But how /are/ you?

Laila Khan. Senior. Crimson and Gold Columnist. Chameleon. The world's best friend.

[talimontes]

Tali laughed. “He’s a good guy. I’m just… I’m glad it wasn’t Krish. It would have felt so much more complicated.” Putting being stuck here without any medical professionals aside, this really was the simplest version of this event occurring she could picture. A casual hookup with somebody she wasn’t or had ever been in love with. It wouldn’t change her feelings on keeping it, but it would have added so many more difficult layers. Krish would have supported her choice too though. She knew that.

“I love you Lay. Thank you for being willing to murder my not-baby daddy for me if I wanted you to.” It meant the world to her, this kind of loyalty. She would do the same for her.

Tali nodded, fresh tears spilling over, but these were tinged with relief. “How do you always know the perfect thing to say?” she asked her. Everything was still horrible, but she did feel a little lighter. Having a friend who could be trusted to help carry the weight of it all was everything right now. “Is it bad if I just go to sleep? I feel like I just need to be unconscious for a while. Britt… she’s going to have a funeral. I don’t know if I can even handle that but I need to be okay enough to be there. I have to do that for her.”

[khanlailakhan]

"Oh, Krishna." Laila said, knowing that wasn't actually his name. "I'm glad it wasn't him, too. I would've felt a little bad about killing him. But only a little." Tali was pretty private about breakups, but Laila knew from osmosis that things could be messy with them. The hangover was long. She also suspected, deep down, that he would have had more opinions than he deserved. Which was kind of his whole problem in her and Anu's eyes.

Laila rubbed Tali's back again as she thanked her for offering homicide. "It would be my honor. And also very fun for me."

She considered Tali's question with perhaps a little too much gravity. "I think a lot of people don't know how to listen. Or don't want to. People almost always let you know what they want to hear. Not always what they need. But what they want."

Laila slowly got to her feet, holding out her hand. "I think sleep sounds good for everyone." But the statement about Britt gave Laila pause. She was sensitive to social obligations. Of course she was. But...

"Tali, I say this with all the love in my heart for you and for her. She is dead. Funerals are for the living. She knew you cared about her. She would never resent you for taking care of yourself. So don't put pressure on yourself yet. We'll figure out the right way to say goodbye to her. That doesn't have to have a ticking clock. Especially when you're ill. Britt would get it. Profoundly so." She allowed herself a small laugh that she hoped read more as loving than wry. "I'd bet very good money that she's been there."

[viviannecarlisle]

If anything in life was certain, it was a promise from Laila Khan.

“Their loss,” Viv agreed, wondering if it had offended Laila to see someone walk away from her like that, or if she was really above such things (like many others). Viv knew she would be annoyed, if she’d spent a lot of time and energy as a mentor only to see your student throw it all away. And yet, it was so perfectly high school, so expected, that maybe Laila could shrug it off. “I’m sorry they didn’t know what they had in you. Maybe you’ll find a smarter fish in the sea.” The pickings were slimmer nowadays, but when Laila had a goal, she’d reach it without a doubt.

Maybe Laila was magical, because Viv laughed again and didn’t feel even a little bad about it. “You know, if we were born in another time, you could so put Louis XIV and Versailles under your thumb.” Everything else going on at the time was immaterial. She was paying her good friend a compliment, and she was sticking to it. “Or you’d get the crown yourself.”

[khanlailakhan]

"The sea has become a good deal shallower, at least temporarily." Laila countered wryly. "But we have better things to do with our time. If people don't want to be helped, they won't be helped." One of the things Laila always liked about Viv was her boundaries. It was a luxury she wasn't allowed as the "kind friend" to Anu's "ice queen," but she could dream.

Laila laughed at the thought of her running Versailles. "Not interested. Too much touching required. Unless. Unless..." She gave Viv a conspiratorial smile. "There's this really old movie called Man in the Iron Mask. I'd allow that. But only nice Leo."

She sighed again, taking another sip as she lowered her voice. "I'm not sure who I should be mad at. About, you know..." Laila made a vague but broad gesture. "We lost her. It was her choice. But why did we think..." She trailed off. This wasn't something she should say to anyone but Anu, but Anu's anger was so large sometimes that it was difficult to find room for her own. "I think we need to start living by horror movie rules. It's a magic forest basically. It was stupid to think we could..."

Desperately wanting to get back to skating, she searched for something, anything to lighten the mood. "Rory got any spells we can use?"

