Logs:Important Secrets

Important Secrets
Dramatis Personae Avi, Lael
In Absentia	2021-01-04 "Do you like it? Here?"
Location <XAV> Lael and Avi's Dorm - Xs Second Floor
his is a double-occupancy room, generously sized by dorm hall standards. Two sets of furniture, sturdy and pleasant if basic, take up one half of the room each. One side is completely bare save for fresh linens on the bed and a wooden crucifix on the wall, the other sparsely decorated--the desk partly taken up by books that won't fit in the shelved hutch, small carved wooden animal figures lining the windowsill, a chess set with hand carved pieces (though it's short a couple) on the dresser. Lael is sprawled on his bed at the moment, a library hardback of The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin tucked in the crook of his arm, a goosenecked lamp angled to illuminate it, though he isn't reading at the moment. He's dressed in a black tee shirt with a field of vibrant and slightly otherworldly wildflowers across the chest, the word "Shelter" in gold calligraphy across the sky above them, and straight-legged blue jeans. His lively locs are writhing slowly against his pillow, and his snakelike eyes do not move or blink where they're fixed on the ceiling overhead. There's a knock on the door, lively and quick just a moment before it opens. Avi pokes just his head in first, dark eyes sweeping the room and then catching -- holding -- on Lael with a startled widening and a reflexive unease in his mind. << Mutant school right mutant school oh wow okay -- >> It's several beats before a smile blooms on his face, bright if a bit lopsided. "Heyyyy are you Lael? Please be Lael." Lael's hair squirms harder when Avi appears, and he levers himself up, setting the book aside. "Sure enough, I'm Lael," he replies with a smile. He has a thick Southern accent, distinctly Appalachian to those with an ear for it. "I reckon you're my new roommate, then." He rises, beckoning toward the other boy. "Come on in, now--is it Ay-vee or Ah-vee?" His cheeks darken faintly. "Oh thank God." << Would've been too much if I got stuck with some white boy. >> "It's Ah-vee." Avi pushes the door open the rest of the way, now determinedly trying not to watch Lael's hair squirming as he drags a rolling suitcase in behind him. His brows scrunch as he sets it at the foot of the bed, staring up at the crucifix. "Oh man they didn't tell me this was -- are there like, nuns running this place? Is this gonna be some Sister Act 2 kinda thing? You don't have to convert to be a superhero, right? I did not sign up for that." Lael's smile softens, more organic for just a moment as he glances at the chess set on his dresser. Then looks back at Avi, startled. "Nuns?" he echoes uncomprehendingly. "Nah, this ain't a--" But then his gaze follows his roommate's to the crucifix. "Oh. That's--it was my last roommate's. 'Pologies, I ought've taken it down before now." This last he allows a bit stiffly as he crosses the room and lifts it from the tack from which it hung. Cradles it between hands that look still just a touch too big for his growing frame. "Ain't no religious requirement here, but..." His thick black eyebrows raise up. "...you actually fixin' to become a superhero?" "Oh thank God. I mean, not about your roommate. About the nuns." Avi is skirting over to the closet, poking his head inside curiously before he goes to examine his empty desk. He glances up at the question, in his mind only a kind of bemusement. "What else do you do when you get superpowers? I don't want to become a supervillain." Though after a moment he reconsiders: "-- though they usually do have better fits." Lael leans and half-sits on the edge of his desk, watching Avi and still turning the crucifix meditatively between his hands. "Probably for the best this ain't a religious school considerin' it's the only freak school there is." His hair is slowing back down to a sinuous, wormlike motion again. "Someone's probably already said it, but welcome to Xaviers', Avi." He chews on his lower lip for half a beat, conflicted. "Look, before you get too comfortable, though...I s'pose oughta tell you." He swallows, his slitted eyes unnervingly steady and his posture drawn inward almost defensively. "I read minds." "What, like anywhere? Really?" Avi's eyes widen as he tries to mentally estimate how many mutant teenagers there might be in New York. His mental guesswork does not get him very far, unable to extrapolate much past << well I know me and my cuz -- no wait she's way old -- >> before giving up on this speculation, derailed by << wait what?! >> "Wait, what?" He plunks himself down in the chair at the desk, studying Lael curiously. << that's so cool >> wars with << wait does he mean like my mind? oh no did I think anything bad oh no don't think about his hair -- >> "Like. Now?" Lael