ArchivedLogs:Acknowledge and Try

Acknowledge and Try
Dramatis Personae Cassy, Gaétan, Marinov
In Absentia	2017-08-10 "I guess what I'm trying to say is.. Is it rude to notice a power or like ask about it?"
Location <XS> Foyer
Xavier's foyer provides a suitable introduction to the opulent mansion. Teak-paneled, wood floors immaculately polished, vaulted ceiling ribbed with dark wood boning, there is no doubt this school was built with no expense spared. The hallways branch off to the separate wings, with the grand staircase spiraling upwards to the residential dorms above. Marinov sits in the Foyer this evening, absently liking and commenting on things in their social media, reading glasses balanced on the end of their snout. It's been a warm day outside, and Marinov has taken full advantage when able, but is now enjoying the air conditioning while awaiting some rumoured new arrivals to say hello to. The teen is presently wearing slacks, a white button up, a tie in the school colours and a charcoal blazer. It takes a level of determination to skip while hauling a large steamer trunk filled with clothing behind you. But Cassy has determination and mindless optimism in spades. At least until her case snags in the Foyer door, her legs go forward and there is a glorious moment where she looks like she might have learnt to fly before she re-acquants herself with gravity and shortly thereafter the ground. Cassy half yelps, half yells "Son of a buttface!" The sound almost seeming to come from her entire body, rather than just her mouth. Gaétan is just wandering in from the auditorium, feet scuffing in a slow and aimless shuffle. Eyes skating around the hall, up to the staircase, around the walls; his fingers trail slowly against the wood panelling. "Oh." He looks up with a very slight widening of eyes at seeing Marinov. "How are the internets today?" And a bit wider of eyes as Cassy enters. He walks a /little/ faster -- he can't exactly be said to be /hastening/ to her assistance, but he does at least move closer with an uncertain: "You -- maybe need a hand with that?" "The internets are depressing!" huffs Marinov, looking up from their phone, "When did my feed get so political? Where are the puppies at?!" Marinov jumps up from their seat in surprise at Cassie's sudden and clattery appearance and is immediately up on their feat, tail much bushier than it was while they were seated. "Ah- er, welcome to Xavier's. I could. Yeah, help you with your bag? You alright there?" Cassy sprawls on the floor for a moment. "First day at a new school and I've already made myself look like a total clutz," she laments and then, without pausing she adds "I'm fine though.. I figured it'd be cool to use the old steamer trunks my Dad used to use for his magic stuff, but it turns out they don't really fit all that much in. So it's not even that heavy a case! Just.. kinda bulky." She sighs, sticks her hand up in the air and waves. "But anyway. Hi I'm Cassy and it's awesome to meet you!" "Do you follow Ste-- Captain America? He posts /so/ many puppies. Most of them you can even adopt." Gaétan is saying this while scooting around. Through the doorway, behind Cassy's trunk to -- nudge it? with one toe as if this will help. It doesn't, really, trunk still caught up against the lip of the doorway. Only after this desultory attempt at Helping does Gaétan actually stoop to /lift/ the thing. "Wait, /magic/ stuff? Is your dad a witch?" "I do follow him! And I want to adopt all the puppies he posts but, like, dorms... And there's already a very good pup living in my dorm room. I adore her," gushes Marinov. They pull their reading glasses (somehow only crooked but still perched after their jump) from their nose and slip them away into their pocket, patting it gently. "I'm Marinov. Taylor Marinov," they say, taking Cassy's hand, "I know the ins and outs of this place pretty well, so if you have any questions or anything..." They trail off and just gesture to themselves. Cassy sits up and begins pulling what seems like an endless stream of brightly coloured silk scarves from Marinovs sleeve. "Oh you know. No more than usual," she replies with a grin. "But then like. Isn't that why people come here? Only with more emails and fewer owls. I never really pictured Captain America as a pet person and now there's that story about how he's on mutant drugs. Which I guess must be dumb because if the Government had mutant drugs in the thirties why is everyone acting super surprised about it all now?" Her head tilts as she finally runs out of scarves