fandomhighdorms | LBJ Campfire, Monday Evening

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LBJ Campfire, Monday Evening

Chuck didn't know who started the campfire outside his cabin but he was glad that someone did. He was capable of working a lighter but that whole Boy Scout-y wood and newspaper in the optimal fire starting position thing was lost on him. So when people did the hard stuff for him he was appreciative. Silently appreciative. He wasn't about to be thanking people out loud.

Now he was sitting back against a log with a joint in his hand and was debating going back inside the cabin to grab marshmallows. Maybe after the munchies set in.

[Open! You will keep me entertained whilst I wait for the Gossip Girl finale]

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"He mentioned. He was sad about missing the party since one of the colors were part of his House colors," she told Dinah. She breathed out with a smile.

"We had a bit of a-- thing at the salle, but I think we're all right now."

"A... thing?" Dinah blinked. "A fight?" That didn't sound like Leto, really.

She shook her head.

"I put an edge on my string," she explained, "sliced his knife in half during sparring.

"I think, well... I don't know. I wouldn't ever cut him; even if the string hit him it wouldn't cut since I care about him," and Dinah was the first person to hear that out loud "but he got very quiet and sort of just left.

"He talked to me again, though, and things seemed to be all right. I haven't asked him about it, but I'm pretty sure we're all right."

"Ohhhh." Dinah bit her lip, thinking. "That could be a lot of things. I wouldn't want to guess. If you think you guys are okay, that's the important thing." Again the internal debate, and what were her motives here? Maybe just to make sure Fiona wasn't as confused as she'd been by Leto. "Leto's intense. Hard to understand completely, sometimes." She carefully said, "The Fremen, that's his people? Are warriors. They live in a really close-knit, traditional society. He's an adult by their standards, I think. Not a kid, the way he would be by ours." She looked away, trying to keep her voice light. "He could get married, and he's already got duties that are pretty serious."

She was conflicted.

Part of her wanted to straighten her back and lift her head and tell Dinah that she wasn't a kid either. She was an adult; she'd earned that.

The other part knew how little she knew in some ways, that she still had things to learn. It also reminded her that this wasn't about her; Dinah was trying to tell her about Leto.

Finally, however, she got something out.

"I'm not a kid either," she said firmly, "not after what we went through."

Eliot and Fiona agreed on that point.

"But... thank you for telling me. I appreciate it. And more information is always good."

They still hadn't quite cured their imbalance. Maybe there'd be time sometime this week.

"He still likes to spend time with me. And he put his arm around my shoulders, so I think whatever it means, we're still friends."

"Nobody here if very childish, really. Or at least, they don't stay that way," Dinah said, wincing. "Sorry if that sounded... I don't know. Like I think you're a kid. I just meant that compared to Leto, most of us are behind the curve. In ways you don't expect." She was quiet a minute, inwardly facepalming. And kind of getting how Tony had felt about her dealing with Leto, four or so months ago. Tony never even knew about the past lives part of it, either.

"Fremen are pretty touchy, too, compared to us. Which is nice," way nice, nice enough that she couldn't allow that any more, but that shouldn't stop Fiona from enjoying it. "Some people don't like it, I know. I'm glad you're good with it." Aaand... "They're polygamous, too. He's kind of seeing Alice Liddell, but she doesn't mind if he has another girlfriend, or anything."

There. Couldn't get much more up-front and non-judgemental than that, right? And maybe he'd already told her!

The first thing Dinah said soothed her a little bit; her fingers stopped clenching against the bark. The 'being a kid' thing was a bit of a twitch point because of her mother but, as she realized once she could actually think again, there was no reason to turn that on Dinah. Dinah wasn't the one who'd lied to her her entire life, after all.

"I don't really have a... normal?" she said carefully, peering over at Dinah in what she hoped looked like something of an apology.

"For touch. It was just nice."

As for the polygamous...

"I didn't really know about Alice," she had to admit as she started going through it in her head, "but that's good to know. I mean, that she doesn't mind. Not that anything's-- we haven't kissed or anything."

