[Drama] Never Let Me Down Again

[Emilie]

Emilie hadn't spoken a word to Victor. She went ahead of him entirely while he glad-handed Lippincott, and was now looking around for her personal belongings in the dormitory hallways.

[Victor Freud]

Victor walked with his hands in his pockets, catching up to Emilie in her search. On the plus side, she'd learned to travel light, so moving wouldn't be too much work.

"Did they seriously just shove some kids' stuff out in the hallway? That's just barbaric."

[Emilie]

"Yea. Mine." She replied flatly, as she pulled out a shirt Victor was definitely familiar with.

[Victor Freud]

"Shit sucks." Victor definitely wasn't catching on, scouting a bit ahead to see if any stuff had been kicked down the hallway or rummaged through.

[Emilie]

Emilie ignored Victor entirely, instead putting her back into sliding her box down the hallway towards her new room, 130.

[Victor Freud]

Victor stopped in front of the door and looked it over, as if it was somehow different from all of the other ones.

"You gonna miss having a roommate?"

[Emilie]

"I'm definitely going to miss a werewolf watching my back when I sleep, since I'm pretty sure there's a target on it now." She replied, key carding her way into the room.

The box was too large for her to be able to pick it up and slam the door in Vic's face, so it remained open behind her.

[Victor Freud]

"Wait, so you think you're gonna be singled out for trying to get a room... instead of having been singled out and losing a room?" Victor was trying to figure out what Em's deal was.

[Emilie]

Emilie stomped past Victor and slammed the door shut.

"I wasn't singled out by not having a room. I didn't have a room because I'd been forgotten about. Perhaps deliberately. And if deliberately it was intended as a signal. That signal is 'get the fuck out'.

And now it looks like I'm digging my feet into the sand and defiantly stating 'no.' "

[Victor Freud]

"And... why wouldn't you do that? You've got just as much right to be here as anyone else."

[Emilie]

"You really don't fucking get what's happening right now, do you Victor Nicholas Freud?"

[Victor Freud]

Victor was a bit taken aback by the use of his middle name, which he avoided sharing for obvious reasons.

"... it'd seem that what I think is happening is not what you think is happening."

[Emilie]

Emilie pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I'm sorry, I forget you're not an adult sometimes." She added as an explanation as to why she was getting so worked up.

"He threatened me. It was subtle, but it was in there. Specifically in the line 'I'll look forward to seeing the reports from your power training class'.

I don't know what it means yet. Maybe, it means nothing more than one's ability to stay on at the school is going to be directly correlated to their usefulness to the institution.

But he's definitely the 'sort of dude' I pegged him for, whether he wants to admit that or not."

[Victor Freud]

Victor's face soured at the adult comment. Emilie may have lived dozens of lifetimes but it was still a bit insulting to be talked down to by someone who appeared his own age.

"Oh yeah, no, he's slimier than his hair. That's totally obvious."

There had been really little in Victor's attitude or mannerisms, even up to this point, that would have suggested that he felt this way.

"I didn't take it as any more than expulsion or something, I never considered that he might have more grievous intentions in mind, but it is a possibility."

[Emilie]

"Yer kiddin' me right?

The way this place attracts malevolence, I wouldn't have been surprised if the guy didn't slap a straight jacket on me and start cackling wildly on the spot."

[Victor Freud]

"He wouldn't do that. Right now he has no idea what you're capable of. And we're going to keep it that way. He thinks that we just dislike him because he's the new headmaster and is changing things. So we're going to do our best to make sure that he keeps thinking us the trusting, oblivious little cherubs we come off as."

[Emilie]

"You come off as." Emilie pointed out.

[Victor Freud]

"Sorry if I dress the part." Victor tugged at his shirt, untucking it almost instantly.

[Emilie]

Emilie furrowed her brow.

" Who I am and how I present myself are the only things I have control over in my goddamn life.

Forgive me if I don't feel like giving up my last shreds of dignity to some prick in a department store suit for minimum wage and a closet sized living space."

[Victor Freud]

Victor rubbed his forehead. "I'm not shaming you for being you, Em. And I'm sorry if I made you feel that way, or made you feel abandoned or betrayed. What I'm trying to say is that I was playing a role back there, and it feels like you don't know that. That you think I've bought into him hook, line, and sinker. That I expect you to try and conform to what he wants. That's not what I'm saying.

"I can't just bash at things head on like you and others can. I don't have the natural aptitudes and talents for that; I just don't work that way. So, what do you do when you have a weakness? You turn it into a strength. Look at me, I'm friggin' milquetoast. Everyone's gonna assume I'm a coward, a wimp, a good kid. So I'm gonna let them continue to think that and do what I can to cement that image. Because that's when people underestimate you. And that... that's something I can work with. You'd be surprised what you can get away with when you've been labeled a good kid."

[Emilie]

Emilie still seemed frustrated with him.

