something something social things

"Damn, this is heavy. Why didn't I invite a bruiser to this thing?" His mutter was accompanied by the sound of bags crinkling and a sudden ripping sound as one of them burst and a couple 2-liter bottles of soda fell out with deep thuds onto his foot. He swore angrily, hopping backwards and almost falling over a couch. The rest of the bag split and he lost his grip on the bags of chips that had clung to the inside. So much for a guy whose name meant 'lucky'.

With a sigh, he decided that the truly lucky thing was that the bottles hadn't burst open from the pressure of being jostled so much. He righted them, tossing the chips into the shallow area on the top of the other bag, and straightened to knock on the door of Sandra's room. He used his now-free hand to smooth down his clothes, which were uncharacteristically plain. White t-shirt. Jeans (which felt odd since he normally wore trousers). The only thing that felt somewhat normal were the boots mostly hidden under his pant legs. His hair was tied back into a loose queue, and his only real adornment was a pendant on a string hidden by the collar of his shirt.

He'd stuffed his phone into his pocket, and it now buzzed with a message that could have come from anybody. He decided not to check it at this point, lest his inattention cause further misfortune with the other bag of snacks. It could have been a message from Tucker, but he wasn't even sure the other boy had a phone, or even wanted to come. Felix had taped a note to the boy's door one morning with a non-formal invitation and his phone number should the boy have any questions.

A light taping away at her laptop’s keyboard and the lowly buzzing of Sandra’s heat lamp made an interesting orchestration of sound. At this point in her life it was something that soothed her ears more than anything. It was like the natural noise of home. The sounds were hardly anything to be rid of her sour mood though. She’d recently got into an argument with another fellow on some forum site about Nicholas Cage’s acting ability and given how long they’d been at it she was ready to just given in. She was fed up with the other user’s constant examples of the memes he spawned, which hardly amounted to anything in the feud. The heat and rage it spawned within her was pleasant though.

Sandra wondered for a brief moment if she should prepare her room better for her visitors. A quick view down the foot of her bed showed her reflection in her titanic television staring straight back at her. Along with that, there was the fan she set up a little while ago before she began the flame war. It was a fairly simple fan since she had no use for them, only for her guests that might not tolerate her terrarium temperature living conditions. As long as they avoid her heat lamps they shouldn’t be over heated. It was a small room though and three heat lamps were enough to cover most spaces. The other two were turned off though, only the one over her bed and that one was angled to face the head of the bed, where she was positioned.

A knock at her door pulled her eyes away from her bright lcd screen once more. She probably spent more time in the pointless exchange than she should have. She cut her end of the argument short, told him to shove something where the sun don’t shine, and closed her laptop. A short wander to the entrance of her room caused her to investigate what she was wearing before opening the door. Long and loose striped pyjama pants, no socks, and a t-shirt with the Jason Voorhees’ mask that was two sizes too large. Seemed appropriate enough. Then again, all her guests were guys and Felix as well. She never dressed to impress anyway, why start now?

Sandra swung the door open to reveal Felix. The first thing she noted was the bag he carried with him, the second being his oddly casual wear. In terms of casual though she was certain she had him beat. “Oh look, my knight in shining armour” she spoke sarcastically as she leaned against the frame. “Man, that looks like some heavy shit” she chuckled as she purposefully blocked his way through with her body. “I suppose your hands have been through enough torture though.” She quickly backed away from the entry way.

That was one out of the possible three. The diseased kid (ironically older than her) was Felix’s guest, so she assumed that he was taking care of that. As for Jason, she couldn’t quite remember his room number, but she did know he was in the ruby dorm, so she stuffed a note under her neighbor’s door saying in bold and large letters ‘If your name is not Jason Darkstorm pass this on to your neighbor.’ It worked the last time she used the tactic, so hopefully it worked this time around. If it didn’t, Jason might not have come anyway. He wasn’t much of the social type. If Felix’s guest didn’t show up either then it would just be the two of them and Sandra had no objections to that. He wasn’t a telepath, right? Well, if he was her cover would’ve been blown a long time ago.

