xp_logs | CHARLIE: Clarice/Charlie

backdated: Charlie meets the resident purple teleporting swordswoman. Yeah, it goes that well...

Charlie was starting to consider chaining Amanda to one place. Every time they got to another part in her 'you have to see this, meet her, etc' tour, she's suddenly dash off to check on Meggan or deal with a minor upset. The Meggan thing especially, since she was obviously not ready to be trying to be a mother to her, and that seemed to be the case, despite the big sister protests. Still, at least she'd left him in comfortable surroundings.

The lounge at Xavier's was posh and comfortable, with a television that wouldn't have looked out of place as the front view screen prop in a sci-fi television show. He sipped his soda and looked around, amusing himself while he waited.

Clarice 'ported into the recroom casually, still clad in her EMT jumpsuit from work sans boots. She carried those in one hand with a marker. "What's on?" she asked, not paying attention to Charlie and settling in on the floor. Uncapping her marker she began diligently colouring the yellow doc marten stitching.

Charlie was proud of himself. He managed to neither spill his soda or scream like a three year old girl at the sudden appearance of the purple haired and skinned girl in front of him. He did sit down rather abruptly with his mouth open for a moment. Finally his brain caught up with his ears, and he was able to stammer out a brief 'uh, nothing really' through the shock.

Turning around, Clarice tried to remember if there was anyone new at school. She didn't think so.

"So...who're you?" she asked, not bothering with pleasantries. "And why are you making fishie movements with your mouth?"

"Sorry, I uh," Charlie rubbed the end of his nose. "Girls generally don't pop out of thin air in my world. My mistake." He put down his glass, the tremors in his hand slowing, and held it out. "My name's Charlie Plunder. I'm a friend of Amanda and Remy."

"Oh...right. She mentioned you. I'm Clarice Ferguson." Clarice nodded as if everything suddenly made sense in the universe. Taking his hand she shook it briefly, noticing how he was shaking slightly.

"You okay?"

"Just a minor heart attack. I'll be fine when I remember how to breathe again." Obviously Southcrest lacked a group of teleporters in common grounds. "Not used to everyone being a mutant, you know?"

"No. I don't know, almost everyone here is," there was a hardness to her voice despite her relaxed manner. Clarice crossed her arms and looked at him for a minute, "Is your mom a lawyer?"

"Yeah. She works for Ptack and Davis in the city. Downtown." Well, he was getting the hostile vibe, but that was a common enough reaction from women for him, so he let it roll off.

Making a little 'hmmm' noise, Clarice suddenly smiled, happy again. "I thought your name was familiar!" her shoes now all black, she gestured with her marker not noticing as she accidentally markered on herself, "My mom is an animal rights lawyer."

"Ferguson... um, from upstate somewhere?" Charlie said, dimly recalling one of his mother's one-sided conversations about former classmates and associates. The name Ferguson was ringing bells, something about a mutant daughter.

"Ithaca," Clarice said, smiling. "Apparently, I'm not normal enough for them. Can you believe it?"

"I couldn't imagine." Charlie said dryly. "However, you really don't match the description. You look nothing like hellspawn at all." He added with a wry smile.

Hellspawn? That was a new one. Trying not to get upset by it, she gestured to her navy blue jumpsuit

"Oh, this is my work uniform. No accessorization allowed. Not even yellow stitching on my docs, which completely sucks. I think people would be so much happier if there was more glitter. Especially in bright colours."

"Since the 'do it yourself' patterns in bright red aren't bad enough." Charlie made a face. "And just to show why I occasionally get stuffed inside lockers, yes, I have a bit of a thing about the sight of blood."

"So fight back," the answer was so simple. If you didn't like something, you did your best to change it, the question was 'was the solution better than the problem?' "Blood won't hurt you," unless it's infected, she added silently.

"Of course not. Especially when you faint first." Charlie said, sidestepping the whole fighting back argument. He'd heard that before, usually from people who had never been under the feet of a couple of football players at one time. It was just easier to avoid it. "So, they sent you here recently?"

Clarice stopped to think, surprised with how quickly time had passed. "I've been here a year and a half....but seriously, you should do something to stop them. I don't mean beat them up, obviously you can't or won't if you haven't, but there has to be something you can do," she paused an evil glimmer in her eye, "You like swords?"

Good god, she's psychotic, Charlie thought. "Um, not so much. I mean, they look cool and all, but I'm not really into the physical thing. I took track in gym." He said, a trifle uneasy with the purple girl and the glint in her eye from the idea of a long sharp piece of metal. "So, you seen your parents recently?" He said, wrenching the topic on a new direction desperately.

"They're very..." she started not quite paying attention to what he was saying. Swords...reality.

"Oh, parents. Right. Not really, my mom went off and eloped with some asshole who isn't too fond of mutants so we're not talking. I mean, that's just rude! I could go see my dad, but I don't like his house much. I mean, it's not bad, it's just not...fun." There was more she could say on that subject, but she wasn't going to. No amount of bitching, whining or even reasonable discussion had changed anything with her mom or her new husband and probably never would and this was something that Clarice could not just forgive and forget.

"Well, I guess it would be hard to find a place that matched up to this school." He said admiringly. The grandness of the mansion was something that he was still a bit agape about. Charlie had been in some impressive homes in New York with his mother, but nothing could touch the sheer size of the school. "Do you think they might come and visit one day? Like, neutral ground or something?"

"The only thing they hate more than each other is well...each other's new spouses. Really, they're idiots and I'd rather be here," shocking to admit though, no matter how true it was, "What about your mom? I mean, she was cool enough to bring you here, right?"

"Well, not so much willingly." Charlie grinned. "I suppose you could say she's a little strict about most things. Including going out as opposed to studying. I think you know the type." Considering that both of them came from similar households, it wasn't difficult to catch the meaning.

"She'll get over it," Clarice said knowingly, "I mean, I'm sure some happiness in your life might make your grades improve, y'know? And it's not like you're on drugs or some sex-crazed maniac," she peered at him intently, as if checking, "Right? Lots of worse things you could be doing."

"True, but as she says, there's lots of better things I could be doing." Charlie shrugged. "So basically, parents are out of their minds, I think. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" Clarice beamed, he figured it out! Not that it was really difficult, but sometimes the simplest things seemed like they were. Glancing at her watch, Clarice doubled checked she was reading the time right before grabbing Charlie's wrist to make sure their watches matched, "Oh! I gotta go! Bye!" Before he could reply, she teleported away.

"Everyone in this place is completely insane." Charlie said quietly to himself before sinking down into the couch, pretending not to be hiding.