to pull out. "I should probably get up out of the doorway huh?" A smile flickers quick, bright, over Gaétan's face. "/Oh/! Like /magic/-magic!" This seems both surprised and amused, at the Neverending Stream O'Scarf. Well, eventually-ending-stream. His smile lasts even after Cassy's run out of scarves. "I think the tabloids are just always full of crap but who knows." Shrug. "I'm Gaétan. I'm starting here in fall, too." Looking back over his shoulder: "Nobody else coming," with a shrug, "though if you don't /ever/ plan on getting up it probably won't be comfortable sleeping here." Marinov's wide eyes follow the moving scarves with great interest and they can't help but take a playful swat at them as the last one comes out of their sleeve. When they realize how that might look, though, they straighten up and fold their hands behind their back a bit stiffly. "That article said that Cap's dog was on mutant drugs too. I was wondering, maybe the dog was a person and is taking mutant drugs 'cause dogs are cool? And... yeah, I mean, I could easily step over you when I go out but I'd rather not." They offer Cassy a helpful hand up. Cassy flings the scarves over her shoulder and around her neck a few times. "Thanks," she says as she accepts the helping hand up. "It's nice to meet you both! Huh. I wonder if they tested whatever made Captain America all superhero-ey on animals, because while it'd be pretty horrible if they had done just imagine how amazing the puppies would have been. Oh! Maybe his pet dog descended from like a Super Dog Soldier project?" Gaétan bites down at his lip at Cassy's line of speculating. He finishes nudging the trunk over the threshhold, letting it bump back down to solid ground. "His dog /is/ pretty ridiculous, have you seen the size of her? Definitely a dog you could ride into super-soldier-battle." "I think that's a pretty cool image. I'm should get myself a dog-steed," says Marinov, imagining it, "But I'll settle for a dog-friend." They round the chest and say, "Let's get this thing, like, properly somewhere out of the way at least." They crouch down while getting ready to lift. "Then we can figure out where it will live afterwards." "Oh it's really not all that heavy," Cassy assures, as the streamer trunk gets shifted to one side in a group effort. "Just enough stuff to last until term starts and then my folks are swinging by once I'm settled with enough stuff to stay here full time. They just.. uhm.. thought I better get here sooner rather than later in case I had any mishaps." By now it's likely become obvious that when Cassy talks her the sound seems to emit from her entire body and her mouth doesn't seem to be moving in time. She grins and adds "Cat-Dog. I... wait that wasn't rude was it? Catperson powers seem super cool but I.. Is it... uhm... I guess what I'm trying to say is.. Is it rude to notice a power or like ask about it? Or is it like when you notice your friends got a hickey but her boyfriend was on holiday and we're not supposed to mention it?" Gaétan is eying Cassy with open curiosity. Then Marinov, a little expectant about this question, too. "So you're not doing that on purpose, then." If talking about powers is What We're Doing Now, Gaétan is jumping in. His hand gestures wide. All Of Cassy sort of in general. And to Marinov, even /more/ curious -- "So you're -- um, /we're/," an uncomfortable correction, "allowed to have dogs in the dorm?" "If you failed to notice that I don't look exactly human, I'd be pretty surprised," says Marinov, "Like, I'm gold with black rosettes and got dagger teeth. I don't mind if people, like, acknowledge that is a thing. I think my powers are cool, actually, I just don't like the social and sometimes mental consequences that come with 'em." They hold out a hand and wobble it side to side, before answering Gaétan. "Suga Mama is sort've a working dog. So I think.... not any dogs can stay in the dorms." Cassy blinks at Gaétan. "Doing what on purpose?" she wonders. "Oh the whole talking from my everything thing? That? I er... no can't stop doing that. But I can also do this too." She frowns, then in an extremely close replica of Marinovs voice adds "I acknowledge the coolness you have going on." Her voice then flicks back to normal. "If you have catlike hearing you'll have to let me know if I slip into a painfully high or low range." Marinov's explanation is taken in somewhat intently by Gaétan, though he only responds to it with a small frown, small nod, like cataloging this Etiquette Information for later. "Is it better, here? Shane's