Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Boring, as usual. With all the junior casters, she only seems to have time for the lower-level classes that we mastered way back when, under...
'Gah, twice today. Ignore it, man!'

...yeah. And she mentioned something about you learning Drowic Magic, I think...I was too busy growing fungus on the front of her desk to notice...I cleaned it up, though, and it was good practice. Cressa was distracted, anyway, she has been for a week now, and I see the Captain around a lot more, too. Dunno what's going on there...

Only now, pausing in thought, did Xei notice the other four glaring at him. If looks could inflict bodily harm, he would be nothing more than a jellylike mass on the stairs...but thankfully they couldn't, although that isn't taking into account the fact that one of them looked like he was going to use something a bit more tangible to pound him into a jellylike mass on the stairs.

"Oh crap. Uhh...which one of you did I land on? I'm terribly sorry, and if anything broke, we can fix it here..."'Overseer....not good. Who are these people, anyway?'





(Impending beatdown detected, initiate defensive paranoia procedure #2)

"Yo, Oz, before you head off!" Cressa said, summoning him back to the table. "We all want dessert!"

"We do?"

"Well, SOMEBODY'S got to keep Forte company, and if it's not going to be you guys, it's going to be me! I want an ice cream sundae, I want gelato, I want plum pie."

Jessie and Gloria looked at each other. "Plum pie without the pie part sounds good."

"Yes, bring us some plums. Fresh fruit is very good for you."

"Okay, make that two ice cream sundaes, some gelato, a slice of banoffee pie, and some plums for the 'health conscious' among us."

"Are you just ordering all that to screw with him or do you genuinely want two ice cream sundaes, gelato and a slice of banoffee pie?" Jessie asked her with a smile as the boy left their table for the fourth time that lunch session.

"I NEED TO MAINTAIN MY WOMANLY FIGURE SOMEHOW. These boobs don't feed themselves, you know!"

"I didn't know boobs required feeding."

"Well, have you seen the size of mine? They practically live independently of my body. This bra's made of dragon hide for more than one reason - anything less restricting and they might just go and buy a summer home in the Bahamas!"

"And anyway, if I can't finish it all off, Forte'll help me out, right, sweetheart?" she said, giving te girl a friendly tap on the shoulder.

Jessie and Gloria each took a plum out of the dish Oz brought them. Jessie looked at Forte with interest. "You've been alone an awful lot, then?"

"You're not a burden! My boobs are the only burdens here," Cressa said, flopping down front-first onto the table as if they were lead weights. "Ugh! Oh no, watch out, they're coming for your hands, Jessie! They're going to devour them!"

"Oh yes, I've had quite a few experiences with your hand-devouring breasts over the years," he said, swatting at her, "Behave yourself."

"Captain, here's a list of words you're not allowed to say, ever: Sausage, breasts, boobies, chimichanga-"

"'Chimichanga?'"

"I told you not to say it!!"

Cressa pushed her pie over to Forte as she came close to finishing her pasta. "Here, I hate banoffee pie."

"Then why'd you order it?" Gloria laughed.

"Why'd I whatnow?" she asked, innocently licking some ice cream off her long sundae spoon.

"Nevermind."

"Of course!" Cressa replied, finishing off her first sundae. "And Jessie's going to help me with this gelato."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

"Here," she said, spooning a little up and bringing it up to his mouth. "Nom nom."

"I CAN feed myself, thank you all the same," he chuckled, taking the spoon out of her hand and proceeding to dig in. "Cressa's only joking about watching her figure, though - neither of us really need to do that."

"Yeah, you ever seen a fat elf?" Gloria said to Forte, "Cos I sure haven't."

"I saw a fat elf once. 'Bertha the Fat Elf,' everybody called her. She came last in all the races but was a surprisingly elegant dancer."

Jessie kept his head down, face hidden by his hair, but his shoulders were rising and falling again with laughter.

Jessie, meanwhile, had slumped to the side, shaking silently with mirth. He tried in vain to take another spoonful of gelato, but abandoned the spoon halfway through the attempt, plopping it down onto the table next to the bowl.

"Uh, Captain?" said Gloria, giving him a poke in the shoulder. "You okay?"

"Mmmhm!" he replied, not trusting himself to open his mouth. But it was too late. "Ahahahahahaha...."

Gloria raised her eyebrows at the sorceress. "I have to say, Cressa, I'm impressed. I think you've broken him too!"

"Oh, he's not broken, just immobilised," Cressa said. "I'll show you what broken looks like."

Reaching over to him, she took his face in both of her hands and forced him to look her in the eyes. "Jessie," she said seriously. She held it. She waited. And then: "Pigfarts."

Well, that was just too much. He utterly keeled over in hysterics, disappearing from the table as he slumped right out of his chair and onto the floor. Cressa sat back in her seat and adjusted her bust like she meant business, satisfaction all around. She nodded sagely at the girls. "Critical Hit, Just-Kill, +5000 combo bonus."

"That was the weirdest boss battle I've ever seen in my life, but damn! Remind me why I'm not in your class again?"

"Well, technically it was the work of Bertha the Fat Elf - not me," Cressa grinned, with a little wink at Forte.

Eventually. Jessie climbed back up to the table of his own accord, wiping tears from his eye. "Ohhh God..."

"Welcome back to the land of the living! Enjoy your stay in La-la Land?"

