(Shiz University)
Elphaba made a scathing noise. "Right. They will find the glorious little Her in that magical cave. And she will be as beautiful, and as sweet and as chaste as ever." She rolled her eyes and pretended to gag.
"I think that people need to believe in Tippetarius the way that they need to believe in the Unnamed God," Glinda mused.
Nessarose gave her an icy look and was about to say something but her sister interrupted. "Anyone with common sense knows that our Wizard reached right into her pretty little bassinet and slit her pretty little throat for her."
"Oh Elphie, you are so bubbly and cheerful this morning," Boq said brightly.
Fiyero looked up from his studying. Trade Concepts with Jemmicoe. The subject material left him feeling a little punch-drunk and bleary eyed.
Nessa rushed in. "Tippetarius may be moldering away in some unmarked grave but the Unnamed God is still very much alive in the world."
Elphaba looked incredulous. "I thought the whole point of having an Unnamed was that it is anonymous?"
"The Unnamed God is alive in everything, Elphaba. The hearts of the people, the leaves in the trees, the very air we breathe," Nessa said, her eyes aglow.
"What a horrid concept," Elphaba said. She looked around at all of them. "An invasion from every angle. Can you imagine?"
Nessa sighed with great weariness. "Oh Elphaba, you should not jest so. You never know when the Unnamed God will call you back."
"I'll keep that in mind," she replied in a mocking tone.
Nessarose gave her a cool look and was about to go on, but Glinda cut in. "With all due respect, Nessie, but I am a Lurlinist and I don't buy into your Unnamed God. Nor am I likely to convert any time soon."
But Nessa just beamed at her. "All the more reason for me to pray for your soul."
Glinda opened her mouth to protest but Elphaba touched her arm and shook her head. "It'll only make it worse," she said in a low voice.
Nessa ignored her and kept talking. "I will consult the Unnamed God on your behalf. And hope that you will recieve the wisdom and insight to find the true path."
"Oh so the two of you have a personal relationship," Elphaba said, but uncharacteristically she blushed and lowered her gaze.
"Blasphemy," Nessa gasped, aghast.
"Oh, look it's a red pfenix," Boq said, trying to deflect feebly.
Elphaba took up for him, she turned her, and the others', attention to Fiyero and his books. She looked at the top one and cringed. "I take it back, I don't want to go to Ozma Towers. Look what they torture him with," she said pointing. "But I saw that one you had last week: what is your take on all this?"
"Well, there is an old Unionist chapel attached to my winter home. But most of the tribe are still Lurlinists."
"Look at those tail feathers- oh hell, I give up. You guys kill each other if you want to."
Elphaba shook her head and ignored Boq. "But what about Fiyero? What does he think? Never mind all those other people."
"Oh...I don't know."
"Thats brilliant!" Boq said.
Elphaba stared at him in utter disbelief. "What," she cried shrilly.
"Back to your point on the Unnamed God's anonmity,-" Nessa visibly stiffened, so hard that her shoulder blades nearly clicked together,- "Fiyero is trying to say that we, as mortals, cannot possibly comprehend the Will of God. That it is, in fact, unknowable, no matter how exalted we think out knowledge of the sublime to be. To say otherwise would be hubris."
"That's not what he meant," Elphaba said, derisively.
Glinda gripped her by the arm and appeared to be trying to hide behind her fan. Elphaba glared at her in confusion but then caught sight of her sister.
Nessa had turned bright crimson and gone a little cross-eyed. She was also giving Fiyero a look that would fell a charging bull.
He was trying to inch away, and had otherwise perfected the deer-in-headlights look beneath her withering glare.
"And what makes you the authority on the matter. You're just a filthy, disgusting Winkie," she spat, clearly forgetting that Boq had actually started this.
"Nessa please-"
"Shut up, Elphaba!"
Boq looked a little ill, for causing it.
"What do you know of the Will of God? How can you possibly understand? You dare come here, indulging off the charity of bleeding hearts, lavishing in the company of your betters. How dare you judge me. Me! I was born a martyr. I have the right and the priveledge," but by now her voice was becoming so shrill and frantic they couldn't understand her.
Nanny finally stepped in. "Enough, Girlie. Before you say something you regret."
"Hah!"
Nanny shot Elphaba a look and steered Nessarose away from the group. Even from a distance she could be heard ranting and tantruming.
