Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Do you ever get the feeling that there's somebody up there - " Her handwave clearly indicated a higher floor of the buildings, rather than some celestial force. " - who gets off on watching the two of us writhe?" She popped the lollipop out of her mouth, and padded over to him. She'd been ready for this mission for a while, even if it did sound ridiculous. Maebe was the mistress of lies; faking a marriage didn't seem entirely out of her spectrum. Faking a marriage to Taym, however, really was.

"Honestly. There's like, what. A hundred Hunters? At least a couple dozen of them Moon? But over and over, somebody picks us up out of the dollhouse, puts us next to one another, and goes - " She smushed her hands together angrily. "Now kiss."

The lollipop went back in her mouth. She was wearing one of the only decent looking dresses she owned, which was exquisitely too expensive for the likes of her. It also made her look older than she really was, which was a first for her - she loved looking younger. But married women weren't 13, especially not rich married women.

In America, at least.

"Did you at least brush your teeth? You'd better have brushed your teeth."

Taym knew that grin was going to make her sick, and he was right. She shuddered, and all pretense of her joke died with her revulsion. It was such a stark contrast to look at someone through the eyes of love, versus through the eyes of hate. She wondered if America really did think he was handsome, when all she could see was that dead look in his eyes, the hollowness of his cheeks, and that vicious grin.

She was missing something.

"What? You're not going to kiss me the whole time we're doing this? Well s**t, there goes all my plans to throw up in your mouth. You ruin everything, Obah dieyah. Or should I call you Aaron now? Or maybe just, snuggle cupcake."

And just like that, the fun was back.

"Well. Good thing I'm about as far from middle class as you can get. I'm too pretty to be eliminated." She reached into the dress, cut too low to be safe, and plumped up her cleavage without shame. "After you, hubby."

Walking through the portal was the easy part. Hiding the spark of anger that glittered playfully in her eyes whenever she looked at Taym's face was really going to be the difficult part. She saw him turning back towards her, and smugly wondered if he was about to blow their cover before they'd even gotten there. It pleased her just enough to make her smile before he crashed her brief moment of happiness by wrapping his arm around her and handing her a ring.

That smile had frozen on her face, but the rest of it was sheer terror. As good of a liar as Maebe was, he'd effectively shut her mind down, and she was working on nothing but fumes.

Her hand rose, for him to slip her ring on. She continued to stare at him, with that same shock still smile on her face, but her mouth opened and closed slightly like a dying fish. No sound came from her. Taym had won. Taym had unconditionally won.

Bolting sounded good right about now.

She let him steer her, because she'd lost the ability to fight back, and she wouldn't retrieve it for at least a good ten minutes. He had begun to sound more like himself again, which helped to knock her out of the coma of horror he'd put her in, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that had settled down on her shoulders and in her chest like a cold. He'd shaken her to the core, and it was unclear exactly why.

"I'm not," She whispered out, her voice a shaky falsetto. "Not blowing it." But the reminder of the triplets were the reason that cold feeling of dread in her chest refused to go away, and she realized that whatever cruel hands of fate kept bringing her and Taym together also had a lust for watching them suffer.

All the fun bled out of their excursion in that moment.

She tried to take long, slow breathes to calm down, but her heart was racing and indicated no signs of stopping. So her fingernails dug into his arm as he continued to hold her, and she used him like a solid post, holding on as she tried to collect herself and gently slide that mask on her face.

"I won't." The shaking was gone, but she hadn't quite mastered the emotionless nature of her normal voice just yet. As a result, she just sounded sad.

Maybe that would be the nature of their fake relationship. Caroline Oliver's marriage was clearly on the rocks. Maybe her husband had a mistress on the side. A ginger mistress. Oh, but that was delightful.

And just like that, the fun was back.

She'd been quiet, and wasn't surprised that her reward for silence was his hand pulling her back and shaking her. She expected him to tell her to stop moping, but instead his words sounded more like a brutal attempt to give her some confidence in her abilities. It didn't work, of course - there was no way to fill a full cup - but it served to rattle her enough to have to pause, letting him enter the box before he did. She turned to stare at the door, sneered in confusion and contempt, and then transformed with the swiftness of a magical princess into a woman so delighted in herself and her surroundings that she practically glowed with contentment.

Every person in the box was given a single second of eye contact, before she wrapped her coat up tight around her, and picked out the most prominent, obnoxious seat in the box. She sat down in it and turned to the side, crossing her legs until they hung over the edge and bobbed noticeably. Every inch of her screamed look at me, I am the star.

"What a charming little cubby we're in." She sing-songed, to no one in particular- or more specifically, to everyone at once. "So cozy and warm." Condescending compliments were her trademark. "We can really get to know one another in here. I'll start. Mrs. Caroline Oliver. Please, someone get me a brandy and a new talking partner for this performance, my husband is such a bore."

Her laughter tinkled like little bells ringing inside of champagne glasses served warm over the pits of hell.