It's her first evening away from home, and even Papa's strong mental presence has left her range by now.
It's lonely.
She knows that humans aren't lesser than mutants, per se, but she's still used to a different flavor of minds thrumming against hers when she's trying to go to sleep.
She and Emily aren't the only mutants on campus, though. There aren't a lot of them, but there's one other, at least...
She reaches out to them.
Hello?
He's crashed on his bed between a ton of half-unpacked boxes (he swears he didn't have this much stuff before he tried to fit it in a dorm room!) when he...hears someone.
No, wait. He doesn't hear them. It's like he's remembering the words, but in a voice he's never heard before and with a presence that makes him sure he's being spoken to.
He responds as well as he can, under the circumstances.
wait. what?
Hi! Telepath.
oh, nice.
hey, telepath, i'm z.
I'm Edie.
hey!
so...what are you doing in my brain?
It's not accusatory, just curious. He doesn't think he did anything to prompt this, cool as it is.
I was lonely and you're pretty much the only mutant on campus besides me and my--best friend.
(There's something she's eliding with "best friend")
Yeah, lonely he can definitely get.
there's only three of us? that blows.
Maybe they're all living off-campus? He might if he didn't just love risky behavior.
...wait.
"best friend", huh?
There's a vague feeling of eyebrow-waggling.
She's not my girlfriend, she's secretly my sister.
...oops. my bad.
Definitely just a little embarrassed.
so just you (telepathy) me (whatever my deal actually is), and...?
Emily, magnetism.
Whatever your deal actually is?
it's kind of a few things?
if you stab me it heals, if you chop my finger off it grows back weird-looking, if i shotgun a bottle of painkillers i wake up the next day really high and confused
Wow he didn't actually mean to communicate that last part at all.
...also, some shapeshifting.
Are you okay?
relatively to that? 100% okay.
i was not a fan of being alive but i'm chill now.
wow this is personal shit, sorry. it is really hard to filter like this.
Sorry. I can back off if you want.
nah, i actually kinda like it. less pressure. just don't want to weird you out too much.
...so, are you as bad at unpacking as I am?
I'm hard to weird out! And no.
that's good, 'cause I'm weird as hell and we are definitely gonna be friends.
...also tell me your unpacking secrets?
I think the secret is to have a twin with the ability to move stuff with her mind, sorry.
aww, damn. i definitely don't have one of those.
can she still move stuff with her mind that isn't metal?
I mean not directly but she can use metal stuff to pick it up.
oh, yeah, makes sense.
you didn't get hassled on the way in, right?
Our parents are Charles Fucking Xavier and Erik Fucking Lehnsherr, no one was going to hassle us with them around.
oh damn, seriously? wow.
He's impressed.
well, uh...if anyone gives you a hard time now that they're gone, let me know. not that you can't deal with shit yourself, but...y'know.
Did the telepathy and the magnetism not give it away?
Yeah my full name is Edie Lehnsherr.
And yeah we can but it's still appreciated.
ok, in my defense, i am the world's biggest dumbass.
pff I doubt it.
i defy you to find somebody who is a bigger dumbass than me. i am legendary.
He's trying to sound calm internally but is clearly cracking up out loud.
I dunno, I grew up in a boarding school. I have met some pretty epic dumbasses.
ooh. dish.
Well, there was the guy who had super-strong bones who jumped out a third-story window to demonstrate this.
Right onto a rosebush in full thorn.
ooh, ouch. pick better windows, dude.
or get scratch-proof skin, i guess.
If he had done that he wouldn't be a dumbass!
I pushed a friend out a different window when I was five but he was invulnerable and he bounced.
invulnerable? nice.
man, i'm jealous. i really don't know a lot of us.
Well on the other hand I've been here less than a day and this is the longest I've ever been around this many non-mutants. Parents didn't want to send you to the school?
oh, god, no. i might've gotten ideas.
i fell out of a tree in 5th grade and broke my arm for, like, 5 minutes. they made me wear a cast for a month anyway.
[strong disapproval/disgust aimed at this action]
ok, it is awesome to feel somebody hating that as much as i did.
Being a mutant is awesome and parents who make their kids hide it are terrible.
we are so in agreement.
I'm glad! You'd have liked it at the school, I bet, there's--a whole social structure set up to deal with the aftereffects of relevantly terrible parents,
...wow. that's pretty amazing, actually.
i'm glad someone is there for those kids.
Yeah.
Although, to be fair, not all parents who make their kids hide it are so much terrible per se as possessed of terrible neighbors and seriously concerned for their kids' safety.
yeah, that's fair.
sucks it has to happen at all, though.
Very much.
...does it get, like...loud? when you're in a place with this many people?
not literally, i mean. brain-wise.
Not exactly? It's more like the difference between a piece of paper with a few dots on it and a piece of paper with lots of dots on it, it doesn't really stack like noise does.
yeah, i think i get that.
it's not...uncomfortable or anything. just more to see. sense. whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
[vague sense that having more available to sense is aesthetically pleasing]
that is really cool.
He tries to imagine it. He doesn't get it, not nearly, but what he does imagine - a network of colored lights painted over a black sky - is pretty gorgeous.
Want me to show you?
you can do that?
then yes, oh my god.
I can do anything.
And--she shows him. It's a completely different kind of qualia than anything he's ever experienced before; minds are like so; there is a spacial dimension and a whole bunch of non-spacial dimensions some of which have some kind of magnitude and some of which don't; and it has an aesthetic.
He's lost.
He'll stay in it as long as she lets him.
Aww.
Wanna see what yours feels like? she asks, not taking down the illusion.
yeah.
yeah, please.
She does.
His mind is lovely.
...you're joking.
This isn't really me.
Is it?
It totally is.
He doesn't have words. He's never seen himself this way before, and he's mesmerized.
Eventually, he manages
holy shit.
Most people don't react this strongly.
i'm incredible!
nobody ever told me!
Negligent of them.
It takes him a little while, but he calms down. He's still holding the images (the sensations, the sounds, whatever they really are) in his mind, making sure he can remember them later.
...thanks.
i don't have anything like that to give back, but...i'll figure something out.
Heh. If you feel like you should pay it back, I'd rather you pay it forward.
i mean, i can't show anybody else any cosmic brain truths...
but i'll try.
That's the spirit!
Doesn't need to be the exact thing.
He nods, realizes she can't actually see him nod, and hopes it came through somehow.
Mhm.
It feels like he's starting to drift off to sleep, for a minute, until he shakes himself awake.
sorry. pulled an all-nighter driving up here.
It's okay.
Parents didn't come with?
nah. i've been out of there for a year. saving and stuff.
plus i wouldn't want them to come anyway and the feeling's probably mutual.
Congrats, then.
[vague sensation of a high-five]
[high-five!]
Anyway I can totally let you get to sleep.
miiight be for the best.
i'll see you later, though, right?
Definitely.
As soon as he lets go of the effort to stay awake, he drops off to sleep.
Zzzz.
Aww.
Edie follows soon after.
The next day in his first biology class, a girl sits down beside him.
"Hi!" she says brightly. "Hard to believe we're really here, huh?"
...okay, that's new. Usually the guy in the leather jacket with the horns is not the favorite for first-day small talk, far as he knows.
He nods, though.
"It's a trip. Waking up in a dorm was weird."
"Being away from home is sure an experience."
He shrugs.
"You get used to it."
He's trying his best not to be suspicious of her motives here.
"I'm going to miss my parents. But I had, you know, kind of a sheltered upbringing. I'm looking forward to seeing more of what the rest of the world's like."
He laughs.
"Well, there's this."
He sort of...gestures to himself.
"The world isn't so bad, though."
"I've heard that things are pretty bad for mutants, some places."
"...yeah. For sure."
Ok, this probably isn't a trap, then.
"Here's hoping this isn't one of them, right?"
"Definitely."
He's decided this girl is chill.
"I'm a fan of the enthusiasm."
Ok, uh, conversation topics...
"Where'd you come up here from?"
"Downstate New York."
"Way better than Rhode Island."
"Why, what's Rhode Island like?"
"Boring on, like, every conceivable level."
He considers.
"...except for pizza strips. Why does nobody else have pizza strips?"
"What are pizza strips?"
"Basically just 'strips of pizza with no cheese'. They're really gross from a lot of places but the good ones are great."
"Huh. What's the value in taking the cheese off?"
He shrugs.
"Who knows? Pizza strips are pizza strips. They are an age-old mystery."
"Fair. Perhaps one day I'll travel to Rhode Island and find out for myself."
"Or everybody else will realize that cold, cheeseless pizza was what was in their heart all along. Whichever."
"Well, we'll find out, I suppose."
He nods like this is a completely serious discussion.
She giggles.
And then the lecture starts and they slightly have to pay attention to things other than their conversation.
Biology! Neat.
Somebody throws some balled-up paper at him at some point during the class. What is this, middle school?
Emily turns around and glares at whoever threw it.
It could have been a number of people, and none of them seem especially remorseful.
Z doesn't seem bothered -- he doesn't turn around outside a brief glance over his shoulder, and returns to scribbling down notes almost immediately.
She purses her lips and returns to her own notes.
The rest of the lecture is mostly uneventful.
Afterwards, he turns back to her.
"...that actually all made sense. I think it's a trap."
"Do I want to know what schools you've been to before?"
"Eh, the schools were ok, I think? Maybe I just have shit luck with teachers."
"Mm. My best friend is planning to become a teacher, maybe you can give her some tips on what not to do."
"Uh, well, number one, don't send somebody home because his ear spikes are inappropriate for school."
He starts to gather his papers together.
"Number two, group projects are the worst."
"They did what?"
He actually laughs at the look on her face.
"Yeah, they were convinced that I had better control over it than I did back then, and one of my teachers decided it was...I dunno, she kind of kept switching between 'threatening' and 'distracting the other kids'. I didn't know how to convince them that honestly I just woke up like that, so...I skipped the rest of the day. Win/win, I guess?"
"Not really."
"...yeah. Not really."
He sighs.
"I mean, they also sent a girl home because her afro was 'distracting', so I wasn't the only kid who got fucked over."
"...That doesn't make it better."
"Did none of this shit happen where you went to school?"
"Did I or did I not say sheltered?"
"Oh, did you go to one of those private schools where we're not allowed in?"
He's so casual about those being a thing.
"I...went to a private school."
Hmm. He senses hesitation.
"...Where did you go to school?"
"Dammit, the jig is up and Edie isn't even here yet. Hi, I'm Emily."
!!
"Oh, hey! You're Edie's, uh, "best friend", right?"
"...Wow, that really does sound like the secret is that we're dating, ick."
"Yeah, you guys might wanna work on that one."
He shoves his papers in his messenger bag.
"So, you do magnets, right? Should I be afraid?"
He waves his hand generally around his face. It has a fair number of piercings.
"No more than anyone else should be! I hate to break it to you but, uh, that quantity of metal is kinda trivial compared to, say," and she gestures at a lamp post.
"...yeah, wow, that's dangerous."
He sounds very impressed.
"Honestly the piercing thing is more about putting them back in again."
"Hm?"
"I basically have to re-pierce myself every time. It's a pain in the ass."
"Oh. Yeah, that sounds like it sucks."
"Well...depends."
He grins.
"So, she wants to be a teacher?"
"Mhm."
"At your parents' place, then, huh? She'd do a lot of good, I bet."
