The road to hell is build by parents with good intentions

[Coren]

3th of summer 512 Coren sighed in annoyance as he trudged through the now muddy streets of avanthal, following his arents who had insisted they had something to talk about. He still strange they didn't want to say what they wanted to talk about or why they had to do it in the crystal hall of all places. Not to mention that both of them had been acting pretty suspicious for a few day's already.. what had they been planning? After a few more chimes of trudging through the muddied streets of avanthal in a rather uneasy atmosphere. His parents softly speaking in soft tones to themselves while shooting quick looks at him as he was trailing a few steps after the. They finally arrived at the crystal hall. And his parents quickly began looking around for somebody or something in the hall. “Father, mother. Could you finally tell me what we are doing here?” Coren asked one final time, not really having any hope that his parents would clue him in. “Just keep your patience son. You'll find out soon enough.” his father said as he continued to look around. It seemed ha had found who he was looking for after just a few moments because he made motion for the family to follow him and walked towards one of the corners of the hall.

[Alea Davenport]

When Alea's parents had asked her to meet them at the Crystal Hall today, Alea had assumed that they just wanted to spend time with her. A sort of vengeance for when she left them with only a note to say goodbye. Her mother especially was wielding guilt trips like a knife. Alea was glad enough that they had survived the Storm that she was willing to go along with it to a point, but the more time she spent with them, the more she remembered why she'd wanted to get out of Denval in the first place.

They were just so annoying! Especially mother, pestering her with endless questions. Elise kept asking if Alea had any men in her life, anyone she liked in a particular way. Normally, Alea would only be bothered by the question because it was the typical nagging sort of thing that her mother usually asked. But now, when her mother asked the question, Alea's mind instantly flew to Yuros. It had been almost a season since he had left without explanation, but his loss still weighed heavily on her. The absence of her kelvic bondmate left a void in her heart that had taken its toll on her usually chipper mood. Add that to the fact that nearly ever friend she'd made in Avanthal had left town, and she was approaching dangerous levels of melancholy.

At least she had managed to get her parents to sit in a corner of the Hall. She had gotten unused to being around a lot of people, and the crowd was draining. She let her parents talk to each other and shrugged off their occasional questions while she put her head down and tried to ignore everything. She did not notice the family approaching until they were almost upon her, but finally she looked up and saw something she had NOT expected.

"You!" she snarled, standing up into an aggressive posture. It had been a long time since she'd seen her old nemesis. A lot had happened, and she was in NO mood to deal with him (though ripping a few of his limbs off did sound appealing). "What are you doing here?" Her father stood up and tried to lay a restraining hand on his daughter, but Alea brushed him off. She did not need him getting in the way if she and Coren got into another scuffle, and besides, it had been a long time since she'd allowed herself to be touched.

[Coren]

Coren looked at the group of people with a resigned look in his eyes. There was no way this meeting was going to be fun of any kind. When she began yelling at him in an aggressive way his mind offered the suggestion to hold her down with his magic while weaving a shield to block that annoying screeching of hers. “I have no clue.” Coren said in a normal subdued tone. “my parents dragged me here without even telling what all this was about or that I was going to meet you.” otherwise I would have locked the door and soundproofed it until they went away. He added in his own mind. He turned towards his parents. “So mother, father. Care to enlighten the both of us why you gathered me, alea and her parents here?” There was a slight undertone of annoyance in his voice. There just was something going on here that he should be aware of but he really couldn't put his finger on it. “Well coren.” His father replied with a smile on his face. “Both me and your mother have been worried about our family lately. You haven't really been outside of your room for long aside from helping out in the restoration of our hometown. And you haven't really been trying to meet people of the other sex lately.” Coren felt as if somebody had shoved an entire bucket of ice underneath his robe at those words. His mind strained as he tried to put together what he learned to the obvious conclusion. His mind just plainly refused to acknowledge that knowledge though. The next words dashed that feeble hope. “So as good parents are supposed too. We began looking for somebody for you and as if by a miracle we found somebody whose parent's where willing to marry their daughter to you.” At the last part of his sentence he waved towards alea. That simple gesture was more damning that the heavy footsteps of rhysol himself coming towards him to coren at this moment. His father looked towards Alea's parents. Hoping that they would also give a word.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea burst out laughing at the words of Coren's father. His claims were utterly ridiculous. "My parents would never agree to this," she said, turning to look a them for confirmation. When they said nothing, her smile slid off her face like rainwater. "You cannot be serious," she said in a dangerous tone.

