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The fist arm, once more, was not a fist arm because there was an open hand instead of a fist. More looking like he was going to gesture angrily while he berated the redhead verbally. Judgement on if blows were necessary reserved.

With a lack of a shirt to grab, Kalis would have just shoved an open hand against Sunstrike's colar area, though clearly the chances of someone slipping away from this if they had clear enough mind to were a lot better than his of pressing them up against a wall with that hand.

So, this left Kalis with Sunstrike having struck Owle instead of letting her pass out. Clearly, he didn't mean any serious harm, but even so he was pissed.

He raised an eyebrow, watching Sunstrike and Rage slip through the gate, and turned his gaze back toward Siat. What turned out to be one very dark look.

"Fine, fine."

Kalis pulled his arm away with a bit of attitude. Seeing Owle clonked on the head and getting no explenation, and knowing that he shouldn't ingratiate himself with retaliation, was frustrating him enough that he was very alike a petulant child at the moment.

Kalis' temper was not generally an easy thing to set off, but it tended to be helluva nasty if you roused the dragon.

Despite how Rage and Sunstrike had slipped through safely, like nothing, Kalis hesitated in front of the portal. He started to move in, and froze. Started again, and paused again. Instead, he screwed up his face and raised a leg, deciding that feet first was safer.

"I. Hate-"

He frowned particularly nastily at the portal, and let himself slip through to the other side.

"-Magic!"

Assuming everyone was through, some very interesting things would happen. First of all, the dream portal would close, and they'd find a sleeping Owle laying down on the ground before them. But prettily enough, her bed was rich and comfy, a feather bed, with satin blue sheets that matched her hair so perfectly that it was hard to tell where her hair ended and the sheets began.

Of course, no one else's comfort was taken into consideration, what with the nightmare creatures just beyond the barrier. This was Owle's personal entrance to the dream realm. She just had to have someone there to wake her up to enjoy it.

The barrier itself didn't seem so very thick, a white mucus like substance that was sticky to the touch; if anyone was brace enough to touch it. And the close that one got to the barrier, the more that it seemed that the critters on the other side of the barrier tried to push the barrier towards them.

((Someone PM me a list of who all is playing...and the intent is for me to post GM type stuff once a week if everyone has made some contribution. Goal is Sunday, but I'm willing to work within it.))

"Who threw that?!"

"Beatsss me."

"Anybody notice something weird going on here?"

"Aww crap."

"I don't believe this."

"... so this is what this place is like."

The one man who had entered through the doorway was no longer there.

Well... he was, just not as anyone would remember him. And in six different parts. The first to speak was a large and rather muscular looking man with dark skin accentuated by his long crimson hair and sparkling red eyes. He was wearing the same clothes as Rage had been earlier, although somehow he had managed to fit two large, leathery red wings through the jacket on his back. Perhaps it was just an illusion, but....

The second with the slippery tongue was a far cry from his brethren. Lacking the majestic wings (or anything remotely majestic) his crumpled, hunched form would make one think he should have fallen over by now. Covered in scars, he stood in stark contrast with limp, purple hair hanging over his face and hiding his eyes, which to most would have looked white from disuse. He seemed to crack his bony knuckled quite a bit, as well, and all of his clothing looked torn and particularly mangled.

The third looked the closest to the man who had entered through the doorway, although even then he looked vastly different. Instead of his long green hair, he had a fairly short, dark brown buzz cut. He lacked the scars from before, and although his eye color stayed the same his skin seemed to be a bit lighter than before. He carried a katana at his hip as before, and he seemed to be the most puzzled of all about what had just happened.

To his side was a child, no older than seven, who seemed to be a scaled-down version of the man at his side, even in the clothes he wore. His hair, however, was a bright shade of green, tied in a rat's tail at the back. He looked wholly unsurprised.

And next to him was a teenager, probably about fifteen or sixteen, who Owle might mistake for Axel at first. He had a scar across the bridge of his nose, the same bright green hair of the child next to him (albeit longer), and seemed to look around with a sense of wonder and amazement.

