Investigative Batting [Brooke]

[Ides Alevi]

He was running as punctually on time as ever. It was, in fact, a matter of pride for Ides to never miss or be late to any class, barring uncontrollable circumstance such as extreme illness or death. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't almost late several times. So long as he remembered to set his watch alarm to remind him about his various classes, he managed to keep on top of things. If he forgot that though... well, his punctuality was much less predictable.

Today wasn't one of those days though. He was having fewer and fewer of them, in fact, as he learned to cope with the downside of his power. He checked his watch as he came to the college. Yes, running just a little early, which was right on time for him. Always better to be early, after all.

He was pleasantly unaware of his surroundings, as he accessed his memory for this particular class and reviewed various important points.

Studies > College > Classes > Interviewing II > Assignments

One paper due-- a three page interview, which he had safely stowed away in a folder in his backpack. Nothing else though, besides a Techniques essay which was due in two weeks.

> Interviewing II > Notes

He mused over these, very nearly tripping over the steps up to the college as he did. Sure, he had the place mapped out in his head, but that didn't mean he remembered to pay attention to it.

Eh, oh well. There were more important things, in the grand scheme of things, than nearly smashing one's face in on the steps.

> Interviewing II > Assigned Reading > Completed > Review

He was nothing if not prepared for class. Prepared for other, unforeseen happenings... Not so much. Especially in his half dazed state of reviewing the chapter he'd read, only registering surrounding people as nondescript blurs of movement around him, in favor of the words running through his mind.

[Deleted]

Brooke had memorized his schedule. Yes. That one. The one who had defeated her in battle. And now he was gonna rue the day, RUE the day! that he ever crossed the paths of a one Miss Kitty Brooke Llewelyn, that he was!

The kitten didn’t have much time, she herself had to be on the other side of campus in a matter of minutes….BUT THIS WAS IMPORTANT.

She knew exactly the where and when he was going to be at exactly this time, and it was already this time, so of course this took priority over anything else evah!

Brooke gripped the Louisville slugger firmly between her two itty-bitty hands as she peeked her head around the corner to see Sir. Knows-A-Lot a-coming down the walkway, looking about as smug and smart as he did on that fateful day. Boy, was he in for a surprise!

Her nose twitched as she picked up his scent. She flicked her kitty ear.

There were likely a few stares towards the partial cat-girl from random passers-by, but Brooke was blind to them. She was on a mission and it was nearly time to execute her attack. He was coming closer. And closer.

3…2…1…

STRIKE!!

“PREPARE YOURSELF FIEND!!!” she cried, revealing herself from around the corner. She took a running leap at him, using a nearby bench as a springboard to launch herself well into the air, holding the slugger clear over her head and coming down right for him!!

No, she wasn’t stupid. Her aim was to just barely miss and clobber a random object beside.

[Ides Alevi]

During such interviews, one must always keep in mind...

Mid-sentence, Ides became aware of shouting, from a familiar voice, a familiar voice that his mind pinged away from the reading review and crashed off to identify the origin.

Except, it didn't really have all that much time to do so, for as he roused from his half-lucid state, the last shouted word, "FIEND!!!" connected with someone flying toward him with a bat, effectively jarring any other thoughts from his mind.

He sidestepped, tripping over his sneakers in the process and throwing up an arm as an extra protective measure. "What in the hottest--" he gasped, staring at his "attacker" and preparing for what he assumed would be inevitable flight. A very hasty escape. But then the attacker's face clicked to a memory.

The Cat Girl from Sociology.

Of course.

"What are you doing??" he demanded. "This is far from accepted social protocol!" Wasn't it?? People said he was socially inept half the time, but he was more than 110% sure this was not correct. Despite this, he found himself strangely, simultaneously surprised and unsurprised at the turn of events.

Unsurprised because she had seemed beyond the generally accepted stereotype of women.

Surprised because... well, perhaps he'd underestimated her? Slightly?

Mental note: Be cautious of women with cat ears?

