Felaryan High School Silliness

(Looks like I don't have much to do right now. I'll wait for Terry and Saen to begin interacting or whatever they're going to do before deciding.)

Deep within Tarynn's psyche, something raw and primal cried out for bloody retribution. Elsewhere, pride was clamouring that she needed to stay calm and collected to keep her dignity about her. Yet another part wanted to give up, go find somewhere nice and quiet, and cry. A myriad of thoughts and emotions swirled in her head; before they were all consolidated in a plan marked only by a single twitch of her eye. With one swift movement, she turned to Bael and latched onto his toned left bicep with her left hand. Pulling firmly and eagerly, she flashed him her most dazzling smile.

"Come, Bael!" she said, using his given name for the first time. "With the court filling up like this we need to secure a place to sit before we get our food."

She started to walk quickly towards where Mara and Saen were sitting, past many very obviously vacant tables and chairs. As she moved, she slotted her slender right arm neatly between his left elbow and torso, curling her limb round it in a symbol of possessive affection - praying that he would roll with it. As they neared the other duo her keen elven senses picked up snippets of the conversation, and from the physical details mentioned it was obvious that Saen was talking about her. "First he ditches me, then he talks about me as if I'm sort of loser trophy to impress others girls!" she thought angrily, squeezing Bael's linked arm a little tighter. As they reached the couple, she cleared her throat loudly and put on a grin that showed too many teeth to be natural.

"Oh, how nice it is to see you here, Saen!" she said, cocking her head in mock surprise. "We were just about to have lunch, together. May we join you?"


(If I've taken too much of an active role here I'm sorry, I'll take things slower next time!)

"Tarynn!" Saen said excited upon hearing her voice then when the image before him sunk in his heart plumetted. "I-I uh.." His mind began to race.

'This fiend has stolen miss tarynn from me! She must be under a spell!...It...it can't be that she...has found another so soon. No, I was a fool! I have failed her and this man most be the epitome of gentlemanly and lordly ways. I wouldn't have stood a chance anyway...'

"Of course miss Taryn please sit." Saen says trying to smile and bow out of pursuit of Tarynn gracefully but his fists would not obey him. They we're clenched. They wanted to fight for her the last way he knew how.

(sorry for not being online as much, I'm having some pretty intense family issues right now.)

Mara kept talking to Saen, seeing the person near the entrance - which was directly behind Saen a couple dozen feet or so - but not caring a whole lot. She was focusing on trying to cheer him up. Mara paid no mind to Tarynn, and was picking up on her instincts and plans for retribution even less so! She took a while eating her lunch though, bite by bite as a habit she picked up from her adoptive family.

Bael had no idea what was going on, but blushed a bit as she nabbed his arm, bringing him closer to her side trying to avoid brushing his bicep against the side of her breast while they walked toward's Saen's table. Bael saw him sitting with a girl, pointed it out to himself mentally, and then looked at Tarynn when she smiled sweet as a gumdrop. Or in this case, chocolate. He thought it unusual behavior for her, but went with it just as she had hoped. He figured he knew exactly what was going on, but didn't voice anything.

Mara smiled at Tarynn, waving to her from her seat.

"Oh hello Tarynn! Saen was just telling me how worried he was about you!" She said feigning to be utterly oblivious to what was going on, then turned to take another bite, looking away from everyone.

Bael glanced at Mara, but found it hard to feel anything toward her as Tarynn had taken command of him at the moment.

Tarynn was initially surprised by Saen's lack of reaction to their arrival - or, more accurately, his lack of reaction. However, her sharp vision picked up on his trembling fists, knuckles whitened from the force of clenching. Victory fanfare began to play in her head as she thought "Look at him: he wants to take a swing at Bael! He's so jealous! Now he knows his folly in ever passing up such a fine elven girl." Strangely, although it was mission accomplished on the plan front, she felt a yawning hollow feeling spread from her chest to her throat, as if the situation they were in was somehow still upsetting to her. She had no time to meditate on the empty feeling though, as she was addressed by the unfamiliar fairy. Her words confused Tarynn - was she trying to cover for Saen? Was she making some cruel joke? She couldn't get a good read on the fairy as she kept turning away, so she stayed as non-committal as she could.

