(2017-02-01) What Supergirls Talk About
What Supergirls Talk About
Summary: Kaylee is being Kaylee in the Ocean Hub and disturbs Rebecca's sleep, while Dianli practices control over her powers.
Date: 2017-02-01
Related: None
NPCs: None
Scene Runner: NA
Players:
dianli..kaylee..rebecca..

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Ocean Floor Hub Coral Springs

The central hub of the lowest level is utilitarian in nature, simply an open space with white walls. There are serval tunnels leading off from here. One is wide open and the ocean can be glimpsed from this tunnel, it is marked Paragon Island. There are double doors that can seal off this tunnel if needed. Of the other tunnels, the prominent ones hold plaques overhead. Each indicated it belongs to one of the four school teams. There is an occasional soft sofa like bench all the walls for students, along with some plants that do not require much sunlight.
-

With it being winter and cold outside, most of the students have been staying indoors a fair amount of the time. This would most certainly include Kaylee Blake, who is absolutely a bigger fan of warm weather. Unfortunately for the rest of the school, there is one rather large side effect of Kaylee being cooped up inside more: ENERGY.
With all of the artificial lighting, Kaylee has been soaking up boatloads of power, and with little outlet other than just plain old glowing, she's been fairly bouncing off the walls most of the time. Which is why she's in the hub pretty much all by herself tonight, singing not-so-quietly to herself while she works on her homework, laying on the floor and kicking her legs. ~~Am I out of my head, am I out of my mind/If you only knew the bad things I like/Don't think I can explain it/What Can I say, it's complicated~~

Looking bleary eyed, Becca stumbles through the wall between her room and the hub with a pillow in hand. The pj clad girl walks over to Kaylee wordlessly and shoves the pillow over Kaylee's head. She's clearly got an opinion on the loud singing voice. Granted, she's also in bed a little earlier than usual too. Or was.

"Pretty much" is correct. Sitting quietly beside a potted plant, to which currently, with her hair standing on end, she approximately resembles, Dianli is in a lotus, hands held upward on her knees, cupped to form a big "O" with all her fingers against her thumb. Little sparks of light dance at the tips of her hair and are quickly squelched as her face, eyes closed, reacts with visible concentration.
Becca's sudden interruption throws her off balance and a myriad of sparks appear before arcing between them with an audible "SNAP!" sound. Dianli opens her eyes and sighs, slumping a little bit.
"Better luck next try," she murmurs, forgetting how good the acoustics are in the dome.

Kaylee smiles and waves atta Becca when she comes through the wall, but then goes back to her homework … until there's a pillow onna head! She meeps and flails a little, glowing soft orange for several seconds as she pulls the pillow away and twists up into a sitting position. "I wasn't singing THAT loud, was I? I wasn't meaning to … I didn't think anybody in the dorms could hear me," she says, obviously feeling rather sheepish. She pouts at Becca apologetically, ducking her head down between her shoulders. "I'm really sorry if I was bothering you, Rebecca. I didn't mean to."

Beating Kaylee with the pillow half heartedly, Becca murmurs "I beat chu, I beat chu." and sits back on the air lightly. Looking at Dianli, she glances down at her pjs and hugs her pillow to her chest. "Evening." She yawns and blinks at both girls.

"Evening," Dianli replies quietly. "And I don't think your singing was too loud," she adds, directing it to Kaylee. "It was just the right volume for me to practice my control exercises." She eyes the singed leaves next to her head. "Still needs some work," she adds ruefully.

Kaylee snickers at Rebecca's murmuring and peeers at the girl, adjusting her glasses as she looks at her. "Somebody is seepy-seepy," she coos, wrinkling her nose at Rebecca. She cants her head to the side and adds, "How come you're not in bed?" At Dianli's comments about it still needing work, Kaylee grimaces a little. "… gosh, so I WAS being a distraction? I'm sorry, guys. I'm really trying my best not to bug the heck out of everybody but with all of this energy I can't really NOT do stuff and it's late and stuff so I didn't wanna go to the gym all by myself but Violet's trying to sleep because she's been so tired with work and school and Wozzy's sleeping in the Prometheus Hub so I can't hang out there which is why I came out here and thought maybe I wouldn't be bothering anybody but I guess I was wrong." And then she takes a breath and sighs.

