The Cud {Lexy/Others?}

[Sebastien Haefeli]

Sebastien had found it somewhat difficult to settle into Hammel at first. Everyone spoke fluentish English and no one he'd met so far was from Switzerland, so there wasn't anyone he could talk to in his mother tongue. Benji had been an eternal help and as good a friend as anyone could have asked for, but at the same time, Sebbie didn't want to bother him constantly.

With that in mind, the tall teen had walked slowly, using his stick, out into the main cafeteria, exploring the place, before settling down and pulling out a simple journal. The journal was mostly scribblings about his day, how his legs were that day, etc. He'd been told to keep such a thing while he was at Hammel so that his physio back home could find out how he was coping, and so he'd have a good reminder of his year here. Rubbing his chin and uncapping his pen, he began to fluidly write about his adventures, and the teachers and lessons, stroking his cheek with the side of the pen.

It was still kinda hard getting used to Hammel, and the cafeteria seemed quite quiet, but then he supposed people were at lessons. Sighing softly, Sebbie pulled his dark hair from his face and scratched his nose. The sound of the cafeteria workers bustling around reminded him he wasn't alone, and he yawned, stroking his stumps self-consciously.

Maybe he'd take Benji a cookie as a surprise after he'd finished his lessons.

[Alexander McKenzie]

For Alex, his invitation to Hammel couldn’t have come at a better time. His high school back home had been sheer misery, and when the recruiter had showed up, he’d jumped at the chance to get the heck out of there. He was happier at Hammel. He was a normal teenager there. No one needed to know about things he’d rather not talk about. As it was, a few people knew. His recruiter, for one. (Why, why, why his parents had felt the need to explain it to him, he’d never know.) Regardless, he actually liked being a “normal” teenager. Being meta had actually boosted his confidence. He was happy here.

He was also hungry. His stomach had been growling all throughout power training, and now he was done, and didn’t have class, he was making a beeline for the cafeteria. It didn’t matter that real food probably wasn’t ready yet. They still had the pre-packaged stuff kicking around. If he had to live off of chips or a chocolate bar, he wasn’t going to complain. So, he pulled out his wallet and moved to the tiny line, picking up a bag of Doritos and a blueberry muffin. Healthy? Alex? Not a chance.

Once he had his food, he had to figure out where he wanted to hang out until his next class. He couldn’t bring food to the library, and he didn’t live in his dorm anymore. Not since Conrad had gotten out of college and come to work at Hammel. He was happy to have his best friend back. ... Yeah, visiting with Conrad in the research lab would end in two ways. He’d either get kicked out for having food down there, or he’d be hauled into some new experiment. No thanks. He’d had enough of being treated like a lab rat.

So, he glanced across at the tables and made a decision. He headed to a nearly empty table. He was usually shy, but when he saw the walking stick, well, his sociable nature kicked in. He knew what it was like to be a little different, and that made talking to new people easier. He set his things down and settled into a chair near to the other boy. “Hi,” he offered quietly, so as not to scare him. If he didn’t walk to talk to him, that was okay. Easy to fix. But it was worth the effort to try.

[Sebastien Haefeli]

Sebastien had managed to cover a large page with his musings before he heard footsteps in the cafeteria behind him, and looked up instinctively, pen falling down on the table. He turned his head and watched the other teen with a little smile, before going back to his writing, describing in detail what he planned to do that day. At first he was going to deliver Benji a cookie, then he had lessons, then the boys in the dorm had planned a movie night.

He hoped it wasn't The Mummy.

When he heard Alex's voice behind him, he turned around, legs moving stiffly. "Ah, Hello." He sounded out, trying to squash his accent out of his words. "Doritos?" He noted brightly, looking over at the bag and laughing. "I like the cool ones, you know, the ones in the blue pack?" Sebbie eagerly moved over, making room for the other boy and trying to draw as little attention to his walking stick as humanly possible.

Closing up his journal, he rested his chin in his hand. "I'm Sebastien... Seb or Sebbie for short." The Swiss teen offered, about to give Alex his hand to shake, then withdrawing again just as quickly. "Better not. I'd zap you." He added a little sadly, dropping the journal back into his bag and chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip. "Did they have cookies over there? I wanted to bring one back for my dormmate." He explained, turning round completely and peering over at the shelves.

Unfortunately, in Sebastien's eagerness to speak to someone new, he'd also started to get a heavier accent, and hadn't noticed, instead just looking pleased to have met someone else. The more friends the merrier, after all.

[Alexander McKenzie]

The one good thing about living off campus with his best friend was simple. He only had one roommate to fight over movies and dinners. Unless Conrad’s brothers were over. Then it was usually a miniature war, but it was all in fun. He loved the Manne brothers, and regardless of the fact that their apartment was often messy and the stupid dryer still didn’t work, he liked it better than the Hammel dorms.

Making the most of the time he did spend within Hammel’s walls, however, was something he was good at. And he liked meeting new people. Sebbie was one of them. And the walking stick, no matter how the other boy was trying to hide it, was an instant draw for the tattooed teenager. “Hi,” he replied with a grin as he sat down. The hint of an accent had him curious, but he let it go, for now. “Cool Ranch? Yeah, they’re good. But they were out over there, so I got these.”

At least he got a name. Alex smiled and went to shake his hand, arching an eyebrow when it was withdrawn. Oh. He grinned. “Not a problem. I could probably shield against it. Or try, anyway. I’m Alex. Or Lexy. I get called both.” Alexander, he wasn’t fond of. It either meant the person (namely, teacher) didn’t know him well, were a professional (read: doctor), or he was in trouble.

