Just Hangin' Out (OPEN)

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex laughed when Ray suggested his hand would break if he punched someone in the face. "That's why you don't punch people in the face," she snickered. "That could break anyone's hand. If you're gonna take someone down ya gotta hit 'em in the soft spots." She nodded seriously as she relayed this bit of what she'd picked up in self-defense classes. "Or you hit 'em in the nose with your palm," she mused, demonstrating with her hands. "You have a little to learn before you're a superhero, I guess." She grinned. "Then you can have your adoring fans. Once they find out you like food maybe they'll even shower you with snacks."

"Do I know a healing meta?" Alex shook her head. "Not right off. I'm sure we could find one though. And who says there really has to be one there?" She tilted her head to the side, smiling a bit. Her? A bad influence? No.... She considered as he asked what she would want to do during the trip. Really, just to be in the mountains would make her happy enough, because then she'd be able to say she'd been in them. "Waterfall would be nice," she mused. Of course, they could also be annoying, what with the white noise, but it wouldn't be bad to hear it for a little while at least, or feel the spray on her face. Yes... that'd be worth it. "What's your favorite thing to do in the mountains?"

"It's a wonder you survived," she returned with a sad look. "A lesser man would have died, I'm sure." She gave a serious nod before shrugging at his question. "I got migraines. Which is like... headaches on steroids that make you sick at the same time. Not the most amazing thing." She shook her head, somewhat distracted. Really, it was about time she told him her real power, wasn't it? Yeah... "As for ghosties... well, I don't really see them..." She bit her lip, feeling a little awkward now that it came down to it. "My actual power is echolocation and hearing... I just thought it'd be fun to joke about seeing ghosts back there." She cocked her head very slightly, listening for his verbal reaction as well as his physical, which for some people was often more honest.

"That is a pretty good one." Alex grinned. "I'm impressed." She didn't think too much of the mention of his ex, but did note his awkwardness over it. Sure, exes weren't exactly fun conversation material, but if he reacted like that then perhaps it had been a worse than usual situation... However, she shrugged it off, deciding she was likely overthinking it. Instead, she turned her mind to her past pranks, trying to select one as the best. "Well... once me and a couple other people snuck into a friend's house while his parents were out of town, and he wasn't back from school yet. We hid our cell phones all over his house, after setting the ring tones to creepy sounds like heavy breathing and stuff." She grinned at the memory. "Then we hid outside, and that night when it was dark, we started calling the phones, so he kept hearing all these random spooky noises. Eventually he started finding the phones though." She shook her head. "Then it wasn't as scary, but up until then it was pretty funny." She snickered.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh was clueless about fighting and self defense, his best self defense was running or flying away. Leaning forward, Ray made notes on what she said, maybe he should take a self defense class, it would probably be good for him, since he wasn’t physically strong it might do to have him figure out at least how to get to a point where he can run away. “Yeah,” Ray agreed with a sheepish smile. “I don’t know that I’m cut out for being a superhero, but adoring fans does sound really nice. Especially if they give me snacks.” Ray put a hand on his chin and considered it for a few seconds. “Okay, I think the snacks are worth it. Is that bad? Being a superhero for the food?” He laughed, it was probably bad, probably rather sad too that he couldn’t be motivated by morals. Well, it wasn’t like if someone was in trouble Ray wouldn’t try to help, but he just didn’t think he could really do all that much.

“Ahh,” Ray uttered waving a finger at her as he caught her drift, “Alex I like the way you think.” Ray was going to have to be coached by Alex before he pitched this idea to his mom and dad. He figured his mom was the hardest person to convince, his dad usually went along with whatever she said, he wasn’t actually involved a great deal, but for some frustrating reason they had decided that big decisions had to go through both of them, which made it a terrible situation when they disagreed, which had happened more than once. “I like hiking and exploring. It’s fun and all to fly around but you can’t really see all that the mountains have to offer that way.” There were always interesting things, caves, ravines, waterfalls, things that took the imagination and threw it into flight. “It’ll be so much fun Alex, we can explore and see what things are around, and we don’t even need to worry about getting lost, cause I have an excellent sense of direction.” Well, yes and no, Ray was good at reading the sky to determine the direction he was headed in, but he could also fly above the trees and figure out where to go.

