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Rose: Headaches

After leaving the study, where Taran and Lord Avondale needed time to talk nib0hc:1="http://www.gaiaonline.com/journal/?mode=view&u=1284398]privately, Rose put a hand to her head. She had only just gotten home, and her head was splitting. She headed back toward the kitchen, and poured herself a glass of water. She hopped up onto the kitchen-bar counter (that connected the kitchen and breakfast bar) and drank the water.

But she stopped, glass half pulled back away from her lips but making no movement to go further towards the counter as she watched a full-grown tiger walk into her kitchen. It walked right past her, through the kitchen and then through the dining area, and then out the sliding glass door which opened and then closed after it.

Rose rubbed her eyes. Either she was hallucinating, or her headache was so big that she was not able to comprehend some basic things. I remember coming home. Se'rox and someone else were in the garden, ANTIE-D was in the living room with some animals, and Taran and Lord Avondale were in the study. Did I give an order to ANTIE-D concerning all those animals before I checked to see if Lord Avondale and Taran needed anything? I... I don't think I did, but I might have given her the authority to take care of it on her own?

She shook her head. No matter how the situation had been handled, obviously it had been. She wondered how many of the animals were going to be staying, and what else ANTIE-D had come up with.

"ANTIE?" Rose called out to the house computer. "Please make sure that you and your android counterpart refrain from making any major decisions regarding the running of the household as long as I am here to make them, understand?"

ANTIE's voice spoke over the kitchen speakers. "Yes, Rose. Please confirm, then, and make adjustments as you deem necessary to the housing and job assignments to the animals which are to be staying with us, then." With that, the printer in the nook in the wall opposite the breakfast bar counter spouted out a paper.

Hopping up from the counter, Rose looked over the paper. On it was a photo of the animals- it looked like a group shot, which seemed amazing, and on it ANTIE had numbered each animal, and referenced that to the animal's name and a housing assignment, job assignment, and security clearance. Looking them over, Rose noted that Pepper, the tiger who had walked through, was in charge of primary perimeter defence, and keeping other pets from entering the premisis. He (or she?) was to sleep outdoors or in the house on the first floor, and had security clearance for everything except the basement.

The whole list was like that, and she nodded. It all made sense, right down to the calico fish named Rebecca whose housing assignment was to be a fish tank ANTIE-D would construct that ran through and connected four parts of the house (which seemed awesome!) and whose job was... to do whatever she could to make herself most useful. Rose laughed. A useful goldfish? That aught to be interesting!

Rose finished the water, and then left the kitchen, folding the paper and putting it in her back pocket. Her head still hurt, so she decided to lie on the couch for a moment.

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Taran: Guilt

As Lord Avondale responded to Rose's accusations so calmly, Taran couldn't help but keep glancing at him. He knew that the dragoon would not take this lightly. So when Rose asked what she had said wrong, Taran almost spoke. Instead, though, he gaped for a second, as Lord Avondale looked up at her with a freezing cold gaze that stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh no." Taran said, softly, the words barely beginning to escape his lips before Lord Avondale moved, but by the time the two tiny syllables had escaped him, Lord Avondale already had Rose held up by the throat.

If Taran had been anyone else, he would have thought the man- the dragon- had killed her. But he did not assume this, and yet was still amazed at what he saw next. Lord Avondale pulled tiny red ribbons from Rose's temple with great care and precision. Taran fought with himself. He wanted to protect Rose, to let no harm come to her, to stop Lord Avondale from any possible harm to Rose, and yet... yet Taran needed his help. He knew what- if not how exactly- Lord Avondale was doing. He was covering the truth, or, more likely, removing it from Rose. It was an ability Taran had never seen before, and he shuddered to see it used in his presence. And yet... and yet, even though it was Rose, sweet, gentle Rose, Taran knew this was necessary. She could not know. It would bring worlds of trouble to them both, and then to Lord Avondale, as well, would have suspicion near him.

Taran watched as Lord Avondale set Rose down- the whole procedure taking mere seconds- and Lord Avondale put on a charmed grin. Taran watched as color flooded back to her face and she regained consciousness before she could even fall down. Taran smiled, as Lord Avondale hinted that he should, and watched as Rose muttered a few things, and then let herself be guided right out of the room.

As the doors closed solidly behind her, Taran spun.

