[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

Gale Hawthorne | The Hunger Games

[ensared]

Another year, another welcome party. Gale didn't see much point in it; it generally seemed to leave a lot of the freshmen looking more overwhelmed than anything, and frankly, it got tiring seeing the same stuff every single year. He hardly even glanced at most of the pamphlets being shoved at him, though a few of the new clubs and classes managed to catch his eye.

After a visit to the refreshments table, he walked around the hall for a bit, not really being sociable but at least pretending to. Once that got boring enough, he'd just stay out of the way or head outside to get away from the crowd.

[anythingwithstrings]

"It'd be more realistic if you stopped to talk with people."

Maya was sitting on one of the tables, songbook balanced on her knees but she wasn't writing at the moment. She was looking right at Gale as she threw her voice. Her lips weren't moving but the room had enough noise for her to do this. Most of the people from last year were aware of her... quirks.

Maya wasn't really bothered too much by the gaps in grades, this mostly had to do with the fact that she heard a lot with her powers and generally it just didn't feel that important. But she didn't have anything else to say, but from how weary she looked the room was probably a bit too... active, for her.

[ensared]

It had only been a year, but even Gale had gotten used to this particular oddity of attending school here. He turned until he spotted her, leveling her an unimpressed gaze when he did.

"And add to the noise? No thanks." Besides, he could already tell she was starting to get tired of the show herself. If he wanted to be sociable, he could do it later, at the after party. This whole welcome thing wasn't really doing it for him.

[anythingwithstrings]

"It'll be more convincing, I'm sure we're being graded for something being here. I have an excuse."

Gale wasn't exactly the most social of students, Maya would be if she wasn't trapped to the edges while she worked through the mental fortitude to make herself more capable in social situations. The chaos of this orientation was just a bit beyond her usual, "If I fainted, you could carry me out of here and we could part ways until this all ends?

[ensared]

"Can't handle it?" To anyone who didn't know him, he might sound taunting. But Gale knew about Maya's powers and if all of this was starting to irritate him, it was definitely taking a toll on her. "If you need to get out, you know I'll help."

[anythingwithstrings]

"I'm fine. I simply meant we could get, I dunno, extra credit if we came up with a ruse to get out of here instead of just leaving."

There was a little bite to her words as she crafted them in the din of the party. She'd stuck herself to the edges of the room to keep in the room, and she knew her limits. At the same time it would be so much easier to just go anywhere but here.

She was just avoiding swanning off like a diva. At the same time she did faint during last year's orientation.

[ensared]

"Maybe, or maybe it's too easy an excuse. They could see right through it."

Not that he would be against leaving this thing. There was supposed to be a shindig going down for the juniors and seniors later; he'd want to be in a good mood for that, instead of annoyed by the crowds. A break might not be a bad idea, for both of them.

[anythingwithstrings]

"We would need to sell it properly, if we did it. You also need to turn... about twenty degrees to your left and take two steps forward. That way the cameras can't catch your lip movements."

Maya's mouth didn't move, and she was purposefully cutting short the soundwaves from their conversation to eliminate eavesdropping. They had figured out a few ways to prevent Maya from overhearing certain parts of the school's offices, but there zero successes at overhearing Maya when she didn't want to be overheard.

"I'd need to be in the right situation for it to be convincing, fake my attack before I actually succumb to the stresses of the sound levels, and you need to get to me first and carry me from the room like you're genuinely concerned. Then we head off wherever we want after we're out of direct line of sight of, well, any staff in the auditorium. Otherwise we're just slacking..."

[ensared]

"Or I could be talking to myself, grumbling about how boring this whole thing is," Gale said pointedly, though he does turn anyway, skimming his eyes across the scene with an air of disinterest to sell it properly. It wasn't hard to do. And he'd been wandering around aimlessly the entire time he'd been here, so making his way over there - especially with that girl advertising an archery club nearby - wouldn't be all to easy.

[anythingwithstrings]

"I don't know the exact specifications of the security cameras, they could be able to make out your lip movements."

Maya kept her head down and looking at her book. Playing with her hair absently, she needed to make it look accidental when she dialed down her headphones. Which would make her keeling over more realistic... because if she did accidentally dial down her headphones she'd be unconscious in the space of a few minutes.

"I'll give you a countdown, when I hit zero be looking at me. Ten..."

Maya turned down her headphones at around four, and started to slump over at zero.

[lefthandedgenius]

"Gale Hawthorne, don't even think you can get away with hiding in a corner or something."

Lydia has to crane her neck back, but she doesn't seem to mind. She grins up at him, and from the two stacks of flyers in her hand, she holds up one of the teal pages.

"C'mon. Science Club. It'll look awesome on your transcript and you know you want to." She makes her eyes as wide and winsome as possible, knowing full well he'll see right through it anyway. "I'll be your best friend?" The flyer is wiggle-waggled temptingly.

