Room 528, Saturday Night

[icecoldfrost]

Tomorrow was the move back to the cabins, so tonight Emma was packing. Music cranked up to eleven as she worked, swaying along with the beat as she tossed stuff into her duffel bag.

She still didn't have much, but her closet was a LOT fuller than it had been upon her arrival, and she was actually needing to chose between outfits.

A girl could get used to this.

[Open door, open post!]

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

"Co-ed rooms, and some of those rooms have a private bath," Emma said, grinning wickedly. "Isn't it fantastic?"

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

Jean shook her head quickly. "Sharing a bathroom back at the institute was bad enough."

[icecoldfrost]

"We're in a dorm, darling, you're either sharing a bathroom with one person, or duking it out for the shower with the best water pressure with the rest of the girls on the floor," she replied dryly. "Institute?"

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"Oh! That's where I went before coming here," Jean replied. "My parents thought this place might be better for me."

And her safety.

Riiiight.

[icecoldfrost]

"What, are you some sort of gifted maths prodigy?" Emma scoffed. "I hate to tell you this, darling, but if your parents sent you here for the curriculum, they very much did not read the literature."

"We're a different sort of 'special' around here."

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"I--I noticed with my roommate," Jean replied, looking to the bed to silently ask permission to sit.

[icecoldfrost]

"Who's your roommate?" she asked, moving to continue her packing. If Jean wanted to sit, she could sit. Emma wasn't going to stop her. "I'm guessing you got one of the more obviously 'gifted' children."

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"Elle." No, she didn't know to say which one. "She was--" Old habits die hard as she looked around as though someone was listening. "--making electricity on the ride here."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma wrinkled her nose. "Well that's tacky," she stated. "Electricity and car rides are a fantastic combination, really."

"You can stop looking around like that, you know. The damned radio squirrels find out everything anyway, and it's not like McCoy or I are stupid norms." He had space. Emma was going to be jealous for weeks.

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"Norms? Is everyone here different?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Almost everyone is maladjusted, time-tossed, emo, powered, mildly insane, and/or from alternative situations," Emma replied cheerily. "Pick a card, any card, as it were. The inmates are running the asylum."

The reaction, however, had tweaked her interest, and Emma reached out with just the barest brush to peek and -

- well now.

"Darling, it's rude to hide like that. How am I supposed to get any good gossip about you when you bar the door?"

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

Jean narrowed her eyes, immediately bringing up more at that brush against her mind. "It's rude to go in without permission."

[icecoldfrost]

"You call it rude, I call it honest. Only hypocrites and liars have things to hide. You aren't either of those, are you, Jean?"

Emma tilted her head to the side, eyes going distant for a moment. "Hrm, so that is what it looks like from the other side. Fascinating. Can you make them any stronger, or is that the best you've got?"

Bitchy? Oh yes. It was an Experiment.

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

Jean inhaled sharply, thinking back to Professor Xavier's lessons on this to make them stronger.

"You wouldn't want people snooping through your room, would you?"

[icecoldfrost]

"If they're going to take my nice Armani jacket and not return it, then no, but I don't particularly care if people want to come in and admire my things," Emma shrugged. "I don't have anything in my room that I would want to hide."

Everything sensitive was kept locked away in her Blackberry, which she would never leave in her room and you could pry out of Emma's cold dead hands, or in her brain.

And Emma had never claimed not to be a hypocrite when it came to her own secrets.

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"I don't think what you're doing is admiring," Jean shot back.

[icecoldfrost]

"Look but don't touch? I'm pretty sure that's what admiring is, darling," she replied sweetly. "It's not like I was trying to make you think you were a penguin or anything like that."

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"Like you could." Oh, there was that backbone. "You're eavesdropping where people shouldn't."

[icecoldfrost]

Ah, much better.

"Says who?" Emma challenged. "Why would there be people like us, if we aren't supposed to use it?"

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"Says anyone with morals. Just because we have the ability, doesn't mean we should abuse it."

[icecoldfrost]

"Morals?" Emma couldn't help it; she threw back her head and laughed delightedly. "Jean, I don't know how to tell you this, but people lie."

"Every damn day they lie to the people they speak with, they lie to themselves, and they wallow in the dirty little hypocrisies and perversions that lie just under the surface. All I'm doing is looking for the truth. That's not abuse, that's justice."

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

Jean rolled her eyes. "Right. Sure. Because you're not lying to yourself about this. If someone did that to you, you'd be mad."

Not that Jean would be the one to do it. See, ethics.

[icecoldfrost]

"What do I have to lie about?" Emma asked, spreading her hands. "I'm upfront about what I am, who I am, and what I do. I never said I was nice, and those who don't like it can kiss my ass."

"You're the one pretending to be a perfect little girl scout, rather than owning up to your gifts. Doesn't it get boring, sitting there? Waiting to be vindicated while the rest of us go out and embrace what we are? Don't you want to inherit the Earth?"

[ihavenocodename.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. What do you have to lie about. You said everyone lies, so why would you be any different?"

And... she was not pretending! It was just--oh, shut up!

"My gifts are dangerous if I don't control them."

[icecoldfrost]

Of course Emma lied; she was a Frost. It was even more part of her DNA than her telepathy was.

"So's a car, a handgun, and a cat left in a room with someone who's allergic," Emma replied acidly. "Life is dangerous. Either live yours, or just roll over and get out of the way."