Gotta Get Your Bearings {Open}

[Gaston Jr]

He didn’t quite catch the last bit she said but he really hoped that she never found out about the Int-…too late.

He could just lie to her, pretend that such a thing didn’t exist or perhaps try and pass it off as something dangerous which wasn’t entirely a lie, you did meet a lot of strange people on the internet. However…there was also so much good on it as well, and really, could he keep her from that?

“The Internet,” said Gaston Jr with a sigh, “once we’re done here I’ll…take you to the computer lab and show you it…”

He looked back at the board and said, “So…new friends huh? Well Gwyn’s a good shout, Marian and Robin’s daughter, she’s good fun. Oh there was this girl I met a couple of days ago, Nancy, she’s fun too, really into Star Wars, I could introduce you to her. Although I’m trying to set her up with Eddie.”

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"I know of it in abstract," Lorelei replied proudly. It was one of those things she'd only loosely heard about from reading notes and so forth, so to get it right was pretty cool. "And the, ah, inputter? That's the machine that does stuff, right?" Again: abstract. It all sounded like so much fantasy gobbly gook to Lorelei. not like magic, which had its solid basis in reality and so many rules and explanations to figure out and learn.

"I know about Gwyn; she showed up at the castle from time to time. The middle child of the Locksley family, super confident, super pretty," Lorelei's head bobbed. "Nancy, uh..." she looked at the board, "Panic? The one that's half demon?!" Lorelei was already bobbing. "Wait, and you're trying..." she spun back to the board, looking at the lines and picking up a red string. "To set her up with..." looped it around Nancy and drew it toward... "Eddie..." Lorelei let out a little squeal.

"Oh! It does sound like fun! Are you thinking about setting up a meet-cute? Oh ,maybe you could go in disguise as a horrible villain and scare Nancy and Eddie can be all 'get your darn hands off her' and punch you and all! Oh, oh, or we could push Nancy in front of a carriage right in front of Eddie and he can swoop in and save her! Or, or, maybe we could set it up so that they're at the library and we're trying to get Nancy to get this one book but we had Eddie check it out but, like, the book's the key to one of us not dying or something or--" she will continue until stopped, Gaston Jr. Seriously. Interrupt her.

[Gaston Jr]

“Computer,” corrected Gaston, “and yes…I’ll give you a course in it, we can meet up a couple of nights a week and…don’t worry, I’ll get you sorted.”

This was going to be a terrible idea, however, she was his sister and he couldn’t allow her to go through the rest of her life not knowing what a computer and the internet was…still…can…worms…he was aware of this.

Gaston Jr smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s Gwyn, she’s amazing. Do you know one time she-”

And then Lorelei was off on one explaining all the things they could do in order to get Nancy and Eddie together. There was still a horrible drop in his stomach whenever he thought about that but desperately tried to ignore it as he quickly cut in over the top of Nancy. “Wow there! I was just thinking of introducing them at the Comic store as me, just me, Gaston Jr, and then make some excuse about having to be somewhere and slip away, giving them the chance to chat…that’s all…that wasn’t the plot to one of your fanfics was it?”

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Sounds like a plan!" chirped Lorelei, trying to hold back her excitement and mostly failing miserably. She did love learning, and this computer thing sounded wonderful. Plus there was the added bonus of having one of her siblings, one of the Gaston based ones no less, actually wanting to set up a regular meeting with her several times a week. Yay!

Yes, yes, Gaston Jr, everyone knows Gwyn is amazing (including Gwyn). But you mentioned shipping and Lorelei is obsessed almost as much as Fate.

"Hmm, that does sound like it could be a good one," admitted Lorelei. "It's a little obvious though, don't you think? Like, if you set up something like that with just the three of you, they're probably already going to be suspicious if you all don't hang out as a group together as is. But I suppose it could work..." but it didn't really involve Lorelei, which she saw as a potential flaw (that she totally wasn't going to mention). "You could get them bonding over the same thing if they're both into that though... or maybe you could set some kind of quest or something. People fall in love during quests all the time."

Lorelei shifted. "Though the comic store thing is kinda cute..." she admitted, very begrudgingly.

