In which Alkrenon crosses the line twice

[Dorien]

((Longer title: In which Alkrenon crosses the line twice, Dorien has a Crowning Moment of Awesome, and gives Alkrenon a 'Reasons Why You Suck' speech.))

Alkrenon coils his leg up and kicks back like a horse, knocking the chair back. "Backwater sentients should hold their tongue in front of their racial superiors."

Cadence yelps as the chair clips her leg, stumbling from the pain and going down on one knee.

Dorien moves to stand in front of the door, hand on the handle. He's slowly turning it...

Alkrenon turns around at the commotion and rushed to Cadence, leaning down to hook his hand under her shoulder and help her up.

Alkrenon kneels before Cadence.

Cadence grits her teeth, not really saying anything at the moment. She lets him help her up, though, putting her weight on the other leg.

Alkrenon releases Cadence and turns his attention to the chair, picking it up with one hand and setting it aside right side up again.

Cadence limps over to the door and pulls it open roughly.

Dorien staggers out of the way.

Cadence frowns.

Cadence quietly mentions over her shoulder, "If we're so primitive to you, then you may want to take your business elsewhere."

Dorien pops back up, raising an eyebrow. Dorien presses his finger to his mouth as he sneaks a bit closer, moving against the wall.

Alkrenon glares at Cadence, brows knitting together tightly as his tail curls tensely to the side. "And you may want to consider now your business to be the street corner," he spat back.

Cadence WHIRLS, ignoring the jab of pain in her legs to LAUNCH at Alkrenon with a fully-formed fist. "You BASTARD!" she shrieks.

Dorien steps into the doorway!

Alkrenon had not expected her reaction to be so immediate - or so violent. The first flurry of fists lands on the side of his face, blue blood flying to the side as the force of impact reopens the scars on his cheeks; splattering her knuckles and his face.

Dorien snarls, shoulders hunched as he moves on foot behind him. He looks about ready to launch forward. "May I defend the lady?" His voice is eerily calm.

Cadence shoves him with all her might after the first blow lands, eyes immediately full of angry tears. "How DARE you come here and - you HYPOCRITE!" She doesn't seem to hear Dorien at all.

Dorien sulks forward, reaching out for Cadence slowly.

Alkrenon recovers fast enough, almost prancing in place as he tries to avoid getting punched again by holding his head up. A pair of large hands grip her shoulders and shove her back at Dorien. "Better yet!" he retorts. "Take her!"

Dorien catches her, and tries to move her behind him.

Cadence stumbles back into Dorien's hands, openly weeping at this point. "I told you not to break my heart and that's just what you go and do..!" She struggles against Dorien's herding.

Dorien says: Alkrenon.

Alkrenon says: You don't have one to break! You're just a shell! Empty. Nothing but the Light's porcelain doll; very pretty to look at but hollow and frail.

Dorien keeps trying to move Cadence, eyes straight on Alkrenon.

Cadence goes stiff at this and is easily moved at this point, too stunned to react.

Alkrenon shoots a glare at Dorien. "What is it," he hissed.

Dorien moves his hands behind his back. "Apparently I know why you refer to me as your Light, seeing as you don't have any yourself. You don't even seem to believe in the tenets, so you're forced to live out your wish to be one with it through me."

Dorien, as he's talking, pulls out his ring of keys. While behind his back, he slips the various pieces of metal through the gaps in his fingers, closing his hand into a fist around the ring.

Alkrenon snorts. "Don't flatter yourself, Dorien. I say a lot of things."

Cadence looks at Dorien in disbelief, slumping against the doorframe.

Dorien says: You do, apparently.

Alkrenon takes on an air of superiority, tilting his head up a bit so as to force himself to look down at the pair. "Hmph. Humans."

Dorien suddenly bursts into motion! He's pretty fast, using his slight frame, and lashes a foot out at Alkrenon's kneecap.

Alkrenon expected retaliation after Cadence's first outburst, and Dorien's was no surprise. The Draenei whipped around, his tail colliding against Dorien to bat the human out of the way.

