Power Swap: Lunchroom Bully(Open)

[Deleted]

Oriel had seen better days. Quite a few, in fact. Most of them(or all of them) had been when he'd woken up to find Phoenix still sleeping in his bed. And since they weren't allowed to do that anymore, today was just another crap day like it had been since then...and like it had been since before he'd met Phoenix.

They'd nearly made it a year before it all fell apart. And now he was convinced that that one year of happiness was it for him. It was more than what he deserved anyway. Now he could just go back to being the fucked up asshole he used to be, only this time with compulsory visits to Sean and that stupid anger management thing. Oh, and one more thing. They chucked a couple of pill-bottles at him too. Of course he had no intention of taking them.

Oriel rolled out of bed, irritated that even while he was at his lowest, his stomach still protested against him staying in bed all day. Fuck, it was labor day, he should be able to use the entire day to mope! It wasn't fair! And for whatever reason, Oriel was feeling extra extra hungry today. It was horrible, it felt like he'd spent his entire life starving! Whyyyyyy?? He just wanted to lie around like a dead fish and feel sorry for himself within the sanctity of his bedroom!

It was so bad that he even found himself eating his pillow when he woke up! And that he'd actually ripped off pieces of it at some point in his sleep! That couldn't be healthy. Not that he gave a shit about being healthy these days, but still...

Oriel practically crawled from his bedroom, barely taking the time to put on something decent, and headed to the cafeteria. They had shit stocked in the room and Oriel had the feeling he was going to be needing more than crackers and peanut butter this morning. Upon arriving at the dining hall, Oriel glared a group of kids out of the line and proceeded to cut in front of them with an evil snort, grabbing shit that they'd already collected on their trays and stacking them on his own. Then he grabbed an apple and took a bite.

Mmm...it was delicious.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Alexei had woken, strangely enough, to the sound of his alarm clock. Of course, it wasn't that in itself that was strange... but the fact he hadn't telekinetically sent it flying across the room to smash against an unfortunate wall when it startled him awake.

A person less suspicious than Alexei might have thought it a coincidence. But no kid who had spend part of their lives on the streets of the Ukraine took anything for granted, let alone Alexei. He inspected his hands, while the alarm continued to sound next to him, contemplating what had just happened. Being the type to test theories, he focused on his (still blaring) alarm clock, and tried to send it flying across the room, as it should have earlier.

It didn't budge.

Alexei stared at it, bewildered, before slapping it off and bounding out of bed. He forgot his clothes until he was halfway down the hall, ran back to change, and bolted from the dorms. Something must be wrong with him! Why, though?? If he didn't have a power... what was going to happen to him??? Would he be sent back to the Ukraine? To the institution? His heart hammered in his chest. He needed to find a staff member. Or someone. Someone who could explain this. Or maybe he should tell anyone?

He stopped in his tracks at this thought.

If no one knew that he lost his power... They couldn't send him back, right? If he told someone, that would just speed up the process of being sent back... He took a deep breath to calm himself, regain his composure, slow his heart-rate to a normal pace. Food. That was what he needed. Something... meaty. Like a steak. Or big, juicy burger. Not giving this sudden craving a second thought, since he craved food half the time anyway, he made a beeline for the cafeteria.

It didn't take long for him to settle in with a tray of food. A tray of food that was somewhat disappointing... there were burgers, yes, but they were very well done... and the vegetables and fruits? Meh. ... Now this particular oddity, Alexei did take note of-- he loved food, all food, why was he questioning it now?

His thoughts were distracted a moment later, as one of the students stalked into the cafeteria and cut past several students in line. Unfair as this seemed in Alexei's eyes, he didn't see any reason to get involved. If people couldn't stand up for themselves, they could wait a while longer in line to get their meals to learn better for next time. However, when the student, now quickly becoming a bully in Alexei's mind, began grabbing food from their trays... Well, that was cause for intervention. Much as he didn't like conflict, he disliked bullies even more. In his experience, once someone stood up to them, others quickly followed suit, and they were quickly dethroned from their rank of bully.

So, he scuffed to his feet, and made his way toward the other boy. Despite being nearly six foot, Alexei wasn't typically the most imposing, build-wise. He was boney and, well, gangly. However, this didn't stop him from addressing injustice. Especially since he was already upset and confused from the whole powers disappearing thing.

