Start From Zero; Enjoy the Sky {Mordred}

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei pursed her lips, but she had to nod. "Yeah, I guess it's not. But, like, baby steps,' she held her hand up, fingers just a little bit spread. Nothing like a good visual representation.

Not that Lorelei got to keep that almost teasing calm. She was almost immediately freaking out at the thought of dying and so on. Bless Mordred for actually picking up on her language and pointing out the very real fact that their personal drama had just kept going on, with Lorelei still firmly in the cast. That did make her relax. "We could just be in, like, act three now though. The big duel scene's done, and now stuff gets real, the hard work begins."

She started picking at the fish again, seeming to just notice that there were fries too. she took some of those, eating them almost absently. The next bit of conversation therefore came while she had a full mouth of food: "But Viola had a guy, right? There aren't even, like, opt---' Lorelei paused, chewing her lip and flushing, looking away for a moment. Her mind had jumped straight to the poetry she'd read that she just knew came from someone, that deep, soulful stuff that indicated someone else with some imagination and depth of character that just made her want to start squirming.

"This is good, though, right?" she said, abruptly changing the subject. "I'd heard good stuff about it. I'd text someone, but I don't think there's anyone left on my contact list who doesn't know I'm here. Tori, maybe. Or Gwyn. Oh, do Gwyn and Costin have a thing? Meredith said they had a thing, but Aiden said she was crushing on Costin, so I'm kinda confused?" Or there was a love triangle. At least Lorelei was now genuinely distracted as opposed to just dodging thoughts. Not that this was bound to make things any easier for Mordred.

[Mordred Le Fey]

He wanted to laugh, but he held it in as Lorelei continued to freak out. "Lorelei, act three is done. We're near the end of the play, everyone is going to survive the big finale, and you're going to go off and be Viola and, I don't know, cross dress or something. Ok?" He smiled at her, as he reached for a handful of fries and ate them slowly.

This lunch was certainly turning out to be a lot more entertaining than he had expected. He couldn't help but look at her with an amused expression as she started questioning her similarity to Viola. "Viola didn't have a guy until the end. And we might be at the finale of Romeo and Juliet, but I don't think Twelfth Night has started yet." He shook his head slightly, momentarily wondering why he was suddenly talking in Shakespeare metaphors. He'd only been to a couple of English Lit classes after all. "Look, the point is..." he stopped talking and raised his eyebrows as he noticed her flush. "Wait a minute... come on then, spill. Who's caught your eye?" He grinned.

I'll say it again. This. Was. Surreal.

He wondered if he was going to get whiplash from the sudden change in direction. "Costin and Gwyn... what?" He was back to confused again. "Erm, I don't know. They hang out I guess? But I can tell you with absolute certainty that Aiden and Costin? Not a thing. Definitely not a thing."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Not a guy till the end... well, Lorelei supposed that wouldn't be too bad. It wasn't like the play in question took all of Viola's life into consideration or anything. Plus, Viola was a lot more appealing than most of Shakespeare's heroines (Lorelei again having delved through Shakespeare mostly through her mother's insistence, though, surprisingly, Lancelot had also been on board with his daughter reading all those).

The question of who she noticed just made Lorelei get pinker. She was pretty sure she could keep going though ,focus on everyone else .Again: she was a side character here, and she knew it. The best supporting role and super interesting, but, like, definitely aside from the main plot.

"Right, Costin and Gwyn," Lorelei repeated, considering. The next bit had her frowning. "Yeah, but, like, if Aiden had a thing for Costin, and you're Costin's friend, then she might not want to tel you if she got embarrassed or something. IT would, like ruin her tough, I'm totally not a princess despite being one, image thing she's got going on for her and stuff," Lorelei popped another piece of fish into her mouth, looking quite confident. After all, she'd just zagged around her own crush and made a point that made total sense. Go Lorelei.

[Mordred Le Fey]

Noticing the clear avoidance of his question, Mordred smirked. So Lorelei definitely had eyes for someone - Mordred couldn't help but wonder whether, if she became involved with someone, it might take her heat off seemingly every other student at this school. He was definitely going to delve further into this.

