And the train pulls in at Dysfunction Junction... on Labyrinth Gardens

Gwen and Morgaine Carey

September 24, 2008 10:18 PM

And the train pulls in at Dysfunction Junction... by Gwen and Morgaine Carey

OOC: To the best of my knowledge, this happens about a week and at least a few days before Professor Kijewski's thread. Yay fuzzytime! BIC:

"Morgaine," Gwen drawled finally, holding a lock of her own thick, shining hair up for inspection, "Why are we goin' to your common room?"

Morgaine, whose thoughts had all been on how to open up the conversation she'd asked Gwen out here to have, jumped when that got through to her. "What?"

"Two more turns and we're at your front door," Gwen said impatiently, dropping the piece of her hair and throwing all of it back over her shoulder. "And before you start, er, thinking about impropriety, I know because I used to follow you sometimes."

Thinking about impropriety? Morgaine frowned at her sister, wondering if that was one of the odd comments she sometimes liked to make at random. Gwen scowled back, looking flushed for some reason. What would make her...? Morgaine went even redder than Gwen as it clicked.

Someone seriously needed to put Pseudo-Pierce in his place sometime. Sometime like yesterday.

"No one cares at all what you do as long as you don't get caught," she said, more roughly than she'd intended. What kind of mind did Gwen have, anyway, to think about...that thing she'd apparently thought about? "It's not as if you matter to them anymore."

If she hadn't been so embarrassed by what she hadn't said, she never would have said that. Gwen crossed her arms over her chest angrily, her chin jerking up to a haughty angle. It was almost possible to ignore the effect of her floaty, layered skirt and matching scarf, and Morgaine usually had no ability to take her seriously when she dressed up. "You watch your mouth," she said coldly. "I may have been...out of the way for a while, but I'm still older than you."

The semi-serious front was completely shattered. It took an effort not to laugh. It was, in fact, the way of the family that an older daughter automatically outranked any sisters, but the way Gwen had said it had made her sound about five years old. "What are you going to do?" Morgaine challenged her without thinking. "Go tattle on me?" Gwen's mouth fell open indignantly, and Morgaine made a soothing gesture. "I didn't mean that. I don't want to fight with you."

"The one thing we have in common," Gwen said sarcastically, sitting down on a bench. Morgaine ignored her.

"What do you know about how the family's doing, Gwen?"

Something akin to seriousness entered her sister's big blue eyes at that. Gwen unfolded her arms and braced both of her hands on the stone seat. "Not much," she admitted, sounding as though she very much disliked saying it. "Rumor, mostly. Amber said there's trouble, which is why I've been..."

"...Acting like you have some sense?" Morgaine suggested.

Gwen gave her an acidic smile. "Something like that."

She wanted very much to make some comment, but she wanted a quick end to this even more. "Amber's right," she said, and then paused. "Promise that, no matter what I tell you, that you won't...make a scene."

"I never exactly plan it, you know," Gwen snapped. Morgaine arched an eyebrow. Gwen might fool other students, but they had grown up together. Fits had always been Gwen's means of getting the attention she thought was her due, even if that attention didn't come in exactly the way she'd meant it to. The older girl lost a bit of her bravado. "Well, I never do with the real ones, anyway. What is it?"

Here it was. No more avoiding it. She had kept putting it off because of Gwen's birthday, but her sister had turned seventeen the day before. Morgaine took a deep breath. "I found out over midterm that Mother and Father are getting divorced," she said quickly, as though that might make it less pleasant. It didn't work.

For a long moment, she wasn't sure she'd actually said it. Gwen's face was perfectly still as she stared at a wall of shrubbery. Her hands had closed together in her lap. "That is a lie," she said finally, very calmly. For some reason, all Morgaine took in at first was that she said it with an accent so muted it might as well have been missing.

"It isn't," she said when the message caught back up with her. "I didn't believe it at first, either, but - "

" - But you are an impressionable idiot," Gwen interrupted her smoothly. "Evidently, anyway. There's no way she could leave. She isn't fit to be her own guardian."

