Alli looked at Feanor of the Peredhil in a way that seemed to convey a bit of every emotion except immediate liking.
"Hi, Feanor." She said without much friendliness. She thought it the nice thing to do, if not the thing she cared most for.
"Hi. Call me Fea, please, not Feanor. The whole Peredhil thing was just me being a
presumptuous fifteen year old that felt the need to add an Of The to everything. I wrote this really lame story once--"
"I don't care." Alli cut off sharply. "I don't mean to be rude, but I think that it would be far ruder if I actually let you continue in this vein long enough to let you think that I cared before springing it on you. Better to know early, right?"
Feanor looked at her with a bit of a questioning smirk. Uncharacteristically, she refrained from saying the first thing that popped into her head.
"Good. Glad we've got this straight. Listen... if you do anything, Fea, to screw up my chances of getting home, you're going to have me to deal with. I get cranky when I get stuck in situations that I don't like."
"It's happens." shrugged Fea, unconcernedly. "You just tell me what you want me to do and I'll seriously consider it for a few seconds before completely ignoring you and following my own agenda. And um... my agenda currently has zilch to do with you. And just so you know? If you don't want somebody to talk to you, you shouldn't initiate a conversation with them. You know... just for future warning. And if you want to snag one of those guys, which, by the way you're wearing your pants too low and your shirt unbuttoned a bit too far, you are, you're not going to do much a job with it if you act like a [deleted] to everyone you meet."
Alli blushed and cringed. She deserved it, she knew, but that didn't make the sting hurt any less. She shouldn't have been mean to this Feanor. With mere words, the pretty lass could make her feel the lowest of lows. Look, she could do it now: "Alli felt the lowest of lows."
Illamatar above, it was like listening to herself shoot down somebody else... only she'd deserved it and they usually didn't. Alli didn't look forward to an unspecified amount of time living in the same village as Feanor of the Peredhil. What if... what if Mardil? No... she wasn't going to think of that.
Alli watched Fea walk away from her and looked on as she struck up conversation in turn with everybody present.
"Hey Elempi." she smiled, shaking his hand. "Glad to finally meet you. The correspondence through all of this time has been most appreciated. Fordim, most sorry to say, I'm considering a transfer, but not to your school. I guess you'll still not be giving me that A you promised when I schpealed about feminism on your Hobbit thread. Mardil, I've heard your name. I'm familiar with your ancestors. Pass on my regards to the family, should the occasion arise. Hookbill, I'm glad to see you're doing better. No worries... the fiend responsible will surely be brought to justice. Mormegil, it's been ages. Remember that werewolf game? Fun times... We slayed them something fierce... Ah, Nilp. Or is it Alice today? I seem to remember seeing an Emily recently... how goes it with you? Saucie... most glad to see you." She bowed slightly, barely angling her torso from where it had been, but the small motion seemed to convey infinate respect. Alli looked on jealously. Did this girl know everybody? Ugh... how was this fair? Next thing you know, she'll go talk to... "Aimè, I'm glad to see you. This shall be fun, no?"
No. No. Alli told herself. This wasn't possible. How could this... this... this stupid
know-it-all girl show up and start talking with everybody? How could she possible have the sort of people skills required to talk equally comfortably with everybody present? How the freak did she even know these weird people? They weren't Offenders. Doubleyooteeyef did Anakron have up his sleeve this time?
Suddenly a very oddly convenient rock flew through the air and knocked Alli out. Her body lay motionless on the hard ground for several moments as the follow song played for her alone:
Oh, give me a home where the dwarven folk roam
Where the hobbits and elf children play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day
Here, here does he range
Where the bad guys like Mario slay
Where seldom is heard a soft-spoken word
And the skies are freakin' cloudy all day.
Alli woke up at random, miffed that nobody had notice her get knocked out by a large rock that had come from nowhere. What in the world was with these stupid dreams?
"
Illamatar, should I be paying attention to this dream too? Hm? This is some ultra-important vision that I just had?"
"Baaaaaa."
"What?"
"Oh [deleted]."
"Illamatar, you swear?"
"What?"
"You swore."
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"Are you arguing with your Creator, missy?"
"No, sir."
"All right then."
With a poof, the disembodied voice disappeared without actually answering the question.
Oh this is going to be loads of fun, thought Alli sarcastically. First my side-plot turns corporeal, then Illamatar shows up to tell me that my dreams are of immense importance, but won't explain what, and now Anakron's got random people that seriously don't look Middle Earthian showing up. And I do NOT like the way that Aimè and Mardil are looking at this Feanor chick. And she's just soaking up the attention. Ooooh, she fumed. Adjusting her pants and re-buttoning her shirt (who was this girl to
judge her anyways... it had been necessary to
dress trashily to get back!), Alli vowed that no matter what this Fea girl tried, she would upstage her.
"No you won't. Baaaa." came from the sky. Alli grumbled unintelligibly at her Maker and waiting quietly next to Sai in order to figure out just what was going on. She knew that she needed to talk to "Aimè" again, but that could wait. After all... she didn't want the group to know exactly what was going on... knowing her luck, they'd all just gang up on her and kill her without bothering to listen to a single word she had to say.
Sai reached over and squeezed Alli's hand for a moment, giving her a reassuring look. Only Flein noticed. The rest of the group was too busy with its own issues.