that never wore outside of her dorm, or at home her bedroom.

Pen skiited back over to her bed, throwing her makeup bag on her pillow as she grabbed lightly on the railing. Pen knew she was supposed to have some kind of mask, and she really didn't want to, but on the other hand pretending to be someone she wasn't could be amazingly cool. Pen immediately flung herself on the bed, leaning over the edge so she could go looking under the frame to a box her mother had sent her. Pen often complained about her severely strict, and overbearing mother, but at least she had good tastes, and spoiled her daughter. In her mothers eyes, Pen was viewed as special, for she was her first child, and the only girl. Maybe it was guilt, the reason her mother was completely obsessed with the fact that pen was the only girl in that generation. Either way, Pen loved her wackadoodle of a mother, no matter how flaky she was. The fancy things were just a bonus.

Under her bed was a small wrapped box with the tag “Do not open until halloween”. Pen knew it was there, and under normal circumstances she would have opened it earlier, however, her father had gotten into bewitching anything given to her so that he would know if she cheated, and her father was not one to be messed with. Pen ripped off the blue silk ribbon, the white wrapping easily coming undone as she tore her manicured nails into the paper. Inside, underneath a few levels of silver tissue paper, was a plain white mask, no straps, nothing. Just as simple as can be, enough to be considered a mask, but not enough to bother her. As well as the mask, was a small container marked “L” and “R”. Pen instantly knew exactly what they were. Colored contacts. Letting out an excited scream, she opened them up and put them in, not really bothering to care about hurting her eyes. They were already soaked in solution, and everything was perfectly in place. Pen lifted herself up into a sitting position on her bed, looking great fully at the white mask. When she dug deeper through the tissue, there was even a miniature roll of double stick tape, a way to keep the mask on her face. She would put it on after Ceci came to fix her hair.
Getting up, Pen grabbed onto the pole attached to the corner of her bed to launch herself up, giggling at the white fabric as it lifted off her legs. It was amazing that something so pitifully simple could entertain her so well. However, when Ceci spoke pen slipped, her foot stubbing the edge of her bed. A series of loud, rather entertaining swear words came out of her mouth, but after a moment she actually registered what her friend had said.

“Aww! Ceci you really think so! I always knew I would make a good Marilyn Monroe, but a compliment of hat manner coming from you, well, I'm honored. Then again, her next comment made a worried look shoot on her face. Her hands instantly went up to her head, grasping her hair as if Ceci had just told her that there was a bug in it. “oooh! Does it look that ba-” Pen instantly stopped herself from fretting over her hair, just the thought of worrying over something so trivial could ruin her night, so she decided it would be best just to completely ignore it. When Ceci told her to sit, she did exactly that, however her mind could not keep her mouth from running, and so it went.
“I'm so sorry I've got you doing my hair! I really really do appreciate this. If I were attempting to do this all on my own, i think I wo-” Ceci made a sound to get pen to shut up, something that only a friend would understand as Ceci's form of saying “Shut up” without being rude. Of course it took a while to get used to Ceci's strange habits, but all in all for Lauraine it was well worth it. Ceci was her best friend, and she got along far better with her than with her own dorm mates. Not that Felicia-May or Lacey were bad, but they just never clicked. Maybe it was the fact that in a way Pen was moderately stupid, what with her bad grades and terrible usage of a wand, but either way Pen seemed to click with the person she never imagined she would. Cecilia Nott, semi (If not full) genius.

Pen was biting her lip and twiddling her fingers, attempting to stay as perfectly still as she could in an effort to give Ceci the best shot of not messing up her hair. However, it seemed like forever, and the fact that Pen could barely tell what she was doing made her only more nervous. The moment Ceci spoke, Pen grabbed for the mirror in her makeup bag, examining her head, and just as usual, she looked perfect. Pen hardly noticed when Ceci took a seat on the bed next to her, all she knew was her her arms immediately went around Ceci in a rather large hug, even if both of the girls were relatively small in size.
“Cecilia Nott you have outdone yourself again! I would kiss you on the cheek if I wasn't afraid I would leave a lipstick print. Thank you so very, very much. Now I really have an excuse to get my hair cut short. Maybe I can get paid to be a Marilyn Monroe impostor!” Of course she was just kidding, just like normal around the amazing fun that came with being with Ceci.

Pen stood up, and stroke a “Marilyn Monroe” pose, the only thing lacking was the vent beneath her feet for an actual pose, but it settled her enough. On top of it, just looking at herself with blue eyes was definitely a change of pace. ”What do you think Ceci, do you like the blue eyes, or brown? I really don't know. Maybe I'll make a habit of wearing colored contacts. Pen was still looking at herself in the mirror, raising her eyebrows, smiling, making strange faces, and smacking her lips together in an effort to readjust her bright red lipstick.
Though, when Ceci mentioned leaving, Pen nodded rather lightly, however when she glanced at her bed she strictly remembered her new mask, the same one that escaped her mind the entire time Ceci was there. “Give me a sec, I need to put on my mask. Did I tell you that I really like you with short hair. Just something about it. I dunno, but you look really nice in burgundy.” Pen went over to her bed and grabbed the double sided tape, sticking a few pieces around the edge of her mask before sticking it on her face.
She wiggled her eyebrows and her nose, getting the mask to set over her eyes just as comfortably as she could. After a few more strange faces to adjust the mask to her face, Pen took a seat back on her bed to put on her silver heels.
“Alright then! I'm all set. Yah I know that it isn't the original costume, but I don't really mind at all. I think it makes me look more mysterious, and just makes my lips pop even more.” Pen made a kissy face at Ceci, popping her lips so it made a noise. Ceci may be a bit pretentious, but in her opinion that really didn't matter at all, she was still her best friend, and if anything were to happen she would totally bust some heads.

[Volthaire]

Joel Intro Post

He was excited. He was off the wall, dancing up and down, ready to just be entertained excited. The Halloween party was that night, and there wasn't anything else he wanted to do but enjoy the night, and have fun in his costume. He was “The Dread Pirate Roberts” from his mothers (and his, even if he doesn't admit it) favorite movie, “The Princess Bride”. It was ridiculous, him wearing all black, and making a sheath for his wand so it looked like a sword. In all actuality, he thought he looked rather good. He had most of his costume on, the black pants and the black top. What he hadn't anticipated was the pants were four inches too short. Joel looked down, adding a rather unhappy grumble under his breath. He pulled out his wand from the “Sheath”, and uttered a spell to make it so his pants fit correctly. There was something about black clothes that he liked, he couldn't quite describe it, but it made him feel mysterious, and to everyone, that was something he definitely wasn't.