    To put it simply, the invitation had been unexpected. It might be one thing for the resident journalist to get up close and personal. That remained a fact of her persona and desire to unveil secrets she had the wherewithal to notice. Tucker could not refute that he had met a spare handful who viewed him either in a sympathetic or equal light, but the experience did not seem to be a familiar one. In contrast to the general populace of the open world, or even countless medical professionals, Felix had approached him in a friendly manner that did not invite suspicion. Overall, it was unexpected.

    Finding his way through Ruby’s dorm had been less inviting. Not many wanted to near themselves to him and watched him warily when he approached to ask a question. It was Adrian he ended up asking. As rocky of an acquaintance the two might share, they at least regarded each other with some unspoken, and unadmitted, respect. A shared life-endangering event tended to do that with people, even if the two had been nowhere near each other. Tucker couldn’t help but to realize that he felt vaguely the same with Felix, which wasn’t to say the effect carried on to everyone else who had been involved. Undoubtedly, he regarded each of them in a different light since then.

    As luck would have it, he caught the backside of Felix passing through the threshold of a doorway down the hall, and made certain he arrived before it shut in his face. Too awkward and long of a delay if that were to happen.

    “Sandra?” His query hoped only to bring attention to his presence, which maintained at the very least a solid foot of distance between himself and the others. He felt as though he towered over the girl, but his height in relation to Felix consisted of such similar measurement that any further thought over the matter was negligible. His hair, by now, had grown considerably and without upkeep. When he had first arrived at Foresta it seemed he had been recovering from a buzz cut, but now the shaggy length of it proved something of a bother around his hardened hazel eyes. Characteristically, he wore a fresh air-filter mask, one devised for industrial conditions rather than the more tame environment of a hospital room. It would do its job regardless. The dark green of Albion Hospital’s scrubs showed beneath a long-sleeved shirt, no doubt gathered from the Lost and Found from the previous winter. He had no inclination to go sleeveless, but the hospital scrubs had accommodated him with matching, pocketless, pants and he finished the ensemble with mere socks and nylon surgical gloves.

    “I’m Tucker.” Any smile was disguised by the mask over his mouth and nose. “Should I have brought something?” Truth be told, he had no money or resources to go around buying snacks or what-have-you, much less any penchant for carrying food, of all things, around to be contaminated and shared with friends.

Felix's eyebrows shot up at the appearance of his hostess, and he said bluntly, "You should have told me it was a pajama party. I feel overdressed now." He rolled his eyes at her teasing, not offering a response. He moved past her to deposit the bag on the floor so he could go back and retrieve the sodas he'd left by the door. The marked change in temperatures was unsurprising, though he wondered if the fan would be enough for the three people who weren't heat-sinks.

He grinned at the arrival of his guest and he nodded at the guy's question. "Sandra, this is Tucker. He's cool, even if he does dress like a medical student. You would have met him earlier had you not been such a terrible student and skipped class. Tucker, this is Sandra. She's like a trip to the equator: a refreshing change of pace and a risk of a burn." His introductions were nothing short of unnecessary, but he prided himself on his superfluities.

In response to Tucker's other question, Felix brushed past him to pick up the bottles in the hallway. "I've got us covered. Might have gone overboard if the last person doesn't show up." He glanced at the boy with a concerned look. He asked pretty tactlessly, "Are you going to be able to eat, even? I've got stuff that's individually packaged if that helps."

Sandra was rather unfazed by Felix’s comment about the way she was dressed. As he sauntered by to drop off the snack load he was carrying, she subtly eyed her outfit once more and returned her vision toward the boy. “It’s more of a ‘hostess feels like wearing whatever the fuck she wants’ kind of party” she answered with a bit of a shrug. “I also have my doubts that you ever worry about overdressing, but whatever.”

