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[Anthony ~.~ The Red Rose ~.~ Men's Bathing Chambers]

Anthony was torn between morality and hormones. His eyes scanned the room, trying to fix themselves on anything but Bobbi's breasts, but the temptation was far too great, especially when the girl began to fondle her protruding bust, and his eyes zeroed in on their targets.

Immediately, the young man's nose began to gush blood as a single foot slipped underneath him, causing the knight to fall back into the tub with his legs suspended above the water, twitching to express his discomfort.

"What ever happened to modesty," Anthony thought, afraid of what he'd see this time if he'd emerge. Good thing he could hold his breath for a few minutes, which should buy him time to think, though all he could think about were Bobbi's breasts...

The young man remained submerged, refusing to come up for air. The bubbles that surfaced and popped were evidence of his stubbornness, though it wasn't long before his chest began to contort as his lungs begged for air. "I should've taken in a deeper breath." he thought.

Unable to bear it any longer, the young man emerged, but with his back turned to Bobbi, and stared at the wall on the other end of the bathroom. "Thanks... for that," he said, panting. "Now all I'm... gonna remember... when I see you... are your breasts..."

[[Louis : Castle That Never Was : Where Nothing Gathers]]

A twitch moved across Louis' eyebrow as Nick tried to joke about his actions. He wouldn't have choose those actions if he didn't have a reason to do so. He wasn't that kind of person. Ajora continued to pluck at his nerves, but pulled back wisely before Louis would start to feel his temper flare.

Ajora proceeded to absorb Jenny's replica then address the others after a moment of silence.

Black Charms? Louis gave them a long look as a feeling reminiscent to the Lord of the Rings came to mind, Accept these things and "keep in touch" with the replicas? Or be tracked like a dog wearing a G.P.S. collar?

"You're already wearing the collar, what worse could they do with those little trinkets?"

Louis hated to admit it, but Mateus was right this time. The seal that overlapped Ajora's wouldn't last once he returned to the other earthlings and had to suppress Mateus and his powers. That, and maintaining it constantly was draining on Louis' energy reserves. He could break Ajora's seal if he put his all into it, sure; but, as it stood, having a direct connection to the Bloody Executioner proved more useful than regaining a monopoly on his own mind. Aside from this, he knew that Ajora was strong, but he was surprised to find it was like holding back a tidal wave... and even with all of his current power directed on the counter-seal, some still slipped through. Luckily his natural defenses were enough to defend against that bit left over... but still...

Louis wordlessly held his clawed gauntlet out and nodded once to Ajora but otherwise made no motion to retrieve it. It seemed nothing would get Louis to budge from his position on the throne, nor cause him to speak out-loud.

[ ??? : The Flying Dutchman ]

Amy's replica became tired of doing nothing, and seeing no response from any of the other replicas other than their boredom and lack of ambition to do anything. Whereas she had a drink in her hand now, everyone was sort of just piddling around, waiting for something to happen, having no goals or thoughts of their own, just being there for the sake of being there; at least that's how it appeared in her eyes. Sure, she was a hypocrite in that she had no goals either, unless you counted the beer in her hand to be the fulfillment of a most marvelous and noble goal–that of getting drunk because one was bored. Or, heck, just getting drunk because, as if 'because' was a reason. Regardless, Amy's replica was restless and felt, with every fiber of her being, that being on this ship waiting for as long as she had been waiting for a promise of being on the more informed and more well equipped team, she felt, I say, that this was as big of a waste of her time as anything in the world could be.

So, charging her guns, which she certainly had plenty of time to do, she shot two ginormous Ruby Cannon bullets into the deck. They went through the deck, through the deck below, and if anything was beyond that, they went through that, too. She had just put two massive holes into the ship.

The Flying Dutchman was sinking.

[ Ajora ; James ; Replica Procession : Castle That Never Was : Where Nothing Gathers ]

As he got their responses, he continued to juggle the charms- only for his groove to be totally thrown off by Azrael's wind stealing one away, as well as Alice telekinetically taking one of her own. His eyes bulged for a moment as he frantically threw his arms out, grabbing the other three out of the air in blurs of motion. With a sigh of relief, he lightly tossed the remaining Black Charms to those who didn't take one already.

"Well, then it's settled. Formal alliance and everything," he said, grinning. The black veil over the table was quickly absorbed through Ajora's feet, leaving the original Nobody symbol in plain view. "If anyone needs anything, you just put on the charm, picture the person you want to talk, and think the message you want them to hear. Only works if they have their charm equipped, obviously, though most of us already knew that."

"With that, I suppose this meeting's adjourned!" he announced, playfully knocking his heel against the table a few times as if he were striking a podium with a gavel. "Though, I would still like a private word with you, Sir Knight In Chilled Armor, if you would meet me back on the tower top. Anybody else have something to add first, though?"

[ Kyle, Riku, Assorted Canons : Red Rose : Training Room ]

Kyle couldn't help but snort at Dawn's explanation, grinning at her ear-to-ear. "I doubt it'll be that bad. But hey, if we have the time, we might as well help each other out, right?"

However, before they could really get into any practice stances, people began appearing. Riku had brought along a group, as well as Yuffie; Kyle wondered where Sora went, but figured he was off making sure everyone knew.

When Matthew spoke up, Kyle listened, standing on Matt's right as he did so. As Matt finished up, looking to the dragoon for anything else, Kyle shrugged, stepping forward a bit. Normally, stage fright would make him horribly, horribly trembly, but... he knew these people. He'd fought alongside them, lived with them, almost-died with them. They were family, and as such, he didn't have much trouble at all.

