In the Arena....

[Rem Severem]

Tamnir blanched slightly, his cheeks pinkening in embarrassment for a brief moment before he recomposed himself. OMG! I forgot about that! He cleared his throat as he scrambled for a response. Aergan's sudden declaration of his thoughts was kinda like getting hit in the solar plexus with an iron club. "If you can just pluck my thoughts out of the air then you should know already." He said with a shrug. Cursing himself silently when he heard his mom's long intake of air. Not in front of them mom, please! He pleaded silently. To his shock and almost to his horror his mom's laughter split the air.

"Oh Tamnir, love." Rem said wiping a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry. I didn't introduce you." Making her way over to him she placed a hand on his shoulder coaxing him to stand next to her. He was a good half head taller than her. "Every one, this is my son Tamnir. I told him stories about our time together to put him to sleep, Aergan was his favorite."

Tamnir wished he could shrink. And while you're at it mom you might as well pull out the baby pictures and tell them all of my potty training days. He thought indignantly as his teenage pride was bruised. "Mom." He mumbled wanting to say something, but the proud and happy look on her face stifled any scalding remark he might make. With a resigned sigh he muttered a quick. "Nice to meet you."  

[onime]

Kai winced as she became covered in goo. She didn't know what exotemporal waste or what glowstick mean. And Akume's concept of harmless still left her wary.

"Yes... no one has died, apparently." She echoed Rem's response. She tried wiping as much of the sludge as she could with her hands. The glopped with a sickening squelch on floor. "Though I can't say that we didn't come close to it, thanks to Jack."

She looked around at everyone and sighed, partly in relief and the other part in anxiety. More people meant more responsibility in her contract. She had to make sure they only caused mayhem within the Arena's dimension. If they were even PART of something that went against any rules the Council could "terminate" them, or terminate everyone in the Arena and the Arena itself. And they seemed to attract exactly that kind of trouble. Though she wasn't about to shoo them off. Besides the blood and carnage, that would defeat the purpose of the Arena.

Kai caught the eye of Tamnir and knew instantly he was Rem's son. She observed him from head to toe and caught her features and mannerisms on him. She didn't go out to greet him or try to acknowledge other than with her stare. The whole concept of his existance, and (with a twitch) HOW he came into existance, seemed unreal to her. Rem was her sister, best friend and, sometimes, mother. She wasn't SUPPOSED to have a kid.  

[Zenzen810]

Zaira, who was now sitting on the floor, watched people from her memories pop out of the woodwork with great interest.
The dragon, who had seemingly gone unnoticed somehow, lowered it's head and nudged Zaira, who giggled and hugged his nose "I'm sorry, this is more people then you're used to hunh?" she said quietly to it "It's okay, we can be done for today." and with that it shrunk back down to being fist sized and roosted on her shoulder, taking cover under a bit of her hair.
Getting up she dusted herself off and headed over to the trio who had most recently entered the arena.
"See Jack, this is why you wear saftey goggles" she said jokingly as she ran a finger down his shoulder, taking up a layer of soot with it then shaking that very finger at him while making a"Tsk tsk tsk." noise.

 

[onime]

"Or don't become a human torch around a gas station."

Kai raised an amused eyebrow. "Aergan? Jeez kid, I know you're Rem's son but that still doesn't give you any excuse to be THAT jacked up to favor someone like that."

As she said the last part, she shot Aergan a smirk. She then turned towards Zaira.

"And how have you been?"  

[xrysos]

Aergan's eyebrow shot up skeptically. (He also ignored Kai's teasing.) "If I didn't know you as well as I did, I'd think you were lying. Actually, I still do." He took a step closer to them (which put him directly in front of them) and put a finger on his forehead, then removed it and shook his hand slightly, as if he were burned and returned to his previous post and sat down thoughtfully. "That's odd. No offense, but I can't really imagine you having kids." He sank deeper into thought. "I can't really imagine the level of insanity required to on the man's part to produce an offspring with you." He glanced over at Kai. "Mine turned out okay." He paused. "Well...the ones you don't know, at any rate." He set back down to think.

The portal ripped back open, and Akume and Kazan leaped out of it, and it closed behind them, closing off a shot of bright purple fire. Akume was laughing uncontrollably. "You'll never believe this! There was a temporyvern living in there!" He looked at Kai's attempt to clean herself up. "Ah, don't worry, Kai! Exotemporal waste is nothing to worry about. It's just the gunk that forms when time is warped or altered. Happens a lot near black holes or odd little pockets in the void like this one." He sighed and noticed Tamnir for the first time. "Who's 'e?"

