ic Everything Is Temporary (IC)

[RocketLord]

If Pan was intimidated or otherwise affected by her parents, he did not show it. He was all smiles, happily praising the food and chatting with his friends and any of the staff at the manor when they approached. 

 

"Not for a lack of trying," he added to the end of Eira's statement with a jovial tone, before bringing another spoonful of the gazpacho to his smiling lips. 

 

He listened to the others, and their plans. So many plans, so many thoughts. "I am not much for plans, not that far ahead at least. I like to keep my options open. Who knows, an adventure might lead to a new passion or choice, no?" He looked directly at Eira's father while he lowered the spoon to the gazpacho, a large smile on his lips. "But no, science is not for me. Too many strict rules and things you can and cannot do. Maybe I will study litterature. It would be a perfect fit, no?" He looked around at his friends, looking for their approval or disapproval.

[KnightDisciple]

Lulu may not have been able to read Eira, but Micah practically radiated awkward discomfort. The young man from Oklahoma clearly had been raised similarly in regards to how one treated their parents, and Lulu could pick up not only discomfort, but confusion in his mind. She could pick up that he'd had an image of a much worse home-life than what they were observing, from how Eira had talked. When he spoke, it was more subdued than his friends but certainly still audible, even in the slightly echo-y dining room. He sat on Pan's other side, clearly finding some comfort in being his roommate's "wingman", in at least some senses.

 

"Please tell the cook the soup is good. I've never actually had this kind before."

 

He let the others speak of their career thoughts before he weighed in himself.

 

"I think you'd work well with kids, Lulu. In psychology, I mean." 

 

He leaned back, just slightly, when Mia talked about how the block of metal she summoned was "not dangerous", but still raised an eyebrow in thought.

"I might need your help if I get a cranky project one of these days..." he half-muttered in thoughtfulness.

 

At Pan's mention of studying literature, he smiled.

 

"I think you'd actually be a fantastic literature teacher, Pan. Better than most of the literature teachers I've had, anyways."

 

He then turned his attention back to Bernhard in particular. His gaze turned a bit thoughtful.

 

"Well, I can't say I'm really looking to be a scientist, sir. I'm doing some extra work learning mechanical repairs and the like, hands-on stuff. My fallback plan would be going into aircraft mechanics and repair, but...honestly, I want to learn to be a pilot. My cousin, who's basically like my big sister, she was in the Air Force for several years, and she got to fly the newer, faster planes. I want to do that, if I can make the cut."

[Avenger Assembled]

Bernhard smiled at Mia. "Well, that may not have been exactly how Eira put it-" 

"Father!" 

 

Father and daughter exchanged sharp looks - and then there was dessert. Tahini almond cookies. Elsa really was a good cook. Magda asked a few questions about literature as they ate, enough to make it clear that Eira never had explained Pan's exact origins to them. 

 

Peter and Elsa were off after dinner, so everyone pitched in to clear the table and load the substantial dishwasher in the large, fully-modernized kitchen. After that, the teens were free to do what they liked around the house as evening began to set in; though of course the time difference meant that none of them had exactly come ready to sleep. It had stopped raining by now and it was wet outside, the green grass and trees sodden as they'd be in a rain forest, albeit getting cold in a way that meant it'd be in the high fifties tonight. Or about fifteen, if you used the local thermometers. It really was a big old manor house, large even for a household with two servants and multiple visitors. It was obvious that a building like this had been intended to house many more people. 

 

[Heritage]

After helping clean up after dinner, and thanking Elsa for all the delicious food, Lulu sought out Eira to have a word. She'd lost a bit of the righteous indignation that had flared up during the meal (tasks like clearing up always helped calm her down), and she was hoping to have a mature and reasonable conversation with the young tech genius.

 

 Fingers crossed.

 

"Hey there, Eira. Do you have a minute to talk for a spell?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Yes. I need your advice." Eira was inside her room with most of the lights off, eyeing herself critically in front of a full-length mirror. When she turned back to Lulu, she was dressed - well, somewhat differently than she had been before. Eira was still wearing her leather jacket and jeans (though they seemed to be riding lower than Lulu remembered) but she'd pulled up her black t-shirt and tied it off above her navel, turning it into something closer to a halter-top.

