Logs:Private-School-Itus

Private-School-Itus
Dramatis Personae Cassy, Gaétan, Lael, Ruby
In Absentia	2019-02-06 '
Location Xavier's, Rec Room
School this may be, but life for Xavier's students certainly isn't all studying. Outside classes, this is a popular spot to find students in their downtime. An enormous tribute to slacking off, this room is a wealth of fun and relaxation. Comfortable armchairs, couches, and beanbags offer plentiful seating scattered throughout the room, and the cushioned windowseats by the high windows offer a cozy nook to curl up and look out on the grounds. The room is often filled with the noises of gaming -- whether it comes from the big-screen television (tall racks of DVDs beside it, if nothing can be found on the multitude of cable channels), tricked out with consoles from retro to the latest releases, or the less electronic clatter and thump of the pool table, air hockey, or foosball. For those a little more subdued in their gaming, the cabinets hold stacks and stacks of board and card games, ranging as classic as chess and go to as esoteric as Dixit, Catan, and Gloom. More days than not, there's some variety of snacks to be found on a table beside the gaming cabinet -- quite often in the form of fresh-baked desserts. There's a beautify afternoon outside, through the rec room's picture windows. Outside, students pass various sporting balls. On this side, several Xavier's students have set up at the picture window. Other students have set up board games or study groups. One student, Ruby, is monopolizing the main scree. Ruby has sits in a movable, aluminum-framed racing rig--one of two--that was surreptitiously donated to Xavier's over the winter holiday. She has positioned her rig an eye-strainingly short distance from the big screen. She has the sound low to respect the other students, but is still being disruptive because is intermittently cursing under her breath. You don't need psychic powers to tell she's aggravated. She loses a race, and sighs loudly. "This isn't helping," she says to the air. Gaétan is mostly just here for the treats. He hasn't grabbed a cookie off of the tray set out on the sideboard - he's grabbed the whole tray, and tucked himself into a corner of the couch with it. He's kind of half watching Ruby, half scrolling through his phone. The cursing draws his eyes up intermittently, but it's only the last that earns a comment. "Helping with what?" It's only been a few weeks since Cassandra Villeneuve arrived at Xavier's but that's plenty of time to learn the ropes. The Rec Rooms usually have a tray of kinda healthy snacks but what it doesn't have is chilled sodas. So when class lets out it's down to the kitchens and for a half dozen cold drinks then she makes her way up to the Rec Room. Brightly coloured plastic bracelets clicking and clacking as she skips through the corridors of the school. Lael enters the room shortly after Cassy, hesitant, as though not altogether sure he's permitted to be there. He wears an ancient green-and-black flannel shirt and faded blue jeans, both baggy in the he'll-grow-into-them way rather than any sort of fashion statement. His serpentine eyes scan the room, his chin length dreadlocks writhing. "Afternoon, y'all," he says to the room at large as he heads to the sideboard and frowns at its emptiness. Ruby unfolds herself from the racing rig, and stretches a bit while she walks over to Gaétan. She grumbles, "Oh, you know. Stress with school work." <<Stress with trying to fit in>> "We started a new unit. <<Tried to make a new friend>> I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm just not getting it. I figured that I'd do my usual to unwind," she gestures at the TV, "but, nope, I'm still thoroughly wound." <<worse, even>> Ruby finally notices that Gaétan has an entire tray of cookies. "Are you... <<rude> did you... <<worse!>> do you mind if I join you for cookies?" "Mm. S'like that sometimes." Gaétan offers this with a vaguely sympathetic wince. It's not a sympathy echoed in his thoughts, the entire idea of "Stress with schoolwork" dismissed as an irrelevance. He does glance down at the cookies on his lap. Contemplates them intently. "Not gonna lie," this is perhaps unnecessarily solemn, for the subject of Cookies, "parting with any of these will be hard. These cookies are amazing. But if it'll help with your stress, I guess I don't need the whole tray." The newcomers to the room get only a reflexive glance, a quick upward tip of chin -- his eyes pull quickly back to his tray, very deliberately mentally chiding himself << don't stare don't stare >> when tempted to linger on Lael. << My garden's full of pretty men who couldn't stay away -- >> Unbidden, quiet singing starting up in his head. "Not even in trade