X Nation: Delirium Part 2 [Lynx]

[Taichi Negeel]

The fingers digging into his skin, tearing away his very being, Taichi had never known such pain. To have his flesh taken from his body piece by piece, there seemed to be no end to the suffering. “Ah!”

He shot up from the bed, screaming. He gasped, the pain was gone. The girl that was sleeping next to him woke up because of it. She sat up and worriedly asked if he was okay, but he didn’t hear it. He was still registering where he was and what happened, the laughter of the dream continuing in his head, the little girl from his dream proudly announcing herself. He stared into the distance with a troubled mind “Jessica?”

Hearing another woman’s name upset the girl. She got out of bed, picked her clothes off the floor and started to dress herself. Taichi convinced himself it was just a dream and tried to recall what happened, suddenly noticing the girl as he looked around him. It all came back to him, she was a tourist and he was giving her a personal tour of Magnolia. Of course his name wouldn’t be Taichi if he didn’t try and end up in her bed, or in this case, hotel room. He saw by the way she was dressing herself that she was upset. “Laurel? What’s wrong?”

The girl was half-dressed, wearing her undies and a t-shirt that read: I love Magnolia. She took on a firm position and crossed her arms, looking to the side with a pout. “Who’s Jessica?”

Taichi could slap himself at this moment, it was so dumb of him to have said that name out loud, but at the time he was really out of it. He got out of bed and took her hand into his own, trying to make eye contact. “Laurel, please. Look at me.”

He smiled when she looked, her eyes a deep purple that reminded him of a starry night. “Jessica is nobody, I promise.”

This reassured the girl and they ended up taking a shower and getting dressed for breakfast. He felt a bit sorry for her, for she clearly assumed that hitting the town for a whole day and him staying the night meant they were now dating. He was going to have to tell her the truth after breakfast, until that time he intended to enjoy her company. They had to mention their room number at a booth before they were allowed to access the dining area, various different kinds of food on display in the center of it. A self-serving breakfast experience, fruit, baked goods, heated foods underneath heating lamps and on heated platforms etc. Any normal citizen would be astounded at the amazing breakfast, it was one of the more expensive hotels after all.

Employees were constantly walking around to restock on plates, foods, and clean up after the guests. Laurel kissed Taichi on the lips before they grabbed themselves a plate and started filling it up with the various types of food, her light green shoulder length curly hair bouncing cheerfully with her step.

[Kelara no Kitsune]

Having awoken to find herself in a clsoed down and darkened fitness room, where she had gotten the massage to help her relax, the young singer and musician had, somehow, managed to drag herself to her hotel room. There had been quite a few messages for her, and there were definitely going to be an envoy on the way to assert her security, but for the night, she was strangely alone. There had been noone watching over her or standing guard by the door. Perhaps she had gotten a little paranoid from the strange nightmare that had felt incredibly real. Several times throughout the night she had woken up, gasping, looking around the room only to find it as completely empty as it had been when she had fallen asleep. When the morning finally came and she achieved a good excuse to get out of bed, she had immediately went downstairs to partake in the free breakfasst that came with being a celebrity.

The red hair and ears were clearly not super well kept, and she had a pair of black lines outlining her eyes. It was incredibly obvious that the night had been horrible on her, in many ways. Additionally, since the cart had crashed the other day, she had several blue and purple bruises across her delicate skin. Sitting at a table with eggs, bacon and coarse bread on a plate in front of her, she was slowly and softly nibbling away at it, bite by bite, clearly not content. There was far too much grease in this meal to her tastes. It wasn't anywhere near the standard that she had gotten used to, yet she couldn't make herself get up and claim that this free food she had been offered ought to be tossed in the bin. So she struggled through it, bite by bite...

...It was going fine, initially. The bites were slowly being swallowed, but eventually her finer tastes kicked in. Without much warning, an especially greasy bite of bacon and egg caused her body to heave on its own. First came a burp, as she desperately tried to hold her hands over her mouth. Then she, to much embarassment, threw the entirety of the dinner up onto her plate again, coughing and gasping for air, as staff came to her aid almost immediately. Greasy and disgusting! was what Kelara repeated a couple of times, before getting up from her seat, making several grimaces, before walking off in protest.

[Taichi Negeel]

Laurel had a cup on her plate filled with yoghurt and small pieces of fruit on top, next to it on her plate some crackers with cheese. Taichi on the other hand had more of a high carb appetite and filled his plate with sandwiches, richly bestrewn with cheese, egg, bacon, ham and meatball slices. It had Laurel staring at his plate with eyes of disbelief, unable to understand how that would even taste well together or be digestible in the early morning. They both had an orange juice with their food, but there was also milk, coffee, water and tea.