 

It wasn't exactly summer at Ibizia wear but it was certainly considerably more flirtatious than Eira typically wore around the room at Claremont. Lulu had never actually seen that Eira's navel was pierced too. "What do you think?" she asked, a faint smirk on her face. Her lipstick glowed faintly in the semi-darkness of her unlit room, a shade of blue and gold that shimmered like it was under a blacklight. "I am going to walk downstairs and show Pan the garden." 

Edited July 7, 2020 by Avenger Assembled

[Heritage]

Oh, this was going to be awkward; not the fashion advice, which would be easy, but broaching the subject she wished to discuss with the notoriously volatile Swede. Better to pour sweet before sour, as her grandma used to say

 

"You look fantastic, Eira, but ah hope you don't plan to quiz Pan about the garden later, because that boy ain't goin' to be lookiin' at any flowers." She paused and took a deep breath. "Eira, why are you so nasty to your parents? Ah mean, you were nicer to the woman who made your soup than you were to your own flesh and blood." She cleared her throat. "Uh, so to speak."

Edited July 7, 2020 by Heritage

[Avenger Assembled]

Eira's smile curdled like sour milk. "...why did they send me away to Claremont? They did it because the girl they made is dead and they fear the changeling machine left in her place." She held up her hand, where nail polish glittered iridescently in the dark, and hissed in a low whisper. "They pretend they do not think so, because it is not mannered to admit that you fear and are disgusted by your own child. But I am not stupid. I know the truth." She closed her hand and slid it too casually into her pockets, meeting Lulu's eyes levelly as she asked, "Just as you know the truth about yours, yes?" 

[Heritage]

"Well, if you mean they manipulated me and tricked me into commitin' crimes for their profit, then yeah, ah know about that now. Ah didn't always, of course." She sighed as she sat om the edge of Eira's bed. "So okay, you're the scientist in the room; where is the empirical evidence that they find you disgustin'? Ah mean, if ah'm a inventor who whose made some sort of abomination, ah'm not goin' to pay good money to send it overseas to an expensive boardin' school. Ah'd just junk it, know what ah mean?" She slapped her hands together to brush away imaginary dust. "Problem solved!"

Edited July 7, 2020 by Heritage

[Avenger Assembled]

"They are not inventors," said Eira disgustedly. "They barely know anything about science. They have MBAs. They would not have the first idea how to injure me - and if they tried, I have friends who would stop them." She hit the wall, producing a distinct thump from the room next door, then said, frowning, "They preferred the sick little girl they could control, not a woman who could think and act for herself. They tried to hide this from me, but I found it. When I told them what I thought of that, they sent me to Claremont." She advanced on Lulu, then suddenly jabbed the mattress.  "I have not slept in almost ten years, and yet they put this in here, because it is what a normal girl would have." She straightened up, and added confidently, "I will show them what a normal girl can do. I am eighteen now, yes? I can do what I want." 

[Heritage]

Lulu held up her hands. "Alright, alright, mah mistake; ah don't have everybody's life story memorized, ah'm sorry." Then she passed as the implications of what Eira just said sunk in. "What do you mean when you say 'ah found it'? Did you find like a journal or diary tucked away somewheres?" More and more she suspected her roommate's parents were from Arendelle, home of the 'Conceal, Don't Feel' school of child-rearing, which always turned out well.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Heritage

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, you'd like to see, would you?! Well I'll show you." Eira led the way down the hall to a small door by the window at the end of the hall, an entrance that looked more fit for a closet than anything else. She didn't even bother trying the knob, instead she thrust her hand forward and her dataspike buried itself in the old-fashioned keyhole. With a single loud click, the door slid open.

 

Eira muttered a curse as it did so, revealing a room full of something Lulu realized she had never seen before. It was a room adorned with pictures of Eira's parents with a baby, a toddler, a little girl with a bright smile and big blue eyes as pale as the sea. Some of them were of Eira at play, but many of them were smiles in hospital rooms with a little girl who looked sicker and more bandaged in every one. In the middle of the uncarpeted room was a single ornate couch and a wooden table, topped with a black, utilitarian urn polished to a mirror image. 

Glaring at Lulu with what she took as triumph before her, Eira hissed, "This is the room where they come to mourn their dead daughter." 

[Heritage]

Lulu let her breath out in a long, slow whoosh as she leaned against the door jam; this...this was complicated, and deep and sad, on both sides of the situation. In all her years of touching minds, she'd never walked into a minefield like this before. Of course, her first instinct was to help, because that's who she was: the girl who helped her friends with their problems. But some things her beyond even her impressive insight into the human condition.