He nods to himself.
"So, that's her story...what's yours?"
"Yeah, she will.
As for me...I don't really know yet."
"Yeah, same here. It's, uh...different, if you're a mutant, too."
Sigh. "Yeah."
And then someone comes up behind him and puts their hands over his eyes. "Guess who!" a chipper, unfamiliar voice says.
The voice might be unfamiliar, but he has a pretty good idea of who it must be.
"I guess Edie!"
"Yep!"
She takes her hands off his eyes and hugs him.
Aww, he's not used to relationships progressing to the hug phase this quickly. He could get used to this!
He hugs back.
"You have a cool s...friend! Sfriend?"
"I don't think that's a word!"
"I can make up words and you can't stop me!"
"So what does 'sfriend' mean?"
friend who is secretly your sister?
He doesn't know if she's 'listening' but he tries to think it as hard as he can.
Then I don't think it's much of an improvement on sister! Aside from obscurity, I suppose.
"Hey, I never said I was good at making up words."
"Granted." Hug.
Aw yes, more hugs.
"Wanna go get lunch or something? I don't have another class for a while."
"Sure, sounds good." She lets go and steps away.
"Cafeteria's right around here, right? I still have no idea where anything is."
He slings on his bag.
"I brought a map!"
"We would be lost without you. Like, actually literally lost."
"I mean, I only didn't grab a map because I knew she had it covered. I suppose if she were abducted out of nowhere by a giant eagle I would be literally lost but also I would have bigger problems."
He snorts.
"Let's hope there aren't any giant eagles on campus. As cool as that'd be."
"One can only hope."
He nods solemnly.
"Cool. Let's see the map."
Map! Cafeteria is over there.
"I like your horns, by the way."
"--oh, hey, thanks!"
One of his hands goes up automatically to tap one.
"I love being able to just wear 'em wherever."
"Damn straight."
He laughs.
"Figuring out that nobody can actually do a fuckin' thing about it was pretty much the best thing I ever did."
"Yeah. Definitely." She takes his hand and squeezes it a little.
He squeezes back.
"I'm glad you're the kind of person who cares about weird strangers."
"You're a mutant stranger," she points out cheerfully.
"Yeah, true."
Solidarity is great, and mutants are just better in general.
"We've all gotta stick together."
"Exactly."
Time to walk!
It's beautiful outside, and many people have decided that it is therefore better than inside. Lots of frisbee games going on.
"Frisbee is so much tamer here."
"...mutant frisbee."
Those are the best two words.
"Yep!"
"Tell me more?"
"We use a heavy-duty metal disc, and there's a lot of magnetism and telekinesis thrown around--it's more competitive than normal frisbee, I think--and people with blaster effects can use those, because it's both sturdy and replaceable."
"It's too late to sneak into mutant high school, right?"
"I mean, if you really want to..."
"You are a true friend."
He actually thinks about that for a minute.
"It'd be cool to visit sometime. See what 'good' looks like for us."
"That can totally happen."
"I am so damn lucky--"
Accidental frisbee to the head! Clunk.
"Ow!"
"Watch where you're throwing!"
"Hey, it's cool. Frisbees happen."
Someone yells 'sorry!' from across the grass. He grabs the frisbee and tosses it in that direction.
"Yeah, okay."
"It's kinda cute that you got mad, though."
He shoves his hands in his pockets.
"I like you."
"Awesome!"
Pause.
"Glad it's mutual."
"Was it not obvious?"
"Yeah, well, you didn't say it out loud. Now it's official."
I'm a telepath. What does out loud have to do with anything?
"Ha ha."
(Internally, he is laughing.)
Handsqueeze.
Aww.
He looks over at Emily.
"Sorry about all the kinda-flirting!"
"Enh, it's alright. I won't even start making faces over flirting."
"That's good. I can't figure out how to turn it off."
Somebody yells something unintelligible at him across the quad, and he looks away long enough to blow them a kiss.
"...See?"
"It's compulsive!"
Oh, hey, he recognizes this from the map. Time to turn.
Speaking of, uh--[wordless impression of the fact that the person he blew a kiss to was a guy]--you didn't seem surprised by the fact that we have two dads, I was wondering why?
i mean, partially that's the world's biggest dumbass thing, i didn't figure out that you guys didn't just share a secret mom until the next morning...
but yeah i'm also a huge queer.
No I mean like how it happened.
wait, what.
Yeah places that are not the Academy mostly don't have mutant sex ed.
what mutant sex ed. what is different about mutant sex.
...are you telling me there was no surrogate involved here.
There was no surrogate involved.
...and all mutants are like this.
Not all. Little more than a third.
He is having a lot of different and conflicting internal reactions to this news.
...so, condoms. gotcha.
He'll just...file this away for later. This whole thing.
If you want to come by the school at some point the clinic can check that.
He nods quickly.
yeah, that, uh, definitely seems like the kind of thing i should know.
We were a surprise!
...okay, that did it. He starts cracking up.
It is technically biologically inaccurate to call Erik Lehnsherr my father and Charles Xavier Emily's!
charles fucking xavier and erik fucking lehnsherr had twin babies by accident.
Yep. And I almost killed him! Gestating a fully manifested telepath is dangerous business without another telepath on hand to keep them from accidentally melting your brain.
our lives are so fucking weird.
You're not wrong.
...this totally throws off my calculations about whether it's an advantage to turn into a chick, though.
What calculations?
eh, i just think about it sometimes since i figured out it was possible. takes some time and effort, though.
Which direction is the calculation thrown towards?
well, the whole 'pregnancy' thing...don't get me wrong, i like dangerous shit, but 'surprise now you have to not fuck up this kid's life' is a whole different kind of dangerous.
so...extra point for turning into a chick, i guess?
i mean, that kind of assumes i can mess with my internal organs anyway, but. yeah.
Aww. Shoulderpat. Yeah.
I have the complementary mutation and, uh, even if I were seriously attracted to girls there's no way I'd sleep with one, even a theoretical chance of knocking someone up and losing contact and then I have a kid I never get to know is horrifying.
He tries to conceal the fact that he finds this mutation to be very attractive and fails miserably, because someone is reading his mind.
yeah, i feel it.
...I don't actually have a dick, she clarifies.
...still hot honestly. don't ask me why!
Enh, kinks don't have to be rational.
Gay or bisexual, I haven't picked up which?
eh, bi, i think. i just get fewer girls beating me up so i notice them less.
...Really. That's your criterion?
i mean, i don't want to date the assholes who do beat me up? you just start, y'know, extrapolating. to less shitty people.
How d'you feel about consensual sparring?
awesome, as long as you don't mind me getting off on it just a little bit?
Would I have brought it up in this context if I minded?
makes sense.
He is already so pumped for this.
gotta find a good place on campus for it though.
Psht like I was going to get out of shape, I scoped out the gym before we were enrolled.
nice!
can't wait to weird some people out!
With sparring?
well, yeah. not like a lot of people go to the gym to fight.
If anything they'll probably be weirded out because I'm a girl.
He snickers.
a telepath and a living punching bag walk into the gym and everyone's like 'whoaaa, girls can fight???"
Or "gosh look at that obviously-a-mutant guy conning that not-obviously-a-mutant-chick into letting him beat her up"
Snrk.
conning you into beating me up, more like.
I am walking into this with my eyes wide open.
it's probably a good idea to fight someone with your eyes open, yeah.
Snort.
"--wait. We can probably talk out loud now, huh? I forgot that was a thing for a second."
"We can! I just don't always default to it."
"Yeah, it's a good way to communicate for sure. Just, uh, since your sis is here..."
He knows he might not feel great if he was the odd one out of a telepathic conversation.
"I've been broadcasting everything to her."
Oh no. He really did not intend to give a second recent stranger boner updates.
"Everything she would have wanted to hear," she amends.
Ok, cool, he can exhale then and not just hold his breath until he's dead.
Haha yeah.
Mercifully, they round the corner at that moment and come face to face with the dining hall.
"Fingers crossed for decent food."
"Here's hoping, yeah."
Time to enter the building!
Cafeterias are...not Z's favorite place in the world, historically. Hopefully this one's gonna be better.
Perhaps having two badass mutant chicks who like him flanking him will improve the experience.
It so does.
(There's some mumbling and pointing that's hard to ignore, but he's learned to enjoy that more than anything else. Hell yes, everybody look at him!)
He makes a bee-line for the nearest completely unoccupied table.
There are some of those!
It's a little surreal, imagining what they see when they look at us.
what d'you think they see?
He puts down his bag and takes off his jacket to drop it on one of the seats.
You have horns and a leather jacket, we're dressed respectably and have no visually obvious mutations. Kind of a "good girls want bad boys" kind of thing.
He snorts.
oh, yeah, i’m definitely that smooth.
if that’s how they’re seeing it, though, it’s not like i mind, right?
I'm not thrilled if they think I'm into you like that but whatever.
oh, shit.
He looks instantly contrite.
sorry about that.
Pfft. Not your fault what assumptions a bunch of baseliners want to make.
Grin.
i’m sure they’ll be onto the next weird rumor by next week no matter what.
You do seem the type to start those.
yeah, it happens a lot. i’m a horrible gossip magnet.
oh, i’ll watch your stuff if you guys want to get food first.
"Thanks!" she says, dumping her bookbag and loping off.
"Thank you," she says, putting her bag down and beaming at him before also leaving.
He is the bag guardian, guardian of the bags! Seniors quiver before him!
Nobody approaches, luckily.
The twins return in short order.
He gets up himself to go grab a tray.
He manages to acquire food without being hassled.
Success!
He comes back with some kind of pasta dish and a soda, and almost sits on his bag before remembering to move it to the side.
His soda can opens itself with a popping fsshh sound.
"...so. Cool."
The joy of growing up not surrounded by mutants is that this is incredibly novel and exciting!
She giggles. A steel bracelet on her right wrist starts slowly rotating.
He's completely fascinated. You could not get this boy to look away if you set off fireworks directly behind him.
"What's the most complicated thing you can do? How much can you lift at once?"
The bracelet is very finely engraved.
"Well, I made this. And at last check, a couple tons."
It's good for art too? He is so thrilled.
"You've gotta make a weird giant sculpture at least once in your life."
"Who says I haven't?"
"...it still exists, right?"
"Eh, some of 'em."
He pretends to faint into his pasta.
He's still grinning when he comes up.
"You guys keep giving me more things I need to see before I die."
"...That's an odd way to put it."
"...yeah, I guess it is."
Pause.
"You didn't bring pictures to school or anything, did you?"
"Not really, no."
"Come home with us for Thanksgiving break," she suggests enticingly, "and see the sculptures and get checked out at the clinic."
"...you're serious?"
This is just way too good to be true.
"Of course I am."
Promise?
Absolutely. I promise.
"...count me in, then."
Right now, the part of him that expects this not to last is pretty easy to kick aside.
"Great!"
I wouldn't do that. Not to you, not to anyone.
yeah. i didn't think you would, really. sorry.
I don't need an apology. I know from peoples' brains being uncooperative.
[a vague feeling of gratitude.]
He decides to actually consume some of his pasta before it gets cold enough to qualify as pasta salad.
Mm yes. The food here is pretty good, too.
Pretty sure it won't just be the three of us here next year, mutant-wise.
