Justin stalks the hallways this afternoon in a fine state. Most students are bright enough to stay out of his way; he waits with terrible patience for the few that aren't. Hands shoved in pockets, glowering, and looking quite fascinatingly like a pouting adolescent. /Someone/ had a poor evening yesterday.

Shiroi is, in direct contrast to Justin, positively beaming. She strolls, as she always does, in her usual outfit, once again. Eventually she finds herself going down Justin's hallway, where she finds just a fine, murderous atmosphere clouding over her dear schoolmaster. A grin spreads over her face, and she makes a motion, as if tipping her hat, as she passes by. "Lovely day, isn't it, my dear schoolmaster?" She chirped.

Justin's expression contradicts him as he replies, "Quite beautiful. We don't get days like this very often this time of year, here. You ought to be outside, enjoying it." Hint, hint.

Shiroi starts this innocent whistle. Disquieting, really. "Hmm, walking by myself doth gets lonely though. Maybe I'll take a cute little elfling with me..." And she turns to walk away, hands behind her back.

Justin is in front of her again. Strange. "Ahem." The students sense an impending explosion; the bright ones make themselves scarce, while the few over-inquisitive fools vie for better vantage points.

Shiroi tilts her head a little, a strange glint coming into her eyes. "Ahem...?" She asks.

Justin counts witnesses, and silently wills them to find something else to gawk at. He buys himself some time until they decide to. "What's this about a cute little elfling?"

Shiroi looks up, and around. She doesn't seem to be made uneasy by the increasing tension at all, hmm. For someone who's quick to spot trouble, she doesn't seem all that quick today. "Oh, a new friend of mine. She has some problems with an older man in her life, is all. Appears that their awkward relationship isn't working out well, so now she spends all her time angsting endlessly over her pathetic existence... "

Justin focuses on his slow tally of observers to keep his temper in check, until the last of them decides that nothing's going to happen, and wanders off. Free to act, now, he brings a metal-booted foot up abruptly into Shiroi's chest with all the force of his anger. "You think I was joking, last time, don't you?"

Shiroi crashes back against the end of the hallway, putting a dent in the wall, and collapses to the floor on her butt. She spends a moment getting breath back in her lungs again, even as a grin finds its way back on the corner of her mouth. "D-" she gasped again, and a trail of blood dribbles down her chin. "Do remind me, what was said last time." She grinned wider. Uncanny, almost.

Justin is unimpressed. "I should think I was sufficiently clear; Razz is not your problem. She's been manipulated /quite/ enough without your interference. Leave her alone, or I'll finish killing you."

Shiroi chuckled, a bitter undertone. "So nobody but you gets to screw with her? Is that it?"

Justin says: /Nobody/ gets to screw with her.

Shiroi says: You're doing a helluva good job screwing with her, though.

Justin asks: I am doing nothing to her that any caring being might not do for another caring being. Is it your contention that Razz is not a caring being?

Shiroi asks: Whatever made you say that?

Justin quotes, mimicking her bitter tone exquisitely. "'You're doing a helluva good job screwing with her, though.' You claim that what I'm doing is harming her. I am according her the same consideration any person would to one they love. Tell me how this harms her, please."

Eladria hears the shouting, and walks down the hallway, pack on his back, ready to head out. He stops the two of them, obviously angry. "Hey, hey, easy Justin."

Shiroi cracks another grin, and she pushes herself up from her position on the floor, and holds herself up with a hand on the wall. "You do remember what Razz was like, when you'd just met, don't you? ... Hello, Eladria. Beautiful day, isn't it?"

Justin's hand twitches toward his sword hilt a fraction of an inch before he realizes what he's about to do. Slowly, he closes his hand, and returns it to his side, and takes a deep breath. "...Thank you, Kiran." His expression fades a notch, from murderous wrath to calm, cold rage.

Shiroi chuckles again. "Damn, Eladria, he was just about to kill me too."

Eladria looks at the both of them. "No killing here. Not while I'm still around."

Shiroi says: I was under the impression that you're leaving.

Eladria says: I am. But until that happens. . .NO KILLING.

Eladria looks sternly at Justin.

Shiroi grins at Justin.

Justin shakes his head slowly. "Yes, sir," he says, in a passable imitation of a scolded teen. "I may have to reconsider it, in any case, she seems far to happy with the idea."

Shiroi says: Someone's awfully angry with me.

Justin says: Someone is in a state which the phrase 'awfully angry' is woefully inadequate to describe. However, on further contemplation, I think it might be best to hear your explanation. It occurs to me that I might not be the only one set immovably behind incorrect assumptions.

Shiroi shrugs. "Oh, well. I'm sure that it has occurred to you that Razz had been doing just dainty before you came along, hasn't it?"

Eladria exclaims: Whoa, whoa whoa!

Eladria says: Razz is below the belt, Shiroi.

Justin says: Wandering the Realms, lost, alone, battered, used, bruised, and abused. Just wonderful, sure.

Shiroi turns her head toward Eladria with an amused look on her face. "How is Razz below the belt, Eladria?"

