|
The usual New York Spring weather was at its best and most rainy at the moment, leaving Lorna, who as of late despised being forced in doors for any length of time stuck. Still, she at least had her books and was cozied up in her dorm room at the Frost Institute. New newspaper clippings dotted the walls with the Beatles, and the radio played one of their songs in an upbeat and peppy tone.
Despite the grey clouds, the rain and the bitter cold outside, without a roommate at the given moment, Lorna was enjoying her downtime. She'd had a morning class, and managed to catch up on her missing assignments from when she'd been captured by Mojo. All in all, it was a rather relaxing day. She even had hot chocolate, made from the kettle in the kitchen down the hall.
She'd been in such high spirits, that she'd even taken advantage of the open telephone line down there to invite Julian over. They could watch something on TV in the common area, or maybe just sit and talk. The magnokinetic didn't seem too particular.
*
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the lack of a roommate and somewhat slow day caused Julian to offer some shared loafing in her room. Although whether such a gambit pays off or not, he still arrives in a… nice black car. No jaguar for the moment. Settling into parking, he flits out an umbrella and heads into the dorm with haste, flicking water everywhere as he peers around the common area to see if Lorna's waiting down on the first floor or remains settled in her room.
*
Lorna was attuned to the area around her, looking for him through that magnetic spectrum of senses that only her father and she could understand. While she might not be able to manipulate the doors of his car from this distance with ease, she snesed his pulling up to the parking slot outside her dorm. A peek at the window confirmed what she'd sensed and she smiled.
Without much time, Lorna was out of her dorm, down the stairs and to the common area by the time Julian entered the dorm.
A bright smile tugged at her lips and, as soon as the umbrella was shut and set aside, made to throw her arms around him. "Julian! How were the roads? I heard there were a few accidents on the roads with the rain and all." She leaned back after a moment, green hair tumbling down her back. She was dressed comfortably, a simple purple plaid skirt and creamy turtle-neck with a matching headband, and slippers said it all. She had no intentions of braving the cold and the wet outside.
*
Striding within, Julian offers a grin of his own, dressed somewhat casually although still with impeccable style all the same. "Fine. I'm driving a car chauffers normally use… not feeling so crazy about driving fast now…" A long, huffing sigh follows. He tucks his umbrella under an arm, peering left and right curiously to see if anyone else is loafing about this time of day. "How're things with you? Holding up pretty good? I'm pretty close to getting my parents to cough up some money for me to donate…!"
*
A raise of her eyebrows followed and Lorna dragged a hand through her hair. "You.. never mind." She shook her head, but smiled none the less. "That would explain a lot, I guess. You should just move on campus you know. Then you could just walk and come see me." She mused, and shrugged.
"And I've been okay. Getting caught up on all my course work. I'm really luck I didn't fail out due to attendance this semester. Thankfully Miss Frost understands." She heaved a sigh, "And my father is back home, apparently he's been gone for the past month to Europe." She made a face.
*
"Umm. Huh. I could." he agrees, although the luxuries of home are fairly hard to offset. Servants, entertainment, access to lots of vehicles. It's not too bad a drive honestly, although the dorm is closer to the center of the city. "Maybe you can convince me." A grimace follows by him, on multiple levels. "Yeah? Your dad seems kinda cool. Scary, but less scary than some people I've met, from what I imagine…"
*
A smiled remained as she moved to snag his hand and lead him up the stairs toward her dorm room. The Frost Institute was progressive, without matrons or chaperones, but still very much had gender specific dorms. There certainly weren't any rules as such, but the longer they stood out there chatting in the common space, Lorna knew the nosy girls in her dorm would gossip.
Though they'd gossip anyways.
A faint laugh escapes her as Julian talks about her father. "Yeah, well, he's pretty strict and over protective. He didn't know I was gone for those weeks, I mean, he was out hunting Nazis as best as I'm able to tell. Came back home in armor and was most definitely not in a good mood." She grumbled.
