Jesus christ. This blows screaming out of the water. What does it say about her to want back a murderous brainwashing serial killer? As a distraction (I assume)?
Referring to Jack Slash the Therapist in Totally Losing It, but yeah, Bet's Jack Slash would make a welcome distraction
Angel: FINALLY SOMEONE I CAN PUNCH
Jack: Someone you can what now?
Angel: *PUNCH*
Referring to Jack Slash the Therapist in Totally Losing It, but yeah, Bet's Jack Slash would make a welcome distraction
Angel: FINALLY SOMEONE I CAN PUNCH
Jack: Someone you can what now?
Angel: *PUNCH*
"Right. So basically - when you're feeling upset about something. You take a step back from the situation. Weigh up all the positives and negatives. And try and evaluate it logically, to decide how you should approach it. So - so let's talk about this, uh. Thing with the bullies."
"Um. Okay. I'm - I'm pretty sure I'm not qualified to handle this. My door is always open if you need to talk but - I heavily recommend you talk to your doctor about booking yourself a proper psych appointment with someone - qualified to deal with this. If you want, I'll write a recommendation letter in support."
Oh, okay. So he's okay, mediocre. Good on him for recognizing that he's way out of his depths.
So if Eye wanted to find a good therapist, here's what I would do. Go on Psychology Today and click on the Find a Therapist tab. Then I would look up Eye's location. Then hit the Refine button (it's on the upper right corner of the page on my phone's browser). Click on all of the relevant issues you want your therapist to know how to work with. If you know what type or types of therapy you want them to know how to do, you could search by that (I'm personally partial to Humanistic). Then read through the descriptions that the various therapist write about themselves until you find one that feels, yes feels, like some you want to work with. Then give that person/people a call or email and set up an initial appointment, and go from there.
Yes, I am planning to work in this field and have definitely been a consumer of these services. I have been around this metaphorical block a few times.
I'd like to give super extra special thanks to my co-author and girlfriend, @hellgodsrus, and my betas, @Tamahori, @Tin_Mother, and @RexHeller for making this possible.
Anyways, feedback and thoughts are always loved, so... do let us know what you think!
GIB FEEDBACC
Warnings: Discussion of (and partial endorsement of by one character) a pretty problematic piece of literature, some discussion of forced prostitution (in a fictional context), acting, stage fright, and socialization.
Episode Four: Retaliation
Scene Four: Scene
-.-.-
Breakfast was a much better affair today. Because I sat in the corner and aside from the whispers and sidelong glances, everyone else seemed to be interested in sitting as far away from me as possible. Guess I couldn't blame them. I had an actual fork again. But hey, I also had waffles. And they were fucking delicious. Especially drowned in syrup.
The true secret of the waffles was that each little square thing was actually a cup for syrup. Maple syrup was goooood.
It was like heaven in my mouth.
"Hey, Angel."
"Mmph -" I swallowed. "Hey, Stella." I grinned. "How've you been?" The only thing that could ruin my mood now was a repeat of yesterday. And there wasn't a bigfoot jacket in sight.
"I'm okay. Haven't seen you in a while." She sat in the seat next to me. "Heard you've had… something of a week."
"D'aww, did you miss me~?" I leaned towards her for a moment and she batted me away. "Heh. Well, yeah. Something of a week certainly covers it." Stabbing the waffle with my fork. Imagining it was a certain someone's vital artery. "But hopefully things'll get better. Hopefully."
"Yeah. Well, you never know with this place. Sometimes the drama just never ends. And I don't mean the class."
"Kinda wish it did, Drama's one of the more fun ones." I chuckled. "What do you think of a murder weapon that's literally just a poisoned skeleton in a dress?"
"Yeah, the Revenger's Tragedy is pretty nutty."
"Hell of a murder weapon though." I giggled.
"Mmm." Stella nodded. "Like I said. Pretty nutty."
We both took a moment to dig in. Fooood. Food was important. But at the same time, I was still trying to think of something to talk about. I felt my tummy and - I was pretty sure I had some form of abs under there. Maybe not abs, but there was definite firmness. Being fit was hot. But now I wanted to hit something with an axe - maybe start chopping wood with a midriff exposing shirt to show off my sweat-glistening abs…
Damnit. I was pent up again.
"... hey, it suddenly occurs to me that with all the rumours flying around and what happened yesterday - I'm surprised you want to sit next to me." I frowned in confusing, twirling my fork around a little like a conductor.
"This school's rumour mill is nuts anyway. Besides, as long as you don't stab me, we'll be fine." She shrugged. "Worst comes to worst you can be the Nathan to my Victoria."
"I still have no idea what their relationship is. Like, normally he's all super twitchy and angery but then Victoria asks him something and he's all like 'yes ma'am'. But then Rachel asks him something and he's like a puppy begging for headpats."
"Nathan and Victoria's families are both rich as sin, so I think they were each other's only salvation from disgustingly boring parties when they were younger. I mean - there's also dumb rumours like that they've been engaged since age three and stupid stuff like that. But honestly, you just have to look at them to see they're just friends."
I snorted. "Engaged since three. Who even does that anymore?" But I thought about what Victoria had said. About leading on the boys. Had she done that to Nathan? "Childhood friends sounds kinda accurate though. They've got that - weird energy between them. Known each other for a long time."
"Huh. I mean - I thought you'd spent some time with them recently. So you might have a better idea than I do." Stella shoved a forkful of food in her mouth, chewing slowly and - I wasn't sure you could chew concerningly, but she made a good case. "But I always got the impression that maybe they'd tried something in the past and decided to just be friends and made it work. But they've still got that frisson of other stuff, y'know?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Would be super awkward if he's the reason Victoria's gay though." But there was merit to that idea. Kinda. "I might have to ask her what's up with that later."
Stella raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure Chase is straight."
"To be honest, with the way she lusts after Mr. Jefferson, I think she might be bi? Like, damn girl, down. You're drooling all over your pictures."
"Yeah, that seems more likely. I mean, she tries to hide it but she's hooked up with a lot of girls. But she's also apparently hooked up with several dudes so. Bi makes sense."
"Might be possible she's bi-sexual and hetero-romantic?" I shrugged. "Girls are fun, but if she ever got serious she might want a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend. Friends with benefits are still friends." I grinned.
"Yeah, maybe."
"Stella, this is the part where you totally admit you're up for some experimentation to find out more about yourself and I selflessly offer myself up as tribute." I leaned towards her a little, waggling my eyebrows.
She laughed. "Sorry but no thanks. I discovered myself a few years ago. No confusion here."
"Damn."
"I mean - if Victoria wasn't going to socially behead me for it, and it wasn't a little creepy to want to bang him, I'd totally try and make a move on him."
I thought of him. Of Colin. "Yeah, that he is."
"Said the big gay mess."
"Just cos I don't bat for the team doesn't mean I can't appreciate the wares." I grinned again. "Oh - shit, uh, I completely forgot to ask anyone, but I didn't snore in class yesterday, did I?"
"A little. But it's okay."
I hid my face in my hands. "At least I know it wasn't a sexy dream," I mumbled, cheeks feeling like I could melt iron with them. "Everyone would have complained at me. Again."
Stella snorted and I'm pretty sure some milk came out her nose as she started laughing.
I heard a sigh behind me. A very distinct sigh.
"It wasn't a sex joke, promise." I couldn't help my smile as I held my hands up in surrender as Kate slid her tray onto the table next to mine. Stella and her shared a look - I wasn't sure what kind of look, but Stella shuffled up the table away from us a bit. Darn social - weirdnesses. "Aaand just like that, I feel like I'm getting timeshared." I blinked. "So, Kate, how's things?" Cute Kate Best Kate!
"It's okay." She mumbled, gently poking her waffle. "Just tired."
I rubbed her back gently. "If you ever need a lap pillow for napping, mine's always open."
"You sure that wouldn't break one of the commandments?" Stella twirled her fork on her plate.
"Must not be great commandments if 'thou shalt not use another's lap to rest thou eyes' is included."
"It's not a commandment." Kate pinched her nose. "It's just - I appreciate the offer, Angel, but I think I just need some tea."
Urge to protect rising. Taylor loved her tea. "Earl grey?"
"Mmm. Prefer Lapsang."
"I don't really like either, but if I have to have a hot drink, coffee will do." Stella was rubbing her brows. "Which is fun cause caffeine - "
Do they do Lapsang here? I was already getting to my feet and I felt like shit ignoring Stella but… "I'll see if I can grab some for you." Well. If I got some coffee for her too… The drinks seemed to be at the tray-line. A few packets of Lapsang because I dunno how strong Kate liked it, one of those plunger things of coffee, a few milk packets, the teapot thingy, put it all on a tray. Oh, and grabbed myself a few more fresh waffles before making my way back to the table. "I returneth with beverages!"
The atmosphere was - uncomfortable. Both Kate and Stella seemed to have hunched themselves away from each other, picking at their breakfasts. Had they been sexy with each other and now regretted it - no, wait, Stella was straight and Kate was Kate. Whoops. Got gossipcited.
"So…" I sat down again. "I'm guessing you two…" I pointed to each of them. "Are friends with me but not each other?"
"I don't like being preached at." Stella folded her arms. "I'm surprised you can stand it."
"I didn't - Stella, what I said the other day was - I meant it as just a suggestion or - "
"It didn't sound like a suggestion."
"Okay, found the hornets nest," I muttered to myself, before coughing. "Uh. It feels a bit like I'm prying but - what was said the other day?" I looked between them and hoo boy, Stella looked mad and Kate looked mad-upset. Mostly upset, I wasn't sure she could do mad.
"She criticised the book I was reading. Not even in like a 'we're talking and here's my thoughts'. Just came up to me and started explaining how it was wrong and bad of me to like it."
Kate hunched more. "I didn't mean it to feel that way."
"As self imposed mediator for reasons unknown," I looked down at Kate, which felt so wrong, "I don't think approaching people out of nowhere to talk about what they're reading is a… polite way to start dialogue." Taylor certainly never liked me interrupting. Which is why I was allowed to climb into her lap and snuggle but not ask what it's about.
Kate wriggled unhappily. "It's an unpleasant and wrong book though."
"Is that an opinion or a fact?" I raised an eyebrow. "And - which book was it anyways? If it's the one I'm thinking of, I might end up agreeing with Kate." When did Fifty Shades come out?
Stella sighed. "It's Story of O. It's not exactly light or fun reading, or I think super accurate about some of its subject matter, but as a piece of literature it's - yeah, I enjoy it."
Body, do you know Story of O? Nope. It rang a bell as something kinda… sexy, maybe? Probably, given Kate had issue with it.
Kate wriggled more. "It's horrible. The stuff the main character goes through - "
"For fuck's - she agrees to most of it. The non-con bits are gross, but the rest is fine. And even the non-con bits - it's fiction. I'm not going to start poking chains through my bits just because I read about it in a nearly sixty year old book."
I blinked. "The fuck." I stared at both of them in horror. Stella for enjoying it - and Kate for knowing what was in it. Had she read it too?
"Piercings. She gets some piercings and stuff. Like, there's freakier stuff out there for free on the web that's stuff that people have actually really done, rather than written about."
"It's still not - it promotes the idea of sex being - not nice."
Stella rolled her eyes. "Sex doesn't have to be nice. Or 'nice' however you mean it."
"I'd stop there, Stella, cos that is sounding scarily close to rape avocation." I frowned and folded my arms.
"That's not what I meant." Stella sighed. "I'm saying - some people enjoy sex to be all about bodies and roughness and stuff and that's okay. As long as everyone involved is into it."
"I figured, but still - that would usually be considered nice sex for them." I rubbed my forehead and ow okay bad idea still got stitches. "Kate, while I can see why you'd have huge problems with this book, maybe find a different way to approach it, if at all. And Stella - I'm glad you're the kind of person capable of knowing the difference between fiction and reality. Something makes me doubt one of the jocks reading that book - assuming they can read - would be capable of the same considerations." I took a deep breath. That book - the body was remembering something, a wikipedia page maybe? Browsing banned literature for a school assignment. Or books that got some kind of charges attempted against the author. And - it was horrifying.
Fuckit, my waffles were getting cold. So I started eating again.
"I still don't like it," Kate said quietly.
"No-one's forcing you to read it."
I sighed. "Nobody expects you to like it, Kate. If you really do want to get it off the shelves, maybe approach the -" I paused. "Local library or school library or owned?" I asked Stella.
"Local, but it's a copy I bought at a Barnes and Noble in Seattle."