Over on his bed was his black ribbon to tie around his eyes, his own form of mask. I don't quite understand the point of this mask...But I guess that if I didn't wear the mask I would just be 'Wesley', not 'The Dread Pirate Roberts'. But...I still wonder..Anyone looking at me can totally tell that it's me. I'm the tallest blond in the school, so why do I bother? Oh right. It's fun to wear a mask. Joel grabbed the black ribbon, part of his mothers home decorations she would use around flowers when weddings would take place at there bed and breakfast. It only happened twice so far, but just in case she would always keep the ribbon. Good thing for him that she enjoyed black, 'cause that was exactly what he needed.

He wiggled his face slightly around, his cheeks going up and down so attempt to get used to the mask. It felt weird, that much was true, but at least he was sure he looked the part. All except for the small mustache, but that wasn't a big deal to him. No, not a big deal at all. Joel ran his hands through his hair, ruffling up his thick blond locks before he was to put on the bandanna. Joel felt fancy in the costume, even if his 'almost knee high' boots weren't quite on, and he didn't have the fancy sword from the movie, he still greatly enjoyed dressing up in such a way. Normally he dressed so conservatively, nice clothes, dress shirts, but something as lot cut as this he wasn't used to. And he greatly enjoyed it. The low cut of the shirt was a little strange for his tastes, but then again he really didn't mind the strangeness.

Joel grabbed the bandanna, bending forward so his head was towards the floor so he could put on the black bandana easier. The only thing that would make the costume better would be a cape, just because it would give him something interesting to mess with, but he wouldn't worry about that. He could always go and interact with people as normal. He turned around and took a seat on the edge of the bed, grabbing his black leather boots from underneath, getting partially dizzy from going upside down to right side up rather quickly. He slipped his right foot through his shoe first, his pant leg getting slightly caught up out the boot, something he fixed rather quickly before going to put on the other.

For a moment Joel just sat there, his arms resting on his knees as he looked around the dorm. It was quiet really, and almost strange in a way to see the dorm quiet. I'm not sure I like it this quiet. I mean, yah it normally is this quiet. What, with finch who doesn't really talk to me, but Matt is great at least. Though, he's always taking pictures. Good thing I have bipolar disorder, not epilepsy. Joel couldn't help but put on a smile at the same time as he put on his gloves. He looked the part, that much was true, and more than anything he enjoyed the costume.

Joel stood up again, halfway ready to go hopping down to the common room when he saw his notebook sticking out from under his pillow. It was definitely not something he felt like doing, but his mother told him to 'take note of your everyday feelings' in order to 'better understand yourself'. In other words, mom just wants me to think before I act. Or maybe it was just that she wants me ot actually keep a schedule. I'm supposed to write in this everyday, but, I don't think that that is going to happen. But...Oh s**t. I promised. Joel swore yet again under his breath, and removed the muggle, spiral bound notebook from beneath his pillow, as well as a simple pencil.

J. R. C
-Halloween, Evening



I feel rather mellow today. Yah, I'm excited for the bash
that is going on tonight, really I am, but I guess I'm not
as excited as I should be. I've already got my costume
on, and it's already hot. I'm just glad that the room of
requirements can moderately conform to anyone's needs,
but still. Wearing black is definitely not my style. I need
some yellow, or some orange. Maybe even some blue.
Oh right, if I do that I wont be "The Dread Pirate Roberts."

Oh, and with that, I am getting a little hopeful that Ceci
will in fact go to the yule ball with me. Just because she
has given me two big fat "NO!", I'll not be discouraged.

Maybe I'll give her posies instead of a daisies today.


-Joel





He wrote in his rather neat handwriting, the large scrawl covering the entire lines, but at least it was readable. It was true, he was in fact moderately hopeful that Ceci would give in and just say yes to going to the yule ball with him. True, he was completely jumping the gun, and he had way more than a month until the ball, but that didn't mean he couldn't get a jump on the ball thing. Joel wanted to go with Cecilia Nott more than anything, but at this rate he would have to work ridiculously hard to get her on his side.

Joel shrugged, shoving his pencil in the metal bindings of the notebook, and the notebook back under his pillow. He felt so girly writing a journal, but all in all he didn't mind. It let him rant, and in a way he would rather rant to a journal than to a person, that is, unless the person really was worthy of one of his special rants. As he took one last look in the dorm, just to make sure he didn't forget anything he needed, Joel smiled, completely confused as to why.

He quickly made his way through the hallway, wanting nothing more than to get through the halls without a teacher noticing. And for Joel, that was quite difficult. Joel was tall, and he had moderately wide shoulders, but for once, he was glad he was wearing black. A few times he was mistaken, thinking a teacher was coming down the hall, and he would go slinking into a corner, glad that instead he wasn't wearing a cape. Usually it was just another student on there way to the room of requirement, so he did feel silly when he was hiding from a fellow student.

After a few minutes he found his way, glad that there wasn't too many people there. It was just Nathan and Kaira, fellow house mates, but both of them were in the year ahead of him, so he didn't know much about. All he knew was that Nathan was a talented bassist, and he respected him for that, even if they didn't share anything more than a musical interest. Kaira on the other hand was a complete mystery to him. In his eyes she was absolutely adorable, but he really didn't have anything to say to his fellow Ravenclaw, and for once stayed silent, hovering near the back. He was unsure if he should bother going over to either of them, so he decided not to bother, and just twirled around the sheath of his wand like he had been practicing for the past few days.

[Volthaire]

Regular post for Keiji

K e i j i ----- H i j i me ----- K a z u s h i r o

The library was enormous. Full of fancy moldings, and railings, and books. Lots, and lots, and lots of books. The vast amount of the entire building was full, and encased in books, shelves, walls, hallways, anything he could possibly need for any possible reason. Yet, just like the pessimist that he was, he couldn't see the library for the books. To him, it was just a giant building full of shelves, and hopefully a clue that the could use. As usual, Keiji walked with robust, his feet hitting the floor like a ton of bricks, the sound of his footsteps vibrating all throughout the library.

