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Post by zuyuri on Nov 19, 2022 16:24:20 GMT
Hold on. Where did this sudden spike of sweetness come from? Spike didn’t seem like the person to go incredibly soft in the drop of a hat. But then again, she didn’t really know him all that well. Don’t judge a book by its cover and all. What hypocrite was she being then if she was making assumptions about someone d she just met. “That’s…very appreciated.” Might as well keep the honey flowing, not the vinegar.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 20, 2022 18:34:29 GMT
Zelda's response was a bit stiff. Maybe she was always like that when she met strangers? Spike hoped she could loosen up a little bit. Life passed you by if you stood on the sidelines all the time. "Haven't gotten a response like that for a compliment, but I'll take it," he said. At least she hadn't freaked our or told him to beat it. He had plenty of flirting stories that ended badly.
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Post by zuyuri on Nov 20, 2022 18:47:14 GMT
"When one receives compliments for years, you begin to doubt the truth to them," she said bluntly. Years of standing by her senator father like a little doll and being told nice things after another grew old. Beneath the comments of 'pretty' and 'smart', there was always that layer of unspoken truth of how they really felt. Simply saying it to stay on her father's good side. Even flirts had that sense.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 28, 2022 1:53:17 GMT
"Compliments for the gear head stuff?" Spike asked. If you were a genius student, praise did follow you wherever you went. Spike's childhood had been like that. Anything his parents did was always praised highly, and for a while, people had done the same with him when they'd expected him to be a great superhero like them. But after his incident, people were starting to have doubts, although they never said them in front of him or his parents.
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Post by zuyuri on Nov 29, 2022 1:34:28 GMT
Zelda nodded. "That and other things that tend to shadow you when money is involved whenever your family walks into the room." Her intelligence was onyl second fiddle to the status she had as a senator's daughter. As such, people didn't see her so much as a hero than she was, well, a bargaining tool. Play nice with her, and you got to talk to her father and vice versa. Rhoam Kaiser was a politician may people wanted to rub sleeves with, and as such, made being herself difficult.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 30, 2022 1:53:08 GMT
Spike gave a little nod. "I get that." His drink sloshed around slightly in his cup before he continued. "Similar with my parents. Fame follows them everywhere and when you're their kid...your bar is set really high." Spike wasn't sure if it was the alcohol making him a little more talkative, but he couldn't help but feel like the pressure Zelda was facing wasn't too different from his own.
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Post by zuyuri on Nov 30, 2022 2:06:47 GMT
“Well, at least you have both parents in the picture.” Not that her father was a bad parent in terms of physical abuse, but the hold left in his absence when he went away on long trips was fairly noticeable. He never married after her mother died, meaning she also didn’t have any step mother to truly find her guidance for all this navigating social norms. Both parents even if absorbed by money, was better than being an orphan.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 2, 2022 2:53:22 GMT
Spike had a pretty good guess about what Zelda's statement meant. He wasn't so sure about it though. If he had to choose, would have just his mom? Or his dad? Both of them were kind of the same when it came to putting pressure on him. It was pretty much a lose-lose situation. "More doesn't always mean better," was all he said in reply.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 2, 2022 17:28:44 GMT
Zelda didn’t say anything, but simply a nod would do. Parental life was a touchy subject. There were orphans or strained relationships or the very occasional healthy connections. Dorothea was the only person she could think of at the top of her head with a semblance of normalcy in her talks with her mother, and it made her feel jealous.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 4, 2022 0:11:37 GMT
Zelda only nodded in response. That was enough for Spike. It seemed like both of them had some kind of family issue, but now wasn't the time to dive into them, if ever. Any kid here who had a bad home life tended to keep it shut under lock and key. Heck, some of the teachers were the same. Spike had heard more than a few rumors about some of them. He finished off the last of his drink and sighed. "Well, there goes my main source of entertainment tonight," he said, tossing the cup into a trash can.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 5, 2022 0:05:40 GMT
The cup rattled as Spike tossed it away, and he muttered something about entertainment being done for the night. Zelda looked at where it had been, then to the punch bowl, and then to Spike. The gears in her head turned. He had been nursing his cup all through their talk. Drink was gone. That only meant one thing. “Exactly how many of those do you go through? You’re not as taken down as Professor Constantine but at the same time, you still have…”
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 5, 2022 3:10:45 GMT
Zelda quickly figured out what exactly Spike had been drinking, which wasn't too hard. Anyone who hung out with him long enough would have figured it out. "Enough to make this not entirely a bore," he replied. "And I'm betting at hiding it than Mr. Constantine." Sure, the guy was pretty chill, as Spike had found out during detention. Students had started gossiping pretty fast about his drinking problem. Whether they actually believed it, or just enjoyed some good rumors, was up for debate.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 5, 2022 5:24:16 GMT
“Exactly. You’ve practically…” But as Zelda realized her voice was getting louder, she lowered it. No need for teachers to catch her yelling. She’d prefer to rat out troublemaking the old fashioned way. “You’ve practically used sleight of hand to make it appear.” The drinking didn’t engage her - she’d rather drink water flavored with sadness - but the way Spike got it past security did. He’d be a good espionage hero.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 7, 2022 2:43:00 GMT
"Was that a compliment I heard?" Spike asked teasingly. At least Zelda was cool with it, or at least wouldn't rat him out. You could never tell with nerd types. Some were more in the "teacher's pet" category and liked to tattle-tale. At least, that was how Spike saw it, completely ignoring the fact that underage drinking was dangerous in multiple ways.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 7, 2022 17:52:06 GMT
“Now don’t push your luck there.” The only incentive she had on telling on Spike was if he started hurting people. So far, so good. He was mostly drinking for enjoyment just as she was playing with her tech. It was none of her business as to why he drank to begin with.
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