ArchivedLogs:Gazelles eating Gazelles

Gazelles eating Gazelles
Join the herd
Dramatis Personae Lia, Jeremy, Kelly
In Absentia	2013-11-06 Looking for safety in a new place
Location [XS] Back Porch
The doors from the Great Hall to the Back Porch were watched by staff as students crossed back and forth between the two, enjoying the temporary reprieve of the cold November for at least mid sixties weather. It seems safe enough, with no new troubles since yesterday at least, or at least none that have managed to make its way through the gossip networks of the school. Either way, food is still being prepared but in less massive quantities and in less variety of foodstuffs. Special dietary restrictions are still being met, due to necessity, but there are far less options over all. Still the students who have been cooped up in their rooms avoiding sickness, doom and gloom are taking the time to see the sky and take in some fresh air, whether sitting at tables nearer to the doors, or outside over all. One of the newer students has brought his food farther away from the building though, almost to the edge of the porch. He sits wearing a comfortable hoodie, and jeans that are a tad beat up, but he seems to be oddly content at least by his body language. A bag is sitting somewhat far away from the student, but has a piece of notebook paper threaded through the straps with a single word ~Jeremy~, and the pad of paper that it probably came from was sitting beside the boy anyway. Granted, no one else is getting closer than where that bag was resting, since each time Jeremy brought the burger to his lips to take a bite, the light dimed around him like one would expect of a brownout inside, but never in natural sunlight. It also doesn't seem to be anywhere further out, just near him. Kelly considers the room carefully, but he doesn't have any friends in the crowd off hand. As the new student, especially in a time like this, he only manages to get the occasional glances from those around him. So a table further out seems like a decent enough ticket as he winds his way towards it. He's wearing a light shirt that is ripped at the collar to let his shoulders show. Bark and leaves and flowers splashed all over his hair and skin there, arrowhead shaped leaves stretching for sunlight, as pink flowers do their best to defy the glower mood. But his smile isn't defying anything. "Mind if I sit here?" he asks the other boy... reading the bag... and saying: "Jeremy?" Looking up from the burger, there is still a wafting of darkness from Jeremys mouth as he chews. But seeing the other boy, he swallows it down and wipes his mouth off, gesturing to the seat and offering a shrug. Glancing to the food in his hand, he makes a frown and sets it down on the plate and starts to sign that it's okay, before he thinks better of it and picks up the notepad and flips it to an empty page, most of the others filled with scrawl and doodle. Pulling a marker out from his hoodie pocket, he tries to pull of the cap, but his hand is slippery, and with a small growl of frustration he wipes his hand off on his pants so he can yank it free. Finally able to do it, he jots down ~Ok. No electronics? They die." "Nothing." Kelly promises, sitting down and frowning at his own plate when he does. The boy has quite a few extra pounds on him, himself, and he hunches when he sits despite himself. Surrounding the plate protectively, like a dog would protect a bone. "You've not... been feeling bad, have you?" he cautions next, just to make sure, a slight embarrassed look across his cheeks when he does. "I feel fine, haven't coughed yet." he swore, crossing his heart with his finger. There is a look on Jeremy's face as if he were about to ask Really incredulously, then he shakes his head. Scribbling on the page with his left hand as he pops small bits of food in his mouth, he writes out ~If I sneezed at the wrong time, the school would lose power. The Lab I was at had innoculated me to everything they had. I am not a zombie.~ and as if to make a point, he scribbles a zombie face chewing on a brain. Setting the page so Kelly can see it better, he crams the rest of the burger in his face so he will have free hands, and as warm food as he could muster. Kelly cringes and ducks his head deeper and decides that food is a great solution as well. As he digs into it, he eats it as if it might get away, still. Huge bites, few chews, and quick swallows washed down heavily with water. When he does speak again, its with a full mouth and a mumbled tone. "I'm... sorry about that, just... well, I guess everyone's freaked out about it. I'm, uh, Kelly, by the way." Jeremy nods at that, and lets out a sigh, though it comes out his nose as he's gone back to clamping his mouth tight. Pulling the pad of paper up into his lap, he scribbles out some more before he looks back to the school, and jots in some more. ~Thought we were free. Now its worse, parents still don't know I am alive, and I may not be soon. Can't stop zombies. Lia maybe can walk one.~ He offers a shrug, but his face no longer has the contentedness it had when he was eating. He just mostly seems resigned and passive. Looking down at the notes, Kelly swallows the last bit of his burger and then sets his tray aside. "Hey, don't... don't think like that." he says not so reassuringly, but with a nervous worry in his own voice. "I mean, we've gotta make it through this." he looks over his shoulder again, however, sizing up the rest of the supposedly healthy group. "But it does sorta make everything else seem kinda pointless. You, I take it you're a runaway, too?" Shaking his head at the runaway statement vigorously, Jeremy writes out ~Experiment. I was taken for study.