His eyes scanned the floor, the walls, the ceiling, his hands shoved recklessly into his pocket. It was a relief, getting out of the sun and into the library, where it was cooler than up on the surface. He still had no shoes on, and that really didn't bother him, mainly because with his feet he could make a loose map of the library, and it was huge. Vast spaces were things he liked, mainly because if it was full of nothing, then there wouldn't be much noise. However, he really didn't feel all that comfortable in the library. There was a lot of little nooks and crannies, lots of places that anyone could hide. He picked up a book, looking through it, and put it back.

Walking down a few feet, he picked up another book, read a page or two, and put it back. There wasn't much else he could do, for he didn't know what he was looking for, or what to do with anything even if he found something of moderate importance. No such luck. However, the moment he picked up a stained old book on herbs and vegetables, Keiji heard his name being called, as well as Akahata and Azralea's names. Or, shortened, lazy version of there names.

”Aka! Keiji! Az! I found something!” Oh good lord what could she have found. A book on fruit pies? He left the aisle he was in, eager to put back the book on the shelf and do something that he could actually focus on. “I think the avatar was in here!” Keiji was behind Akahata and Azreala, walking relatively slowly, for he still believed that there was something involving fruit pies. However, if Mai Lin was there, there would always be at least one fruit pie.

They were in the dome, and he actually did something Mai Lin said. Look. It was a simple enough request, just look up at the dome, where yet indeed there was Avatars symbol. He barely noticed Akahata until he opened his mouth, “It's a .........scale.” Keiji's attention immediately shifted over towards Akahata, his eyes directed at what Ahakata had picked up. He ignored Az's offhanded comment, really not caring about her sarcastic tone. ”It’s extremely large. I don’t think it’s from the Poles, and it’s not from the tropic areas. Probably a mild climate, and, It’s probably related to a sea serpent? Or a sea serpent. Dark brown…” Keiji took the scale, and yes, it was large. Mild climate...............................Large...............Sea serpent.......'It's a Unagi.” The makeup was a bit of an interesting thing too. It was white, and it was a powder. With his hand, keiji ran his finger across the makeup, rubbing the white powder between his first finger and thumb. What was the dead giveaway was the taste. Yes, Keiji tasted the powder by dabbing his finger lightly on his tongue. Immediately after his tongue touched the powder, his face crumpled into a look of extreme disgust.

“And this makeup.....It's from Kyoshi island.” He knew them, and they knew him, and from the way that powder tasted, it was unmistakeably the makeup of a kyoshi warrior. “Yes, Kyoshi Island...” Keiji pocketed the scale, not really caring that it's size made a rather large lump in his right pants pocket. With one last look at the dome, Keiji was excited to get out of the library and back into the desert, even if it meant that they would be in the air, and that wasn't exactly what Keiji wanted

--

They had been flying the ine sky for a good amount of time, and he still wasn't the most comfortable in the air. At least we are going to be at Kyoshi Island soon...I haven't been there in two years. Keiji was leaning against the edge of the sattle on Hasina, his eyes closed as he listened to the whistling of the wind around him. It was peaceful, that much was true, however Mai Lin was still talking. And talking, and talking.

“I'm so excited to be going to Kyoshi island! Akahata do you think we could totally like go swimming with the unagi! I might be a little afraid to do something like ride it, but I super duper enjoy swimming! I wonder if they are friendly! Think I could totally like, give it a hug-” Az cut her off, her bitchy tone clearly spelling how badly she really, really didn't want to be there. “MAI LIN. Can we please have FIVE minutes of silence?! Please!” Keiji's eye opened to watch them fighting, poor Akahata just kind of watching, stuck inbetween the fighting Az and Mai Lin. However, what Keiji saw was not fighting, but more of an unhappy Azreala. His single open eye drifted over to Mai Lin, who in fact was not sulking, but sitting there, holding the reins, lipping her mouth to numbers.

Oh. My. God. Is she COUNTING the seconds in five minutes? It was one of the weirdest things he had ever seen, but like Az, and presumable Aka, he was happy to get some peace, even if it was just for five minutes. It wasn't until Keiji's ear's popped that he noticed something was wrong. They were slowly dropping altitude, and it was a moderate point of alarm for him. He knew that it would take a lot longer to get to Kyoshi island than the time that had just passed, and with that, he couldn't smell the salt of the ocean, so there was no way that they could even be near the border. It was moderately alarming, so in an effort to understand what was going on, Keiji sat up, and turned around to lean over the edge, his eyes rather irritated to see the ground, for once in his life.

Turning to look at Mai Lin, he had a moderate scowl on his face, or, one a bit more upsetting than normal. “We shouldn't be sinking.........Mai Lin, can't you get Hasina to go-” He was cut off by the highpitched scream of Mai Lin, her hand pointing at him, or, something right next to him. Snapping his entire body in a defensive position, Keiji say what looked like a long, slimey tentacle coming from beneath them. He didn't have time to take action before it quickly snapped like a whip, hitting him square in the face. “WHAT TH-” his words were cut off by the same 'tentacle' as it wrapped around his wrist, and yanked him from the bison. Once again, he could hear a quick gasp from Az, and the high pitched scream from Mai Lin.

As he fell from the sky, he was relatively thankful that the drop was only about fivehundred feet, much better than if they were higher up in the air. The tentacle, as it turned out to be, was in fact a piece of vine. The only way he knew was the fact that it haad wrapped itself around his mouth, parts of it around his waste as he fell. If he could talk, more profanities would escape his lips than would be humanly possible. Thinking as quickly as he could, the ground coming in at him just as fast as it was a second ago, Keiji reached into his pocket to remove a piece of metal, his hands fastening it into a small blade. Rather loosley, Keiji slashed the vine that was around his waist, cuting it off from the rest of the vine. It fell to the ground at the same time he did, but he made a much, much larger slam into the ground than the vine.

