Lack of a Life in More Ways Than OneSaturday March 24th, 2 p.m. ish
As Fred entered the cafeteria she feared the very worst. The worst was, in her case, referring to the abundance of parents who had descended on the institute like moths to a flame. It wasn't the prescence of grown-ups that bothered her or the seeming lack of space in the mansion since their arrival. Instead Fred was bothered by the notion of parents, of children, of family.
For the past twenty-four hours she had been assaulted with the images of students, most of whom she did not know, delightfully reuniting with their families. Some reunions were less celebratory but even the most sullen of troubled mutant teens seemed to have reserved a half-smile for a favourite relative. Even the loners of the school had people surrounding them, everyone except her it seemed.
Winifred Mason had always been an outsider. Being smart did that too you when you were young. Having a smart mouth only made things that much worse. Why go to a birthday party and play dumb games when you can get through another fifty pages of the novel you're currently reading? she had always wondered. This sort of alienation she could deal with but Parents' Day Weekend was something else altogether. Everyone had a family of somesort even if they had their differences. The question was did Fred?
She had begun to think of events in her life, or was it unlife?, as being classed under two categories, Pre-Death and Post-Death. Pre-Death she was Winnie, a college drop-out with no ambition in life and occasional problems with her parents. Post-Death she was Fred, a mutant with no family and no one she was close enough to consider a friend just yet. Winnie had a family but Fred didn't, not really.
Maybe Fred's problem was lonliness. Maybe she would end up one of those crazy cat ladies who knitted booties for them and named them stupid names like 'Jingles' or 'Lady'. She shuddered at the thought and her attention returned to the cafeteria.
As feared there were families. The main lunch hour had passed anyway and some students had been taken outside the school for lunch she supposed but that still left a few stragglers. Fred looked around nervously, trying to find a corner that wasn't occupied because the last thing she needed was some stranger asking her nosy questions about every detail of her life, a situation she had found herself in the last time she had chanced cafeteria food.
Fred didn't have to eat, not technically anyway. She was dead so she would always look like this and never put on weight or decay no matter what she ate. When she had first realised this Fred had feasted on gummy worms (although there was a whole morbid bit to that now she supposed), salt & vinegar chips and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. A few hours later she had the stomach ache of the decade and swore not to do it again. Have to eat? No but it just felt weird not to.
An ill-advised brown-eyed glance around the dining area led Fred's eyes to focus on one family in the middle of the hall. A blonde student that Fred figured was a few years younger than herself was joking with another blonder girl. The resemblance, even at a distance, made them sisters. The girl's parents were nearby holding hands. A troubled look crossed Fred's face at the site of this normal family. Her mind converted the images so the older girl became herself the younger her sister Helena.
A clear summer day, the two of them inside a hotel room. The view out the window was of palm trees and Joyce and Robert Mason were smiling at one another. Their moment of privacy was interrupted by two voices.
"This is my side. I claimed it first," Helena was protesting stubbornly while Fred sat smack in the middle of the side her younger sister had claimed.
"Too bad sucker," Fred crowed. "I got here first and I'm not moving."
Helena pulled a strand of ash blonde hair and got a yelp out of her older sister. "Cut it out pipsqueak," Fred muttered as she brought the pillow down on her sister's head. An exchanged glance and the parents were intervening. "Come on you two, we're on vacation and if you don't settle down we're not going swimming later and Helena won't get to meet Mickey Mouse."
This drew protests from both sisters and a reluctant truce was drawn. "It doesn't matter, you can have it I guess," Fred offered reluctantly, shifting her weight to the other side of the hotel bed. No verbal thank you was offered but there was a silent exchanging of sheepish smiles, the non-verbal agreement that siblings are so good at.
"Now let's explore the gift shop shall we?" Joyce asked playfully, knowing this would draw her daughters away from the bed problem. Sure enough in a matter of seconds shoes were re-laced and the family headed out towards the elevator.
Fred's eyes were still focused on the family of four in the middle of the cafeteria. She was finding this harder than she was willing to admit, this not having her family here, her sister here, when everyone else got their reunions. It was like rubbing her face in the fact that she wasn't able to see them again. Standing in the short line for food it became apparent that what she needed right then and there was a distraction, and Fred was willing to take anything that wandered her way.
Aiden Constantine had wandered the halls earlier, watching younger children giggle and point things out to adults that hovered near and listened with open ears and eager eyes. He attended his usual classes, casting a copper eyed glance to the back of the classroom where more adults watched the usual act of the day with rapt attention, always giving a reassuring smile to a youth in a seat.
