13 Griffin Way, Monday Night

[tyler_gone]

Ghanima had called and, in a minimum of words, let Tyler knew that her in-class conversation with Miss Walters had not gone well, and she would appreciate some distraction and a few words with Tyler.

Which he could provide. "Distraction," it turned out, was also spelled "bottle of scotch," but so it went. He set things up in the living room -- and hey, he even found crackers and cheese to go with the scotch -- and waited for his co-organizer.

[OOC: For one, unless the housemates need him. Ghani modded with permission.]

Comments

[atreideslioness]

And lo, at a suitable time when it was not too early to start drinking, there was a Ghanima banging on his door. "Little pig little pig, let me come in," she whined sang, giving the door another decent kick. "Or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down."

[tyler_gone]

"I'll just open the door," Tyler said, as he turned the knob and pulled said door open. "Boxer would kill me if I wrecked her house. C'mon, sit down. Want anything to drink that isn't scotch?"

[atreideslioness]

"Is that a question or a joke?" she asked, giving him a tired grin as she breezed in to flop down on some random piece of furniture. "Scotch, please. As much as I do not regret anything I said this afternoon, I could use something to soothe my rage."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler poured her a glass and passed it to her with a bare cluck of his tongue. "She was that bad, huh? Give me details."

[atreideslioness]

"Miss Walters seems to be operating under the delusion that if she pretends it didn't happen, it isn't real," Ghanima said dryly. "She did not go to the clinic, because it 'wore off.'"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler frowned at that. "She was hurt to start with. I saw it in the way she moved but I couldn't get over there before Katina was on her."

... which was only one of many, many things wrong with that statement.

[atreideslioness]

"I told her she's benched until she has a doctor's clearance to fight and we trust her to follow the rules," Ghanima sighed. "I also ordered her to the clinic - again - and said she needed to see Zoe."

"She just kept making excuses, Tyler. 'It's my cousin's fault', 'it wore off', 'I was afraid I'd be arrested.' It was like a child covering her ears and screaming that she couldn't hear me." She took a sip of the scotch, nodding in satisfaction. "I can't abide that sort of behaviour, so I threw her out of class."

[tyler_gone]

"... It's her cousin's fault? She thought somebody would arrest her?" Tyler was incredulous.

Then he buried his head in his hands, remembering a certain conversation with Deadpool. The problem with talking to Deadpool was, there was no way to tell how much actually mattered and how much was just random verbal debris. "Uh. Did she say her cousin's name?"

[atreideslioness]

"She didn't say, just that it was probably his fault and he was wanted by the authorities," she recalled. "I reminded her that we are on a nexus, and don't particularly care for the laws of the mundane world, but it didn't seem to make a dent."

[tyler_gone]

"I might have an idea who it is. I'll let you know if I'm right," Tyler said. "Sorry to be cryptic. It's ..."

He ate a bit of cheese instead of finishing the sentence. "I don't think she should spar."

For the duration, he meant.

[atreideslioness]

"That would be the definition of 'benched', Tyler. She broke rule eight. Even if she was healthy and stable, which she is not, her butt would be off the mats," Ghanima replied, looking him over.

"I won't ask; drink your scotch."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler, wisely, sipped at his scotch. "Right. Benched."

It was because she wouldn't ask that he told her, really. "There's a guy who looks like me in Tony's world who does what she did. Only worse. Gets about the size of a Hummer. Deadpool said something about his cousin being here, but ... it's Deadpool."

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima blinked at him. "How many evil twins do you have, Durden?"

HEY! It was a legitimate question!

[tyler_gone]

Diiiiirty look time. "Just the one. I would ask you the same but I know the answer."

Not that he actually had anything against Leto, but if she was going to go around insulting his clone...

[atreideslioness]

"Well, that depends," Ghanima mused, taking a nice long drink as she thought. "The Leto here is my Leto, just younger. Then there's my Leto at home, who's my age, and even more incorrigible, before you ask. Every time I tell someone that he'll grow out of it, I'm lying."

Oh, timelines. It made things so much fun.

[tyler_gone]

"And the Leto here has a Ghanima at home," Tyler said, following the thought through. "Like being quadruplets in a time warp."

He shook it off, sipping more scotch. "Is there anything else we need to do about Jennifer?"

[atreideslioness]

A Ghanima at home, who would soon be sick with the fear her brother was dead.

Ghanima shoved those darker thoughts to the side; she needed to focus on the here and now, not a past she could not (should not) change.

"Do you want to follow up on that cousin lead?" she asked. "I'll listen to the radio, and if she doesn't go to the clinic in the next few days, we'll talk to Zoe."

