ArchivedLogs:Alien Slugs on Fire

Alien Slugs on Fire
Dramatis Personae Ivan, Rasa
In Absentia	28 February, 2013 Two not very socialized individuals discuss social events
Location
<XS> Study Quieter than the neighboring library, the study actually /is/ a retreat for those who want to sit and work. Lacking the larger social tables, this room has only single solitary chairs, individual soft lamps assigned to each. The high bay windows allow plenty of light, and the understated elegance of the room with its grated fireplace (often crackling, in winter) is an invitation to quiet work. Some students feel at home in the study of Xavier's School, and some feel /so at home/ that they may as well just plain blend into the furniture when they're there. Ivan is definitely one of the latter kind of people, dressed in dark jeans a dark brown T-shirt, sitting in his regular corner chair, shoes next to him on the floor. He's pulled his legs up onto the seat and his eyes have focused on nothing but the big, heavy book in his lap for the past, oh, couple of hours, virtually unmoving. Sccrt. With a papery rustle, a fairly large millipede appears from somewhere behind the boy and writhes its way aross one of his legs before crawling onto the book and, with some effort, turning the page before disappearing into a crevice of his clothes or the chair again. How... quaint? "I get that they don't bother you, but doesn't it itch when they do that? Or tickle?" Rasa appears in the Study room periodically, so it is not surprising to see hir there. Ze's got hir black messenger bag with hir, stuffed with books in which to review. Ze is decked out in a rose colored embroidered top that covers hir from neck to wrist, with ivory gloves on hir hands. Hir legs are wrapped in black not so form fitting slacks with Persian slippers on hir feet. Hir entire head is covered in a translucent black veil that has similar embroidery on it as on hir tunic. Ze wanders around the study for a little while before approaching Ivan, a concerned look on hir bronzish features. "The little legs tickle me a bit when one happens to crawl across me, but I can't really can't imagine it in the long term," ze continues. "Do you grow less sensitive to it?" Ze moves to sit down next to him. Ivan seems slow to respond when Rasa first addresses him, but that doesn't seem to be for lack of interest-- when he DOES look up, it is with a look of surprise which doesn't take too long to morph into a content smile. Oh hi. His eyes stay on hir face for a while, before tentatively inspecting the other student's clothing as Rasa moves about. Hm. No opinion as far as his face is giving away, but what else is new. When he looks back up to hir face when ze sits, though, he does seem to have gathered a /little/ more colour in his own features. "It is like feet." He starts, voice quiet as per usual, "It is much harder to tickle your own feet. It is worse when I am not..." He pauses, peering down at the book for a moment as he searches for the right word, "/controlling/ them?" "That makes sense." Rasa nods and looks him over for a moment for more obvious bugs before turning back to hir messenger bag and pulling it over hir head and off hir shoulder. Ze pokes around inside until ze finds the book ze is looking for. Ze finds hir book mark and lays it open in hir lap. "It would be much easier to relate to them when they are not stirring unknown little feeler hairs on my body unexpectedly." Ze glances back over at Ivan before starting to read. There's another brief rustle of something moving, behind Ivan's back? In his chair? ... In his hair? It's hard to tell. Nothing appears within sight, though, and he himself tightens his grip on the book he's got in his own lap. His attention is on its pages once more. But his eyes no longer scan it for words, frozen on a random sentence instead. Finally, he takes a deep breath. Subtlety has never been his forte, and Shelby's 'Spit. It. Out. Ivanovich' echoes through his mind until he finally speaks up, in the meekest of tones and without looking up, "... I have a question." "Please, ask your question." Rasa is calm and still, hir skin remaining quite metallic and unmarked. Ze is braced for this. Ivan is /totally/ braced, also. He's rehearsed in his head. This is gonna be perfect either way it goes and nothing can go wrong and even if it does that is perfectly okay. This is gonna-- okay enough of that. His grip on the book tightens to the point of his knuckles whitening, before he lets go and stuffs his hands underneath the cover instead. If he could crawl into those pages, he probably would. "Do yoou," He does his best to sound as unassuming as possible, all the while very much doubting his ability to pull it off. "... have anything to /do/ tomorrow evening?" Rasa waits through the silence patiently, hir eye brow quirked as time draws out between his original statement about a question and his beginning of the question. She wets hir lip and stops looking directly at him in case this will help. When there is finally actually a question, ze lets out the breath ze has been holding and shrugs a little. "Oh, not really. Sometimes I get invited to the city, but no one has been talking about weekend plans yet." Ivan does the very opposite of Rasa, taking another deeep deep breath and pulling the book slightly closer to his face before blurting a little louder than usual but equally as emotionlessly, "/Would you like to go on a date at the lake tomorrow/." And then, he just stops breathing. At