Every single time that he saw one of those looks he remembered the look on the faces of his parents nearly five months ago. He and his sister were being drug out of the house by police officers, more than likely to their deaths in an experimentation lab. They were stone. Cold. Uncaring. The pair wanted the mutant abominations gone from their life. Their children were dangerous, of course. They had to be 'taken care of.'
Despite his deep breaths, it was this mood that he wore as he strode down the halls towards the cafeteria. His ever rebellious strands of hair hung in front of his eyes, which saw more of the past at the moment than what was before him. Those strands were the only ones down, the rest of his mane tied in a neat ponytail, hanging just to the base of his neck. The skin there was exposed, Constantine not having had much time to get ready this morning, had simply adorned his torso in a deep black tank top, which gave a little show of his muscular arms... at least down to the elbow. The arms, as always, were sheathed in the black fabric of his arm warmers, worn as a precautionary measure against accidentally bumping into someone when his aura had slipped his mind. His lower half was sheathed in a pair of fashionably slightly-baggy jeans, a ripped hole in the left knee, revealing a patch of his marble skin. As always, his heavy boots were on his feet, making a dull thud as he moved through the halls with a purpose. Probably the most noticeable thing about Aiden at the moment, despite his slightly off appearance, was the guitar that was strapped onto his back. The teachers here, quite used to having to deal with a veriety of issues, never seemed to mind the instrument accompanying the Death elemental, as he never used it to make trouble and kept quiet in his classes.
And with the Parent Weekend in full swing, Aiden certainly needed the instrument, one of the few things he could do to relieve the strain of emotions that tore at him.
Much to his distaste, the cafeteria was no different at all. Even the late hour didn't seem to dissuade the happy frolicking, half the student body seeming to have taken a long or a late lunch to accommodate their senior's presence.
Constantine let out a sigh and allowed himself to slip into line. Reddish eyes scanned the choices. It seems the cooks had gone all out, a variable banquet laying before them. It was what most schools did, after all, showing the parental units the best that they had to offer. Give it a day. They would be stuck with freeze-dried pizza again in no time.
Casting a glance past his stray hairs, he noted a pair of younger blonde girls talking to each other and smiling contentedly, a pair of parents watching with love-filled gazes. If only he would have been as blessed with parents of character.
It was all too clear.
“They’re going to kill us! Or take us to a freak show lab! You know it!!”
Emotionless eyes settled on his sister and himself as the police officers struggled to pull the raging teenagers out of their front door and into the waiting squad cars. Those horrible people. How could someone throw aside eighteen years of friendship and care of their young over simple prejudice? Was it their fault? Did they ask for it??
The street. Vivian being thrown into a squad car. He saw her through the back window... huge brown eyes full of fear, not for herself, but for him. He saw her mouth move, speaking his name, though he couldn't hear it. Soundproof windows.
It was then that he finally loosed his aura, unleashing the terrible thing within him on his captors, wanting nothing else than to get his sister back. Seconds later, three Houston Police Department members lay dead, drained of life... and yet Aiden still watched his sister be driven away...
...and there was nothing Aiden could do.
Suddenly, Constantine realized that he was still in a cafeteria. More shockingly, that the presence of death had used the moment of emotion to slide free of his physical form, just a bit. The air about him had cooled, more than usual, and he felt the hungry presence lurking, like a black hole, drawing whatever it could find into itself. Immediately Aiden pulled hard on his internal reigns forcing the black mass back into himself as quickly as he could. Eyes flicked left and right, checking to see if anyone noticed or looked at him oddly, but his gaze fell on something else.
A small pot of flowers, a decorative piece that was placed atop the glass display over the food, more than likely for the Parent's Weekend, had wilted and shriveled into a gray heap of dead stems and flat petals.
His eyes containing a bit of guilt, and a little sadness, he raised a finger to touch his unwitting handiwork. The slightest brush caused one of the few remaining petals to fall from it's stem, dry and lifeless.
Aiden let out a sigh, and again checked around him. Hopefully, no one would have noticed...
Re: Lack of a Life in More Ways Than One
She felt it instantly. Some scents and perceptions were easily faked as the senses were easily fooled. Taking time to smell the roses might mean that you thought all was right with the world for a moment and that nothing could come crashing down to break you down. Unfortunately that was usually about the time the world decided to throw a curveball in your direction, just when you were anticipated a fastball. Translation: life likes to trick you and stick an obstacle in your path right when you think things are just peachy. Life had done that to Fred (Winnie, she reminded herself, using her pre-death persona). Winnie had been killed at the lousy age of nineteen having accomplished absolutely nothing in her short unfufilling life. Life hadn't warned her, hadn't told her to do more because she only had two decades. Life had passed her by then all of a sudden snuck up and been snuffed out.
