Percy and Billy, backdated to 9/12/17
Sep. 12th, 2017 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainWhile moving into his new room, Percy meets Billy. There's a tour and talk about magic. Unsurprisingly, Percy sucks at making friends.
Percy had very little in the way of personal possessions. His entire world fit into one beat-up rucksack and most of that was clothes and toiletries. The rest was the few precious things he owned—His sketchbook, a small photo of Vox Machine crammed into a photo booth, and a few books that had artfully swiped for him from unmonitored store by Vax, Vex, and, on one surprising occasion, Scanlan. Those he unpacked first, laying them out neatly on the computer desk. His clothes followed, either folded neatly and put away in his bureau, or hung in the closet. Then, that was it. His whole life unpacked.
It wasn’t all that Percy owned now though, thankfully. The school had been nice enough to provide the basic essentials he was missing along with a gift card so he could buy clothes and whatever other necessities he was in need of. He went out the open door and picked up a sheet and quilt set he’d left leaning against the door. Hefting it up, he sat it down on his computer chair and unzipped it to pull the blankets out.
Billy had just finished his laundry and was half carrying half dragging his laundry bag back to his room when he noticed the door to the room next to his was open. Had somebody moved in?
He quickly made his way towards the door, laundry bag in tow and peeked as quietly as he could inside. He found a young boy, roughly his age, sitting at one of the given computer desks pulling out blankets.
Billy smiled and knocked of the frame of the door. "You might want to wash those before you use them. Not that they aren't clean, but they can be pretty stiff since they're new.”
Damn. Percy had never done laundry. He looked back to the door and offered the boy there a smile. “Thank you. I take it there are laundry machines on the premises?” He nodded at the bag in the boy’s hand.
"Indeeed there is." Billy smiled and tugged on his bag for show. "Would suck to have to go into the city to do a load of pants. My name is Billy, by the way. I'm your neighbor along with my roommate Teddy.”
Percy put the bedding down and walked over to offer a hand to shake. “I’m Percy. Have you been at the school long?”
Billy shook Percy's hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Percy. I've been here a few weeks, so I at least know where some stuff is by now. Do you need any help setting up?"
He also really didn't want to fold his laundry even though he promised Teddy he would be a little neater.
“I appreciate it, but, no, thank you. I’m largely unpacked.” An easy thing to do when one owned so little. “I could do with a tour, though, if you wouldn’t mind.” Percy was accustomed to large houses and could probably manage well enough on his own, but he’d rest easier if he knew his way around sooner rather than later.
"A tour I can do!" Billy agreed happily and hoisted his bag up onto his shoulder. "Wanna let me drop this off in my room and we can get started? By the way, and get used to this question, can I ask what your talent is?”
Percy nodded and gestured to Billy to, please, lead the way. “I shapeshift into a shadow being.” It was a question, he supposed, he’d have to get used to answering. “You?”
"Whoa! Wait." Billy stopped in front of his room, opened the door and just promptly threw the bag of laundry in with out even looking. "Shadow monster? I'm afraid I am going to need more details, cause that sounds pretty awesome.”
Percy watched Billy unceremoniously chuck his bag of laundry into the room with an arch of his brow. “It’s large and frightening,” he said. “I haven’t had much opportunity to experiment with it. What’s your mutation?”
"Nothing nearly that cool." Billy held out his hand and let Percy watch as sparks came to life in his hands. "I can also kind of fly and I'm working on my magic.”
The electricity was incredible, just as cool if you asked Percy, and he was about to say as much until Billy mentioned magic. “Your what now?” he asked doubtfully. He couldn’t possibly have heard that correctly.
Billy shrugged, still not entirely sure how the whole thing really worked, but he was slowly getting there. "So, I have really temperamental magic, where it only works when it wants to, but I'm trying to figure it out. It does...stuff sometimes."
Ugh. Where was Yana to explain things when he needed her?
“Magic isn’t real. It’s simply unexplained science,” Percy said with dismissive surety.
Billy stopped short and glanced over his shoulder at the other boy with a raised eyebrow. "Ahhh, I see. You are one of those guys."
But he just smiled and gave a shrug. "Well, we'll see what you think when you actually see it in person. Also, you probably shouldn't tell a girl named Yana that, I don't think she'll take it well.”
