[Plot] Putting on a Show

[Miriam Bell]

After the secret meeting in the woods Miriam heads over to the mansion to find a place in the library to settle in, making sure to drag the chair away from it's spot enough for maximum inconvenience for anybody trying to get by. Nobody ever said she didn't know how to be obnoxious.

[Leo Eskandari]

Having had Tosh fit him with a newboy hat full of hidden sensors, which he had to admit looked kinda nice on him despite being a little small on his big kitty noggin, Leo headed to the library to get annoyed by Miriam. He did not count on turning into an aisle and genuinely tripping over her chair.

"Hey! Watch where you're... Oh. It's you," he complained, glaring at her and doing a passable job of sounding like she was the last person he wanted to see.

[Miriam Bell]

"Watch it you blundering oaf!" Miriam hisses at him. It's not hard to fake being annoyed, especially when you're already kind of a misanthrope.

[Leo Eskandari]

"It's not my fault you''re sittin' in the middle of the damn stacks!" he shouted back with just a little snarl, and louder than intended.

[Miriam Bell]

"I sit where I bloody please. Do you have a problem with that?" Miriam doesn't raise her voice, she doesn't even sound angry as much as she does ice cold. Like he's some furry animal mongrel that's beneath her. She might be channeling a bit too much of her disdain for Isolde into this.

[Leo Eskandari]

More accurately, a furry animal mongrel looming above her.

"Matter of fact I do. So move your damn chair or I will."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam looks up at him with eyes that bore into his and she goes stock still. She doesn't breathe, doesn't blink, and just says "No." Imbuing that single syllable with as much venom as she can muster.

[Zandra Rogers]

One minute there was no one, and in the next, in a flash of wind, there was Zandra!

"Oi, oi! Is there a problem here, assbutts?" she said, crossing her arms and staring at the two.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Yeah, this glorified mosquito is blocking the damn way," he complained hotly.

[Miriam Bell]

"Ex-fucking-cuse me? Did you get the manners of a beast as well as the looks?"

[Zandra Rogers]

"Alright, both of you need to take three steps back now, yeah? Jesus Christ."

[Leo Eskandari]

He growled dangerously. "Oh fuck off Mary Allen."

[Zandra Rogers]

"Alright, buddy; you just bought yourself a week scrubbing the public toilets. Care to go for a month?"

[Miriam Bell]

"See what I'm dealing with here? Unbelievable." Miriam was probably enjoying this a little bit too much.

[Zandra Rogers]

"Watch YOUR lip, or your next phony blood pack will be laced with sriracha."

[Leo Eskandari]

Getting these readings better be worth it Narumi.

"What?! For insulting you?! You can't do that?!" he yelled angrily, acting on the verge of losing control.

[Zandra Rogers]

Zandra flashed her palm at Leo. "I'm a prefect, I can do whatever the hell I want."

Her finger hovered over the activation button on the calming ray.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Do it and I'll make you eat it," he growled.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam glances over at Zandra, catching the intent in her mind and something... clicks. Closing her book dramatically in her lap she crosses her arms over it and slips one hand into her pocket.

[Narrator]

The jab of the silver spike hurt like few things Miriam had ever experienced before. It's not the most pain she'd ever been in, but the amount of pain compared to the size of the small prick of the spike was outlandishly large. Silver weaknesses were no fucking joke, apparently, and Miriam would probably have to think twice before doing that again.


From Leo's perspective, the following things happened:

Zandra's finger hit the button, and a white light spread over the two squabbling classmates. Leo felt that strange feeling of his tension and frustration melting away; the fight that was in him drying up and becoming next-to-impossible to sustain. It was a good thing that he was being hit with the life -- Tosh needed it for his scans, remember? And anyway, it felt good not to have that sort of tension and buildup in his system. It was so hard to maintain, and it's just so much nicer to be nice. Maybe he could get one of these things installed in his room? Nah, probably not a good idea. Still, though.

"Alright, Leo, you want to apologize to Miriam now, yeah? Yeah, she's kinda a bitch where she put her chair, but that's no reason to get all growly and feral about things. And Miriam, you want to apologize to Leo now, yeah? Yeah, he's a blundering oaf, but he doesn't mean anything by it, yeah?" she said, sympathetically.




From Miriam's perspective, the following things happened.

Zandra's finger hit the button, and a white light spread over the two squabbling classmates. It didn't stop the pain Miriam was feeling, though maybe it was dulled a bit? It was hard to tell; she certainly wasn't comfortable, at the very least. Her head was throbbing...throbbing...pulsating, maybe?

Submit. Comply. Relax. Give in..

It wasn't words, exactly, but there was something, on top of, or around, or interwoven with the calming signal. Something that would make it almost impossible to move, or to...remember things? Miriam was having trouble keeping her thoughts focused on the straight and narrow -- something which meant that she almost missed it when Zandra walked over and jabbed her with something, right in the arm.


