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Summary: Everybody hates Quenton. Except Shane, maybe.
Date: January 19, 2012
Log Title: Defamation of Character
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Observation Deck
Glass windows surround the circular room giving a full view of the school grounds. Two telescopes sit in front of the window for students to looks at the stars. A few comfortable chairs and couches with a few tables are placed up here for students to relax. There's a door off to one of the sides that leads up to the attic above here.
The atrium has become a sort of haven for Nick, not many kids come up here, it's got a great view of the grounds and he's finding he's getting lost less and less trying to get up here the more he visits it. He's currently sitting in one of the chairs dressed in his usual jeans and button down flannel shirt with his laptop in his lap. Since he's alone up here Nick's got his country music playing at a decent volume, the sounds of Tim McGraw fill the room as Nick seems to be playing some sort of game on his laptop.
The elevator door chimes quietly, doors sliding open to reveal a slight figure, swaddled in clothes against the cold outside. Black jeans, black shirt with the Cassandra variation of the Batgirl logo sketched in gold, a thick scarf wrapped around her lower face, and a bright crimson hooded trenchcoat would do a great deal to keep her identity a mystery, but the clomping steps of her large boots do enough to identify Shane. Without even pausing to comment on the music, she makes her way to one of the couches on the far side, only greeting Nick with the West Coast reverse-nod if he happens to look up.
Nicholas looks up at the stomping boots and even if he can't really see her face he recognizes her stompin' boots. With a wave he greets her. "Hey Shane." He says lowering the volume of his music but not turning it off. "Stupid bridge" He mutters as the sound of someone, or something, screaming can be heard followed by a second then a third scream.
Sequestered in the attic, Jill comes down into the large circular room with a sheaf of papers under her arm. Well, it's not as empty now as it was went she went up to the little enclosed greenhouse an hour ago. "Oh, hey," she greets, lifting one hand in a motionless wave. Biting her lip, she approaches Shane cautiously as she seems the least busy. "Umm, are you any good at trigonometry?" She shuffles the paper conspicuously.
Taylor descends the stairs, looking in that bit of a haze of someone who just woke up, moments after Jill. The feline students eyerubs a little bit on the way down, but upon noticing other people about seems to become at least somewhat more alert. The teen looks towards Jill and says, "Not me…" and continues walking slowly past her, offering a wave to Shane and a nod to Nicholas on the way.
Shane plops down on 'her' couch, giving Nick a second, brief reverse-nod at the greeting, and starts to pull her hood back, loosening the scarf to free up her mouth. As Jill approaches, she seems to freeze in place for a moment, one eyebrow quirking upward as the request for help is given. "…Suck at math," she says after a moment's pause, cheeks flushing. "Prolly do better 'thout askin' my help. Heard you popped Q. Good job." Taylor's wave, answered with a nod, and her earphones are pulled back and tucked underneath her scarf. Clearly, conversation is going to happen whether she wants it or not, may as well attempt politeness.
Nicholas looks up at Jill and gives her a wave. "Hey Jill, sorry, don't really know much about Triganomics except that it's complicated Math I'll never use." He says shrugging a shoulder. Taylor gets a nod in return as gives a scowl at his laptop screen as the screams sound off again over his music. "And apparently I suck at building bridges."
Wandering up the stairs Warlock finds the observation desk to be a little more crowded than he thought it would be. Dressed in grey jeans, blue long sleeved shirt, black converse and steam-punk style goggles on his forehead he gives a wave to the other students in the room, "Hey". "I'm ok at Math if you want me to take a look?"
Striking out one, twice, then thrice in rapid succession, a grimace turns down the corners of Jill's mouth. She sighs and rolls her eyes. "I… well," she mumbles to Shane, drawing a mechanical pencil from behind her ear to chew on its eraser. "Who told you that? I mean yeah, I did hit him, but… I'm kind of sorry about it. I shouldn't have. I don't hit people. … Normally." Finally given a ray of hope, she scurries over to Warlock and all but shoves the papers in his face. "Help me with this, pretty please? I need to get them right."
Taylor pauses upon Warlock coming up into the observatory and raises a hand politely to the young man, stopping in that slow walk and blinking a few times. The feline teen's ears twitch a few times at all this muffled screaming coming from Nicholas's direction, and Taylor peers over to see what's going on.