[Deleted]

“Drat! Missed!” she scoffed, her eyes zeroing in on her “intended” target. A smile reached her cat-lips.

His “persuasive” cries to get her to cease at once fell on dead kitten-ears, which only twitched in response to a breeze flowing over their tips. She made a dramatic display of it, twirling the bat in her hand and swinging it up and around until she finally pointed the blunt end at the one who offended her.

“YOU! Mr. Ides of March Alevi!” She’d gone out of her way to learn his name while she was figuring out his class schedule. “Prepareth to meetith thy maker!!” She swung the bat again until it was over her shoulder and ready to make a home run out of his head.

[Ides Alevi]

She was crazy! Had absolutely lost her sanity! Ides tripped backwards, one hand still up just in case. As she pointed and gave a speech about preparing to meet his maker, several retorts about the logic of her statement instantly popped into his head. He even opened his mouth and began, ""Meetith' is not proper Engl--" before she was swinging again.

While swiftly backpedaling, he swiftly scrabbled with his backpack, pulling it around as a makeshift shield. He would much rather his books were crushed than his skull, after all. His skull was much more valuable, what with all the knowledge he had built up there. Not to mention he didn't particularly want to end up in a hospital with doctors much less intelligent than himself. Or end up dead-- what a waste of potential that would be!

"Also, my name is not Ides 'of March'," he managed to get out while side and back-stepping in whatever fashion necessary to avoid the bat. He was still holding his backpack up as a shield, of course, but that didn't mean he wanted it to get struck!

[Deleted]

Lost her sanity? HA HA HA HA HA!! Brooke never had it in the first place!!

And Brooke wasn’t going to let him get a singe one of his “smarter than thou” words uttered before she attempted to bash in his head. His words were of the devil THE DEVIL I SAY!!

She had to admit, that he was a slippery fellow, dodging her swings left and right quite deftly, almost enough to color her impressed, but given that she wasn’t actually trying to hit him, Brooke had to disregard his swiftness.

Though if she knew any of the self-idolizing things he was thinking, the reasons for his sense of self-preservation, then Brooke might feel inclined to actually bash in his head. What was the typical sentence for murder? Twenty five years? She was still young enough that she could work with that. Brooke had plenty of time left to do her business!

“That’s a good enough name for you, Mr. March!” she harped, with her teeth bared, ears pushed back, and tail puffed out. Ooo, yes she was angry! She stopped swinging for a split second, holding the bat over her shoulder and glaring at her arch-nemesis. “You better run,” she advised. “‘less you want that pretty face of yours mooshed into the sidewalk.” She prepared herself to continue. Slowly, of course. Best give him a chance to get away, right?

[Ides Alevi]

Truth be told, Ides'd had quite a lot of experience dodging certain kinds of trouble in school. Bullies particularly. Mostly because they never seemed to appreciate his intelligence.

Just as this woman didn't seem to.

She also kept getting his name wrong. Purposefully.

"Look here!" he said, trying to reason with her again, but still running backward several paces. "This sort of brute action will do no good for you! Aside from--" he found the door, opened it, and backed in, figuring it would be better to take refuge in the college halls than running off on his own. If worst came to worst, it would be easier for him to get away, and she would (hopefully?) be less inclined to swing so madly with other people around. "Aside from briefly boosting your ego," he finished his earlier thought.

There was more he wanted to say, of course, things pertaining to self-esteem and brutality, but he figured it would be best to wait for those. If she started coming after him again, he would turn and run for it. Though it would be far from dignified, having a smashed skull would be even less dignified... or pleasant.

[Deleted]

BAH! This guy sure was dumb for a smart person. Of course Brooke appreciated intelligence. Her intelligence. Which she liked to so carefully mask behind her riddles and nonsense so she could whip it out unsuspectingly and subdue her evil-doer!!

“Silence!” she commanded, swinging the bat forward, just narrowly missing her offender. Brooke whined in protest, however, when he retreated to the inside of a building.