Dorien goes tumbling, landing and rolling. He's back up in a moment, launching himself at Alkrenon again. He throws out his arm, barking a word. Light, the Light that Cadence had let him borrow going in the direction of Alkrenon's face.

Cadence stays against the doorframe, still too shocked to move. Was that DORIEN being a badass?

Alkrenon turns to Dorien, his stance as that of a bull ready to charge - but before he can take the first lunge the burst of Light strikes him. He reels back with the force of impact, stumbling and falling on his side with a frightening boom of a sound.

Dorien is on him in a moment, trying to get an leg around Alkrenon's neck and apply most of his weight on the neck.

Cadence jerks a little, weakly calling out. "Stop."

Alkrenon is breathing through his nose, nostrils flaring with every labored breath, looking up at Dorien momentarily before slumping - his entire body relaxed in what looks like a gesture of defeat.

Dorien 's fist, with all the jagged keys poking out from between his fingers is already swinging before he hears Cadence's voice. He does stop though, the fist a few inches from Alkrenon's closest eye, the metal even closer than that. His hand is steady.

Dorien says: Alkrenon.

Alkrenon rolls his eyes towards Dorien, not saying a word.

Dorien says: I'm afraid to say that you don't know what the Light is, nor do I believe you understand the concept of love. You're not a lover. You're just a very good fucker.

Alkrenon narrows his eyes. Your point?

Cadence tenses up, clenching her eyes shut.

Dorien speaks in an even tone, staring down at Alkrenon with a rather intense and serious expression. "You don't deserve Cadence. Nor do you deserve me."

Alkrenon does not respond, the only sound coming from him is from his steady, deep breathing. There is only the faintest twitch of expression, one that doesn't invite argument - maybe of agreement.

Dorien says: I'm afraid from this point on, I have decided our relationship has ended indefinitely. Should you so choose to, you may love me from a far, although as stated before, I doubt you can love. We can be friends, but that is as far as I am willing to let it.

Alkrenon rolls his eyes back down, looking aside but at nothing in particular.

Dorien frowns down at him. "You don't respect humans; nor women; nor myself. Go back to being a self-glorified whore. Maybe those mothers of your bastard children were right."

Alkrenon flicks his tail up, letting it flop back on the floor. "Get off me."

Dorien shakes his head. "I'll sit a bit longer, and see if the information has sunk into that thick skull of yours. You have a history of ignoring my words in the past."

Cadence wraps her arms tight across herself, shaking her head and staring at the floor. "No. Let him leave." She says 'leave' as a half-command. Get out of my house.

Dorien looks over at Cadence, before moving his hand away and the rest of his body away. He goes to stand beside her.

Alkrenon shifts, planting both hands on the floor and lifting himself up to his hooves, calmly straightening his hauberk - his hand resting over his chest, at his heart, for a moment; maybe to see if he could feel it beating, if IT could feel.

Cadence pushes the door open further silently, then moves aside, staring at Alkrenon and waiting for him to comply.

Dorien jingles his keys idly in his hand. We're waaiiiting.

Alkrenon tosses the hand aside, turning to walk out without further word or gesture. Nothing else to do or say - at least nothing now that can amend this.

Cadence shivers.

Dorien flips his keys into his hand, and tucks them away. "I need to thank you, Cadence."

Cadence slowly looks over at Dorien, eyes and cheeks still wet from her earlier outburst. She looks completely drained.

Dorien says: Calling me a mat, calling me out on it.

Cadence barely has the presence of mind to look confused, but it's there, faintly. "..oh?"

Dorien frowns, staring at her. "I think the only reason why I held on as long as I did was because he called me his Light."

Dorien says: Seemed to make up for his more questionable aspects.

Cadence swallows hard, her voice thick with emotion. "He told me that, too. Idly. You were right about him."

Dorien snorts, and pauses. He looks over at her. "... Ah. Say, did he tell you should have been born a Draenei?"