Raylaigh grinned at her and chuckled a bit before giving her a serious look and nodding. “It was a trying time,” he agreed dramatically and took another bite of his pizza. “You never appreciate food the same way again.” He grinned, he never left a plate uncleared. He knew that there were people who had it worse than him and that he shouldn’t complain. Ray winced in sympathy, “That sounds horrible.” Ray cocked his head and blinked in confusion as she said she couldn’t see ghosts. Then she admitted it and Ray’s eyes widened for a moment and he shifted. Being lied to hurt and yet he didn’t think it was malicious, just for a joke. Ray hit himself in the forehead and laughed. “Oh man, you got me good, Alex,” he said smiling, “So I just want to make sure, then there’s no such thing as ghosts?” Here was Ray, making sure the important things were taken care of. Sure it hurt to be lied to, but she’d gotten him very good, and she’d come clean about it, no hard feelings.

Ray smiled and gave an innocent look. He had impressed Alex, he was noting that in his record book. Ray listened and burst out laughing with her. “That is a good one. I’m gonna have to try that.” He said with a nod of his head. That would be great and Ray knew that if he was that friend hearing those noises he would be losing his mind and probably find himself hiding in a closet. He nibbled on his fries and too soon they were gone and Ray plucked his fork up and started eating some of the other food. His mother claimed he had a black hole in his stomach, and he was inclined to think she was right. “Do you have any siblings?” He asked, “Cause we got each other all the time and occasionally get my mom and dad.” They usually didn’t think it was as funny as the siblings did.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex snerked. "Well, maybe a little bad." She grinned. "But only if that's all you care about, I'd say. Definitely gotta think about the perks when it comes to life endangering things." She nodded, as if she had experience with this. Which of course, she hadn't, and didn't really want to either. Being a superhero? Yeah, no thanks. Any adoring fans would probably just get on her nerves. And just because she was getting better at using her power to maneuver almost as well as if she could see didn't mean that she would be as competent as a superhero who could see. She knew her limitations well enough to not get herself killed, and that was about it.

"Sounds like it'll be beautiful," she mused. Great sense of direction, hm? She hadn't really thought about that aspect of being avian-like, but it made sense. "Then it sounds like we're all taken care of!" She grinned. "We won't get lose lost, and we'll have a healer on hand, imaginary or not, so your parents won't have any sort of reason to say no." She conveniently didn't mention the possibility of bears or wildcats, or any other sources of danger that couldn't be handled either by a good sense of direction or healing. Hopefully his parents wouldn't worry over that bit too much.

Alex grinned a bit as Ray laughed and hit his forehead. Well, at least he wasn't holding a grudge, that was good. Not that she'd really pegged him for one to hold grudges, but people weren't always the most predictable. "Ghosts? No, not that I know of." She shook her head and shrugged. "I've never seen one anyway, and most of those TV shows are fake, I figure. If you ever do see one though, let me know." She drummed her spoon on the table. "There's a lot of uncertain things in life, so you never know."

"Nope, I was an only child." She gave a mild shrug, focusing on the food on her plate. She would've liked to have siblings, she had to admit. People talked about how well they got along with their siblings, and the fun things they did together, and it made her jealous sometimes. Of course, there were just as many people who complained about their siblings as well, but even if she'd had spats with her siblings from time to time, she still would've liked to have them. All the same... "Friends from school were my siblings, I guess," she said, raising her head again. "We did a lot of stuff together." A lot of stuff that probably shouldn't have been done, but hey. "You got your parents?" Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise. Her parents would not have been at all impressed if she ever pranked them. Sure, they wouldn't have been angry, but they would have read her a lecture about how she needed to calm down and be mature or something rubbish like that.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray could only agree, it was bad. “Oh of course not, but yeah I’d need a little incentives. I’m like Scooby or Shaggy. I need some snacks to give me confidence. Or I guess I could be like Popeye,” he joked and scrunched his face in an attempt to mimic Popeye’s scowl. Raylaigh could have that special thing that brought him power or motivation, only his would be something sweet, so maybe he was more like the mystery solvers. He certainly wouldn’t go into a haunted house without incentive. Granted even without Raylaigh would do what he could, he just didn’t think he’d be that important. He’d probably be like one of the forgettable Justice League characters or the one in the Avengers who no one remembered the name of. Yeah Raylaigh would be that guy. He’d probably be better off flying and snipping people off, that was an idea. Well away from the danger.

“It is, you’re gonna love it, I just know it.” He said with a huge grin. Ray giggled and nodded in confirmation. “There is no way they’ll say no,” he agreed, but he knew that there were any of a million reasons they could find. He’d have to beg and be persistent. “It still might take a while, but it’ll happen. Even if I have to run away for a week.” Okay maybe that was a terrible plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. He’d have to come up with a better plan, or just convince his parents to let him go. He was certain if he used his siblings as an example, like they would have let Kyle go he was certain. Maybe if he could convince one of the two of them to chaperone that would be better, but Ray would honestly rather not have his parents breathing down his neck while he was there. Really Ray thought it was a good idea, but he knew his parents would be paranoid about him getting hurt, but Ray didn’t want to live in a plastic bubble. He wanted to be out there and take risks like Alex did and like Maddie did.