cocks his head slightly. He does not blink, and at this of all moments the absence of blinking is especially jarring. "You know I'm not sure, actually. There's probably mutant schools in some other countries, but I do think this the only one in America." He lifts his hand to press back a loc that waves irritatingly in his peripheral vision, gently guiding it back to the rest of his hair where it promptly twines around another motile tendril of hair. "I mean your mind, and I mean now, though I don't hear everything just--the loudest parts? I ain't trying to, it just happens." This sounds equal parts guilty and defensive. "I'm learnin' to keep it to myself, but that ain't easy an' I reckon sharin' a room with me it's..." His gaze drops. "Well, I figure it's only fair to warn you. Can't no one blame you if you want a different roommate." Avi rocks his chair slowly back and forth, arms crossing over the back of it as he turns possibilities over in his mind. Chance of embarrassing himself around mind-reading roommate: almost certain. Chance of getting paired up with a non-mind-reading black kid: totally unknown. A mental tangent onto just how many awkward thoughts he has per day segues into << what if I let him know important secrets? >> and immediately after that << ... do I have any important secrets? >> He's gotten halfway into a very fanciful image of himself as a Much Cooler James Bond before he remembers: "-- oh, uh." His brows scrunch again. "I mean you gotta room with someone, right? Maybe we try it and if it's terrible --" A small shrug. "There ain't too many of us here." Lael shrugs helplessly. "I know it'll be uncomfortable for whoever I room with, but. At least you know, right?" The set of his shoulders eases a bit, his hair slowing again where it's motion had grown briefly more agitated. "For what it's worth, I ain't gonna tell nobody your secrets, if I hear any." The corner of his mouth twitches. "Not even the one about how you think supervillains look cooler. This a real school though, it ain't a superhero training camp." "That's not a secret anyone can tell that from, like, two seconds of reading comic books." There's still an uneasiness in Avi's mind but it breaks somewhat into a genuine amusement. "-- okay but they are gonna teach us how to, like, use this stuff right? I just flipped that mutant switch like two weeks ago I got no clue what I'm doing." "I ain't read too many comic books," Lael admits, "but I'll take your word for it. The superheroes I know about sure do look a bit uh..." His face scrunches up. "...underwear on the outside?" He finally sets the crucifix down, bracing his hands on the edge of the desk as if he doesn't know what else to do with them. "Two weeks." His eyes widen, his hair twisting momentarily faster. "You're brand new, then. But yeah, they got teachers n' other folks too who can teach you how to control your--whatever you do. Outside of class, though." Hesitantly, he asks, "What do you do? Your mutation. You ain't gotta tell me, just because I told you. Mine's kind of--well, it ain't fair to you if you don't know." "Brand new-brand new," Avi confirms brightly, "Twitter said we were getting a solstice glow-up and man did I." There's an image that flashes clear across his mind, a dining table laid out with notebooks and flashcards all frosted over under a sheen of glittering ice. "Oh man I'd show you but it's kind of spotty I'm real bad at making it just go -- wait," another image, a stretch of potholed city street slicked over with ice. "-- I kind of do have to tell you though don't I like? Do you already know?" "Twitter--predicted you manifestin'?" Lael still doesn't blink, though the steadiness of his eyes has a certain perplexed quality to it. However skeptical he was, his expression eases abruptly into delight. "Lord, that is amazing. M'sorry, but--yeah, I seen it now." His eyes are wide, his hair waving slow and hypnotic. "You can still tell me, though--if you wanna. My, won't that be a thing when you can just make it go." "Twitter said all Black people was getting superpowers on the solstice. I dunno if that happened but I sure did." Avi is pressing a hand to his desk now and though his intentions are clear enough in his mind << okay ICE. gooooo ICE. FREEZE. >> it results in a rather disappointing Absolutely Nothing. His sigh is small as he curls his arm back over the back of his chair. "I don't really know it's some kinda ice thing? I'm gonna be psyched when it can just be ice skating time on demand. How long have you --" His hand waggles toward his head, some mingled curiosity << am I allowed to ask about the Gorgon thing? Is that rude? He told me about the telepathy though. >> blossoming in his mind. Lael's chuckle catches him a bit off-guard. "Well, I ain't got any extra powers that I noticed. My sister neither. I guess maybe