Powdery Paradise [OPEN]

[Deleted]

H Y D R O
> > roy kingsley

The pebble that Roy had been kicking as he walked finally hit a tree trunk and disappeared behind the tree's large, overgrown roots. He paused, contemplating on finding the pebble so he had something to focus on during his impromptu walk, but eventually decided against it, and just continued on his way.

Roy wasn't entirely sure where he was, and he wasn't worried about it. He knew he was still on the school's land and, truth be told, he was a bit curious about what would happen if he went so far through the woods that he left the school behind. He wouldn't leave, of course, not since Vanessa was still employed at the school, at the very least. After another moment of contemplation, Roy supposed he still wouldn't leave, even if he didn't know Vanessa; Xavier's is the closest place he's ever had to calling home.

Roy blinked as he noticed a few snowflakes falling to the ground, and he looked up at the dark clouds. He hadn't realized that it was cold enough for snow. In fact, he had been waiting for some rain. Snow was fine with him, though. Water was water, no matter what state of matter it was in.

He paused and watched, relaxing in front of the powdery paradise that was being created before him. The snow, although falling slowly, wasn't melting right away, and would soon coat the earth floor with a thin sheet of white. Roy didn't want to move lest his footprints ruin the spotless landscape of snow.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

There were very few leaves left on the ground from the past autumn. Winter was upon the world (or, at least, this particular section of the world), and Willow was delighted. Yes, it was fun pouncing on the dead leaves, feeling the crisp foliage crunch and crinkle beneath her feline paws, but it was a lot more fun trying to chase and catch fat snowflakes before they reached the cold ground.

Willow sauntered through the woods in her cat form, a long-haired pretty cat with shades of browns and grays decorating her fur coat. She enjoyed taking walks as a cat with light paw steps, doing her best not to disturb the natural silence of the woods. Birds didn't sing and squirrels didn't chatter, understanding that a peaceful quiet had settled over the grounds (although, in hindsight, Willow supposed the woodland creatures could have sensed that a cat was nearby and were hiding for their lives).

Willow took a deep breath of the fresh, chilly air and her tail swished in content as she tasted something familiar on the breeze. A taste of rain, of water landed upon Willow's feline senses, and she followed the trail to find Roy standing in the middle of a clearing in the woods.

With a purr, Willow trotted over to her classmate and rubbed against his leg in a greeting before sitting down next to his foot, her plumy tail wrapping around to rest atop her front paws.

[Deleted]

H Y D R O
> > roy kingsley

Roy had jumped as if he had just stuck his finger in an electrical socket when he felt something brush up against his leg. Upon realizing that the thing had been just a cat, he narrowed his gaze at the feline in a glare.

"You could have warned me of your presence," he muttered "instead of being all sneaky..."

Did the school even have a cat? Where did this one come from? Was it a stray? Roy scrutinized the creature, easing up on his glare and noting the cat's fit frame and well-kept coat. He figured that the cat must have a family somewhere.

"Why are you out here?" Roy asked, bending down to stretch his hand out toward the cat. It may have rubbed against his leg and purred, but he wasn't taking any chances. As far as he knew, cats were notorious for being bipolar. "You know, I'm not really a cat person..."

He paused, reflecting on his words just then. "I suppose I'm not really a people person either... You wouldn't be one if you went through what I had... Count your blessings that you're a cat. A pretty one, too. Do you just hang around here all the time?"

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

Willow the cat flicked her ears and blinked slowly at Roy when he jumped backwards from her touch, her purrs emitting a rhythm that was reminiscent to laughter. She didn't move as Roy started talking and bending down cautiously to pet her until his hand was near her chin. She reached forward gave his hand a rub of her cheek, letting him know that she wasn't going to scratch him.

It was obvious that he didn't realize the cat was one of his classmates, but she didn't mind. In truth, Willow revealing herself again would probably scare him off. Roy seemed to be closed off to many people anyway, except for that teacher's aid that came with him to the mansion, and if he wanted to talk to a cat, Willow was okay with it.

She blinked up at him, listening to his words about not being the type of person that got along with cats or people (or anything, really, she suspected), and mentioned something about his past, piquing her curiosity. Willow wondered if the pair would ever become close enough friends for him to reveal his past to her.

Willow was quite aware that not everyone had come from an accepting family, but she hoped that those who did not will learn that those at Xavier's can become the family that they want and need.

