xp_logs | Angelo finally meets Shinobi... (Reply)

Angelo trudged up to his new room, tired and still angry over the situation with Leech. Knowing he had a room-mate he hadn't yet met, he knocked on the door for courtesy's sake, waiting for an answer before going in.

"It's open!" The voice on the other side of the door carries a rather cultured English accent, though at the moment, it sounds a bit on the harried side. Shinobi can be found seated in front of the window, red-brown hair in disarray after a few too many times spent raking his fingers through it to let off some frustration. When the door opens, he looks back towards it, with an expectant tilt of his head.

Angelo pushes the door open and walks in, stopping just inside the doorway. "Hey. You'd be Shinobi?"

Blinking once, Shinobi nods, shifting to his feet to try and look as presentable and dignified as he can when he looks like he's just rolled out of bed. "That's me. Angelo, then?" A brief pause, and he points towards the rather.. colorful side of the room. "And before you say anything, I didn't do it."

Angelo turns slowly towards his side of the room, blinking at what he sees. "...Okay. Who did?"

"She would probably do my side of the room next if I told you," Shinobi muses tiredly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "But, her own fault for defiling half of my room so. Jubilee came in this morning to do it."

Angelo nods thoughtfully. "Jubilee. Right. I should have known." He files that thought away under "revenge", and moves further into the room, extending his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"I tried to stop her, but she bribed me with promises of extra popcorn," Shinobi replies with a helpless shrug. As the other boy offers a hand, he blinks twice, nodding slightly and unpocketing one of his own so that he can give it a friendly shake. "Pleasure's mine."

"Don't worry about it, she would have done it whether or not you said she could. She doesn't take no for an answer." Angelo shakes Shinobi's hand briefly, then lets go to collapse onto his bed, pulling a face when he discovers the sheets.

Shinobi starts to open his mouth to warn the other boy about the sheets, but as Angelo topples onto them before he can, settles for silently grimacing as he returns his hand to his pocket. "She did seem like that kind of a girl, yes."

Angelo grins wearily, pushing himself upright to begin unpacking the bag he's still holding. "You any good at pranks? This calls for payback, and I'll need help."

"...pranks?" Shinobi blinks owlishly, regarding Angelo with a mixture of wariness and curiousity. "I'm.. no, I've never really had any reason to be involved in any pranks."

Angelo's grin widens, then he puts on a deadpan face and says seriously, "You clearly had a deprived childhood."

"No arguement here," Shinobi grunts, smirking faintly and casting a brief look out the window. "I suppose you're going to try and coerce me into helping you get back at her, then, huh?"

"Coerce you? No. Try to persuade you, sure. But that can wait. How about you catch me up on what's been going on here while I was gone, instead?"

"For the most part, it's been remarkably quiet," Shinobi shrugs, looking to Angelo again with a tired grin. "There was a little excitement an hour or so before you guys got home, though.. the messages should still be up on the journals." He waves vaguely, casting another quick look outside. He'd liked that tree.. oh well.

Angelo raises one eyebrow. "I haven't had a chance to look at the journals since we left Mexico. What happened?" he asks.

How to say this? "Lorna and Alex are down in the medlab," Shinobi states after a moment, his fatigue taking much from what little tact he generally has in the first place. "Something about him losing control of his powers.. she has some burns, but they're both supposed to be alright, so far as I know."

Angelo pales noticeably. "Oh God... Alex... are they letting anyone down there?"

"I'm not sure," Shinobi admits, frowning faintly and loosely curling his arms around himself. "The doctor is supposed to be letting us all know, but I imagine he's fairly busy, at the moment.."

"Of course", Angelo says seriously. "God, this is going to kill Alex..."

"It wasn't his fault he couldn't turn them off," Shinobi frowns, despite knowing full well that the fact was likely to offer precisely zero comfort to Alex, or much anyone else. "That's why he's here, isn't it? Why we're all here?"

"Yeah, I know. But... God, that it was *Lorna* who got hurt, of all people..."

"She'll be alright," Shinobi counters. However, the 'physically', he wisely leaves out of his words.

Angelo smiles sadly. "Don't think that helps. I've been there..." And with that, he clams up, unwilling to go into too much detail with this near-stranger.

He blinks once at Angelo's words, tilting his head to the side curiously - but, he does not pry, simply nodding once and offering his best approximation of a reassuring smile. "They'll be alright."

"I hope so", Angelo answers, still worried.