Finally stood Sakura, same as before but with clothes more fitting for her size. Like the man of the same age nearby, her hair was brown, although she kept the same skin color as before. She held the other katana, in the same place at her hip, and also looking around with curiosity at just what was going on. She was the only one that may have captured anyone's stares, though.

"What? What are you looking at?"

"Think he'll like it, Watts?"

"Beh be'ah will dahm lieh'ih, Kal."

There were only a few days to go before the Heaven or Hell 2008 Finals, as two figures stood outside the rebuilt Firebrand. The taller of the two was shielding his eyes from the sun, riding along as a simple shimmer along with each wave that rolled onto the sand. The shorter, however, had an oversized Viking helmet to cover his rotund and rather short frame.

"You know that this one's your fault, don't you?"

"... ach."

"Think you could lay off my son for a bit? Considering he destroyed the place once, you got it destroyed... kind of balances things out, don't you figure?"

"... Kal. She'h'ep beh'fer eh cheng'me'mahn."

It wouldn't be ready for business again just yet... but it was a start.

A petite woman, slender yet curvaceous in build held two pieces of paper clutched in her hand. Long pointed ears peeked out from crimson hair, but it was short. Where only a day before there had been ankle length hair that swirled about her like an incarnadine tempest, it had been cut at about jaw length. Only two chunks, one on either side of her doll-like face, just in front of her ears retained their length. But the same lush lips, the same dark-lashed golden eyes--

Teira stood in front of the Firebrand tavern uncertainly, the flowing black of her clothes fluttering about her figure as she took a deep breath. It smelled faintly of fire... of ash and smoke. But more recent was the smell of sweet, itchy smell of sawdust, the biting smell stain and of paint.

Around her neck hung a big pair of headphones, Stuffed in some pocket, was a g-pod, music surrounding her-- a song that had been stuck in her head lately.

'The light in your eyes keeps fading out
Nights falling deeper in the heart'

She folded up the first piece of paper, a sheet with directions drawn on it. Directions no longer needed as she'd reached her destination. She had gone to find Rage to talk to about the second item she held, a handwritten note he'd sent her, asking to talk... but he'd been out. When she asked where, she'd been directed here. She looked at the note again.

'Hiding the truth and crashing down
My baby's a dancer in the dark'

His words made her chest feel tight-- but after that dream... after talking to Vahn... she felt like maybe Rage was the one who could understand her best of all.

Swallowing, she rested her hand on the door and pushed it open cautiously, letting her eyes adjust as she called out.

"Hello?"

She stepped further into the tavern, letting the door close with a soft 'click' behind her as she made her way to where Rage was standing, stopping just a few feet from him and looking to where he was looking with some amount of interest.

Is that him?

She looked at the information on the poster and understood the severity of it. But it seemed old-- And Rage was standing in front of her now. A little worse for wear maybe, but he was here.

His words echoed loudly in her head, causing her to frown. When she spoke, she tried to mute the bitter irony she tasted.

"Which one?"

'Your sight is dying but you keep on trying to save your boy
You keep on lying but your false illusions will be destroyed'

The hand holding the note shook, as she fought a wave of nausea. Tears stung her eyes as anger warmed her body. She didn't know what to say...

"I---"

She sucked in a breath... or at least went through the motion of it, muscle memory.

"---don't know."

It sounded weak. She stared at the floor, holding her shaking hands in front of her.

"Tei'raesia Kos. It's the name my nii-chan gave me... the name I remember as mine. My life started when nii-chan gave me this body, this name... almost a year ago.

...

...

... But if I believe THEM... then I have also been called Sierra'est'a'ra'lian. I remember her Alexander! I-- I remember HER, not ME it's-- It's different! Like seeing though someone else's eyes!"

'You heard it calling, but you turned your face, never played your part
Your heart ain't singing, but you dance away like a falling star'