"Her brother," Morgaine said, trying to hide how unnerving she found her sister's complete lack of expression. "Frank said he'd be her proxy if she - ever gets sick again. They say Father isn't fit to be her guardian, either, because - uh - they think he kind of has a problem with - "

"Oh, shut up," Gwen snapped, getting to her feet. It was a measure of how upset she was that Morgaine could tell her face was getting blotchy beneath all the makeup she was wearing. "Just shut up!"

Her voice was much too loud. "Gwen," Morgaine said firmly, "You said you wouldn't - "

"Shut up!" Gwen screamed at her. "What do you know? What do you know about anything? What's this about - are you trying to make everyone think I'm delusional or something? Go back to North Carolina babbling on about a divorce - " it sounded like a disgusting swearword in her mouth - "and get committed? Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

Morgaine stared, half-shocked and more than a tad appalled by what Gwen was coming up with. "What makes you think - "

"They almost threw me out when I was eleven for doing less than that," she spat. "Do you seriously expect me to think Thomas would let them get away with - that?" If she didn't slow down, Gwen was going to make Morgaine see half the English language as filthy. "Do you think the Richards would? It would be a scandal for the ages!" Gwen threw her arm out wide, somehow making the bit of hyperbole a little more outrageous as she did.

"It is a scandal," Morgaine said evenly. "Or it will be as soon as it gets out. It's already insane how much everyone talks about Thomas and Anthony, and to add that - " A very blank look was on Gwen's face. "You didn't hear? They made up after Anthony V died. It's apparently causing some huge power shift. Half the family thinks we're falling apart."

For a long moment, Gwen just looked at her, her eyes wide. Then, without warning, she sank back down onto that bench, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso, somehow sobbing and laughing all at the same time, shaking her head no all the while.

Morgaine didn't know what to do. She hadn't expected Gwen to be happy, but this reaction seemed a little excessive. Gwen hadn't laid eyes on either of their parents in years and had refused the offer to see their mother when it was made. It couldn't be her nerves, either, not when she had been acting so normal lately and had all but admitted her bad days were at least half-faked...

It dawned on her slowly. Gwen's response to hearing about a potential problem had been to act normal, which for her was like a member of the Savannah Carey social circle. Marriage was usually a matter of formal arrangements in that circle, and couples who found themselves mismatched were encouraged to smile and bear it as best they could. Divorcées were not thought well of, both because their inability to handle the circumstances into which they'd been placed and because the breakup of arranged marriages was a threat to any alliances made by them and a criticism of the system. Gwen could have hardly cared less about their parents' private lives, but a threat to her public image was another story.

It was ridiculous. It might have been slightly insane, as Gwen didn't really have a public image worth keeping. But it was understandable. Tentatively, she put a sympathetic hand on her sister's shoulder.

Gwen jerked away from her as though her hand was the side of a white-hot cauldron. "Don't touch me!"

Morgaine took an automatic step backward and was, for a moment, stunned. And slightly hurt. Then she started to back toward the exit, her teeth clenching. If Gwen felt like sitting there and making a fool of herself, it was entirely her business, but Morgaine wouldn't be staying around to watch and be implicated. She wondered what on earth she'd been thinking to -

Her head snapped around at the sound of a footstep near one of the other clearing openings. A moment later, a face that she knew followed before she could even think to run for it and hope for the best.

In her head, she began running down the list of every oath she'd ever heard anyone in her family use.

0 Gwen and Morgaine Carey And the train pulls in at Dysfunction Junction... 63 Gwen and Morgaine Carey 1 5

Connor Pierce

September 27, 2008 10:35 PM

I think I'll stay on board until Normaltown. by Connor Pierce

The bright sunshine of the Gardens was blinding after two hours in what had to have been the dimmest section of the usually-dim library. Though fully aware it would make the green spots worse, Connor couldn't help blinking rapidly, trying to clear his vision and reduce the chance of wrong turns on his way back to the Pecari common room. Going to it from this point at least twice a day every day for six years had him pretty familiar with the route to the suit, but he liked to see where he was going in a maze anyway.