This was Fred's usual pessimism, enhanced somewhat by the irritating crowd of happy mutant teens with real live families. What wasn't completely usual was what she recognized in the air. Some things have a smell but the senses are tricked and you can mistake pepsi for coke if you're not keen. There's no mistaking death.
Usually Fred's unwanted ability to sense death came through in a very different way. Black wisps of smoke would follow a person around when their expiration date was near and Fred would look the other way and pretend she had never looked in the first place. Other times she would be transfixed by the train wreck in process. Sometimes he would wonder about the soon-to-be-dead mister or missus. Did they have kids? How would it happen? Had they accomplished something with their lives or was death sneaking up on them as well while life passed them by completely? Morbid yes but completely unnatural? She didn't think so, at least not once you considered the unnatural position she had been placed in.
Black wisps of smoke were unwelcome but they had become a part of Fred's life, death had become a part of Fred's life or unlife. She was used to the scent of it but this was a different and altogether stronger aura. It wasn't death sneaking up on a person. It felt more like death surrounding a person boldly. It both scared and intrigued a curious Fred.
The most unusual part was that this scent of death was gone as quickly as it had come. After a few seconds Fred could no longer feel the looming dark prescence. All it took was these few seconds and she had forgotten completely about the family she had been imagining as her own and, for that matter, all about lunch. It wasn't as though she was actually hungry anyway.
Brown eyes glanced around the room, trying to look inconspicuous and succeeding only because no one was looking at her long enough to notice. The gazes of fellow students were for the eyes of their beloved relatives only and the parents, unsurprisingly, kept their eyes locked on their children. As Fred noticed this she also noticed that there were only a select few without somesort of family hovering nearby like a bug you just wanted to swat.
One she recognized from her English class as a mostly harmless solid B student, Hannah Chen. One looked like he had almost fallen asleep in his lunch plate and there was only one more. Fred hadn't really expected to look up and see the culprit looking at her so it came as a surprise when she caught a somewhat guilty looking glance from a long haired guy by the lunchline.
An observant look also took in the wilted flowers nearby and this chilled Fred to her undead bones. He couldn't have been more different from her in any way. Male where she was female, tall where she was petite, dark while she was blonde. She was as casually and normally dressed as they came and he was all in black. The other noticeable difference was the guitar strapped across his back. Fred didn't think many people brought their instruments with them when getting cold cafeteriz pizza or anything.
So he was different. Or to be more exact he was different from most, perhaps not so different from her. Physically yes but death followed him around like it did Fred. She wondered if he was a personification of death in some way but the expression of guilt on his face indicated otherwise. Fred caught his eye and held it from the table in the shady corner where she had chosen to sit. It was a gaze that was openly curious. One that said 'I know' and 'I want to know'. Fred might have been scared but she knew what it was like, to have death following you and how that freaked out those who hadn't yet come to a grizzly end. Anyone who knew was scared of her. Was he afraid they would be scared of him too? It was the closest Fred had come in her brief time at Xavier's to initiating a conversation not out of force but genuine interest.
The petite blonde kept his gaze and gestured him over to her table for one, hoping she had been the only one to notice the strangeness of this mutant of death. 'Suddenly not so apathetic afterall huh Fred?' she asked herself with self-depracation. She played the role of the girl who didn't give a sh!t yet when all was said and done maybe she wasn't such a loner afterall, maybe she just cared about different things from the rest of them. Either way it was time to find out.
Re: Lack of a Life in More Ways Than One
Big brown eyes settled on Aiden's.
He was caught.
She was all the way off in the corner, but her gaze had somehow sought him out. She looked... very normal, to Aiden's perspective. Blonde, shorter, and much younger looking than he would have expected from one of the students around. Age wasn't always clearly visible, however, especially in a place like this, Aiden reminded himself. Hairs fell over his left eye, as they always seemed to settle, the rebellious strands having a long history of not doing what they were told and giving the youth a more punk rock look than he sometimes intended. Today, it really didn't matter, he was just in a lunchroom. Still, the eyes of a female falling on him always made him a little conscientious.
She was kinda cute...
Forcibly pushing the thought from his head, Aiden realized that the line was moving ahead of him. Not wasting another moment, he passed her a quick look that read "Just a sec." He shoved his tray down the line, gathering up the extra-special parent weekend goodies. Creamed turkey with biscuits, some mashed potatoes, and a few vegetables just for principal. A Cherry Coke finished the ensemble, and the Death Elemental broke from the line, and slowly strode over to the back corner where the blonde girl sat, glancing up nervously as he came.