As Felix prepared himself to re-enter the hall though, his guest arrived shortly after. His announcing of her name quickly grabbed her attention. He definitely was an odd sight, like he was the lone survivor of some old zombie flick. She knew about his abilities roughly, but she didn’t have enough information to understand fully. She was certain that same went the other way around unless Tucker had read up about her, but she wouldn’t exactly know where from. Unless she was a common point of discussion when it came to fire prevention and safety hazards, which she actually wouldn’t be surprised by. Only so much of her room was non-flammable. Before she could really answer the sickly looking boy, Felix decided on stepping in and introducing them to each other. She quickly flushed her blush away after his compliment to her.

“I don’t know who decided on having outdoor classes during the winter. Whoever they are, they’re fucking nuts. Well, Ms. Hikaru, so that’s not a tough one to figure out.” She rolled her eyes after defending her reasoning’s for ditching class.

As Felix filed his way through her door a second time, she focused on Tucker for the sake of returning a greeting. She didn’t really want to seem as though she was only being attentive toward Felix, but sometimes that was a hard habit for her to break. “Yeah, as far as the snackage goes, Rudy has us covered. Anything more and we’d probably be able to marathon Nightmare on Elm Street without going hungry. Let me tell you, that’s no easy feat” she replied off handily before she wandered back into the depths of her room. Sandra stopped at her shelf as she scanned her eyes for the film she came to seek. “You into Slashers, Tucker?” She quickly peered back at the man’s odd getup. “I’m going to take a guess that they’re not too gory for you, right? Or are they too medically inaccurate” she formed air quotes as she continued searching through her shelf.

    "Yes," Tucker mused, his eyes gaining a distant look as if he had stepped off elsewhere, but he had the presence of mind not to stay out there too long, "None of the food here has made me ill, yet."
    Following into the room, where his eyes glanced over several items of interest, it occurred to Tucker that he had not been in anyone's room other than his own, and he had nothing of value, either material or sentimental, to decorate with. This did not bother him, but the contrast between fans and heat-lamps etched a small crease in his brow.
    "You mean the class I left in the middle of because we weren't doing anything?" If any contempt lay in his statement, which surely it must have, it did not make itself obvious with his tone. Instead, he turned his attention to Sandra, regarding her dismissive and obstinate attitude with silent wonder. For all the hassle and antagonism, she honestly did not seem that aggressive or defensive. Perfectly casual. Relatable, even.
    "Never saw a slasher film," He said with a shrug, having never even heard the term before now, "Probably would've agitated the psych patients."


    "So, Sandra, I get that you're a Ruby firecracker, but Gadget over here," He spoke the 'code' name with a mock exaggeration, "Maybe didn't exactly tell you about me? I'm a contagion. Adrian called me Plague; suppose it's fitting." He withheld the fact that he had been termed as such by another organization long before then, as well. He had never been particularly fond of the name. "In any case, I'm sure your residual body heat will nuke any strays, and you can flash fry the room when I leave, yeah?"

Felix chuckled at Sandra's comment about him worrying over overdressing. Boy, she had no idea. He scooped up the bottles of soda, wondering if they would explode when opened. He listened to the other two exchange pleasantries. Or unpleasantries. Gore and disease. Maybe he'd miscalculated in inviting Plague to a slasher movie night.

Or maybe it would be fine. As far as he knew, he was the one most likely to feel any sort of nausea at the proceedings or conversation. He had nothing to offer this line of conversation other than a dismissive, "Somebody in the Ruby dorm can do it if she's not up to the business. Wasn't it Spitfire who nearly burnt the school down a month or two ago?"