Crossing her legs, Becca shakes her head. "I was, but I heard noises so I came out." She explains and rubs her eyes. "My headboard is just on the wall so I hear things." She shrugs, not too concerned. She's content to sit, levitating in a sense, and eyeing Kaylee. "I was doing extra gym, but now I have unit training too. Have you tried blowing off steam in like a bath, or a pool? Bet your power looks cool in water."

"A good distraction in my case," Dianli clarifies. "I need to learn to control this stuff even under noisy or distracting circumstances if I'm ever going to have anything like a normal life ever. I appreciated the song. I just … well, got so used to the distraction that when it went away I slipped."
She grins wanly.
"I guess it's just the story of my life. I get it coming and going."
Dianli glances over at Becca. "Grounding me takes away my power, actually. Submersion in water, especially salt water. Coils of wire connected to ground. Anything like that. I sleep in a rig that grounds me so I don't kill my roomie and possibly the whole school because of a nightmare."

Kaylee shakes her head, shrugging her shoulders. "I really don't like swimming much and it's not like we've got a hot tub outside of the training room- and we're not supposed to use that except for muscle stuff, so," she responds. Then, she cants her head to the side and thinks. "You know, I haven't ever tried using my powers under water, even back home in the baaath…," she trails off, when Dianli starts talking about HER powers. Which makes a lot more sense to Kaylee, since electricity under water would be way more impressive than light. She ducks her head and blushes, glowing softly, a light pink hue. "At least you know there's a way to turn yours off, Dianli. I've gotten so bad, Violet has to wear blinders cuz I start glowing in my sleep."

"You just need darker sheets." Becca nods and tosses the pillow lightly at Kaylee. "Poor little glow bug. At least it's not nightmares…" She trails off and looks back up at Dianli with a nod. "We put a sheet with magic written on it under my sheets to keep me from phasing into the ocean floor." She admits and shrugs. "There are some benefits to weaknesses."

"If someone gave me a way to turn this off forever, I would take it without thinking," Dianli says, arcing some between her right thumb and forefinger. "It causes me nothing but trouble. It causes … well, others … nothing but trouble. Nobody even knows how I do it yet, though, so nobody knows how to shut it off. Or if it can be."
She stands up and gets a bit closer to the pair, still hovering when she stops at the outer edge of comfortable social distance.
"We're here for them to study us, though, right? As well as for our own studies?"

Kaylee giggles and wrinkles her nose at Becca. "We still sleep in the same bed, lots," she responds to the darker sheets comment. "Even though we've broken up, I really get lonely when I'm not snuggling, now. Especially when she's RIGHT THERE. I mean, you've gotta know what that's like, right?" Kaylee reaches down and picks at the leg of her sweats a little, trying to distract herself. But then, Dianli's bemoaning her powers and Kaylee offers her a sympathetic pout, bottom lip coming out. "Aww, Dianli! Don't say that!" she encourages. "I don't think they're here to really STUDY us. I mean, not unless we're really out of control. A lot of the times, they want us to find out on our own. But, if you were REALLY dangerous, they'd be doing stuff to protect you and protect us. They obviously trust you enough, so you should trust yourself more!"

Dianli closes her eyes, eyes moving like she's remembering something.
"They weren't the one … at the studio," she finally says, eyes re-opening. "I don't think they know yet what I am. I don't know what I am. Or why I am."
She shrugs.
"But you're probably right. They may be ignorant, but they're not stupid. They probably think it's a calculated risk putting me with regular people; that I'm ready to be integrated or something. And they've been really nice to me. I've only had a few detentions."

