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((Okay great! I will get a'crackin' at it! =D

Provided I can slow down this insane rate that messages are coming in... =.=))

((EDIT: I am going to post something in the very near future. Things have been really hectic around my place and I haven't been able to. Trust me, once I can sit down and post something it's going to be very, very in-depth! lol))

Reply to Nii's post - December 10th


"Hmph," Gloria spat, surveying the empty grounds, "No one turned up."

"I guess we could've predicted that," Damien answered quietly, hopping up onto one of the short stones Sta had once used to practise her jumping, "No one ever comes unless he goes alarm clock on their asses."

"If only he had a snooze button."

"That's a weak joke on your part," he smirked, straightening up and addressing her with his hands on his hips.

Even though there was no one else there and nothing to do, Gloria seemed strangely distracted. Nonetheless, she turned around and returned his smirk playfully. "If only he had a snooze button, I'd definitely press it?"

"That's a weak joke, compounded by an even weaker innuendo," he grinned, "Sorry, you're failing today."

"Pff, it is not for he who fails to judge whether others fail... or not."

"Huh," Damien replied, smile disappearing as he sat down on the rock. "You must be really beat up. You're never this off form when it comes to hurling insults."

Gloria continued to stand still, now apparently gazing off across the ocean. The dark world was illuminated only by a small, red glow, the sky threatening another storm. The rain had managed to hold off since that one torrential day, but it wasn't certain how long it would last.

Abruptly, she uncrossed her arms and silently wandered across the sand. Damien hopped down, pushing himself off the rock to follow her. She approached one of the tall stones making up the ruins of an ancient wall, reaching up to press her hand against the cool stone. She stood like that a few moments before stepping past it, boots coming down on the sudden emergence of thick grass beyond the barrier. "This is where he used to stand," she said, leaning back against the stone. The small brightness could no longer touch her, and if Damien hadn't known she was there he would have had trouble picking her out in the almost-pitch darkness. "Right here, lurking in the shadows, perfect view of the whole yard. None of the toddlers ever picked up on that."

"And then they got pounced," her friend answered, keeping his voice light against her own dark tone, "What's strange about this is that don't you always practise..." he continued, strolling off to a spot just opposite the shadowy corner with his hands stuffed casually in his pockets, "...right here?"

Gloria peeked around the wall, expression stiff and yet seemingly unconcerned. "I do?"

"Except when our dear instructor is walking around, of course."

"I didn't realise you'd been paying so much attention," she suddenly snapped, falling back against the wall and folding her arms tightly.

Damien didn't reply, but he did snicker at her annoyance. He made sure she heard it, knowing that she wouldn't let it rest if she thought he was laughing at her. Sure enough, only a few moments passed before she reappeared from Jessie's hiding place, striding out towards him in anger and frustration. "Well, what difference did it make?" she spat, throwing up her hands, "He never pounced on me, metaphorically or otherwise. Unlike..."

"Oh, here we go."

"...That little slut, Coline."

Damien couldn't help but giggle again at his on-off girlfriend's murderous hiss. "So just saying her name makes you sick these days?"

"SHE makes me sick, all of her," Gloria murmured. She was replying to him, but it was obvious that she was quickly going off the deep-end into her own dark thoughts. "Brown-nosing, ball-licking..."

Damien, always one to stop her in her tracks, replied coolly. "You say it as if you wouldn't kill something, preferably her, to be in her place."

Sure enough, that burst her bubble. She wheeled around to look at him, stunned. "Oh, come on, no innocent act, please. Hearing you, o noble wrongfully maligned teenager who spends her life rubbing up against the combat instructor in clothes tighter than skin, rail off against The Mouse for her temptress ways is like-"

"Oh, I don't need to hear what it's like - I get your damn point, so shut the ******** up," she shouted, advancing on him quickly and shoving him hard with both hands, as if by pushing him away all her problems would similarly back off. He was forced back a few feet, and stared at her as she marched back to lurk behind the wall, surprised. He knew she was prone to lashing out, but he'd never seen a look in her eyes quite like that while she did it.

So he followed her, leaning around the rock to press his lips to her cheek. She turned her head away so that he couldn't reach her.

He sighed, coming around the wall properly in order to face her. The next part of the exchange would reflect Damien's own brand of comforting. "What's so great about the crusty old elf anyway?"

