Fire & Smoke

[Lucy James]

Tag: Charity Croft

So, here she was then. At her very first training session after arriving at the academy. Lucy wasn't sure what to expect, but she figured it was probably going to be lame. She hadn't bothered doing any research either, so it was safe to say that the brunette dived head first into the unknown. At least she was smart enough that she wasn't stoned. Well, okay, so she might have taken a few pulls when she first had awoken, but nothing that would really show...too well.

The only thing she knew was the name of her so-called trainer, 'Hope LeGrange'. What kind of name was that, Hope? Sounded like something a group of hippies fighting for peace would name their child. And here Lucy thought her middle name was stupid; Imogen. Really. Made her sound like a damn Moogle.

Opening the doors to the training room, Lucy peeked down on the map she had drawn herself and furrowed her brows. This was the place.....right? "Hello?" she called out, stepping inside. "Oh wow. This place looks like one of those kinky dungeons you see in porn. Neat!"

[Charity Croft]

"I suppose it does look a little Fifty Shades, right?" said Hope, chuckling a little as she looked around. The woman didn't really look much like a trainer, despite wearing the appropriate gear and uniform. Her brunette hair had been pulled back into a high pony, keeping it clear of her neck and all. The hairdo also seemed to make her wide blue eyes just that much more noticeable; the flowery hair clip probably didn't exactly speak to confidence either, nor that easy smile. Hope looked very much like a kindergarten teacher.

"But yes, this is the training room, and I'm Hope Legrange, your trainer," said Hope, nodding. She then looked over the girl for a moment, studying her critically. Her gut was kicking in, and she could feel the sensations bubbling and brewing in her intuition, as they were so wont to do. Yes, power mimicry and likely power sensing, though Hope couldn't say to what degree. Well, Hope did have a more skilled mutant on standby: a telekinetic security staff member for the copying.

They definitely needed to get to know each other first. "So I figured we'd spend some time to get to know each other a bit before we get to honing that mimicry of yours," said Hope. "I like to start my sessions out with a big hug. I know it's not very cool, but it's sometimes just what we need, especially when we're facing our powers and stuff. so come on," she spread her arms wide, "give your new trainer a hug."

[Lucy James]

Looking at the woman, Lucy couldn't help but feel as if she was getting pranked. The woman looked awful. Downright horrible. She looked like one of those annoying, flowery and happy women from horrible TV-shows you'd rather not waste your time even thinking about. And that was just her style. And then there was the huge, doey blue eyes that made her look as if she didn't even exist on this planet. Everything about the woman screamed annoyingly painful. And here Lucy was, having to spend time with this. "Uh huh," she replied distantly.

Folding her arms around her waist, Lucy tugged them at her clothes tightly and pressed her lips together. "Obviously," she muttered, looking around for a moment. It was obvious the girl didn't want to be here, though, Lucy had hardly hid that fact from anyone. They had brought her here kicking and screaming, and her dismay hadn't gone unnoticed by. She skipped class, she got into detention and she did just as well anything she wasn't supposed to. It was amazing she had even come to this class.

...
....
.....

A hug? Seriously? In the matter of a second, Lucy's stoic expression changed into that of utter disgust and she quickly took a step backwards. "Yeah, no, I'll pass, thanks." God, was this woman crazy, or just simply retarded? And right then, Lucy regretted not being stoned for this meeting. It probably would have made this at least slightly bearable. Squinting her eyes, she watched the older woman carefully. "Seriously; touch me and I will yell rape as loudly as I can."

[Charity Croft]

Okay, so clearly Lucy wasn't all that impressed with Hope. She stood there, arms still outstretched, watching her student and wondering what was going on there. The look did say quite a bit, what with it looking like disgust and all.

"I know that it's not really cool to give people hugs and stuff but--wait, rape?" Hope's eyes widened. "Why would you--I'd never do something like that!" she pointed with one hand, the other still apparently outstretched to the side for the hug that was probably never going to come. "And you shouldn't joke about rape! It's a very serious issue an it's not something that you should go around joking about. What if I'd been raped, hmm? Then you'd be all like, feeling bad and stuff. You have to be sensitive to other people! honestly!"

Hope gave a little stomp that was probably doing very little to assert her authority in this particular situation. She wanted to just scream out in frustration. Why did they have to be so jaded and so... so... teenage. "Just get over here and give me our bonding hug!" she said, gesturing with her hands again, obviously trying to get the girl to come forward.

