Welcome to Gaia! ::

A little late in the morning, Finn finally came shuffling out of his room. As always, he looked as immaculate as one could manage getting ready in a dark room with no power or hot water to speak of. His clothes were clean, neat, well fitting, and if anyone ever bothered to check the tags, and knew their fashion, expensive. As always, he wore boots, and as usual, they were of the cowboy variety. He wore his jacket, but without it's magenta belts, knowing that in this heat he would likely just be shrugging it off later to wear tied around his waist anyways, as much as he hated to do so. It was just so..messy, he thought with some amount of distaste.

Though his hair was perfectly styled and his clothes were perfectly neat, he moved sluggishly, his eyes a bit pink with dark circles beneath, as though he hadn't been sleeping well. As if to punctuate this, he yawned into a fist as he made his way into the hallway and pushed his door closed before setting off down the hall at a languid pace, not even bothering to glance around him to see if anybody he might know was nearby, just too tired to care.

Anybody stalking him should have had no trouble keeping up.

Finn really hadn't gone far when he felt something digging into the bottom of his foot. A pebble maybe, from his time spent helping with the farming up on the volcano, or perhaps just sand from the beach. Annoyed, he stopped, placing a hand against what he thought was a wall as he reached down to fumble for his boot and pull it off.

What he wasn't paying attention to was the fact that the wall was actually a door, and what he wasn't expecting was for it to move beneath his hand as it was swung inwards, effectively causing him to fall sideways into the room beyond with a small, possibly unmanly yelp and a thud.

There was some surprised laughter from the person who occupied the room, high, girlish giggles and a fair bit of embarassed cursing from Finn as he pushed himself back up to a sitting position, face turning a brilliant shade of red, hair and clothes all a mess after he had spent ages making himself look good enough to actually leave his room.

More words were exchanged, Finn eventually laughing at his own misfortune himself, turning on the charm for the pretty lady before hoisting himself to his feet and stumbling out of the room, and turning to head back to his own.

There was no way he was continuing on with his hair and clothes in so much disarray.

Glancing up, he couldn't help but notice that Lina---- no wait, Stormy's-- roommate had been behind him. Oh dear god, had she just watched all of that happen? He tried to avoid making direct eye contact with her.

Oh god damnit, was she going to try and hit him up for a chat? Knowing that she was Stormy's roommate and that they were apparently quite close did not give Finn the best impression of this Nevada girl, as he was not the biggest fan of Stormy herself. Still, she was a pretty thing, definitely easy on the eyes, and Finn had told himself over and over that he needed to at least make an effort to not be a total a** to these people since it was very possible he would be covering their actual asses at any given time.

But then, of course, with that particular tone of voice she enacted upon him, he couldn't help but smirk in his oh so sardonic way when he stopped just outside of his door and turned his gaze towards her. Maybe just this once he would let loose his restraints a little bit.

"I don't know what you thought you heard, sweet cheeks, but from where I was standing it sounded more like squeals of delight. And what can I say? I guess I'm just that good. Pity I've been left with all this pent up- energy - now. Don't suppose you'd like to give me a hand with that?" He reached over and turned the handle on his rooms door, letting it swing inward.

"You're free to say no, of course. Though in that case I will just have to use my imagination. Two girls sharing a dorm together, overcome with curiosity and open to a little experimentation. Oh yes, I think I can definitely work with that."

Finn's smirk didn't leave his face. Despite everything that she said, if anything, it just grew wider, and somehow very, very smug. As though he knew something she didn't. It was a look he pulled off well, as it was one he used as a weapon many times in the past, knowing that it usually riled people up more when they saw that they couldn't phase him with words.

"Thirty seconds. You think telling me that not getting off in thirty seconds is an insult? Darling, are you only getting any from virgin boys that go off prematurely? Because let me tell you now that you are sorely missing out on the way things are supposed to be. If you need a personal and very private lesson, feel free to give my door a rap anytime and I'll be more than willing to show you, and then you can find out for yourself that there are no issues to be had."