"Study enough to give us control, or relief." Becca nods. "But I've been here like three years, plenty of time to get a grip." She smiles and shakes her head. "It can be lonely." She agrees with Kaylee and lets out a breath. "Gonna be tough, but I can visit him, on the weekends." She muses and offers Kaylee a sympathetic pat. "I'm sorry your powers don't have an off, Dianli. I hope they figure out help for you soon. I recently learned there were others like me-and they…never made it as old as I am. I think martial arts taught me to ground myself in the moment and it keeps me solid. I know being in the moment helps Dax too. He uses a watch, I use my breathing-to steady my chi."

Dianli closes her eyes, eyes moving like she's remembering something.
"They weren't the one … at the studio," she finally says, eyes re-opening. "I don't think they know yet what I am. I don't know what I am. Or why I am."
She shrugs.
"But you're probably right. They may be ignorant, but they're not stupid. They probably think it's a calculated risk putting me with regular people; that I'm ready to be integrated or something. And they've been really nice to me. I've only had a few detentions."
At Becca's mention of the martial arts, Dianli nods, her smile warming a bit. "Wushu was an option for me, but I was already a performer so I chose to lose myself in music instead. Having something else to focus on helps with control."

Kaylee blinks at Becca, canting her head to the side. "What's gonna be tough? I thought you and Daxton were getting back together?" she says, confused. But then Dianli is talking about stuff that confuses Kqylee more and she blinks, turning back towards the other girl again. "What do you mean you don't know what you are? You're human, aren't you? … or are you like, an experiment like Mabel or a like an alien like Ollie or Taka?" And then she changes gears again. "Did you know that Ryuunoske is a snake? Like, he thinks he's like, literally a snake. And he has these shadows that turn into snake heads. They're really weird. OH, and there's Wozzy! He's a bear! I mean, he's not really a bear, he's a boy, but he's turned into a bear and he's stuck that way. So at least you're not a bear. That wouldn't be much fun. Though I really like it because he's so great for snuggles. Can you imagine how hard it would be to keep all your fur clean, though? Gosh! That would be like, the worst. Except I don't know, maybe if there was someone to help brush it, cuz I really really love having my hair brushed, so like maybe that wouldn't be too bad …," she ponders, tapping her lips as she looks off into space.

"We are together, but he graduates this year and I still have a year, so he wouldn't be…five walls away, he'd be you know, at their house, or off doing missions." Becca sighs. "I still haven't taught him much to cook, but AT is ALMOST as good as me, so I guess they won't starve while I'm in school…" She shakes her head and fishes a cord out from the collar of her pjs. "He gave me a house key and everything, though." She smiles at that and tucks it away again as she nods to Dianli. "Music is nice, present. Maybe Kaylee needs music or like, Tai Chi to level her energy out."

Dianli swivels her gaze over at Kaylee. "We're assuming for now that I'm human," she half-agrees. "But nobody knows for sure where I come from. I came from nowhere, for all practical purposes. Then I got used for entertainment. Then I was locked away. I've never really had a chance to learn much about myself, you can see."
At Rebecca's suggestion, Dianli cups her chin and regards Kaylee.
"You seem to like singing," she says, addressing the girl. "Perhaps music would be a way for you to focus and channel your power? I could help teach you, or at least practice with you?"

