[RMT]So It's Not Cheating?

[Erin Hackett]

Erin was not really the type to get involved in any activity that was not something that she could do online. She was not good at socializing with people and was still getting used to actually being around people in general. It was hard to change up your life style from just dealing with people when at school of a club activity to trying to do it for other things. Other things like the IMAC events that the school had up and running for those going to BA and those from the other mutant schools. For a while Erin debated on whose side she was going to represent since she was from the mutant school in Japan.

Since she transferred over here before the event and now she was a resident of the USA for the time being now that her dad was working over here, she figured she would represent BA. Since she was not very physically active; at all, she signed up for the riddle thing event. It seemed like it would be interesting and they were allowed and even expected to use their powers. Of course they could not just like pull out their phones and look up the answers there because that would in fact be cheating in these standards. Yet, they were allowed to use their power to gain the answers or clues to answers that they were seeking.

Erin still felt like she was going to be slightly cheating when she would use her power. After all, she mainly planned to use her power to then sneak over to another team, spy on them, and then get the answers from them. It was not the way to get first place but it could at least score her a second place position. She even sent Lydia a text in advanced and asked the girl if she wanted to be on her team. Lydia's power was not really useful in this situation and she didn’t think Lydia was the type to even want to do something like this, but figured it didn't hurt to ask.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia had managed to go through several stages of being prepared and unprepared over this. She wasn't really the type to do lots of social things, she was competitive, sure. But the main problem was slightly conflicted feelings. She didn't really dress up, for anything. She didn't really know how. She kind of just wore what she wore. But when Erin was involved... She got a little more anxious than normal. 

It had taken her several hours in advance to try and find her outfit, in the end she basically settled on jeans and a sleeveless blue top, with a pullover jumper in white. She spent a while doing her hair up too, then ended up taking a hair band anyway, just in case a pony tail became practical, and a little more make up than she usually wore to top it all off.

She hadn't come across as a massive introvert in her texts with the other girl, which was good. And her little burst of confidence from that would carry over into the competition. She had taken a little time to arrange a little surprise to give her team a maybe advantage. 

The blond quickly slid over to where Erin was standing "Boo." She smiled at the other girl. 

[Erin Hackett]

Erin did feel something like butterflies when she was around Lydia, but she pretty much felt it around all girls. So she didn’t really see it as a big deal so when it came to getting ready she didn’t really change anything up. It was not a date, she pointed that out in the text, and thinking of it not as a date just helped her feel a little more relaxed about it. She dressed how she normally dressed; a pair of blue jeans, a ‘Death the Kid’ t-shirt, and a Creeper from Minecraft hoodie on.

He hair was worn out like usual, some strands on the left were tucked behind her ear, revealing her pierced ears. She had her usual level of makeup on and that was pretty much just eye liner and a little bit of lip gloss. So, just plain and simple Erin like she was in any other day in terms of what she was wearing. Yes she was still panicking slightly about working with Lydia on her team but she was trying to not over think it too much. If she over thought it, she would freak out, and if she freaked out then she knew they were not going to be able to get anywhere because she was not going to be able to say anything.

The ‘boo’ didn’t startle her since she had been looking around for the girl. She smiled as her, giving a small wave before taking a few steps closer before stepping back. “Hey Lydia, you look…you look really beautiful today. Not that you don’t look beautiful every day, but…you know.” Erin said, muttering towards the end and took another step back. She cleared her throat and gestured towards the door that they needed to get past. “So uh…thanks for coming to be on my team. Do you like riddles at all?” Erin asked, looking away. She wondered how the other teams were doing with the challenge.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia felt overdressed. Was she over dressed? She felt hyper. Was it showing? Was she doing that silly thing with her fingers? The answer was probably a mixture of the above, blown way out of proportion by her attraction and want to impress the girl that was with her. She hadn't told Erin about the thing she had did which may not have really been entirely moral, but some part of her thought it might help impress her.

And to help them win. Which Lydia wanted to do, badly. She hadn't had the chance to get competitive about anything in quite some time, and there was this small part of her which made her want to prove that she could do this event just as well as anyone with a mental based power, if not better, and that burning desire was driving her just as much as her want to impress Erin.

The combination of the two factors made for some interesting, energetic and very lifelike Body language from Lydia. She grinned and blushed lightly at Erin's compliment. "Thank you. You look great too, as usual." She blurted out. "I'm gonna try some of that confidence stuff and help you crush those other's today~ Sound good? Good!" She grinned. 