 

[Maxim Gorky]

Rick awoke from his daze, the memories and visions still flooding his mind. The memories of his father were what kept his attention the most, even doing as much as distracting him from the pain of falling onto solid ground, despite the fact that it knocked the wind out of him.

He stood slowly, regaining his composure as well as he could. He looked about his surroundings and its inhabitants, recognizing both it and most of them from the visions.

The random goo, the sudden and extreme darkness that seemed to reach out for eons past the walls of the arena, and the blue-flame candles that were lit around the top. It was all so strange to Rick, yet so familiar at the same time.

Rick approached the woman he'd met in the town, and with a confused yet slightly forceful tone, he spoke. "Uhm... I know, now, that my dad was here, but where exactly is here?"  

[Jiyan Cala]

(catch up post)
Jack tried to clean himself a little when Kai said her comment "shutup jerk" Zaria ran her finger down his shoulder and he hesitated with the shivver going down his back before speeking "uhh... yeah... you really thing goggles are going to help this!?" he pointed at himself "man I need to take a shower..." Jack looked at Rem's son, "Wait, how old is he? hasnt it only been 3 years? how did he...? Aergan, remind me to burn you when I get the chance." Hey turned back to Zaria, "by the way, whos your pet? he.. or she.. is awesome"  

[Zenzen810]

Zaira shrugged at Kai's question "Eh, good enough I suppose. I haven't left here in a while. I've been training and studying in Sotaru's lab, honing my skills." She pointed to the dragon on her shoulder, then to the azure & sable orbs hovering in circles around her "These are just a few of the things I've come up with."
She raised an eyebrow at Jack"It's a boy. And believe it or not, I created him. I've been working on a changling syrum, so farm I've only managed to get it to effect size. Haven't thought of a name for him yet tho. You want to name him?" The dragon took flight from her shoulder and landed on Jacks head, sniffing him and smelling the soot that covered his body it recognized him as something else that could 'breathe' fire and chirrped happily at him.
As the other kid, who was as yet unidentified to her, approched Kai, Zaira got a blank stare on her face and pointed at him "So. . . everyone else is popping out little ones, this one yours?" she playfully/sarcasticly asked her.

 

[onime]

Kai turned to Rick. "I see you're finally part of the living, or the damned, or both works. As for where you are, quite simply it's an arena floating in a great empty void. This will be your home and your death sentence if you don't start training like hell."

She got an inch from him, a menacing look in her eye. "And I can't garuntee that I won't be the one to carry that sentence out."

Suddenly, she snapped up straight and ridged, twisting her head so sharply that she got a painful creak in her spine and probably gave Rick a few lashes with some hair locks that spun with her. She bore her stunned expression into Zaira and, in a split second, her expression went through a series of changes. After her brain caught up to the concept, she gave an almost pained wince that went from deep red, to sickly pale, and finally to a hint of green.

"Uh-um.... ah.... n-no.... I mean... just... impossi-....no...."

Part of her wanted to make a snide comment about how her son would never be something like Rick or how stupid Zaira was for thinking that, but she just couldn't reorganize her brain enough to think up something outside of the random gibberish that just came out of her mouth.

((Psst.... Rem. I just realized something. Our avis look like twins. XD))  

[Jiyan Cala]

Jack looked curiosly at the orbs, "what do they do" Jack was staring at the dragon flaying around him "hes cool!" then Jack was caught off guard by Zaria for the second time, "me?! name him??? shoot I dont know... Ive always liked Angel... but... it just doesnt seem to fit with a dragon, hmm... how about, gosh I cant think of anything other than the ones from thoes weird human movies, I dont think he'd like Norbert... how about Cain? just an idea..." Jack said a lillt embarrased by his monologue  

[Rem Severem]

((Yeah I noticed that too. xd ))

Rem shot Aergan a death glare giving her son's shoulder one last squeeze before purposefully wiping goo on him. Her glare turned into a pout. "What? Why?" She was too taken aback by Aergan's total lack of faith in her to register Jack's confusion.

