Paige, Jake and the Jungle Room

[x-foliate.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where I am, Jake realised. He stood in the middle of a forest of potted plants and looked around desperately for clues. Oh! He could see light in the distance... He fought his way in to the clearing -- er. area with desks...

Paige looked up from one of those said desks. Well, from on top of one. She’d decided to be a rebel today and was sitting on one of the desks with her textbook in her lap. She was surprised to find someone here, especially someone who wasn’t Ms. Munroe. “Hello,” she said pleasantly, if not a little curiously.

Jake gave the girl a startled look. "Hey. I got lost. I'm not sure how. I walked through a door, and suddenly I was in a rainforest..."

Laughing, Paige closed her book. “This is Professor Munroe’s classroom. She… likes plants. Usually if you find a wall and follow it you can get out eventually.”

Jake nodded. "I see." He studied her for a moment. "Hey, you're the nice, clever, hot girl Angelo's talking about, aren't you?"

“I beg your pardon?” Paige blushed, quite taken aback. “I’m Paige. I really don’t know if I qualify as the nice, clever, hot girl that Angelo spoke about. I guess I’m clever and usually nice, but…” She looked quite flustered, obviously not used to being called any sort of attractive.

Jake grinned. "Well, I can't call you hot, of course. Not without breaking several laws, I think, but I can say I'm not disagreeing with Angelo. What are you doing here, by the way? School on a Sunday?"

Paige laughed in spite of herself, going a little pink. She’d yet to be hit on by a girl. “Well, no one’s invented a clever potion yet, so I’m stuck being boring and studying on a weekend.”

Jake wandered over to her. "What are you reading? I know for sure it's not International Studies, which is a disgrace, if I may add. Every school with self-respect should have at least some form of International Studies. Bet half of you couldn't even say who won the Nobel peace price this year...Um. Where was I?"

“You were asking what I was reading.” Paige held up her textbook. “Chemistry. It’s my… thing if you will. It has to be.” She lowers the heavy book back into her lap and continues, if not a bit offhandly. “It was Shirin Ebadi, by the way. First Muslim woman ever.”

Jake grinned. "That's exactly right. Very good. How'd you know?" He squints at the book. "Chemistry's not my thing. Biology, on the other hand..."

“I also watch CNN. I’m very talented like that.” Paige looked amused. “You know, we have been holding a conversation for several minutes and I’m not even positive who you are.”

"I'm Jake. Shapeshifter with control issues," Jake said in a way that suggested he'd learned the phrase by heart.

“Ah! You’re Jake. A pleasure, then. I’m Paige, as I said, the girl who also turns into things just generally not as cool as your turning into things,” she replied. “And you’re at least a science person. That’s encouraging. Can never have too many science people.”

Jake tilted his head in thought. "I don't generally turn into things, as such..."

“Oh? Then explain it to me?” she asked, tilting her head and looking genuinely interested.

Jake looked amused. "I tend to stick to at least vaguely humanoid. I shudder to think how long it would take me to even attempt something else."

Paige nodded. “Like I stick to something mostly chemical with a humanoid shape. Essentially, Paige covered in something. It makes perfect sense to me.” She thought a moment. “So, how do you change, exactly?”

"Depends on what I'm going for." Jake closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them they were purple. "I just move things around. Shallow stuff like hair and eye is easy, everything else depends on how many times I've done it before. I have a photoreflexive malleable genetic imprint which gives me absolute control over every cell in my body," he clarified.

“Mhm… handy.” She doesn’t even notice when she takes Jake’s face in one hand, turning it slightly to inspect the eye colour. “Very good work as well. You must practice often.”

Jake give her bemused look. He's not used to people just grabbing his face at random to study his eyecolour. "Yes, I..." He shrugged as much as he could while being held. He closed his eyes again, and this time he opened them sporting yellow smiley face eyes. "It's just a party trick, really."

Paige laughed before realising what she was doing and hurriedly let her hand drop. “I’m sorry! I just… I don’t seem to think before I do things sometimes.” She looked quite embarrassed, tucking her hair behind her ears and finding the floor quite interesting and continuing what she’d meant to say before. “It’s really much more than a party trick. Such potential.”

Jake straightened, grinning. "It's all right. I was just a little surprised. And the eye thing really is just a party trick." He stopped concentrating, and the eyes flickered back into brown.