"Hey," he said, voice gruff, but quiet. "Give zem back de food."

Little did he know that during his trip over, and brief, but no less fervent demand, his canines had elongated into points, and cougar ears, pinned back in irritation, had sprouted from his head.

[Deleted]

Obviously Oriel hadn’t noticed that there was anything amiss with his power this morning. He rarely even thought to use it most days. Actually, Oriel often had to look for reasons to use his power when he wanted to practice it. Obviously, Oriel hadn’t been in a mood to be practicing anything as of late. Nope, his bed was his current best friend and even that was cold and lonely and anxiety ridden. But if he ventured outside his bedroom, out into the real world, he would end up taking out his frustrations and anxieties on the little people.

Like he was doing right now.

Unbeknownst to him, the extreme hunger Oriel was experiencing was a direct side effect of the new power he’d been bestowed upon. And, unbeknownst to the people he was terrorizing, it was that extreme hunger which made him much more irritable than he'd have otherwise been.

Maybe.

Oriel was pretty volatile lately, so it was actually hard to tell where the irritation was coming from.

And anyway, if the kids didn’t have the guts to step up and fight back, tell him off, or just say “Don’t take that. Give it back! Get your own” then maybe Oriel would stop. Maybe. Because goddamn if he wasn’t hungry.

Oriel started milling through the rest of the lunch line, munching away at the apple and poking small pieces of meat and whatnot into his mouth as he slowly made his way up to the front of the line where he would inevitably have to use a million meal credits to pay for this shit. Good thing he had a million saved up, right? Consequence of home cooking.

However, before he completed his journey some skinny kid decided he wanted to play superman and step up in their place. Oriel swallowed what was nesting in his mouth, eyeing the ears that had sprouted on the kid’s head and the fangs that were starting to show in his mouth. Oriel was not impressed. “Fuck off kid. I got friends with more meat and bigger teeth than you that I already beat into submission.” Oriel snorted a laugh and straightened his posture up to his full height of 6’1”(last he checked), tilting his chin upwards. “You’re going to have to do a lot better than kitty ears to scare me off.” He took another bite of the apple, then, deciding it was finished, replaced it on one of the tray’s he’d raided. “There. You happy?” he mocked, twisting his grin into something evil.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

The bully didn't look at all impressed. Well, he wasn't the only one... As the other boy drew himself up to his, admittedly taller, height, Alexei didn't budge. Actually, he was more sizing up whether or not this boy knew anything about fighting. He claimed he'd beat bigger into submission... But that could be talk. He had horrible stance, anyway, but that could just be because of the intimidation attempt. Not one to underestimate possible opponents, Alexei widened his own stance slightly, bespeaking not only that he was ready for any attempt at attack, but also that he had no intention of backing down.

More meat, bigger teeth...? Americans were a bit odd in their taunts, but he supposed in some sense bigger teeth could be more worrying.

But... "Kitty ears"? His quizzicalness made its way briefly across his face. Americans were so strange. Would he ever get a handle on all their euphemisms and things? Again he wished he was more fluent in English, so he could properly put this guy back into place, but he ended up muttering under his breath in Ukrainian instead, exasperated at the situation as a whole. Actually, exasperated at the whole day. What was up with it, really?

Then the bully placed the partially eaten apple back on someone's trays, and asked if it made Alexei happy. For a moment, he didn't catch the sarcasm, but the look on Oriel's face did the job a moment later. Yeah, he was getting mocked. He really didn't like this guy.

"Nee," he paused, correcting himself, "No. No, I am not happy. There is lots of food here--why do you take from others?" It didn't make sense-- on the streets it made sense, it was a normal and daily part of survival to steal food. But here, and even at Kocher, there was plenty of food, and still people acted as if they were on the streets. It didn't make sense!

Frustrated as he was by this, he had the vague feeling of his teeth not feeling quite right... He wasn't sure why, but there it was. Yet another thing to address. Later, though.

[Deleted]

Oriel had experience in fighting, but if this were a D&D game, then he would undoubtedly be a barbarian in his fighting style. A brute. Someone who rages head on…with his head sometimes. He was a hard hitter, but with no training, Oriel was just as likely to break himself while he broke someone else’s nose. And stamina? He may not win any races, but he marathon forever. Running one one of those “do something else”s that ‘they’ suggested he do when his felt himself reaching his breaking point.

