xp_logs | Angelo and Jane

Angelo and Jane run into each other in the hall, he agrees to tell her about everyone, then they get some food, and Jane follows him to class.

Jane wandered through the halls of the mansion, clutching a notebook to her chest. She had a bunch of class schedules in it and she was supposed to be observing several different classes. Earlier today, Professor Xavier had had her take a placement test to determine her schooling level. He'd said that she would have to take more of them, too. It was all just a bit overwhelming. But fun. She loved it here.

Angelo was heading in the other direction, towards the kitchen for a between-classes snack to take to one of the study rooms, since he had a free period. Glancing up when he heard footsteps, he saw the new girl coming towards him and smiled. "Hey. Jane, right?"

Jane glanced up, startled. "Yes! Jane I am! Um, sorry." She smiled at him a little helplessly. "And you are, um, Angelo, right?" She peered at him, trying to see if he had any interesting additions like Warren and some of the other students did.

Angelo grinned. "That's right. How're you settlin' in?"

"Okay," she said. "Everyone here is very nice. I've been going around to different classes to get a feel for it all. And I like my roommates. Oh! And I get a whole nightstand to myself! I don't know what to put in it. But it's all mine and I get to keep things because the doctor won't take them away!"

Angelo smiled. "Yeah, I like your roommates too." He blinked. "The doctor... used to take your stuff away?"

Jane just shook her head and smiled. "It's not like I had much stuff anyway." She hugged her notebook to her chest. Doc Samson had given it to her and now it was her second most prized possession, right after her identity bracelet. "So, I was wondering... um, well, I've been a bit confused, see. I don't know who is dating who around here, who is related to who and stuff, and I kinda embarassed myself in Shinobi's journal the other day. My roommates promised to give me the whole story, but they said it would take several hours and they are in classes. You're not in class, and I'm interested! Can you help?"

Angelo laughed. "Sure, I've got an hour 'til my next class. Come on to the rec room, can't give you the rundown standin' in the corridor."

"Cool!" Jane followed him to the rec room, where she looked around at everything before sitting down.

Angelo dropped onto a nearby couch. "So, where'd you wanna start?"

"Um, my roommates? Paige and Amanda are neat, but I know next to nothing about them, so far. I'm sure they'll tell me about themselves eventually, but I like them and I want to know now because I'm impatient." She smiled sheepishly at him.

Angelo nodded. "Okay, then. Amanda... her power is to store mystic energy, an' she uses it up doin' magic. Paige can shape-shift, kinda, but only in what she's made of, not what shape she is."

"Amanda, magic, check. Paige. Um. Made of? Is she like Rahne? Rahne said that she could turn into a wolf. But that's changing shape. So Paige can...?"

"Pull off her skin an' have there be somethin' else underneath. Metal, or rock, or pretty much anythin' she wants, really. She's workin' on diamond."

"Wow. Does it hurt, do you know? It sounds like it would hurt." Jane looked worried for her roommate.

"I don't think it hurts, no. Don't think she'd practise it like she does if it hurt", Angelo reassured her.

"Oh good! Okay, so they have interesting powers, but what about their relationships? That's what I'm most worried about not knowing. Are either of them dating anyone, or married, or something? And who are their friends here? I just don't know anything!"

Angelo grinned a little. "Should probably've told you this already, but Paige an' me are datin'. An' she's seein' Jono too, but that's okay. Amanda's not seein' anyone in particular right now. As for friends... well, I think they both get on with most everyone."

"Oh! You're dating Paige! And... Jono is dating Paige. That's different. Does that mean that you and Jono are dating, too?" It was very early in the conversation, and Jane was already thinking that she would probably need to take notes -- and possibly make a diagram -- to acutally understand and remember everything.

Angelo laughed. "Y'know, you're the second person that's asked me that. You been talkin' to Clarice? No, we're not."

"Clarice, she is the one who is purple and likes swords, right? I haven't met her yet, but I've read the journals a bit. It's funny; I kinda feel like I know a little bit about a whole lot of people through reading those, when I haven't even met them yet! Okay, so anyway, Paige dating you and Jono, Amanda not daing anyone at the moment. Er, do you mind if I take notes?" Jane brandished her notebook at him pleadingly.

"That's the one. An', of course you can take notes. I know how confusin' it can get."