for some cold drinks to wash them down with?" Cassy asks cheerfully, crossing the Rec Room and reaching for the volume controls for the TV. "I'm just gonna turn this down a little, nobody minds right?" She pauses then adds. "Only it's giving me the worst migrane you can imagine. Worse probably. I could hear it down in the Kitchen!" << I hope I brought enough drinks for everyone. >> As well as her thoughts there is a pressure of sensation. As Cassy tries to blot out the almost overwhelming amount of irrelevant sound. Whirring of fans, the pumping of heartbeats and even the thrumming of the wires in the walls and the wind outside the building. "If you don't mind my butting in," Lael asks as he walks further into the room, his eyes focusing sharply on Gaétan for a moment before flicking away, "what class is giving you such trouble? So that I might be forewarned." The corners of he eyes crinkle and he rubs at his temple. The gesture looks very, very habitual on him. "Please do, Miss," he tells Cassy, his southern drawl growing slightly thicker even as he lowers his voice, "and I am mighty sorry about your headache." He looks at the shelves of boardgames with a thoughtful frown. "Any you folks want to play a game?" He gestures at the shelves, and some of his locks lift up in that direction as well, as if mocking his hand. Ruby's mind races. She hadn't thought out a good lie, mostly wanted sympathy << Literature? Chaucer is boring. Trigonometry? Not yet. Don't want to be a stereotyped bad-at-math-girl. Theatre? How would that be hard?! >> She knits her eyebrows a bit and looks up at the assembled crew. She blushed a little. She was so preoccupied with fibbing she didn't even realize she had company. "Honestly, I'm having trouble finding my way around the social structure here. I hate to admit it, but that's the case!" Ruby says and smiles awkwardly. Her blush spreads << RIP new social life. Burnt out before its time. >> "<< no >> Where are my manners?" she says as if interrupting herself, "One of you brought drinks, and all of you are being so kind." She gestures to the empty seats at the table. "I'm Ruby, and I don't think I've had the pleasure of making any of your acquaintances." <<Good work, you didn't admit you already knew Lael by his physical mutation. That's one less embarrassment to suffer today.>> "Ooh." Gaétan sits up straighter, smiles quick, takes a look over the drinks Cassy's brought before reaching a hand out. Small grabby motions. He offers the tray of cookies up for general consumption with the other hand. "Just what these cookies were missing, thanks. I did not have the foresight for drinks." This new mentioned stress of Ruby's does resonate with him more. A flutter of unease, a stirring of alienation as well that only resolves into a slightly bitter <<... good luck with that. >> that he does not voice. Outwardly, he waggles the tray of cookies at Ruby. "Baked goods get you into a lot of cliques." His smile instantly crumples into a very exaggerated scowl at the mention of board games. "Oh man no. I get my ass kicked enough at home. You all knock yourselves out, though." Arms filled with drinks Cassy leans in to adjust the volume on the TV. << Ohcrapdon'tdropthem >> Then springs over to the gathering around the snacks and piles them up on the table. "But you did remember to hide a cookie behind your ear!" she exclaims, using a little slight of hand to pull a cookie from behind Gaétan's ear. She beams a smile and adds "Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't think I have enough time for a board game right now, I'm supposed to finish an assignment before the end of the day. Oh and I'm Cassy by the way." Lael does not seem very bothered by the lack of interest in gaming, though he does blink at Ruby. Repeatedly. This probably doesn't seem very remarkable until one realizes that he hardly blinks at all, generally. He goes to the table and sits and takes one of the proffered seats as well as a proffered cookie. "Thank you kindly." He raises an eyebrow at Cassy's trick, and breaks into a bright smile. "M'name's Lael. I'm pretty near brand new here, so can't say about the social scene. It's a small school, though? Tight knit?" Ruby nods to Cassy. "Cassy. Got it. Sorry about the TV. I know the drone can be harsh <<for sensitive groups>>." Ruby ponders out loud, "Are the people tight knit here? Hmmm..." She recalls how rigid the social boundaries were at her old middle and high school. Each group was welded together like a car frame. "No, Lael, << pretend you're committing the name to memory >> it's not like back home. Gawd, it was so cliquey and stratified. Any little infraction would send you down," she chuckles with a hint of embarrassment at that. << it was like playing with