[Wingardia] No. 921

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

Seiya stared. There was an audible silence as she merely blinked at Rachael. There was a grinding sound,

"W-what m-made you think that?" She asked covering her mouth, her eyebrows had gone up and dissappeared into her bangs. There was another pause before she burst out laughing, "No way! I've never seen anyone do that before, not even me!" She held her sides, "Wow..."

A few minutes later Seiya had regained her composure, "Don't ask really, I'll just guess." She said waving her hands at Rachael. "But I do believe we've gone way off subject by now..." She blinked, "What were we talking about when I first came?" She asked looking faintly puzzled. She'd never had such an intresting conversation, at least it seemed she'd never talked to anyone who didn't want to scold her in some way for the same thing for the millionth time.

[Crappy...post...DX It's too late for me to even try...]  

[Misao]

Rachel sighed, and as she did so, her breasts deflated back down to their normal size. Pushing her glasses up, she gave Seiya a sort of pointed look, wondering if she'd actually come here to join her club at all or if the entire thing was just an elaborate ruse to force her into the cheerleading club. At any rate, she remembered why Seiya was here, so she figured it couldn't do any harm to remind her of her apparent original purpose.

"I believe you wanted to join the Botany and Flower Arranging Club," Rachel said, almost in disbelief at how quickly the conversation had spiraled into completely uncharted territory. "Are you still interested, or was the whole thing just your story to get in here so you could trick me into cheerleading?" She folded her arms, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes for a moment before righting herself.

((That's fine. This is my last post of the night anyway. We can pick it up again tomorrow. I'd like to wrap up the scene by tomorrow night if possible, since I'll be out of town for a while starting Wednesday morning.))  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

[Will do.]

"Blasphemy. I came here to ask to join the Botany club like I said. I had no alternative motive, well, maybe a little. But-! I'm usually not the sneaky sort. It's just not my thing. Forc-I mean, asking you to join was an afterthought."
Seiya shrugged, "So, am I in?"

"Remember, I know what you're thinking, just getting you to admit things boosts my carefully hidden ego." She said grinning with amusement. "Humor me, I'm sure you have other things to do rather than put up with my subtle torment." Yes, right about now she needed to head to her tutoring session, not that she needed it. She was just lazy, although it was just easier to make them think she just didn't understand. Oh, well, too bad for her poor tutor. It was probably a living nightmare, her being the world's worst listener when it came to things she judt didn't care about.  

[Misao]

"Well, given the leverage you've exerted over me up until this point, my not allowing you to join my club would just make it all the more intolerable for me to be in yours, now wouldn't it?" Rachel asked, grinning back at Seiya. "Consider yourself accepted. I want to recruit a few more members before we start meeting regularly - once that's taken care of, I'll decide the particulars of club activities."

Quickly guarding herself from automatically thinking about the other things she needed to be doing at this moment (as several of them were rather hush-hush in nature), Rachel shook her head. "I do have a few other things I could be taking care of right now," she said, "but nothing terribly time sensitive." She held up the book she'd placed on her desk near the beginning of their conversation. "But if you're really looking for an excuse to get out of here, I'd like to finish this book..."  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"Oh my! You saw through my ruse did you? Well, I must be off to my lessons which I won't pay attention to; I wonder if my last tutor quit yet. I've run through three this month." Seiya yawned, "At least it'll give me a chance to take a nap."

She shrugged, "Well, laters. Things to do, clothes to buy, teachers to harrass. That kind of thing." She smiled and tilted her head, "Don't be late for practice on Tuesday." She said, barely concealing her glee. "Aren't you so excited?" She opened the door, "Oh, and remember to ditch the glasses, you'l probably break them during practice." She left and closed the door quietly.

Seiya could be heard stomping her feet rythmically as she went down the hall as if she were rubbing it in.  

[Misao]

After another trip to the greenhouse, Rachel came striding into her room with an uncharacteristic large smile on her face. Kicking her shoes off at the door, she nudged them into the corner with her feet and set down the flower pot full of orchids she was carrying with her. Smiling as she looked around the room, she found a place for them near the window, next to the other flowers she'd been bringing in over the past week or so.

"Well... now that that's taken care of, I guess I'll check my e-mail..." Rachel said to herself, grabbing the back of her desk chair with her hand and wheeling it around toward her as she moved to sit down. Putting on some light classical, she opened up her e-mail client and started to skim through the messages. Most of them were ads for new clubs and school notices, which she skimmed through without really reading. Under all of those, though, was a piece of e-mail that nearly caused her to fall out of her chair, her face immediately turning a pale white as her eyes moved across the message.

