Welcome to Gaia! ::

“All right, just relax your body,” the woman said. “This might be a little uncomfortable, but bear with it.”

Total relaxed every muscle in his body. He was scared, but he wanted to be as obedient as possible in order to make the process go more smoothly. A few seconds later, it seemed that the woman had begun the process. Memories floated all around, clogging Total’s mind. He screamed in horror.

“Don’t yell out!” Madame Foster warned. “Or you’ll wreck the process!”

Total calmed himself down. Memories again flooded his mind, almost overtaking him. He saw a farmer uprooting a strange-looking plant and putting it in a pot. He drove out to a remote forest and replanted the plant in the ground. The man got back in the car and drove away, and the memory ended.

Next a strange world appeared. There appeared to be…shiny things? No…they looked like musical instruments. A boy’s voice called out, “Alexi! Hey Alexi!”

What?! Total thought. Alexi? As in…my Alexi?

It appeared as though the people were running.

Did…Did I know Alexi…in a past life?

He couldn’t see clearly, but he heard two things: violin playing and beats. Loud beats. It sounded like that of a drum. There were other sounds in the background too, but Total couldn’t make them out. The memory faded.

Total was very confused by what he saw. There were memories of families, friends, the ground, seedlings, sprouts, bugs, warm sunlight. It was all so strange.

Who…am…I? He asked himself.

All of a sudden there was a blast of white light. He was lifted up by a mysterious force and carried towards it. During the journey, he felt as if his body was about to burst. The cells were splitting, rearranging and splitting again. It was agonizing, and as much as he wanted to scream, Total forced himself not to. The light surrounded him, and he emerged from it…

“You made it out,” Madame Foster said. “Welcome to this world.”

Total was confused. What did she mean, welcome to this world? He’d been living in this world ever since he was born…er, ever since his two identities were born. He looked around. Everything seemed so much…smaller to him. He also seemed taller.

“Either I grew or this room shrank incredibly,” Total said. “What on earth happened?”

Madame Foster moved over a full-length mirror. “See for yourself.”

Total looked in the mirror. He almost fell over in shock. There stood not a plant, but a human.

A fairly good-looking human.


((Part 3 of 5-ish XD))

Total ran through the forest at a rapid pace. He couldn’t believe how absolutely fast he was now! Maybe now he could keep up with Alexi whenever she went on her wanderlust sprees. And on top of that, he had an outfit for the ball! He could go now. He could spend time with Alexi there.

He…could confess to her.

Total forced himself to run faster. He couldn’t wait to get back to the site of the temple and show her. There was only one problem.

How would he do it? He would have to think it through first.