Justin waves Kiran's objections off. "No, I want to hear this."

Eladria says: You want to bash Justin, that's one thing. Justin wants to VERBALLY bash you, that's one thing. But if you want to bring in a third party, she'd better be here.

Shiroi shook her head at Justin. "You victimize her way too much, Justin," for once she uses his name. "Eladria, I just want to see if I can't get him to kill me," she half joked, then turned back to Justin. "She survives well enough being alone, she didn't need you, or anyone. She's always been alone and it's never bothered her so much as it does now. She was self-sufficient, and look at her now, she does practically nothing but sitting on that balcony and mope, angsting and fearing away her pathetic existence."

Eladria narrows his eyes.

Justin asks: And we're /quite/ certain that you're helping her to avoid angst and fear, are we?

Justin's hands twitch, slightly, and there is the meerest crackle of elemental energy.

Eladria steps forward, and puts a hand on his shoulder. "NO."

Justin isn't under Eladria's hand. Fascinating. "My self-control is not in question, Eladria."

Eladria says: This is what she DOES, Justin. Test people's limits. Push their buttons.

Eladria says: She does it surprisingly well, but I'd like to see her try against that Metal thing.

Shiroi snrks, and spits a mouthful of blood at the floor. "Oh, I'm helping her to avoid /much more/ than mere fear and angst." she notes the crackling energy, and smirks, darkly. "Oh sure, explode me. Some people just don't get it," she takes a hissing breath. "Take my advice - Leave Razz the /hell/ alone, you have no idea what the fuck you're doing, /my dear schoolmaster/."

Justin says: This is what everyone does, Kiran. It's a developmental stage. Nearith grow out of...

Justin's foot whips out again for Shiroi's chest, but at this low angle he can't deliver nearly the force of his original blow.

Eladria reacts swiftly, trying to push him away from Shiroi. "ENOUGH, Justin."

Shiroi's hand leaves the wall, and she slams her two hands together on Justin's foot, stopping it in mid-air. "Take not a quiet tiger for a sick cat," she grinned, and shoved the foot back.

Shiroi says: But sure, leave my good advice - Just trying to stop you from screwing up again, is all.

Shiroi shrugs.

Shiroi exclaims: Your so called 'caring' is only messing her up into something she's not meant to be!

Shiroi exclaims: Can you ensure her happiness?! Can you?! Look at her now!

Justin's right hand crackles red, and a blade of force snaps into being between himself and the dwarf. "Cease your meddling, duergar." He plants his foot. "And you, Ssins d'aerth, all you can assure her is emptiness. Void. Maglust. Practice what you preach, why don't you."

Eladria grits his teeth. The slow drawing of steel. "Enough, Justin. Cease this, and go to Razz. Ignore the child. Foolish though she may be, she doesn't need a beating from you."

Shiroi's eyes are opened wide as she seizes Justin's eyes with hers. "Solitude is what she's meant for! What she's made for! Trying to give her something else will only conflict with her original mechanism! And it won't stop at this mere depression, I assure you that it will not, if you don't WAKE UP and see what the HELL you're doing do her!" She shouts furiously, as no one had ever seen her before.

Shiroi exclaims: And what the hell is this, your loving two person at once?! That's the most fucking ridiculous thing I've ever heard, you irresponsible twit! What the hell are you hoping to accomplish with that?! If you still love your not-so-dead wife, don't tell Razz that you'd rather be with her than anywhere in the goddamned world! What the fuck were you thinking?!?!

Shiroi exclaims: If you're going to mess with her intended nature, at least MAKE SURE that you're fucking SERIOUS about it!!!

Justin intones a few mouthfuls of apparently quite foul-tasting syllables, and waits for the head-clutching and writhing that accompanies a Stun spell's effects. "And what do you know of her intended nature? And what do you know of my wife?"

Shiroi looks positively mad, struck by the stun spell, her eyes almost rolling up to the back of her head, her teeth gashed together. And she sways, but she keeps a hand on the wall, and her hand clutching so hard at her head that it seems almost bloodless. "I know more about her intended nature that /you/ ever will!!" she screams hoarsely. "And I know that you're just too damn chicken to go and find out where the hell she is, and how she is. You don't want to make sure, /do you/?!?"

Eladria steps between them, sword drawn. "That is ENOUGH, both of you! There is NO good that comes of this!"

Eladria freezes, as he always does: driver's liscence photo style.

Justin ceases Shiroi's ranting with a /quite/ thorough right boot to the sternum, but restrains himself from following up with one to the temple. Offering the sudden dwarven statue an apologetic salute, he reaches down to grasp an arm and an ankle to lift the battered girl. "You know nothing, and you're ever so eager to share it." He looks down at her for a long moment, and sets off for the infirmary.

Shiroi twists off Justin's hold, and kicks him in the face as she tumbles down to the floor. She does land, however, more steadily than one would expect her to. And she straights, with /very/ sure steps. "Oh, yes, you would like to think that, wouldn't you?" She says, brushing herself off. "I'm just a raving, self-righteous lunatic who has no idea what she's talking about, don't mind me, really..."

