Dianne was doing something she couldn't ever remember doing before.
It was something so un-Merc-like, that she kept having a nagging feeling that it was somehow against the spirit of the Charter...if not the actual letter of it (she'd checked carefully).
The Grand High Poohbah of the Forever Knight Mercenary Guild was walking right up to the Wartime headquarters of another affiliation--in broad daylight--and knocking on the front door.
Shaking off the persistent feeling that there was just something horribly, cosmically wrong with that, she headed up the front walk of the NatPackers' beachhouse. Her rage was too great to delay for camouflage or lighting conditions.
"'Separated at Birth NatPacker' indeed!" She'd heard Maureen snickering about it at the play Saturday night and had gotten confirmation from her spies. "'Bounced,' my elbow! I'll bounce them one!!!" she growled, her strides growing longer.
Dianne was thrown--ever-so-slightly--when the door opened before she even reached it. This 'let them see you coming' approach took some serious getting used to.
"Oh, look! It's Dianne!" Jennie squealed, as Dianne winced. "Get our long-lost NatPacker some chocolate!"
<Oh, fine, I give up...insert some of Fred's cool funky psycho music here ;->
"OhmiGAWD!" Dee exclaimed, eyes opening so wide you'd have thought there was actually something behind them trying to see out. (You'd be wrong.) "What a, like, totally bitchin' beachhouse. I mean, this is like so totally cool!"
Jennie stood there for a moment, slightly taken aback. I mean, it was one thing to pick up some NatPackerly enthusiasm, but this...? "Dianne...?"
"Oh, you can just, like, totally call me Dee," Dee interrupted happily, rushing right inside. "I mean, 'Di-anne' is so, like, stuffy, y'know? Oh like, fer shure! I mean, like, I'm totally gonna make you call me that? As IF!"
"I think 'separated at birth' may have been too late," Maureen muttered.
"So is there, like, a pool?" Dee continued babbling without pause for breath. "I bet there's, like, a bitchin' mall around here too! I mean, I could, like, live here, like, ohmigawd!, I mean, like, totally, like, forEVER!"
The Pack had all looked up from watching videos and reading fiction at each other to stare at the new--and quite bizarre--intruder.
At some point, even Dee noticed this.
"Ohmigawd! I mean, like, what's the matter with you? Why are you, like, totally, just staring at me?" She actually looked at them for what appeared to be the first time and rolled her eyes as they landed on Jennie. "Ewwwwwww! Like, I mean, how grody can you get? I mean, like, like, you're all orange! Oh, like, gag me!" Turning, she saw Maureen picking lint off of her shoulder. "Oooooooh!" she squealed, causing The Mad One to wince in rather severe pain--not that that interrupted her in her self-appointed task. "But I, like, love your hair! It's, like, so totally bitchin'!" She turned to the rest of the Pack. "Isn't that color just the, like, most, excellent, tubular thing you've ever, like, seen?"
Hearing the snickers from the rest of the room, Maureen had to be forcibly restrained by Jennie. "Dianne, what is wrong with you?" If this was an attack, Jennie had to admit it was the most bizarre one she'd ever seen.
"Could it be LaCroix?" Mei whispered to Betsy, who had only just begun to calm down from the surprise of it all.
"What is it with you and LaCroix all of a sudden?" she whispered back just as fiercely.
"Well he is usually behind these things," Mei protested, her voice rising considerably with righteous indignation. "I bet he still hasn't forgiven you for that whole goldfish thing!"
As Betsy countered that her involvement with Spike was long-past and others had been doing much worse things to him since--a thermos, of all things!?!--Dianne blinked several times and sat down on the floor, hard.
"What the he...." She began, as she took in her surroundings. "You've kidnapped me?" she yelled, startling the entire room into silence. "First you try to 'adopt' me, and now you've kidnapped me?" she repeated, utterly outraged. "The Guild will come for me! You will pay for this!" she threatened, her voice rising even more.
Then it dropped to an almost-whisper that was even more ominous. "If I've been bounced, I'll have all your heads!"
With a furious lunge she dived for the unguarded door, almost fell by anticipating resistance that never appeared, and tore out into the late afternoon sunlight.
Maureen shook her head. "Nuts." she concluded sagely. "A couple of coins shy of a full purse, that one," she clucked as she straightened out the throw rug. "Goes with the job, you know."