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ax_main2017-10-02 01:12 pm
ax_diamondlil) wrote in ax_main2017-10-02 01:12 pm
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Lil and Nick - Backdated to October 2
Lil and Nick are worried about the Professor's address. They retire to the kitchen to sort out what they're going to do about it.
"I'm Lil. I just got here a few days ago." Just then, the end of the Professor's assembly was announced and she was left awkwardly holding her hand out to the wolf boy beside her while the sounds of chairs scraping the floor and the absent chatter of other students filled the air. For Christ's sake, could her timing be any worse?
Nick had been about to stand, himself, but the introduction made him stay seated. "I-I'm Nick," he said. "I've been here for ... well, a while." Not quite since opening, but still. A fair amount of time. "This is... is this bad? Or am I just thinking it's bad?" he asked, looking around, worriedly, at the commotion.
Lil sighed. "It doesn't feel good, but honestly, I don't know enough about all of this. Maybe I'll just keep my head down until the school year is over"
"That's not a bad idea," Nick said, sounding a bit relieved that she'd thought of that as an acceptable solution. "I mean, it should be safe here. They said everything would be secret..."
"And then they go and talk about sort sort of superhero team or some shit. I didn't come here for that." In fact, Lil hadn't wanted to come at all, but that hardly mattered now.
"W-well yeah, but like I said... it seems voluntary," he said. He was still getting used to people swearing in real life; it wasn't something his parents often did, and while he wasn't unaccustomed to hearing such words, it was the difference between hearing them on a TV and hearing them in real life; it was just weird.
"I-I mean, we're in the same boat. We can look out for each other," Nick said. "Make sure neither of us is pressured into anything." By anyone. Professor Xavier or otherwise.
There wasn't a bit of guile in that proposal, and that was rare enough in her experience that it made Lil smile. "Watch each other's backs? Okay, but one condition. We move this discussion to the kitchen so I can get to know you better AND eat. I'm fucking starving."
"S-sure," Nick said, the swearing making him wince just a teeny bit inside. "I'm actually pretty hungry, too," he said.
"Alright! Food it is!" Lil stood and waved Nick up. "I can't believe the kitchen here. At least if shit goes down and we're trapped or somethin', we won't starve." She waited just long enough to make he was was following and then headed off in the direction of the kitchen.
"That's true. If we get snowed in or something," Nick said, figuring that was the only disaster that could really happen, here. Or at least, he hoped that was all that was possible. He followed along, slightly behind her, if only because her strides were larger than his. He'd never met a girl taller than himself, before. Then again, he wasn't particularly tall, so he probably just hadn't been paying attention much. "I'm hoping to go back home for Thanksgiving, though. Mom always makes two turkeys. My dad deep fries one. It's amazing."
"You can deep fry a turkey? Like, a whole turkey? Jesus." Lill looked back over her shoulder at Nick. "Is that an American thing?"
"Y-yeah! I-I mean, I guess. My dad does it. It's super tasty, though. It locks in all the, like, moistness of the meat. It's super good," he said. "If you want, I can bring you back some. I'll write a note and I'll bring it back in a tupperware or something," he said. That's what friends did, right?
He's bring her back turkey. She had never had the impulse to spontaneously hug someone, but Lil was very close in that moment: the offer of homecooked food was a kind of comfort she hadn't gotten since she'd arrived. But they'd reached the kitchen so instead of making herself look like a fool, she swung the door open and stepped inside. "If you do that, I'll watch your back for life."
"You'll love it," Nick said, feeling more comfortable now that some niceties had been exchanged. "M-Maybe I'll figure out how to do it from my dad. I don't really know how to cook, but I've been wanting to learn since coming here. Mom's been sending me recipe videos on YouTube. It's... really nice."
Lil nodded and tapped a tabletop to signal Nick to sit down. She'd take care of the provisions. "That's awesome. I don't know much more than how to make Kraft Dinner. Mac and cheese is my limit." Cookies, chips, an apple each for appearances... Lil loaded herself up and brought the haul over to the table. "Mom doesn't cook much either. Or use a computer, so no videos for me."
"I can send you the links," Nick offered, sitting down as instructed. "She doesn't make the videos herself; she just sends me videos of personalities, people from the Food Network and stuff," he said. "A lot of 'em are real easy to follow." Some of them not so much, but he was learning, slowly.
Lil frowned as she sat down. "I don't have a phone or anything. I suppose I could watch them on one of the computers and takes notes or something, but that's a lot of work. Maybe you let me know when you're going to try one and I'll give you a hand?"