Having accidentally gotten ahead on his work for the week, Connor had been doing research on magical careers. His two pre-Sonora post-secondary options - going to med school or the police academy - weren't really viable anymore, and he didn't see the appeal of going home again with no idea how to answer his mother's twenty questions about what he'd do after he left Sonora. Bev had to patiently put up with it, too, but she knew which jobs in her world came with enough money to please Rachel when she pretended interest in them and not in teaching elementary school. He didn't even have an interest, much less a high-galleon fake one.

There had been more information in the library than he had expected. Maybe it was just knowing how many fewer wizards there were than Muggles, but he had expected there to only be a limited number of things to do in the wizarding world and had been pleasantly surprised to find he was wrong. It was almost a given that there were some fields - politics, for example - where being Muggleborn would go against him, but he had seen a lot of things he thought he might have a chance in, and was sure he would have seen more if not for an article by a Muggleborn economist - Margaret something-other - he'd gotten a bit too into.

There had been some good stuff in that article. He'd never thought much about the inner workings of the magical money system, and while some of the words had gone over his head by virtue of technicality, he thought he'd gotten the idea behind it. It was -

His attention was caught by a girl screaming something. He couldn't make out the exact words, but sound carried in the Gardens, and he knew the voice well enough to recognize it even at a distance. Apparently, Gwen wasn't having a great day. He really did try to tell himself that he only picked his pace up quite as much as he did because preventing any tense situations from progressing to blows or to stop them if they already had was part of being a prefect.

A minute or so later, he walked in on what might have been the last scene he ever would have pictured after the scrap of evidence he'd seen. Gwen was seated in one of the small courtyards, apparently having some kind of panic attack or nervous breakdown or something, and Morgaine looked like a deer in the headlights with one hoof in the cookie jar. It was almost impossible, at least for him, not to jump to an immediate and biased conclusion.

It was, of course, possible there was a reasonable answer for this that didn't involve Morgaine doing something she shouldn't have. He couldn't imagine what it might be, but it could exist. He was also her House prefect, which made it a little unsporting to immediately assume she was soon to be revealed to be in the wrong. Too bad she was almost bound to be. Trying not to sound too accusing or stand so any hexes directed at him could accidentally hit Gwen, he looked at the more coherent girl. "What's going on here?"

0 Connor Pierce I think I'll stay on board until Normaltown. 68 Connor Pierce 0 5

Gwen and Morgaine

September 27, 2008 11:37 PM

Honey, you rode past that stop six years ago. by Gwen and Morgaine

Of all the people who could have walked in on a relatively minor family...problem, it had to be Pseudo-Pierce.

It could have been worse - it could have been Kijewski, who would probably be even more self-righteous now that she had no looks at all to speak of and always seemed to be an inch away from death - but Morgaine still felt like the universe was doing her a great injustice. Of all the school's stuck-up, holier-than-thou, hyper-hypocritical prefects, the only one obsessed with her sister would just happen to find Gwen reenacting one of the most charming scenes of their perfect childhood.

"None of your business," she snapped automatically when he asked what was going on. "We're not doing anything wrong."

Technically speaking, this was true. There was no rule on the books that said she was not allowed to tell her older sister their parents had split up, and - sadly - no order against Gwen pitching a fit because her little sister had told her something she didn't want to hear. However, that was not likely to win her any medals with Gwen's toy boy, who didn't like his owner's sister anyway. There wasn't a rule against what she and Gwen had been doing, but it was definitely possible that there was one against her biting a prefect's head off.

At that exact moment, of course, Gwen decided to get up, choke out something that might have been Pseudo-Pierce's given name, and rush over to attempt to do her crying on his shoulder despite said shoulder being a bit above her head. Which made Morgaine think about what Gwen had been suggesting earlier, which made her feel sick and sure an awful headache would soon put her to bed for the rest of the day.

