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Post by Tesla Albright on Dec 19, 2012 17:03:17 GMT -7
The hallways were hell.
That was the only way to describe it. They were packed to capacity, threatening to squish Tesla to death with the sheer number of bodies it held. If Tesla was experienced enough, and if she was in the Dream World, she could just imagine them gone, and poof! They'd just all disappear.
As she navigated her way through the perilous straits that were the School of Lamir's hallways, she lamented the fact that she couldn't make these people disappear, particularly the younger kids and her arrogant, immature peers.
As Tesla looked around the hallways, there was a break in the crowd and she spotted a blonde, older guy leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed intently on a certain spot in front of him. She tried to see what he was so focused on, but couldn't, and as she took the next brisk steps she ran smack into someone's body. She stumbled backwards and accidentally stepped on a few feet, but quickly pulled herself together and navigated around the person with whom she had collided. It was the blonde kid, and somehow Tesla wasn't surprised.
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Post by Morgan Evans on Dec 20, 2012 10:14:34 GMT -7
Morgan had been standing in the hallway, leaning against the wall for so long that he'd turned into part of the scenery, just another obstacle the students passed by and sidestepped without really thinking about it. He looked around at them as they tried to shove their way past to wherever it was they were headed off to, and he had to resist the urge to look a little dismayed; the academy could be a lot more busy than this, and it wasn't. The news hadn't been kidding about the mass disappearances that went down during the competition. No doubt, a bunch of the students had been eager to prove their worth by hunting down the nightmares that the Base had let loose, but if they hadn't suddenly vanished into thin air only to come back with no recollection of where they'd been, either they were still stuck in some sort of limbo. . . or dead. They could always be dead. That too. He sighed and stared ahead into the space in front of him. Maybe if he saw a familiar face in the crowd, he'd cheer up, but he hadn't seen anyone vaguely fitting the definition in days, and the thought was vaguely depre-- !!! Someone had walked right into him! Did he blend in that well? He mentally chalked one point up to his burgeoning Mad Ninja Skills. And uh, he also tried to look for who it had been. He immediately turned his head down and saw a brown-haired girl with a killer poker face Seriously, he'd pay money to be that good at not wearing his emotions on his face trying to make his way around him. He could only come up with one thing to say in response: "Awwwww, you're so adorable!" What was she, like, 5'-less-than-6? How deliberately vague on the height estimate there. She'd make such a great armrest! . . .and a friend. That too. He hoped.
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Post by Tesla Albright on Dec 24, 2012 10:57:56 GMT -7
The blonde guy let out a high-pitched exclamation. "You're so adorable!" he squealed. Tesla cringed. Such familiarity made her very uncomfortable since she had never seen this person before nor had she the faintest idea who he was. But now he'd noticed her, and she couldn't just ignore him.
"Um... sorry," she muttered half-heartedly. But that didn't feel adequate. She looked up at his face but avoided eye contact, and then said, "I'mreallysorry... uh... sir. Are you okay?" Great, now it sounded like she actually cared about his feelings.
"Usually I look where I'm going," Tesla continued rapidly. "This probably will never happen again; I was just a little distracted. Thinking about what it would be like to make people disappear." You sound psychotic! she thought. Stop talking! You don't know how to socialize!
What did people do when they realized they were making a fool of themselves? Didn't her father always change the subject when he was losing an argument? This was kind of the same thing, wasn't it?
"Uh, so... speaking of disappearances! Therearelotofstudentsmissinghuh butImeanthehallwaysarestillsofull! YouknowIwasthinkingaboutjoiningthatcompetitionthingtoo butthenIwaslikeno causeIdon'tevenknowanyonewho'dhelpme causeI'mnotexperiencedenoughtodoitbymyselfand..." TESLA. JUST. STOP. she told herself again. "...Sorry." At that moment, she could imagine a bunch of tiny Teslas parachuting off of her brain and out her ear screaming, ABORT! ABORT! This is what happened when she tried to socialize. It was always a disaster.
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Post by Morgan Evans on Dec 26, 2012 9:12:47 GMT -7
"Oh psh, I'm fine, bumping into someone doesn't hurt that much!" When you're as tall as I am it's like a pinto running into a mack truck, you kidding?
The girl must have felt awkward about the whole exchange, which would explain her trying to add more to the "conversation" in order to not leave in such a strange note. "Usually I look where I'm going. This probably will never happen again; I was just a little distracted. Thinking about what it would be like to make people disappear."
