ic Child Psi-cology

[TheAbsurdist]

What came next was a moment of weakness, or at least he would describe if some asked him.  "I like Sunny Day Real Estate.  But let's get one more problem done before we play some music."  It was a piece he let be seen.  A thing Elias didn't do.  But he still clung tenaciously to the task as hand.  But then, Thaelia knew that Elias was as much pitbull as human.  Or some aquatic equivalent.

 

Slowly straightened then, he moved towards the kitchen and the money, "Though I do need to know what you want on the pizza Holly, so we can get it ordered now.  Frankie's sound good to everyone?"

[Electra]

"I don't know Sunny Day Real Estate," Holly admitted shamefacedly. "But I can find some online and download it... after I do the math problem," she added in a mutter. "And I'd like chicken and pineapple, please." Hooking her feet around the legs of the kitchen stool, she leaned forward and, with several pauses for erasing and starting over, worked her way through the problem and, thankfully, managed to arrive at the correct answer. "There, done!" she told the sitters with some pride, pushing away from the table. "Music time!" She raced away from the table and up the stairs with a speed that suggested she may have inherited just a bit more than eye color from her father. 

[Brown Dynamite]

"You have the qualities of a professor most wonderful."  Thaelia commented to Elias.  She also didn't recognize the band.  But, honestly Thaelia didn't know many musicians by name.  She could sing along with a tune if she recognize a song.  But, that hardly ever meant actually knowing the name of who was singing it.  Let alone the name of the song.

 

She kept staring at the stairs after Holly.  A smile beaming on her face.  Taking a small measure of pride in the girl accomplishing her homework.  Even though Thaelia's contribution to such efforts were minimal at best.  "She is a good girl."  She attributed the speed Holly had scaled the stairs to youthful bundles of energy.  And impressive bundle at that.

[TheAbsurdist]

"I cheat."  His response was dismissive of the compliment, because he felt that was true.  He did.  It was a common consensus as well, but understandable as he was the weird psychic.  Of course he only rarely held such things against people.  Though hers and Heraldo's assertion a little over a year ago still stung, not as bad as her belief that he might have killed the men who attacked him.

 

"She is, I don't know why she likes me.  I was never around children, so I am making this up as I go along."  Of course he also did not treat Holly like child, that helped.  He talked her as he talked to everyone else.  And he didn't need to really watch her, he could feel her presence on his web.

[Brown Dynamite]

"When you are not the cat most sour, you are..."  Thaelia's words hung for a moment.  Unsure of how to finish.  Anytime she tried to compliment Elias it hadn't gone well.  Be it through social awkwardness or simply a deep rooted difference of opinion as to what construed as a compliment.  Then came the day on the beach.  Funnily, it wasn't the thought that he could have potentially killed the Atlantean barbarians that bothered her so much on that day.  It was the fact that such killing would have been done in such a torturous manner on top of the killing.  But, there was no way to put into words, and the semantics still ended with her thinking the worst of her classmate if even for a moment.  Thinking his control so imprecise (or too precise as it were) as to choke a group of barbarians to death.

 

"Pleasant.  That is why she likes you."  Thaealia affirmed openly.  Her measure of the word like was a bit different than Holly's in that moment.  Completely oblivious to any interest the girl had.  "Did your mother make it up as she went along?"  Thaelia hadn't addressed the fact that she had shared a private chat with Elias' mom before.  But she had no illusions about Errant not being privy to such knowledge.  Let alone the result of her research at the woman's behest.

 

Keeping an eye on the stairs, and momentarily forgetting she was the only one there who needed her ears to hear, Thaelia wanted to make sure Holly didn't accidentally overhear something unpleasant.  

[TheAbsurdist]

He stopped, and he turned from her as he pulled the hood up his sweater like it was a coif of armor between them.  Elias didn't have anything immediate to respond to that.  Until the question about his mother was brought up, and he closed his eyes, and there was a flicker of anger, and other things.  She could feel the tremor thrumming out from him, could feel anger.  His anger welling up like a poisonous sap from a cut tree limb.