"Oh! Yeah, Violet's a senior, too, I wasn't even thinking about that," Kaylee says, an aura of soft blue suddenly appearing around her as her mood droops. "And no, I don't really need to channel my power. I just … like, I'm a sponge. I'm ALWAYS absorbing photons, whether I'm trying to or not. I've really been trying to work on endurance and being able to hold more, but …. I mean, there's only so much I can hold before I leak." Then, she looks down and notices the blue shimmer around her body and sighs, holding her hands up. "Like this. I'm pretty full right now, so pretty much any time my mood changes, bing! Mood lighting," she says, letting the blue aura disappear. "Plus, like, I'm SUPER ready to go right now. Like, wanna go for a jog? I'm game. 21? Let's go! 5-on-5 for an hour? You betcha. I'm all charged up and stuff, so I'm not really sleeping as much. Really … once I'm done with my homework, I'll probably go shoot beams and stuff until I'm empty. Then I'll be able to get to sleep better." Then, she considers Dianli a little more for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders. "And you sure look like a human, Dianli. You don't bounce light back funny at all!"

"Well, humans don't just…become, she could be like, a spirit of lightning." Becca theorizes. "Born of storms and wild energy. Sounds beautiful-to be honest. Beats test tube baby lab experament." The floating girl winks and nods to Kaylee. "Dax has to run it all off too or he doesn't sleep well. I totally understand. The snow's been driving him up a wall."

Dianli, without warning, purely for shock value, lights up. For a brief instant there's a blue umbra around her. For two seconds or so her hair stands on end, a bright spark of light shining and crackling at the tip of each stand or clump. A fraction of a second after that a large, 1cm rope of raw electrical power leaps from one hand to another. It then separates from her body and spins, unsupported, in space before her. Another quickly joins it, the pair of spinning bars mutually revolving around each other.
"Still think I look human?" she asks, gazing at Kaylee, her eyes glowing with hellishly-bright blue intensity from the reflected light of her manifestation. "Is this light funny enough?"
Then, with a visible effort of will, she directs both arms at a nearby open pipe. With a scream of effort she directs all of her power to that pipe, causing a miniature thunderclap as she grounds herself. In the sudden silence her aura disappears and she slumps.
"And the worst," she says resignedly, "is that this doesn't deplete me." She illustrates by arcing between her thumb and forefinger again. "It's always there."

Kaylee meeps at Dianli's declaration. Though, she shakes her head when she's done. "Yes. You still look human. All of that? It's no different than me," she says. "If I want? I can let the light just pour out of me, too. Skin, hair, eyes, mouth …. I mean, the only difference is, it's only light. It can't really hurt anyone unless I'm really trying. But that doesn't mean I'm not human." Kaylee also considers what Becca says about the being made of lightning, smiling a little at the thought. "You know, I don't really think it matters what you were. I mean, look at people like Tabby, or Ollie, or Mabel. Last year, they may have been totally different. But that's okay. It doesn't matter. What matters is what you are, right now, and what you want to be." She smiles a little, ruefully, shrugging her shoulders up. "None of us can control who we were. But we can each try, every day, to be a little bit better than before. There's lots of stuff I wish was different about the past. And there's stuff I dunno or don't really understand. But, I just keep trying to learn and trying to do better. And it works out, more often than not."

"I always wanted to be a blonde." Becca sighs whistfully before smiling and looking sidelong at Kaylee to imply she's teasing. Dianli's display gets a bow from the Chinese girl. "See, in my mom's country, they'd think you were a spirit, or maybe a vengeful angel of the Buddah?" She considers for a moment and stretches out, laying on her side. "Or you're just supercharged? You'll figure it out-when you're meant to."

"'Be a little bit better than before.' I think that's what my patrons are hoping I learn here. How to be a little bit better each day than the day before. And maybe how to be a little bit happier each day."
She gestures at the plant she singed earlier. "It's because of that that I burn plants," she says with a slight, nervous giggle. "I'm trying to get this under firmer control. So I can be part of people instead of parted from them."
She cocks her head at Becca's thought. "What country is your mother from? I ask because there were some who thought that I was a household god when I was performing. Mostly the bumpkins. They were upset that I was being used for parlour tricks. It's why my … managers … decided that cities and television were my future, not provincial tours."

