ArchivedLogs:Terrorizing the Socially Awkward

Terrorizing the Socially Awkward
Dramatis Personae Peter, Sophie, Faelan	2013-04-13 '
Location <XS> Great Hall
The largest room at Xavier's, the Great Hall is designed to hold all of the mansion's residents and then some. Built for the mansion's bigger functions, it serves as the school's dining halls on ordinary days, and ballroom when needed. On school days, long trestle tables stretch across the hall, high-backed chairs with plush cushions offering seating for the students. Peter is seated in the Great Hall; he is currently sitting in front of his laptop, eyebrows /scrunched/ together, a set of big unwieldy headphones shoved on top of his head. The tussle-haired teenager's got on his usual re-bonkular glasses, red hoodie, blue jeans, and sneakers. He's missing those unusual wrist-watches he so often wears. He's also wearing - instead of his usual perpetual 'o:' expression - something more like a thin-lipped mopey /glare/. There's a notebook next to him, with a bunch of recent scribbles in it. Said scribbles /may/ circle around an unusual looking wrist-watch. Sophie, on the other hand, is just looking overwhelmed. This time of day there isn't too much crowd, so when she wanders around with tray of food she has her choice of sitting alone or trying to find someone to mingle with. Ultimately the decision is made to wander cautiously over towards Peter's table, and she sets her food down on the opposite side of the table from him, a seat or two down so as to let him have his space, but close enough for her to look over at him curiously. Thoughtfully chewing on an apple slice as she -- probably thinks she's being subtle, but she's pretty much outright staring at the poor guy. Scribble, scribble. Peter is occasionally clicking something on his laptop and returning to scribbling. He's got up - wikipedia articles on a bunch of stuff. Mechanisms. Chemistry. Valves! Electronics! HIGH-PRESSURE WATER-PISTOLS. But also, there's a clip on youtube he keeps returning to. If Sophie is a sneaky little fink, she may catch a clip of... is that a man in - armor? Yes. A man in massive, medieval armor. With a face-plate. Speaking in front of a podium, apparently to a bunch of diplomats. The caption underneath reads 'LATVERIA'S NEW DICTATOR?'. Peter keeps returning to this and frowning. It's when he flips back to his notebook that he notices the staring; pausing a moment as he scribbles - head lifting up - glancing about - and settling back on Sophie. /STARE/. Right back at her. As if to /out/ stare her. STARE. STARE. STARE. What the-- this was not. An expected response. The return stare initially results in Sophie freezing up, but finally she lets out a little squeak and breaks it off, staring instead down at her food tray for a minute. She bites her lip, face all bright red with embarassment, and finally stammers, "I-- I'm sorry, I just-- I'm sorry." Not really considering whether or not he'll hear her over headphones. She takes a long, awkward drink from a glass of juice, runs a hand through already somewhat mussed-up hair, and just-- resumes paying attention to her food. And, after a moment, thinks to add a third, "Sorry." Peter doesn't hear the first two sorries; but by the third, he's flipped off his headphones - dropping them around his neck with a swish of his fingertips. Eyebrows still crunched together. "It's - um, fine," he says, with just a hint of color touching his cheeks! "Just, uh - hi." Sheepish grin! Before, said grin threatens to be swallowed up by MOPEY-NESS. "...Peter. Are you new here?" Biting her lip, Sophie looks up from her tray a little hesitantly, and gives a slight nod. "Yeah, I.. I started this term." She scratches the back of her head, gives an awkward smile. "I didn't mean to-- I guess I didn't realize I was staring. It's just... It's weird getting used to everything. Everyone being.. you know.. 'different', and-- eating at school on weekends." She trails off a bit awkwardly, there, then thinks to add, "Oh, I'm Sophie." Making his way into the cafeteria with his acquired food tray, Faelan's too long jeans scuffed along the floor in a general wiff wiffing pattern. An overlarge, long sleave teeshirt that was just a plain hunter green adorned the rest of his body, and his gaze was sweeping over the inhabitants present as he searched for a table that wasn't overly crowded, and preferrably empty. He was even doing well not bumping into anyone for a change. "Different? Do I look different?" Peter asks the question with nothing short of pure, earnest curiousity; he looks down at himself, then - and at the back of his hand. Wiggling his fingers. As if /looking/ for something unusual. Then he notices his wrist, and the LACK