“Oh well,” he said to himself. “At least I can enjoy this new bod~!”

~~~

After hours of searching, Alexi had come up short. She could not find Total to save her life. It was strange; he’d always been able to find her, why couldn’t she find him? She had looked in all his favorite places, the forest, knotholes in trees, the beach, various places in the temple, everywhere.

Total, she thought. Where did you go?

She sat down on the ground near a tree. Outstretching her legs, she put her hands on the ground on either side of her. The girl felt a small lump in the ground beneath her left hand.

“What’s this?” she asked.

Digging it up, she found a small flower.

“It looks like one of Total’s flowers,” Alexi said. She noticed there was a small piece of paper attached. It looked like a letter. The handwriting was worse than chickenscratch and barely legible, but she still managed to read it:



Alexi couldn’t believe it. Not only had Total written a letter in perfect English, but he was going to give her a gift. A gift he had literally made himself. It was the sweetest thing she had seen since her visit to Marshall’s so long ago.

She began to cry.

“Total,” she said between sobs, clutching the flower to her chest. “Where did you go?”



((Part 5 of 5
A bittersweet ending...
This brings both Alexi and Total up-to-date. They are ready for the ball now!! biggrin *parties*))

((Also...remember that avi I posted earlier for the ball, the one without a name? Well...



The cat's out of the bag now... =w=))

She batted his hand away from her face and sighed, her expression not letting up. There simply was a limit to how much she could tolerate talking to (annoying) people, and not to mention this guy was obviously too close to her for her liking.

"Sorry, I didn't catch your name.. but what did you want?" Odin said gruffly, frowning at the intrusion of her personal space. She didn't like that she had to look up to talk to him, but then again she was a bit on the short side and maybe she was just finding reasons to be annoyed of this person.

He simply tossed her a big grin. "Your name's Odin, right? I heard it from the Boss Lady over there," he gestured over his shoulder to where their instructor was observing the field. "Kind of an odd name for a girl. A bit too masculine, don't you think?"

Odin seethed as her fingers curled around her scythe again. She couldn't believe it, he completely ignored her question and just went rambling on. If he didn't get to his point quickly, God knows what she would do to get him to shut up.

"Hey, you don't talk much, do you? And here I thought all girls just went on and on and on about everything," he continued, either oblivious or simply ignoring her growing annoyance.

"Uhm.. could you please get to your point already?" Odin cut his tirade. She was still frowning at him as he blew a strand of dark brown hair from his face and laughed loudly again.

A vein was threatening to pop in Odin's head if this guy would not straighten up or shut up. If she had not known better, she could swear this person was just trying to make her lose her cool, now of all days. For all she knew he could have been watching her all this time just waiting for the perfect moment to come up to her and start shooting off his annoying mouth to annoy her. But that was treading just a bit too much on to the paranoid side. She willed herself to stay cool, this person was making her act so uncharacteristically and he actually looked like he derived pleasure from it. Well, she wouldn't give him that satisfaction.

When his laughter died down, he wiped the tears from his eyes and shot her an impish smile. "Straight to the point! I like that in a girl." Annoying, she concluded in her mind.

Odin put on her apathetic face as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Well..?"

He was obviously irked at the lack of reaction in her response. Touche. But the expression was gone before Odin could celebrate her small victory further.

"I heard that Ms. Gloria wanted you to test your skills with a trident user, so..."

It was a good thing that she had not completely let her guard down and was able to step back and block the stranger as he pulled out his trident from behind him and jabbed it at her face. Her eyes grew wide at his bold gesture, as her frustration with him mounted once again.

"..I thought I could lend you a hand with that, being the gentleman that I am." All hint of joking was wiped from his voice. His eyes had grown serious with a cocky glint on the side, his smirk growing wider as he leaned down his weight on his weapon and hers.

Ah, so this was what this b*****d was after.

Odin's face grew serious as her eyes bore into his. She took another step backwards and threw his trident off her scythe.

"You could have just said so in the first place," she said in her quiet way, placing her feet into position.

Normally, as had become her habit since talking with Lacine, Steff would have drifted off shortly and ended up jousting for space in the crampt library with the magic students, but today she hung around. It might have seemed strange, especially as today there were things to prepare for, but she stayed even after many of the other girls disbanded before time.

Eventually, just before one, Gloria looked down at her watch, a fat water bottle poised at her hip in her other hand. "I think that's about it for today, you guys. Go and get some lunch, and then-"

"And then it's PARTY TIME!" cried Damien, flinging his arms around Gloria from behind. "Yay!"

"Yay," echoed Gloria, her voice sarcastically flat.

"Yay," Steff mumbled as she smiled to herself.

Another familiar face, Jon, was off like a bolt from a crossbow, hurrying past the instructor and her boyfriend so fast he was practically accompanied by a gust of wind. "Hey, where ya goin?!" Damien jeered. His back to them, Jon didn't respond, powerwalking away with all the speed of a gazelle, but more the grace of a charging rhino. "Huuuh. I guess he's gotta go press his suit and shlack his hair ready for Blondie McElf's high standards, nyehehe."

"And what exactly are you doing to get ready for our date, fluffy?" she replied sardonically, as he grabbed her even more tightly and rocked the two of them from side to side.

"Well, my darling little shmoopsypoodle," he cooed through puckered lips, pressing them to the side of her head before continuing. "...Absolutely nothing!"

"...That's so charming, you know?"

"Well, I figure that my company is quite enough of a treat for you, so I don't actually need to do anything special!" he bragged, now proceeding to drag her backwards in a jagged sort of line. She resisted slightly, and they ended up wheeling around in a staggering circle. "I'll pull on a shirt, maybe some pants, probably shoes, head on down, eat the food, drink the punch, then make out in the corner with the girl of my fondest nightmares!"

"A regular prince charming. I can't ******** wait."

By this time, Steff had quietly approached Odin again, wending her way over with her arms behind her back.