Kaylee looks over at Becca and then smirks playfully. She closes her eyes and holds her hand out towards the girl, making tiny adjustments as if she's trying to feel something very delicate. After several seconds, Rebecca's hair will start to shift colors, starting at the tips. It only takes a couple seconds as a vibrant blonde color spreads through her locks- at least the visible, outer portion of them. Once the transition is made, Kaylee will open her eyes and grin. "All done, Blondie!" she chirps happily. The effect isn't quite as thorough as when Kaylee does it to her own hair. But, it's still fairly good, at least for the most part, and will definitely last as long as she's around Kaylee, and probably even 5-10 minutes after she leaves. Any longer and Kaylee would have to really work on it. Then she listens to Dinali's story and glowers a little. "Made to do parlour tricks? That doesn't sound good. But … at least people really thought you were a god! I mean, THAT'S pretty darn cool! Not everybody can claim that one!"

"My mother was Chinese, Yellow River province." Becca answers and gasps, wholly distracted for the moment by her hair changing to blonde. "Woah." She undoes her braid to shake out her long locks and study them. "Eat your heart out ABGs." She sighs and offers Kaylee a bright smile before remembering what she was saying. "Oh, but she died, this summer so I guess I can't ask if she'd heard of you." She tells Dianli with an apologetic look.

"The killer parlour trick," Dianli says with a grin, "was when I stuck a light bulb in my mouth and made it light up in time with a dance." Her face darkens. "This was all before people understood the … uh … scope. Of what I was or could do."
At Becca's manipulation she nods. "It's a very different look. And it doesn't look like straw like so many of our people do when they dye their hair that colour. This looks natural." She pauses. "I'm not sure if I like it, but I'm … not a fan of change yet. This may be my inbred conservatism talking. I'd have to see it for a while."
She giggles a bit.
"You don't want to know how long it took me to decide I liked pizza after all."

Kaylee just grins at Becca, wrinkling her nose. "It's only temporary. I mean, I'll keep it up for now- I don't even really need to think to do that, anymore. But it'll go away when you leave. … I could totally do it for you again, though! Like, if you wanted to try it for a while? If I actually like, put my hands on it and stuff so I could get all of it? I could probably make it last … well … at least probably an hour when I'm not around. Really, it's just a light-trick. Instead of absorbing most of the light, your hair's reflecting a lot of it, except for most of the reds and some of the purples. I could probably try some different shades, if you want, but … that's the color my hair looks like, to me, so it's the easiest for me to make." Dianli's tale of her own tricks makes Kaylee glower a little. "… that's like, not really cool of them to make you do that. You're not a side-show," she offers.

"I wouldn't stay light haired, it is very interesting to see though." Becca admits before nodding to Dianli. She cants her head suddenly thoughtful. "Oh, I guess you probably picked it up from Kaylee, but I'm Rebecca Li Ling Sanders. I guess I'm sort of used to not having to make introductions all the time-after three years of this school." She admits and studies the girl electrocuted. "If you ever want to make sure you can't be used as a side show attraction again, I'm sure Tabs, or Dax and his team could help. They saved me." She looks to Kaylee with a relieved expression, keeping her thoughts to herself.

"But I was a sideshow," Dianli says calmly. "And my managers had visions of me being a major star in entertainment as I grew. I was well on my way there." The calm facade cracks a bit as her voice quavers. "I even performed briefly at the big New Year's bash on CCTV." Her voice cuts off cold there and she looks away, suddenly finding the rivets in the steel beams holding the walls against the water endlessly fascinating.
"It was probably bad timing that," she finally says. She faces the pair again. "You can find the video on YouTube, I understand. I can't be sure, of course, because …" she sparks again. "Electronic things don't much like me. I kill computers, tablets, phones dead."
Then in a barely audible voice. "At least it's only computers now."
"Oh, I don't fear being turned into a sideshow any longer. After what I did nobody thinks I'm a sideshow." She giggles, at complete odds with her demeanour thus far. "And one general learned that I'm terrible as a weapon after what happened to his car." Her face straightens again. "Then there's my patrons. I don't even know who they are. I've seen them, talked to them, but know nothing about them. The put me here. And they're apparently very powerful people. I think they're shielding me."
Beat.
"And I'm Zhang Dianli. I probably don't have to invite you to call me Dianne, though." She laughs at that, adding in Mandarin, "You probably speak well enough to say my name — and far better."

