I will not skateboard in the halls (Lucy)

[Miriam Cohen]

Miri looked around the bare room and took a deep breath, then another. Her insides felt like jelly. Since the knowledge that she would be sent away from home had settled in, she had felt increasingly less solid. Now she drew air into her gelatinous body, forcing her lungs to expand.

Okay, she thought, now move. She didn’t. Move it!

She thought over what she needed to do. Putting away her clothes and making the bed were her biggest concerns. She had to sleep somewhere tonight and a bare mattress would definitely not make this easier.

Miri trembled. She gritted her teeth against the urge to cry, still wishing she had been able to make them understand that she had really not meant what happened in the museum. She was a good person, truly!

But there was no one to tell that to now. She was here, nothing more to be done, so Miri made herself move. She took out a sheet and began stretching it across the bed.

Having something to do did not make this any easier. The room still felt like it was tilting. At least she could move now, though. She was nearly finished when she caught sight of someone outside the room. “Oh!” Miri paused, pillowcase still in her hands. “Hi. I’m Miri.”




((and that was written with the impression that they do not share rooms. If they're sharing a room, I'll change it around a bit.))

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy was in her room on her computer. For the most part she never cared about her roommates; she stayed out of their business and they stayed out of hers as far as she was concerned. She had her headset on, microphone engaged as she was playing a round of some online shooter with a pretty useless teammate.

Oh, and her music was loud. There was no better way to listen to it. It was likely that the neighbouring room would hear some of it. Despite that, her voice could call out over it and be heard.

"You're supposed to shoot 'em in the head!" Given the tone of her voice, she was obviously annoyed. What happened next was some kind of crashing sound; she kicked the chair over and tossed the headset down in frustration. "Now I'm dead, are you fuckin' happy?" She asked outwardly, before leaving the room. Let them drown without her, because she needed some kind of energy drink that she'd left in the common area fridge.

That was when she walked past the open door and saw someone. Lucy stood there staring, her dark hair in a fishtail plat over her shoulder. Skinny jeans and a tank top were her standard wardrobe choices. Her tattoos were clearly on display, and if someone looked hard enough they would them moving; slow and steady across her skin.

"Lucy." She replied, her Australian accent falling into line with the singular word. "You new?"

(OOC: You got it! They all have separate rooms, but share a common room area~)

[Miriam Cohen]

Miri recognized the voice. As absorbed as she had been in her own thoughts, she had not completely missed everything going on around her, and that accent was pretty distinctive. So, this would be the girl who played shooter games. It was just a guess, but her brother Amit tended to snap quite similar things at his games.

For all she tried to be open-minded when meeting new people, Miri could not help comparing herself. In this case, she compared herself and decided she and Lucy were very different people. Just look at those tattoos! She noticed them without staring. Still, she always wondered why someone would do that and be proud of it.

She nodded, swallowing that as a matter of cultural difference. “It's nice to meet you, Lucy. I'm just moving in.” Aside from the mostly-made bed, the room was still bare. “Have you been here long?” Maybe Lucy could help her learn a bit about the ‘school’—Miri still thought ‘school’ might not be totally accurate, not when it took her away like this—and she could get to know Lucy.

Miri felt that she was different from the other girl, but that did not mean she didn’t want to get to know her, maybe even be friends with her.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy idly raised a hand to her more covered arm, running her hand along the line of the markings as they moved. It was that feeling of the way they moved underneath her skin; difficult to describe and never quite something worthy of getting used to. She chalked it up to the fact that she simply couldn't get her power in check enough to stop the kinetic reaction.

"Yeah, same." She replied. Was it really nice to meet Lucy? She wasn't sure. People found her intimidating and it was easier to exist that way. "Couple of years. Had to move here from Australia, cause they don't have a school in the region." Which was dumb, and that impression was pretty clear from the way she said it.

"Gimme a sec, Seppo." And with that, Lucy bailed from the doorway and went to the fridge. She came back a second or so later with an energy drink in hand. She leaned against the doorway and cracked it open and looking back again. "You came from here, yeah? Somewhere in the states, I mean."

[Miriam Cohen]

Miri nodded, having been unaware that Australia had no school for metas. Truth be told, she had been largely unaware of meta-related issues until her own powers popped up and was still learning. It seemed unfair for Lucy. “That must be tough,” Miri offered. She was only a few thousand miles from home. What would being on a whole different continent be like?

While Lucy stepped away, Miri continued unpacking, sliding her pillow into its case. She was not sure what else to start with. Other girls had not been particularly nice about her choices of clothing in the past—conservative, boring—and Lucy looked pretty cool from the way she dressed and carried herself.

There were not really any better options, though. She would have liked to get to know Lucy a little better first, but she needed to put her things away, too. To Lucy’s question, she nodded again. “I’m from California,” she answered. “It still seemed pretty far away, but maybe not so far after all…” Certainly not as far as Lucy’s home.

Talking about this did not seem the wisest choice, though. It was too hard to talk about home. “So, um, do you like it here? At the school?”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Sucks, yeah." Lucy replied with a shrug. Yeah, there was no real choice in the matter. It was here or freakin' Switzerland, and at least here wouldn't be such a ridiculous culture shock.

It was comfortable enough for Lucy to just stand there and watch. She could learn a lot about the other girl just by looking at her stuff, and now was as good a time as any to do that. It wasn't like she was going to go riffling through it later anyway. From what she figured so far, the girl wasn't all together sure of herself. "California?" Lucy asked, scrunching up her nose at the world. Where the hell was that? "Sounds intense. But I guess y'never get a choice, huh." Not really, anyway. There was no refusal.

"It's alright, I guess. Depends on what you're looking for. The teachers are pretty helpful so that's cool." Lucy shrugged, glancing over Miri again. She had a few questions, but she had time. "How old are you?"

