ROFLMAO (Rya)

[Deleted]

Why was he here again? Oriel grunted as he stabbed a potato chip bag that some asshole decided to deposit in a bush instead of the trash bin that was no more than 10 feet away.

Should they be letting him handle a sharp, pointy object? Oriel held the device up, inspecting the pointed tip. He could put an eye out with this thing, he thought

Somebody else's eye.

Oriel sighed as he stuffed the trash into the bag he was carting around the park. He didn't know why he signed up for this stupid volunteering business...he didn't know why he was still doing it if he hated it so much. But he really didn't like that this was happening outside. Nothing against the outdoors, Oriel love being outside. Just....for some reason he didn't want anyone to see him. Not just anyone, but...you know, people he knew. Or people he didn't know who somehow knew him. Like people from the school.

Shit, he was way too paranoid about what people were thinking of him. This was a lot easier when he just forced himself not to care and grumped away into the distance. Well...back then he wouldn't be doing this in the first place. And well...he was still grumping around, so guess not much had changed.

Oriel stabbed another piece of trash, picturing it to be some random person he hated.

Oh, yeah. He also hated these stupid orange and yellow "don't hit me I'm a person" work vests.

[Aryana Darcy]

The park wasn't a usually detour that the hydrokinetic made when heading back to the apartment, but her mother had recently gotten on her last nerves and she needed a few more moments to herself before dealing with the frustration that was a 39 year old mirror image. Except the five years that they spent apart left them entirely different.

The question that was always thrown around was "Where did my little girl go?" Well, fuck. She was right there, but five years of shaping would change every little girl. In fact, she wasn't a fucking little girl anymore. Part of her felt so god damn bad for not being that girl that her mother wanted her to be, but then she realized she was gone for a reason.

A good reason, most definitely.

Her fingers curled and she could feel herself grasp onto the water from the small pond that she walked past. Had it not been for a familiar head of hair and an orange waistcoat, she might have thrown it, and that wouldn't have been good.

Attention captured, she took a few steps forward until the figure became clear, and her brow raised half from curiosity, half out of amusement. "Ey!" She called out, "You're taking Halloween seriously this year, yeah? I mean, look at you getting your big kid 'I fucked up' orange waistcoat and stabber. I applaud your dedication." Because she didn't give two fucks if he got pissed with her. She was used to it. After all, it was Oriel Vanguard.

[Deleted]

Why was he doing this again? Oh, right, because he wanted to. Because some ass-hat that he should’ve pummeled upon first laying eyes upon planted the seed of suggestion in his puny little susceptible mind and the ink manip somehow decided that taking it was a good idea. If Oriel had had any idea(or rather a clearer idea) of who that yigger was, he never would’ve taken the suggestion.

So why didn’t he just stop then?

Meh, it was something to do. And Oriel had nothing to do. Especially not Phoenix.

A most depressing thought. He impaled yet another piece of trash. A soda can. It made a very satisfying shunking noise.

However, another noise reached his ears as well, the voice of one who was all too familiar yet he hadn’t heard since she moved out of the dorms. And of course, Aryana Darcy was quite possibly the worst person to find him scuttling around like a damn community service parolee. And her jibing certainly did nothing to reinforce Oriel’s unwant of people seeing him.

Oriel’s face fixed into a monotonic stare as he looked up at the bombshell brunette. “Eyyyyy, Mamacita,” he said with a sneer. Oriel lifted the poking device, aluminum can still attached. “How’s ‘bout I use this here stabber to pop those two balloons you call breasts?” He snorted, then returned to his work. “The fuck you want?” he grunted, totally not completely secretly enthusiastic at seeing her again after two…three months? Shit, time flies when it sucks.

[Aryana Darcy]

"Wouldn't be the first time a man has wanted to put his stick near them, love. I'm sure you could come up with something more intimidating." In all honesty, whether Oriel even truly considered such a thing, he was the one who was putting himself into the position he was in either indirectly, or for whatever reason, directly. Which had her questioning what he did to deserve the sentence, in his mind or in another's.

The fuck did she want? Hell if she had a clue, but out of instinctual self preservation, she came up with something. "Fucking around with community service workers to fuel my sadistic urges."

It had been a while, and sadly she had to admit that her former roommate was on the back of her mind - never forgotten, per say, but rather just tucked away in the recesses of her mind to make room for more prominent issues.

Like her mother.

"Care to tell me why you're wearing that ridiculous thing and parading around like a parolee? Answer wisely, love, because I'm sure, despite the fact that the color of that waistcoat is orange, that you don't want to be seen." She grinned then, a half smirk that masked any good intentions from her expression, "Because I know how to pull attention, and you know that."

[Deleted]

“And how many have had that “honor” now that you can’t prey on the little’uns on campus no more?” He sneered. “I could always give you a sneak peak, if you want, of just what I can come “up” with.” It’d been a long time since he’d been able to bounce this shit off somebody. It was more relieving than one might think.

“Uh-huh…keep it up and it’ll be you stuffed in this thing like garbage.” Weigh her down and toss her in the lake. Yup, that was the perfect plan for offing a hooker.

Oriel took a breath and went back to work, stabbing yet another piece of trash and stuffing it into the bag. He smiled and struck a pose, sending Rya a wink. “I know, don’t I look fabulous!” She was right, though. Oriel didn’t want to be seen. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to go into the details with Rya or not. Though he guessed the other part of his punishment was having to explain himself to anyone who asked, no matter how uncomfortable it made him. Still, it wasn’t exactly her business. No, it was undoubtedly not her business.