fire, might even miss it a bit >> "But here," Ruby says, "I'm not sure. I reached out to someone yesterday and," There's a hiccup in her mind that she unconsciously avoids. She keeps talking, unaware"...I'm not sure what went wrong. I showed off my sewing, my home-made skirt. Ugh, I did not stick the landing." She lifts a cookie to her mouth. << Do you have a crush on Harmony? That seems... >> Another hiccup She takes a bite of her cookie and her eyes light up. She speaks, forgetting she has a mouthful of cookie. "Did you make these? They're amazing, like little fireworks in my mouth!" Gaétan's eyes light. He forgets the drink, plucking back the cookie that Cassy has just produced. "Hey, neat." << As long as there's no crumbs in my hair. >> He smooths briefly at his hair, patting it down over his ear. "That take a lot of practice?" He sets the tray back in his lap once the others have taken cookies. "Uh --" He takes another large bite of cookie, looks back to Lael. His thoughts are swarmed with a loud hammering anxiousness << Too much? Not enough? >> as he tries to gauge The Correct Amount Of Looking. << ... will he think I'm staring fuck now I'm staring. >> "It's really small. Kind of an adjustment from my last school. I --" Another flutter of discomfort. "Yeah, I guess it's tight knit." << For some. >> He squinches an eye up, regards Ruby with a thoughtful hum. "They're not into fashion?" is his light suggestion. << Your fashion, >> muses underneath it, unvoiced. "If I made the cookies, nobody would want them. There's like a. Cookie fairy. Flits around and leaves desserts everywhere." In his mind the cookie fairy has a very definite and unmystical form, Jax's bright and tattooed and cheerful image cropping up briefly -- not in his usual schoolteacher context but animated, smiling, helping steady a small girl's hands as she uses a hand mixer on a bowl of cookie dough. "A Magician never reveals her tricks," Cassy proclaims with a dramatic bow that also ends with a cookie from the tray winding up in her mouth. << God yes it... oooo nice cookies. >> "But anyway I think I better dine and dash I just heard someone mention another report I haven't done is due." Not that anyone in the Rec Room has been talking about school work. Now she's up close it quickly becomes apparant that she hasn't actually moved her mouth once to speak. Although she does take a bite of the cookie just fine. The sound simply seems to eminate from all of her at once. "Nice chatting with you all!" And with that she's already breezing her way out of the Rec Room. Lael listens to his new schoolmates speak while he munches on his cookie. The movement of his hair speeds up a little, though not in an agitated way. "So, maybe tight knit is relative?" His eyebrows raise up, his hair lifting as well. "I ain't never gone to private school before, but my town was mighty small. Maybe it's not so different?" He sounds a bit distracted, digging his knuckles into his temple, harder than before. "Good luck with your report, Cassy. I'll see you 'round, m'sure." To Gaétan, he says, "I could get used to fairies leaving cookies. My gran believed--in fairies, I mean." His face darkens slightly and he looks down, abashed. "You probably didn't mean a real one." Ruby waves as Cassy leaves, "See you around, Cassy. " The cookie fairy gets her wondering what a real fairy would look like. She blushes. One that isn't David Bowie. <<Yikes.>> She says, "The downeasters talked a little about faries, but not much. I guess they didn't want to get bumped any further down the social ladder. The ones they did talk about, though seemed a nasty sort." << The sort that steal children. Eat adults. >> Cassy's bow earns a quick grin and a dip of the head in return. Gaétan has an open curiosity as the girl 'speaks', though the mental << everyone does something neat >> that accompanies it is more resentful than anything in his expression allows. "Good luck with the homework." Now he does swipe a soda, curling back into the couch cushions comfortably. He uncaps it slowly, a series of discrete and disjointed fragments briefly through his mind. -- a comfortable-looking armchair, sitting empty-- --a tall well-built young blond man sitting at the side of a goldfish pond, staring blankly down at a copy of Alice in Wonderland-- --Jax again, only this time pale and blood-stained and shaky in drab cargo pants and black jacket, kneeling to offer up a cup of something steaming hot, the background of the room fuzzily downgraded in memory-importance but carrying a sense of chaos -- -- Mr. Tessier, also looking considerably paler and more disheveled than he has been lately in school, wrapped in a blanket and propped up at the base of a tree, a small candle flickering in front of him-- He chases