said..." Though this trails off into a shrug. "Yeah, that thing. The sound -- woah." Inadvertent eyebrow raise, an /approving/ nod. "That's neat. That could be /handy/. I guess -- once you learn to stop -- uh." A beat. "Leaking." Marinov's ears perk up at hearing their own voice from another person, the left swiveling back and forth a couple of times, "Whoa, geez. That's pretty neat. And... yeah, I've got like, all kinds of super-stuff going on, including hearing, so I'll let you know..." Their ears then turn towards Gaétan moments before their face follows, "It's... better here than out there?" Marinov answers Gaétan, their hesitant tone speaking perhaps more than their actual words. "Better here than where? Is there another mutant school I didn't know about?" Cassy asks curiously, carefully shifting her case further into the foyer. "And hey I'm not leaking at all. Ew. That makes it sound like I'm peeing my pants! I just talk in a non-standard way.... And..." Her voice drops to a whisper "Maybe. Sort of. Kill things with my voice. By accident." She coughs, which at least does seem to come from her throat. "But yeah uhm. So if you're coming here Gaétan does that mean you've got superpowers too?" /This/ answer gets a more serious nod. "Figured." Gaétan doesn't sound disappointed so much as resigned. His hand lifts; he rubs at the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I can't do anything special. My brother teaches here so I get a free ride." He shifts from one foot to the other kind of awkwardly, here. Then leans down again to help push at the trunk that Cassy pulls. "I'll try not to be shitty about it." "No, there's no... other mutant school that I know of. I just mean, out there. In the world at large. Where I used to go to school, or like in the city or whatever," says Marinov, waving a hand towards the door. They rub their own chin awkwardly while watching Gaétan and Cassy move the trunk. "Eh, everyone's shitty sometimes, I guess. Try's all we got." "Oh! Sorry," Cassy offers, glancing down. "It never occured to me I could be rude by asking that question and the answer being no..." She sets the case down by the elevator. "I'm kind of glad my power kicked in while it was Summer vacation. And not at some super awkward time like in the middle of class or at the mall. But if it makes you feel any better Gaétan at least you haven't heard every bad joke about lip synching known to mankind a bajillion times over already. I'm pretty sure my Dad hired a gag writer to help him think up new ones too." Gaétan briefly flinches at the apology. Then waves it off. "If you take my brother's classes I apologize in advance, he'll /drown/ you in bad jokes." This time his small shrug is accompanied by a brief smile at Marinov. "That kind of sucks. Trying is a low bar. Guess it's still more than a lot of people." Marinov makes a bit of a face at the apology and then mentions to Cassy, "Might want to avoid the bad apology word... And yeah, I imagine that sorta thing, manifesting during the school year would be... geez, not great, if you were having control problems." They nod a couple of times quickly, agreeing with Gaétan, "More than way way too many people." "Sorry is a bad apology word?" Cassy asks, tilting her head curiously. "Or saying it didn't occur to me? Uhm. I possess regret for any discomfort I may have caused anyone? Is that better?" She begins trying to scoot the case along with her foot. "Is trying really so bad? I mean, isn't it better for someone to try and fail to do something good than to accidentally do good while being a huge jerk?" She stifles a yawn. "I think maybe that topic is too deep for me right now. I used to love plane flights, but I spent the whole trip worrying I'd mimic the sound of the plane and deafen everyone or something. And it's left me feeling.. drained? Exhausted. Like crap basically. You won't take it personally if I ducked out to find the dorms and maaaaaaybe catch a nap?" "There were zombies. Zombified language. Zombified words. That was one." Gaétan takes a step back as Cassy starts dragging the trunk away. "That -- definitely sounds like a conversation for a more awake time. See you 'round -- Cassy." Repeated firmly. Committing to memory. Still near the doorway, he turns to head out of it at the same slow trudge he entered. "Later, Marinov." "Alright, yeah, we'll talk about... zombies... later. I'm gonna hang out in the forest," says Marinov, offering a slight wave as they depart as well out the door Cassy previously entered through, "Spakoynoy noche."