 

It retreated the next moment.  Or what surely was the next moment, it was hard to gauge time in that situation.  But it was gone, and the feeling of it not being there was as conspicuous as it's presence had been.

 

He turned to face Thaelia, that hood shadowing his face effectively, and he slowly pulled gloves out of the pockets of the sweatshirt, before putting them on carefully.  "This is not a quarry you wish to chase."  His tone was one of finality, while he had no objection to he would say, he knew what would come next.

[Brown Dynamite]

Errant's stare of absolute certainty.  The familial resemblance was undeniable in appearance alone.  Eyes that were a stinging reminder of his mother's words. 

 

"I would also almost say that is adorable.  I already know your kind, Atlantean.  And you can't see where such an attack would come.  Worse you blind my son, or at least distracts him because he is looking at your, rather than where he ought to."

 He was looking all right.  Thaelia didn't understand how she could possibly be a blind spot for Elias.  She had absolutely no plans to prove the woman's lack of faith true, no matter how certain Elias was that this was not a subject to pursue.
 

""I know I don't get to choose how my son lives.  But he cannot be taken back...He will make a mistake around you, and his father will find him...and then my son with be indoctrinated and made a good little weapon for Harper. . .would rather kill my son, then let that happen to him."

"I have never been good with walls.  Why go around when one can simply smash it mightily?"  Addressing the figurative distance with all the lack of tact as he had come to know from her.  Thaelia honestly didn't dislike Errant's mother apart from that woman calling her a whore.  She at least cared for her son.  Haywire was another matter...
 
"You are right.  I have a different quarry to chase. In due time that is."

[TheAbsurdist]

And then it happened.  His eyes dilated and then constricted down as he looked at her.  "Where... where do you think I exist?"  Asked her classmate, his expression incredulous.  Able to emphasize without raising his voice.  "You, oh shining and gallant hero, standing athwart the wall as a vanguard against the oncoming dark... where do you think I am?"  Though there was a tremor of control, taut like a guitar string being pulled past in tune.

 

"I don't share because my control is tied to my power.  My anger becomes yours, my feelings, my thoughts.  Because I have to endure the thoughts of others every day.  Their emotions assailing at me, their thoughts, and I can't forget them, even when they gnaw at who I am like thousands of hungry little mouths taking bites out of me.  I don't share because when I did I got pity and fear.  Because I can stop a person's breathing with my will makes me more of a monster than someone who can snap all the cervical vertebrae in a neck of anyone else with the flick of a wrist.  Because I can see that thought dancing behind their eyes every time they look at me."

 

And then he took a step back, even as the ripple through that web added a tactile element to whatever was roiling behind that stony exterior.  "Because I don't break down walls.  I undermine them.  I am not in the light.  I am in the shadow.  Born of monsters and raised by them."  There was no melodramatic pause, despite the content, but trying to convey this... subtly to Thaelia would likely not gain traction.  And he knew Holly would be coming, he couldn't mask the spark of anger, or other things, from her so readily.  So he moved towards the fridge then to look at the local pizzeria's the Cline's tended to buy from.  It would help him in getting something Holly would like.

[Brown Dynamite]

"Do you wish to hear me say it?  A thousand pardons for thinking you would cross a line most foul to even put into words.  But make no mistake, o child of monsters, the only only pity and fear here is thine own.  Have I once attempted to steel my mind from you?"  Thaelia spat back.  She was used to their back and forth.  It started off cordial.  She made a faux pas.  And then there was escalation followed by awkward silence for some period. 
 
It was their cycle.  And it would have fully repeated as such.  If not for the fact this was one of those times she was equally upset. Not solely because of the emotional influence  Errant had. "Light, dark.   A daughter of Atlantis is not to concern herself with such nonsense.  I almost lost Giang two years ago when she was successfully captured by.  By the time I learned of her status, she and the rest of our classmates had returned from their imprisonment."  
 
Thaelia stormed in the opposite direction raising her hands in the air in exasperation as Errant examined their cuisine options.  Thaelia wouldn't dare raise her voice as she had to remain cognizant of the fact they were watching an impressionable child.  Fighting the nagging last unsaid though.  She wasn't trying to be a gallant hero.  She was trying to be a friend.  Even if failing at that.  