I nodded. "If you want to get it off shelves, approach the places that stock it. Like the local library. Mention your concerns, why you think it's worth pulling from the shelves -" A really stupid idea of buy it came across my mind but that'd just give them the money to buy another copy or Kate a copy of a book she hated. "And… that might be better than approaching people reading it and telling them it's bad to like it." I rubbed her shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.
Kate made a grumbling noise of non-committance and poked at her waffles.
"Maybe we can discuss it further at the next abstinence club meeting." I shrugged.
"O - okay." Kate nodded. "Fine."
I smiled. Aaand realised I'd still failed in getting them to make up. "So… is there uh. Anything you both enjoy?" They looked at me and it was my turn to hunch over. "I - I just hate seeing friends fight…"
"No idea." Stella shrugged. "What do you like?"
"Um. Reading. Though - probably different books. Helping people. Music." Kate shrugged.
"You play the violin, right? I used to play cello."
"Get me a drum to hit and we'll have our own mini-orchestra." I grinned. Did I play drums? I remembered hitting things to a beat. I - tried drumming my fingers on the lip of the table. Wow. This was much easier than I remembered.
"We could be like Apocalyptica." Kate perked up.
Stella tilted her head. "The cello metal group? Wait - you like a band called Apocalyptica?"
Kate looked away with a blush coming to her cheeks. "I - I can't choose what they name themselves."
"The important question is can we do metal with only a drumkit, a cello, and a violin?" I hummed. Still drumming my fingers. In different beats now. Wow. I could skateboard and I could drum. This body was awesome.
"Yes, we could. It'd be - fairly experimental. But I imagine we could."
"We should totally do it." I grinned. "We'd be the best metal band in school."
-.-.-
I was in a much better mood as I walked into Drama Lab today. Buuuuuut… Mr. Keaton gave me a sympathetic look that reminded me of yesterday. And that I'd skipped. Fuuuck.
"Uh, I didn't miss anything important yesterday, did I?" I asked him, grimacing and tapping my fingers together nervously.
"Oh, no - nothing too important. Just working on some presentation aspects and further discussion of the play." He smiled, but it was a little thin.
"Ah, yes, the difference between villain and super-villain," I grinned widely. "Presentation!"
He blinked. "Um - "
"It's a movie quote." Rachel, sudden Rachel! "I'll catch Angel up on what happened yesterday."
I whined a little as she dragged me away. "He hasn't seen Megamind? C'mon, that was a great scene."
"He probably has but just doesn't remember it super well." Rachel frowned a little. "I don't either, to be honest. But, um. I just wanted to say - "
Sorry? That you can't run away with Chloe? That you haven't seen Chloe since my breakdown yesterday in which no fire extinguishers were involved whatsoever? Fucking hell, Amy, why did you even give me this trauma? And then with Kaidan - was it all the lewd puns?
I waited. I didn't want to interrupt. So I kind of just looked at her. Not impatiently, just… looking. With innocent-ish eyes. The non-judgemental kind of innocent, I hoped.
"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for - how things happened."
"It's… " I wanted to say it's okay, but it really wasn't, so I just gave her a quick hug and a nod. "I uh. I've been thinking about what you said in the note. About making up for it?"
She winced a little at that.
"Just - let Chloe help. Neither of us want to see you suffer."
She shook her head sharply. "No. That's - not really an option. I know she thinks it is, but it isn't."
I sighed. "Then at least talk it out with her so she understands why. I'm not gonna -" Deep breath, holding my hands up a little in surrender, "I'm not gonna look any deeper, because I know you don't want me prying, but talk to Chloe about it. Relationships don't work without communication."
Rachel took a long breath. Looked up at the ceiling. Then back down at her lap. "I'll try."
A sigh of relief this time. "Thank you. It's - all anyone can do, really. So!" Gripping my knees enthusiastically. "What'd I miss yesterday while having a cataclysmic breakdown in my room?"
"Well, we talked some more about roles we'd like. Did some improv work on scenes similar to those in the play. I think we're continuing that today?"
"Oooh, goodie." I grinned. "Improv is fun." I mean sure half of it was over-exaggeratedly acting the part via language and dramatic gesturing, but still. Fun! "Thou shalt not wilt liketh cabbage. Eth." I paused. "... does cabbage even wilt or am I thinking of lettuce?"
"I think it wilts, also it'd be 'wilteth like cabbage', not 'liketh'."
"Huh." I was a little surprised by that. "You learn new stuff every day."
Mr. Keaton was standing in front of the mini-stage, ushering us all into our seats and doing the roll call. He had a clipboard and he was ticking things off on it so I assumed that's what he was doing. "Welcome back, everyone." He smiled. "Today we'll be doing more improvisational scenes inspired by scenes from The Revenger's Tragedy. Let me just shuffle up the names - we've still got the hat of scenes on my desk from yesterday… first up - Nathan and Hayden! Come on up, draw your scene out of the hat…"
Hayden was the first to the hat and rummaged around, picked out a piece of paper, read it, and groaned. Nathan had a look and scowled. "Can we draw another one?"
"I'm afraid not." Mr. Keaton smiled, hat already behind his back. "It's up to you to improvise the scene. You can tell us which scene it is afterwards, if you prefer."
Nathan looked extra twitchy. And he still had sunglasses on - which can't have made being indoors any easier… I shot a look at Rachel, and she just shrugged, as lost as I was. It was a surprisingly human look for her. Now that her gemstone heart wasn't bleeding prisma anymore.
They started whispering to each other, seemingly arguing about who was going to play who. They must have been friends or something because Nathan didn't immediately win. Eventually Hayden sighed and stepped up onto the little stage thing.
I was trying to think of what scenes there were that the two guys would want to pull out of. There was a few rapey scenes… which I was almost 50-50 on them finding awkward. The skeleton in a dress - oh my god was one of them going to be the skeleton? Were they going to kiss?
"Uh - Nick! I didn't see you there. How's staying in our house going?"
Nathan jittered. "Yeah. Yeah it's cool. The prince sent me for a reason though you know."
The prince sent… who did the prince send? Who was the prince? Who did the prince send Nathan to? So many questions and so little idea on what was going on. I couldn't help but watch in rapt attention.
"Oh? I, um. Hope it's not about my sons who have been fleeing the crown. Haha."
"No actually." Nathan spun and turned to the audience and - looked sad? "She doesn't even recognise me, and claims to support the prince. But that might just be good sense - if I were his servant… now to test her further."
I was surprised. He could actually act - I mean, well… his normal jittery nature didn't really give off the idea of someone able to be anything else. Or appear anything else. But he was kinda convincing. Hmmmm. I still had no idea what scene they were doing.
OH! Maybe it was… uh… no, it didn't feel like Vindice was in here. Vindice might have been crafty but he also an unhinged son of a bitch who used poisoned skeletons - I think it was his girlfriend's skeleton? - to kill people. Who… made the skeleton in the first place. By poisoning his girlfriend.
"... the prince wishes to, ah." Nathan jittered again. "He wants your daughter."
Hayden drew himself up. "Wants how?"
"No marriage. Just a quick night. You know how it is. He's seen her and and wants to be with her but with no other ties."
Nathan was full of surprises today. Not a single 'fuck' was given.
"That's - improper. Uh. Nick. Tell the prince he can go take a long walk."
Nathan turned back towards the audience. "So far so true." Then towards Hayden again. "Yeah, he thought you might say that. How would some financial compensation do you?"
Ohhhhhh, this one! I remember complaining I wouldn't be able to do Hayden's role.
"Do you really think I'd sell my daughter? Uh, how much money are we talking about."
"Boo," I mumbled. "Don't sell your daughter into prostitution. It's rude."
"Shh." Rachel gently brushed the back of her hand against my thigh and damnit despite how mad at her I was about everything that felt good.
I folded my arms and sorta sulked to hide how I was rubbing my thighs together. Stupid - compression stockings making everything feel awkward down there.
"Enough to leave you in the lap of luxury for the rest of your days." Now there was possibly the most natural confidence I'd seen in Nathan… ever? He had more than enough cash on hand to make an offer like that.
An interesting insight into how they acted. And, well, I was here to learn, after all.
-.-.-
"Now, I believe the last two to be paired up are…" Mr. Keaton looked down at his clipboard, past his nose, like an old person trying out a new cellphone, "Rachel and Angel."
"Ho boy, here we go." I pushed up to my feet and stretched as I stepped around the other seats and made my way to The Hat™. Rachel got there first and given my luck, her drawing from it would be much easier.
"Oh no." She read the slip, put her face in her hand, and passed it over to me.
"Oh yes." I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face.
The two of you are siblings - you have just arranged for your younger sibling to be freed and your older sibling killed. After a brief period of celebration, you receive news that things have been reversed and the elder has been freed and the younger killed.
"How can you be 'oh yes' about that?" Rachel whispered to me.
"Cos celebrations. And then immediate horror. It's like the story of my life." I shrugged. Aaand quickly realised I had no idea how to do it...
"Okay. Should we do this Rosencrantz and Gildernstern esque? Like we're kinda useless?"
Body, for the love of god, please tell me you understand what that means. You're the one of us who likes Drama!
Apparently something to do with Shakespeare and Hamlet. "Sure, I guess…" I still don't really know those characters.
"Okay." Rachel rubbed her hands. "So - kinda doofy and comic. Okay." Hopped up on the stage. And her whole posture changed - she was almost puffing her chest out, legs spread apart, sort of one of those ridiculous looking power pose things.
The gemstone heart almost seemed to flare up. She made it work for her.
"Dearest sister," I began, with a too wide grin, "I have received news most excellent!"
"Ohoh! Has our plan worked then? Is our elder dead?" She bounced. Very… distractingly. More because she was able to hop up onto the balls of her feet and back down again while still maintaining that weird wide stance than due to anything fun.
My own posture had changed but not quite as much as hers, I think. Doing the whole… moriarty exaggeration. Nose up, one arm folded behind my back, smug grin. I - I was actually rather nervous, given I was on stage and I was supposed to care about how people reacted. Time to - let my body auto-pilot. Yeah. No way this could go wrong. "I never doubted us, sister," I raised an eyebrow, "It was utterly foolproof." Fuckfuckfuckfuck what am I doing.
"Of course it was." Rachel began - striding. I'd never really seen someone stride before but that was the best way to describe what she was doing. "And I too have good news. Our younger brother… has been pardoned!"
I could almost imagine the tiny ghost now. No I haven't!
"Most excellent." All I needed now was a monocle.
"Ah, but wait - a messenger! Surely our brother telling us where we are to meet him."
More corn in this improv than goddamn Nebraska.
I pretended to grab something scroll-like from somewhere off to the right and 'opened' it up. "... ah." I felt my face fall.
"Ah? Ah what?"
I lowered my arms and folded up the imaginary scroll and gave it to her. "A formal certificate of execution." Keeping up this 'refined' accent was hard.
"Of our elder? Why the long face then?"
I made a small gesture as the scroll in her hands before drawing my hand down my face in contemplation, wondering where we had gone wrong. "I wish it were."
"So? Who is it of?"
"The wrong brother." I leaned on the table, shaking my head. Someone I care about has died. The emotions were all to easy to bring up. I had to wipe my eyes a couple of times.
"The wrong - " Rachel's eyes bulged and she leant back and let off a noise like a compressed steam engine. "How? The orders were to release our brother!" She paused. "Wait, you don't think…"
"Someone must have interfered. Given the orders to the wrong wardens to spite us."
"No, I mean - if the order to 'free the king's child' came in, the wardens could have released our elder. And then when the order to 'execute the prince' arrived…"
Mr. Keaton please call time on us or something I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. "Ah." I nodded slowly, pretending to understand, because I really, really didn't. I hoped the body did, though.
"Don't ah me again - did you pay for a fast horse for the messenger? Wait, that would've caused the problem, wouldn't it? Oh, our sweet, uh, Junior. Come on. We can kill our eldest yet."
"Poison this time, perhaps?" I said conversationally as we walked off the stage. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. That felt like it was terrible. "Are we done yet?" I whispered. "Please tell me we're done."
"We're done. You did fine." She even patted my shoulder but - I was screaming internally. Anxiety sucked.
There was some clapping, but then again there'd been clapping for everyone so I don't know what the fuck that was meant to mean about the performance and maybe I should look into some non-acting Drama stuff. "Yayy…" I mumbled half-heartedly as we - or, rather, I - trudged back to our seats. That felt exhausting. It'd only been like - a minute? Two? Of being up there. And. Gahhh, whyyy.
Some praise from Mr. Keaton. Some more talking stuff. I retreated and left my body on auto-pilot. She liked Drama after all.