"Crusty?!" she exclaimed in disbelief, glancing up a few moments to see if he was serious before looking away again. "You need your eyes checked."

"Maybe you do. You seem kinda long-sighted," he shot back, placing both hands either side of her head on the rock and leaning in. "Hey, hello, I'm here right in front of you! Why don't you try getting your hands all over my sword instead?"

"Because you are a goddamn a*****e, just like every other man," Gloria yelled again, pushing him away even more forcefully than before and adding in a kick to the stomch for good measure. "I'd thank you to not touch me again. No, I wouldn't. You shouldn't be touching me at all!"

Damien managed to dodge her kick, but fell back hard against a tree. He blinked at her, surprised, and breathing a little heavily.

"...Kay," he said eventually, pushing himself up. "Sorry, Gloria."

Gloria let him leave, breathing heavily herself. She wasn't sure if she regretted her actions or not. Damien was an a**, just like any other man. He deserved a good kick, always putting his hands all over her and expecting her to just go along with it. But then again, wasn't that what she wanted...?

She fell back against the rock, sliding down to the ground with a sigh.


She must have dozed off for a while, because the next thing she knew she had slumped to the floor, lying there on the grass with Stephanie's voice in her ear.

"Hi, Gloria!" she called cheerfully, bouncing across the sand, ignoring the brown-haired girl who had slumped down to recover herself.

Gloria groaned, unmoving. Stephanie came to a rest just behind her head and waited a couple of moments, before bending down to put a hand on her shoulder, concerned. "Are you okay...?"

Recovering all of her bad humour in an instant, Gloria shook the girl's hand off in one movement, winching herself to an upright position. She must have slept for only an hour or two, because she felt like crap, and she always felt like crap after such a short sleep.

"Look who it is," she snapped, without even looking at the blonde girl, "Goldilocks and the Painful Period."

Stephanie seemed to freeze. The last thing she'd been expectating was a confrontation with Gloria so soon. Still, as Gloria finished rubbing her temples and turned towards her, the hate in her eyes seemed to say that that was what she was about to get. "What the hell was that yesterday? People who fall down and start crying shouldn't even be trying in the first place."

The tanned woman got to her feet as she spoke, which might have been intimidatory if Stephanie hadn't been so tall herself. Stephanie's blue eyes now seemed even more tired and sad than usual, and she sounded dejected as she spoke - resigned to the girl she'd looked to for help hating her. "Look, Gloria, if you don't like me I... I'll understand. You don't have to look out for me anymore. Nobody's making you."

"I was never looking out for you in the first place, dumbass," Gloria snapped, folding her arms. It was then that she looked beyond the girl, noticing the distant figure. Her expression changed, eyes narrowing, as she tried to discern who it was in the early morning light.

Stephanie seeme doblivious to this as she turned to go. "Right... I guess I could've guessed that."

"Hey, hold up, blondie," Gloria said, suddenly smiling. She grabbed Stephanie's shoulder tightly, stepping up beside her, and the girl looked up at her, surprised - until she saw the malicious spread of her teeth. "Look who it is. Our favourite person."

Stephanie glanced over to the faun-haired girl she'd previously ignored, and then back at her mentor. Her eyes grew wide, and then her face crumpled. "Oh, Gloria," she whispered, "Please... don't..."

"She's had things on her terms way too long now," Gloria said determinedly, bending down to pick up a fist-sized loose stone lying in the rubble, "It's time she learned what her place her really is."

With that, she set off from grass to sand, striding forward purposefully a few metres before calling out jeeringly. "Hey, Coline!" You slut.

Without waiting for her to turn around, she drew back her arm and hurled the rock with all her might straight at the girl's crouched form.

Alas, Coline's efforts were in vain, and the hostile object met the side of her head in full force. The impact caused her to stagger sideways, her mind a daze, although she'd managed to keep herself from completely toppling over at the very least. It would take a few minutes for her to regain control of her senses, but one thing was clear: this was no accident. Whoever it was that did this intended to hurt.

Somehow, she wasn't too surprised.

((Cutting it off here again. Want me to move on to a few minutes later? OOC me.))

Gloria wasted no time, closing the distance between them in the time it took for her projectile to make impact. With every step, her rage and hatred seemed to grow, until she finally took Coline by the tops of her arms as fiercely as a charging tiger.

