Disclaimer: I don't own.
:}
The Black Dahlia moved quickly, least her mentor face this new threat alone. Her dress, a remembrance of the man she loved and lost, fluttered around her as she cast her spell, her magics lifting her up on wings of shadow. Determined to help this man, the one who'd saved her heart from the darkness that had consumed her, Dahlia raced to his side, and battle.
Jade's face scrunched up as she read the story. 'Who writes this dreck?' She asked herself, eyeing across the school. 'This sight, it does fan fiction about the supers. So naturally, they have me in here. But why the holy fuck are they shipping me with Blue Steel. I mean, it's known I'm under age, but they write it as if that's romantic, that somehow I need a daddy figure to make my life complete. Fuck, what will Tori think when she reads this.'
"What'cha reading?" Beck asked, letting his ex know he'd gotten close, in case she was as distracted as she seemed..
"Someone posted this fan fiction story about The Black Dahlia and Blue Steel." Jade told him, clearly not surprised by his aproach. "As a couple." She hid her ire at this coupling, not wanting to seem too upset.
"They're shipping the two together?" Beck asked, clearly amused. "But don't they realize the age difference."
"Steels history is well known, so people would have a guess at his age." Jade sighed. "They know I'm under eighteen, but not how old. This story, it's amazingly close in guessing my age, but still… My god, they marked it as mature. That means sex is gonna happen, and I'm here, reading it, hoping it's not nearly as bad as it seems."
"We'll, it's just some fan girls idea of a father figure saving the princess." Beck tried to calm his ex down. 'My armor's not here. I'm in no way ready to hold her back now that she's recovered her full power. Best to rely upon charm, and hope she doesn't lose it completely.'
Jade sighed again. "I guess you're right." She pulled herself up. "Nothing to get too worked up about. They have no real idea who's under my veil, and they don't know much about Steel either."
"I like to think I'm Steel too." Beck grumbled.
"No, you're Copper." Jade teased. "But still, the writing, it's not all bad. The action sequences are okay, if not the least bit accurate. They have me shaping darkness, wings and fields and chiz. All from my pitch black heart. Only thing keeping me from falling is the love of a good man, Blue Steel."
"Can you shape darkness like that?" Beck asked.
"Not the point." Jade pushed. "I use elemental forces cause it's often easier to get certain results by just using whatever force is most likely to produce that kind of effect naturally. It's why magi through the ages have relied upon elemental forces. Least change to reality, least effort made to make your will happen. Plus, Karl recently gifted me with a fetish that helps me fly. Love that thing, cause even when my powers low, I can still take to the air and fly. But again, it's based on elemental forces, and not shaping shadow into forms that just aren't natural. I can make solid shadows, even ride them, but would wings really be the most effective way to do stuff. If I'm putting that much energy into something, why not just make something that'll carry me, like a rug? I tell you, people, love the imagination, but this isn't well thought out."
"They just don't know the rules." Beck cautioned her. "So, who wrote it?"
"Blueshipper60" Jade told him. "No idea who it could be, but I'm betting I can find out."
"Jade, really?" Beck asked. "I thought you said this doesn't bother you."
"It really doesn't." Jade promised. "Just, what will Wildcard think when she reads this. Not exactly public, but not secret either. Not thinking she'd be to happy having people assume I'm with her dad."
"Only he gives off a totally professional vibe." Beck assured her. "Mans a total pro, and he doesn't mix business with pleasure. No, he'll understand."
"Understand what?" Cat asked.
"Someone wrote a story shipping Dahlia with Blue Steel." The boy told her.
"She didn't need to know." Jade groaned.
"Yea, not my best work." Cat noted. "But it WAS a request, and I think I rocked it, don't you?"
"Wait, YOU'RE Blueshipper60?" Both of the others said, almost in perfect union.
"Yea, the 60 is my height, in Inches I think…" Cat made her scrunchy face. "Not counting shoes, which I'm told can add a varying amount of height, so it's always so hard to tell how tall I really am, except apparently I'm short." She smiled at Jade.
"And you wrote this?" Jade asked again.
