*headdesk* [Open]

[Clocks]

It took a total of thirty seconds for Clocks to remember why it was exactly that he hated being out in public, which, under any other circumstances, would have been a laughable amount of time.

Dressed rather tamely (compared to the rest of his wardrobe, at least) in highwaters and suspenders, platform boots elevating him to a good -- and much needed, though he'd never admit it -- three inches more, the mutant tried hard to imagine the stares were aimed toward his fuck-me boots rather than the uncovered mass of scar tissue on the entire right side of his face. In his haste, he'd gotten up too early to really find a way to fix his hair over it, and now, trying to duck behind the rim of his cup of iced tea, Clocks was regretting it. A lot.

Really, it was too early in the morning to be up. This had seemed the only store wonderful enough to open up right after the sun had peaked over the horizon; he wasn't going to complain, although the few businessmen on their way to work crowded in the Java Junkie were making his attempt at going outside for the first time in two weeks highly uncomfortable. But he'd been asked -- by a lost night-ghast, no less! -- to help with the passing of some other earthbound spirit hanging around the back alley just behind the mall, and he was never one to deny his friends, discomfort or none. In light of a job well done, tea seemed the only reward he could offer himself.

But oh, fuck. The staring was really getting to him.

[ghostlygeorge]

Georgina Umbram AKA Amnis, better more commonly known as George or Georgie, walked much more relaxed than one would expect of a girl with so many names. But she was headed for the coffee shop Java Junkie. Dressed in old jeans and a just as old t-shirt, George whistled a unidentifiable tune as she entered the shop. Her slouchy posture screamed 'I have no purpose!'

She ordered her coffee and looked around for a table to prop up her feet and relax. It seemed as though everyone was looking in a certain direction. Following the stares, she spotted an odd loner kid. George sighed. It seemed as though she was always introducing herself to some kid in the corner of a library -Lily- then getting into trouble with said kid.

This kid seemed to be hiding some vicious scars behind his cup. George plopped down in front of him. "Hey," she smirked, wrinkling her nose. "Who you hiding from?" She asked, sipping her coffee. It seemed it was her purpose to make loners feel less alone. That was a good purpose.

[Clocks]

Clocks raised an eyebrow, lowering his cup to take a lengthy swig. Oh, great. People. My favorite, he thought bitterly, envisioning an eyeroll and a knowing glance to the poltergeist in the corner of the shop. It took him a moment to decide what he was going to say, if even he was going to say anything at all. Nah, that wouldn't be nice. Not that he was going to go out of his way to be nice, but he'd give it a shot.

"Never said I was hiding from anyone," he murmured, nonplussed with the idea of having to babysit.

[ghostlygeorge]

George grinned and leaned forward. This one was a bit guarded and gloomy. George raised her own eyebrow. The boy seemed totally uninterested in her appearance before him. Not that she thought the world should stop to acknowledge her. "Well, technically you never said anything at all." She replied.

She leaned back again. He seemed distracted. "Well, I know you go to Xavier's. I'd thought I'd introduce myself." George said the rehearsed line. This was generally how she introduced herself. "I'm George. If you want to go by mutant names I'm Amnis." George took another hit of her coffee and waited for his reply.

[Clocks]

"Never said I cared, either," muttered Closk in reply as soon as she'd finished her introduction. Like he wanted to acknowledge he was a mutant. Please. Especially not with the milky-opaque glow of a shape that ought not to be there sitting in the corner of the coffee shop.

"George is good enough." Okay, so he had a little bit of a problem with the mutant names. What was the point? His own name had very little to do with his power -- it was just something his brother had given to him as a kid to detract from the fact most foreigners never got his name right. Damned if he'd acknowledge anyone else's. "Is there a particular reason you like to sneak up on people?"

[ghostlygeorge]

"Never said I cared, either...George is good enough."

This kid's attitude was starting to irk her. George took a deep breath. Not everyone was as jovial as her, and that's usually not their fault...

"Is there a particular reason you like to sneak up on people?"

George grinned. "I don't sneak up on people," she said. That was a half truth. When playing pranks and whatnot, she did sneak up on people. But that would be the reason, but she couldn't say that now she would be contradicting herself...

"Anyway," She said, then took a long swig of her coffee. "What are you so preoccupied with that a person who walks directly in front of you is sneaking up on you?" George asked with a grin.

[Clocks]

"Does it matter?" Clocks blinked, stirring his drink and tapping the rim with his straw, resisting the urge to rub his eye free of tire. Yeah, weakness in public? No thanks. He looked again and the shapeless form of whatever had been applying for his attention in the corner of the coffeeshop had gone; he lowered his eye back to his drink and yawned, shrugged. "You're not going to like me anyway."

It'd be easier for you save yourself a good ten minutes of trying and just go away now,, he thought to say, but that would be rude... and while he could acknowledge that he was a jackass, he was never pointedly rude. In light of his resolve, he shrugged, took a sip of his drink, unable to figure out how to handle the situation.

[ghostlygeorge]

"You're not going to like me anyway."

George frowned. Someone telling her the outcome of a situation just made her want to prove that someone wrong. "Why would you say something like that?" She took a slow sip of coffee. "What could you have possibly done to make me dislike you?" She asked.

The moody kid looked to the corner of the shop again. George raised her eyebrow and followed his gaze. Nothing was there. She turned back. "What are you seeing over there?" She asked. George probably wasn't leaving this kid until his mood changed. He was politely as possible telling George to step off. But George never did take no as an answer, never.

