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Post by haxxor on Nov 17, 2006 20:03:12 GMT -5
It was kind of weird to be homesick for Ohio. She'd never liked it. Ever. Not even a little. She'd liked parts of it, of course; her friends, her T3 connection. But she'd never liked Ohio. Never felt attached to the particular glow of any Ohio sunrises; never liked the greenness of the place, its inherent fertility. She just hadn't liked it.
Maybe she wasn't homesick for it, then. Maybe she was just homesick for the people there. A handful, anyway.
Maybe that was it.
Sam felt wrong at Xavier's. She didn't really have that many friends, not that she'd ever had hordes. There wasn't much to do. Less than Sweet Apple, even, or it felt like less. People weren't driven out to the outskirts of their imaginations by the isolation. There was more to do and less to think about.
Maybe that was it, too. She didn't know. She was a scientist, not a sociologist.
She poked through the Library of Congress boredly, her laptop open across her knees as she sat Indian-style in a chair large enough to hold four of her inside one of the weird little nooky-common places, only one hand on the keyboard and the other propped on the armrest, counting off her rosary beads in her head as she skimmed the plans for an arms factory in Wisconsin.
HailMaryfullofgracetheLordiswiththeeblessedartthouamongwomen
Sometimes it took her a minute to remember what it was she'd said, but if she didn't think about it she could get the whole thing done in just short of a full minute.
andblessedisthefruitofthywombJesusholyMarymotherofGod
It was pretty cool. Useless talent, but cool. She could do old-fashioned penances hella fast.
prayforussinnersnowandatthehourofourdeath - Amen.
(She liked to draw out the Amen.)
"Bored," she said aloud as she began to tell off a Glory Be, "bored bored bored... bored."
GlorybetotheFatherandtotheSonandtotheHolySpiritasitwasinthebeginning -
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Post by selene on Nov 19, 2006 3:11:33 GMT -5
Selene was watching her sister in the tree out back, some hurking big blue thing talking to her. Whatever. She was far too friendly as it was.
The darker half of the Gemini twins wore a plain knee-length dress in gray with darker gray stripes, black tights on her long legs in spite of the summer weather and her dark hair pulled up into two small buns on either side of her head. Her bangs hung over one eye, the other colored thickly with black eyeliner.
She heard the girl clicking away at the keyboard, looking as fidgety as she felt. Looking over at her, she looked away just as quickly, crossing her arms tighter over her chest.
She wasn't likely the friendly type. Not that Selene was, but... most people liked her even less than normal. Xavier's was definitely better than any place they'd been before, but it didn't mean things had changed much. She still hadn't made any friends.
Selene looked over at Sam for a second more, then turned her eyes out the window again.
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Post by haxxor on Nov 19, 2006 10:18:54 GMT -5
Sam slowly became aware that there was someone giving her funny looks. It was slowly because Sam wasn't very observant, at least of her surroundings. Whatever was in front of her was scrutinized so hard its edges smoked, but everything else kind of faded into oblivion.
Sam looked up at the girl, nonplussed. Either she was rocking the schoolgirl look a little too hard or she might actually be a librarian-in-training-in-disguise, despite eyeliner so thick it rivaled Sam's own. Of course, Sam really wasn't one to judge the fashion world, was she? She'd woken up lazy, so all she was really rocking was the jeans, motorcycle boots and old wifebeater plus lesbianesque red flannel shirt look.
Her fingers slowed down on the rosary, eventually coming to stop on the little cross, and she put it away in the pocket of her jeans
Selene was watching her sister in the tree out back, some hurking big blue thing talking to her. Whatever. She was far too friendly as it was.
"So," Sam said, apparently out of nowhere, "you're new."
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Post by selene on Nov 19, 2006 13:32:17 GMT -5
Okay, here it goes, she thought to herself. I'll talk in this girl's head, and the questions will start. God I love school...
"Yeah. Just got here a few days ago. Who are you?" The telepathic speech allowed for Selene's defensively closed lips, her fingers brushing hair out of her face to half hide her eyes.
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Post by haxxor on Nov 19, 2006 13:40:38 GMT -5
A startled expression took over Sam's features as a voice very much not the usual narrator of her thoughts spoke in her head.
