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The only thing that sucks more than the Scholomance is not going to the Scholomance
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Food, in face.

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"Mika," Jermaine leans over to say from the New York table over there, in a near whisper that is heard by everyone anyway. The silence is overwhelming enough that you could hear a single strand of hair hitting the floor. "He poached Mika's room."

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Scorpius... gets even angrier, if that's at all possible. Because he's sure almost no one knew Mika, most of the seniors had no idea who he was. He was one of the last stragglers, one of the people without a graduation alliance, which this late in the year meant he was most likely going to die anyway. That made him a very logical target, really, and that makes Scorpius's blood boil.

"You had everything, Quayle. Everything. And you had to, what, have a better room, too? Two weeks before graduation?"

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And still he eats, quietly. He reaches for his glass of juice, and his shaking hand accidentally bumps and and spills it over, so he tries to right it—

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"Answer me you fucking coward—" he says, reaching for Todd's hand.

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And Todd stands up abruptly, heaving his tray up at Scorpius and painting him with the remaining food then giving him a good shove, which when Todd is a six foot tall senior and Scorpius isn't sends him nearly sprawling back. "Shut up!" he yells, his voice cracking in hysteria. "Shut the fuck up, Lake, you have no fucking idea—"

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Now it's Chloe's time to yell.

"—He fights mals daily, I think he fucking would! Two weeks, and then your room wouldn't matter anymore!"

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"Oh yes he's such a hero," replies Todd, aiming for a sneer and landing mostly in panicked wailing. "Saving us all from being eaten, the biggest man on campus, am I right?" he says, spreading his arms out to look at everyone else, theatrically.

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...what the fuck.

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"Well guess the fuck what," he continues, turning around to look at Scorpius again. "You've done shit. You haven't made a dent in the real crowd downstairs, and they're getting hungry. I'd know, my fucking room was right next to the stairs and I could hear them. Every. Fucking. Night." He presses his fists to his temples and his face just crumples, eyes scrunching up and tears starting to leak freely. "I can't sleep," he says, voice cracking again. "And they're coming through, and you know what went by my room yesterday?" He lets out a hysterical laugh and looks up again. "A fucking maw-mouth! Now go deal with that, hero."

And if anything could break that silence it would be that, with murmurs and freaked out gasps emanating from that spot in expanding circles as everyone confirms that they did hear him right and he did just claim a maw-mouth was roaming the halls.

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".... What! No, that can't be. We would have noticed by now! They're not subtle, Quayle! If it were in the school we would know!"

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Everyone is so busy looking at the New York theater club, that it's very easy to miss one person in particular stiffening. Her face is a mask of cool indifference, but the angle of her spine is that of someone who is desperately trying to forget about something horrible. Damn it, did someone have to bring up the existence of those fucking things, she wanted to have breakfast, not lose it.

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Scorpius doesn't protest like Chloe, though, and barely reacts. His face has gone pale under the dripping egg and porridge hanging from his skin and clothes, and the closest thing to an emotion he's shown was the barest of flicks of his eyes in Yvette's direction.

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But Yvette wasn't the only one who decided not to participate in the drama and to go grab food instead, and Alexei is a lot less good than Scorpius at disguising the way he also looks at her for a moment.

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"Would we, Rasmussen? Would we really? On a Sunday, when everyone is away from the best places to hide in the school? Careful everyone!" And he turns around to address the room again. "Make sure to keep an eye out at the supply room! The workshop!" Back to Scorpius. "The library. Say, didn't I hear," another hysterical giggle, "that a bunch of incredibly powerful mals uncharacteristically attacked the library reading room with every student in it? I wonder what they could've been running from? But sure, Scorpius, thank you so much for protecting us. What would we do without you."

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Yvette is not here, she does not exist, she is only an automaton that is fetching food and making sure that nothing nasty is going to poison her with it. Perfectly ordinary student that is not at all having any kind of meltdown remembering being trapped inside that fucking thing for the chance of maybe saving the freshman. And what did this asshole do? He shoved someone he knew for four years into the void. For a better room. So it would get someone else first.

Nevermind, maybe she does exist, actually. Just very quietly.

"Not shove a guy into the void," mutters Yvette, darkly, focusing on the anger to have any kind of hope of not having a meltdown in the middle of the cafeteria. It's not that people would think 'Ah, yes, she killed it and she's traumatized about it,' it's that they'd think she'd break at the first sign of one of the damn things. Which would screw up Alexei's prospects, since he's attached to her now, and that is not allowed, thank you.

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Scorpius is fueling a lot of New York's mana habits, including the seniors. Calling him out for the results of his heroism now is what is known as... a dick move.

So it is with this context, where Scorpius's efforts have also directly and tangibly helped Todd himself, that Chloe Rasmussen slaps him. In the face.

"You're a disgrace, to New York and especially your father," she hisses, and then she flounces off to the lunch line.

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He just stares at her, dumbfounded, as if he can't quite believe she just did this.

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And Scorpius is still just... standing there. Unable to really move, or process things.

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.........

"Scorpius," Alexei calls, loudly, from where he's walking out of the junior queue to go find a table. "You need food. Go get food."

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Okay, Alexei of all people calling him out like that does break him out of his trance. He blinks, looks at him, looks at Todd, then goes after Chloe.

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And Todd just... stands there. Shaking.

Only for a few more seconds, though, as the senior bell rings and then he has to shuffle out to go downstairs to the gym for the obstacle course practice. With his alliance, that still has to put up with him, after what he's done. He starts walking, looking down at his feet, and the other seniors leave a wide ring of space around him as he does.

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Alexei is so great. She's so glad she's now publicly sworn to defend him to the death. He deserves it.

Anyway, the seniors leaving means that the good tables have freed up, and she is going to focus on sorting that out instead of anything in the vein of... 'having feelings.' Which she does not have. She feels nothing but anger and spite, yep.

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As would be expected after such a scene, the cafeteria soon explodes in conversation again, whispers and gossiping and people who were closer to the action zooming around to give everyone else the blow-by-blows. It's really only their table that seems mostly subdued, plausibly due to them all personally knowing Scorpius well enough now to have a... pretty good guess of how he'll be feeling.

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"...Lake, you're a mess," Alexei says, echoing Yvette's earlier words, when Scorpius sits down across the table for him, reaching over to wipe some of the egg literally still dripping from Scorpius's eyebrow with a napkin.

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