At this point he turned to lean his back on the wall next to the door frame, arms coming up to cross over his chest. Oh yes, this one amused him greatly, and now he was actually more then happy to continue to interact with her, with verbal prods to every button he could find and push and decipher just what made this girl tick.

He barked a laugh at her descriptions, and let his eyes actually light up as though giving each one some serious thought. "Oh my, not your type indeed. Still, I must thank you for all of that extra mental imagery, always good to mix it up a bit. Though now you're just confusing me, as I believe we already established my stamina and going power, and yet earlier you tried to make that in insult, and now something quite the opposite. Maybe I was wrong about you. Maybe you haven't been having some bad bedroom experiences but instead, none at all. In which case, I have to ask, do you have some kind of issues?" He made a show of letting his eyes flick down before back up to look her in the eye. "Is that why you shot down my buddy Jack in favor of cuddling? Oh man it all makes sense now." He gave another laugh and shook his head with an amused sigh.

"Never mind then. Invitation no longer extended. I don't want whatever you're carrying."

And oh look, here came the threats! How incredibly precious~ Still smiling like this was the greatest form of entertainment he'd ever encountered, Finn replied. "I just bet you did. Stormy never could keep her mouth shut, not even when she knew what was good for her. But don't worry your pretty head about it, as far as your little b***h goes, we already had a chat, and she knows where I stand. If it weren't for the fact that we have to work together, I'd happily have nothing to do with her."

He went so far as the reach out at though to give Nevada a condescending pat on the head at the end of all of that, then made a face and curled his fingers back as though thinking better of it at the last second. "Now, if you'll just excuse me, you darling ray of sunshine, I have a little business to attend to." He rolled away from the wall and to the empty door frame, giving her his back, a gesture that would commonly mean 'and we're done here'.

Finn was done. Nearly everything Nevada had left to say to him, he was already dismissing, save for the parts he actually found interesting enough to store away for later. Like the fact that she called Jack charming, implying that despite being Stormy's roommate, she didn't know who he actually was. So, what he could glean from that was two things, and maybe even a third. Stormy didn't know Jack was there. Stormy hadn't told Nevada anything about him, yet somehow, someway knew that her and Finn had a history.

Or

Nevada was just guessing at said history, and really, didn't know as much as she was letting on. After all, why would Stormy have anything to say about Finn, but nothing about Jack, who was the real threat to her mentality? Finn was about fit to burst out laughing by the time he was taking a step over the threshold and back into his room, because holy s**t how ******** funny was all of this.

And then something unexpected happened. His collar was yanked back so that the front of his jacket dug into his neck, cutting off his breath for just a moment as he was hauled backwards quite bodily and pushed back into the wall he had just come from. His face, to begin with, was blank, dull, almost unbelieving of what was happening, which was probably good, because it hid the absolute livid fury that lashed within, fueled even further by the way Trynt hissed in alarm, then snarled so loud in protective, righteous anger that Finn thought it was impossible that nobody else could hear.

But he was practiced at keeping up a calm facade even when all he wanted was to strike out, attack back. His face maintained it's carefully blank composure, his smile, for the moment, gone, while she said her piece. Through it all, Trynt hissed threats that Nevada couldn't hear, and urged Finn to do something, to react, to do something.

Finn ignored him, and stayed where he was, relaxing his tensed muscles to take on a casual stance between her arms, almost as though this was just where he had wanted to be all along. Non-threatening in any way whatsoever as she went on her little spiel, only parts of what she said actually giving him any small amount of worry. Like the part about ruining his fresh start, something he had talked to Stormy about, and the thought that she might have leaked that info to this complete stranger only enraged him further.

On the outside, however, he only smiled again. A baring of bright and clean teeth, surprisingly white for one who smoked as often as he did.

And then he chuckled.