But for now, she was plowing on with the Aiden-Costin-Gwyn triangle. He rolled his eyes at her, but couldn't help laughing at her description of Aiden. "You're not going to let this go are you? I can tell you with absolute certainty, having spent time with the two of them both separately and together, that there is nothing there. The hostility between the two of them is something to behold, and that's coming from someone who has Morgana Le Fey as a parent. They're more like Jenny and G-Jr than people who are harbouring secret feelings for each other."

He smirked at her, leaning forward. "And speaking of harbouring secret feelings, don't think I didn't notice you skip over my question, kid."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Wait, wait, wait, so Gaston Jr and Jenny have secret feelings for one another?" Lorelei paused, considering. "I mean, I've heard that sometimes happens with twins and stuff, but I didn't figure... is that why they're always... i always thought..." Lorelei's brow furrowed as she tried to work through this. It didn't help that it was quite hard to think of her siblings in that sort of fashion, beyond the abstract notion of kind of shipping them with people. But with each other? That seemed a little weird to Lorelei, but apparently love was blind and probably a little stupid.

Mordred moved, which caught Lorelei's attention. 'Really? Which one did I miss? 'cuz I thought i answered all of them," she popped a few fries into her mouth, chewing almost contemplatively. She'd apparently already forgotten the question she'd ignored, and she was already thinking about Jenny x Gaston Jr's ship name... Gasnny? That just sounded like some sort of strange medical condition...

[Mordred Le Fey]

Eyes widening, Mordred nearly choked on a fry as he quickly shook his head. "Woah, no, no, no. What?!" He coughed and swallowed, taking a quick drink of water to try and clear his throat. "What the hell goes on in that head of yours? No, wait, actually don't answer that, I really don't want to know." He frowned at her. "No twincest, ok? Not a thing. I just meant they hate each other, can't be in the same room with attacking each other - no feelings. Especially not between Jenny and G-Jr. Ugh, gods. That is so disgusting."

He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the truly horrendous image that had formed from his head.

He frowned again as she appeared lost in thought. "Lorelei, seriously, stop thinking about the twincest. It's gross. Forget it." He shook his head. "And the question you so tactfully ignored was the one where I asked who you fancied. So come on, spill."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Hey, Jenny and Gaston Jr are much better at being in the same room together!" protested Lorelei, managing to look offended. "Particularly since Jenny's kind of mellowing out and trying some. Though if Gaston Jr makes her watch Star Wars..." Lorelei shuddered. "There are talking carpets in that, Mordred. The laser swords aren't bad, but the space monks and the weird breathing guy," Lorelei shuddered again, before reaching for fries. Fries were comfort. Fries were delicious.

Fries also gave her a few more seconds before realizing she really should answer. THe question had her blushing, ducking her head. "Okay, so, you know how there's this poet guy, R. Lee? He writes his stuff online. And it's so dark and sexy and kind of mysterious but in a deep sort of way. And super creative and stuff. Like, really creative. HE's got a deep soul," Lorelei nodded. "So, like, it's not like I've met him or anything, so it's super silly, really. Plus he's probably all suave and sexy like almost every guy here who's not related to me."

Lorelei pursed her lips, considering. "Actually, Tristian's pretty suave too, and he's my brother. The rest of us just got the weird from somewhere..."

[Mordred Le Fey]

He nodded darkly as she started lamenting the horror that was Star Wars. "Don't even go there. I watched them while I was... not leaving the house." He said tactfully. "Thought it might give me something to talk about other than attempted murder with her. Six hours of my life I'll never get back. If I hadn't been suicidal before watching those I definitely was after." He thought for a second. "Although I don't remember a talking carpet... unless you mean that giant, hairy... thing?"

He saw the blush again, and leaned back in his chair, waiting for her answer. He was decided, whoever she said she liked, he was going to make sure they took notice of her. He couldn't see any reason why a guy wouldn't like her - she was pretty, she was smart - ok she was a little odd and she talked a lot, but those weren't deal breakers. And he really did feel that if he could get her hooked up with someone she really liked, it would take the fanfiction heat off the rest of them.