Percy hadn’t realized there were enough people past the age of ten who still believed in magic for Percy to be one of those guys. “I’ve met Illyana. She was my lift here. Lovely girl.” He followed Billy down the hallway.
Billy frowned at that because last he checked Illyana didn't have a car and the way she mostly traveled was through her disks. He turned around to face Percy, still walking just a little slower. "Wait...are you saying she used her disks to get you here?”
Percy slowed as well so as to avoid bumping into Billy. “How else? Unless she has a pilot’s license I’m unaware of.”
"But...you don't believe in magic?" He asked, unsure as to how pit stopping in Limbo still could have people not believe in magic.
Percy was just as confused as Billy was, but for other reasons entirely. “There are already numerous theories on the existence of other planes and realities. What Illyana can do is science—Science we have yet to fully understand or explain, but science all the same.”
Billy pursed his lips in thought as he tried to see it the way Percy did, which he guessed in some crazy science logic out there that maybe Yana's disks made sense. "Okay, so if everything can be explained by science, how come magicians are still popular?”
Percy didn’t see what magicians had to do with this, but alright. “People like movies about hobbits taking rings to mountains of fire, and books about dragons. That doesn’t mean they think they’re real. The same goes for magicians. Maybe they like the mystery of it, or maybe they like to pretend for a little while that magic is real, but they know in the end it’s just illusions and slight of hand tricks.”
Billy sighed a little at that explanation, wondering why believing in magic was so hard for a lot of people around him, but he shrugged and gave a small smile. "Okay. I don't agree, but who cares. On another topic, you have an accent, are you….English?"
“I am,” Percy answered as they started down the main stairs. “I was living in London before I came here.” He missed Greyskull Keep. It had been a shithole, but it had been home.
"Oh wow. Big Ben and all that." Billy admired, holding the railing as he moved down the steps. "Is it true that it rains there all the time? Or is that just some weird thing they say?”
That was not the question Percy would have been expected to be asked about London. “It rains a moderate amount. It rains in other places more.” It had rained in Whitestone more.
"Okay. So, maybe a weird thing they say, got it." He grinned and gestured off in the direction of the cafeteria, letting Percy know it was that way.
He was an awful guide.
"How long have you been over the Atlantic? Have you at least gotten to see things before you had to come here?”
Percy made a mental note of where the dining hall was. “This is my first day and Illyana brought me straight to the school. Are you from around here?”
"Oh jeeze!" Billy turned around to stare. "You didn't even get to see the city or anything? You have been cheated, man."
He shook his head and turned the corner. "And yeah, I'm actually from the city, so the whole tons of land with nothing on it is very different for me.
To Percy, this felt more like home. “You lived in New York City? Did you like it there?” He’d liked London well enough, dirty, busy, and noisy at it had been,
"Loved it. It's still taking me some getting used to on how quiet it is here at night. I've thought about downloading those dumb 'city noise' CDs just to see if they would make me less homesick." Billy replied with a smile even if it was the truth.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try.” Percy followed Billy through the halls, glancing around now and again to take in the sights and make note of what was where should he need to find his way around later.
Billy showed him the important places, the classrooms, the kitchen, the library and others, but he had saved the best for last. "And this is the Danger Room, which is appropriately named since it's where we can practice our powers freely."
This was the part of the tour Percy had been waiting for, and expecting. A school with superpowered teens would need a place for those superpowered teens to practice safely. It was, however, just a room and he didn’t see what was so impressive in that. Perhaps it was bomb proof? “Danger Room is a rather ominous name.”
"Well, seeing as what goes on in the could be lethal, if Xavier ever let it get to the difficulty. Here." He turned to the control booth outside the room and fiddled with the switches, turning it on the lowest setting available. "They are like simulations if you want, or you can just go all out and thrash around in the empty room if that's more your style.”
Percy’s area of expertise had never been computers, but he eyed the console critically all the same. How had Professor Xavier gotten his hands on this kind of technology, and why hadn’t he shared it with the world at large?
He looked back to Billy. “We can use this whenever we want?”
"Yeah, pretty much." Billy replied, keeping it on incase Percy wanted to try. "I mean, unless someone else is using it at the time, but even then you could do team work. It helps actually working with someone else once you have a handle on your powers."
He glanced out at the room. "You wanna try?”
“Not at the moment, no. Later, perhaps.” Percy had no intention of providing a demonstration of his mutation to a near stranger. “How does it work?”
