problems [senna, poppy]

Frances was walking nervously across campus, heading to Poppy's dorm to tell her about what had happened with Senna, if Poppy didn't already know. Honestly, Frances had sort of avoided talking to Poppy for the time being, too anxious to call or write about it. She had to tell Poppy in-clio, or maybe apologize in-clio if Senna had already explained everything. Frances knew Poppy well enough to know that she would not be cool with Frances and Senna seeing each other, at least not at first.

Frances, out of nervous habit, rubbed the short hair on the back of her head and tried taking some deep breaths. This situation wasn't even that bad, and Frances was generally good with conflict resolution and communication ... at work. Her personal relationships were a completely different story. Poppy meant everything to her -- she was the only clio that she'd held a consistent, genuine friendship with. Like in her whole life.

But Senna was really great too! Frances hadn't stopped thinking about their time together, laying in her bed with their skin touching and bodies tangled. Those thoughts brought a completely different type of butterfly into her stomach, and she pushed the thoughts from her mind because it was all overwhelming (and she felt a deep sadness at the idea of Poppy giving her an ultimatum...because she would definitely choose Poppy).

Frances finally reached Poppy's dorm building, stopping for a minute to gather her thoughts and try to figure out exactly what to say. She wasn't even sure if Poppy would be here, but she planned on waiting it out. She'd do anything to make sure she and Poppy were okay.

Coincidentally, Senna was also on her way to talk to Poppy about the exact same topic. Talking to Elias had made her realize that, yeah, she had been too much of an asshole when telling her sister about Frances. Maybe it wasn't a big deal to Senna, but it obviously was to Poppy, and Senna knew now that she had to accept that and take some responsibility. She hoped they could come to some kind of understanding.

As she jogged over to Poppy's dorm building, she stopped dead when she saw Frances of all clio standing outside. Senna was so shocked she momentarily lost her cool head, becoming uncharacteristically flustered. "Frances. Uh...hi," she said dumbly. "I'm--here to see Poppy. I sorta fucked up. Are you here to see Poppy too?"

Aw, shit. Senna also hadn't considered the fact that she might have screwed things up between Poppy and Frances too. She hoped Poppy would focus the blame on her and not Frances, or she was gonna feel like an even bigger asshole.

Look who's here, Saffron noted as Senna was jogging toward Poppy's dorm building as well. Frances turned, meeting Senna face to face as she reached her destination...which also seemed to be Frances' destination.

"Hey," Frances said, a bit astonished that they happened to come at the same time. For a second, Frances was completely lost in how attractive and cool Senna was, but she snapped herself out of it (as much as she could).

"I'm--here to see Poppy. I sorta fucked up. Are you here to see Poppy too?"

"Yeah, I wanted to come and explain what happened or apologize or...I don't know, talk about it, I guess, heh. I mean, if you don't mind," she said, realizing that she wasn't even sure if Senna was okay with Frances talking to Poppy about it. Had she told Poppy already? Is that what she was here to talk to Poppy about?

"No, I actually came to do the same thing," Senna said with a slightly sheepish smile. "I told Poppy about the date. I didn't want it to be some big secret, you know? But she got upset, and I got defensive, and now it's this whole thing..." She sighed and shook her head.

"Look, I'm sorry. I really hope I didn't mess anything up between you and my sister," she told Frances. She knew how good of friends they were. Maybe the three of them should have hashed this all out together, but hindsight was 20/20. "But if she's still upset I'm ready to take the full blame."

Frances took a deep breath, nodding along with Senna. "I've sort of avoided Poppy -- I feel really bad about it all. So I just wanted to come here and talk about it together so we can figure out a way forward. And...I don't think it's all your fault. I knew what I was doing."

She looked to the ground, sticking her hand in her pockets and kicking some stones around. "I don't regret what we did," she said, smiling and blushing a bit. "I had a really, really good time. And I'd like to go out sometime again...but we just might have to give Poppy some time to get comfortable with the idea of it all."

She shrugged, daring to look back to Senna for her reaction.

Senna smiled a more genuine smile. "I don't regret it either," she assured her. She felt like she needed to explain herself. "It's not so much what we did, I think, it's more the way I told her. I think I was kind of a jerk about it."

"But, I'm glad you still wanna go out again," she said. "Because I do, too."

