tripoverhercats (tripoverhercats) wrote in roads_diverged, @ 2007-08-28 12:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | final fantasy viii, theme 08: wild west, tripoverhercats:quistis |
[Final Fantasy VIII] Quistis Trepe "The Schoolmarm" Theme #8 Wild West
Title: The Schoolmarm
Author: Tripsoverhercats
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Character: Quistis Trepe
Rating: PG
Warnings: A little whip action?
Theme: Cosplay: 8 - Wild West
New arrivals in Winhill were common enough, the territory was busy expanding and the railroad ran through the town, so faces came and went all of the time. It was still a rough place what with four saloons, two whorehouses and only one church so a new woman that wasn’t destined for one of the first two locales was a subject of conversation. That said new woman was unmarried and the new schoolteacher, well that just meant that quite a few young men were jostling for the position of being her beau.
Only Miss Quistis Trepe didn’t seem to notice all the attention that was being paid to her. She was pleasant enough, always with a nod and a thanks if a man held a door for her or carried a package, but never once did she let them cross her threshold and offers of a night out were always neatly turned down. It was beginning to lead to a little grumbling, some of the loudest coming from the direction of Seifer Almasy and his cronies, who’d been turfed out of the schoolhouse entirely when Miss Trepe had looked them over and declared her classroom was not a lounge for hooligans.
“You know, it would be smart if you at least picked one to walk you about on his arm,” Selphie Tilmitt told her one afternoon at the grocer’s. Quistis looked over her glasses at Selphie and shook her head ruefully.
“I didn’t come out here to find a husband Selphie,” she told the younger girl. “I like teaching, there just weren’t any jobs back east.”
Selpie sighed and shook her head, she liked the new teacher, who didn’t look down her nose or twitch her skirts away from a tavern girl. “It doesn’t have to be that serious, let me have my Irvine steer you one of his bunkhouse friends, they’re only in town once a week from the ranch so you won’t have him tripping over you all the time.”
Quistis blushed near as pink as her dress, but she shook her head again. “I… no. No, thanks for offering Selphie, but it’d be wrong. I have to set an example for my students.”
“You just have no idea how to have fun,” Selphie sighed and let it go, her mind already hatching a few plans. A party… the town festival maybe? The two women finished up their weekly shopping and headed out the door.
“Well, well, well… if it isn’t my dear teacher.” Almasy was lounging against the edge of the building in his pale duster with two of his posse lingering alongside.
“Hardly that Almasy,” Quistis said shortly, her back stiffening and she swerved to the edge of the wooden sidewalk to give the trio as wide as berth as possible. Selphie shot a nervous look around, there weren’t a lot of people paying attention right now.
“So cruel and cold. Arrogant too for a woman passing time with a common whore,” Seifer’s gaze flicked over to Selpie briefly and a nasty grin grew on his face. “Makes a man wonder why you’re so fickle.”
“When I see a man, I’ll be sure to ask him then,” Quistis snapped back as she walked past.
Selphie eeped as a few things happened rather quickly. Seifer snarled and lunged for Quistis, who dropped her bags and stepped out into the dusty street. She ducked his initial grab and as he whirled to… do something, Selphie wasn’t sure… Miss Trepe, demure and civilized schoolteacher that she was, snagged a horse whip off the side of a parked wagon and cracked it right across his face.
He howled, blood pouring down from the wound and staggered into the street. Quistis turned to give his two cronies a look as they both started forward, whip already poised to strike again.
“Did I ever tell you how dangerous a big city could be for a girl, Selphie?” She asked sweetly, keeping a firm eye on the pair as they skated around her to see to their wounded leader. The whip crack and scream had attracted enough attention that whatever reprisal Almasy might have had in mind was forestalled as he glared at her, hand clamped across the bridge of his nose. “Terrible for a woman alone, it was, so my school made sure to train us all in the basics of womanly defense.”
She replaced the whip and stepped back to the sidewalk, looking nervously at her bags. “I do hope I didn’t break the eggs,” she muttered.
Selphie looked over to where Seifer was being helped up and back to Quistis. “He’s going to hate you,” she said softly.
Quistis looked over at Selphie and sighed, “What makes you think he didn’t already? I’ll survive, Selphie. I always do.”
Selphie walked the rest of the way to Quistis’s little house by the school, “See you around,” she said to the blonde, waving goodbye. Yes sir, Selphie had to get that girl settled and soon… that town festival was sounding better all the time. A small bounce developed in Selphie’s step as she thought things over. How she did love a party.