[Mingle-Log] Only non-alcoholic beverages in the punch bowl...

[adminfury]

[This is an open mingle log. You do not have to be part of the community to post in this thread. Consider it a test-drive of sorts to get your voice or meet new characters!]



SHIELD Academy
Open House
Everyone is congregated in the spacious auditorium of the SHIELD Academy. The noise level is probably a decibel below deafening and the lights are probably a little dimmer than what might seem normal for this time in the evening, but it doesn't seem to bother anyone as they just carry on. There are banners strewn about welcoming all first years to a new chapter in their lives while others welcome the others back for another year at the Academy. Refreshments are served up on stage while other tables set up around the massive room are home to pamphlets and flyers for clubs and classes. Special electives and advertisements for training sessions are also littered amongst the tables.

Make a few friends, find old ones, look into clubs that catch your interest. This is open house for all returning students and prospective students, so hang out, hit up others and just mingle!

Comments

[spiderette]

Natasha manages not to spill her drink all over the senior she'd been casually chatting with and she's frowning as she turns, but her expression flits to one of puzzlement when she catches sight of who jostled her. She lets her gaze drag down him, as if confused by something.

"It's fine. This place is way too crowded, so it's inevitable, I think," she answered, then let her gaze come back to his face, her brow furrowed faintly. "Did you change clothes?"

[vates]

Oh. Kevin waves her off.

"You met my brother. I'm Kevin." He leaves out the fact that they're twins because obviously that's implied; they're pretty identical, though Kevin likes to think they have distinctive ways of carrying themselves and looking at the world.

[spiderette]

That clears up her confusion pretty quickly, her expression brightening again. "Oh. Good to know I'm not going crazy. My mistake. Sorry about that. Nice to meet you, Kevin," she holds her hand out to him in greeting. "I'm Natasha."

[vates]

"No, not crazy. We get that a lot." Or at least when they both show up somewhere where people aren't clued into the fact that they're twins. They really ought to pull some shenanigans sometime.

He shakes her hand and is again somewhat relieved to find that someone is being nice to him instead of saying ew freshmen and... moving him out of their way with their mind or whatever it is people do here.

"Hi. So what year are you? Sam and I just transferred. We're sophomores."

[spiderette]

"Third. Junior. Same difference," she grins, waving a hand dismissively. "Everyone mingles pretty easily outside of class, though, so don't let that bother you. And you might get it more here. We all have our fair share of crazy here, but it's usually the fun kind. You been exploring yet or are you freshly arrived?"

[vates]

"I haven't gone exploring yet, no. I'm mostly just trying to figure out more about what this place is and how it works."

Kevin bites his lip, the lowers his voice a little.

"This isn't the kind of place that experiments on the students, is it? Like something out of bad sci-fi?"

[spiderette]

Natasha laughs at that. "Oh, you've been listening to the rumors already, have you?" she asked with a grin, giving him an impish look for a moment before shaking her head. "Nah, nothing like that, unless you count the SAT's which might be worse than torture and lab experiments, according to some. Or if it is, then they've been real subtle about it," she adds, looking thoughtful as she taps her fingertip against her chin.

[vates]

Kevin narrows his eyes. She's pretty lighthearted about that suggestion, which he guesses makes sense if all of it is bogus, but even still, she's not really doing a good job of making him feel a whole lot better.

"But do they -- I mean, they have to be curious about what makes people tick, right? The... special people." Kevin didn't really go into this with a plan to broadcast his powers, but he's afraid he isn't doing a very good job of keeping it quiet, here.

[spiderette]

"For the most part, they're more focused on training us so we don't accidentally blowing up a city or something," she counters with a shrug. "They learn about it that way, by helping us learn to hone what we are or what we have, and then how to control it."

"So, since you brought it up, what flavor of special snowflake are you?"

[vates]

Uh oh. Kevin had thought this wouldn't be an uncommon topic of conversation, especially among new people, but then he can't really use "but I'm afraid of people with powers" as an excuse because then he sounds like a bigoted idiot. Admittedly he was leaning on the hope that she would just assume he's clueless, but now that's out.

"Um. It's not really even all that great. I'm not going to blow up a city anytime soon. If you need me to translate something, I can probably do it if you give me some Excedrin."

[spiderette]

"Excedrin?" She picks up on that comment, mulls it over as she nods. She's been keeping track of what most of her classmates can do and how it affects them. Nothing comes easily or without a cost. "The mental strain, I'm guessing? That should get easier if you train it and learn to focus it. Translation, huh? Written or spoken or both? That's useful if you ever wanna travel anywhere."

[vates]

He nods; it's the mental strain. It gives him nosebleeds too. None of it is very fun for him, honestly.

"Written is easier. I can do spoken, but it's harder, and it takes longer." And it wears him out faster, too. Being able to work with the text, translating, taking notes, that's all a big part of it.

"It'll be more useful once I'm able to get through a page without feeling sick."

[spiderette]

"If anyone here can teach you how to use it, it's SHIELD. They have a couple teachers who are really good at that sort of thing. Some people here need a lot of focus and concentration for what they do." She gives him a sympathetic look. "The side effects suck at the start though."