"Thanks!" Jane turned to a brand new page in her notebook and uncapped her pen. First she wrote her name, and then Paige and Amanda's names. She drew a line between all three of them and labled each line 'roommates.' Then she wrote Jono and Angelo's names and drew a line to each from Paige's name, labeling them 'dating.' "Okay, go on."

Angelo chuckled. "What d'you want to know next? Paige's brother lives here too, Sam."

"Sam." She wrote his name, connected it to Paige's, and wrote 'siblings.' "I haven't met him. Is he in a relationship?"

"Not anymore. He was with Ms. Blaire, but I think they broke up."

"Aww." She wrote 'Blaire' and drew a line to 'Sam' labeled exes. "That's sad. Are they both okay now?"

"As far as I know. Don't really know either of them that well, but it didn't seem like it was a bad breakup, really."

"Oh good, is, um, is Ms. Blaire or Sam seeing anyone else now?"

"Not as far as I know", he answered. "Who's next?"

"Does Ms. Blaire have any siblings?"

"No siblings, no. A kid, sort of. We found him in Mexico an' she adopted him. His name's Miles - little green kid, rooms with Jamie, Doug and Artie, don't know if you've met him?"

"That's wonderful! So Ms. Blaire is a mommy..." As she put Miles into her diagram, Jane thought a bit wistfully about her own parents. She really wished that she remembered who they were. "I think I might have caught a glance of him with another small child, but I haven't been formally introduced. Okay, Jamie, Doug, and Artie, why don't we do them next?"

"Okay. Jamie's been datin' Kitty for quite a while now, an' Doug's just got together with Marie-Ange. Artie's only ten, so he's not into that stuff yet. He's good friends with Miles, so that might've been who you saw him with. Dark hair, blue tongue?"

"Yeah, that was him. Okay, lemme just write this down." Jane scribbled away in her notebook, writing down names and connecting them with lines. "Got it. What about Kitty and Marie-Ange? Siblings, parents, exes, roommates?"

"No siblings that I've met, for either of them. No exes I know of, either. Marie-Ange rooms with Clarice an' Rahne, an' Kitty's in with Terry, Jubilee, an' Illyana, but 'Yana's in the medlab right now. Some kind of virus."

"Gotcha." Janes notebook page was starting to look like a web spun by a very drunk spider. "Okay, are Clarice, Rahne, Terry, Jubilee, and Illyana dating anyone?"

"No, actually. Not at the moment, anyway."

"Okay. Who else? Um, what about the other teachers and staff and stuff?"

Angelo chuckled. "Well, there's quite a few of 'em. Who first?"

"Erm. The doctors. I've met all of them already, so I'll know who you're talking about."

He nodded. "The doctors. Okay. Well, I don't know too much about Dr. Bartlet. Dr. McCoy's cool. Dr. MacTaggart's just started seein' Nathan - the big guy stayin' with her. They were friends before, an' he's havin' some trouble with his precog so she brought him here to help."

"Nathan and Dr. MacTaggart, check. Go on."

"Who else've you met?" he asked, stuck for who to tell her about next.

"Well, I met Warren the other night, and I've been around to a few classes. Logan and some other people. I only remember Logan because Doug told me that he was dating Marie. Wait, I should write that down." She did so and then looked up at Angelo expectantly, her pen poised over her notebook.

"Warren's datin' a guy called Piotr", he told her. "Illyana's brother. You won't meet him for awhile, he's off on some trainin' course somewhere."

"Okay. And Marie is rooming with Shinobi, who is dating Sarah. Wait, lets back up. Does Ms. Blaire have a roommate, or Dr. Bartlet, or Dr. McCoy?"

"Ms. Blaire does. She shares a suite with Lorna, who's seein' Alex. He rooms with Shiro. The other two don't."

"Okay, more people I haven't met yet." Jane looked up from her scribbling and grinned at him.

Angelo grinned back. "Well, you haven't been here long. You'll get to meet everybody soon enough."

"There are so many people here! I don't think we've even covered half of the school yet!"

Angelo laughed. "Probably not, no. You met Mr. Wagner yet? Blue skin, tail?"

Jane's eyes got very wide. "No! I would have remembered someone with blue skin and a tail! That is so cool."

"He teleports", Angelo told her. "An' he used to be in the circus."

"Okay, his coolness-factor just shot through the roof, I have to meet him! He's a teacher? What does he teach?" Jane bounced in her chair excitedly. A circus!

