ArchivedLogs:Skulking

Skulking
Dramatis Personae Hailey, Mallory, Jean Grey, Taylor
In Absentia	2014-03-20 '
Location <XS> Front Gate
Situated along the long sweep of Greymalkin Lane, offset from the quiet hamlet of Salem Center, the Xavier Institute is a prestigious boarding school for young minds. Set on more than forty acres of carefully cultivated land, the mansion is not visible from the road. What can be seen are the rolling hills, forested grounds, and the sparkling blue of the large clear lake. The drive is gated, a small brick enclosure housing the security guard on duty to ID and vet visitors to the school. The day had moved on a bit more since she had seen the strange girl outside the gates. She had gotten past the fence and was now on her way to sneak farther into the campus. She was keeping to shadows, trees, and bushes. She keeps her mouth shut and her eyes open, trying to see what was going on here. Those two strangers that saw her at the hospital had said this was a place for freaks, and she really wanted to see if that was true...just not publicly. A short break between early morning library duties and her first classes of the semester means that Mallory has a chance to enjoy a walk in the comfortably cool morning air. Somewhat lost in thought, she doesn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings or any strangers in the area, fidgetting with a ring as she walks along the main pathway. Dressed professionally for the first day of classes, Mallory wears a dove gray pencil skirt and jacket over a cream colored silk blouse, the entire outfit doing nothing to hide the otherness of her appearance. Deep red skin, jet black eyes, and curling black ram's horns are accentuated by the neat bun her hair is pulled into. Her digitigrade legs ending in cloven hooves and long sinuous tail, left free by a modification in the skirt, complete the look of the obvious physical mutant. Her path eventually takes her down towards the front gate of the school, in no particular hurry as she sips from the black thermos of tea held in her left hand. Glancing first at her watch and then out onto the road approaching the school, the librarian is obviously waiting for someone to arrive at the school as she stands just off to the side out of the way of the gates. On that gray morning, a silver sports car pulls up to the gate of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The gate opens slowly, giving the red head at the wheel a moment to confer with the student in the seat next to her. "Now, don't rush back into it. Assembly will be starting soon and aside from the usual first of the term speech, the professor will be talking about what happened to you and the others. If you don't want to be there for that, and I wouldn't blame you, you are excused. Try for your afternoon classes if you want, but none of the others are tentatively expected to be in until Monday, so you have some leeway." Her voice is full of concern, the slightly husky quality growing more pronounced with quiet emotion. She pauses after a moment, her head turning toward the sight of red and someone in motion, her expression brightening a little. She turns off the car in the driveway and opens the door, stepping one foot out as she stands up, raising a hand to wave at Mallory. She smiles and starts to call out to her, but she stops. Eyes out of focus, her head turnsaway, as if she were turning toward someone whispering in her ear. Beside the redhead in the driver's seat is a teenager, jet-black skin and shaved-bald head. The boy is tall and muscular and, seated in the passenger seat looks fairly normal aside from the bandaging plastered across his neck; he's got a grey denim jacket on and is otherwise wearing a very /tired/ expression, head slumped against the window. The tired expression is soon replaced by a curious one; his head /also/ turns, eyes shifting even as Jean's do. He straightens, opening his door as well to get out of the car. The normalcy of his appearance ends as soon as Taylor emerges -- his jacket has been heavily modified from a regular one, a myriad of extra holes added to it to allow for /many/ extra limbs. A number of tentacles of varying sizes emerge from the holes, some wrapped around his body, some drooped towards the ground. One of them, thick and strong and lined along its underside with hook-lined suction cups lifts to /wave/ towards Hailey's hiding place as a very /cheerful/-friendly psionic voice sounds in Hailey's mind: << Who're you calling freaks? >> Hailey watches the people with a narrowed gaze. "Man... these people are weird..." She sees the car approaching and makes sure to make herself small, curling up tight as she peeks through at the car and the two people inside. Upon seeing the occupants step out her face contorts into one of disgust and confusion. That guy...has tentacles...ew! She gathers her hoodie and shirt over her bandages as she looks around, ready to book it before she hears the voice in her head. She drops down quick, her gaze flickering left, right, up, down, everywhere, trying to see who was talking to her. She kept quiet and kept an eye open. There's no way she was seen...and noone was around here...must be her imagination messing with her. She shakes her head to clear out the weird and stays still. Once they were gone she'd make a run for the gate. Mallory smiles gently and starts to raise her thermos in a saulute of greeting to Taylor and Jean as they arrive, before taking another sip of her tea. Up close, her expression is tired and somewhat worn, with the slightest hint of dark circles beneath her eyes, hidden with careful makeup application; she seems to be relying heavily on the strong black tea in her thermos