Rubbing her temple against a pain that hadn't even started yet, she made out what sounded like "not really her fault" from her sister. Her mouth dropped open as she stared, not quite believing it, at Gwen's back. "Not really my fault?" she shrieked. "Not my fault at all! I'm not the one who started all this because I was too much of an idiot to tell decent people from people like him!" Though she could tell Gwen wasn't looking at her, she pointed at her fellow Pecari anyway before glaring at him. "I never thought that I'd say it, Pseudo-Pierce, but I don't know that you've ever done anything bad enough to deserve her."

With that, she turned on her heel and stormed away from them, ignoring anything else the sixth years might have wished to say.

0 Gwen and Morgaine Honey, you rode past that stop six years ago. 63 Gwen and Morgaine 0 5

Connor

September 28, 2008 12:34 AM

Time turners are the solution to everything. by Connor

Somehow, for some reason, Connor was more surprised by the lack of creativity in Morgaine's answer than he was by its rudeness. As far as he could tell, getting a badge had not raised the tiny fifth year's opinion of him one millimeter from where it had been the night they had met. If her lack of any respect for his position had been even a little bit less of a problem and her dislike a little less without an identifiable, rational cause, it might not have been a bad thing.

He was considering whether or not it was worth the time it would take to reprimand her when Gwen did something which, in its way, was even more surprising than Morgaine tacking a denial of wrongdoing onto her dismissal and more or less threw herself at him. Almost so stunned he forgot Morgaine was there, he awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, trying to figure out what was the appropriate thing to do.

Physical displays of affection were not really his thing, and Gwen had never done anything to make him believe they were hers, either. In six years, Connor thought that he'd seen her seem less than untouchable in every sense of the word maybe three or four times. She'd certainly never had any moment like this, with him or anyone else to the best of his knowledge. The sudden change in tact was more than slightly frightening.

He didn't quite catch what she was saying, but her sister did - and blew up. More by reflex than intent, Connor put his arm around Gwen's shoulders as Morgaine yelled, as if that might somehow help matters. Finishing with what he'd have wagered was the worst insult she could think of, the younger girl left, leaving a clearing that felt as though it had just been caught under a tidal wave. Who talked to her sister like that? Neither of his would have stood for it, and Kristina and Beverly had fought like big wet cats in a small sack as kids.

Pushing aside what to do about Morgaine, he decided to deal with the problem at hand, which was Gwen possibly being the most upset she'd ever been in his presence. Because nothing else to do occurred to him, he guided her back to the bench she'd been on when he'd arrived. It was hard to think of an appropriate thing to say without knowing the situation, but a try seemed better than nothing at all.

"Hey," he said. "Don't listen to her. She's just thinking all that about herself and taking it out on you." So Paul becoming a psychology major, combined with Connor's habit of flipping through his siblings' textbooks whenever they were all at home, had come in useful after all. "The girl needs help, if you ask me. Don't listen to her."

0 Connor Time turners are the solution to everything. 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

October 19, 2008 12:39 AM

What about the resulting time paradox? by Gwen

Gwen was just starting to get her breath back and feel like she'd made a fool of herself when the worst thing she could possibly imagine happened and Connor showed up in full I'm-a-prefect mode.

The groggiest corner of her brain registered that said mode was just as irritating in the groggy aftermath of her spell as it was when she was all right. The rest realized she was going to have to sort it out before he could throw Morgaine into detention for an ill-considered word or jinx. It would be her luck that interactions between the two people at the school she found essential would follow the scripts of that stupid, pointless wireless show about Aurors.

The yearbook awards floated up from some back corner of her head. Connor was always 'Most Likely to be an Auror', while she and Morgaine were budding criminals. She was also their year's teacher, and people thought Morgaine would end up in politics. Would an episode where the heroic Auror had to go after a crooked politician, only to find out that her evil-teacher sister was the girl he was infatuated with, get any interest? Gwen thought she would totally watch that - moral quandaries were amusing, and she'd give a pretty to see how far she could count on Connor's interest in her to override his nobility complex - but she was too close to living it.