When they were done collecting their breakfast they went to the seating area and sat across from each other. Taichi only had eyes for two things, the girl and his sandwiches. He appeared to be in heaven as he ate his first bite, exaggerating how good it was with his gestures which amused the girl. She bared with his bad table manners only because she had a crush, eating in a way more sophisticated manner herself. When she was finished eating half of her bowl of yoghurt Taichi already started his second sandwich. She put her spoon back into the bowl for a moment and shyly fidgeted her fingers under the table, clearing her throat in a feminine manner to bring up the courage to make a request. “I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come over to Harujion with me tomorrow and meet my parents”

The male mage choked on his food at her offer, hitting his chest with his fist and then coughed it up. He quickly gulped down his orange juice to recover from what just happened, his eyes still big from shock and a big grin of disbelief on his face. “Parents! Right! Uhm, hold that thought!”

This was bad, their breakfast wasn’t even over and she was already making it impossible for him to break it to her gently. If he didn’t think on his words really carefully he would be dealing with an angry, heartbroken girl, something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Thus he made a swift escape, walking off towards the drinking area to refill his cup. He could barely believe his eyes when he saw an awkwardly familiar face getting up from a table towards his direction, seemingly complaining all the while. He put the empty cup on a nearby table and approached. “You!”

He pointed at her as he closed in, very surprised to see her here. “You’re the girl from the play!”

It was an impulsive act, not realizing that he was referring to a dream and not a memory until after he opened his mouth.

[Kelara no Kitsune]

The manager of the restaurant area wasn't going to let Kelara simply walk out unattended. If he was incapable of getting her to reconsider and allow them to cook her a personal meal, then the reputation of the entire hotel could go down the drain. There was nothing worse than getting incredibly bad publicity from celebrities when it came to establishing a business. Even more so when a business was doing somewhat poorly. So there he was, offering her something to drink and the potential of guiding her back to her chair to replace the unsatisfactory meal with something much better. The discussion was going back and forth, as she was quenching her thirst in some soda that, much to her delight, was washing away the horrendous taste of greasy egg. In the middle of drinking however, a voice interrupted her thought process as someone was addressing her directly in a rather strange manner. Usually when someone addressed her, it was out of wonder or surprise. This here, sounded more like someone being offended. Turning her face, her eyes quickly widened as she spat the soda out all over the manager who was attempting to soothe her. It was the boy from the dream! Pointing her finger at him in disbelief, she then immediately started accusing him of all sorts of things.

"Y-you're the damn pervert that snook into my room!" Shaking her head, that couldn't be true. There hadn't been any way that the whole spiel was not a dream scenario. Biting her own lip, she narrowed her eyes, inspecting him closely. It didn't seem like he had expected seeing her either. It was strange. Surely if he had been in her room, he would've known that he would find her there. Even more so, he wouldn't openly reveal it. "I need some answers. In fact, I demand them." Kelara said, her tails fluttering behind her as she crossed her arms in a demonstrative and confrontative manner. Now that she had turned her attention towards him, most of the gathering was turning their attention towards him. Basically, all eyes were now on him, rather than the food, so the manager took this opportunity to side with Kelara, beginning to preach about how usurping the privacy of such a fair young lady was absolutely horrendous!

[Taichi Negeel]

When Taichi and Kelara were talking Laurel’s attention shifted from her yoghurt to her date. From the distance she clearly recognized it was the popular star, and almost dropped her spoon. Taichi knew her? How? Confused and lightly upset she ran over to them. If he had connections with Kelara then what was he doing with a nobody like herself? She shook her head, not liking that thought one bit. Though when she arrived she discovered Taichi and Kelara were in fact on bad terms, and all sorts of worrisome accusations were thrown at him.

Laurel put her hands in front of her mouth in shock and looked at Taichi with disbelief. “You sneaked into her room? Is that…?”

She was about to cry, tears welling up in her eyes “..Is Jessica her codename?”

Taichi thought he was going crazy, all these people talking in on him, accusing him of being some kind of pervert. It was maddening since he didn’t get the chance to speak, and nobody would hear him if they talked right through what he had to say. But now that his date was on the brink of crying he reached his limit. He grabbed the whistle that hung around his neck and blew it hard, a loud sound that overruled anyone that was talking and got everyone to cover their ears. “Shut up!”