"As a request." Cat said back. "And when I asked Tori if I should do it, she told me that it'd probably help, cause all kinds of freaks are already dreaming up stories like this. You know, cause that's how so many people see romance, the stable older man and the your woman looking for guidance. Heck, even I once thought you just needed that mature, stable hand. THEN I saw how Tori tames you, and realized Beck never had a chance." Brown eyes found Beck. "Sorry about that, but it's true. I love me my romance, but Tori just, she brings out the good in Jade."
Cat refocused on her best friend. "To protect you, I made her someone else. Someone just as dark and damaged, cause lets be honest, this is so you, just totally not you. She lacks a lot of your strength, cause you survived chiz I would hate to know about, except at Project Redemption, the guards talk. The technicians talk. Everyone talks, cause you can only really discuss fight club at fight club. So while she's totally based on you, and Sam, and a little bit of Rob for that feminine quality people like so much, she's also her own person, all dark and mystic and such. And I think I did a good job writing her, all things considered."
Jade just looked at her best friend, who she'd never thought of as a writer. 'Other then that lame play where she cast herself as a hot, female Lincoln. No, Cat usually left the writing to me, or Beck, or even Vega, god help us. My girl, she can do so much, but writing, not her thing. Plus, she sucks at directing, and lets be honest, the whole of creative, except lyrics for Dre's music, and even those tend to be kinda simple. Not saying she's never written anything deep, just, sometimes, my highly talented girl thinks kinda simple, like a fairy tale.'
"So, what did you think?" Cat asked Jade. "Not of the story, cause I totally see how you might think of it as me shipping you with Tori's dad, which, eww." She made a face. "But the action, the writing, the character development, all that stuff. I had help. I bounced a LOT of ideas off of my roommate, who thinks I'm Bastion for some reason. Anyways, I bounced ideas off her, and Tori, and Dice, and Goomer, the only member of my friends who doesn't think I'm some female power house, and as such doesn't expect me to open all the stuck jars of pickles. I swear, it's like they go looking for the stuck one's, then ask me to open them. Sam used to be the one they asked, except when Goomer was around, cause mans strong. Dumb as a post, but strong. Only now, for whatever reason, they ask me, like all the time. Whats up with that?"
'Yea, I think we've shifted to a topic we shouldn't be discussing in public." Jade warned.
"Already were on one." Beck pointed out. "It's okay. No one wants to be around. They saw you kinda mad, and bailed. Personally, I'm waiting for Tori to show up. Wanna see how she calms you down, now that it's her job.
"At least wait until we need to open a new jar of pickles." Cat continued.
"You did okay." Jade tried. "The action was believable, if one has no idea how the magic works. Like, sure, I CAN shape the darkness like that, except it's not nearly as efficient. Kinda like why they don't have a bunch of high damage wind spells. Wind can do loads of damage, but it's more efficient to use Fire, or Lighting, or anything associated with damage."
"But Dahlia is a dark witch." Cat protested. "Dark witch., darkness, its all a theme."
"Hidey ho all, what're we talking about?" Robbie asked as he approached.
"My new story I just posted on " Cat told him.
"Not dot com?" Robbie asked.
"Yea, apparently the com leads to a lot of dirty stories, while this one, well, it's not supposed to have the dirty stuff. Kinda makes what I write in the later chapters hard, cause I'm not that kind of girl." The petite girl smiled, trying to look innocent.
"Let me guess, you got a LOT of ideas from Puckett, right?" Jade growled.
"A, it's Puckell, and B… Wait, I think you're right, let me check my notes…" She pulled out her phone, and her contact list. "Okay, Puckett, but that doesn't mean its not pronounced Puckell."
"Blondie's a virgin." Rex chimed in.
"I thought we'd neutered you." Jade grumbled.
"I can keep a secret." The manikin insisted. "Kept the fact that Rob here is involved in something majorly cool from just about everyone, cause my Northridge Girls, not that cray cray about mister Law and Order. I like me some bad girls."
"I CAN neuter you." Jade warned the puppet.