"I'm worried she may have torn something, or maybe have some slow internal bleeding; a transformation like that has to have some sort of physiological consequences."

[tyler_gone]

"I'll go talk to Deadpool." Ghanima had dealt with Jennifer, it was only fair. "And yeah, that sounds good. I almost feel bad dumping it on Zoe, but I'm sure she likes keeping busy."

He bit a nail, thinking. "She might still have damage from however she was hurt to start with, too. Did she say?"

[atreideslioness]

"We aren't dumping it on Zoe, we're calling in reinforcements," Ghanima replied wearily.

She knocked back the rest of her drink and made a face. "She didn't say, which is why I was so furious that she did not go to the clinic. Even if she had a clean bill of health on Saturday, she got hit on Sunday. She needs to be checked out."

[tyler_gone]

"And how long could she have even been gone, anyhow?" Tyler wondered. "Best case is, it was one of those weird things where a week at home equals a day here. I can't believe she thought getting hit was an awesome idea."

Unless she really hated herself, but that was its own kind of problem.

[atreideslioness]

"I don't think anything about this is a best case scenario," Ghanima sighed. "Still, I think we can salvage something from this, even if it's only to get her checked out by Dr. Jones or another member of the clinic staff."

Jennifer could hate Ghanima forever if she wanted, and Ghani wouldn't care. But that girl would have to face reality eventually.

"In the end, she'll be the one left with the results of whatever she does, or does not do. We can't help her if she won't let us." She held out her glass imploringly. "What we can do is enjoy your fine scotch and cheese, and bemoan the day we became responsible-ish adults."

[tyler_gone]

"It'll keep us awake during club meetings, watching for stuff like this," Tyler said, after a philosophical sip of his whisky. "... which reminds me. Ino's not happy we said she can't use her fake clones-and-wood thing."

[atreideslioness]

"And the first time her opponent is faster than her, or blasts one off in another direction that she doesn't anticipate, we'll have injured club members on our hands," Ghanima replied curtly. "The entire point of fight club is working on hand-to-hand; we made it clear that weapons are a privilege, not a right."

"You do not see our Jedi members using their lightsabers during fight club. If Miss Yamanaka requires powers-practice, she needs to find a mentor to work with."

[tyler_gone]

"Some of the Jedi do use their mind stuff," Tyler pointed out, not exactly disagreeing. "The thing is, I've never seen a Jedi lose control or do anything that could hurt anybody but their sparring partner, and we get a shitload of them."

He lolled his head back against the couch. The Scotch was settling over him like a warm blanket. "Why can't hand-to-hand and not being injured be enough for people? It's not like the club rules are exactly complicated."

[atreideslioness]

"They aren't complicated. We wrote the rules for an idiot to understand," Ghanima sulked. "'Sparring for Dummies,' as it were."

"One of my goals in starting the club was to teach the children how to fight without relying on their powers. You never know when you'll find yourself in a situation where you can't use them, and I don't want them to find themselves helpless because they're too dependent on a gimmick." She tapped her fingers against her glass thoughtfully. "Do you think we should re-iterate the principals when the fall semester starts? We've been relying on the participants to use common sense, but if they can't manage that..."

[tyler_gone]

"I think we're going to have to," Tyler said. "Talk slowly. Maybe make everyone sign a pledge. I heard Anakin does that every time he teaches flight."

"I think nobody sees the beauty in losing, is the problem." Tyler, ont he other hand, lived in that beauty.

[atreideslioness]

"Or in the fight itself," Ghanima agreed. "You know, somehow that doesn't shock me about Anakin in the slightest. We can even make it clear that they have to sign the pledge since the rules have already been broken once, and we do not want to risk anyone else."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler shook his head. "No reason to put Jen on the spot like that. Just have it there when they come in and make them sign off. We should revise the rules while we're at it."

Goddamned paperwork creep.

"Any particular reason we're waiting a month and a half?"

[atreideslioness]

"Get the new people all at once, rather than doing it now and again in a month and a half?" Ghanima suggested. "That way we don't waste people's time? Or maybe I'm just lazy."

More the former than the latter, really.

"I think if we post revised rules next week, that might be a good enough hint for the current crop without, as you said, putting Jennifer on the spot. Anything more would probably make her feel even more self-conscious, and I'd rather not alienate her farther," she continued. "If this is a permanent change, she's going to need the club to learn how to manage it."

[tyler_gone]

"Not wasting time makes sense," Tyler nodded. "And you're right. She needs to learn how to either fight without that happening, or manage it if it does."