Oh. Morgaine had answered while she was thinking of Aurors and robbers, or whatever she'd been thinking of. Not good. Were all Pecaris terminally stupid? She'd never known many of them well, but Connor was the idiot who'd decided to be friends with a Carey and Morgaine was the idiot who seemed to enjoy provoking authority figures, so there might be an argument for it. She knew, somehow, that allowing Morgaine to be rebuked would be a very bad idea, so she did what it occurred to her to do to prevent that, knowing even as she did that fake-crying and throwing herself at him might not be the wisest thing to do.

Basic concerns about her sister cursing her or reporting it all to their father aside, crying on a boy's shoulder was a surprisingly pleasant experience. There was a definite idea that she didn't have to worry about it - whatever it was or would be - anymore, that it would be taken care of for her. Only an idea, though; expecting him to take care of her was as good as politely asking someone to murder them both, now that the fanatics had all decided to come out of the hidey-holes they'd been in for the past few decades. Merlin, what was she going to do after Sonora?

"You mustn't blame Morgaine," she said through her 'sobs'. There was a certain satisfaction that came from being able to put on a show while staying fairly objective. "It's not really her fault - "

And then Morgaine had to hear her. For a moment, she was so shocked she forgot she was supposed to be crying. She went, quite voluntarily, out of her way to keep her sister out of trouble, she risked her own reputation, and that was how Morgaine chose to repay her? The ungrateful little - As her sister stormed off, Gwen realized she was getting close to actually crying.

She allowed herself to be lead back to her bench. When she put together what he was saying, she laughed involuntarily and wiped her eyes with her fingers, aiming, even now, for a little drama in the gesture. Everyone thought she was as crazy as it got - they seriously did not know other Crotali or half the Aladrens as well as they thought - and here the Pecari prefect was, saying the Pecari Carey was a loony who couldn't tell her opinion of her sister from her opinion of herself.

"She's right to blame me," she said, looking at her hands. They looked...odd. This was awful. "Our parents - oh, dear Merlin, this is embarrassing." She laughed awkwardly again and clenched her fingers. "They - er - our mother - she's, well, she's left our father." She felt herself turning red as she said it. To think that she would be the daughter of people low enough to get a divorce. Muggles were, however, different if she remembered right, so that wouldn't be the best way to phrase it. "And I know it's stupid - I haven't been close to them in - " seventeen - "years, but I suppose I hoped - "

Breaking off, she made a show out of getting herself back together. "I'm sorry," she said, then looked up, trying a halfhearted smile. It was a difficult expression to carry off. "I suppose I've ruined your whole afternoon, now."

0 Gwen What about the resulting time paradox? 63 Gwen 0 5

Connor

October 19, 2008 10:59 PM

I'll let the Seers think about it. by Connor

Connor was, to put it mildly, flabbergasted by what the big problem seemed to be. She and Morgaine had started flipping out because their parents were splitting up? Purebloods had some weird ways, but this was not the eighteen hundreds. It wasn't like they'd be declared illegitimate or something.

Of course, he knew basically nothing about parents getting divorced. His had never had the chance, and his stepsister and stepbrother both seemed as normal as New Yorkers could be. He'd known kids in elementary school whose parents had split, but how the split affected them hadn't been a topic boys under age ten really got into a lot. Maybe this was a completely normal way for a girl to react. He wondered how suicidal it would be to write and ask Leslie.

"And I know it's stupid - I haven't been close to them in years, but I suppose I hoped - "

He felt vaguely uncomfortable. Another thing he didn't know much about was Gwen's family.

The basics, of course, had gotten across: she had a little brother back in Georgia, she was the eldest, and she was a pureblood from an old family, which meant she probably had more cousins than his mother had stashed issues of Soap Opera Digest. Beyond that, it was what could be pieced together from her vacation habits, bits of her interaction with Morgaine, and the occasional vague comment; he wasn't sure he'd ever heard her make a direct statement about her mother. He thought the woman might be chronically ill with something magic couldn't fix, but he wasn't sure.