Cadence doesn't answer. She limps over to the chair and collapses onto it, as though her knees just finally gave out on her. She buries her face in her hands and is silent.

Dorien continues speaking aloud. "Language lessons in Draenei to slip in some more interesting phrases or words?"

Cadence shakes her head at that one.

Dorien says: Xee ashje ake?

Cadence pulls her hands down, dragging on her cheeks for a moment, before steepling her fingers in front of her mouth. "No. I knew that one already," she answers hoarsely.

Dorien says: And he called you his Light as well. Mm. I knew he reused pick up lines, but he's entirely shameless. I wonder how many others it was said to.

Cadence leans back in her chair, pulling her heels up to the edge of it and her knees to her chest. She rubs her leg slowly, wincing at the bruise that is inevitably growing on her leg.

Cadence says: I.. didn't think I'd have so much to regret so soon.

Cadence attempts to laugh. It's a weak gesture.

Dorien slumps into the chair, and rubs his face, wincing. The euphoria of the Light is gone, and so is his adrenaline. Damn, his side hurts. "Don't waste such an emotion on him. He doesn't deserve it."

Cadence looks over at him tiredly. ".. you were very dashing," she offers in a small voice

Dorien blinks, and looks over at her. He smiles. "Need to save the princess."

Cadence says: I'm not sure she's worth saving.

Cadence rubs her face. "But thank you all the same."

Dorien says: Of course she's worth saving.

Cadence curls her legs tighter to her chest, wrapping her arm around them and propping her other elbow on her knees. She presses her hand to her mouth and looks away, dejectedly, giving a little headshake.

Dorien leans over, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't shake your head. I think the princess is worth saving, and always will be."

Cadence swallows hard, and clears her throat, moving her hand from her mouth to her forehead. "I just - I know it's ludicrous but I feel this is all my fault-! I - I just wanted to give him a place to stay and it all went so wrong!"

Cadence says: It.. it wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Dorien says: Yeah, well... I wasn't expecting much from him either, and yet...

Dorien waves his hand in the air. "It happened."

Dorien says: It's not your fault. You were being kind, and then... He used it. Like usual.

Cadence slides her hand up into her hair, mussing it, staring off at nothing. "Am I a whore?" The question is near-inaudible.

Dorien says: No.

Dorien looks at her evenly. "You aren't. He's an underhanded liar who has done terrible and stupid things to get into women's undergarments."

Dorien says: You aren't a whore, he is. Hell, he even took up that job in the Kamil.

Dorien rubs his face. "I can't believe I got my fingernails ripped out for him."

Cadence stares at Dorien.

Dorien says: ... What?

Cadence says: When did.. ?

Dorien says: Oh, it was, er. Awhile ago.

Dorien rubs the back of his neck. "I cheated the books a bit, for him, since he said he loved me and stuff." Dorien pauses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I was decidedly stupid then."

Cadence grimaces, and lowers her forehead to her knees.

Dorien says: Anyway, Ley figured out, told Lilifred, who then had my fingernails ripped out.

Dorien wiggles his fingers. "Thankfully, they've grown back."

Dorien says: But yeah, maybe I should have been a bit more perceptive.

Cadence takes a slightly shuddery breath. "Okay," she answers simply.

Dorien looks over at her, reaching out to tuck some hair out of her face. "You're Cadence, that's all."

Cadence recoils from the touch, uncurling her legs and moving out of the chair around the other side.

Dorien sits back, wincing slightly.

Dorien says: Want company...?

Cadence rests her hand against the table, leaning on it heavily as she presses her other palm to her face. "I don't know," she mumbles.

Dorien rubs his neck. "Well... I'm here if you need some."

Cadence says: I think I need to be alone.

Cadence stares at her boots.

Dorien nods. "My door is always open. I can bring by some brownies by tomorrow."

Cadence hugs herself. "Please lock the door on your way out."

Dorien nods. "See you, Cade."