Oriel hadn’t reached that breaking point yet…today.

But that was why he was far from intimidated by Hello Kitty’s boy-toy over here. Oriel was already convinced that he could break this twig in half. And if he couldn’t…well, he probably deserved to get beaten anyway. Oriel was an asshole, after all.

Throughout their exchange, Oriel had yet to cease his pickings at the small amounts of food on the plates he’d stolen, slipping the pieces into his mouth like he was munching on potato chips. “Because I’m hungry,” he said simply. “And because I can.” He had a feeling the kid wasn’t going to be satisfied with the answer though.

In any case, it was amusing to keep provoking the kid, especially since as he became more butt-hurt, he changed just a little bit more. Oriel wondered what the finished product was. As long as it wasn’t a snake(he’d done that before, goddammit Erik!), Oriel was sure he could handle it.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

When it came to fighting, Alexei was definitely not the strongest. He couldn't overpower people when it came down to strength on strength, particularly since his recent growth spurt that had left him so boney. He relied more on knowing where the most effective places to hit were. That, and avoidance of course. No good hitting someone if you were going to get hit just as hard, if not harder, back.

"If you are hungry, then why do you not gather your food from there?" He motioned to the food that wasn't on students' trays already. "You have so much free food here! And no, no you cannot just take what you want, like you do, that is not how life works if you want it to be good." By this point he'd shifted his gaze from his typical avoidance of peoples' eyes to meet Oriel's steadily. He honestly hoped this didn't end in a fight, but if that was what needed to happen for this guy to leave people alone, he would very much see it through to the end.

That didn't mean he would try and promote it, though. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Please, just leave them alone, all right? There is no need to stir up bad feelings or make trouble. Just get a tray of your own."

He reached up to itch his face, which had been itching for a couple minutes now. Though it had sort've leveled out, it still felt odd... especially when his fingers met a light layer of... hair? Odd, usually his scruff didn't grow that fast... Maybe it had something to do with his growth spurt?

[Deleted]

This kid didn’t look so tough. And that was another thing Oriel frequently did. His ego often had him underestimating his opponents. That’s why he couldn’t brag having never lost a fight. In fact, one of the fights he’d lost(okay, it was two) had been against a kid about this twinkie’s size.

"If you are hungry, then why do you not gather your food from there?”

If Oriel was a fourth rate bully, he’d go straight for making fun of the kid’s accent(wait, he’d done that with that Jacques pastry boy he met a while back, didn’t he?), but Oriel was better than that! “Why don’t you gather your food from there? You could stand to put on a few pounds, twerp.” Yup, he was a master of insults, yep.

Clearly he was off his game. Both too tired and too hungry to conjure up something more clever.

“Of course I can take what I want,” he sneered. “I can do whatever the fuck I want.” Technically. He was capable. “The question is, who’s going to stop me….and how’re they going to do it?” Converse to the blonde boy’s hope, Oriel didn’t care if this ended in a fight. Either he was left alone and he got his food, or he got in a fight and got his food. Either scenario worked for him, so long as he got fed.

Oriel smirked at the boy’s peach fuzz sprouted across his face. What kind of kitty was this going to be? Oriel took another healthy bite of meat.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Had the other student made fun of Alexei's accent, it wouldn't have been the first time someone had, or likely the last. And typically he didn't really worry too much over such things, either. Not that he would ignore such jibes, but it wouldn't make him angry, that was certain.

"I do gather my food from there," he replied coolly. "I eat, but my body is still rebuilding itself." Rebuilding itself? He wasn't sure that was the right word exactly, but he was sure it was close enough to go with. His body was sort've rebuilding itself, after all, from malnutrition and now the growth spurt that had been triggered by suddenly having nutrients.

"Simply because you can do what you want, does not mean you should," he stated in answer to the bully. "There is ein..." he trailed off, realizing he wasn't quite sure how to translate his thoughts to English. Dratted languages confusing his brain. He was certain that last word had actually been German after all. Sigh.

