Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ever was starting to regret her decision to attend, a feeling that had stirred up just as soon as she'd heard the offhand remarks from a stranger. Lovely ring, by the way. The mariner had gone immediately stiff, resisting the urge to lift and inspect her hand only because it would have just confirmed the ring's presence. Her fingers curled into her palm and her teeth sunk into the lush curve of her lower lip, mind racing to determine how she would respond. Ignore? Feign innocence?

As it turned out, Roen made the decision for her. The Devil's sudden cry alarmed his date, and she watched in horror as Roen lunged in for the attack. Was his rage over the ring comment as well? Ever couldn't even have been sure that he'd heard it, much less taking any understanding from it, but her guilty conscience made it seem that way. Or, perhaps the stranger was simply an enemy of her escort's. He had many, of course, so it was possible. Either way, the unfolding events positively horrified her.

A faint groan of reluctance escaped the mariner's throat, drowned out by the excited hoots of the paparazzi as they thronged her from all sides to get that better shot. Should she push her way forward again and bring a stop to this scene? If it had been someone closer to the mariner, a relationship more long-lived than this one, she might have stepped in, but Roen was still almost a stranger. She hadn't gotten a feel for him yet, couldn't have known if her interference would only anger the Devil further.

Fortunately, the fight ended before she had been forced to come to a decision; of course bad news never traveled alone. With the passing of the first outburst came another, this one from a figure she recognized. Rhoslyn Vernal, the proprietor of her favored Gaian resort, calling out a challenge to her escort in no polite manner and bringing up events that she herself had been striving to forget. A flush darkened the sunkissed curves of Ever's face and a queasy feeling filled the pit of her stomach.

"I'm sorry, Roen," she mouthed with a shake of her head, brow furrowing. She would go after that drink, return to her escort before she was missed, but this was too much for her to handle at the present time. Ever turned her back to the scene and stepped away, searching the room. This time she did spot a familiar face or two, the succubis she'd seen once or twice at her own bar seated at a table with Viviana Merquise. Engaged in a card game, it looked like. That sick feeling worsened just as a waiter clad in a white tux jacket bustled by with an empty tray. The mariner reached out, hooking her svelte hand expertly around the young man's bicep.

"Double whiskey, SoCo floater. Quickly, if you please." the brunette sighed, just loud enough for the server to hear her over the crowds. The boy nodded and rushed off, leaving the mariner to fall to a seat at the nearest empty table. She kept one eye on the unfolding events, the other on the dance floor, and drummed her manicured nails against the linen cloth. Should have known something unpleasant was going to follow me through those doors," Ever mused unhappily to herself .

"Damn" James thought.

Not a damn single hand was lucky for him tonight. What few good cards he did get were simply, not good enough.

Well, that couldn't be helped. Things happened like that sometimes.

"Enjoy your winnings, while it lasts lady and gentlemen", he grinned, sipping a red wine. The lady part was directed toward Miss Merquise, who did reasonably well. Rest of the party was a sausagefest.

Aila would take a seat down next to the gentlemen and flash him a quick smile as her hazel eyes darted from him to the dealer who was already shuffling, Care to play one more round? Placing her fingers around the neck of her martini glass, her nails would tap on the cool glass before wrapping her fingers around it and bringing it to her lips. Placing it down she tousled her hair before turning back to the man with a raised brow awaiting his response.

And done! Rhoslyn made his way through the crowd and stood near the door, drawing his saber and giving it a few idle twirls in his right hand, wand at his left. Even though he would prefer to simply get a "yeah, whatever, I'll do it later, ******** off" or something like that, he wouldn't put it past any evil person to be properly paranoid and attack first. Also, he could make a point much better with it.

He was nearly there when suddenly, LOUD DISCORDANT MUSIC-FART!

He turned and looked over his shoulder and could have sworn that he saw something shiny and tuba-like over thataways. It was rather amusing: although one of the fey loved to be the center of attention and was of the vaguely-goodish Seelie, and the other was of the generally-evil Unseelie and preferred to just wander around looking pretty, there was one thing the two had in common that said it all: neither of them liked it when other people stole the spotlight. Assuming that he'd seen things, although still pretty sure he'd just seen the Seelie woman aurally raping Roen's ears.

Nah, couldn't be, it was just his rage combining the two into some deathmatch fantasy. Bah, humbug. He leaned against the wall, twirling his wand in his fingers absently.

negative energy rather than the normal flowers of mother nature. Held in the right arm of this tall 6' foot woman was a teddy bear. This black fur teddy looked more menacing than your average snuggly cuddly. Its eyes were round and red, with teeth sharp shown in the ever wide mouth of this thing.>

"Nevermore."



she was coming. Vivillian, an agent of Hades.>

Ed stared off into space, hardly hearing Roen, if not for the fact that the Devil was right next to him. The punk raised the drink to his lips and took another sip, looking all around him for the first time since he'd sat down. His synthetic eye flashed around, making note of the positions of all the people he recognized. None of them were his sworn enemies, though one of them did stab him at the very end of the Dark Tournament. Sokoya. The chick who fought Roen in the finals. Small world.

The cyberpunk's eyes moved and settled on the Darkened Devil; he grinned for the briefest of moments before deadpanning and returning to his drink. "You could of. I could of been chasing skirts and drinking myself dumb instead of trying to get you out of trouble. Can't change it now. Don't think I would if I could, boss." The cyborg grinned again and almost took another sip of his drink. Then..

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!!

First off, oww. Second off, oww. And third, oww. Edward instantaneously spun around in his bar stool, facing the Summer Fae who'd been rude enough to play a tuba directly into their ears. The tattoos which curved up his right hand and forearm, and covered a majority of his flesh and bone body would be familiar to Stella. Possibly inducing some sort of thought of home. Of course, Edward wasn't of the Fae. That much was clear. But he was clearly branded by her people, a branding which claimed ownership. He was someone's slave. Someone's escaped slave.

Without even a word or thought, the cyborg threw his drink directly into the Fae's face, not letting go of the glass entirely being the only evidence of any remaining kindness in Ed.

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