"Hey...!" she said, grinning at her with a mouth full of pretty, pearly little teeth. "Do you wanna go do something...? I mean... like... we could go get something to eat, or pick up your dress or whatever...?"

"Oh, no...! It's perfectly alright!" she smiled, reaching out and clasping Feline's arm affectionately, "Christmas is actually time when you make time for everyone! It's the most joyous season of the year. That's why it's a recognised holiday even in our religion. Everyone celebrates it, because it's a time for peace and love and coming together."

For the first time during the meeting, her smile became a little sad, and she turned away. She stepped towards the plain dressing table, her pale fingers coming out to stroke the grain of the wood. "It's too easy to forget what it means as you get older, but as a priestess it is imperative that I remember. Which is why the ball today is such a crucial celebration," she said, picking up with a new, determined energy again as she turned back round to face Feline, her face set. "In these hard times, it will remind us all of what we stand for, and what we mean to one another. And hopefully, when I go on camera in an hour or so's time, I'll show the entire world as well."

She couldn't stay in mourning forever. No one could. A cause like this... organising the ball was exactly what she'd needed. It gave her something to do. Something to rally. Something that was part of her ideals. When it came to her ideals, Lorika was the most forceful person, and the most righteous leader, the organisation could have possibly hoped for. She hadn't gotten to where she was by being the snivelling little girl she often seemed - to others, and to herself - to be.

That said, the determined look on her face faltered, and she fell back into a warm smile. "You will be coming, won't you? There's meant to be a small fee, as it is a fundraiser, but... it's being waived for all the youngsters, and members in your position, of course."

Odin blocked another quick jab to her face and jumped back from the stranger. She found that he was also quick on his feet and that he kept trying to trip her with his weapon. It was odd that he somehow knew how clumsy her footwork was when she dodged and he played with that fact by constantly aiming his attacks at her lower body. It did not help that he was being overly chatty the entire time as well.

"My, my.. You're rather feisty! Hey, hey, Odin! Are you having fun?" he laughed as she threw him off for the nth time. He quickly regained his footing and lunged at her again. "Because I'm sure I am!" Another string of laughter followed in between the sounds of metal clashing with metal.

She swung her scythe at his blows, parrying them away from her while adding some distance between them which he constantly tried closing in. The stranger hurled himself towards her and their weapons clashed noisily when they interlocked with each other.

One reason why she hated his height was that he was more difficult to throw off because of the added weight. Odin scowled at him, adjusting her feet to carry both their weights and to avoid falling over. He was also getting too close for her liking again.

"What's with the sour face? I thought you were enjoying our little bout?" he said leaning his face forward towards hers. He received only another scowl from the smaller female.

Odin quickly slid down to release her weapon, catching him off guard and swiping it at his legs as he staggered forward. He reacted just in time and jumped to dodge her. Down on one knee she quickly twirled her scythe behind her and caught it in her other hand just as pulled his trident back to cast another blow. She got up and charged at him just as he leaped towards her. They each made their move and let their weapons find their marks.

As abruptly as their fight had started it had come to its end. His trident was an inch from touching her cheek and the blade of her scythe millimeters from cutting into the back of his neck. Their eyes locked onto each other and their breathing was hard, neither made any effort to move from their positions.

Odin blinked when he finally laughed and withdrew his weapon. She let her scythe drop to her side with an uneasy sigh.

"Stalemate," he declared when he finally stopped laughing. "Nice job, never thought you'd get that close."

She frowned again. "Same here," she muttered as she motioned to get up from her squatting position.

Just then his hand reached out and grabbed hers. She was about to shake him off for unnecessarily invading her space again when he pulled her up from the ground. She staggered forward and he steadied her with his other hand.

"Ah.. Thank you, I guess," she said softly as she dusted herself off, at the same time shrugging off the contact.

The stranger gave her another smile, this time it was not as wicked as she first thought it was. Somehow she couldn't believe the stranger could make such a gentle face and she had to look away quickly, heat rising on her face. Somewhere in the distance they could hear their instructor's voice announce the end of their session.

"No problem. Call me anytime if you ever need another sparring partner," he gestured a small wave over his shoulder as he started to walk away.

Odin watched him leave and suddenly called out, not sure herself why she did so. "Uhm.. w-wait! I.." He half turned towards her with an amused and questioning look on his face. "Ahh.. I, I.. You're name! You never told me.." she started, panic breaking her voice at the last bit of the sentence. She was puzzled that her heartbeat was still racing although they were done sparring.

He smiled and turned away again before responding to her in a loud voice. "My name's Aidan. Nice meeting you! I'll see you tonight." And with that he stalked off.

Odin watched as he disappeared with a group of his friends, not knowing why there was a small blush coloring her face. Just as she was about to turn around and leave the field she spotted Steff walking up to her.

"Uhhm, hi." She gave her a small wave. It was weird that she could talk so easily when locked in combat but conversing normally with someone about everyday things was proving quite a stretch for her. "Oh, I'm good with.. anything really.. Ahhm, did you have any plans before tonight?"

"Nope!" she laughed, "Just gotta put up my hair, put on my dress, and I'm ready. You've got a room in the Temple, don't you? Maybe we could get ready together...?"

She sounded a little uncertain on this last point, unsure of whether the red-haired girl would accept her so quickly... but it was worth a try.

"Oh, I see," she said tilting her head to the side. She paused and her lips drew up in a small smile. "Okay, that's fine with me. Do you.. need any help getting anything?"

She had to fumble with her reply but Odin noticed that she didn't stammer as much so maybe she was getting used to conversation. As an afterthought she decided that today might actually be.. fun. Everything else thus far has proven to be nothing short of interesting.