*
Mildly taken aback by the tug, Julian is easy to lead upstairs, padding along just behind. He gives his umbrella a lazy sort of twirl, mild spray of water sent in all directions. "Huh." He finds it odd how casually Lorna drops her dad's presumably murderous hijinx for the last month, but. Not something he's… overly against… Or maybe he just brought them to prison? "Maybe you ought to delay me meeting him…"
*
A purse of her lips followed as she glanced over her shoulder, "Miss Crystal suggested I don't bring boys over to meet him any time soon before. Wanda also suggested I not tell him about that whole Mojo thing either. My father had me live with Wanda and her man for like three weeks when some guy tried to hurt me before. What do you think he'll do if I tell him about all of the above?" She hooked a brow upwards and shook her head, stopping outside her dorm door and with a wave of her hand, unlocked it. No keys for Polaris.
The radio still played merrily in the background and she dropped Julian's hand to fetch her hot chocolate and gesture toward another mug. "I made you one before, if you want.." She offered, settling on the side of her bed with a squeak of springs. The floral comforter and nearly everything else on Lorna's side of the room was bright, cheery and chaotic when it came to decore.
*
"Your life is way too crazy. I'm sure you know that." Julian mumbles, shaking his head slowly. "You need to find a good way to destress. Distract yourself. What sorta hobbies do you got?" Slipping inside, he takes a look at the interior, finding it to be rather mundane. What he'd expect, from a girl raised by normal humans. "Sure…" Taking the mug, he settles beside Lorna on the mug, taking a sip.
*
Lorna leaned her head briefly against his shoulder as Julian settled down beside her, her feet kicking freely off the side of her bed. "Well I used to read a lot, and knit. But now? Everything's always training, training, training. And my father left me more books to read on the molecular structure of protons and electrons for me to better understand how to manipulate them on that level. He got annoyed, I think, when I got frustrated during training and gave up. He just makes it so easy and he grumbled at me over it."
A frown followed as she sipped at her hot chocolate, sitting upwards. "I know he wants me to be strong enough that no one can hurt me and that it's a way of showing he cares, and all.. but ugh it's so frustrating. He's always been harsh when it comes to training, making me do way more than Miss Frost does. I mean, he knows my powers. They're his. But he keeps pushing me. Like he'll say I've come so far, that I'm so much stronger than he was at my age.. but like, gosh. I can't do the things he can!"
*
"Huh. …I should train more." Julian suddenly decides. He's not been applying himself nearly as much to that as he should, especially when failure in that venture is literally life or death where he's concerned. "I'd offer to spar or something, I'm sure there's some stuff we could do together." Reaching out, a comforting squeeze to the shoulder follows. "You do have a tendency to get hassled." he teases. "But with Mojo… I doubt being as strong as your dad woulda helped. Don't get down on yourself."
*
Lorna shot Julian a smile, cupping both hands around her mug and inhaling the sweet scent of the hot chocolate. "Course we can. If you can manage to not get distracted," She elbowed him gently and flashed him a grin over the rim of her mug.
"And yeah, I know I get hassled, and I poke my nose into danger and all that. Wanda has scolded me over it." She shrugged helplessly. "But I can't stop myself from trying to help people when I can. You know? Like if stuff happens, I want to be there to help out. I have more power than a lot of people do."
The mention of her father's strength had her wincing. "He can change metal down to the electrons. He has a range longer than a mile, I don't know his limits. Sure I was put in a room without metal, but I don't know what was around it. If I was as strong as he is? Maybe I could've broken out on my own. With a strong enough magnetic, you can repel even paramagnetic or diamagnetic objects. It's not limited to merely ferrous metals. Those are just what normal magnets can effect." A pause and she hung her head. "Or you know, in my case, what I can manipulate."
*
Julian continues regular sipping, although he's hardly cold from the brief umbrella-protected walk to the dorm proper. "Don't pull down my pants or fly over my head in a skirt, and I won't get distracted. …Although the latter's fine, with warning." He sticks out his tongue at that. "W-well, if you wanna go out and help people, take me with you! I'm pretty strong! In a different way than you, maybe, but…" Another long sip follows. "Maybe, and then maybe Mojo woulda squashed you since you were too much trouble to contain."
*
A blush spread its way over her cheeks at Julian's words and she bit her lower lip to shoot him a side long glance. "I won't pants you without good reason, how's that? I've got a record already for pants'ing boys that are mean to me." She winked and sipped at her hot chocolate, her smile fading somewhat in consideration of his words.
