[open] [age plot]

[hackitude]

WHO: Skye and Nathaniel (separately) age-down catch-all
WHERE: Xavier's School for imPorts, Heropa High, around their place of living
WHEN: 28th-29th
WHAT: Age shenanigans
WARNINGS: MARY. SUE. POOTS.

SKYE

01 (XAVIER'S - OTA)
[There's an unimpressed looking teenager standing out the front of Xavier's school for gifted imPorts with her arms crossed and chewing gum. She's got purple clip-on hair extensions and is dressed like a tiny wannabe goth-punk, glaring at anyone who looks at her funny. New universe, whatever. Same faces, different places, as far as she's concerned. She'll be at this school just as long as all the others.

If you knew Skye before, it still looks like her... just younger, and with more attitude.]

So. This is where they want all the freaks to go.

02 (LOCAL MALL)
[When in doubt, hang around near the mall and scoop out the local scene. Or at least, she was going to, but she's stuck on the vending machine outside. It ate her change as she was trying to get a coke. Now she's shoving at it with her arms.]

Augh--! Stupid piece of shit junk! [She kicks it.] Give me my money back!

--

NATHANIEL

03 (HEROPA HIGH LUNCH TIME)
[The first thing he understands immediately is that for some reason, his powers don't work here. He's twelve, but he isn't stupid. He considers going to Xavier's with the other imPort children... but the idea of being stuck in a room with children who have obvious gifts while he does not rankles him. So he turns up at Heropa High.

It's in their seventh grade science class when Nathaniel raises his hand politely and asks the teacher if she doesn't have anything harder for them to work on, please, as this is basic stuff he mastered when he was eight? That earns him a far amount of glares from his peers.

Then he does the same again later in maths.

Come lunch, it doesn't take long for a group of his peers to surround him by the locker and start jeering at him. Nathaniel doesn't hold back. He isn't Mandrake yet, he hasn't learned to mask his thoughts and feelings. He's never had to deal with bullies before, so he doesn't understand what's coming. "It's not my fault if you can't even master basic arithmetic," he says, glaring at them.

Unsurprisingly, this is the wrong thing to say. They beat him up a bit, and if that goes unchecked, they'll shove him in a locker for him to yell at passers by to let him out.]

04 (SOME CAFE)
[Some indeterminate amount of time after the above, Nathaniel sits in a cafe, alone and with a bruised cheek and puffy lower lip. He doesn't want to go to the place they've assigned him to stay. It's not "home." He wants Mrs Underwood to bake him something and tell him everything will be all right. He doesn't have any money to buy anything in the cafe either, so he simply gets out his homework and starts doing that on the table.

It's not busy, so the waitress doesn't shoo him out. She does ask where his parents are though, and he comes up with some clever lie about waiting for them to finish work.]


((if you want a different starter, ping me and i'll happily work something out with you! or you want to make your own starter, go for it.))

Comments

Skye, 02

[microbrobotics]

Here, lemme help with that.

[ An older Hiro with glasses leans against the machine casually, fiddling with its inner workings to make it spit out the coke she wanted. He has no idea who she is - he's just passing through the area. And, uh. Clearly practiced at this particular application of his technopathy. ]

[hackitude]

[Skye just stops and stares at him. Actually, it's a little suspicious.]

... How did you do that.

[microbrobotics]

Superpowers. I can move tech with my mind. Comes in handy when I've forgotten that actual physical money is a thing.

[ He reaches down to retrieve the coke and hold it out to her. Annnnd also making it spit out one for himself. He'll come back with change later, he swears. ]

[hackitude]

[She hesitates for a second and then takes it from him. There's maybe a little hint of a frysquint going on there.]

What's the catch.

[microbrobotics]

Catch? Uh ... bring money back later? But you already paid the machine, so that's no problem?

[kittenjones]

[ It turns out that there's trouble when kids aren't in school. This is a surprise to Kitty. At home, they were encouraged to go to school, yeah, to soak up all the propaganda and all the lies, but there were definitely never police officers forcing them into the classroom. School ended at fifteen, and only about half the kids made it that far, and the government certainly weren't consumed with sorrow over the ones who left the classroom to go to work early. They'd definitely not send anyone to ensure the students went to class.

