Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Upon nearing the Calabaster Temple, you are immediately aware of one thing. Water. Everywhere. There is almost something of a lake surrounding the temple, the odd structure sticking out of the water like an eerie omen. Anthrax curses at the sight.]

Anthrax: ********! No! Water?! What...? [She treads over to the edge of the lake and looks around, frustrated.] Where did all this accursed water come from?? This place has no history of flooding! What the hell?! [She scowls.] I can see the entrance... but how are we ALL supposed to get over there? [You're about to suggest 'swimming?', but then you realize how truly deep the lake is and swallow. The Calabaster Temple must've resided in something of a crater. Anthrax continues to rant, but can't really think of a solution. You then ask about any possible monsters that might be in this area, and she scoffs.]

Angry Anthrax: I don't care about any monster except the one that's in THAT temple! [She spits out the words, pointing in the structure's direction, before whirling and looking back at the people accompanying her.] Okay, you know what, forget the monster for now. New mission! Find a way across that water!

The end of the world comes quietly.
In the darkness in which there is no hope, one needs a beacon of light to guide them out of despair.

The perfect words never crossed my mind,
'cause there was n o t h i n g in there but YOU.
I felt every once of me screaming out.
But the sound was trapped deep in me.








Anthrax thought for a moment, licking the corner of her mouth absentmindedly as she did so, staring out over the water at its edge.

Then she blinked, scowled, and rolled her eyes, shoving Dorian pointedly in the shoulder as she did so.

"Shut up," she stated simply before her scowl deepened. "But I'm not comfortable with sending them out into unknown territory. We have no idea what could be down there!"

Well, at least she was thinking with her brain instead of her hormones now.

Dorian had been wary when Karali had joined up for the quest. As a con, he had an excellent sense for when people didn't match up to their appearances. While he couldn't quite tell why, there was something deeply unsettling about her. He supposed that a quest as shady as this one, however, was bound to attract equally shady people. What they were doing was perfectly legal, but it was also a completely self-serving mission. Anthrax would get her new pet and everyone else would get a prize. It was a quest for those who looked out for themselves. Nobody was going to join this out of the goodness of their heart. So Karali obviously had something deeper going on underneath her seemingly sweet surface.

Still though, despite his initial worries, Dorian had almost forgotten about the girl when the time for the actual quest came around. He had gotten too distracted by Anthrax's anger and...assets. Her reaction to his suggestion was amusing. It was funny how she would hit him sometimes, even if her pushes felt much more like gentle taps to him. Dorian was always much more concerned with fightings her monsters than with fighting her. His moment of being right faded, however, as Anthrax expressed concern over sending her cards out down there. It was a pretty genuine concern, although he had to admit that he'd almost rather risk it. Then again, he was never as connected to most of the cards as she was. He assumed that it was some human thing that he'd forgotten about.

Dorian's attention snapped back to Karali once she spoke, finally noticing her arrival. She offered a ride, and, while it made him uncomfortable, he assumed that it would probably be their best option. "You wanna wait for the others, doll?" They could probably handle well enough with just the three of them, Dorian thought, but figured that it was best to leave things up to Anthrax. This was her quest after all.