Cutting Physics for a Smoke (Jenn)

[Birdy]

Birdy wasn't in the mood for even simple Algebra today. Since her teacher, Mr Wolfe, was the sort of man who let everybody do everything open book, she knew he probably wouldn't scream at her too much for not coming back to class after asking to go to the "restroom". As it was she had slipped out the door leading to the parking lot, a place deserted at this time of day, and hovered against the wall some feet from the way back in, groping in her back pocket for the half-flattened, half-emptied pack of cigarettes she had shoved in there, plus her brother's zippo.

She didn't feel any mental signatures approaching her just yet. She'd know to hide if anybody that'd bust her came along. For now, it was time for a breather.

Still she glared at the Marlboros with distaste. Damn, she would have preferred a cigar. But these would do for now. They'd have to. It was just enough to make her feel better.

Barely.

She tapped one out and pocketed the rest. Holding the cigarette between her lips and looking oddly determined for someone performing such a mundane task, she lit up, took a long drag and blew it out in a single, second-long puff. The smoke billowed out in a wide cloud, round and whole before the wind caught it and stretched it into whisps, carrying it away. She pushed a lock of her wavy blonde hair behind her ear, and she thought about Jem Jr and the boy her father said they found dead back home.

Now, since coming to Bayville she had not seen many mutants showing off their powers outside of the safety of their homes. She had to wonder what the people here would do if the same terror started swimming around in the north as there was back in Arnette. This wasn't her home; she couldn't say how the people would do anything. She liked to think her powers kept her safe. They let her stay subtle. They weren't overt.

Not everyone else in the Brotherhood was so fortunate. Would Magneto protect them? Would Emma Frost?

[Jenn]

Reading Hamlet was the last thing Jenn wanted to do right now...It was bad enough Mr. Harris made her wear a sweatshirt over her tank tops that smelled like it spent half a year in the back of the boy's locker room...now Shakespeare?! The girl just wasn't in the mood for it today.

After grabbing a snack from the cafeteria the black haired blue eyed junior made her way out the back door, which in her mind was much too under supervised. "It's like they beg kids to come out here!" She said to herself as she easily slipped through the back doors, grabbing a pack of camels out of her back pocket with her left hand, her right busy holding the soft pretzel she bought a few moments earlier.

As she opened the doors she peeked her head out, looking around to see if anyone else was out there. The senior being just out of her line of sight at the moment, she assumed she was alone...Feeling free she brought the non-filtered end of the cigarette to her lips and lightly blew. A small stream of fire came out with her breath to light the cancer stick. This was how Jenn always got away with the argument of 'oh I was holding onto a pack for a friend and forgot it was on me' when her parents found packs laying around her room, mostly because the lame excuse was coupled with 'Search my room, I don't even have a lighter'.

As she took her first drag she let the door close behind her, walking out a bit she now noticed the blond haired girl a few feet from the door. Though considering she didn't look old enough to be a teacher, and she was holding a cigarette as well she just nodded hello and went to go stand by her...a comfortable distance away obviously, considering she didn't know the girl.

[Birdy]

A fatal move on her part, Birdy had forgotten to pay attention to mental signatures coming toward her. Her mind was in another place at the moment, and while she said she couldn't be held responsible, Emma Frost certainly wouldn't have thought so. Once she saw it was another student just looking for a spot shy of the security cameras to light one, she felt a little less stupid for letting it happen.

The short blonde returned to leaning against the wall and took another long drag, listening to the outside sounds and -- out of curiosity allowing the surface emotions and thoughts of the other girl, now out of sight, flow in too.

Until she picked up, ever so slightly, on how she lit her cigarette. Birdy opened her eyes and sat forward a little, glancing around the corner a moment. She couldn't see anything, obviously already done, and rather than stare at a complete stranger looking anxious she shoved a hand in her pocket and leaned back, wondering if she should say something.

She might have been from the Xavier Institute. She might not have been. The Texan certainly didn't pick up on clues that'd suggest either, definitely.

Soon enough the girl came over to her side of the wall, keeping her distance, but both of them were curious at this point, she supposed. She returned the nod of hello, getting another good drag and huffing it out before speaking, very quietly. "You've gotta be more careful about where you do stuff like that," she said vaguely, glancing sidelong at her.

[Jenn]

Jenn glanced at the girl as she took a long drag. She was really one to talk, smoking on school property and all...Of course she was assuming that the girl didn't know exactly how the cigarette was lit. "Like I really care." The smoke billowed from her mouth as she spoke. "If I get caught I get caught. What's the worst they can do? Give me detention? Psh!" Jenn may as well live in detention due to her wardrobe anyway. She really didn't care at all about repressions from doing 'bad' things...And why should she when she can do so much.

She was now debating looking for a new place to smoke. But that would mean, walking past windows, and even though she didn't care if she did get in trouble, she wasn't going to be stupid about it. So instead she just took another drag, looking up to the sky this lovely day had made.

[Birdy]

Birdy rolled her eyes, which was actually kind of hard to do when the person she was talking to was half a head taller than her. She's not sure why it made her mad -- maybe it was thinking about Jem Jr. and Dayer. Maybe it was just a knee-jerk reaction from hearing from her father, from Magneto, from everyone that knew what she was telling her to be careful who she showed her powers to. But this didn't sit well with her. She got the impression that the girl didn't know what she was referring to, so she chose not to let that anger show in her voice.