 

"What exactly did they say when you confronted them about this? And maybe more importantly, what did you say first?"

 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah had actually seemed more comfortable when the hosts and guests were working on washing and putting away the dishes. He seemed utterly familiar with the task, and had quickly slipped into a comfortable rhythm with it. Afterwards, he'd thanked Eira's parents and gone to the room assigned to the two boys for a few moments. He'd emerged wearing his windbreaker and holding a book, and moved out to the garden area in the back of the house. He'd chosen a spot and just sat down, book in hand, and looked at the sky. His eyes seemed far away, and the air stirred around him slightly counter to the rest of the wind blowing across the grass. He was clearly lost in thought, and utterly oblivious to the rather dramatic discussion occurring between Lulu and Eira at the moment. It would be rather easy to sneak up on him right now...

[RocketLord]

Pan had happily chatted away with everyone and anyone willing to speak and listen, but with most of the chores already handled by others, he had instead disappeared to who knew where. 

 

"That could have gone worse," he finally said from just behind Micah just as his friend had settled in. He moved up next to Micah and flashed him a wide grin. "Have you seen Eira? She wanted to show me something in the garden." 

[KnightDisciple]

"Honestly, you did fine, man. My advice before we came in was to be polite, which you did."

 

His eyes had focused and shifted to Pan as his friend came over. 

 

"Which is different from just shrinking back because her folks aren't sure about you. Honestly, it's hard to tell how they feel about you, Eira's too busy keeping them riled up."

 

He frowned, and looked at Pan almost sternly.

 

"Pan....I'm not trying to be a jerk when I ask this, but...are you sure Eira is in a relationship with you because she likes you? Or is it because you're the sort of boy who tweaks all of her parents' buttons? Because with the way this has gone down, and the fact that I just don't know her as well, I am really fighting the little voice asking that question in my head. And you're too good of a friend for me to not ask that."

[Shofet]

Soliton

 

Mia had mostly checked out during dinner. Her capacity for drama went way down when she was eating, and so she learned, in her own way, to shut out the students of Claremont to avoid it as best she could. Eating was supposed to be a time of joy and peace, not a time of screaming and fighting.

 

But now dinner was done, and people were talking trash about her friend in her own house. She supposed, today, would feed the drama by coming to Eira's defence. Moving over to Pan and Micah, she inhaled sharply as if to give them a moment to flee before she spoke.

 

"Eira can be difficult, but it's a little messed up to say she's just doing something to make her parents mad. Especially since she's been into Pan since, like... They met. Also talking about your host behind their back while you're in their house is super bad manners okay bye."

 

Not giving Micah the chance to interject, Mia disappeared by teleporting to a random location in the house, thus making her more of an angel of conscience rather than a nagging friend, in her own mind.

[RocketLord]

Pan did not seem to give Micah's question much thought before he opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut off completely by Mia's sudden appearance, explanation and disappearance. 

 

He blinked twice, then laughed lightly. "Micah, you are a good friend. I know you are just trying to look out for me in this strange world of yours, but Mia is right." He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "There is much more to Eira than what she shows. I have only seen glimpses, but she is more than just the hard exterior she shows the world. She is much softer and more vulnerable than you would think." He stepped back and grinned, the genuine emotion and care in his voice replaced with his usual devil-may-care tone. "Besides, we are having fun. Is that not important, too?" 

Edited July 9, 2020 by RocketLord

[KnightDisciple]

Micah blinked at Mia's outburst, and started to respond. 

 

"I mean she's spent the whole trip-"

 

And then she disappeared and he was left blinking for several moments. When his vision cleared and it was obvious she was gone, he sighed and shook his head. 

 

"Well so much for trying to explain myself to her. Anyways."

 

He stopped speaking and looked at Pan for several long moments, searching his friend's gaze. Finally he seemed satisfied with what he saw, and nodded.

 

"Alright. You spend enough time with her, I trust your judgement. I can tell you like her. Even if she seems pricklier than a porcupine that ate a cactus. Just try to think with the head on your shoulders once in a while, too. Especially if she's wantin' to give you a private tour of the garden."