"Basically, Matt here can learn damn near any ability we have, but only one. This makes him a sort of pot-luck, if you will. We all put in a small piece, and together, the sum of the whole becomes greater and more versatile than the sum of the parts," he explained. "He can have Noelle's plant magic, Jenny's Haste, Cloud's Sonic Blade, Yuffie's tele-poof, and so on. With so many people, it'll be pretty easy to make him a jack-of-all-trades: a fighter, a mage, and a healer all rolled into one. So if you have any suggestions, go ahead and speak up!"

"Can he be trusted?"

Cloud's voice resonated from the back of the group as he stepped forward, blade latched onto his back. "I don't remember seeing him around before today. If he can just copy any one of our abilities, we're making a pretty heavy investment in trusting him."

"Well, he's a friend of mine from home, so I trust him with my life," Kyle responded, his tone sounding almost hollow as he eyed Cloud. "And I know Joe trusts him, too-"

"And Jon knew him as well," Riku spoke up, still leaning on the wall off to the side. "I know from experience he, Kyle, and Joe are pretty good guys, and if they all trust Matthew, then I trust him."

There was a silence for a moment before Cloud shrugged, pulling his sword forward and to the front.

"Guess I'll go first, then," he said, eyes narrowed at Matthew before he suddenly began to hover in the air; before Matthew could react, Cloud had enacted Sonic Blade, and he soared at the Blue Mage with the clear intent to hit with his attack. Kyle only barely dodged out of the way.

[Elleon ~ Castle That Never Was ~ Where Nothing Gathers]

Elleon reached out for the charm bracelet as it was tossed to her, catching it and slipping it on her wrist. Things were starting to wrap up rather nicely. She was hoping to catch a word with Ajora as soon as possible but, as he was going to be predisposed (which she predicted he would be), she would have to resort to plan 'B'. She handed her empty glass to Artemis who backed away from the side of the Replica's throne and into a dark portal. The portal closed behind her and Elleon stood, pulling a white envelope from a hardly noticeable pocket in her top.

"Nothing at all," She replied, approaching Ajora and holding out the envelope for him to take. On the inside was a heavy, gold embossed invitation for him to join her for a special occasion. After he would take the envelope Elleon would have walked away, opened a dark portal, and left.

[Lucian ~.~ Caribbean Sea ~.~ The Flying Dutchman]

Kuro's response wasn't exactly what Lucian was hoping for. Though he didn't care much for leadership, he wanted some instructions. After all, he was just born no more than 10 minutes ago...

He sighed and bowed his head again. Leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands, which were folded on top of one another on the railing, the fallen knight stared into the dark waters below as wave formed and broke and crashed into their ship. The replica couldn't help but relate to the waves--restless and eager...

Lucian turned around, leaned back, and rested his elbows on the railing as he scanned the deck. The others weren't doing much, either... Nega-Amy had returned with a barrel of something--best guess would be alcohol--and the other guy--what's his name, Saint?---totally touched her boobs by pressing a wooden cup against her chest (there's a sexual innuendo in there somewhere, but I'll let your minds do the work).

Something about that guy rubbed Lucian the wrong way... Everything he said and did just struck a nerve, like the teacher's pet from class that would always have an answer for everything with a winded explanation that followed that usually had nothing to do with the original question (like unnecessary background information). ((I love you, John! D: Don't kill me! QQ))

The fallen knight licked his lips as he watched Nega-Amy pour herself a cup-o-rum. Though he was never fond of the taste of alcohol, he couldn't help the urge to want to drink. However, shortly after the young woman had a drink from her barrel, she busted out her dual gats, charged her laser beams, and put two large holes into the deck (and possibly through the ship from the looks of it)!

All was lost! The ship was going to sink! Lucian's adventures were going to come to an end just minutes after his awakening! Why would someone sink the ship they're on?! It doesn't make sense! They're all going to drown (except the fish people... they could breath underwater)! And he didn't even get to kiss a girl! What a cruel world!

...JK... nothing happened. Apparently a ship that can submerge itself into the ocean on command is unsinkable. Who would've thought?

A sigh of relief escaped the fallen knight's lips. It would've been a drag to have to swim to shore... Lucian pushed himself forward and began to walk over to Nega-Amy and Saint, then sat down beside them as he pulled a wooden crate beneath him to serve as a seat.

"Wanna share?" he finally asked Nega-Amy. "It's no fun to drink alone."

{Bobbi .:. Red Rose .:. Men's Baths}

"Bobbi, put your chesticles away!"

"I was staring at her eyes!"

"Oh. Put those away, too!"

A sad smile crossed Bobbi's lips as Joe's remark reminded her of an exchange between her friend, Shidai, and her ex, Evan. It hadn't been too long after she and Evan had gotten together, but that certainly didn't stop the teasing. It was a bittersweet memory, considering the breakup, but it usually called up a grin or a laugh among the friends who had been there. Besides, the word "chesticles" was hilarious.

Resolutely, she shoved the memory away. She was too damn tired to be melancholy, and there was a boy to tease besides. No time for remorse!

"Spoil sport~" the Archer teased, trying to sound like her usual cheerful self. "Fine, fine, I have rinsing to do anyway." With that, she ducked back under the water, thankful for Anthony's sake that the tub was deep enough her breasts weren't visible. She was grinning, however, at Anthony's reaction. She'd never induced a nose-bleed before; it was kind of awesome.