[Miriam Cohen]

“Los Angeles,” Miri supplied, “y’know, Hollywood. It’s the desert; the middle of the state produces a lot of fruit.” She was not from Hollywood, exactly, but close enough to it, and she doubted the specific neighborhood would matter too much to Lucy. She tended to assume people knew where California was whenever talking to someone in the U.S. Now that she thought about it, usually she had those conversations in California.

She finished putting away her tops, and decided unders could wait. Lucy seemed okay, but there was a difference between okay and seeing someone’s underwear, and even worse than that would be affixing her mezuzah. The idea of not having one in her home seemed weird. So did the idea of Lucy seeing it.

Instead, she started putting away cold accessories. Back home, she never needed mittens or a scarf, had not even owned them. “I’m fifteen. How old are you?” She was, she knew, letting Lucy control the conversation. That was okay. Miri tried not to let people walk all over her, but she did not want to seem pushy, either.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Oh." Lucy replied shortly. She instantly retrieved her phone with her free hand and looked it up. She knew what Hollywood was and all that, but it still didn't help her case. It was like telling an American where Darwin or Cairns was. She looked at where it was on the screen, and saw a coast line. Got it. That was enough for her.

She cocked her head at the sudden hesitation. Heh.

"Eighteen." Lucy replied. The difference was pretty obvious, but she was just fulfilling her own curiosity. Three years is a long time, when she thought about it. She couldn't really remember who she was three years ago, but she was definitely different. Quieter. And less vocal about her anger. "What do you do?"

[Miriam Cohen]

Normally, eighteen meant the end of high school. That just reminded Miri that it was common for people to stay at this school into their twenties. She had read all the material she had been given. Great. That was just what she needed: to be in high school an extra year or two… or three… or even four.

“What do you—oh.” At first, Miri had not understood. What did she do? She was a fifteen-year-old girl. She was here. She went to school, of course! Then she realized that Lucy meant her ability. Was that not a rude question, then?

No, Lucy seemed like the sort of person to ask even if it was rude. If she was curious, she would probably ask.

“I’m not really sure yet.” Retrocognition was not one of the flashier abilities, but when she lay in bed at night, Miri really liked the thought. She could picture using this in her future. It was different when she had to live with it every day. Having abilities, was that really worth being a meta?

She kept those thoughts to herself. It was personal. It was potentially incredibly offensive, too. “What about you? Is that why your tattoos are like that?”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Australian curriculum made it entirely possibly that students remain in school when they're eighteen. It depended on birthdays and all that, but regardless the difference in curriculum meant she was here for just as long. The ice breaking question had been dropped, and-

Barely answered. Lucy raised her chin slightly, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "Then you wouldn't be here." She pointed out. They only came and got people when powers manifested. Now she was a little paranoid. Maybe it was mind control or something ridiculous like that.

"Yeah. It's an ink thing." Lucy replied, starting fresh again. She looked around, taking a mouthful of the energy drink before talking again. "Got any books?" It was the easiest way to point the power out.

[Miriam Cohen]

Miri tried to be nice to everyone, she truly did, but that logic was just silly. Surely if she knew how to use her abilities, she wouldn’t be here. Not knowing about them, using them without meaning to or having control, that was a reason to be here. She kept that to herself. Lucy didn’t seem like the type to appreciate argument.

She glanced around her room. She had not brought a lot of books. Miri liked to read, but she mostly read e-books. That wouldn’t help. After a few seconds, she noticed the history textbook on her desk. Surely Lucy wouldn’t do anything to actually damage the book, right?

She held it out for Lucy to demonstrate her abilities.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

No, it wasn't silly. She should have at least in some way got what her ability was. It wasn't about control, it was about the ability in general. Surely if logic were in play, then logically she would at least know what she did to get landed here in the first place. Lucy made a drawing move on a page and then dammit all, she was thrown in this hell hole. All powers weren't so black and white, so to speak. But logic. Logic indeed.

Lucy took the history book. "New. American. History." She red the title aloud, shrugging before flicking the book open to a completely random page. She took a second or so to read it. "Page 2-3-2. The historian Peter Burke, trying to describe social history in 1980, came up with the most inclusive definition imaginable." She read, holding it out briefly to show it. Then she took it back and pressed her finger to the line of the words. After a swipe, she waited a few moments before closing it and handing it back to her.

"There ya go, Seppo. Enjoy." Lucy said, tossing a wave over her shoulder as she started walking back to her own room. Should Miri flick to the page in question, she would watch a slow formation of words. After all, long term printed ink took the longest to change. But eventually it was clear;

The historian Peter Burke was notoriously full of crap. He was also probably a giant loner, cause American history is total balls.

[Miriam Cohen]

After Lucy left, Miri opened her book and turned to the page mentioned. She saw it as soon as she scanned a few lines. No history book would say something like that—and sure, it seemed like the sort of thing she would joke about another time, but had Lucy really just used her powers to graffiti Miri’s history book?

Miri sighed. So this was what kids were like at Hammel, huh? They were just the same as the students had been at home. She set down her damaged book on the desk and went to see if her bedroom door locked.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

That was Lucy snerking all the way back to her room. Because yes, that's exactly what Lucy just did. And she thought it was pretty funny too. Locky would have thought so too, if she could find the guy.

Lucy expected to hear something from her new roommate. Or at least to be chased down and asked to revert the text. Begrudgingly, she would have. But without a hint of a backbone from Miri, she decided it wouldn't be so. So the Australian teen with the dancing tattoos went back to her room and flicked her music back on again. headset on, controller in hand and glasses fixed so the screen wouldn't kill her eyesight.

And the door wide open. Just because. In her mind, she liked the little Seppo for taking the joke.