Reality Check (G/t)

4 [i]

The serious nerve of that witch! Calling them downfalls!? How dare she!? Sure, pretty terrible results can occur, if they're in the wrong hands, but... 'downfalls?' Oh, just because she's an Abstract, 'Miss Tranquility', 'Feng Shui', or whatever-the-crap-her-name-is thinks she can just get rid of them? I may not be of the quote-unquote 'Sinful Temptations' class like most of these girls - I think that's what that idiot psychiatrist called it - but as a Concrete, I'm brutally offended. If he heard me before, he'll surely hear me now.

I push myself off the wooden surface and pivot to make my way to the other side, passing over a magazine and that sick choker he usually wears. I get to the opposite edge and prepare to make my jump onto the probably-firmer-than-it-looks bed... or Grey, whichever's my fate, until-

"I-I-Inez, d-don't." Oh, for the love of-

I look down to see Crystal peeking out from behind the leg of the bed. Her style is... popping, to say the least, looking like an ensemble that one of the few guilty pleasure pop singers Grey'll listen to in total secrecy would wear. What's her name, again? I should know this. Goo goo? La la? Ugh, whatever. Not my problem.

Anyhow, her fashion may be rock candy-esque and colorful, but she isn't. Her face is just as broken as her speech. I don't even know if that's still her natural symptom or if it's from being neglected. She was one to the last to be let go, so I bet it's still pretty hard for her. Not like MJ, but still bad.

"Crystal, please," I speak, still somewhat quietly to not be noticed yet. "I've got this. I don't have much to lose. I can take the bull by the horns."

She still tries to stop me, though. "I... Your, uh compassion is thoughtful and all, but really, it seems like Grey's talking 'bout some hard stuff right now..." Oh, so she heard, too? Then, why is she slowing me down? "...so, it'd be kinda rude to interrupt." The innocent little girl. Well, not Coco naive - that pale snow bunny - but still... She hasn't got a clue.

"Rude? That would be rude!?" I counter, obviously startling the young girl a bit. "No, rude would be someone just flipping some poor souls' lives and exposing them to whatever's in the outside world nonchalantly, just because a wannabe doctor and an immortal idol say so! Taking all they've ever known for the last almost ten years away and shutting it down is rude! A person to do that would be a low-down, sleazy, no good... err..."

"A no-good what?" Oh god. I wanted to be noticed - I wanted to tell it all - but not like this. "What? You're not gonna finish?" I can't even look. I won't look. I'm not- "Inez Sierra, look at me when I'm talking to you!" Oh, damn it, he put my program name in there, too? Fuuuu-

Slowly, I shift my gaze from the now petrified Crystal to the reclined, rough and tough, giant Grey flipped over and facing me, in his grunge-punk plaid and tatters. The condescendingly attentive look on his face - the piercings just complementing it - was stabbing, but not as much as Little Miss Sunshine's, poking up from behind his natural dip at the hip to look at him, looking as sweet and lovable as usual. Bite me.

Grey looks like he was going to speak, but I guess he saw my quick look to his bedside therapist, as he uses his free arm to pluck her from his back and set her in front of him... and me.

"Oh, have you not met Serenity?" he asks, sounding actually concerned.

Before I can give a smart answer, 'Serenity' - ugh, gag - replies for me, "Oh, n-no. Miss Inez and I have met on a few... occasions." What's with the hesitation there, cutie pie? Ya scurred? Freaking fairy.

Grey, being the inner teddy bear I've come to know him as for the last near-decade, questioned it. "Was she one of them, looking at you earlier?" 'Looking at her'? How would she know that if she wasn't being a nosy spy herself and looking at- Wait, did he say 'them?' They're just 'them' now!?