to get her through the morning. When both Jean and Taylor look away, Mallory first checks to make sure she hasn't managed to walk out half dressed, mumbling about something being worse than jet lag. But then her entirely black eyes track in the same direction, scanning the shadows in which Hailey hides, concern crinkling her brow. "Something wrong?" she asks, hushed voice bearing an clear Oxford accent, eyes narrowing to squint slightly at the shadows in that direction, adding in an even quieter voice, "New student, perhaps?" "Jet lagged, Mallory?" Jean asks with a hint of amusement, her attention still trying to pick out where that mind Professor Xavier told her about is. She inhales deeply and loosens the scarf around her neck, a lilac purple against the black of her rain coat. "Come on out, dear. We don't mean any harm." She pulls herself further away from the car, closing the door as she moves away, heading in Hailey's direction. She keeps her distance though, her hands sliding into her pockets, fingers gripping the car keys. "Can I help you with something?" To Mallory, there's just a quiet, << Perhaps. >> "Did you have a good trip?" Taylor is cheerful, to Mallory, despite the burns and bandages. He trails after Jean for a few steps, but then /flinches/ away from Hailey with her thoughts of disgust, recoiling in reflexive hurt as the cheer fades from his expression. The tentacles that he'd kept coiled around himself coil tighter. /His/, "... Perhaps." is a little more grudging. Hailey sees her coming closer and whispers. "Shit..I think they found me.." her head lifts up as her eyes dart around. It was too sunny for this shade to work for a teleport, and the campus wasn't covered thick enough in trees to really be able to run to another one without being obviously seen. She keeps still and holds her breath. They must have seen her, so she'll stay still and keep her breath held until they go away. They can't see her, they can't hear her, she's invisible. She closes her eyes and hopes at least they don't have some freaky x-ray vision or something like that. Stifling a yawn behind yet another sip of tea, Mallory nods the affirmative to Jean, an amused smirk curling the corner of her lips as she answers, "Worse. Laser lag. Almost over it, though." She smiles cheerily at Taylor, running a hand sheepishly along a horn, the sun glinting off the new ring with the movement, "Amazing trip, yes. Thank you." The flinch from Taylor earns a confused look between him and the shadowed shrubbery, and she steps closer to him, hooves clicking sharply against the pavement, asking him with concern in her voice, "Are you alright?" Other than that, the demonic looking teacher keeps her distance, realizing that her appearance may be a bit offputting, letting Jean take the lead with approaching the potentially skittish individual hiding over there. She does her best to look friendly and unthreatening, watching as Jean moves forward. "I realize you may be more comfortable with skulking about, at least it may be what you are used to, but you have been found out, so it's a little pointless to keep this up." Jean replies, her words firm but dispassionate. There's a pause, a distracted bit of communication elsewhere, before she adds, "Come on, Hailey. Come out and be a guest on our campus; it is better than the alternative." She exhales quietly and gives a little smile to Taylor, one still laced with concern. She steps forward again, leaving Taylor to Mallory's attentive care. "I'm --" Taylor's quick smile to Mallory is a little forced. "Yeah. Not really used to being told around /here/ how disgusting I am." There's amusement in his tone, though it's admittedly a little forced, too. It fades int genuine brightness a moment later, warm and friendly once more. "Glad to hear it -- oh my /god/ is that a -- can I see that?" One of the tentacles, a slim-small one, is poking towards the new ring. "Did you ask or did he?" There's genuine excitement in his tone, black eyes glittering. Over above his spoken words there are silent mental ones: << You're not /very/ invisible. We just have the regular kind of vision. >> The hurt has -- /mostly/ left his tone, words back to largely friendly-warm again. << You are welcome here, you know. But you need to treat everyone else here with respect, /too/. >> Hailey raises slowly, looking quite angry. "How the hell did you see me!?" She glares and huffs a little bit. She doesn't move from her spot, her eyes darting around rapidly, trying to see all the possible escape routes. She didn't really know what powers these people had but there was a hentai monster and the devil....neither are very escapable in anything she's seen. She takes a step forward, hands above her head in the arrest pose. "Yeah yeah arrest me, I'm not giving you my parents info or anything." She wices at her side where bandages peeked past her hoody, her hands keeping skyward. She'd go along with this for a while. But as soon as she could slip away she'd be scot free. She'd need to grab her lockpicks in her boot first though. "Oh, dear, no. No one should say that, least of all here," Mallory assures him, her concerned expression softens at Taylor's explanation, and she looks about to offer a hug to the student, but hesitates due to the bandages. Her lips tighten into a dark line with a sidelong glance at the shrubbery, but when she looks back towards Taylor at the excited question, she smiles brightly, holding out her hand to show off the ring - a modest diamond flanked by two small iridescent fire opals in a scroll-work gold setting. "He did," she answers, giddyness edging into her typically stayed demeanor, "Atop the Eiffel Tower just after midnight." The movement in