"Guys, calm." Beck tried. "Tori's coming, and she has Andre."
"We figure out how to give him powers yet?" Jade asked.
"Anyways, I couldn't find anyone willing to tell me anything about those boy-girl type romance things, cause Tori said hers were all bad experiences, while Trina got… Technical. Not sure I wanted those explanations. So I just found something similar from Lonelygirl press, and copied them."
"They have Metahero stuff?" Beck was surprised.
"They have everything." Robbie insisted.
"Just lost some more man cred, dude." Rex teased.
"But I didn't need that." Cat insisted. "Just needed a younger woman, and an older man. Found like ten stories that were close, except the woman, just over legal, while the man just before senility. It's a surprisingly popular trend from their historical fiction stuff. More modern, they like widows with kids, for some reasons. Thinking it's so the fireman slash whatever dream profession can show he's a good father before they forget the kids and do it. I found the descriptions… Titillating?" Cat searched for the word. "It excited my woman parts."
"Joy." Jade said to no one. "Cat, please, don't do this to me, kay?"
"Why not?" The short girl asked. "First, not you. I named her Raven, cause apparently that is a girls name, and it sounds so dark and mysterious. Plus, it's totally popular among the self described witch community. There are like a thousand Ravens in Hollywood alone."
"Why does that make sense." Jade asked beck, but her ex was already shifting into normal mode, stepping half an inch away from Jade, just because he expected girlfriends to be all jealous.
"Hi guys, whats up?" Tori asked.
"Whats shaking, bacon?" Andre added.
"Jade was just helping critique my fan fiction story." Cat told the Latina.
"What'd you write about?" Andre asked.
"That request you gave me, of pairing Blue Steel with The Black Dahlia." Cat told the boy. "Made her all dark and mysterious."
"Did you make her black?" He asked.
"No, cause she's not." Cat insisted. "I've seen the pictures, and while you can't tell much from under that veil, she's pale. Her face, wrists, cause sometimes you see something from under her gloves, and lets be honest, her funeral dresses show a LOT of leg. They even show some other parts, cause apparently one wants to look hot when saying goodbye to one's dead loved one."
"Wait, why'd you want a black girl shipped with Blue steel?" Tori wondered.
"It's not for me." Andre told his friends. "It's for my cousin. She's majorly into Blue steel, has his posters all over the place. I figured, give her a story where she can imagine herself in the heroines stead, and she'll love it."
Then Andre addressed the author of this tail. "So, how'd you handle the, er, delicate parts?"
"I plagiarized Lonelygirl." Cat told him. "I changed the names, and a lot of other stuff, but the basics, the romantic chiz, I kept that, and so I kinda plagiarized. You know, like the songs says… 'Plagiarize. Let no one else's work evade your eyes. Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, so don't shade your eyes, but plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize. Only be sure always to call it please "research".'"
"Just, wow." Beck muttered.
"Tom Lehrer." Robbie told Tori.
"I know who it is." Tori snapped. "Hollywood Arts here. Of course we know who Tom Lehrer is. Musician, Mathematician, Satirist. Silly music before Weird Al. Of course I heard of him. Loved 'Pollution'. But honestly, 'New Math' and 'The Harvard Fight Song' both rock."
"I like 'the Hunting Song,' Though 'the Irish Ballad', and 'So Long, Mom' are both wonderfully dark." Jade added.
"Yea, a performing arts school." Andre said. "So, we all agree, Cat quoted Tom Lehrer. Not the main thing, cause I just wanna know, why is it everyone is so upset that she wrote me a story where Blue Steel is romancing his teen sidekick. It's just a story, and in some states, the age difference, not a problem. Believe it or not, there are states where the age of consent is lower then here in Cali."
"Yea, the south, where you date your cousin." Rob noted.
"I have family in the south." Dre insisted.
"Besides, the age of consent in Nevada is only 16." Beck pointed out. "And that's not the point. The point is, it's kinda, I don't know, it just feels wrong. Heck, there are countries where it's not uncommon to marry a teen girl with a much older man, and the U.S. looks down on those countries. I think the girls are seeing this as daddy issues, and not something romantic."