Eladria is frozen, unable to see, and his hearing isn't good enough to determine what's precisely going on.

Justin /is/ impressed, now. Stun resistance. Not bad. But, clearly, not stun immunity. With an expression of cold fury still unmarred even by the blood now trickling from his nose, he draws his sword, salutes her unsteady form, and thrusts.

Shiroi is the master of dodging, as mentioned before in a previous session with Justin. She twists neatly out of the way of Justin's sword, and spits a mouthful of blood in Justin's face. "Imagine that, that innocent little elfling is going to end up just like me - well, but not quite like me, but close enough," she flashes a dazzling grin, even with her bloody teeth and lips.

Eladria slowly begins to move again, almost imperceptibly.

A deep male voice thunders through the room, almost deafeningly, magnified to a hundred times its normal volume. "Stop this, right now!"

Shiroi tsks, and sighs. "Really, nobody appreciates a good brawl these days..."

Justin's other sword, in his other hand, is right in place, though. Masterful or not, there are only so many places one can dodge to from a straight sword thrust. Perhaps with her luck she'll avoid it. Or perhaps she'd consider herself luckier to take it. "Oh, stop it yourself if it's so important to you."

"Very well, then!" A sudden and merciless blast of wind tears through the room, presumably interrupting any combat going on.

Shiroi dances through the swords, if Justin really wants to impale her he'd really have to try harder than that. The blast of wind came - not quite so unexpected, as she thought she recognizes the voice.

Justin allows the blades to be torn from his grasp. "There. What it takes to get some use out of you lot, I /swear/."

A black-robed figure fades into view, hand upraised. "Now, why is it that you feel the need to kill each other, makyou feel the need to kill each other, make all kinds of noise, and generally try to disrupt people who are trying to get some work done?"

Justin points at Shiroi, and does his petulant boy impression again. "/She/ started it."

Shiroi shrugs. "Just trying to give my schoolmaster some advice on his twisted relationship with a cute little elfling, is all. Some people get real touchy."

Matthew grumbles at Shiroi. "Just because you happen to have experience in the ways of cute little females doesn't mean you should share it with those who don't want it."

Shiroi pouts. "But they're so cute and fluffy! You either want to cuddle them or torture them.... can't have the latter, of course."

Shiroi grins evilly.

Justin really ought to know better than to tempt the wrath of the Archmagus, he tells himself. 'specially if she actually /has/ managed to get into his, er, robes. The time for silence is now.

Matthew suddenly shoots a dark glance at Justin, interpreting his silence pretty well.

Matthew grumbles at Justin also, "And you, being the headmaster of this school, or whatever, would do pretty well not to try and kill your students."

Eladria finally starts moving near normal speed again, spell wearing off.

Justin says: 's what she wants, isn't it? I haven't seen anyone so suicidal since, er, myself, climbing the Mountain.

Shiroi throws her head back and cackles with glee.

Eladria finally turns, spots the Archmagus, and replaces his sword. He kneels, grabs his pack from the ground, and turns toward the gate.

Justin asks: Pleasant journey, Kiran. Return in one piece, if you please?

Shiroi exclaims: Bye Eladria! Buy me a gift sometimes!

Eladria shrugs. "No guarantees. The past is a viper."

Justin says: Snakes never bothered you before.

Matthew extends his arm to Shiroi. "Come on, then, we'll take you to the infirmary to get you cleaned up a bit. Spitting blood isn't exactly very ladylike of you."

Eladria turns to look at Justin, ignoring Shiroi. "Take care of her, Justin. Period."

Shiroi waves the arm off. "Nay, I like it. It gives me a - tomboyish quality to my counterance." She flicks her hair back with her hand. "See ya," she curtseys.

Justin says: You could phrase that better, I highly suspect.

Eladria asks: She's got deep feelings for you, and I'll bet you do for her. If I make it back, I don't want anybody here dead, got me?

Justin says: Oh, not /here/, certainly.

Shiroi snrks quietly. Oh, she's expected to be ignored, of course.

Justin ignores nothing, that's how come he's still alive after being such an asshole all his life.

Shiroi shrugs,You emote: Shiroi shrugs, and she turns to go, no more use talking here. Men. They never get it. "As little as what you think of me - do think about what I've said. After all, it's not your funeral, it's Razz's.... if she's lucky. Goodbye, Eladria, I hope you find what you're looking for." She shrugged again, and strolls off.

Justin is fairly certain that in fact it's neither his funeral nor Razz's. Shiroi's coffin is fast running out of room for nails, at this rate.

Eladria nods, and turns to go. "What did you say I used to be, Justin?"

Shiroi mutters under her breath "... he can join the club...." as she walked away.

Justin says: My teacher, Eladria.

Eladria continues to face the gatehouse, back to Justin. "Was I good?"

Justin says: I've never met better.

Eladria nods. "Time to find some answers." He walks out, not looking back.