"Sam," she said out loud. "That's really weird. Do you have to talk in my head like that? Are you a mute or something?"
The questions lacked the impertinent tone another would have given them; for Sam, they were honest inquiries, despite the frankness with which they were asked.
"If you are," she said, "that's really freaking convenient, gotta say. What's your name?"
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Post by Nightcrawler on Nov 19, 2006 15:20:56 GMT -5
Kurt stretched.
Which wasn't so remarkable in itself, except that he was already limber naturally, so for him stretching included balancing on the banister at the top of the stairs one one foot, the other three limbs splayed about him, and his tail waving about wildly. His eyes were closed, his face was peaceful, and he was whirling about like a windmill, going from limb to limb, each one landing in the same spot on the enforced railing.
This was where having spatial awareness came in handy. The instant that little alarm went off in his head that something new had entered the space around him, he had hopped down off the banister, smoothing down his leather vest, and was walking down the hallway.
Moving from room to room, Kurt glanced in at the students with a small smile. Things were so calm around the mansion in the morning when nothing too far out of the ordinary was happening, as it inevitably did. Whether it was invading shapeshifters or naked shapeshifters - he had a lot of trouble with shapeshifters, he thought absently - something was going to happen to make the day take an interesting turn.
Glancing through an open doorway, Kurt let his brow quirk up in quiet amusement at the sight before him. Two girls, both with heavy black lines under their eyes, were sitting there looking at each other with vaguely disinterested expressions on their faces. Sam he'd met - he made it a habit to welcome students when they were arriving, although he hadn't completely succeeded in making it a successful habit, but the other girl he didn't know, so he slipped in quietly through the door and waited for an opportune break in the conversation.
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Post by selene on Nov 19, 2006 15:54:45 GMT -5
"Yes, I do," she said. "And they call us Gemini." Selene tended to be even more obstinant about refusing her singular identity when her sister wasn't around.
"I don't know if it's convenient or a matter of necessity... why speak when you don't have to."
Just then she noticed the blue mutant coming in from the door. There were a few odd looking mutants at the school... Sibyl, the albino girl with the pastel colored hair and eyes was the first to come to mind. But no one like him. And his eyes were a bright brilliant yellow.
How neat.
"Oh god he's looking at me." Selene hadn't realized she'd said it in Sam's head. Blinking a little nervously, she cleared her throat, and offered the faintest, most guarded smile to Nightcrawler.
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Post by haxxor on Nov 20, 2006 0:01:41 GMT -5
"Us?" Sam asked pertly. "More than one personality in there?"
"I don't know if it's convenient or a matter of necessity... why speak when you don't have to."
"Well," Sam said, bringing up blueprints of a new consulate and flicking through them before getting bored and clicking on something labeled 'ballistic06,' "it makes everyone else a lot more comfortable when you don't talk into their heads, probably. I mean, no one has to talk. We could all just go around flailing our hands at each other like monkeys. But the spoken word seems to suit us better."
Nightcrawler leaned in the door and Sam glanced up at him briefly before beginning to tick through her rosary beads again, though much more slowly than she had before, so she could keep her mind on everything else.
"Oh god he's looking at me."
"Yeah," Sam said, "he does that. Most people do, you know. Look at things. He's not going to eat you. Hi, Mr. Wagner. How's life?"
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Post by Nightcrawler on Nov 20, 2006 0:20:36 GMT -5
Kurt smiled back, making a small half-bow to the girl near the window. "Guten Tag, I'm Kurt Wagner. I do not think we have met."
Apparently Sam had heard something he hadn't, because she was talking to the girl by the window, and it sounded like a reply, not the beginning. Which, of course, meant a telepath.
As if I haven't had enough trouble with those lately as well. Kurt chuckled at the list of people who had been in his mind the previous day alone. What with Topher syphoning everyone's thoughts, Hannah picking up on his emotions, and Maddie... well, that was a whole different story... but he'd had more traffic in his mind in 24 hours than many people had in a lifetime.
"Life is passing, Miss Meyers. I trust it is not treating you too badly?"