"Here, I'll show you." Billy waved him over and quickly set it so he could have Percy set it while listening to instructions.
Percy had very little in the way of personal possessions. His entire world fit into one beat-up rucksack and most of that was clothes and toiletries. The rest was the few precious things he owned—His sketchbook, a small photo of Vox Machine crammed into a photo booth, and a few books that had artfully swiped for him from unmonitored store by Vax, Vex, and, on one surprising occasion, Scanlan. Those he unpacked first, laying them out neatly on the computer desk. His clothes followed, either folded neatly and put away in his bureau, or hung in the closet. Then, that was it. His whole life unpacked.
It wasn’t all that Percy owned now though, thankfully. The school had been nice enough to provide the basic essentials he was missing along with a gift card so he could buy clothes and whatever other necessities he was in need of. He went out the open door and picked up a sheet and quilt set he’d left leaning against the door. Hefting it up, he sat it down on his computer chair and unzipped it to pull the blankets out.
Billy had just finished his laundry and was half carrying half dragging his laundry bag back to his room when he noticed the door to the room next to his was open. Had somebody moved in?
He quickly made his way towards the door, laundry bag in tow and peeked as quietly as he could inside. He found a young boy, roughly his age, sitting at one of the given computer desks pulling out blankets.
Billy smiled and knocked of the frame of the door. "You might want to wash those before you use them. Not that they aren't clean, but they can be pretty stiff since they're new.”
Damn. Percy had never done laundry. He looked back to the door and offered the boy there a smile. “Thank you. I take it there are laundry machines on the premises?” He nodded at the bag in the boy’s hand.
"Indeeed there is." Billy smiled and tugged on his bag for show. "Would suck to have to go into the city to do a load of pants. My name is Billy, by the way. I'm your neighbor along with my roommate Teddy.”
Percy put the bedding down and walked over to offer a hand to shake. “I’m Percy. Have you been at the school long?”
Billy shook Percy's hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Percy. I've been here a few weeks, so I at least know where some stuff is by now. Do you need any help setting up?"
He also really didn't want to fold his laundry even though he promised Teddy he would be a little neater.
“I appreciate it, but, no, thank you. I’m largely unpacked.” An easy thing to do when one owned so little. “I could do with a tour, though, if you wouldn’t mind.” Percy was accustomed to large houses and could probably manage well enough on his own, but he’d rest easier if he knew his way around sooner rather than later.
"A tour I can do!" Billy agreed happily and hoisted his bag up onto his shoulder. "Wanna let me drop this off in my room and we can get started? By the way, and get used to this question, can I ask what your talent is?”
Percy nodded and gestured to Billy to, please, lead the way. “I shapeshift into a shadow being.” It was a question, he supposed, he’d have to get used to answering. “You?”
"Whoa! Wait." Billy stopped in front of his room, opened the door and just promptly threw the bag of laundry in with out even looking. "Shadow monster? I'm afraid I am going to need more details, cause that sounds pretty awesome.”
Percy watched Billy unceremoniously chuck his bag of laundry into the room with an arch of his brow. “It’s large and frightening,” he said. “I haven’t had much opportunity to experiment with it. What’s your mutation?”
"Nothing nearly that cool." Billy held out his hand and let Percy watch as sparks came to life in his hands. "I can also kind of fly and I'm working on my magic.”
The electricity was incredible, just as cool if you asked Percy, and he was about to say as much until Billy mentioned magic. “Your what now?” he asked doubtfully. He couldn’t possibly have heard that correctly.
Billy shrugged, still not entirely sure how the whole thing really worked, but he was slowly getting there. "So, I have really temperamental magic, where it only works when it wants to, but I'm trying to figure it out. It does...stuff sometimes."
Ugh. Where was Yana to explain things when he needed her?
“Magic isn’t real. It’s simply unexplained science,” Percy said with dismissive surety.
Billy stopped short and glanced over his shoulder at the other boy with a raised eyebrow. "Ahhh, I see. You are one of those guys."
But he just smiled and gave a shrug. "Well, we'll see what you think when you actually see it in person. Also, you probably shouldn't tell a girl named Yana that, I don't think she'll take it well.”
Percy hadn’t realized there were enough people past the age of ten who still believed in magic for Percy to be one of those guys. “I’ve met Illyana. She was my lift here. Lovely girl.” He followed Billy down the hallway.
