Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Take stock of your personal relationships today. Consider which areas could use improvement.
After School
Octavia is at Music Club, and seems to be in much better spirits than she was the last time I saw her. Vinyl is with her.
I move to sit with them, tuning my guitar as I sit down. "How's it going?" I ask.
"Much better," Octavia says. "I've...I've moved back home with my parents. Vinyl spent Spring Break at my house." She frowns. "Mother...is beginning to accept that her constant efforts to control my life are tearing our family apart. Getting her to accept that I might...that I might want to make a future with Vinyl...that's going to be much harder, but..." She sighs. "At the very least, she understands Vinyl more now and..." She makes a pained face. "More or less respects her."
Vinyl snorts. "You mean she's stopped calling me 'the cripple' when I might be within earshot," she mutters.
"Yes," Octavia says with an apologetic grimace. "Anyway...we almost hit a bit of a snag when we decided to experiment with...what was it you called it?"
"Electric cello dubstep," Vinyl says.
"Mother did not approve," Octavia says, frowning. "She called it an insult to the purity of classical music."
I wince. "How'd you handle that?"
"By ignoring her and practicing together anyway," Vinyl says. "If we can't hear her bitching over our sweet beats..." She trails off with a massive grin.
"There are still...issues," Octavia says. "But we're taking things one step at a time."
"That's good," I say. "I'm glad to hear it."
The Reserved Musician Social Link of the Hanged Man Arcana has reached rank 8!
Your power to create Personas of the Hanged Man Arcana has grown!
The girls spend the rest of the afternoon grilling me about my Spring Break. When club lets out, I head back to the dorm.
Evening
After dinner, Rainbow Dash asks me to go outside and kick the soccer ball around for a little while. She seems unusually pensive this evening...
"So, uhh...I've been wantin' to talk to you for a while now," she says. "About..."
She starts bouncing the ball on her knee.
"Look, this talkin' about my feelings crap is...it's hard for me," she says. "But...I wanted to say...you've helped me out a lot since you came here.
"Ever since junior high, kids've been raggin' on me. Like those jerks that thought I didn't deserve to be captain, or all those jerks that kept sayin' I was gay...I acted like it didn't bother me, but..." She sighs. "It did. All that shit...I guess in the back of my mind, it was makin' me doubt myself.
"When those punks crippled me, I...I was so scared. And...and there were times I thought, this is it. I'm done. I'll never play soccer again. I'll never be awesome again. But you were there...you and the others...you helped me out, got me back in the game.
"And then this whole Celestia thing..." She laughs. "I'm still dealin' with that, and I'm as confused as ever about sex stuff, but..." She smiles. "It's okay, you know? I'm me. What I do and who I do it with...that's my business and nobody else's. If some jerk wants to give me grief about it, let 'em. Let those dumbasses at school call me a queer all they want. It's just words. They don't know me, so they don't matter."
She kicks the ball over to me; I kick it back.
"I'm...not movin' out of the dorm, even though Dad's comin' home," she says. "Livin' here is too awesome, and...and I wanna be with my friends." She smiles. "I've got the rest of my life to be with Dad, but high school doesn't last forever, y'know? Besides...I need to stick around to help you guys deal with Sunset Shimmer and all this Zodiac stuff."
She dribbles the ball for a bit, then kicks it at me with enough force to knock the wind out of me.
"I guess...I guess what I'm sayin' is...you've been an awesome friend, helpin' me practice, teachin' me guitar, pickin' me up when I was down, and..." She blushes. "The whole sex thing..." She shakes her head and smiles. "Thanks. Really.
"Oh! I wanted to give you somethin'." She hands me a sky blue guitar strap with her cloud-and-lighting-bolt emblem embroidered into it. "I, uhh...I had a pair of these made," she says, blushing. "One for me, one for you. So that no matter where we end up, we'll always be friends..." She ducks her head. "Man that sounded sappy..."
I smile. "Thanks, Rainbow." I pull her into a hug. "You're awesome. Don't ever let anybody tell you otherwise."
"Heh." She gives me a playful punch on the shoulder. "Don't you forget it."
The bond thou hast nurtured hath finally matured.
The innermost power of the Chariot Arcana hath been set free.
We bestow upon thee the ability to summon Gamera, the ultimate form of the Chariot Arcana...
The Rainbow Dash Social Link of the Chariot Arcana has reached its maximum level!
Flash Sentry has mastered the Rainbow Dash Social Link!
The power to create Personas of the Chariot Arcana has reached its maximum!
Flash Sentry has forged a bond that cannot be broken!
Flash Sentry can now summon Gamera, the Guardian of the Universe!
Rainbow's realization of loyalty to her friends and to herself has awakened her true potential!
Nike has been reborn as Nike Invicta!
We keep kicking the ball around until it gets too dark to see, then head back inside. I attach the new strap to my guitar, then clean up and get ready for bed.
