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Tweak says, "Have a seat right over there."

Arla Lawrence (mathemafishian) wrote in age_of_miracles,
@ 2008-02-16 00:16:00

Entry tags:

mermaid, postman

Thread: Mermaid & Postman
Who: Arla Lawrence and David de Souza
When: Around midnight, moving into Saturday, February 16
Where: Xavier's School, Teacher Lounge
What: Arla for the most part is back to her normal behavior but that doesn't necessarily mean she's actually normal. However, instead of hiding in the pool she's pigging out on ice cream in front of the television, so... we might be making progress.

_______________

There was a lot to be said about Arla Lawrence in the last year. She'd gone revenge-crazy, taking her last birthday as a sign that she had to go after the people who'd killed the Morlocks. She'd gone against Remy's warnings and pursued the course until it became obsession, and obsession nearly got her killed. In fact, obsession led to Jack Bantock pumping a few gajillion volts through her body while holding her gills closed underwater and by rights it should have killed her. Instead, it left her with a twitchy right hand and a complete inability to write in anything other than nonsense mathematical formulas. She lost her place with the X-Men and then she lost her job, but more importantly she lost her sanity somewhere along the way.

Through sheer force of will she managed to get something back, cracking through her own mental codes in order to make some sense out of herself. She didn't know how it happened and couldn't explain it but she'd busted through what Xavier had done to try and help her and as far as most people were concerned, she was feeling just fine and dandy these days. She had her job back, her right hand was still twitchy, and she still had a bit of a problem with gin, but really, that was par for the course when it came to the eccentric mathematics professor at Xavier's School. She'd always been something of a bitch, and now she just had a little dose of crazy to go along with it.

She was rarely seen in the teacher's lounge these days, preferring to hole up and do her work in her room. She rarely socialized. However, Remy Lebeau had really gotten on her fucking nerves with a few things that he'd said and she wasn't in the mood to put up with him harping on her anymore. It wasn't that she was suddenly going to become some kind of socialite but she didn't have to be a recluse. And... well, it wasn't like she was looking to socialize tonight.

In fact, she was raiding the lounge freezer. Given that students weren't supposed to be in the teacher's lounge, the adults tended to hide the best things in there. This time, she happened upon a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream-----her favorite----and there wasn't any name scribbled on it in sharpie, which meant by all rules of public refrigerator etiquette, it was free for the taking. Right? Right.

After grabbing the pint and rummaging in a nearby drawer for a spoon, she plopped down on the sofa and switched on the small television. The glow from the television lit up the room and reflected in her glasses (which were crooked from her rolling over on them the other night----she hadn't been able to fix them properly). Deciding that this was an acceptable way to spend the late hours, she popped open the pint and dug in, flippers curling with delight when she tasted it.

Mint ice cream was good enough to almost make her give up gin. ...Almost.

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mathemafishian
2008-02-20 04:23 am UTC (link)

"Wh----ohhh, no, don't do that," said Arla, laughing nervously. "Don't do that, don't enable me. They tell me that I drink too much." Her muscles finally relaxed and she tugged her hand back, shoving it into the front pocket of her sweatshirt. "That's what they say. I drink too much. So... so don't encourage that, I mean----I'd love that. This stuff is shit, I'd love a nice scotch----but no, don't ... don't do that." She grinned a little and adjusted her glasses again. "And god, please, don't be sorry, right? I mean, like... it was a million years ago. And by a million years ago I mean a few months ago. But don't be sorry, you don't have anything to do with it... it's not the pity party today. I promised myself I was going to stop moping and feeling sorry for myself, so I can't have anyone feeling sorry for me."

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memoria_rasa
2008-02-20 04:35 am UTC (link)

"Feeling sorry for you ... no." David laced his fingers together across empty air. "Not the way you put it, of course not. Believe me, I don't feel responsible in the slightest - but no matter what you say, I think I'm allowed to wish that bad things didn't happen to friends?"

He shrugged, and smiled. "It's not about pity - I do pity about as well as I do enabling. Which I suppose I might as well just admit to as a complete and utter failure. I confess, I only suggested decent alcohol because there's no sense in poisoning yourself physically as well as mentally. Really, though, it was the beginnings of a convoluted and subversive scheme to slowly supplement drinking with semi-decent conversation, or possibly board games." David paused, as though thinking, and then shook his head. "A scheme that you've now foiled, thank you. I'll have to find another way to earn my keep."

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mathemafishian
2008-02-20 02:35 pm UTC (link)

Arla quirked an eyebrow over the rim of her glasses. "Board games?" she asked, deadpan. Arla Lawrence was a serious mathematician. She was troubled and haunted and angst-ridden... or something. She didn't play motherfucking Parcheesi.

But instead of saying no, she shifted from one foot (er, flipper, really) to the other, head tilted to one side. She was rather charmed that someone actually wanted to spend time with her for once instead of running off in the other direction or trying to tell her what to do. Chewing on her lip, she twirled her hair around her webbed fingers and gave it a thoughtful tug before saying, "I... could do a board game."

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memoria_rasa
2008-02-20 09:27 pm UTC (link)

"Of course you can." David grinned at what almost felt like a little victory. While a portion of both the offer and his light banter was automatic, he had to admit he was actually looking forward to getting to know this woman. She seemed to have a lot of stories that would be worth hearing - and her smile, once she let it happen, was a delight.

He rose from his chair with a drawn-out, audible sigh of satisfaction. "They're all the more fun when you're old enough to know better, and doing it all anyway. So if I challenge you to a game of Uno sometime when it's not midnight, you'd accept?"

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mathemafishian
2008-02-20 10:08 pm UTC (link)

Arla hesitated a little, but she nodded, shoving her hair out of her face. Uno was one of the few games she actually did know. David might have thought twice about challenging her to any kind of game when he learned how viciously competitive she could be, but----well. He'd find out the hard way; why ruin the moment now?

"Yeah... yeah, I'd accept," she said, swaying a little and nodding. She wasn't sure just what he did or how he'd managed to charm her, but the idea of enjoying another person's company and being enjoyed... well, fuck, it really threw her off. She felt a little dizzy, a little floaty, like he'd just... the only thing to compare it to was like he'd grabbed her and laid a big kiss on her for no reason at all. Something like that.

Human company was pretty nice. Gosh.

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memoria_rasa
2008-02-20 11:22 pm UTC (link)

Plate and fork were recovered moments before David's elbow would have sent them crashing to the floor, which left him with a slight dilemma; the kitchen was not on the way to his room, and was therefore far away. On the other hand, while it was likely that no one would notice him putting an empty plate back in the fridge, it also struck David as very bad form. Kitchen it was, then.

He narrowed his eyes at Arla. "Need a hand?" It was asked with slightly more amusement than concern, because she didn't actually look like she was going to fall over. Just ... wobble, slightly. "I should wash this before I forget, but if you come with me, I can walk you home. Give me a chance figure out when I'm free to clean your clock with brightly colored cards."

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