The water in the bath really felt quite nice. Everything was fading quickly from Lina's current thoughts. The nightmares, the memories, the fears. They were all being shoved under the rug like a pile of dust. Lina lay in the bathtub in her inn room staring at the ceiling. The water was warm, just like the weather was outside today. It was curious, really, since it had been snowing just yesterday, but it was probably better this way. The festival doubtlessly would be more fun in warmer weather than in the snow. Lina felt like her old self now. She wanted to go talk to Gourry and apologize for her attitude the night before.

Maybe she could trick him into buying her lunch. Lina smiled at that thought. It was just like the old days, back when she and Gourry traveled around without caring where they were going. They traveled for the sake of traveling, for while a destination in a journey may give a sense of purpose, the deeper meaning of the path taken was in the hardships along the way. Recently it seemed like she and Gourry didn't enjoy their travels as much. They were still constantly on the road, but ever since Gourry had returned to his old mercenary profession and Lina had decided to tag along, their travels had always seemed rushed in one way or another.

Lina's mind wandered on to another subject. She hadn't seen her family for a little more than a year now, and the only reason why she had seen them then was entirely accidental. Lina didn't really enjoy spending time with her family, especially her elder sister, Luna. Lina and Luna used to be quite friendly towards one another, just like anyone would expect two sisters to be. But ever since that time that Lina had tried to pocket some extra cash by projecting magical images of Luna bathing for the paying onlookers, Luna had been pretty hostile towards Lina. It was understandable, really. Lina wondered what her parents would say if they knew what she was doing now. Would they appreciate the fact that she was effectively a freelance mercenary now? Her parents used to be mercenaries themselves, but ever since they had given that up to become merchants they seemed to shun the idea of a hired killer. Lina gave a half smile. No doubt her parents would be worried about her, running around with a man she wasn't married to. They would probably try to find her a suitor if she came home. She was twenty now, it was more or less expected that she would be married. But the idea of being tied down in one place with a family to take care of never really appealed to her.

A knocking sound at the door to the bedroom interrupted Lina's ponderings. She got out of the bath and wrapped a towel around herself before going to answer the door.

"Yeah, who is it?" she asked as she opened the door. Gourry stood behind the door. Lina wasn't too surprised. She wasn't expecting any visitors and Gourry never really seemed to catch on to the rules of etiquette.

"Good morning!" Gourry stated happily. Lina could tell that the happiness in his voice was forced. He was worried that she would still be in the odd mood she had recently been in. For whatever reason, dense mercenary only now realized that Lina had apparently been bathing and was clad in only a towel.

"Oh! Umm, I-I'm sorry!" Gourry replied hastily as he turned around to avoid eye contact.

"It's okay," Lina replied flatly. It really didn't bother her that much. He had seen her naked before, not because either of them had intended it so, but that's how it worked out and to have him see her like this wasn't too bothersome.

"Anyway," Gourry continued talking without turning to face Lina again, "I was wondering if you'd like to check out the festival with me today."

Lina couldn't see it, but she guess that he was really worried that she would still be in her weird mood. Lina chuckled a little before talking.

"Baka," she chided him good-humoredly. He turned around to face her and she closed the door right in his face, leaving him dumbfounded.

"Give me fifteen minutes," Lina's voice came through the door. Gourry smiled inwardly with the revelation that apparently the Lina he knew was back.

"This is really good!" Lina commented happily at the foreign food she was eating. There always tended to be a large mixing of cultures during the Atlas City festival. Lina couldn't remember where what she was eating right now came from. It was a combination of meat shavings, onions, tomatoes, and some sort of yogurt sauce all put together in a bread of some sort.

"What's it called?" Gourry asked while eating more traditional tempura.

Lina looked over her shoulder to the sign where she had bought it.

"Gye-ross?" she asked quizzically.

"No, no, it's pronounced 'hee-ros,'" a man sitting at another table commented.

Lina looked over at the man in annoyance. He wore tan and white robes, had long blue hair, and wore a golden circlet around his forehead.

"You stay out of this. What the hell is the big idea anyway? You're not supposed to be a character in this," Lina commented in annoyance.

"Well, I just wanted the opportunity to participate a little in my fanfics. Is that too much to ask?" the man with blue hair asked innocently.

"When you screw around with the story, it is too much to ask!" Lina said angrily, "Why don't you go watch your hentai, or something like that?"

"I DON"T WATCH HENTAI!!!" the main shouted furiously, "WHY THE HELL DO YOU ANIME CHARACTERS ALWAYS ACCUSE OF THAT?!"