Billy frowned at that because last he checked Illyana didn't have a car and the way she mostly traveled was through her disks. He turned around to face Percy, still walking just a little slower. "Wait...are you saying she used her disks to get you here?”
Percy slowed as well so as to avoid bumping into Billy. “How else? Unless she has a pilot’s license I’m unaware of.”
"But...you don't believe in magic?" He asked, unsure as to how pit stopping in Limbo still could have people not believe in magic.
Percy was just as confused as Billy was, but for other reasons entirely. “There are already numerous theories on the existence of other planes and realities. What Illyana can do is science—Science we have yet to fully understand or explain, but science all the same.”
Billy pursed his lips in thought as he tried to see it the way Percy did, which he guessed in some crazy science logic out there that maybe Yana's disks made sense. "Okay, so if everything can be explained by science, how come magicians are still popular?”
Percy didn’t see what magicians had to do with this, but alright. “People like movies about hobbits taking rings to mountains of fire, and books about dragons. That doesn’t mean they think they’re real. The same goes for magicians. Maybe they like the mystery of it, or maybe they like to pretend for a little while that magic is real, but they know in the end it’s just illusions and slight of hand tricks.”
Billy sighed a little at that explanation, wondering why believing in magic was so hard for a lot of people around him, but he shrugged and gave a small smile. "Okay. I don't agree, but who cares. On another topic, you have an accent, are you….English?"
“I am,” Percy answered as they started down the main stairs. “I was living in London before I came here.” He missed Greyskull Keep. It had been a shithole, but it had been home.
"Oh wow. Big Ben and all that." Billy admired, holding the railing as he moved down the steps. "Is it true that it rains there all the time? Or is that just some weird thing they say?”
That was not the question Percy would have been expected to be asked about London. “It rains a moderate amount. It rains in other places more.” It had rained in Whitestone more.
"Okay. So, maybe a weird thing they say, got it." He grinned and gestured off in the direction of the cafeteria, letting Percy know it was that way.
He was an awful guide.
"How long have you been over the Atlantic? Have you at least gotten to see things before you had to come here?”
Percy made a mental note of where the dining hall was. “This is my first day and Illyana brought me straight to the school. Are you from around here?”
"Oh jeeze!" Billy turned around to stare. "You didn't even get to see the city or anything? You have been cheated, man."
He shook his head and turned the corner. "And yeah, I'm actually from the city, so the whole tons of land with nothing on it is very different for me.
To Percy, this felt more like home. “You lived in New York City? Did you like it there?” He’d liked London well enough, dirty, busy, and noisy at it had been,
"Loved it. It's still taking me some getting used to on how quiet it is here at night. I've thought about downloading those dumb 'city noise' CDs just to see if they would make me less homesick." Billy replied with a smile even if it was the truth.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try.” Percy followed Billy through the halls, glancing around now and again to take in the sights and make note of what was where should he need to find his way around later.
Billy showed him the important places, the classrooms, the kitchen, the library and others, but he had saved the best for last. "And this is the Danger Room, which is appropriately named since it's where we can practice our powers freely."
This was the part of the tour Percy had been waiting for, and expecting. A school with superpowered teens would need a place for those superpowered teens to practice safely. It was, however, just a room and he didn’t see what was so impressive in that. Perhaps it was bomb proof? “Danger Room is a rather ominous name.”
"Well, seeing as what goes on in the could be lethal, if Xavier ever let it get to the difficulty. Here." He turned to the control booth outside the room and fiddled with the switches, turning it on the lowest setting available. "They are like simulations if you want, or you can just go all out and thrash around in the empty room if that's more your style.”
Percy’s area of expertise had never been computers, but he eyed the console critically all the same. How had Professor Xavier gotten his hands on this kind of technology, and why hadn’t he shared it with the world at large?
He looked back to Billy. “We can use this whenever we want?”
"Yeah, pretty much." Billy replied, keeping it on incase Percy wanted to try. "I mean, unless someone else is using it at the time, but even then you could do team work. It helps actually working with someone else once you have a handle on your powers."
He glanced out at the room. "You wanna try?”
“Not at the moment, no. Later, perhaps.” Percy had no intention of providing a demonstration of his mutation to a near stranger. “How does it work?”
"Here, I'll show you." Billy waved him over and quickly set it so he could have Percy set it while listening to instructions.