[Electra]

A moment passed, silent but absolutely thick with tension, till it was cut by a shout. "Stop it!" Holly descended the stairs in a clatter, no music in her hands because they were clapped uselessly over her ears. "You stop it right now!" she demanded, her young voice shrill. "You don't get to fight in my house! Do you think I can't hear you because you don't talk loud?" She glared at both of them equally. "I can feel you on my skin and hear you in my head and you're mad at each other and I hate it! Get out, get out, get out!" She turned and raced back up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door with a thud that resonated through the house. 

[TheAbsurdist]

To his credit, Elias was already in movement, he might not be as physically adept as Thaelia, but he was never apt to sit back on his heels and wait, responding to things when people were still thinking about what was happening.  There was a backlash, as he constricted his web, and then used it boost himself, as he leaped forward, sailing over the banister and hitting the stairs with a surprisingly easy walk up towards her room, and then he slowly sat down before her door, and folded his legs.

 

And he waited, quietly, respecting the closed door, no reaching out, not speaking for a moment.  He was giving her quiet first, because he knew what it was like to not have it.

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia had rushed up after Errant.  Not quite as quick to respond.  Taken back by the sudden appearance of Holly.  She stopped shortly behind Elias.  Her mouth hanging silent.  hat could she say?  They drew a little girl into their personal debacle.  Even if unwittingly, they knew better.  

 

The shame was quickly overshadowed by a feeling of sympathy.  Of the two only Elias could possibly know what it felt like to be in Holly's shoes right now.  A fact that did nothing to exclude Thaelia from any blame.  It may have been the princess' first outing at being a babysitter.  But, she was certain bombard your ward with negative thoughts was not becoming of a proper babysitter.

[Electra]

Several minutes passed while Elias and Thaelia sat in the hallway, staring at the closed door. The door was covered in pictures of unicorns and dragons, so at least that was something to look at for awhile, but even that paled eventually. The room was psychically shielded, but if Elias exerted himself, he could sense Holly inside, frustrated and upset and a little afraid, her emotions occasionally spiking coincidental to muffled thumping noises inside the room. He felt her mind touch his once, apparently by accident, and then immediately jerk away, but it was enough for him to know she was aware of their presence. She just didn't seem interested in giving up her anger at the moment. 

[TheAbsurdist]

And with that Elias slowly rocked back, stretching his arms out, and unfolding his legs, before standing up.  "I am sorry Holly.  I will be calling up for some pizza.  A veg, and a pepperoni, if that isn't something you like, let me know.  It'll be from Big Tony's."  With that he pushed from the door, and stepped away, going back downstairs.  If she was unwilling yto let go of her hate, then he was not going to press matters, it would only make things worse, really.

 

"C'mon Thaelia."  It was a simple statement, though his voice carried conviction.  He knew there was no sense in lingering in front of her door, and waiting for the girl to come out.  So he moved around the Atlantean before he walked downstairs to pick up the phone and made the order.

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia obliged with the request.  Looking back at the door halfway down the stairs.  She didn't feel as if they were being proactive enough in baiting Holly out.  But, she also knew she didn't have the best judgement when it came to conversing with psychics.  As this night only solidified.  Yet, she couldn't leave things as they were.  Extending a hand out, Thaelia tried to signal to Elias to wait before reacting to what she was about to do.

Turning back around, Thaelia rushed up the stairs.  Knocking with more enthusiasm than the situation presented.  "I ask for a thousand pardons, youngest of the Cline clan.  The Daughter of the Seas was insensitive in a manner most unbecoming a princess of Atlantis.  To make amends, at your behest we may use the 'make up' before your arithmetic is fully conquered."  

Maybe it was some parts bribery.  Yet, she couldn't very well turn a blind eye to someone's pain.  Especially when so much of the blame lied on her actions and emotions.  It just wasn't her way.  If it were, the situation might've been avoided in the first place.  Turning back around Thaelia looked back at Elias.  Contemplating the other apology she owed.  But couldn't quite put into words.