"Is that so?" she replied, with a smile that could curdle milk, before turning back to Saen. "Ah, we must collect our food first before we can dine all together. Excuse us. Come, Bael!"

She pulled on Bael's arm, drawing him away in the direction of the thankfully now diminishing queue. Once she judged they were far enough away she released his firm bicep hurriedly and looked away to disguise the blush of shame that had blemished her complexion. She felt bad that she had dragged Bael into this but hoped that a fellow elf would understand her pride.

"Look, Bael, I- I- " she began, stammering. "I am so sorry for involving you in all this. I'm ashamed to say it's a matter of pride, as an elf and as a w- woman. I will understand if you don't want to play along anymore."

"Hurry back." Saen said cheerfully his fists still unable to unclench.

Once they left his and Mara's company his demeanor of being calm left and he sank in depression. "I-I...this is horrible?! Tarynn has found someone new! And did you see him?! He was the perfect gentleman! What am I to him? I'm just a ragamuffin...I should just run while I have the chance. If I see them together much longer I may throw a punch!"

"Oh, my pleasure Tarynn." He said as she dragged him away. He thought to himself about what she was embarrassed about: he was being dragged into what felt to him like something between Tarynn and Saen, and now he was sort of like her fake boyfriend. She was pretty, and an elf, but he felt that she still had something with Saen that would need to be worked out first. Bael didn't want to be hated by some other guy like that because of a situation like this.

"Well, you admitted that, and that's very hard to do with others. I'll help if I can, but my fear is being dragged into something that would be best if you just worked it out between you and Saen. I mean, it was just awkward in class...no mistake." Bael replied honestly, and tried to get a look into her eyes after she turned away to prevent him from seeing the flush.

Mara nodded subtly and started thinking to herself, not really responding to Saen.

"Hm..." she said in acknowledgement of Saen speaking.

"Hurry back!" Mara said cheefully, still acting like it was a cheerful meet up of friends, and smiled at Tarynn as she gave Mara a rotten smile. The fairy pretended not to noticed, and sighed to herself. Why did she sit at this table?

That was when Zelkova arrived at the lunchroom. Like a techno-warrior with a heads-up-display, she picked Tarynn out of the crowd almost immediately, and started swim-floating her way towards her.

"Hey, princess!" she shouted, her antagonistic grin unwavering. "I got a bone to pick with you!"

Outside, Exilon heard the familiar voice coming from in the lunchroom and turned to look.

"Miss Tarynn is in danger!" Saen said standing heroically and ready to rush in to Tarynn's aid, seeing the villianous mermaid again emerge from what ever watery pit of evil she came from. Before he charged off he remembered that she didn't want anything to do with him anymore...she had someone new.

"Pardon me Mara." Saen bows to the fairy. "I must....leave. I have studying to do." So he gathered his things and headed to the library.

Mara nodded and waved.

"Good luck with things!"

She continued eating where she sat if only to finish before going to hang out with someone else. If she finished by before Tarynn was, the fairy would walk past the elven girl's line of sight and through the doors to the cafeteria. If not, she'd react to whatever happens next between Tarynn, Bael, Saen, and Zelkova.

Tarynn reluctantly turned her head back to look into Bael's eyes, finding the sympathy that lay within. She knew he was right - it was foolish to drag him into this. She gave a deep, shuddering sigh, then curtly nodded her head.

"You are most profoundly astute, Tûrsidhion-san," she mumbled, reverting back to her formal ways. "Thank you for working alongside me, even if it made you uncomfortable. It was... What I thought I needed. Please feel free to excuse yourself from the company of Saen and that slu- I mean, fairy. I won't make any more demands on you."

Suddenly, puncturing her gentle egocentric musings, came the strident voice that she had almost forgotten to dread hearing again. A well-travelled frown blossomed on her face, and she turned to face the savage grin of Zelkova as she floated towards her. Folding her arms in a defensive stance, she muted her frown into a less brutal but still unpleasant smirk and met her gaze boldly.

"Ah, Zelkova-san," she said, politely. "I wasn't aware the canteen was serving your usual fare of maggoty fish bait today. Or did they request your presence to scrape some sea salt from your greasy scalp to season the food?"