"I think.." She trailed off, and sighed, again, her gaze held low. "You're likely right. Mojo wanted puppets for his show. Not prisoners or people that fought him too hard. He took me because for his show because he thought it would bring in ratings. If I had fought him? Yeah.. you're likely right." She mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck as she glanced his way.
*
"Well, you can pants me without being mean." he challenges towards Lorna, continuing his playful flirting as he finishes the rest of his chocolate cocoa. He's always been a fan of sweets. "Anyway… we're not here to lament like… bad stuff. But to have fun! What'd be fun for you, right now?"
*
A giggle escaped her, even as her blush deepened at the flirtatious response and Lorna shook her head, finishing off her own hot chocolate and shrugging as she took his mug and set it aside on her desk with care. A bounce followed as she returned to her perch on the side of her bed and shrugged.
"I dunno, I like the idea of just hanging out with you. We could play cards or something. I have deck around here." She offered, tossing her hair back before she leaned against him, tucking her head against his shoulder.
"I just want to relax and spend time with you."
*
A low whistle leaves Julian, looking to and fro, trying to get a better idea of Lorna's hobbies and likes by her room. There's probably all sorts of stuff hidden here and there. "Cards, huh? What're the stakes?" he wonders, with a smirk. An arm slips around the green-haired girl, giving a reassuring backrub. "Either way, relaxing's good. Although I probably do too much of that at home…"
*
Hands clap over her cheeks as she flushed and elbowed him lightly as he settled a arm around her shoulders. "Pfft, you don't play stakes with go fish." She wrinkled her nose, "Gosh."
Jumping down from the bed, she wiggled under it for a moment, drawing out a wooden box with a iron worked clasp and settled it on the bed where she'd just been.
"Well, I've got some cards, I've got some marbles." A pause, "I realize that I really don't have all that much for people to come hang out with." She bit her lower lip, "Pretty lame, but I just never spent much time in my dorm. You know?" She climbed back onto the bed and opened the little box, a playing card set, clearly old and well cared for, as well as a small bag of dice and marbles. It clearly wasn't her box, as it smell stale and of old cigars.
"My adoptive uncle gave me this as a going away to college present." She grinned, "He's a mechanic, I helped him for a summer so I could have my Chevy."
*
"You've never played serious Go Fish, then." he challenges, eyebrows narrowing. "Although there's a good few games. Like War. I like that one." Marbles he's less familiar with, but it's a game most everybody knows. Looking over everything present, a slow stroke of the chin follows. "Y'know, we can just make our own game out of this. Uhhh. Yeah. Marbles, dice, cards… I think we're on to something, here…"
*
A snort and Lorna rolled her eyes as she tugged out the playing deck and closed the box. She shifted, and set the wooden box aside at the foot of her bed. "Why don't we just play Go Fish and call it a day, hmm? It's not like we're telepaths and can cheat or anything." She smirked at that, playing such games with Jean hadn't exactly been fun by any means when they'd been roommates.
"And what do you mean, serious Go Fish?" She rolled her eyes, shaking her head at him with a tsk. The bedding creaked under her weight as she scooted back from him to leave a clear space on the mattress between them.
"Okay, so how about this, every time someone gets a pair from the other person, you get to ask a question and the person has to answer honestly?"
*
"Okay, fine." Julian sighs playfully, obviously not even slightly bothered by it. The only telepath he knows he's making every effort not to meet again, of course. Emma saw things in his mind no proper lady should ever be forced to witness. Wriggling a fair bit away, he crawls into a more comfortable sprawl on the bed, after kicking off either of his shoes. "Deal. I'm an open book! Ain't nothing I won't answer!"
*
Lorna grinned, mimicking him as she kicked off her slippers and sprawled out opposite of him, dealing out the cards. "We'll play for pairs, yeah?" She chirped, and shifted on the mattress, causing it to creak slightly beneath her weight. Oh how the girls next door would gossip!
She took her time to arrange her cards, flipping a pair aside and then glancing back up at him. "Okay, so. Do you want to go first or should I go first?"
*
Going through his own, Julian grimaces when he finds no opening pairs. "You got one already, so I'll go first. Kings?" He purposefully shifts a bit more himself, making the bed creak even harder, shoulder thumping the wall of the adjacent room. His expression is pure innocence, though.
