Office #18, Monday

[tyler_gone]

It wasn't every day you saw your imaginary evil twin walking around being his own person, and Tyler was still in a really weird mood as he entered his office. He kept expecting the first Tyler or Rusty or whatever name he had picked this time to show up and ask him if he'd ever been in a fight.

Really, if he hadn't summoned a student, he might have foregone office hours entirely in favor of QVC. As it was, he spent much of his time blankly staring out the window.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[tyler_gone]

Pink-hair-girl had actually showed. Well, that was nice, or at least better than being alone with his thoughts and the shadows in his head. "Hey, Anemone," Tyler said, sounding tired as he waved her in. "I was hoping to talk to you about pie."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Pie is nice," she said absently as she stepped into the office. "Not quite as nice as chocolates, but close. Why do you want to talk about pie?"

[tyler_gone]

He gestured for her to take the seat across from his desk. "Pie is nice. Exploding pie, as I found out last week, is less nice. I talked to Ino and she had some interesting things to say."

He was bluffing, given he'd summoned Anemone on little more than his instinct and the fact Ino hadn't denied his suggestion of her name.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone took the offered seat, still fairly confident. If he knew, Ino would have warned her. Hopefully. Oh well, she'd see how long she could play it out. It could be fun.

"Exploding pie?" she said skeptically, flopping into the chair. "I might be culturally-challenged, Mr. Durden," and, well, crazy, "but even I know exploding pie is only in cartoons." Unless, of course, you knew a certain ninja. "Now, why did you want to see me?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler's mouth quirked in a smile. "Actually I helped rig a cheesecake to explode when I was here," he said. "Though we were low-tech and used chemicals -- we didn't have chakra powers like Ino. Who indicated you had helped make a perfectly good mixed berry pie for her to destroy last week."

He paused, watching her purple eyes for any reaction. "Is that sounding at all familiar?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone twirled one lock of pink hair thoughtfully. Technically, she hadn't helped Ino make the pie, she'd done most of it.

"Not really," she answered, blinking at him slowly. "But I bet we could help. What's in it for us?"

[tyler_gone]

It was a good innocent act, but Tyler wasn't entirely convinced. He leaned back in his chair. "Has anyone ever told you the whole school is videotaped?" he queried. "I go to Corporal Fraser, I know who set off the pie in about 30 seconds. But then what's in it for you is, minimum, detention, probably more like school beautification committee."

"Or you could take your chances and tell me what we both know."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Oh, she'd known, from back when she'd pranked Umbridge's office with Katara and Sokka. She'd just hoped most of the teachers had no idea the cameras were there.

And detention sounded boring.

"Pink hair is rather distinctive on tape, isn't it?" she mused. "I thought it was a very nice present, much better than a boring apple for the teacher. Should we have put a bow on it? I tried to sculpt one out of ice cream, but it melted and I ate it."

[tyler_gone]

Okay, Tyler almost had to laugh at that kind of ... balls? Balls wasn't the word when it was a girl, but it was as close as he could come. he covered his mouth with his hand to try to hide his amusement. "Thank you, Anemone," he managed. "No need for a bow."

"Ino gets to be my TA for the semester," he stated. "What I'm trying to figure out is what to do with you, since you failed to sign up for chemistry."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"I wanted chemistry," she sulked, crossing her arms. "Captain Jurgens, my guardian, he mentioned something along the lines of 'no way in hell'. He's very repressed."

[tyler_gone]

"He doesn't trust you with explosives?" Tyler asked. "That's just annoying."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Explosives, sharp things, things I can throw at people," Anemone recited, ticking things off on her fingers. "Really, it's a shock that I'm allowed to use the stove unsupervised."

[tyler_gone]

"Finding things to throw at people is easy," Tyler said sympathetically. He was trying to decide if her guardian was insane, or if there was perhaps a reason.

"Is your guardian just crazy, or is there a reason they kind of want you in a padded room?"

Sometimes asking was the best approach.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Padded room doesn't work. Even if they bolt the floor to the bed, someone is always stupid enough to leave an opening," she quipped, swinging her feet against the chair. "Wow, do they really not give you people access to student files?"

Anemone pointed at herself slowly. "We have issues," she intoned mock-seriously, deliberately letting her pronoun usage shift. "At least, that's what we've been told."