Another point in favor of this cafeteria! He's sure that he'll love it forever, and nothing awful will happen here.
oh shit, really? who's coming in?
I don't know specifically for sure but, uh
we kind of had a social circle
some of them are probably going to want to follow us here.
already can't wait to meet 'em.
It's so convenient to be able to talk with food in your mouth without grossing anyone out.
One of 'em's the invulnerable one. He also has incontinent eye lasers.
It's a really good thing he just swallowed his soda, otherwise it'd be everywhere. Phrasing!
wait, like, he can't turn them off?
He cannot.
...ouch. what's his, uh, situation, then?
He's not sure what implications "uncontrollable lasers" have for the rest of this kid's life but he doesn't think they're good.
Goggles that block the lasers when he doesn't want to be lasering things.
...ok there are lots of worse options than that. Phew.
must be pretty great goggles.
They are!
and hopefully for the kid they don't look completely stupid?
...wow, the pasta is gone already?
Dad had a hand in designing them. They look cool.
It's very weird to think about who Emily's dad actually is. (Who her dads are, even.)
good. he deserves cool goggles if he has to wear 'em all the time.
It's not like he remembers not having to wear them but yeah.
...that's kinda sad.
He guesses not worse than anything else that happens to them, though.
I guess. He's seen through other peoples' eyes with Edie's help, though.
well, that's good.
He looks at Edie.
i guess you can know how it is to be all of us, if you want.
Not literally all and a lot don't give me permission but yeah.
i'd definitely be chill with it but i dunno if you'd really wanna feel a demonstration.
Can't scare me.
maybe it'd be fun sometime.
--ok, maybe too much weird flirting. He reminds himself gently to cool his jets.
As he is now entirely full, he'll wait for the other two to be done.
This does not take terribly long.
"So, uh...other than 'bio, once a week', where do I find you guys?"
"Miscellaneous places. Think really hard at me and I'll tell you where we are."
“...Sweet.”
He grins and gets up, shrugging his jacket back on and grabbing his bag.
”See you around, then.”
"See you!"
The rest of his daylight hours are startlingly uneventful and mostly pleasant.
I'm bored, he "hears" late that evening. What about you? How's your day been going?
eh, it’s been okay. classes are pretty good, exploring is great...
kinda gets boring at night, though. it’s hard to find parties without getting into the whole frat thing, and, uh, no thanks.
Ughbleah, yeah.
Wanna come flying?
...flying like flying?
Flying like magnetism powers are fucking awesome.
uh fuck yes i do want to come.
where do i meet you for actual flying?
He’ll change course from “aimless wandering around campus”.
Just outside the library.
Heading that way!
The girls are waiting for him!
He’s so ready for this.
”So, how does this work? The flying thing?”
"Well, that depends: how paranoid are you about safety?"
“Not. Like, negative amounts.”
"In that case, it works like this!" she says brightly, and grabs her sister around the waist with one arm, and him with the other, and all three of them shoot up into the air.
He gasps and then laughs in delight as they soar upwards.
”Ahaha, oh my god, we can’t have enough metal for this, right? How does this work? Oh my god!”
It works by the Earth is a giant magnet!
“Yeah, but! What’s lifting us?”
He laughs again, watching the ground plummet away from them. Flying!
It works by my personal magnetic field pushing off against the Earth's.
Well, that makes sense to him!
He's just gonna keep looking around and laughing hysterically.
Zoom!
Z O O M
He looks down and wow that is a long distance, huh?
His heart is now trying to pound out of his chest. In a good way, though.
It is such a long distance!!!
Awesome, huh?
He has started yelling at the people on the ground.
"Hey! Heeeeey! You're all suckers and I get to fly now!"
You're awesome.
She kind of really wants to hug him but that would be profoundly unwise under the current circumstances.
you too!!!
He thinks if he drops even an inch his heart might stop for a minute. This is great!
After some brief sisterly consultation they drop into freefall for a few seconds before Emily pulls back out into a swoop.
He screams a little in excitement when they start to drop. His heart is pounding out of his chest.
For a moment, he imagines what it would be like to hit the ground--
And then they pull up, and he is just completely flooded with adrenaline, and god this is the best thing ever. He's laughing too hard to catch his breath.
We would maybe apologize but that really isn't looking necessary!
are you kidding? that was great!
He still feels a little like he could drop at any moment, and how amazing is that.
You're awesome.
no time for sarcasm! too psyched about flying!
Wordless burst of exultant agreement and affection.
Definitely returned!
He is just gonna keep enjoying the ride and grinning like a maniac.
Eventually it starts getting late.
Want me to drop you off at your dorm?
By this time he is a little exhausted from both the excitement and the unexpectedly significant physical effort of being flown around by someone else.
yeah, please. way better than walking.
Okay!
She maneuvers over to above his dorm and then drops all three of them in front of the front door.
Edie hugs him exuberantly.
Hug!!
He's surprisingly strong -- he almost lifts her off the ground without really meaning to, in the fading glow of his excitement.
She giggles delightedly, gives him a brief contemplative look, and then kisses him.
!
At first, he's just shocked. Never mind that they've been flirting all day, that was clearly entirely divorced from reality and this was totally unexpected.
He's terrified, for just a moment, that she doesn't really know what she's doing, or that this is all somehow a trap.
Then he kisses her back.
She keeps kissing him and makes a happy noise and winds her arms around his neck.
He puts his hands on her shoulders to keep himself from actually picking her up this time.
Any second now he's gonna stop this. Her sister is right there, this is probably weird...
Aaany second now.
...well, it'd just be rude to stop before she does.
Eventually she does break away. "I like you a lot."
He is so, so okay with this turn of events.
"I didn't think the whirlwind college romance would start this fast."
"That's because you didn't factor a kickass telepath into your plans."
"Oops!"
He grins.
"I guess next time I'll know to expect you, huh?"
"Definitely.
And for the record, I liked it when you picked me up."
And then she kisses him again.
Well, then, he's just gonna go ahead and pick her up. And kiss her. That part's important.
Gleeful telepathic agreement! And kisses.
After a minute, he pulls back reluctantly.
"...wow. I really like you too."
Dumb grin.
She beams at him. "I'm glad."
"...I don't actually know what happens next."
"I think tonight it's late enough that what happens next is that we go our separate ways and sleep. Later is another story."
Aww. Sad but true.
"Yeah, probably. Morning classes and everything."
Pause.
"...see you tomorrow, though?"
"Definitely." And another brief kiss.
He kisses her back, laughs, and then walks away, waving over his shoulder before he disappears through the door of the dorm.
And the girls float away (Emily literally, Edie figuratively).
The next afternoon there is a possibly-familiar former frisbee player blocking his path out of his last class and glowering at him.
He nods to the guy as if he just happens to be standing in the doorway.
(99% chance he's not, but hey, better to give the dude the benefit of the doubt.)
"Hey. Have I met you? Your hair looks kinda familiar."
The best part about that line is that it's not an insult unless you expect it to be.
The dude growls and shoves him. "Freak," he spits.
He stumbles back, hits a desk, and...laughs.
(He almost missed this. What a fucking rush!)
"Yeah, what about it? You jealous?"
The guy snarls and picks him up by the front of his shirt.
Several other muscular guys emerge from the hallway. None look especially on his side.
He grabs the guy's wrists to take a little weight off. Being picked up just by your shirt is kind of uncomfortable.
"Aww, I know mutie guys are scary, but I didn't think you'd bring all your friends!"
"Shut up," he says, shaking Z sharply.
Unexpectedly, he does.
He doesn't struggle, though. He just holds himself there.
"I'm listening."
He throws him down on the ground. "What the fuck was that yesterday?"
(If Z has a good memory for faces he may identify his present attacker as his previous blown-kiss recipient.)
The impact doesn't quite knock the wind out of him, but it's close.
"Oh, shit, you're that guy."
He barely remembers it.
"Yeah, I assumed it was an insult or something. So I blew a kiss. Makes sense?"
No, it doesn't.
Someone kicks him.
He coughs a little when the kick connects, curling his legs up a little instinctively before forcing them still.
"See, the guys who yell at me from long distances are usually the first guys to lose it if some fag blows a kiss at them."
Someone else kicks him. In the ribs, this time.
There's a snap.
He doubles over on the ground.
"--fuck-"
It probably sounds like that's all pain if you don't know him too well.
And the door slams open.
"And just what do you goons think you're doing?" Edie demands.
shh nah it's ok i got this it's fine it's cool they're gonna go for it again--
He sounds a little...unstable at the moment.
Are you okay??? You don't sound okay.
He almost wants to try to send her the feeling of his rib breaking, the gorgeous screaming full-body jolt, the flutter of all the little muscles it sets off, the electricity of it. She might understand.
But he doesn't think she'd like it if he tried. Instead he just squirms -- and something moves under his shirt as the broken bone begins to pull itself back together.
"What the--" one of the jocks says.
If it's violence you want I can do whatever you want consensually later may I please make these jerks regret it I lose credibility if I let them hurt you after barging in like this.
it's a deal.
Brilliant.
The jocks go still and glassy-eyed. Two of them gently help him to his feet.
"Now, what to do with you fine fellows..." Edie muses.
Oh.
...do that to me sometime.
He checks himself over, watches as his broken rib slots back into place.
"Can they...hear us?"
"Nah, they're completely unconscious.
...I may have been eavesdropping on your thoughts a little more than I should."
"...were you 'watching' that whole thing?"
He feels like he should be uncomfortable, somehow, but honestly he just wants to see what she thinks.
He nudges one of the jocks' shoes with his foot.
"Not all of it, just since I came in."
"Oh."
Pause.
"...so..."
There's not really a non-awkward way to ask 'what's your opinion on my fucked-up thoughts'.
She strides towards him and takes one of his hands in hers and squeezes it uncomfortably tight and kisses him.
Way better than expected.
He kisses her back with a hunger that wasn't quite there last night, feeling the last remnants of bone fuse back together.
"Surrounded by the unconscious bodies of their enemies" is a good look on them, he thinks.
Wordless agreement.
He breaks away after a minute -- not that he really wants to, but they have some trash to take out.
"...so, how're we gonna embarrass these assholes?"
He pats the shoulder of the apparent ringleader. Sorry, dude.
"Not sure about the details but I was thinking some combination of nudity and duct tape."
"Ahaha, sweet!"
Revenge is great! He's never done this before!
"We can put 'em up on the wall somewhere. You need a couple layers but I think it's possible."
"Sounds like a plan to me. ...Mind, first we need to get the duct tape, I don't have any on me at the moment."
"I've got some, but I don't think it'll be enough to get all these guys up on the wall. Maybe we'll just do the guy who started it like that."
He gestures to him.
"Sounds good to me."
"...he's gonna be so pissed."
There's a flicker of the breathless mania from before, but it disappears quickly.
"Where do we put him?"
"Hm...somewhere the duct tape won't damage the wall too much, I think..."
"I mean, we could stick him somewhere outside out of the way..."
He waves his hand in front of the guy's face. No response.
"...this is so weird. What's it like for him?"
"It isn't like anything at the moment, he's unconscious. What it'll be like for him later depends on how I bring him out of it."
"...tell me more?"
"It could be like he fell asleep here and is waking up somewhere else, it could be like he had a moment of disorientation and suddenly noticed he was somewhere else, it could be like he was instantaneously teleported..."
"Huh. All good options."
He thinks about it.