[Deleted]

H Y D R O
> > roy kingsley

The cat just continued to sit there, staring at him with wide eyes and purring so loudly that Roy began to wonder if the brown and gray feline would go hoarse. Roy averted his gaze and let his stare wander back to the many snowflakes drifting slowly to the ground. He allowed himself to relax in the quiet scene with an equally relaxed companion.

After a few moments, Roy looked back at the cat, curious as to its random appearance, but figured since she was here, he may as well practice making small talk. "What do you think of this place?" he asked. "I just got here. It’s strange. Everyone can do something different and no one thinks it’s strange. They’re all… really accepting. How do they really know they can trust me? I’m not sure if I trust them as much as they do me."

He reached down once more to rub at the cat's ears. "Vee said she did her research on this place, though," Roy murmured. "I can trust Vanessa. That much I know."

Roy stood back up and slowly looked down the path that he had just come from. "Might as well start to head back... Where are you going to go? Are you coming with me, or going your own way?"

[Apollo de Costa]

A p o l l o { s h i e l d} D e C o s t a
>> ftm >> mutant >> 21 >> teachers' aide

Apollo was surprised to see another person out in the woods behind the mansion. It wasn't off limits, not really, but it was snowing. Apollo was only out in the snow - one of the worst kinds of weather, in his opinion - because it beat trying to deal with all of the noise in the mansion. The cold was slowly sapping away at his resolve the farther out he walked, and the man had been about to turn around himself when he'd heard Roy's voice a little farther ahead. Curious - and telling himself he wasn't being sneaky, just worried - Apollo walked closer. It was one of the new arrivals, talking to a cat. Did the mansion even have a cat? He'd heard enough complaints from students to know that they weren't allowed to bring pets to the mansion, but that didn't mean strays couldn't find a way in.

Or that students couldn't shape shift. Apollo cleared his throat before he spoke, hoping to avoid scaring anyone. It could be a bad idea with normal people, but in a school where freshmen could vaporize walls with a sneeze, there was no sense in being uncareful. "Excuse me - hello, I was just taking a walk and heard someone talking over here.", he explained in his greeting, waving one hand while the other was still firmly stuck in his coat pocket. Leery of the cold, Apollo had not only a multitude of baggy sweaters and thick socks in his closet, but the warmest coat he'd been able to find - unfortunately, it had the side-effect of making him look something like a fluffy, light blue marshmallow with a head and hands. "I'm Apollo - a teachers' aid for the school. You're...?"

Apollo pushed his hood back as he introduced himself, thankful for the scarf he'd wrapped around his neck as he did so. It would help put the younger man at ease to see his face as much as it did to know why he was out wandering the woods. Not that Apollo thought he could possibly look threatening, encapsulated as he was in a large blue coat, white scarf poking out of the neck like a stray streamer. It nearly matched the snow, he noticed idly. Hopefully once it stopped snowing, the students might go outside - let them stamp down the freezing powder and throw snowballs to their hearts content, he thought. He wouldn't have to deal with it unless a stray snowball struck him walking out to the mailbox.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

Willow purred and meowed appropriately to Roy's words, the tip of her tail flicking in an odd rhythm as he spoke. She listened, her ears flattening slightly in sympathy to his words of trust and being accepted.

Willow was lucky, she realized. Her family, although not entirely clear on what exactly a mutant was or how she became one, was still fairly supportive of her and her abilities. Willow had never had any reason not to trust the people in her life and, she'll admit, she's a bit naive due to that. She could learn to be more wary of strangers, especially in this world that was still getting used to mutants, from Roy, but he could also learn to open up more from her.

She planned to forge some sort of friendship with Roy, or at least do her best to strike one up. If he wouldn't open up on his own, perhaps Willow could befriend that teacher's aid he moved in with...

Her cat ears perked at the sound of a second masculine voice and she turned to see the other male entering the clearing.

Willow struggled not to laugh and lose her transformation. Apollo was all but cocooned in a thick, fluffy winter coat that reminded Willow of the Pillsbury Doughboy. Apollo was cuter than the baking mascot, of course, but he still cast a comical vibe with his appearance.

Willow's throat rumbled with a couple of more purrs as she left Roy's side momentarily to go and greet the teacher's aid in the typical, friendly feline fashion by rubbing up against Apollo's pants.