Tamnir shook his head. He looked over to the woman known as Kai for some kind of key as to how to deal with the situation but she seemed keen on finding words to verbally destroy the Zaira woman with. Chaos it was pure chaos. No wonder his mom was a little... unstable. Tamnir snorted. "Your good kids must've took after their mother."

((Rem is the most embarrassing mother in existence. xd I need to fix that.))  

[Zenzen810]

((I broke Kai's brain o.o))

Zaira restrained so hard from laughing, she was still the same old Kai.
Well, perhaps not same old, her sword would have come out waaaay sooner had she been same old, but she still got the desired effect and was giggling like crazy on the inside.
Luckily, Jack gave her something else to think about because if she kept going she knew she was going to burst out laughing and then that would have been the end of her life right there "The orbs? They are physical manifestations of my super-condensed elemental powers." She said, seeing if she could lose him in the flurry of big words, she was having fun with this.
"Norbert..?" she disfigured her face while trying to figure out who in their right mind would name something 'Norbert', then her eyebrows perked up when he suggested something else and she jumped at it so that he wouldn't suggest something else along the lines of 'Norbert' "Cain, I like it. Do you like it, Cain?" the dragon chirrped and clicked in approval, then hiccuped and a little burst of flame came out of his nose out into the air.

 

[xrysos]

((Gaaah! Too many things at once! Rem, he WAS talking to me, right? It seems like I can't quite make out a lot of the things that people are saying now. @_@ I can't understand Tako's posting style anymore...[/whine]))

Aergan let out a quick laugh at Kai's complete lack of words, and looked at Rem's pout. "Hey, it's just...I would never expect it." He grinned. "Hell, it hasn't even been that long. How old is he?" He then raised an eyebrow at Tamnir, but bit his tongue so as to prevent the slight edge in his voice to come out in a reply. Instead, he turned to look at the new person, whom Zaira jokingly implied to be Kai's offspring, which, in his opinion, was impossible. "It definitely isn't Kai's." He grinned. "If Kai ever reproduced, the universe would implode. Not to mention, I think Kai's would be slightly more...ah..." He leaned back on his hands to try to find a nicer way of saying what he wanted to. "Let's say...aggressive."

Kazan, seeming to ignore all else that was going on, trotted around the group so that he was a bit nearer to Jack, whom he had not met before, and seemed that everyone else knew. He stared at him with his usual blank, incomprehensible stare. The new arrivals could wait until later.

Akume got a bit irritated to hear his dad put down, and his inquiry dropped. "Hey!" he said louder than before. "Who's the mental midget?!" The air dropped half a degree at his irritation. He didn't like being ignored.

 

[Rem Severem]

((Sorry Nana, Yes Tamnir WAS talking to you. And I'm guessing that Tamnir pissed Akume off. Oh and the text between the || is mind speak at Aergan. Tamnir hasn't learned how to do that yet.))

Rem's pout dropped and she let a half smile worm it's way onto her lips. "He's 15, I took him to a place where time was a bit quicker paced." Her face sobered slightly ||You see, Torn decided to have a senior moment and kinda lead an old stalker back to the right track.|| She cracked a grin and bravely held back a torrent of laughter when she heard Zaira and Akume talking about Kai and babies. Giving her son a poke in the arm and a quick smile she trotted over to Kai and the other kid. She eyeballed their interaction and smiled. "So Kai, who is the boy, he looks kinda familiar." She said placing a hand on her chin and cocking her head slightly to the side.

Tamnir leveled a gaze at Akume but didn't move. Don't I get slack for being a teenager? "It wasn't an insult to you. If anything you should be pissed at your..." He glanced at the monolith that was Aergan. "Dad." The word tasted bitter sweet on his tongue.  

[xrysos]

((Ah. Oh, you DO remember that Akume IS somewhere around 9'? Ahhhh, he's warmongering~! Sorry...))

Aergan twitched and tried to contain his laughter, both at what Rem had said, and the 'he looks familiar comment', coupled with the 'Kai has a kid' scenario. He failed, turned into a cat to save space, and promptly burst into waves of feline laughter.

Akume stood up a bit straighter and pointed a deriding finger at Tamnir. "I don't give a damn about that, Dad can hold his own. What I'm mad about is a) how you think you know my mother well enough to speak about her, and b) how my inquiry as to who the hell you are was ignored."

Aergan broke his laughter enough to send a stern kitty-glare over Akume. "Oh, calm down. He's Rem's son, Tamnir, apparently. There, that reason is cleared up."