"Dance, mostly. Think he gives circus skills classes for people who want them, though."

Jane made a mental note to herself to take Dance if she could. "Neat. So is there anyone else I should know about?"

Angelo thought. "Uh. Y'know, there's probably tons of people I've forgotten, but this is harder than I thought it'd be. Anyone you've seen around that doesn't sound like someone I already mentioned?"

Angelo thought. "Well, there's Bobby. He's kind of a teacher, which is weird, 'cause he's not much older than me. But then, Marie's kind of a teacher too, so's Shinobi."

"Bobby." She wrote down his name and waited for Angelo to tell her about Bobby.

"He's in a suite by himself at the moment. Think he likes it that way, even if he does keep offerin' me the other room for the night. That's just him bein' nice."

"So you're friends." She nodded. "Is he dating anyone? Any siblings or anything?"

"Yeah, he's got a brother back home. He's not datin' anyone."

"Okay." She sat there, tapping the end of her pen against her chin. "Wow, this is a lot of people! I know it sounds silly, but I do feel much better for knowing all this. I want to be friends with everyone!"

Angelo smiled. "You'll be fine. Most everyone here's really great."

"I've noticed," she said, smiling pointedly at him. "Thank you, Angelo!" She bounced over to him and hugged him spontaneously, hoping that she wasn't overstepping any bounds or anything. She thought they were friends now, or she hoped they were, anyway.

Angelo blinked at her for a moment, then smiled and hugged her back quickly. "No problem. Anythin' else you need to know?"

"Oh, lots of things. I'm just getting started! But this will do for now. And didn't you say that you had class?"

"Not for another half-hour", he answered, checking his watch.

"Good, then you can show me where the kitchen is again. It keeps getting lost. Um, I mean, I keep getting lost. I'm hungry."

Angelo nodded. "Sure thing. There's almost always leftover food in there. It's this way." He got up and led her out of the room.

As they walked, Jane decided to find out more about him. "So how long have you been here, Angelo?"

"'Bout eight months", he answered. "Came out from LA, not long after I manifested."

"Manifested! That's right, you have a power, too! What is your power?"

Angelo blinked at the suddenness of the question. "Yes, I have a power. Think there's only about two people here who don't. It's this." He stretched out the skin from his fingertips and waved it at her, before quickly retracting it.

She tried grabbing his stretched fingertips, but he retracted them too fast. "Neat! I bet you never have a problem with reaching for things, eh?" She giggled a bit. "I can turn into a cloud."

He blinked again. "Into a... cloud? How does that work?"

"Well, I just concentrate a bit and then, poof!, I'm a cloud. I can't rain, because I'm a cloud without oxygen, just hydrogen and helium, but otherwise, I'm just a regular little cloud. I could show you, if you want?"

"If you want, go right ahead", he told her, intrigued.

Jane stopped walking and set her notebook down carefully on a conveninet bit of furniture. She concentrated a bit. First, bits of her hair and flesh started disolving into a mist, and then suddenly her entire form was cloud-substance, and her clothes fell to the ground through her. *There, see?* She floated in front of him, waving a tendril of her cloud form at him.

Angelo stared. "That's... impressive. Kind of weird, never seen a power quite like that, but impressive."

*Thanks!* She started to re-form herself back into human shape. It took longer than becoming a cloud but otherwise it was the reverse of the previous process. When she was fully in her human form again, Jane bent down and started gathering up her clothes to put them back on, completely unconcerned about being naked in the middle of the hall in front of Angelo.

Angelo's eyes widened and he turned away hurriedly, in case Paige suddenly appeared from nowhere. "Tell me when you're decent".

Jane giggled. Everyone around her was so funny about clothes! Just this morning her new roommates had had to remind her to put on clothes before going out. She adjusted her t-shirt. "Okay, I'm decent."

Angelo turned round. "Okay. Guess that happens every time you use your power? Rahne's got the same problem."

"Yeah, so she said. Certain mutations have their own little quirks, eh? Like Warren and his wings. It must cost him a fortune to have his shirts tailored right." Jane picked up her notebook and they contined towards the kitchen, Angelo leading.

"Well, he's rich. Heir to the Worthington fortune, he can afford it. An' he straps the wings down most times he leaves the mansion."

