Sorry! Been super busy lately - seems like I have free time when I don't have to write here, and don't when I do have to. So annoying. But let's see . . . 

-Darian- 

Their laughs were really getting on my nerves. These guys loved making me sweat so much that they were forgetting to attack. Like I said, they're not that bright. They rely more on their fists. So with the surprise factor of this girl . . . I might be able to live another day. 

I watched her as she bent down and - was that a blade in her hand? The surprise must have showed on my face, because the entire gang in front of me followed it. And their eyes lit up excitedly when they saw her. You could almost see the words More meat! written in a thought buble over their heads. They charged, before she was even fully standing again. So much for surprise factors. 

If I really wanted to live, I should have left then and there while the guys were focused on the girl. But annoyingly, I was still human. So, I charged. 

She was pretty good with her knife. Not the strongest of fighters, depends on her knife a lot, but she did pretty well. She had no trouble with blood - or killing. My stomach gave an ugly lurtch when she stuck one in the stmoach, and he doubled over. She didn't seemed fazed at all. Between me and my fists, and her and her knife, we managed to chase them off. 

When they're gone, I gently touch my wounds, pretending to study them when really, I'm studying her. She looks a bit younger than me, with dark hair. When I catch sight of her face, I forget all pretense of pretending. She has a scar like mine, except mine is smaller. A few earrings adorn her ears. 

We're both staring at each other now, both of us trying to evaluate the other. The silence stretches on and on. Finally I look down at the ground. "Thanks. I'd be dead now if you hadn't stepped in. You didn't have to." 

She shrugged, and stuck out her hand. "Avalon Black." 

"Darian." We shook, eyeing each other and both of us gripping a bit harder than was actually necessary. 

"So . . . I guess I better go." 

Her eyes seemed to be morphing into question marks. Ignoring me and my feeble attempt to leave, her question was "Who were those guys?"

Not escaping anytime soon, am I? "Street urchins. Most of them are desperate enough to get a bite to eat that they'd kill. They thought I had a scrap of food on me, it being lunch time and all. I lost it in the fight."

I can see another question about to form, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a guy's voice calls out uncertainly. "Uh, hi." 

I start. "Who's there?" My eyes dart around quickly, and my well-seasoned brain goes into high alert. A thought leaps into my head. That voice sounds like he knows one of us. 

"Avalon," the voice was closer, and the crunch of gravel from my left startled me.

A flicker of fright and panic crossed Avalon's face. "Who are you?" 

I shift ever so slightly into a position I could spring from if necessary. Then the voice comes again, this time one syllable. "What-" It sounded . . . confused? 

Avalon and I exchanged a glance, and I notice she's fingering her dagger. "Who are you?" I asked roughly, repeating Avalon's question. 

Frantic breathing in front of us. "Avalon. It's me, Markus. I don't know what's happened. I didn't know it happened until just now." This voice sounded panicked.

Avalon looked confused, then pale, then like she was connecting a few dots in her brain. "The diner - I knew I wasn't seeing things - Markus how . . . "  she trailed off and I stared at her, then at the spot where the voice was coming from. What kind of a trick was this?  

---

Sorry, didn't add much, but I have to go and don't want to delay this anymore.

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Warning. Tris' s life is pretty boring. Please come soon. I'm running out of ideas.

Tris ~

On my way back to the workshop, I feel something snag my ankle. I trip a little,  but still standing. But while I try to regain my balance, I feel large hands push on my back, tipping me over. Cogs and gears fly everywhere. I look back to see three large boys from Luke's class looming over me, laughing. As I gather my things, the largest says, "Having trouble walking,  Cuckoo Clock?" The other two start laughing. "I was, until someone pushed me." The smile disappears from their faces. "Don't get smart with me, Cuckoo Clock," he growls. "Why? Do you want me to simplify it for you?" Oh how I wish I could  express my joy of this. A crowd starts to gather round us. "I wouldn't make us mad if I were you." "But you aren't me. I at least have more to do with my life than bully people smaller than me." Their faces develop scarlet patches. "You are going to regret saying those things once we're done with you." The crowd around us starts chanting. The largest of the three charges at me, though he isn't fast enough, for I quickly dodge. But while I'm occupied,  which I realize is a big mistake, the second one hits me in the back, knocking the air out of me. The third then pushes me down. I may not be planning on being a warrior,  but my father has taught me in combat and self defense. I quickly roll onto my back, and kick the nearest one. The other two jump to tackle me, but I roll away. They land with a thud, on top of another. As they untangle themselves, I crawl out of an opening in the crowd, dust myself off, and run back to the workshop. 

Sorry this is so long. 

Uuuuuum, peeps? Is anyone going to comment?

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Hey! SO SO sorry it's taken me FOREVER to reply. I'm just incredibly busy with activities but mostly school cause I just have a LOT of extra work this year.

Avril ~

I'm not entirely sure how I came into possession of it, or why me. But while I was shelving things there was a course voice in my ear. "The glass factory at three tomorrow, tell no one." At the same time, I felt a slight pressure on my apron pocket. Instinctively, thinking pickpocket, I swung my arm downward toward the perpetrator's hand. I felt slight contact but by the time I'd spun around the figure was retreating out the door, and vanished into the street. I felt around my pockets to ensure nothing was missing. Instead, I found something. A card. I took one glance at it, then hurridly tucked it back into my pocket, glancing around to make sure no one saw it.