least he got it out there before that happened. Rasa listens quietly, hands folding together on top of hir book when Ivan brings up... dun dun duuuuuuuun - The Date. Though as bronzey as ze can manage in an effort to controls hir mutation, red starts creeping into the mix, blossoming from hir hair line and spreading toward hir nose. "I wish to say something that - I hope you do not take personally. I... actually do not date. I have a lot of issues right now and I am working with some of the teachers with them, but I don't know if I even have a gender right now and that is kind of important for dating and people can't really touch me, so that's a problem as well, so it's just... better not to get romantic, right?" Hir calm speech turns a bit rambly and fraught with self doubt. "Are you going to stop being my friend now?" Ivan bundles up a little more as his brain slowly translates what is being said to him as a definite 'no', finally daring to glance to the side to get a glance of Rasa's expression. His own is still very much blank, though the colour seems to have drained from his face somewhat, as far as his not-skintone-changing-self allows him to, anyway. There's a moment in which his eyebrows draw closer to eachother as he ponders lying-- he ponders telling hir 'oh no, my English is not good, I meant-- uh, I meant are you free because Shelby asked if you could come to a thing where I won't even be. Yeah.'. But he does not. Lying is difficult, and the following comes much more easily: "But I don't care." It leaves him before he manages to stop it, and after saying /that/ while staring straight at his crush's face, he seems to have an easier time continuing; "I understand it is important for you, but I like you for other things. Even if your gender was--" He waves a hand around in a rare moment of him actually gesturing, "... alien slug on fire, you would still be you. And I like you." There are few signs of sadness or regret on his face- he sounds determined more than anything. The question he was posed, then, gets a shake of his head. And two more, because. "If you are okay with it, I would like to stay your friend." Rasa turns hir head and blinks at Ivan as he discusses gender and liking, hir hands twisting at hir gloves, turning the tips into little spirals. "I like you because you are fun to do things with. I like that your little friends bug Shelby so much. I like passing little notes to you." Ze inhales and looks up from hir gloves. "I am now worried that you will be sad because I do not return dating feelings with you." The reddish color fades from hir bronze flesh. "I really don't want you to be unhappy because of that." A good few seconds pass with Ivan just pausing to eye Rasa, like someone might eye an animal at the zoo that they weren't quite familiar with. It might be that the things ze says were unexpected, or that he is simply thinking. But then, he just smiles. Brighter than before, and definitely more confident. "I am not sad." He closes the book with the heavy clap of paper stacks colliding, sitting up a little. "Dating feelings are--" Again, he searches for a word, glancing upward momentarily, "-- fun, but not important. I will be happy to have friend feelings instead." And indeed, he looks it. Rasa's face still registers some concern, but ze nods and tries to smooth out hir gloves. "Is it going to be a problem, the thing you had planned?" Ivan rushes to shake his hand, pulling up his knees to trap the book in between them and his chest. He still looks content, though the question does cause him to give it some thought. Hmm. "We can still go." He finally says, quieter again, unsure. "Shelby and the /sharks/ will be there. We can have a picnic." His eyes widen momentarily, before quickly adding-- "A friendpicnic." "Oh. okay." Rasa considers for a while then glances over at Ivan. "You sure you're okay? Friend picnics sound nice, but if you wanted some time, I... Oh, can we invite Peter? I think he could use some friend time too." Nod. Nod nod nod. Ivan likes Peter. Not-- in that way but /that way/ pretty much doesn't matter anymore, so! The more the merrier! In spite of what just happened he does seem genuinely happy with the answer he's gotten, and promptly scramlbes to get up and to his feet, dropping the book on the chair as he puts his shoes back on. The millipede from before and a few other, smaller living dots of black and brown crawl across the chair to get back to their 'owner', disappearing in a trouser leg. "It will be good." Ivan has decided and it shall be /so/. Without looking up and seemingly without the reluctance other people may have when saying things like it, he adds, "Thank you for not being angry." "Oh no! I couldn't be angry. It is a very nice thing to know that you think so well of me. I only have concern for your feelings in this situation." Rasa lifts and waves hir hands to fend off any concern of Ivan's. Ze draws in a deep breath and watches as he gets up to go. "Thank you for not being angry with me." "I do not think I am able to." Ivan answers without thought. When he grabs the heavy book again, it throws his balance so much he nearly falls over on his way out, but he seems eager to get out for all the right reasons: "I will invite Peter!" He says on his way out, a little too happily and, subsequently, a little too loudly for his own comfort, wincing somewhat awkwardly immediately afterward while clutching the book to his stomach. And in true Ivan style, he leaves without a good bye.