-.-.-
Bell rang, and I was finally free! Maybe class had just felt so much longer than usual because Rachel wasn't wearing her torn pants today.
I had a song stuck in my head. Still… and silent. Calm before the storm. Gold… and diamonds. Jewels behind the throne. Into the night. Out of the dark. Take to the sky.
"Heya." Victoria interrupted the lyrics in my head with a little half-wave, next to my locker.
"Hey, Victoria." I smiled, opening up the thing and… fuuuck, what class did I have next? Art. But it wasn't that day - oh. I had, uh… english. Yeah, that was an auto-pilot class, I didn't have anyone interesting to talk to in there. "What's up?"
"Eh. Nothing interesting. Juliet was - " She looked over at me. "No, you probably don't care about gossip. Mostly just class, then. And you?"
"Sorted some shit out with Rachel." I shrugged. "Slow day, I guess. But now you've given me such a tantalizing hint, I have to know about Juliet." Gossip was… interesting. It was good to know all the angles people played. And I had a feeling Victoria played a lot of angles.
"Oh, Juliet was complaining about Brooke doing something on Facebook to her account, but honestly Juliet deserves it after bothering Brooke so much to update the computer stuff for her silly little 'newspaper'. Brooke may be a nerd but she's a prickly one, you don't mess with her unless you have gifts in return."
And there's the juicy usable info. "Good to know." I nodded. Maybe I could bribe her with a new cellphone or something - but she'd undoubtedly have a better model in-hand, if not jailbroken and loaded up with all the good stuff. "Gotta be careful who you go poking around here, huh?"
"Oh, definitely. Mm, speaking of." She stopped in the hallway, bit her lip. "So… I have a problem. I want to reduce the number of - assholes and asshole behaviours around here. Especially towards Katie and the fragiles she sees as very important. I was wondering if you had… thoughts."
I blinked, and almost missed a step. "Wait. Are you sure you want to come to me for advice about this? Because most of the methods I know involve violence or psychological evisceration." I paused. "And uh. Maybe don't repeat that to anyone else." I coughed. "So who's been harassing Kate?" And what are the fragiles?
"Oh you know, just the usual kind of dumb comments boys make to pretty girls, there's been some jealousy and stuff from some girls, and some comments on her beliefs that I personally think are kinda valid, but she probably doesn't appreciate so…" Victoria shrugged. "And yeah, I'm asking you because this is a big task. I could do it all myself and take all the credit with Kate… but if we work together and both take credit, then it's faster for both of us. Win-win."
Aaaand there goes the concept of doing something nice out of the goodness of your heart. "Well, I could probably beat up the jocks or hit them in the insecurities until they get the message to just stop being assholes." I shrugged.
"Yeah, I somehow get the feeling she's not into violence. Despite, you know, churches starting most wars, she really seems to buy all that good book stuff."
"People gotta get hope from somewhere." I rolled my shoulder and sidestepped - nope, someone else sidestepped us. Perks of walking with Victoria? "So, if we're going pacifist, psych warfare? One of them's bound to have enough dirt on them we can dig up so they sit down and stay quiet."
"The thing about that is they'll just stay quiet where we can find out. It won't eliminate the problem entirely. The boys will be boys comments I can probably suppress with a public verbal evisceration… heh. Hahaha." She grinned. "Annnnnnnnd. Have you ever read Lysistrata?"
"Lysistrata…" I tapped my chin. "The name rings a bell. Greek comedy play?" It all came flooding back as she nodded. "Oh my god. Yes. I have read it."
"Ayup. So you know what I'm thinking then."
"You're gonna stop leading them on until they start being nice to Kate?"
The look she gave me made me feel small, even though I was quite a bit taller than her. "No. We're going to lead a universal ban on any romantic or sexual contact between boys and girls until they stop making gross comments. We're leading a strike." She grinned. "Getting T and Court to agree will be easy. Juliet I can probably persuade her for a week or so by doing something for her gross newspaper. But everyone else, rounding them up, getting them in line? That I might need your help with. Like - Dana's weird, and doesn't really listen to me. And while Stella and Alyssa probably aren't going to be, you know, dragging boys back to their rooms in the near future, I can't really - no, but I probably should. So Kate can see…" She grinned again. "Yes. It's all coming together."
"You know we should probably get Kate in on this given we're trying to run an abstinence campaign, right?" My own grin was slightly more smirky compared to Victoria's - which wouldn't look out of place on a megalomaniac's face - but this was kinda amusing. Given Victoria's… previous stance on the whole thing.
"Ugh. Maybe? But wouldn't she try and make it permanent and… religious rather than a strike?"
"Maybe, but as long as people are thinking about it, she says she's happy, so even if it's just a strike to get some goddamn respect around here instead of being treated like a piece of meat on display -" Like I'd done to Rachel and Chloe so many times - "then I reckon she might be on board with it. She'll want it permanent, duh, but I'm pretty sure I can get her to drop the religious angle for the strike."
"Mm, and during that we can promote camaraderie with Katie, get her some cool friends, and reduce the jealousy angle. The religious thing… " Victoria huffed. "We'll see."
"It's as much a part of her as your wealth is you." I shrugged. "Gotta make compromises where you can."
And then the bell rang. Again. Because class was starting, shiiiit.
Nebraska is only third in corn production by state, after Iowa and Illinois. Our corn just gets more attention than our political system variant because said variant makes it really hard to keep politics at the level of hostility and vitriol to encourage turnout of uninformed voters.
*flips off the pundits*
Also, when the warning mentioned a divisive story and sex slavery, I didn't think it'd be in the same conversation, and started wondering how a bunch of sex-obsessed teenage girls were going to shit on Ayn Rand.
I hope that once Angel gets a little more used to acting in front of people, she finds the joy in it. It would actually be really good for her general anxiety to overcome it in a controlled situation like drama class.
Kate continues to need mind blowing orgasms to relax her convictions.
Rachel continues to be an unsatisfying person in personal interactions, while still being amazing in the spotlight. This is excellent writing.
General ban on sex as punishment for bullying seems both effective and intelligent. I approve.
Thanks for writing this. It is truly a joy every time I get a notification for any Eye story.
It's perhaps worth noting that in Lysistrata, the women don't just have a sex strike, they occupy the Acropolis and seize control of the state treasury.
Oooh I can't wait until Rachel becomes aware of her power (or does she already know)! Angel's pretty used to powers and shenanigans. No awe-struck idolization or notable jealousy here. Or booting her out to he government, for that matter, with the bafflingly misguided mindset that it would be for the greater good. IMO anything close to IRL Earth wouldn't be able to use in some meaningful way, considering the shit storm of conflicts that would arise (read: greedy power struggles) and utterly insufficient understanding. I must admit even thinking of this course of action is pretty annoying..
Awww #2. While it adds a... much more realistic element to her acting, she also becomes more emotionally vulnerable as she draws on her memories. I just hope she isn't attacked in some way during recollection and recovery. If they do, well. I'd expect a dark alley with no witnesses and a very sore arm. Or face. Who knows...
Oh man, I am so annoyed that I didn't know there was a new Eye story . I had to have someone else tell me after I recommended the two previous ones to another.
I absolutely love this one, it's amazing.
As she jumps from universe to universe, she leaves behind all the friends and lovers and positive relationships she made along the way. It takes its toll and builds up over time, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) Eye is rather... bullheaded in her way of thinking, so she's more or less in the emotional equivalent of "ICU but Stable".
Buuut it probably doesn't help that Life is Strange is one of those games that pulls out your heart and twists it into knots and you love it for doing so.
Buuut it probably doesn't help that Life is Strange is one of those games that pulls out your heart and twists it into knots and you love it for doing so.
Occasional bouts of swearing at other drivers aside, the ride up to Blackwell was… mostly quiet. Chloe was mostly silent and stern, glaring at the road, muttering the odd thing to herself.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. It was aching again. Hadn't cleaned the healing wound today, and after drinking as well - yeah. I was regretting it. I opened my mouth to say something, but - no. Chloe wasn't in the mood to talk and I had no idea what to say. But maybe - "You're gonna go visit her dorm room?" Had to make sure. More than likely I wasn't going to be welcome for the ride.
"Yeah, that's the idea. Um, this is - " Chloe huffed. "Look, I appreciate you bringing this up with me. And coming with me to talk to Frank. But, uh. I don't really know you. And this is some deeply personal shit. So - I think I should talk to Rachel alone."
In the spirit of forcing myself to think more charitably of Chloe, I think this is a good indicator of how her judgement really, really fluctuates with her mood. Yeah, that's true for basically everyone, but Chloe particularly, and doubly-particularly when it's something Rachel-related. And, incidentally, a lot of her personal problems can probably be linked at least partially to her fluctuations between acting reasonably and acting deeply unreasonably.
Case in point, here: it's entirely reasonable to ask Eye to let her talk to Rachel alone. It's a very personal matter, and she's rather correct about not really knowing Eye all that well. However, if Eye were a less reasonable (or perhaps just less forgiving) individual, this might be a rather bizarre request from Chloe given that she just dropped her into an armed confrontation with a local drug dealer and basically left Eye to assemble what was happening from clues and context rather than just telling her clearly and directly. To suddenly turn around and say that she should sit the subsequent teenage-girl-conversation out could ring as Chloe wanting Eye around when there's the threat of real, physical danger but not actually trusting her with any personal matters...
...but, like I said, it could ring that way. Instead, it seems more like if Chloe had been in her current mental/emotional state before going to confront Frank, she wouldn't have brought Eye along because she'd recognize how unreasonable it is to expect this girl she barely knows to put herself at potential risk over a girl that she herself barely knows...and has also literally lost blood over.
Or maybe I'm being too charitable...well, problems for later.
Aww...that only read like a flirt because I accidentally read 'if you ever do wanna get to know me' as 'if you ever do wanna know me,' but I re-read it specifically because it struck me as odd to see Eye quasi-flirting with Chloe, especially at a time like this, and I was right!
And in recognition of this level of tact and maturity, I present Eye with an honorary ribbon of adulting:
"Yeah, whatever. Just - ugh. Things go really well and I'll get Rachel out of here tonight."
Part of me is hoping it doesn't work out. Just because the thought of you and her together makes me unwell now. "Good luck." I smiled, a little weakly. "If anyone deserves a good shot at getting out of here…" It's you. Not her. But I can't say that. "Seriously. I hope it works out for you."
"Yeah, life doesn't work like that. I'm expecting Step Douche to bust us within five seconds of getting out of the truck. Prepare for disappointment, that way you'll never be phased by anything."
Already lost family. Friends. Entire worlds. "Yeah." I sighed as she parked the truck. "Somehow life still surprises me sometimes."
I can't help but simultaneously dread and anticipate if/when we get to a point in the story where there's ambiguously-magic mind-meldy stuff going on.
Like, it'd start with the more grounded traumas of the LiS crowd, not that I'm trying to minimize them by any means. It's just...after looking into the minds of people like Chloe, Rachel, Kate, Nathan, etc, I can't help but suddenly see MutuallyViewedTraumaVision! turns to Angel and start playing the 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' theme as it starts showing the Endbringers, the Reapers, the Grimm, the Darkspawn, and whatever other apocalyptic horrors Eye has been tossed headlong into at this point.
It's pretty visually distinct, too. I don't imagine too many Blackwell High students have heavy-duty Ford pickup trucks. And-
-wait a second...
Okay, it took looking at five different pictures of Chloe's truck with reasonably good views of her plates, and I discovered two things:
1: Those lazy bastards at Dontnod didn't bother making two license plates. They just took the same one and put it on the front and back of her truck. I might not have noticed, except they have completely identical mudsplatter on them.
2: I am 99% sure that her license plate(s) says 'TWN PKS.' Just a flat-out namedrop of the series certainly helps confirm all the parallels to 'Twin Peaks' that LiS has.
"See ya, Chloe." I waved. It was weird how quickly it'd gotten dark. I took the opportunity to stretch and work the kink out of my back before casually strolling down the path after her. Because unfortunately, whether she liked it or not, my room was literally just a couple doors down from Rachel's.
Good grief. I don't think there's any demographic on the planet that hasn't felt the awkward pain of realizing you're going the same way as the person you just said goodbye to.
Was it grasshoppers or crickets that made that night-chirp noise? And there were fireflies out again. They were always cute and cool. Taylor liked to arrange them to match the stars outside - I looked up and there wasn't a starry sky, but a buggy sky. I missed it.
That one was a hint of a shade golder than the others, so I'd considered it Clockblocker's. That one was slightly more red, and a twin-star system - still no idea how I knew that - so I'd attributed it to Carlos and Chris.