"Alright, Leo," Zandra said, walking over to Leo before jabbing him in the arm with something else. "You want to apologize to Miriam now, yeah? Yeah, she's kinda a bitch where she put her chair, but that's no reason to get all growly and feral about things."

Zandra carefully slipped the two...syringes? It was hard to make out, so damned hard to concentrate with that white light going on... into her back pocket.

"And Miriam, you want to apologize to Leo now, yeah? Yeah, he's a blundering oaf, but he doesn't mean anything by it, yeah?" she said, with a mocking sneer.

Forget.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Sorry 'bout being an ass, Miriam. I wasn't being myself," he apologized in a flat tone.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam is... okay with pain. Even when it feels like she's just jammed a massive spike through her finger, hand and up into her arm. Her arm is shaking and her teeth clench, but she can swallow this down if she has to. She might have some harsh words with Will later, but it does what she suspected. It distracts her from whatever mental manipulation is going on. Even the samples or whatever she could put aside for the sake of not giving anything away. But that expression on Zandra's face. Sneering at her through that haze only being kept at bay by the throbbing of pain and eroding her mental discipline between the two.

But then Leo's quiet and calm apology reaches her ears and remind her that they're supposed to put on a show, not tip anybody off and she swallows what remains of her pride.

"My bad, I pushed the chair out a little too much there, didn't I?" she sort-of apologizes.

[Zandra Rogers]

"Right, see? We're all chums here, or whatever the hell you want. I'd say kiss and make up, but I have enough nightmares, thank you very much. Try not to stomp on each other's dicks so much, yeah?" Zandra said, waving as she turned and headed off.

[Miriam Bell]

"Bloody hell..." Miriam lets out a breath once Zandra is out of sight and out of her (admittedly relatively small) telepathy range. She runs a hand through her hair and only belatedly notices it's still bleeding from when she jabbed herself. Fucking silver.

"You catch any of that?" she asks Leo, looking up at him and waiting for the ray's effect to dissipate.

[Leo Eskandari]

After a moment, he regained enough sense to calmly asked, "Catch what? Being whammied?"

He knew he should be mad about something else, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

[Miriam Bell]

"She stuck us with something. Some kind of syringe?" she says, twisting to get a look at her arm where she saw Zandra jab her.

[Leo Eskandari]

Now he was positive he should be pissed off. But he only felt a fraction of it.

"So they are experimenting on us," he said with only a trace of his temper, "Why don't I remember that?"

[Narrator]

Miriam's arm showed no signs of any sort of jab or anything of that nature.

[Miriam Bell]

"Hell if I know, that beam carried some kind of mental command and it's all fuzzy in my head. But I swear it happened." she says, rubbing at her arm to try and find any sign of the stick.

[Narrator]

Nothing that could be ascertained from a quick look, at least. Nothing superficial.

[Leo Eskandari]

"I believe you."

"Do you think she took blood or injected somethin'?"

[Miriam Bell]

"I don't know, but I intend to bloody find out. You tell the..." she let's out a groan at the name "...Resistance. I'm going after Zippy."

[Leo Eskandari]

"Try not to hurt her too much," he said as he took out his phone to secure-text Tosh that the job was done.

[Miriam Bell]

"No promises..." Miriam mutters as she rises from her chair and hurries after Zandra, letting her mind brush over those nearby to try and narrow down where the Prefect disappeared to.

[Zandra Rogers]

Zandra was headed back towards her dorm room, occasionally yelling at people as she went past. Good to know, I suppose, that she wasn't just targeting Miriam and Miriam's friends?

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam patiently follows her once she catches on to where she's going, doing her best to stay around corners and keep track of her through her telepathy whenever possible. Once she reaches Zandra's dorm room she places one hand in her pocket again, hesitantly resting the silver spike in her palm just in case and knocks on the door.

[Zandra Rogers]

Zandra opened the door almost before Miriam was done knocking -- the benefits of super-speed.

It looked like she was expecting someone else, certainly not Miriam.

"What the fuc...

I mean, how can I help you today, Miriam," she said, with obviously fake politeness.

[Miriam Bell]

"Cut the crap, Zandra." she says as she tries to push her way inside. "What was that you stuck us with? Did you inject something? Take my blood?"

[Zandra Rogers]

"What the hell are you talking about, Bell? I know you're a vamp or whatever, but you got blood on the brain?" Zandra said, as Miriam was able to shove her way into the dorm.

[Miriam Bell]

"Oh there's no doubt about that, but imagine my surprise when I found out that I'm not alone in that. Your stupid little beam-ray didn't work on me and I caught your little sleight of hand. What did you do to us!?"