"...make these guys do the taping, then do the disorientation thing for all of them, maybe."
"Yeah, okay." She doesn't make him strip completely naked, just down to his boxers.
He watches.
"...so, also, I'm never going to piss you off."
"I wouldn't do this to you!"
"Yeah, well, I'm not an asshole. This just makes not being an asshole a little more worth it."
"Even if you were an asshole, I--
I don't want you to feel like--like you have to be afraid of me, I like you."
He nods.
"...it'll chill out in a second. I'm just not used to trusting people, and, like...you could put me on a bus home, if you wanted to, and I wouldn't even know."
Quickly:
"I know you don't want to. And you wouldn't."
He is, by all appearances, telling the truth.
She hugs him.
He hugs her back.
I don't expect you to trust me. We've only known each other a few days.
yeah, but...
i like you. and i really want to trust somebody.
and you showed me my own brain.
Your brain is lovely. Your "fucked-up thoughts" are beautiful.
i'll have to show you more of 'em sometime.
I look forward to it. Kiss?
Definitely kiss.
let's go tape a jerk to a wall.
Definitely.
They find somewhere conveniently out-of-the-way and tape the jerk to the wall and she shoos his friends in miscellaneous directions before waking them up.
He admires their handiwork.
"We should probably get out of here before we wake him up, right?"
"Probably, yeah." She blows a kiss to the unconscious jock and sashays out of the room.
He looks at the body on the wall for a minute.
Then he follows Edie out.
"...You're okay, right?" she asks after they've closed the door behind them.
"...Does this make us the bad guys?"
"What?"
"I mean...getting stuck out somewhere without clothes is the kind of shit that I figured would happen to me when I got here."
"...You didn't assault someone for being mutant and queer."
After a second, he nods.
"Yeah. That's fair. Just feels weird, I guess, since I...y'know, had fun with it."
"...I will admit I also kind of had fun with it. But that's just a feeling, right?"
"No, I mean with the beating."
"Oh, that. The point is deterrence, and they didn't know you would like it."
He thinks about that for a minute, then nods.
"Next mutant kid probably won't have fast healing, huh."
"Most of us don't, yeah."
"...probably good I'm such a fist magnet, then, honestly."
"Probably." Hug. Lean. Sigh.
Hug.
"I'm holding you to the whole "I will do some violence to you if I can knock these guys out" thing, by the way."
"Sounds fine by me. How do you want to do this?"
...suddenly, given the option, it is way harder to decide.
"Uh, I have not a ton of experience with picking?"
"Well, the way I see it there are two basic options. One, we go to the gym and I beat the shit out of you. Two..."
She grabs his hand and squeezes it again.
"Two, we go somewhere private and I get creative."
...wow, marry him already.
"Creative. Creative is good."
She kisses him briefly. "Excellent. Where's your dorm?"
He grabs her hand and leads her in the right direction.
She is thus led.
And then they are in his dorm room.
"How good is your healing, anyway? I don't want to accidentally go too far and cause long-term damage."
He thinks about that for a minute.
"Most things only take a few minutes to fix. Like, you've seen how quickly bones go...and I can lose pretty much all my blood and be fine after I pass out a while. Pretty sure anything you want to do would be safe."
He has no idea how organs or losing pieces would work, but he doubts either of those things are going to come up.
"Gotcha.
You'll let me know if I do anything you don't like, even a little, right?"
He nods.
"The telepathy thing is probably gonna help with that."
"Yeah."
She kisses him again and takes his hand in hers.
Kiss!
And a little hand squeeze, for good measure.
Handsqueeze!
And then she takes his hand in both of hers and starts bending back one of the fingers.
--Oh, fuck. Is she really...
Some part of him was expecting a slow start, or some kind of squeamishness, but clearly neither of those things are happening.
(Is this what love feels like, waiting for a fragile little finger bone to snap?)
snap
fuck
Lightning shoots up his arm and the whole right side of his body twitches. He can feel the release of the tendon snapping. It forces a noise out of him, a short, sharp groan almost like a laugh.
The flood of euphoria is incredible.
She kisses him again and digs her fingernails into the place where the break is.
He would cover his mouth by instinct if it weren't already occupied.
He gasps heavily into the kiss, feeling the pressure driving the sharp edges of the break into flesh.
Good?
good. good, really good.
His head is already swimming a little with it.
She breaks another finger.
It's different (just as good) without the anticipation.
He actually moans outright this time. He can feel his finger touching the back of his hand and just the fact that sensation should be impossible is incredible.
fuck, you must have done this before...
Not on a live target!
He's her first, then. That's good.
The first broken finger is already trying to fuse again, bone twisting under the skin.
She straightens and sets it and breaks a third.
The setting bone fuses together quickly, but at the site of the break (right around the knuckle) something odd happens -- a sharp, wicked point of bone grows through the skin, which heals around it like it's meant to be there.
He doesn't really have time to notice this, himself, because she's breaking another one and that drowns out everything else. He doubles over, this time.
fuck fuck fuck it's good
She sits down on the floor, guiding him down after her into her lap. She considers him with a nigh-angelic expression and then drives a knuckle into his solar plexus, hard.
He wasn't going to be able to remain standing anyway, so it's a very good thing that she's decided to sit them down.
He relaxes for a second -- and then suddenly there's pain, pain, pain, and he tries to gasp but his body seems to have forgotten how to breathe.
He chokes on nothing at all, arching back in her lap.
She pets him, monitoring him carefully until he's back in control of himself.
As soon as his diaphragm stops spasming he gasps in air, coughing a little before he can get his breath under control.
His second finger has started to noticeably heal, and that break is also growing a sharp spur.
"How do you feel about moving this somewhere where it doesn't matter if we get messy?" she murmurs.
"Yes. please."
It's a little bit of an effort to speak at the moment but he manages it.
She hoists him up (she's surprisingly strong for a girl her size, but not so much that an extra mutation is needed to explain it) and half-carries half-drags him to the dorm showers.
Need help getting undressed?
His fingers have healed by the time they make it there, and he's...mostly recovered from the hit to the solar plexus. Enough to actually stand up, at least.
i've got it.
He pulls off his shirt and tosses it to the side.
hopefully nobody walks in here.
Pants next.
She gives him a speculative look and then starts unbuttoning her dress.
That's a weird look.
what's that face about?
He doesn't take off his underwear yet. Can't be naked before she's at least mostly naked, that's weird for some reason.
Deciding whether or not to undress.
...oh.
that's pretty hot.
He finishes undressing.
And their clothes can go somewhere clothes-convenient and they can go in a shower stall.
Edie eyes the spines coming out of his knuckles speculatively.
He flexes his fingers a little.
"Yeah, these...happen."
He draws one gently across his throat – just the surface of the skin – and a few beads of blood well up in the scratch. He figures that'll be a good demonstration.
She smiles and bends to press a kiss to the bleeding scratch.
And then opens her mouth and very deliberately sets her teeth against his throat.
His breath stops for a moment.
Most likely, she can feel his pulse start to pound under her lips.
(Nobody has ever done something like this to him before -- something so intimate, animal --)
He nods, minutely, just enough for her to notice.
She bites.
Hard.
His throat gives way easily under her teeth.
He gasps raggedly. He can feel his blood pouring down over his chest.
(He will identify this later as the moment that he fell in love.)
It doesn't take long at all before he staggers, putting his arms over her shoulders to keep from falling down entirely.
She lets go and kisses him, blood thick on her teeth and lips and tongue.
He kisses his own blood from her mouth.
His vision is swimming now, and when his chest presses up to hers he can feel how wet it is between them. Every time he swallows it's a new jolt of agony in the wound.
you're perfect
He's clearly aroused, but that sensation barely even matters right now.
Her response is a wordless rush of affection and desire.
She reaches up to his ear and rips one of the piercings out.
He thinks he comes, then. He's not sure. Everything is blurred together.
The edges of his vision are dark.
gonna be
back in a sec
He blacks out.
His unconscious body slumps forward, and the flow of blood trickles to a stop. It's unclear whether something healed or he just ran out entirely.
Edie props him up so he won't drown and runs the shower until they don't look like she just murdered him with her face.
His heart stops, as a temporary measure.
As the shower runs, his torn throat knits back together, and there's an unsettling squirming underneath the skin as it repairs itself.
After ten minutes or so, his heart starts again, and color begins to return to his face.
When he starts to stir, there's still an odd seam across his throat, but it's not bleeding.
The heart stopping is kind of concerning but his brain doesn't stop so she doesn't panic.
His eyes open slowly, and he looks up at her in awe. He tries to open his mouth to say something to her--
--and the new, tooth-lined maw on his neck opens instead.
...oh, what the fuck.
"I was not expecting that!"
shit, i am so sorry...
He covers the mouth up with his hand and averts his eyes quickly from hers. For the first time since she's met him, he actually seems to feel ashamed.
"No, it's fine, I was just surprised," she murmurs soothingly.
...you sure?
He looks back at her but still doesn't move his hand.
it's pretty fucking gross.
She gently moves his hand out of the way and runs a finger wonderingly over the glistening line of teeth.
It's amazing. You're amazing. Your mutation takes harm and uses it to make you more dangerous. How awesome is that?
...i guess that is pretty rad.
He's awed. She sees him, and she feels like this anyway--no, she feels like this because she sees him.
--hang on, I think I can...
The mouth opens wider, and for a second, a pink tongue darts out and licks her finger.
She laughs delightedly and leans down to press a kiss to the neckmouth.
It grins in apparent satisfaction.
He can't help reaching out and hugging her.
i think i love you.
...didn't quite mean to let that come out, but there it is, and fuck if he's taking it back.
I'm glad. Mm, snuggles, excellent.
He snuggles her for a while. A dorm shower isn't the most comfortable place for that, but he doesn't even care, at this point.
He realizes something a couple of minutes in, though.
fuck, do i have to get rid of this before i go back out? i've never taken off a mouth before.
Taken off?
i've had to get rid of stuff like this before. like, first time i had my bleeding-out experience.
pulling a bunch of eyeballs out of your wrists by yourself? wouldn't recommend.
Eugh.
yeah, right?
i can fix stuff without any home surgery shit if i've got enough time, but i'm not great at it yet...
If and only if you don't want to have a mouth in your neck you shouldn't. I certainly wouldn't call it urgent.
Oh. That's an idea.
huh. maybe I'll keep it around for a little while.
He reaches up and actually touches the seam for the first time, then parts it and feels the teeth.
gross, but cool.
Gross?
He thinks about that for a moment.
...i can't tell whether i'm just calling it gross 'cause i know that's how people are gonna look at it.
Well. I don't think it's gross.
aww, it loves you too.
He tries to get it to blow a kiss, but can't quite manage it.
She giggles and kisses it again.
Smooch!
It takes him a second, but he figures out how to move his actual mouth again.
"So...are we getting out of the shower, or sticking around?"
"...We should probably get out, I'm not on birth control yet."
Oh, that's a possibility he's very much on board with for the future.
He nods and gets up, offering a hand to help her off the ground.
She takes it and rises. "Well, that was fun."
"I hope you had even, like, half as much fun as I did. And that we get to do it again."
Kiss!
She kisses him. "I don't know about fractions but I had a lot of fun and we can definitely do that again."
He grins, walks out of the shower to retrieve his clothes and does a little fistpump when he thinks she's not looking.
Does her giggle suggest to him that he was wrong?