[kaiajenkins]

Kaia smiled softly at Laila’s words, pretending not to hear the small threat held within them. It wasn’t for her and she was steering clear of that camp as much as she was able to. “Not now, but maybe in a few weeks. A lot is changing right now. And quick.”

While she could see the value in Laila’s position, she didn’t entirely agree. Nell was shaped by her experiences with Laila. It would come in to play and the best person to unpack whatever unfolded with Nell would be Laila. She had trained her. There was immense opportunity in holding those cards, especially if Laila declared an official position in opposition to Nell. Then again, maybe Laila was downplaying things because that was her plan of attack. Best not to draw attention to it.

She laughed. “We are going to have some wack ass fits. Finn already looks like he gets dressed in the dark. Add a sewing machine and it’s a whole new level of mess. At least it’ll be free entertainment.” That was another concern for her. Boredom could be a dangerous catalyst for chaos and political movements. “Maybe Ingrid’s little wall project will become a hall of fame of no drip lewks.”

Normally, people started with a compliment because they were planning to invalidate your work. Kaia smiled with graciousness but inside she was wary. Laila was fishing for something. And now she wanted Kaia to guess what that was. “My guess would fall within three categories: resource re-allocations, monthly elections, or labor requirements.”

[khanlailakhan]

Laila let out a small sigh. "I won't say that's what I'm afraid of. Change is almost always good." Change met unpredictability, and unpredictability was what Laila had wanted so badly for so long. Some kind of strange wrinkle in her family's plans for her, some unexpected form of courage to appear from within her own heart. To have the pressures of the past away from her was nothing short of a miracle.

"Finn's one of the lucky ones. No one will notice a change." She made an internal note to herself to check on Ingrid's little project. They couldn't really afford Anu slander right now when the truth was... shaky.

She let her spoon fall into her pint. "No objections to labor requirements from me. We all need something to do that isn't rotting our brains on our parents' old HBO DVDs or arguing. And far be it for me to fight the Will of the People." She gave Kaia a small smile. "I think the practicality of the reallocation is a little in question, but I'm a journalist, not a policy maker. You and Dante can be very persuasive, especially with Fern at your back. What I'm concerned about is the jury system mentioned here. Literally everyone gets to vote on people's guilt? How do we keep that from becoming the bureaucratic version of mob violence?"

[morganlittle]

Normally Morgan would respond with an eager agreement, but today it didn’t feel like the best choice. “Do you mind if we sit for a bit first? I’m so tired, been on my feet all day.” She stretched her legs out in front of her and pat the spot next to her on the bleachers.

“I haven’t really caught up with you since everything happened. Feels like a different life,” she started, not knowing how to lead into literally anything she needed to bring up. Morgan wanted this to be successful but actually making that happen felt so unlikely.

“How have you been?”

[khanlailakhan]

Ah. So Laila was potentially already mildly in trouble. Great. She gave Morgan a quick hug then sat down next to her, doing her best to look like her usual sunny self. She was probably succeeding by at least ninety-two percent. "No problem. I'm sorry to hear that. And I have absolutely been there. The picnic was an ambulatory nightmare. I thought platforms would be the play for grass and they were not. Amateur mistakes."

"It does." Laila admitted, almost in spite of herself. "But we get through it. We always do." That was the Alessi way. By threat or by bribe. "How're community maintenance things going? I'm so excited you're part of it. Feels like I actually have someone I can approach with a problem. No offense to Del and Drew of course. You're just my favorite."

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

Phase: Day Twelve

The lights are on, but no one’s home. Noah’s house is still smoking, and the mysteries are piling up. Oh, and there’s that government thing to worry about.  Might need a criminal justice system like now. 

So press play, and go.

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

After informally retaining Vivianne Carlisle as the Alessi family New Ham attorney, Tony solidifies their arrangement just in time for attorney-client privilege to make things dicey when it comes to the death of Noah Nixon. Are the Schuyler-Carlisles in over their heads?

Keep reading

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

Phase: Day Twelve

The lights are on, but no one’s home. Noah’s house is still smoking, and the mysteries are piling up. Oh, and there’s that government thing to worry about.  Might need a criminal justice system like now. 

So press play, and go.

[morganlittle]

Morgan stared at her text thread with Laila, wondering how she was supposed to word the message she needed to send. She liked Laila, she was beautiful and friendly and knew everyone. She’d always been kind to Morgan, even if she wasn’t sure that they counted as friends. Friendly, yes, for sure.

Morgan: Hey girl, can you meet me today? Around 3 at the field?

