First Day Blues (Jasper)

[Hope Summers]

The girl stalked along the paved sidewalk, between the long line of trees and flowers meant to beautify and make the school look more open. She wasn't admiring it, however, her attention was fully focused forward, her eyes glaring at the students wandering around before class, hands clenched into fists. Her outfit was the epitome of boring as she walked through the halls, the dark blue of her top and skirt offset by the bright yellow of the tie she was told to wear - and had needed a teacher's assistance in tying, much to her own displeasure.  Her rather bright red hair clashed rather fully with the colors of the uniform, and she made a mental note to request a boys version as soon as her first day was done - already tired of the skirt.

She'd already been in this timeline for a little over a week, and had obsessively read up and been told about the differences between meals. The little bits of time where she wasn't speaking to one of the 'X-Men' who knew 'her' she spent online. Still, none of it felt real - and when she was finally told she would be expected to join the school if she was to stay, she considered trying to escape instead. But she'd heard their records on her father, and seen the stories about how he frequented this timeline - hopefully meaning he would find her.

And now she was not only joining a school for mutants, but she was expected to live with another - to be assigned after class was over. She'd voiced her concerns over her own safety only to be ignored and told she'd be safe - and obvious lie, or someone too foolish to understand that safe was an illusion, clearly. She tugged at the collar of her shirt, tight around her neck as it was, loosening it just a small amount. There was no intention in her mind to dilly-dally around, and she wanted to get to class and get it over with - hopefully claiming a seat far away from anyone annoying.

As she reached the door of the classroom, she slid it open, blinking as she took a step inside. 

Words: I dunno
Notes: Idunno
Tags: Jasper Collins

[Jasper Collins]

Jasper almost fell off the ceiling as the door was thrown open, she was so surprised. It was too nice of a day to be spent inside a classroom - or, well, spent inside of a classroom doing work. Ugh, who even thought that was a good idea? It was a terrible idea, and Jasper wouldn’t stand for it. So she was ‘protesting’ in the only way she knew how; skipping class.

Unable to ignore the early-morning noise of the veritable stampede of other students in the hallways, the tan girl had grudgingly woken up. Jas couldn't actually sneak outside without being caught, not when everyone else was in class, so she’d slipped into the nearest usually-empty classroom instead. Since the Institute only let the completely un-used rooms gather dust, the one Jasper had picked was pretty clean; clearly unused, but not fallen into disrepair. Instead of neat rows of chairs and desks, the desks had been shoved into the far side of the room in semi-neat rows, most of the chairs stacked on top of one another; a few were missing a leg or had too much graffiti or damage to be used in an active classroom; one had a top corner of chair melted off, clearly some time ago.

Normally, someone would have to have a ladder to get to the ceiling. In Xaviers’ School, however, there were more readily available options; flying, hovering, and Jas’s preferred mode of floor-to-ceiling transport, climbing. So there she was, having just situated herself comfortably on the heavy tile when Hope opened the door, clearly expecting something different than what she found. Jasper was surprised, too; she’d seen the redhead around school, but mostly she seemed to ignore people - although there was a rumor that Hope had stabbed one of the substitute teachers, which was pretty cool if it was true. Everyone knew she was a Summers - there was always one or more of the ‘Summers herd’ at school, so it wasn’t surprising, but she was new, and new was interesting.

“Uh, hi! Were you looking for me? Or lost?” Jasper asked, recovering from her fright. She had already been facing the door, so there was no need for her to turn around; she was barefoot, of course, and wore completely non-regulation short-shorts and an in-your-face puma purple sports’ bra in lieu of an actual shirt; life was too short to worry about your shirt falling over your head and getting in the way of ceiling escapades! And speaking of clothing - was that a school uniform tie? Jasper was appalled, and let it be known. “Or, uh, were you looking for a fashion stylist? Because yikes, your outfit needs help, ASAP.”

[Hope Summers]

The first thought Hope had through her head was that, clearly, this was not the right room. The second thought a split second later was to back up from the door as she noticed Jasper standing on the roof, instantly dropping into a low defensive pose, her hands raised up with open palms ready to deflect oncoming blows... Except not a single one was thrown, instead the mysterious girl sticking to the ceiling started talking, ah, right, the inward musing began briefly, 'safe'. 