"That works," Nick nodded in agreement. "I mean, without a phone it'd be hard to get in touch with you. Unless we have a class together. Which we probably do?" He was usually absorbed in classwork, though. He wasn't used to having classmates, after all. And it didn't help that so many of the courses were just online in a classroom setting...
"Probably. Let's see, I've got Com 1, Algebra, World History, the Phys Ed and like, combat stuff. Then Biology, Computer programming, and," Lil paused for a moment. "Dance. Just beginner. Don't know how long I'll bother with that."
"Oh, I'm in Algebra," Nick said, nodding. "And the basic hand-to-hand thing," he added, a bit nervously. "I-I guess that's why that's offered, huh," he said, putting an elbow on the table and tapping the side of his muzzle, nervously. Still, visions of that protest and the thing with the students kept coming to mind, and Nick wasn't sure how he felt. On the one hand, people didn't like them. On the other hand, he didn't want to fight those people...
Lil opened a bag of chips and pushed them toward Nick. Funny how a kid who had the potential to look so fierce was so nervous about all this. Of course, some would look at her and think the same thing. "Look, I bet you'll do great in hand-to-hand. But even if you don't, I'm here, and I'm invulnerable. That's my power. Plus I can kick ass. I got you covered."
"That's good to know," he said, chuckling as he took a handful of chips, taking a napkin from nearby and putting the handful on them. "It must be nice, I guess, being invulnerable," Nick mused. "Nothing can hurt you."
"Maybe. I mean, I'm not sure of the limits, but I walked off a car accident, can't burned, just found out electricity doesn't seem to do shit. And," Lil grinned. "I was got kicked out a house party in January. Nothing but sneakers, jeans, sweater and an hour walk home. That was Yellowknife so it was, um, about -32C and that's like... -25F I think? Mom was so fucking pissed when I got home."
"Wow," Nick said, blinking. "I didn't know it got so cold anywhere where people actually lived," he said, chuckling a bit. "And I thought that it got cold outside in New York."
"Oh geez, that isn't the worst it gets. It was around -45C last winter and that's before the wind kicked in. My dad used to say that's why we only got the sun for a few hours in the winter. It only shows up long enough enough to nope the fuck out of the cold and go back to bed." Lil herself had never thought it needed an explanation, the sky was what it was, but her father was from the south and always made sure to point out that he thought Yellowknife was fucked up and unnatural.
Despite the swearing (which he still wasn't quite used to) he found himself chuckling a bit at the explanation. "That's--that's funny," he said, nodding. "I-I didn't realize that you were from that far north," he added. "I've read about places that only get a few hours of sun in the winter time. Never been to any, though. I've never been outside of New York; I mean, that doesn't mean much, though. I was kept inside my house since I was eight, until this place opened up."
Lil's expression shifted to confusion. "You didn't go outside at all? Because you look a little different?"
"I look a lot different," Nick pointed out. "And my parents didn't know what was happening, at first, when I started to change. And then they were worried that people might, you know. Attack me." His thoughts roamed back to the protest. He couldn't imagine being the sole target of that amount of hate. "But I was okay. I was homeschooled, and my mom took care of me. And my dad and I would play video games, and all that kind of stuff. Besides, now I'm here, and I'm actually able to go out sometimes, with one of those image inducing things."
The degree to which Lil was offended on Nick's behalf surprised here. Yes, he was a lot different, but he was such an easy kid to talk to that in the short time she'd known him those odd features, the hair, the muzzle, had all retreated into normalcy. "You shouldn't need it. You're a really nice guy; too bad there are assholes out there who'll never know it."
"I-I'm glad you think so," he said, bashfully. "But I-I mean, people like that," he said, not wanting to say 'assholes,' "are the reason I need it. A-and I don't go out often. I do Amazon ordering. Or my parents mail stuff to me," he said. "I actually don't really mind, at this point. It's kind of nice to have an excuse to stay in and play video games."
.
"Yeah, I can see that. Still... " but Lil left the rest unsaid. It didn't seem to bother him so much, so why bother dwelling on it? "Your parents seem pretty good about it all."
"Yeah," Nick agreed. "I guess I got really lucky. I mean, it took me a few months to change completely," Nick explained. "So they were kind of going through it with me. It wasn't... a comfortable process." He didn't like to think about it much. The bones shifting, extending, growing suddenly. Skin stretching, fur growing in, nails falling out and replacing themselves with claws, and the teeth had been an ordeal...
