Fourth Floor Common Room [Wednesday night]

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela was normally pretty aware of her surroundings, and usually that would mean that she knew that something was up with Raven. But normally Triela wasn't staring furiously at a piece of paper in her hand.

She'd actually been pacing back and forth in her room most of the evening, but there hadn't been enough room to get proper inertia going. So she'd moved out into the common room to pace furiously back and forth. Her left fist was balled at her side, and her right fist was half-crumpling the letter in her hand.

"Find a date," she muttered angrily, "go to a dance." That was bad enough. "Take pictures." That last part was pure Alessandro. Hilshire may have written the letter, but he'd never demand pictures.

To be fair, Alessandro was doing it as part of his job, but that only made it worse. Because it meant she'd be getting criticism on them. She could imagine it now: you look to severe, smile more, your make-up is too muted, get some brighter colors, show a bit more skin.

She ground her teeth and paced faster, muttering under her breath.

Comments

[heromaniac]

Momoko popped her head into the common room and grinned. Yay, Triela!

"Yay, Triela!" She bounced the rest of the way into the room and up to her friend wearing a big smile and saluting. "Permission to hug, sir?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela was just working up a good indignant glare when Momoko showed up. And it was hard to be indignant with Momoko around. She smiled (just a bit) almost in spite of herself.

"Just a little one," she decided.

[heromaniac]

"Yay! Hi, Triela!" And with that, there was a pounce. "I haven't talked to you outside of class in forever!!"

Momoko made sure to throw in an extra squeeze before adding, "Ah! And you never did fully tell me about your new look and did Dinah tell you we got some new clothes for you? It's been a while now, but they're clean, and I didn't get you much pink, I promise!"

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

What a coincidence, Leda was also in a teeth grinding, muttering type of mood. Stupid parents.

She didn't care that this wasn't her floor, she wanted something, anything to take the edge off and she didn't feel like going back to her room. So she came looking for chocolate or caffeine or something.

She stopped and did a double take however.

"Triela?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I didn't, she did, and I'm glad." Triela still wasn't into the whole pink thing.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Yes?" Triela ground out, teeth obviously gritted, as she spun around.

"Oh," she blinked. "Hi, Leda."

[heromaniac]

But it would totally go with her complexion!

"It would totally go with your new complexion, though." Momoko took a step back and examined her for a moment, then shrugged. What's done is done! "Oh well. So! Why were you all frowny just a moment ago? You'll get wrinkles, you know!"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela snorted. "I don't get wrinkles," she countered. "And I'm scowling over this." She held up the offending piece of paper as if it were obvious why it was offensive.

[heromaniac]

"Hi Leda!" Momoko waved happily.

[heromaniac]

"You will if you keep making that face!" Momoko scrunched her own forehead by making an exaggerated frown. "You'll look just like Worf, only with prettier hair!"

She cleared her face and reached a hand for the paper. "What's the paper? You can't be getting bad grades or anything, right? Oh! I know! It's a love letter! Why are you scowling over a love letter?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's not a love letter," Triela scowled. "It's orders." She made it sound like a dirty word.

[heromaniac]

"Can I see? I thought you liked orders? The challenge of getting in and finding what you're looking for and the danger and the shooting and the winning, and all. What's wrong with these?" She raised an eyebrow and grinned. "The mission's not too hard is it?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Not too hard," Triela scowled harder. "Too stupid."

She held out the letter for Momoko to take. It was short. That was Hilshire's style, after all.

Identify the next school-sponsored social dance event. Get a dress. Get a male student to accompany. Have fun. Take pictures.

The "have fun", as was typical of Hilshire's orders, had a tiny ironic twist to it. Triela knew that there was an unwritten "or at least pretend to" tacked onto it.

[heromaniac]

Momoko read the letter and started bouncing before the second sentence. By the end, her eyes had completely turned heart-shaped.

"Waah! These are totally silly orders!" She agreed, but probably not for the same reasons as Triela. "Of course you'll need a dress for a dance, and how can you not have fun? And the only reason not to take a boy is if no one asks you and you don't want to drag someone along like I did the first time."

She hesitated a moment, then, "Or, if you want to take a girl, I guess, or you could go alone like I did to the last one. But anyway, it's still tons of fun!"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"No. They're not." Not that Triela really had an opinion on it. She was mostly just uncomfortable and out of her depth with them. And she hated being out of her depth.

[heromaniac]

Momoko looked up from the letter and stared at the blonde gun maniac. "You're scared. Aren't you?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Why... why would I be scared?" Triela demanded. Like that little hesitation wasn't a total give-away.

[heromaniac]

"Heh heh." Momoko grinned evilly and stroked her chin. This scenario was totally familiar, and she was sure that somewhere back home Kaoru was shuddering in remembered fear.

"Because you don't know how to be a girl. Or at least, not a girl doing girl things, and especially not at a dance. And especially not looking like you do now. But you'll be fine! Although it's totally a good thing we got you those clothes!"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It... is?" Triela asked, frowning slightly.

[heromaniac]

"Yep! I have a skirt in there, and a dress, but it's not the one I was looking at, and you can totally get used to wearing them! And wearing new clothes will totally make you feel more confident about your new self!"

She flopped onto a couch with a happy grin. "So, why do you look different? Did you get exposed to some chemicals or space-rays or something? Not that you looked bad, but you look totally different now."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela snorted. "Nothing quite so... imaginative. They're just bra inserts." Very advanced ones, but...

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

Somehow Leda had completely missed running into her friend so far this semester. And now she was even more sorry than she would have been otherwise. "Wow, you look different."

Sorry I'm so late in pinging back. RL got hold of me for a bit.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Hi Momoko." Leda waved back. There wasn't a lot of enthussaism, but that was just her mood. And somehow turning into a cat had completely healed her Gremlin wounds. "How've you been?"

[heromaniac]

"There's no way that's just inserts!" Momoko pshawed the very idea. "So did you just wake up one day and suddenly decide you wanted a change?"

[heromaniac]

"I'm fine!"

Momoko was up and hovering over her as she heard the tone in Leda's voice, though.

"But you don't sound good; are you feeling bad? Is it because of the gremlin wounds? Are they hurting still? We can totally go to the clinic again, or maybe just go see if Ino has something you can take?"