Her mother was the first to reply. "I think it's a good idea. We've asked around, and it sounds like the two of you get along...er, well enough. And a husband might finally teach you to settle down and stop avoiding your responsibilities."

Hurt and betrayed, Alea turned desperately to her father. "You cannot possibly be going along with this. Whatever happened to not getting married without approval from the priest of Viratas?!" Something that had been drilled into her since early childhood was the importance of gaining the blessing of Viratas before marriage. She had no real concept that the purpose behind this was to prevent too much inbreeding in Denval's tiny population, and so it shocked her that her father would allow this.

Jared Davenport usually tried to avoid arguments, but when that wasn't an option, he argued with a cool head and rational logic that was hard to deny. "Denval is gone, its people scattered. It is difficult now to keep the old ways. We must simply trust that Viratas would not frown on new blood joining our family."

Alea knew she'd been at odds with her parents for most of her life, but she had never until now seen them as her enemies. "Viratas may not mind, but I do. If you think you can make me marry him," and here her features curled into a feral grin that held no shred of amusement, "you're welcome to try."

[Coren]

Coren finally managed to pull his brain out of the locked state the horror of being paired with HER of all living beings for the rest of his life. “For once in my entire life I got to agree with her. Putting us together in the same room is enough for an argument to break out. She is irresponsible, dimwitted and refuses to accept she might be the cause of any problem she causes!” Coren listed of the negative aspects of alea that he completely didn't agree with. “I'm pretty sure that she has an entire list of pieces of my personality that she doesn't agree with either. If you try to marry us of to each other we would probably kill each other sooner then later.” Coren was slowly getting worked up about the entire situation here. Didn't they see this setup wasn't going to work out at all? They couldn't stand each other! “Look Coren.” His mother spoke up. “I know its a bit of a surprise that this happenend. For both of you. But we are your parents and we always try to do what is the best of you. Even if you two can't see it at the moment.” She gave a glance at both her son and the girl. Trying to talk them in a reasonable manner. And hoping to calm both of them down. “Besides this isn't as bad is you two are making it out to be.” A few vantha had been gathering around them. Their expressions ranging from distaste at the young ones for refusing their parents will to quiet chuckling at the developing scene.

[Alea Davenport]

Coren's comments grated on Alea's nerves (I'm only like that around YOU!, she thought), and if she wasn't so busy wracking her brains for a was to convince her parents of how utterly wrong they were, she might have said something. Though as he continued speaking, she had to admit she agreed with some things. They would kill each other, or rather, she'd kill him. But how to make them see it?

Alea could see this was going badly. She had to think quickly. The perfect solution came to her in a flash. Clearly, their parents would not believe Alea and Coren until the pair started acting like themselves, and prove their point to everyone. Without further ado, she whirled around, made a fist, and socked Coren as hard as she could on the back of his head.

"Alea!" her father called sharply, a rebuke that might have worked a year ago, but now fell on deaf ears. Alea had been living on her own long enough that the commands of her parents held little sway over her increasingly stubborn mind. Her mother and several of the watching Vantha seemed frozen in shock, not quite sure how to respond. Alea merely recovered her balance and waited for the inevitable retaliation.

OOC:) Enjoy.

