Let it be noted that none of the chapter names are truly misnomers; no matter how ambiguously so they tend not to be. Keep that in mind for the next chapter, as it will contain the two elements it speaks of in its title. The rating won't change but the suggestive content could be offensive or likewise. The interview/disorientation may seem just plain silly and Seifer out of character, but there is a reason for his madness if you really look. I always imagined that he would do things in the most unorthodox ways. This one took a while as I lost part of my direction. However, I regained it shortly and my momentum should pick up. Please leave any suggestions, comments, or criticisms. Salvete.
The next few days would pass slowly. Seifer would stay well into the proceeding nights and study the lives of any student that could be identified as a Trepie. Merely discerning which fell into this category was a consuming and painstaking process that taxed all of his manpower, technologies, and innovation. At the core of each Trepie was an ideal that was fundamentally simple and straightforward: the pursuit of a person perceived as the embodiment of perfection for them, either in emulative or sensual dealings. Such an archetype of phenomenon was not uncommon outside of dealing with Quistis Trepe, or even Garden itself. Could such a combination of factors have arisen to make it that such a large number of student were so enraptured by this ideal to lose sight of the goal they accepted by attending this very place? Could this widespread infatuation be affecting them all in a way, or myriad of ways, that degrades abilities so completely?
Seifer didn't know. I don't fucking know. See?
After the first day he believed he had found the extents of Trepiedom. His study showed that in her classes that were taught at least primarily to undergraduates, approximately 56% could be identified as what he had come to know as a Trepie. In addition there was a certain amount outside of her classes that would fall under the description as well, but he suspected that not all would leave evidence of their lifestyles so obviously. In short, the full extent of their numbers could not be easily ascertained. He knew it would not be easy to do so, but he assigned Fujin and Raijin to research any historically similar event and to consult along with Dr. Kadowaki the psychological causes, symptoms, and possible cures for a spate such as theirs.
On the end of his first day of research he was taking a late dinner, guarded from interruption of thought by the slight but fierce scowl painting his brow. Despite such a deterrent, Rinoa and Zell came to sit by him after a short time. He barely acknowledged them.
"I know that scowl. It means you've been thinking too much." Rinoa left the unspoken question on the proverbial table.
"That would be a first." Zell stepped in. He and his newfound wit received a damning glare for their efforts.
"Shut up Dincht."
"Is it about Quisty?" She asked finally. His eyes shot up from his plate at this. "It's okay, Zell already knows too." This meant that either Squall or Selphie trusted the both of them with the information. The trust of either of them may well have equated to his own in most any case.
"Yes." He went back to eating, leaving the other two waiting for further response. When Zell saw that they weren't to receive it, he asked his own question with regards to the previous evening.
"So, what was up with her last night anyway? Was she sitting on your lap the whole time?" Seifer nodded without looking up. "Thought so. Man, I didn't think she had it in her. She always gets real embarrassed in those kind of situations."
"Look, we aren't dating or anything. There just wasn't anywhere else to sit and 'someone' just happened to push her over." Rinoa gave a well-practiced innocent look. "If I didn't know you any better I'd say you and/or Selphie planned it to happen that way. It wasn't a big deal anyway. Well, for me it wasn't."
Rinoa pouted a little and tried to defend herself all the while barely containing her gleeful recollections of the whole event. "Seifer Almasy! How dare you accuse me of such a plot?"
"Ah yes, how discourteous of me." He rolled his eyes. Then he returned to eating with the same thoughtful grimace as before.
Another short silence followed. "So?" Zell asked.
"So, what?" He answered shortly.
"So, what were your thoughts?" Rinoa elaborated.
"Sorry, but I'm not at liberty to divulge that information as it may compromise our agents in the field." Thusly he made clear that he did not wish to discuss the matter any further. The opposite pair frowned in their new disappointment; their gossip would have to come from another source. Maybe Irvine and his flavor of the week would prove of some interest.
Zell wonderingly studied his hot dog. He looks deep in thought. "I wonder how food feels about being eaten?" The martial artist mused aloud to no one in particular. Well, relatively speaking anyway. "I mean isn't it kind of cruel to kill, uh… whatever it is that we kill to get hot dogs? Even plants. Oh, man." These philosophies about 'uncruel diets' are so stupid.
