Time Warp: Operation Filing Cabinet!

[Dr. James Campbell]

The only way she'd be getting her laptop into detention would be if she had the thing surgically grafted to her body. And as that didn't appear to have happened (yet) James didn't mention it. He'd only known Mia for a little while now, but just from this conversation, he found himself learning so much. "I'm just writing down the time. Nothing to concern yourself about." And he was polite enough to show her the sticky note before pressing it onto the blotter of his desk, a bright-orange reminder that he needed to talk to someone about this.

"He lives somewhere in town. I'm fairly certain most of the teaching staff does. It's pretty useful to have Pilot Ridge be so close to the school; it makes for an easy commute." And that was the first lie that was actually a like, as opposed to a lie of omission. The cabin wasn't actually in Pilot Ridge; it was closer to the school and set back into the woods. It made for a quicker walk to work in the summer, but it was hard to shovel out each winter. (He didn't mind, but Chase did. The blond man hated snow with a passion.) But the not-exactly-personal-to-him-but-still-pretty-personal questions kept coming. "She might not be here until the summer. She's blonde and taller than you, and she's the one in the pictures on the desk." He had three frames there, with pictures of his daughter at different ages. Her as a toddler, wearing a pair of his glasses, and having to hold them up to keep them on her face, another one of her in a kiddie soccer uniform, and her most recent school photo. James had to smile when he talked about her, no matter who he was talking to.

"No, Mia, no powers are weird. They're just what happens." He shrugged, as Mia finally pushed him from frustrated to exasperated. "No one here likes people hating on metas, but punching them isn't going to work. What's he going to remember is that a meta girl punched him."

[Mia Keystone]

He was getting fed up. She needed to try and do some damage control or something... but she couldn’t not ask... it was unknown, so she wanted to.. she really needed to know. Mia looked from the postit note to Campbell then back again. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again like a goldfish as she tried hard to stop her question popping out. It was like trying to hold in a yawn, she felt her entire face contort as she tried to swallow it down. No good... ”Why do you need the time? Is that so you can report me?” She bit her lip, clearly struggling to keep quiet. ”and why orange?”

Unhelpful~ ”Yeah, everyone’s taller then me, du-doc,” Mia sighed as she rolled her eyes even as she glanced over the pictures. ”Cute. I’ll keep an eye out.” It was hard not to wink, so very hard. She wanted to know more, it was niggling at her mind but she was going to try a little. Even Mia could tell the recruiter was getting a bit annoyed, so she was trying to keep quiet but every time she heard something new, she really wanted to know more.

Like, why did he have a fridge under the desk? Did he had soda in it and what kind did he like and could she see and have some? Was there grape? She hated grape soda. Did he like grape soda? Why would he like grape soda? Man, she really wanted to look on his computer.

Now, Mia’s logic clearly worked differently to Dr Campbell’s. Weird meant different. Since everyone’s powers were different, everyone was weird. Duh.

”Oh come on!” Mia groaned. He was taking the human’s side? The human that had made Jonah’s mind get all scrambled? ”I’m into technology. I took him down fair and square, no powers. Not even fair, really, since he was like, a million times bigger than me. Anyway, you should know,” Mia’s hands went to her hips, her eyes sharp, ”it’s not ok to touch telepaths who aren’t trained.” The curiosity was draining from her voice as Mia’s slightly over evolved protective instincts kicked in. ”You’re making me sound bad. Why? You don’t like me? Do you think I’m weird?” The dam was cracked... ”Would you punch someone who was hurting Ginny? Have you ever met a telepath? Does it get better? Can telepaths ever have sex if they can’t touch people?”

[Dr. James Campbell]

"Yes, that's exactly why." James had already informed her that he was planning on reporting her to someone who could actually administer some sort of discipline to the little spy. Also he had to get his real filing cabinet with his real files back.

Which cause him to stop and consider something. Why would she try spying on him from within a hollowed-out metal box and go through all that trouble, when she could have just gone through the files, and all she would have needed to do was pick the lock to get in. It was so easy.

Not that he was going to tell Mia that. He was no masochist.

Ingrid had joked to him once about how eventually, students were going to start hitting on Ginny when she came to visit. It was inevitable, as she was simultaneously not someone they saw around the school every day and someone from whom they wouldn't have to hide their abilities. But he didn't think it would be for a few years, he didn't think it would be from Mia, and he didn't think it would be to him, of all people. "Well...okay then." What else was there to say?