"Yeah but—" Trailing off as Jill scampers toward her knight in cosine armor, Shane closes her mouth slowly, cheeks growing redder for a moment and lips pressing into a thin line. With a snort, she burrows down into the couch, cracking open a history text and beginning her own study.
As Taylor peers at Nick's laptop, it shows he's playing some sort of bridge builder game where if he builds it wrong, it breaks and the little men plummet to their deaths. "He deserved it." Nick says to Jill and Shane. "Maybe you shouldn't hit people but sometimes….he was being an ass to you Jill." He says sounding annoyed about the situation.
Warlock backs up a few steps as Jill charges at him with the Math papers, "Ok, ok I’ll try and help, just don't papercut me into itty bitty pieces", he holds out a hand for the papers so he can take a look, "So you punched Quenton?, what did he do?"#
Huffing out a little breath, Jill shrugs and reluctantly explains. "Slapped, not punched. And he was being an ass to *you*, Nick. … Well, he's that way to everybody but I still feel like I should apologize for hittin' him," she says around the mechanical pencil in the corner of her mouth. From behind her other ear, she draws a normal yellow wooden pencil to begin scribbling on the trig homework, flips some sheets, and switches to write with the mechanical one before handing them over to Warlock. "Okay, this part here. If the two angles are like this, and this side of the triangle is 4 whatevers long…" She goes on to outline the problem in full.
The feline student watches Nicholas's screen for a few more moments, with a curious look, distracted by all the motion and sounds coming from it, before looking up and seeming momentarily confused while trying to catch up with the conversation. "Yeah, can't smack everyone who's an asshole, no matter how much you might want to…"
Shane grunts. "'S Q," she says after a moment's fuming silence, looking up from her book at Taylor and Nick. "Ain't sayin' it ain't stupid, but's how you deal with'm. He pokes, poke back. Ten bucks says he leaves'r alone 'till she starts backin' down again." Opening her mouth further, she pauses, closes it again, and shrugs to herself, looking back down at her book.
"He threw a pencil into your face!" Nick says to Jill before letting out a sigh and just shaking his head. "You haven't met Quenton." Nick mutters to Taylor before looking back down at his monitor and shutting down his game in frustration. "No you can't smack everyone who is, but you can smack some of them."
Warlock starts looking at the problem Jill is outlining, good he knows this, "Yeah I’ve covered this before, shouldn't be to difficult to talk you though it", he frowns when Nicholas say what Quenton did, "Wait, when you say in her face, do you mean… what a fucking prick, who does that?"
It's Jill's turn for her face to redden. Or blue-en as the case may be. "Yes, yes, like a dart board. But it's not like he really coulda hurt me anyway, so I just shoulda let it go. …and it was a pen, not a pencil," the translucent girl corrects, like the distinction is important.
"Oh. Yeah, in that case, he deserved a sound smacking," decides Taylor, shrugging lightly, "Didn't realize he laid hands on you, or pen, or whatever." The felinoid student leans against the wall and says, "Sounds pretty fucking disrespectful, too."
"Whether or not it hurt," adds Tay.
Shane turns the page of her text, glancing up and frowning slightly at the direction the conversation has taken. But, with nothing further to contribute, she keeps to her work. History, after all, will not learn itself.
Turning off his laptop and then putting it away, Nick stands up. "You're just too nice Jill, but it's not a bad thing, just, I don't want someone like Quenton to just walk all over you." He says softly before shaking his head. "Sorry, I should just drop it." He says. "And I should head out and check on Orion anyway, see how he's handling the cold."
"If Quenton physically attacked you, you might wanna consider telling a staff member, slinging insults is one thing but violence is a serious issue", Warlock hmmms and then proceeds to explain the way he tends to go about solving some of the problems on the sheets to Jill.
"I don't-" Jill starts to protest feebly. A sigh deflates her posture. "It's just turning the other cheek, I thought… I don't wanna get the teachers involved again." She tries to keep an eye on what Warlock is doing to her homework. Instead of a wave or a verbal goodbye, she just gives Nick a somewhat miserable look while trying to turn it into a smile.