Unless there's some massive reason for it that I'm missing, I have no idea why Eye would be referring to Clockblocker by his cape name while defaulting to civilian names for Aegis and KW. Not really sure why CB got 'gold' as his assigned color, either, but that's a secondary thing.
The brightest one I could find was still Venus. Roman Goddess of Love or something. Aphrodite's counterpart. It's why I called it Taylor's. Because of how much I loved her.
My inner (re: and also outer) mythology-nerd wanted to object on the basis that Aphrodite was the patron saint of Worst!Girls. But that line did it for me. Eye just wants to use a synonym for the goddess of love because she loves Taylor that much...and that's it.
It's got an element of innocence to it, too. It actually makes me think a bit on that very idea. I can't remember a time when I knew about Aphrodite and also thought of her in such pure and uncomplicated terms.
...and, thankfully, the quasi-emotional tangent that this line of thought almost dragged me into was derailed by the idea of Eye being dropped into a universe where the Greek pantheon has a presence (DC, Marvel, Dresden, etc) and promptly finding herself aggressively doted upon by Persephone and Hades.
I stood there for too long, just staring up at the stars and remembering. Sniffling, wiping my eyes, I sighed, smiling as I made my way down the path again down to the dorm. The last steps, around the side...
I opened the door and -
Rachel. Standing at the top of the last flight of stairs wearing… some sort of completely inappropriate for the weather summer dress.
Chloe, bottom of the flight of stairs, arm raised as if about to point, mouth half open in the middle of saying something.
"Uhhh." I blinked. "... shouuuld I just head back out to stargaze or…?"
"Might as well stay since apparently you're determined to know everything about me," Rachel muttered.
I can understand being unreasonably upset at someone. This, however, is digging into someone just for crossing paths with you en route to the place where they live. And-
-bleh. I know what happens after this(ish. I read it at some point, but this reply is basically forming in real-time as I re-read it), and it's both easy and hard to hold all of this against Rachel.
"Excuse me but if you'd said no to that question this morning, all I woulda offered was a sympathetic ear and left it at that." I scowled and folded my arms. "But fuck me for showing some concern, right?"
"Both of you, quit it." Chloe pointed at Rachel. "You. I know you're upset about - something, I don't know what, but stop needling new girl. You, I know Rachel's being a bitch but you don't understand what the fuck is going on so - go upstairs or stay and keep the snark to a minimum. Honestly, it's pretty fucking pathetic that I'm the voice of rational discussion here."
I held up my hands in surrender, shrugged, and folded them behind my back and I leaned on the door. "I'll be good."
...okay, any minor gripes I might have had personally towards character logic have been extra-nullified (since they'd have been subjective in the first place) by Chloe's wonderful rebuttal here.
Also...shit. Actually, I'm not sure which it might've been, and I'm further disconcerted by the notion that it might be some of both. The implications of what Rachel is doing alongside the side effects of each are...not very pleasant.
Which means, by the rules you yourself established, you can't be trusted to go out, or be on your own. Seriously, where did you go after stealing Frank's shit?"
"If I may…" I coughed, "Where on earth are you going in the middle of the night in a sundress?" I frowned. "That's like - at least take a jacket or something so you don't catch a cold?" I was honestly concerned and why was I concerned?! This bitch threw a fire extinguisher at me!
I already brought up how Eye's past metacognition* being absent here is especially complicating things for her, but this is an interesting aspect of that. However unconscious/semi-accessible that meta-knowledge was, it still gave her enough underlying familiarity with most of the people around her that made caring about them...well, not necessarily easy, but certainly easier. 'Worm' in particular benefited from this in no small part because, by design, basically everyone who has powers got them by going through some seriously traumatizing stuff at a young age**, so even getting to know the most well-adjusted of them involves an inordinate degree of walking on eggshells.
But here? Eye basically has to go back to the near-human norm of social interactions, and-
-ha! I just realized that this really neatly parallels her current state of physical vulnerability. She keeps getting hurt (to varying degrees) in no small part because her 'normal' threshold for pain and durability are significantly higher than the human baseline. And now, similarly, she's questioning outright why she's so inclined to be concerned about Rachel's wellbeing because she has barely more knowledge of Rachel beyond what a 'normal' person in her place would have.
*Basically just the unconscious meta-knowledge that she has regarding the universe she's been dropped into, be it people, places, events, etc.
**Bizarrely, even Cauldron capes tended to either have undergone some trigger-worthy stuff beforehand, or they looked like they were on the road to one anyway. Battery, the Travelers, and the Ambassadors spring to mind in particular.
"It doesn't matter." Rachel ran her hand through her hair and her mouth tightened, her posture changed. Hip cocking. Like she was becoming a different person. "And I thought you didn't want to see me again, Chloe, so I'm not sure why you're so fucking concerned when you didn't care that - "
"Stop it." Chloe frowned. "You know bitch mode doesn't work on me. It just pisses me the fuck off."
And therein lies some additional insight into how people can have such wildly different opinions of Rachel: it looks like she's really bad at gracefully deflecting attention from what a mess she is. Kinda brings to mind how quickly Lisa/Tattletale would default to really personal attacks when she used her power offensively.
She straightened and huffed again. "Chloe, did Frank tell you how I managed to steal from his stash?"
"No, and I don't care." Chloe sighed. "Look, Rachel. I was pissed at you on Friday night and it was wrong for me to tell you to fuck off, okay? I fucked up. My bad. I made a promise to you and I broke it. But that doesn't mean that it's okay for you to detonate and try and - "
"I fucked Frank." Rachel's hands were clenched by her side. "I've been fucking him for months. There. How does your apology sound now?"
Chloe was frozen. Mouth open. I saw her swallow, raise her hand, lower it.
"Oh, this is just a clusterfuck for the ages." I facepalmed, shaking my head.
...Eye was quick to realize that both Chloe and Frank had feelings and presumably associated goings-on with Rachel beyond just friendship. It also says a lot about how Chloe's closeness to Rachel cuts both ways. Yeah, it means she can see though Rachel's more superficial attempts to push her away...but it also means that she was completely blindsided by something that Eye had picked up on in mere minutes.
I'm not really sure what the 'perverted' part of this is. I know what it means for something to be a perversion of something else (or itself), but even that doesn't read very clearly.
I glared up at her. "Let me guess. You're wearing the sundress for someone special."
Rachel was glaring right back at me, like some kind of angry goddess.
"Cos y'know what, Rachel?" I started stepping up the stairs slowly. Like an angry predator. "You had someone who cared for you more than she cared for herself. And all you did was squander it and ruin everything. Do you ever even try to think of others? About those who give a fuck about you?"
"No, I don't." She was whispering. "So - so leave me alone. Just leave me alone."
"I will." I got far too close. "Because alone is what you fucking well deserve."
And with that, I stomped down the steps, grabbed Chloe, and pulled her away. If Taylor had done that to me - used that sort of thing like a fucking weapon -
"Come on. We need to get out of here."
"No, cause that's what she wants. Rachel wants us to fuck off. Which is why she's saying hurtful shit designed to make me angry. Seriously, I told you you didn't have the context to get this." Chloe pulled from my grasp. "This is you smashing the dinner table again, isn't it? Cause you feel surrounded by something and don't know what to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm fucking - oh my god I am so mad at you. But that's why I'm staying. Cause you win if we fuck off and let you go out there and ruin yourself."
Wait...okay, given that even in the base game there was clearly some kind of more-than-human shenanigans going on with Rachel, and what Chloe has deemed her 'bitch mode' seems almost like her transforming into a different person from Eye's perspective, I'm going to let my Speculation Gland run wild and guess that Eye just got caught in the blast radius of whatever antisocial-mojo Rachel tried to use on Chloe. I won't deny that Eye has reason to be pissed off by what Rachel said, far from it, but to suddenly be viewing it from such a personal standpoint seems...suspicious. Everything Rachel said was tailored towards getting this kind of reaction out of Chloe, but instead of just simply failing, it got the intended reaction out of someone who was essentially a bystander.
Does she mean beside her eye? This is the pickiest of nits, but I've been carrying the memory of the close-up in 'Pitch Black' of a character shooting morphine into that exact spot for a decade+, and now it's nigh impossible for me to forget knowing what it means when I hear that someone used their eye as an injection site.
But, on a far more relevant note, since I'm pretty sure that this as Rachel's choice of injection site came from one/both of you rather than being an imported detail from the game...kudos, because wow does it fit Rachel to a T. It takes an already dangerous and self-destructive habit and makes it even more dangerous for the sake of maintaining an outward appearance of normalcy, and Rachel is doing it in the first place presumably as a means of coping with other dangerous and self-destructive practices.
Not sure if this is a foreign-ism, but this line doesn't really parse to my North American sensibilities. It's not the notion of there being lines that can't be uncrossed, mind you. I just feel as if there's either a word missing or swapped for another or something in "there's more a few lines".
"Seriously, shut the fuck up, you don't know us. You've been - look, I get you're trying to help but right now? You're being nosy and unhelpful. Of course I know she's not perfect. The day after we properly met for the first time she basically used me as an excuse to go spy on her dad. Don't deny it, Rach, you totally did. Of course you're not perfect, you big dumb - you fucking moron." Oh fuck, they were both getting teary. "I just don't know why you don't think I get that."
"B-because you called me your goddess!" Rachel's started crying properly, now. "Because you said that I was golden and beautiful and you - you wanted to run away with me after three days of knowing me and that's not normal or healthy or - I just wanted someone to not - you don't understand that - " She veered sideways suddenly and slammed her head against the wall. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"
I thought of Taylor. Because you're intoxicating in the best way, of course. Because every moment with you is a moment I can spend free of things that haunt me.
Aaaaaaand this is one of those lines that hits me right in the 'ole Death Star exhaust port/Resident Evil giant eyeball/overall personal weaknesses: understandably-innocent vulnerabilities that aren't spur-of-the-moment. Looking back, I think 'Attack the Block' established a good example of this for me. And-
-well, it's a general thing, and I've spent so long on this post that I'm starting to worry about the draft system eating it so aaaaaaahhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-
Chloe folded her arms. "I like you Rachel. Even though it fucking kills me. And I don't like you cause of - stupid big romantic shit. That stuff is - it's fun, but it's for kids and - I like you because you help me go mental in the junkyard, and don't judge me when I want to curl up and do nothing for hours. Cause when you look at people you see stuff I never pick up on and - okay, you can be a total bitch about it, but you're funny when you do, and fuck most other people. Seriously." Chloe held out her hand. "Come on. Come drive with me."
Stupid big romantic shit. Almost everything I thought of about Taylor. I swallowed. Would have to - try remember the little things. It'd been so long.
Rachel had closed her eyes and was shaking.
"Come on. For once just - accept some fucking help. Please."
And Rachel -
Shivered, then burst fully into tears and ran back upstairs.
Chloe made a face. "Worth a shot. Okay, time for me to camp outside her room."
Ha! And Chloe acts as if she failed this Charisma check...she didn't. I'm pretty sure this is genuinely the best outcome that could result of this scenario.
Seriously, if Rachel were working with some blend of Tattletale's power with Glory Girl's aura, th
A pillow - wait a second. I checked the couch cushions. Oh, sweet, they came out. Huh. Fold out bed couch. Not exactly useful as it was set up, but removable cushions was good.
I hauled the lot out for Chloe. It was Monday tomorrow - or was it this morning? - but I think it was a public holiday or something, because I didn't have anything on my timetable for tomorrow, but there was classes on Tuesday.
...alright, on one hand, it's a nice gesture, but on the other, the cushions from couches that fold out into beds are not particularly useful for sleeping on. From personal experience, they tend to be massively dependent on having the actual framework of a couch to hold themselves together (I once was left to sleep on the disembodied disemsofa'd cushions of my own couch. It was so bad I wish I had just piled some blankets in a roughly me-sized clump on the floor and slept on that), the couch itself having some independent means of cushioning (probably the best sofa-bed I ever slept on had a motorized pump that inflated a mattress once it was folded out), and-
-oh, for the love of...I got derailed talking about sofa cushions
damnit this is already taking me so long to finish
I wasn't going to sleep. Not like this. Heading outside, I couldn't care less if Madsen caught me. I lay down in the grass, far enough away from the lights that I could just enjoy the cloudless sky. Watching the stars.
Sitting up, wiping the tears out from my eyes, I felt a prick in my neck and swatted at it. Fucking mosquitos. But it felt cold. Mosquitos didn't like the cold, though?
I pulled my hand away and tried to look in the terrible light. Oh. Some kind of… grasshoppery thing. Must have bit me or something. I hated how much I loved Taylor but hated her bugs. It felt wrong, given what a big part of her they were.
