Hanging By A Moment (Open)

[Luxanna Viera]

It was one of days where it seemed like it would never stop raining, and everything was gray and dull. Perfect weather for staying inside and doing something productive. Though, these was also the kind of days doing something productive was the least thing Lux wanted to do. At least when summer vacation was over, she could keep herself busy with school work instead of walking around like a ghost, trying to figure out things to fill the days with. She wasn't exactly the most social girl around, and most of her friends was either mad at her, each other or had a broken heart. Sure, she was all for being there for them and everything, but all the sadness took its toll.

Thus, she found herself on the couch inside the common area with a blanket pulled over her feet and a book in her lap. She didn't really know what it was about, it was something random she had picked up at the library. Not that it really mattered anyways, since she had troubles concentrating. Her thoughts seemed to drift all over the place. To the people talking and bickering around her, to the recent events, to everything and nothing all at the same time.

Lux leaned back in the couch and rested her head against the armrest. She covered her face with her hand and let out a slight sigh. When did things become so screwed up?

[Evan Coleman]

" When that I was and a little tiny boy, with a hey and a ho, the wind and the rain!!!!"

It was raining like God's girlfriend had just broken up with him, and Evan was LOVING it. He chortled across the campus, splashing through puddles with half-formed jigs and crowing old St. Bill Shakespeare to the fog. Bad weather had always had a certain kind of effect on Evan, a kind of reverse seasonal depressive disorder that filled him with manic energy and just DEMANDED that he go out and let it soak into him. Quite often this resulted in an unnecessary case of pneumonia, but this was what tea was for.

Admittedly, his reasons for being out and about were slightly work-related. He was finding it helpful more and more often to leave the confines of his office and go roving across campus, picking up more points of data for The Spreadsheet and potentially catching someone who just needed a friendly stranger to vent at. After all, not everybody loved the rain, and such weather could easily exacerbate something already gone bad. As a standby for such eventualities, he made a point of carrying a stash of cookies. Cookies made everything better. It was like, the fourth law of thermodynamics or something. Who cared?

As he passed by the dorms, a telltale flicker of phosphorus and twisting saltwatery pain flickered through the windows. He backed up, mid-improvised Riverdance, and took a peek through the window.

Bingo. Yahtzee. Whichever. He was trying new catchphrases for this sort of occasion.

Kodah had briefly made mention of the young lady currently failing to be absorbed by her book in the common room. Luxanna Viera, just one of the many people caught up in the fallout of the Kodah-Oriel explosion that had made The Spreadsheet such a fascinating document. She was something of an incidental casualty, the way Kodah had described it, but still, the poor girl had just had most of her social circle go up in flames. At the very least, she deserved a cookie.

Evan sprinted up the stairs, keyed his way through the door, and walked with brisk purpose directly through the common room and to where Lux was sitting. She was leaning against a couch armrest looking like the splitting image of depression.

"Excuse me," he began, stopping in front of her and pulling out a slightly-crinked plastic box full of chocolate chip cookies, "are you all right? Would you like a cookie?"

[Luxanna Viera]

No one could ever deny that the recent events had put some kind of strain on her. Sure, she came at the worst time possible, and both the things she had heard and seen had been more than unsettling, but at least she could be glad she didn't get punished for any of it. Not that she saw why she ever would have been, but that was all up to people's opinions. The worst part of it all was more stains it had put on the friendship of the two boys she had come to care about so dearly, Oriel and Kodah. Those two knuckleheads really needed to sort things out, and stop acting like children fighting over a lollipop.

As the voice of a man was heard, Lux lifted her hand and peeked up. Her eyes went from the man, to the box of cookies and back at him again. She narrowed her eyes. Confused at first, then a little suspicious. Did he realize how odd it all seemed? Some stranger offering her cookies out of nowhere? Then again, she had always been the naive type. Always believing the best in everyone. Besides, who would ever complain about getting free cookies? Lux sat up and offered the man a smile. ''I'm fine, thank you, Sir.'' Well, one could never deny the fact that she had been brought up well, and she was ever so polite to grown ups. ''Yeah, sure.'', she said with a chuckle and made room for the man to sit on the couch. Unless he was on his way somewhere else, then the gesture would seem stupid. He could always just decline the offer, right? It wasn't worse than that, a simple 'No'.

''Do you work here?'' She couldn't really remember seeing him around before, but then again, she could probably say the same thing about ninety percent of the other people walking around on the school. She kept mostly to herself anyways, and didn't bother remembering every face. Though, she'd gladly be able to forget a certain blonde's face.