"Assault on an unarmed hunter. Aren't there some rules against this kind of behaviour?" He made a show of thinking that one over, as though he could possibly forget the code of conduct he was given upon awakening, the one with the severe consequences.

He would let Nevada decide if he meant to report her on it or not.

Moving on. "Weren't you listening to what I said before? I want nothing to do with her. We spoke. We made our peace with each other, and if you're so worried about what I did to her in the past well...Let me give you the facts since you seem so awfully confused on the matter. I didn't do anything."

And that was the truth. He hadn't done a damn thing. There was not even a hint of a lie in that statement. If she wanted clarification, she could ask Stormy for herself. He had faith in one fact, and that was that Stormy wouldn't spread lies to make him look worse than he really was.

Not if she knew what was good for her.

Now, previously she hadn't been touching him, and that had been okay. He could handle being barricaded in by her arms. When she reached out to touch his chin though, he had to fight not to flinch and duck away from her, to remain looking as relaxed as he could possibly manage, and like none of this was phasing him in the slightest. And to make it more believable that he didn't give a s**t, he let his smile grow yet wider still , letting the amusement really show.

"You know who you should really be watching out for?" He asked, again appearing unphased by her threats. "Stormy's ex. The big Ex." He could have said it. He could have said it was Jack. He could have watched her reaction to that and savored it like it was christmas morning and he was five years old again unwrapping the greatest gift he had yet to be given. But no, he would save it, because that would make it all so much the more sweeter in the end, and he would actually let her continue to believe that the man she knew as Jack was nothing more than a 'charming giant'. "Because he's here, darling, and when he find's out that Stormy is as well...."

Well, he would let her figure that one out for herself.

"Now." He continued on rather calmly. All smug smiles. All politeness. "Kindly take your ******** hands off of me, you stupid cyclops c**t." He growled that last part, his face changing drastically to something cold and dangerous. He'd never struck a woman, not physically at least. And though this one was tempting him sorely in that regard, he did something else instead.

He spit in her face. Or, more accurately, directly towards her eye.

It had been a normal two weeks. That should have tipped her off that karma was about to give her the payload of shitastic events, starting with this.

But Stormy was oblivious to her impending doom, a mug of bitter coffee in her hands as she walked back to her dorm. Sugar was quickly becoming scarce now; she should have thought to stash away packets while they were plentiful . . . And speaking of sugar, she ought to pry about Nevada's candy stash . . . A little sweetness to end the day after doing her load of paperwork sounded amazing right about now. She did not recognize what was going on when she first went down the hall of the dorms: it was Nevada, she recognized, and it was also Finn--their hair and coats were distinct, respectively. It was when she noticed that it wasn't the distance that made them look so squished together, however, that she started to see something was up.

And then she saw the familiar runes on Leroy.

"Nevada!" The startled cry escaped her as she jogged over, a little bit of coffee splashing onto her top. "Wh-What are you--What's going on??" She glanced at Finn as if doing so might get an answer, her eyes wide and her expression shocked. Don't make assumptions, she told herself, you know what assumptions did. But she aimed it at her best friend as well, more than a little horrified that this was taking place so close to their room.

"N-Nevada, put the gun down . . . You'll get in serious trouble . . ."

"Fine." Leroy was gone, and Nevada took a step back, Her ever present cat smile replaced the anger, her gaze only softening as she looked at Stormy. "Finn and I had a little chat about Island life." She reached over to pat Stormy on the head. "You've spilled coffee on your top little sister." She turned away from Finn, as if he didn't exsist. As if the whole moment was normal for her. Even if she was still seething, she balanced it down into the mild lazy smirk and gait.

And as if as soon as Stormy came, He was nothing more to her than an ant, and she had been the boot. Regardless of his smile, and regardless of his cold demeanor, She considered this a battle she had walked away with a win.

How wrong was she. How many things did she set in motion for this.

She smiled down at Stormy again, hoping that her friend would not pay for something she was doing to protect her from.

"Was paperwork tiring, do you want to share in some chocolate?"