Whoops!
He looks over his shoulder.
"You hallucinated that! It was imaginary!"
Now he's wearing pants.
"Riiiiiiight." She walks over and starts pulling on her own clothes.
"I swear I'm not really a huge dork."
Shirt equipped!
She kisses him on the cheek. "You are the best dork."
He laughs and scoops her up into his arms to walk triumphantly out the door.
She laughs and hugs him and cooperates with scooping.
He takes her back to his room and sets her gently down on the bed.
He sits on the floor.
She giggles and leans forward and slings her arms around his neck.
Aww.
"Did you know you're cute?"
"I did! Did you know you're hot?"
The little swell of happiness he gets whenever she compliments him is probably fun to feel secondhand.
"I'm starting to get the idea."
"Good." Smooch.
"...so, you don't actually have to be on the pill for me to eat you out. Just, like, for future reference."
Not that he actually knows much about that, but he likes to learn by doing.
"Excellent point." Significantly deeper kiss.
Success.
He kisses her deeply, then moves down to her neck.
least i could do after all that.
And he’s definitely looking forward to it.
She's never done this either, so his inexperience goes unnoticed. And telepathy is a very effective teaching aide.
Well, what he lacks in experience, he makes up for in enthusiasm. And he’s definitely a fan of the telepathy.
Oh.
Good.
It will probably take her actually telling him to stop before he backs off.
Once she does, though, he’ll come up next to her on the bed.
And then delighted snuggles.
Snuggle!
”It is...a total mystery to me why guys complain about that. What the fuck, guys?”
"I think mostly toxic cultural mores."
“...yeah, probably. Still.”
Snuggle.
wow you are so soft.
She has muscle, but it's more the corded type than the bulky type and there's plenty of soft on top of it. You're so nice and warm.
mmhmm. warm is good.
The neck-mouth yawns.
This is adorable. She nuzzles it.
It doesn’t exactly have lips that it could kiss her with, but it licks her cheek affectionately.
She giggles and catches the tip of the tongue between her teeth, giving it a light nip.
“Aah! Cheating!”
He kisses the top of her head.
"How is that cheating?"
“Teeth are my weakness.”
"Oh. Well in that case..." Jaw nibbles.
He hums in contentment.
"...okay, maybe I'll let it go."
She trails one hand up to the neckmouth, presenting her fingertips for nibbling.
The teeth are very sharp, so it bites very gently. Her fingers get licked a little in the process.
She sends him the sensation.
Oh, nice.
The mouth bites down just a little harder – not enough to draw blood, though.
"It is so hard not to just...chomp."
Giggle. "Is it connected to your esophagus?:
He thinks about that.
"...yeah, I think so? Maybe I should eat something with it to be sure."
"Now I wish I had snacks on me."
"...I actually have some stashed in here."
"Oh good. Where?"
"Bottom drawer in the desk."
(It contains a couple small bags of chips, a few candy bars and a few Atomic Fireballs.)
She selects a candy bar and unwraps it before coming back and putting the end in biting range of the teeth.
It chomps off the end of the bar, chews it thoughtfully (if a little ineffectively), and...
(Gulp.)
"...huh. Okay."
She giggles and feeds him some more candy bar.
The tongue has to lick the teeth quite a bit after it swallows the second bite -- sharp, pointy teeth are not ideal for eating chocolate.
"It tastes a little different than usual."
"Ooh, how, can I peek?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
The sweetness of the candy bar is actually difficult for the neck-mouth to taste, but it can certainly taste the fat and the bitterness in the chocolate. The candy seems to be...missing something important, but it's hard to pick out what it is.
"Interesting...I wish I had some beef jerky."
"Shit, I wish I had some beef jerky."
He is suddenly aware that he is really, really hungry.
"...You okay?"
He nods.
"Yeah, just totally starving all of a sudden. I think it might be a healing thing?"
"Makes sense. I don't think the dining hall's open yet but I bet we can find some cafe or something catering to college students if we put our clothes back on and sally forth."
He nods.
"Sounds good to me."
He's still got pants on, but he lost his shirt at some point. Where did that even go? Time to find out.
Edie locates her clothes and dresses efficiently.
Shirt on, ready to go!
"I wonder how frisbee guy's doing."
"No idea. They probably haven't found him yet, though, unless he has a very good set of lungs."
"Yeah, probably. People only really hang there at night."
He grabs his jacket off the chair next to the desk.
Shrug. "Oh well. Maybe next time he wants to pick on someone he'll think twice."
He nods.
"I figure it's fifty-fifty "thinks twice" or "gets more pissed"--"
Wait. He reaches up to his ear.
"...shit. D'you know where that stud you ripped out went?"
"...Uh, yeah, I think..." she rummages in some discreet pockets. "Found it," she says, producing it from her waistband.
"Nice, thanks."
He takes it and tucks it carefully into his breast pocket.
"I'll redo that one later."
"Having to redo them every time seems like a hassle."
"It is kind of annoying sometimes, yeah. I don't take 'em out a lot."
He considers.
"...it's also kinda fun, though."
"I won't claim I'm shocked."
"Shocking news! Z is just a huge slut for having holes poked in him."
He opens the door and holds it for her behind him.
She laughs and twirls through the door.
Time to get off this campus!
Getting out of the dorm without being spotted is actually not that hard. In theory girls aren't allowed in this building, but in practice nobody really gives a shit.
What an excellent instance of apathy.
Telepathy makes finding a high-quality food location easier!
He's gonna trust Edie's judgement on the food location for that reason!
As they walk in that direction, he keeps reaching up and poking the slit where the neck-mouth is to make sure it's actually closed.
Is it hard to tell just by its own sense of touch?
i can feel that it's closed, i guess, but it's...new. so it's not really automatic yet.
Fair enough.
it's also kinda hard to tell the mouths apart sensation-wise right now. easier than in the shower, but...
That makes sense.
...where are we going, anyway?
Little sandwich place! Dingy enough to have low prices, but amazing sandwiches.
nice! best kind of sandwich place.
Ooh, good, I guessed right.
tiny holes in the wall with great food save my life all the time.
The appropriate response to that is probably to hug his arm and lean on him.
As far as he's concerned that is the appropriate response to almost anything.
He will vaguely walk-snuggle her all the way to the sandwich shop.
That is good.
The sandwich shop has a wide variety of sandwiches available. Many of them have meat.
Excellent.
He acquires an overly large ham-based sandwich and grabs a chair.
Edie gets something with cheese and eggs and mushrooms and joins him.
He is devouring this sandwich with slightly alarming focus. He wasn't kidding about being hungry.
Edie eats more sedately and with an affectionate smile on her face.
After a minute, he's progressed past "starving" enough that he can sneak a piece of ham out of the sandwich and into the neckmouth.
...
oh my god. that is amazing.
I'm curious but I'm also not sure it's okay to receive telepathic impressions of eating ham.
...huh?
you're not a vegetarian, right?
No, Jewish.
ah, shit, I would have picked something else.
He wanted her to share the experience!
i have no idea if psychic ham-feelings are kosher.
I don't know either. I can ask Dad to ask our Rabbi, but. Shrug.
He sneaks another slice of ham.
i'm learning more secret shit about your family every day.
i mean, not that it's a secret exactly...
It's so not a secret, people just don't pay attention.
shocker.
...For the record that wasn't aimed at you, noticing stuff like that is not your job, noticing stuff like that is the job of the people who write newspaper articles and stuff about Dad.
yeah, i figured...but thanks for saying so.
that seems like a pretty important detail to just...not write about ever.
Yeah.
He's not just Jewish, he's a Holocaust survivor.
christ.
i mean, uh, maybe bad choice of words, but...
[all sorts of feelings of sympathy, and also incredulity at the press]
Nah, it's fine. Generic-interjection. Besides, asking you to censor your thoughts just because I'm reading them would be, uh, a bit much. To say the least.
He nods.
it's way easier to not say something than not think it.
...uh, not that i'm really awesome at not saying things.
He sneaks an actual bite of sandwich into the neckmouth.
--oh, shit, eating bread with these teeth is hard.
It does require a bit more chewing. Need help?
uh, help? nah, i'm good...
He covers the mouth very unsubtly with his hand as he chews. After a minute there's a gulp.
probably better to just put meat in there.
Probably. It handled the chocolate okay though, right?
yeah, i think chocolate is melty enough that it's easier.
I wonder how a popsicle would taste.
...huh. now i wanna try it.
wanna find one before we head home?
Sure!
He finishes the rest of his sandwich fairly quickly.
"Okay, I'm definitely no longer starving to death."
"That's good. I'd miss you if you died."
"I'd miss you if I was dead!"
"So clearly it mustn't happen."
"Cool. I'll try to avoid the whole premature death thing."
She kisses his forehead. "Should be easier for you than for some."
He is incredibly pleased with the little forehead kiss.
"Eh, I think it balances out. If I were most people I would already be dead, like, 8 times."
"Well, fair. Depends on how good your healing is, I guess."
"Yeah, I guess it does. It's...kind of hard to test that one, though."
"Yeah." Hug. "I'd rather not test it to the breaking point, if it's all the same to you."
"...Yeah. That's okay with me."
He can't think of any situation where he'd need to -- that he's likely to run into, anyway.
"Good." Vertical snuggle.
Snuggle!
Time to find a popsicle?
Popsicle! There is a gas station sort of place that sells popsicles. Edie selects a cherry one.
He pays for it and unwraps it quickly.
"This is probably gonna be weird..."
"Probably. Think of it as science, if it helps."
"Well, I'm always up to have weird science done to me..."
He holds it up to the mouth, and the tongue snakes out to lick it, and just sort of...keeps going.
It wraps around the popsicle a couple times before he stops it.
"...huh."
The guy behind the counter drops his magazine.
"That tastes really good, actually."
"Oh, good."
He tries his best to send it.
It's not nearly as sweet as it'd normally be, just tart and cool and...water-tasting, somehow.
"Huh. Cool."
"I love my weird mouth."
Man behind the counter clearly does not, but he's trying his best to sit still and be polite, bless him.
Edie leaves a generous tip. It's not fair to judge peoples' internal belief states and he is deciding to be nice about it.
The guy seems to appreciate it through all the feeling-ill.
He looks down at the popsicle (and the tongue attacking it) as they walk out the door.
"I feel like if I put this in the actual mouth I'm gonna freeze my teeth off."
"You have a healing factor, right?"
"Yeah, but, like...have you ever bitten a popsicle?"
"Yeah?"
"It's so...uncomfortable."
"Fair enough."
He stays silent for a minute as they walk.
"...I don't actually know that much about you, huh?"
"...I guess, in terms of pure factual information."
"I mean, not like I think that's bad. It just feels like I've known you a lot longer."
And so he's already running out of time.
"Like, the amount of time where you know...shit, I guess...what someone's favorite color is. Or something."
"Yeah." She hugs his arm and leans on him again. "My favorite color is blue."
Physical contact dries up the anxiety for the moment. He leans in.
"Solid choice."
"Emily's is pink."
"Also solid."
The tongue breaks off a piece of the popsicle and retreats.
"Which blues? There's a lot of 'em."
"Solid blues--the kind a crayon marked only 'blue' would be."
He nods, and resolves to abuse his new powers of...favorite-color-knowing.
"...I'd tell you mine, but I'm boring and gothy."