Laila wasn’t officially a cheerleader, but she’d shown up to their practices to hang out and knew enough of them that she was kind of an honorary one. Picking a spot to talk was hard. She had to consider safety - not at her house and not at the Alessi’s, privacy - who could overhear them if they were in public? She had to think about so much more now than she ever had before. It was kind of exhausting.

She’d shown up early, wanting a moment to sit. Morgan missed the normalcy of her daily life. She missed spending time here, getting to have fun and do what she loved with her best friend. Things were so different now.

Morgan saw Laila approaching and waved at her. “Hey!” she called, noting she looked… not as happy as she usually did. “How’s it going?”

@khanlailakhan

[khanlailakhan]

The interview session with the Carlisle-Schuylers had been interesting to say the least. Interesting and disheartening, if Anu really was going to shut Laila out like that. Her annoyance had morphed into hurt and then annoyance at being hurt.

And then Morgan had texted her. Why had Morgan texted her? Was it truly beginning already? Morgan couldn't be so naive as to think she would get straight answers from her. Could she be?

The truth was Laila could lie nearly effortlessly. She had to have so much practice because of her family that it didn't feel any different from brushing her teeth or painting a perfect cats eye at the edge of her dark lashes. Perhaps some part of her was impatient to prove to Anu that she could keep a secret.

So she'd pulled on her workout gear and taken a run over to the school. Morgan looked dewy and put together as usual. "Hey girl! Laps while we talk or no?" She hoped Morgan knew she meant walking and that she was trying to make it harder for Morgan to read her.

[kaiajenkins]

“If that’s you at half-hearted, I’d hate to see you at your full powers.” Kaia smiled to blunt her words. Laila was impressive as is, but the notion that she had more hiding behind those soft brown eyes was scary as hell. She wanted to be prepared for whatever was coming from Tony’s side and she couldn’t read Laila well.

She sighed softly. “I know Nell has her own sister, but don’t discount the mentor role. It holds a lot of sway.” There were frequently times when she felt like she was both to her siblings. They were exhausting, but they also cared so deeply. It was their strength. Nell was that way, too, and there was no world where she could just shove all of that into a closet and pretend it wasn’t true. It might take time, but facts were facts.

“It’s not something we can get ahead of. I don’t think the library stocks books on growing clothes from cotton or linen and it’s not like we have a cellulose extruder or what the fuck ever to make wood pulp or plastic into fabric.” She had checked, but she didn’t see anything related to the subject of how fabric came to being. Plenty about it’s racist and imperialist history and present, but not so much the discussion of what happened before the world relied on forced labor. “I guess we’ll be watching some people in ball gowns at the grocery store or some shit. Who knows?”

Ah. So that was Laila’s real reason for coming over. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but I am deeply involved in the community organizing scene. I wasn’t sitting on hypothetical city plans, but I knew enough Angela Davis to have some guidelines in the back of my mind.” The notion that she had been dreaming up a utopia West Ham was absurd, but she knew an opportunity when she saw one. “We fight for the future we want. This is the future I want. I’m more than fine with it being challenged, passion and compromise is how we make things work.”

[khanlailakhan]

Laila laughed, for once not redirecting the compliment. "Oh, yeah. People should be afraid." Then she smiled. "Not you though. Of course." Maybe a little. If Dante stepped out of line. But Kaia had always been smarter than him. "But we shouldn't need my full powers. That sounds exhausting."

"Maybe." She sighed. "But I won't hold my breath." It was easier to write Nell off than to mourn. Anu was so good at separating. Laila was trying to live by her example.

She considered Kaia's final image. "I think I might like that. Better than breaking into the upholstery fabric like we're on Project Runway." She suspected there was a very real possibility of that in time. "There's so many sets of awful curtains in this town." Laila wouldn't be caught dead. She'd cannibalize her mother's clothes first, and that showed she was really desperate.

"I wish I could outline this well." Laila said appreciatively. "My columns take me ages." She contemplated her spoon for a moment before bringing it back to her mouth. "What do you think I'm going to ask?" Might as well see where Kaia's head was at first. The problem was obvious. Or so she thought.

[talimontes]

Tali laughed, and it wasn’t even fake. “He needs the hair otherwise it’d be all Megamind up in there.” That was objectively untrue, but it did make her feel better to joke. Any shred of levity would do, apparently.