...I am suspicious of the extra focus that this was given. On one hand, yes, I know that Eye tends to go on little tangents all the time, but this one feels...less tangent-y? I have no idea how to describe it, and I could be completely off-base, but it just struck me as-
-yet another thing that's distracting me so close to the end of the chapter aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHH
...I am suspicious of the extra focus that this was given. On one hand, yes, I know that Eye tends to go on little tangents all the time, but this one feels...less tangent-y? I have no idea how to describe it, and I could be completely off-base, but it just struck me as-
The unfortunate reason for that is we were gonna do one thing, decided to do something else, had planned to put something like foreshadowing or whatever there, but then it came time to post and we'd completely forgotten to fill in that extra bit so there was a rush of something else dumped there instead.
Unless there's some massive reason for it that I'm missing, I have no idea why Eye would be referring to Clockblocker by his cape name while defaulting to civilian names for Aegis and KW. Not really sure why CB got 'gold' as his assigned color, either, but that's a secondary thing.
MEGA E3 UPDATE. (truthfully it just happened to coincide with this part of the update schedule and we forgot to chapterbreak sooooooo this chapter is like - twice as big as normal, ENJOY!)
I'd like to give super extra special thanks to my co-author and girlfriend, @hellgodsrus, and my betas, @Tamahori, @Tin_Mother, and @RexHeller for making this possible.
Anyways, feedback and thoughts are always loved, so... do let us know what you think!
GIB FEEDBACC
Episode Four: Retaliation
Scene Five: Sirens
-.-.-
Today kinda sucked. Because I remembered what the song I had stuck in my head was. But it didn't exist yet urghhhhh. Not for another like - three and a half years. I didn't wanna wait that long for my music!
But at least school was over. And I got to sit next to Kate in Art, which was a pretty good end - maybe today didn't suck so much as realization the music I like didn't exist yet sucked.
We'd gotten to talk about some stuff. Just - idle chatter, Kate mentioning that she'd seen me skateboarding down the road once and - with a reminder to use the sidewalk because it was safer - saying she'd always wanted to learn, but her parents had never given her a chance because she could hurt herself. Or something. Frankly I was just excited at the prospect of teaching her.
Today was kinda awesome.
"It's - um. It's okay." Kate was nervously wringing her hands as I dragged her to my room and got out the skateboards - and I swear this body remembered pads and helmet and stuff in the closet somewhere - ah! There we go. Aaand of course the box fell on me.
"Ow." I grumbled, resting the helmet on my head and picking up the rest of the pads. Threw the box on the bed. "So. Ready to learn how to skateboard?" I grinned widely, decorated like the safety tree of christmas.
"Um. Sure! I - what do you enjoy about it?"
"It's easier and faster than walking, once you're good at it," I hefted up the boards under my arms and Kate closed the door behind me. "Plus doing tricks is fun and it's just - cool in general. That feeling of speed down the hill? It's just exhilarating."
"I'm not great with exhilarating. But um. I guess riding a bike is fun. So this might be too."
"Oh," I had a thought as we crossed past her room. "Do you have any pants?"
"Yes?" She tilted her head. "Should I wear them instead?"
"It'd be a good idea. Like riding a motorcycle; dress for the slide, not the ride. If you fall off, damaged clothes are easier to deal with than scraped skin. The pads are good for the joints but the rest of you still needs covering."
"Um. Most of my pants are quite, uh. They're not - I have some overalls? For helping people with stuff. Would those work?"
"Hrm…" I - wanted to say yes, but I really didn't want people to laugh at Kate for wearing overalls. Damn, who was her size and wore jeans or pants or something… "They would, but… people are the problem. Might see if Stella has any spares she'd be willing to part with. You two are roughly the same size, right?"
"Um. Wait. We're - going to be doing the uh - the learning in public? I don't - if you think they'll laugh at me for overalls, won't they laugh at me for falling over as well?"
"If they do, I'll punch them." I grimaced. "Seriously though, anyone with any skateboard experience should know that falling off all at the time - especially when you're learning - is natural. Hell, I -" this body - "Nearly broke my arm when I was learning." I coughed. "Don't worry, I won't let that happen to you, I was being stupid near some stairs. But uhm, on the topic of where - I was thinking just outside the dorms, actually? We've got some nice straight flat ground and plenty of grass if the tumbles are exceptionally bad."
"Okay… I still think I'd prefer my overalls than imposing on Stella."
"It's not like she can wear three pairs at once." I grinned. "I wonder if she can skate…" Plus, despite Kate's protestations, I really wanted to see her in jeans. Or pants. Or something non-skirty. Victoria might even approve. Kate disappeared into her room and I knocked on Stella's door.
There was a groaning noise and it opened to reveal the girl herself, looking kinda grumpy. "Oh. Hey, Angel." The room was dark though - curtains drawn, lights off, even her laptop lid was shut.
"Troubles with homework?"
"Kinda. Was taking a nap." She rubbed her head. "Planning on a long study session tonight so…"
"Ah. Sorry about waking you." I grimaced. "Uh, would you be alright with lending me a pair of pants so I can teach Kate how to skate without her wearing overalls?"
She blinked. "Uhh."
"I mean - you guys are roughly the same size, right?"
"No, I was just - does she even wear pants? I don't think I've ever seen her outside a skirt." Stella yawned and rummaged through some drawers behind the door. "Here, this pair's clean and I don't really mind if they get scraped in a fall."
"Thanks, Stella, you're the best," I grinned and gave her a quick hug. "Sleep well."
She gave a little chuff of laughter and waved me off. Well, I knew not to bother her again today. Except to return the pants, though I should probably check if she used a different laundry powder or something before washing them…
Knocking on Kate's door next. "Hey, Kate? I have retrieved pants." I opened the door just enough to leave them through the gap on the floor.
"Um. Okay." The shuffling sound of clothes being changed. Gah, don't think about that… buuuut I couldn't stop myself. Was this thirst purely me or my body too? Then again, the nails Victoria raked me with were…
I shivered.
Fun.
I wanted to see Kate with her hair down. In just a shirt - maybe a band shirt, anything with a design on it rather than plain - and pants. Casual Kate. No, bad Eye, stop drooling. Gahhh, but she was even cuter in my imagination like that! I needed a cold shower. And/or to go bug Victoria for a 'sleepover'.
"Okay. I'm ready." The door opened and Kate awkwardly shuffled out. "I, um. These feel honestly a little odd to wear."
Wow. She did look deliciously cute. "I don't think anyone's seen you outside a skirt, so… not all that surprising." She was holding the waist a bit. Trackies! Half-way to casual Kate. "Gimmie a second…" I kneeled down and lifted her shirt enough to find the - there they were. Despite Kate's startled noise I tugged the belt-strings tight and tied a quick and simple bow thing - like doing up shoelaces. "There. They should feel less like they're about to fall down now." I nodded as I stood up.
She'd traded her cardigan for a jacket, one that looked a bit more solid - what did they call that style… windbreaker or something? It wasn't quite a rain jacket, but definitely something you'd wear on a super windy day.
"Um. So just to check. We'll be, um. Learning in the area just outside the dorms. What will we be covering?"
"For now, I think just managing without falling off. I don't know how good your balance is, but -" I shrugged, grinning. "If that works well, we can just keep going as long as you're happy to. I doubt we'll get to tricks anytime soon, but getting you comfortable with riding would just be awesome."
"Okay. Okay." She nodded. "Right."
"C'mon, it'll be fun." I was excited. Down the stairs was - actually kinda funny because Kate seemed to struggle with the concept of fabric between her thighs for a bit, but we got down there without incident.
No-one really out and about outside. That one hipster guy from art. Evan, I think his name was? Someone else who was probably taking photography, taking a couple of pictures of the totem thing.
I took Kate over to the bench on the path furthest from the main Academy building. "So, uh. Shit, I just realised I have no idea how to teach…" Not quite a lie, but it wasn't like Eye had learned how to ride a skateboard after all. So I helped her get the pads on and then looked at the helmet. And then her hair. And then the helmet again. "The helmet's important, but now I'm worried about messing up your bun. It is such a nicely done bun."
"Oh, it's okay. I'll - " Her hands flew up and began fiddling with it. Was this it? Would I finally see down hair Kate? Certainly her hair seemed to be extending, but she still had the bun and - wait the bun was growing again but it had moved down. What was she doing? What black magic is this. "Here. Um. That should leave my scalp clear."
"I am amazed at the things you can do with your hair, Kate." I blinked a few times, and tried to fit the helmet on her. It was a little bit loose, but messing with the straps managed to fix that. For the most part. "If it slides around, just try right it and let me know and I'll… try figure something out." I frowned.
So. Skateboards. I put them both on the ground, and tried the new one first. Rolled smoothly. The older one was a bit stickier. Relatively speaking. It was still smooth, but took a bit more effort. Body, what's better to start?
Sticky. Okay. "We'll start you off on the old board." I laid the other across the bench, one of the axles hooked over the side. "The bearings are a bit more worn so it shouldn't uh. Get away from you?" I scratched at my scalp.
Kate nervously nodded and wrung her hands. "Okay."
"So, what you wanna do, for a start," I stepped up on the board, "Uhh… have you ever used a scooter?"
"Um. Yes? When I was a lot younger."
I nodded. "Right. Did you use your right foot or your left foot to push?"
"My right."
I - "Huh?"
"Oh! Is that - um. Not normal?"
"No, it's - well, left foot is the norm, I think? But uh. Well, I use my left, and - are you left handed?"
"I'm right handed." Kate tilted her head. "I'm - not sure what that has to do with my feet though."
"Okay." I nodded slowly, mulling it over in my head. "So. You wanna plant whichever foot you won't be pushing with at the back, here, see?" I tapped the appropriate foot. "You'll want this one somewhere near the back-middle. Just before the axel. You want your heel to be on this side because otherwise you might put your weight where it'll kick up the board." I shifted my back foot a little bit further and showed how the end came up when I lifted off to push.
"Okay." She nodded. "So - foot here?"
"Scooch forward just a liii'- there. Perfect. I think." I coughed. "Never actually taught anyone before, but hopefully - ahem. Anyways. Uhh… right, for pushing off…" I did it once just to try remember how so I could explain it better. "You'll sorta want to lean into it a bit. But only a bit." I paused. "It might be easier for you to get used to the unstable footing part if I try push you a bit first?"
"Lean into what?"
"Uh." I blinked. "Into the pushing? I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. But you see how I sorta slouch forward a bit while pushing and then straighten up? If I try to push while straight up -" I tried just that and was left with my arms windmilling and managed to fall flat on my ass while the board rolled away. "Oof. That happens."
Kate hovered over me awkwardly. "Are you okay? Should I - get something?"
"Nah, I'm fine." I hauled myself to my feet and rubbed my butt. "I've taken worse falls." Dusting off a bit. "My main concern is helping so you don't have to experience a landing like that." I grinned, and gestured to the board. "When you're ready, I'll try pushing you a bit?"
"Uh - " Gingerly, she placed her foot back on the board. "Okay. Let's try this. Then."
"Alright. Other foot up - there you go. This one can go as far forward or back as you like, it's mostly about keeping balance when you're not pushing." I held her arm as she wobbled a bit. "I think the most important thing is to try avoid overcorrecting. So like… correction yes, but gently?" One hand on her hip, the other on her shoulder, I gave her a gentle pushing. Just enough to get her rolling.
"Ah! Uhh." She wobbled, then crouched down. "Um. This feels better?"
"Whatever works for you." I smiled. "Hmm. I should see about getting a longboard. You'd probably like one of those." When's my birthday? Can I convince Victoria to get me one as a present? Wait - I could tell her I've been trying to teach Kate how to skate, she could 'notice', and get Kate a board! Maybe. I kept gently pushing Kate, helping her gather a little bit of speed. I was glad the paths here were a single big piece rather than a bunch of standardized concrete blocks. Those little… I forgot what they were called, but they were like inverted speedbumps. Waaay too easy to catch the wheels of something.
"What's a longboard? Should I - try pushing?"
"A longboard is like a normal board except… like one and three quarters the length? Not used for tricks, used for getting from A to B." I thought. "And they have axels you can like - lean to turn on? Like, you can do that with normal boards -" I gently leaned her backwards a little bit and we started turning. Then she crouched forward and started turning the other way. Our own little weave. "But longboards have them purpose built for that."
"So they - wobble? That sounds unstable. Um. I think I need to adjust my feet but I'm - I'm worried I'll fall if I do."