Her chance encounter with Frances had turned into an amazing night, and Senna was still hoping it could turn into even more. She also hoped that when--if--Poppy came around, they could get to a point where all three of them could hang out together.

Poppy, having spent the late morning and early afternoon with Axel walking around campus, was now returning to the dorm she shared with Scout. She'd spent the walk back to the dorm building lost in thought, trying to sort out her feelings on everything that had happened in the past week.

There had been the Senna/Frances thing, the Scout kissing Axel thing, and the latest installment: Rejection. She laughed aloud at herself, wondering how a school year that had been going so great could have gone so poorly the last few days. She was mostly over the Axel thing already, even though it had happened most recently. She had been truthful when she'd said she'd be okay with being friends, and though it stung, she was happy that he still wanted her to come hang out in Ughdarras. The Scout thing still hurt a little bit, but Poppy had been able to step back from the issue a little bit now that she wasn't drunk. Axel telling Poppy it had just been a stupid, drunken thing had helped, too. Scout had been past drunk, honestly, and though Poppy would still tell her she'd been a bitch, she was already mostly over that situation too.

It was the Senna/Frances thing that was on her mind the most, despite it having happened almost a week ago. She'd wanted to talk to Frances almost immediately, but had held back (somehow). If Frances wanted to talk about it, she could come to her. Poppy wasn't the one falling madly in love with Frances' sister behind her back.

Is that really fair? Sansa asked Poppy. She was following her clio in the form of a red panda (red pandas are so cute!), and been pretty pleased with Poppy's thoughts until now.

"Is what they did really fair?" Poppy asked back. To be honest, Poppy could probably accept it if Senna and Frances really were in love or whatever. But Senna had been a total bitch about the whole thing. She'd done that stupid Senna thing she always did, brushing off Poppy's feelings and pretending like SENNA WAS GOD. 'You don't like something? TOO BAD. Senna likes it!' She'd always been like that.

Sansa was about to advise Poppy to talk to Frances, who would probably be more conscious of Poppy's feelings, when they rounded the corner hallway that led to Poppy's room. Frances and Senna stood outside Poppy's room, talking quietly.

So it was already starting. Frances was here on MV, and instead of hanging out with Poppy, she'd gone to see Senna first. Cool. Poppy had half a mind to turn around, escape this confrontation and whatever else Senna and Frances had planned. They'd obviously come to see her or they wouldn't be standing outside her door. Selfishly Poppy wished Frances had come alone--she was still mad at Senna, and didn't want to have to talk to her. Frances, on the other hand, was someone Poppy had been dying to talk to all week.

Before she could turn to leave, however, Senna made eye contact with her. Poppy stood still, a neutral expression on her face.

Frances smiled sweetly, glad that she and Senna got to talk about the whole situation at least a little. Before she could say anything else, she noticed that Senna had turned and noticed something or someone, and Frances' eyes met Poppy's when she looked to see what/who it was.

Oh gods, Frances thought, turning her body toward Poppy. This probably looks awful.

"Poppy..." she said softly, taking a few steps toward her, even though what she really wanted to do was rush over as fast as she could and drop on her knees and beg for Poppy's forgiveness. But...obviously that would be a bit much. "I...just wanted to talk to you. About everything."

She glanced back at Senna, offering an introduction for her. "I kinda ran into Senna on accident -- I think she wanted to talk to you, too."

Frances rubbed the back of her head again, looking expectedly at Poppy to make the next move. Would she ask them to leave? Would she talk to them both at once, or separately? Frances had heard a lot about their sisterly interactions, but had never actually seen them together (especially when they were fighting), so she wasn't exactly sure what to expect.

Oh! Speak of the Amelian devil, here came Poppy now. Perfect timing. It didn't even cross Senna's mind how her standing here with Frances must look to her. She started to say something, but Frances turned around and spoke up first.

Frances wrote:"Poppy...I...just wanted to talk to you. About everything. I kinda ran into Senna on accident -- I think she wanted to talk to you, too."

"Yeah." Senna nodded in affirmation. "I came to apologize," she added quickly, just to get that out there. She looked back and forth between Frances and Poppy. Maybe she should let them talk first, so that Poppy didn't feel even more like Senna was getting in the middle of them. "But, uh, you guys can talk first if you want. I can come back later, or..."