"Is there a point at which you're going to stop treating me like a fucking stranger off the streets who doesn't know you? "

[Victor Freud]

"Do you know me?" Victor asked plainly.

"If you did, shouldn't you have known I wouldn't just go along with all of this bureaucratic and shady bullshit willingly? Wouldn't you have trusted that you could just tell me your concerns instead of being pissed at me and assuming I'd just be oblivious to your problems? Even if I was unaware, are Victor Freuds so unsympathetic that they wouldn't listen and understand? Do I have a history of being disloyal to my friends?

"How much of the "me" you know is what you've seen here, and how much of it is based on what you've seen wherever else? Everything I know about you, I learn for the first time, and there's a lot about you I still don't know. But I know that I don't know it. How much of me do you not know but think you do? I mean, how often have I teached you to use one of these?"

Out of his pocket Victor produced a "coil" of wire and string, the former in a sort of weird serif J shape once it had sprung back into it's original form.

"I trust you with just about every secret that I have, stuff I don't tell my other friends, my family, and sure as hell not the staff here. I don't know how much less of a stranger I can treat you when I still don't know you the way you know me. And I know that's not your fault, you don't have the answers to all of my questions. But try to have some patience with me. This is your how-many-ever-th time getting to know me, this is still my first and only time getting to know you."

[Emilie]

Emilie didn't interrupt him, but when he showed off what he has hidden in his pocket, she didn't seem as taken aback as Victor clearly thought she should. She let him finish, mostly because this was, infact the third or fourth Freud she'd had this conversation with, but she understand for him it was the first time.

"Usually I teach you that sort of behavior, not the other way around." Was the only thing she added, gesturing to the pocket he'd placed it back into . " So there's something new."

[Victor Freud]

Since it wasn't needed, and Emilie seemed to already know what the simple device was, he put it back in his pocket. "See, and there's something new I've learned about you too. But now I know I can share my stash with you, and maybe even look to you for some help with some of the trickier methods.

"I told you, you'd have a room tonight one way or another. At least now you know I wasn't full of BS and I had a backup plan."

[Emilie]

"My problem isn't with your follow through or loyalty, it's your lack of foresight. You really think he's not gonna have people watching for B&E jobs?

We didn't have prefects before... what do you think they're for Vic?"

[Victor Freud]

"I'd like to think I'm smart enough to know not to shit where I eat. Besides, never do something the hard way when the easier way will do. It's a lot easier to just go to class and take notes than it is to steal answer sheets. There's nothing at this school I want anyway. Sure there's equipment that's handy, but that's there for us to borrow."

[Emilie]

"You literally just described 'shitting where you eat'.

They don't want me to have a room and you had the idea in your head to just claim it as mine anyways despite what they want."

[Victor Freud]

"Not claim it, just borrow it. For the night. If we needed to. Which we didn't. So it's not an issue." Victor punctuated every period as he started getting to work getting the mattress cover and fitted sheet onto the mattress.

"You worry too much. Now put your stuff away."

[Emilie]

Emilie sighed and did as she was told.

[Victor Freud]

[A few days later]

Victor knocked on Emilie's door, dressed in his usual "I had to leave my room" fineries.

[Emilie]

"It's open."

[Victor Freud]

Victor opened the door and slid himself in, closing the door behind him.

"Hey, wanna go pet some goats?"

[Emilie]

"Fucking duh." Emilie replied. She was laying in her bed staring at the ceiling .

[Victor Freud]

"Right, get yer coat then. There's like 3 different petting zoos in Maldon. Or a regular zoo if you're feeling especially brave with your petting. My treat."

[Emilie]

"Wwhhhaaaat if I wanna pet every goat in Essex? Can you.make that happen magic man?" Emilie asked, hopping up from her spot to grab her stuff.

[Victor Freud]

"Not my schtick, red. You wanna talk to a speedster or time-stopper for that. But that just means we've got places to go on other days. I've been wanting to check out that North Weald carboot, apparently they sell a lot of bootlegs. And there's a super haunted castle. And a jam museum." These all sounded like either horrible or amazing ideas.

[Emilie]

"The library kid could make it happen. Did you know he bought the jello-mold a perfect little life?"

The smarmy look on her face implied she was just being an asshole now.

[Victor Freud]

"Shit, sounds like you missed out." Victor thought about adding a "maybe you'll have better luck next time", but figured that'd be a bit insulting and come across as less than good-natured, which wasn't how he would've intended it.

"The perfect life, huh? So they went to the jam museum too? Given their relationship, I wonder which one enjoyed it more."

[Emilie]

"It probably depends on whether or not the jam talked down to him.

If it's good at abusive pillow talk, he might just move into the jam museum and sleep under a display contentedly for the rest of his life."

[Victor Freud]

"Damn, you know way too much about his man's personal life. Is she really that bad?"