"You think you're so special, don't you?!" she spat, though any intention she'd had of being cool and threatening was quickly evaporating. Livid, she pulled the girl around with all her strength, hurling her down to the sandy floor. Her voice grew into an unrestrained shriek. "Where's your guard dog now, you little b***h?!"

In her seething rage, she quickly drew back her leg and kicked the girl. Her foot impacted clumsily with Coline's exposed thigh, but Gloria wasn't finished with her by a long shot. A single step to the side and she seemed to regain a lot of her balance, drawing her leg back and kicking bodily, this time squarely in the faun-haired girl's side.

"You're nothing!" she continued to scream, launching her attack with all the anger and intense hatred that had built up inside her. It was uncoordinated by the standards of the sparring-style fighting the warriors had become used to - uncontrolled, like a bull incited to a red rag. Jessie would definitely not have been proud of her attack strategy, which seemed to be simply to cause as much injury as possible to every inch of Coline she could reach.

"Gloria, stop it, please!" Stephanie twittered shrilly many metres off, hovering frightfully at a distance. Her face was the picture of concern and fear, but she remained frozen, unable to do anything to stop the scene playing out in front of her. "Stop it! You're hurting her! Stop it!"

"You're nothing!" Gloria shrieked again, totally unaware of the blonde girl's background pleading. "Do you hear me?!"

Blinded by her rage, singlemindedly raining her constant assault on Coline's small form, there was absolutely no way in which Gloria could have avoided what happened. The razor-sharp points of the trident came up, slicing through the first thing they came into contact with. This happened to be the leg which Gloria had been a second away from launching another kick with. Another of her screams filled the air - this time, it was in the mingled pitch of shock and pain, as a large, gaping gash rent itself in her thigh.

She cried out again, falling backwards, the sand immediately staining itself with her blood. Blood poured out quickly, staining her dark leggings an even blacker shade of black.

However, she was anything but down for the count. Her rage bubbled and exploded anew, like a built-up pressure gauge violently giving way. "You b***h!" she shrieked, rearing up onto her knees. Her bloodied hand reached for her waist, and with deadly intent she pulled out a large, serrated knife. "You b***h! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Lunging forward, she made one forceful stab, blade plunging down purposefully towards the girl's stomach. She drew it back again, aiming for another blow, but suddenly a third pair of hands appeared amidst the brawl. Stephanie, who had screamed, surging forward when Gloria was injured, had finally lost enough of her senses to step in on instinct before things got worse.

"Stop it, stop it!" she pleaded, shaking with tears. She hadn't overcome her fear - she'd given in to it, and wrestled the tanned woman with all her might as Gloria fought to regain control over her target's fate. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!"

"I'll kill you!" her quarry continued to scream, ballistic with rage, though as her single arm fought relentlessly with the two that restrained it, her tone grew increasingly desperate. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Stephanie had managed to wrap herself completely around Gloria's arm, hugging it tightly to her chest. Suddenly, Gloria gave up her unwavering attack, bringing her other arm around to try and wrench the girl's pale body off her. She managed to heave one arm off with her first attempt, but it immediately sprang back into place. Their struggle became more and more despairing. Her shrieks grew more pained, Stephanie continuing to sob, as Gloria's escape attempts proved increasingly futile. The dagger shook violently in her hand.

With little warning, it went limp. Gloria lost all fervour.

"I'll kill her," she cried, crumpling weakly against the younger, blonde girl. "She deserves to die!"

Her voice shook, and, very quickly, she was consumed by racking sobs. "She deserves to die," she repeated, leaning heavily against Stephanie, who, on cue, turned her squinting, stinging eyes over to Coline.



((Roll for the stab she made at Coline's stomach, rolling system 1-2, 3-4, 5-6))

Stephanie watched the girl with wide eyes as she came to terms with what had happened. As she drew near, another tear trickled down her pale face, following the lines of its predecessors so perfectly it was paractically invisible.

"Coline, w-we need to bind Gloria's leg," she said shakily. Uncertainly. "Will you help me...?"

"NO!" Gloria suddenly cried, pushing herself away from Stephanie so violently the other girl gave a small scream. "I don't need help! And definitely not from you two!"