[TheAbsurdist]

 

When she returned he had earbuds in, and was presumable listening to music.  Though he tugged one out when she returned, having the pizza menu, money, and phone by him, but he wasn't calling yet.  And this time, he was throwing up a baffle of his own, covering his bases, even though he felt that she could likely plow through his efforts without trying.  Similarly to Thaelia.

"She'll come out to yell what wants on the pizza.  And then she will come down when it is delivered.  If she is mad at us, then let her bed mad at us."  He paused, seeming pretty philosophical about Holly's reaction. Before he changed the subject of who he was speaking about.  "Don't listen to her.  She lies as much as he does."  It was clear he was talking about his parents then.  In truth he was skirting a couple things, trying to avoid whatever feelings he might have for her, which were complicated, but still rested at 'attracted' with him not really allowing them to grow.  Which... actually made them complicated, and really what nudged him to lash at her would be kidnappers so violently.

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia nodded as she slumped against a wall.  Dropping to floor level to exhale.  What she wouldn't give for a dip in the ocean.  Even the Claremont pool would do as a substitute.  For a sea god's daughter, water was a comfort in more ways than one.

She had been quick to accept Errants mothers word at face value.  Perhaps it was because her friend could be in danger especially when the evidence that the perpetrator was sincerely a threat was pretty blatant.  Perhaps it was just in her trusting nature, despite how poorly she got on with the woman.  Or maybe, just maybe it was because she was dealing with someone's parental figure.

"I know not the details of your kin.  The king is as close to a father as I have ever known. Poseidon ignores my summons.  My mother's body was never recovered, but the certainty of her death is.  The fiend whose body Poseidon inhabited when I was conceived is a Barbarian who wishes to kill my kin and the humans.  Perhaps I was to quick to trust a serpent's tongue.  Your mother is most...unpleasant, but I saw little reason to doubt her word.  I thought her protecting her spawn.  Had I presented the knowledge of our meeting earlier..."

[Electra]

Holly finally pulled open her bedroom door, her face still pouty, but the worst of the stormclouds seeming past. "Hawaiian pizza, on the crunchy crust," she told Errant very definitely, practically daring him to argue. "It's the best kind there is. And you're gonna help me with the makeup?" she asked Thaelia, studying the Atlantean princess closely. "And no more fighting or getting mad at each other?" That was obviously the important point, and completely nonnegotiable. She still had her iPod clutched in her hand, maybe having forgotten it with all the distractions. 

[TheAbsurdist]

 

Elias arched an eyebrow like an alien second banana on a sci-fi television show.  He tilted his head a bit and lifted his eyes to look at the girl.  "I cannot promise that we wont make each other angry, or less angry.  I can say we wont fight here."  His tone was soft, hardly adversarial, despite the stiff way he spoke.  "One Hawaiian, and what do you want Thaelia?"  Truth be told, he ate purely as a matter of function, rarely did he do it in front of others, stories left unsaid, well he had told others of the 'training' his mother had given him.  Though he didn't know what his mother said, just that taking her completely at face value wasn't wide.

Right now, though the concern of pizza and soothing Holly was there.  And he imagined Thaelia ate a lot, he was never around anyone else when he ate if he could help it.  It was... a moment f weakness, and he no longer had the habit of eating around others.

[Brown Dynamite]

"You have my word that I will assist you in your endeavors, Holly.  But, then you must resume your arithmetic."  Thaelia told holly with pep making for a poor attempt of pretending to be strict.   In reality she was simply happy that the girl was no longer fortified in her room.  "I never give my word unless I intend to keep it.  The turbulent storm of emotions is too unpredictable for even the Daughter of the Seas to claim dominion.  I do, however, give my word that I will seek not to cause you any more pain."  She wasn't sure of the how.  Not prying into Errant's home life any further seemed like a start.

Turning to the other teen in the room the Atlantean considered her order.  Thaelia had seen Elias eat poisonous things off the ground.  So she suspected he wouldn't raise a complaint to her pick.  As far as she knew he pretty much ate anything.  Or at least had to have some loose standards, as the other members of their class didn't seem so readied to eat things that had been in dirt and rocks.  "Anchovies, pepperoni, and onions."