Poppy had a bunch of conflicting emotions. She'd never been unhappy to see Frances before, but right now she just felt anxious at the thought of talking to her. Senna, on the other hand...plenty of times in her life she'd been unhappy to see her. This was not unlike those other times--Poppy felt an anger toward her sister that was not remedied by her desire to apologize. Not that Senna often apologized.

Poppy! Sansa said sharply. Talk to Frances, at least! Look at her!

Frances did look distraught, Poppy thought. Sigh.

"Scout is asleep in there," she said, choosing to ignore everything they'd said. "Hungover." Both Senna and Frances had met Scout plenty of times and should know that this wasn't uncommon, especially on a weekend. "I'm gonna go inside and take a shower, and then I'll meet you at the lighthouse," she said to Frances. She definitely needed a shower from the night before, but hadn't had time to take one this morning. It would also give her time to think; she hadn't been ready or prepared to have this conversation, yet.

"And you..." Poppy said to Senna (though what she really wanted was to ignore her completely), "I'll talk to later." She didn't have anything nice to say, but she didn't want to go be all dramatic if Senna really did want to apologize. So that conversation could definitely come after she talked with Frances.

Poppy walked to her door and unlocked it, not saying anything else. (She also will enter and shut it behind her if no one stops her? Didn't want to presume--but that's where she's headed.)

Hearing Poppy change the subject suddenly to Scout without responding to anything she or Senna had said was disconcerting (though what she said about Scout wasn't surprising), and Frances looked at the floor disappointedly, assuming Poppy was really upset with her then.

But! Then she said she'd meet Frances at the lighthouse -- which had to be a good sign, since that was like...their place -- and she looked up with a brightened expression on her face.

"Okay, yeah! I'll see you there soon." She tried not to sound too excited, but she had agreed to talk to her! Frances could fix this.

She looked to Senna after Poppy (barely) addressed her, wondering how she felt. It seemed like Poppy was being a bit rude to Senna, but Frances had no idea what had actually happened between them and so she was trying not to judge. Maybe Senna really had hurt Poppy's feelings.

Frances had a split second where she questioned everything. She barely knew anything about Senna. Was she mean? Did she often hurt other clio? Was this all a facade? Was she doing this to hurt Poppy? Was she the kind of clio to disappear after sex?

Hey, Saffron interrupted. Calm down. This will all be fine, and you're just worrying like you always do. Remember how great it felt to hang out with Senna?

Frances looked at Senna, remembering how amazing her company had been. And she smiled.

You're right, Frances offered Saffron. I'm just getting lost in my own thoughts.

Poppy wrote:"And you...I'll talk to later."

Well...okay. That could have been worse, Senna supposed. She had kinda wanted to let Frances and Poppy talk first anyways, so she didn't mind catching up with Poppy later to apologize. After Poppy went inside, Senna looked over and noticed Frances smiling at her. She smiled back.

"Well, it looks like I'm the only one she's mad at, so I don't think you need to worry," she said to her. Her smile faltered slightly and she looked at the ground. "I hope you don't have the wrong impression. I love my sister, I just..." ...was constantly at odds with her? Senna and Poppy were both confident and headstrong, and they always butted heads. She sighed. "You know. We argue a lot. I hope I didn't, like, cross a line this time."

Frances nodded. "That's okay, I understand. I've never had a real sibling before, but I've had a lot of similar relationships in my life...I know they're usually kinda messy." She offered a sympathetic smile. "But hey, I'll let you know how it goes, and...I'll call you, if that's okay?"

Even if Poppy needed some time to digest the idea of her sister and best friend 'seeing each other' (or whatever they were doing / might potentially be doing in the future), Frances figured they'd still be able to chat and keep in touch. She already had a few ideas of some fun things she could send Senna in the mail, like some little postcards from her favorite paper shop down the street or snacks and candies that you could only find in Solas.

Maybe if things went really well with Poppy, Frances could even spend some time with Senna before she headed back to the mainland...she wasn't going to get too ahead of herself though. Senna was probably busy anyway.

"Or you can call me if you want! Ya know, whatever," she said, trying to play it off cool even though she was just too goofy and awkward for it to work. She couldn't help but smile and roll her eyes at herself as she waved goodbye to Senna and headed to the lighthouse. Maybe she should stop and grab something special for Poppy on the way...