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Post by selene on Nov 20, 2006 23:41:24 GMT -5
Wow. She'd met some rude people in her years at various schools, but it looked like this one was going for the record.
"Have they -hired- you to be a bitch, or are you just waiting around hoping to impress somebody."
Looking up at Kurt again, she noted he was speaking to the girl she'd just- well she couldn't say met, 'assaulted by' was so much closer to the truth- and moved a bit down the windows, pulling her bag to her chest.
Another fabulous beginning at another warehouse for assholes. Frowning, she stared out the window once more.
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Post by haxxor on Nov 21, 2006 10:54:03 GMT -5
"Also passing," Sam said. "You know how it goes."
She liked Mr. Wagner. Mostly because he was blue and had a badass tail, but at least some because he seemed like a pretty cool guy. And he never asked her what was up with her funky necklace and why she always carried it around instead of wearing it, like a normal person. It was weird how often outside of Catholicland that happened.
"Have they -hired- you to be a bitch, or are you just waiting around hoping to impress somebody."
Sam laughed, though the last half of the line came very close to touching a nerve. "I'm freelance," she said. "Jesus, don't freak out. Did they hire you to be crazy?"
Sure, Sam was bitchy, but she was upfront about it. She didn't go sulk in a corner every time someone tried to call her on her crap. There was a certain honor, she'd often felt, in being unguarded; it was the sulky bitches you had to watch out for. They were the really crazy ones.
"Mr. Wagner," she said, feeling somehow that Gemini had been too busy burrowing into her corner to be halfway sociable, "this is Gemini, she's new. Gemini, Mr. Wagner. He's... not new."
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Post by Nightcrawler on Nov 21, 2006 15:37:56 GMT -5
Kurt was understandably concerned.
Sam was being herself, which Kurt knew could be daunting enough. He admired her forwardness, although he wasn't sure it was something she could help - so many students at the school couldn't. Still, someone new might not take it the right way, and judging from the fact that the other girl was edging away like a guinea pig looking to escape, he guessed she had done just that.
"Jesus, don't freak out. Did they hire you to be crazy?"
Well, that certainly helped cement Kurt's suspicions.
Turning his yellow eyes to Heaven for a moment, Kurt edged forward as Sam spoke again. So apparently the girl did have a name, even if she hadn't shared it with him. Although... Gemini? Sounded more like a codename than something parents would name their child, which could mean any number of things, knowing the school's population.
"Gemini. It is a pleasure to meet you. Do you have another name, or will we be calling both of you that?" He had been reading all sorts of religious texts and mythologies to prepare for his religion classes, so with Castor and Pollux in mind it wasn't a great leap to assume that there was another personality, at the very least, in the equation.
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Post by selene on Nov 22, 2006 0:58:50 GMT -5
Selene let the identity bracelet curl into her hand, tucked carefully behind her. She looked outside, down into the trees. Her sister's form was less easy to see than the large blue mutant near her. Turning her eyes back to Kurt, Selene was not surprised to note that even when apart, her sister and she shared a single life.
Kurt must have known about her sister, otherwise he wouldn't have asked about 'both' of them. She wondered if he'd understand if she preferred not to be identified as a singularity. No time like the present to find out, right?
"We prefer not to." Her body language held her at a distance, but her face left her oddly exposed. She had never really learned to mask her emotions. Realizing she'd been staring at those golden eyes- they reminded her of the moon- Selene shook her head a bit.
"You can call me Selene." And with that, her pale skin flushed pink.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Nov 22, 2006 13:19:52 GMT -5
Kurt's eyes followed Selene's to the trees, and they widened slightly when he caught sight of someone large and blue there. That was definitely someone he'd have to meet.
Still, there were other things to deal with at hand, and that included the young woman before him. "One half of a whole, then?" He gave her a warm smile. "Welcome to Xavier's, Gemini." She must be nervous, Kurt thought, noting the pink hue of her cheeks. "I hope you find it to your liking."
Turning to look at Sam, he cocked his head, glancing at the computer on her lap. "So, Miss Meyers... school work, or private studies?"
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Post by haxxor on Nov 22, 2006 22:42:30 GMT -5
The Gemini chick blushed all of a sudden. She also seemed to be staring a lot at Kurt. But then, Kurt was hard not to stare at. He was blue.