[Avenger Assembled]

Eira flinched visibly - and closed the door loudly enough that the sound echoed through the house, withdrawing her dataspike from the lock with a faintly audible click. She stared at Lulu and said frostily, "Fixing my family will not give you yours." She looked at Lulu - then couldn't hold it, looking away as her own face fell. When that was done, she turned on one heel and stalked down the hallway to the stairs. Her boots went clomp-clomp on the steps as she walked down to the first level, Mia's teleport echoing behind her as she appeared on the second floor. When she was downstairs Eira's face was set in a scowl, her hands shoved in her pockets as she walked past her father outside his study with a growl of "Not now!" before she found Pan and Micah outside in the back.

 

Once there she walked right up to Pan without bothering to pose in her new outfit and stood on tiptoe just long enough to pull him down for a long, firm kiss right in front of Micah. She definitely still had her tongue-stud in as she released Pan. "Come along," she told him with a smile, "I have not shown you all the sights yet." She smirked at Micah as she started to lead Pan towards the hedgerow. "Maybe Mia and Lulu will be up for a game of pool, yes?" 

[RocketLord]

"Thinking and planning is overrated, my friend. Some time you just have to take a chance, no? And I have no idea what other head I would think with," Pan just managed to respond to Micah with a wide grin before Eira walked up to him and pulled him into a kiss. 

 

When the kiss broke, he let out a breath. "And hello to you, Eira. I am happy to see you too." His smile was genuine, returning Eira's own. "Lead on, then. I look forward to all the sights!" He took Eira's hand in his own, and waved back at Micah with the other, looking back at his friend with a raised eyebrow while he let Eira lead him away. 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah was about to respond when Eira waltzed up and practically shoved her tongue down Pan's throat. He settled for mute surprise as they wandered off, and then a deep, bone-weary sigh. 

 

"Right. Pool."

 

He moved into the house, and started looking for the other two Claremont students. A few moments into his search, he started doing his best to "broadcast" his thoughts.

 

-Lulu? Can you hear me?-

[Heritage]

Lulu winced and just took it, letting the robotic teen storm off. She was right to be upset; Lulu really shouldn't be the person who is trying to 'fix' her, though of course the only person who could fix Eira would be herself. But, like most people who are helpers by nature, she couldn't resist trying to do her part. Ah well.

 

As she started to navigate her way back to the group by scanning for mental activity, she picked up Micah's query.

 

  -Hi Micah, I hear you. Be careful, Eira is probably on the warpath; I couldn't resist the urge to talk to her about her parents, which shockingly lead to her spitting poison in my face. How are you?-

 

It was always a bit weird to her Lulu's mental voice with no accent.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Heritage

[KnightDisciple]

When Lulu listened to Micah's mental voice, his accent was about as lightly-accented as when he was in most classes; it was present, but not overbearing. She also got what amounted to echoes of far-off thunder, and the sensation of misty wind on her forehead; the psychic echo of his still-growing powers.

 

-Already saw her. On a Mean Girl scale of 1-10, she was about a 5. I'm pretty sure she's planning to show Pan more than just whatever passes for garden plants up here in the frozen north, though. Not sure she's going full Thunder Rolls on us but there's a vibe there.-

 

His wanderings had led him to the room with the billiards table.

 

-You seen Mia yet? I think she's mad at me because I was talking to Pan about how exactly the relationship with Eira is going.-

 

Lulu can sense...not exactly embarrassment, but a sense of perhaps having put his foot in his mouth, just a bit. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Outside, the aftermath of the storm meant that it was objectively rather chilly - and everything was still wet. Once they were past the hedges, though, Eira didn't seem to mind, insinuating her arm around Pan's as they walked through what turned out to be an actual hedge maze, her body warm where she leaned against him. "...I would say we cut our way through," she said, switching to Swedish as they went, "but they would just make the gardener fix it anyway." She smirked at Pan, then stepped back to pose next to a flowering bush of uncertain provenance, her pale blue eyes wide in the dark. They weren't in total darkness out here even with the sun setting, the sky was still purple and only a few stars out. And there were security lights too, enough that no one would actually faceplant into the leafy walls around them.

 

"Do you like the sights?" She spread her arms wide. Just as she had told him months earlier, she was indeed wonderfully made. "You can find all sorts of things in the hedge if you look closely enough."

 

[RocketLord]

"We could always fly above," Pan mused to Eira's statement, his voice turning Swedish before he even opened his mouth. "But where would the fun be in that?" 

 

His face cast in shadow by a light, he remained standing for a moment while Eira posed and asked him about the sights. 

 

"Well, I tend to be distracted by one specific sight." He stepped forward, and slowly embracing her, his hands on her hips. "Anything in particular you wanted to find in the hedge?"