Power Failure Incoming (Open)

[Ella Tate]

The sudden change in the boy's disposition surprised Ella but she simply laughed. "Yeah, sure kid." She nodded at his suggestion. When he looked at her, she was still holding back her laughter by biting her bottom lip but his words had her snorting as she ushered him into the canteen.

"Oh you're in luck. Their mac and cheese is pretty good. They actually splurge on the good cheese so they're decent." Ella said, already smelling the goodness that was wafting through the kitchen.

"Andy, you okay with me switching off my powers now? I'm good with anything but if you think you're gonna short-circuit something again, let me know."

[Andrei Dragunov]

Andrei smiled wider when he heard her laugh - her face and demeanour radiated a certain aloofness that made the Ukrainian boy unsure whether or not she was able to produce that sound. The sound of merriment and joy. A sound which had followed him pleasantly throughout all his childhood years, then abruptly abandoned him when he hit puberty and his prowess manifested. She didn't seem to want to let on that she could laugh though, simply ushering him through the corridors into the canteen.

"Splurge." Andrei repeated uncertainly, unfamiliar with the word. "Splurge is good?" He canted his head sideways, looking inquiringly at his guide. At her newest question though, he did a bit of a double take, glanced around, then nodded seriously. "I do not think that de food here vill be any trouble to me, or others. Tomato have little electricity." His lips twitched upwards at his own little joke. "You vill have no Bookface though."

[Ella Tate]

"Splurge. When it comes to cheese, it's very good." Ella nodded with a sideways grin. His reaction to her question had her grinning before she snorted at his joke. "Yeah, I bet it does." She chuckled. Raising an eyebrow at his Bookface comment, it took her about two seconds before realising he wanted to say Facebook. Well, at least he wasn't that technologically challenged.

Not to say she wasn't.

"I don't have Facebook, kid. Social networking is not my thing. Not online anyway. I like that to be organic." She chuckled, hoping the joke went over Andy's head. He was still a baby and she was making sexual innuendos.

She grabbed a tray and flirted a little with the lunch lady, who just laughed and shook her head in amusement. At least she got a big portion of mac and cheese out of it. Choosing a seat, she expected the kid to come over and sit with her. He probably won't. She was an adult [not really] so it might not look cool for him to sit with her. She started on her food anyway.

[Andrei Dragunov]

Perhaps it was just because he wasn't quite used to the way things were done in America. Perhaps he simply preferred her company. Either way, upon collecting his food - mac n' cheese, as it were, because it happened to be the only food he was confident of ordering in English without sounding like a commissar, though even then the way he said it made it sound like what you would engrave on a steel dagger ('mack und cheez') - he sat down at the same table with Ella, with an apologetic smile, as if he was terribly sorry for intruding in on her meal. To him, it was a normality to sit next to an elder as you ate, because not only did he have no classmates yet, but because back in Ukraine, you did not go to a communal environment where you got to eat with all the kids your age, like a school or a library. They just did not exist in the rural parts of Ukraine. Instead, he always ate with his little sister, his mother, and his father, and so Ella, to him, basically made something of a substitute older sister - a relatively new position in his life, certainly, but with him, right now everything was new.

"Splurge," he repeated, as if trying to commit the word to memory while she ate. He nodded again, then blinked as she stated her thoughts on a Facebook account - or lack thereof. "Vy do you not 'ave Bookface?" he asked, genuinely surprised that somebody would give up the privilege of possessing what he knew as a wondrous digital medium that could store all your friends in one place and allow you to poke them at any given time (he still thought 'poke' was a new kind of messaging format, exclusive to America, despite his aunt's attempts to explain) and simply could not comprehend not wanting one. He himself had declined his aunt's offer to make him a Facebook account, simply because he felt he had no use for one. For one thing, he had no friends in America. For another, the only ones he wanted to keep in contact with was his estranged family in Ukraine, and he was very sure they did not have Facebook.

Or the internet for that matter.

[Ella Tate]

Ella watched as Andrei sat beside her, grinning as he did so. Poor thing would probably need friends. She wouldn't be able to help him with it, but hopefully his roommates would help. He seemed like a nice guy. Hopefully he gets placed with just as nice guys. Or girls. Ella bunked with both in her day.

