13th Howl: The After School Numbers Club [Action at the high school]

[professorwolf]

As promised, there are snacks on a couple of the lab tables in Lyall's classroom when school gets out that Monday afternoon. Not much of it is chocolate, though, mostly because Lyall had been pretty sure he'd have been tempted to nibble and then he'd have regretted it. It's not all healthy, though, considering the appetites of teenage boys: next to the cheese and crackers and celery with ranch and peanut butter dip on a platter, there's chips and pretzels and an open box of cookies.

And on the other tables, there are decks of playing cards, small pads of paper, and plenty of pencils, plus a couple science and math books. Hey, Lyall has to make it look like a school event for anyone who wants to poke their head in, after all, right?

Lyall himself is sitting at the counter in the front with his laptop open, though he's paying more attention to the door than the screen at the moment, waiting for students to come in. Stella the ferret is in presence, too, though she might be anywhere in the room at any given time. Lyall has given up on wrangling her, ever since learning she was sentient.


((open to high school students, middle school students, and a couple college students that Lyall actually knows personally ^^ if your character is in the high school but didn't get an on-screen invite, feel free to assume an off-screen invite if you want to show up! multiple threads for mingling and/or planned Magic games are welcome))

Comments

[reckless_fire]

Whoa. Prickly. Well, he could handle that. Because seriously, nobody should be doing homework in the middle of a social gathering...or whatever the hell this was supposed to be.

"Yeah, but this isn't 'usually' is it? This is..." Trailing off, he chuckled and shrugged one shoulder. "To tell you the truth, I don't really know what the hell this is supposed to be for--but I'm pretty sure it's not just extended study time, y'know?"

Tipping his head to one side, he offered the other boy a lopsided grin. "I'm Kenji, by the way. Dunno if I've talked to you on the network or not. Can't ever tell who anybody is on that damn thing."

[spideyfanone]

He returned the grin with a somewhat suspicious look. "Kurt. I've only been using it with text, so that makes sense." He pointedly did not close his textbook, though he wasn't getting any active use out of it. Even something simple like trig required more attention than conversation allowed for. He settled for poking at his graphing calculator in text mode, typing out random emoticons with the eraser of his pencil.

[reckless_fire]

Jeez, kid, throw me a damn bone, will ya?

See, this was exactly why Kenji didn't usually bother with the whole being sociable thing--even though he could be when he wanted. Most of the other kids here wouldn't even meet him halfway, so why bother? Still, he'd agreed to come to this damn thing and be social, so by god that's what he was gonna do--whether this kid liked it or not!

Munching on another pretzel, he allowed his gaze to wander restlessly around the room, eventually coming to rest on the lunchbox. He wasn't a particular fan of comics, but he'd seen the movies, so that would serve as his next attempt at conversation.

"You a Spiderman fan, then, or a collecter?" People collected lunchboxes and stuff, right?

[spideyfanone]

Kurt was even less enthusiastic, but at least the question allowed for a substantive answer. He could talk if he had something to talk about, just not making small talk with people who put him on edge. (Which was most people, really.)

"This thing? It showed up when I got my numbers, and I haven't wanted to be away from it. No idea what that's about. I mean, I don't even want to put food in it. It's kinda grotty." He'd taken a stab at cleaning the stains with an old toothbrush, but the sense that he wasn't supposed to had stopped him, and they hadn't really reacted much anyway. "I figured I didn't have to hide it under other stuff at network club."

[reckless_fire]

Well hell, looks like it talks, after all.

"Oh, so it's a numbers thing, huh?" He should have figured that, really, but...well, he hadn't. "But no memories or anything came with it?" He added after a moment, "That figures. Whatever's doing all this crap sure doesn't seem to want to just spit out what's on its mind, does it?"

[spideyfanone]

Sometimes. "Yeah, you'd think it'd be way more efficient to just send us each an info packet and get it done with." Possibly with lots of bright-colored pictures and small words, considering the trouble most of these people seemed to have with the concept of doing their homework. "Though at least some other people have cool stuff. Some guy got a crown. This is easier to hide, but still. It's a kid's lunchbox." Because Kurt wasn't a kid or anything.