"Look, did this guy, the human, know Jonah is a telepath? Did he know what you can do?" This conversation was getting away from him again. He couldn't condone fighting, but he also couldn't criticize her for wanting to stand up for another student. "I'm not trying to make you sound bad; I don't even know what happened, other than you hitting someone. You didn't tell me." He wasn't in the building a lot of the time and recruiters weren't usually the ones to keep track of student gossip. "I would do anything to protect Ginny, but that probably wouldn't reflect too well on myself or the meta community. It doesn't matter, but you never said what the guy did to Jonah. That's kind of important for conversations like this. And if you're weird, you're weird because you tried to impersonate my filing cabinet!"

James ran one hand through his hair and sighed. What was with this girl and personal questions. "Yes, I've met plenty of telepaths. Yes, it gets better with training." But the last question made him blush heavily as he looked away from her. "Yes, telepaths and other psychics can have sex. I think it's time for you to go now." He walked to the door and opened it for her, still blushing mightily.

[Mia Keystone]

He had totally misunderstood her comment... Mia didn’t correct the recruiter because, well, his face was sort of hilarious. Little kids in oversizes sunglasses were always cute, even Mia could see that. As far as she knew, Mia was asexual. People were gross. Kissing was also gross. And anyway, Mia sort of guessed Ollie would be pissed if she was gay too. Stealing his thunder and all that.

Man her brother was such a little bitch sometimes.

”No, he knew King was deaf,” Mia scowled, glaring up at her recruiter. ”And I don’t wear a t-shirt saying ‘I can control your phone with my brain’, my power isn’t exactly obvious until I start turning lights on and off by blinking. Mia took a breath, considered halting her raging and decided not to. She’d been raging just after the event, when she’d just sat sullenly with a split lip, while being told off and lectured on treating humans properly. ”was I supposed to tell you?” she demanded, sharp eyebrows lowered in a frown. ”You weren’t there when people were asking what happened, which kind of sucked since you were like, the only person here I actually knew.” She shrugged, rolling her eyes to make sure he knew that it really hadn’t bothered her, really. Like, at all. And if anyone wanted to disagree she would kick them with all the force of the two stripe green belt karate machine she was.


”He had an untrained, deaf telepath in a headlock,” the little technopath spat, turning around and scuffing her feet against the carpet. She didn’t want Campbell to see thinking about it made her really quite upset, ”Jonah was making weird sounds because the big guy’s monkey mind was attacking him.” She shrugged, ”That’s how he put it. I warned the dude, ok? I said ‘let go or I’ll kick your ass’ and he didn’t so I kicked his ass. Andduh I’m weird,” Mia was very clearly not in the slightest insulted by being called weird, and not did she have a problem with her current predicament.

Except for the beige shirt. She really hated the shirt.

With a whoop, Mia grinned exitedly. ”I can tell Jonah! He’s really worried he;s going to be a monk forever! I’ll let him know you said he can totally have sex later. Also, you’ve gone really pink. Is it true your face gets warm when you blush? Do you know why some people can blush and some can’t?” Glancing at the door, the short girl looked between the corridor out there and the doctor. ”Lame, doc. So lame. But fine, I’m out,” she turned back to him with a smile that promised shenanigans. ”You’re pretty cool. I mean, sucks surveillance didn’t work but this was way more fun. King totally got the short end of this operation.”

Da da daaaaaaaaannnnn. Mia hated non electronic locks, but King was happy to give the locks a crack.

One of Mia’s eyebrows arched as she grinned, and then shrugged.

”File cabinet will be back in like...,” Mia thought for a moment, ”fifteen minutes. My dorm’s a bit of a walk. Don’t worry, it’ll all be in order and stuff. Thanks for, you know, answering questions. Most people just tell me to shut up and fuck off.” The technopath, unable to hold back her impulse, punched the doctor softly in the arm, even if it was a bit of reach for her. ”You’re totally interesting. See you later! I’ll bring chocolate next time.”

When the filing cabinet was delivered back exactly fifteen moments later, at the bottom of the top drawer was a Reece Cup with a smiley face on it.

[Event !]

Thank you for your participation, the Time Warp has now ended.