Tali closed her eyes, letting Laila’s voice calm her. She knew immediately that she was right to share this with her. Laila could get it in a way that few others could. “We both are vehemently against letting this stand and becoming teen parents,” Tali told her. “No violence needed. He was actually pretty helpful.” She wouldn’t tell Laila who he was, because he’d asked her not to. And she’d respect that. It wasn’t Trip Laila needed to be worried about here anyway.

“I’ve never wanted something less in my life but I still feel so fucking sad and I don’t understand it.” Tali glanced over at her friend, glad to see only care on her face. “I know that if my attempts to stop this are successful I’m going to be so relieved. I need that to happen. I don’t know. Maybe it’s the hormones fucking with me.”

[khanlailakhan]

Laila smirked. "Exactly." One of the things she appreciated about Tali was her ability to see through Tiny's bullshit. It had been why she and Anu had initially been alright with her hanging around. Then, of course, she'd proved herself.

"Good on him." Laila said magnanimously. "I will allow him to live. As long as he continues to be helpful." She avoided any innuendo in her sentences when she could. The situation was tense enough without adding vulgarity.

She rubbed Tali's back a little. "The hormones are fucking with you. 1000%. Also. A bunch of your friends are in the fucking woods doing Allah knows what. You're allowed to be sad. You're allowed to be scared. You're allowed to feel however you feel. Some people can end a pregnancy like it's nothing. Nothing wrong with that. It's personal. That's why it's private. If you want to be a mom, there's a million ways that can happen later. You're gorgeous, you're loaded. You can adopt a million babies from every country, you can pay people to carry them. You can have your body irrevocably changed and do it yourself. That's for later. Right now the point is we keep you safe and healthy. And being pregnant really isn't safe and healthy right now."

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

[beaumontf]

Finn rubbed his eyes before taking a step back. He examined Laila’s outfit from top to bottom and gave a small shrug. "Yeah, it’s not bad.” Maybe some people would be super impressed by it, he dug the colors, but he was surrounded by chicks dressing up here. All of the looks started to blend together. A short dress was a short dress at the end of the day.

“If you were supposed to know, you would.” There were too many people in this damn house. Everyone felt they had a right to everything. He thought Laila had been included in the discussion. If she wasn’t, he wasn’t going to give her intel. She could get it herself from Anu if Anu felt like sharing.

He was ready to fight but then she asked him how he was feeling. He deflated. This night had absolutely sucked. Tony was pissed at him. The plan had sorta gone to shit. This could be a trick, but fuck it. “The Tee thing came out of fucking nowhere. I don’t know why they think I killed someone, but I didn’t. And having to defend myself is already annoying when I know their bitch ass is going to go to the council.” He sank down in a nearby train. “The fire was a little too good and I thought I almost saw my sister die. Wasn’t my sister, but… uh… fucking sucked. This whole thing has sucked. I miss being able to leave. I miss not having to pick sides. I miss having…” His sister, his ex-girlfriend, his dm not accusing him of shit, “A normal life. What about you? This everything you dreamed of?”

[khanlailakhan]

"Fuck you." Laila said with a smile. Sometimes it killed people to be nice. Especially boys.

She felt a flash of anger at his remark. It might as well have come from Anu's mouth herself. But as she forced herself to slow down, to breathe, to actually look at Finn, she realized... he didn't actually know either. It was comforting somehow. Comforting and sad.

She blinked at him, letting the story wash over her. "Charlie? What happened to Charlie? Or... not Charlie, I mean." She was having trouble parsing it, but she'd already noticed the freshman's absence. She'd intuited it wasn't great to mention. "That's so scary, Finn. I'm sorry."

Laila Khan wasn't normal. She'd never been normal. Well, not for West Ham anyway. She'd never had to worry about picking sides before. She was good at looking like she hadn't. And not being able to leave meant she didn't have to think about Fahad, waiting like the hangman on the platform. But she could see the ache in Finn. The pain. He had things to get back to. Things he wasn't dreading. He wasn't expected to get married to someone he barely knew. He didn't have to figure out how to explain it to his friends. He wasn't hiding. Except from himself.

"I wouldn't say it's everything I've dreamed of. We could at least be trapped with a few nail technicians and baristas." Still, she sobered to match his earnestness. His strange earnestness she'd never really seen before. "But I know what you mean. The sides thing especially is absurd. And Charlie's smart. She'll learn that. And we'll keep her safe while she does. We are keeping her safe while she does. She wouldn't have done this if she didn't know you'd still love and protect her."