His own anger took him by surprise, not used to yelling out of negative emotions. He calmed down and pulled Laurel into his chest, then looked accusingly at Kelara and the hotel staff. “You’re upsetting my date. I was with her the whole night and that’s the truth”

Laurel wrapped her arms around his waist and felt relieved, yet still insecure about herself. She nodded to the staff when they asked if her if this was true, making this an awkward situation. Taichi was worried, but tried not to let it show. He looked directly at Kelara “I had a creepy dream, one that felt very real, and you were in it.”

His attention then turned back to his date, he wanted to comfort her about her fear of rivalry, even though it would be pointless in the end. He spoke to her calmly with a kind smile “Jessica was just a weird little girl, from the same dream. Don’t worry about it”

[Kelara no Kitsune]

This was beyond preposterous, and the scene was attracting a lot of unwanted attention to her. In fact, mostly around the entire dining area, people had stopped eating and talking completely to see what was going on with the popstar and the unknown figures. The two of them, Laurel and Taichi, were clearly some kind of thing, couple, or whatever. The two of them were talking as if this little runt of a boy had even a snowball's chance in hell of knowing Kelara, let alone having a fling with her. Absurd, absolutely absurd! First the fox-like woman seemed shocked. Then it dropped to a stare of are you kidding me?! Then when Taichi spouted out his shut up Kelara waved her hands in front of her face in a surrendering motion of disgust. "You know what, I don't have the time to deal with every ludicrous fan that has dreamt about me." Looking over to Laurel, Kelara gave off the worst stare that she possibly could. At this point the whole nightly scenario wasn't even something she cared about. "..and you, miss, better keep your pet in line. He's clearly sleepwalking, and if I catch him stalking me in any way shape or form again, I guarantee that he'll go straight to jail. Hmphf!.. Fanatics."

Turning around to face the hotel manager, the young idol pointed directly at him. "I'll make sure you recieve my sincerest complaints in regards to service and security of this place. Good day, sir." With that, she started stepping off in her high heels. Having made an appointment to be picked up as soon as possible, Kelara figured she would spend the rest of her day shopping and walking around Magnolia. What an awful awful two days these had turned out to be. Opening the door to the outside, the warmth of the sun immediately greeted her skin, while the freshness of a breeze gave her a much needed spark of energy. Taking a deep breath and letting it degrade into a soft sigh, she stepped out into the open with the hotel manager looking after her. One could almost feel the tears of utter disappointment run down his cheeks as the defeated man turned around to head into the kitchen, likely to explain the disgrace that he had just witnessed and experienced. Bad for business, indeed.

[Taichi Negeel]

Kelara recognized him, he was sure of it. This could only mean that they had the same dream, which couldn´t have happened by coincidence. Something was up, and if the horrific things that devoured their flesh in the dream were real then he and Kelara were in grave danger. However impossible the star was behaving towards him and his date, he was still worried for her safety. Laurel was very upset by her words, frowning in disbelief that someone she admired could be so nasty in real life. Taichi rested his hands on her shoulders and sighed through his nose. “I’m sorry Laurel. I’m sure she doesn’t mean it. We had a pretty creepy dream, and she’s probably still freaked out about it. I’ll go talk to her.”

She nodded, but was all but happy that he had to go, not sure what to think of the situation anymore. If Kelara was right then Taichi would be far from sane, and if Taichi was right it meant he and a celebrity shared a dream, which sounded absurd and hard to believe. Either option was bad news to her ears.

Taichi ran into the direction that Kelara went, following her tracks until he ended up outside. He looked around and saw her standing near the sidewalk. He was very serious about this, and if he was going to get through to her he had to throw in some serious smooth-talking skills. Of course he wanted nothing more but to tell her off for her lack of respect towards his date, but right now it was more important that they wouldn’t fall victim to whoever was taunting them. He cleared his throat as to announce his presence, eyes closed and slowly opening to see if he had her attention. Either way he approached carefully, knowing the star appreciated personal space. “You have every right to be mad at me, and I’m sorry for having to bother you again”

He stared at her with regretful eyes, trying his best to show that he was sorry. “I just wanted to apologize, I’m just.. stupid, I guess. So, I’m sorry.”

Attempting to get on her good side wasn’t easy, but if anyone could do it, it was him. Taichi had a talent for acting and smooth talking, and this situation demanded it. “You probably don’t care much for what I have to say, but apologizing is the least I could do if I’m going to waste your time. And I wouldn’t dare do that unless it’s of great importance, so please.”

He even put his hands together near his torso, to enhance his plea. “I’m scared for you. Someone put us in a dream, wanted us to suffer. And whoever it is or however powerful they are, they’re after us.”