the shadows, however, draws her attention and her gaze whips back over to regard Hailey curiously, giddy smile fading slightly as she tries to hide the somewhat elongated incisors. Attempting to look professional and welcoming. "Our headmaster asks that you refrain from referring to Taylor in that fashion. He is neither a monster nor active in the pornography industry. Additionally, he can hear what you are thinking." Jean shakes her head slowly. "No one is going to arrest you and no one is going to keep you here against your will. When you're ready to leave, you will be shown the door. There will be no need for lock picks." She clears her throat and looks the young woman over. "Now, you've come to us. Can we help you with something?" << I want to hear all about it, >> Jean adds to Mallory, from afar, itching to see that ring. Other things are more pressing at the moment. Hailey looks at Jean with a little grimace "hey... isnt that illegal or something?" she narrows her gaze and shifts from foot to foot. "I was here to spy and see if you guys are freaks. It looks like you are, and the school thing is fake." she grins a bit and waves a hand "dont worry though. im not gonna report you guys or anything. I have a reason to look around here." on learning that her mind was being read as such she switches her thoughts, quickly thinking of colors, numbers, pictures. everything she could to crowd her mind and obscure her thoughts of her own powers and identity as a powerful shadow using mutant. (her thouhhts) "I've heard the Japanese porn jokes /so/ many times," Taylor says with a /very/ wry smile. Mallory's aborted impulse for a hug is met, at least, with a snaked-out tentacle wrapping around her for a brief light squeeze -- /they/ at least regenerate even if the /rest/ of him doesn't, and while most of him is still healing the snakelike limbs can afford a quick squeeze of hug. His bright smile remains as she shows off the ring, and he leans in to examine it with a widening of eyes. "Holy /sh --/" he cuts off the profanity with a dip of his head, amending it to a more teacher-appropriate: "/Congratulations/ -- at the /Eiffel Tower/, for /real/, that's /incredible/. /Some/ vacation, huh? You two sure did spring break right!" Taylor half-turns back towards Hailey's shrubbery, head tilting slightly. "It really is a school. For people like us. I mean, we need a place we can study -- /without/ people badgering us about being freaks. Do you mind?" His brows lift rather pointedly. "We're here to be a safe place. The outside world can be really unkind to people who look different. Or have different powers. I've been studying here for years. Would you maybe like to come see?" "Just about as illegal as trespassing and spying," Jean notes off hand, "but it also something some people can't stop doing." She glances over at Taylor as he explains and makes and invitation, her shoulders relaxing, leaving it up to the teen for the time being. She's just going to stand here and play enforcer. Mallory chuckles at the near slip, and smiles brightly, "Thank you, Taylor." << We'll chat over lunch some time - I'll give you all the details you care to hear. Saves my poor brother from hearing me chatter. >> is the directed response to Jean's request for more details, neatly folding her hands around her thermos as she focuses on the more pressing issue. To her credit, her calm smile doesn't falter at the commentary about porn from both Jean and Taylor, turning her attention to Hailey. The skepticism at the school gets a relaxed smile, and she shakes her head, "I assure you, the school is quite real. An excellent school, at that. A safe place for those like us to learn and grow." There's a note of pride in her voice as she offers her assurance, even though she hasn't been a teacher here for that long. Hailey clicks her tongue a bit. they had her. "I guess ill look around then... but try to wipe my mind or something and ill fight back! err.... with my lock picks that is.... nothing else" she clears her thoat still tryong to keep her mind racing. "Whats the proper term then? I always here your kind called freaks. or muties is that better?" she asks. stuffing her hands into her jacket securely as she approaches them cautiously. "/Our/ kind," Taylor says, pointedly again, "is usually called mutants." His shoulders are tensing at the term 'muties', tentacles shifting in restless agitation. "And it's a really good school, yeah. We send students to a lot of very good colleges. Harvard. MIT. Princeton. Columbia. We're not /just/ a safe place, we're a safe place with a great education." When he smiles, the bright white of his teeth makes all the more brilliant contrast to the obsidian blackness of his skin. "People out there like to say 'freaks' but it's a pretty hateful term when you say it with, you know, malice. Sometimes /we/ use it in a joking way with our friends but when you use it /rudely/ you're not going to win yourself any friends. It's kind of all a question of attitude, you know?" Jean's expression softens a little, listening first to Mallory's thoughts, then to Taylor's very apt description of terminology. She nods in agreement, raising a finger to still the party when it looks like they are heading in. "Wait, I must ask. You are a mutant, are you not? We generally don't show the school to non-mutants, so I need to make sure. I don't want to get your hopes up. If you're not, why don't you call back another time? We're in the middle of a bit of a hard time and it's not really a good time." Mallory's already upright posture stiffens as the teen calls them freaks, and then in the same breath muties, her wine colored lips drawing into a narrow line in displeasure. << Child, this