The fact that helping Lorelei out might help him get further into Meredith's good books hadn't crossed his mind at all... much.

"Yeah, I've read his stuff. It was... deep. I guess that's a good word." Mordred wasn't usually a fan of poetry, but even he had to admit that this R. Lee stuff was good; Mordred had actually found himself identifying with some of it. "But you don't know who he is? Well, we'll have to figure that one out. Can't be too hard to track the computer he's posting this stuff from. No one is ever completely anonymous." He grinned at her as he took some more chicken.

He laughed at her statement, nodding in agreement. "Maybe it's the Arthur effect. The rest of you missed out on the that gene."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei probably would've talked smack about Star Wars with Mordred for a while. It actually felt rather nice having someone else around who didn't get that series, not to mention most of Lorelei's family's obsession with it. That alone made Lorelei like Mordred a little more. Actually, when he wasn't glowering at her and trying to stab her, he really wasn't all that bad. It seemed a lot like people around here just wanted to look worse than they actually were: Costin, Aiden, Mordred, they were all good people when you came down to it.

The info about tracking R. Lee down had Lorelei's eyes widening. "You can do that?" she asked. "I just figured that since it was anonymous online there was absolutely no way to figure out who it was. Well, okay, it's obvious that you could use process of elimination by cross referencing everyone here at Trenale and taking out the obvious choices and all. Then you'd just have to follow whoever was left and see if they have poetic or dark tendencies or something."

Lorelei pause again. 'Not that I thought about doing all that or anything." Lorelei rolled her eyes. "And Meredith has Arthur's genes too, right? She's not all that suave. Plus, like, almost all my other siblings have Gaston as a dad, and nobody's suave like Gaston."

[Mordred Le Fey]

"Course you can do that," he shrugged dismissively, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There are ways of tracking the computer it was posted from - if R. Lee is posting from home I could easily find out where that was. Then bam, you've got your mystery poet." He smirked at her. "Hell of a lot easier than following every single person in Trenale. You need up to modernise your methods, kid, you'll save yourself so much time and effort. I can help you, if you want." He shrugged.

He wondered briefly what he was getting himself into here, but pushed those thoughts aside quickly. He replaced them with other, slightly nicer thoughts; if he helped Lorelei out, spent time with her and proved to her that he was a good person, that he was deserving then, as Meredith's best friend, it could only help his cause. Plus, tracking down this anonymous poet could be fun. He wondered briefly if it was Costin - that would be hilarious.

"I'm not sure I'd describe any girls as suave, it's kind of masculine. Besides, Meredith has other qualities." He trailed off slightly, a smile on his face as he thought about it. He coughed slightly as he came back to himself and laughed at Lorelei's comment. "No, that's true enough. Probably a good thing though. Not sure Camelot could cope with another Gaston level of suave."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei listened, enraptured, as Mordred explained everything to her. She sort of got all that: she did understand technology in a vague sort of way. Bits like tracking and hacking and all that: it showed up in a few movies, and she had been watching those. "I'm still figuring out all this modern tech,' she said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, you could even say that part of the reason I ended up dueling you is because I didn't know how to text Meredith back when she told me..."

She trailed off there, not wanting to drag their conversation back to an awkward place. It did seem odd to her, that they'd just tried to stab each other and here they were, each wearing scars the other gave... then again, that was very Camelot, wasn't it? It wouldn't have surprised Lorelei to find out that Lancelot and Cazaril had done something similar.

"So many good qualities," agreed Lorelei, head bobbing. She had to smile at the thought of another Gaston. "Yeah, though you gotta admit that Jenny's pretty close. I'm pretty sure that if Gaston had boobs, he'd probably have ended up like her,' she took another bite of her fries, considering for a moment. Part of her almost wanted to ask her usual question of Mordred, but that would be unfair, given the bomb she'd recently dropped. "You really don't have to help me figure out who R. Lee is. I already told Meredith I approved of you," she smiled at him, before taking stock in the remaining food. They'd eaten a lot, but somehow only half the pile was left. Clearly they didn't skimp on portions.