“Yes, but personal boundaries are a good thing to learn. Don’t be teaching me otherwise.” Paige watched his eyes carefully, and smiled when they turned back. “Maybe so, but still really quite stunning. Haven’t found a mutation yet that wasn’t, yours just happens to be the most similar to mine.”

Jake nodded, agreeing. "Hey, I gave you an example of mine... Want to show me what you can do?"

Paige thought a moment before nodding slowly. “All right. But you’ll have to turn around. It’s very messy and generally involves my ripping perfectly good clothes unless I take them off first.” She hopped off the table, heading towards some fairly dense plants. “Anything in particular you’d like to see?”

Jake shrugged, intrigued. "What can you do?"

“Most of the solid periodic table. Couple elements, such as wood. Couple compounds. I’m especially good at a metallic mix. Turn around.” Paige slipped behind the plants, pulling her shirt over her head.”

Jake turned around. "Do metal?" he suggested. This should be interesting...

“Certainly.” Paige had finished with her clothes, laying them in a neat pile, and thought for a moment, grabbing at the top of her hair. There was a loud ripping sound, a shrip you might say, and Paige emerged from behind the foliage, now very shiny. “All done.”

Jake stared. "...Shiiiiny," he said finally, awed. He circled her, studying her body. "You look like T-X."

Laughing, although, whether at the shiny comment or the T-X one is unsure, Paige stood still to allow a decent inspection. “I went as her for Halloween. Jamie and Alison helped. Although, I now have a restraining order on those shoes.”

Jake laughed. He moved to touch her arm, but paused before he did, giving Paige a questioning look.

Paige nodded, offering her arm. “Go ahead.”

He slid a finger down her arm, fascinated. "Is this just a coating, or is it solid?"

“I haven’t tried cutting into myself, haven’t got up the nerve, but it’s thick, whatever it is. It’s a skin mutation, though, so it probably doesn’t go all the way through.” Paige smiled, pleased at having someone to share the joy in her mutation with.

Jake gave her a surprised look. "You can't tell how far it goes?" The unsaid, but obvious was the I can.

“No. I guess I’m not experienced enough yet.” She shrugged a little, best as she could while being under such close inspection, and conveniently triggered an opposite déjà vu. “I remember when Dr. McCoy told me about when…” She paused, collecting her scattered thoughts. “I tried a diamond husk while… distracted and failed. Dr. McCoy told me that when he found me he could see my organs and some of my bones through me. Now, whether that means that I failed and it didn’t go all the way through or I failed and didn’t get a proper outer casing I don’t know.”

"Hard to say." Jake poked her arm harder, studying it. "Could be both. I find it far more difficult to change the inner me than the outer, though. Bones are damn near impossible."

“I bet. They’re all uncooperative and solid. Nasty things.” Paige turned to allow a better poking angle, watching as well. “I think we can assume it’s not a solid, I’d just like to know how hard I can get whacked with an axe or the like before I start spurting, you know?”

"Not just that, it's uncomfortable as hell," Jake muttered to himself, before poking Paige one final time, grinning at her words. "Sensible. Bit hard to check safely, though."

“Yes, exactly. One can’t really go and say, ‘Hey! Hit me with sharp thing as hard as you can but stop right before you break my husk!’ can they?” Paige grinned, showing off pointed, silver teeth.

"You can, but I'm not sure how much success you'd have." Jake paused. "I don't think I'd recommend it."

“It’s a very good way to lose a limb, certainly. And I like my limbs. I especially like them when they’re connected to the rest of me,” Paige replied, nodding. “So, I think I will take your advice.”

Jake laughed, then tilted his head. "You can't reattach pieces?"

“Not as far as I know. It’s very sad. Why, can you?” she asked, an odd sight to see, this life size silver statue with her arms crossed and looking quite curious.

Jake shook his head. "Not really. Mind, I haven't actually gone in for trying it, either. Would suck if it didn’t work.”

“Then we should probably both not try it. We have such attractive pieces.” Paige nodded as if this solved everything. “Now, may I go change or would you like to see something else?”

Jake did his best royal impression and waved his hand. "No, this is quite alright, thank you. You may change back."

“You are much too kind to me,” Paige replied, quite amused, as she walked away. There was the tinkling like bells as her husk was taken off and replaced with her clothes. When she peeked through the foliage, however, there was no Jake to be seen. It seemed that he had reached his teenaged company quota for the day. Amused, Paige hopped up onto a table, and cracked over her book once more.