"Jade has daddy issues, and yet, not dating some older man." Cat pointed out.
"Your age minus seven, doubled." Jade said. "They say men shouldn't date women younger then half their age, plus seven years. That means, at my age, I shouldn't date someone older then twenty. Not thinking it's a hard and fast., but Lane swears it's healthier then just dating whomever. And I get it, older man are less likely to just be big kids, be more settled, all that good chiz. Only me, I like my person to be there for me, emotionally…"
"This is new." Beck teased.
"Didn't know I wanted it until I had it." Jade snapped. Then, more relaxed. "Sorry, you're a good guy, great even, but you used to love the drama. I feel like you still love it, cause it at least feels like a form of passion. Just, now that I've tried this whole emotional support stuff, I think I wanna keep doing it."
"Jade's now totally gay." Rex said.
"I give emotional support." Rob tried.
"You try." Cat offered. "Just, you need to work on it. Not saying your bad, just, you still suck at being there, emotionally, for me, cause you can't see things the way I do."
"That way lies madness." Rex teased.
"I get that." Robbie replied. "Lane says it's really hard for most people to put themselves in another persons perspective. He says a good writer can, but even they might not be able to totally escape their own viewpoint. It's okay, writing is as much about sharing your personal views as anything else. But a great writer, like Jade, they can let go, see the world from so many other perspectives."
"Is that a criticism?" Cat wondered.
"NO, cause I still have that problem too." Rob promised.
"Sides, he doesn't want a flaming, er, I meant scissor related death." Rex said.
"That too." Rob said as he smiled.
"Okay, this Dahlia, she's not the original." Jade sighed. "And you could have made her black, just said the magic, what she uses to hide herself under that veil, it made her skin seem pale while in her dress. Maybe do that for Dre's cousin, so she can enjoy her fantasies."
"Good, cause I don't want him thinking of…." Cat stopped with Rob's hand over her moth, and Rex's held just off of her chest. Cat's hand only had time to stop one, and she'd apparently made the right choice.
The group soon scattered to class, but not before one of them noticed the slight difference, and how it was affecting everyone. He'd speak to lane later, in the counselors office, getting this new revelation off his chest.
"Lately I feel like I'm the odd man out." Andre told the guidance counselor. "Not sure what it is, but it's like, everyone except me is in on some big secret, and they're moving mountains to keep me out. It's like the ping pong team… Wait, you don't know about that, do you?"
"You guys started faking a ping pong tournament to save Eikner's job and do something fun with the money, right?" Mister Alexander noted.
"Tori talked, didn't she?" Dre wondered. "Or was it Cat?"
"It was me deciding to go support you at this tournament, and finding it didn't exist." Lane said. "So I confronted Sikowitz on it, and he spilled everything. However, we both agreed, some hi-jinx are necessary for a performing arts school. It helps you by giving you some experiences you'd otherwise miss. So we decided to just let you get away with it. Besides, Sikowitz deserves a nice meal every now and then."
"Okay then." Dre started to get up, only to stop. "Yea, about my problem…"
"Things have shifted for everyone in your group." Lane tried, suddenly feeling a bit more on the spot. "Jade has her probation, while Tori is dating her, and probably hears things they don't wanna share. Beck is working with probation, as is Robbie, but in different ways, helping kids who need a release to find new ways out. Honesty, they don't work together as much as they just have a shared experiences. I'm thinking it's not that big a thing, except they hear things, rumors and such, from their respective positions, and compare notes. You just feel left out cause you aren't in a position to have heard any of those rumors."
"Right." Andre said, eyeing the way the counselor tried to hide his nervousness. One thing about Lane, you had to know him to see his tells. And to Andre, who felt he knew the man, the Hollywood Arts guidance counselor was covering, which meant he knew what was going on. 'Gonna corner the one person I know who might know whats going on, and get me some answers. Yea, don't like being left out, not one bit…'
:}
Had to start with the fan fiction. Wonder if I'll ever make it back there, cause I'm thinking this is gonna wander a bit.
Thoughts?