[Lucy James]

"Yeah, yeah," she said, swatting her hand at the woman. What made her think that Lucy actually cared if she had been raped? What made her possibly think that Lucy would feel bad? Like, ever? "Good argument, but I'll pass," she replied dryly, looking away. Her eyes swept over the room for a moment, taking it all in, making notes of it. Why had she come again? She honestly had no idea. And all she really wanted to do now, was back slowly away and pretend that she hadn't come at all.

This woman was clearly crazy.

And she still wanted that damn hug. Jesus! Didn't this gal take a fucking hint? "I clearly didn't make myself clear the first time," she said, her voice low, agitated. "Seriously, I don't want a fucking hug. Not from you. Not from anyone. Particularly not from you." With that, Lucy shifted and started moving further away from the woman and closer to the door.

"If you excuse me, I have better things to do." Like getting stoned and forgetting all about this.

[Charity Croft]

Hope nearly glared at her student, not believing how difficult she was being. Really, this wasn't asking for too much, and Hope knew that Lucy would feel so much better if she just dropped her guard and let it happen. But no, the girl had to keep being cool and insisting that she didn't want anything to do with it. She probably was standing there thinking Hope was crazy or a child molester or something else wildly inaccurate.

Well, at least she was rude, and clearly agitated, and clearly denying her emotions. Hope lowered her arms and folded them across her chest, her eyes narrowing still further at the other girl. "Better things? Like walking around feeling this constant headache and the strange feeling that there's something up with the people around you? Nothing like having that wonderful sensation that there's someone just near you and stuff. Oh, and it's probably fun being here, where pretty well everybody's like, 'ding' I'm a mutant! And you're like, 'duh, I, like, know.'"

Hope folded her arms and smiled cockily. "Because obviously they wouldn't assign you a trainer who knows exactly what that's like or anything. Oh noooo, that would just make too much sense."

[Lucy James]

Rolling her eyes again, Lucy shook her head. "Yep. Totally hit the nail on the head." It didn't really matter if she was right or not -- which she was, mind. Lucy still wanted nothing to do with it. She didn't want to be at the school. She wanted to leave. And until that could happen, she was going to at least make the ride worthwhile. Which ironically meant making it more difficult for herself. "Whatever," she said, shrugging. "I don't care either way."

Stopping, Lucy looked at the woman over her shoulder and shrugged. "It wouldn't have mattered either way. I don't want your or anyone elses help. I don't need it, so why not just leave me be until I'm old enough to leave? It would save you a whole lot of time and trouble."

If she thought she was getting through to Lucy, she was going to find herself sadly mistaken. Even if she somehow managed to force the girl to stay, Lucy would still resist her and her help. She wasn't about to drop everything she had learned and allow someone to take pity on her.

[Charity Croft]

Hope smiled as Lucy admitted to her being right. There we go: an actual breakthrough! Next they'd be able to start discussing progress with her power and they'd have a great mentor/mentee relationship that...

that apparently was going to be a very long time off. Lucy was doing the stubborn thing, insisting that she didn't want, didn't need anyone else's help. Hope remembered what that was like, though she recalled it more from her old classmates than anything else. She was struggling to remember what the various books and training manuals said about handling students like this. Didn't they really just want some discipline in their lives? Someone who was willing to put their foot down and say "no" as emphatically as possible?

"You're here because you need to learn to control your ability," said Hope, drawing herself up again. "So you need to actually practice and stuff, otherwise you're never going to be allowed to leave. They do this test when you're deemed ready by trainers and stuff. We get to say whether you're good to hang out with humans and not cause problems. So if you want to ever actually leave, you have to play the game." And the game meant working with Hope, since Hope happened to be Lucy's trainer and all. Hope didn't quite point that out though; she figured it was fairly evident.

[Lucy James]

Lucy knew that everything about her screamed angst, stubbornness, and deep rooted issues. She knew that she was making it harder for herself, and that she'd be better off just listening to the high authority. But the issue was that Lucy had never had a real authority figure in her life. Her life had started out where she had gotten things served on a silver plate, and then tossed aside like garbage, and well, here she was; a washed up child actress with a drug problem. Yippee.

"Technically, the school cannot hold me here against my will after I turn eighteen," she said, arching her eyebrow as she turned to fully face the trainer. "That's what all those rules you have are about, right? You can only legally force kids to stay here until they're of age, and when they are..." She smirked. At least, that was what Lucy had gotten from the rules she'd read.

