 |
 |
 |
| Laws of Attraction | |
|---|---|
| Participants | Julian Laura Lorna |
| Synopsis | Laura and Lorna are polar opposites with a certain attraction, too bad Julian didn't get his camera out in time. |
| Location | Xavier School |
| Time | January 12, 2016 |
| Posted By | Lorna |
It's the evening and the school day is winding down more and more rapidly. Younger students have already retreated to their dorm rooms. Others mill about or work on homework in various corners, stretching out the day as much as they can before they simply must go to bed. Laura, for the most part, has been keeping to her usual routine: avoid as many people as she can and keep the socializing to a bare, necessary minimum. It's not that she's particularly unfriendly. She can be social when the situation calls for it. But she finds social interactions to be awkward at times. She doesn't like head games at all. And she's not particularly eloquent if caught up in an argument or disagreement.
She's left the kitchen after fetching a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of water and bounds up the stairwell, dodging a pair of students heading in the other direction. Booted feet thump heavily against the carpeted steps, heralding her approach to the second floor landing. She's in black jeans, combat boots and her favourite, black, long-sleeved t-shirt: the one with the word 'MISANTHROPE' sprawling up the left arm in white.
The thumping of the boots is a good enough warning for the green haired Sophomore to back against the wall. Lorna is clad in a pair of painted on jeans, wedge heeled ugg boots, and one of her own favorite t-shirts: a purple wrap around with a tie at the side, it doesn't have a logo she just likes it because it's super comfortable. Her own routine has been fairly simplistic, doodle heart all over a notebook through classes, doodle more hearts all over her notebook through meals, and then spend most of the evening texting some of her friends in the city.
At the time Laura comes bounding into her line of sight, she's just finished firing off a text and she slides down the wall to sink to a sitting position on one of the steps. Not the perfect place for a busy stairwell but her lime green hair usually keeps her pretty visible. Giving the other girl a brilliant smile, she lifts her hand in a wave. "Hi Laura, how are things?" She's going to be pleasant and sociable and it's one of her resolutions to get the other girl into a real conversation. After all, they're neighbours.
Laura might have kept her upward jog right down to the west wing of the second floor if Lorna hadn't drawn attention to herself, both physically and verbally. Especially the verbally part. If it wasn't for Lorna greeting her, she -might- have considered the option of 'just keep on going'. But that's not because she doesn't like the green-haired girl; quite the opposite, really. It's just more a case of it being her 'default' for more situations. And so, she slows her jog to a walk and eventually a stop near the wall that Lorna sits against. "Hey, Lorna." A shoulder hitches upward before she adds, "Oh, you know. Same old, same old. You?"
Smiling, Lorna tilts her chin upward to the other young woman and nods. "Oh, I made a new year's resolution to actually get through a semester without dropping most of my classes. So I'm not really sure if it's good or bad." The little twinkle in her eyes suggests that she might be joking about the bad part. Maybe. "How about you? Have you made any resolutions? I think I have a list longer than my arm." Not that her arm is really long, not like that poor kid that drags his knuckles everywhere, but…
Shaking her head, Laura replies with a slight chuckle, "I'd say sticking with anything has to be a good thing, right? Well, at least something like classes. Isn't like they're going to hurt you if you do stick with them." She considers the resolution question and gives a bit of a derisive snort. "Uh, no way. I don't like getting stuck in some false promise to myself I know I'm never going to keep. Besides, making resolutions is so… trendy, right? And you know I prefer to go against the grain by now, don't you?" Yes, she's mostly joking, but the dark-haired one is well aware of how she comes across to people. She'd chalk it up to the idea that it's just how she is and tries not to be too apologetic about it. "What sorts of things did you resolve to do?" She moves to lean back against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest and a booted foot raised to lean back against the wall as well, her knee raised and jutting out.
And now coming out of the East Wing is a dashing young lad who has already managed to acquire quite a reputation in his short time being here - granted, that reputation runs the gamut from 'cool guy' to 'complete douche', but hey. It's attention, and he'll take it. Julian comes sauntering along the hallway, heading out onto the landing as if he could very well own the place. He's dressed in his oh-so-dangerously-cool leather jacket, and is spinning his keys around a finger, absently getting them faster and faster as he walks. Spotting the two lovely ladies hanging out on the steps, the key spinning stops abruptly with a jingle, and he offers a rakish grin, which is aimed just a little more for Lorna than Laura. "Evening, ladies."