[Deleted]

H Y D R O
> > roy kingsley

He heard a noise, a noise that was not the simple squirrel-running-up-a-tree or a bird chirping a cheery Christmas carol. Too slow his mind realized that it was just someone clearing his or her throat.

Nevertheless, Roy's first reaction was to liquidize his arms into water blades as he whirled around at the source of the sound.

Upon realizing that it was just someone that he vaguely recognized from the mansion, Roy ducked his head and reformed his blades into his arms. Rubbing the back of his head, Roy said, "Um, hi... Sorry about that, I just... Yeah..."

Roy took a deep breath, hoping that his instinctive reaction to pull a weapon on an aid wouldn't affect his grades. Vanessa wouldn't be too happy about that.


"I'm Roy... Roy Kingsley," he said. "A junior, but this is my first year here."

He watched as Apollo pulled down his hood, revealing his face for Roy's sake. Roy himself hadn't had any sort of covering to protect him from the cold; he wasn't bothered by it too much due to his mutation. Instead, Roy was dressed in a simple jeans and t-shirt ensemble. The only part of his outfit weather appropriate were the worn-out boots on his feet.

Roy fidgeted and watched as the cat greeted Apollo by rubbing up against the aid's legs. Gesturing to the feline, Roy figured that she was a good enough topic for conversation and asked, "She a friend of yours?"

[Apollo de Costa]

A p o l l o { s h i e l d} D e C o s t a
>> ftm >> mutant >> 21 >> teachers' aide

Apollo felt a brush against his pants and looked down, smiling as he saw the cat headbutting his shin. Knowing the rule against pets, and also knowing a shape-shifting student, he had to wonder. Bending over a little, he extended his hand for her to smell, planning to pet her behind the ears if she was okay with him. He wasn't sure how cats - or a mutant, if it was Willow - decoded through smell, but they had always seemed to be reliable judges of character to the man. "Hello there, you.", he murmured, quietly.

His stance switched quickly from letting the cat sniff his hand to a tense, frozen-up orange and black human-shaped blob. The aide never moved a muscle - he was still bent over, but fear from being sliced with - was that water? ice? it was hard to tell - had triggered his fight-or-flight response, and therefore his unnaturally natural mutation. Although the younger man retracted his arm blades, Apollo knew it would take him a little while longer to get himself back to normal - until his heartbeat slowed, until he couldn't see tension lines in the angle of the juniors' body. Straightening from petting Willow, the man smiled but didn't hold out his hand like he usually would - nobody had touched him while he was glowing and active, and he didn't know what would happen. Roy pulling his mutation on him might have been a social faux-pas, but lighting a student on fire would be much less accepted.

"It's no problem - sorry I startled you.", Apollo said, brushing off Roy's apology. He glanced down at Willow and smiled at her, winking once. If it was Willow, she'd get the joke - and if it wasn't, there was no harm done. "I'd like to think so. Have you been here long, Roy, or did you just arrive?", he asked. Students could - and frequently did - show up all throughout the school year and the summer, or on holiday vacation. Sometimes they decided to come on their own, sometimes their parents didn't want to worry about another door in the house being flung off of its' hinges by a temper tantrum, and sometimes they were the kind of mutant that got news coverage.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

When Roy had whipped out the blades of water, Willow the cat had jumped, her fur involuntarily bristling at the sight and sudden movement. Roy had put them away within seconds, but it took a moment longer for Willow to flatten her fur. She purred, as if to let Roy know everything was well, and allowed Apollo to give her a small scratch behind the ears.

Willow sat by the aid, resisting the urge to poke at the fluffy jacket with her claws, as the young men talked. Well, sort of. Roy's words were coming out in stutters, and Apollo was doing his best to keep a calm tone to soothe the startled student. Willow's tail swished behind her, and gave a loud purr when she was used as a topic of conversation.

She blinked affectionately to Apollo when he winked at her, and she waited a few moments before the conversation turned again onto Roy. Willow listened, or tried to, but her attention span was decidedly turning more feline than human. She kept hearing birds and squirrels, and her eyes dilated with the excitement of perhaps catching them.

Willow shook herself, gave the boys a meow of good-bye, and decided it was time for her to return to the mansion. She walked around both young men, giving their legs a light headbutt, and sauntered away.

[EXIT WILLOW]