Ignoring Lord Avondale for the moment, Taran dashed to a console, and typed in some information. Months back- what seemed years, now- Taran had been given access codes to ANTIE-D that gave him full access to the entire computer. Quickly, he accessed the little feed Rose had gleaned from the study, and erased it completely, along with the signature of its erasure, and Rose's sequences of calling it up. All that was left was it being turned off as Lord Avondale and Taran entered the room.

Heaving a deep sigh of relief, Taran turned to Lord Avondale, eyes blazing with lightening bolts.

"That was unnecessary." Taran said quietly, anger strong in his voice. "She was no threat at all." he added, the surety and anger in his voice fading. "And... as long as she will be fine, I... I owe you my thanks." he finished, his voice becoming humble and degraded as he finished.

Never before in his entire life had Taran ever regretted his actions in keeping his identity a secret, until now. He simply hoped it would never be like this again, and that the next time would not be so painful, either.

"What... what did you do?" Taran asked finally. He felt he had to know, or he could never be right with what was done. He wasn't exactly sure he could ever be right with what was just done.

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Se'rox: Who to Hit First

Se'rox listened carefully as Zuchax III explained Xeona, and the oddness of her being here. As the other two Nobodies flipped into the garden, Se'rox wondered if Xeona was doing this against her will. Stranger things had happened.

But as the new Nobodies grew pretentious, and seemed to have a problem with Zuchax III, Se'rox was unable to react quickly enough to save Zuchax III from being hit and knocked back by something small and explosive that one of them had placed on him. However, she was able to summon a cushion of mud, that she then hardened back into earth, right underneath Zuchax III in order to cushion his fall and help him be able to regain his footing.

Facing the three Nobodies, who then began to bicker between themselves, Se'rox was not sure which one of them to hit first! But as Xeona stood up for Zuchax III and sent the other two away, Se'rox was taken aback. The Nobody had stuck up for Zuchax III rather than keep herself secure in her organization. One of the two said something about recruiting her when Zuchax III wasn't looking, which actually made Se'rox laugh, and she quickly prepared and sent a muddy earth-wave after the two, designed to knock them off their feet. It would miss Xeona, who had also turned and started to leave.

However, a much larger earth wave struck just moments before Se'rox's. Se'rox solidified the water and ground around her feet to keep her balance, and tried to figure out what had just happened, when the answer fell out of the sky ten feet from her.

Kaku landed in the rose patch, and was struggling with suitcases and such before Se'rox was able to realize that he had just crash landed. But he must have realized what he had done, as he scrambled out of the bush and towards the house quickly.

Realizing he was a friend of Rose's as well as Zuchax III's (since Kaku had, after all, thrown Zuchax III a gift), Se'rox determined that she would not hurt him. This time.

But Se'rox only half-watched as Zuchax III opened his present and put on what seemed like new armor. She was puzzled, a little. Something about what had happened just now made no sense to her. She tilted her head to the side for a moment, almost as if she was trying to listen to something strange.

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Rose: A Visitor?!

Moments after flopping on the couch, there was a huge earthquake- except that it was accompanied by a huge crash sound. Rose jumped up, and rushed into the living room to look outside. However, most of the pets were still in the living room, awaiting confirmation of all the information about their new lives at Rose's house, and she practically tripped over them to get to the window.

Once there, she was too late to see Kaku at all, and someone knocked at the door four times.

Scrambling back out of the living room and to the door, Rose opened it cautiously, with an attack spell at the ready.

However, finding Kaku on the porch instead made her drop the spell entirely.

"Kaku!" she called out, and practically yanked him inside. A few of the pets carefully picked up his suitcases and brought them inside. "How are you?" she asked quickly. "Where have you been? You'll never guess where I was! I went into space, and went to the fairy home planet, and met the nicest fairies and one annoying pixie. Of course, the pixie came back with me, but not before Dragon needed my help- or, at least, since she was flying the ship, I got to go. I'm not sure I was needed, but they didn't have time to drop me off. Anyways, we went and fought Renstock and rescued Xink and Nogard and then Wynn died but she's just fine now, except amnesiac. Dragon says TIkkit will fix her up right."

Rose smiled, and practically pulled Kaku down into a plush armchair before sitting on the ottoman herself. It was hard to tell her head was splitting, she seemed so excited. But the truth was, the rant would have been a lot worse (longer) had her head felt fine.

"So. What brings you over?" she asked, still as excited as before.