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WHO: Rei Ryugazaki and David Alleyne
WHERE: Residence #34
WHEN: September 5th
WHAT: Rei's looking into alternate schooling options. David has opinions about it.
WARNINGS: probably none?

For being a teenage boy, Rei is, at least, a conscientious housemate. Isn't loud, cleans up after himself, cooks his own food, sits in his room reading and not bothering anybody. He's left early every morning this week for school so he can jog there, and comes in after swimming laps every night, makes some food and retreats to his room.

It's pretty much what he did at home, minus four best friends to keep him from becoming a hermit.

Today, though, he comes in with his backpack slung over his shoulder, looking intently at his communicator. There's been some buzz about Xavier's on the network this week, and he's interested. Ever since Jotaro brought up the idea that the government might want him to go to school for nefarious purposes, he's been a little nervous about the idea of going to Heropa's public high school. He still thinks of the government as his kidnappers, ultimately, even if they claim they can't control the porter.

So he's interested in another option he won't have to pay much for, and he's looking into it when he walks in and sees David. He hasn't talked to his housemates much, but he's still polite, giving a quick bow before remembering they don't do that in America.

"Hello."

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David's ex was Japanese, so he knows what most of the etiquette is, but she was also very much not polite, so he never saw it in practice. He's not entirely sure what the proper way to respond to it is, and ends up falling back on his own American manners, giving Rei a quick nod.

He's in the dining room with his laptop, a pizza box open on the table. Sure, he knows how to cook, he knows how to do plenty of things. But he's twenty years old, of course he's lazy when it comes to food. As Rei enters, he gestures to the pizza. It's deep dish pepperoni, or at least the best approximation of deep dish that the local pizza franchise can manage. To a Chicago native like David, it is deeply inadequate, but still edible. "Feel free to help yourself."

And then, just to fully display his very American sense of manners, he holds out his hand. "Rei, right? I'm David."

Rei doesn't mind the handshaking, and he obliges, smiling a little. "Right. It's good to officially meet you. Sorry that I haven't been very personable."

He's slowly resigning himself to the fact that he might as well get comfortable for the time that he's here, even if he hates the idea. It occurs to him that he should at least attempt to get to know some people.

He eyes the pizza, the quickly shakes his head. "No, thank you. I don't want to take your food."

"Don't worry about it, it's more than I'm going to eat, anyway." Well, in one sitting, at least. There could always be leftovers. "But I can't really hold it against you, I haven't been the most social person, myself." Spending too much time trying to absorb information, he hasn't gotten to know too many people just yet, not outside work.

He nods at Rei's bags. "Just coming from school, this late?"

He stares at the pizza a second longer, and as though on cue his stomach growls. He sets down his bag and goes to get a plate.

"Not exactly. I swim laps every day for awhile before I leave."

He sits down and takes a slice of pizza, taking a bite that he realizes belatedly was a little too big and ravenous for polite company. Swimming makes him hungry enough without his new metabolism.

He quickly chews and swallows and makes himself take smaller bites.

But it's hardly polite company, this is supposed to be Rei's home. David sees no problem in it, but he's observant enough of details to realize the younger man might. "Hey, feel free to eat as you like. It's obvious you must be pretty hungry, take another slice if you want."

He taps out a few more lines on his laptop before saving his work and closing it. Then, after taking another bite of his pizza, he knits his fingers and waits until he's one chewing to continue. "Is swimming what you used to do back home?"

Was he that obvious? Rei shakes his head a little in embarrassment but slides another slice onto his plate.

"Yes. I'm on the swim team." Not "was," or "used to." He's fully determined to get home and pick right back up where he left off. It might not be saving the world or something else other people would find important, but it's important to him. "I've been told that when we go back, it's like we never left, but I don't want to use that as an excuse to slack off on practice now."

Besides, once you're used to exercising every day, it's hard to just stop.

It wouldn't have to be obvious, David lives in the details. These are the sort of things he's supposed to notice, to catch how people work. He's certainly inherited enough knowledge to be able to read people fairly accurately.

"Whatever you may return to, it's generally better to keep in shape while you're here if that's the way you want to stay. And maybe it doesn't have to be just for its own sake, either. You planning to try out for the team here?"

"I don't know." He frowns around his food. "I thought about it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep going to Heropa's high school. And... I also feel like joining a team is a little like admitting defeat?"

He struggles a little with clarifying himself. "I mean, making a commitment to join a team would be like saying I know I'm going to be here awhile."

And there's the fact that he can only swim one stroke well enough for competition, but that's embarrassing and not worth talking about.

"Unless you're supposed to be knowledgeable in interdimensional transportation, there's no defeat in it for." David is supposed to be knowledgeable in that, a lot of people he knows are. For them, it's more of a defeat. But defeat means it's over, that he's given up. It's more of an ongoing investigation.

"If they have no qualms about letting an imPort on the team, which should be likely at Heropa High, they'll understand the risks. Where were you thinking of going instead?" And while he waits for Rei to give his answer, he takes a good bite out of his own pizza, it having gone neglected the last five minutes.

"I know, and I'm not, but it still feels like it."

He can't really explain it, but he doesn't want to feel too settled down. This isn't his life, and he doesn't want to forget that it's not.

He accepts the topic change quickly. "Some people on the network were telling me about a new school, called Xavier's? It's for people like us, so I thought it might be better than Heropa."