He moved to the bag on the floor, placing the sodas next to it. Too late, he realized that it may have been more appropriate to bring warm drinks. At this rate, these would be unpalatable. He frowned, realizing that individually packaged gummy snacks would probably melt before long into... radioactive sugar-slime. He fished into the bag, quickly pulling them out and tossing a couple to Sandra and Tucker. "Enjoy while they're still edible. There's popcorn and chips for later. Ah, Sandra... I guess you could do the heat-sink thing if anybody actually felt like drinking anything..."

He straightened, glancing around the room. "Are we all piling onto your bed for this thing, or should I sit on the floor?" He waggled his eyebrows unnecessarily at the two, grinning.

Sandra chuckled as the sickly boy made a comment on the power training class. Even though she was busy running her fingers down the spines of her VHS collection she still made her reply and didn’t bother turning back to him. “Yep, that’s the one” she passively commented as she tugged on a title from the shelf. She snapped her fingers in excitement as she placed the box on the edge of her shelf so she could find it easily later. Obviously it would’ve been a better idea to have the movie prepared before they arrived, but she had to defend Nicholas Cage’s good name.

She silently snorted as Tucker mentioned that he’d never seen a slasher movie before. She had some sort of luck or some type of strange coincidence of encountering people who were horribly unacquainted to movies. It was almost ironic that a handful of her friends hadn’t even sat through more than two movies before meeting her. She never felt more privileged to live in suburbia in her entire life. “Ah, those psych patients, always ruining everyone’s fun.” She shook her head. “Don’t you worry then, this is top tier shit we’re about to watch. You’ll come out of this with a pretty good grasp on the genre.”

Sandra found some amusement in the nickname Gadget for Felix, but she still preferred her own for him for the sake of tradition, not because it was clever. “Ah, walking biological bomb. Gotcha. I could sterilize the room, but I’d probably take the whole school down with me. I’m sure its fine, if you were that dangerous I don’t think they’d let you have free roam would they?” Actually, Sandra didn’t really know about that one. Would they have some sort of greater prevention system for dangerous students? As far as she knew she was one of the more dangerous students, so she should know.

“Spitfire? That demonic fireball thing had a name?” she then turned over to Felix with her inquiry. She was not at one hundred percent on the rooftop during that night, but she definitely remembered the fireball thing that she blew off. In hind sight it was a stupid tactic, to be fair though she threw away hind sight fairly early on in that night. Her answer came in the form of gummy bears to which she didn’t really complain about. She quickly tore into package and started munching on the snacks leisurely.

She wandered back around the room and paused at where Felix dropped off the snacks. “Meh, don’t worry about things overheating. Just toss that shit into my lap and I’ll keep’em cold.” She lightly heaved the bottled drinks and set them gently onto her mattress. “In terms of seating, there’s a chair over there” her head jabbed to the back corner of her room which had a cushiony arm chair. Being one of the main points of interest in her room it also had a brooder lamp dangling above it, but it wasn’t turned on. “The view isn’t as good, but you could move it. Frankly I say we all just plow onto the bed. Its big enough for the three of us and not get too cozy, if you’d prefer that option anyway”

    "If it starts giving me flashbacks, I'll make sure to check in for a psych eval." Truth was, he really couldn't be sure how it would affect him. He'd seen enough blood and death, by his own hand and others, to know that he had never frozen up in a dire situation. Not that he had ever been all that capable of taking action. At least, not every time. As things were, he doubted some overly dramatic blood spray and costume effects were going to bother him. He had seen enough movies that gave him the impression he was prepared for the worst, but, again, the psych patients were a strange limitation. Honestly, how could a movie ever compare to the real thing?
    He came to a resolution decidedly. A movie would not bother him.

    "They let me roam freely because they're idiots," Tucker found himself adopting some of that snarky attitude from Sandra, as if he thought it might fit him for the occasion. "It's a wonder there hasn't been a pandemic already. But, I've been careful." He had thought Foresta's treatment of him had been less than sane. Albion's hospital had quarantined him with cautious fervor, and he could not fault them for it. Especially given the condition he had been in when they found him. And yet, as soon as they could dictate that he might be Gifted, the staff had discharged him as quickly as possible. Despite all their help, as he owed quite a number of his clothes and supplies to the generosity of the hospital, Tucker could not help feeling like they viewed him as being Foresta's problem now. And Foresta did not seem to believe in hazards. It occurred to him, and not for the first time, that he may have inadvertently started a number of epidemics in his pursuit of the island.