Morgan went completely blank faced. Did, like... uh... did this girl not know what happened just a couple of days ago? Thinking about people disappearing was actually rather tasteless!
"But a Nightmare already did that during the competition and possibly even killed a whole bunch more people! You must've been living under a rock or something when that happened, bless your little heart!" He raised his hand in order to give the girl a consolatory pat on the head, his expression caught in some weird mix of pity and no-seriously-where-are-your-parents-so-i-can-smack-em-upside-the-head-for-having-you, if that ever were a feeling. Whether it was or not, it kind of intensified when the girl continued to ramble on and on about the disappeared people in some attempt to break the ice, and something in there about her having thought about joining the competition.
". . . . . . Yeah you probably would have gotten yourself killed anyway if you'd been there. You're. . . not very good at paying attention to real life, are you?" Give Morgan some credit, at least he didn't outright call her stupid.
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Post by Tesla Albright on Dec 29, 2012 11:08:06 GMT -7
Tesla's stomach was churning. Oh, god. Besides death or having to live with her family again, this was probably the worst moment of her entire life. This person whom she had never met already thought of her... unfavorably, to say the least. He was looking at her with something like pity, for her apparent shallowness and stupidity. Also, it seemed like he wanted to shake her to death.
"I did not... mean to be so... disrespectful," Tesla murmured. "That... was not okay."
"I knew about the disappearances, " she began again. "God, how could I not? My brother keeps calling me to keep me updated about what's going on in the family and apparently my dad is just ecstatic about all of this. It's "a great business opportunity" for him. He's willing to offer a job to any of the competitors who place." Tesla sighed, then quickly added, "Not like I care or anything. My dad's an ass. He's still defending the base even with all of these disappearances."
She paused. This had just gotten really personal and awkward way too fast. "I'm sorry..." she said again. "That was weird and... weird..."
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Post by Morgan Evans on Jan 3, 2013 9:01:27 GMT -7
Siiiiiiiigh. If only there were some way for people to feel sorry about something they did before they did it-- maybe that feeling would be a deterrent from awkward moments like this. The girl murmured something about not meaning to be disrespectful-- Kind of too late for that, I think.
"[...] My brother keeps calling me to keep me updated about what's going on in the family and apparently my dad is just ecstatic about all of this. It's "a great business opportunity" for him. He's willing to offer a job to any of the competitors who place."
Morgan nodded absently to that certain bit of trivia. So now I really need to smack her dad upside the head. Good to know.
Pause.
"I'm sorry..." she said again. "That was weird and... weird..."
The blond nodded again. "Yeah, you know what? Let's pretend this conversation didn't just happen and start over, kay? Kay." He shut his eyes and raised his fingers up to count, "One, two, three: Hi there! It's kind of crowded around here, huh? but I'm sure you'll be fine making it to whatever class you're going to. Anyway I'm Morgan, and what's your name?"
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Post by Tesla Albright on Jan 18, 2013 16:02:24 GMT -7
"Yeah, you know what? Let's pretend this conversation didn't just happen and start over, kay? Kay."
He introduced himself and started a new conversation in what seemed to be an overly-cheerful voice... or maybe that was just how Tesla was interpreting it, considering the events that had just transpired. She knew it was in her best interest to humor him, so she attempted to regain her composure.
"Hello, Morgan," she said politely. "I'm Tesla. I'm studying to be an Imaginer here. Also because... of reasons. What about, you; what are you here for?"
Tesla really did not want to screw up this chance at redeeming herself with Morgan. She didn't usually care so much about people's opinions, but this was different. Her reputation as an intelligent person was... kind of at stake. Also, Morgan seemed nice enough, and if Tesla was ever in desperate need of work in the future he might prove to be a valuable contact.
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Post by Morgan Evans on Jan 26, 2013 18:22:48 GMT -7
Ah, see? This second time around was much better! The girl was being polite, answering questions, and not making comments that showed her casual disregard for other peoples' lives. This, was a good thing. An infinitely good thing.
"What, me? Well... I'd say I'm 'studying'--" he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers, "to be a Fighter, but everyone knows fighting isn't about sticking noses into books and taking tests and junk. It's a little more hands-on than that, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Bad in the sense that I think I've had my fill of the Dream World after the whole 'competition' thing. I'm taking a break from the powers for a while." He shrugged.
He'd been about to put a condition on his break-- 'until' something, he was going to say-- but then he realized he just didn't know what that something was, and left it at that.
"So, you're an Imaginer... what do you do, anyway? What kinds of things do you make?"
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