After all, she didn't even know this person. What reason did she have to be mad at a completely uninvolved stranger?

"I'm talkin about using your powers," she said evenly, all without looking at her. She tapped the ashes off the tip of her cigarette, still appearing unhappy with the thing for not being what she wanted. "You never know where all the cameras are in this place, or who might come along, and that's a fair sight worse than being caught smoking."

[Jenn]

Jenn couldn't help but laughing at this. Sure, she wasn't the most athletic girl around, and by far very very spoiled...But she knew how to take care of herself. "Someone wants to mess with me for being better then the rest, then I'll give them something to mess with." She stated rather proudly as smoke once again came billowing from her mouth, this time, without the aid of a cigarette. This smoke was coming from her, nothing else, and that was very obvious because of the glow in the back of her mouth...A flicker of fire in her throat.

She extinguished the fire in her throat the only way she knew how...blowing it out. A small stream of fire shot from her mouth before dissolving as if it were never there. All this just to take a drag without burning up the rest of the cig.

As the smoke escaped her mouth she realized this girl wasn't in eyesight when she lit the cigarette so she must have known some other way..."You one of those mind readers?!" She asked in a slightly angry tone, offended by the thought of someone reading her mind without her knowing about it...To her it just seemed...rude.

[Birdy]

Birdy watched her as smoke came from her mouth, a flicker of flame coming at the back of her throat then coursing out, briefly. It made her mouth look like the ember on the end of a cigarette -- which rather than intimidate her just made her want another puff. So she took one. Her boast didn't do much to impress either. She might have been right that she'd be fine. After all, God protected idiots and children.

Now, Birdy would never boast that she was the most conscientious when it came to proving who had chops. She picked fights like hippies picked flowers at her worst, but never just with anybody, and never in the hopes of proving she was tough, and that was all she took this to be.

At the question, she raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. "That I would be. But I don't read. I just hear. Can't shut it off. Means even the dirtiest liars are honest people around me. Helps you make friends."

The blonde got to the end of her cigarette, mashed it out against the wall, and dropped it, reaching into her pocket to fetch another. The lid of her zippo clicked off with a flick of her thumb, and she lit up again, returning both the pack and her lighter to her pocket again.

"But you can save the big balls talk for someone who cares, sparky; the point is that where I come from I've seen a mob of scared people kill mutants both smarter and more powerful than you, and I'd like to not see that same kind of shit get started around here. So if you're not keepin it in check for yourself then have some common sense and care for your own kind." She plucked her cigarette out of her mouth so she could stop talking from between her teeth. "Who you running with, sparky? Xavier Institute?"

[Jenn]

Her crystal blue eyes narrowed towards the girl as she fought off the urge to roast the annoyance right here...That would cause problems...problems she didn't want to deal with...yet. "Well get out of my head. My thoughts are my own and no one else's." Last thing she needed was someone knowing her plan to torch her parent's place before the time was right...when she was able to get to the money they had.

But the annoyance of a girl proved to be useful after all. She turned her head to the girl, flicking away the remaining half of her cigarette, giving her full attention. "Running with?" She asked, full of interest as she folded her arms, leaning her side against the wall, facing the girl.
"I'm new here Chica, how about you tell me what you mean?" She asked with a bit of a smirk. Sure she was annoying the hell out of the fire breather moments earlier, but now...Urge to roast fading. She couldn't help but wonder if she meant Gangs....Bayville really didn't seem like the type of place for it to her...

[Birdy]

Birdy put the cigarette back in her mouth. "Can't. I just told you I have no control over it. So you can accept that or you can walk away so I can't hear you anymore." She knew she was annoying the girl; the feeling was mutual -- she felt a lot of indignation, and part of her really wondered if that was supposed to scare her. She came out here for a smoke, not a proverbial johnson-measuring contest.

And wow, way to think about incriminating evidence in front of a person who just said they can't turn off the mind-reading. Birdy chose not to bring it up but it didn't exactly improve her opinion of the girl's stability.

So of course when she brought up affiliations and the girl showed interest, Birdy weighed her response carefully. The Brotherhood was a place where she could get training, where she wasn't going to be expected to apologize for her abilities or put the safety of people who were in greater numbers and had more political power before her own, and where she expected she'd be on the winning side if and when non-mutants became aware of them worldwide. She didn't treat it like free leave to behave like a jackass from a bad 80s gang movie, though she wasn't exactly the most peaceful person, herself. She liked a good scrap just as much as anyone. High profile was just dangerous and sloppy, though, and since they were different, the line between a good fight and a rampage had gotten just a little thinner over the last few years.

"I think you've got a pretty good idea what I'm talking about already." Birdy mashed out her cigarette when she finished it and stepped away from the wall. She didn't say much more. She was not going to bring someone to Magneto that she thought might get a little overzealous and put the rest of them in danger. It wasn't like everyone in the Brotherhood house was the picture of sanity or self-control. That was fine. But leave it to someone else to invite them over.

Unless she saw good reason.