--


He was out for about two minutes, considering the impact of him on the ground, in about two inches of water, his clothes were soaked, his head moderately throbbing. Damn....Aaaagh where am I? And..Where is everyone else? Sitting up, Keiji rubbed the back of his head, glad that the liquid he felt was water, not blood. [********. Where am I? Oh goodness.......I need some tea... Moving rather slow, his mind still catching up with what happened, keiji was curious to the fact that he couldn't remember if he was the only one to have been atacked by a 'demon plant'. With a series of quiet grumbles and swears, Keiji got himself up and standing, at this point not really caring that he was soaking wet, and disoriented from the fact that he was stuck in a swamp, and the fact that he had to go running around it with no idea where he was.

He made his way through the swamp, glad that he had left his shoes on Hasina, because he actually liked those shoes. Leaning down, Keiji rolled up his pants legs again, as well as the sleeves of his shirt. At this point he decided, it wouldn't be much of a point to continue with those clothes, since his shirt was torn, stained, and covered with a mixture of swamp goo, and sand, as well as a variation of other things that he really didn't want to know. “Damn neurotic plants. Why can't they just let us be? Honestly, we were prefectly happy flying through the air...okay, I was perfectly happy, can't speak for Az or Aka, but....Dammit.” With a sigh, Keiji stripped his vest and threw it on the ground, happy that he was wearing a thin, gold shirt on beneath the more elaborate top. “I liked that shirt too....”

Moving on through the swamp, Keiji shoved through weeds, seaweed, and climed over giant roots, making his way towads one central point. The tree in the center. It was the largest sort of vegetation in the swamp, and from what he concluded, the roots that he had been walking on, and landed on, were directly from the large tree. Hopefully everyone else would make that connection and find him there, but if they didn't, he could just keep walking until he found the edge of the swamp, or someone to take him to the edge.

“Hehehe!”

He snapped towards the direction of the sound, his feet grinding into the mushy grass of the forest. Am I loosing my mind? Keiji looked around, his arms and legs in a defensive stance, his torso twisting at the middle as to see all around him. There was nothing. Not a person, not a thing. No one. Putting his ams down, and relaxing his legs, Keiji continued through the swamp, hoping nothing else would be there. It was just a trick..Probably the wind, or....Maybe a bird. Yes, a bird could make that sound.. It didn't take more than five minutes of quiet for something to catch his eye. It was a woman, she was gorgeous, and she was....Glowing? He was stopped in his tracks by the woman, his eyes fixated on her, his legs unable to move against his better judgement.

The woman was young, and beautiful, her hair was short and tied in a way that he didn't reckognize. She was wearing white, and furs, with a tie around her neck. Keiji was taken aback by the beautiful young woman, almost as if he ad just been punched in the stomach, but unable to move at the same time. The beautiful girl slowly walked over to him, or, at least he assumed it was walking, but the way she moved suggested it was flowting. It didn't matter though, he couldn't keep her eyes off her as she moved closer to him. Her smile was flirtateous, as if she had known him for years, and her eyes were locked with his as she made her way around him, her slender fingers running up his arm as if they were walking, and just like that, she was gone, leaving him in the swamp to stare in awe at someone that was never actually there.

[Volthaire]

It was five thirty and Ethan Jones was already awake, showered and dressed. He was used to waking up an ungodly hour, before everyone else in the house. His mother was sound asleep, his father next to her in the room down the hall, and his sisters were both asleep as well. He was sitting in front of the TV just as every morning he did, watching some random show on boomerang. They played all the old classics. Samurai Jack, The Power Puff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Teen Titans, all the stuff that Cartoon Network dumped. Which is why he had CN blocked years ago. Just like normal, he had a bowl of lucky charms as he sat on the floor in front of the couch. Normally he would never sit in such a fashion (Cross legged or “indian style”), but no one was awake, and it was like he had the house to himself. Something that almost never happened.

He had the cereal box on the carpet in front of him, the leprechaun on the front with the green hat staring at him. “Quit Eatin’ my lucky charms!” Ethan said, imitating the Irish accent of Lucky. He couldn’t help but laugh, just the thought that he was talking to a cereal box made him laugh. He still had a long time before he had to get on the bus for school, and he was perfectly okay with taking another shower. Then again, why not just spend the next two hours watching cartoons. In his opinion, Ethan would much rather sit there in front of the TV than attend school. This late in the game, especially since he had absolutely no hope of being a good sidekick, so why bother going to a school for Heroes/”Hero Support”?

Ethan already had a pretty secure position as an accountant in his fathers firm, but he really wasn’t sure if that was actually where he wanted to be. Then again, Ethan was the worst person to ask when it came to making a decision, so he would just assume that someone else would make the decision for him. In itself he thought it was a good plan for the rest of his life, make everyone else decide things for him. Then again, what if he didn’t like the decision, would he ever be able to get a big enough backbone to tell anyone off. I’ll cross that road when I get to it. *If* I get to it that is.
More than happy sitting on the floor in front of the TV, Ethan didn’t even bother to use the bowl after the first round. He was perfectly content eating directly from the box, forced to turn the TV up louder over the crunch of the plastic bag.

After an hour and a half Ethan was pretty sure he heard his family waking up, for he could hear someone talking. It was Moriah, his older sister. Probably talking to herself once again. It happened rather often, maybe it was because she was lonely since it was just her and Ethan at home now, or maybe it was because she was crazy. All he knew is that if he muted the TV, and slowed his breathing he could hear , “shoes..........Vest......Black or white belt.......Hair, must do something with my hair...” Ethan couldn’t help but let out a small snicker as he hoisted himself up, grabbing the cereal box and the only partially used bowl and spoon. He knew better than to comment on his sisters moderate insanity, for the last time he totally bitched at him. Not a pretty sight, especially from a girl who grew her nails out.

He strode into the kitchen, his socks shuffling against the carpet, his jeans under his heels. Ethan was used to having badly fitting clothes. He was uncomfortably tall, and add to that his small waist side. You would think that through the massive amounts of food he ate he would gain weight, but apparently not. He was still skinny, and still had to buy pants a size bigger than normal just so they would reach past his ankles. Luckily for him they didn’t drag on the floor when he wore his shoes, but either way it didn’t matter.

