xavier_institute | 4 [Video]

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4 [Video]

[Krista looks a little nervous, fidgeting a bit as she addresses the webcam on her laptop.]

If I could ask... who's planning to go to the prom? I haven't really been to any school dances before, but it seems sort of interesting...

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We had them at my old school.

[But everyone there hated her, and her family wouldn't have let her go, because picking her up again would have been too much trouble. More than she was worth to them.]

But I never went before. I thought maybe it might be interesting to try...

[...she wasn't looking at her funny because she was using her vectors. Just...talking to her, like she was a person.

...that was nice.

Kaede shrugs, though the motion is partially foiled by the pillow she's leaning on.]

It's another place for people to go, isn't it?

[Krista's head lists to the side just slightly.]

If that's how you think about it, maybe... But there's going to be music, and people seem to think it's a nice place?

[She's a bit unsure herself, but the image she tries to project is a pretty relentlessly positive one.]

This is a nice place.

[People don't look at her like she's a hideous alien for having a different hair color, for instance.]

All of here.

[Kaede just thinks of this prom thing as Just Another Event, and either doesn't understand or doesn't care to understand its local importance.]

[Krista's mutation isn't visible at all; people have just always hated her. She's free of that here, but she's fairly certain it's only because she's been so careful to hide everything about her old life, about what an unlovable person she is.]

It is.

Have you been here a long time?

Not too long.

Enough to get kicked out of class, anyway.

[The latter of which she doesn't sound particularly proud of.

Mostly because it was her fault for being an ass.

Also because it hurt.]

[She doesn't sound happy about it, so Krista guesses she probably either regrets it or it was beyond her control. Maybe best not to ask why?]

I'm sorry to hear that...

[Kaede tries to shrug again--and her shoulders get caught up in the stupid pillow. She scowls a little, and the view screen wobbles while she wiggles back down to a more comfortable spot on the couch.]

You?

Me? Oh...

[She thinks for a moment or two.]

I got here around the beginning of the year, so... Three months or so, I think?

Met anyone you know?

[Not quite as benevolent a question as it seemed; Kaede never wanted to see anyone from her hometown again.

She hadn't left on the...best of terms.]

[At first, she doesn't quite get the question. She blinks, as it dawns on her.]

...From my hometown, you mean?

Were you born elsewhere?

[Her voice is dry; faintly amused, but still like old papers.]

Not very far away. Just another part of America -- like I said, I only started going here a few months ago.

[In her mind, she's reviewing the cover story that Witness Protection gave her. Missouri. She's from Missouri, a small town...]

Really?

[Despite the slight rising inflection at the end, it didn't sound much like a question. She believed the 'when I got here' part.

The rest seemed odd to her.]

Canada or Texas?

['America' always looked like some vaguely shaped blob she memorized for geography class; what do you mean it had separate parts?]

Missouri.

[She... guesses this girl isn't from any of the above places, to phrase the question like that.]

So, closer to Texas, but sort of between them, and closer to either one than to here.

...right.

['Texas' was easier to understand, so she went with that.]

No one from there is here, then?

None that I know, no.

[Thankfully.]

That's not so bad, you know.

Well, I've met a lot of wonderful people here.

[She says it with the air of agreeing, or at least of mostly agreeing.]

[She snorts.]

Speak for yourself.

[Her torso twinges, as if reminded. She tries not to let that show, though her scowl twitches despite her best efforts.]

At least no one's tried to file my horns off.

...I'm sorry.

I'm sorry if it's been difficult getting along with people here. Maybe they'll warm up to you?

[It's strange, to some detached part of her mind. She wonders if she's ever met someone who thinks quite so much like she does, and here she is, acting like she hasn't got any idea about those feelings.]

They'll have to deal with what I am, first.

[Which is to say a prickly, mostly abrasive, and generally unpleasant sort of person.

She's getting better about mouthing off to teachers, though.]

Some of them might surprise you.

[She doesn't have much faith in that. But "Krista" does.]

Whatever you say, Jekyll.

['The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' had been something she read recently in Mr. Arronia's class; it was one of the denser English texts she had been able to understand, and it was still at the front of her mind.]

Edited (oh dammit I can't words) 2015-04-26 19:36 (UTC)

[Krista is genuinely surprised at the implication there. She's been here for months, and no one seems to have caught on that she isn't being genuine...]

[She'll have to be careful around this one.]

[For now, she just gives the camera a slightly hurt, confused look.]

...I'm sorry?