DON'T Call Me Roxanne, Chapter Nine
Author: Moonstar00125
Story Summary: This is a Total Reversal AU, in which our beloved Roxanne Ritchi is sent off to the planet Cerul when planet Earth is devoured by a black hole.
Chapter Summary: Roxanne's mind is elsewhere, the means of traditional farewell is explained, and Mace gives Roxanne the envelop he meant to give her earlier.
Chapter one: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1395219.html
Chapter two: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1398003.html
Chapter three: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1399568.html
Chapter four: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1401591.html
Chapter five: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1407761.html
Chapter six: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1411241.html
Chapter seven: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1413423.html
Chapter eight: http://megamind-movie.livejournal.com/1414493.html?view=23193693#t23193693
The day passed in a haze for young Roxanne Aida Cerebellum. She moved from class to class, her hand moving to take notes on things she heard on a superficial level while her mind was completely elsewhere.
He'd spoken to her. He'd greeted her--Ollo, of all things to use as a greeting! He'd been in her room! And then…He'd touched her!
Oh, it wasn't a big thing that he had said goodbye to her in the traditional sense. Roxanne had had plenty of experience with that between her family, meetings with official figures, and classes-most professors required each student to use the traditional means of farewell after class was over with-but as far as other students went, most tried to avoid making physical contact with her at all costs.
The traditional means of farewell was a simple thing, but it was so much more complex than it seemed. In the act of two Ceruleans touching heads, they shared a very brief, mental/emotional link. It was almost like a tiny electric shock traveling through the immense frontal lobes of each, and it served to give a brief assurance that the two were on even terms, if nothing else.
Prolonged contact gave both Ceruleans an ever-increasing amount of insight into the other's mind; to touch heads at all with any purposefulness put any Cerulean in a vulnerable position, and it increased the meaningfulness of a proper goodbye. It built trust and closeness, and to refuse a traditional farewell was just about the clearest way to say either "I don't trust you" or "You can't trust me." The only way to say it any more clearly would be to allow the connection for more than a second while in that state of mind.
Sometimes it could be used by force to get information out of someone else, but it put the person forcing the other at risk of having their own mind invaded.
For Roxanne, of course, the contact did nothing-she wasn't Cerulean, her mind not well enough developed for such a thing, and it was simply making skin-to-skin contact. But she had been raised as any other Cerulean child, and knew what the connection was supposed to mean, and though it didn't mean exactly the same thing to her, it was important.
Several times throughout the day, Roxanne found her fingers reaching up to touch that spot where the most pressure had been applied between them, or to the spot on the back of her head where his hand had been…And then she would mentally slap herself and try to put her mind back into her classwork. The effort was futile.
Things just seemed to go by so quickly today, her feet moving her from class to class without her mind being involved. It was a good thing Gilda was there beside her the whole of the way, or she probably would have lost herself altogether in her dream-head, or not noticed when the teachers called on her, or kept doodling little blood-pumping organs and hormone glands on her notes all period, or not taken noticed when Deldja and Andarin started pelting her with large wads of paper.
But when Mace called her name in the halls on her way to the cafeteria, Roxanne didn't need Gilda to tell her to whirl around on her heel and freeze up as Mace came dashing down the hall, lab coat flying behind him like a cape (he'd just come from Chemistry), with Minion following after at a more respectable pace.
"Aida!" Mace exclaimed a second time as he caught up to her, bending over for a moment to catch his breath. "It-it seems that the fates and my own stupidity have decided to bring us together for the third time in two days," he said as he recovered, pulling himself to his full height with a cheerful grin. Roxanne smiled shyly back, blushing and casting her gaze downward.
"I doubt you've an ounce of stupidity within you," she mumbled.
"Oh, I've more than you might think," Mace laughed before digging in his pockets and pulling forth a small yellow envelop. "My Father drew this up," he explained, handing it to her. "Enclosed are the results of a few tests he's run with some of your DNA. I forgot to give it to you or someone in your immediate family this morning."
"Oh," Roxanne said as she took the item and placed it carefully into one of her folders. "Thank you. I didn't know he was still running any tests."
"Oh, my Father has a few skin cells lying around here and there, and he's prone to picking up and dropping projects at whim." Roxanne nodded, feeling awkward. She didn't know quite how to reply to that. "Anyway," Mace went on upon seeing that she wasn't going to answer, "your kitten-what did you call her? Mercury?"
"Quicksilver," Roxanne supplied.
"Ah, yes! I found her to be quite intriguing. She's like nothing on Cerul!"
"Well, she bears a slight resemblance to the species' in the genus Lazzarinthsin," Roxanne pointed out. "They have the same basic structure and they're both carnivorous, though Quicksilver is much smaller…" Mace's hand rebounded softly off of his cranium.
"You're right!" he exclaimed. "I hadn't even thought about seeing if she matched up with another species, but then, I didn't know about it until this morning! I'm sure you and your family have done a good deal of research on her already, and I…"
Off to the side, Minion and Gilda stood, watching as their Master and Mistress conversed. Mace was very animated where Roxanne was very shy, which was the norm for the both of them. Minion seemed content to watch, but Gilda harbored a certain bitter suspicion toward the two, and after a few moments, she didn't see the harm in bringing it to light.
"What does Mace want with my Mistress?" Gilda hissed quietly at Minion, who, surprised, looked up.
"I don't know what you mean," he said almost dumbly, and Gilda bared her teeth menacingly.
"You know very well what I mean!" she accused. "No one talks to my Mistress kindly! What is he planning? Is he trying to get her hopes up so he can make her twice as miserable when he pulls some sort of prank on her?"
"What?" Minion asked, completely dumbfounded.
"Did Deldja put you two up to this?"
"Sir hates Deldja," Minion said quietly. "She's very aggressive and goes too far outside the realms of tradition for his liking." Gilda snorted.
"Right," she growled. "That's exactly what you'd say to try and convince me that the two of you mean no ill will. I have my eyes on you!" Minion, at a loss for words, nodded slowly and backed away slightly. His attention was drawn back to his Master when Mace exclaimed,
"Wonderful! I shall see you on the morrow then, Aida. Good tidings to you, and to you as well, Gilda," he bid before touching heads with Roxanne and turning swiftly. "Come, Mignon! We've still our locker to visit!" Mace set out at a swift pace, and Minion gave a small wave before setting out to catch up with his Master.
"What did you agree to?" Gilda asked.
"He said he'd like to come over and inspect Quicksilver again tomorrow," Roxanne told her. "After school."
"And you agreed?" Roxanne nodded and Gilda cast another suspicious glance down the hall. "I don't trust them," she growled.
"I shouldn't either," Roxanne agreed.
"But you do."
"I've never had a friend before, besides you and Quicksilver," Roxanne pointed out. "I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but it would be nice…"
"You only say that because it's Mace Mind," Gilda said, guiding Roxanne toward the lunch hall and causing her to blush.
"You're just a suspicious Sniv," Roxanne said a little haughtily, but Gilda did have a point. If it was anyone else, Roxanne probably wouldn't let them near her.
Of course, everyone else threw books at her. So there was always that.