Eyes of a Tragedy

It was getting harder and harder to keep her focus on Fandom at all, but this week-- this week she finally found the impulse to come down to her office and at least pretend to be working. Said pretending came down to running more simulations of protoss brain functions on the ludicrously outdated computer Kerrigan had sitting on her desk.

It was something, but she doubted it would allow for much in terms of insights. Oh well.

If only she'd gotten Zeratul's brains...

[[ open! ]]

Office hours... office hours.

It was that Kerrigan had promised to be here for them - even if she doubted any of the students would take her up on her offer - or she wouldn't have bothered. Following school schedules was starting to be less and less of interest as of late. More important things were happening in Koprulu; they were about two years into their build-up now, and the first strains of a new army were coming to fruition.

She was not unhappy with the progress made on the new... additions... to the Zerg brood.

Not at all.

She sat back in her chair in the office, and permitted herself a smile. And a quick mental pulse home to check up on the state of the new experimental Infestor strain.

Very interesting. Ino had proven her worth as an inspiration.

[[ open ]]

Yesterday's meeting with River was still fresh in Kerrigan's mind. As a result, she was... thoughtful, and maybe a little distracted, adding what had been spoken about in class yesterday to her memories of the images she had been picking up over the past year or so.

Resignation and that malicious spark of hope that Zeratul had left behind fought each other in her mind. She couldn't get a grip on either, and that irritated her.

River would bring back succesful reports soon enough, she was sure of that. There would be new species of zerg. They would swallow up a great deal of her time, and then she could go hunting for xel'naga artifacts. Work this all out. Stop being party to human weakness...

Ngh. She embedded a pencil in the wall with her telekinesis and glared at it.

[[ open! though warning for SP later; today is going to be a looong day. ]]

There was powdered sugar in Kerrigan's hair when she arrived in her office that morning.

She was ... annoyed. Annoyed enough, in fact, to spend a good chunk of her morning glaring out the window at the little sugary 'snowflakes' drifting down from the sky while she picked the same from her red locks.

Sometimes, she regretted coming back to Fandom. Quite a bit.

[[ open! ]]

Kerrigan was in her office mostly for show purposes. She was trying to put a direct line in with River. While she was fairly sure that Zeratul's detour to Fandom and his exit across the Causeway had bought them some time, and hopefully thrown the Protoss off course, his interest in what was going on on Ulaan was... troubling.

She needed a foothold. In fact, she might need to go and take another look herself...

From the outside, through the open door, she looked like she was zoning out with the radio on, blaring some old 70s rock tunes. Reality was a more complex matter.

[[ open! ]]

Oh, Kerrigan had felt that annoying Protoss presence slipping onto the island that morning. No, it wasn't that she wasn't aware.

It was that she didn't care. Not yet. Not unless the Dark Templar was planning to show up and ruin her office hours, when she ran the risk of dealing with some very interesting guests. It'd be typical, mind, but she was in no mood to tolerate self-righteous blathering and waving around of psi-blades.

Her office was spartan. Her bearing was calm. The Queen of Blades was ready to face any horrors Parents' Weekend would try to throw at her -- and their little warrior, too.

[[ open! ]]

It was a whole big, beautiful new semester, wasn't it?

The intel she was gathering here was already proving to be very interesting indeed; but today, Kerrigan was busy with other things. Drafting up class plans with her hands, her mind was high up and away, poking through her own troop movements.

She was certain the entire galaxy was wondering what the hell had happened to the Zerg, pulling away at the moment they could have claimed total victory. They didn't fully comprehend what was going on, which was fine with her... For now.

[[ open! ]]

She still had the piece of paper on her after class. If Kerrigan was inclined to be honest with herself, she'd had it with her for a while now. It was starting to get ridiculous: she should be no more vulnerable to stupid human sentimentalities than an armored truck should be to a small pebble on the way.

And still...

She sighed. Perhaps if she dialed the number, it would put that pesky feeling to rest, and she could continue on with her plans. She picked up the phone and went through the old routine of getting a line off the island - it almost made her feel... nostalgic.

Finally, she could put through the number-- and waited, forcing away the ridiculous anticipation in her belly.

We're sorry, a voice droned on the other end of the line, the number you have dialed is not currently in use. If you'd--

She threw down the reciever. Disconnected. Okay. Fine. It wasn't like she cared about it. She tossed the note at the trash can, and told herself that this meant the whole affair was over and done with. Back to reality. Etcetera.

The distressing thing was that she wasn't sure whether she actually believed that.

[[ open! ]]