Her apology brought him back to what he could deal with, an event he greeted with relief. He couldn't put his finger on why, but thinking of what he didn't know about her made him feel uneasy. "Nah," he said. "Never bad seeing you." He was immediately seized by a desire to hit himself in the stupid head. Could he never come up with anything decent to say to her when she wasn't falling apart? He had meant it, but the statement had still sounded desperate, and he wanted to retain some dignity even where she was concerned.

0 Connor I'll let the Seers think about it. 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

November 05, 2008 7:33 PM

I suppose they are better qualified. by Gwen

One of Gwen's favorite things to think about was what might have been, or would be if she could go back and change what had happened in her first year. If she hadn't tried talking to other girls at the Feast. If she hadn't somehow offended Cate on the first day. If she'd ignored Connor during their flying lesson.

Overall, she thought life would have been better.

"Liar," she said, her voice lowering as her accent became more pronounced. "I know I look like some kind of haint." She was exaggerating and knew it, but after going through what she'd just gone through, Gwen thought she deserved a compliment or two and knew Connor would give them to her. He was useful that way.

He was also incredibly...stable. As far as she knew, he'd never been in a single scandal, which was saying more for someone in their year than it would for most people. He'd also apparently grown up in a stable family, the kind she pretended she had a moneyed version of, though she didn't know much about it besides his siblings' names and that a stepfather had entered the equation a few years back.

Odd, that they'd known each other for so long without those closest to them really coming up, but it made sense. Sonora was an almost entirely self-contained universe, with little connection to the outside, and the culture gap made it like they belonged to different worlds, anyway. Besides, neither one of them expected to join the other's family for tea any time soon. His family would see her as a freak, and hers... well.

She gave him her best smile. "It's nice of you to say that, though."

0 Gwen I suppose they are better qualified. 63 Gwen 0 5

Connor

November 08, 2008 6:36 PM

<i>Much</i> better qualified. by Connor

She's acting.

Connor could not have said where the thought came from, or why, but it was immediately followed by guilt. Her parents might have been weird and evidently distant, but they were still her parents and they were breaking up her family. It was the kind of thing people found upsetting, and Gwen had been too upset when he came in to think of faking anything for his benefit.

To distract himself from feeling rotten over a thought, he focused on what she'd said. That was bad enough for starters. "You really think I only like to see you because of what you look like?" Not that what she looked like hurt anything, but... "If that was the only thing I liked about you, we'd argue a lot less."

That was true - if all he'd wanted to do was look at her, he could have done so at a distance and avoided the drama that often came from knowing her. Since he wasn't sure he had said it quite the way he'd meant to, though, he opted to add, "and you don't look like a haint", a comment that was half what he thought and half pure self-preservation.

0 Connor <i>Much</i> better qualified. 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

November 08, 2008 8:43 PM

And then there's always time researchers. by Gwen

"You really think I only like to see you because of what you look like? If that was the only thing I liked about you, we'd argue a lot less."

She couldn't help it. The misfiring effort at gallantry was too much for her. Gwen burst out laughing, her hands moving up to cover most of her face as she did. Even so, she still caught the compliment she'd been fishing for, more or less. She'd hoped for a more substantial one, but she'd take what she could get.

"I'm sorry," she said, trying to catch her breath. "I don't mean to laugh - that's very sweet of you, honey."

She was also sure it was a lie - her family was backwards, but not so backwards as to not possess mirrors - but there was something to be said for someone nice enough to say he liked her personally. It made her feel...warm.

"I'd better get back," she said, nodding toward the school building. "I've got some owls to send..." Another lie, but she had to have some excuse. "Thanks, though." She paused, then added, "You always know what to say." Lying, as she'd found out, was easier than breathing once you got into the habit of it. It was, however, somewhat harder with someone she actually, after a fashion, liked.

0 Gwen And then there's always time researchers. 63 Gwen 0 5