In just a minute or two he heard his older sister come walking in, looking rather cute with her long brown hair curled into ringlets and a white headband holding the curls back. Apparently she had spent some time on her appearance. Is she going to a job interview? She wouldn’t have a date this early would she? Is she trying to win back that Kevin kid again? Ethan took out the empty plastic container where the cereal once was. Like normal, he had gone through another box of Lucky charms. Good thing his mother had bulked up, and there were another fifteen in the garage. Ethan flattened the box as Moriah silently went to put some coffee on the pot. “Hey E.J.” she started, not really looking at him as he flattened the cereal box to add to his collection. Ethan looked up before uttering, “Yah, Moriah?” Moriah went and grabbed the two belts that were hanging from around her neck that he hadn’t even noticed. She looked at them, and weighed them as if she was looking at produce. “The black one, or the white one?” Ethan Leaned over the counter to get a complete look at her. White converse, white headband, black vest, white fancy blouse, and a white headband. He pondered his sister, and he thought to himself no wonder kids think I’m gay. I’m better at fashion accessories than my own sister Is apparently. He continued to ponder, putting his hand on his chin in a “The Thinker” style. Moriah looked up from the belts in a rather hopeful fashion, flipping her hair to the side as she quickly moved her head. “The white one. It will make a better contrast on your dark jeans.” Ethan put the bowl and spoon into the dishwasher, watching as his sister threw the black belt into the living room and went to microwave herself a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich. His house was always full of processed food, for no one in his family was able to cook. At. All. They either burned everything, undercooked everything, or ignored the recipe and put in incorrect ingredients. After many many years you would think that he would get used to it, but every piece of processed food he couldn’t tolerate eating. That is with the exception of cereal. On a regular basis he would tell people that he had no favorite in an effort to avoid all decision making. It normally worked, but deep inside his family knew that he would eat cereal for every meal of the day. It was his favorite, and on a multitude of times he did in fact eat cereal for dinner and breakfast.

Like today, Ethan’s house was out of cheese, and lunchmeat for that matter to make a sandwich, so in an effort to have a relatively good lunch he shoved a box of Apple Jacks into his black torn up backpack. He missed the days when his mother would pack his lunch, but he knew more than any of the girls that being in the superhero/sidekick world was hard work. Yes, he was only a sidekick, but that didn’t matter. He could relate to his mother more than anyone else.

--

Ethan had his mess of a backpack, the very one that had over ten keychains, and a hole the size of a small childs fist in the bottom. He kept a large folder in the bottom to keep things from falling out, but the hole was obvious for you could see a very large orange folder through the hole. There was also a small collection of buttons to accompany those keychains, but most of them were only simple buttons. Nothing too outwardly funny. Usually things he got at businesses, or accounting conventions. (Yes, there are accounting conventions).They were just there so that when every time he took a step his backpack would rattle, and give him something to listen too since he didn’t have the luxury of having a music player. It didn’t bother him, no not at all, he actually preferred walking in silence, for talking to random kids he rode the bus with wasn’t really something he enjoyed.

Being the last stop on the bus’ schedule paid off. He was only on the bus for a short amount of time, regardless of the fact that he was forced to sit in the very front, and he didn’t have to leave very early to get on. He smiled at the bus driver, only half listening to him ramble on about whether or not Ethan was excited to be a senior or not. In all actuality, he didn’t really think about being a senior. To him, it was just another year of school, the fact that it was his last had yet to register. He had all year for that to go through his head, and he didn’t mind one bit.

“What’s your power?” Ethan jumped when a freshman kid whom was sitting behind him spoke. He was definitely not prepared for the Spanish inquisition, but he offered him a polite smile along with his answer. “I’m kind of like a rubber band...I can make my arms go floppy....” The freshman was not impressed, and settled with rolling his eyes. Obviously he wasn’t going to tell Ethan what his power was, and frankly, Ethan didn’t want to know. He kept to himself, listening to the bustle of all the freshman on the bus. People were talking about dances, girls giggling about boys, and a few kids having a “Who’s power is better than who’s” argument.

By the time the bus was landing, the rush of the speed and liftoff already lost it’s impact years ago, Ethan could see his two favorite girls sitting in there usual spot. Instantly a wide grin appeared on his face. He made sure that he was the first person off the bus, not something people would fight since he was the tallest one on the bus, and everyone behind him were freshman and terrified of highschool. He strode over to Rachel and Cam, a wide smile on his face. They were sitting next to each other, a smile on there face. Ethan always liked looking at them smiling, his two best girls. “Hey ladies! Missed you both. Oh wow Ray, your hair looks adorable. Curly as ever.” Ethan couldn’t help himself as he ran his finger through the end of her hair, secretly hoping that he wasn’t infringing on her personal space. With a wide grin Ethan kissed both Rachel and Cam on the cheeks, having to bend down rather far for each of them. It was his usual greeting, to both of them, and he was glad that they were his friends.

‘Cam you look like you’re in a good mood...........That’s good....Still as skinny as ever......” It was obvious that he was in an optimistic mood. The summer had been long for him, his father taking some time off of work to help Ethan with his math, something he really didn’t mind for he loved his father dearly, but sometimes he wishes he could spend time with his father without hearing the phrase “When you have my job...” He took a seat on the picnic table, throwing his black mess of a backpack on the ground about four feet away from the table. “Lela isn’t here...huh.........I wonder what’s been up with that girl....Can’t wait to get the trio back in place..Of course Ray, you could join us and we could make it a quartet.” Ethan flashed her a wink and a grin, obviously playing with her.

[Volthaire]

Carter was not a morning person. He never had been, and from past experiences he assumed that he never would be. The moment his alarm went off Carter’s reflexes went berserk. His hand flew out from under the comforter in an attempt to turn off the alarm clock, but due to the fact that he wasn’t paying attention the alarm clock went flying across the room, disconnecting from the wall with a rather lard crash. His alarm clock split into multiple pieces, the plastic cracking at the top. He swore profusely into his pillow, obviously pissed off that he would have to fix that eventually. Or find a sturdier alarm clock. Yes, he could easily fix the alarm part of the clock, but he would need tape, or glue, to fix the plastic casing.

After a moment, or fifteen, of just lying in his bed, Carter was awoken by the sound of the shower. Lela was obviously awake, and he knew what she wanted. The car. His car. Carter didn’t give a damn that his father demanded him to share his car, it was a birthday gift, and in Carter’s mind, that was exactly what it was. Then again, if he didn’t get out of bed, he would have to fight with Lela over the car. Oh wait. Lela can’t drive my car... Carter was half asleep when he realized such fact, and let out a rather small laugh. He didn’t have to rush to get to the car, he never would have to. Lela would get there and attempt to turn the key, and nothing would happen. Carter had the ignition removed a long time ago. Or, the key start ignition that is.