Raylaigh breathed a sigh of relief. He figured those television shows were fake and he liked to believe that there was peace after life and that no one had a reason to stay behind. “I’m gonna go with they don’t exist. At least until I’m proven wrong, then Alex I will let you know all about it.” He smiled and shivered, he was not going to think about soul stealing ghosts, he would much rather there be angels and genies and kind spirits that helped people. Not ghosts who lived to scare people or zombies. He shivered again, zombies, those were not okay. He didn’t watch a lot of scary movies, he really liked Tim Burton but those were far different than the kind of stuff like Paranormal Activity or what have you, if he was gonna watch a scary movie he was going to have to be with people who could joke about it and make it seem not so scary.

Nodding, there were times when Raylaigh wished he was an only child, there were other times when siblings were the best support system that he had ever had. “That’s always fun,” he said, he had friends that were like siblings at his old school, but they’d lost touch a bit once he came here, but he also came here young and those friends weren’t people he had anything in common with anymore. “Yeah, I’ve got two older brothers and a younger sister,” he started and leaned forward putting aside his fork for a moment so he could use his hands to tell this story. “They were not amused. But for Halloween one year we all planned this elaborate thing. We called my dad to get him to come over to our mom’s and my older brother killed the lights and then my sister and I were dressed up to look dead and we just laid on the kitchen floor while my other brother stood outside the window in a mask and popped up. Yeah… in retrospect not our brightest idea, we were all grounded for a month…” He smiled a little bit in remembrance, that had been the worst time ever, no television, no computer, no friends for an entire month.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Like Popeye, hm?" Alex snickered despite not seeing Ray's facial imitation of the character. "So you wouldn't mind spinach being your incentive?" Sure, spinach wasn't bad exactly... but it was far from the nicest tasting food. "You'll be healthier than me, anyway," she joked.

"I know I'll like it," she said in return, smiling as she did. Really, she hoped this did actually work out. Of course, she wouldn't be doing that the whole summer; her parents would want to see her, and she would want to spend time with them, too. However, she did have her doubts about whether or not Ray's parents would let him come, if they were as protective as he made them out to be. She had experience with protective parents, but she'd always assumed that was because she was blind and they were afraid she wouldn't be able to protect herself from getting hurt. They'd eased up some when she rebelled though. Yeah, they were protective, but they weren't clueless. They put together that they needed to ease up their protectiveness pretty quickly. Not that they were the most laid back parents even now, of course. But they were a heck of a lot better.

Alex nodded in agreement. "Non-existent until proven otherwise. Sounds like a good plan to me." Ghosts and the sort didn't sound particularly fun to have around, she had to admit, but she didn't worry much about them either. Worry didn't help much of anything, so certain things she simply wrote off as unnecessary to overthink. ... Okay, a lot of things she wrote off as that.

At Ray's story, Alex couldn't help but burst out laughing. "You didn't!" she choked. "Wow... that was a bad idea, dude." She snickered. "Adults don't usually take pranks from kids super well. So if you do that ya gotta make sure they can't trace it back to you." She shook her head solemnly. Why yes, of course she had experience with that... She had experience in a lot of troublemaking that she probably shouldn't have. But hey, her philosophy was that so long as no one got hurt, and she didn't get caught, anything went.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh made a face and laughed. “Oh god no! I hate spinach! I’ll be like the uh… cake version. I’ll be cake powered Popeye.” Yeah that sounded a whole lot better than spinach. Ray didn’t mind a lot of vegetables but he drew the line at peas and spinach. If someone wanted him to save the world and brought with them spinach Ray might just tell them to go back and try again. He was not going to force spinach down his throat and then risk said throat to death. No if he was going to have a last meal it would be cake or pizza or chocolate. Basically anything but spinach and peas. Ew. Raylaigh wrinkled his nose and had to stuff his face with some ravioli to make himself forget about the horrible taste of spinach.

“We’ll do it.” Ray promised. He’d probably only be able to spare a week or so, because his parents also would want to see him and he did miss his family as much as he complained about them. Ray’s version of rebelling was skateboarding with Maddie without telling his parents and getting his ear pierced. He needed to do the other ear, it just felt unbalanced this way. “I’ll try extra hard and not get hurt, because this is happening.” And if he had to convince someone to come and bail him out then he would do so. Sure his parents would be furious, but Ray didn’t think it was fair that they treated him like he was made out of glass. Sure he’d broken several bones and had a tendency to trip over his own wings more often than not, but Ray was adventurous and he wanted to get out into the world and explore and his parents were hindering him. It was practically criminal.