"Oh, you know, the usual." Lorna clicks a few buttons on her cell phone and pulls up her list, scrolling through it. "Make it through a full set of classes for at least one semester. Lose five pounds. Some other stuff, that you probably don't want to know about… And get more autographs for my collection. I already have one more." At this, Lorna beams a gigantic smile. She wore a bikini top in the middle of winter to get it, so for now it's the pride and joy of her collection. "But seriously, if resolutions are trendy and the usual thing is to drop them, wouldn't the opposite of that be to actually keep them? I mean, no resolutions is un-American, or something." Yes, that's our Lorna, true patriot for the ol' Red White and Blue.
The jangle of keys and the grin aimed in her direction causes Lorna's eyebrow to quirk just a little. Facing the teen, her smile doesn't waver for a second and in true cheer leader fashion she raises her hand and gives him a wave. "Hi there, are you new? I'm Lorna. This is Laura." She's assuming that Laura doesn't know the boy either, after all, no gossip has reached her ears… yet.
At first, the dark-haired girl hears the keys before Lorna and might even recognize the sound of the footfalls. She hopes she is wrong. Instead of focusing on that sound, she comments to the green-haired one, "Wait, what? Lose five pounds? From -where-, exactly? Have you -looked- in a mirror? And wait… what autograph did you get?" She pauses, then holds up a single finger, waggling it. "Oh no you don't. You're not getting me with that reverse psychology psycho-babble or whatever. And let it be un-American. When have I ever cared about doing what everyone else does?"
Now she cocks her head slightly to the side, focusing on something. The key-jingle comes closer. Hearing that familiar voice makes Laura close her eyes a moment as she forcibly squashes the urge to just leave. Their last few meetings have not gone the best and she's since been avoiding him more than anyone else in the school. Reopening her eyes, she glances over at him standing there with that rakish grin and smarmy attitude and for a moment, she doesn't even quite know what to say. What she -does- end up saying is not 'hi', nor 'hello', not even a 'get lost, creep!' No, she merely mutters by way of a greeting, "Julian." Period. End of statement. It's not cold. It's not warm. It just is. For anyone listening to her, there's obviously something behind her response. She then casts a glance to the more social girl and adds, "Yeah, we've met."
Julian casts a brief glance over at Laura and her lukewarm greeting. His feelings are a little harder to read, and there's almost some amusement at her response. Still, given the choice between the woman talking to him like she's he's mother after he went skinny dipping in the middle of a wedding reception, and the one playing cheerleader, well. Lorna gains his attention back and his smile becomes even more beaming. "Why yes, I am new. Wonderful to meet you, Lorna. I'm Julian, as you may have gathered." He goes ahead and introduces himself again, with just a dismissive gesture towards Laura. This is equal parts chatting up the hot one he hasn't met, and seeing how Laura reacts to being ignored thus. He leans back against the railing, still a few steps above the ladies, and apparently postponing his plans to go out. Making it that much more likely he'll be out past curfew.
"Lose five pounds from-" And the green haired woman falls a little silent and gives the sullen little lady a pointed look that says 'Tell you ALL about it later.' She's not completely oblivious to the silent non-communication between the other two in the conversation, in fact it just makes her a little bit uncomfortable. She doesn't ask though, just in case one of them got caught doing the walk of shame. It's possible, even though the teen looks like jail bait. "Pleased to meet you Julian, how do you like it here so far?" Lorna gets up from her seated position to hold her hand out for a shake, though she does stick rather close to the brunette's side. So close in fact that her little personal bubble might just get in the way of Laura's.
The fact that Julian actually somewhat ignores her seems to allow Laura to relax a bit. Enough that she doesn't notice Lorna getting a little too close for comfort. She merely nods about learning where she's going to lose that five pounds from at a later date and watches Lorna and Julian introduce themselves to each other. She's too busy paying attention to notice that Lorna's actually gotten close enough to her for a certain magnetic field to interrupt with her adamantium-laced skeleton. There's a moment of Laura freezing with realization as she feels that there's something 'just not right'. A little, "Uh, Lorna—?" escapes her lips until all hell breaks loose. Laura is suddenly -launched- away from the green-haired girl hard enough to slide along the wall to the top of the stairs rather abruptly. "SHIT!" she cries out, scrabbling for the banister so she doesn't get launched -down- the stairs.