“Ah! No fair, no fair! Cheater! You’re always cheating!” she accused with a point of her finger. Brooke followed after him, though his strategy was well planned as she was indeed less inclined to swing under the prospect of possibly hitting one who didn’t deserve her wrath. She continued to shout inside. “You were cheating then and you’re cheating now! GIVE ME MY VICTORY!!”

If he ran, then she would give chase, weaving between the crowds of students and gently pushing them aside so as to not plow straight through them. Like that one dude from Assassin’s Creed, yup, she was totes like that all skillfully moving through the crowd. Though it was that which slowed her down and left Brooke unable to catch him in these halls. Yet.

[Ides Alevi]

No fair, she said! What was fair in this situation? In the conventional sense of fairness, of course-- fairness was a concept of extreme subjectivity. However, he was certain that in the socially accepted version of it, in no place was there a statement about fleeing a maniac with a bat being unfair. Or as "cheating".

"Wait a minute, how was I cheating?" he demanded, affronted enough at such an accusation to not turn tail and run quite yet. He prided himself on not cheating. In fact, he viewed cheating as one of the lowest things one could resort to in an attempt to boost their ego. He had no need to boost his ego, so why would he resort to cheating? "I resent that statement! And you should as well, for it is a slight to your own intelligence to resort to such juvenile and false accusations!"

He was still backing up, preferring to keep his attention on the insane girl before him rather than turning tail and running quite yet. He didn't particularly enjoy bumping into so many people, but it seemed the lesser of the two evils at the moment. He'd been in more than one situation with people who wished him bodily harm-- most of which were before Hammel and involved unsavory students. "To what sort of 'victory' are you referring, anyway?" he demanded. He presumed she meant the sort of victory that ended with a baseball bat making contact with any part of his body, but rather hoped not.

[Deleted]

Anything that didn’t go Brooke’s way was, of course, unfair to her. Screw logic and sense! This was a contest, after all, and in love and war, nothing was fair! So if he could be unfair by swindling his way into victory, then surely Brooke was justified in chasing him with her favorite baseball bat.

“Enough talk! There’ll be plenty of time for that when you’re burning in the fires of Mordor!!” Flattery from a person like him was pointless. It was like he was trying to rub it in, that despite Brooke’s unrivaled intelligence, his was still even better and there was no competition. So his recognition was about as valid as Captain Hammer telling the crowd that ‘everyone’s a hero in their own way’! It was utter horse-shit to Brooke.

“‘As a man sow, shall he reap. And I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory!’” she hollered, holding her bat above her head and howling like an enraged Tusken Raider. The hallways seemed to be slowly clearing out of people by now, possibly because there was a crazy girl with a bat chasing some smug, snaggle-toothed know-it-all. All the better for Brooke to catch up with him more faster!

[Ides Alevi]

Great, the cover of the crowd was thinning, making it all the more likely for him to get a face of baseball bat. And what was with Mordor?? He was fairly certain that was a reference to a book or movie, but in the heat of the moment, he couldn't quite pull up the correct memory. Must have been filed away somewhere in the "Irrelevant to Daily Life" area.

He darted into the nearest classroom not being used, and half darted into, half toppled over, the rows of desks, hoping they would offer some brand of fortitude while he continued to try and calm the enraged woman.

"Come, now! Please, let's talk this out! We could--er-- go get tea, or some other calming beverage, and you could express yourself in a-- a--" What was the word? Blasted adrenaline scrambling his mind. "In a different manner than the current!" He grabbed a chair for an extra measure of shielding, just in case, and looked around for any possible windows to light out of. First floor, so wouldn't necessarily be too dangerous, right?

[Deleted]

Oh-ho! Still refusing to yield to her authority, was he? Well, Brooke would chase him to the ends of the earth, through time and space itself, just to have her revenge!! Then! Only Then! We will see who was the last one to laugh! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Brooke followed the offender into the classroom - a pathetic, cowardly move, and stupid to boot considering he had no place to run from there - and slowly loomed forward. “Heh heh heh, I got you now, denizen of hell!” She rose the bat high above her head. “Prepare thyself!!” She was going to have his head on a stick if it was the last thing she—!