[Electra]

"Okay," Holly decided after a moment's thought. "Come on, Mom's bathroom is downstairs." She hurried down the stairs as though still concerned Thaelia would change her mind, heading past the kitchen and down the short hall to the master bedroom and its attached bath. The bedroom was cluttered, the bed unmade, but Holly breezed past all that without even a glance. The bathroom held a trace of humidity from earlier showers, as well as the scent of hairspray and Paige's subtle citrus perfume. Several makeup cases were already scattered across the bathroom counter, pretty enameled cases with names that were hard to spell or pronounce, but that seemed expensive.

Holly immediately picked up a tube of mascara and began opening it, studying her own eyelashes in the mirror. "Why were you fighting, anyway?" she asked innocently. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia looked around the items of makeup.  Trying to find things she could recognize by appearance and not by name.  As she usually had other people apply the make up for her it'd be safe to say she couldn't name a powder foundation by name.  Not that she had any plans on being too thorough with the beautification.  Something simple so as to not rile up her parents.

"That is a long story little one.  I suspect it began the day of a dance last year.  I mistakenly accused him of being antisocial and my wording came across as trying to change him.  Perhaps on some level I did expect him to be more of a gallant warrior.  Since then, we have always teetered on one explosive confrontation to the next.  This was one of those confrontations, someone who I believed close to him handed me misinformation.  I chose to express my concern with no forethought.  It is of no surprise why he dislikes spending time with me."

Reaching out Thaelia took hold of a moisturizer with one hand and the mascara with the other.  "There is an order to things.  Fortify your stronghold before placing encampments lest you be overtaken by invaders.  Eyes are not first."

[Electra]

Holly took the moisturizer and looked at it dubiously. "It's just lotion," she pointed out. "It doesn't even have any glitter." Even so, she dutifully dumped a fair amount onto her hand and began rubbing it onto her face like sunscreen, leaving her cheeks and nose shiny and pink. "So one of his friends told you bad stories about him, and now he's mad at you? That doesn't seem fair. If I were you, I'd find the person who lied to you and make them sorry for it," she opined fiercely. "Really good, so they never do it again. Back at my old school, we had to do stuff like that all the time. There were a bunch of snotty girls who were all "oooh, your parents work on basic cable," but they were really just jealous because their parents were washed up or something dumb like producers or publicists. They got to go to better parties, but it's not like that means anything. I mean, when you're in second grade it's not like you get to do anything cool anyway." She snorted derisively, obviously far beyond the foibles of her youth. "Anyway, we would always pull pranks on them when they got too bad, make them think twice about being so nasty. Eyes now?" 

[Brown Dynamite]

Glamazon looked around the table.  "I think it perhaps bed to not find this person.  Her mouth lends itself to needing punching."  Thaelia said in an honest summation of Errant's mother's personality from her brief interaction.  Again the woman did call her things that the princess had the good mind to not repeat in front of a child.  "Not yet.  One need accentuate natural beauty.  Flash and glitter are for the cross to your jab.  One two punches."

Picturing the last big function she attended, which was the Freedom League Christmas Ball (or at least that's how she referred to it in her mind), she recounted what was next in order of makeup. She didn't personally use Concealer or Foundation anymore.  Unaware that Concealer and Foundation had purposes other than hiding bruises and lacerations, she had long outgrown permanent injuries as long as a water source was around.  However, for the sake of completeness she grabbed what she hoped was a natural toned foundation (again she didn't know it by name) and a setting powder.

"Lather and gently puff."

 

 

[Electra]

Holly looked at the foundation and powder, both of them distinctly lacking in glamorous color and suited to her mother's slightly more olive skin tone. "You do it," she told Thelia, tipping her face up to allow for application of the makeup. "That's how they do it on TV," she explained, "all the stars have makeup artists who do the makeup for them. Or they should, anyway. My mom does her own for her show because she says she'd rather have a medic on set than a makeup artist, but that's lame. When I'm a TV star I'm going to have people do everything for me because I'll be too busy acting." 

She nodded emphatically, then gave Thaelia another inscrutable look. "Well if she needs punching, why don't you give her punching? You're a superhero, right?"