A quiet recreation. ( Tag: Isha )

[Benton Barrett]

No one could blame him for going somewhere to catch... some sense of normalcy. Prior to the other day, he'd lived in his own home, with his family, not in a school for the unusually talented. It wasn't as though he was hating it, at all - he just... wasn't quite comfortable yet. He had a dorm with three other guys, and he lived in a school. That just... wasn't normal. He liked having his own room, especially since he wasn’t able to turn up the thermostat without making the room unbearable for the other guys, which just wasn’t fair. He just bundled up a lot, and hoped for the best.

Still, better this than sitting back and being completely dangerous to the world around him.

He bit his lip, as he poked his head into the lounge. Normally, he wasn't a shy kid. In fact, he was the kind of kid that could almost be considered easygoing, when he really set his mind to it. But these days, it was a little bit harder to cope with the fact that everyone around him was a new acquaintance. He knew no one, really, and that didn't exactly breed the most social of butterflies. He had his hands shoved firmly in the pocket of his favorite hoodie - a bright red affair that was thick enough to be warm without bogging him down.

Couple that with a pair of black jeans, and his 'normal person' look was locked in. Rubbing his ears gingerly, he double checked, and was relieved to see that no one else was in the room. He wasn't quite up to 'infiltrating large groups' yet. Not to mention, the more people around, the weirder it might be.

Glancing around, he was taken in by the simplicity of the rec room. It was nice, well maintained, and even had a bunch of random activities to help people blow off steam. Steam was something he was collecting quite a lot of, the last day or two, and since he was no longer on a soccer team, or couldn’t call his friends to just go out and kick the ball around… well, he was just going to have to settle for this.

He eyed the pool table, mostly because that was something he’d never done before. No one was around to make him look like a total spaz, either. Spotting a stick, he picked it up, pulling the sleeves of his hoodie back to accommodate the need for fingers. His sneakers made a bit of noise as he walked around the pool table, collecting the balls to put inside the little… triangle thing.

Pausing for a second, he held the black ball, which, for some reason, didn’t have a place in the triangle for it. After a few moments of staring, he realized he’d put the white ball in there, instead. He traded them out, ( his ears might be a little more red for the silly mistake ) and put the other one off to the side. Once he was satisfied that the balls were, indeed, in a triangle shape ( though completely out of order ), Benny took his position.

Awkwardly, he tried to find a way to stand that didn’t make him feel dumb, or make his wrist ache due to the awkwardness of the position.

“Okay. People do this professionally. Quit being such a spaz and hit the ball.” Another strike in his favor – talking to himself. Maybe he did need to meet a couple of people, so he could nip that embarrassing habit in the bud.

He leaned forward again, aiming as best he could, and shoved the stick forward as hard as he could ---

At an odd downward angle.

He struck the ball, sending it flying off the table. He jumped, letting out a little startled noise in the process. He slapped himself in the forehead, as he tracked the now-floored ball with his eyes, as it rolled away from the table. Okay. That wasn’t so bad.

( It was terrible and he should feel terrible. )

[Deleted]

Flynn was bored. Like usual whenever he had some free time on his hands. The fact that most friends seemed to be occupied didn’t help the matter either. It was why the guy had opted to head over to the lounge. He figured some people would be around, but boy, was he wrong. When he arrived, hands tucked into the pockets of his dark hoodie, eyes only fell on one person. And that person seemed to be talking to himself and was walking around cautiously. It didn’t really interest Flynn… but he figured it could be fun to tease the new guy. He figured Benton was new, based on the lack of a familiar face. Not that Flynn knew everyone around here, but he did like to believe that he was right about this one.

With a smirk on his lips, the shifter leaned in the doorway and observed Benny who now approached the pool table. He really had to try to not laugh out loud. Instead he snickered at himself while shaking his head. Flynn even managed to keep quiet as a ball went flying off the table, rolling over in his direction. He would have stopped it with his foot… but then another idea struck and before Benton’s eyes reached the stopping point of the ball, Flynnie the Pooh had shifted in his lovely panda form. He was sitting there, all cute before a paw reached over to the ball.

Dark eyes then flicked to Benny… and he picked up the ball, opened his mouth and brought it there. Not that he really planned on eating it… but maybe the kid would freak out for he could be blamed for having messed up the pool table? Flynn had awesome logic, even if he had to say so himself.

[Benton Barrett]

The ball was rolling, and Benny was glad, at least, that no one could see him being a spaz. His muscles all seized simultaneously, as he spotted a freaking bear sitting there, as plain as could be. 

A freaking panda bear. "Jesus fuck!" He yelled, clearly caught off guard by the fact that there was a zoo animal in the middle of the lounge. He didn't even like zoos. So what the hell was an escaped bear doing here, of all places?!

His eyes widened, and frankly, he was pretty sure he was going to completely lose his shit. He held the pool cue tightly in one hand, ready to... what? Flail madly? Didn't you have to have like, a special gun to shoot a bear? There was, at least, a table in between them - and pandas weren't known for their agility, right? Could they come flying over pool tables? 

Then, worse, the panda - the freaking panda bear - reached down and picked up the cue ball. Okay, at least the panda was distracted. 

When the panda made a move to eat the ball, Benny panicked. "No!" He yelled, again, probably far too loudly. "Put that down!" Pandas ate trees or something, but he doubted that made them qualified to eat whatever the balls were made of. While he wasn't exactly sure why there was a panda here, he was pretty sure he didn't want to be responsible for a panda choking to death on ball that he had, essentially, chucked at it. 

"That's not good for you!" He couldn't stop the yelling, as though the bear could understand English. 

Okay, Benny was not exactly sure what to do. What was the number for animal control? Why had he left his cell phone in his room?! What was he going to do, to leave? Just wait until someone else showed up, ( hopefully soon ) to either get the bear, or call someone who could? 

Yep. The boy was losing it.

[Deleted]

Flynn might have been too entertained for his own good. Inwardly he was grinning like a fool – something that did not show on his panda features. Clearly this guy was new and had not seen a lot around here yet, which in turn made it incredibly fun to play this on him. It also meant that the older student would be able to drag it out as long as he wanted to before Benny caught on to it. Today was a good day.

Even if the guy would have considered really eating the ball… he wouldn’t have. How many people had touched it? It was difficult for him to be repulsed by something, but this object crept him out enough for him to not even lick it. Instead he just kept it up a couple moments longer while cherishing the panic on Benton’s face. After that, the ball ever so slowly got lowered again and he let it roll out of his paw.

That did seem to be a relief to Benny (even though Flynn had never been good at reading anyone’s face), so in turn he had to come up with something to fuel the fear again. So… he decided to move. It took a small effort, but soon he was diminishing the distance between them while walking on four paws. He even opted to add a little panda speech to it! How awesome was that? Benny, who probably did not realize it, should count himself lucky (according to Flynn)!

The panda shifter was no longer bored.

Instead he rose to stand on his back legs while his front paws ended up on the table that stood between them. Dark optics flickered over. He paused, let Benny relax for a second and then lowered himself to crawl under the table. He even did that as a human being (during alcoholic games), so this wasn’t too out of place for him.