Carter was a moderately paranoid person, and when it came to his car, his pride and joy, he wasn’t taking any risks. Carter had made it moderately impossible to steal that car without a tow truck or a helicopter. Even then, Carter could track his black Mustang GT twenty miles into space with his own technology, and several hundred miles into space if he were to hack into the satellite. Carter could hear the sounds of Lela up and about, already eating some sort of breakfast. He still had time, from what he remembered the clock had said seven am when he knocked it across the room. He couldn’t have been in bed for more than fifteen minutes, could he?

Carter slid out of bed, rolling off from under the white sheets and onto the floor with a thud. It was his own form of tradition, falling out of his bed in an effort to get himself awake. Of course it next to never worked, for he could just grab one of the two pillows on his bed and go back to sleep on the floor, but today was different. It was the first day of school, and he already wanted summer again. He didn’t want to be a super hero, he didn’t want to bother with secret identities and silly costumes, or the fact that he could be on call to help the city at any minute. Every piece that came with being a hero Carter detested.

It took him another five minutes to actually stand up and make his way over to his dresser. Everything was organized, top drawer had socks and boxers, second drawer had pajama pants, third drawer jeans, and the bottom drawer were shirts. On top was a bulletin board that he had all his accessories attached to. A dogtag with his name and address on (He had a dream were he was abducted by aliens and couldn’t remember anything and was dropped off in Arizona. Ever since he’s been overly paranoid about people not being about to figure out where he was from), a multitude of random chains and scarves, watches, wallet chains, rings, and earrings for his single gauged ear. Everything was perfectly organized. Partly because something not being organized bothered him, but mainly because in the morning there was absolutely no way he would be able to find all the things he would need before two PM.

He shuffled into his clothes, glad that he had showered at night. Ever since Lela moved in, Carter had rearranged his personal schedule (Something he hated to do), in order to avoid conflicting with her. He didn’t wake up early to race to the shower, he didn’t eat at the same time, anything so he wouldn’t have to bother talking to his new step sister. All in all it was more of a convenience thing, and apparently he preferred to shower at night instead of waking up early to do so. The only downside was that every morning his hair would look like a weed whip attacked it, for it was sticking up in every which direction. Carter looked at himself in the mirror, made a face, and thought I’ll fix this in a minute... He shuffled into a black T-shirt that said “If you can’t read this, go away” written in binary code, and whitewashed jeans. The main thing he missed about living with his mother was the fact that if he didn’t like the color of something he had, she would be able to change it. Now he would just have to live with the same colored clothes every day.

Carter grabbed a white, short sleeved, collared, button up polo to stick over his T-shirt, just so he wouldn’t look like a goth kid. He dipped his head as he put on the chains and dogtags, making sure that it was an organized mess (yes, it was possible) around his neck. Putting on his watch, Carter turned around and looked at his almost sterile looking room, the only thing out of place was the broken alarm clock. “******** it. I’ll fix it later.... He was not in the mood to bother with an alarm clock that morning, so he just took a look at his watch to make sure that it was on time. As always, it was perfectly in sync with the national clock, something he made sure to do once a month.

Into the bathroom he went, glad that Lela was already off on her own little escapade that morning so he wouldn’t have to bother with her. Carter grabbed a comb, and some water, and spiked the front part of his sandy blond, highlighted hair. Only the front, a style that his father abused him for. He could hear his father Darren laughing at him, something that always bothered Carter. “Your hair looks like a ducks a**,” was how Darren Rickman described Carter’s usual style, but then again his father had no style at all so he never took anything he said seriously.

Carter ran his fingers through his hair like they were combs, grabbing some gel every time so it would stay in place. He was clean, he was content. Carter stumbled downstairs, walking excruciatingly slow for he was still barely awake for seven fifteen in the morning. He went directly into the kitchen, removing a Bagel and sticking half of it in the toaster oven. Carter was never the biggest eater. Either he ate, or he didn’t. No wonder he was so damn small. He could remember his mother back in the day, ranting about how he should eat more, and his father sticking up for him with “God Jane, if he isn’t hungry, he doesn’t have to eat.” For some reason, even if his mother was ridiculously overbearing, he missed living with her. He never saw his father, for he was always off working, but her mom always made time for him. She even packed his lunch every morning when he was in elementary (and when he wasn’t a total a**).

Carter made his way over to the fridge, noticing that an apple was missing. He assumed that Lela had eaten that for her breakfast, but he had no idea where she was. Either she is hiding to try and ambush me, or she is already in the car..I’m going to go with the latter. She knows better than to try and ambush me. While his bagel was In the toaster oven, Carter grabbed his phone, PDA, and sunglasses that he left all on the charger in the kitchen. He may be able to manipulate technology, he could make the battery last longer and the machine run more efficiently, but he could not give anything power, so he made sure that they all were completely charged and functional. Carter put his sun glasses on, retracting the power cord into the side. They were white rimmed, aviator style sun glasses, and he had tricked them out so they had a small computer in it. Wifi, four gigabite hard drive, and fully functional screen. They were his go-to device, and he wore them all through class. If he didn’t know an answer, he could just look it up online, take screen shots of the model, and all sorts of things like that.

His bagel popped, and he casually put on a small amount of cream cheese with a silver knife. It was his usual breakfast. So boring, so bland, so simple. He didn’t like complex things, it came with being picky. If someone gave him the choice between a plain bagel with regular cream cheese, or a fancy cheese bagel with gourmet cream cheese, he would go for the first pick. He liked things as a constant, nothing could change or he would be relatively irritated. Which was why when Lela and his new step-mother Bly moved in back in June, it took him until the end of August to reestablish a normal routine. Everyone knew that Carter was a bit of a freak when it came to a schedule, and a lot of times if you wanted to mess with him, you would do something spontaneous. Carter even needed to have his mischeif planned. Of course, it wasn’t like he had a schedule and a thing that said specifically what they were doing, but normally he had periods of time scheduled for spontaneity.