"Ouch, that must hurt. But I can see why. A lot of people don't like us because of who we are. The police officers who took me to the mental institution were scared of me and the doctors there didn't like me. I'm happy I'm here now!"

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, it's a good place to be. Can't see why they'd be scared of you, though - I mean, if you're not an obvious mutant, so they'd've had to see your power, an' it seems pretty harmless. But then I guess it's not always that logical..."

"Well, when they found me, there was a loud noise that scared me so I turned into a cloud and the police officers saw, so they knew what I could do. I think I scared them because they knew I could get away from them or hurt them and they couldn't stop me."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, it makes sense. Still, you're here now, an' it's a really good place."

"Yes. Oh, there's the kitchen!" She scolded the kitchen doorjam. "You've been a very naughty kitchen. No more hiding from me, or it's locked in Isolation for you! Now. Food." Jane swept past Angelo into the kitchen and made a beeline for the fridge.

Angelo gazed after her, laughing. "Food. Yes." He followed her into the room.

"What can I eat? There is so much to choose from! Is there anything I shouldn't touch?"

"Well, people put their names on things they want to claim, but I wouldn't take that too seriously. Also, the worst-kept secret in the house is that the good stuff's usually hidden in the box marked fishsticks."

"Fishsticks?" Jane raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"Jamie started it, I think. It was supposed to be a disguise, 'cause he figured nobody'd touch the fishsticks. But word got out pretty quick."

"Ah. Well, are you hungry? I don't know how to cook yet -- Rahne said that she would help me learn sometime -- but I could probably make sandwiches, if you wanted one."

"A sandwich'd be good", Angelo answered with a smile.

"Okay!" Jane got out bread, lettuce, and ketsup and started putting together a lettuce and ketsup sandwich for each of them, humming randomly as she went.

"Do you want your bread toasted?"

Angelo sat down on one of the kitchen stools. "Sure, why not."

She popped two slices into the toaster for him and made her own sandwich in the meantime. "Where are the plates?"

"Oh!" He got up again to open the appropriate cupboard and take down two plates. "Just in here. Sorry, forgot you might not know that yet."

She grinned at him. "That means that I seem like I belong here to you! That's good!" Jane put her sandwich on her plate and started to put together his.

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it does at that. I know it might feel like you're not fittin' in yet, but give it a few weeks an' it'll be like you were never anywhere else."

Jane paused for a moment. She had been somewhere else than here and the institution at some point, though. If only she could remember. Jane shook the thought out of her head and finished making Angelo's sandwich. "There! All done. Let's eat!" She bit into her sandwich with gusto.

Angelo grinned and picked up his own sandwich, starting to eat. "You really were hungry, huh?"

"Well, I missed breakfast, because Paige and Amanda said I had to get dressed, and then the kitchen decided to hide from me all day. If not for you, I would surely have wasted away into nothing!" She fluttered her eyes at him. "You're my hero! Angelo, the Great Kitchen-Tracker!"

Angelo laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment." He paused, taking in her first words. "Paige an' Amanda said you had to get dressed? You weren't gonna get dressed anyway?"

"Well," she shrugged, "I forget, sometimes. I was already out the door when they pulled me back in."

Angelo blinked. "You... forget. To put clothes on. Okay..."

She laughted at his confusion. "What can I say? I did spend all of my life that I can remember at a mental instituion, after all. And the cops found me wandering naked down a highway, so. Me? Not so big on the clothes."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, that makes some kind of sense, I guess. You really should try'n remember, though", he said mock-seriously.

"Right," she nodded, completely serious. If she wanted to fit in here and be liked, it was important to remember things like that. Jane polished off her sandwich and took her plate over to the sink to rinse it off. "So class are you going to? Can I tag along? I've been observing different classes to see which ones I like and want to take. I also have to take these placement tests to see how much I know. The tests are boring, but watching classes is fun."

Angelo glanced at his watch. "Well, CompSci starts in about ten minutes. Dr McCoy teaches it, it's pretty cool."

"I like Dr. McCoy. He didn't poke and prod me too much, plus, he's fuzzy! Do you think he would mind if I came and watched?"

"Don't think he'd mind at all", Angelo assured her. "He'll like havin' an extra person in on it, actually."

"Greatness!" Jane snatched Angelo's empty plate away from him and rushed over to the sink to wash it. "C'mon, c'mon, let's go!"