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"[color=d1fffc]You're right, Alex. You're right.[/color]"

Alja shoved herself to her feet, clenching her teeth. "[color=d1fffc]Our best chance is together, and it's...[i]really[/i] dumb to split up like this. We need to keep each other safe.[/color]" She heaved out a deep breath, screwing her eyes closed for a moment. She'd had a strange, disconcerting dream, but couldn't quite remember it...ah well. She'd think more about this when she had more time. Her eyes snapped open. "[color=d1fffc]I'll go see if I can find Benkei. Dunno where he went, but I'll find him.[/color]" 

She cracked her knuckles. She was [i]so incredibly antsy.[/i] The smart thing, she knew, would probably be to ask Alex what direction Benkei had gone. But she desperately needed to [i]move[/i]. And so, with a quick call back to Alex--"[color=d1fffc]If someone tries to take my armor, mind shootin' them in the side of the leg?[/color]"--she slogged out into the humid heat of Thorinn. She started sweating almost before she started walking. Kelly liked the cold, and Alja was the same similar; this kind of heat was something she could [i]really[/i], honestly do without. But, if nothing else...combined with the time since her last drink and the brief spat of unconsciousness, it sobered her up pretty quick. She made her way through the streets, keeping her eyes peeled for her fellow tank as she walked along the bank of the river. And as she moved, she tried to puzzle this out with her social brain:

[color=d1fffc][i]Alright. What caused this?[/i][/color]

Distrust of Kalie jumped to mind first. But no, that wasn't really it, was it? That was [i]Kazuki's[/i] deal. And, as she'd discovered from listening in on the argument, she knew that they were [i]brothers.[/i] She winced. That would make this hard. There was something that flickered in the back of her mind about the way he was acting--something familiar about him--but, though she pondered it, she couldn't place it.

Another breath. When she was dealing with bullies in high school, she'd learned a few breathing exercises to bury negative emotions like anger. And, as she'd just seen illustrated one more time, unleashing negative emotions tended to have...questionable results for her. So, the steady breathing continued as she compartmentalized.

And, before she could ponder it much more, she...well, she got lucky, and Benkei came into view. Alja's eyebrow quirked--[color=d1fffc][i]Priscilica?[/i][/color] No. Similar looking, but not her. Looked like they were talking about something serious. She took one more of those deep, steady breaths, thinking for a second about what she was going to say. And then she buried the last of her frustration and what remained of her [i]boiling anger[/i] deep down within her. Her thunderstorm eyebrows lightened for the first time since she'd woken up. And then:

"[color=d1fffc]Yo, boss.[/color]"

She walked up next to him, taking the other side from the pink-haired Priscilica lookalike and staring out over the river. "[color=d1fffc]Not gonna ask if you're okay, 'cause that's dumb. You're clearly not.[/color]" She stretched her arms over her head. "[color=d1fffc]You don't strike me as the type who's a fan of bein' pressed to talk. So I won't. But,[/color]" she turned, giving him a small smile, gentler than the typical fare, "[color=d1fffc]If you [i]want[/i] to talk, I'm always here.[/color]"