But now Julian is suddenly quite interested in Lorna's weight loss plan. "Go on," he urges with a grin, probably joking, but maybe not. It's an excuse to give her a good once over, as if trying to figure out which particular bit might be the bit in question. Though he's really not seeing any obvious cause for complaint here. He leans in to shake the offered hand, perhaps a little closer than strictly necessary, though only just barely. "I'd say things are looking up," he notes with a knowing look. "In fact-" But he doesn't get the chance to complete that thought, since weird things are suddenly going on. "What the hell?" While he thought ignoring Laura might earn some reaction, it certainly wasn't that she'd launch herself down the stairs to get his attention. Because that's the first natural conclusion his mind jumps to. He reaches a hand towards her instinctively, far too late to actually nab her, but - a split-second later, a glowing green disk appears that the top of the stairs, forming a solid barrier across the top of them, should she attempt to actually pitch herself down.
Horror, that's the expression on Lorna's face. When Laura almost flies down the stairs, a startled squeal is let off from the green haired woman. "Oh shi-crap! Laura I'm sorry!" Then she tries a few things, first, she tries to turn it off… but it doesn't quite work, instead she reverses the field. Rather than the metal skeleton being attracted to her, she goes flying in the same direction until WHAP!! She hits Laura, their bodies stuck together like a fly to flypaper. If Lorna wasn't at such an awkward angle it might actually make for a good photograph. "Shield… off…" she manages through her clenched teeth and with the sudden attraction missing, she drops to the wood below in a little heap. "Sorry, sorry Laura… I didn't think."
In the process of being launched, Laura pops her claws automatically with a -SNIKT!-, trying to gain purchase in anything she can. Sure, she won't break any bones if she falls, but damn, it would still hurt like a bitch going down. Her left set of claws suddenly dig into the hard, wooden paneling of the wall, slicing through the substance like butter. Laura's thankfully lost her momentum, catching herself with the banister, but her balance is certainly tedious at best. So as the green disk appears at the top of the stairs, preventing her from actually falling, the dark-haired girl actually manages to push herself off of it. Her claws disengage from the wall and snap back into her knuckles by reflex. Despite all of their fights, despite what she might think of him, Laura actually looks over to Julian immediately and says in a bit of a wavering voice, "Thanks, Julia—" Her thank-you is cut short because she's suddenly nearly bowled over this time, rather bodily, by Lorna. She lets out a low, "Oof," and teeters a bit. Thankfully, she was already trying to steady herself and her center of gravity is fairly low, so she isn't knocked over. It's a good thing, however, that she snapped her claws away… otherwise, poor Lorna -might- have just gotten herself skewered in the process. As Lorna crumples to the floor, Laura quickly moves away from her, putting the banister between her and the floor below, just in case. "It's… it's okay…" But she seems kind of shaken just the same.
"Seriously, what the fuck?" Julian wonders to … no one, since everyone is apparently in the mood to go lemming-like down the stairs. But hey, he's not going to complain when it leads to two hot chicks stuck together. The green disk still very much there (he's only looking out for their safety!), as he scrambles to dig his phone out of his pocket, but alas, it's too late, and Lorna's already on the floor in a heap. Despite his lecherous thoughts, it's only once he's quite sure everyone's got their balance again that the disk disappears and he starts heading in their direction - at a leisurely pace, rather than throwing himself after them too. "Well, that was fun," he notes with wry amusement, gallantly offering Lorna a hand up as he nears them. "And you're welcome," is added to Laura, as he glances over at her. "This is quality wood. Can't have you scratching it all up." But it's spoken lightly enough. Bygones might not be bygones, but he's willing to roll with it and be friendly. An eyebrow arches as he looks between them, wondering if either of them would like to explain.