From: Joseph Robertson (adonis@directive.gov)
To: Rachel Robertson (robertsonr@ria.edu)
Subject: Visit!

Hey, how's my favorite little sister doing? Been a while since you left for school, so I thought I'd drop a line. Things are great around here. Mom and dad wanted to know how you've been, so I told them I'd pay you a visit and check out how you're doing. I heard there's some kind of cherry blossom festival picnic thing coming up soon, so I figured what better time to have you show me around your new school, right? Good time to check out what kind of girls go to this new school of yours, too. Hope you've made some cute friends, 'cause I'll be checking them all out for you, if you catch my drift. Anyway, by the time you get this I'll already be on my way. You can expect me in town tomorrow, so go ahead and get the room ready for me. I'll be expecting the full Ria High experience. See you soon!

Your favorite big brother,
Joseph

Rachel stared at the screen in stunned silence. For about five minutes straight, she stared - her hand hovering over the mouse, and her expression frozen in terror at what she had just read. When she finally snapped out of it, she frantically scrolled back to read the message again.

And again.

And one more time.

Just to be sure.

"This... what... it..." Rachel stammered to herself once she was finally able to form words. Shaking her head, she took off her glasses and buried her face in her hands, barely able to consciously deal with any of this right now. "DAMN IT!" she finally managed to yell out, striking the top of her desk sharply and nearly injuring her hand in the process. Standing up from her chair, she turned around and threw herself onto the bed, face-first into her pillow.

"This is like a nightmare..." she mumbled into the pillow, gripping at her blanket tightly and rolling her head back and forth.  

[Stephen Pact]

Damn It!!!

Graymalk, who had just 'ported up after doing some important cat things (and was very thankful that the teleporter apparently accepted him as a resident now), heard the scream through both the door and his telepathic link with Rachel. He ran to the door, but it was closed and, apparently, locked.

As he scratched at the door, Graymalk reached out with his mind toward Rachel. Her mind was... chaotic. She was clearly stressed out and angry and upset and... the emotions were almost too complex to sort out! What could possibly have gotten his human so worked up?

Rachel! It's me, at the door! Let me in! What's Wrong!?!  

[Misao]

Rachel was tempted to shut Graymalk out completely. She was in no mood to talk about what was bothering her, and wanted nothing more than to sulk for a while and be angry. Letting her better judgement take hold, however, she responded.

I'm fine. Hang on, she said somewhat curtly. Without bothering to look up from her pillow, she sprouted an arm out of the door to her dorm room. The hand reached around to unlock the door, turning the knob and opening it briefly to allow Graymalk in. Once the cat had come across the threshold, the arm reached down to close and lock the door once more before disappearing.

Mumbling incoherently into her pillow, Rachel lay motionless on her bed; face still buried in the pillow, glasses lying on the floor next to her.  

[Stephen Pact]

Entering the room, Graymalk took in the scene: Rachel lying face-down on the bed, her glasses seemingly tossed aside; the computer on screensaver but not yet on standby; the relative disarray of various items which Rachel had apparently been handling recently. Pretty clearly whatever had happened had happened quite suddenly and had been pretty intense; it would have to have been to cause the normally fastidious Rachel to leave anything out of place, to say nothing of her rather intense body language. Graymalk didn't sense any magic, and there were no signs of a physical attack, but a psychic or psychological attack... well, anything was possible. Whatever else was the case, one thing was certain: nothing malicious was in the room at the moment, which meant whatever was bothering Rachel had come from somewhere else.

Purring soothingly and sending Rachel his most calming and comforting thoughts and sensations, Graymalk leapt to the bed. When Rachel didn't seem to move, he carefully walked toward her head and curled up to one side, where she could choose to face toward or away from him if she decided to respond at all. This could be delacate, especially since Graymalk knew Rachel didn't want anyone to see her "weak", but it had to be done.

I'm here, whenever you're ready. sent Graymalk, continuing to purr and noticing more than a small amount of anger coelescing within the roiling mealstrom of Rachel's emotions. I'm not going to pry, but you know you'll have to tell me eventually. I'll help you if I can, but only if you'll let me.  

