Time Warp: M*A*S*H of the Titans (Sean)

With a snort of mild disdain at the older student, Rose settled back onto the couch, pointedly acting as if his presence meant little to her before replying. "I'll stick to 'Pat', thanks. Too many 'Seans' around this school for my tastes."

That was her being petulant - there were maybe four other "Seans" in this rather large school, and by far Sean Neville was the most memorable of the lot. Tall, calm, always friendly despite most people's apparent suspicion of him, intelligent... there was a lot people could say about him and much one could observe. He appeared to be the perfect teenager for adults - model student, caring classmate, devout Catholic... this telepath could do no wrong and had learned from the best the school had to offer.

Still, there were protocols to observe. As Maggie's roommate and friend, Rose had an obligation to dislike him until he proved himself. So far, they'd had little interaction outside of the occasional outing with Maggie, considering that they were a grade apart, but this would hardly be the first time they'd been near each other without Rose's gentle roommate between them. This would probably be the first time they'd been without her around in addition to having no one else around either.

It was surprisingly quiet, too. It made the feline anthromorph nervous, which in turn made her tail twitch erratically. Stretching again, the auburn-grey fur rippled over the teenager's tiny body as she shifted position, leaving the comfort of the overstuffed couch momentarily to change the channel on the television to the proper input - the show would start soon, and she liked the introduction music so she didn't want to miss it.

"So what are you doing down here?" she asked, her tone relatively disinterested but at least civil. "I haven't seen you here this late before."

Of course he did. It was a show about doctors, after all. Maggie had said that the too-tall boy had been aiming to be one for a long time, so naturally one could assume that he'd go for any and all entertainment he could find in the field. Rose hadn't really thought much on it, but it hadn't seemed to her like it was much of his sense of humor. Still, she wasn't going to be contrary and miss her new favorite show just because she wanted to be cattish. Instead, she gave a fluid roll of her shoulders, the lush fur on her body rippling in interesting patterns as she did so.

"It's pretty funny," she admitted. "Besides, it gives me something to do besides homework on Sundays." In a way, it made her feel almost social, even if her actions while watching it were considered anti-social. Then again, being in a social environment made her feel isolated anyway, so why change the trend?

Moving back to the couch, the anthromorph stretched languidly over the cushions, tail flicking back and forth in a mild display of annoyance (partially) and to amuse herself with its motion (mostly). Somewhere in her mind, she was bemused at the thought that Sean had the decency not to point out that she was "naked" - it garnered a little bit of gratitude from the petulant teen, but at the same time she knew he came from a more conservative upbringing that she did. Why wouldn't he mention it? He didn't even look uncomfortable like most people (including teachers) did when she wandered around like this. It almost made her feel self-conscious.

"I thought you'd be in church," Rose mentioned casually. "Or is that just mornings?" Not being Catholic, the younger meta knew very little about the rituals that went with having a set faith. Her mother was a Russian Orthodox practicing, yes, but her father had mostly allowed his daughter to choose whether she came with them to the few services in their neighborhood. She rarely had, and since coming to Hammel she'd stopped going at all. Hard to believe in a deity that condemns you for being born without being self-loathing.

Another rolling shrug of apathy answered his words. Rose didn't have rituals, persay. A ritual implied doing something because of a greater meaning; rituals meant something. Watching a show every Sunday was simply (for her) because that was the day and time it aired. Missing an episode meant she'd be behind until the season was over, in which case she could watch a re-release of it sometime later. But that would mean missing some joke for the whole season. It was to save herself the annoyance more than anything. Plus - not doing homework was always better than doing it. Especially when Maggie wasn't around to help her.

The amount of response to her rather sardonically asked question made the cattish teen glare a little at the other student. She'd asked to find out why he was there, not to catch a dissertation on the proceedings of a legion of God-groupies. "Why would you want to listen to someone talk to you for an hour on something that they don't understand any more than you do?" she asked, venom touching her voice.

As a matter of fact, why would you let a group of hypocrites tell you how to run your life at all? she mused angrily. "Love everyone, except those who aren't like us," am I right? Most religious people hated metahumans, even though many did nothing wrong and were just trying to be like everyone else. Same thing with homosexuals - the younger teen didn't understand that one very much, but her general idea was that it wasn't anyone else's business who you loved or what you did as long as it didn't hurt people. Especially if they didn't believe the same things you did.

However, keeping those thoughts from passing her lips was a lot easier than keeping them from being thought. Having not really dealt with those with mental powers, Rose had yet to learn any remotely adequate mental shields. Thus, anything and everything she thought was wide open for the telepath to read.

Trying to focus on the episode was particularly difficult with someone talking to her. Rose gave the older student a glower that basically shouted "You really don't know when to live and let die, do you?" and snapped back a response. "Just because someone studies doesn't mean they're studying the right things. And just because someone's older doesn't mean they're any smarter than you. Besides, how can you teach someone to interpret a story? Shouldn't your interpretation be right because you saw it that way?"

