High Cost of Living // The Waiting Game

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Set in the last week or so. A moment in time, not unlike others that came before and some that will come after. Knowing someone's dirty little secrets sometimes gives you a whole new perspective on things.

Staring at the screen in disbelief and disgust, Alison finally slammed the lid of her portable shut, probably with too much force for its own good, but really, she didn't care just then.

It certainly beat walking out of her room to plant a fist in a student's face for excessive hypocrisy, underhandedness and self-righteous stupidity, she supposed. The sly, unsubtle little comments had been growing ever present of late and the blatantly evident self-centered outlook over the last few weeks – which had always been a thematic when one looked back with a certain perspective in mind, she realized – had done nothing but explode all over the place. Me, me ,me, that's all she's about, isn't it? Unbelievable. Shaking her head, Alison walked to the window, glad she'd received the email from Strange but moments before confirming their current stance, before having to re-iterate to Pete that they weren't going to interfere. Yet.

Observe. Do nothing. Say nothing. Don't let on that you know. She has her own Path to walk, and her Decision to make.

He'd even capitalized the words path and decision, of all things. She'd have thought it high and mighty of him, were it not for the worry and despair bleeding over the rest of the email he'd sent to her, confirming what Pete had told her and letting her know that both he and Romany knew and were trying to see what they could do on the magical side of things.

She'd requested his help in neutralizing Selene, then. His answer to that had been a single word.

Yes.

Alison was, really, glad that Pete wasn't seeing this behavior from up close. It was enough that he had to have been the one to find out what was going on and report to her upon it. It was enough that she'd had to tell him not to step in now since it would do not good, and instead ruin everything that had been started so far. It was devastatingly enough that he'd had to go through that, after everything he was doing and the hell he was putting himself through in part for the selfish brat's sake.

Yes indeed.

Staying away from Amanda was the best thing to do. Because if she had to look at the girl's face even once, Alison didn't trust herself not to say exactly what she thought of her. It was one thing to have people out to kill you out there, willing to do anything to bring you down. It was quite another thing to discover that one of those who claimed to want to walk on the side of the angels allied herself with the very kind of people who wanted them all dead.

Yes, in very deed.

The moment Amanda had made the choice to go to Selene, and then continued to make that choice with every passing day, every single moment, she'd forfeited the right to anything but dealing with the consequences of her actions when the time came, whatever those might be.

But if she thought she might get any pity from Alison now...

No. Avoiding Amanda certainly wouldn't be a problem from now on. Alison had been doing that already since she'd received the news from Pete. And she'd keep on doing just that.

You only got spit in the face so many times before you decided to stop giving someone the chance to do that again.