Zelkova's grin instantly disappeared, replaced with a frown that equaled Tarynn's, with however much more rage behind it. She said, "Can the snarky horseshit. You and I have a problem." The mermaid leaned in close to Tarynn, getting all right up in her face with her angry, furrowed brow, pointing her index finger almost right against the elf's nose.

"Because of you and your pathetic, helpless charade, my best friend is sitting in detention right now!"

Bael doodled a note on a spare bit of paper, and then handed it to Tarynn. He stood there with an alleviated feeling of not being bound to Tarynn's current struggle, but there was a struggle in his being telling him it'd be a dick move to abandon her here like this. He didn't want to get on the bad side of a Mermaid though.

"Oh well, can't please everyone." He thought to himself.

"Excuse me, um...Zelkova-san was it?" He was unsure of exactly how to continue. "I know I shouldn't get between you two, but what...er...happened?" This wasn't to try and be a knight-in-shining armor for Tarynn, but at least a friend. He knew Tarynn more than Zelkova, and that prompted him to come to the Elf's aid more so than the Mermaid's.

Tarynn's perpetually over-zealous mind crunched hurriedly through her memory banks trying to figure out what the sinister mermaid was going on about. She suddenly remembered the spectacle she had been 'treated' to by the humbly ample sea krait naga earlier; how she had tried to apologise for Zelkova's behaviour. A pang of guilt lapped at her for not considering what it had been like for the naga to go through that, but that small ripple was washed away by indigence for how that scenario was now being blamed on her.

Tarynn stood her ground; though leaned back slightly in response to the mermaid's fiery glare. Feeling the brush of paper on her arm she was reminded of Bael's presence. She palmed the note he gave her but didn't yet read it - never averting the focus of her own deathly cold eyes from Zelkova's gaze that burned with hellfire. Her heart pounded like a snare drum, but she tried to remain calm and cool on the outside. She wished she had some sort of signal she could shine into the sky, calling for the support she so desperately needed: like Nyaha... or Saen.

"While I am saddened to hear of her unjust incarceration," she began, oddly tonelessly, before Zelkova could answer Bael. "it would not have happened had she not felt obliged to apologise for your childish antics; or if you had apologised yourself. The blame rests with you."


(Sorry, Bael, did you want to include details on what the note said? I can always have her read it later. Just didn't want to make any assumptions about how your character would react in this scenario.)

Zelkova was a bit taken aback, and retreated somewhat from her proximity to Tarynn. She had expected her to say that, she knew it was coming. But still Zelkova found herself surprised by the elf's words. She floated in place for a moment, trying to mentally recollect herself. "...Whatever! Even if she was right, which she totally isn't, she can't talk to me like that!"

"I'd do anything for Brine!" Zelkova retorted. Subconsciously, she was attempting to convince herself of this more than Tarynn. "If she's hurt, it's my job to get back at whoever made it happen! And in this case, that's you!"

Saen ran back to the aid of Tarynn! Wielding word in hand like a master! Kicking Bael in the face and making Zelkova a better person by talking things through!....Is what he would have liked to do but instead he reached the library and entered. He searched the book selves for some fantasy literature and took one about a knight. He found a seat alone and began to read. He sighed to himself wondering how could a day that started so well be going this bad.

Bael saw they weren't paying attention to him. He thought the spectacle Zelkova and the Sea-Krait Naga made next to their class was obvious, and got that there was some animosity there, but what exactly? So he cleared his throat, and spoke louder so that they could hear him.

"Excuse me you two, but I'd really like to know what's going on here."

He heard Zelkova blame Tarynn for her friend's detention - but wasn't it Zelkova's friend who made her own decision to disturb class? How was it Tarynn's fault? He wondered.

Tarynn wanted to do nothing more than to run far away from the mermaid in front of her - she wanted to look at Bael, at the lunch hall, anything. However, she stayed the course and continued staring into Zelkova's eyes; determined not to give any ground or show any sign of weakness to her opponent. Her heartbeat had increased to a roar in her ears as she tried to remain calm. Eyes still locked on Zelkova she tried to coolly answer Bael's question.

"This animal you see before you, Tûrsidhion-san," she began, "is the infamous Zelkova. You may remember her senseless disturbance of our psychology class? We had 'met' before that. It appears she is now blaming me for the detention given to her friend who only came to make right what Zelkova made wrong."

