Bang Bang (Lorelei)

[Aiden Mumble]

It didn't take long for Aiden to realize another fan fiction had been released. She had been keeping an eye on it every since the first one dropped. It was almost amusing now. So many people were included that the whole thing felt more like a giant joke than anything. She still hadn't confronted Lorelei about the fact that she didn't love Costin, but who really believed these things anyhow. Not to mention Aiden still couldn't imagine that Costin had anyone he needed to impress. Also Aiden was pretty confident Lorelei wouldn't change her mind now that the idea was in her head, she had the obsessive vibe about her. Aiden thought it a better idea to just brush the whole thing off. Yet, once Mordred started showing up in the fan fictions then they were worth reading. This was her hope when she pulled out her laptop on her bed to see if there had been an update.

Oh look at that. There was. Ah no, it was another pony one. Why were they ponies anyway? The last pony one didn't seem to contain anyone she was overly interested in bugging about it, so she wasn't expecting much. She skimmed it until something popped out to her. Penguins? Lorelei was still so sure she was part penguin. She was grumpy, that's fine and pretty accurate. Aiden started to feel a little strange when they mentioned Guin. She didn't necessarily keep up with any of it, but her dad took Guin pretty seriously. Friendship sticks? Aiden paused. Who could have possibly told her about friendship sticks....what else did she know? Aiden began to read more intensely now. Friendship sticks were sacred. She had so many memories attached to them...they were a private memory between her and her family. Where was this girl getting her information?!

Ha ha, yeah her moms a mermaid her dad is a penguin blah blah, Aiden had heard this one before. Vampire pony Costly Fangs. Sure, why not. Maybe this wasn't all so bad. Yeah she knew about friendship stick and that churned her stomach, but ti wasn't like she was telling everyone her worst fear. Oh wait. Aiden did not dance in front of people. It was not just a thing, it was the thing that most commonly fueled her rage filled binge drinking and depression. Would people take this seriously? Surely they would at least ask questions. Had Tori told people about her because she stood her up? Everyone could know. Everyone could know that she was dancer that couldn't dance in front of people without having an attack. Could this get back to her parents? Hoe fucking dare she tell people about friendship sticks!

"That BITCH!" Aiden slammed her laptop down, having worked herself up into a full frenzy. Who did she think she was shouting about her private thoughts?! She couldn't just sit here, she had to do something she had to find her. Aiden paced back and forth and then remembered Lorelei had texted her a while ago. She had her number. She shot of a text. That sneaky little psycho was thankful quick to reply. Aiden shoved on some pants, slammed open her door, stormed downstairs and out the front door.

It was a flash before she arrived at the tea shop, her rage fueling her the whole way there. She shoved open the door, scanned until she saw that smug little nosy... Aiden all but flew over to her table and full on slapped her across the face. A few people in the shop gasped and the man behind the counter looked like he was making to find his manager. Aiden didn't care. She had business to attend to. She leaned down into Lorelei.

"Listen here, you crazy fucking stalker!" She said sticking a finger in her face. "You don't get to go around telling the whole world about other people's secrets. You don't get to talk about my dancing and you sure as hell don't get to talk about friendship sticks. If I read a single word that even remotely relates to me from now on in your stupid fan fiction, I will find you again and you'll get much more than a slap, understand?"

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

AS Lorelei had explained via text, she was at the shop, enjoying a nice cup of tea. She thoroughly enjoyed the shop, having taken a few people here for drinks and so forth. It had a great atmosphere. Plus her siblings had helped convince her of the healing powers of tea.

So there was Lorelei, dressed per usual (re: let an overenthusiastic kindergartner take charge), drinking tea when Aiden stormed in. She barely got out a "Hi Aiden" before she was smacked. The gestured took her so much by surprise that she mostly gaped as Aiden stuck a finger into her face, all but yelling at her.

"What?" managed Lorelei. She felt a slightly unfamiliar emotion rising through the confusion as Aiden insulted her fanfiction and threatened her directly. It was one that her dad was much more comfortable with than Lorelei, though there was a look in her eyes that many would've recognized in her father. "You know there are other ways of handling that, right? You know, besides finding someone and giving them a totally unnecessary blow to the face? It's called talking. In fact, you haven't said anything to me about my stories before now. So maybe if you didn't want people to, like, say stuff about you, you should try actually telling them something."

Lorelei's eyes were almost hard, and they seemed to flash gold for a moment. "I was trying to help you, since you told me you had a thing for Costin and all," she looked at the finger. "Could you move that, please?" Weirdly enough, a fuming penguin princess didn't scare the girl who'd literally been stabbed by a raging magical death lord knight guy. Go figure.