these thoughts away with a gulp of soda and a smile entirely at odds with his (chaotic, wistful, rueful but warm) stream of thoughts -- and at odds with the reflexive disgust that flutters up at Ruby's "further down the social ladder" comment. "Hey, this school is full of weird. I wouldn't be surprised if they were legit magic." Lael grabs himself a soda, too, but stops mid-motion opening it to shoot at sidelong glance at Ruby's mention of a social ladder. The soda issues a prolonged hiss through the tiny partial opening before he pops the tab all the way. His hair wriggles in somewhat uncomfortable fashion, looking even more like a nest of snakes than usual. "Don't know if I believe in fairies or magic, but I seen some pretty wild stuff here in just a few days. An' I ain't just meaning the um..." He waggles his fingers. "Powers. It's a lotta folks comin' from lotta different lives." A minute shrug, barely visible. "Not sure I like it yet. Dunno if I should be relieved or worried that folk who been here longer ain't so sure either." Ruby leans back in her chair. She says, "We really don't know what the limits of mutant powers are. It's all so new and seemingly random <<Like who is and isn't trans>>, and I'm worried about us peering too far into it. Humans have really effed up studying ourselves." She grimaces <<especially "different" people>> Ruby says, "I'm optimistic about Xavier's, tho. Since we have people from so many different backgrounds, I think we will not end up like the snotty rich-kid schools. It can be fun, but it's a plutocratic <<is that the word?>> game to them. It makes terrible people." Ruby puts on a smile. <<terrible, self-serving people like me>> Gaétan just nibbles a cookie slowly. He considers this discussion with an acknowledging hum, a brief small quirk of lips. "I mean, we can definitely hope it won't!" His voice is cheery enough, a warm hopefulness suffusing his tone and echoed in the brightening of his eyes, the perk of his posture. Distinctly not echoed in the internal mental distancing he's keeping from this conversation, only a vague prickle of wariness and irritation characterizing the regard he gives Ruby's words. "I imagine it does make some terrible people, though I wouldn't know." One small quick shrug of a shoulder. He licks a few crumbs from his fingertips. "But I'd guess that plenty of people just bring their backgrounds with them, you know? Not like we're immune to snotty rich-kid attitudes here. Though, that would be a great power to have." Lael gives a non-committal hum. "Jus' cuz there's different kindsa folks here, don't mean we automatically know how to get along, much less get along a way that ain't awful." His hair has mellowed down to its usual pace of wriggling, and he tips Gaétan a small nod. "An' regardless of who goes here, the school surely looks and walks and talks like a snotty rich-kid school. That ain't nothing." Ruby ponders this for a minute, polishing off her cookie. She says, "Both very good points. <<How to put this...>> I only had to adjust to the dorm life. Highly skilled staff and immaculately maintained spaces was my life before this. But there's a lot more to adjust to for most kids." She looks at the cookies, and decides she's imposed enough already. "It would be an amazing power, to--uuuh--inoculate us against private-school-itus. "Thank you for helping me put my worries into words. I feel much better now. <<Be gracious, give back>> Is there anything you two wanted to talk about?" "Really?" Gaétan does quite an excellent impression of mild surprise at Ruby's declaration. "Well, I'm sure that's an adjustment all on its own, yeah? Like," earnest, a dab of sympathy softening his tone, "sharing servants with so many people instead of just having your own." He sets the cookie tray down on the table (he even left a couple!), hopping to his feet. "The only thing I want to talk about" << with you all >> "is how long until dinner. I'm going to go investigate." A nod, a smile, and he's heading for the door, soda in hand. Lael's lips press together. Then press together tighter, his locks coiling into tortuous knots. "Well," he says, "bless your heart." His hand has drifted back up to his head, fingers massaging his temple in slow circles. "You have a good afternoon, now," he offers Gaétan mildly as he takes one of the last cookies and disposes of it in two bites. Then to Ruby, "Glad to help out a schoolmate, but I do fear Cassy gave me her headache. Ain't much for it but to go lie down in the dark a while." He rises gingerly, his smile reserved but not forced. "M'sure I'll be seeing you around. Take care." Ruby sinks down, folds her arms, and rests her head on her arms. She grumbles into her elbow, "At least I know why I feel bad this time."