Oriel dropped the grin and relaxed his shoulders, his face fixing into a firm look of contempt. For whom, it was unclear, though it was most likely for himself. “….I fucked up,” he said finally. “Real bad. Now they….the won’t let me and Phoenix see each other.” That was the short version, lacking all of the details he didn’t want to say.

He stabbed another piece of rubbish.

[Aryana Darcy]

"I don't play with little boys - never had." Rya said, a single shrug of her shoulder depicting her lack of concern with the words Oriel bounced towards her. There was no acknowledgement of his second comment, as she felt it was answered very well given her last statement. Oriel had always been a 'little boy' to the Brit, if only because she felt he was more like a little 'brother' than another male.

It was then that the hydrokinetic laughed, a knee-jerk reaction that appeared lighter than what her contradictory body language displayed. Her fists were still clenched and her body was stiff, but the laugh itself was honest. "I'd love to see someone try and put me in that monstrosity."

The actual reasoning behind his community service work did nothing but surprise her, and in fact, her sarcastic tone softened; Rya knew when to be an ass and when things called for a more tender approach. Though tender in the Hydro's book was far from the actual meaning of the word. "The fuck did you do, Oriel?" Her tone hinted concern rather than accusation. What had this boy done that would get him banned from seeing Phoenix, out of all people?

[Deleted]

Oriel didn’t continue that line of conversation. It was good to see Rya again, and to bounce words off her like they used to, but fucking up that one time that made her stop speaking to him for weeks had him being just a little more cautious. He didn’t want to fuck up again the only comebacks he could think of at the moment directly involved her blonde beau.

He grinned, glad to have made her laugh at least. “Is that a challenge?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning evilly. “’Cause I can have that arranged.” He took a few steps forward, reaching his grabby hands out towards her. “Now, don’t you move.”

That look. Yep, that’s what he was expecting. The shock. Disappointment was next, wasn’t it. And he didn’t want to see that, directed towards him. Oriel looked away, his expression hard and jaw tense. “…..I hurt ‘im.” Saying it out loud…Oriel felt like he was going to vomit. “Let my pissy-ness get the best of me, and he paid for it.” And now they were both paying for it. Hard. And he hated himself for it. Oriel turned back to his rubbish.

[Aryana Darcy]

Had Rya known what Oriel was thinking, she probably would have reassured him in some way that she just was fucked up at the time that he decided to say something. Normally there wasn't anything that could be said that the Brit would legitimately be offended by. She had been called every name in the book, from those who knew her and those who didn't. In fact, the entirety of her senior year was nothing but fucked. It was different now, especially considering she literally had a clean slate.

Nobody knew her as 'that whore' any longer.

Part of her was relieved, part of her was scared. Rya spent all that time building a new reputation, a new self, and although that may have been something that was supposed to be a good thing, it worried the Hydro. Because truly, if she wasn't trying to conform to that image she set for herself, if she no longer had to hide her feelings because nobody knew her well enough to care about them, what did she have left? What was there to go back to? She wasn't her mother's little girl, sweet little Aryana who wouldn't hurt a fly. However, ever since all the shit happened during her senior year, she sure as hell wasn't the 'I'll sleep with your man and woman no issue,' and 'Hell yeah, let's get pissed'. In fact, none of that appealed to her any longer.

But of course, Rya wouldn't let those insecurities show through, especially when Oriel was throwing words back at her and making her feel normal. In fact, she took a step forward, her lips in a line as she tilted her head down, gesturing towards his hands. "Go ahead, try it. I've never seen a boy so willing to put himself in a cast."

What Oriel said next, however, only furthered her shock. There was no right to judge, but Oriel and Phoenix... Oriel hurt him? While the Hydro was well aware of his anger issues, Rya never saw him ever take it out on the Pixie. It was shocking, most definitely. "I'm not going to ask what happened, but my god, you fucking idiot." She took a step back, raising her hand to stop him from speaking out. "And before you say anything, I'm not fucking saying that because I think you havent heard it before. I'm saying it because I haven't said it to you in months."

Rya pointed to the vest, "After all, you're paying for it now. I mean, that horrid vest is punishment enough."

[Deleted]

“You sure?” Oriel challenged with a raise of his brows. “I seem to remember at least one idiot stupider than me.” Ah, memories. Those were some of the good days, before life got serious. Considering how it started, Oriel had the feeling that the rest of the year was going to suck too.

Then again, the beginning of last year sucked immensely and it didn’t play out like that. Oriel shoved those pessimistic thoughts to the side.

However, it was hard for them not to come back in full force when Rya was addressing the exact situation which conjured such a grim outlook. He snorted in disdain, though the corners of his lips did twitch slightly in amusement. “Good to see you too.”

Oriel stabbed the earth with his rubbish poker and leaned against the non-pointy end, his chin resting upon the backs of his hands. “Paying for it….you’d think, huh?” He shrugged, looking up to the sky listlessly. “They made me do a bunch of other shit. This was my idea.” Oriel snarked back to the brunette. “I’m a legit volunteer, I’ll have you know.” And out came his tongue. It probably wasn’t appropriate considering the news he’d just divulged, but it was better than getting depressed about it all over again. He’d do that later.