Hope stood from her pose to a more proper standing pose - in fact, she basically stood at attention as she stared at Jasper, "I am to begin courses in this campus today, and was looking for the classroom that I was meant to join. It is evident that my directions were faulty in finding it, however." Her voice was, perhaps, a bit overly formal, like a fresh recruit talking with a drill master. There was no smile given or evidence of a secret joy, no laugh at her own mistake as she looked down at herself, specifically adjusting the tie, "I agree, the tie at the very least is a clear weak point that should not be allowed. It is why I have tied it so that it is easily removed with the slightest tug. At the very least the skirt is easy enough to move in."

Hope didn't seem to put much stock into the comment on her fashion beyond that, stepping into the hall and looking down it each direction, "I am going to be late to class. Father would be ashamed of this." The instructions clearly stated to go up two flights of stairs and then take a left, and it would be the fourth door on the right. This was the fourth door on the right. And besides that, there was no one even passing through this hallway, or sounds coming from the doors. Evidently most of the classes this direction were empty.

She knew she had followed the directions as told, so clearly the person had lied to her. She looked a little uncomfortable, biting at her lip as she looked down the hallways again, but refused to ask for help.

tag: Jasper Collins

[Jasper Collins]

Jasper jerked back as Hope moved, relaxing after the other girl seemed to realize she wasn't going to attack - Jasper's habit of pranking or startling people via the ceiling meant that Hope would be far from the first or last person to jump or throw a punch at her. Since most people couldn't reach the higher ceilings that the mansion-turned-school had been built with, Jas was usually safe from any twitchy students and teachers. Unless they started throwing fireballs - you wouldn’t think that magically produced globs of fire could move fast, but Jasper had the faint burn scars to prove that yes, yes they could. Plus it was hard to manuver much when you were hanging upside down, even under your own power - there were rooms Jasper couldn’t climb the ceilings of because of the kind of tile; if it was too flimsy, she would usually break the tile and send herself falling to the floor; mostly the newer classrooms were like that, another reason for Jas to dislike them.



Hope was weird, though. Jasper was gratified when the other girl seemed to agree with her fashion proclomation - well, who wouldn’t agree with her? Those ties were ugly. But Hope talked weird - different, stiff. She had some sort of accent, it sounded like. Jasper couldn’t tell what kind - nothing like anything she’d heard before - so maybe English wasn’t her first language? Berating herself for being judgemental, Jasper scrunched her feet to unstick them from the ceiling and flipped, landing with an ease in a crouch that spoke of practise. (Breaking her arm her freshman year at Xavier’s had motivated Jasper to get the hang of landing quickly. It had hurt!). Then again, the lack of any kind of inflection in Hope’s voice kind of hurt too, for some reason. Jasper frowned as the other girl extolled on the various sins of the Xavier school uniform - not the ones she would have picked, but...it was something? At least the girl had an opinion, even if it was a weird one.



Maybe her father had something to do with it? Lots of kids at Xaviers’ had problems with their parents - even if their parents weren’t also retired superheroes. Jas was lucky in that respect; her parents loved their strange, fashionista middle child just as much as their other children. Speaking of issues, Hope apparently had another common one; refusing to ask for help. Smoothing her hair down, Jasper straightened up and stretched before strolling to the doorway, grabbing a school-uniform shirt off of one of the tables she’d piled her things on along the way and throwing it on, buttoning it up halfway. Jasper wasn’t worried about leaving the rest of her stuff; Hope needed help, and maybe she could convince the other girl to give in to a make-over while giving directions.



“Okay, here, look, where are you trying to go? This is the art building, and you’re clearly not an art girl. Which, whatever, nobody’s perfect, we’ll work on that, I can totally give you pointers.” Jasper asked, half-buttoned shirt left to hang loose. At least the white color of the shirt went well with the flashes of blue-jean short-shorts one could see when she moved. “If you’re looking for the science classes, you just need to go back a hallway or two, um, turn left…” Jas trailed off, squinting outwardly as she tried to explain directions her mental map was making. “Y’know what? I’ll just show you. Totes faster. And don’t be embarrassed, everyone gets lost! I mean, you’re pretty new, right? No big. We can talk about how I’m going to fix your wardrobe on the way.”



And with that Jasper strode down the hallway, grabbing Hope’s wrist as she passed the other girl and tugging her along.