Taylor waves at Nicholas as he turns to go and then shrugs towards Jill and says, "If you don't want to, don't." The felinoid student wanders over to check what everyone else is doing now that all the sound and colour from Nick's computer has calmed down. "I've never had much to do with Quenton myself but it sounds like I'm okay with that."
Shane is staring woodenly at a history text, eyes flicking over the words, a page being turned now and again. Nothing terribly exciting, especially now that she's generally dropped out of the conversation. At Taylor's comment, however, her fingers tighten on the book. Not much, but, enough to be seen, and the silence grows even stonier in her general vicinity.
Warlock frowns, "Get teachers involved again, has something like this happened before?", he pulls a pen out of his pocket and jots a few things down on Jill's homework, "You getting this? or am I explaining this wrong?", "Violence is never something that needs to be resorted to but I can see why you'd just wanna forget it".
Jill fidgets. "Well, no, not exactly like this. But I… kinda got him in trouble once already and I think that's part of why he doesn't like me very much," she explains, the last of it coming out all in a rush. She glances toward Shane but finds the other girl absorbed in her schoolwork. Very absorbed, from the look of it. "I'm sorry," responds Jill vaguely. "I wasn't paying attention. Could you explain it again?"
Taylor shrugs at Jill and says, "I just don't like to stand by if people're bullying me, personally. I'd either get out of there or try to get rid of the problem… If you get someone in trouble for doing something wrong to you, it's their own damn fault. That kind've bullying is bullshit and you don't have to stand around and just take it, so don't feel bad for doing something…"
Shane tugs her scarf up over her nose, scrunching down further into the couch. Reading with a vengeance, apparently, can be done if you're sufficiently motivated.
Warlock smiles and nods, "Yeah I can explain it again, but this time…", he pulls his goggles over his eyes, "Yeah, I’m busting out the serious goggles", he starts explaining how to solve the problem again using what he'd written as a basis, his eyes flick up to Shane, while he doesn't register the silent fuming he does ask, "Are you alright?"
It's deceptively easy to take Taylor's advice on the face of it, but Jill doesn't look like she wants to. Whatever had worked for him may not work for her. In a way, she can be as obstinate as Quenton. "No, no, it's fine. It… It'll be fine," she assures, spreading her hands. Lifting her eyes from the homework to follow Lock's gaze toward Shane, she takes a moment to test a pet theory and waves a hand slowly in front of his goggled eyes. Just to see if he'll notice.
Taylor nods at Jill and says, "Alright, if you say so… I guess I'm hoping to get a jump on things here. I had a bullying problem where I was, and it got so bad there wasn't much to be done about it. So this is my second chance." The teen shrugs.
"Fine," Shane replies, with the sort of lead weight to it that cuts off any hope of further questioning being answered. "Studyin'."
"Ok then, just seemed a little tense", Warlock frowns as Jill's hand starts moving up and down in front of his face, "Jill… why?", he looks over at Taylor, "You used to get bullied? that sucks, it's good you wanna be proactive about the whole thing but I think on the whole most kids here are pretty nice".
The blue girl gives a slightly dismissive shrug. "I was never very popular back home, but I wouldn't really say I was bullied. Not very much. I mean, no more than anybody else, I think." She quickly glances away from Lock and tries to look innocent, hands pressed tightly into her lap. "Nothing!" she chirps sweetly. Experiment has yielded negative results!
Taylor answers Warlock with, "Yeah, well, I've always been pretty different even before getting… differenter…" The teen glances towards Shane and then says, "Should I get outta here? Seems like everyone's doing school stuff, don't want to be a distraction…"
"It's *fine,*" Shane grates out, slapping her book closed and getting to her feet. "Done here anyway. Hungry. Later." With that, and a perfunctory wave, the slight young mutant begins a rapid walk toward the elevator.
Warlock gives a slight waves to Shane, "Ok, have fun with that", he shakes his head at Taylor, "Nah you don't need to leave, Jill seems more interested in testing my eyesight anyways", then turning his attention to Jill, "I… Jill.. nevermind", he's not sure he wants to know why Jill did that.
The gleeful expression on Jill's face wilts like lettuce in the refrigerator at Shane's positively frosty tone. Unable or unwilling to ask after her, blue eyes simply follow Shane all the way to the elevator in uneasy silence. "I think she's upset about something," she posits quietly and tries to turn her attention back to her homework after the departure. She swaps pencils and starts to copy some of the work onto an identical page of photocopied math problems. "I wonder what it is."