Ray ducked his head and opened his hands in a way that said he knew, his idiocy was legendary. He was laughing though, it had been funny far after the fact and to hear his mom tell the story now was hysterical. “Yeah… Well, in my defense Van talked me into it. You’re telling me, it was horrible!” Granted he couldn’t even image what was going through his parent’s heads. They’d been a united front for the first time since the divorce and it was amazing to see them go back and forth backing each other up on points and making sure that they knew that they were in big trouble. “We never tried that again.” He told her when she offered advice. Nope, he was never going to prank his parents again, at least not like that. The look on his mother and father’s face when they’d thought their kids were dead and there was someone out there was terrifying. It was then that Raylaigh had realized that despite their divorce and despite the fact that he saw his father once a year with a few financial gifts between, they would both move heaven and earth if something happened to any of them.

“You know what Alex, we should pull off a prank on someone,” Ray said dropping his voice and leaning across the table. With their two mind together they could probably pull something off, he wasn’t sure exactly what, and Raylaigh honestly didn’t have any one person in mind. With his luck they’d probably accidently hit a teacher or something and then they’d be in huge trouble. Well, if Alex was as sneaky as she claimed to be maybe they wouldn’t get caught. But then again, Raylaigh was also a klutz and probably not the best sneaker out there.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Cake Popeye, huh?" Alex snickered. "If you eat cake as much as Popeye eats spinach, you'll end up more of a Buddha." She leaned back and held up her hands in an imitation of a Buddha model she'd touched once. Granted, her imitation of it was a little sloppy, as it had been a little while since she'd had the opportunity, or wish, to touch a Buddha statue, but she was fairly confident she'd gotten the general idea across, sloppy or not. "Then people will try to rub your belly for good luck." She giggled a little at the idea. "I'm sure you'd love that, right, Mr. Cake Buddha?"

Alex grinned as Ray declared the adventure was definitely happening. He sounded absolutely serious, determined, and she decided she wouldn't have been surprised if he ran away in order to put this adventure together. She definitely wasn't one to judge. She'd run away from home more than once herself. It wasn't until her parents started easing up a little that she stopped. Then again, she never knew if it would've been a permanent thing, because shortly after they'd started easing up, her power had manifested and she'd been packed up for Hammel. So much had happened so fast... but it had been nice to get some space from her parents.

When Ray had mentioned calling his dad to get him to go over to his mom's, a mild spark of curiosity had flickered in Alex's mind, causing her to wonder what exactly his family situation had been. He'd mentioned it without seeming too terribly broken up about his parents being separated, though perhaps he'd just been distracted by the story. She decided against asking about it quite yet, though, figuring that even if he hadn't seem bothered by it before, it didn't mean he wouldn't be if she brought it up. People had a lot of different and unpredictable reactions to sticky family situations. She could only be glad that she didn't have any experience with that sort of thing. Sure, her parents weren't perfect, but no one was.

"You think?" She grinned, mind instantly beginning to attempt to piece something together. "Got a target or idea in mind?" she asked. She should probably check that before she started forming any solid plans, anyway. One of the nice things about living in a school? They had a whole building of victims to choose from, day and night. It was a prankster's dream!

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray laughed at the idea of him sitting cross-legged like Buddha with a hug belly, but nothing else really changed, just the belly. He got the gist of her interpretation and nodded, “Hey you know I would not mind that one bit,” he said with a nod of agreement. He was a people person and he would honestly not be opposed to belly rubs, but then it also depended on who it was. “I’d gain my powers of super strength that way. Or maybe super naps.” Raylaigh would be a terrible person in the face of danger, he just couldn’t take anything seriously. Especially not about him saving the world, he wasn’t the save the world type, he was just trying to live.

Hammel had been the only reason that Raylaigh had gotten space from his parents, but it also came on the eve of his change and Ray’s problems arose due to his power and perhaps half of the control that his parents were trying to exert was because they didn’t actually have him living under their roof, there was only so much they could do. But everything that Raylaigh did, especially injuries and such got reported and he got scolded and he honestly hated disappointing his parents, but he didn’t know how to keep himself from living. He wasn’t going to live in a bubble. He’d been young when his parents split, but he’d been old enough to remember what it was like before and he missed it. They’d all adjusted and Raylaigh was fine with the status quo, he even liked his father’s girlfriend, but he felt like his dad didn’t love them.