Lil shook her head. "I don't imagine. Sounds pretty shitty. I'm glad you have this place now."
He was sort-of getting used to the swearing by now. Which was probably for the best; he was getting the impression that most kids his age didn't keep their language PG-13. "Yeah. This place has been great. And they knew that I hadn't been out much, so they gave me my own room, which is good. But now that classes have started, they said that I should expect a roommate whenever new students arrive. Which isn't so bad. Rooming with someone probably isn't bad."
"Naw. I never shared a room until I got here, and my roommates okay. I mean, she's got a pretty creepy power - talks to the dead or something - but she's nice enough. It's good when you want a bit of company but don't want to go looking for it." Lil would still take a single room over the shared one, but what she'd said was true enough. There were times when the fact that her mom wasn't here bothered her a little too much, and it was nice took over and see Dana, and know that she wasn't completely alone.
That was a weird power, and Nick would have to look into that later, maybe, because hey, horror movie extravaganza. Even though he hated horror movies, now that he thought about it. So maybe not. "Well, it's good that you have a good roommate," Nick said, smiling a bit. "Everyone I've met has been super nice, here. Which is good."
"Same! I wasn't expecting that. Back home I always... well, I seemed to know all the shit disturbers or something. They weren't all that nice. I thought it would be the same here, but nope." Not at all. There had to be a few bad apples somewhere, but she hadn't yet attracted any. Of course she hadn't had any real chances to cause problems herself and if everything went well, she wouldnt' get any.
"It is really good. And that's why this whole... announcement thing... is so confusing," Nick said, staring at his stack of chips momentarily, before crunching down on a few. He leaned with his elbow on the table, hand on the side of his head. "Like I said. We'll just have to watch each other's backs."
"More than that. If you need me for anything, just let me know." And if anyone bothered him, they'd have to scrape them off the floor when she was finished with him.
"I will," Nick said, nodding. "And you too. I-I don't know if I can really do much, but... if you need someone to talk to. Or something." He could offer at least that much.
Lil's expression softened into a smile. His offer seemed sincere and in her experience, that was rare enough. "Thanks. Maybe... maybe just help me learn to cook for now? And you know, maybe a few months of hand-to-hand training here and you'll surprise yourself. Maybe I'll be looking to you for protection."
"With you being invulnerable, I doubt it," Nick chuckled. "But I can definitely help you learn to cook," he said, nodding.
"I'm Lil. I just got here a few days ago." Just then, the end of the Professor's assembly was announced and she was left awkwardly holding her hand out to the wolf boy beside her while the sounds of chairs scraping the floor and the absent chatter of other students filled the air. For Christ's sake, could her timing be any worse?
Nick had been about to stand, himself, but the introduction made him stay seated. "I-I'm Nick," he said. "I've been here for ... well, a while." Not quite since opening, but still. A fair amount of time. "This is... is this bad? Or am I just thinking it's bad?" he asked, looking around, worriedly, at the commotion.
Lil sighed. "It doesn't feel good, but honestly, I don't know enough about all of this. Maybe I'll just keep my head down until the school year is over"
"That's not a bad idea," Nick said, sounding a bit relieved that she'd thought of that as an acceptable solution. "I mean, it should be safe here. They said everything would be secret..."
"And then they go and talk about sort sort of superhero team or some shit. I didn't come here for that." In fact, Lil hadn't wanted to come at all, but that hardly mattered now.
"W-well yeah, but like I said... it seems voluntary," he said. He was still getting used to people swearing in real life; it wasn't something his parents often did, and while he wasn't unaccustomed to hearing such words, it was the difference between hearing them on a TV and hearing them in real life; it was just weird.
"I-I mean, we're in the same boat. We can look out for each other," Nick said. "Make sure neither of us is pressured into anything." By anyone. Professor Xavier or otherwise.
There wasn't a bit of guile in that proposal, and that was rare enough in her experience that it made Lil smile. "Watch each other's backs? Okay, but one condition. We move this discussion to the kitchen so I can get to know you better AND eat. I'm fucking starving."
"S-sure," Nick said, the swearing making him wince just a teeny bit inside. "I'm actually pretty hungry, too," he said.
"Alright! Food it is!" Lil stood and waved Nick up. "I can't believe the kitchen here. At least if shit goes down and we're trapped or somethin', we won't starve." She waited just long enough to make he was was following and then headed off in the direction of the kitchen.
