The Candle Lighting Ceremony

[Lil]

Nope don't worry. They haven't moved an inch
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There had been a smile curving her lips when as she watched him laugh at her little impersonation of Sapphy. It wasn't meant to be amusing; it'd been a half-serious attempt at imitating her GF but if it managed to elicit a hearty laugh from Lawric, she wouldn't dream of complainingl.


"Umm... I guess I'll watch you from the crowd?" Her smile faded quickly upon his statement, her mouth opening slightly in surprise. She drooped her head, trying not to let the dip in her spirits show.

"If that's what you feel comfortable doing...I guess it's up to you." She replied with a barely-there smile, mustering a hollow laugh at his tease. She briefly considered persuading him to accompany her upstage, but it would merely be making him awkward and worsen whatever kind of sensations he had lately. It was a ceremony for honouring the dead, it would be callous to expect him to go through that in wide open view of the audience.

She allowed him to lead her into the quad, extricating her hand from his grasp gently as they neared the veranda.

"I guess I'll see you later...if I don't get lost in the crowd or something." She gave him a weak little wave, and started ascending the steps deliberately choosing a seat in the backrow, behind a blonde head who was probably Zacke.

With a small sigh she sank into the seat.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze raised an eyebrow at the scene Gemma was causing; her own brother had to drag her away.

How embarassing. This was the reason Blaze didn't drink, she didn't want to be seen in such a pathetic state. Plus her last experience with drinking taught her that alcohol made her somewhat 'friendly' with boys. This is why she would never drink alcohol again. EVER.

Blaze's thoughts about her past experience with alcohol were rudely interrupted when her gaze caught upon something very disturbing on the ballroom floor. It was very, very disturbing.

Blaze's eyes bulged, almost popping from their sockets. "REESE AND STARDUST ARE KISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She roared loudly. Without warning she wrenched the camcorder out of Hadrian's hands and shot it at the two seeDs sucking face.

[stardust]

Omg, I meant to reply to this SOONER. But gahh....!!sdjfas;ljdsa!!!

AHAHAHAHA BLAZE!!! XD
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As soon as Reese did the unexpected, someone suddenly shouted in the background and Stardust knew she had to act fast.

She pushed Reese away from her and suddenly lifted her hand to slap his face. As the resounding slap sunk in her ears, she realized she had hit Reese---for the first time ever since she had known him. It was by total reflex. The same thing happened last time. And she felt guilty

"Sor--" she paused. "....sorry."

Swallowing, she resisted the urge to not say something. This was the last thing she needed. Why would he do that? It wasn't like him at all. The Reese she was most familiar with would rather walk away than do something...stupid. She stepped back and looked for anything to say in the ground.

"Not friends, huh?" she finally spat, trying to laugh it off. He didn't want her as a friend? "I will stand by you, no matter what, I really will. But not in this way. This is the last thing I want. It's the same for you, isn't it?" With everything that had happened, this was the last thing they all needed. "It's this stupid Ball."

She exhaled and silently looked at the people making their way out of the ballroom. She noticed Blaze was back and was holding a camcorder.

Camcorder?

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian was still busy grinning at the sight of Jax assisting his sister when he heard Blaze go hysterical about the two people kissing.

"Stardust and Reese?" he spun around, seeing Blaze already comfortably filming the scene. The slapping and the dramatic, emo-ness were all being captured in his camcorder. That was a great shot. Perfect for their little plan. However, he felt something was wrong. He saw that the pinkhead was looking in their direction. Blaze didn't seem to mind, but he was feeling bad vibes for his camcorder. It was like a sixth sense. He would feel it everytime someone was bound to crush his gadgets.

"This is why you don't shout when you're trying to film something secretly." Hadrian yanked Blaze's wrist and pulled her towards the ballroom exist. If Stardust ran towards them right now, they'd just run for it. There was no way he'd lose all those datas in his camcorder now.

He snatched the camcorder in her hand and swerved towards the corner once they exited the double-doors.

"You hella suck at filming candid shots, don't you know that?" he commented Blaze as they blend with the moving crowd in the hallway. "If we try to publicize this, who do you think she'll come after first? After seeing you with a damn camcorder."

Scratching his head, he slipped the camcorder in his pocket. "So, want me to publicize this?" He smiled.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze snatched her wrist back out of Hadrian's grasp and punched him in the shoulder. "Stop dragging me away!!" she shot, "and it wasn't meant to be candid, they were freakin' kissing in the middle of a public ballroom so they got what they deserved. Anyone can film a public event!"