"Damn it Chickenwuss! Stop anthropomorphizing your food. Last time you started talking like this you almost guilted Selphie into becoming a cannibal because of all of the 'nasty things' we do to eat other species! So stop spreading your vile propaganda. I mean, it's not like those hot dogs are going to start talki…" Suddenly he started to gaze off with the sort of detachment that usually befell him at the same time as a deliciously malevolent idea.
The other blonde considered the vacant stare with an indirect one of wariness. "Tch. Fine."
The next day would certainly bring more nearly fully ignored classes and studying related to them in an unorthodox way. Again.
Nothing about the way Quistis was teaching had changed and she had not spoken to him since the night of the documentary. He was certain though, that she was preoccupied with the knowledge of just how much she was being watched, imitated, and sought after for some reason or another. Before, none of these commonplace events held any real significance to her. On this particular morn the obviousness of her distraction, whatever in particular it may be, was evidenced.
Evidenced by the amount of skin her outfit was failing to cover. Today even more of her midriff was exposed and the upper half of her top was unfastened, affording a generous vista of her 'severance package.' It was clear that dressing was completed in a removed hurry. Such a bawdy display was not becoming behavior for a Garden instructor and wasn't something Quistis Trepe would have done knowingly.
Before she could make even a greater compounding of distractions, Seifer moved in close to her quickly, and even while she looked up in confusion, he began to cover her up. Most of his form brushed against her, blocking any views and deftly folding over clothing to shroud her weapons of apoplexy. Tsking, he commented after she realized what he was attempting to do and cast her blue eyes downward.
"You know, you were complaining not too long ago about your students' lacking imaginations, and yet you seem to want to leave so little left for them. They're going to start to wonder if all that you have received has come to you because you were so lewd. Not a good message instructor." Attempting to alleviate the situation and let her know that things would be getting better he winked at her before returning to his seat. It did not have the intended effect.
The rest of the class she was mostly unobserved by him as he was too occupied with consolidating the theories and facts running around in his head. What little psychological information they were able to confirm indicated that such a degree of pandemic obsession is able to cause a plethora of symptoms and behavioral patterns. Generally speaking however, in a confined area with similar people who have similar views and goals form a collective with a uniformity of purpose and allegiance to each other. The fact that this uniformity no longer exists had been a point of worry for Seifer. Now they sought to find out the cause of such a disbandment and what other things this... malady, could be causing.
Daylight had passed away before he realized it. In his office he wiled away, discovering more and more detailed information about failing students; psychologically profiling them, uncovering historical tendencies, medical records, and anything else that may be directly or indirectly related to their relatively sudden collapses. The focused searching was driving him mad with want to do something, anything, else.
A while into the evening he received his chance when Fujin and Raijin came into the office bearing news. "RECRUIT. FOUND."
"Good. Intimidating?"
Raijin looked thoughtful. Well, however thoughtful he was capable of looking, and answered, "Not really, ya know."
"Big? Professional?"
"HARDLY."
"Commanding presence?"
"Well, sort of."
"You're sure s/he is a worthy addition?" They both nodded. "Fine. Bring 'em in so I can interview him/her." He always trusted the judgment of his Posse, but they also never (to his knowledge) lied to him. Consequently, the value of this recruit was not easily identifiable.
Seifer watched as the door opened again and where he expected to see eyes were only towering spires of blonde hair. Zell Dincht. Seeming to be fairly nervous as he walked in. Must really want this job. He better not piss in his pants during the interview. Seifer snickered mentally before he finally spoke, gesturing to the chair before his desk. "Do sit down Mr…?" He withdrew a clipboard upon which he was poised to take notes.
Zell was perplexed. "Huh? You know my name." Seifer scribbled something down, presumably Zell's name.
"Alright. Mr. Yunominehm. Trabian?"
"What? No, my name is Dincht, Zell Dincht." Seifer glowered.
"Then why did you not say this when I first asked?" Zell finally sat down and Seifer leaned in to watch intently for some unknown reason. Taking notes he asked, "Would you stand up please?" He watched again and when he returned to his notes, Zell's eyes followed and he was forced to glare and hide the clipboard. "Ah. Do sit down again."