    "I'd heard that," Tucker began to address Felix's reference to Adrian MacKenzie, the resident firestarter, but his own voice was drowned out by Sandra's in following. "No, that w-...wait. Demonic fireball?" He turned his full attention to her then, intensely curious, "You mean the runaway fire Adrian scorched the halls with and made a light show on the roof out of?" Something about her phrasing had caught him off-guard. No matter the amount of ribbing Adrian had taken in the past months over his attempted inferno, no rumor had even suggested giving that inferno a name. Not one meant to identify it as if it had a persona, at least.
    "What did it... do?"

    The unexpected development completely sidetracked Tucker's intentions for the evening, which consisted primarily of hanging out and enjoying movies with some people where were relatively near his age. He barely reacted when the package of gummies slapped his abdomen, grabbing them only by reflex and ignoring all else of the conversation quite abruptly.

He shrugged at the suggestion that the administration were idiots. That much was clear when so many people went missing last winter, in his opinion. However, he wasn't sure he'd be able to do a better job in their place. Every person (besides him) could probably kill a person in a heartbeat should they lose control. He wondered vaguely if there was something to consider- why was he surrounding himself with dangerous people if he wasn't fulfilling some secret daredevil wish he hadn't quite worked out? Hell, he was sure that the number of people at this school who could cause some serious damage outnumbered those who, like himself, didn't have a line on serious offensive capabilities. "Best give the head people a little slack. They contain what they can. You're almost an adult. Maybe they're giving you leeway to feel like one."

Felix was only marginally interested in this new line of conversation. Or, at least, that's how it appeared from his ceaseless rummaging and reorganizing of the contents of the bags. He was content to let his guest ask all of the pressing questions. He'd file the information for later, under 'stuff maybe to pursue if my schedule opens up'. Otherwise... he shrugged mentally.

He put the chips on Sandra's computer desk, displaying the rather overwhelming variety. The beauty of having his own business was that this was an easy thing to fund. All of the snacks combined were less costly than some of the components for his enchantments. He placed the sodas on the bed, glancing at the chair and shooting Sandra an unsubtle grin at her use of the word 'plow' (no, he wasn't a twelve-year-old in an older student's body...). He commented off-handedly, "Word choice, m'dear. I could have made an extremely tasteless joke with what you gave me."

The boy sat on the edge of the bed, humor playing on his face. "Shall we get this on the road? I don't know if we can wait for the last guest to arrive if Tucker's a bomb."

Sandra snorted at Tucker’s comment about the staff being a collection of idiots. Truthfully, she saw it in the same light as him since they allowed people like herself to just wander around and endanger every other student since her powers were uncontrollable and unpredictable. She was a walking time bomb that had no timer display and that was enough to warrant panic in anyone. To be fair though, if they locked up and threw caution barriers around students like her than they would be exactly like the rest of human society. She figured that they were allowing the free roam for the sake of people being comfortable with their powers instead of feeling restricted, but it was also a fair point to make that it was horribly dangerous. Then again, the headmistress could diffuse any person’s ability, so plenty of arguments to make one way or the other and frankly Sandra didn’t care to get into the politics of the situation because that’s when people tend to start becoming unreasonable.

“Yeah, their pretty stupid, but I’d prefer stupid over paranoid. Fuck humanity, I’m not sitting in a fire proof box for the rest of my life because I might blow up” Sandra stated simply as she shook her skull. Foresta was better than home for one primary reason, whenever she left her room her mother was there to either run off scared or have a fire extinguisher in hand and pointing at her wherever she moved.