~ He sets the pad of paper down, then does a quick wave to the staff watching the doors in and out of the building, and signs to them real quick 'Demonstrating. No threat.' He waits for a nod back, then holds up a finger to Kelly to indicate he should wait, and he steps down from the porch, looking around to make sure there weren't any lighting or cabling nearby before he tilts his head skyward and opens his maw wide. The brief dimming that came from the bites of his food was nothing to this, and his unobstructed power drains the area around him. Jeremy cannot even be seen within the dark core of it, and the area nearby is still hazey and shadowed. Kelly scoots further and further down his bench before he just simply runs out of it, the sudden darkness startling to say the least. He squints, and then shades his eyes with his hands, but still can't see into the center. "Holy crap, that's crazy." he says with a blurt, before cupping his mouth shamefully. "You're... are you still in there?" he wonders aloud, scooting back to his previous seat one inch at a time. The darkness fades away fairly instantly as light from the sun zips in to fill the void that no longer is there as Jeremy closes his mouth. The grass actually has frost on it despite the temperature it is, and he shivers a moment before he goes back to his seat. There is murmurs from other students who had been watching it, but none make their way over any closer. Taking his seat besides Kelly, he shakes himself as if to get warm, then picks up the pad of paper. ~Taken because of that and studied. ~ He shrugs, and pokes around the fries at his plate, as if wanting to eat more but is leery to. "God, I'm sorry, I can't believe anyone... well... I guess I do but still..." Kelly says in a hushed voice as he has no qualms tossing in his own fries as quickly as they'll fit in his mouth. "Your parents didn't know? Are you going to try and go back to them?" he wonders next asked with all the tact of an elephant in pet show. "Thats... probably the most extreme uh... thing I've ever seen." Frowning, Jeremy shakes his head and shrugs. Tilting the page to use the margins, he continues. ~Don't know. Didn't seem to.~ And he draws an arrow back to the Don't know as if to answer the second question. At the mention of extreme, there is a slight smile, and then gesture to Kelly's greenery as if to say back at you. Flipping the page over now, he glances at the marker bleedthrough and goes over to the new page with a few little black dots of bleed through. ~Won't help if they don't need to see, or feel cold, or fear. Stops drones well at least.~ The floral boy just shivers as he sees the list of things they might do in front of him. His vines on his arms twisting over each other with a thick rustling sound. "But that's... that's why we're sticking together. So that... that we can't get surprised, right?" he wondered out loud. "I... well, I came here so I could be safe and... it has to be true." Kelly trying to convince himself as much as anyone. ~I am here to learn. This is not what I hoped to learn though. ~ Jeremy frowns at that and picks up a can of coke that was untouched. Popping the tab with a little sizzz, he puts the can to his lips a moment, and the can gains the foggy coating of condensation. ~Group safer if group accepts you. Herd behavior, saw documentary on gazelle once. No herd, gazelle gets eaten. Guessing they don't watch documentarys here.~ He shrugs and puts a straw into the can, sipping carefully through the straw. "Usually it isn't the Gazelle trying to eat the other gazelle, though..." Kelly says in the defense of the more nervous among them. "But... yeah, I'm betting on staying near the teachers and the other people with powers is better than on my own in the city or soemthing. I mean, just sleeping would freak me out." And with that he tried to focus on the boy in front of him. "Uhm, I'm sorry for making you write and stuff... I can stop talking if you want?" ~Signing is easier. Tablet faster, but not good idea at lunch. Used to writing.~ Jeremy holds up his left hand, showing he didn't even have smudge on his hand like it would be expected before going back to writing. ~Its teachable, but more people can read words.~ He shrugs, then grabbing the last of his cooling fries, he pops them into his own mouth like Kelly had. ~Some here know sign at least. Students, staff. Useful.~ "I... should probably learn it if I'm going to stay... you're not the only student I met who can't- I mean, who uses it." Kelly says, and then taking a deep breath he wonders. "She was in the med bay with me and Rasa last I saw her, though... and I hope she's not sick." As he looks at his now empty plate, frowning at the lack of food in it, he adds "I actually haven't even had the first class here yet, not that it really matters now. Half the kids are either sick or they were taken home. The ones who still have parrents, that is." Tapping his ear, Jeremy shrugs then puts a finger over his lips before writing ~I can hear at least. Talking is dangerous to the equipment.~ He draws a little pacman eating computers at that, then smiles. ~I can't call my parents. Maybe email, or someone else call. But if the Lab monitors it, would find here.~ He shakes his head vigorously at that though, as if it were amongst the worst ideas. ~Too dangerous for now.