He rubbed his forehead, rapidly regaining composure, and ran his hand up to absentmindedly sweep back some pesky strands. Then, he brought both hands up and ran them through both sides of his hair, pulling back the thick veil of luxurious hair that usually covered the left side of his face. With his remaining eye closed, it was difficult to even tell that there was anything wrong with the other one. What was striking when he pulled back his hair was, as gorgeous as he was with half his face covered, he was really, really gorgeous with it exposed. It was a heart-stopping moment - and he didn't even notice. His hair flopped back down, and he returned to his dessert soberly.

"I swear, Bertha the Fat Elf has got a lot to answer for," he sighed, scooping a little of the sorbet into his mouth.

Gloria and Cressa didn't say anything. Gloria had a noticeable blush on her cheeks - though nothing compared to Forte, in her amorous affection for the pie. Cressa picked up her second sundae glass and began scooping ice cream into her mouth faster than a heron can swallow a fish.

"Take care of yourself, Forte," Jessie said, with a nod in her direction.

"Yeah, seeya Forte! You're a pretty cool girl; seeya around!"

"Sausage Gods watch over you," said Cressa, wiping her mouth off on a napkin.

"Okay, come on - I didn't want to ask while she was here," Gloria whispered after Forte was long gone, "But what's up with you two anyway?"

They both looked at her questioningly. "I mean, between you two," she clarified.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Indeed, I don't think that that's any of your business," said Cressa - not unkindly, but Gloria's heart sank. She'd expected Jessie to dodge around the question, but not Cressa, especially not after all the fun they'd been having.

"C'mon, you guys can't pretend to me like you haven't been different to usual these past few weeks. What's happening? Don't make that face at me, Captain," she added to him, as he gave her a look somewhere between a raised eyebrow and a glare, "I follow you around like a ton of the time, you think I'm stupid or something? And with all the subtle public touchy-ness and the kissing just now - you're lucky I'm the first person to ask. You know you can trust me."

"...We're taking things very slowly."

"Very slowly."

"I KNEW it! You ARE together, aren't you?!" she grinned, triumphant at the admission.

The elves looked at each other.

"We've always been together," said Jessie, taking Cressa's hand under the table, "What Xei said at the party last week resonated with us both. Love isn't anything but friendship, with a little extra commitment, a little extra... what was the word he used...? 'Baggage.'"

"It's respect - trust - familiarity..."

"I can't imagine my life without you anymore, Cressa," he said earnestly, looking into her eyes with a peculiar, soft expression on his face. It made Gloria feel as if he'd forgotten she was there. "We're together for better or for worse. You're just going to have to learn to put up with having me around."

She burst into a fit of giggles. It was funny, of course, because for so long, he'd been the one she'd imposed her presence upon. He smiled too, at the little teasing irony.

"Anyway, why does it matter to you?" Cressa said, settling back down again.

Gloria frowned. "Well, I really just wanted to get it clarified so I could ask you what I asked the Captain earlier."

"And what did you ask him earlier?"

"She asked me how you might feel about the remote potential that I might choose to pursue other women," he said.

If Gloria had been expecting any specific kind of reaction, it wasn't laughter. "Ilharess, is that all?!" she cried, "You had me thinking it was going to be something serious!"

"You mean you don't think he'd do it...?"

"I mean if he did, why would it be any of my business? I'm not his owner. I wouldn't control him like that."

Gloria looked like she was trying to wrap her head around this. "That doesn't sound very much like commitment to me."

"I warned you earlier that you might not be able to relate to Cressa's answer."

"Well, I mean, I get where she's coming from, of course I do. It's just... weird. I mean, I guess I've always grown up thinking it's not really commitment if you're not, y'know... monogamous...?"

Cressa smiled at her understandingly, one arm hooked over lazily of the back of the chair, twirling her spoon between her fingers. "Humans might think they take the moral high-ground where relationships are concerned, but all they do is impose unhealthy expectations on the people they're supposed to 'love.' I wonder, just how much strife is caused because people commit themselves to exclusive relationships, and then one partner loses interest, throws themself at another person, or another person throws themselves at them? I'm not saying it doesn't work intrinsically - I'm not saying scumbags who go picking up women or men and wives when they've already made an exclusive commitment to someone else aren't worth less than the dirt they walk on - I'm just saying, it's not right for everyone. And it's not the way we were brought up to think about relationships."

"I don't think I've stressed it enough that it's not going to happen, though," Jessie said. He turned his head away from Gloria slightly. "Cressa... seems to be the only one who understands that."

Cressa gripped his hand more tightly just out of sight. Gloria felt like she was missing something, but, as much as she considered the two elves her friends, she had a sudden sweeping feeling of intrusion, and she regretted asking anything in the first place. Cressa sensed her change in mood, and looked from Jessie over to her.

"If you live your life dwelling on the unhappinesses of the past, Gloria, you'll never be able to move on and find love and contentment in the present," she said, "But. There are some experiences that can burn you deeper and more lastingly than others. There are pains from which we cannot escape, no matter how violently, or how carefully, we try to wriggle away."

After they said their goodbyes, Cressa gestured to Gloria to wait behind with her. She turned to her once Jessie was safely out of range and sight. "Please remember what I said earlier, Gloria, every time you consider putting more pressure on Jessie to bed you," she said, with the full gravity of her years behind her words. It left Gloria feeling a little shaken. "Respect his wishes. He will be grateful to you for it."

The young warrior would mull over all this for quite some time.