that is there, and he looks all sad and mopey again. :( But, when he glances back up at Sophie, he manages a half-not-sad smile. "Oh, yeah - um, usually I'd be back in the city, but... I, um, I mean - I needed to work on catching up on some stuff." Like SOLENOID VALVES, if his currently open browser window is any clue. "...nice to meet you, Sophie! I, um - I'm Peter," he says, before adding: "I already said that already didn't I--" PETER'S table is not crowded. In fact, the only two people currently /at/ it are Peter and Sophie; the two are talking. Peter gives Faelan a glance - for a moment, his half-hearted mopegrin fades away to one of curiousity: "There's a couple of new people here..." "Well no, you don't look--" Sophie blushes again, getting all flustered, and slouches down closer to the table. "I just mean-- I don't know, like I said, everything's-- is 'mutant' an okay word to use?" It's sort of abrupt, the way she shifts to that question, but there it is. "That's what I meant. I just-- it sort of sounds like an insult and I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to call-- us, I guess. As far as I know there weren't any back home, so... I don't really know... how to act. It's-- overwhelming." When Peter's attention is caught, she turns to look at what he's looking at, and gives a little smile Faelan's way. "Pretty much everyone's new to me, so." Oh mostly empty table, the salvation of the socially awkward, as well as their prison in some ways. Scootching into the table to give the other two their room, there was some clattering and settling accompanying the motion, shortly followed by glancing at the others. "You hadn't seemed to have minded," Faelan said a bit hesitantly towards Peter since he had looked towards him. With Sophie's blushing and awkwardness, there was some small relaxing in him, as if he didn't have to worry so much. "Some people aren't really new, just harder to see. But, um, if you're new, hello. I'm Faelan." He wasn't going to mention the nickname that Jax had seemed to like, not sure if he was liking it himself yet. NO SOONER has the word 'mutant' escaped Sophie's mouth than does Peter's expression go from '|:' to 'D:' - When she continues, his expression shifts to 'D:< D:< D:<'. By the time she's finished, he SLAPS his hands against the table. "NO it is /NOT/ alright oh my GOD how dare you I am /so/ offended right now OOOOOH - naw I'm just messing with you," Peter says, and the 'D:<' instantly becomes a ':D', waving his hand with an audible pfsssh. "I don't think anybody minds 'mutant' I mean yeah, /I/ don't mind," he responds to Faelan, WAVING his hand at him to come on over. "My name's Peter Hi Faelan and yeah I think the only word I've seen people get angry over is 'freak'? But the sharktwins call themselves 'freak' and so does Shelby so - I dunno." Peter's moping stage seems to be officially 'over'; he has now switched to /relentless nattering/. Unfortunately for Sophie she is pretty much the /easiest target/ for teasing and for a minute she does indeed look horrified!! at the grievous offense she has committed-- oh, no? Apparently not. Uh. Well, she laughs a little awkwardly at that and nods, with a slightly less forced smile. "Okay, then." And with a slight turn towards Faelan she adds, "Hi! I'm Sophie, I /am/ new... I don't know if I've seen you around. Are you an upperclassman?" She gestures to herself. "I'm a Freshman. What class are you in, Peter?" Twitching as Peter slapped his hands down on the table, Faelans hands were on his tray and he looked like he was about to start leaving, before it switched over to joking. Instead he just watched the two in confusion before shaking his head. "They like us to be comfortable with the word mutant here. Since well one of the scientific name makes it sound like we're going to take over the world." There was thought on whether or not to move closer, but he at least started to slide the tray along the table. "Um yeah, I should be graduating this spring. I just well, try not to stand out too much. Its easier to not be bothered if you can't be seen." "Oh man yeah Homo Sapien Superior or something? Man that is a /goofy/ name," Peter says, and now he seems /totally/ relaxed, like he did not just pretend to flip the holy crap out for the sake of a silly joke. "I'm a freshman, too. It's really cool here - I mean, /I/ think it's cool. The classes are awesome, plus they've got -" His voice drops a bit lower, almost a conspiratorial whisper as he glances between the two: "- a HOLO-DECK downstairs. Totally not making that up. It is a frigging HOLO-DECK, like, for realsies. Basically? We are at /Hogwarts/. We are /wizards/." He pauses here, before adding - hesitantly: "Um, unless you think