it don't count if you already had 'em." He shakes his head. "I already got suprise extra powers once, though. Kind of relieved not to have any new ones, just yet." His cheeks darken again. "I guess it's a mite rude, though not in your case seeing as you ain't actually asked it. Weird place to be when I catch stuff like that, but..." He reaches one hand for his hair, letting the five-inch locs snake out and curl reflexively around his fingers. "Looked like this since I was born. The telepathy is newer, though not--as new as your ice thing." "Woah! I didn't know people were just born with superpowers. I haven't," Avi admits with a small frown, "met a lot of other mutants to, like, compare though. Mostly just my cousin and she's only got the one power. Is your sister also --" He catches himself before he says << a superhero >>, filling in awkwardly instead: "Like us?" A small twinge of jealousy, there. Lael's lips compress as he glances down at the crucifix. "It ain't--very common, but yeah, some of us are born this way. My sister got all hers last year, not like me. She goes here, too. 'Mutant' ain't a bad word, you know." He studies Avi thoughtfully. "S'good you got a cousin who understands. Hope the rest of your family's taking it alright. They live far?" "Oh, yeah, she's great," Avi replies happily, glancing toward Lael's shirt before adding with just a little pride: "She works for him, actually. His bodyguard. They're like -- tight." He rocks his chair again, teeth dragging against his lip as he tries hard not to let his thoughts stray to gunfire and explosions. "Uhm, my dad's -- overseas but -- my mom and sister are just in the city. Haven't been here real long, though, kinda still just getting the hang of New York. You --" Mentally, he's trying to place Lael's accent but doesn't get much farther than 'south, probably'. "-- not from around here?" Lael's eyes go very wide. "Your cousin's Ryan Black's bodyguard? That's so...well, I guess I don't know as bodyguardin's really all that glamorous, but it sure sounds that way. I ain't really get into his music until I moved up here, but--well, there ain't a lotta rock stars out there singing our songs, right?" He plucks at the hem of his shirt a little self-consciously. "Me, I'm from Georgia. Mountains up north, near the Carolina border. There's a lot of New York to get the hang of." This sympathetically. "I've been here more than a year and still feel a bit flat-footed going down into the city." "Yeah! It's pretty cool. Well," Avi reflects briefly, "maybe not so cool that he needs one. Or that she almost got blown up working. But, like, he's cool." His head bobs along with Lael's words. "Oh! I lived in Georgia, once. And North Carolina. Not up the north part though. I do love mountains." He bites down briefly on his lip, eyes skimming the room again and lingering on Lael's half. << Not quite homey >> is more speculative than critical, just before: "Do you like it? Here?" Lael's eyes don't become less wide at the reminder that Ryan--and, everyone around him--had literally in fact gotten blown up. He recovers his composure a little, his smile spontaneous now. "I'm gonna guess military family. Where'd you stay at, in Georgia?" He follows Avi's glance, his head ducking slightly. "I wish I had a simple answer to that. There's folks I like, there's resources I like, and it sure as heck beats going home, but I don't know that I can say I like it here, neither." His shrug is fatalistic. "That don't mean you won't like it, 'specially since you got decent family nearby you can get away to, if school is feelin' too white or too preppy or what-have-ya." "Fort Benning. My dad's in the army, yeah. Kinda -- done a lot of moving." Avi's mind is flitting back over a convoluted series of housing and school, a nebulous amalgam of imagery that doesn't quite add up to home but feels comfortable all the same. << guess it is still school after all, >> is his idle reflection on Lael's answer, met externally with a thoughtful hum and small shrug. "Got a lot of practice making the best of things, anyway. Guess we'll see." He hops up to his feet, his smile quick. "You gonna get dinner? I hope you're gonna get dinner because I in no way remember which direction the dining hall is. I should maybe have paid attention more and talked less on my tour." Lael nods slowly. "Sounds exciting, though maybe rough, too." His expression does something complicated, and he remembers to start blinking again. "I think it could probably be a kinda home for some folks. But I also think...that takes work." He straightens up from where he'd been leaning against the desk and reaches over to switch off his reading lamp. "Yeah, I'm goin'." His smile is friendly and gentle this time. "S'a confusing place, that I can say for sure. I don't mind havin' someone to walk with, anyhow."