I stopped pushing and used the hand on her hip to slow her down. "Right, you wanna like - pivot your foot. Weight on your… whatever that bit by your toes is called, swivel, weight on heel, swivel, until you're comfortable." Though I did lean her slightly, so we could go past the front steps of the dorm entrance.
"Right." She shuffled her feet along the board awkwardly, pausing when it wobbled.
"Just remember. Falling off happens. Even us pros fall off occasionally." I paused. "Though, granted, that's usually because we tried to do a trick and failed or there was something the wheels caught on that we weren't expecting, but hey, still happens." I shrugged with a grin, and checked on her feet. Wide stance, not unexpected.
Kate shivered and wriggled her feet again. "I don't want falling off to happen."
"Nobody wants to," I giggled. "Unless they're a masochist or something, but it's a bit like a toddler learning to walk. Baby steps, a couple of tumbles, try again. Like any learning process." I pulled her to a stop. "You've got your back foot a bit too far back again. Just a smidge forward - yup. There you go." And with that… I took a step back. Hands off.
My butt was still feeling a bit sore from that fall earlier.
… and I just realised I could have asked her to kiss it better. Damnit, why are all the best flirts done in hindsight?! Damnit, I'm not even meant to be flirting with her!
Kate wobbled. "Um. Okay." Put her right foot down, crouched a bit and pushed -
And shot forward, the board slipping out from under her as she fell backwards.
"Kate!" I reached out and - I don't think I managed to catch her entirely, but I'd like to think I managed to soften the fall a bit. She landed against me and now I had her in my arms. "You okay?"
"Ah - I - oh - that was - " She huffed. "Um. Give me a moment."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like you might have pushed a bit too hard. Try start slow and build up." I patted her shoulder as I released her and helped her to her feet. Now, where had the other board landed… ah! Gotcha. "Remember the uh… what was it, equal and opposite reactions?"
"Um. Yes. And - I'm a pivot, right? That's why I fell over. Too much force below my centre of gravity."
I paused. "... that actually makes a lot more sense than what I was going to say, which is you leaned backwards while the board was going forwards, leading to it uh. Well, going forward faster than you were." I tapped my chin. "Sounded a lot smarter, anyways."
She tried again, this time I was ready to catch her when she leaned too far forward, which ended up with her faceplanting my chest while I knocked my chin on her the helmet and didn't get to enjoy it as much as I'd have liked to. But, like usual, third time's the charm.
"Ah-! L-look! I'm doing it!" Kate was utterly exuberant, hands up in the air, still wobbling, but she'd managed to get on, push off, and start rolling with me only there ready to catch her.
I laughed, my mouth forming a face-splitting grin. Not literally. This time, anyway. "That you are. You're a pretty fast learner, Kate. Soon we'll have you weaving around cones and doing ollies."
Kate let out a little excited noise, accentuated with a particularly wobbly wobble, and then she turned to look at me in horror as she began to run out of path. "H-how do I stop?!"
"Uh - shit - foot down!" I jogged a little to keep up and catch her. "Like pushing, but - not pushing." Swinging around in front of her - she followed the instructions, her foot dropping like an anchor, catching on the concrete, but -
"Ah!" She fell forward into my waiting arms. And then I fell onto my ass because I'd forgotten to brace myself properly.
"Oof. Gotcha." I grinned. And here we were. In front of the dorms, lying in grass, with her on top of me. "See. Toldya I'd be your guardian Angel." I giggled as she was stuck frozen, staring at me with wide eyes. "Here, let's get this helmet off…" fingers trailing up her neck to her chin, finding the straps, clicking them undone, lifting it over her head and letting her hair spill out - her bun had managed to get undone in all the excitement.
"I - uhm - I -" Kate's little heart was beating so fast I could almost feel it myself as she rolled over - oof, that was an elbow - and after a bit more squirming of getting the pads off, and me trying to play with her hair a little, she finally stood up - "Ow!"
"Owww -"
She fell back down, clutching at her head. Her long blonde locks were - tangled in my dark ones. All yin-yangy. "Oh no." She hid her face in her hands.
"Uh. I think we got tangled." I tried to figure out where the tangle was and… it might have been my fault. But uh. She didn't need to know that. It was an accident, I swear. "Rrrright. This is… uh… I can't figure out how to undo this, maybe we should go ask someone for help?"
Thankfully the boards and helmet and pads were all within arms reach and… shit, who would we ask? Victoria might be good, but there was the bet thing and I was sorta regretting that… if only because if Victoria won, she'd probably love and leave Kate too...
"Ow. Yes - help. Ah. Ow." Kate tried to move away and we both winced at the pain in our scalps.
"Might be a good idea to stay close for now…" I wanted to rub at the affected bit but urgghhh my hands were full of skateboard and I didn't want to accidentally whack Kate in the face with one of them. I did, however, try to lean my head down sideways so we had a bit more slack.
"Um. Ow." Kate relented and stood a bit closer, taking one of the boards from me and holding it - probably so I didn't bump her with it - "Angel. You were. Um. Surprisingly chaste."
"Huh?" I blinked, pushing open the door. Damnit, knocked the helmet on the doorframe, that was going to leave a dent in one of them. Or in me.
"Y-you uhm. While you were pushing me."
"Oh." I… still wasn't sure what she was talking about. Wait… "Oooohh. Right. When, I uh. Had my hands all over you."
"Y-yes. So I um. Wanted to ask. Who are you and - um - what have you done with Angel?"
The reply came out before I could stop myself. "I'm an extradimensional alien spacewhale who possessed her for the sole purpose of teaching you how to skateboard without lessons being interrupted by flirting."
Kate's face shot around, giving me the most horrified look.
"Right. Scratching alien humour off the list."
"Angel!" she bapped me with her fist - right on the hip - and it felt like she'd hit me with a knuckly cushion. "That was mean!"
I could help but giggle. "You looked so horrified." The best lies are the truth. "But uh. Hrm." We climbed the steps, awkwardly, and, well, turns out Taylor wasn't in. Which meant Stella - who was napping and should not be bothered. Looked like Victoria might have been the ticket.
Knock knock knock. When she opened the door she stared for a full twenty seconds. "This is Angel's fault, I'm assuming."
"I mean, uh." I coughed. "Yeah. This is my fault. Help? Pretty please?" I gave her my best puppybird eyes. I'm pretty sure Kate did too.
"How did that even happen?" She gently took Kate's shoulder. "And what on earth possessed you to mess with Kate's hair? I mean - you don't wear it in the best style, but it's impressive. I could never have hair that long."
"I - uh. It's kinda - fluffy. That's why I keep it up."
"Mine's just stringy. Yours has volume." Victoria made a face. "Which is going to make this difficult. Why do you both have so much hair?"
"Because it's fun and hot and I feel awkward without something to frame my face." I shuffled in after her as she stuck us down on the floor in front of the couch. Just apart enough for her to stick the knotted stuff in her lap. "And hair is fun to play with. Like brushing, and - and stuff. It's just fun."
"It's also a pain. I don't just keep my hair short because it looks good, it gives me more time to do maintenance elsewhere. Like - how long a day do you have to spend on your hair, Kate?"
"Uh - an hour or so? Half an hour in the morning, again before bed."
"Which is fine, because your hair looks great. But I'd rather spend that time on prepping myself elsewhere."
"Um. I don't think you need as much - I don't think I've ever seen you without makeup - "
I looked back and grinned, waggling my eyebrows at Victoria. Elsewhere, huh?
Victoria gave me an unamused look, then turned back to Kate. "Honey, trust me. I only look this good thanks to my friends in my makeup bag. But I meant more choosing my outfit, thinking about what it says."
"You spend half an hour on choosing an outfit?" I blinked. "That - I know I'm uninitiated to the fashion world," I gestured a little to my outfit, "But that seems… kinda ludicrous to me."
"Mmm, give or take. Then again I can be a bit fussy about that sort of thing."
"Well now you've got my - ow - curiosity." She'd tugged on a lock and leant my head against her knee to give her some more slack. "What does each outfit say? LIke - what do you even look for to say certain things?"
"Well, simple colour and emotion matching which you should both know as artists. Then there's different colours for different seasons, different outfit styles - I prefer my tops a little more conservative, but my skirts, shorts or jeans a little more on the experimental or fun end. Then you've got to think about accessories, how you're going to have to sit and so on and so forth."
"Um. So it's - like an artform?"
"Yes! With my body as the canvas." She patted Kate's shoulder. "I could teach you - you've got a lot of potential, you just dress… odd. It's not a very flattering style."
"Mmm, part of me is gonna guess that's because Kate doesn't do the whole - advertising the self thing. Like Dana. Cept she said the looking good was for her, not anybody else, and it's kinda difficult not to join in on thinking she looks good when… well, she looks good."
"Ugh, Dana." Victoria made a face, opened her mouth - then her eyes flicked to Kate and she shut her mouth. "We disagree on what fashion's about. She makes it about the body underneath, and I think it's a mix of the clothes and the subject themselves."
"Um. But I don't - flattering isn't. Something I'm - interested in."
"Trust me, it's a hell of a confidence boost to wear clothes you actually look good in. When I was a lot younger I just wore florals and I looked - ugh, I looked like a sofa. The day I learned how to dress is the day I became the bad b - the badass I am today."
"Ohmigod." My smile was far too wide. "Tiny floral Victoria. I want to go back in time and cuddle you. You must have been so adorable."
Kate coughed a little, and I could see her cheeks reddening a bit as she looked down.
"I looked. Like a sofa. Or a set of decorative curtains." She shuddered. "If you'd have seen me you'd have tried to sit on me."
You mean somewhere other than your face, right? "Still adorable. Heh. When I was a kid, I…" I haven't actually experienced childhood, have I? Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck - what did Backlash try to dress herself in? "I got too into those final fantasy games and ended up trying to wear like six of my dad's belts all over the place. God, I was such a stupid kid." I shook my head and - "Ow."
"Stop moving then." Victoria pulled my head back against her knee. "Ugh. Kate, you've got such lovely fine hair. Why do you wear it in a grandma bun? Couldn't you - pull it tighter, use some chopsticks or bun sticks, give it more of a puff at the end… "
"I like doing my hair like it is."
"If you're sure." Victoria shrugged.
"We should have a fashion sleepover. Victoria tries to go without make up while we go with, and let her style our fashion while we style hers." I grinned. "It'll be fun."
"It'll be horrifying is what it'll be." Victoria shuddered. "There's a reason nobody at Blackwell has seen me without makeup and lived to tell the tale." Except those you sleep with, right? Wait, I was also hungover and your makeup seemed kinda smudgy so… huh. Maybe nobody has seen you without makeup. Oh, and you were hiding under a pillow...
"Um. Maybe on the weekend?" Kate was hesitant to lean on Victoria's other knee but eventually relented. "And - nobody else will see us, right?"
"Oh, I should probably get Tay and Court in on it - T's got a better eye for nails and such than I do, and Court's theoretically a better dresser than I am though she lacks the budget."
Kate was stiffening up and looking anxious -
"Nah, maybe just the three of us. Saturday night? Just - hanging out, fashionista-ing it up, maybe a movie." I nodded towards the TV on the far wall. "Helluva kit you've got in here, Victoria."
"I don't lack the budget." Victoria smirked. "And fine. We can make it more personal. I can understand first time jitters about this sort of thing."
Kate was returning to a distinctly purple shade and I - ohhhhh. Personal first time jitters. You subtle minx, Victoria, I almost missed that. Hell, if it hadn't been for Kate, I would have missed that.
Victoria fiddled with Kate's hair a bit more - "There. You're both untangled. Though you both need a brush - do you have a proper brush? Mason Pearson? Boar bristle?"
"I… have something I think I picked up from a Wallmart." I cringed, already feeling the wrath of Victoria's disapproval. But hey, I was the more carefree confident one of the bunch. Compared to Victoria's wall of spiky confidence. And Kate's… err… lack.
"Ugh. Borrow mine." Victoria grabbed her brush from her bedside table. "Be careful though and clean it before you give it back."
"Oooh." I inspected it and it was fancy. "Thank you." I wanted to try it here and now. I wanted to try it on Kate. "C'mere, Kate."
"N-no it'll get even fluffier -" Kate made a half-hearted effort to get away as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer. But then she sighed. "But - I do need a shower anyway… I can fix it then, I guess…"
I made a happy noise and ran my fingers through her hair, fluffing it out a little. "Fluffyyyyy," I cooed, and began brushing.
Victoria had this weird sort of crooked half-smile as she watched us, shaking her head before sitting down in front of her laptop. "Since we seem to be hanging out this afternoon, I'll put on some music."