[viviannecarlisle]

Viv squeezed back. “Fair enough.” You couldn’t beat the best when they reached the same status as patron saints, but luckily for Laila, she was the best in other ways Britt couldn’t have ever been, elevated or not. Smartest, most artful, most sophisticated…Laila had a list of yearbook superlatives waiting for her to claim them.

“I’ll do the same.” Viv hadn’t run into a problem where she didn’t respect herself, but there was a first time for everything in their brave new world. “We’ll be better together.”

“Taking someone under your wing?” This town wasn’t big enough for one Anu and two Lailas, but the idea of a line of succession was morbidly interesting. If Britt’s death was anything to go by, it showed the world didn’t stop for anyone. Things ticked right on.

“Hey, I read the paper,” Viv protested. She wasn’t so sure Laila didn’t know everything.

[khanlailakhan]

"It's a promise." Laila left her hand in Viv's, taking a quiet solace in the contact. "Or maybe a resolution." They were four months off from New Year's, and she'd never taken truck with such things (she was generally too busy), but there was nothing like a death to make you search for meaning in the maudlin.

Laila studied her bottle again. "Most of my former proteges may no longer approve of the company I keep. Their loss, of course. They're children, in the end. They need time to grow. To see how the world works no matter where we are." She was beginning to feel almost completely disconnected from the underclassmen. It had been important to her to be open, welcoming above all, but she could tell they were more lost here than the seniors were. The juniors were hit or miss.

"Of course. Because you're a good friend. And cultured." She smiled at her. "But in no reality could you be referred to as 'no one.' "

[talimontes]

Tali listened to Laila, her words like a lifeline. She hoped more than anything that she was right. Tali needed her to be right. She wanted him to waltz back into this house and make her feel silly for ever worrying he might not make it back. “Okay,” she nodded, holding onto that. She would be repeating it to herself until he was home. Tali swiped at a tear underneath her eye. “I won’t,” she smiled slightly. “His head’s already too big.”

Now that the spotlight was on her she wasn’t sure if she should say it. There was something about all of this that made Tali want to hold it so tightly to her chest and not let anyone else see. But she kept thinking about what Tee had said. About needing to be vulnerable and hoping she had someone to talk to. And she did, technically. Tony knew. Trip knew. But Tony wasn’t here and she didn’t feel like she could burden Trip any more with this. She knew losing Britt was devastating enough for her to act however she wanted but she wanted someone here to know the actual depth of what she was dealing with. Laila was strong. Tali could lean on her.

“I’m pregnant,” she said quietly. “I found out a couple of days before we were supposed to go on the camping trip and I was going to figure it out when we got back.” Tali looked out the window, not wanting to see whatever Laila was thinking written on her face. “But now we’re stuck here and Britt’s dead and Tony’s missing and I can’t handle all of this by myself.” The saddest whimper escaped her without her permission. “I don’t want any of this.”

[khanlailakhan]

Laila smiled in agreement, trying to not let her eyes linger on Tali's tears. It was easier to focus on bashing on Tiny. "Fucking huge. Even without the floofy hair."

Laila hadn't had any expectations when Tali offered her a secret. Maybe a crush or a violent thought, resentment for Britt or even a statement that she, like Laila, hadn't minded this setting until people started dying. But what Tali offered was somehow as unexpected as it was oddly comforting. It was teen angst they could get into in nearly any context. Though the implications were far more dire here, and she wouldn't forget that. She could never. But this, at least, she knew how to talk about. It wasn't monsters or mysteries or expeditions into the wilderness in search of the Northeast passage. This, she understood. It would never happen to her, for many, many reasons. But this, she understood.

"Oh, Tali." She held her close, soothing her with her voice and warmth as best she could. "You're not alone. You're never alone. You know I'd move the world and my social schedule for you. We've got time. We've even got options. You won't have to take it for long. Let's start with the easy part. Do I need to beat up the sperm donor, or are you both on the same page?"

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

[beaumontf]

Finn ran his hands through his hair. First, Trip and Heli then Tee and now this. Couldn’t she just wander off to some unused portion of the compound? Surely, she had better things to do than talk to him.

"I’m honored that you think I know enough about electrical engineering to pull that off, but you’ll have to take your complaints to someone who can actually help you.” It was a beautiful coincidence that the power went out, but they’d planned for nearly every contingency they didn’t need that. “Sure was nice of whoever the fuck did that to give us a little cover we didn’t need.”

He found it hard to believe that their work would be overshadowed by the blackout, but it would take awhile for people to catch on. He needed to lay some groundwork with the pipsqueak that wasn’t Charlie to make sure that all their problems were squared away. But that was a problem for tomorrow.