It was a complicated situation because he had a feeling that his dad didn’t like him and only did what he was obligated to, but then there were other times when they were together and it was easy to see that his dad loved them, but it was hard to see when he was so distant. Ray, was thus, glad she didn’t pry, it wasn’t something he made a secret but it was also something he didn’t particularly enjoy talking about. He was glad for the distraction and nodded, a prank was definitely what they needed to do. “No and yes,” he said, “But I’m thinking I’m thinking too small. Like try to hide somewhere and scare someone, but we could probably only get one person with that.” They could potentially get a lot of people if they played their cards right.

“Do you have any ideas?” He asked and went back to eating his eyes bright and his whole attention on her with hope she had a few good ideas hiding up her sleeve or a victim. Raylaigh was really into doing something to people who were absolutely asking for it, like those who were rude or vain or otherwise thought the ground they walked on turned to gold. Raylaigh might be a peacock but he didn’t have any illusions that he was quirky and weird just like everyone else.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex tilted her head to the side. "So, you'd gain super strength from cake and belly rubs?" She snickered at the idea. "I guess belly rubs could do that though... static electricity or whatever." She grinned. This had been quite the day so far. First they'd decided Ray was a genie, then that she was a Bond villain, and now he was a superhero Buddha. She couldn't help but laugh at it all. Really, it was quite the entertainment. Playing pretend never got old, after all.

She had a feeling her not pursuing the subject of his parents had been a good thing, judging from the various changes in his body signals. He seemed relieved almost at the distraction of putting together a prank. Hey, pranks were perfect distractions, that was certain.

"Ah, my young padawan, you have much to learn," Alex mused as she set her fork down on the mostly empty plate and folded her hands. "You realize with the right tools and know-how, we can startle the entire dorm?" A slow grin started on her face. "I know where the fuse box is, and I know how t'pick locks. With a little ahead of time set-up, we can get somethin' good goin' for tonight."

Pranks were definitely Alex's height of enjoyment. Not only for the surge of adrenaline they gave, though that was a large reason, but also because they brought back such wonderful memories. Pranking with her friends had been her first step toward being a "normal" kid, at least in the school kids' minds, and therefore her own. She'd gotten into a lot of trouble at first, because she used to be the absolute worst at getaways, and her friends darn well weren't going to let her slow them down when they were running. She'd been pretty upset the first time they'd left her behind, and she'd got into trouble. But they'd explained beforehand the risks, and that people who fell behind weren't gone back for. So, instead of giving up, she'd just gotten better at it, until she was just about as good as her friends. Then her power came along and made her even better...

"What about that invisible ink stuff?" she mused aloud. "That stuff you can't see unless it's dark? I have some leftover from when I pranked some people at my old school. You'll have to do the writing and stuff though, 'cause I've got horrible handwriting." She gave a half grin.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh looked off into the distance as if considering the situation and gave a smile nodding his head. “Yep that sounds about right,” he laughed and rubbed his belly, “I like it, Raylaigh, the first electric bird.” He could also imagine his hair standing on end and him looking like an absolutely nut case. Well, an adorable nut case, in his own mind. Maybe Nao was right, he shouldn’t be so full of himself. He raised his chin and smiled at Alex, “And Alex my faithful sidekick. Or I suppose I could be your loyal if a little bit idiotic henchman.” He giggled. He definitely would be the Kronk to her Yzma. Not that Alex was old or unattractive, she was, very pretty actually. But as far as the brains of the outfit, Ray had a feeling that Alex was all over that.

Giggling Raylaigh ate another bite and rested his fork in his mouth and put his hands together to give her a bow before continuing eating, “You’ll be a good teacher,” he informed her. He was looking forward to this but his eyebrow did raise in surprise. “Tonight?” He asked, he didn’t think they had very much time, it was already dinner time, but he supposed that if she knew where everything was and had a plan. “Okay, so the whole dorm, but we could get in a lot of trouble to messing with the fuse box.” He could only imagine the detention time they could get for that. Well, he supposed he’d just have to run fast. Ray cocked his head at her, for a moment his food forgotten as he tried to figure out what she was thinking. “Oh man like ghosts,” he snickered, “I’ve got some white sheets, thought I don’t think my mom will like eye holes being cut in them.” He snickered, sheet ghosts. Classic and gold.

Ray had never done any big pranks and never on someone he didn’t know, who didn’t know if was him who had done it. Or at least didn’t figure it out eventually. This had the potential for some real trouble and it lit a fire in the dry tinder box that was Raylaigh’s adventurous side. Already he was getting excited, he’d never gotten in serious trouble and the potential for it, and the possibility of getting away with it was making him even more excited. Now he needed to try not to look so suspicious. He didn’t want to get caught before they even started. His eyes were bright and he looked at Alex hanging on her every word. He cocked his head, he’d never worked with invisible ink, he didn’t know how he could see what he was writing. “Ohh!!” He uttered shifting forward as his brain started to catch onto what she was thinking. “Okay, so…” He trailed off and tapped his chin as his mind started to work, he lowered his voice, “So we’ll get invisible ink on the walls and then when you cut the power everyone will see it.” He beamed at her, excited about the prank.