"Let me guess: neon green."
"Oh, shit, my secret's out!"
He mimes shock and horror.
"I actually do like electric blue, though."
"Electric blue's nice. Okay, my second guess is black."
"Got it in...uh, two."
He considers.
"Red's good too. But that's probably also kind of unsurprising."
Deadpan: "Red? I can't imagine."
"It's a total mystery why."
"Oh, I know: you like apples."
"Obviously it's because I wanted to be a fireman as a kid. Or something."
He punches her lightly in the shoulder.
She giggles and punches back, harder.
"Oh, you wanna fight, huh?"
He puts up his fists mock-threateningly, and then leans in and kisses her on the side of the head.
She pecks him on the cheek in return.
"Not here. If you want a proper fight you'll have to wait 'till we're somewhere appropriate."
"What's 'appropriate'? Never heard of it."
He finishes off the last bit of the popsicle and tosses the stick into a convenient trash can.
"Somewhere it's unlikely that a misunderstanding will result in someone calling the police."
"Oh, I meant, like, the abstract concept of appropriate. But yeah, that's probably a better place to fight."
Pat pat. "Don't worry, I don't much care for the abstract concept either."
Nod.
"It's really overrated."
"Society's just this jumble of historic and culture residue left to rot into normality compost," she snorts.
"Does that make people worms?"
"No, people are the people keeping the compost heap who keep inadvisably rubbing it all over themselves."
Pfffft.
"And then they keep wondering what's making them stink."
"It's not that compost doesn't have it's place, but that place is not on anybody's sexuality or genetics."
"I'm sure there's somebody into composting."
This metaphor has taken a turn for the worse.
"Yes, if you really want to roll around in compost that's fine, just don't smear it on your kids."
Oh, no, that one got him.
He puts his face in his hands so he's less visibly cracking up.
She giggles.
He looks up after he manages to contain himself.
"You are so good."
"I know," she says, hugging his arm and leaning into him again.
He will never, ever get tired of all this affection.
(He also has to admit that he likes that people will see this.)
She smiles a little wider and holds his arm a little tighter and radiates happiness in return.
For the short time that they're walking back to campus, he is convinced nothing will ever go wrong again.
"I have homework," she remarks a little while after they've reached the campus. "I'm guessing you do too. Do you want to find a table in the library?"
"...I left my bag."
Good job, Z!
"I'll run back and then catch up with you there?"
"Sure thing," she says, smooching him on the cheek.
These smooches fuel him.
He waves to her as he walks off towards his dorm.
She waves back and then lopes off to the library.
Thankfully, the process of retrieving his stuff is uneventful.
Well, mostly.
He walks into the library with a bag over his shoulder and a fair bit of dried blood on his ear. The piercing that Edie ripped out is now back in its proper home.
if i were a cool psychic chick, where would i hide?
No idea, but I'm over here, she sends, accompanied by directions.
Oh, weird. He goes in the direction he now remembers going as if he has in any way been in this library before.
Once he finds her he takes his place at her table, tossing his bag on the chair next to him.
i guess you're basically nothing like i would be if i were psychic. or a chick.
I'm sure you would make a lovely telepath, but yes, definitely not me.
for one thing, you remember homework.
He pulls a few papers out of his bag.
I do do that, she agrees, taking out her own books.
it's funny how that would've made you a good influence on me in high school.
He opens a notebook.
i mean, you also suggested the duct tape thing, but...good influence.
I was a good influence on everyone in high school!
yeah, well, you went to mutant high school. different rules, probably.
Mutant high school is best high school.
I would've had a much harder time getting away with duct taping that guy, but then, I could trust the school authorities to take it seriously if I went to them, so I wouldn't have had to.
somebody figure out mutant college.
There's not enough of us yet who actually know enough to teach there.
He nods.
hope that changes soon.
It'll take time.
guess we can try to make things better while we wait.
Yeah.
So what do you want to do with your life?
...
...
[vague sense of a full-body shrug]
We're freshmen in college, I think you're more typical there than me.
He laughs a little aloud.
all i wanted to be when i left home was 'z'. i'm still figuring out the other stuff. i guess that's pretty typical, yeah.
Being yourself is important.
i guess the rest is gonna happen naturally.
Yeah. Maybe you won't figure out literally everything, but hell, who does?
gonna have fun with it, i hope.
Time to actually do homework. Joy.
Homework is probably improved by microbreaks involving a pretty telepath.
So improved.
He actually makes it through everything in a decent amount of time. Weird!
Just a matter of the right motivations, I suppose!
you are definitely motivational.
Snuglean. I try.
He rests his head against hers.
it's amazing that you try when you already hooked me. at this point you could basically just exist in front of me.
You are so good and I want to do right by you.
He takes a moment to think about that.
Then he lies his head down on her shoulder (even though it's a slightly awkward position to be in).
i'm trying to save the gross crying for later but i'm warning you now that it's gonna happen.
There is nothing gross whatsoever about crying. And we're alone.
i mean...we're still in the middle of the library.
Not quite the middle, but...still a public place.
I can noninvasively edit people's perceptions.
...got me there.
He lays his head down in her lap.
It would probably be a little difficult to tell that the little shaky breaths that come next are actually crying if he hadn't told her beforehand.
She pets his hair.
It won't take much looking to realize that he's afraid that he's showing too much, too fast. He's practically broadcasting it. This is the kind of thing that chases people away, he knows it.
Beside it, though, there's a deep sense of relief.
She pets his hair and presses kisses to his forehead and makes affectionate soothing noises.
After a few minutes, he sniffs and hiccups a little and sits back up, wiping his eyes quickly.
She snuggles him.
Snuggle.
"Don't tell anyone."
"...Does that include Emily, I don't by default keep things from her that aren't sexual in nature but I can if you want me to."
He weighs it carefully.
"...she's okay. I, uh...trust you trusting her."
His eyes are stubbornly continuing to water. He rubs them again.
"Okay." Pet, pet. "We do trust each other, she and I. Absolutely. And I mean that as in our trust in each other is absolute, if I told her that there was no time to explain but she needed to burn down an orphanage she'd trust that I had a good reason."
Wow. He nods.
"That's...pretty amazing, actually."
"It helps that I've been telepathic since before we were born."
"...you've been in each other's heads since before you knew anything else."
He can't imagine being that close to someone. He's a little jealous.
She snuggles him. "That's not quite true. We each knew our incubating parent before the other. But--it wasn't two-way, with them. It was different." She kisses his temple. "...One of my favorite things about you is how you feel about my telepathy."
He nods a little at the explanation.
The second part makes him pause, though.
"...what d'you mean?"
"--You don't mind when I'm in your head. A lot of people do."
Oh.
"Well...yeah. I guess a lot of people would rather hide. But..."
He tries to pick his words carefully.
"I like that I couldn't hide. Even if it'd be..."better", I guess. Even if I wanted to."
Pause.
"Plus it's just amazing you can do it in the first place, so of course I want it to happen to me, you know?"
"Yeah.
You could hide if you wanted to, I respect consent. I don't have to. But I do."
He nods.
"I'm...glad I'm somebody like that. Whose head you can be in. You definitely deserve it."
She beams and squeezes him.
He squeezes her back!
"Let's get out of here. I need to ease into the whole 'being in the library' thing."
"Mmkay. Anywhere in particular you were thinking of retiring to?"
"...I'm guessing it'd be way harder for you to sneak me into your dorm. And also possibly creepy."
"And more importantly, I share it with my sister."
"...that too."
He doesn't want to admit out loud that he had no particularly carnal plans. He honestly just wanted to see what her room was like.
"Oh. In that case it's not especially creepy, c'mon."
"Yeah, well, if I were a girl I wouldn't want to see some weird dude running around in my dorm."
Pause.
"...or, uh, maybe I would, but...you know what I mean."
"Boys aren't the only ones who break the fraternization rules. You wouldn't be the first one I've seen in there."
Grin.
"Nice to know everyone's getting laid."
She giggles. "Quite. My dorm's this way," she says, gesturing and taking his hand.
He allows himself cheerfully to be led.
She transitions from hand-holding to arm hugging part of the way there.
He's not complaining about this!
"Are you afraid I'm gonna wander off?"
"No, you just need more physical affection."
He feels so incredibly called out right now.
"...yeah, I guess I probably do."
"And I am very happy to provide it." Cheeksmooch.
Ee!
He will happily accept snuggles all the way up to the dorm.
There are so many snuggles.
Their dorm room is full of books and metal objects, many of which are clearly art of one form or another.
This is a good room.
"There's art in here."
He is shaken by this great discovery.
"Emily does that."
"She should keep doing it."
He leans closer to one of the sculptures to examine its surface.
It's a little abstract feminine figure with metal sweeping back from its arms like water.
He loves it.
"Do you guys ever...do this together?"
He can't quite articulate what he means.
Fortunately she can pluck it from his mind!
"Not often. Emily's more artistically inclined than I am."
He nods.
"She's definitely good at it."
"She is," she says, full of sisterly pride and affection.
"Awww."
"I bet she'd do something for you if you wanted," she says, flicking one of his piercings.
"You think?"
He's so excited.
"Absolutely. I don't suppose you've got anything you'd like set in a piece of jewelry that currently isn't?"
"...no, but I will totally go find something."
Not right now, obviously, but he's putting it on his list.
She giggles and smooches him on the cheek. "No rush."
"Hey, it's just exciting! Nobody's ever made me something, uh...ferrokinetically before."
...he might have historically spent a little more time in the library than he wants to admit.
"I'm definitely not denying that part, Emily's mutation is awesome." Snuggle. "I have a knife she made me, wanna see it?"
"Um, yes?"
He is all about seeing knives!
"Thought so."
She reaches under the bed and pulls out a flat box, opens it, and draws out a knife. It looks daggerish, with a swirling pattern on the hilt coming up to hold a sparkly red rough stone for the pommel. She draws the blade from the sheath to reveal a beautifully damascened blade.
He's thought this more than once, but he thinks this may be the most beautiful object he's ever seen.
"...can I hold it?"
"Of course."
He takes it carefully.
His finger runs over the side of the blade as if he can feel the iridescent ripples in the steel, and then down to the handle to feel the patterns he actually can touch.
He touches the edge of the blade, then, carefully, not intending to cut.
How careful is he being? It's very sharp.
Not quite careful enough.
He holds up his sliced finger and watches it heal.
"...swear I didn't mean to do that."
"It's a knife, they do that, you heal, it's fine."
He gives it back quickly.
it's from her, though. it's different.
She carefully slides the knife back into the sheathe and puts that back in the box and then pounces on him, snuggling ferociously.
Well, that clears up his anxiety pretty fast! He laughs.
"Are you gonna do this every time? Because I'm okay with that!"
"I just--you get how important she is to me."
"Well, yeah! You were best friends before you were born. You probably grew up thinking for each other. That's pretty fucking important!"
"This is true! And yet." Snuggle. Sooo much snuggle.
Snuggle!
"And yet people just don't get it?"
"People don't get a lot of things.
Plus, you know, baseliners don't generally get to know we're sisters."
"That probably gets awkward and frustrating pretty fast."
"I wouldn't know, this is the first time I've been around so many."
"...oh, right. Lucky."
Snuggle. "I wish we had found you."
"...I wish you had, too."
Snuggle.
"But you found me now."
"Yeah, I did." Kiss. "And I don't have any particular plans to let go."