*
A groan escaped Lorna, and she slid a king over toward Julian. She smacked her forehead and shook her head. "Yeah ugh, fine. Here." She wrinkled her nose in his direction. "You get to go again and ask a question." She offered him a sour expression, but mostly it was teasing.
She at least truly was innocent in her reaction. Even if the noises didn't help her in regards to the gossip.
*
Reaching out, the king is taken and paired, set aside. Although all that really does is even up the score. He adjusts his cards a little bit. "Would you have been happy if you never found out about your family and just kept living a normal life?" …well, nobody said he can't come out swinging with the deep and personal questions! "Got any three's?"
*
A smile formed as Lorna glanced at her cards and back. "Go Fish." She stuck her tongue out and then shifted on the mattress, attempting to consider his question as honestly as she could. A hmm escaped her and she sighed.
"I love my adoptive parents, don't get me wrong. I liked being normal. Not worrying about magic, or gods, or evil kings, or anything." She glanced down at her cards and exhaled a breath.
"But knowing who I am? Being able to wear my hair green and develop my powers? I dunno if it's a fair trade I guess.. but I always had to suppress them. Dye my hair brown since I was kid. Before Miss Frost found me and started training me? I guess I was happy.. just something was off..?"
She glanced down at her cards, "Got any fives?"
*
A low curse leaves Julian when he fails to pick another card. "That's how every Mutant feels." is finally stated, drawing a card. He puts two sevens together and sets them aside, before tossing over a five. "You shouldn't have to hide who you are period. Lot of people were… a lot worse off about that kind of thing. Or might have mutations that're… really inconvenient or overt."
*
Lorna tucked the five away, glancing back up at him. "Yeah, I know. Trust me, I've met a lot more. Like Kurt, I dunno if you've met him? But he's this blue guy, covered in fur, he has yellow eyes, and a tail. Definitely doesn't blend in. And well, there's also a bunch of others in Mutant Town. Some more than others." She sighed, "My adoptive parents love me, but they didn't want to see me upset because of how others treated me. So they wanted me to be hush hush about it." She glanced down at her cards and smiled.
"So, my turn to ask a question then? Hmm, okay, so. When was your first kiss?"
*
"No clue. …sounds kinda freaky, though. Mutant Town I've been hanging around in a lot lately, though…" He trails off there, not wanting to get too deep into his private affairs with that particular lot. His question is more or less answered it seems, although he retains a thoughtful expression. "Seven." he answers. "A girl said people who like each other kiss. So we kissed, since we liked each other." Probably not very exciting! "What's your next guess…?"
*
"I met a boy there that turns gold when he uses his powers, pretty cool huh?" She offered, "I suppose it makes my green hair really not that big a deal and all but yeah.." She smiled and tucked it back from her face.
"Still get looks about how horrible it is for me to dye my hair green and all but most don't think 'mutant' right off." She murmured, and glanced down at her cards.
"Hmmm, got any nines?"
*
"Josh?" Julian mumbles, before blinking a little. Maybe he shoulda played dumb. Oh, well. "…he's the guy who I wanted to find when you melted…" Grumble mumble. Not a topic he wants to touch again. Wincing, he sighs and flicks over a nine. This is not going well for him, right off the bat. "What's the winner get?"
*
Lorna grinned and nodded, "Yeah I met him in a diner once. Course he wanted to give me his number to give to my father. Which, knowing what I know now? Totally wouldn't have gone over so well." She took the card and then paused, eyeing him sideways as she piled the nine next to her other two pairs.
"How do you know Josh?" She asked, leaning forward. "And yeah that's my question so.."
*
"I met him a couple times after the… massacre. He was healing people. We talked shop a lot. I visited him a couple weeks ago, to see how mutants are still getting along there in the aftermath." There's more to it than that, but he answered the essence of the question, so she can deal with t. "Next card?" He squeaks the bed vigorously a few more times. Wrigglewrigglewriggle.
*
"I didn't think you went to Mutant Town." A smile was flashed his way, "You should come help me next time I go volunteer down at the community center there." She grinned at him.
"Then we could spend some more time together and you can get community service hours for school. Miss Frost approved it before."
As he squeaked the bed she laughed, wrinkling her nose at him. "Julian! Stop that! You're terrible." She batted at him, tucking her cards away.