[Aiden Mumble]

"Talking!" Aiden shouted incredulously. "I'm sorry, I guess I didn't really get that you were into that when you challenged a person you'd never met to a duel!" She pushed her words over top of Lorelei's, but the girl kept talking. She didn't back down as soon as Aiden had threatened her, which was good. Aiden had wondered if she'd get the Lorelei that was bubbly and strange or the one that had had the guts to fight Mordred during a rage fueled bender. Aiden wanted a fight and she hope Lorelei would give it to her. Her mind was focused solely on this fan fiction blunder. How it felt like a betrayal and trust that they had never promised each other to begin with. She focused on that and not that the hot, boiling rage inside her didn't parallel the reasoning.

"Mother of God, Lorelei, I do not give a shit about Costin" She clarified, throwing her hands into the air. "How could you have possibly believed me, there is literally no person on earth I can stand less than that pompous piece of hot garbage!" She looked wild as she yelled, so honestly confused how Lorelei could be so stupid. Several people left she shop in a hurry, some people were pulling out their phones. Aiden didn't care. She was past the point of worrying about the attention, it didn't even occur to her that this would likely reach every ear on campus in a matter of hours.

Aiden grabbed either side of the tea table, shaking the contents with the force of it."You're not helping, you're making a mess." She said, lowering her voice, but not losing any kind of intensity. "If no one else cares, fine, but leave. Me. Out of it." She kept her eyes locked on Rory, eyes glowing with fury. However there was a betrayal in their fire. Thought Aiden acted like these words were meant to back Lorelei down, Aiden starved for a retort. Her insecurities and terror clawed at her insides and threatened to burst forth, but every part of Aiden's brain said she needed a reason. She needed a reason to explode. Lorelei could give it to her.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

That fear jumped back as Aiden loomed. Lorelei flashed, remembering a glowering, angry man gripping a sword. Remembered that sword sliding into her gut. The sharp pain, fire spreading in her stomach. It had nothing to do with finding out her original assumptions had been wrong, though that would require some major editing of a particular story. It had everything to do with seeing a situation.

And recognizing it.

Lorelei's mouth fell open as she started to wonder. There was some reason that Aiden wanted to stay out of this, right? This was anger, like Mordred's, directed at Lorelei, but her story couldn't have possibly done this much.

Please don't let me get stabbed again. I'm not over the last one

"So your solution is to come and bother people in public?" Lorelei demanded, tilting her head to the crowds of people nervously shuffling. "Oh, and I knew Mordred before the duel. Kinda grew up together in Camelot. So I guess the whole making quick assumptions about people thing, that's not just a Lorelei trait, is it?" Lorelei rose then, trying to better meet Aiden's gaze. She didn't know quite enough about Aiden to figure this out, but she knew she had to pull the explosion out. "So what was it about the story? Was it that I hinted that you could be in love with someone? The mention of family? Was it the talk about friendship? The dancing? The love? The idea you could be with other people? C'mon Aiden, help me get what kind of mess I'm making here."

Lorelei fought the urge to start trembling with fear. Maybe she could pass it off as anger?

[Aiden Mumble]

"Well Lorelei, I barely had to spend one minute with you before I pegged you as a psycho and bailed" She said, clinging so tightly to the sides of the table that her knuckles turned white. Aiden clenched her teeth. So what if she had grown up with Mordred. He didn't seem to remember much about her by the way he'd been texting Aiden about it. They certainly hadn't been friends. The point of the matter is, Lorelei is crazy and Aiden needed her to know this. Aiden needed Lorelei to be affected by her terrorizing words, because just maybe it would make her feel better. If Lorelei was a psycho, then maybe it wasn't so bad that she was one too.

Lorelei continued to speak and said a lot of buzzwords that fueled the flame in her head. "No" Aiden insisted when she asked her first question about love. "I'm not in love with anyone!" She said, but even as she did it sounded less convincing than she wanted. This threatened her heart and fed the frenzy in her head. "No!" she said again. this wasn't about her family, why would it be about that? It's not like they had been keeping massive secrets from her or expected more from her than she could give. They were sweet and wonderful people and she could never blame them for her madness. "No, it's not...!" She sputter int he mitts of her last grouping of questions. With each new correct answer her bitterness doubled and she felt sick with rage. Her skin felt hot and fragile and Lorelei's barrage of questions was enough poking to cause a detonation.

With her hands still firmly grasping either side of the dainty table, Aiden roughly tipped it to one side. Various sugars and likely Lorelei's tea went flying in the direction of other costumers and employees. "You can't do that here!" someone said feebly in the background, but no one seemed too keen to try and stop it. She ruched forward and grabbed at the front of Lorelei's shirt with both hands, bringing her face close to her. "All I'm asking" she said, her voice quiet and trembling "Is that you stop writing about me." Not too much to ask, right? That's all. That's not crazy! Aiden didn't think it was crazy, anyway. All she had to say was she'd stop and Aiden could go home. Or, even better, she could say that she wouldn't and Aiden could push her around feeling validated.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Man, she sounded totally unconvincing when she said she wasn't in love with anyone. Who was it? Apparently not Costin, since Aiden was definitely angered about even thinking about that, and not in the whole "I'm trying to hide that" sort of way either. Not to mention Mordred and literally everyone else telling Lorelei that wasn't the case. Lorelei made a quick mental note to look at her chart later. For now, she couldn't back down. It was like Mordred all over again.