"Unless of course, you just tell everyone that... And the government, which would be lying, and I don't think they'd be too pleased to find out you hold adults here against their will. Doubt the social media would either." If anyone ever thought the druggie was going down without a fight, they'd have to think again.

[Charity Croft]

Uggggh, why did Hope have to have someone so darn complicated and difficult? She nearly groaned with frustration as the girl continued, trying to remember what the official literature said about what the other girl insisted. It wasn't as though this sort of thing came up that often. The teenager just kept going, and that smirk! No way had Hope been that annoying as a teenager.

"Actually, if you're still proven to be a danger to society then we can recommend that you stay here for treatment and all," said Hope, finally recalling the book. She closed one eye and tilted her head as she tried to remember more of the information. "Pretty sure that it's sort of like dealing with crazy people. You're designated as unfit for normal society and so you gotta legally stay here until you got things all settled. It really doesn't matter," Hope waved a hand, "since you definitely don't want to stay here. I mean, c'mon," she tried smiling again, "do you really want to keep having all these problems with your power? Just put up with me for a few hours a week and bam," she snapped her fingers, "you'll get your powers all mastered and be able to go around and do whatever you want. Hang out at parties, flirt with boys, that kinda stuff."

Hope shrugged and nodded. "It's really much easier to just go along than fight all the way, I promise. And do you, like, really want to deal with someone who's all mean and stuff?" Yes, she had gone from practically laying down law to nearly pleading. Because clearly Hope had tons of backbone. Just oodles of it.

[Lucy James]

"Recommend, yes. Force, no." She shook her head. "As for being unfit for society, you'd have to make take various psychological tests as well. And that also goes hand in hand with the ability, and my power isn't particularly dangerous either, as I generally copy people's control of their ability." No, Lucy had no intention of staying. She would fight it until she had nothing left to fight with. The thing the trainer didn't seem to understand was that Lucy didn't want to be a freak of nature. She didn't want these powers, and if that meant never being able to touch anyone ever again... She'd be fine with that. She didn't like close contact anyways, for various reasons, so really, it just gave her an excuse not to ever having to touch someone again. "Pass."

Lucy didn't want to flirt with boys, and her types of parties... Well, they weren't exactly the norm, and she could easily get the the same rush from 'partying alone'. She was being difficult and annoyingly stubborn. Yes, she knew that. She knew she was making it harder for herself, as well as the trainer, but right now, Lucy didn't care. Why would she? They had brought her here against her will and forced her to do all these things she didn't want to. This wasn't a school. This was a prison. Nothing about this was fair. She hadn't asked to be a mutant. Fuck. She didn't want to be a mutant. She didn't want this life, this school, these people... They could all go to hell for all she cared.

"I've already made myself clear. Unless you're slow, which wouldn't surprise me, as you've yet to give up," she said dryly, waving her hand dismissively towards the woman. "What are you going to do about it anyways? Force me to stay? Force me to train? Well, join the club sister. That's all any of you have done since I came here, so please, keep making yourself out to be the bad guys here. Just gives me more reason to fight."

"Now could you kindly fuck off and leave me alone?"

[Charity Croft]

"Well, until you copy someone's power and it gets out of control and stuff," Hope pointed out, trying to sound like she wasn't getting tired of running through the same few arguments every few moments with this girl. Why did she resist so much? Things only got worse, seeing as Hope would have to report her as resistant. They'd then essentially deem her to be some kind of trouble student and, well, usually those types didn't turn out so good. Hope had heard rumors about some sort of hidden facility under the school or maybe the government taking them or something.

Hope sighed in frustration as Lucy tried to make her the bad guy: "You're the one who's trying to make me the bad guy here. I'm just trying to make this as easy for you as possible. You'll be, like, forced to deal with worse people if you don't deal with me and stuff," Hope shuffled again, looking at the other girl. She just seemed so resistant. "This is a school, you know, and... okay, like, I already said pretty much everything that can go wrong and stuff," she frowned, shifting her feet again. By now, she knew most of how Lucy's power worked, but that unfortunately didn't provide much in the way of instruction for how the girl herself worked.

Damaged, offensive, sounded as though she'd been ripped here against her will. What did the manual say about stuff like this? Hope shouldn't be trying to make friends with her, she knew that. But maybe she should try empathizing?