Taylor listens to what Jill and Warlock say as Shane starts to walk off, and then feline student frowns slightly and follows after her, glancing back to the others for just a moment.
Shane swats the button to take her to the ground floor, then looks up… and what can be seen of her face flickers, briefly, between annoyance and upset. Letting out a rough breath, muffled by the scarf, she sticks a heavy boot in front of the door, forcing them to open again. "….Yeah?"
Taylor steps into the elevator when Shane opens the doors up, hands folding behind their back as Tay turns to look towards the door to ride the elevator in true form. "Couldn't help but notice that you're not fine… Um. Smell."
This revelation is met with frigid, stony silence, stretching just long enough to make the pause as viciously awkward as one can achieve on the spot. "….Kay?" Shane finally says, when it's clear that Taylor isn't about to go away on her own.
"So I'm concerned, I dunno… I don't know what friends are supposed to do when they're concerned, so I had the fucking daft idea that following into elevators was one of those things," says Taylor, frowning now, "If y'wanted to talk about it or something. I don't know. I'm not good at this social shit."
Shane pushes away from the elevator doors, letting them close on her own, and leaning against the wall. Only when the car begins to move, does she cross her arms and look away. "………Q's my boyfriend, okay?"
For a moment Taylor seems a touch surprised at the statement, but that calms down and Taylor nods once and says, "Ah… okay. Sorry about," the feline gestures towards the door of the elevator, indicating 'out there'.
Shane lifts a shoulder, grunting noncommittally. "Why? Still think it, 'f you knew. Just wouldn't'a said it. So…. fuck it, don't be. Just talkin' behind one back, 'stead'a two."
Taylor nods slowly and says, "Sorry. You're probably right… Just, hearing about someone throwing a pen into that girl's face… When I manifested, my sorta boyfriend was being beaten into a coma by some guys, 'cause he was a bit weird, or just hung around me and the weird rubbed off… I just react to hearing that kind of stuff. I don't mean it as a dig but, I can't handle those kinds of situations."
"Didn't say I was fine with that," Shane points out, still looking away. "''Fact, 'f you recall, this little shit-tossin' party started when I said good on Jill f'r poppin' 'im one. Dude acts like an asshole. Did t'me too. Then I poked back, 'n after awhile he was fine cos I wasn't runnin' away. Then, talked s'more. Took me flyin'. Asked t'be m'boyfriend." Lifting a shoulder, she finally meets Taylor's eyes, her own pained and angry. "'N th'only way he's gonna realize he *sucks* at tryin' t'be an asshole is 'f people poke back. Cos I'm sick t'*hell* 'o not wantin' t'let it get 'round that we're datin'. Who the fuck *knows* if some well-meaning dumbshit's gonna try an' get me away from gettin' all abused, way things're now. No way."
Taylor keeps Shane's gaze while she speaks, nodding once, "Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense…" The feline student glances at the roof of the lift and then peers towards Shane, "Does he know how, y'know, how sick you are of keeping it secret? Cause sometimes guys don't… get that shit."
"Wasn't even an issue, 'til people started talkin' shit," Shane replies, scowling at the elevator floor. "Now? Prolly will. One 'a these days."
Taylor nods slowly and looks up at the numbers again, just because they make sounds and lights when changing floors, "I don't want things to suck for you 'cause he's being a jerk to other people, s'all."
Shane shrugs. "Ain't stopped shit from suckin' b'fore," she mutters, raking a hand through her hair. "I'll deal."
"Yeah, I guess," says Taylor, shrugging lightly while the doors open, ears twitching lightly. "Just wanted to, I dunno, check or something…"
Shane snorts. "S'fine. Just… gotta do it, do it where I ain't hearin', all right? Hate thinkin' people're talkin' shit behind my back, but least this way I don't hafta be *right.*" Shaking her head, she pauses to hold Taylor's gaze, what can be seen of her face weary and aged beyond her years. "*Tired* o' bein' right." And with that, she takes herself out of the elevator, headed toward the dorms.
Taylor just nods and keeps Shane's gaze while she speaks, but when she leaves the elevator, looks towards the ground and heads in the other direction, offering a, "Seeya…"