Who was going to stop him? Alexei wasn't sure he liked the direction this was taking, but... "I will stop you," he stated, frown tugging at his mouth. "I spent years on the streets of Donetsk, I do not have a want to hurt you, but if you wish it, I will stand." No, he didn't particularly like talking about his past, but he had found that every now and then, such a statement stemmed the tide of malice. Or at least, the tide of a fight.

His unconscious transformation had drawn to a halt by this point; the calm before the possible storm. 

[Deleted]

Rebuilding itself? Okay, now Oriel was going to make fun of his speech patterns. “You a fucking transformer or something?” Sure sounded like it, even though Oriel knew better. This was a fucking meta-school and…what the fuck’s it called, aclimatization? Was something a lot of the kids had to go through. Oriel was just being a dick. Obviously.

He didn’t even like transformers.

“There you go,” Oriel said with a wave of his can. “Not this is the part where you tell me what I shouldn’t be doing, like the nancy you are.” Not his best material, but Oriel was quickly getting bored with this interaction. He needed food. Now.

He nommed a few more bites.

Donetsk? Where the fuck was that? Oriel provided an amused smile. “Donetsk, huh? I don’t know what the fuck that is…but if it’s anywhere like growing up in the streets of Brooklyn…” He paused, taking another bite of meat. Oriel was starting to feel a little better after getting some food in his stomach. He snorted. “Sympathies, man. But you ain’t scaring me off with that neither.”

Oriel was ready for a fight if it came to that. He picked away at some more meat, keeping his eyes on the blonde kid before him.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Sigh. Why did people like to make fun of other peoples' language structure? It happened at Kocher too. "I'm sorry you have troubles understanding my English," he stated, in a tone that clearly said otherwise. "Maybe you want to learn four languages and speak them all perfect to show me?"

Yes, this guy was beginning to get to him. The jibes didn't help, but more so it was that the other boy was still munching on peoples' foods. "My name is not Nancy, but it is true you should not be doing this." He clenched and unclenched his hands. His fingers felt weird, but perhaps that was just the adrenaline? Not that it had ever made his fingers feel like that before...

"Donetsk is in Ukraine. I do not know what Brooklyn is like, but I am sad for you that you have also lived on streets." And that was actually sincere. Street living wasn't easy.

However, neither did he consider it a license for bullying. With a sigh, he began toward Oriel. He wasn't happy it had come to physical confrontation, but neither was he afraid of it. Especially since in the conversation he'd learned about his opponent: Confident, perhaps overly so. But perhaps not, because of the next fact: He was also a street boy. So caution was advised...

He'd barely reached Oriel, when pain ripped through his body, and he fell to his knees--feet--wait, paws... What? Alexei blinked down at his paws in shock. What. What? A moment later, he looked up at Oriel, ears back in frustration as much as confusion.

What??

[Deleted]

“I only know two languages,” he started with a smirk. “Bad English, and bad Spanglish.” Courtesy of the hispañas he used to crash with back in NYC. And the old guy at the tattoo shop.

Sigh…that memory just made him more irritated.

Oriel didn’t say anything towards the kid’s pitying statement. It was strange. Had they met under different circumstances, these two might’ve actually gotten along somewhat. Alexei was the kind of kid that Oriel would have taken and played big brother to back in the old days(though back then Oriel was not much older than the kid was today).

Unfortunately, it looked like it was going in the usual way it did when Oriel met someone with the balls to stand up to him. And even with this guy turning into….a giant cat?

Yeah, Oriel totally wasn’t scared.

The bear had been scarier. And bigger.

Oriel prepped himself like he was about to get into a street brawl, fists up and arms curled in front of him. “Bring it,” he said wickedly, his heart positively thrumming in his chest. It was totally because he was excited. Oriel totally wasn’t scared.

Totally.

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Spanglish? Alexei muffled a sigh. He was beginning to hate the English language. Well, more than he did already. He muttered briefly under his breath in Ukrainian before speaking more clearly, in a language he was much more likely to be understood in, "If you really know two languages, you will know their difficulties," he stated.

Alexei had experienced a lot in his lifetime, a lot of very strange and random things. But this particular experience was something he'd never come across, or ever really expected to come across. How could he be a big cat? Light brown fur... What were those cats called? Puma? Cougar? Something like that.