"Just a hunch," Lina said calmly, but she was secretly enjoying watching the blue-haired man writhe in fury. The man was really angry now. He clenched his fists and a vein in his forehead looked like it was about to pop.

"Ki-sama!" he muttered between clenched teeth.

"Hey, hey! Calm down now mister!" Gourry offered his words as a buffer between Lina and the blue-haired man.

"C'mon, Gourry," Lina said as she stood from the café table, "Let's let this loser watch his hentai or whatever it is he does in his spare time and find something more interesting to do."

Lina and Gourry walked off with the blue-haired man steaming in rage back at the café tables.

"I'll show you, Lina Inverse!" he muttered and laughed in a maniacal and rather annoying manner; then stopped suddenly as if suddenly realizing something, "Man, I really gotta stop watching Angel Sanctuary. Rosiel's laughing style is getting to me."

Lina and Gourry walked down the streets of Atlas City taking in all the unusual sights of the festival. Lina carried with her a doll that looked remarkably like her chibi-self. Gourry was just glad that apparently whatever had been bothering Lina earlier was over and that she was back to her old self. Lina felt in a rather happy mood in fact, despite the previous disturbances of the fanfic's author. (Why the hell am I writing this?)

Lina was about to inspect another stand to the left side of the street that had caught her eye when a man wearing a white T-shirt and brown slacks ran up to her. The man struck a dashing pose and attempted to smooth back his short unkempt hair.

"Would you go out with me?" he asked as suavely as he could, which wasn't overly so.

"W-What?!" Lina asked dumbfounded.

Just then two red-headed women, one wear a cloak and big sunglasses followed up to where Lina and Gourry stood staring in astonishment at the man who asked Lina for a date.

"KA-RO-TO-KUN!!!" the woman with sunglasses shouted angrily before hitting the man over the head with a broom. The other woman grabbed the unconscious man and dragged him off with the sunglasses woman close behind.

"Gomen," the two women said to Lina and Gourry as they walked off.

"What the hell?" Gourry asked aloud. He and Lina stared at each other in puzzlement for a moment before shrugging and continuing on.

"Is that guy we saw earlier in charge of this?" Gourry asked simply.

"Probably," Lina sighed, "What an annoying asshole."

The two kept on sightseeing and enjoying themselves for some time more until Gourry noticed two people at another stand talking rather loudly.

"Mill-chan, don't just run off!" a woman wearing jeans and a white shirt told the other person, a little girl wearing a pink and blue dress who was about to wander off to another stand.

"Hey, Sylphiel! What's up?" Gourry waved to the woman wearing jeans who indeed looked a lot like Sylphiel.

"Huh? Do I know you, sir?" the woman asked politely to Gourry, "I'm afraid you must have me confused with someone else. My name is not Sylphiel."

"O-ne-ni-sama!" the little girl called to the Sylphiel look-alike, "C'mon! I wanna see the Ferris Wheel before we have to go meet Woll-san!"

Lina slapped her head, "Goddammit, he's up to it again."

The two walked off into the distance.

"I could've sworn that was Sylphiel," Gourry pondered while scratching the side of his head.

"Probably the same character designer, or maybe same artist, or something like that. I'm not sure exactly," Lina told him, "But this really getting old. Does that idiot think he's harming us by doing this?"

"It's just fun to do," the blue-haired man who apparently had been standing right behind Lina said with a broad smile.

Lina unceremoniously punched him in the face.

"Damn! That hurt! What was that for?!" he shouted while holding his bloody nose.

"Listen," Lina commanded in a lecturing tone, "This is getting really stupid. You're a lot better with drama than with comedy, so cut it out this instant."

"But. . .but. . ." the blue-haired man stuttered with big tears welling up in his eyes.

"I promise I won't accuse you of watching hentai anymore, okay? Just do things the normal way!"

"Oh. . .okay. . .I guess. . ." the blue-haired man stated in defeat and walked off.

"I'm glad that's over with. I don't think I could stand another one of that idiot's poor attempts at comedy," Lina sighed.

"What happened exactly?" Gourry said. He still didn't get it.

"Nothing. . .just forget it. . ." Lina sighed at her companion's stupidity as well.

I'm sorry you readers had to see that. I'm not sure what was going through my mind. No, I wasn't under the influence of any illegal narcotics (at least, not to my knowledge). I just wanted to do something different. I promise I won't be an ass about this stuff anymore and I'm just going to get back to writing an overall serious fanfic, 'cuz like Lina says, I suck at comedy.

Arigatou,

Krelian Necros

(The "blue-haired man")

P.S.: Kudos to anyone who can identify the three animes that the "cameo" characters are derived from.