faun

[shesepankh]

Saturday morning sees Bella with her notebooks about magic all in her knapsack, her medallion safety-pinned by its chain to her bra just in case she trips the wrong way, waiting with Charlie for pickup for the Avalon trip.

Comments

[morethanimaginary]

Yeah, she thought so. Pathetic.

"I never knew you had claws!" she laughs to Darren when class is over. "Go you!"

[castmyown]

"Mm," he replies, noncommittally. He doesn't like arguments, but he's of the opinion that it was quite justified. "We should find Bella. At least warn her that there is a delusional idiot heading her way."

And then he walks off to go do that.

[morethanimaginary]

His sister follows!

[shesepankh]

Mike found her first.

She has her arms folded and is listening to him make more or less the same argument he made to Darren, although he has toned down the creepy language some for this rendering.

[castmyown]

Of course he did. Damn.

Well. Darren will jump in if she needs him, but he thinks that she can handle this just fine.

(He doesn't feel any sort of pity for Mike.)

[shesepankh]

Bella waits until Mike has run out of things to say and is looking at her expectantly.

"I suspect," she says, "that actually dealing with the content of what you just said will be a thankless task, so let's address the consequences that have you so bothered. Hi, Mike. I'm Bella. Tell me something about yourself to justify the minutes of my life you just commandeered. Perhaps you are kind to animals or passionate about raising the minimum wage or talented at origami, I'm pretty flexible."

"...What?"

"You wanted to get to know each other. What's there to know about you? Do you have traits?"

"...Uh, I help out part time at my dad's sporting goods store -"

"Do you have interesting traits?"

"Um, I'm - in the band elective?"

"Congratulations, Mike. You might be able to hold a non-disastrous conversation at some time with some girl who cares at all about music, if you do more than just show up and count minutes in your band elective. But I don't care. Now I have gotten to know you and I am rejecting your company on its own merits. Go away."

Mike splutters.

[castmyown]

Darren laughs. Oh, Bella is amazing.

[shesepankh]

"You can't just -" begins Mike.

"Oh, please, you pathetic creature, of course I can. I'm a college-bound introvert, I do not need your friendship or the friendship of anyone who is sufficiently dull-witted to listen to anything that comes out of your mouth about me, and if you choose to escalate beyond social drama we get to play 'does that meet the legal definition of assault' and 'does Bella have any qualms about running straight to Daddy if it might'. You may leave at any time, you don't have to continue standing here letting me be rude to you, you know."

[castmyown]

Is Bella his girlfriend? He wants Bella to be his girlfriend. He's recovered from laughter, now, just a faint smile on his face. Now he is just sort of watching, seeing just how deeply Mike is going to dig this grave of his.

[morethanimaginary]

Savannah isn't even subtle about her grin. Just watching, grinning, available as backup if Mike decides to try anything violent.

[shesepankh]

Mike is sort of staring at Bella.

"I can go on, but I'm sort of worried about encouraging the parts of my brain that make up scathing commentary, because rarely am I sufficiently disgusted with someone that I feel it is worth the tradeoffs involved. Run along, Mike. Practice the clarinet or whatever it is you play. Develop characteristics. Interact with people before or, if you decide to aim really high, even instead of developing entitlement complexes about them. Go."

Mike mumbles something growly and incomprehensible, shoots the Sanders twins a dirty look, and stalks off.

[morethanimaginary]

Savannah bursts into helpless laughter.

[castmyown]

"He went after me in history," says Darren, heading over to Bella. "Savannah, do you want to explain what I said? I might get rambly if I tried."

[morethanimaginary]

"Ha ha, sure," laughs Savannah, and then she says, "Darren was not happy with how he was talking about you and took offense and spent most of his time bludgeoning him with logic that he wouldn't pay attention to! He had metaphorical claws, it was great!"

[shesepankh]

Bells snorts. "I guess it didn't take. Well, that was unhealthily fun."

[castmyown]

"I'm going to compare it unfavorably to arguing with a brick wall. Did you know he used the word hoarding? As a way to describe what he thought I was doing? Utterly seriously? Like I could actually manage it?!"

[shesepankh]

"There probably exist human beings who could be something-that-might-ineloquently-be-described-as-hoarded with the right kind of gaslighting. So basically he was accusing you of a nasty abuse tactic aimed at isolating me. His concern for my welfare might be charming if it... existed."

[castmyown]

"Right, which was why I couldn't just shut him down, he wouldn't believe me about your preferences. But my point was the entire time he was using - the sort of language that was treating you like some kind of horrific prize. It was disgusting."

[shesepankh]

"I would hope I would not in and of myself be horrifying if encountered in prize format," says Bella archly.

[castmyown]

Darren laughs. "No, not what I meant. The idea that someone could be awarded as a prize is horrific. You are lovely."

[shesepankh]

"Why thank you. Anyway, do you think your dad will let us have the car circa dinnertime?"

[castmyown]

"If I ask nicely, I think so. If he needs it for something I can probably just make dinner and we can have something impromptu at home. If er - that doesn't bother you?"

[shesepankh]

"Doesn't bother me in principle, although I wonder how well-behaved a co-occupant of the building Savannah will be."

[morethanimaginary]

"I would be extremely well behaved!" says Savannah indignantly.

[castmyown]

"Savannah. Would you, or would you not eviscerate several innocent flowers for their petals and then fling them at us?"