"That's true. If we get snowed in or something," Nick said, figuring that was the only disaster that could really happen, here. Or at least, he hoped that was all that was possible. He followed along, slightly behind her, if only because her strides were larger than his. He'd never met a girl taller than himself, before. Then again, he wasn't particularly tall, so he probably just hadn't been paying attention much. "I'm hoping to go back home for Thanksgiving, though. Mom always makes two turkeys. My dad deep fries one. It's amazing."
"You can deep fry a turkey? Like, a whole turkey? Jesus." Lill looked back over her shoulder at Nick. "Is that an American thing?"
"Y-yeah! I-I mean, I guess. My dad does it. It's super tasty, though. It locks in all the, like, moistness of the meat. It's super good," he said. "If you want, I can bring you back some. I'll write a note and I'll bring it back in a tupperware or something," he said. That's what friends did, right?
He's bring her back turkey. She had never had the impulse to spontaneously hug someone, but Lil was very close in that moment: the offer of homecooked food was a kind of comfort she hadn't gotten since she'd arrived. But they'd reached the kitchen so instead of making herself look like a fool, she swung the door open and stepped inside. "If you do that, I'll watch your back for life."
"You'll love it," Nick said, feeling more comfortable now that some niceties had been exchanged. "M-Maybe I'll figure out how to do it from my dad. I don't really know how to cook, but I've been wanting to learn since coming here. Mom's been sending me recipe videos on YouTube. It's... really nice."
Lil nodded and tapped a tabletop to signal Nick to sit down. She'd take care of the provisions. "That's awesome. I don't know much more than how to make Kraft Dinner. Mac and cheese is my limit." Cookies, chips, an apple each for appearances... Lil loaded herself up and brought the haul over to the table. "Mom doesn't cook much either. Or use a computer, so no videos for me."
"I can send you the links," Nick offered, sitting down as instructed. "She doesn't make the videos herself; she just sends me videos of personalities, people from the Food Network and stuff," he said. "A lot of 'em are real easy to follow." Some of them not so much, but he was learning, slowly.
Lil frowned as she sat down. "I don't have a phone or anything. I suppose I could watch them on one of the computers and takes notes or something, but that's a lot of work. Maybe you let me know when you're going to try one and I'll give you a hand?"
"That works," Nick nodded in agreement. "I mean, without a phone it'd be hard to get in touch with you. Unless we have a class together. Which we probably do?" He was usually absorbed in classwork, though. He wasn't used to having classmates, after all. And it didn't help that so many of the courses were just online in a classroom setting...
"Probably. Let's see, I've got Com 1, Algebra, World History, the Phys Ed and like, combat stuff. Then Biology, Computer programming, and," Lil paused for a moment. "Dance. Just beginner. Don't know how long I'll bother with that."
"Oh, I'm in Algebra," Nick said, nodding. "And the basic hand-to-hand thing," he added, a bit nervously. "I-I guess that's why that's offered, huh," he said, putting an elbow on the table and tapping the side of his muzzle, nervously. Still, visions of that protest and the thing with the students kept coming to mind, and Nick wasn't sure how he felt. On the one hand, people didn't like them. On the other hand, he didn't want to fight those people...
Lil opened a bag of chips and pushed them toward Nick. Funny how a kid who had the potential to look so fierce was so nervous about all this. Of course, some would look at her and think the same thing. "Look, I bet you'll do great in hand-to-hand. But even if you don't, I'm here, and I'm invulnerable. That's my power. Plus I can kick ass. I got you covered."
"That's good to know," he said, chuckling as he took a handful of chips, taking a napkin from nearby and putting the handful on them. "It must be nice, I guess, being invulnerable," Nick mused. "Nothing can hurt you."
"Maybe. I mean, I'm not sure of the limits, but I walked off a car accident, can't burned, just found out electricity doesn't seem to do shit. And," Lil grinned. "I was got kicked out a house party in January. Nothing but sneakers, jeans, sweater and an hour walk home. That was Yellowknife so it was, um, about -32C and that's like... -25F I think? Mom was so fucking pissed when I got home."
"Wow," Nick said, blinking. "I didn't know it got so cold anywhere where people actually lived," he said, chuckling a bit. "And I thought that it got cold outside in New York."
"Oh geez, that isn't the worst it gets. It was around -45C last winter and that's before the wind kicked in. My dad used to say that's why we only got the sun for a few hours in the winter. It only shows up long enough enough to nope the fuck out of the cold and go back to bed." Lil herself had never thought it needed an explanation, the sky was what it was, but her father was from the south and always made sure to point out that he thought Yellowknife was fucked up and unnatural.