Thank god for small mercies and say a little extra prayer for all the kittens in the world because Lorna didn't end up as a shishkebab. She's still pretty stunned by the time Julian saunters up and is breathing rather heavily, just on this side of hyperventilating. Slowly, she reaches up and clasps Julian's hand and pulls herself to a stand. "Thanks Julian, you're a lifesaver." Really, he's the hero in the situation, Laura's the unfortunate victim, and Lorna's the villain. "I-it's not her fault, it's all mine. I should have been paying more attention. I just got careless… again." Now she's on the verge of tears, it was a perfect day until she ruined it. Ever the emotional Lorna pulls up her big girl panties and sniffs deeply, pursing her lips tightly together. When Julian gives them the 'professor' look as he waits for an explanation, Lorna just clams up. The fact that she accidentally used an ability against a fellow student… yikes.
Glancing over at Julian as he accepts the half-finished thanks rather gracefully. That actually surprises her somewhat and she even waits a moment to see if there's some comeback line that will ruin it all. But it just doesn't come. He helps Lorna up and he semi-razzes her for the holes in the wall, but that's it? Hey, if he can play nice, so can she. Sighing, she scratches the back of her head absently, looking to be at a bit of a loss. "Uh, yeah. I'll… well, I'll fess up to the Professor later about it." Looking over to Lorna as she seems about three seconds from a nuclear meltdown, she immediately snaps-to and moves back over tot he girl. "Hey, hey… relax. No one was hurt. And it was a total accident. Remember… even if I fell, it wouldn't be a big deal, okay? Seriously. Remember, I wouldn't be that hurt. I've told you that before." A little more quietly but just as desperately, she adds, "I… honestly, I should have been more careful with where I was standing. I didn't ask if it was on or not. Totally not your fault, okay?" She's babbling a bit, really trying hard to prevent the other girl from crying. As she clams up, she looks back to Julian and replies, "It's her powers… and that they just kind of don't get along with mine." She's being vague because she's not sure how much Lorna wants to share with people.
"Hey now. When the day comes that two beautiful ladies can't jump one another in my presence, that's the day I will throw myself down the stairs," Julian offers by way of comfort, although this time he really does seem to be (mostly) joking. As he gets the explanation from Laura, he nods with understanding. "And whose powers haven't flipped out once in awhile. Man, when I think of all the shit I broke when I was figuring out mine…" Of course, he seems to remember those days fondly. Oh, to break that china again, sigh. Back to the matter at hand: "You can't tell me this Professor built a house of mutants and doesn't expect it to get a little banged up. It's totally an insurance write off." He waves a dismissive hand. "Don't even give it a second thought." Taking a step back, he claps his hands together at chest height. "Though if you both really want to argue over whose fault it is, I insist we do it in the form of a pillow fight. Pyjamas are required." See? It's so not a big deal, he can joke about it.
"Or they get along too well… It all depends which way the polarity is switched." The former model rubs her left elbow gingerly and heaves a long sigh. She does feel a little better after Laura's pep talk, Julian's earns a little nose wrinkle of distaste, until he delves a little further. Lorna smiles over at Laura and shrugs her shoulders helplessly, "I guess he's right, I mean, we can't all be professors overnight. Right?" The woman finally relaxes enough to actually laugh at the joke (joke?) at the end and nods, "Yeah, sure. No one is seeing me in my flannels, I don't care how great they are." Don't judge, New York winters are cold, and flannel is very very warm. "So, you do green force fields or something? I uhm… do polar/magnet… stuff. I can't really explain it." Then, with a blink, she looks around, then down, then winces. "Oh no… not another phone." It's the fourth one she's broken in as many months. "Maybe I should make a resolution to make a phone last more than a few days."
As Julian makes the crack about beautiful ladies jumping on each other in front of him, Laura shoots him a bit of a -look-, as if to say, 'now is not the time.' But she doesn't comment. Instead, she says, "Well, I promised the Professor I'd report any damage I did to the place. He can't get it fixed if he doesn't know about it, right?" And considering he's in a wheelchair, he's not exactly going to be hanging around on the stairs to see it. She offers a bit of a smile to Lorna, rare as it might be, about how their powers might just get along too well in some cases. "Right. We can't be at the level of the Professor. But Julian's got a point, Lorna. We've all had moments where we lose control." This is why Laura is usually so uptight — because if she loses control, someone could -die-. But she doesn't mention that. Instead, she offers a bit of a sympathetic smile and echoes Julian, "Seriously, Lorna… don't give it a second thought. No harm, no foul. You just caught me off-guard, that's all. So yeah… we're all good then?" Really, she's pretty forgiving about nearly being launched down the stairs, but all things considered, she can afford to be. However, as Julian goes on about PJs and pillow fights, she really does give him a 'look' and rolls her eyes at him. She's still playing nice, but she has her limits. To add to Lorna's explanation, she adds to Julian, "Yeah, so… the whole magnetic thing and an adamantium-laced skeleton… explains things a bit?"