A shiver of primal sadism rustled through Tarynn as her mind rattled onto taking a different tact. She knocked her smirk up a gear, and titled her chin up a little so as to look down her nose as she addressed the mermaid again.

"Well, if that really is your 'job', Zelkova-san," she gloated, her voice rising in pitch ever so disconcertingly. "As it's your deeds that led to her trouble, if you truly don't wish for your friend to suffer anymore, you need to stop being her friend! Cut her loose and let yourself sink! No good can come to such a pure creature from associating with the likes of you."

Did that...Did she really just suggest she was hurting her own friend? Again?!?!

"You ignorant, self-absorbed, prettied-up boar!!!" Zelkova growled. She wasn't sure what pissed her off more; this prissy know-it-all telling her that she was hurting her own friend, or the nagging feeling at the back of her mind that she was right. Whatever it was, it caused Zelkova's rage to peak. She lifted her arm, reared back her tightly-clenched fist, and glared at Tarynn with a fire in her eyes as hot and fiery as Hell itself, and then...tapping.

Exilon - the acid-trip-colored neko - was standing behind Zelkova, tapping her foot. Her arms were crossed, and she wore an expression that could only mean "I'm very disappointed in you." Zelkova turned to see all of this with her own eye, and her fist lowered.

"Yeah?" said Zelkova. Exilon's foot stopped tapping, and her posture shifted, but the overall expression she was giving off didn't change.

"You think you can tell me what to do?" Zelkova asked. "You don't know what I'm going through!" Exilon's expression changed slightly, becoming more of a pitying frown.

"It's not your concern. Just leave me alone." In response to this, Exilon unfolded her arms and reached out to Zelkova. The mermaid retreated from the neko's touch and floated over her head, leaving the lunch room.

Bael continued to stand next to Tarynn and looked over at her as she explained to him what was going on, and remembered much of what she spoke to be true from the disturbance during the beginning of their class.

"...Yeah, I see now..."

He thought the insult was rather intense though even if Zelkova did blame Tarynn needlessly. He listened to Zelkova and Exilon next though, thinking that it must be harder on Exilon to see her friend act like that. He didn't want to say what he thought of Zelkova at the moment, since it was nothing nice. Lunch was still ticking though, and the fighting wasted the precious few minutes of his time that it took, and tried not to get too grumpy about it.

"Well I hope everything works out alright..."

When Zelkova raised her fist, Tarynn's entire body tensed up painfully. Being a natural-born coward with no combat training, a cold shock ran up her spine as her primal nature instinctively prepared for the inevitable required dodge. When the neko intervened Tarynn didn't unwind, remaining tightly tensed and ready to react. It was only when Zelkova floated away did her muscles finally relax, making her visibly deflate as she lost all poise from her being. She turned at Bael's words, giving him a smile that was weak as she felt right at that moment. She leaned on a nearby table, any pretense at a cool demeanour lost as her supporting arm shook wildly with adrenaline.

"Ah... Thank you for... Everything, Tûrsidhion-san," she said, in a shuddering voice. "You must be famished. Please, go and eat. I need some time alone right now."

Appetite lost below a sea of churning emotions and thoughts, she started to make her way very slowly towards the door, as if waiting for something. Although one might have thought she had the upper hand in her earlier confrontation with the mermaid she still walked with the unmistakable gait of a miserable and defeated woman.

Exilon watched Zelkova retreat, then let out a silent sigh. Looking to the elf she'd been fighting with, the neko considered offering a shoulder to cry on or whatever she needed to comfort herself. But she wondered if maybe she wouldn't trust her if Exilon seemed to be in league with Zelkova. She decided it better not to make things worse by trying to make them better, and simply left the lunchroom.

Just then Nyaha came backing through the door Tarynn was headed towards, wheeling some kind of wooden statue-looking thing as he opened the door with his rather juicy buttocks. He didn't see anyone; he wasn't watching where he was going. If nothing was done, he was liable to back right into the elf!

Bael nodded to Tarynn and wished her well before heading off to eat by himself, intending on relaxing during the rest of the lunch period. He took his lunch and walked over toward the pool area to watch the mermaids while he ate. He noticed everyone in their own group having fun. There were many pretty girls together, and many boys who looked at the other girls, or just hung out with each other. There were a few periods left until the end of the day, and thinking about the end of the day made him anxious for the weekend.