wizards are evil." Sophie lets out a little laugh at that, shaking her head. "I don't-- I mean, there are /some/ evil wizards but-- anyway. Yeah, it isn't that I don't like the place or anything, it's just... I kind of feel like my parents shipped me off because they didn't want to deal with me." That's pretty much how it went down. She rolls her eyes, waving a hand vaguely. "I dunno. The whole boarding school thing is kind of... super old fashioned, I mean who /does/ that anymore? I guess it makes sense and everything it just feels super weird. I guess it helps for getting used to what college is gonna be like." She sips from her juice glass, nodding thoughtfully. She's managed to relax a bit herself, at least. "Yeah I've heard about the uh-- Danger Zone? It doesn't really sound like something... I'm not really the fighting type." "Oh I avoid that room. The last time I was in there, I ended up in New Orleans. During Mardi Gras." Faelan's eyes showed the horror of that event, but he shook his head clearing it out. "The school is a safe place though. Well, safer than outside at least. But well, not everyone has powers that are as disruptive to daily life." Still as she was complaining about the place, he felt a bit protective of it. "My parents wanted to give me to a mob. At least your parents tried to do the right thing." "I fought /spiders/," Peter says. "And a /kraken/. It was total Mirkwood in there, like 'The Hobbit'? Except it wasn't a movie and I wasn't a dwarf." Peter seems to pop up at this notion, before adding: "I wanna see if we can - like, LARP in there? - like do table-top RPGs except with COSTUMES and things it would be /so/ awesome and totally non-dangerous -" At the mention of parental authority, Peter goes a bit quiet, his face once more resuming a ':|' expression. "...that's terrible," he tells both of them. "My folks are totally cool with all of this. I guess - I don't get why people make such a big deal out of it, sometimes." Sophie lowers her head, blushing bright red again and mumbles, "I'm sorry.." to Faelan. Biting her lip, she looks over at him and offers a hesitant smile. "I know there are people who don't like-- mutants-- but I guess I sort of-- I'm sorry." She pushes her tray forward a bit so that she can fold her arms on the table, /almost/ resting her head on them, and looks back to Peter. "I guess-- it's not /bad/ in my case, I just-- kind of-- was having problems controlling my ability. I still do. I've only known about it for like.. a little over a year? But I guess I was using it before then." Lets out a little sigh, there, and drops her head all the way down to arms. Lazy-like. "LARPing-- isn't that like vampires and werewolves or whatever?" "What's LARPing? Like a video game?" Faelan was tilting his head looking to Peter questioningly at that. When Sophie was apologizing to him, he shook his head "No, we discussed it in our ethics class. They were reacting because they were afraid, just like I react when I'm afraid. They came after me because I made their children disapear. Their children were violent monsters, but well, I was the more dangerous one. They could have all died." He seemed saddened about it, then his eyebrow rose at Sophie's description of Larping. "Vampires and werewolves? How is that safe? " he queried Peter with as he finally grabbed some of his food to eat. "Their children were violent monsters?" Peter asks, eyebrows darting up. "Oh - it's - Live Action Role Playing - like, um, you - instead of rolling dice you actually just go ahead and /do/ stuff. It wouldn't be dangerous 'cuz you can set it up so stuff in the room /isn't/ dangerous. Like stuff will just pass through you or whatever. Dr. McCoy says it can still be traumatic and stuff though so they have a lot of safety protocols and you're not allowed in there without a teacher but you can basically do /anything/ in there. Like, Dr. McCoy used to do these sort of Star Trek sims - where he was - /the/ Dr. McCoy." Then, suddenly, more quickly, Peter's eyes wide and frantic: "OhGod I told him I wouldn't tell anyone that."" Judging by Sophie's expression, she may have thought Peter was talking about /that/ Dr. McCoy the whole time anyway. She does look a little less stunned when the distinction is made, but. Yeah. "That's-- not really a problem for me anyway," she replies, ~mysteriously~, then nods. "But that actually sounds really neat. Could, um.. if they let you do that is it something that anyone could do if they wanted?" But attention is then turned back to Faelan and she looks a little.. troubled, maybe. "What do you mean you made their kids disappear-- like, you made them invisible?" Faelan was saved from instantly answering by virtue of the food in his mouth. Finally