"Facebook seems like such a waste of time. I don't have time to sit down and look through photos of babies that aren't even their own or read through what their latest revelation might be or click on links that might just damage my computer. Nobody should have time for that." She waved her fork around in emphasis.

"But don't mind me. I'm an old fart. What do I know about the internet." She shrugged with a grin, shoveling a forkful of gooey mac and cheese into her mouth. "Do you have a Facebook account?" She asked, not really aware of the internet status back home. As far as she was concerned, the internet could be found everywhere.

[Andrei Dragunov]

Andrei was having some difficulty getting the melted cheese to actually stay on the spoon, unaware of the existence of the nearby fork. He struggled for a moment, then resorted to winding the cheese around the width of the spoon like spaghetti, while listening intently to Ella. He had the polite knack of fixing his eyes on her, bobbing his head slightly, and making her seem like she was the most important person in the world worth listening to. "But Bookface have let you keep in contact!" Andrei exclaimed. "With people around the vorld!" He looked positively confused that someone could not be amazed by the simple marvels of technology.

"Old vart." He repeated, not quite understanding, due to the obvious discrepancies between Ella and the word 'old' in general. "I?" Andrei said, surprised by the question. "No, no, I did not know about interweb until I come to Amerika." He shrugged, and gave her a puzzled smile. "And not know enough about it to Bookface. Main problem is venever I try, Bookface goes kaput." He held his hand up to the light above them to prove his point; the bulb started to sputter and fritz until he pulled his hand away.

[Ella Tate]

Ella watched as Andrei struggled with his food. She offered him her fork with a raised eyebrow. "You never eaten mac and cheese before, buddy?" She asked before chuckling at his statement. "Facebook, buddy. Facebook. But I do that anyway. I travel a lot. And meet new people every other week. And you bet I stay well connected with the people I meet." Wow, Ella needed to be kept under lock and key. And not around children.

"Old vart indeed." She nodded, pointing to herself before nodding at his answer. Her eyes were pulled up as the light above them started to flicker. She grinned and shrugged. "That's why you're here. To learn how to not have that happen to you twenty four seven." Ella mentioned. "Then again, if you need help, you can just call me."

Using her spoon to scoop up the mac and cheese, Ella narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure a course of action. "Tell you what, I have my phone on me all the time. Give me a call if the ftzz-ing gets too out of hand." She patted herself down for a pen, before realising she didn't bring any. "Wait...do you have a phone on you?"

[Andrei Dragunov]

He stared at the fork with a naked expression of wonder as it was handed over to him, clearly having never seen the strange tool before. It was not so much Ukraine as the rural countryside which lacked the sophistication of a three-pronged stabbing utensil. "Knife and spoon, is vot we 'ave in Skadvaark," he confessed, stabbing a bit of mac on the plate and holding it up to his eye for keen observation before he popped it into his mouth and chewed, then swallowed. "I can control ... this?" he inquired, surprised, and yet it was a joyous surprise, for his face lit up as easily as it always had. "Then I can perhaps, go back to my home... No longer a problem to family."

The forbidden thought, stated so vocally, shocked himself into silence for a moment, before he regained his composure and flashed her a quick smile in response to his query.

"I 'ave never 'ad a phone that survived on my body for more than five minutes."

[Ella Tate]

Ella's eyebrows shot up in surprise when Andrei revealed that he had never used a fork before. See, that was new to Ella. She was now terribly curious as to exactly what the tradition is at Skadvaark.

Andrei's question led Ella to nod briskly. She was about to state the other wonders of Hammel's training when he showed surprise at his own statement. "Kid...you're kind of welcome to stay here until your family can accept you just as you are...you realise that, right?" She didn't know why she was trying to comfort the young boy but she realised those eyes were not meant to be sad.

"Hmm...too bad we don't have much alien tech here. Never mind. Once you can control your ability, I'll get you one." She offered, her tone more authoritative than affectionate.

"So what did you do for fun back in Skadvaark?"