[reckless_fire]

"Yeah, I'd vote for that. We should definitely take it up with the management at the next meeting." Kenji would also vote for the pictures and small words...but would still probably only skim it.

"I dunno...You'd look kinda goofy in a crown. At least a lunchbox is useful. Aside from keeping food in it, you could...I dunno, fill it full of rocks and hit somebody with it?" Another broad grin stretched across his face, "You've gotta admit, nobody'd expect that."

[spideyfanone]

Kurt was of the opinion that he also looked kinda goofy carrying a child's lunchbox with him everywhere. "Nope. No one would expect the lunchbox of doom. I don't know how many rocks it could handle, though." He toyed with the latch for a moment. It didn't seem that sturdy, though it had lasted through whatever left it dented and gross looking.

"You get anything good?" Kurt was actually drawn into the conversation enough to contribute instead of just responding. Good job.

[reckless_fire]

"Maybe that jello salad crap from the cafeteria, then. That stuff's pretty lethal."

In reply, he stripped off the black glove covering his right hand, revealing a large, boxy scar on the back of his hand. Two thin, black scars radiated from the larger scar,traveling up his wrist to disappear under the cuff of his shirt sleeve. "Didn't get any stuff, just these."

He pauses a moment, considering whether he should talk about what else he got. He's told a couple of people over the network, but that's a lot different from saying it face to face with another person. In the end, he shrugs as he slips the glove back onto his hand. "Also a couple of the usual memories of stuff that never happened."

[spideyfanone]

Kurt nodded. "Right, those." He wasn't even talking about that over the network. He'd only had one solid memory, but he wasn't even dealing with it himself. No way he was letting anyone else in on it. But the look of the creepy scars suggested he might not be the only one getting some seriously messed up stuff.

Either way, he wasn't bringing up anything about his cool powers. Seemed like a jerk move, under the circumstances.

And he was paralyzed enough by small talk. Actual, tangible social awkwardness was way beyond him.

[reckless_fire]

Well, since they had already veered off into the territory of the odd turn the world had taken in the past few weeks, they might as well continue--although Kenji decided to steer the conversation away from the things he didn't really want to talk about.

"So what's your theory on all this, man? Everybody seems to have one."

Except for him, of course. He was just...trying to tread water and stay afloat, at this point.

[spideyfanone]

"I don't really have enough information for anything coherent. I mean, it's pretty weird for any kind of mass hysteria, plus the numbers thing makes it shady, and the fact that you can get at this thing by writing on paper if you want to makes it way weirder... Everyone remembering different crazy stuff makes me think of some multiverse quantum physics stuff, but the library's not all that great on the subject. I've already read all their popular press stuff, and my dad doesn't always let me into the physics department stuff when he thinks I'm being too weird. So I'm kinda at a dead end there..." Getting Kurt to talk was a success, anyway.

[reckless_fire]

The physics stuff was a bit beyond him, but Kenji was able to follow most of the rest.

"Maybe..." He spoke haltingly, more or less feeling his way. He had a point--if he could just voice it coherently. "Maybe knowing where it comes from isn't that important? But just the fact that it exists? You've gotta admit, it's pretty convenient for sharing information on what's going on. So maybe..." He scowled at the toes of his sneakers for a moment; what the hell was he trying to say? "Maybe we should just stop worrying about why it works and just accept the fact that it does work and move on? 'Cause right now, it seems like everybody's just spinning their wheels.

[spideyfanone]

"Well, you're the one who brought it up." Tact was not among his gifts. "Honestly, I haven't thought about it that much. I'm more of an engineer than a researcher. Fixing it is a bigger priority. I just have theories, because why not?" He wasn't exactly sensing a great meeting of the minds here, but he couldn't be too annoyed. Ramble for ramble.

[reckless_fire]

"Jeez, it wasn't a criticism, you know. I was just tossing around ideas, same as you." Apparently, this had been a bad idea all around. Maybe he should just let the guy go back to his damn homework. He sure as hell wasn't getting very far in his attempt at friendly conversation.

