Lelouch Lamperouge was an extremely flawed person. He, like most sociopaths, reserved his cruel streak for people he felt "deserving of it" and had little qualm in manipulating people into doing what he wanted. In addition, he was quite excellent at doing so even under extremely stressful circumstances. Like having a knife waved in his face, but we'll get to that in a moment.
Now, the previous point may make it seem as though he's an unfeeling bastard, but… Not exactly? More like parts of his soul were surgically replaced with carefully directed rage, and he imagines himself some great vigilante acting not for his own benefit but for his dear and innocent little sister as well as people just like her. A man who saw the world as fundamentally <i>wrong</i> and would be willing to cast himself momentarily as a monster if that's what it took to fix it. Couple that with his ability to manipulate people, and one might think he would be some shadowy puppet master willing to lurk in the background and make others take the risks for him, but no! He was more the opposite. The sort that would stand on the front lines and take the same risks as those he commanded, maybe even greater, for how can you lead if you are the one following after your soldiers rather than the other way around?
In that sense he was a great and tremendous contradiction. Almost all of his qualities were those we would normally associate with an "antagonist" or more precisely a "villain" yet the colouration of his moral centre was just slightly off enough that you could almost see a "protagonist" or a "hero." He was both at the same time. The narrative version of an optical illusion. Depending on which point you focused he could be either one at any time.
So imagine his surprise at last night's encounter with Shirley. He was not the sort to indulge in sexual relationships. No girlfriend, just girls that were friends. No romantic interests to speak of, but many girls expressing such to him. Lelouch was constantly thinking about his future, what he would do to enact his revenge, how to keep his sister safe and hidden away, how to investigate what happened that dreadful day…
Then all of a sudden Shirley arrives at his door and everything changes. She effortlessly seduces him. Hints at knowing things she shouldn't know about, and then all of a sudden he's being told all about his future. A future in which he creates a hero, plays at being a villain and is then vanquished by the very role he created in the first place. A future in which his friends are psychologically tormented by consequence of his actions at best, at worst suffer through both that and death.
He used to think that nothing could make him feel as bad as the day he learned that Nunnally would never walk again. Try learning what he had last night. That future had shaken his resolve, but then his mind started to ponder something else after he'd ensured Shirley was safely tucked away in her own bed back in the dorm.
How had she seduced him so easily? He'd never even thought of her in that kind of light before. Hell, despite Rivalz's attempts he tended to avoid considerations of sexual matters altogether. A dating partner would be a distraction to his ultimate goals, and he never thought himself so weak as to succumb to such base vice. And yet the instant she threw herself at him… The very fact that she would throw herself at him with such enthusiasm when she was, quite frankly, a touch on the prudish side to begin with…
That set his suspicion levels pretty high. Put that alongside Shirley being sent those DVDs to begin with, and what did you have? Supernatural interference. Now, he would have been willing to put all that aside before he got the power of Absolute Command, but his mind was certainly a lot more open to the possibility that at least one supernatural event was occurring, and its (or their) focus was on him specifically, or Ashford Academy more generally.
None of which helped sort out his immediate problem of the knife being pointed in the approximate direction of his vital organs by a girl that he now knew for a fact was 1: A skilled fighter, 2: An undercover resistance fighter, 3: Confused, scared, already a little suspicious of him. Before he could properly deal with that longer-term problem, this shorter-term one needed addressing. Quickly. Before he, Shirley, or another person in the building was hurt.
However. Lelouch was a skilled liar, and as any such person would always say if they were to give advice honestly and earnestly, the best lie is partly rooted in the truth…
"Well?" Kallen demanded, taking a significant stride forward that would have been quite intimidating if not for the equally significant (and distracting) jiggle in her chest. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"
"I really am not sure!" Lelouch said, adding a trace of panic to his voice that was only partially an act. "This is why I really approached you the other day. The truth is, your breasts were swollen like that a few days ago, but you didn't even notice until just now. In fact, I was the only one that seemed remotely aware of it."
… But the absolute best lies are found in audacity. The hesitation on Kallen's face was only natural. It seemed completely outlandish. Of course she'd notice if her breasts were actually that big before just now, right? Except, why would he tell something so completely obviously verifiable? Add in their strange behaviour just now and lo, a wedge of doubt in her mind formed.
"No games," Kallen demanded. "They weren't this big when I entered this room. I think I'd notice something like -"
"But they were!" Shirley added, swallowing nervously. "I mean, that's why I was so weird earlier on. It was - It was kind of intimidating…"
And there was another problem with human psychology. Under these circumstances anyone should notice that they were being lied to by people wanting the same things from her, but that's not the way the human mind actually processes information. All her brain would tell her is that two seprate sources are confirming the same thing. No signal between the two of them to build this narrative, but the thought should have passed that Shirley had picked up on his intentions. For a mind clutching for answers? It was like a drowning person desperate for air. They won't much care how they get it, so long as they take in a mouthful.