“Okay, what should I write?” He asked, he didn’t have the best handwriting but it didn’t have to be perfect. His eyes were shifting around and he was making sure that no one was too close to hear. “I’m just about done, how about you?” He said deciding they should move their plotting to a quiet corner, “There is a plot afoot!” He exclaimed in a whisper and waved his fork around and shoveled the rest of his food quickly into his mouth and drowning it all with water. Clean plate he was more than ready and fueled for plotting tonight. He wasn’t even thinking about how it would distract him enough to get him to forget about the pan that was supposed to get into his pillow at the same time, but his mind figured that she was good but she couldn’t be that good, and maybe that was his first mistake.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Are you kidding?" Alex snorted. "I wouldn't be no superhero's sidekick. I'm the super villain, and don't you forget it." She grinned. "Or I guess you could be my henchman, but I dunno... you sound like more of the good guy type. If you were a henchman, then you might be the type of henchman that turns good at the last moment and ruins the villain." She crossed her arms, pulling a thoughtful look. "Can't have that. Nope, you'll just have to be the superhero who gets free cake and belly rubs while I try to destroy your town. Sorry."

"Psh, you only get in trouble if ya get caught." Alex stuck her tongue out. "Sheets are good. We could drape 'em over coat racks or somethin' and put 'em in the halls. We'd better go ahead and head out now though if we wanna get things done before people start headin' back to the dorms." She bounded to her feet and grabbed her tray, pausing as she realized Ray hadn't quite finished. Her bad. To cover up the mistake, she leaned casually on the table and continued, "I will warn ya, if anyone falls behind they get left behind, an' that goes for both of us. If I get behind, you'd better keep on runnin', 'cause there ain't no use in both of us gettin' in trouble. Same goes for you, so keep your wings in order, 'kay? Prankin' is a tough business." A faint grin pulled at the side of her mouth. "If ya wanna back out anytime, just tell me and no judgement."

She nodded as Ray put the pieces together for the prank. "Exactly. And with those sheets you mentioned, it'll definitely add to the creepiness factor." Well, that and it was always good to let people who were starting out in the prank business contribute something. It helped with the confidence, and pranks were all about confidence. If you weren't confident you got shaky and suspicious looking.

"Well," Alex mused as she put the question to him, shifting the tray in her hand as she waited for Ray to finish shoveling food. "Let me think on that one. You be thinking too, that way we can have plenty to write when it comes down to it. This sorta thing, you gotta be comfortable with improvisation." She shrugged as Ray finished his food, listening as the silverware clattered onto the empty plate. Good. She started moving to dispose of her tray, assuming Ray would follow.

Of course, she hadn't forgot about the pan in the pillow prank, and was currently trying to figure out the best way to still pull it off. The current plot gave her plenty of opportunity to get in and out of Ray's room without him knowing, but she would have to time things just right to get it to work....

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Laughing at the reaction Ray had to hold onto his torso to keep from bursting. “Okay, okay, Alex the great and powerful!” He bowed over the table to her and giggled. He winked at her and smiled broadly, “I’ll never tell. Although if we’re enemies then we can’t be best friends.” He mock pouted and shrugged, “Though I don’t know, if all it takes is cake and belly rubs I have a feeling I’m highly corruptible.” He giggled and imagined him and Alex facing off. She offers cake and a belly rub and Ray would shrug and tell everyone they were on their own as he nibbled on cake and Alex just went about her destructive way. Ray was going stand with his initial thoughts, he would be a terrible superhero. “You know I think I like being a genie better, not so much responsibility, and plenty of cake.” He nodded decisively.

Ray nodded and jumped in surprise when she was ready to go. “But… food.” He said weakly and suppressed his laughter to eat faster when she paused. She was definitely ready to go. “That sounds like a good idea, I’ll grab them.” He didn’t want to get caught, getting caught would mean getting in trouble and getting in trouble meant his parents would hear about it which meant that he would be in even more trouble. He listened to her direction and nodded, chewed, more nodding. “Yes ma’am, Alex ma’am,” Raylaigh joked and gave her a sloppy salute. Though maybe not the right gesture, wasn’t the military all about no one left behind. Alex didn’t have to tell Ray twice, he would be up and away before anyone even got close, unless he got himself tangled again. Geez, he hoped that didn’t happen. Okay, pay attention to surroundings as well, he noted. “Ha! Are you kidding!” He pointed his fork at her, “No way I’m backing out!”