Stephanie blinked at her fearfully, expecting her to rear to her feet and storm off on her own... but Gloria remained slumped on the sand, breathing raggedly.

Seconds passed and she still made no move, her head hanging and gaze directed at the ground.

"Sorry," she said, though her mood seemed dark rather than worried, "I can't seem to stand up."

Her head then suddenly snapped up, eyes finding Coline's. "I suppose you're happy, aren't you?" she spat, the sand around her new position an ocean of blood.

(December 13th - A few days after the explosion…)

The blast was intense, knocking everything—pens, papers, shelves—every which way. The office was in ruins, but of course, Alexi did not know this until she woke up.

“Ugh,” she said, sitting up. Her head was throbbing. In the confusion of the explosion, she must have hit her head without knowing, and now she was paying for it. The middle of her forehead hurt like hell as she slowly became aware of her surroundings.

…What had happened? The temple had exploded or something. Alexi clambered out from underneath the desk and surveyed the area. The walls that had once stood around her were nothing but crumbled cement now at her feet. Papers flew around like tumbleweeds blown about by a passing desert wind.

“Good Lord,” she said, astonished. “Looks like someone got really mad and blew the temple to smithereens!”

“You can say that again,” a familiar voice said.

Alexi recognized the voice and looked around. “Total?” she asked. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Total replied. “Although, I must say I’m quite warm.”

Wait, warm? She heard giggling from underneath her robes. The pink haired girl looked down only to see Total slide down to the ground from her left leg.

“Hello~!” her little plant friend said, massaging the back of his head with his right leaf. “Ehe.”

“YOU LITTLE PERV!!!” Alexi screamed, chasing after her friend amongst the rubble. “What were you doing underneath my robes?!”

“I woke up a little while ago and saw you were still sleeping,” Total tried to explain as he dodged bits and pieces of flying cement. “I was cold and so I thought, maybe the robes would act as a blanket.”

“So you thought it would be okay to just go underneath them?!” the girl yelled. “That’s disgusting! You can’t just go around doing that to people! Especially a girl, and especially me!” She threw another bit of cement at him.

“Yikes!” Total shrieked, dodging it by a small margin. “But I must say, I didn’t know you wore mint green panties.”

“You little…!” Alexi threw a slightly larger piece of cement at him. “They’re boy shorts, and it’s none of your business!”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Total shouted as he ducked under the flying cement piece. “I promise I won’t do it again! Now will you please stop throwing cement at me?!”

Alexi looked at her friend as he cowered beneath her. She put the cement piece she had raised above her head down. “All right,” she said, sitting down next to him. “What are we going to do now? The temple’s been blown to bits.”

“Yeah,” Total replied as he assessed the damage. “I hope everyone’s okay.”

“You’re telling me,” Alexi said. She thought of all the people she had seen in the temple since she had arrived. “I wonder if that boy is okay.”

“The one you were getting the paper for?”

“Yeah.”

The two were silent for a few minutes. A gust of wind kicked up some dust and debris right at their faces, causing Alexi to moan in pain.

“Crap!” she yelled. “Some of it got in my eyes!” She began to wipe them furiously. “Ugh! And I don’t see any water here either!”

Total watched as the girl struggled. "You know, I don’t think you need to wear those things anymore,” he told her. “I’m pretty sure those SINners have long since stopped looking for you. You could probably remove the contact lenses with no one any the wiser.”

Alexi was silent for a minute. “You think so?” she asked, still rubbing at her eyes.

“Yeah,” the plant responded.

“Okay then,” the girl said, lowering her face. After wiping her eyes again, she pulled out one of the lenses and placed it on her lap.

“Ouch!” she said as she blinked. Alexi pulled the other lens out and placed it next to its partner. She wiped her eyes again and blinked a few times to make sure everything was okay.

“I think all the dust is out,” she said hopefully. The girl raised her head, revealing the true color of her eyes. They were not a shade of silver, but a shade of purple, and were expressive and full of color.

Total looked at her and remained silent for a few seconds. “I almost forgot how beautiful your eyes were,” he said after a while.

“Oh stop that,” Alexi said, giggling. “They are not.”

“Yes they are,” Total replied. “Even now, with your robes all dirty and your hair a mess, you look...amazing.”

Alexi stared at Total. “Shut up,” she said as she turned away, blushing slightly. The two experienced an awkward silence for a while. She brushed her hair with her hand and noticed something wrong. “Oh no!”