“Why are you here? I’m pretty sure that Anu was clear on the girls role of being noticed at the party. You couldn’t do that without the lights on? I guess your powers were exaggerated.” Yeah, he was kinda being a dick for dick’s sake but he didn’t care right now. She was crashing his time to rest.

“You’re tired? Wow. I feel so bad for you.” He blinked at her. “I don’t think our actions need much explanation. How about you go for a drive and using those pretty brown eyes of yours maybe see what we did. Should be extra noticeable with the lack of power.”

[khanlailakhan]

Laila rolled her eyes. "I can tick off being noticed in the first five minutes of a party in this outfit. I feel like you of all masc people would understand that." Really the pattern on her dress was more to Finn's taste than hers (as best she could guess). Asymmetrical neon with white stripes. Garish, yes, but she'd taken her job (and Jacks' blacklight mandate) seriously.

"Cover to do exactly what, Finn?" Laila adjusted her posture, reminding herself to take a different tack. She'd walked into a confrontation, and Finn was still coming down from one. She needed to be the bigger person. And not just because sometimes was if she wore the right heels. She kind of wished she wasn't still wearing them now.

Finn could be a dick, but he was a dick the way Tony was a dick. Usually she knew how to make either of them laugh if she needed to, but he wasn't in a place to take that right now. I could have just been the departure of his sister and the disappearance of the girl he'd apparently tried to bring to the dinner, but just in case it wasn't... "Look. I'm just catching up here. I know what Anu knows, which was vague stuff about handling the problem, getting rid of things, you know. And when I get back home there are literally things on fire and Tee's having... whatever that was. You want me to go take a drive and take a look at your great big super intimidating conflagration, I'll do that. But I know Tiny can be bad at asking sometimes, so... are you okay? What happened?"

[kaiajenkins]

“All the credit goes to my mother. I would love to say I did it all on my own, but she set a high standard and I am constantly trying to achieve it.” At this point, it was mostly ingrained. She had the upmost respect for her mother, but she also felt that pressure to always be striving. It didn’t leave room for the mess that was in her head. She had to get that out via exercise or push it to the side because it didn’t serve her.

Kaia was surprised to hear the weariness in how Laila approached Nell. She had thought they were closer. She could see how Nell’s actions had pushed things in this direction, but she felt almost sad about it. “I’m sure she’ll come back around.”

“Mostly my own,” Kaia shrugged. He might be better at economics than her, but he wasn’t the only one who knew their way around a statistical regression. “Stores are usually stocked two to three times a week. It’s fairly simple math to see that we’re going to need more cooperation to replace things. Not to mention that when we run out of fabric at the fabric store, we’ll be looking at a long and tedious process to make something close to fabric.” She was hoping they’d be far away from this by then, but she was a long term planning.

She nodded her head. “I would say we both fall more into the unspoken roles.” For very different reasons. Kaia didn’t want to open herself up to harassment. Ever. She refused to. The only option for avoiding that was to take a more hands off approach. She wasn’t sure what Laila’s exact reason, but she felt it was probably more complex than her own. “I’m still finding my footing with how this new kind of city works.”

[khanlailakhan]

"I suppose I could say the same, even if my achievements are far more half-hearted." Laila was a solid A- student. All honors, but any kind of vale- or salu- or really any kind of -dictorian would have made her skin crawl. The closest she got to it was trying to help Anu figure out who the elusive #1 senior was, but that was for Anu, not Laila. "Yamina is not Naomie. I can only dream." For many, many reasons, none of which Laila could speak aloud, even know in this new silence created by the forest around her. She'd wondered idly long ago if she'd ever be able to outrun her parents' wishes for her future. It might be turning out that all she needed to do was sit still.

Laila sighed, not bothering to hide her disappointment. If it got back to Nell, well, that was the point in a way. That was the most awful weapon parent figures had in their arsenal, after all. Disappointment. "We can hope."

"Fuck, I hadn't even thought about the fabric." Laila wasn't as much of a fashion hound as Anu, but she was used to dealing with the complaints from both her and Lucy about how underdressed their class were. This would only exacerbate the problem. It risked being yet another "let them eat cake" moment (even if that hadn't ever actually happened in the historical record.)

'Finding our footing' was a vast understatement. She nodded. "We all are, aren't we? And it doesn't feel like there's much time to do it." Her voice was filled with weary wonderment. "You put together your council proposal so fast. Were you working off of some sort of thought experiment or are you even more of a superhero than I realized?" Now began the actual game, the excavation of how badly Kaia and Dante wanted to fuck their greatest potential allies over.