[spideyfanone]

Kurt wasn't the best judge, maybe, but he didn't think he was the only awkward one here. Or maybe he was just so very painfully bad at human interaction that it hovered around him in an all-consuming haze of poor conversational decisions.

And it kind of was a criticism, but semantics probably weren't a good fight to start. "Okay. So your premise is just accepting it and moving on? Is that just a peace of mind thing or is it meant to be practical?" He really wasn't trying to be combative. He just wanted to know.

[reckless_fire]

Truth be told, Kenji felt even more awkward than Kurt probably did. True, shyness had never been a problem for him, and he could talk until your ears bled--but only on trivial subjects. On the rare occasion he tried to give voice to his more serious thoughts--and yes, he did have them...on rare occasions--they always came out in a jumbled, incoherent mess. It would probably be the same this time, but still, he'd give it a shot.

"Practical, I guess. I mean, I don't see much peace of mind in any of this, anyway." Frowning slightly, he gathered his thoughts for a moment. "We all know something's coming, right? So...call it a hunch, but I get the feeling that the clock's ticking, and we're getting bogged down trying to figure out the wrong stuff."

[spideyfanone]

Excellent, conversational trajectory recalculated. "We definitely need to know more about what's happening than why, sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the information was the same, there. We're up against something concrete, so why wouldn't there be some kind of intelligence with motivation on our side?"

[reckless_fire]

Kenji pondered that for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "Well, yeah, no argument there. I mean, I think you're right about there being some sort of conscious...uh...force, or whatever, on our side." Given the piecemeal, haphazard way the memories and abilities were being parceled out, he had some doubts about its intelligence at times--but that was a discussion for another day.

"But what did you mean about a lot of the information being the same? What's happening and why it's happening are the same? Is that it?"

[spideyfanone]

"I mean what's happening and why and how we deal with it might kind of all have to do with each other, that's all. Be kind of weird if it wasn't. I mean, doing stuff about stuff usually means you have to know what's going on or you just kinda flail." He was ignoring an awful lot of human endeavors, but he was of the opinion that it was better if you knew what was going on, anyway. "I mean, you might notice that staying away from sick people and washing things helps you not get sick, but if you know germ theory you can get more done." He liked the analogies portions of standardized tests.

[reckless_fire]

"Yeah, I'll go along with that, but how are we supposed to figure out what's going on? Whatever's started the party hasn't exactly come out to say hey, or anything yet. I get what you're saying, and all, and yeah, it'd definitely be better if we knew all the who's and why's, and all that. But...we don't, and the way things are going, it doesn't seem like we're gonna any time soon. So..."

Frustrated, he raked a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. "Hell, I dunno. It just feels like we should be doing something--but that doesn't work, either, because nobody knows what we need to do." He glanced over at Kurt with a wry grin, "This whole thing's just really starting to piss me off."

[spideyfanone]

"Well, I'd be afraid of doing something really wrong. It's so random. It's not like there are hints or anything." Random was one way to put it. "There's not really a logical thing to do, you know? Where's the if-then statement? A bunch of random people are being threatened by mysterious bad forces and monsters and they keep remembering creepy stuff and finding junk, therefore... what?" He sighed, not liking the line of inquiry much.

[reckless_fire]

"Yeah, I know--that's what's pissing me off. If there really is some sorta force on our side, like you said, it really needs to work on its communications skills, or something, 'cause I'm not getting it--and from what I've seen on the network so far, nobody else really is either."

[spideyfanone]

"There better be a reason we can't just get instructions in the mail. If someone's just being mysterious to be cool, I..." He realized too late that he had no idea how to threaten someone. "Will say mean things about them on the internet."

[reckless_fire]

"...Yeah, that'll teach 'em." Kenji dissolved into laughter at Kurt's sad attempt at a threat--he couldn't help it. This poor kid needed some lessons in general badassery, and soon.

"No, man," he said once he'd recovered a bit. "You don't say anything--you do something. Like...hack into their system; give 'em a virus, shit like that." He was assuming that Kurt was good with computers, anyway. Most of the smart kids were.

Sighing heavily, he shrugged, "Which is all pretty much beside the point, since we still don't know who or what's behind all this crap."