~ Lia has been a rare sight around campus since moving in on Sunday, much preferring to send her dolls around given that Imminent Danger seems to be waiting around every corner, to hear the talk. And...to see the biting and the screaming, which she has also done. Food is the one reason she still comes slinking out of the safety of the girls' dorms on her own legs, and she usually takes the opportunity to remind herself that she is /allowed/ to see the sky. Even if this School thing has started to seem suspiciously like being in a Room. The girl is dressed in a matching navy blue Xavier's hoodie and sweat pants, having lacked clothing of her own to bring along, her ash-brown hair hanging loose past her shoulders. Lia is carrying a tray filled with an eclectic assortment of foods, still opting for variety wherever she can find it. Her dark eyes brighten somewhat when they land on Jeremy, and she bounces over to his table and sits quickly in an open chair. Asking for permission wouldn't occur to her. As soon as her tray is down, she waves. "Hihi, Jeremy. You are here." She eyes Kelly. "Do not pick me up." "Pick you up? Why would I do that?" Kelly asks, half amused and half unsettled as the new girl so quickly takes her place at the table. His thorns pull back tighter and he shifts to make sure he doesn't accidentally poke or scratch the girl. "I guess you're new, too?" he wondered, since his outfit matched hers, save that it was ripped open at his collar to let his bark and leaves breath a bit more. At the arrival of Lia, Jeremy smiles and signs a greeting 'Hello Lia, I was eating out here. Did he pick up your doll?' He tilts his head at Kelly to indicate who. Scrawling on a new page again, he holds it up to Kelly ~That is Lia, she is sometimes in smaller bodies.~ He nods at that, then glances over Lia's assorted food things curiously to see what she picked before he inquires to her 'I had a burger outside. Not soup, which is nice. Didn't have to worry about killing apartment.' "I really don't know," Lia answers Kelly in what is likely an unhelpful manner, eyeing him sidewise. "New...new...no. This is my oldest form." She plucks a red grape out of the bowl of assorted fruits on her tray, rolling it around between her fingers, watching it move and just feeling its chilled skin before popping it into her mouth. She squeezes her teeth down on it slowly, eyes widening slightly as the juice squirts across her tongue. Jeremy's question earns a more informative reply. "Yes," she says in time with signing the same. Out of habit, she slips into signing as she speaks. "It is good you can eat things that aren't soup. Did it get cold when you tried to eat?" Lia looks at her hands for a moment. "I am supposed to say hello and shake hands." This has the air of a recitation, some instruction that another person must have given her and recalled at the wrong part of the conversation. She sends a hand out Kelly's direction, tentatively. "Hello." Kelly hesitates at the hand for a moment, and then with a deep breath forces his vines to stop wiggling on him, and then carefully shakes the girl's hand. "I'm Kelly. And... I guess you were the monkey? I'm sorry for picking you up, then. I just... wanted to get you out of the way before you got hurt. I... kinda thought you... WERE a monkey." he admits blushing, as at the time he was next to a tentacle boy, a shark boy, and other strangeness. Signing back 'Alittle cold. Ate quick, still tasted good.' Jeremy nods. At the statement of Lia being the monkey, he smiles wider before having a closemouthed chuckle. Signing to her 'Where did you even find a monkey?' He offers his hand to Kelly as well, though offering the right since he's busy with his other hand. He seems a little more relaxed with the girl present now at least. Taking up the pad after handshake, he writes out ~Lia can be many things. Action figure, play dough, porcelain.~ Lia's hand shakes Kelly's up and down precisely twice, then withdraws to pick up a slice of kiwi and turn it around and around like a wheel, watching the black seeds against the green flesh. "Lia. Sometimes I am a monkey." She says this very matter-of-factly. Sometimes people are monkeys. No big deal. She nibbles along the edge of the kiwi slice, down to the middle, then sets it down to use her hands for talking as she speaks. "People are leaving things around all over. Rushrush. Just leave things. There are many people in the same rooms, also. Maybe he was a girl's. Or the Man with the Yellow Hat let him wander off again." She gives these theories equal weight in her tone. "Lia is many things. Always a doll." Her head nods once, then she picks up the kiwi and continues to consume it in the same fashion, nibbling from the edges to the centre. Taken off guard by Lia, Kelly's mouth hangs open just perhaps a moment longer than would be polite. And then he snaps it closed and nods. "Well, I guess that's a lot safer around here than actually running around. I don't think they want to attack a doll... uhm... unless I'm wrong." he concedes at the end and quickly at that! "I could be wrong, I'm wrong a lot." 'I should bring food back to room just in case.' Jeremy signs to Lia, nodding at that. Picking up his plates, he glances about, then frowns looking to his bag and to his notepad and then he puts the plates back down. Scribbling in the pad, he shows it to Kelly and offers a little smile. ~I have to put plates back and get things. Be well, watch for gazelles.~ He nods with mock seriousness at that as he shuts the notepad and slides it into his bag, tossing it over his shoulder and picking his dishes back up. Lia finishes the fruit slice and nods again at Kelly. "I thought so. I don't come out in me, except at food time. Usually I come out in another form. It is less trouble if they get damaged. If they go away, I come back to this one. I don't know what happens if this one goes away." She looks a little sad as Jeremy stands, but just waves to him. "Goodbye. Do not be bitten." Then she is busy with an orange slice. Picking at its skin, slowly peeling it, watching the changes in texture with rapt attention.