So it's completely bloody bizarre that that's what happens. Kitty happens to be sitting idle in a park near a school, and a police officer comes up to her and has the bloody gall to demand to know why she's not in class. She's still wary from her run-in with the Hornets, still scared and on-edge, and she's scared and on-edge because of everything that's happened, and so she jumps down at once from the bench and makes to run. But the police officer grabs her, and just about marches her into the school, and he stands there and waits until she goes inside, and so she goes.

So it's while she's cutting down a corridor towards the back exit, so that she can see whether there's some way to escape from this place without being spotted, when she hears sad little cries coming from a locker. Kitty looks around, but it seems like everyone's in class; there's no one else to deal with this. And so, reluctantly, warily, she goes and lifts the lever on the locker, and who comes spilling out but - ]

Mandrake?

[doneproperly]

[He comes tumbling out of the locker with an ungraceful thud. Then he spots Kitty.]

You--!

[kittenjones]

[ Her brows knit together; she frowns at him with her arms akimbo. What a weird reaction. What a ridiculously weird reaction. Yeah, her. It's weird to see her around here, maybe, but honestly, it's not like she stuck him in there, the dumb kid.

Well, it's not really a surprise that he got caught up in this ridiculous age-changing business, she thinks. He tends to get caught up in things like this. ]

Yeah. Me. Who did this to you?

[doneproperly]

[He straightens himself up, dusts off and smooths out the creases in his clothes, before throwing a glare at her in response to the question.]

You'll want to go and thank them, I suppose. Too bad for you, I don't know their names.

SKYE 01

[punkman]

[Jesse eventually found his way home. Not home home, but the address on his driver's license. Of course, once he realized it was the fucking Xavier School, he lost most of the urgency to return to Albuquerque. He loves it here. He loves everything about it. And when, as he's coming down the stairs, he spots what's presumably a new student, he makes a big show of sliding down the railing to land right next to her.]

Hey! What's up? I'm Jesse.

[hackitude]

[Well that gets a hard eyebrow raise.]

Mary-Sue. [Accompanied by a look that promises trouble if he wants to make an issue of it.]

You can skip the welcome wagon speech by the way, I've heard it all before.

[punkman]

[She's saucy and he likes that. But come on, he's not going to make fun of a cute girl's name.]

Cool. I like your hair.

[She looks like the kind of girl who parties a lot. That's another plus.]

Wanna climb up to the roof and smoke weed?

[hackitude]

... Okay. I gotta admit, that is a version I haven't heard before. That's got to be some kind of record, right? Shortest time spent on campus before being offered drugs?

04

[takethestairs]

[Miles slips into the cafe, looking around fervently, not sure if he should wait to be seated or just grab a table himself. He's not used to going to these sort of places himself, but he's hungry, and his cooking skills are limited to toast, pasta, canned goods, and, if he's feeling particularly adventurous, scrambled eggs. And if he eats another canned ravioli he might just puke.

When nobody comes, Miles shrugs, and goes to look for somebody. On the way, though, he sees an older boy with a bruised face and a busted face. What the heck happened to that guy? Miles stops, and after a moment, he realizes he's staring]

Erm...

[Tilts his head, still staring at Mandrake. If Mandrake stares back, he'll see a nine year old boy in slacks and a sweater, his gray hair neatly styled save for a bit that sticks out in the very back]

Are you okay?

[doneproperly]

[Nathaniel's first instinct is to glare at the boy-- but then he takes him in. He's well dressed, obviously polite and well-to-do. And younger than him, so not a threat. So he clears his throat like he's a big boss adult and not a hilarious twelve year old.]

I'm fine. Thank you. [He enunciates his words very clearly and carefully, like a kid who wants to remind others that he's totally a grown up!!! After another beat:]

Where I'm from, it's considered rude to stare at people.

[takethestairs]

[And at that, he frowns openly, shooting Mandrake a dirty look]

And where I'm from, it's rude to boss other people around.

