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

[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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Slightly disappointing."

Maya would try to focus on the people in the chaos of the orientation day, but there were too many new voices for her to try to fix on one to talk to. It was easier to find familiar sounds among the returning students. She was hoping Lydia and that incredible intellect of her's found some new interesting folks.

"Same as usual, Music and Archery, I'm thinking of Drama or Martial Arts to help with some of the classes I'm not doing so well in. Or dance, or..." Maya sighed, which for the social cue relayed to Lydia to hear, "I didn't get a good look at the tables before it got really loud."

Lydia can't help but smile faintly. She's not terribly worried about people here seeing her talking to seemingly no one. The Academy has all kinds of people who can communicate at a distance. But still...

"You know, it might help if you walked up to people to talk to them. I know it's not as easy, but you might freak some of the newbies out a little."

"I have, I just started getting a bit... dizzy, and moved off to the side and spent a while focusing all my attention to the sound of anyone walking in heels."

Maya would have liked to walk up and mingle, but by her count she could make about fifteen to twenty minutes in the center of the room, and a lot longer on the edges. So with people who were used to her just talking to them at range, it was better to just... stay at the edges.

"Also, as far as freaky things to get used to, me talking without moving my lips is a bit easier to handle than finding you all zoned out in an empty lightless classroom. Better they learn now."

"Oh my god, Maya, you only found me like that once."

With a roll of her eyes, Lydia solves the problem by heading in the other girl's direction and settling next to her. "You know what? This ya we're going to figure out a way to get it under control so you don't have to constantly skirt away from crowds."

"Once is plenty for that," Maya opened her mouth this time, with Lydia being over by her it's only polite. And between the two of them Lydia was creepier, so she didn't need to be purposefully weird.

"How? The world doesn't get any quieter just because I really want it too. And your little trick doesn't actually help." Maya adjusted up the protections on her headphones. With Lydia so close, and a conversation to focus on, she didn't need to rely on the headgear to protect her right now. "And it isn't all crowds, just really really loud ones. Like orientation day, and New York City, and airports..."

Okay, so maybe she could use the help getting this under control.

"Don't know yet." Lydia replies frankly. "It may not be a matter of internal control, but external application." Translation: maybe something needs to be engineered.

Maya taps her headphones, "What do you think these are? They upgraded the models from the ones I had last year, but the limits are distance, not levels. So in the center of the room I'm still surrounded by the soundwaves from... that," she gestures to the room full of people milling about.

"I take them off for a little while every day to work on personal control, but it's kinda like jumping into a pool full of tiny razor blades."

"If you're still huddling at the outskirts of any large group of people, they're not doing much good. Maybe this year we - and by we, I mean any of the kids who are hot to trot for engineering - can do better. And yes, there still is working on your own personal control too."

Lydia shrugs. "Its up to you, Maya. But I do get that it's hard." Says the girl who went through many frustrating months learning how her own abilities worked.

"I can do fine out in the real world, orientation day is just... you know, stressful. I've been in louder places, but I usually have something to focus on and keep from getting drowned in all the stuff. Like concerts and recitals, even if the whole audience is making noise I can focus on the music..."

There were other reasons, she wasn't fond to talk about Cam. And eventually anyone would snap at the fifteenth question about the headphones and the 20th Chobits reference. Statistically the chances someone will introduce themselves to her before they do it for twenty other people is pretty much zero. "Also the last time I went to the science club they suggested surgery."

"C'mon now, surgery was just one option, and you didn't give any of us a chance to come up with alternatives." Lydia replies, maybe a little defensively. "I'm thinking maybe tweaking the tech until it's the size of a hearing aid. I'd have to talk to a few of the others. At least let us put it on the board as a project?"

"I'm fine with them being over the ears, I'd like them to be more effective not smaller. And hearing aids send the wrong signals. Unless it looks like one of those secret service earbud things."

Maya glanced over at Lydia for a few more moments and sighed, "Fine. But no surgery, anyone suggests a 'little brain surgery' and the whole club can listen to polka for a month as I practice my powers."

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

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