All were quiet for several beats in the wake of this.
Glinda emerged from behind her fan.
Elphaba, naturally, was the first to recover her nerve. She rounded on Boq. "What the hell did you do that for? Ugh! She will be unsufferable now."
"Well I didn't think she would overreact like that."
"It's Nessarose," Elphaba and Glinda said at the same time.
Glinda added, "That certainly was a conniption, wasn't it?" She glanced at Fiyero. "Are you alright then?"
"Hah! Good luck with that. He doesn't know. He has no opinion. Hasn't got a mind of his own."
"That's harsh," Boq scolded.
But Fiyero was suddenly irritated. "In the Vinkus, I am always busy. I am pulled in so many directions there is no time to think. There is always some bil to sign, some matter needing my attention. And I must put their needs before my own. That is something that Miss Elphaba does not know but she will understand when she is the Emminent Thropp."
Elphaba looked suitably chastised now, and softened to him but Boq spoke up. "I guess that you think it's alright for you to lecture him about not knowing how to act in public when you have no concept of polite speech."
"And while we're at it," Glinda added, "Nessarose would never have gone off like that if yoiu hadn't goaded her in the first place."
Elphaba looked mollified and contrite. "Well, I believe I've been told off..." But then she smiled around at all of them.
A few seconds passed and the grin fell to something of near horror. She glanced sideways at Boq.
"Yes, go and do damage control," he told her.
She gave him a quick nod and hurried off in the direction that Nanny and Nessa had gone.
(Emerald City)
"Damn it, damn you, don't just lay there. Make this interesting," he grunted, falling heavily on top of her. He pinched her breast hard. She winced but obeyed. "That's more like it," he told her, practically drooling on her.
She tried not to be ill. She focused her eyes on a spot on the wall.
She let her hair down, for it was the only thing she possesed that could actually be considered lovely, and also, she was her mother's daughter.
A prince, she had reasoned, could be useful to her clandestine society. But so also could a woman.
She stood in her kitchen, trying to forget. Her palms out on the table top as she had done many times.
His footfall on the stairs, waking her from the reverie. She almost didn't want to see him. Her shields went up...
"Why are you here," she had asked him.
Suddenly, the words had new meaning.
That smug, knowing smirk. And also, the way he just happened to be in that Unionist Chapel at the same time. It was all too convenient.
Her anger flared.
I'm being used, she thought wildly. He thinks he can trick me.
He came through the upstairs door and she whirled around to glare at him.
He looked at her, an expression of mild confusion on his face. "What is it?"
"What the hell is this?"
He frowned and looked blank. "What is what?"
"Right, right. You always had the clueless idiot act down. Well, I'm not buying it. What the hell are you up to?"
He didn't answer, just kept looking at her.
"You think you can fool me. Well, let me tell you, you are a bigger fool than I'll ever be."
"Obviously, I still have no idea what you're on about."
"Don't you play coy with me! I know you're a spy."
"A spy?" He laughed. But then sobered instantly under her glare. "A spy for whom," he asked.
"You think for one second I won't cut your throat in your sleep?"
He blinked in surprise. "I never thought about it."
"I would. Don't think I'm not capable. You're an idiot to trust me."
"Oh, yes. I am an idiot. And a coward. And I'm selfish, too, in case you had forgotten. Let's see, what else?"
"Don't you mock me!"
"Why would I? You're doing a good enough job at it."
"How dare you turn this into a joke!" She stood there, seething while he looked back at her, placidly.
"What is this? Why does everything have to be so complicated with you? Somethings just are, they just happen, and that's the way it is. Why can't you understand that?"
"Right, they just happen. Like you just happened to be in that chapel. Because Fiyero is just so spiritually enlightened."
"And you are?"
"Don't change the subject."
"You're giving me a headache."
"You think I am so ignorant. You think I am just going to fall for this."
"Fall for what? Sweet Lurline, what are you really on about here?"
She swept her arm up and down her profile. "This. Green is what gets you off? What do you take me for? What are you on about?"
"Elphie...you're not serious?"
"You're a liar. You're a liar and I'm not buying it."
He sighed and looked away from her.
Notes: Obviously Sir Creep was not Fiyero, and I think her reaction would just be like her, turning her anger and disgust at herself on to someone else. The beginning was mostly more relationship building stuff and I just felt it was time for a Nessa tantrum.