Taking a few bites, Carter let the bagel hang out of his mouth as he went to the fridge to remove an energy drink. It was his normal go-to morning drink. He hated orange juice, he hated apple juice and coffee, and water was just lame. So an energy drink it was for the morning. With his free hand, the bagel still hanging from his mouth, he shoved his PDA and cell phone into his pockets. Carter went to the foyer, his car keys already gone. Apparently Lela had already attempted to start the car. Hahahaha. I guess she just found out that the keys are just for decoration. Just the thought of Lela sitting in the car, frustrated at the fact that she couldn’t get the car started was enough to put a smile on his face. He finished his bagel, going over to where his black converse shoes were to put them on. He laced them both up, a challenge considering the fact that he had an energy drink in his hand.

When he made his way out to the driveway, a smile slowly crept on his face. Lela was sitting in the drivers side, her head on the steering wheel, obviously pissed off that she couldn’t get it started. Carter shuffled his feet over towards the car, opening the drivers side and leaning against the door. “Passengers side, or you take the bus.” Carter raised an eyebrow with a smile, glad that his sunglasses kept her from glowering into his eyes.

[Volthaire]

NOTE: Carter is my character, this was a dual post with LOMN.

She continued to just rest her head on the steering wheel, all the while mumbling and cursing under her breath questioning why her mother felt the need to marry once more. And that's when she heard footsteps approaching the car. Lela didn't even look up as the driver side door was opened. The Junior knew she must look pathetic at that moment in time. As he gave her her options, she inwardly weighed the pros and cons of each situation. 'If I take the bus, no Carter.' It was that easy, she had made up her mind. Finally, she sat up in the seat and glared up at her step brother. "I hate you." She said, emphasizing every syllable.

Swinging her legs out of the car, she stood up and grabbed her things out of the back seat. Sliding her arms into the straps, she started to walk backwards down the driveway so that she could still look at Carter. "See you later, big shot." Lela said sarcastically. She turned her back on him, and continued down the drive way. However, she stopped in mid step when her mind suddenly finished weighing the pros and cons. 'Wait... Lee is on the bus.' Her thoughts went back to the upper class man hero who had first shoved her into the locker. 'And his cronies.' She grimaced, not quite wanting to deal with multiple arrogant jerks that early in the morning.

Biting her lip, she reluctantly walked back to the car, this time moving to the passenger's side of the car. She opened the door and tossed her things to the back seat, once more. Lela sat down and slammed the door shut after her, making a point by crossing her arms across her chest. "The bus has already come and gone already." She said, coming up with the first excuse that came to mind.


██████


Carter watched with a smirk as his step sister got out of the car, his tongue running over his teeth with his lips closed. Another habit he had, but nothing people would regularly notice. He shrugged, taking his place in the drivers side, removing the keys that were in the fake ignition. The fact that it hadn’t dawned on Lela that he wouldn’t allow her to drive amused him. She really thought that waking up early would ensure her driving privileges? Ha. Dad can smoke it. Yah, maybe if Bly was here in the morning Lela could try and ask her to get the car to work, but I don’t think that even Bly could get this thing working. If you aren’t a technopath, I’m pretty sure no one can. Carter slipped the energy drink into the cupholder between the seats, the door closing with the use of his powers. Cracking his knuckles he got to work, the consol splitting in two to reveal a touch screen. It powered up, the gear shifter turning into reverse as he typed in his password. The mustang GT, purred to life, a sound that made his skin crawl.

Carter turned back to see Lela walking away, inherently counting One........Two.........Three... Immediately Lela turned around, a smile forced onto Carters face. He watched as she got back into the car, a smug expression on his face. It was only seven fifteen, he knew that the bus came later than that, he had the bus’s all tracked into his car so that he wouldn’t run into any of them on the fly chance that they were at the same altitude. Maybe I should call her out on that lie. Then again, It’s a tad too early to be fighting about something like that. Carter used his left hand to drive backwards out of the driveway, his right hand holding his now open Monster. He took a sip without a word, the casual smug look still on his face.

Carter glanced at the consol, and what looked to be a radar that was blinking. There were a few small dots all over the screen, yellow, black, and red. He touched it a few times, not really paying attention to the road as he drove. He really didn’t need to, considering the fact that he was looking at the radar, and his hands weren’t really driving the car. Carter took a slow breath, switching it over to auto pilot as they lifted off into the air. The coordinates were already in place, he had set them the previous night so that he wouldn’t have to bother redoing them. They were on a casual course to school, and he didn’t have to do much else but sit there. With the electronic screen, he opened a new desktop, glad that he had switched his OS to Linix for his car. Definitely more reliable, and It can do more at once was his argument to himself when he was deciding which operating system to have his consol run off. ON the new desktop, he opened itunes, and pointed to the online radio.
“I’ll let you pick. We can’t be fighting all the time. He nonchalantly took another sip of his energy drink, only half awake still as he watched the sky.


██████


Lela rested her elbow on the window ledge and cupped her face in her hand, no hint of a smile upon her lips. She hated losing, but more importantly, losing to Carter. Immediately, her mind started to race to try and find a way to beat him at his own game. Out of the corner of her eyes, she attempted to analyze every little thing that he did. However, it's kind of hard to try and figure out what a technopath is doing when his every action is done using nothing more than his own thoughts. Though, when she noticed the smug expression on his face, she inwardly swore to find a way to drive their car. It would be a challenge, but she always enjoyed puzzles.

She specifically took note of the radar and the multiple dots across the screen. With each passing second, she started to doubt her ability to ever understand how the car and the installed technology worked. Lela ran a hand through her hair, trying to calm herself down. Soon enough, the car lifted off of the ground and into the air and she didn't do as much as flinch, having become used to flying in the past few years. In fact, now she rather enjoyed it.

The girl was pulled from her thoughts when Carter spoke up once more. She was rather surprised at his offer for her to choose a song. A small grin pulled at the edges of her lips. "Thanks, and I guess you're right." She quietly admitted, before leaning forward in her seat and scrolling through the music library. "So, does this mean that you're growing soft?" Lela jokingly asked. Finally, she decided on You're So Last Summer by Taking Back Sunday and leaned back in her seat as the first guitar chords came through the speakers in the car.