Actually, this was a lot easier. Aiden wasn't armed, and Lorelei had already faced her fears once. Weird how it wasn't quite so hard the next time around.

"Really?" asked Lorelei, tilting her head. "you came all the way to where I'm having a nice little tea. You throw a fit. You yell at me," she pointed toward the tea and the table, "you throw stuff. And that's all just because you want me to stop writing about you?" Lorelei's head tilted the other direction. "What happens when, like, I say no? Because you're already a character in like..." She closed her eyes, mentally counting, "two? different stories. Really hard to rewrite that, especially since you're a main character in one. Everyone definitely likes the idea of you as a heroine. Guess that doesn't sit well with you, huh?"

[Aiden Mumble]

"YES!" Aiden let go of her shirt just to shout about the insanity of her confusion. "Was that not clear?" She look at some stranger who raised his arms in defense and moved further away. She looked like a crazy person, she could feel it. She hated it, but it only made her angrier and appear more unstable. Oh, what a vicious cycle she had found herself in. Almost like her entire life leading up until this point. Love made her fear, fear made her angry, anger leads to moments like these, love makes her guilty and the cycle begins again. She'd either hit rock bottom like Mordred and get better from there or die trying.

Aiden cocked her head to match Lorelei, a vengeful madness in her eyes. "Do I look like a hero to you, Lorelei?" She raised her hands to her shoulders and pushed her backwards. "Huh?" She pushed her again. "Your stories are terrible anyway, if you don't want to rewrite them just stop writing them at all." She pushed her again, harder this time. "No on will miss them."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Yep, there was that look of anger in the eyes. Aiden looked like she wanted nothing so much as to start stabbing Lorelei. Still, Lorelei knew better than to back down. The push nearly made her stumble backwards: it wasn't like she had braced herself nearly as well as she would've thought.

The comment hurt more than Lorelei would've thought. She found her muscles tensing. For a moment, the sort of anger that her father gave into all the time rose up within Lorelei. She could feel it rippling, growing as Aiden pushed. Lorelei's eyes flashed gold, magic just bubbling at the surface. She didn't even have to fully think: she could just be. Muscles tightened and---

and her wrist hurt. Right, Lorelei couldn't fight back, or more accurately, shouldn't. No, this was poison, and like any healer, Lorelei needed to help drain it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Lorelei, trying to slide some of the venom into her own voice. It sounded off, like a bad actor in a play, though at least the anger was fairly real. "I didn't realize that other people being creative bothered you so very much. Or is it that people actually support and care about me? "Lorelei almost winced at that. She knew full well that Aiden had friends, and if her memory served, Aiden's parents loved her. That family, creative...

Oh, she's not going to forgive me for this.

"In fact, my mom was just telling me how much she loved my creativity. It's really nice getting that from parents, isn't it?"

[Aiden Mumble]

Lorelei apologized and, even though Aiden knew it wasn't supposed to be genuine, she could see just a hint of fear in her expression as she pushed her. She probably wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been looking for it. Aiden wasn't a large person. She didn't have magic. Aiden could not use a sword. She hadn't been trained in how to fight. These were all reasons she should be bleeding on the ground by now. There was a flash of something in Lorelei's eyes besides fear and Aiden recognized as something Mordred had also done. Lorelei had magic and she wasn't using it. Every thing said she should had gotten her ass handed to her by now, but Lorelei hadn't put up a fight and Aiden was too blinded by rage to understand why. All she knew was she could be losing, but by some luck so might win. Aiden had no fight experience. However, she had studied nearly every kind of dance for a very long time. She was very strong for her size and, of Lorelei did nothing, Aiden could land a very hard punch.

Even after pushing her several times, Lorelei did not fight back. Aiden loomed near her, but not over her. This was another something that made Aiden angry, she wasn't tall enough to loom over someone. Luckily her psycho rage seemed to be intimidating enough. She fed off the spooked patrons whispering and gasping nearby. Lorelei had the guts to speak again and this time Aiden felt genuine shock over the wave of unadulterated fury that consumed her. She trembled with a passionate ferocity. Aiden had never been good at making friends. In fact she figured she only had one friend and even he had yelled at her on more than one occasion. He had called her a fucking bitch once. So maybe she didn't have any friends at all and boy did it hurt to be reminded. Before Lorelei finished Aiden predicted where she was going with the insult. Her parents. Don't say it She warned her with her eyes. Don't say it. But she did.