[kaiajenkins]

While it was true that their parents had a penchant for overindulging the niblings, Kaia didn’t ever view them as spoiled. They were cared for. This transition had been difficult enough for them and she didn’t want to add to that. “They know what I like and if it’s far, I’ll tell them. We’re good at communication.” Most of the time.

Kaia was surprised to hear Laila speak so candidly. “I think there’s room for both of you in her life. Giving in too much to one opinion is never the smartest move, and she seems fairly intelligent albeit impulsive.” Truthfully, Kaia felt that Nell should be glad no one read the paper or she’d be in hot water constantly.

Laila had been the one to say they were all adults and then neatly backtracked. Kaia wanted to comment on it, but didn’t think this was the time for that. “Unity is something we could all stand to work on right now. With the projections I’ve seen, we’re going to have to learn to depend on each other even when we aren’t getting along.” She sighed, “It’s a big task but I think we’re up for it.”

She kept hitting this notion of having parts. While there was some logic to it, the wording tripped Kaia up. “Which parts do you think are open?”

[khanlailakhan]

"You are. Honestly I don't know how but you are." Laila was an only child through and through, but she always had to admire Kaia's commitment to familial harmony. She was decidedly not seeing that at the Alessi compound. Between Finn' and Lucy's little sisters wandering off and Anu and Tony fighting, this wasn't going particularly well.

Laila sighed. "She's exactly the kind of smart to get herself in trouble, and I'm a little tired of warning her off it. But she'll figure it out." Or someone else would. Laila was trying not to care. She needed more ice cream.

"Are these Dante's projections or just general ones?" She wasn't going to get into whether she thought they were 'up to the task'. magical thinking only took one so far. They both knew that. Look at Dante.

"I imagine you know more about that than I do. It's your and Dante's proposal, right? I haven't read it but Anu was very impressed. But I know what you mean." It was a gentle admission. Somehow Kaia had missed the memo to speak in just a little bit of code. Or maybe Laila was just spending too much time around mob types. "I think there are spoken roles and unspoken ones. Lots of big personalities at play. Personalities that need mediation every now and then, you know?" Yeah. She was spending too much time around mob types.

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

[beaumontf]

He wasn’t going to answer that. He was too tired. So, he sipped his beer instead. He was still, unfortunately, not drunk enough for this conversation. They could think he was a minion or not, he didn’t give a shit what they thought of him right now. It was literally the smallest of his problems.

Finn grimaced. "I know you love homoeroticism, but I am not married to anyone.” Honestly, thanks to the dinner, he wasn’t even sure he was the kind of guy that could handle a girlfriend. That had been a lot tougher than he thought and he only had a few days of being with someone in public. “And since when do people get alone with their in-laws?” He was being nice so he wasn’t going to add you don’t but it was tempting. Damn him for being decent today.

Finally, they were listening to reason. And yet they were still talking nonsense. They know wanted to say they were coming to make sure that they didn’t lie for them anymore? No one had fucking asked them to. Unless Leo had, but that wasn’t his problem. He didn’t feel like responding to that either, so he turned towards Laila. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”

[khanlailakhan]

"Well that was... special." Laila said as the house finally went quiet again for one blissful moment in Tee's absence. Then Finn ruined it.

"Aren't you supposed to be 'taking care of' something? Rather than, I don't know, blowing up the electrical grid and ruining everyone's fun?" This was why she wanted Anu to be more careful with delegation. Tony needed small tasks that felt big, not whatever this was.

"I know you're mourning... something but before we get into that do me the courtesy of telling me the master plan so I can keep his sister from throttling him. And do not attempt machismo omerta bullshit with me. You don't have enough practice and I'm tired." She also had more machismo in her little finger than all of Tiny's little friends combined but she was being polite about it.

[wewerechildrenwerenotnow]

[beaumontf]

Finn tilted his head slowly. “I was, Tee. That’s why I was being nice to you.” He was too fucking tired and not nearly drunk enough for this conversation. He took another sip of his beer.

They didn’t want to admit defeat. He got that. But it was getting a little irritating. “So, just to be clear, first you think that I’m capable of murder. Now, you think that I’m a minion? That’s quite the switch in like two minutes.” He looked back over at Laila, clearly there was something else going on between the two of them.