Usually, Aiden was quite good at first impressions. He had always been a friendly type of guy that was easy to get to know, and easy to talk to. Constantine usually had a knack for making people smile and helping them through rough times, but as most empaths usually do, he had a difficult time with his own problems. The brown-eyed girl had seen him wilt a flower, or the aura, or both. These were usually things that sent a person running off in the other direction, but this girl's look... seemed somehow quite the opposite. Almost like... she knew, somehow.
And understood.
How that could be, Thantos had no clue.
It was all too soon before he made it to the table. Aiden stood there a moment, looking down with a shy smile, trying to decide what to say. What to say?! She'd just seen the fact that he could conceivably kill anything that touched him. How wasn't she frightened by this? Perhaps she'd seen more than Constantine would care to know... but no. Aiden reminded himself who he was, and as such, he cared. Maybe she had a power that was as destructive as his, and needed someone to talk to in order to get it off her chest? Maybe her's was like his in another respect, and she could give him advice on how to control it, or vice versa. Regardless, it wasn't Aiden's place to walk away from this person who, conceivably, could be numbered as one of his friends in the near future.
"...Ahh...Hi." The shy smile lent it's way into his voice. It was a little higher than usual, sounding nervous. The Death Elemental set his tray of cafeteria food down on the opposite side of the table as the girl, and slipped the guitar from his shoulder, leaning it against the wall near them. Keeping his smile present, he seated himself, and met the girl's eyes with his own pair, slightly more red due to his embarrassment.
Re: Lack of a Life in More Ways Than One
When trying to catch a person's attention there is often that moment of uncertainty, those few seconds where no one can be sure whether your actions will be achknowledged or ignored and where the other person's reaction is anyone's guess. Then comes the response and you end up regretting your efforts or, alternately, it's smooth sailing from there. Fred began to realize that she was hoping for the later and there was a tingle of nervous anxiety over beckoning over a guy she had never before met. Yeah, way to not care Winifred, she thought as she discovered that the nerves came with a dose of not unpleasant excitement.
What with being no longer technically alive and all Fred tended to watch other people more carefully. In life she hadn't cared about people. In un-life she envied them. As a result she picked up on mannerisms and on looks that meant one thing rather than another. She liked to think herself an expert when it came to body language and facial expressions. If her genius held, "death guy" was giving her the "just a moment" look. She watched as he braved the cafeteria line then strode towards her humble table of solitude.
Boy at ten o'clock. Okay this was new, this was very new and very odd...and yet it wasn't bad. Winnie had never had a boyfriend and believed herself completely incapable of carrying on anysort of conversation with the opposite sex that didn't involve the use of sarcasm and long uncomfortable pauses. As for Fred? She didn't talk to people much at all and how she interacted with the few she did was still being determined.
She had no time in which to ponder over interaction and reaction though because all too quickly he was there at her table with a shy smile and nothing to say. Oh good, this is promising, Fred thought to herself while similarly saying nothing. She was the moron who had beckoned him over, you'd think she would at least be able to say hi to the guy!
"...Ahh...Hi." His words sounded as nervous and awkward as Fred felt and this additionally similarity was enough to thaw the ice a little. Fred wasn't a girl who smiled very often but she found the beginnings of a shy and uncertain one creeping across her face anyway. He apparently had made a decision to brave the cold water and set down his tray as he took the seat opposite hers.
She watched his movements intently as he did this, deciding that while his appearance was unconventional it was not off-putting. In fact he was kind of attractive, if you noticed that sort of thing which, Fred told herself, she didn't. Once he had settled himself into his seat, setting his instrument to the side he spoke, the closest thing the two of them had to an actual sentence. "So... You saw, huh?"
"Uh huh."Uh huh? That's your brilliant response to seeing the wilted flowers around this guy? she mentally scolded herself. "Well, more felt than saw," Fred amended, attempting to begin an actual conversation with this guy. "It's kind of what I can do." She wasn't about to expand on the part where she was actually dead herself and had resurrected after a fatal car crash, at least until she got a better sense of who "death guy", as she had nicknamed him, was anyway.
"What exactly do you do?" Brown eyes fixed on him in curious anticipation of whatever response she might recieve. She knew that his mutant power had something to do with death and dying but what exactly his power encompassed was still a mystery to her and one she hoped to Nancy Drew an answer to soon.
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