"I see…" Seifer then folded his large hands on the desk and smiled placatingly. "Good morning." He posed the statement as if it were a question to discover if someone was 'on the inside' of some sort of information.
The interviewee shifted nervously. "Good morning."
Seifer took on a face of mild disappointment before returning the same strange smile. "Good morning." He placed more of an emphasis on the word 'morning' this time around.
"Good morning?" Zell sounded even less sure of himself.
"Oh my…" He hung his head and wrote some more things. "Good afternoon."
"Uh, good bye?" Zell tried to mimic Seifer's smile but failed.
"Oh dear… Listen, just now why were you saying good morning to me? Who the hell are you to say what kind of fucking morning this was? And you know damn well it's nearly nineteen hundred hours. Well?"
Zell's mouth fumbled for words, opening and closing but never making any sounds of coherency.
"Five!… Four!… Three!… Two!… One!…" His head lowered with each declining number. The other blonde tried to explain himself only to be informed that he was "Too late" by a cold voice. "Right." The ex-Knight stared pointedly across the desk. Then he sprung on to his desk into a handstand, causing Zell to shift backwards, and he started to sing A Four-Leaf Clover. Stopping abruptly he turned to his recruit and asked, "Well, aren't you going to ask me why I'm doing this?"
His eyes traveled the room shiftily but Zell's mouth never opened nearly so wide as they.
"Five!… Four!… Three!… Two!… One!…" He put up his hand to silence the interviewee before he could speak while taking notes with the other. Again he performed a handstand and began to sing.
This time Zell took the initiative. "Why are you doing that?"
Seifer stopped momentarily. "Why do you think I'm doing it?" He returned to his song. "Five!… Four!… Three!…"
After three, Zell shot up from his chair. "I've had it with this shit! I'm outta here."
His interviewer sat back down. "Very good." He was writing again. "Very good indeed."
Intrigued Zell sat back down and again was prevented from seeing the notes. Somehow feeling his confidence return during this strange interview, he crossed his legs and sat in his usual smug fashion.
Without looking up from his papers; "Dincht… Don't do that." Returning his gaze to the one before him Seifer asked "So, why did you seek this job?"
Zell started to answer with confidence for the first time. "Well, I…"
"So, it's the sex is it? Alright," He began to gesticulate. "You have her legs up on the mantle piece and…"
"The hell? This isn't an interview; it's a sideshow. Why…"
Seifer cut him off by pushing the intercom. "You two can come in now." Raijin and Fujin walked in professionally with their hands behind their backs. Seifer pointed to Zell while looking to them. "He says he wants in for the sex."
"I did not!" He was really growing irate and his voice raised in pitch and intensity. "I'm going to report you to the Headmaster and tell him what you're doing here and I'll have your asses kicked out so fast your ears will bleed!"
"You received high marks." Seifer gestured to Raijin and Fujin who were holding out numbered signs a la judging panels for Olympic sports. "Very high marks."
Zell changed his mood immediately. "So, did I get in?" He questioned anxiously.
The others shook their heads. "No I'm afraid all of the positions have been filled for days now." Then the room filled with their uproarious laughter. This caused Zell to become even more angry and he made still more threats to which the Posse gave even higher marks. "Well, Dincht. You've passed our disorientation test very handily. Congratulations." He actually held out his hand to shake his.
But Zell was too shocked by the news to notice. "I did? Ohhhhh YEAHHH!" The exuberant one jumped into the air while pumping his fists and posing for himself.
"Dincht… Don't do that."
The next day the intercom dinged. Instructor Trepe to 'Chief' Almasy's office. Instructor Trepe to Chief Almasy's office. That is all. It was clear that Xu still had quite a bit of trouble saying 'chief' when connected to 'Almasy.'
Quistis took out her phone to call Seifer. She had a class to teach soon and could not make the unarranged meeting right now. He picked up. "Seifer, I can't come right now. I have class in ten minutes."
"It's alright instructor. I've already made arrangements."
She was angered by his undermining of her schedule. "You already arranged something?" She sighed irritably.