“Frankly, I don’t give a shit what Laila thinks of me. We’re not exactly friends, we’re just adjacent to each other.” He could lose her favor and it wouldn’t mean shit to me. It wasn’t like Charlie moving out. Or Carmen ending things. Tony yelling at him for trying to save someone’s life. God, he’d swallowed a lot of shit in the past few days.

He rubbed at his forehead for a second. “Are you going to take my offer or not? Because if you’re really gunning for a fight with me, you’re gonna lose. My hands are clean.” They were. Tony’s…not so much. But Finn hadn’t been allowed in on the action and he could use that to his advantage here, even if it stung. “I am genuinely trying to help you here.” As much as it pained him to do it, it was the better choice. “Go home, Tee. Forget you came over here for whatever bee got in your bonnet. Skinny dip with Leo or whatever the fuck draws you two to each other and leave the justice department stuff to when you’re officially on the clock.”

[teeoakes]

Man, he was grumpy. It was not a side of Finn Tee was ever used to seeing. They had always had contact in extremely low stakes setting (either imaginary or at parties when they both had things they would have wanted to do much more.)

"Plenty of minions murder people. Haven’t you seen Star Wars?” Or the entirety of human history. They finished grumpily in their head. “And those guys can’t even aim.”

Tee took some small satisfaction in the way Laila took Finn’s pulling away from her. A slightly flutter of her eyelashes that was there and then gone, but things were not calm in the Alessi paradise. “That must be awkward. You’re basically in-laws.” That dreaded word had kept Tee and Leo apart for so long. It was petty to throw in their direction but everyone was at least a little petty in the dark, weren’t they?

They were usually pretty good at doing their own internal insight checks, and Finn certainly seemed like he felt his hands were clean. That didn’t mean they were, exactly. Finn’s family had too much money to ever be that. But it felt like there was more here. More than Tee could get away with pushing here.

“Sure. I’ll take your offer.” They’d even let the Leo remark slide, even if the gun so heavy they worried they’d fall over. Thinking of him helped. Remembering he was in the car helped. It slowed their rabbiting heart just long enough to say what needed to be said. “But I’m sick of lying for you people, if I haven’t made that clear.” They’d become someone they hated, bit by bit, like a frog being boiled in that metaphor that would never actually happen. “So stop making stupid decisions. If you’re capable of it.” They tossed the warning over their shoulder like a hand grenade and left out the front door, commending themselves for not slamming it.

@beaumontf

[talimontes]

Tali watched the wall move, her surprise barely registering. It made sense, honestly. And she knew she’d appreciate it more literally any other time. She took the book from Laila, examining the cover and spine, then back at where the button was, committing it all to memory.

Tali bit her bottom lip to stop it from quivering. “Britt died though,” she said quietly. “She was the experienced one. She did this kind of thing all the time. I wasn’t supposed to worry about her and she died.” Her throat burned with emotion. Tali had barely said goodbye to her when the group left. She had been so wrapped up in what was happening to her that she’d just waved her off before retreating to hide in Tony’s bedroom. Tali knew she’d regret that. She already did.

“I don’t care who he drags back as long as he does.” Maybe she should care a little about the other two. She’d developed a small appreciation for Cricket over time. But she could do this without those two. She didn’t know if she could do this without Tony.

“Can I tell you something?” Tali looked up at Laila, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. “A take it to the grave kind of thing?”

[khanlailakhan]

Well now this was tricky. How did one say that as impressive as Britt was, she wasn't Tony? How did one articulate killer instinct in a way that anyone other than Anu would understand? "Britt was killed, yes. Through no fault of her own, because of something no one expected. But Tony..." She took a deep breath. "Tony is tougher than he looks. And when pressed he can look pretty fucking tough." Britt wasn't. It was one of the things Laila would miss about her, that combination of strength and soft.

"Britt was an outdoorswoman, but Tony was raised to know how to keep people safe, to keep himself safe. He has to turn that quality on, but once it's there, you'd be hard pressed to find someone in this mess who's better equipped to deal with Jungle Book-esque nonsense." Laila was understandably not a fan of Rudyard Kipling, but Kaa had made an impression on her when she'd been forced to watch the Disney film in elementary school. Something about the notion of a hypnotic stare appealed, always having enough time to think, to pause and plan.

She finished by giving Tali a small smirk. "Don't you dare tell little Alessi I said he was this useful. Anu will kill me."

"Oh Tali." Laila cooed gently, going over to hug her. "Of course. You can tell me anything you like. I'm a steel trap. I'd give you examples but that would defeat the purpose right?" She gave her another small squeeze to reassure her.