(Tag: Hope Summers )

[Hope Summers]

This girl was just like all the rest, even if she clung to walls or whatever it was she did that allowed her to cling to the ceiling like that, she was too happy, too peppy, she acted like everything was wonderful and great, like no one was going to hurt her at all, like she wasn't at risk. She was weak and she would certainly be broken some day, she would be one of the first when the mutant haters or the other mutants, when anything at all attacked. Hope was resolute that she wasn't going to be that, it's why it took the arguments with the teachers to even get her to go to this 'school'. Her father had clearly taught her well enough, she could build a particle cannon from the wreck of a Sentinel, what else would she need.

Certainly not art, she openly scoffed at the idea of being taught that - what was art, but weakness given form? All these emotions poured into something so finite, that would just be destroyed once it was no longer needed, sometimes entirely by accident. No, Hope did not mean to enter the art building, and she frowned that she had - clearly the teacher had set her up when she asked for directions, due to the fact that she openly belittled the idea of art. The entire time Hope's face was contorted into an unhappy frown as she thought, the girl in front of her not paid any mind for a few long moments.

So this was the wrong building, but at least the girl was offering to guide her to the correct one, this would at least be easier - and she had clearly shown that she is not a threat, with how foolish she was, "I am looking for this so called home roo-." Jasper had made a fatal mistake as she moved past Hope - she grabbed at her wrist, and the girl's entire body quickly tensed, she was almost unnaturally quick as she shifted her own wrist to grab Jasper's, her eyes wide in panic as she easily shifted her own and Jasper's body weight - and tossed the artistic girl at the wall in what would obviously be an expert display of Judo. Hope was breathing heavily and her hands shook as she stared at what she'd done, her words low and mumbled, "Never touch me."


It wasn't even intentional, Hope didn't want to throw her, she didn't view this girl as a threat so there was no reason to react with violence. It was just an instinct, a natural reaction - her father had given her those, even he always told her before he would touch her, even just to tend her wounds. It made her strong, it meant impersonators thinking they could get close to her through trying to take her father's form were always off guard. It was the smartest thing to do.

[Jasper Collins]

"Oh, home room? Hah, yeah, that's eeee-agh!" Jasper screamed as her universe was shifted, the familiar walls and windows of the art hallway blurring as she was bodily thrown by her new, extremely paranoid, friend. She hit something, Jasper wasn't sure what, hard, breath leaving her lungs in a choked, gasping whoosh of air. Instinct made her stick to - the wall, apparently, the tanned girl realized as some level of rational thought came back to her. Jasper groaned weakly and flexed her fingers, trying to make sense of what happened as she cracked open her eyes (having squeezed them shut in terror; not one of her proudest moments). She felt whole and intact - if, perhaps, winded and possibly bruised from her surprise collision with the wall.

"That was. Uh. Impressive?" The party-girl squeaked. Looking around, Jasper eased herself off of the wall, rolling her head on her neck as she regarded Hope nervously. The brunette-redhead seemed - a little dazed, maybe panting a bit. Jasper stayed near the wall, not quite pressing herself against it, but making no move away from it - or toward Hope, either. You could freely call Jasper light-hearted, airy, a goofball, even, but she wasn't that dumb. Raising her hands about shoulder height, Jas held them out, non threateningly, in a placating sort of gesture as her button-up shirt unstuck the back of itself from the wall and fell, loosely, around her midsection. "I get it, no touching." Jas hurried to say. "Uh, my bad? Seriously, though, I wasn't expecting that!"

Using her fingers to settle her hair back to rights - or as much as could be done without a mirror and possibly some hairspray, if she was going to be thrown around any more - the tan student eyed her paler, newer cohort with a mixture of trepidation and awe. "I'll show you to home room and help you with your lack of wardrobe if you teach me how to toss people around like that." Jas offered, a barter she wasn't sure would work, as her fingers combed through her hair. If Hope came at her again, Jas was out of luck - unless she felt like climbing up the wall and staying there until someone found them. She was pretty sure Hope would outlast her in a waiting contest, but it didn't seem like the other girl was going to do anything of the sort - Hope was obviously still tense (and Jasper wasn't totally relaxed, either, to be honest) but she hadn't gone off her rocker and actually kept attacking.

As far as 'friendly fire' went, Jas felt confident she was mostly safe from anything else happening to her.