"Ahh." Dinah looked thoughtful, pursing her lips, then nodded. "I'm glad it was nice." She smiled a little, not sure what she was feeling exactly. Probably no more than Fiona did. But she didn't want to stop something from happening, if it would make her happy, and she was cool with Leto's terms. "No, I get that. It's just a possibility right now. And Leto would've told you about Alice before it went very far." But sometimes he forgot, or didn't think things through from the other side.

"I just wasn't sure you'd be good with it, and if you are, that's cool. People here mostly don't judge." She remembered Turtle, suddenly, and added, "With one or two notable vehement exceptions."

She let her head flop into her palms, her elbows rested on her legs.

"I'm just going to see how things go," she said honestly.

"There's so much I haven't gotten to experience. Some things I'll, well, I'll never get to experience. So I'm just going to see how things go and do the best that I can to enjoy it and stay alive."

Yes, that second one was a main goal.

Dinah remembered that Fiona had a lot more immediate concerns than boyfriends, put like that. "That's a pretty good plan. For anyone, but yeah, I get why it's a concern to you." She gave Fiona a thoughtful look and asked, "Do you have to worry about earning a living, getting a job, once you've graduated?"

She shook her head.

"I... don't think so, no. Both my parents seem to have a lot of money, even if I never heard about it before now.

"I'm a lot more worried about making it that far."

"That makes it easier in some ways. Since you have more choices. Those are hard too, though." Dinah raised her eyebrows. "Still, you ought to have a year-- longer? Are you a junior, or a senior? And people here will help protect you, you know, if you need it."

"Sophmore."

She was only fifteen, after all. However mature she seemed sometimes, however still she could be in some moments.

"And it would probably be best if no one got involved. The last time, my workplace got blown up and most of my town was destroyed."

"Oh, that happens here too," Dinah said breezily. "Seriously. Zombies. Harpies. Aliens. At least if we were fighting people who wanted to kill you, it would be in a good cause. And we'd re-build." She shook her head. "You've got time, then. Lots of it."

That list was missing one thing.

"Demons?" she asked quietly.

Dinah looked considering, then slowly said, "Not that I know of. Although a couple of the students who've been here longer said that the last Vice Principal tried to take them all to Hell last summer. Hades? Maybe? I could be remembering wrong. That's not quite the same thing, though." She studied Fiona. "Is there a reason you ask?"

"I'm just... wondering what the opinion on them might be. I don't really know other than what was in this one book, and it's kind of important."

Dinah suddenly remembered Tony's experience with them, and carefully said, "The only person I know who has some experience with them, it wasn't here, it was back at his home. Tony Foster. He's one of my two best friends, and a wizard. Have you met him yet?"

"Yes. We talked a little about the maypole," mostly about the maypole, anyway.

There was a long pause before she finally spoke again.

"He doesn't like them, does he?"

"Really not. I can't get into details, but it wasn't pleasant for him." She tilted her head, thinking of Henry. "On the other hand, he's had some other supernatural encounters that weren't... terrible." Way not. "So I guess it would vary, depending on what it was?"

She didn't speak for a minute, obviously trying to figure out what to say. Finally, she lifted a finger and held it up before getting up and running to her cabin. She came back a moment later with something in her hand, something that glimmered blue in the firelight in between her fingers.

"I killed one."

"A demon?" Dinah said, surprised, but not too much. She stared at the shimmering blue, and reached for it, but held back from touching it. "What is that?"

She held it up to the light, the strange and random facets curving the flickering flames hypnotically. The sapphire was the size of an egg, which was small when she knew the size it had been. She had it on a leather thong. It flashed with the blue of an endless ocean, a fire all it's own, the sky itself in twilight.

"It was his. And now it's mine. A reminder."

Of what, she wasn't quite prepared to share.

"He had this around his neck, some sort of... pride thing. He let me get close."

A brief huff of a laugh.

"His mistake."

Dinah gave her a sober look, then went back to studying the gem. "It's beautiful. Hard to imagine something that's supposed to be evil owning something like that." She tilted her head, and asked, "I'm guessing he's one of the ones who tried to kill you and Eliot?"

"Yes," which was the truth even if it was a very misleading truth.

He was also my cousin.

"He wanted Eliot. They trapped me somewhere else, but Robert managed to help me find a way out and we got there in time.

"We hit him with the car."

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