[tyler_gone]

"I guess in theory I could have access if I asked," Tyler mulled. It was a good question, though he would probably scour his own before he glanced at anyone else's.

He raised an eyebrow. "We? Voices in your head a little more active than they are for most people?"

Albeit not for him.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Little more real," Anemone corrected. "I'm not exactly human; the hair color is natural."

"I'm a hybrid-Coralian. I can hear all of the others; like a whispering in the back of my brain that builds to a scream the closer they get. It's quieter, being here, but sometimes they leak through," she said simply. "When you add to that the fact I'm, well, 'fragmented' to start with, I can sometimes be a bit of a handful."

"Or as the doctors say when they don't think I'm listening, I'm a 'scary little psychopathic experiment gone wrong.'" Really, she not be as proud of that as she is.

[tyler_gone]

" 'Dissociative identity disorder' sounds kinder," Tyler said, with no small amount of sympathy. He didn't know what a Corallian was, but he got the gist of it. "That's what they call it on this world when the voices in your head start walking around and doing things on their own. Though that's not exactly your problem."

He leaned back, considered it. "Have you ever been in a physical fight?"

...that kind of came out of nowhere.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"We aren't disassociated, we overlap just fine," Anemone protested sulkily. "DID, PTSD, stupid little acronyms for people who are frightened."

"And yes, I have. They created me to kill people, so that's partially where my violent tendencies come from. What's that got to do with anything?"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler thought about correcting her, but shrugged. Sick, frightened, it was all the same and it wasn't like he was about to get overly PC about his diagnosis. Especially not with the dissociated bit walking around the island calling himself Rusty.

"Not much," he admitted. "Just trying to think of what to do with you, since I promised no detention and I know you aren't sorry." It was good his chair swiveled, as that gave him something to do while he made a decision. "First, what are you doing Thursday? And second, I don't think I've ever sparred with an experiment gone wrong."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Thursday? I have class with Mr. Murdock and Miss Bennet," she answered, clearly confused. "Am I supposed to be sorry? It was a good prank."

[tyler_gone]

"It's conventional," Tyler told her, "to at least pretend to be sorry if you assault a teacher, yes. Good prank or no."

He was starting to question his decision to go into teaching.

"You can't do what I'm making Ino do if you have two classes Thursday," he said. "All right. We're sparring. I want to see what Corellian hybrids can do. Pick a day that's not Monday or Friday."

Not a punishment, no, but it would be fun and it seemed like she didn't "get" punishments anyhow.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"I fly. Fightercraft," she answered, nose wrinkling. "Sparring? Like, fighting-fighting? What if I break you?"

"Um, Wednesday, maybe?"

[tyler_gone]

"Stop hitting when I say stop," he said simply. "And if you don't, there are very large men at the gym who would make you stop. I don't break easy, anyhow."

"Wednesday," he agreed. "Probably next week's better for me. Is meeting in the afternoon at Atlas gym okay?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Sure." Especially since that would let her get in a few practice sessions with other people. "That's the gym in town, right?"

"Um, I'm sorry you didn't like the pie?" She was sorry he didn't enjoy it, she just wasn't sorry they'd done it. At all. "What's Ino have to do?"

[tyler_gone]

"In town," he agreed. "On handwavy street, near handwavy."

"And I thought the pie was brilliant. Consider this my way of showing my appreciation." He did mean that. "Ino gets to help me make paper mache volcanoes for class Frdiay."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone's mouth quirked slightly in amusement. "So the ninja has to do art therapy, and the artist gets to try and hit you," she said slowly. "Devious."

[tyler_gone]

"I do my best," Tyler said, satisfied. "Try not to blow up any more pastry between now and next Wednesday."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"But I was going to get Mr. Murdock next!" she whined, wrinkling up her nose. "He'll think it's funny, I swear."

[tyler_gone]

"Don't explode any pastry near me," he amended. "Better?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Fine," she sighed, taking that as her cue to leave.

She paused by the door for a moment, eyes going unfocused for second. "How do you feel about glitterbombs, then?"

[tyler_gone]

That depends how Tony would feel about it, Tyler thought, then shook it off.

"Nothing explosive," he amended again. "Goodbye, Anemone."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone's only response was to start whistling the tune of 'If I only had a brain' as she went skipping off down the hall.

Nothing explosive still left her worlds of opportunity.