Lorelei barely finished the sentence before Aiden wound up her arm and felt her knuckles crack against Lorelei's jaw.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

See, knights? Knights have rules. They're going to fight you with a sword, and a lot of them are dumb enough to actually aim for the sword, Lore. So you just gotta stay focused on it. But you fight anyone else, or you fight to win? They're gonna play dirty. They'll take cheap shots and do what it takes. A guy, you kick in the privates. Don't think twice: kick. A girl's gonna hurt there too, but not as much. More hair pulling and scratching. You get them talking? You talk? They'll always go for your mouth or your gut. Every time. Because they're not trying to win then, they're trying to get you to shut up. So when they do, you move. With the punch, got it?

Bits and pieces of her dad's lessons flashed into Lorelei's mind as Aiden loomed close, not saying anything. She saw the punch coming, again, almost as if they'd rehearsed it. This time though, Lorelei wasn't going to get caught by surprise. The fist came, and the words jumped: you move. with the punch.

CRACK!

Lorelei's head snapped to the side, moving just in front of the punch. It still hurt, and worse, Lorelei found her teeth connecting with her tongue. She winced, fighting back tears. She held her face for a moment, taking a breath and sucking in the air. She turned to spit, a little blood caught in it.

Then Lorelei looked up at Aiden, eyes meeting hers. "Feel better?" she asked, keeping her voice steady, clear, not taunting, almost genuinely concerned.

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden was breathing hard, staring at Rory with hot coals for eyes. Her jaw was locked tight, both fists clenched by her side, ready for the return attack. She was ready for whatever spitting insult Lorelei had next or whatever physical assault she was planning. A small part of her brain new she really couldn't defend herself if Lorelei fought back, she was far more trained than she was, yet even then she longed for the battle. If pain came after this attack, it was still worth it. If Lorelei knocked her out, it will have still be worth it. It would be better even. Aiden craved the pain like an addiction to pills. Punching Lorelei was all well and good, but, after all she wasn't really mad at her. Damn, it still felt good. She soreness in her knuckles made her feel alive. She watched her opponent with hungry, vengeful eyes as she spat blood and turned her sorry face back toward her to speak.

Feel better?

Even in the blind haze of vindictive mania Aiden was forced to reflect and it felt like a cold, wet blanket had been wrapped around her to smother the fire. Aiden's shoulders relaxed and her fingers uncurled. Why was this so shocking? She felt like she'd been caught off balance. She was so ready for a seething remark or a counterattack, she had been so sure it was coming. What was this? Why was she looking at her like that? She didn't look angry or overtly hurt. Had she planned this? Did she provoke her on purpose? That render the entire exchange pointless. Yet, would she had felt any different if Lorelei had really wanted a fight? Would she have felt any better if Lorelei came back swinging? Yes, Aiden insisted. Yes I would have! She stubbornly clung to the idea. It was staged and Aiden felt no release. She felt angrier and more damaged than ever, only now she'd stopped too long to think and something else was replacing that white hot animosity she'd been feeding all morning. It was fear.

Aiden parted her lips and stared at Rory, eyes shifting from her cheek to her eyes and back again. There was a whole crowd of people who had just watched her lose it and all for what? Did she feel better? The word came out in a breath of mingled fear and lingering bitterness.

"No."

Aiden didn't wait to see what came next. Every cell in her body felt like it was screaming for her to run. The fighting was over, it was time for the flight. Why had she done this? She didn't really care about Lorelei's dumb fan fictions did she? What was this really about? Did she really just move on from self destruction to trying to destroy someone else? No, no, this wasn't happening. She wasn't melting down, she could fix this, she could go back into her shell and pretend this didn't happen. Fear rose up and threatened to choke her as she turned to leave and saw a row of people with phone's in their hands. With one last pang of violence, she snatched one out of their hands, chucked it at the ground and rushed out the door without another word. She didn't know where she was going, but wherever it was she was getting there as fast as possible.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

That doubt in those eyes again confirmed what Lorelei already knew, or at least suspected: this had never been about the fanfiction. Aiden had something going on and, as was so often the case, Lorelei had made herself an easy target. That happened all too often, and she had to wonder what she kept doing that painted a target on herself.

"Aiden!" she cried as the other girl started to leave. She scrambled upright, yanking her phone awkwardly out of her pocket with her right hand. Her cheek hurt like hell: she'd probably bruise, but it was nothing compared to everything else. "Aiden, wait!" she tried, stumbling toward the door. She twisted, looking back.

"Uh, add this to my bill?" she offered, before running out after Aiden, trying to scramble. Though unless Aiden stopped, she wasn't going to catch. Thankfully, her phone was much faster than she was.