[Misao]

Rachel, still lying face down in her pillow, simply lifted an arm and pointed a finger toward the computer. Go read the e-mail, she said, prodding Graymalk mentally rather than bothering to look up. She'd made up her mind to sulk for a little while, and sulk she would. Graymalk was a smart cat; he could figure this one out on his own after reading the e-mail. Letting her arm flop down again, she dangled it loosely over the side of the bed while rolling her head gently back and forth into the pillow. She wasn't crying or anything, but she really wasn't in the mood for a big long conversation either. She hoped Graymalk would understand.  

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk hopped off the bed, walked over to the computer, and touched the mouse, half expecting to discover that someone Rachel cared for had been killed in some freak terrorist blast or something similarly superheroic. He was slightly preturbed and slightly releaved to discover that it was just a message saying that her brother would be visiting.

"I see." muttered Graymalk. "So the brother whose shadow you crossed half the world to escape is coming to visit you and you're afraid of having your identity eclypsed again... Considering her apparent insight in sending you here, I'm surprised your mother's allowing it. I wonder what she's thinking..."

Graymalk sat on the desk chair and considered his options; there were risks to everything, but this seemed like it might justify a few.  

[Misao]

At this, Rachel finally rolled over, staring up at the ceiling and holding the bridge of her nose with her fingers. Taking a deep breath, she nodded at Graymalk, remaining silent for a few moments more before raising her head just slightly to look over at him before speaking.

"That would be the situation, yes..." she said, her voice just barely above a whisper. For all her frustration, her tone was rather even and measured for the time being. "Mom knows how I feel about everything, but she also wants to see the two of us get along," she explained. "I guess maybe she felt like enough time had gone by, and a short visit couldn't hurt, or something..." Shaking her head, she flopped back onto the pillow again. "This is the worst possible time for this sort of thing..."

Even while thinking about what she was going to do in this situation, Rachel did not overlook Graymalk's tendency to be somewhat overprotective of his charges. While part of her mind was busy lamenting her cruel fate, another part kept itself open and receptive, quietly waiting to home in on what her feline friend's thoughts on the matter were. She may not have been thrilled about her brother's visit, but she also didn't want Graymalk to overreact and start placing any weird ancient curses on him or anything.  

[Stephen Pact]

"I see..." said Graymalk, thoughtfully. "If you'll pardon the comparison, it's rather like a rival cat's trying to invade your territory. We aren't all alpha/beta like dogs are, but we DO have a sense of decorum and regional hierarchy.

"In situations like this, at least among us, there are a few options. Basically you can run away, you can knuckle under and cede prominance, you can challenge him and fight if necessary to keep control, or you can let him in and then prove by degrees that this is your domain. There are, of course, ways of giving you advantages in this, especially if you'll let me use one of those photos and maybe give me something that belongs to him or has his signature on it, but we can discuss that later. You're not a kitten, and it looks like you're going to have to prove it. I'm sorry this is a bad time for us, and we'll have to be careful of our business, but I'll be ready to help out when you need me. For now, it's time to think about what you want to do."  

[Misao]

Rachel sighed, nodding lightly to Graymalk as he spoke. She knew he was right, but didn't really want to admit it. The problem with her brother was that he never let anyone fight with him - even for Rachel, who was immune to his powers, he would just brush everything off with an overconfident smile. How do you fight against something like that? For all her carefully aimed sarcastic wit, Rachel had never been able to score even a single social blow against her brother, who was always the shining center of everyone's attention. Every attempt just made her look stupid instead.

"I'll deal with it," she said. "I've been doing it this long, after all." Finally sitting up, Rachel gave a sort of half-defeated shrug, still not quite sure of how she wanted to handle the situation. The only thing she knew right now was that she didn't want any sort of supernatural help with it. She'd live or die by her own actions - after all, Graymalk wouldn't always be around to bail her out of things. Or Nobara, for that matter. In fact, it would probably be for the best if she kept Joey away from Nobara completely for the duration of his visit, just to be safe.

Rachel would be going at this one alone.  

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk watched Rachel. She didn't seem confident, but at least she was focused upon the solution instead of the problem now. Still, as long as she was talking it might be worth finding out what they were up against.

"So, just what's so bad about this guy, anyway? Or maybe I should be asking, what's so great about this guy that makes you think you're gonna lose all of your friends and respect and whatnot to him as soon as he arrives? I mean, I know he's a superhero and all, but his letter makes him sound like a cat in heat, which most humans I've met don't consider appealing behavior. (Graymalk knew this much from experience) I could see if you were afraid he'd embarrass you, but he seems like the type who'd go after the head cheerleader, not the head of the horticulture club. Ria's a pretty big place, even with you showing him around. Just watch; the people he'll influence probably aren't even people you know!"