"Aunt Liz, I have an errand to run," I called to the back, hurridly untying my apron while discreetly placing the card in my pant pocket. 

I hurried out the door, ducking into an alley way for privacy, finally taking the time to read the card. I slowly reemerged out into the street, walking had down, lost in thought. Suddenly someone rapidly emerges from a store, and the two of us collide, knocking us both the the ground. I rapidly try to help her pick up her things, until I find something in the collection of fallen articles. A card. Just like the one I received. I look up at her, though I find her staring at me in shock and horror. She grabs it from me shoving it into her pocked and rapidly picking up her belongings. 

"Wait just a second," I say, grabbing her arm and yanking her down a side street. I stare at her intently straight in the eye, trying to determine what her position in this little "society" is.

"Avril," I finally say, sticking my hand out to her while maintaing eye contact.

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Tris~

After dropping off the groceries, I head back to my workshop, taking the shortest way possible. When I get inside, I shut and lock the door. The last thing I needed was to be harrased in my own room. I look at my mirror, which is just a large chunk of a broken one. My face has a scratch, and I'm covered in bruises and dirt. My shirt is slightly ripped, and the holes in my jeans got bigger. I've never been much of a seamstress, so I take them off, put new clothes on, and put the ripped ones near the door to remind me to take them to the local seamstress. 

Okay, so I've been pretty busy with school and my comic. They've taken priority over ALL writing projects, so I haven't had time... Sorry... Anyways, here's something I whipped up:

Rose-

It took them about fifteen minutes to realize finding the parents of a child who had gone missing roughly ten years ago was going to be very hard. Much harder than any of the three of them (if you include Grease, who kept reminding Rose he would not be there, if it were not for the fact that she was currently in control of his body) had comprehended.

"Where do we even go?" Rose complained. "This is hopeless! There's no record of me ever going missing, especially since I might not have even really existed--"

"Wait, what?" Lucky interrupted her.

She sighed, and it was Grease's sigh, the sigh she hated the most. She decided that it was tolerable. "I don't know. It's just... What if Rose's form is another form I stole? When I had no form of my own?"

"That's stupid," Lucky said. "Firstly, you can't be born if you don't exist."

"Firstly, none of this is normal. At all," she reminded him. "We can't assume we're working with the rules of the world we grew up in... It might all be a lie!"

"Now you're just being over dramatic," Lucky grumbled.

"I'm not dramatic!" she protests.

"Yes you are," Lucky and Grease say at the same time.

She grimaces. "Shut up. Both of you." Lucky grins.

A girl runs past the two of them quickly, a stack of makeshift parts in her arms. A larger gear flies off the top and lands by Rose. She picks it up. "Hey, you dropped this!" The girl doesn't seem to hear her, and she disappears into a house.

"I guess we best return this--" she starts.

"No," Grease says. "No way."

She frowns. "And why wouldn't we? She'll probably want it."

"She can find it herself. Later."

"Grease, what is it? Do you know her or something?"

"Tris Lionheart. Local weirdo. Everyone's heard of her. Do you live under a rock or something?"

"Apparently," Rose says. "Well, let's go."

"What did Grease say?" Lucky asks.

"Nothing important." The two start walking towards Tris's house, but Grease screams at Rose to stop.

"We can't! I mean, she probably won't want it if I return it!”

“I can’t see why she wouldn’t,” Rose says, and she keeps walking.

“No, listen, she hates me! I mean, she was darting out of that group for a reason--”

“She hates you and specifically you,” Rose says. “Right. I find that hard to believe. Just because you’ve heard rumors about her--”

“Rose, I do know her! Better than that! Uhm, in fact, I actually would’ve probably been in that group we passed earlier if this whole thing hadn’t happened--”

“Grease, I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but it’s really not making any sense at all.” She walks up to the door of Tris’s house. “Anyways, we’ll just give it back to her and go.”

With that notion, she knocks on the door.

I didn't know who would open the door, so if it's her father or someone, I'll take that into account when writing the next segment. But hey, maybe it's Tris! I don't know, I'm leaving that up to you, Miss Lindsey R. And I guess Grease is a legit jerk now.  

Tris ~

I hear knocking on my door. I ignore it. It's probably just those boys coming to finish. I hear a boy's voice. " Should we just go in?          Oh be quiet! " The door opens, and I hear footsteps coming towards my bedroom. I grab my crossbow, put a bolt in it, and aim at the door. Two boys walk in, one of them I recognize. " Identify yourselves." I continue aiming at them. " I said identify yourselves. " The tallest steps forward slowly, wary of my crossbow. " I am Lucky, and this is Ro- Grease. " " What are you doing here, trespassers?" I hear the tallest whisper, " Well isn't she a ball of sunshine." Grease holds out a gear. " We've come to return this to you.          Don't call her a cuckoo clock!" He whispers the last part, kind of to his head. Lucky inturrupts the awkwardness. "I'm going to wait outside." I pretend that Grease isn't here, and work on my inventions. Grease stands behind me. "Are those your inventions?" "Affirmative." "Are you making something else?" " Your hypothesis is correct." "What is it?" I sigh. "Look, there are plenty of people that are more interesting than me outside. I would really appreciate it if I could work alone." And with that, he left. I finally got to work in peace and quiet. 

Uuuuuuuuuum? 

What happened to the rest of ya'll?