[ensared]

"Do you see a corner here? Because unless someone's gone and made the invisible wall thing happen, I don't." He's joking, of course, and offers her a hint of a smile as he takes her flyer, if only to get it out of his face. It's easy to see what she's doing here, and he doesn't even pretend to be fooled by it.

But he couldn't deny that he'd considered it already. He just wouldn't be admitting to it.

"Planning to take me away from your friend's thing? That is her, right - archery?"

[lefthandedgenius]

Yeah, he sees right through it, and they both know he sees right through it, but Lydia can't help herself at times. Hopefully he can forgive her.

She makes an mmm non-committal noise. "Don't be so binary. Being in one doesn't mean you have to give up the other unless you're piling on extracurriculars so much you don't have room to breathe. Besides, it's good to appear well rounded on your transcript."

She's glad he took the flyer. "You going to BLT's after-party?" Lydia always knows about these things.

[ensared]

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll join if I don't have anything better to do." Spoiler alert: he doesn't - not while he's here, anyway. And she's right, it won't hurt.

"Of course I'm going. It's not a Lydia Martin party," he says, bowing his head slightly to her, "but it'll be better than this. And we won't have to worry about the freshmen looking like lost puppies." He wouldn't seem like it, with the stoic way he's been meandering the hall here today, but Gale has always loved a good party. The boys aren't bad, but Lydia has always thrown the best in the school, and everyone - freshmen aside - knows it.

[lefthandedgenius]

Lydia would be well pleased to learn of Gale's confidence in her capacity as a social coordinator! Not to mention, she tends to soak up compliments like sunshine.

"Very good. Then I'll see you there. And are you adequately prepared for a new crop of girls gazing at you in mooncalf faced wistfulness?"

Because it happens. They don't come to SHIELD Academy for that sort of thing, but well, it's high school. And it happens. Watching Gale try to navigate the sea of adolescent girl flirtations is admittedly one of Lydia's favorite pasttimes.

[ensared]

He snorts. It's not as if Gale's unaware of the attention, but it's never mattered that much to him, even if he has taken advantage of it on a few interesting occasions.

"I think they might be a little young, don't you think? I wouldn't want to break any hearts." He shakes his head, chuckling at the ridiculous thought.

[lefthandedgenius]

"Oh, honey." Lydia grins at him, shaking her head. "You're going to pound on their little hearts with the heel of your shoe whether you realize it or not."

She lets him ponder that, instead turning to other topics. "So I'm thinking about doing some focus on mission analysis this year. And maybe trying to get a little more headway self-defense wise. Think I can manage it? Do you have your projects already set?"

[ensared]

Gale doesn't have a reply for that. What is there to say? He can't do anything to stop them, and he's not even trying to get them to like him in the first place. As far as he's concerned, he bears no fault in this.

"I haven't put much thought into it yet," he admits instead, shrugging a shoulder. "Judging from last year, you can use a little more practice in self-defense, but mission analysis is right up your alley."

[prevalkyrie]

"Too many people for your liking, Gale Hawthorne?"

Sif had caught sight of him circling a time or two around the edges of the room while she wandered among the returning students, and she's made a point of catching up with her fellow seniors. But as she's alert and watchful in her own right, there's not much that slips past her, even when she's already had three people try to catch her up on the latest celebrity gossip and popular music.

And twerking. Whatever that was. Midgard, honestly.

[ensared]

"Too many people I don't know," Gale amended, "and not enough that I do."

At least he wasn't like some people who liked to whine about the freshmen, but neither did Gale go out of his way to welcome them, either. What would it matter? It's not like they would share any classes, anyway.

[prevalkyrie]

It's a bit of an odd answer, one that has her head tilted faintly to the side as she eyes him curiously for a moment. "Are you missing someone then?" she asks after a moment, "or just feeling overwhelmed by the crowd? I must admit, these returns always do seem so crowded compared to how everything is the rest of the year. I never know where to start."

[ensared]

He nodded, pointing a finger when she hit the nail on the head. "I'm not much for crowds," he admitted with a shrug. "I'd rather talk to someone on my own time than be shoved into a room with everyone all at once."

[prevalkyrie]

"Soon you will be shoved in another room, but at least with roommates it is often smaller and quieter," she counters with a crooked smile. "But I agree, it is very hard to catch up here when there is so many people and so much going on. It is very energetic, though. It is refreshing to see."

[ensared]

"At least I'll have the advantage of knowing them," Gale pointed out, offering Sif the barest smile in return. "I'll be glad when it cools down. Having three younger siblings at home is more than enough energy for me, let alone..." he waves his hand in a vague gesture at the entire room, "...all this."

[prevalkyrie]

"Do you get a long with your siblings?" Sif asked, looking curious for a moment, because Gale didn't always open up about his home, or at least he hadn't in her hearing, despite her having known him for several years now. "I always wanted a sibling or two. I have a half-brother, but he is much older, and was already grown by the time I was born. It is not the same, I think, as having playmates near your own age."