The feline teen had a particular dislike for people who told her how to think or that her opinions were wrong simply because they weren't shared. Her mother's preacher had told her that and had told her that her ideas were wrong without even asking how she managed that view. It had been one of many steps towards her seriously questioning whether or not God existed, and one of the last pushes that made her decide that He didn't.

The answer to her angry thoughts made her jump upright from the languid position she'd been resting in, her fur sticking up at all odd ends. Being that she cared not for rumors and that she and Sean had spent little time with each other, she had been completely caught unawares by his reading of her mind. The shock then wore off into an indignant outrage, though less explosive than most feared her temper was. "Yeah, great ideal - except that people don't," she snarled, curling back up on the sofa.

This time, however, she only took up one cushion.

"Besides, what's the point of having these powers anyway?" she grumbled, figuring that if her thoughts were going to be read willy-nilly anyway, she may as well just speak them aloud. "All they do is make growing up that much harder, and causes people who are different to be more different." Rose did not hate her powers; on the contrary, she preferred her feline form over her original one any day of the week. However, she'd seen how much damage even benign powers could cause when they appeared in the wrong person, family, or community. Such things were ugly beasts.

Hurting people comes naturally to human beings. It was an unintended thought, but considering that it crossed her brain as her eyes tracked the people on the screen, she continued it by saying, "Sure, people can be good and nice and help people all the time. But for every one of them, there's another person out there who does the opposite for one reason or another. Sometimes, they're even the same people."

As quickly as her anger had flared, it dissipated into a sullenness that was more common to Rose's disposition. Just because she didn't believe meant that she had to brandish her anti-faith like a cudgel. She wasn't going to apologize, but she wasn't going to turn it into a big explosive argument either. She could let it fall to the wayside.

Grumbling incoherently, the cattish teen turned her eyes back to the television and chose not to pursue the argument. Some people wouldn't listen no matter what, even if she had the eloquence to explain her position. Just because I shut up doesn't mean I agree with you, she growled in her mind, choosing not to say the words aloud in an attempt to diffuse the conversation.

At least they agreed that not everyone was the inherently good person they claimed to be.

Even though she was trying really hard to keep an eye on the show, Rose couldn't help but look back to Sean again in agreement. She supposed that it could be like that for some people. After all, her cat-senses were so much better than her human ones, and being in a feline form made her feel more... alive. Sadly, not everyone appreciated her powers as much as she did. But... then again... people were kind of afraid of Sean, too... "Maybe you're right," she mumbled softly, turning her slitted gaze back to the television. "But then why do people make it so hard? At least if no one knows you're a meta, you can hide it. They look at me like I'm some kind of freak."

Even her pervasive thoughts of self-doubt blew that statement out of the water. She loved her powers. She just hated how people treated her because of them.

"Sometimes, trying isn't enough," she replied, nodding to the television. "Sometimes it's all we can do just to get by, and still people are against us. Even when we help people. Even when we aren't hurting anyone."

While there would likely come a time when the young girl's faith in humanity would be restored, right now was not exactly one of them. Still, with people like Sean in the world (who, while being a little naive and misguided in her opinion) who had their hearts in the right place. Maybe he'd end up changing the world. Then again, maybe she would, too. In the meantime, all she added, "Well, let's hope we get over ourselves at some point, because this whole persecution thing is getting really old-hat."

Though she didn't really believe that nobody passed, it was something to think about. Rose glanced back to Sean with a bit of curiosity, but refrained from asking. No point in getting an answer for a question she didn't really understand.

"True, I guess. I'll give you that," she added with a sigh. Stretching out over the couch again, her feline ears perked and swiveled at the sound of several noisy someones entering the building. She barely fought the instinct to look and caved quickly, noting a pair of girls who had looked over towards the common area and given a nervous little wave to the two occupants before hushing their conversation and moving on. As if being quieter really helped.

At least pretend you aren't avoiding us, her mental "voice" grumbled, and without a sound the furred youth curled back up on the couch, watching the television from a newer, more upside-down perspective now. She didn't comment on this to Sean; she was pretty sure he'd either noticed and not cared, or was wonderfully oblivious. Either way was fine with her; she knew from Maggie that he had it tough. Telepaths were generally mistrusted anyway in the world, from what she heard; even inside the school, they were social pariahs, Sean more than most (though she didn't know why). She wouldn't bring it up out of spite, either for the girls or the older student accompanying her.

When the main characters began talking with a fresh face (though, "fresh" was relative, considering that this was episode five) Rose tilted her head back upright. The story took place in the middle of the Korean War - what was a Korean girl doing at the beck and call of a soldier?