(Tag: Hope Summers )

[Hope Summers]

Jasper was right on one thing at least - Hope did not pounce on her to continue the assault, she did not follow through past the throw, she just stared with her hands up, palms open - but not in a gesture of surrender. She looked ready to strike again at any moment, as she stared at the woman who clung to the walls, until the sound of Jasper's voice seemed to wake up a part of her that made her smoothly move back to her 'usual' stance, "I had no intention to harm you seriously." She left out the mention of how if she did mean Jasper harm, the girl would have been laid out minutes ago, "I am... not from here. My father... taught me many things. To protect myself, like that. I do not enjoy being touched."

Okay, so she wouldn't give the whole truth about being from an alternative dimension of this future where her non-existence had caused the death of the whole human race somehow, she would just keep it simple - plenty of places in the world, even the United States, still had lots of violence against mutants. She'd read up on that, a bit, in her time that the headmaster gave her to 'acquaint' herself with the new timeline she lived in. It probably helped that she was breathing hard and her eyes were wide open still, as if she was nearly panicking from just that little touch to her arm.

The arm that was touched went up and clutched at the necklace around her throat as she seemed to try and calm herself through holding it, and after a few moments - and Jasper seeming to be fine and non-threatening about the little judo throw - "Is there not a... I believe the headmaster referred to it as a 'danger room'? Where we will train in combat? Should you not learn it then? She'd always been the student, she wasn't likely to make for a very good teacher - her nerves were always on end as it was, and she wasn't sure she could put down her shields to properly handle the hands on nature of teaching martial arts.

"Regardless, your abilities seem most useful not for combat situations. You should enjoy such, there is no joy to be had in fighting." Her tone was a little colder now - she didn't fight because she enjoyed it, she fought to survive, she fought because she had to, she fought because she was good at it. It was never a matter of enjoyment.

Tag: Jasper Collins

[Jasper Collins]

As Hope seemed to relax, Jasper breathed easier. But the other girls' line made her laugh; to Jas's ears, it sounded weird. Probably adrenaline., she thought. "Well, I guess I should be glad. Sticking with someone who was actually out for my blood would be a terrible way to make more friends." Jas found herself joking - jokes were her usual response to most types of stress. Usually, it was either jokes, a prank spree, or some good old fashioned crying. (She was, perhaps, a bit of a crybaby when pushed. It might have come from being spoiled; it might have just been her natural defense system. Jas didn't like to think about those kinds of things, though; self-reflection was also not a skill in her repertoire.)

Her eyes widened when Hope explained an edited version of her past/future/terrible things that had happened to the redhead. "Oooh. Well, uh, my bad, really. Didn't mean to freak you out." Jasper raised one hand, waggling her fingers as she flipped on her powers, green and scaly hand now waggling playfully at Hope. "I've been told my skin feels weird like this, too. So you totally aren't the first person I've ever freaked out by touching." The short-haired student giggled, reminiscing. "Hah, at least you didn't try and throw fire at me. Getting whirled around it okay compared to that - you would not believe how much of my hair I had to cut off when it got singed! Like, come on, hair, behave, ya know?" Jasper left her power 'on', grey-green scales matching surprisingly well with her clothes. (She may have coordinated her outfit with 'both' of her last night in a fit of nerves.)

She snickered as Hope, playing with her necklace, pointed out the existence - and classes held in - the Danger Room. "Pfftt, yeah, but if I showed up there, then that might make it look like I actually want to, you know, work. I mean, I totally go to that class when I anna practice climbing walls and running around on the ceiling and stuff, but me and sweat? Yeah, no." Jasper did show up to DR classes - usually with the sole intention of showing off her powers and then actively learning as little as possible; a direct difference between her religiously attending her Art elective and devouring the art history books and styles. Jasper's innate bubbliness only dimmed a fraction as Hope pointed her lack of offensive powers.

"Psh, yeah, I'm not a girl made for 'combat situations'." Jasper lightly mocked Hope by putting air quotes around her words. "I don't wanna fight anyone; I just want to know how to do that. It was fun. We should do it again!" She paused. "I mean, it was fun until I actually hit the wall. That was kinda less fun. Maybe if the wall had padding or something...? Or I was wearing a fluffy jacket." She tapped her chin, trail of thought derailing into FashionLand: Population, Jasper Collins.

(Tag: Hope Summers )