“Tea?” she looked at him incredulously. Brooke scoffed. “Do you really think my rage can be placated with a simple cup of tea!?” Brooke had to laugh! And she did, an echo of madness filling the empty classroom. She swung the bat up to rest on her shoulder and smirked own at him. “Make it a root-beer float and you got yourself a date.” She pointed a finger brazenly at Mr. Ides. “Just no funny business, got it?” Who knew what was going on in that filthy mind of his?

[Ides Alevi]

Ides wielded the chair in front of himself as a shield. Perhaps if he could angle the block right he could somehow twist the bat out of her grip... Really though, the first, foremost, and highest of importance was to get out of the unpleasant situation with as little damage as possible.

"Tea?" the woman asked, scoffing at the suggestion, and laughing of all things? Ides was not immediately sure whether he had made the situation worse or not. He wasn't sure what would be scoff-worthy about tea, but some uncultured people...

She'd swung the bat onto her shoulder though, a much safer position. He lowered the chair somewhat, though keeping a good grip on it, just in case. A root-beer float didn't sound like the best sort of beverage to have, considering. The combination of caffeine and sugar... Well, he could point that out another time. For once, he decided that pointing out an error would not be worthwhile. "Root-beer float, then," he said, hoping to continue the less tense atmosphere.

"Er... Understood. No funny business." He set the chair down and straightened his shirt. Sheesh. Thank goodness that episode was done. "What date and time works for you, Miss..." he trailed off, working to summon her name from wherever it had retreated to in his mind. He was certain he must have heard it in the course of class sometime... "Miss Llewelyn," he finished several moments later.

[Deleted]

Root-beer floats were the bestest best drink in the wholeness of the wide world! And Mr. Ides Smarty Pants was gonna treat her, yay! Brooke didn’t know why that made her happy outside of the fact that she got a free sweet treat out of it. And of course because the usurper finally relented to her will and confessed to his wrongdoings(when?). Besides, root-beer floats. <3

“Great,” she harumphed, sending a very sharp nod down at her would-be victim. Funny business would not be tolerated, not if Brooke had anything to say about it! Though she was still cautious to the sense that this may just be a trickery trap he laid out for her in order to humiliate her once again! Because if he did it once, then that was proof enough that he was going to be a repeat offender, it was a pattern already before it was a pattern!

Because logic.

“Mmmmmm,” Brooke hummed, pressing a finger to her chin. “Howww ‘bout….now and now, that sound good?” Brooke turned back to Ides and smile like the innocent she was. Brooke let the bat drop from her shoulder to drag on the floor behind her as she pressed forward to him. She leaned forward, closing in the distance little-by-litle, and tee-hee-heeing the whole way. “Annd……call me Brooke, Mr. Ides.” She stuck out her tongue at him and raspberried.

[Ides Alevi]

Now and now? Ides shook his head. "I'm sorry, I happen to have a class that begins in..." He glanced down at his watch. .... Ten minutes ago. Ugh. He looked up again, frowning his disapproval. "You have caused me to be late for a class," he stated. Sure, he knew the information, but it was nonetheless inconvenient.

Well, may as well get this root-beer float thing out of the way now, he supposed, to prevent future mishaps of this sort. He sighed. "Where is it you wish to have your root-beer float, Miss Llewelyn...?" Yes, "Miss Llewelyn". If she insisted on calling him "Mr. Ides", well. He frowned a bit at her proximity to him. Not that it made him uncomfortable, not a whole lot did (one of those things being mad people running about with bats) but he simply saw no reason for approaching someone so closely in their situation.

Women.

.... Or "girls" perhaps, he corrected himself, after she stuck out her tongue and raspberried. That was hardly woman-ly behavior. However, he kept the thought to himself-- she still had the bat, after all, and still didn't seem particularly stable. "Shall we go?" he inquired. The sooner he got this over with, the better...