The accent was still intriguing him, though. Now it had gotten a little heavier, Alex cocked his head. “Yeah. They’ve got cookies. And you’re nice, if you bring your roomie cookies. I don’t bring my anything anymore. ... Unless I drag his laundry upstairs, or bring home dinner.” Lies, he loves Conrad. And he does nice things. Sometimes. “Where’re you from? I don’t recognize your accent.”

[Sebastien Haefeli]

Sebastien's relief to have met someone else was apparent in his face. There was only so much time he could spend being Benji's shadow, after all. Scrubbing his chin and pushing the notebook further into his bag, the Swiss teen listened to Alex intently, processing his words and double-translating them in his head.

"You can shield?" Sebbie asked interestedly, eyebrows raising up into his hair. "A... force field maker?" He spoke unsurely for a moment, lip pulled into his mouth for a thoughtful chew. "Anyway, pleased to meet you Lexy." He added, smile returning in full force. It was good english practice to talk to someone new, too. He felt bad talking too much to Benji since he couldn't reply, and part of him thought that may remind him of his missing vocal chords, much like people running and dancing did to him.

"Benji is my penpal too, so I ..." Sebastien trailed off, trying to think of the right word. "I want to show him I appreciate his friendship." He said simply, cheekily stealing one of the Doritos and crunching it. "I'm an exchange student." Sebbie explained offhandedly. "I'm Swiss, from Kocher. My family live in Switzerland... but I want to get better at English." The sentence was a little awkward, and the scrunch of Sebbie's nose indicated he thought so too.

"You are American, yes?" He swung his legs carefully round the seat to face into the canteen instead of at the table, stuck staring away. "I was surprised when I came here... to see so many different cultures." Sebastien added quickly, pushing his dark hair from his face. "Oh!" He said suddenly, blinking. "I'm a static generator and manipulator. I have a lot of... ... problems."

[Alexander McKenzie]

If it hadn’t been for meeting Conrad shortly after coming to Hammel, Alex would have probably ended up in Sebastien’s position. His first few weeks had been lonely, but once he’d met Conrad, who’d treated him like a younger brother from the start, that loneliness had eased.

“Yes,” he verified, with a little smile. “Handy, sometimes.” He’d admit to using it once or twice in gym class. He was the king of dodgeball. (At least until he got caught. But it had been fun while it had lasted.) “I used to only be able to make a field around myself, but now I’m starting to get the hang of ‘throwing’ it to protect other people.” It was weird, doing that. He knew he was using the shield. He just wasn’t suffering the muffled senses. Or protected. But really, how often was that going to be an issue? “It’s nice to meet you, too.” He was actually quite happy to be meeting someone new. This was likely his last year through Hammel before university, and he might as well enjoy it.

“Oh. That makes sense.” Alex grinned, not minding sharing with Sebbie. “That’s really nice.” Now he was feeling just a tiny bit guilty. Small note to self – cook dinner tonight and let Conrad have control over the television. As for Sebbie’s explanation as to where he was from, Alex nodded and popped a Dorito into his mouth. “That explains it. I didn’t know Hammel had an exchange program. Do you like it here so far?” The awkward English didn’t bother him. Heck, he went to school with born Americans that had less of a hold on language than Sebbie did.

“Yes, I am. I was born and raised in Chicago.” Vermont had been a bit of a change for him, but not much. He couldn’t imagine what it could be like to change meta schools from a different country. “Yeah. Hammel takes people from all over. I guess it’s because it’s a good school.” He shrugged. He actually liked the rich cultural atmosphere. Alex glanced his way when he told him his power, and he actually grinned. “Static? That’s an interesting one. I’ve never seen it before, and I’ve been here for four years.” He’d seen a lot of powers come through the doors of the training rooms, but not static generation. But that was okay. He liked different. “Don’t worry. The trainers here are really good. You’ll be fine.”

[Sebastien Haefeli]

Sebastien's eyebrow wiggled up into his hairline as Lexy explained his power, jaw tilted forward slightly in amazement. He seemed to have an amazing ability, and he wished he had the same level of control in his power. Trying to avoid the pout that was going to surface, he looked away for a moment, swallowed, then turned back.

"Dodg...Dodgeball?" He said inquisitively, not recalling a game named anything similar that he could recall. "Uh, what happens when you play it? What ball is used?" He asked, head tilted much like an owl. "I just get stuck to things and give people little shocks. Sometimes big ones." He mumbled, not liking how uncool his power was compared with Alex's own. Trying not to get himself in one of his down moods, he pinched another dorito and crunched it, focusing his negative energy on the corn chip being crushed into oblivion.

"It's good. It's kind of... hard. I mean, I can understand people but there are some words I don't understand, and I have to constantly double translate everything in my head." Sebbie admitted, licking the salt from his fingers and wrinkling his nose with a little shrug of the shoulders. "It gets easier the longer I'm here." He added, before looking over to the stick that sat beside him and furrowing into a frown.

No one could ignore that though, could they?

Palming the stick and moving it backwards and forwards in his hands, he looked over to Alex with the sort of appraising look one gives when deciding if they can trust another. Letting out a deep sigh, Sebastien leant forward, then hoiked up his trouser-leg, exposing a flesh coloured prosthetic. He glanced up at Alex with a slight crease in his brow, then shrugged. "Everyone wants to know why I ... walk with a stick. I don't like admitting it all the time. People judge you for having things wrong with you." He said softly, his accent thicker than ever.

Then, with a sudden change in conversation like a snap of a book being shut, the Swiss teen looked up curiously. "Chicago? Like in the musical? With ... the bright lights and dangerous backstreets?" Eagerly leaning forward in his seat, the boy looked rapt. "What is it like there? Can you tell me?"