[Evan Coleman]

A stutter step of anger, a watery sour taste of weirded-outness, and Evan realized all-too-belatedly that in his rush of joie de vivre he had just managed to come off like a pedophile.

"I do! No, I'm not a random stranger that goes around handing out cookies. I've seen those movies, and they never end well."

He sat down in the space she'd made for him, putting the box down on the table in front of them and opening it up. Success! The cookies were intact despite all of his frolicking. He'd have to write that corner store a nice Yelp review or something.

While fishing out the cookies, he took a quick look into Lux's emotions and had to check the urge to give her a hug. It was a windy cave in there, cold keening abandonment issues scything around small stalactites with phosphorous-sour mushrooms glowing on them. Something really craptastic had marked this girl, some profound breach of trust that birthed this marble-cold cave, these small crags of isolation being eaten by skittering diamond sociality spiders. This couldn't just be the result of the whole Oriel-Kodah situation, could it? No, this definitely had to have existed earlier.

Okay, crows and dead trees now. No meta moments, and we work on the verbal side. Crows and dead trees, motherfucker. Crows and motherfucking dead trees.

"Yeah, I'm kinda new here. I was actually just walking by, and, well, you looked like you needed a cookie. Or several cookies. Or a continuous cookie IV needle, which I truly wish was a thing. Is everything okay?"

There we go. Nice general questions. She could answer if she wanted, or she could not and just consume the cookies. Everybody would win, either way.

[Luxanna Viera]

She looked at this weird, blabbering man and tried to hold back a laugh. He was really odd, but in a good way. It was rather refreshing actually, seeing as most of the people Lux had met lately was either raging mad, had severe anger issues or was just plain out perverted. ''Good to know.'' She gave the man a grin, which was followed by a slight chuckle.

Whether it was pride, or her inability to open up, Lux wasn't the type to drop down and talk about her feeling, her severe parent issues and whatever else was going around in her head to a complete stranger, no matter how nice he seemed. Mostly because she didn't want to bother anyone else with her troubles. She could figure it out, right? She had been fine up until now, considering everything that had happened. In the end it had all lead to something good, right? After her parents left, she had been recruited and came to Hammel, where she met quite the few... Interesting people. Kodah, whom she quickly had fallen for, Oriel, whom she felt ever so protective of, Evony who was such a sweetheart, almost like a sister to her. And then there was the twins. Well, she decided not to go down that trail of thoughts.

Lux turned to look at him again, slowly nibbling on a cookie. ''What do you work as?'' It wasn't so much dodging his question as her actually being interested. Okay, maybe a little of both. But apparently this guy knew more than what he let out. Not because he seemed like a typical counselor type or anything, or that she thought he could read her emotions, because really, how would she be able to know? But because he kept asking and hinting about her not being okay. He kept digging for something. Was this about the Oriel-Kodah-Madison incident?

''Why wouldn't I be okay?'', she asked and took another bite of the cookie, smiling at him again as she leaned back.

[Evan Coleman]

Evan was the first to acknowledge that he had many faults that were purely his own, but he couldn't die that quite a few stemmed from his dad. Dr. Daniel Coleman was the kind of father that left a powerful thumbprint on the personalities and preferences his children, be they taste in literature or social niceties. Evan usually didn't mind these things; he retained a childlike admiration for his father and the path he'd carved for himself, his uncomfortable feelings on metas aside. That said, there were times when he became acutely aware of the fact that, sometimes, the modes of behavior his father had infused into him were not always 100% appropriate.

All of this to say, Evan felt comfortable entirely blaming his father for the sudden onslaught of gentle sarcasm coming out of his mouth.

"Okay, so here's the Sherlockian train of deductions that lead me to my conclusion: you are sitting in the common room of your dorm all alone, clearly failing to read the book you have picked out for yourself in favor of covering your face and sighing like a . . . dammit, I don't know, like something that sighs a lot. Maybe things have changed since I was your age, but back in MY day," he continued, slipping into his old curmudgeon impression, "when a person is curled up and sighing, they were feeling blue and needed cookies!"

He checked himself abruptly, realizing that this might not have been the wisest tone to adopt.

"Sorry, okay, all I'm saying is, you look down and as the new assistant counselor, it's almost my job to at least give you cookies. We don't have to talk if you don't want, but please, do me a favor and take a cookie or six."

So saying, he slid the box over to her and took a quick glance outside. It was coming down in buckets out there, and he was suddenly conscious of how wet his hair was. More pneumonia would doubtless be incoming.

"I'm Evan, by the way. What's your name?" he asked, as much for formality's sake as to try to engage the young lady.