"… oh," Kaylee says, drooping a little as the opportunity to play with someone else's hair and not her own quickly dissipates. With a blink, Rebecca's hair is back to it's natural color, the blonde 'shattering' away as the photons dissipate and go back to normal. But then Dianli shares that bit of her history and Kaylee's bottom lip comes out and she glows, wavering between blue and purple, as she listen. "I'm sorry. That sounds pretty crummy," she offers to the girl.

"Oh, you could have left it. I just meant I'd never bleach it and go full Asian Baby Girl." Becca wrinkles her nose a bit and pats Kaylee as she settles her feet on the ground, going solid again. Looking at Dianli, her face brightens and she switches to Mandarin. "I'm so excited to have someone to talk to! I haven't had anyone to speak with since I was locked up! It's so good to hear! Please, always call me Li Ling!" She exclaims and clasps her hands together with delight. Looking at Kaylee, she shakes the girl "Dianli speaks Mandarin too!" She points out the obvious and shakes Kaylee's shoulders more, happy as can be.

"Wo hai meiyou renhe ren neng yong yi zhong shushi de yuyan shuohua!" Dianli says with a smile. (OOC: I also haven't found anybody to speak with in a comfortable language!) Then, switching to English as a courtesy, she adds, "Putonghua isn't my native, but it's closer than English by far. It's nice to hear something of the homeland here half a world away!"
"Could you," she asks Kaylee, "turn my hair, say, from deep blue at the roots to sky blue at the tips? I think that would be a cool look for me."

"Oh! … oh. Well … anytime you want to try it out again, just let me know?" Kaylee offers. AND THEN SHE'S BEING SHAKEN! She whoa-whoa-whoas and wobbles a little blinking in surprise at the sudden outburst- both language and physical! Though, she smiles back between the two of them, not having a clue what they said. "That's nice!" she offers, cuz what else is she supposed to say! At Dianli's request, she blinks and considers the girl. "Well … I mean, absolutely, I can try! But … well … fading it to other colors is gonna be harder and I dunno how long it'd stick if I don't keep it up. Solid colors are easy, cuz I just gotta change which photons everybody else gets. But … well, I could try!" she offers, smiling. "Is it safe for me to touch, now? Or … should I like go put on my sneakrs or something?" … you know. Cuz they've got rubber bottoms, or something.

Feeling impulsive, Becca leans over and pecks a kiss on Dianli's cheek, phasing just to be safe so she isn't zapped. "Well! I meant to assult Kaylee with a pillow and go back to sleep, but that was a way better night than just early to bed. Night Kays, Mei-mei." She offers to the two girls and lifts her hand, wiggling her fingers at the pair and leaving KAylee to do Dianli's hair.

"Wan'an, Jiejie," Dianli returns, grinning happily for what seems the first time in ages if the cracks in her face have anything to say. Well, metaphorical cracks. It's apparent she's not used to smiling often. "Sleep well. And feel free to drop by my dorm if you want a concert. It's where I keep my flutes when I'm not using them to annoy people in the arts room."
"Is now OK?" she asks Kaylee, "I mean just to try it out. I've never really played with hair styles and colours before; and using dyes is so … permanent. If I make the wrong choice I look ridiculous for months. It sounds like you could help me choose a good look in hours or even minutes instead."