Despite the swearing (which he still wasn't quite used to) he found himself chuckling a bit at the explanation. "That's--that's funny," he said, nodding. "I-I didn't realize that you were from that far north," he added. "I've read about places that only get a few hours of sun in the winter time. Never been to any, though. I've never been outside of New York; I mean, that doesn't mean much, though. I was kept inside my house since I was eight, until this place opened up."
Lil's expression shifted to confusion. "You didn't go outside at all? Because you look a little different?"
"I look a lot different," Nick pointed out. "And my parents didn't know what was happening, at first, when I started to change. And then they were worried that people might, you know. Attack me." His thoughts roamed back to the protest. He couldn't imagine being the sole target of that amount of hate. "But I was okay. I was homeschooled, and my mom took care of me. And my dad and I would play video games, and all that kind of stuff. Besides, now I'm here, and I'm actually able to go out sometimes, with one of those image inducing things."
The degree to which Lil was offended on Nick's behalf surprised here. Yes, he was a lot different, but he was such an easy kid to talk to that in the short time she'd known him those odd features, the hair, the muzzle, had all retreated into normalcy. "You shouldn't need it. You're a really nice guy; too bad there are assholes out there who'll never know it."
"I-I'm glad you think so," he said, bashfully. "But I-I mean, people like that," he said, not wanting to say 'assholes,' "are the reason I need it. A-and I don't go out often. I do Amazon ordering. Or my parents mail stuff to me," he said. "I actually don't really mind, at this point. It's kind of nice to have an excuse to stay in and play video games."
.
"Yeah, I can see that. Still... " but Lil left the rest unsaid. It didn't seem to bother him so much, so why bother dwelling on it? "Your parents seem pretty good about it all."
"Yeah," Nick agreed. "I guess I got really lucky. I mean, it took me a few months to change completely," Nick explained. "So they were kind of going through it with me. It wasn't... a comfortable process." He didn't like to think about it much. The bones shifting, extending, growing suddenly. Skin stretching, fur growing in, nails falling out and replacing themselves with claws, and the teeth had been an ordeal...
Lil shook her head. "I don't imagine. Sounds pretty shitty. I'm glad you have this place now."
He was sort-of getting used to the swearing by now. Which was probably for the best; he was getting the impression that most kids his age didn't keep their language PG-13. "Yeah. This place has been great. And they knew that I hadn't been out much, so they gave me my own room, which is good. But now that classes have started, they said that I should expect a roommate whenever new students arrive. Which isn't so bad. Rooming with someone probably isn't bad."
"Naw. I never shared a room until I got here, and my roommates okay. I mean, she's got a pretty creepy power - talks to the dead or something - but she's nice enough. It's good when you want a bit of company but don't want to go looking for it." Lil would still take a single room over the shared one, but what she'd said was true enough. There were times when the fact that her mom wasn't here bothered her a little too much, and it was nice took over and see Dana, and know that she wasn't completely alone.
That was a weird power, and Nick would have to look into that later, maybe, because hey, horror movie extravaganza. Even though he hated horror movies, now that he thought about it. So maybe not. "Well, it's good that you have a good roommate," Nick said, smiling a bit. "Everyone I've met has been super nice, here. Which is good."
"Same! I wasn't expecting that. Back home I always... well, I seemed to know all the shit disturbers or something. They weren't all that nice. I thought it would be the same here, but nope." Not at all. There had to be a few bad apples somewhere, but she hadn't yet attracted any. Of course she hadn't had any real chances to cause problems herself and if everything went well, she wouldnt' get any.
"It is really good. And that's why this whole... announcement thing... is so confusing," Nick said, staring at his stack of chips momentarily, before crunching down on a few. He leaned with his elbow on the table, hand on the side of his head. "Like I said. We'll just have to watch each other's backs."
"More than that. If you need me for anything, just let me know." And if anyone bothered him, they'd have to scrape them off the floor when she was finished with him.
"I will," Nick said, nodding. "And you too. I-I don't know if I can really do much, but... if you need someone to talk to. Or something." He could offer at least that much.
Lil's expression softened into a smile. His offer seemed sincere and in her experience, that was rare enough. "Thanks. Maybe... maybe just help me learn to cook for now? And you know, maybe a few months of hand-to-hand training here and you'll surprise yourself. Maybe I'll be looking to you for protection."
"With you being invulnerable, I doubt it," Nick chuckled. "But I can definitely help you learn to cook," he said, nodding.
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