Just Outside the Dorms, Friday After Classes

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

It might come as a surprise to some Fandom students to find, on their way into or out of the dorms or simply just looking out their windows, that there was a pair of girls in a tree staging what appeared to be some kind of protest. A very loud, very annoying protest.

Blame the gremlins, man.

"And don't you gentrifying bitches even think about cutting down this tree!" Rebecca yelled, pumping a fist in the air. Her uncharacteristically unruly hair flew everywhere. "This is -- this is a--" She turned to Stacey and lowered her voice. "Is it an oak or a red maple?"

[[oh god, so open.]]

Comments

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn was on her way back from an afternoon frappucino run when she spotted Rebecca and Stacey.

"Oh my god," she said, rolling her eyes. "Why are you yelling about a tree?"

[ihavediabetes.livejournal.com]

"It's a beautiful tree, is what it is!" Stacey yelled down. "And it will not be cut down for your... your wood! Or your paper!"

Next time the gremlins wanted her accessories, they could have them. She could buy more.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't think you'd understand!" Rebecca yelled down at her, full of righteous passion. Or gremlin-inspired passion, which was close enough, if a bit weird. "But this tree is a child of Mother Nature just like you and me, and it's our duty to protect it!"

...riiiiiight.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Or your construction paper!" Rebecca yelled. Helpfully.

Look, clearly she wasn't the brains of this pairing.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"A child of mother nature?" Quinn repeated dubiously. "Okay, are you high?"

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Only on passion!" Rebecca shouted. "It's a pure, natural high. You've probably never felt it!"

Hippie Rebecca, please settle down.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"If 'passion' means hitting on other people's boyfriends and hugging trees, probably not."

Quinn was smug.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"We don't need your negative energy!" Rebecca shrieked. "This tree needs hope to grow! Not yuppie defeatism and -- and -- designer clothes that were probably ripped from the carcasses of its brethren!"

Rebecca, what?

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin had been planning on a trip to the junkyard to see what kind of scrap he could scavenge for mechanical projects, but there were people yelling in a tree.

"Um."

Clearly the most eloquent of the Solo kids, this one.

"I thought you said you couldn't climb trees!"

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"I can when I'm protecting life!" Rebecca shouted, hugging a branch. The branch promptly snapped off and fell to the ground, and she looked positively aghast. "I -- I -- this tree is a symbol of hope and promise!" she declared after a brief moment of mourning the fallen branch. "It's my duty as a citizen of humanity to save it from the bulldozers! Are you with me!?"

She clearly thought this passionate speech would persuade him, yes.

[ihavediabetes.livejournal.com]

Stacey gave her a weird look, because that probably went under 'paper.'

"Or just generally your construction!" she added. "This tree is life-giving oxygen!"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn glanced down at her t-shirt and skirt. "A, this is J. Crew but thanks for the compliment, and b, did you seriously just imply my clothes are made of paper?"

She didn't mean to shout, but her voice was getting a little louder.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Life-giving!" Rebecca echoed, more loudly. Because that was important. "And it provides shelter! And warmth!" It probably did not provide warmth, Rebecca, no.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Rebecca looked briefly puzzled. Quinn had a fair point there, yes. "Its other brethren!" she exclaimed after a moment. "Not the trees! But others!"

Riiiight.

"Sheep!" she declared after a moment. "Also children of Mother Earth!"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Uh-huh," Quinn said. She was beginning to get bored with arguing with someone who was obviously totally insane right now.

Then she got an idea. "Y'know," she called up in her most innocent tone, "it would be awesome if I could document how passionate you are about ... Mother Earth."

She didn't have anything against Stacey, so she'd try to keep the blonde out of whatever she filmed. Rebecca, though, had earned it.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin looked over his shoulder, pointedly, then back up into the tree. You have Skywalker DNA, Anakin, don't be smug about someone else's gremlin bite.

"Are you planning on being there a while? Because the bulldozers haven't shown up yet. Did you bring enough food with you?"

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Rebecca's passionate determination faltered for a moment. "Shit, I knew I was forgetting something!" she muttered.

WHOOPS.

"You don't have any on you, do you?" she called back down.

[ihavediabetes.livejournal.com]

Now she had to ask. "Warmth?"

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"To complain to the police?" Rebecca shouted. "Fine! Tell them! Tell them everything!" She threw both arms in the air and balanced precariously on a branch. "Tell them," she declared, "that I will be here for as long as they force me to be here! And I will not leave until--" The branch she was balancing on made a creaking noise, and she shrieked and put her arms back down.

"--until they make me leave!" she concluded.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin spread his hands. "Sorry, no."

Who didn't bring food with them on any kind of extended mission? Really, Rebecca?

Oh, sure, he could offer, but he was juuuuuuuuuuuust petty enough to see if he could get her to ask first.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Well... yeah," said Rebecca, who had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. "Through photosynthesis?"

No, Rebecca. Not how it worked.

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

"Damn it."

She looked around, hoping to find a stray apple on one of the branches or something, but... nope.

"I don't suppose you'd like to bring me some?" she suggested hopefully. "Then you could come up and guard the tree with us!" Because clearly Anakin wanted to spend his afternoon in a tree with shrieking hippies. Clearly.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

. . . apples don't grow on just any tree, Rebecca, sheesh.

"I could," Anakin allowed slowly. If he was really a mean person, he'd have just offered her the ration tablets from his utility belt. See how he didn't do that? "But how is being up in the tree going to be an effective defense?"

[zetabetabrat.livejournal.com]

Eco-warrior Rebecca was really woefully uninformed about how the environment actually worked, it was true.

"Because!" she explained brightly. "The guys with trucks aren't going to cut it down when there's kids in it!" A beat. "Unless they would, those monsters. But then I'd sue."

If she lived. Which, you know.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry, Rebecca, but from Anakin's impression of you so far he wasn't entirely confident on that last point.

"You're just going to sit there," he said dubiously, "in the tree, and count on them not cutting it down just because you're up there. That doesn't make any sense."