However, after several moments of shock, his mind processed the other boy's "Bring it". What, did he think this funny?? Maybe he'd even done this... There were stranger powers in this school, after all. And how by the heaven's else would he have turned into a big cat?

"Put it back!" he shouted. Or rather, growled. Even to himself the words were hardly recognizable, as his mouth did weird things to his attempt at speech. Great. He could barely talk now, too. His tail whipped over the ground in irritation, and he crouched in preparation of a pounce. With great care to annunciate, he ground out, "Fix it. Now."

If the boy didn't put him back to his normal form, he would make him. Of that, he was determined. And hey, he probably had a better chance of getting the boy to leave people alone in the form of a big cat, rather than his lanky-stage human self. So he decided, anyway.

[Deleted]

Oriel snickered, a condescending sort of sound. “Didn’t you hear me? I said I know it bad. Meaning, I don’t even speak my own language right.” If he really tried, Oriel probably could manage to sound proper an intelligent, but his poor grammar was just a force of habit by now. And he didn’t care in the slightest shit.

If the kid was understandable before, then he definitely wasn’t now, not with that kitty-muzzle morphing his words into some cross between a strangled cat and a strangled kid.

And yes, he did think this was funny. Funny, exciting, dangerous…Oriel wasn’t stupid. He knew when things weren’t looking good for him. But it was the same thing that got his blood boiling in a fight-or-flight situation. It was that same elation he got when he and Kodi would go at it, as the two boys fought for dominance like bloodthirsty animals.

Oriel didn’t respond to the cat’s growlings - he didn’t understand them anyway - but he did back away slightly and crouch down as if he were preparing to wrestle a lion…or rather, a mountain lion. “Here, kitty kitty kitty…” he taunted. This was such a bad idea…he loved it!

[Alexei Kondratyev]

Alexei only frowned more deeply. Yes, yes, if he knew it bad, then that should mean he would understand the difficulties even better, no? Though the thought ran through his mind, he didn't care to go through the trouble of translating into English to speak it. He had a feeling the retort wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.

Even as a cat, Alexei still couldn't believe the person before him. He assumed that the fellow student had turned him into a cat, but now he was taunting said cat? Said very large and... angry cat? Of course, he had met boys similar to him on the streets, ones who simply enjoyed fighting for fighting's sake, because of the rush they got from it. But he had never understood them either.

He flicked his ears in annoyance as his tail swished over the ground. He really was honestly trying to calm himself-- The staff could put him back to his normal human form, surely, and this boy's tauntings really didn't matter. Right?

But a strange sort of aggression had risen in him during his shift. He was being challenged, poked and prodded at, and surely he couldn't just let that stand! Had his mind not been fogged by this strange new influence, Alexei probably would have been less eager to engage in a fight as the board was currently set. However, he now pounced-- claws safely in, yes, because he wasn't that out of touch with himself, but paws swiping with every intention of knocking the boy off balance.

[Deleted]

To be perfectly honest, Oriel wasn’t a fighter. He was an antagonist, yes, but fights that resulted from that were usually exactly what this was. He poked and prodded until the other person lost it and came at him. How that ended was up to the other person and just how “in control” they were when they lost it. Oriel had been on the receiving end of that game more than a few times(most of the time unintentionally) and those were where his most (un)stellar bouts had come about.

The more interesting his target, the more likely he was to taunt. The bear had been interesting. The robot girl had been interesting(despite her protests to the contrary). And this kid, so skinny but with so many guts and who turned into a cat the more pissed he became, was interesting.

Oriel kept his eyes on the kid. Cat. Whatever.

He searched for any indication that he was going to do anything more than just squat there, glaring and growling. Unfortunately for Oriel, he was not as observant as he liked to think. Or responsive. Or perhaps it was just simply because cats, even giant ones, were very good at attacking swiftly and silently, with little indication of their movement beforehand.

The pounce came quickly, and Oriel barely had time to flinch when a massive paw came swiping at him. It felt…fuck, it felt like someone had just knocked him aside with a solid plank of wood. Effectively stunned, and with a good portion of breath knocked from him, Oriel fell back against the tile floor. “Ugh….” he winced. “Fucking…cat…!” Oriel growled through far less intimidating teeth, and struggled to climb back to his feet.