He touches her hair experimentally. Soft?
Soft! She leans into his hand happily.
Well, then, he will pet her excessively.
There shall be bilateral snuggles and pets, then.
He will happily maintain this until some kind of interruption.
Emily walks in.
"Thank you for not having been making out," she says, and joins the hugpile.
Aww!
"...hey, look what I got."
He sticks the neck-mouth's tongue out.
"Oh, neat!"
"I love that I can just do that!"
Enthusiastic snuggle!
Snuggle. "Do what?"
"Show you my weird neck mouth without you running screaming into the hallway."
"Do baseliners usually do that?"
"I mean...I'm guessing they would if I showed them this while I was this close? Or they'd just be grossed out, or something. It kind of varies."
"Enh. It's cool." Snuggle.
"Extra mouth would say thanks if I could make it do that."
"Maybe you could hook it up to your larynx if you try hard and believe in yourself."
"Ooh. Maybe. I don't want to stop my normal mouth working, though, that'd suck."
Snuggle. "Yeah. We'll see what we can figure out, hm?"
He nods.
"I can finally start some real experiments here. Thanks for giving me a single, dorm gods."
"Yyyyeah having to share a room is fine for us, but. Yeah." Extra snuggles!
"I think they might've decided to put the mutant kid in a separate room on purpose. Probably a good plan, honestly."
He accepts and returns the extra snuggles! This is so good.
"And yet I find myself pissed off about it! Don't worry, I will not express this to anyone who might rectify the situation."
"...kinda pissed me off too, to be honest, but yeah, please don't."
The last thing he wants in his life right now is a baseliner guy sharing his room.
Snuggle. "I definitely won't."
"Okay. Good. Otherwise I'm gonna have to come sleep on your floor."
"I would not make you sleep on the floor."
"Ooh, scandal."
"And I should give a damn why?" she asks innocently, smooching the top of his head.
Awww.
"Because scandalized people make hilarious faces?"
"Hmm, you make a good point there. Maybe I should make out with the neckmouth in front of them for bonus points."
"...oh my god, imagine."
What a glorious image.
She laughs and brings a hand up to pet his hair.
He is glad to be pet!
Maybe he'll just...stay here for a while. That sounds like a good plan.
He has such cozy enablers to assist him with this plan.
After an extended period of snuggles--
"I bet they found frisbee guy."
"Probably."
"Tomorrow might be an interesting day."
"Worried about retribution or getting tattled on?"
"Eh, I'm not that worried. It'd kind of suck if he told the school but I don't think that's gonna happen."
"Good. Let me know if he bothers you again?"
"I will."
i'll yell at you with my brain.
Best kind of yelling.
aaaaaaaaaaa
Snuggles and pets and psychically-transmitted pure unadulterated affection.
He's just going to flop back all blissed-out, then.
That works! Horizontal snuggles. So snuggly.
It takes a while longer for him to sit up this time.
"...I so want to stay here all night, but I probably shouldn't do that."
She considers this for a moment.
"Why not?"
He actually doesn't have a good answer for that!
"Would you guys both be cool with it?"
"Don't have sex while I'm in the room but I have no objection to cuddling."
"That is definitely doable."
"Good," she says, and gives his hair an affectionate nuzzle.
He will proceed to just stay there all night! Snuggles and contentment all around.
The twins' alarm wakes them at an appropriate hour the next morning. Edie groans and snuggles in closer for a minute before reluctantly getting out of bed to shut it off.
He rolls over in bed and makes vague noises of protest. It's way too early to be daytime.
She smiles fondly at him.
"What time's your first class?" she asks, walking back to the bed, sitting down, and putting a hand in his hair.
"Uh...nine, today, I think..."
Oh, petting. He likes petting. He makes a sleepy sound of contentment.
Pet, pet.
"Mine's at eight. You can sleep a while longer, then. Do you want me to reset the alarm?"
He sighs a little bit.
"Mm...should probably get up...gonna sleep through it otherwise..."
But getting up is so hard.
Will it help if Edie physically lifts him up and drags him out of the bed?
Yep! That will definitely help!
He still yawns pathetically, with both mouths. (Apparently the neckmouth now has two rows of teeth.)
"I wish you could just skip the first 15 minutes after you wake up."
She considers possible responses and settles on kissing him.
He's not going to object to that! And he looks considerably more awake afterwards.
"You fixed it!"
"I'm good at that kind of thing," she says, nuzzling his cheek. "Did you realize the neckmouth grew a new set of teeth?"
"...oh, shit. I hope it's not gonna do that every morning."
Shrug. "I guess we'll see."
"...I mean, I'd be fine with it, but I don't wanna start pulling teeth every night. Kind of sounds like a pain in the ass."
"It's probably weird that I'm imagining making necklaces out of the teeth."
"If by weird you mean excellent."
He'd pull a row of teeth just for that, honestly.
She giggles. "We'll see what happens!"
"You get dibs on any weird teeth."
He looks for a mirror in which to vaguely fix his appalling bedhead.
A mirror: exists.
Edie decides that the correct course of action is to comb his hair with her fingers.
Clearly the best course of action is to return the favor!
This looks ridiculous. He loves it.
She nuzzles him in the face.
"You are so damn cute."
His hair looks halfway decent now!
"Breakfast?"
"I need to change into fresh clothes first.
You're welcome to watch if you want."
He will certainly watch that.
She is mayyyybe slightly flirty about it.
He enjoys it immensely.
Emily finally succeeds in dragging herself out of bed, and this time he is going to need to turn his back.
He does so, and will stare at the wall until somebody tells him otherwise.
"Okay, it's safe now."
He turns around.
"Safe implies I'd get maimed or something if I--"
He thinks.
"Actually, fair enough."
"I wouldn't actually."
"I mean, it would be kind of ineffective anyway."
"I could at the very least annoy you by removing your piercings."
He thinks about that for a second.
"...yyyes, but also don't do that because it'd be weird."
He glances over at Edie.
"Masochist."
"--I mean, I assume they can also be removed in ways other than tearing them out."
"...oh, right. I kind of forgot."
"How'd you manage that?"
"I never take 'em out on purpose."
"I guess that makes sense, if the holes always heal closed when you do."
"Yeah. Last time I was taking them out a lot was at home."
"Parents didn't like them?"
"How'd you guess?"
He fiddles with one of his earrings.
"I only had a couple, but...you know how some kids sneak the clothes they wanna wear at school onto the bus and change in the bathroom? Kind of like that, but with more blood."
"--Having grown up in a boarding school, I did not know that."
Oh, right. He laughs.
"Yeah. Favorite technique of weird and/or slutty kids everywhere."
She raises an eyebrow at the word "slutty" but doesn't comment.
"I guess that makes sense, if you have sufficiently restrictive parents."
He nods.
"Lots of kids do."
Pause.
"--also, if I wasn't counting myself under slutty I wouldn't have said it. Not a judgement."
"Just not my favorite word, is all."
He nods.
"Yeah. I get that."
He resolves not to use it around her in the future.
"I've never actually had it aimed at me or anything but it's just so--connotationally value-loaded."
"Yeah. Kind of a judgmental asshole word in general."
"Yep."
"Breakfast?"
"Breakfast!"
To the cafeteria they go!
It's hot enough outside today that he has to carry his jacket. Leather is not light or breathable.
You should never wear a jacket. Those arms should be on display at all times.
hey, i like my jacket...but i guess i could be convinced to perform that public service more often.
He is trying to sound casual (as much as you can try to sound like anything when projecting your thoughts), but he's immensely pleased with the compliment.
I mean, also winter exists; I didn't mean it literally. Just: wow, you have nice arms.
glad you think so.
also, they're useful!
He reaches over to try and scoop her up.
She will delightedly cooperate with scooping!
Got you!
He spins her around a couple times before depositing her gently back on her feet.
She hugs him hard.
He holds her hand all the way to the cafeteria.
Some jocks from yesterday give them looks but more frightened than angry, so. Edie smiles at them and they look away.
He looks distinctly uneasy.
You okay?
never really liked people being scared of me.
I think they're scared of me.
oh. right. not the only mutie at school anymore.
Into the cafeteria they go. It smells like french toast.
scary girlfriend's less bad.
Besides, I was trying to scare them.
Getting in line now.
yeah. it's just, uh, sometimes scared (a group of boys shrieking and running, whispering in the hallways later) looks a lot like scared (a boy stepping very quietly down the stairs hoping nobody will hear him leave his room).
...Yeah.
Armhug.
Armhug helps.
kind of nice to be able to do images like that.
There's a group of girls nearby pointing and whispering.
I wonder what they're reacting to, Edie says, noticing them.
not sure. it's kind of hard to tell but i don't think it's me. ...you could check, right? but that's kind of invasive.
Yeah. Curiosity is not, alas, justification for that kind of privacy invasion.
nope.
One of the girls mimes gagging. He shoots her a look.
Food is acquired. He heads for the nearest empty table, as always.
Emily notices that the curiosity is actually really bugging Edie and decides to take matters into her own hands.
She walks over to the girls.
"Hi. Does one of us have spinach in our teeth or something?"
Most of them seem a little stunned that they've actually been approached directly.
After a moment, one girl (a dishwater blond with a little gap between her front teeth) shakes her head.
"Oh, I mean, no offense to you or anything, I'm so sure you're great, but did you hear about what those two did?"
"I would like to hear what you heard they did."
They all start talking over each other.
"I heard that she–"
"–taped him up on the wall–"
"–I heard she let her boyfriend–"
"–made him go through the quad naked, and–"
"–one of them walked in front of a bike–"
"–maybe the whole campus–"
"Would you like to hear what actually happened?"
They go quiet.
"Um...yes?" says one of them.
"A bunch of guys assaulted her boyfriend, they had him on the ground and were kicking him and had already broken a rib when she walked in, and she made them stop.
The part about taping someone to a wall's true, I admit, it was supposed to be incentive to not attack people."
The reactions are mixed.
A couple of the girls look shocked, some suspicious, one completely appalled. There's one or two who look uncomfortable in a very telling way. You can't exactly say "so?" in a situation like this.
Emily returns to her sister and Z and reports the contents of the conversation quietly.
"...wow. Bullshit travels pretty fast here, too."
"I mean, those jerks were pretty motivated to spread it."
"Yeah, true."
He drums his fingers on the table.
"There's gonna be some weird shit floating around by next week, though."
Shrug. "Let it."
"More for my collection, I guess."
"Well now I'm curious."
"When somebody decides that you're trying to get with a guy so you can drink his blood, you never forget."
She snorts. "What?"
"I was clearly joking and she took it and told the whole school!"
She bursts out into giggles.
"Somehow, when I told a guy I was raised by bats the week after that, it didn't get spread around!"
"Well, it's much less salacious."
"Guess it's also a little less plausible. I mean, if a guy wanted me to drink his blood I wouldn't say no."
"Whereas I don't think bats can raise people."
"I'd love to raise a bat, though."
"I don't know how well they domesticate but it could probably be looked into."
He takes a moment to imagine a little bat flying around his dorm room, hanging from some netting attached to the ceiling, eating out of his hand...
It's adorable.
Edie beams and hugs him.
Aww. He hugs back.
"Was it that cute?"
She kisses him on the cheek and sends wordless affirmative feelings.
Disgustingly cute hugs in the middle of the cafeteria, then?