Kate squirmed and hopped up onto the couch, facing Victoria. I had to climb up behind her to keep brushing her hair. There was so much of it and it felt so nice. "I - um. I don't want to impose."
"I do!" I grinned.
"Oh, it's fine. If I recall, we don't entirely share the same tastes. But there is this one rock group I rather like… Ah. Here we go. Halestorm."
Kate looked up, interested. "Alestorm?"
"No, Alestorm's the pirates, Halestorm's the uh…" I paused.
"The really good ones." And then Victoria hit play.
I felt like I recognised this one. Started off with like a sorta russian choir thing, heavy drums and then there was this electronica bit - Mz. Hyde - Oooh, this one. In the daylight, I'm your sweetheart/Your goody two shoes prude is a work of art
Oh god Victoria was dancing. I started humming along, nodding my head to the beat as I brushed Kate's hair. I think I had the technique right.
And boy, I couldn't wait to find out Kate's reaction to the lyrics.
Welcome to the nightmare in my head.
"Say helloooo to something scary," crooned, low, almost speaking it Victoria, shimmying closer to Kate. "The monster in your bed."
I had to pinch my lips together to stop myself from smiling but I couldn't help it as Kate squeaked and curled up, scooching into my lap.
"It's the ultimate bad bitch song. Not even Nicki can top this shit." Victoria slumped onto the couch next to me, still shifting to the beat, half-dancing sitting still. It was almost - dorky. Maybe if it wasn't this song, it might have actually been dorky.
"It's certainly catchy." I grinned, singing the chorus with her next time in came around. "Welcome to the nightmare in my head, say hellooo to something scary."
"The monster in your bed," Kate quietly shimmied, and my god it was all I could do not to bundle her up and ravage her here and now. "It's a little, um. Simple. But it's got a lot of passion. In, uh. A lot of senses."
"That's half the fun." Victoria grinned. "Seriously, this whole album is just - chef kiss."
"Oooh, oh oh oh," Shit, how do I refer to it without giving away the name. "LB, SDI?"
There was a moment of confusion from Victoria, before her eyes lit up. "Oh yes." Getting to her feet, returning to the laptop just as the song ended. The clickityclack of keys, and…
One, two, one two, onetwothreefour~!
Victoria was dancing again~ I wanted to get up and join her, but I had Kate in my lap and I wasn't gonna give that up. So I wiggled to the beat while brushing her hair, humming along until we reached the chorus.
"It's very uh - " Kate was crimson - what I could see of her behind her curtain of hair.
"Fun?" I grinned, leaning down. "Loooove biiiiites, but so do I, so do iiiiii, looove biiiites, but so do I, so do Iiiii~"
"Sexual. It's very sexual," she squeaked.
"It could be about vampires." I giggled. "You should see the lead singer. She'd make a good vampire."
"No, it really couldn't be about vampires. It's about sex alright." Victoria grinned. Just a little evilly. "But it's the fun kind of sex. About empowerment, and strength - "
"And tempting someone to sleep with you instead of their girlfriend." Kate hid in her knees more.
"Maybe a bit."
"Huh. I always thought it was post-breakup. Hence the whole 'I can help you forget about her' line, implying the target of seduction is already trying to forget." I tilted my head curiously. "But I can see how that's a valid interpretation too."
"It could also be interpreted as an internal monologue rather than action. This is what she wants to do to him. Like that T Swizzle song from before she was cool. The one Kanye was a dick about." Victoria shrugged. "She's not necessarily saying 'oh boy I can't wait to cheat with you'. Though I can see why that interpretation might make you less happy with it."
The song was on repeat - "Ah, you see how right at the start right by the mention of girlfriend, she says 'she reads those magazines, let's say you fail the test'. So - I think the rest of the song is under the assumption they've broken up because she's really vain and actually listens to those stupid magazines."
"It's 'that say you've failed the test'. So yeah, I could see that."
I paused. "... well. Damn. One word and so much can change."
Kate tried to back up even more, hugging her knees, but she was already in my lap. Squeaking as I shifted, we moved back a spot - and then Victoria sat down in front of her with the most seductive grin I'd seen her manage, singing along in a husky whisper, "Love bites, but so do I, so do I~"
"Oh, stop it, you'll break her." I wrapped my arms protectively around the Kate-ball in my lap and rested my face on the top of her head. Gosh she was burning up.
"Heh. If you're uncomfortable though, Kate, say. We could pick something you like if you want." Given Kate's position only I caught Victoria's wince as she said that.
Kate let out a squeak. A rather drawn out one, her toes wiggling rapidly. "Um - um - uh - h - Alestorm!" and her face went into hiding. I couldn't help but coo over her.
"Drinking songs it is!" I grinned widely.
"No um. S-shipwrecked? Please?"
"I mean it's called Alestorm. I don't think they can go a single song without a mention of rum." I stroked uhm… that felt like a shin. Yes. I tried to stroke it reassuringly until I remembered where her shoulder was.
Victoria spent a moment lining it up and… oh yes. This was fun. I couldn't identify half the instruments but it sounded piratey and metaly. Dropped on an island lost and sea, shipwrecked your destiny.
It took a few goes of the chorus for me to catch the words, but I started singing along with Kate. Granted she was much quieter than I was.
"I like this one." I grinned widely. Still holding on to adorable Kate.
"Um. Good." She made a noise and reached out - Victoria calmly held up the laptop for her to type on. "H-here."
Biffy… Clyro? And mountains. She gently pushed my arms aside so she could get up and dance.
It was - the singer was scottish? Or some sort of accent. It wasn't very much like the other things Kate had played - except maybe in the emotion in the singer's voice. It was nice. Not fun, just - nice. Oh, and then the fun part came.
Next up was same guy, a song called Biblical. Kate was all too excited to tell us about the emotions and meaning and it was just too adorable to even think about doing anything other than hang off her every word. Except it turns out the song was about the lead singer's wife's miscarriages and AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
"Okay, that is horrifying." I nodded. "And speaking of cheerful sounding dark things -"
"Oh no." Kate's eyes widened as I grinned.
"I said cheerful sounding." Little talks. Monsters and men. Wait. OF monsters and men. There we go.
Do do doddoo dodod od oodoooooooo, "Hey," I brought up my arms and started shuffling my hips to the cheerful tune.
"Angel -"
"Don't listen to a word I say," Hey! "The screams all sound the same," Hey! "Oh, c'mon, it's fun." I took Kate's hands in mine and shuffled around with her.
"We," Victoria cut the song short and I made a whining noise, "Are going back to Halestorm."
And poor little Kate was turning red again already.
"Oh, it's okay. I'll - " Her hands flew up and began fiddling with it. Was this it? Would I finally see down hair Kate? Certainly her hair seemed to be extending, but she still had the bun and - wait the bun was growing again but it had moved down. What was she doing? What black magic is this. "Here. Um. That should leave my scalp clear."
The reply came out before I could stop myself. "I'm an extradimensional alien spacewhale who possessed her for the sole purpose of teaching you how to skateboard without lessons being interrupted by flirting."
How did Kate ever fall for that? Even if it's the truth it's so absurd.... Too bad she was horrified. Angel certainly shouldn't spill her deepest secrets with her at this time.
You mean somewhere other than your face, right? "Still adorable. Heh. When I was a kid, I…" I haven't actually experienced childhood, have I? Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck - what did Backlash try to dress herself in? "I got too into those final fantasy games and ended up trying to wear like six of my dad's belts all over the place. God, I was such a stupid kid." I shook my head and - "Ow."
Hm.... If Angel doesn't make a good effort get her story straight, like writing it down, then there can be a pretty big chance of contradicting herself in the future. That may bring up some questions. I for one believe that Angel should be allowed to have her childish moments. She had, more or less, the mental maturity of a teenager since the start but that's pretty sad.
It may seem like a boon to experience new worlds and modern civilizations, but I imagine an unending cycle would soon turn hellish.
Hm.... If Angel doesn't make a good effort get her story straight, like writing it down, then there can be a pretty big chance of contradicting herself in the future. That may bring up some questions. I for one believe that Angel should be allowed to have her childish moments. She had, more or less, the mental maturity of a teenager since the start but that's pretty sad.
As for the update itself, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of squirm-inducing things happen, especially after the last item on the list of warnings. You're told to expect horrible revelations, and you expect some sort of deep personal trauma for one of the characters rather than miscarriage music. Also, you used a song I recognized and liked, which was neat. My taste in music in general is remarkably narrow, but then you open with the Halestorm song from that one Mirai Nikki video.
As for the update itself, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of squirm-inducing things happen, especially after the last item on the list of warnings. You're told to expect horrible revelations, and you expect some sort of deep personal trauma for one of the characters rather than miscarriage music.
"Y-yes. So I um. Wanted to ask. Who are you and - um - what have you done with Angel?"
The reply came out before I could stop myself. "I'm an extradimensional alien spacewhale who possessed her for the sole purpose of teaching you how to skateboard without lessons being interrupted by flirting."
Kate's face shot around, giving me the most horrified look.
Hey. hey guys. Impending AWESOME. Will update again on Friday just due to sheer excitemet.
I'd like to give super extra special thanks to my co-author and girlfriend, @hellgodsrus, and my betas, @Tamahori, @Tin_Mother, and @RexHeller for making this possible.
Anyways, feedback and thoughts are always loved, so... do let us know what you think!
GIB FEEDBACC
It was well into dinner time when we ended our little hangout. That had been fun. Really fun. Sometimes it was good to just hang out without seducing.
In the interest of saving budget, I was going to head to the cafeteria and hope all the good stuff wasn't already taken. Well. Operative words there being 'going to'. Instead I found Chloe and Rachel in the stairwell.
"Oh. Hey guys." I waved. I was hungry, but damn if I wasn't going to get myself involved in these two messes yet again. "How's it going?"
Chloe shrugged. "Eh. S'been worse."
Rachel threw her head back and sighed, exaggeratedly and loudly. "Chloe was just complaining that I wasn't going to go violate curfew with her."
"I mean, after the window incident, probably a good idea to stay inside." I shrugged, leaning on the railing. "Did you talk yet?"
"We're talking now." Chloe shrugged, a sharp moment that almost reminded me of Nathan.
"To translate again for miss grumpyguts - we've talked a bit, but it's still pretty personal. So - those are all the details you're getting."
"All good, just wanted to make sure you actually were." I nodded, giving Rachel a look. The kind of look that said don't forget about what we talked about this morning. "Have fun, guys." I waved, and started making my way down the stairwell.
The cafeteria was a relatively bright spot in the dusk, and the chilly wind that seemed to be blowing in. Probably off the sea. That was where chilly winds normally blew in from. In to get food, food food -
"Angel! Hey. You, uh. Alright?"
"Huh -" I looked around and spotted Taylor waving to me. "Oh, hey, Taylor. Yeah, I'm okay." Grabbing a tray of dinner was relatively easy - the line was near empty, the tables themselves had calmed down from the rambunctious early foodtime nightmare… I sat down next to her.
"Did you go to the hospital yet?"
I paused. "Uuhhhhhh… fuck, I knew I was forgetting something. I did teach Kate how to skate though. And listened to music with Victoria? So… I'll…"
Taylor sighed, pressing on the side of her nose with both hands, pulling down. "Go to the hospital, please, Angel. Or just - something."
"Oh! Yesterday, I tried the counsellor here." I puffed up proudly. "And uh. He recommended me to the Hospital? Wrote a referral? I should check up with him about that, actually, but uh. Yeah. Hospital is in the works. And since none of the asshole jocks have tried anything yet, I haven't had to beat up anyone…?" I trailed off, shrinking with every word at the glare she gave me.
"I suppose that's an improvement." She was almost kneading her eyes now. "Why… fucking why do I let myself be drawn into stuff like this…"
"Because you care." I patted her shoulder. "I know it sucks sometimes, but - it's… I don't really know how to say it. It's good that you care enough to get involved. And I'm sorry for stressing you out so much."
"It's okay. It's just - it's okay."
"It really isn't." I shook my head. "I'll go check on the counsellor after dinner and then talk with Wells about that suspension of study thing so I can get my head sorted before coming back to class." I sighed.
"I'm sorry. I'm just - I know what it's like to be fucked up in the head. Maybe not that badly, but um. I had to take - part of last semester off. So."
I had to take a break from food to reach over and hug her.
"And the break did me good. Taking time to - think and stuff. And having V around, but that's because I've cracked open her crustacean-like exterior."
"I'm really fighting the urge to make a joke about clams and pearls." I grinned. "But - yeah, that facade she has up is…" I winced. "I know she's super bitchy on the outside but I wanna get past that and hug whatever's under there."