"Nini, Rebecca!" Kaylee offers as the girl heads back into the wall and her dorm. She unfolds her legs from under her, now, pushing herself up into a standing position and brushing her hands off on her sweats. "Sure! I can try it now, if you want. You just gotta hold still for a couple seconds, with your hair being kinda uneven like that, it's gonna take me a little more." She then steps closer to Dianli and holds both her hands up, not needing to touch but still at least putting her hands on either side of Dianli's head so that she can better get a sense of what she's doing. It'll take her longer than it did with Rebecca's hair, and the change isn't nearly as fast, the blue fading in first, and then the darker shade starting to take shape. It'll probably take her at least a couple of minutes before she gets it settled how she wants, but … it'll be done! Except it's not gonna last outside of her presence, like Becca's woulda.
Rebecca has left.

"Are you done?" Dianli wonders as Kaylee steps back. "And … now I feel stupid. How am I going to see what it looks like?" She tries in vain to turn her eyeballs inside out or something, eyes rolling in frustration. "What does it look like? Good? Or stupid? It probably looks stupid. I suck at 'cool'."

Kaylee just snickers at Dianli's assumption that she looks bad. "I dunno, it looks blue-ish?" she offers. "I mean, /I/ think it looks good, but I'm the one who did it. If you want, we can go to your bathroom so you can look in the mirror? I think it'll probably go back to normal as soon as I'm not around, though. I'm kinda still keeping it there, so it'll probably go back to normal if I go."

"I'll take your word for it," Dianli says. "I'm a bit afraid to look at it right now. Maybe later we can do this again when I'm smart enough to carry a mirror?" She shrugs, grinning embarrassedly. "What can I say? I'm a bit afraid of change."
With that she stands up and secretly tries to look at her hair again, to the extent of even trying to pull her too-short hair down into range of her sight. This fails.
"I think I should join Li Ling in bed." She pauses, blinks. "That came out wrong. I mean join her in going to bed," she adds, flustered and reddening. "*MY* bed," she clarifies, digging herself in deeper. "Alone! Oh, you know what I mean!"

Kaylee frowns at Dianli's fear of looking at it. "Well, it's only temporary! If you hate it, it goes away right away! But really, it doesn't look bad at all! Trust me!" And then Dianli says she's going to bed, and even though Kaylee has no idea who 'Li Ling' is at first (since Becca said to call her that while she was still speaking Mandarin, which Kaylee doesn't understand at all), she pieces it together after Dianli's reaction. She clasps her hands behind her back and rocks onto the balls of her feet, smirking impishly. "Your secret is safe with me! But, you'll probably have some competition in getting there. … or an audience," she teases.

"Oh, there is no secret, no competition!" Dianli says, turning even redder. "I'm just terrible at this language. It has so many euphemisms. I have a boyfriend."
She stops and eyes Kaylee. "This is called 'ribbing' what you're doing, isn't it? You're making fun of me over my mistake, right?"

"Teasing, sure," Kaylee says, her smile softening to just this side of playful. "But I only tease people that I like, and I never do it to hurt their feelings. It's just cute, because you already knew I would understand what you meant, but you just kept making it worse," she explains. Then she grins again, wrinkling her nose. "I think the expression that would apply here is, 'put the shovel down.' Like, stop digging because you're already in a hole."

Dianli nods and then breaks into a grin. "I like being teased for fun," she decides. "It means people aren't afraid of me and like me enough to play." Her voice takes a rueful note. "And yes, I'll put down the shovel because every time I tried to straighten out what I meant I made it sound worse. It was almost pathetic."
She raises her hand and waves the fingers. "Goodnight… friend." she says, a pause between the two words as she appears to be searching for the right word. "I think it's time for me to sleep and it takes me a while to get into my bondage gear." A wicked grin splits her face. "The electrical bondage gear of course," she adds.

Kaylee meeps out loud and flushes pink when Dianli teases her back. Except her teasing is a lot more direct and naughty! She does free one of her hands to offer a small but frenetic wave as Dinali heads back towards her dorm. And then Kaylee gets back to homework. Good thing she's not sleeping as much these days!

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