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Said potential trigger was, at this very moment, just strolling in the front door with two over-sized paper bags in tow. (No plastic, NEVER plastic. The environment and little seabirds can reap whatever benefits they happened to come across but she would NOT have icky bits of plastic sticking to her skin and cutting into her fingers.) Strae had purposely left early to avoid the onslaught of heat that would most definitely come later in the day. Not because their groceries were running low, hell no. Strae has an unnaturally high hunger tolerance, Liet's got enough pop tarts for a week's worth of breakfasts, and that 10-foot-pole can starve to death for all she cared. It's not like the b*****d can't just rip a hole in space and grab a bag of bagels himself if he was really that desperate.

With an air of apparent obliviousness that she entered the kitchen, pointedly ignoring the man. Oh, but of course she knew all too well Ave is not happy for some reason; does she care? Three guesses and the first two don't count.

She almost turned around with a innocent-enough "what" just to annoy him further, but decided to get the kettle of water boiling instead. Tea is more important.

Oh. OH. So THAT's what's bothering the grouch today. Strae did a quick mental check of the contents of the paper bags; nope, no coffee. It must have slipped her mind, since -- well, Ave is the only one who drinks the stuff and she's never been known to be sensitive to THAT one's needs.

"What coffee?" She answered, not looking up from the container of tea leaves. "No one left me a grocery list. There's orange juice in the bag if you're thirsty." Like hell she's going to offer her tea. She didn't boil enough water for two anyways. Not that that's the (main) reason.

Lovely, the gorilla has awakened. Without his coffee. With an exaggerated sigh, Strae picked up one of the larger shards of glass between her thumb and forefinger and examined it with overly dramatic flourish, a vein threatening to burst all the while. "Gentleman," she declared with exasperatingly fake nonchalance, "If you get so damn worked up without your coffee,"

The shard flew past Avedis's head and embedded itself firmly into the immaculately papered wall behind him. The support structure inside might have emitted a crack.

"Then why the ******** do you need it in the FIRST PLACE?"

Strae has a very limited patience. The past few months have cleared out her reserves.

She swatted the bullet-like piece to the side effortlessly, redirecting it to the kitchen floor. Strae is pretty sure a couple of tiles cracked, because that glass sure as hell hasn't shattered. "Oh, I'm sorry for not bothering to remember your idiosyncrasies, sir. I will be sure to take note of it and never get the coffee again. You are rather dull under normal circumstances, you know?"

She regarded at Liet for a moment. "Sorry, hun," she called before slamming a foot into the window latch. It swung open, clearing the 12 feet drop to the yard below. "If you don't want to come outside, Ave, it happens to be your turn to clean up today." With that, she jumped out.

By the time Ave got out of his little hole, Strae had already taken the labors to set up a simple barrier around the lot, just in case anything gets tossed too far. A task so simple it shouldn't be considered cake, given her trainings.

Strae countered the spikes with a Guard spell, not even blinking at the force behind them. She'll admit she probably can't slice Ave up an all-out brawl, but keeping herself relatively intact isn't that hard. As much as Strae hated learning it, white magic is handy. "Well, let's see..." She raised her hand to conjure a Shield to deflect the oncoming flames - "The girl, for one, doesn't throw fragile objects around like a 2-year-old. That tends to gain points in my book." Strae swept her arms sideways as the fire dissipated, sending shafts of light flying like arrows toward Ave. She wasn't expecting them to deal damage, but did it anyways just for the sake of aiming something at the b*****d. "She's more worth the attention than you. That about sums it up." Threads of light wound around her hands, ready for the next move.

"I don't think responsible adults throw a tantrum just because they missed a part of feeding time," Strae remarked. Some of the light twisting around her fists lashed out, encircling the spikes and absorbing them while reaching out toward Ave. Not the most effective attack, Strae reminded herself with a frown. It's not her fault she's stuck with this junk, as convenient as it can be at times.

Her expression turned cold at the last sentence. "Treason and honor is entirely relative. The world sucks. It's eat or be eaten. Drag along a few you like for companionship and drag down as many of the ones you don't like as you can." Too many people have sacrificed for reasons not worth s**t in the name of honor. "Do what you want to what you care about. Screw the rest." More light gathered around Strae, dissolving the debris that came within contact. "That's how everything operates."

With a flick of her wrist she hurled a Reflect spell at the base of a tree. The momentum added to the reflective nature of the spell uprooted the plant, sending it flying toward Ave.

********. That was low. Well, then, it seems Avedis had just volunteered to be her guinea pig.

Strae began to recite long strings of spells and prayers soundlessly, her lips barely moving. Runes and patterns carved themselves out of energy, leaving blazing trails upon the ground. The center of the area began to pulse with a foreign force that should not belong on this side of existence. It swirled and floundered and tugged at everything other than its summoner, eagerly spewing whatever it could to the other side. The splinters from the tree vanished without a trace down the black hole framed with light.

This is definitely NOT what one would consider to be white magic.

Strae has no doubt that Ave can get out of the thing by himself; it's not meant to keep one of their kind for long. They won't be too happy if she deliberately banished a supposed team mate. But it'll last long enough to make a point.

"You follow Them because you care about your honor," She said. "Unless all that monologuing was just bluff?"