Thread Roulette: Showoff

[Event !]

Someone is always showing off her powers. Featuring Shaina Burns and Olivia Gallows

[Olivia Gallows]

Having grown up with a not-normal brother for the majority of her life, Olivia was not as awed by them as most children her age should have been. In the brief breaks that Heinrich had been with them, after all, he had not hesitated to show off (whether or not it was legal) and she had gotten used to see one or two or more of them in action.

To be doing it herself, however, was a novel occurrence. And she would be lying if she found it thoroughly unpleasant.

There was a special kind of privileged feeling, Olivia thought to herself as she fiddled with a long iron nail. Right now it was keeping the regular shape it had come in, but as she ran her fingers along its length it began to change, twisting into a much more awkward and irregular form than it had before. In no time it had become a perfect sphere about the size of a large marble.

A little smile of satisfaction fixed itself on Olivia's face as the girl lowered the iron ball onto the table before her. There it rested next to the three other symbols and achievements of her effort - a cat-shaped figurine, a butterfly, a flower. This was a much simpler design than the ones she did, and as such she felt much less like she needed an impromptu power nap right after the show of power.

...But hey. Good work - at least in Olivia's opinion. And as far as she was concerned, that was all that mattered.

With a sigh, she sat back against the wall and examined her work with shameless admiration.

[Shaina Burns]

Olivia wasn't the only girl on the fourth floor who liked showing off her powers. Shaina had been at Hammel for a year, and she was still constantly entertained by how much easier her feats of gymnastics were now. Sure, she was still bothered by being disqualified from competing, but her increased strength and flexibility made up for a lot of it.

The hallway was a perfect place to practice. With a running start, she did a tumbling run, flipping past the doors to the other dorm rooms. At the end of the hall, she flipped into a handstand again, and walked on her hands back towards the floor lounge. She was barefoot, so she was able to use her prehensile feet to open the door.

She didn't really have a plan after that, except maybe watching the TV in the lounge. It was mostly empty when she got there, and she didn't notice Olivia's legs under the table until she had already bumped into it, knocking over the figures and sending the iron ball rolling off, onto the floor.

Shaina flipped back up, onto her feet, and scooped up the metal ball. "Oops, sorry about that. The table got in the way."

Being flexible and strong didn't mean walking on her hands was easy.

[Olivia Gallows]

While Magneto power over iron and all that was really cool, it sadly had not affected Olivia much in the way of her physical prowess or capabilities. Being raised as more or less a little lady in combination with her stubborn insistence on never getting dirt anywhere near her clothes or nails had rendered Olivia's reflexes and reaction time rather...well, abysmal.

Or maybe she was just bad at it, period. Still, that didn't stop her from trying to grab the ball anyway (with a surprised shout at the...creature...that had bumped into her and gotten it rolling in the first place) even though she was not met with much success.

"Please watch where-" Olivia began irritably, then stopped short as the girl - yes it was a girl, now that she was looking straight at her - retrieved the ball. Olivia frowned but not as fiercely as before (although still looking extremely annoyed at the bump; while not extremely heavy, that thing could have bruised pinky toes) and held out her hand for it.

Assuming the ball was handed over, Olivia would bend over to scan through the space underneath the table for the rest of her figurines. She easily found the cat and the butterfly, but it would seem the last piece had rolled somewhere. The flower had had a smooth, circular bottom. The chance of it spinning under the armchair was an entirely likely possibility.

Olivia growled.

"That's why people walk upright, don't you think?" she said curtly as she straightened, dusting her impeccable self off even though sticking her head beneath a coffee table had hardly gathered dust on her. It was easily observed as more of a gesture of frustration than anything. She turned and gave the girl who'd started it all an annoyed look. "Because they can actually see better when they are right side up."

With her piece spoken, she turned away to find some kind of stick to hopefully push the flower out from under the armchair or wherever it might be. There was no way she would be crawling on the floor sticking her hand beneath that space where dust bunnies live. And it was too small for her to stick it in too far anyway.

What she doesn't realize was that the flower was in fact right on the armchair, sandwiched between two school folders she had brought with her. Judging from how Olivia was moving away from the chair in her search, though, it would be unlikely that she would see it.

[Shaina Burns]

Shaina dropped the ball into the other girl's hand. It was just a stupid little metal ball; it wasn't like she'd broken anything. "Uh, I did say I was sorry. It was just an accident."

She'd always been an only child, and had spent most of her childhood at the gym or hanging out with friends from the gym. Other than her roommates--and it wasn't like she had to share her actual bedroom with anyone--she didn't usually have to deal with people being annoyed at her. "I was just goofing around. What are you looking for? I only heard the ball fall."

She watched the other girl search under the chair for something. Shaina didn't realize that Olivia had made the little iron figures. She did, however, spot the flower that hadn't fallen to the floor, and she picked it up with her tail to look at it closer. "Hey, this thing is really cute. Where'd you get it?"