[Clocks]

Why is it, Clocks thought, averting his gaze from where he'd had it trained, that people just can't damn well listen to me the first time around? All he could hope was that George didn't think he was being stereotypical emo "OMG NO ONE LOVES MEEEEE *sad emoticon*" when he said she wouldn't like him -- there was ulterior motive, damnit, and a good one.

"I don't want anyone to like me," he said simply, shrugging just so and hoping she didn't press her latest query. "And it's better that you learn it before I give you a reason."

Not that he wanted to go around enflaming the trust issues he already had with talking openly about the fact there was a dead... something staring at the pair in the corner, in a coffee shop, no less. He raised an eyebrow toward George, now a little curious. She seemed just as completely insane as the gaggle of third grader's he'd run into walking home... and just as harmmless.

Really, a little conversation wouldn't hurt.

[ghostlygeorge]

He was making this much harder than it had to be. All the emo kids she had met before we never this...well, emo. George was a friendly person by nature. This kid was trying to make her snap. She was getting a little angry. She wouldn't lose her cool. Nah, but she was not going to give up. She was not going to let this kid sit alone being haunted by whatever was in that corner. "Fine Mopey," she muttered. "How about you start with your name? Care to tell me that?"

If anything her tenacity should be admired. Call her crazy, call her annoying, call her a fool. But George was driven by something she couldn't even name. If the kid rebuffed all her attempts to make conversation, then she would settle for sitting here in silence with him. If he didn't crack then, she would walk with him back to the school. It didn't matter, Mopey the eighth dwarf wasn't going to shake her so easily.

[Kat]

Kat just wanted _out_. She could have found breakfast in the school's kitchens, but for once she just wanted to go out and see what normal people were doing. There wasn't really anything wrong with the other kids at the school... ok, nothing wrong with _most_ of them... but maybe for a little while Kat could pretend that people didn't shoot lasers from their eyes when they got angry.
She headed out early, as she knew she would probably lose her nerve if she waited too long. There would be fewer people about, or least fewer people to wonder why she was loitering around shops with no money to buy anything but an over-priced drink or two at a coffee shop.
"Java Junkie?" Kat said to herself as she stood before the place. "Should be called 'Go ahead and steal the money from my pocket... just give me my overpriced caffeine.'" But, she went in anyway.
She mentally counted her change as she lurked near the counter reading the menu board. Finally she decided on an apple-y cider drink. The bored barista served it up in record time, and was disappointed when all the tip Kat could offer was a smile and a muttered thanks.
Drink in hand, she went looking for a corner to curl up in, out of the way.

[Clocks]

Clocks actually turned his head and stared full-on at George for quite awhile, not even really minding the fact that the cavernous gap in his right eyesocket was completely visible to anyone who cared to look their way. What was with her? No one he'd ever met had ever been as... persistent, as wholeheartedly steadfast to a cause as she was. It was... kind of creepy, to tell the truth. He didn't know how to treat it.

A minute of dumbfounded confusion later, Clocks regained himself and, quietly, begrudgingly, murmured, "Ha-Neul," not really expecting her to remember it. His truer name was much more memorable. How many people went around with a pseudonym referring to a timepiece, after all? "Why are you still here?"

[ghostlygeorge]

George raised her eyebrows and sipped her coffee while the kid stared at her. She saw that his right eye socket was empty. She wasn't expecting that. But he did introduce himself.

"Ha-Neul," She said carefully, working the foreign name on her tongue and imprinting it on her memory. "Ha-Neul." She repeated satisfied.

George watched Ha-Neul. She liked Mopey better. It was a habit of hers to give people nicknames, even though she memorized names. She liked nicknames it said that she had a connection with the person beyond politely calling them their name. "Well, Mopey, I'm still here because I want to be...nothing you say will make me leave."

George noticed another student moving around the store. "You should invite her to sit with us." She said to Mopey. "If you don't I most definitely will."

[Clocks]

Clocks... felt a weird smile tug at the corner of his lip, parting muscles that hadn't been moved in... way too long. Guh, he could practically hear the creaking. If he cared at all, he might've been sad. But he didn't, so he wasn't. It was just a little... not... nice feeling. Or something. You know what, brain? Fuck you.

"Not even if I told you I was a cannibal? Or that I partake in nightly rituals that involve kidnapping and throwing virgins off of cliffs?" At George's most recent comment, his eye flicked over to rest on whoever she'd identified, paled instantly. More people? Oh, Jesus, he had to be broken in with this social thing first! No jumping off the deep end here!

But he met eyes with the ghast lounging around the newcomer, and he smiled. Yeah, that was more like his company. And they didn't look like they needed anything from him. Maybe a little chat was in order...

"Only if my new friend can come too," he said absently, smiling just so.

[ghostlygeorge]

"Not even if I told you I was a cannibal? Or that I partake in nightly rituals that involve kidnapping and throwing virgins off of cliffs?"

George sighed and shook her head. "Sometimes those virgins just have it coming to them, and they need to be thrown from cliffs. I can't really fault you there, Mopey." She shrugged. She swore she could see the corners of his lips slowly pulling upward. Score!

He looked over to the other student. It seemed he was ready to actually be social. "Are you talking about me or your imaginary friend in the corner that you like to stare at?" George said jokingly. It didn't really matter to her. Ha-Neul was willing to speak with yet another stranger and that seemed to be more important than if he considered her a friend. She stood and stretched. [/b]"Let's go,"[/b] George smiled.