It was so exciting planning it and being the ones in the know. “I like it, we’ve got ghost sheets, blackouts and creepy writing. We’re gonna be the awesome-est pranksters in Hammel history.” Well, maybe not, he had heard a couple years back about a pair that set of fireworks at a dance, no one knew who did it and Ray hadn’t been there so all he’d heard were rumors. He finished off his plate and followed after her his wings flapping with excitement. “Will do, we could do something like ‘I know what you did’ or something, I don’t know I saw it in a movie one time.” He nodded, he had seen enough movies to give him an idea of what was going to get people going. He put his tray up on the moving thing and let it be taken away. He’d heard that sometimes people in detention got dish washing duty. He shivered, he was so excited and breaking the rules was starting to feel really exciting. He’d never rebelled like this before and it was so exciting.

“Okay, what do we do first?” He asked as he started to head toward the exit. They were gonna have to be quick, before people started returning to the dorms. They weren’t the first people out so one of them was going to have to look out for someone. At least with the invisible ink they could easily stop and no one would know they were doing anything, at least not until the lights went out. Ray was so excited he nearly tripped over himself. “Have you ever pulled something this big Alex?” He asked, this was definitely a far step up for Raylaigh. “I can run real quick to my room and grab the sheets and you can grab your ink, do you wanna meet up somewhere in like five ten minutes?” He asked. He felt like he had adrenaline racing through his veins. He was going to get them into trouble just by looking suspicious now.

[Genesis Kyland]

"Genie works too, I guess," Alex mused. "So long as you don't mess with my evil schemes and stuff. Hey!" She exclaimed as she thought of something. "If you're a genie, that means if I find you then you have to grant wishes to a supervillain." She snickered. "That would make my plans of world domination a lot easier."

Alex grinned as Ray replied that he wasn't backing out. Good. He hadn't seemed like he would back out, but sometimes a person would surprise her. There were plenty of people out there who were all talk and no action, so when it actually came down to it, they were too scared of getting in trouble to do anything fun. "I'll do my best to make sure neither of us get caught, too," she added, realizing that it likely sounded as if she'd abandon her partners at the first sign of trouble. Though she wasn't the type to get in trouble for someone else, neither was she the type to abandon partners unless absolutely necessary. Deserters were one kind of people she didn't want to get confused with.

"'I know what you did' would be good," Alex agreed as she plopped her tray down and turned away. "Maybe, 'be careful what you wish for' too. And hand prints." Yes, hand prints, she could do those. A thrill of anticipation ran through her. Yep, pranks were practically the best thing ever. By the sound of his heart-rate, Ray was feeling the excitement too. Good. The more excitement he felt, the less likely he was to back out at the last minute. Of course, excitement without knowing how to conceal it would be bad... she had no idea what Ray actually looked like at the moment, but since this was one of the few larger pranks he'd done, and he was an excitable guy, she had a feeling he wasn't concealing it too much. So....

"First, we're gonna calm down a little bit," she said, pausing a moment. "It's fine to look excited, 'cause excitement is a normal deal, buuut you have to think of what people who are watching are noticing about us. If you're excited, find a way to explain the excitement so they don't think we're up to something. Here, grab my hand and swing it a little while we walk out of the cafeteria. That way people will think you're just excited to hang out with me, since I'm such a cool person." She smirked a bit, very plainly being sarcastic. "When we get out--yeah--run up to your room to get the sheets. Put 'em in a backpack or something though so people'll think you're going somewhere and don't see 'em. I'll grab the paint stuff, and we can meet in the dorm lobby when we're done." Of course, she'd be grabbing a certain other thing from the kitchen while he was going to his room....

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray grinned and gave her a nod, “I already told you, you have to careful what you wish for,” he said cryptically. “But according to the Genie Code of Genies I am required to grant wishes by whomever finds me. See here’s where I’m gonna give you a bit of free advice. Keep the cake and belly rubs and keep me well protected cause if someone else finds me I’ve gotta do what they tell me. If it’s the hero it could make your life a lot harder.” He kept an air of seriousness but as he finished his smile wiggled its way back onto his face. Honestly being on the side of the villain might night be a bad idea, be well protected and also hold a little bit of power, wording of wishes could be easily twisted, but Ray liked Alex and wouldn’t want to hurt her.

