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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#A84B5E][b]Location:[/b][/color] The Laughing Worg Tavern, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
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[sub][i]Sociopath. Bitch. Heartless.[/i][/sub]

Alja was in her face. Screaming. But Rael couldn’t hear her. Hanako couldn’t. As she remained stone-faced as the woman criticized her for her comments in her head there was a lot more going on.

“See, I told you they hate you.” She heard. “Everything about you is rotten. How does it feel to have the real world be exactly the same as the virtual world? How’s your escapism going to work?”

She clenched her fists as a reflex as the numbness seemed to go away in seconds. She looked up at Alja and there was no cocky smirk or attitude. Just defiance. Her comments about bad blood made sense, but she had no interest in placating to a broken down child. Kalie was not all that much older than she was. Yet Alja didn’t consider her own age. Her own experiences. Did she think she had seen bodies mangled and ripped apart before? That she experienced death in anything but a passing way? It wasn’t her fault Kalie was weak. It wasn’t her fault [i]Alja[/i] was weak. Better to be seen as unfeeling and strong than emotive and weak. 

She went to say something but then someone else decided to interject.

[i]Clank![/i]

Dariel dropped the plate on the counter as he moved in a flash behind the larger woman who was the same height as he was.

[b][color=896f40]“That’s [i]enough.[/i]”[/color][/b] He said, as enhancement magic surged in his body and Alja was [i]lifted[/i] off the ground before he put her down in a seat a few paces back. For Alja this would be a new experience in many ways, but also in that a [i]NPC[/i]—a [i]denizen[/i] had [i]touched[/i] her. As she found herself seated he looked at her and pointed point blank between her eyes. [color=896f40]“What do you think this is? The gladiatorial arena in Theremia? Have you lost your goddamn mind, girl?”[/color]
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