For sure.
Finishing breakfast does not take very long, despite the number of bagels that Z ended up taking from the line.
That's not really surprising, given his mutation!
"Ugh, I have to get to class," she sighs, checking the time.
Aww. He waves.
"Have fun learning stuff."
Cheek kiss!
She accepts the cheek kiss with grace and kisses him on the lips before leaving.
Wow he loves her.
He just watches her go for a moment, grinning.
"Young love," Emily trills, giggling.
He puts his chin in his hand.
"Yeah, guilty."
"See you later. Try not to melt into a pile of syrupy goop from Edie's awesomeness in the meanwhile."
"No promises."
He spends a little while daydreaming before he gets up to head to class.
Edie is leaning against the wall outside his last class when he gets out.
“You found me!”
...of course she found him. She can read his mind. Duh.
"It wasn't hard."
“Yeah, not for you.”
Kiss!
Kiss!
Because I'm awesome, clearly.
psychic, awesome. same thing.
There are other forms of awesome, to be fair.
magnetic awesome. regenerating awesome. incontinent eye lasers awesome.
Mhm.
why are there not more of us? why are we not everyone?
Well, not every mutation is an unambiguous advantage. See also incontinent eye lasers. Not everyone would have had the resources to make him goggles that would make him safe to be around.
...yeah.
but maybe if there were more of us...
Maybe it wouldn't have taken so many resources. Maybe there would be accommodations. Maybe the world would break and heal to fit them rather than the other way around.
We're working on it.
yeah. and it's really good.
sometimes i just think we should hurry up with the breaking.
And do what exactly?
no idea.
but
A flash of memory too quick and jumbled and frantic to really perceive.
what if the other way isn't fast enough?
I don't know.
But--it would be so easy to make things worse instead of better.
...guess it's better that nobody's enforcing all the shit we get.
Quite.
i mean, not officially, anyway.
Yeah. Hug.
Aww, hug.
speaking of...
have you been noticing as many people rubbernecking today as i have?
Remember breakfast?
yeah, pretty clearly.
Probably related.
we haven’t even been here three days and we’re already famous.
Well, we are the only three mutants on campus.
which still sucks, by the way.
Sigh. Yeah.
wonder if there's a spot nearby where more of us hang out.
Not in my range at the moment but that proves nothing.
we should find one sometime. i was pretty bad at it before i got here, even with the horns.
I dunno if that's even mostly a thing that happens.
He hadn't even really though about that before. His stomach sinks.
what, d'you think there's nowhere where we...find each other?
I mean, probably? It can't just be the school.
hope so.
we've got to organize somehow.
Yeah. Snuggle. We do what we can, but...
's a lot of them and not many of us.
We're a higher percent of the population every year.
world's getting better every day, then.
Mhm.
wanna go eat food and be incredibly mushy?
Sounds like fun!
To the cafeteria!
There's kind of a jostle in the line today, as well as the more of the whispering from earlier (mostly directed at Edie rather than him), but he doesn't think anything of it.
Edie also ignores it, in favor of half draping herself over him and smooching him on the cheek.
Awww.
Smooch!
“Have I said I love you? I love you.”
"You have."
"I love you too."
<3!!!
He does his best to eat his chili without disentangling from Edie.
"...blugh. This is really sweet."
"Hm?"
He pushes his bowl away.
"It's like somebody fucked up and poured sugar in it."
She frowns and steals a taste.
It tastes pretty off, like someone poured corn syrup in it, with a sort of weird nutty aftertaste.
Z is drinking soda in an attempt to not be tasting that anymore.
Edie makes a face, then stands up, covers her mouth, and dashes from the room.
Wait, what–
–uh–
–oh, shit–
He dashes towards the exit but doesn't quite make it.
He settles for leaning over the nearest trash can and vomiting from the neckmouth. (There's some shrieking nearby.)
Would he like some telepathic Russian profanity.
Yes. Yes he would absolutely love that, given that his entire gastrointestinal system seems to want to turn itself inside out.
what the fuck
Apparently that wasn't sugar in the chili.
I'm going to find out who did this.
There is a strong affirmative feeling along with his esophagus' best efforts to remove everything he's ever eaten.
(He's aware that there are people watching him. It's humiliating and he feels exposed and the moment he can actually move he makes his own run for the bathroom so he can at least have this terrible experience privately.)
--Do you want me to help? she asks when she realizes he would much rather not be doing that in public.
i got it
made it to the bathroom
should be fine
you okay wherever you are?
I'm okay.
When I realized--I hoped your system could handle it.
think it might be calming down already. it just came on really fast
i think it takes a second for it to get rid of stuff
Yeah.
She starts lightly combing the minds in the cafeteria for exultant glee rather than surprised horror.
Well, a familiar group of upperclassmen doesn't seem all that upset about it.
(There's also a freshman nearby with a somewhat guilty conscience.)
She peers a little closer at the freshman.
They wanted him to do them a favor, and if you have an opportunity to get in with seniors you have to take it, right? It saves you a lot of pain and humiliation in the long run. They promised it wouldn't hurt the guy, just give him something to think about. Probably better than whatever the girls had planned, too, that's what they said, and if he's actually even a man he can take a prank...
Still seems wrong, though.
Who wanted the favor?
An image of the guy who got taped to the wall.
He was pissed and so was his girlfriend. She's the one planning whatever's happening with the mutant chick who actually did it.
Lovely. Aaaand identifying information on the girlfriend. Are tapee and girlfriend here in the dining hall?
Tapee is, laughing it up.
Girlfriend isn't.
That'll do for now.
She relays everything she learned to Z.
...figures.
He's no longer throwing up, just sitting with his knees tucked up in the bathroom.
--Does tapee seriously think she's going to do something sinister, or is he just mucking bullshit.
Not sinister, exactly. But he knows how she and her sisters are with pledges, though she never tells him that much unless he and his friends are involved in the hazing. He doesn't know what she'll do when she's really serious about fucking with someone.
(Secretly he's threatened by her. It causes tension in their relationship.)
Augh.
She briefly considers whether she needs to dismantle the entire greek life on campus, before deciding that the pledges volunteer for it and are therefor lower on the priority list and can be dealt with later.
Does he know where she is right now?
She’ll probably be getting out of class soon. She already ate lunch (she likes to do it early, and skip breakfast). He knows where the building is.
Edie stalks back to her table, grabs something portable from her lunch tray, and eats it menacingly as she stalks out of the hall.
When Girlfriend gets out of class, Edie is leaning against the opposite wall, raising an eyebrow at her.
Girlfriend is, naturally, the world’s most perfect bottle blonde.
She stops and stares.
“Umm...hi? Can I help you with something?”
"I think we ought to talk."
“Um, sorry, I don’t think I know you...”
(If Edie happens to look, this is a lie.)
"We have at least one mutual acquaintance. Also? I am very hard to lie to."
She stares, for a moment, then stalks closer.
“Are you reading my mind?”
"Of course I'm not," she says dryly. "I, unlike you, have ethics. I don't need to read your mind to know you're lying to me."
She narrows her eyes.
“You didn’t have a problem mind-controlling my boyfriend.”
"I didn't do a thing to his mind. Yes, I knocked him unconscious and then operated his motor control, but honestly, if you have a better idea for how to discourage assault without getting the police involved I'd love to hear it."
“You forgot the part where you made him strip in front of you and your gay boyfriend.”
"We turned around. Also, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a girl."
“If he hadn’t been gross nothing would’ve happened anyway!”
"Yes, because breaking a rib is absolutely a proportionate response to blowing a kiss."
She looks shocked for a second, then shakes her head and scowls again.
“If he had really hurt him he wouldn’t have been walking around fine that night.”
"He heals. That's his power, that and some shapeshifting."
Girlfriend clearly makes note of this.
“Then it seems fair to me.”
"Point the first: your boyfriend didn't know he healed when he did it. Point the second: intimidating a freshman into putting syrup of ipecac in his food. Point the third: what in the name of all that anyone considers holy made you think, after the duct tape incident, that antagonizing me like that again was a good idea?"
“The puking was payback for hanging him up naked in public, obviously. And if we lie down and let you walk all over us, you’ll just do whatever you want.”
Sigh.
"No."
“No?”
"No. I don't make a habit of bothering people without provocation. If hurting people I care about is supposed to make me leave you alone, it's profoundly counterproductive."
“He was the one who started it!”
"Blowing a kiss is really not as big a deal as you're making of it. Also: have you considered using words instead of violence? Like. 'That made me uncomfortable, please do not do it again.'"
“He did it in front of everybody.”
"So?"
She looks around and then leans in:
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a good reputation around here? You are screwing this up for us.”
"If you imagine I care more about your reputation than about my boyfriend, I think you should probably rethink your own priorities. I can ask him to cut it out with the kiss-blowing, but assaulting people and poisoning their food is. Not. Acceptable. I am willing to talk about this peacefully. I prefer it, even. But if I have to resort to your tactics to keep me and mine safe? You'll lose."
She starts to back away.
“...Stay away from us. Just don’t touch any of us. Got it?”
She’s trying to keep looking angry. She turns and stalks away a little faster than necessary.
Ugh.
She leaves.
She relays all this to Z.
He’s leaning back against the a tree in the quad.
yeah. sounds like people.
Why do people suck so much.
She starts heading for the quad.
must be a human thing.
Mutants don't actually have consistent psychological differences from humans.
Just a clean slate from which to derive new and exciting fuckups.
at least they're interesting fuckups.
Yeah.
She reaches his tree and hugs him.
Well...that's a lot nicer than throwing acorns at things and being mad.
Yeah.
I love you.
❤︎ kiss ❤︎
Mm yes excellent plan.
It really is! He has great plans. Further kissing is also a great plan.
What about telepathic kissing?
...wow that's a weird sensation.
It takes him a minute to get used to it, but he definitely likes it.
Good.
After a minute he pulls back reluctantly.
"Okay, okay, no longer safe to do in public."
...She giggles and kisses him on the cheek.
Happily reciprocated.
❤︎❤︎❤︎
...She pulls away and makes a face.
"Ugh. Class."
"Aww. I forgot your classes don't all magically stop when mine do."
"Sorry, love."
One last smooch goodbye.
Smooch!
He waves goodbye as she leaves, and...
...well, might as well get the library stuff out of the way early. He heads out.
Emily catches up to him in the library.
"Edie told me everything that happened."
"...yeah, that."
He crosses his arms on the table where he's been working.
"I kinda thought we'd have a couple weeks before the shit started."
She sits down next to him, and says, in a low voice so no one else will hear: "Don't worry. Whatever happens, we'll win. We have both de jure super powers and the de facto power of money. You're not alone anymore."
"...thanks."
He looks away a little bit.
"Nobody's ever offered to buy my way out of being the weird kid."
"No no no no, I'm offering to crush them in a lawsuit if things escalate too far."
"...does that ever work?"
"...What, suing people?"
"Over hazing."
"Well, I did say if it escalates."
“If they escalate with me it’s not like we’d have evidence.”
"Can you delay regenerating long enough for us to get photographic evidence?"
"...not sure. I can't if I pass out but I know I can hold it back enough to take a needle out and put an earring in, stuff like that."
"And there was apparently a plan to take revenge on Edie separately from you."
"...she wouldn't let them, would she?"
"Not if she caught it ahead of time, but she didn't catch the ipecac, so."