[Mordred Le Fey]

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, that's the reason." He said with a sigh. "Nothing to do with me being a complete arsehole." He gave a her a sad smile.

Her next comment had him cringing. "Oh, Gods, there's an image I didn't want. Gaston with boobs." He pulled a disgusted face, dropping the piece of chicken he'd just picked up. "And there goes my appetite."

He smiled again, tapping the table gently as his leg began to bounce again. "Well that's good to hear. I think your opinion holds a lot of sway with Meredith, so thank you." He shrugged a little as he looked at her. "I'll still help though. I'm intrigued." He grinned. "And who knows what might happen if we find out who he is. Maybe we can kickstart your role as Viola." And remove the heat on the fanfiction front - although he wasn't going to say that out loud.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei returned the sad smile with a slightly apologetic one of her own. She knew better than to argue at this point and, well, she'd complicated that matter. She still thought that what she'd done had actually helped in the long run, had got them here.

Where she could giggle at the idea of Gaston with boobs. "I'm pretty sure I wrote a story where that was a thing," she added, grinning. It didn't diminish her appetite, though the fact that she'd actually put away quite a bit of food certainly had. She was mostly picking at it now, peeling off bits of the skin, almost shredding it more out of nerves and a need to do something instead. She could hear Mordred tapping and almost giggled again, realizing that they were both sort of twitching.

The giggling went from almost to actual at Mordred's suggestion. "I guess. I can certainly ask around or do some computer stuff...." she picked it apart, still considering. Some part of her still wanted to argue that it was all rather pointless. Anyone who wrote poetry like that wouldn't be interested in a girl like her. Then again, maybe she could get some advice. She dug into her phone for a moment, looking for sources. "Maybe i could ask for some advice too..." she considered, finding a blog that seemed to be doing that. Dear Darkness even sounded like just the person to ask about this sort of thing.

[Mordred Le Fey]

"Promise me that you will never put that story online. I think the internet might explode." He teased, still incredibly disturbed at the thought of the queen's consort with boobs. He couldn't help but shudder slightly. "Plus, you'd have to deal with Jenny's wrath. Daddy's girl wouldn't be too impressed with that one, I think."

He rolled his eyes at her. "You and your detective work. You don't need to ask around, we can do the whole thing online. It's easy." He considered offering to show her, but thought that might take her stalking tendencies a little further than was healthy. And she was already toeing that line as it was by the sounds of things. "Plus, you start asking questions and people will figure out what you're up to. This guy's anonymous for a reason - you don't want him catching wind of what you're up to and disappearing further into the ether."

He watched as she pulled her phone out again, an amused smile playing about his lips. "Who're you going to ask?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "Somehow I think the majority of people here - particularly those related to you - wouldn't be too supportive of your stalking mission to de-mask this poor guy." He grinned at her, holding his arms outstretched. "I'm all you need for this particular piece of stalkery."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"I make no such promises," insisted Lorelei, looking as if her female-Gaston story was the proudest thing she'd ever written. It was actually a few years old now, one of those she'd written about the time she'd started to get a lot more interested in the difference between girls and guys. Though there were quite a few stories written around the same time that she definitely wouldn't be sharing with anyone anytime soon. Just thinking about them would be enough to make her blush.

Except that she was way more focused on the detective work. "You make it sound a lot easier than I keep feeling like it is," she said, thumbing through the site online. "And I dunno about the whole just jumping out and surprising him thing. I've kinda tried that a few times..." Lorelei tilted her head, remembering. "I mean, I guess it sort of worked okay with Costin? And Aiden just seemed a bit nervous... Tori didn't seem to mind all that much, but that was sort of less stalking and more helping. Same with Leela," her head tilted the other way, running through the different people she'd encountered since coming here. There was such a long list, really.

"I mean, if you say you can figure it out, I guess I should go ahead and trust you?" she said, considering. "Unless this is some sort of elaborate ruse to get back at me for the whole duel thing. Which would be pretty dumb, since I'm kinda on your side now and I'm Meredith's best friend and all that. Plus I still don't think you're that bad..."