But the blushing. That was interesting. Her sharp eyes also picked up the signs of slight increase in blood pressure, indicative of embarrassment as well as the cause of the blush.
Maybe it was because she'd been staring like - well, like Sam stared at things, but Sam stared with purpose - like a staring thing, but there could also be... Other Reasons.
She was too far away for Sam to tell if her pupils were dilating. She'd have to watch over the next few days.
"Do I ever do schoolwork?" she asked in response to Kurt's question, though she did at least exit most of the really hacked stuff, anything upwards of four passwords. "Don't worry, it's not illegal."
Much.
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Post by selene on Nov 24, 2006 15:49:00 GMT -5
Selene listened to the conversation, steadily calming as attention was drawn away from her. She wished she could have spoken to Mr. Wagner a bit more, but it wasn’t likely she’d be able to with that other girl there.
He was very polite. And his accent... it was pretty. He sounded like Udo Kier and his eyes were just about as beautiful. She couldn’t help but smile to herself, lifting her fingers to her lips and chuckling almost silently.
Maybe she would trail him a little. Someone had to know more about him. What else did she have to do? Making conversation certainly didn’t seem to work...
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Post by Nightcrawler on Nov 24, 2006 17:36:29 GMT -5
Kurt smiled as Sam's fingers worked swiftly as she talked. More than likely something she wouldn't want me to see anyway, he thought ruefully. The students here have a habit of doing that.
Do any of the students here not do something illegal?
"Well, I have never had the opportunity to see you finish schoolwork, no... but there is always hope." He smiled and turned back to Selene, who was still sitting by the window.
"So, Gemini... since you spoke directly here," and he tapped his temple with a small smile, "it means you are at least some sort of telepath. Is that what brings to to us?"
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Post by selene on Nov 25, 2006 0:09:49 GMT -5
Selene's eyes quickly snapped back to Kurt as he spoke to her, and it took her a moment before she answered.
"Frightened parents and a trust fund brought us here." There was only a hint of a smirk. It didn't seem she fully intended to impress with her wit- she just happened to be bitter about the subject at hand.
Pulling her books closer still to her chest, she thought she might as well answer him more truthfully. "We enter dreams. My sister sees one half, I see the other. Like 3-D glasses." She blushed again, clearing her throat and wishing to god she'd stop turning pink.
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Post by haxxor on Nov 25, 2006 1:09:26 GMT -5
Gemini gave a half a smile. Being herself, Sam blew it out of proportion, especially with the accompanying eighth of a blush. Other Reasons possibly confirmed. That was priceless.
"Well, I have never had the opportunity to see you finish schoolwork, no... but there is always hope."
"I sure hope hope doesn't really spring eternal," she said. "That's a lot of wasted hope."
Who needed English when there was so much real learning to be done?
Ha! Gemini was turning even pinker. Sam almost giggled before she noticed that her connection had cut out.
"Damn," she said softly, and while she succeeded in reconnecting it briefly, it seemed as though a dark, evil shadow had moved between her and the internet. She'd have to escape its path. Probably Selene's stupid crazy telepathic death-field... well, probably not. But it could be!
"Mr. Wagner, the internet has abandoned me," she said, getting up and snapping the laptop closed. "I'm going to relocate. You kids have fun."
Slipping out the doorway, she wandered down the hall, reopening her computer every few feet to see if it worked yet.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Nov 25, 2006 1:48:55 GMT -5
"Unfortunately, Miss Meyers, that is exactly what hope does. One of these days I believe I shall see it pay off." He gave her a warm smile as she got up and moved out of the room, chuckling as he heard her feet start and stop, the laptop opening and closing.
As Sam walked away, Kurt turned back to Selene, focusing his golden eyes on her. "Ja, parents can be difficult, unfortunately," he said quietly, taking a seat on one of the couches.
"So you enter dreams? And what can you do there?" Kurt watched her attentively, his hands folded calmly in his lap. Selene seemed terribly unsure, and he was doing his best to seem as open and calming as possible. He wasn't sure how well it was working, since he was blue and his tail continued to move beside him, but he was trying.
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