Sandra was thought it weird that Tucker had a somewhat shocked reaction to her talking about the fireball that tried to burn down the school. Were the two of them talking about a different instance? Was it that often that the school burst into flames? Who was Adrian for that matter? Obviously not the demon thing because spitfire was a much cooler name for a being composed of flames. Was it not mentioned that the fire was caused by the demonic flame entity? “I’m pretty sure no one was controlling that thing. I was at ground zero for that shit. It spoke to me, said something about another flame or something like that then blew me off and flew away. To be fair I bad mouthed the thing since well… it was not a very good day for me let’s just leave it at that” she explained as she tried to recall the events. She was so out of it that day that she was surprised that she could even remember a single word that thing had said. If it said anything at all, she was prepared to admit that if she was wrong about it that she wasn’t all there mentally.

She then turned back to Felix as he corrected her choice of wording. As she thought back on it the word choice was somewhat silly, but whatever it got the point across. “Oh sorry, next time I’ll just state that we’re having an orgy. Lucky you Felix, between me and Tucker one of us is bound to kill you by the end of it. Being on the receiving end though, I’d probably be the first to die” she retorted sarcastically with a giant grin on her countenance.

    Tucker allowed the conversation concerning inept administration to pass by without complaint. He had his own experiences with intolerably self-absorbed authority figures who felt they know what was best for everyone. Foresta did not strike him this way. He could side with Felix's view, but he still felt that someone did not take the dangers seriously, and that should be remedied in the future. As for Sandra, well, he already had spent his life in near isolation. He learned everything that could be taught to him there in regard to safety. How to avoid contracting diseases or pathogens and how to avoid giving them to someone else. So far, those practices, at least, had worked. He had not had an accidental incident in a long enough time that he felt comfortable he could keep it contained. Of course, if he could learn to suppress his power entirely, instead of taking all of these socially impending precautions, then he would not have to worry so much.

    Idly, while Sandra ran through her encounter with the supposed fire demon, Tucker peeled open his bag of gummies. His attention might have been momentarily distracted as he tried to reason out how best to eat them, opting to shift his filter mask down to his chin, but nothing could prevent him from keying in on the report that the flame had spoken. As far as he was aware, no one had mentioned the angry fire speaking to them. Not that there had been a whole lot of witnesses. Undoubtedly, Adrian had been the source. Right? Plenty of staff had been on hand to witness the occurence, but he doubted he would get any answers out of them. Only Sandra and Chase had direct contact, so he could ask Chase. But there remained a key difference between the two if Chase denied hearing anything. Sandra held the element of fire in her veins, so to speak.
     Another flame? I wonder if it was actually talking about her.

    He shrugged slightly, all this information was great, but he could hardly speculate any further without talking to Chase about it. And anyway, this line of thinking would get in the way of his true intentions for the evening. Without much subtlety or grace, Tucker claimed the chair to settle in. He repositioned it somewhat closer and more in line with the television, much easier this thing than a couch. "Orgy?" He snacked on another gummy, carefully inspecting it before proceeding. "Is that some sort of sparring term?"

"Or, in the cases of some of us, have blown up," Felix commented idly, tearing open the gummies with a well-practiced yank. He sounded like he was referring to Sandra, but it was actually prompted by the image of a good chunk of his house disappearing during his earliest enchantment incident. He was much wiser now, but it was too late to try to repair that burnt bridge. His parents were definitely still upset with him. Not for the house incident; they were wealthy enough that they could get a contractor out there with a breath.

A wry sort of smile twisted his mouth before he shifted gears and started mulling over how he could use this new, intriguing knowledge about what happened the night Spitfire nearly burnt down the school with a flame that could speak (yes, odd, but he'd certainly seen odder things) to his advantage. At the very least, it might prove diverting for a couple days.