"They'll be alright," Shinobi repeats, carefully leaning back against the windowsill. "Emma wouldn't have left them without her supervision if there was any doubt in her mind that they would be. They'll be fine."

Angelo nods again, and changes the subject. "So, how are you settling in?"

He blinks twice at the rather sudden shift in gears, mentally shaking himself as he regains his footing. "Er, alright, I suppose," Shinobi replies after a moment. "I haven't been lynched, so I'm taking it as a victory."

Angelo blinks. "Why would you have been lynched? They're generally a friendly bunch here..."

"My last name is Shaw," he observes simply, with a faint shrug of his shoulders. As if that should explain everything.

It doesn't, particularly. Angelo has forgotten, if he ever knew, that Sebastian Shaw is behind the Sentinels. He just looks blank.

Shinobi eyes the other boy for a long moment, weighing the pros and cons of enlightening him. In the end, he sighs, waving a hand dismissively. "It isn't very important that you know, I suppose. I'm not my father's son in anything other than blood."

Angelo nods, accepting that. "You'll find they're big on forgiveness, here. Especially if it's your father who did... whatever he did, and not you."

"Amongst the student body, at least, it certainly seems to be the case," Shinobi nods, allowing himself another tired smile. "I mean, someone like Sarah's the last person I expected to welcome a Shaw into her midst, but we seem to get along very well."

"You get along with *Sarah*?" Angelo asks, honestly surprised and impressed. "Wow. She doesn't let people be her friend easily", he says, choosing his words carefully.

"I wooed my way into her good graces with cigarettes and a warm coat," Shinobi muses, chuckling quietly and rubbing at the nape of his neck. "And listening. She's really a very sweet girl, given half a chance." He *is* referring to the same Sarah, isn't he?

Angelo blinks and chokes back his first instinctive response to that - probably a good thing, since it would have been "Sarah? *Sweet*?". Instead, he says, "We *have* been getting along a bit better lately..."

"The boy you lot found in Mexico.. it's gotten her a bit shaken," Shinobi observes after a moment, briefly frowning to himself. "Someone she used to know." He pauses a moment, and adds, "If you decide to talk to her about him, call him Leech. She says that's what his name really is, anyway."

"She knows him?" Angelo takes a moment to think about that, and realizes what it must mean. "He was a Morlock... And, okay, if that's what she prefers. We thought it was just a name the freak-show gave him... I'll have to ask him which name *he* likes better."

"That might be best," Shinobi nods, settling back into his seat near the window with a tired sigh. "I don't think we'll need to worry for his safety very much, now that he's here. She made it very clear that anyone who tried to hurt him would be sent home in a bucket. I'm inclined to agree."

"She's not the only one", Angelo says grimly. "No one's going to lay a hand on that kid if I have any say in it. And if I ever find that freak show, I'll destroy them." His tone makes it clear he's deadly serious.

"Unfortunately, they've been very hard to track down," Shinobi sighs, lifting a hand to rub at his face. "I couldn't find anything concrete enough to go on.. a few passing mentions, but nothing even vaguely resembling a tracable pattern. But I'll keep looking."

"I think they probably work below the radar", Angelo says quietly. "No questions about where their kids came from, that way."

Shinobi nods solemnly, folding his hands across his stomach and slouching in his seat, stretching out his legs to cross them at the ankles. "Most definitely. I hate to say it, but I'm not sure we're going to find them unless they ride into town and put up fliers."

Angelo grins wryly. "Want to go back to Mexico and look for them? I think it might be our best chance."

"I would, but I think my weekend is spoken for," Shinobi chuckles, looking towards Angelo with a wry grin. "Pretty much everything I own is back in London, so I'm seeing about tagging along with Emma and a few others to go clothes shopping. It's been these and some borrowed pajamas when I need to wash them since I got here." He waves down at himself with a hand, shrugging a shoulder.

"If you ever need clothes in a hurry, just take 'em", Angelo offers. "Long as you put them back, it's fine."

"It shouldn't be a problem after this weekend, but until then, I'll keep it in mind," Shinobi nods, offering Angelo a lopsided smile. "Thank you."

Angelo returns the smile. "No problem."

"Now.. you said something about a prank?" Shinobi's smile takes on an almost angelic flavor that decidedly does not go with the impish gleam in his eye.

Angelo leans on one elbow on his bed, grinning wickedly. "Oh yes. Miss Lee is due some revenge."