"That's right. I called in scared for you."
"Called in scared?" Her brow knitted in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"I told the headmaster 'I'm sorry but, I'm afraid Quistis can't make in on time this morning.' Chill out. You'll only be missing a few minutes of class."
When she reached his office, he indicated for her to sit down. Flanked on either side by abnormally serious versions of Fujin and Raijin, Seifer leaned back in his chair contemplatively. He drew in a deep breath before speaking, feeling as though he had acquired enough information about her students' plights to reveal some of his findings to Quistis. "Instructor, according to our research it seems that your students are suffering from what we scientists like to call…"
"…TREPIEDATION…"
"…Ya know?"
"Trepiedation? Is this some kind of joke? Seifer, you'd better not be wasting my time." She looked fiercely at him. He held up a hand to pacify her and continued.
"No, I'm afraid this is anything but a joke. I seems that the reason for most, if not all, of your students' failures are because of their tremendous fascination with you. It seems that after the defeat of Ultemecia this fascination and group enraptured by it grew considerably." He waited a moment for her to absorb the information. "Many of your students are so consumed with the desire to appeal to or be noticed by you, or even become you, that they cannot focus adequately on what they should be studying. Your allure has many effects: It may cause such fear of failure to render it the only possible outcome, it may preoccupy one with thoughts of sexual conquest at nearly all times, it may push some to try to do much more than they are possibly capable of and destroy themselves for it, or it can make one want to become exactly like you and try things in ways which they are incompetent of completing."
She was taking everything in, but so little of it made any sense to her. 'Sexual conquest?' Quistis blushed at the thought. Meanwhile, Seifer continued.
"Have you noticed any obvious signs of these symptoms?" She shook her head. He took notes. "Have any of your students ever advanced upon or approached you in a way that made you feel uncomfortable, unnerved?" Again she shook her head.
"Why? Why would they have such a fascination with me?" The instructor frowned.
He motioned for his companions to take themselves elsewhere and rose from his seat. "Come on instructor. I need to show you something." She arose as well and followed him into the security study. He stopped in front of a full-length mirror and grabbed her shoulders to place her in front of it.
She looked back up at him. "What?" He shook his head.
"Turn back around. Tell me what you see." She looked intently but, try as she might to see something else, the only thing in the mirror was herself.
"It's only me." Quistis turned around to face him again and he sighed.
"Don't tell me that all of your students have better eyesight than you even with those glasses." He looked at the offending object and swiftly removed it from its perch and placed the pair on himself. Squinting around and looking generally ridiculous, he commented. "Just as I thought; these simulate looking out your ass. Now look again." She glared but did as she was told.
Shortly, she shrugged her shoulders and reached for her glasses back.
Handing them over finally he asked "You still don't see do you?"
"See what?" Quickly she was growing more frustrated.
"See that you are about as sexy as they come. You're hot, instructor. Radiantly gorgeous. Beautiful. To these students of yours you are not merely beautiful, but perfect in every way they can think of. Charming, intelligent, strong, caring, successful, determined, and single. You're everything half of them could want and the other half could want to be. Your magnetism flows from your every aspect." For some while they only stared toward each other in silence.
Even now she had a difficult time believing this. "Is that what you think? That I'm… beautiful?" She no longer looked to him.
"It's my professional opinion." He smirked. She nodded but seemed… disappointed. How could he speak of beauty so much, be surrounded by it as he suggested, and so universally acknowledge it's existence while remaining solely objective to it? "Hey, come on instructor. Stop acting like my professional opinion is anything less than the irrevocable truth it is."
"Have you found a way to solve this problem?"
He shook his head. "Not yet, no. But I'm working on it, just give me some more time." Quistis started to leave. "Oh, and instructor; be careful. I know that you can take care of yourself but these cadets have the potential to become dangerous to you in a way that you may not expect, notice, or be able to defend against." Seifer's face told of his earnestness.
She smiled shortly but genuinely. "I will Seifer. Thank you."
Seifer waved to her escaping form. "Anytime Quisty."
I don't know how I feel about this one. This and the following one or two chapters will be more serious than humorous and I'm trying to find the right mixture and mood.