“What’s wrong?” Total asked her.

“My hair, it’s…it’s charred! Look!” Alexi turned around and showed him. The whole back side of her hair was indeed charred, but it also looked like the sides and bangs were damaged too.

“Woah! That’s a doozy,” the plant said.

“This won’t work! I gotta get it fixed! Either that or…I could get rid of it entirely.”

“Your hair?!” Total screamed. “You know how absolutely ridiculous you’d look?!”

“Not my hair, stupid,” Alexi told him. “My wig.”

“What?!

“You heard me.”

“What do you mean, your wig?” Total asked, almost shouting. “You mean…all this time…”

“I’ve been tricking you? Is that what you were thinking?” Alexi said, smiling devilishly. “You should know I’ve always loved surprising people.”

“But this…this is going too far!” Total yelled.

“Consider it payback for you hiding underneath my robes without me knowing,” the girl said. “Now, let’s get going. I can’t very well get this whole matter fixed sitting around in the rubble here, now can I?”

((Part 1 of probably 3 or 4 XD

Let me know if I need to edit anything or whatnot...although it seems like we can't edit our posts at the moment...><))

(A few more hours later - Again, same day)

“All done! Your hair looks amazing!” Andrea said, spinning Alexi around to face the mirror.

Alexi was shell-shocked when she saw herself in the mirror. A girl with short, dark gray hair stared back at her. The top was dyed a cream color and was flipped outward and upward slightly. Her hair framed her face and just barely grazed the tips of her shoulders. Her purple eyes offset her new hairstyle.

“What do you think?” the stylist asked.

Alexi remained silent. “…I think I don’t know what I’m looking at,” she said. “But I like it! It looks great! Thank you!”

After she paid the stylist, Alexi and Total walked out of the shop. As they walked down the street, the two still got a lot of stares.

“Alexi, where are we going now?” Total asked. “We’ve already spent hours away from the temple, er…what’s left of it, of course.”

“I can’t wear these robes until they’ve been cleaned,” Alexi told him. “And I figured, since we’re in a city, maybe I could get some new clothes.”

“But you don’t have any more money!” Total said.

“That’s where you’re wrong, my friend,” the girl said, taking a wad of cash out of a pocket on her belt. “I have more than enough.”

They walked into a small, somewhat run-down boutique just down the street.

“Hello,” a woman called out. “What can I do for you…today….” She stared at Alexi and Total.

“You’re…you’re…Alexi, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” the girl told her. “Just…how did you know my name?”

“You were in that band with my son,” she told her. “Back in Durem a few years ago, I think. My son, Marshall.”

“Oh my God!” Alexi shouted. “I haven’t seen him in ages! How is he?”

The woman was silent. “Well…he…a few years ago he left town and…hasn’t returned…”

“Oh no,” Alexi said, covering her mouth in shock. “No…no way…”

The woman sat down and motioned for Alexi to sit down next to her. The girl walked over and sat down, Total still in her arms. She placed him down on the nearby coffee table.

“Marshall didn’t reveal many details, but he said he was going away for a little while,” his mother said. “That was about two years ago. He sent letters occasionally, but the last one was sent six months ago. I haven’t gotten one since.”

“I’m sorry,” the girl replied.

“It can’t be helped,” the woman added. “He always did like to travel. Just like you. That’s why he liked you. Invited you to join the band.”

“Yeah…” Alexi said, her voice trailing off.

Just then the phone rang.

“Excuse me for a minute,” the woman said, getting up to go answer it.

Total thought Alexi looked sad, so he took this opportunity to talk to her.

“Who’s this Marshall guy? He a friend of yours?” he asked.

“Yes,” Alexi replied. “Marshall was in the band I played in back when I was traveling around Durem. He was the drummer, and I was the violinist. He…was someone I could never forget. He was…very important to me.”

“How important?”

“He…” the girl started, but she never finished it. Marshall was not only the one who had invited Alexi to join the band, but also the one that took her under his wing. The two became great friends. More than great friends. Alexi knew she could never forget him. Because how could she forget the boy…

…who was her first crush?

((Part 3 of 4
Again with the editing and all that good stuff. Sorry I'm taking up so much space in the RP Lorika!! >///< ))