Sandra surprised and delighted him by running with his non-joke. He pouted at her in mock disappointment, "You do know how much I adore orgies, but I'm afraid I was under the misconception that it was just movie night. Otherwise I would have worn my orgy pants and invited a few more people. Death by orgy is definitely better than some of the alternatives." He inclined his head at Tucker, an incredulous smirk spreading across his face. "Oh, you are delightful. Here's the thing: when a man and a woman... and another woman, and four other men, and maybe half a dozen maenads..."

Sandra dunked the remanding gummies from her package into her mouth as she nodded with Felix’s comment. Its use in the context that he had chosen to answer with didn’t quite make sense if he was referring to her since that went without saying. It was a bi-monthly process for her and the way that she had brought it up already suggested that it had happened in the past. She made note of it, but didn’t quite mention it.

It was strange to Sandra that no one made a comment about her story on the roof or the fact that there was a speaking fireball with some sort of vendetta against the school. They probably didn’t find it so strange or unlikely that they didn’t care to talk about it, weirder things have taken place on campus. Even Tucker, the guy who was interested in the subject to begin with didn’t make a sound. Did she say something she shouldn’t have? Was it a bad thing that these two knew that this Adrian person wasn’t completely at fault for the arson? If so, how long was it going to be before it bit her in the ass? It was probably nothing she should worry about.

Sandra wasn’t certain how far she could go with the joke considering that at least one of them didn’t even know what an orgy was. Not pointing out any names, but it was also the guy who hadn’t seen very many movies. Considering that they were nothing alike, it was still funny to her how many comparisons she could draw to Iris with him. “Hey, we just slap on some Caligula and we could be doing both. It’s the only true way to honour the film.” she spoke with a big and stupid grin. “And only one other woman? Damn, putting all those crevasses to work.”

“No Caligula though, we got Pieces to watch” she announced as she wandered around the room and grabbed the VHS once more, tapping it against her wooden shelf twice. “No other slasher flick do you have a serial killer both massacring a college dorm and completing a puzzle at the same time. Oh yeah, and random Bruce Le cameo.”

    "One? I counted at least eight." Tucker's focus seemed entirely bent on his bag of gummies, so that his reply came as an automatic response, as opposed to something he actually thought about. Sandra set about building suspense and prepping the movie, with a VHS tape of all things, while Tucker distractedly finished his snack. Emptying the parcel, his attention at along last shifted back to the pair and retroactively cycled through the conversation. Caligula and Crevasses and Wild Women?
    "Oh."

    "Oh." He said again, with a wide-eyed realization accompanying the second revelation. He seemed more startled than embarrassed. It had been a mock proposition, after all. He had no counter for it. Could not keep up with their jive. He felt horribly inadequate in a social standing. With a deft move, he pulled his filter mask up over his face, the top of the mask fitting to the crease permanently etched into the bridge of his nose, and then he settled back into his seat, fully prepared to watch a movie.

    All in all, it hadn't been his lack of knowledge that had bothered him, there were plenty of things he knew he remained unaware of from an academic or cultural standpoint, it had been his lack of real response. Nothing he could say had not already been mentioned.

    'That'd be a short lived pleasure,' He'd say with weak conviction and lacking imagination.

    'No, yeah, that's why I said I'd die first,' She'd respond with a characteristic roll of her eyes.

    Any other route became too depressing. Not like he had never considered the implications before. No physical contact meant no nothing, ever. Being nineteen, these had become long discarded worries. Did him no good to think about. As such, he discarded the brief moment of self-pity without a second thought.

    "Oh? Bruce Lee? This was made in the sixties, or what?" Tucker may have taken on a subdued state following the second verbally acknowledged realization, but his nearly immediate change of topic and behavior intended to cast off too close an inspection. Of course the boy-adult, who had no knowledge of orgies, not only knew of Caligula and mythical nymphs well enough to unravel that mystery also knew the active years of Bruce Lee's western film productions. Somehow, he did not imagine eastern films dipping into slasher film territory. How wrong he was.