[Luxanna Viera]

An expression of shock, or maybe disbelief grew over Lux's face as he continued to blabber on, and on, and on. And as he was done, a smile broke through, and it was obvious that the young man had earner her respect, even as silly the whole thing seemed. ''Fair enough.'', she admitted with a nod and leaned back, resting her chin against the back of her hand.

There was no doubting that the young man was odd. Even he couldn't deny that. But Lux found herself intrigued by it. It was nice, having someone around who wasn't so serious about everything, and wasn't raging mad. She had too many of those kind of people in her life. It was refreshing the way he blabbered away as if they were old friends.

''Seeing as you're the new counselor, I assume you've heard about the dorm fight?'' She grabbed another cookie before turning her attention back to him. Lux might be quite the odd and awkward character, but no one could ever deny the fact that she was smart. Oh yeah, she had been there when the teacher came, and when it all went downhill. Her name had been mentioned more than once during all the yelling that came afterwards. Not everyone was pleased with her choice of grabbing a teacher. ''I'm Lux. It's nice meeting you, Evan.''

''Since you oh so clearly insist on me being sad, why don't we just skip the pleasantries and you can ask whatever it is you're wondering about?'' Maybe it was because of his job that he kept bringing up how she appeared, as if it wasn't obvious. It didn't really matter. After all, since he kept bringing the topic up, even after she had told him she was fine, there had to be some reason, right? Why else would he keep poking at it? And Lux didn't really have much to hide, besides she was easy to read enough as it was. If he was curious, he could have asked instead.

[Evan Coleman]

Evan briefly considered lying to her. A little white lie, just to make it seem like it was all just chance and maybe work his way in from the OMG there was a dorm fight?!?! angle. It would have been easier in some ways, definitely, but at the end of the day there were personal and professional ethics to consider. You simply did not start a discussion on the basis of dishonesty. It would inevitably backfire and cause more awkwardness and pain than it would avoid.

"Honestly, I was just randomly walking around outside and happened to see you looking like Ophelia at the end of Hamlet, but . . . yeah, I know who you are and I know about the fight. We can talk about it if you'd like, because it sounds like it was rough on you. Or we can talk about something else. Or I can leave you with the cookies. Whatever floats your boat."

A pause, and then, on impulse . . .

"And if you are feeling down, I REALLY recommend a walk in the rain. Trust me, watching the rain fall against a window is what depresses people in the first place. Being rained on . . . well, that's the best damn thing in the world."

As soon as the words left his lips, he felt a sneeze start to brew up.

Evan, would it totally undermine us if we came down with pneumonia right now?

Yes it would, Other Evan. Yes, it absolutely would.

[Luxanna Viera]

She nodded, slowly and looked at him with a smile. So that was it. The reason for his oh so obvious concern. She didn't mind talking about it, after all it might do her some good. She hadn't really had anyone to talk to about it, seeing as everyone she knew was either part of it or had their own problems. ''All right. Why not?'', she said with another nod and a smile.

She turned her gaze towards the window, watching the rain pour down from the sky. Lux was one of those people who loved the feeling of rain against her skin. It was almost as if the water washed away all your troubles and worries, and just left serenity and calmness behind. ''I couldn't agree more.'', she said and turned back to him, a smile growing on her lips. ''But I think you've had enough of the rain already.'' She stood up and offered her hand. ''What about a walk inside instead, at least until you've managed to dry up, hm?'' She wouldn't want him to get sick, at least not because of her.

''So, let's start with something simple, shall we? What have you heard?''

[Evan Coleman]

Evan fistbumped himself internally. Awesome! A student who was actually willing to talk! He felt like he'd just found Bigfoot levels of urban legend in the Hammel dorm. Granted, it was entirely possible that metas were the cause of a number of urban legends to begin with. Couldn't Nessie just be a shapeshifter having a little fun with the tourists? Or, UFO's could easily be a few flyers with flashlights and a sick sense of humor . . .

No, wait, focus. The fight.

"Well, let's see . . . I know from Kodah and Oriel that there was a fight over hooking up with the same person. I know that it was a boundaries issue that got precipitated by Madison, who does not sound as though he's the king of tact at the best of times. And, furthermore, I've gathered that these two are close to you, and that having the two of them abruptly stop being friends has probably made things very difficult for you. Does that sound right?"

Admittedly, he didn't have a huge amount to go on. Kodah wasn't the sort to burst into a cacophony of soul-shaking confession, he'd quickly seen THAT much, but reading in between the lines of his disgruntled silences and missiles of snark had proved somewhat fruitful. Hopefully Luxanna would be more comfortable with expressing herself, because being on the outskirts of a social blowout was definitely a miserable experience.