██████


Carter didn’t say anything as Lela messed with the music. He had no objections, he didn’t mind Taking back Sunday. They were another band that Lela listened too, and frankly, he was far too tired to even think about protesting. He rested his right hand on the steering wheel, only slightly moving his hand with the car, even if he wasn’t actually driving. Carter took a few casual sips of his drink, definitely glad that he had his sunglasses on so that no one would realize that his eyes were actually closed.

When Lela spoke up, Carter opened up one eyes to glance over at her without a change in his blank expression. Then, all of a sudden, the car stopped mid-flight, hovering slowly in midair for just a moment before falling more than fifty miles an hour to the floor beneath them. Carter swore under his breath, and went flung his hand over to the consol, tapping away at the touch pad furiously, swearing up a storm under his breath.
“******** ******** ********] He swore profusely under his breath, still managing to hold onto the energy drink without a problem. They fell faster, Carter subtly glancing at Lela all the way down.

Just two feet above a set of trees they stopped, a rather large smile on Carters face as he looked at Lela, hoping to see some sort of worthwhile reaction from her. The seventy mile an hour drop made his heart race, even when he knew that the entire thing was an act, the sheer speed put a smile on his face. He glanced at Lela as he put the car back on course, a laugh coming out of his mouth as he did so.


██████


She looked back towards him as he turned his head in her direction. Of course, Lela couldn't exactly make out his expression seeing as at least half of his face was covered with his sunglasses. Curiously, one of her brows raised as she tried to figure out what he was thinking. She felt the car come to a halt, but didn't think much of it. Well, until they started falling from the sky. She felt her heart leap up into her throat, and her hands instinctively wrapped around the arm rests in a death grip. It didn't help her nerves that Carter leaped forward and started cursing. "What the hell is going on?!" She quickly asked, obviously scared that something with the car had died, and he couldn't revive it. Her brows furrowed in bewilderment as her thoughts raced to try and figure out a way to get the car to start flying again.

Suddenly, the car came to a stop. Her grips released on the arm rests as she looked out the window and saw that they had stopped only a couple of feet above some trees. Lela turned back on Carter just in time to catch the wide smile upon his lips. Her jaw became clenched and her head tilted to the side as she scoffed at him. "You b*****d! I can't believe you! You could have killed us!" In her anger, she punched him as hard as she could in the arm. Afterwards, she leaned back in her seat, realizing that she had moved towards the edge during the fall. Slowly, her heart started to calm down once more, though her anger (which had just been subdued only moments before) had flared up once more.


██████


Carter was laughing, hard, and furiously. Her face was the most priceless thing she had ever seen in his entire life. Carter almost felt bad that he pulled such a stunt, but in all honesty he didn’t know how to answer her snide question. Was he going soft? Or was he simply growing up? Maybe it was both, or maybe it was just the former. Either way, he didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that he wasn’t the same bitching a** that he was last year. At her face Carter looked and laughed, her expression absolutely priceless. The only thing that would have made it better would be if he had the ability to mind read, but that wasn’t an option.

“Y-your face....It was....Priceless...” Carter was having problems talking, due to the fact that he was laughing through each word. And then she hit him. Right in the arm. His smile immediately flopped into a frown, and grabbed the steering wheel without a word. Turning to the window so Lela wouldn’t hear, Carter’s mouth opened wide in an attempt to keep Lela from noticing how badly that punch hurt.

They rode in silence the rest of the drive, him still snickering as she fumed in her chair. He turned the car back on manual to park, floating gracefully into an empty parking spot. He watched Lela storm off, obviously pissed at him.
It didn’t really annoy him, bother him, nothing. Lela would forgive him eventually, and really, he needed that instant adrenalin rush. For once in his life he was completely awake on the first day of school. Locking the car, Carter took his keys and the last of his monster as he made his way over to the Gym. He immediately took a look around the overly crowed room. There was just way too many people for his taste. Heroes showing off their powers, sidekicks getting abused, it was just an unrequited mess that he didn’t want to bother with.

And then he saw AJ, Isaac and Eliza. A small smile crept onto the side of his mouth as he took one last sip of his drink. He almost coughed on his energy drink when he saw the one person he could honestly say he hated. Sunny. He clentched his teeth, but still casually walked over towards the group of Hero’s his attempt to not let the blond b***h bother him. It wasn’t her personality as much as her power that bothered him. Carter hated dirt, he hated being dirty, and he hated anything that moderately resembled the possibility of getting dirty. He even wore gloves and a black apron when he worked on his car, making sure that none of the grease would get onto his skin.

Carter casually took a seat next to AJ, offering him a nod as he downed the last of his drink in one swallow. He watched as Lela went over to the sidekicks, a group full of people he only casually knew. Setting his can down on the bench next to him, Carter fished out his iphone from his pocket, clicking it a few times with his right hand before putting it back in his pocket. He turned to AJ, completely content with ignoring Sunny. “Junkyard tonight. You in? AJ, Isaac? Fran, you’re welcome too. I can either give you a lift, or...Well you can run if you really want. Carter glanced from Eliza to AJ to Isaac, only pausing at Sunny enough to give her an expression of sheer hatred. His face was completely blank the entire time he spoke, but the moment his eyes landed on Sunny his brow dropped about a quarter of an inch, obviously showing his pure dislike for the blond.


██████


As soon as the car came to a stop on Sky High grounds, she threw open the passenger side door and quickly got out, only looking back towards Carter so that she could grab her bags. Without another word, she tossed one strap of her book bag over a shoulder and stormed off in the direction of the gym. She knew that her friends would most likely already be there. So, maybe her exit out of the car had been a little more than dramatic but, for God's sakes, he could have killed them! Or at least that was the way Lela justified it to herself.

By the time she finally walked through the doors of the large room, she had calmed down slightly. Her temper having calmed down to a simmer. However, it was completely smothered when she saw her friends' faces. In fact, a wide grin crossed over her features as she walked up the bleachers with obvious ease. "Good morning everyone." She said, more over joyed then she had been that whole morning. The brunette took the open seat next to Adam, and bumped into him gently as if to say hello. Though, her next statement was obviously directed at everyone, "Carter tried killing me this morning." However, the way she said it made it sound like it was an every day occurrence. Though, it wouldn't be that big of a surprise because every one knew it was like World War III in the Rickman/ Gemmel house hold.