"That's what we were discussing just now," Lelouch admitted. "You see, Shirley has been seeing strange things as well recently. That's why she was really absent from school recently. Last night she asked me for some advice, and we talked through some of it…"
"Talked?" Kallen asked, fidgeting as if someone had turned up the heat and poured itching powder down her collar. "Just talked?"
"Well…" Lelouch coughed. Next to him, Shirley turned bright red. "Not just… Talked, exactly. Whatever this is happens to influence behaviour. For example, you've been using your free hand to grope your breasts for the last minute and to be quite frank it is becoming rather distracting."
"I noticed," Kallen said with an irritating grunt. "I just can't stop it. Like my hand has a mind of its own all of a sudden."
"We're not sure what's causing it," Shirley admitted, gently tugging Kallen's hand away from her chest. "But I'm starting to get really worried. What if this effect spreads further? I think the three of us need to investigate this, but secretly so nobody panics."
Kallen pulled away, which might have been for the best because it had looked for a moment as though the two girls were going to kiss. "I get it. Then we should probably keep an eye out for people behaving strangely. Right?"
"Of course!" Shirley said with great enthusiasm. "Especially if it's, you know, sexy or perverted…"
"Hello, everyone!" Milly Ashford declared, striding into the room clad in her favourite catgirl outfit. And yes, Milly did have enough such costumes to necessitate a favourite. This one in particular highlighted her fit figure and showed off just enough cleavage to make people ponder whether or not it was indecent. "I was worried you got lost and came looking! Nya! How have you been?"
"Ah, Madame President!" Lelouch said. "Sorry for being late today. I was feeling a little under the weather."
"And I suppose these two lovely young things have come along to perk you awake? Nya, how adorable, Shirley's blushing! Has magic happened between you two? Oh, spare me no details!"
Kallen looked at their council president, tilted her head in thought, then glanced over towards Lelouch and Shirley. Both, in unison while Milly strutted around the room, mouthed the word "normal" at her. From the expression she gave in response you could practically see the question mark appear above Kallen's head.
"Come on, back to the meeting room!" Milly said. She pulled out the other reason this costume was her favourite: The tail was detachable and doubled as a whip. A few meaningful pats into her open palm, and the three of them were scurrying out of the room like frightened mice. "We've got a lot of work to do today; can't have you missing out!"
"Quite right," Lelouch replied. "A lot of work to do today." Like setting up his plan to rescue his best friend Suzaku from being executed for a crime he didn't even commit. Then investigating the cause of these strange turns of events, and then trying to work out what he wanted to do <i>after</i> all of that… "No time to delay."
But then, as the three hurriedly departed the room, none of them noticed a peculiar gleam in Milly's eyes. Nor the smirk playing on her lips. Well. Lelouch might have chalked it up to Milly being Milly and having some plan in mind to torment them a little. Except that Milly hung back just a little bit to reattach her tail, and for seemingly no good reason said the following once they were out of earshot.
"Looks like the ship is coming in," she said. "I love it when a plan comes together, but not nearly as much as when a bunch of lovers come together! They were right, this <i>is</i> fun!"
<hr>
Okay. So, now she really did not know what to make of any of this. The DVDs were one thing, but now the behaviour of people around her was being influenced by <i>something</i> and that same something had also caused Kallen's boobs to grow into perfect… jiggling mounds of pleasure that she just wanted to motorboat until -
Gah! Stop that. Alright. What she could take away from this was that something was messing around with reality. Probably in response to her getting involved at Shinjuku, or maybe some other reason… It was impossible to tell at this point. Not nearly enough information. Lelouch told her so when they were able to get away from the council, and he was so smart that if anyone would notice anything it would have to be him. Right? Right!
"To begin with, we must discover who sent you the DVDs," Lelouch had said. "It might be best if you didn't become involved. Allow me to investigate, and try to keep yourself safe."
Except that she really did want to help. It was probably the same impulse that made her do something stupid like stealing a policeman's gun and running into a location where she knew a terrorist-related incident was going down… Or the same impulse that made her confront Clovis personally to try to keep Lelouch out of danger and end the slaughter in Shinjuku, and -
And it all made her feel so dizzy. There she was just sitting in her room while Lelouch was probably out there meeting with Ohgi's cell and taking the first steps towards establishing the Black Knights. So she frowned. Stood up. Marched to the door and stormed out, ignoring Sophie's question of where she was going. She knew it wasn't rational. She knew she should be sitting tight and waiting for Lelouch to get back before making any kind of move… But she had to figure out what the hell was going on around here. Sitting tight and waiting was making her go completely crazy! And she'd start by tracking down that delivery, figure out where it had been sent from. By whom. How they'd done it. Why her. What they wanted. Everything.
"Just you wait, Lelouch!" she said to herself. "I'll show you what I can do. Just watch me!"
- Ohgi's cell meets with Zero, and something completely unexpected happens.
- Shirley encounters Milly during the investigation, and Milly starts behaving weirdly even for her.
- Meanwhile, Suzaku has been noticing weird behavioural tics on his own end.
- Milly plays around with Nina a little bit.
- Something else
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