David's chewing promptly stops, and he levels a long gaze at Rei for a moment. He finishes up his bite and wipes his mouth with a napkin before pushing up his visor to rub at the bridge of his nose.

"You could do that, sure. But it might be good to know who and what you'd be dealing with, first. Take it from someone who does know, it's not as straightforward an answer as it looks."

Rei also stops, confused by the sudden gaze leveled on him. He lowers his pizza a little, tilting his head.

"Um, isn't it new? How does anyone know about it?"

David certainly sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but Rei can't imagine how. As far as knows, no one has gone to Xavier's before this past week or so.

David leans back in his chair and tents his fingers. It's a very serious matter, and deserves an equally serious expression.

"While it may be new to this world, it isn't the only one that's been established, and not by some members of the current faculty, either. I'm an alumnus of the Xavier Institute, so when I tell you the last one was a disaster, it's from experience."

At how serious David gets, Rei puts his food down completely, also looking serious, if confused.

"But... it's just a school, right? How could be a disaster?"

Really terrible test scores? Bad curriculum? High drop out rates? Those are the only things he can think of that would make a school a "disaster."

Well, high dropout rates is one way to put it.

"Not a lot of schools had to dig out a portion of the soccer field for a graveyard." That it was frequently destroyed is one thing, but that was never the hardest part.

Rei looks horrified, mouth actually falling open for a moment before he snaps it shut again. He looks vaguely green.

"The... the soccer field?" That sounds like a lot of bodies, but more than that... "Why there? Wouldn't you at least send them back to their families?"

He'd rather ask about that than what exactly happened.

There were over forty kids in that bus, thirteen they had to bury on the grounds. Some of them, most of them, were sent to the families. The others remained as a sign of their greatest failure. Not just their deaths on their own, but the reason they had to be buried there instead of closer to their homes.

"Families didn't want them. When it came down to it, we were the only ones who cared to show them that respect."

"Didn't want them?" he repeats, astounded. How could anyone not want their child, to put them to rest? Was it just too upsetting, or did they really hate them that much? David said they didn't want to give them that respect, but it's so hard to believe.

"Why?" He sounds like he doesn't really want to ask, but he does anyway.

"Because a lot of people have it pretty rough where I come from, for now reason other than what they were born with."

It's difficult, trying to contextualize mutant suffering to someone who doesn't know the history. Usually, he'd rather avoid talking about it at all. But there has to be a simple way to help Rei understand.

"It was the same reason they died to begin with. Because they were different, and people can't abide what isn't like them."

"So because they were like us, they were hated?"

He tries to imagine his own parents hating him over something like, but can't, and frankly he doesn't want to.

Then again, he supposes some people just don't love their children much.

"That's terrible, but... Why do you think something like that would happen here? The people in this world seem more tolerant of powers.

"Seem," it's all he says before he fills his mouth with pizza again. It all comes out looking cyclical to him, they were just in the middle of a mutant boom before the Decimation. Some of them were even celebrities in their own right. Then, 99% of them were depowered, and everything changed.

Public opinion can be so fickle.

Rei stares at his own food, suddenly not feeling that hungry. It's scary, the idea that he might become a target for angry citizens completely because of things he can't control and didn't ask for.

"If that opinion changed, would it really be any safer at a normal school than it would be at Xavier's?"

"That depends on where the opposition's coming from. It it's from your peers, than Heropa High might turn into trouble." Part of the whole reason he went to Xavier's to begin with was because an anti-mutant group at his school had outed him. when home became dangerous, the mutant school started looking more attractive.

"But, if it's from outside, if it's something big, they won't see the native students as worthwhile casualties. They'll want to hit the place that will get as many of us at one time." It makes him feel uneasy about staying in this house, too. The other obvious target is the Heropa housing.

"So if I can put up with bullying, it's probably safer at Heropa," Rei condenses. Not that he's been bullied yet. He hasn't exactly made friends, but he didn't do that much back home either.

"I guess that simplifies the choice."

"I'd think it would, especially with which one's more likely to happen first." David doesn't doubt the discomfort is already there, he's sure the seeds of hate may well be planted. But it's always the extremists who will take action before the public feels permitted to hate openly. They always want to think they're better than someone who'd bomb a school.

Rei nods slowly, manages to pick up his pizza again and take a bite.

"Maybe I won't be here long enough to see that happen. Maybe they'll figure the porter out."

He really hopes that's the case. None of them deserve to be targeted when they didn't even ask to be here.

They don't deserve it, they never have, and they never asked for it, either. But that doesn't stop it from happening. Their best bet will be to get out of it now, when they can.

It won't save things for him, he'll still go back to the same world, but it will at least spare others from having to live it. But then there's Laurie, who only has her own death to return to. Can he really give her up for everyone else?

"I don't count on them managing it. But we have a chance. There are a lot of us out there who know how to think about these things. If we pool our efforts, there's chance for a breakthrough."

"If they'll let you get close enough to it to do anything."

He took another bite of pizza, chewing it slowly.

"I don't know anything about machines like that, so I don't know if I can help. But if I can, I want to."

It feels a bit helpless not knowing anything about the technology they're dealing with, though, or anything about the world they're in. It looks so much like his world, but isn't.

"Thank you for telling me, though. At least I can be... a little prepared."

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