((Previous conversation with Jaimie's sister is in his journal

"You went and met her Parents?" Over the phone line, Celeste's voice had the tone of disgust that might be reserved for accidentally jamming your hand into a dish of room temperature sewage, and Jaimie, shut in his room at Hillworth, winced. Parker was out again, and he had the room to himself, but her tone was so piercing he half imagined that people could hear her up and down the hall.

"Yeah, so? She got grounded. Her parents wanted to make sure she wasn't dating Ted Bundy... I mean things are pretty nuts here in Desti..."

She cut him off before he could explain to her, even in the most vague terms, what exactly was going on in Destiny City, her voice still disgusted, and now hot with irritation.

"Jaimie!" She never called him by his full first name unless she was really angry. "For ******** sake Jaimie, get your head out of your pants. You cannot possibly be so interested in a low class hick girl named Tallulah that you would go and meet her parents. I mean you might as well have just plopped yourself in front of an altar.
You aren't sleeping with her are you? God, I'll send her father the shotgun myself. GROSS."

"CEE!" His face turned bright red, first from shock, and then from anger. Sex didn't particularly embarrass him per se', he'd dropped more double entente's at parties than some adults, but he was still young enough that he had no intention of getting into that level of trouble for a few years, and he was thrown for a loop that his sister thought he'd lost control of his own hormones to that degree.
It had always, for their own 'games' with others, been about keeping a cool head.
Granted he didn't see Tallulah as a game, but he figured the same principles still applied.
"Chrivist, Cee. NO. No I'm not. I'm not planning to get OLD in a place like Hillworth."

He would have let that hang, an small accusation, since he'd been following her suggestion when he'd gotten himself more or less sentenced to Hillworth, but Celeste marched hotly on.

"GOOD. I really didn't want to have to explain that kind of thing to Father. He had enough trouble trying to find a school suitable to put you in. You really -are- such a child sometimes. You should break it off with her. I mean she's inevitably going to get bored with you. Especially when she figures out you're not going to sweep in and marry her, and save her from her life of being white trash with a sad little name. Tallulah Leontine. Ew. I should introduce you to some of the girls." She suggested, meaning the group with which she had become acquaintances at her own school abroad. "I've told them some about you, they think you sound really adorable, in a sort of reformable convict way..."

Somewhere in the string of words coming over the phone line, things started to sound as though they were falling down to him from great height, or maybe more as though they were pieces of coal being dumped down a long shaft into a furnace.

Astrea came to mind, and Kunzite. Kunzite who had reincarnated and, as a result, somehow stopped being allowed to actually even -be- a teenager. Bellatrix, worrying about her studies, mournfully sacrificing theater to continue the fight, Tallulah, who wanted the fight to be over so she could go back to her life, Parker, who'd had his arm broken... even Linarite, who's name he didn't know, screaming in pain when he'd attacked.
Her scream still haunted him, even though it had been easier to fight Wolframite.

She was still talking, though he realized he hadn't heard most of it. Something about how one of her 'girls' wanted to pet, reform and retrain him.

Like a pet dog.

LIke a pet dog when people around him were having their entire lives turned on their heads, or dying. Or KILLING.

And she was worried he was dating a girl named Tallulah.

"Cee. Shut the ******** up."

He had never taken that tone with her. Never. He'd always been more or less her puppy dog, doting on her affections. Only now it felt like everything was... falling.

Words falling to be fuel on the fire of his emotions. His ideas of the world falling apart, his plans for the future teetering on the brink. Even... he realized... falling out of 'love' with his sister.

It had been a slow creep, but he could see the cracks spreading across the connection that had always kept them together. Twins. Siblings, sharing everything except -this-.

"WHAT? Don't you DARE tell me to shut up! I'm..."

"Telling Dad? Go ahead! See if I care! People are DYING around here Cee. My roomate got attacked by some costumed LUNATIC and got his arm broken. People have just disappeared! People are dropping left and right and you're woried about a girl named Tallulah? I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of the ******** CHILDRENS CRUSADE and you're worried about TALLULAH??? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?? WHAT THE HELL..."
He stopped, about to scream "what the hell is wrong with me when he realized, the words stuck in his throat like a was of clay and thorns... that he had really been yelling, and that most of the floor had probably heard at least some of it.

He was also talking to a dead line. He didn't even know when she'd hung up.

He didn't know that it mattered.

He swallowed hard, clenching his jaw. The hot itch of unfallen tears made him feel ten years younger as he put the phone down with shaking hands.

The Children's Crusade. That's what it felt like. He'd read about that once. Someone had decided that they had seen a prophesy, that they could take back the Holy Land with an army of children.

Cute idea. Great movie plot.

Only those that hadn't died had been sold into slavery. Children's Crusade indeed. Hand a bunch of kids magical weapons and tell them to go out and fight.

How could this ever end well?

With no one but himself to try and re bolster his confidence, he put his head in his hands and tried not to scream.



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((OOC: Please pardon the Emo. I couldn't get past the idea that increasingly getting into the idea that they really are at war, and that people you know are dying and getting hurt, and that you've been handed a lot of power and responsibility to do something about it would come with a lot of stress, especially for someone who's been all about blowing off the consequences as much as possible.

Hopefully it was at least some fun to read.))