[Gaston Jr]

Gaston Jr shrugged and said, “well I know that they both like Star Wars so I was just thinking I would get the two of them to start talking about that and then Eddie could take it away from there. I mean if she’s in to Star Wars there are bound to many other things she’s interested in as well, you know like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, I’m sure they’ll find loads to talk about.”

Not that he really actually wanted them to talk about those things. Only he did, because he was setting them up and if they bonded over mutual interests that was good. However there was still a part of him that was having trouble reconciling himself with the idea of Nancy and Eddie being together, which was ridiculous because it was his idea.

A thought suddenly occurred him as he looked at Lorelei and said, “You have heard of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and…Star Wars…right?”

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Bonding over mutual interests totally works," agreed Lorelei, nodding. "Plus, you're going to put them in a comic shop, right? We should probably be nearby to, like, watch and make sure that they don't do anything to mess it up and to insure that they start talking about the sort of things that would lead to more romantic discussion."

Lorelei resumed her focus on the board, staring at it as if it were less a mess of strings and photos and more a vision board outlining a grand idea and scheme. Again she raised a hand, twinging a bit of string, one connected between Gaston Jr and Eddie. If Eddie was with Nancy, what sort of possibilities did that raise? What did it mean for the other connections? Oh, it just made Lorelei want to start extrapolating then and there.

"Are those other students that go here?" Lorelei asked, turning to look at Gaston Jr, her brow furrowing. "No, wait, I've heard you guys talk about Star Wars before. Um, I'm not quite so sure about the Lord of the Rings? That sounds sort of like the kind of title some evil villain takes in order to make sure everyone doesn't have to use his name," she looked back at her board. "That's not, like, something Costin's going by or anything, right?"

[Gaston Jr]

Gaston Jr just stood and stared at her for a good couple of minutes as she spoke about…no…as she tried to speak about the things he held closest to his heart. How had this happened? What kind of life had she lived until this point? Maybe she had been right…maybe Lancelot had kept her under a cupboard under the stairs….and she didn’t even get that reference!! What was happening?!

He looked at the wall, he looked back at her, and then said in a very serious voice, “we have to go. This,” he motioned to the wall, “can wait.”

He reached forward and took her hand, starting to pull her away, “there are things you must know, things I must teach you my young padawan. Come with me, and I shall show you the ways.”

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"What do you mean the wall can wait?" asked Lorelei as she started to get tugged (given that Lorelei was not exactly the largest of her siblings [probably second smallest after Genevieve, really, though it's not like they had to stand in order THAT often; kings their dad hadn't seen in ages weren't that regular of visitors]). "The wall is literally our entire lives! Plus, we're supposed to be--"

Lorelei nearly stumbled, but managed to right herself. She hurried to fall in line with Gaston Jr, figuring that walking alongside him had to beat being dragged along unwillingly behind. "What's a padawan?" she asked. "That sounds sort of like some sort of magic thing of some kind. And isn't the Way an Eastern religion thing? We had visitors from there once at court..."

Just what sorts of things had Gaston Jr gotten himself into? It did seem as though Lorelei was going to find out, one way or another.

[Gaston Jr]

Gaston Jr did not stop in his pulling her along, away from the wall of…of…whatever it was and towards the closet TV and DVD player that he could find. “It can wait until I have caught you up on some critical education that you should have had a long, long time ago,” said Gaston Jr as he walked ahead of her, “you have a lot of catching up to do Lori, there will be the watching of DVDs, there will be the listening of music and there will be the reading of books, prepare yourself…pop culture is coming.”

He shook his head when she questioned the name he had given to her, “It means like a young apprentice but, you know for Jedi’s and…look, you’ll find out soon enough Lori, don’t worry, you’re big brother is here and he’s going to make everything ok.”

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei had a feeling there were references to something scattered all throughout there. She kept trying to go over notes in her head. Gaston Jr and some of the others were into these certain stories that didn't involve real life (or at least not confirmed real life; things got hazy with Tintagel). Pop culture, Gaston Jr called it now. And DVDs were picture disks that could show something when hooked up, and Jedi were mystical space... ninjas?

"Um, okay? this does sound really exciting?" Lorelei tried, beginning to get this idea that at least this was important to Gaston Jr, so maybe important to other people.

Only one way for her to find out, really...

[fin?}