is a school, not a side show or petting zoo. We are not here for your amusement. >> Mallory thinks with quiet sarcasm, perhaps falling into old mental habits and letting her sheilding drop briefly. She listens intently to Taylor's explanation, nodding in agreement, a subtle, close lipped smile tugging up a the corners of her lips, offering quietly, "Well said." Entirely black eyes narrow briefly at Hailey, calculating, observing as the girl seems to want to explore, but at the same time watching Jean for guidance. The librarian was just about to turn towards the mansion once more, pausing to hear the answer to Jean's question with a curious glance at Hailey. Hailey nods a bit at Taylor " and how do you handle skipping ?" she asks idly as she shifts from foot to foot, adjusting her bandages slightly as she looks at them. "Well....you see....umm.... its .." she debates whether to tell them or not. She was headstrong and cocky. Just coning out and telling random strangers wasnt something she would do usually whether they were mutant and willing to help or not. "I don't," Taylor answers plainly, lips twitching up into a smirk. "Remember the part where people here get into /good/ colleges? /I/ plan to." One of his tentacles pokes down the loooong driveway off towards the distance; another opens the car door again. "Come on." He beckons into the car in invitation. "And do you also remember where we said we could read minds? Shadow powers. It's cool. I heard. That's neat. I --" For a moment, something sad crosses his expression. "I knew a guy who had powers like that. He was pretty awesome. The driveway's long, you should get in the car." He's getting in the back seat, this time, leaving Mallory the front, now. Because teacher. Or maybe because much longer /legs/ than his own. "We're a very typical school in most regards, especially in discipline. If you skip classes, you will receive detentions and it will affect your grades in terms of class participation." Jean moves back around to the other side of the vehicle, fishing her keys out of her pocket. She opens the door and rests her forearms on the roof of the car. "Shadow powers? Very well. Do your parents know? If you are good terms with them, we would like to get their consent for your visit." << I was hoping to get her to admit it herself, >> She tells Taylor, not a shred of reproach in her thoughts, << but I will respect your judgement. >> Mallory simply receives a raised eyebrow and a tiny laugh, breathy and light, barely there. Hailey looks at him balkingly. "Please stop.... I feel like I don't have secrets when you do that." she gives a glare, holding herself tightly, wincing a bit as she accidentally presses against her burns. "They don't know, please don't tell them. My mom just got her first kinda good job and I don't want her to freak out or get fired because I'm a -whatever- It's my problem not hers." Mallory snorts at the question about skipping, shaking her head, "As my coleague has said. We are a school - skipping classes is frowned upon, and addressed for the problem that it is." An eyebrow raises at the reveal of the type of powers, but she refrains from commenting further, especially once Hailey objects to the intrusion. There's an apologetic shrug towards Jean, and Mallory glances towards the waiting car, "I was actually planning to walk back, but thank you for the offer of a ride." She bobs her head apologetically to Taylor and Jean, looking once more towards Hailey, unsure, entirely, of how to respond to the concern. "We will never tell your parents anything about your mutation. We feel that is between you and them. However, if you wish to attend here, we would like them to know we are your school, and not an organization that made you vanish off the face of the planet while in session. There are other options as to how we present ourselves to them. In your case, we could be a finishing school for young people who have difficulty getting to class - providing you actually make a commitment to start to attending classes. There are likely a few classes that will draw your attention, like psionic self defense and one on one time with a mentor who will be able to help you learn to control your powers better." Jean continues to lean against the car, watching the girl. "In the end, the decision is up to you. Would you like a ride to the front doors, so we can show you the rest of what we have to offer?" "Can /you/ stop /having/ your powers?" Taylor returns to the front seat when Mallory declines the ride. "I don't pry on purpose. It's not like I'm digging around in your head. I can't stop being what I am any more than you can stop being what you are. I mean, I'm here to /learn/ to quiet it down better but I'm /sixteen/ I'm not /good/ at it. And I'm not sure I'll ever be /perfect/ at it if other telepaths I know are any indication, I don't think it's a perfect science. I don't think there's an exact on-off switch." He gives Mallory a quick smile as he takes the front seat. "Enjoy the walk. Enjoy the /ring/." He folds his enormous tentacles into the seat with himself, pulling the door closed. Hailey steps slowly into the car with a nod. "I guess, not like hanging out at my school is any better." She waves off things before sitting down, rather un lady like with a little huff. "Then please act like you don't hear it then....It makes me feel really uneasy that you can just know what I'm thinking." She moves in the seat a bit before looking at Jean. "Psh, my mom wouldn't believe that. We're poor. I barely got enough to get clothes and supplies, heck why do you think I have lockpicks. " She says somewhat cocky, her lip curling into a punk's grin. "Show me around though, might be fun."