deciding how to respond, he said "When you're a sixty pound scrawny kid being beaten on by six other kids almost twice your size, you get to call them violent monsters." His therapist had told him that it wasn't his fault, so he would cling to that justification. "No, not invisible. I can also teleport things. Just well, I don't know where it will go when I send it places." He shook his head before looking back to Peter. "That sounds alittle fun, like living in a movie." "Oh, it's just - I mean - I've met some actual, you know. Monsters. Like, I mean /literally/, with like green faces and fangs and they eat people," Peter explains, making little fangs with his fingers on top of his mouth by way of EXPLANATION. "So when you said 'monsters' I thought - I mean, that's terrible - yeah I don't know how it works," he tells Sophie, "But it is /awesome/, like a movie, yeah. I'm hoping they'll let me do - a D&D one, maybe, I dunno, Dr. McCoy said I'd have to get a lot of permissions first." FOOT SCUFF. Peter, upon the mentioning of Faelan's power: "Ohmygod BLIND teleport? Have you ever teleported a dude into another dude and made them both EXPLODE?" Pause: "Uh sorry that would probably be /terrible/ to see." Shifty eyes. "Oh. Oh, jeez." Faelan's explanation gets a bit of an uncomfortable look from Sophie, but to her credit she doesn't like, scream or anything. "But... it does sound like you couldn't help it, I mean. I'm sorry I asked." And when Peter asks that question of his, she lifts her head sharply and gives him a /look/. "Peter!" She almost shouts, all surprised and stuff. "That's-- don't tease him." There's a little frown there. "Anyway. Your game thing sounds like fun and I'll probably want to try if that's okay. I haven't really got involved in any of the clubs or anything here yet, I don't know if I want to join any of them or which ones I would if I did." "Erm, no putting people into other things or people. The professors seem to think its my subconscious protecting myself and others in some way. It lands somewhere it can fit in." Faelan still seemed uncomfortable from describing it all, but was glad that it was moving away from questions about his power. "I might want to watch your game. But I don't know if I should be in it, since well, when I get scared I tend to jump away. So if you record it or something I could watch. I think even if I walked it invisibly it would still be too scary for me, without them coming at me." "I didn't mean - like, I'm sorry, it just kinda came out--" More shifty-eyed from Peter. "They totally record the DR sessions so yeah I can't imagine that wouldn't be okay. And - yeah that would be /totally/ okay, I mean I've been tryin' to put together some sort of tabletop club but ever since the sharktwins left, I mean--" Peter cuts himself off here. TEENDRAMA. He mumbles into his laptop. "But, yeah, I'll probably try to start something soon I could email you stuff. Pparker@xavier.edu. Is, my. Um. Email. We could do some non-DR stuff too," he mentions to Faelan. "I mean it doesn't /all/ have to be Danger Room stuff, I do like rolling dice /sometimes/." "I've never really done anything like that, but it sounds like.. fun? It sounds like fun." Sophie nods a little, pushing herself back to sitting upright, though she leans forward a little. "My email's smaclachlan. MacLachlan with an A." She pauses, frowns. "Three As, actually. And an N. Then two Ls, an M, two Cs and an H." She stops a moment, there, fully aware of how ridiculous that probably sounded. "... or I can just email you later. I can get you my cell number, then, too; I don't, uh, have it memorized yet. Keep getting them flipped around sorta. Peter Parker at Xavier .edu, yeah?" "I've never done it either myself, I think I'd need someone to teach me what to do. Isn't that the game with the funny dice though. Still Kai had said he was going to ask Ivan if he could teach some games for us to play. Perhaps he can learn this one too." Faelan nodded at that as they were exchanging emails with each other. "Oh, I'll just send an email to you both. They had two emails made up for me, since it was easier for people to remember the other one. When your parents give you an irish name, they don't always worry about how the spelling will be for others when you grow up." He was being social, it was a happy moment for him none the less. "Smac-lack-lan?" Peter asks, eyes nearly /crossing/. "Yeah, Peter Parker - P-Parker at Xavier dot edu, maybe you should both just email /me/ instead," he says, and now he's closing his laptop. "I'll totally give you my cell phone number when you do, too - they give you a cell for being a student here, s'pretty awesome," Peter admits. "D&D is boss, yeah. I've got to - finish some work." BLUSH. By work, he means /FINISH HIS INSIDIOUS DEVICE/. "It was nice meeting you both...!" "MacLachlan!" Sophie replies, alllmost defensively. "--Nobody ever gets it right," she notes, with a long-suffering siiiiigh. But then she's back to smiling, easily enough, and nods. "Yeah yours is easier to remember. I might not be back at my computer for a little while but-- it isn't like it's urgent or anything." She gives a little wave of her hand. "I didn't mean to keep you away from your homework or anything, sorry about that-- but it was nice meeting you too!" And to Faelan she gives another smile as well. "My family doesn't do it as much but my grandma and uncles and stuff all have a bunch of super Scottish names, so.. I sorta get where you're coming from." "It was nice meeting you too Peter. Good luck getting your work done." Faelan was assuming school work as well, as he looked to Sophie. "Yeah, my first name they like to replace half the vowels with other ones. But there are people from all over the world here, so it isn't as bad I guess. Some of the names are much harder to spell." He was shaking his head as he finished off his drink. "Have things been alright for you here so far? Aside from being away from your parents and what you're used to and all." "Oh it's fine, I'm not--" Peter doesn't finish that thought, actually. Remembering that Webshooters v3.0 is actually TOP SECRET. Instead, he just sheepishly grins. "Email me!" he tells the both of them, before heading off - notebook tucked safely besides his laptop as he darts away! Sophie gives another wave to Peter as he departs, and nods at Faelan's question. "Oh, yeah, everything's been fine. I'm just not really.. I come from a little town and everyone basically goes to the same elementary school and the same junior high and the same highschool... so it's been, uh, like almost ten years since the last time I've been in a school and not known everyone. So I'm kind of having to learn how to meet people, again." There's a little blush there as she brushes her hair behind her ears. "It's mostly just a lot of little adjustments. There's stuff here I couldn't do at home, but there's also stuff I could do at home that I can't do here, y'know?" "Yeah, its different here than being in a small town. And well, its really close to the city, so if you like that sorta thing its good." Faelan pushed his now defooded tray to the side so he wouldn't put his hands in it by accident. "They have a good library here, and fancy computers and stuff. But a lot of the students complain about the curfew because they want to go to the city and wander around there." He thought abit, trying to come up with any other useful tidbits. Grinning, Sophie nods a bit at that. "Yeah, I've heard some of the complaining... I haven't gone into the city yet, but I do want to eventually. When the weather gets warmer, probably. It's kind of a pain wearing winter clothes all day, especially when you're off on a day trip." She's pretty much done with her own meal as well, besides a few slices of apple left to nibble on and a bit of juice left to drink. "I've mostly gotten used to getting around here by now, though, at least. And like I said, I'm kind of thinking about maybe joining one of the clubs. It'd help me make more friends, if nothing else, I guess." "I tend to make sure I wear enough in case I end up somewhere bad," Faelan replied at that. "I don't really know about any of the clubs, sorry. I tend to stick to myself." He shook his head sighing. "Still I'm sure you'll make lots of friends here. Pretty girls tend to have flocks of people around them all the time." He probably didn't even realize he had said something that would be awkward at least. Well /that/ certainly gets a bright red blush from the freshman, who rather suddenly has her head on the table, arms covering it almost defensively. "I-- I don't know if things-- I think it might be different here than at normal schools, you know?" She bites her lip, slowly uncovers her head and reaches over to drink the rest of that juice of hers. "I-- I just remembered I've got a lot of homework too, actually.." And without allowing for any argument to that, she stands up, picking up her tray. "And-- it was nice meeting you. Thank you. I'll-- see you later. Faelan? Faelan. Goodnight!" And off she zips, quick as she can. "Good luck with your home work. I've got to go out on survival training this weekend anyway." Faelan let her go, not really thinking about her reaction too much. "I hope you get plenty of friends in your club though. It will probably make things easier for you here." Giving her a wave, he acquired his own tray and looked about for the best way out before heading to drop it off.