"Okay, okay, uhm, got any jacks?"
*
"Sure." Julian agrees, readily. "I just needa not look like who I am. I'm not well-known, but my family would lynch me if my mutancy got super public. They're not on the 'pro' side of the fence." Fingers waggle, crackling green. "Go fish." And then he grips the entire bed lightly, and begins to vibrate it. Hard. The sound is some unearthly THUMPTHUMPTHUMP that is probably heard a few rooms away. Although he's concentrating awful hard…!
*
A grumble followed as Lorna reached for another card. Yet as Julian thumped her bed and sent the springs bouncing, her eyebrows shot up. "Julian! Stop it! Oh my gosh!" She set aside her cards, reaching out with both hands to swat at his shoulders.
"You'll break my bed! Stop it you goof!" If she didn't manage to get him to stop that way, she'd poke his cheeks with her index fingers.
*
"Heydon'tI'm—AH!" The last is stated a bit loudly. He momentarily loses focus, and there's a horrible CRACK as the bed does indeed thump in half at the middle, likely causing the pair to tumble against each other, with one last horrible impact with the wall. "…oh my god." Julian mumbles, somewhat in a daze as he tries to numbly gather up his cards. "I-I didn't mean to do that!! I'll buy you a new one, I swear!" Oh no, he's saying that sentence way too loudly now.
*
a yelp as the bed breaks and Lorna tumbles against Julian, her hands reaching out to balance herself and not fall off as the bed snaps inwards. As he scrambles to gather up the cards she laughed, without pause or care it seemed. "Julian! It's got metal supports. I don't need a new bed! Gosh!" She reached up to gently pat his cheek, still giggling beside him.
A moment's pause followed, her hands splayed out against the mattress as she focused and the bed lifted upwards to its usual position once more with a click and a snap of metal supporting the broken beams.
She wiggled her fingers and grinned at him. "See?"
*
Arms do shift to at least embrace Lorna and try to keep her from falling over; he does that himself, thumping awkwardly on the newly lumpy mattress. Letting go once things are better settled, he dubiously peers down when it's set back in the right position. "But… you can't weld metal together, can you?" he wonders, actually whispering this time, although by gods is there going to be some heavy mutters in the near future after this incident.
*
A shrug, "I can, kinda. Not as well as my father. I can mix it up and wrap it around the supports. It won't go anywhere." She muttered dryly, not pulling back from him as his arms went around her to stabilize her. "Like I said earlier, my father wants me to change metal on the molecular level and I can't do that. Getting metal to stick to itself? So easy in comparison." She grinned and made to peck him on the cheek before sitting up.
"Just don't try to break my bed again and it'll be fine." She paused, considering. "It should be fine in all honestly.."
*
A few testing squeaks of the bed follow, although Julian still mumbles. "It's not the same. I'll get you a new one. Least I can do." Someone next door bangs on the wall and says something muffled, so he shuts up. Jeez, hopefully this doesn't end in someone being called to come and knock on the door. "Fine, though. I promise I won't break your bed again using my powers."
*
Lorna laughed and folded her legs beneath her as she gathered up her cards again, righting the deck that had been upset and she heaved a sigh. "Well! I guess Go Fish is out," She grumbled softly, glancing at the wall as her neighbor banged on it. Her cheeks turned hot and she glanced side long at Julian has he promised not to break her bed again with his powers.
"Julian, it's part of school property. They don't care or look that closely to notice. So long as it looks good at the end of the semester, no one is gonna care." She snorted softly.
*
There's an attempt by Julian to gather up his own cards, but he can't really find what used to be his hand, or his pairs, or the rest of the deck. So he just mumbles and stacks it up to hand back over. "Well, then. Screw that." he suddenly grunts. "If someone three semesters from now has it fall apart, that's THEIR problem. What now?"
*
Lorna takes the cards, moving to settle them back into the proper place in the wooden box, before she holds her hands out, lifting it up by the iron clasp and directing it toward her desk. Once it settled there, she leaned back. A prod at his side followed as she made to snuggle up beside him, resting her head against his figure as she heaved a sigh. "Well, you can stop trying to break my bed and instead just be my pillow? Cause that'd be nice. We can still play the question game though if you wanted."