"It takes a while. I don't think anyone's really there other than Nathan. Not even me. But she's - when she's not trying to be alpha bitch, she's pretty incredible. And even then. Alpha bitch is a pretty awesome look."
"Nathan?" I raised an eyebrow. "How on earth did he managed to get under her shell?" It's not like the guy exactly has superstar social skills.
Taylor shrugged. "They know each other from way back."
"That's cheating." I grumbled. "How am I meant to get a head start like that when I come from the other side of the country?"
"Oh yeah, you're from the east coast, aren't you?" Taylor tilted her head. "I have to ask, what's the weirdest part of moving here?"
"So far? Seaside sunsets. It's awesome, but so weird because I see that and my brain thinks 'wait, MORNING! TIME TO AWAKEN!' and I keep having trouble getting to sleep." I shrugged with a little huff. "Which is a pity because it really is a beautiful sunset."
"Yeah, that would be weird. Better the other way around. See the sun and be like 'oh boy, more sleep'." She laughed. "Is that why you fell asleep in Art the other day?"
"Yeah, pretty much." I grimaced. "Couldn't sleep so spent too long stargazing. Sleep debt cares not for where you are, only that you pay up before it decides to collect on a staircase."
"Heh."
We chatted about random things - art, art we liked, a TV show Taylor had been struggling to keep up with that was actually surprisingly interesting to me - but eventually the time came. And I had to go visit the counsellor.
Sighing as I trudged up the stairs yet again.
"Hold up there."
Oh no fuck no NOT NOW NOT NOW.
Sure enough, Sergeant Bristleface was scowl-striding towards me. "I want to question you about an incident the other day."
"You'll have to elaborate, but sure." Just play along and get this over with - wait. "Actually, uhm, given you're security… do you know when the counsellor leaves? I have something I need to check up on with him before I go to bed."
"Counsellor?" He scowled more. "What'd you be needing counselling for, girlie?"
"Probably something I'm not interested in discussing with just anyone." I frowned. "But seriously, is he already gone or will he be gone by the time this interrogating is done because if it's the latter, I just gotta ask him a question and then I'm all yours." I shrugged, hands out.
"My question's about the security and safety of everyone at this school. But sure, go cry to his namby liberal ass about your boyfriend or something."
I laughed. "He's not that bad. I mean, sure, bit hipstery and probably qualified for boyfriend troubles…" but yeah… that was probably it. I shuffled up the stairs and knocked on the door. "Yo, Mr, uh…" … fuuuuuck. What was his name? Did I ever get it?
He opened the door and looked almost surprised. "Ah, Ms… Hebert?"
"Yup. Just wanted to check on the whole referral thing and - if there's anything I need to do?"
"Ah, no, I'll contact you when it's all sorted. In the meantime, have you practiced the meditation?" He actually looked concerned, bless his little soul.
"I uh… haven't. And I'm due for interrogation so I gotta run." I winced. "Thanks again."
He frowned at my choice of wording but I was already gone by the time he could open his mouth. Skipping down the stairs almost two at a time, Madsen was waiting patiently for me at the bottom, all stern and scowly in his uniform. "Just for the record," I held up a finger as he opened his mouth. "Lesbian."
"Really." The deadpan look was so glorious.
"I mean, look at the available boys around here." I shrugged, gesturing at everything vaguely. "Even if I was straight, the selection's not exactly appealing."
He folded his arms. "Something wrong with men?"
"I mean, systematically? Not that I can tell." I leaned on the wall. "It's just the guys around here are…" I made a sort of disgusted expression. "The jocks are misogynistic assholes, the V-club jerks are, for the most part, elitist jerks, the rest are unattractive in various ways. Is there something wrong with women?" It was my turn to fold my arms and match his face. Which was really difficult given I didn't have a mustache capable of impersonating a bristly caterpillar.
He snorted. "Where to start. Actually, let's start with the disturbance yesterday at approximately eleven-hundred hours. Where a window mysteriously had a fire extinguisher propelled through it and you were observed fleeing the scene."
I frowned. "You call angry stomping fleeing? But anyways, go check with Principal Wells on that, Rachel did it and has in a fit of responsibility accepted that she did it."
"How'd you hurt your hand then? Why'd she break the window?"
"Not in order, we had a bit of argument and her temper is a bit of a strong one with a short fuse, and I cut my hand up on a glass shard on accident." I looked down at the bandages. "... speaking of, I probably need to visit the nurse too…" I sighed. Maybe I could just get it done at the hospital.
"What was the argument about? Drugs? You muscling in on her turf?"
"That's private." I rolled my eyes. "But suffice to say, we've since made up and it won't happen again." I paused. "Wasn't drugs."
"Sure it wasn't. I've got my eye on you missy." And then he stormed away.
"Dude, for fucks sake." I facepalmed, jogging after him. "Are you convinced every single student interaction on campus is about drugs? How casually everyone smokes, jabs heroin needles, and snorts… I can't remember what you snort, ecstasy?" Slipping around in front of him. "What the hell happened in the military, man?"
"None of your business." He scowled more. "And life. Real life not this - rose scented namby pamby arts nonsense."
"If you're going to ask me why I'm visiting counselling, I'm gonna ask why you're not." I folded my arms and kept walking backwards, sort of like… reverse following him. I was sure he was going to turn a little so I bumped into something at some point. "I know life isn't rose scented arts nonsense. You're not the only one who's been dragged through shit."
"Know nothing about me." He tried to storm away again, then growled when I moved in front of him. "Get outta my way."
"Get some help." I - stood my mobile ground. Thought for a moment. Convincing lie... "My cousin came home from his tour and I'm seeing way too much of him in you. The paranoia, the obsessions -" I had to dodge around a cleaning trolley - "It's not healthy." I was thinking of Liz but women in the military weren't a thing that would get through to him, so… Don it was. Or Garrus. Hell, even Wrex. Zaeed?
"I don't need help. I'm not that bad off. Not compared to some." He folded his arms. "And it ain't any of your damn business. Now get out of my way."
"Just because others are suffering worse doesn't mean you aren't." I scowled. "I don't care what happened to make you this way, but it is not a good thing. I've been injured, and you've accused me of being on drugs. I got involved in an argument that got out of hand and you were absolutely goddamn certain we were arguing about drugs. You. Need. Help." And with that, I stormed off. I had no idea where I was right now but - that direction was vaguely familiar so I tried to head that way.
He didn't seem to want to follow up on that. Which was good because confronting people was stressful and I wasn't sure how much longer I could do that.
Up to the nurse's office. She wasn't exactly happy to see me but was fine with helping replace the bandages on my hand. It was healing up nicely, apparently, but the application of disinfectant kinda stung and she said there was still a risk of me tearing them open again if I flexed my hand too far. Which she recommended I actually do, in case of scar tissue impeding my use of it? So… ow. And don't let my hand idle curled up or in a fist for too long. If it was just on the end of my fingers, it'd be fine, but nooooooope. Palm cuts. Urgh.
Next… I knocked on the secretary's office door. Nothing. Opening it, frowning, looking around… nobody. Empty. Tried the next door.
"Come in?" Huh. I didn't know Principal Wells was capable of sounding surprised. When I peeked in, he was just putting something behind the desk, at the foot of it. I noticed a small glass tumbler filled with alcohol hidden behind the lamp though. "Ms. Hebert." He frowned, looking at the clock. "It's past curfew. And I believe I told you to stay out of trouble."
"Shit, it is?" I looked over at the clock. "... I was in the nurse's office." I coughed. "Uhm. I wanted to lodge a… concern? About Mr. Madsen."
Wells sighed heavily and sat down just as heavily. "Go on."
"Uhm. So… I'm pretty sure he's got PTSD - he's got a lot of the traits I saw in my cousin when he came back - and uh… I think it's affecting his job? I know he's heavy handed and everything, but -"
Wells sighed. Heavily. "We receive numerous complaints about Mr. Madsen, but despite this he is effective at his job. I'll bring up your concerns at our next staff meeting."
"I'm not saying I want him gone or anything," I held up my hands in surrender. "It's just… it hurts seeing him hurting like that. He really, really needs therapy or counselling of some kind. Uhm. Yeah… sorry for bothering you, Principal Wells."
He waved me off. "Best get back to your room now, Ms. Hebert."
"Yessir." I ducked out, heart trying to escape my chest by way of thumping hard enough to break my ribs. It felt like that, anyways. Stay out of trouble, he says. I'M GETTING IN ALL THE TROUBLE, she does.
I needed something to calm me down. Something to… but I should sleep? Sleep or risk falling asleep in class again. I couldn't even remember if that had been today or yesterday or - argghhh. WORK, BRAIN! Pretty please with a popped cherry on top?
… nothing. Urgh. Back to the dorm. I'd spent enough time with Kate today that I don't think she'd entirely appreciate me coming in yet again, and for her bunny rather than her.
Sleep it was. If I could even manage it.
I dreamt of skies filled with fire.
-.-.-
Bee-beep. Bee-beep. Bee-beep.
Alarm. Off.
I rolled over and pinched my nose with lethargic hands. Could I get away with skipping my first class? Could I bug Elizabeth to rewind time a bit so I could get some more sleep? Cracking my eyes open felt like the hardest thing I'd done in a long time.
Morning routine. Being human again was annoying in some aspects. Checking my phone while I was on the loo… few texts from Backlash, rah, rah, typical abandonment issues it got whenever I was away for more than five minutes, Avatar apparently liked Kate's taste in music. And then there was Cerebrex, complacently updating me on all the details of the bullshit I fed the school.
Wait - it was updating things? Checking the sites - oh. Oh wow. Brockton Bay actually existed here - it didn't, but thanks to Cerebrex, it did. That was both amazing and horrifying.
Crude and rude details done, dressing up, heading out to breakfast. Oooh, there was more waffles on offer today. Yum. And I saw there were nice big knives behind the counter in the kitchen… I needed to get myself a weapon. Switchblade or butterfly knife or something. Maybe one of those multitool things would work. All I needed to do was jab someone in the eye and that'd take most people down.
It felt so horribly mundane to just sit here and eat without anyone to talk to.
And by the time I was finished, nobody interesting - as in worth talking to - had shown up. And that was kinda disappointing.
Today was just so… boring. Science. Auto-piloted. English. Also auto-piloted. Art - well, Kate wasn't there and Victoria was back with her girlgang. So… that wasn't all that interesting. Didn't even get to do any art, just got lectures from Mr. Jefferson.
I needed something. Anything to break this monotony.
And wouldn't you know it, there was Logan, slamming Daniel up against the lockers. Hand on his neck and patting his cheek. I listened for a moment.
"C'mon, Danny-boy, it's payday." Pay up or get beat up. A skinny little so-and-so in another team jacket - varsity - right, varsity jacket. I remembered having one of those, back in Brockton. Using it to hide my wings.
"Payday for what?" Dan managed to not even stutter, bless his cholesterol clogged heart. No. That was mean of me. The pipsqueak was blocking Daniel's only escape route.
So, I decided to open up a different one for him.
Let's see… hooking an arm around his neck, hauling him off-balance, and throwing him into the lockers on the other side of the hall with an almighty BANG that drew quite a few glances as I folded my arms and tapped my foot, glaring down at him. "Logan. I do believe it's payday. Are you gonna pay up or get beat up?"
Daniel was already backing away and getting off the scene. Good kid. Shit situation.
"What the - what the fuck - " Almost without thinking he threw a punch I leaned out of the way of. "Wait - you?!"
"I mean, who the fuck else is gonna try give you concussion on a row of lockers?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "So. Pay up or get beat up. Pick one. Same deal you gave Daniel, right?" Can't complain. I'm only treating you the way you treat others. The taste of your medicine is going to be rather bitter, I'm afraid.
"Pay up for what?" He straightened. "Get beat up how?"
"Take a wild fucking guess, jackass." A step back. Glance over to Daniel… and I couldn't find him. I shrugged. "My job's done. See ya."
"Hey." His voice was hard. "Parking lot. Ten minutes. You'll get what you're owed." Had a much darker tone to that. One that promised excitement.
"Can't wait." I grinned, giving him a dismissive wave with the back of my hand as I walked away.
I believe that would be a Class B misdemeanor in Oregon under ORS 166.240, since it counts as a concealed weapon, but I assume there are other satisfying and legal alternatives. It would be a bit late to make an improvised weapon, but brass rings would be, as someone on a forum said, a fashion statement. They would just so happen to be painful when applied to the face.. Anyway, Angel seems to experience anxiety in social confrontations and violence with enthusiasm. Odd, but nothing out of the usual in someone from Bet.
