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"Ha, no, I wasn't drowning," Alexi told him. "As you've probably seen I'm a decent swimmer. I was just startled when Zain pulled me into the water." She gestured toward the merman who was playfully singing and spinning, unaware of what had just gone down.

She smiled. So simple-minded, she thought, kinda like me....

Alexi was brought back when the boy mentioned a small robot.

"Robot?" she asked. "Uhh...no..."

But that odd shape that the boy noticed did look a bit like a robot....

Alexi was puzzled as to what the boy meant, but then she noticed that the robot-like figure was moving. Towards Total. At a fairly rapid pace.

"Oh no," she said. "TOTAL! LOOK OUT!"

The plant looked up and noticed Alexi. "Why're you all wet?" he was about to say, when he noticed the contraption coming straight in his direction. "HOLY CRAAAAAP!" he yelled, flailing his leaf-arms.

"TOTAL!!" Alexi screamed.

Just then the strangest thing happened.

A vine--long enough to be a whip--sprang from Total's small plant-like body and wrapped around a nearby branch. It pulled the little plant out of harm's way just in time. He landed softly on the grass near Alexi, the vine springing back into his body.

There was a silence for a few minutes.

"Total," Alexi said, "What...what the heck was that? How did you do that?!"

"I...I don't know," he replied. "I guess...I could do that from the beginning...?"

((Total used Vine Whip! It's SUPER EFFECTIVE! XD
I'll explain this skill more in-depth later. It's not a combat skill, it's just a defense mechanism...among other things...ehe...))

"AHH!" Xeiashi added uselessly to the screaming as the Bot continued its death-roll towards the plant. But then the weird happened, or weirder-than-normal, it was all relative. The plant shot out of the way, and the Bot continued rolling...directly toward the lake. Now there was another problem.

'Really? I FINALLY get it working and it goes into the lake? No, I didn't waste my time making that thing for it to break itself' Xeiashi thought angrily as he lifted himself out of the water...while in the water. The sick irony of the situation didn't quite mean anything right now.

So Xei sprinted toward the Bot, feet barely sinking an inch into the lake before they encountered resistance and ignored the law of gravity. The Bot, meanwhile, continued on its blind path and caught a good deal of air time from a rocky incline. It sailed through the air...

...and bowled the waiting Xei over. He fell back, only to have his rear encounter the same resistance that supported his feet. The Bot, meanwhile, had gotten another glimpse of...what had that girl called it, Total? Total, then, was squarely in the Bot's camera, and it continued to whir its wheels to attack it.

"No more!" Xei grunted angrily as he reached in through the battery-removal slot and ripped some wire or another from the things electronic guts. The wheels' motors died instantly, leaving the wheels themselves to spin themselves to a stop. Only after he was certain that it wasn't going to spring back to life, Xeiashi pushed himself upright and walked back to shore, depositing the troublesome pile of parts in a heap by the nearest tree.

He started back towards the girl and plant-thing-Total. "Umm...sorry about that, really. It was a prototype, you see, and it seemed to have mistaken the green one here for a weed...Sorry, no offense, it also attacks frogs...so..." here he trailed off, unsure what to say next.

[Walk on Water]

"Inventor? Not really, I cheated with magic to make this dysfunctional wreck...an inventor would make something that worked properly." Xeiashi said with a bit of a chuckle. "It was supposed to be an automatic weedkiller, but it isn't too good at telling weeds apart from any other green thing, which is why it attacked your friend there...you're actually pretty lucky that I hadn't finished what I came here for, I was going to use sulfuric acid as an herbicide..."

"Oh yeah, I guess I should introduce myself, huh? I'm Xeiashi Zakariz, spellcaster and dysfunctional robot maker"

"Hm...I guess" Xeiashi agreed, then shook the proffered hand. "Total is it? Again, sorry about that with the 'Bot..." he began, but the plant was basically shouting about something Alexi had said.

"Shopping? Why would anybody be shopping with this work to be done...am I missing some celebration or something?" Xeiashi asked incredulously, logic dictating that, yes, there was an occasion for much shopping, and that yes, he hadn't paid attention to whatever had led to it.

"BALL!" Zain screamed suddenly, inetrrupting his own steady stream of tuneless singing. He dashed to the side of the water and pulled himself up by the elbows, grinning at the two youngsters. "I can't wait!! It's going to be AWESOME! Me and 'Lexi are gonna be the prettiest pretty people there! Who are you?"

He adressed this last part to Xei with a huge grin on his face, randomly switching the topic faster than a stripper could rip off her bra.


((lawl crappy post too, ohwellssss))

"We... believe it was a magically related explosion. Our spellcasting master often performed some very unstable experiments. This is not the first time he's caused a blast," said Lacine, stepping forward and placing a hand gently in the small of Lorika's back. "Though... it will probably be the last."

She looked at the High Priestess, who didn't react, though her eyes were still blurry with tears. Those same eyes widened in shock at Yokuan's offer, causing a tear to spill down the side of her face.

"Oh! I... I... I couldn't possibly ask for you to donate money... we haven't taken donations from the public since the end of the war..." she gabbled. Lacine cut her off calmly.

"Perhaps it's time we started again," she said, wrapping her arm more firmly around her teacher's waist.

"I would hate to ASK you for money, especially such a huge amount...! And you mustn't give us any if you're saving up for something so special..." Lorika continued rapidly, trailing off as the felid continued. Then, she looked sharply at Lacine. "A... party...?"

"Hmmm..." Lacine murmured. Her eyes had remained skeptically on the flamboyant felid throughout the conversation, and her tone was on the defensive side. "You must be a very wealthy woman, Miss Yokuan. Are you an entrepreneur? Do you plan these kinds of things for a living?"