"Look, I get that it sucks and all," said Hope, gesturing. "You got pulled here against your will and all. But this is the part that's supposed to make it suck less," she pointed to the ground. "You deal with the super nice and kinda cute trainer and learn how to control your ability, and then you can just," she attempted to do a rude gesture involving raising middle fingers without actually doing it, "to the establishment and stuff. You have to learn it to dismiss it and all."

[Lucy James]

She had heard it all before. The preach, the lecture, the misguided advice, all of it. Sure, she claimed she was trying to make it easy for Lucy, but Lucy knew that the trainer was doing it for her own selfish purposes. She was only trying to make her own job easier, and if she honestly thought that Lucy would just drop down and give up like that, she was sadly mistaken. Lucy didn't trust the trainer. Why would she? People were selfish human beings, only looking out for themselves. Life had thought the brunette that much. "Whatever; I don't care," Lucy said, crossing her arms over her chest.

And then there was that horrible speech about how the trainer understood. That she got how Lucy was feeling. That she could relate, and then the cherry on top; this was for the greater good. Come on. Did anyone really buy that? Well, Lucy sure as hell didn't, and it was apparent in the way the brunette simply rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You don't get shit," she said, her tone even. "Don't even try pretending that you care or that you understand, because you don't, so just leave me the hell alone, okay?"

"Go try your piss methods on some other student, because you ain't getting anywhere on this one," she said, waving her hand a little in the air as she dipped her head forward, laughing slightly as she shook it. "You really don't get that you're wasting your time, do you? What do I have to do to make you understand it? Break a window? Push you? Hit you? Scream at your face? I could do all of those, but let's be real here, missy. You're probably too retarded to realize it even then."

Yeah, she was digging her grave, and knowing the teachers here -- or anywhere for that matter -- she'd probably get a juicy detention for this. Maybe that was for the best. At least then she wouldn't have to put up with this shit.

[Charity Croft]

Ugh, of course Hope had been trained to deal with students like this, but she'd never actually hoped to run into them before. There stood Lucy, looking all defiant and like no one had ever gone through what she had gone through before. As if Hope hadn't been an awkward teenage girl with nearly the exact same power, or, well, a facet of the same power. At least Lucy didn't have a crush on her dad... probably... hopefully...

Though Hope couldn't help but feel her hairs almost literally begin to rise as Lucy continued. "Pretend? Do you really think that I would do this job if I didn't care about--about people? About you? Believe me, there are plenty of other things I could be doing right now, and you're not a waste of time," Hope folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out how to handle this. She really just wanted to yell and scream some more, but that didn't seem like a very "adult" response to the situation.

"What do you actually want me to do? You want me to give you some kind of detention or something? You do realize that if you keep acting up, they're really going to figure that there's something seriously wrong with you, and things get worse from there. I'm trying to help you avoid that, so why won't you just work with me?" Hope felt like throwing a tantrum and had to just barely stop herself from stamping her foot. The girl was just being so frustrating it was just... arrrgh.

[Lucy James]

"Yes," she replied simply, pursing her lips. "You only "care" because you're paid to." Lifting her finger though, as if to prevent the woman from interrupting, the brunette cocked her head to the side. "Regardless of you really caring or not, it wouldn't matter. It's your time wasted and not mine, so I don't really see why I would care to begin with." She was getting tired of this. All of it. Not just the supposedly trainer, but the school and everyone within it. She just wanted to be left alone. Was that too much to ask for? "You are a waste of time though, so I really suggest you do something more valuable with your time than argue with me." she added with a shrug.

She admired the woman's stubborness though. She wasn't one to give up without a fight, and Lucy could appreciate that about her, but it didn't make the angsty teen anymore willing to succumb. She didn't want to train a power she'd rather be rid of. She didn't want to go to a school filled with freaks of nature and she surely didn't want to become "one of them". She was better off on her own. Always had been, and honestly, she very much preferred only relying on herself.

"I want you to leave me alone." Simple, and straight to the point. "If that means having to go through detention, so be it." Shrugging at the rest, Lucy's eyes grew disinterested and started moving about the room. "Something is seriously wrong with me; I'm here. I'm a freak of nature." She wasn't sure if the trainer knew about her drug addiction or well, anything about her past, but did it really matter? It was apparent that Lucy had some serious issues, just with her personality alone.