[Coren]

To say coren was surprised at the fact Alea tried to sock him would be a gross overstatement. Seeing as every single meeting between them ended up one way or the other in voilence it was quite expected for her to start using voilence as soon as things went hard or weird. Unfortunally even though it was expected it didn't mean the man had suspected her to hit him in the back of the head with all she got at that exact moment. Reeling from the blow coren was knocked onto his knees. His mind, already buckeling to hold back the stress of years of hiding his magic from his parents, the anger and horror at possibly being forced into a life with HER of all female beings in avanthal now finally snapped when she tried to take out her anger at her parents at him! Somebody who didn't have anything to do with it. Unable to think through the haze of anger he called upon his djed letting it flow through his right arm in a familiar pattern, pushing out his astral body starting at the shoulder and going to the extrimeties. He was going to teach that little brat the final lesson about what the consequences of pissing a mage off were. He vagualy heard a familiar female voice asking if he was allright when he stood up. His right arm flopped at unfeelingly at his side. But coren didn't pay it any attention and settled his glare at the young girl. Before planting his invisible astral fist right in her face with all the force he could muster.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea must have blinked, because she didn't even see the punch that hit her jaw and sent her reeling. She barely managed not to fall over completely, but when she recovered her balance, she gave Coren a feral grin. She took a moment to rub her jaw, partially to make sure the damage would be no more than a large bruise, but mostly to be theatrical. There was a crowd watching, Alea realized, and she saw no reason not to give them a good show.

Besides, she was much better at fighting than she had been the first time she'd tangled with the librarian, and she highly doubted he'd been practicing as much. She doubted he could trounce her quite so thoroughly this time. But for now she had to plan her next move. Continuing to try to punch his face would get boring quickly, not to mention predictable. So instead, she dropped to the ground and swung out her leg, trying to knock him off his feet.

Some of the crowd had been murmuring nervously, but since many were speaking in Vani, she did not realize that it was Coren's antics, and not her violence, that frightened them. Her parents were, for once, not saying anything. They were still trying to decide if they had seen what they thought they saw, though Alea was just glad they weren't distracting her.

[Coren]

Coren hadn't expected for alea to go for the legs. She used to be bloody minded and always attacked the same spot last time they got into a scuffle. Seemed like the little cretin had some practice in brawling while he hadn't brawled in ages. He fell backwards from the kick to his shins. Still he had one advantage over the little critin she couldn't even see coming. He threw another punch with his projected limb. This time hitting her in the back of the hand. Of course the hit would give away that something wasn't quite right. He was in front of her and still something punched her in the back of his head. It was a completely impossible punch. Coren was still to distracted to really catch what the crowd was saying or doing. But the mayority of them had figured out that Coren was doing something that just plainly wasn't possible unless he was using magic. Including both his parents.

[Alea Davenport]

When the blow came from behind, it knocked Alea forward slightly, but since she was already so close to the ground, it did not particularly threaten her balance. But she still whirled around, fury in her eyes, crouched like a cat ready to pounce. Who would DARE to intrude upon her fight with Coren? She scanned the faces, trying to determine who had hit her, daring them with her eyes to step forward. But no one moved. She had seen no one quickly stepping back into the ranks of the onlookers, so whoever hit her must be very fast.

Her parents, her two main suspects, were merely looking confused, and hesitant. They clearly were not understanding what was happening, or why this situation was occurring. She didn't blame them; it had taken her a bit to get used to the sort of things that could happen in a big, bustling city like not-Denval.

She shifted her gaze to the various Vantha faces behind her. There were a wide range of expressions on their faces. Some looked worried, others almost angry. Few seemed as confused as her parents, and none looked like they had hit her. No one else in the crowd was looking toward anyone else either; all were watching Alea and Coren. Which made it a bit hard to believe that one of them had intervened. But they must have. What other possibility was there?

Maybe someone had thrown something? She looked around quickly, but couldn't see anything that might have hit her. Not even a puddle of water (it had crossed her mind briefly that a Vantha could thrown a chunk of ice and then melt the evidence). Finally, as she exhausted the possibilities, she turned slowly back to Coren, not because she suspected him, but because she assumed he would be as confused as she was.

As she stood up, she caught sight of the expression on his parents' faces. She winced; they looked like they were about to yell. Alea hated it when parents yelled...

OOCToo confused to hit back Give her a minute, she'll get back into it.