“Good,” Raylaigh said with a relieved smile, he didn’t want to admit that he’d never been in trouble before, “Me too.” He was not going to do something stupid like get himself caught in a tree or something, though if they were doing it at night, night flying was a little tricky. It was a lot of fun, but it was still tricky, he didn’t have amazing night vision, hell he didn’t even have above average night vision, he didn’t get owl eyes when he got his power. He was just happy with his 20/20 vision. He knew the eagle still flew higher than him and their eyes were much sharper than his own, but he had no need to see a mouse from a mile in the air. His wings fluttered a bit by his feet and he did his best not to trip over them while holding a tray with dirty plates on it. He’d done that once before and the person it had landed on had not been a happy camper.

Raylaigh nodded as he made notes of what to write on the walls, he was going to thinking of a lot of really good things to write on the wall. “I can do all sorts of scary things,” he said brightly, “I can even draw a few ghouls on the wall, depends on how much time we have.” Ray was a fan of the strangely scary things, he had an imagination that went beyond the physical and he practically worshiped Tim Burton and he’d practiced drawing a few things with his style. He could probably put some pretty creepy stuff on the walls. He was lost in his own thoughts when she warned him to calm down. Ray laughed and took her hand, “God Alex you’re the coolest person I know!” He mock exclaimed and swung their hands more than necessary. When they got out of the cafeteria Raylaigh gave Alex a sly look and a wink. “Be honest, you just wanted to hold my hand.” He flirted shamelessly.

Raylaigh nodded, right focus. “Right, okay I can do that. Meet there in like ten? fifteen minutes?” He asked and gave Alex a wave with a little bit of excitement slipping out and Raylaigh had to really force himself to not go rocketing off. He held himself in step as he walked down the hall and ran up the stairs when he could. Once in his room he had to dig a little bit in his closet for the sheets but he found a few white sheets, three to be precise and he dumped out his small duffle drawstring bag on the bed and went about stuffing the sheets into them. It had been about ten minutes he thought so he decided to start down but first he needed to calm down. He looked in the mirror and took a few breaths. Geez, this was bad, he couldn’t stop smiling, well at least that was just Raylaigh’s state of being and no one would really question it. He trotted back down the stairs and looked around for Alex.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex nodded seriously. "I'll be sure to guard you carefully then. You'll be my secret weapon that no one can find out about." She snickered. So that was settled. She was a super-villain, and Ray would either be her greatest help, or her greatest enemy, depending on whether or not the hero stole him. She grinned. The amusement never ceased around here.

"Ghouls would be good," she mused. "How much time we have will depend on how many people are around up there. I'm guessing we won't have much time, though. Unless you can draw stuff really quickly." She snickered as he swung her hand. "You better know I'm the coolest person you know. And don't you forget it!" She snorted, despite not seeing his sly look or wink. "Oh yes, I totally only wanted to hold your hand, darling." She fluttered her lashes appropriately before reverting to a slight smirk.

"Make it fifteen, just to be safe." She nodded. Technically, she would have preferred ten, because every moment counted, but she needed a little extra time to nab that pan. As soon as he strolled out of sight, she pulled her pen out of her pocket, clicked it a few times to get a good "look" at the surrounding around, and bolted off for the back kitchen door. Once there, she pulled her lock picking equipment out of her back pocket, picked her way in, and slipped inside.

As usual, the clashing of pots, pans, and dishes was obnoxious and hard to work around as soundwaves bounced off each other and jumbled. She took a few moments to get her bearings and filter out the sounds that weren't useful to her, then edged further into the kitchen. The pans really weren't all that hard to get to, she just needed to keep track of where everyone was. Thankfully, the racket of the dishes masked her pen clicking perfectly, and she carefully placed everyone. Someone at the sink, someone carrying food out into the cafeteria... She ducked behind a set of shelves to avoid being spotted as someone crossed her path, then quickly darted to where the pans were. She grabbed the first one her hand closed around, and hurried for the back door.

Footsteps behind her warned that she would be spotted soon, and her hurry slipped into an outright sprint through the backdoor, and down the hall. The door banged behind her, but by the time anyone would have followed, she had disappeared around a corner, and continued putting space in between herself and the kitchen. That'd been a little too close... In all reality, she should have just gone to the Home Ec classroom, but the dare had been to get something from the kitchen, not Home Ec.

Carefully tucking the pan under her shirt, she trotted to her dorm room, stowed the pan away under her mattress, and grabbed her invisible paint and a couple brushes before hurrying down to the lobby, somewhat out of breath still from the sprint. She would never have been able to all out sprint like that when she first arrived and started her power training, and she felt a surge of triumph at the small victory.

"Got the stuff," she said as she arrived in the lobby and picked up on Ray's heartbeat. "Let's do this."