Blaze's face split into a wide grin as she recalled the rejection of the kiss, and the slap. She felt like an evil genius! Ooh.. she had to tell Zacke. Blaze had always thought Reese and Stardust liked each other. I guess notttt!! This was almost better than her original plan of hacking into Stardust's Balamb account. Still, it was more of a complete degredation of Reese, not Stardust. Therefore the hack plan still had to go into effect.

"Of course I want you to publicize this! I want it to be played all over the Garden announcement monitors for everyone to see!!" Blaze grinned and clapped, applauding her prank. She wondered where Zacke was, it was strange but Hadrian seemed to be taking over his place as her accomplice in crime.

[Reese]

Reese stood frozen, staring down at her blankly, his lips parted and his body numb. All but for the side of his jaw. The sting of her slap was still fresh, still blazing. He didn't hear Blaze, or any of the other commotion going on around them. Even the things Stardust was saying barely registered to him, he couldn't hear above his own inner turmoil. He couldn't believe what she had done.

It was like that until she was done. Until she was done spitting and hissing and generally overreacting, like she always fucking did. Staring down at her--down at that sour little face she was so good at wearing, he suddenly felt his blood boiling. He wanted to retaliate. To reach out and grab her by her obnoxious pink hair with one hand and strangle her with the other. The anger burned deeply. It was only a few moments, and she had gone from everything he adored to everything he hated most. He wanted to make her feel pain, too. He didn't move one muscle, though. He simply stared.

"I loved you."

It was a hollow hiss. The only words that would come to him, the only coherent sentence he could piece together.

He didn't linger after that, turning and striding mutely and purposefully toward the door. Maybe her head was in the right place. Maybe he wasn't good enough for her anymore. SeeD Amaerick had been her guy, right? Her 'Poster Boy for Evil.' Of all the juvenile things... He laughed bitterly at the thought, regardless of who might be looking. At this point, he didn't care how crazy he looked. He might as well have lost his mind.

As angry as he was with her, he hated himself even more.

[Zacke]

Zacke had noticed Jun approaching the stage. She had an odd look on her face. Some kind of thoughts were definitely distracting her. He couldn't really tell whether they were good or bad.

He twisted around in his seat not long after she sat behind him.

"So what's up with you and that guy who supposedly died?" he asked bluntly, obviously careless of being nosy. After the sentence came out, he realized he probably could have worded it in a better way, but decided he didn't care much about that either.

He stared back at her, almost childlike with his curiosity, but genuinely concerned.

[raydensharpola]

Blah post >_< And oh, I let Stella and Rayden sit next to Zacke, hope that's okay?

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Rayden quirked an eyebrow at Stella's direction. Hadrian is gay? Could've fooled me

"So what you're effectively saying is...Blaze is just a smoke screen for his...gayness?" Rayden laughed heartily, brinigng an arm around her shoulders. "You tell the most interesting stories Stella."

He began to usher her towards the quad when a small commotion starring Stardust and the guy who had spent an entire week in the infirmary...Reese, was it?... in the centre of the drama. He couldn't help but stop to 'admire' the scene, from beginning to end until Blaze started yelling something and Stardust gave Reese a slap. His mouth began to drop slightly ajar. Stardust was infamous for her violence but...this was bordering on psycho territory.

You don't just slap people in public unless you were airing dirty laundry...especially not a guy you chose as your ball partner!

"If you had done something like that to me for attempting to kiss you, I wouldn't know how to pick up the pieces of my ego." Rayden murmured into Stella's ear. "I feel sorry for him."

He took her hand by the wrist, resuming their way towards the quad. They took the couple of seats next to Zacke, and he let her move in first before settling on his own.

"You guys won't believe what you just missed." He said, aiming his glance at Zacke and Jun with a smirk, feeling guilty for spreading the news. He was supposed to feel sorry for Reese but they were going to know sooner or later. "But don't worry, Blaze recorded it all on Hadrian's toy, you have a good chance to get a glimpse of it unless the thing gets destroyed."

[junkuroki]

(Ahh I think I got the order wrong. This post should come before Rayden's >.<)
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Jun was lost in a swirling mess of her own thoughts but Zacke's voice broke through it. It was him afterall, her assumption that the blonde head was his hadn't been wrong despite how distracted she was when she took the seat behind him. She hesitated at his question, saw the concern in his face and smiled timidly. But she wondered, how much did he know had happened between Lawric and herself?

But then again had there been anything? Just a few kisses exchanged, although one was her first, and plenty of nice compliments, but maybe to him it was merely a night of flirting. He was so charming and seemed at ease with socialising, a people person--from what she had heard from him, and she could sense he really was easy to get along with, so surely he had no lack of female attention. It may all be a one-sided infatuation--the side being hers--for all she knew.