Oh, come on! He's joking! And now resolving to make sure this place learns how to lighten up. Clearly he was brought here on an even greater mission than saving lives. For now, he just raises his hands in mock surrender, cocking his head to one side. "Fine. No pillow fights. Trust me, you'll regret it later." Moving on then, to his second favourite topic - himself. "It's telekinesis, actually. Can do a bunch of things with it. Including being a lifesaver, apparently." He grins, not at all modest about that one. "Magnetism, metal. Yeah, I might have slept through science class, but I think I get it. It's still pretty hot though. Could take that show on the road." He glances over, grimacing a bit as Lorna realizes the state of her phone. "Bummer." It's not without sympathy, despite its glibness. Cell phones are vital!
Lorna picks up the cell phone and shakes it a few times, maybe it'll work with the bit of jostling. The screen flickers once or twice but it pretty much remains dead in her hands. "I'll just have to go to the city tomorrow after class and get a new one. I can't be out of touch until the weekend, that's just inhuman." The poor woman is so reliant on the little bit of technology, she does everything on it. Then her eyes flit toward Julian, "Telekinesis? Really? Like moving stuff around with your mind? That's pretty neat. I can move a few things around too." Laura for one…
"Anyway, I'd better find a payphone or something around here. I have a million friends to call before lights out." And maybe a celebrity crush or five, but who's to say. Then the lightbulb comes on over her head as she regards Julian for a moment. "Hey, are you actually going out tonight?" He was jingling his keys earlier, wasn't he? Or were they just for show.
Laura lets Julian go on a bit about the pillow fights and about himself, but as he goes on about the idea that the whole magnetism thing is 'hot', she sighs heavily through her nose in a near-snort. "Seriously, Julian… one-track-minded much?" she finally mutters lowly, unable to let it go. This is -just- what she was trying to talk to him about before they very nearly came to blows in the laundry room… and the boathouse, in fact, before she stormed off. But that's all she says. Shaking her head, she looks at Lorna and says, "I'm going to scram. If you want to talk more about stuff from earlier, you know where to find me. And about your cellphone… you should ask around if there are any tech-wizzes here. There's got to be -someone- who can fix that thing for you." Luckily, she wasn't carrying her own when she got too close to the magnetic field. She does kind of arch an eyebrow up as she asks Julian about going out, but she says nothing. With that, she shoves her hands in her pants' pockets and unless anyone stops her, she seems about to turn on a booted heel to head toward the west wing…
"I can't help it if you're both quite distracting," Julian points out, raising his hands in a show of helplessness. That's right, his one-track mind is their fault, but he's not going to hold that against them. He's a giver like that. He looks back to Lorna with a grin, nodding. "It's very neat. I'd love to see what you can do sometime." Is there innuendo there? He'd have a hard time saying that sentence without any. He doesn't seem inclined to stop Laura, just giving her a little jerk of his chin in farewell. At least this time no one has tried to kill anyone, so probably best to quit while he's ahead anyway. Besides, Lorna distracts him with her question and he turns back with a winning grin. "I was planning on it. Why? You want to come along?" He just laughs in the face of curfew, really. Of course, he'll probably have to pay for it in detention later, but no matter.
Raising her hand in a wave as Laura retreats, Lorna gives her a big smile. "Yeah, maybe you can come to my room later? Or we can catch up tomorrow. Maybe go out and practice or something. Not practicing pillow fights, but I was thinking about something earlier and I think it might work." Then she turns toward Julian and shakes her head, "I'd love to go, but I have a metric ton of homework to do and I haven't really been the best student around here. I need to pull my marks up out of the gutter before one of the professors actually makes good on the threat of taking away all my weekend privileges, then where would I be? Completely without a social life." Heaven forbid. But she gives him a little wink as she turns to follow Laura up the stairs, her hand raising to give the teen a small wave. "It was great meeting you though, really, you're too cute."