[He's not rude! You're the rude one!!!]

[doneproperly]

[He looks slightly affronted.]

I'm not bossing you around.

[Much.]

skye (01)

[schrader]

[ Although Hank had been warned about Emma Frost, he hadn't planned on avoiding the school forever. He couldn't approach it with an aggressive stance if he wanted to keep all his marbles in place, but this is different. This is just making sure a certain punk is still walking and talking and hopefully not any trashier than he was the day before. That's all he can do until he knows when this will end.

It will end, he's sure of that. What then? That's what he's having to think about as he walks up to the school. It's just a lunch break for him, albeit a late one, so he doesn't plan on staying that long, but he might as well snoop (fine opportunity) until someone stops him or he finds out if Jesse's in a class. Wouldn't hurt to talk to a teacher, so long as things stay friendly. If Jesse's still an ignorant punk, he (unbelievably) might vouch for Hank. If not, this could get awkward.

He's dressed more like a detective than a city cop, his badge visible on his belt but otherwise he's just wearing slacks and a button-down shirt. They aren't about to quibble over uniforms when they have an imPort helping them out, and especially not in narcotics. As often as they have to go undercover, he could be wearing street clothes and be fine, but then the badge obviously wouldn't be visible. Today is something else.

Skye is the last person he expects to see, and in fact he doesn't even recognize her until he stops her on her way out. It's pretty noticeable when she's the only one trying to leave in the middle of a school day. Girlie, just what are you doing? ]

Hey kid, have you seen— [ Whoa, he jerks back a step when he sees her face. Just like Jesse. Younger, but not so much he can't clearly tell who it is. ] Skye?

[hackitude]

[Skye takes a step back, too, eyebrows furrowed with annoyance. There's no recognition behind her eyes, and every inch of her screams "punk teenager."]

Don't know her, sorry.

[schrader]

[ What? This is even worse. Does she have total amnesia? He thinks back to that 'badge' she showed him once upon a time. Weird enough to only have the name 'Skye' on there. Was it even real? ]

You don't, huh? Sure you don't want to think a little more on that, or are you in a hurry to the prince's ball?

[hackitude]

[She crosses her arms for a moment, looking at him like the exasperated teen she is. She has no idea what he's talking about, but after a moment she considers that the fastest way to get rid of this guy is to give him what he wants to hear. So, after a beat:]

... Yeah, all right. Maybe I know her. What's it to you?

Nat - 3

[footnoting]

[There are some things Bartimaeus knows he shouldn't do. Things he knows are toeing the line and rubbing salt in wounds that, quite frankly, probably hurt enough on their own. So, really, when he finally tracks down Nathaniel and finds an obnoxiously familiar sight, he should really just have turned and left.

Just cut his losses and flown off and left both of his idiot humans to stumble about as children again and just remove himself from the annoyance of having to deal with them both in their immaturity yet again.

But as he'd paused and mourned his luck in a corner of that school hall, he'd become witness to something amazing. That twelve-year-old, stubborn magician getting himself stuffed into a locker and left to the mercy of whatever kind (or not-so-kind) person came his way.

And really, who is Bartimaeus to pass up such a golden opportunity?

So, the fly that had been perched on the wall buzzes on down, landing on that locker door and reassembling itself into a tiny spider, crawling through the a slit in the locker and making itself nice and comfortable on the metal just a few inches away from Nat's ear.]

You know, if you somehow manage enough strength to kick, you might actually get someone's attention.

[doneproperly]

[Well he'd recognise that voice anywhere.]

Bartimaeus! I didn't-- [summon you...] What are you doing here?

[footnoting]

Think? No, I didn't think you had. If you were thinking, you would have been able to avoid such an untoward situation, wouldn't you?

[The spider's just idly inspecting the hairs on its front leg.]

You looked like you needed help.

[Is he offering?

No.

No, probably not.]

[doneproperly]

... Is this it, then? Has another magician sent you to finish me off? [He tries to sound brave and not at all scared about it...] One of Lovelace's allies, I imagine?