Her gaze started drifting towards Lawric, but as soon as it met with his she quickly returned her gaze to look at Zacke again.

"His name is Lawric. And nothing...there's nothing." She said evasively. And maybe she wasn't really lying.

[Stella]

When Stardust hand hit his face it was one of those moments where everything seemed to stop. The whole ball was quiet for a few moments as the world seemed to stop to turn and stare at Reese and Stardust. Then almost as soon as the silence had started chaos begun. It seemed as if team Trinity was constantly
at each others throats.

Stella let Rayden lead her out into the quad smiling silently at the words he whispered into her ear. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor guy too. Part of her wanted to march in and comfort the poor guy but he didn't seem the type that would need it. The other part of her wanted to hunt down Hadrian and smash his camera into teeny tiny pieces. But no this wasn't the place and certainly not the night. The team had been in enough trouble all ready.

Rayden sat her down beside Zacke and she gave him and Jun a little smile as she smoothed out her skirts. It was hard to keep up a cheerful relaxed front. The night just seemed to get longer and longer.

"Coma boy kissed Stardust and she slapped him, hard" she explained softly when Rayden was done talking. She frowned a little noticing for the first time that Zacke and Jun looked a little uncomfortable.

"We aren't interrupting anything, are we?" Stella asked glancing up at Rayden.

[stardust]

AHAHa you guys! Stardust and Reese are supposed to be in a balcony XD But I guess they're at the area where everyone can view them?

Yeah, I offer you Stardust. Burn her at a stake as you wish. x.xxxxx
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There was something about Reese's final words that sent signals up her spine. Stardust watched the guy walk away in the calmest manner, unsure of what else to do. There was a fleeting sensation emanated out of him through her perspective. What was it?

It all made sense to her now. She always thought it was sudden for Reese to betray DoTNA. Was it really all just because of her? She was in denial, but it turned out to be true. She seduced him to make DoTNA's plan backfire and then once everything was over, she renounced him. That was the message that was hurled at her.

Her jaw clenched. She thought they were doing good. There was nothing wrong at all until 5 minutes ago when he suddenly got angry and did all this. It messed up her train of thought big time. She didn't know things were like this.

---All because she wouldn't respond the way he wanted her to. So she couldn't see him like a lover. So she couldn't express herself well.

So the hell what?! She wouldn't go anywhere. What did he want her to do? Lie to him? The only thing she knew was that she wasn't lying when she said she had his back. He was the only one she could connect to, but she had no idea it would come to this.

She glared at the people left outside the balcony. Then, out to the night sky.

/Maybe he didn't hear your apology when you slapped him.../

Just because I only want to be friends, I'm suddenly not good enough?

She finally figured out that fleeting sensation that emanated out of him not too long ago. Stardust could've mistook it for something else, but that sensation, it was fear.

"You bastard..." She wrapped her arms around her frame.

/Cool night breeze, huh?/

Shut up.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian laughed at how Blaze looked, clapping her hands like the mischievous brat from Home Alone 2. "Yea, whatever you say, Highness. Then, the deal is sealed." He couldn't say that better himself.

Once they had entered the Quad, he quickly caught sight of his teammates, sitting on the "special seats" at one corner.

"Hey!" he called out as they joined them. They seemed to be talking about the small fiasco in the balcony. "How in the world did you get here faster than us?! And if you're talking about that, you can ask Blaze here for more details." He slumped on the seat one chair away from Rayden. "I just want to light the damn candles already."

[vanesse]

Vanesse watched Jax usher his drunk sister towards the door. She felt that was inappropriate.

/What is inappropriate?/

That Gemma would miss a general event---to Garden atleast---just because she was dead drunk. "Jax!" she called, coming up to him to assist Gemma on the other side. "We'll take care of Gemma! We won't let her out of our sight."

She tapped Gemma's cheek. "Right, Gemma?" she asked and waited for two seconds. "See?" She smiled. "So you go back to Jaime now!" She pushed Jax away, urging him to go to Jaime. "Okay?" She winked.

"Deo! Come on!" she called. "See ya Safron at the ceremony!" Safron probably had a date, so she figured out it was no problem for him if they went ahead.

Amidst of all the struggling and pulling and securing Gemma on the way, they finally reached the Quad. Vanesse just had to stop to pant. The Trinity team could be seen not too faraway from where they were.

"HELLO! YOOHOO!" She waved her arms toward the group. "Who's the smart guy who left Gemma all alone!?"