[Erin Hackett]

Erin liked to win, she was not the kind of person that liked to lose, but with this sort of thing she didn’t really care. She still didn’t feel like she completely belonged at BA and missed her old school back in Japan. Sure she had more friends here then she had back there but that was because she had made an effort to make some while she was here. Still, she was at least going to try and win but if she lost she didn’t really see it effecting her day all that much. What was effecting her day was the attractive girl standing not too far from her.

Erin could already feel her heart beating a little faster and it felt slightly warmer in the room, but she did her best not to stare. Erin could tell that Lydia seemed excited, but she didn’t really know what for or why. Perhaps Lydia was actually into this kind of thing and was so excited to do it and had been just playing cool about it before. Maybe she forgot to go to the bathroom before she left and now was trying to cover up the fact that her bladder was on the verge of exploding. How unpleasant. Erin pushed that thought out of her mind, not really wanting to think about a girl’s bladder busting open or anything like that.

“Th-thanks.” Erin said, taking a step back. She was still weird about being complimented. It was hard enough to give them out but to take them was asking her to pass out. Erin smiled as Lydia pointed out what her plan was for the day. Erin was just happy that the girl said yes and that she had a team mate for this little event. “Good...uh so do you know the answer to this? Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?” Erin said, repeating what the first riddle was for the challenge.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia grinned at Erin's reaction, she didn't know just how much help she could be, but she would certainly try. Riddles weren't exactly something she had always gone out of her way to be involved in during her free time. She watched and listened as Erin presented Lydia with their first riddle. Going over the words a few times in her head, not speaking, just going over it a few times in her head.
 
Lydia felt bouncier and more energetic than usual. She was the type of person who was usually quite energetic, which kind of suited her, being able to absorb and discharge electricity and all. 

She stood, tapping her arm with one of her fingers, pondering it. "Hmmm... I'm not sure." She was trying, really she was, but every idea that popped into her head that seemed to make sense was quickly picked apart by the other part of her brain which found that it didn't actually make sense. It was a little frustrating, she knew it would probably end up being something deceptively simple. 

[Erin Hackett]

Erin told Lydia the riddle, already thinking of what the answer might be herself. Erin was actually pretty smart. Very intelligent. She just choose not to actually put effort into things that she didn't see as relevant to what she would do for the rest of her life. Riddles feel into that category but now that Lydia was here she at least wanted them to get halfway there in the challenge. She did invite the girl all the way out there after all, and it would have been rude to have done such a thing and not at least put effort into the game. Lydia said that she was not sure, and Erin just gave a small nod as she let her mind go to work.

"That is alright, I think I figured it out." Erin said with a small nod as she walked over towards the first door. "Who makes it, has no need of it. So that means something that is made by someone who is not actually plan on using it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Means someone else is buying it likely for a gift of some sort. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. This is where it makes things a little tricky but then pretty much makes it clear what it would be. Someone cannot see or feel is normally associate with the dead. So, with that in mind, what do we put our dead in that we boy for them that someone makes for them?" Erin asked, wanting Lydia to be a part of the answer to the question.

Yes, Erin had figured it out. The answer was a coffin. Someone else made the coffin and had no need for it. Then other would buy it and also not have any need for it. Then the person that was using it was dead so they could not see or feel it. Now she just wanted to see if Lydia got it as well after she had broken it down. If not it didn't matter. Erin had the answer and they could move on after a moment.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia was getting a little frustrated that none of the answers she came up with in her head held up after a second go. She was usually good with these kinds of things, it would probably make more sense to her if she wrote it down, typed it out or something. And then maybe broke it down into it's components or something.

As Erin went about explaining it, the answer quickly formed inside of Lydia's head, she was a little annoyed that she hadn't been able to work it out faster. It was kind of an obvious answer, again as she had thought, the way to deal with it was to just break it down into it's component parts. 

She nodded quickly, showing her understanding of it. "Coffin. It's a coffin. God, I feel dumb for not seeing that sooner." She forced a smile to Erin, even if she did like the other girl, and even if she was on her team, the fact that she wasn't able to get it without help was annoying. She liked being good at things. She wasn't good at that much, and technology was really her forte. 

[Erin Hackett]

Lydia seemed to get it now, which did make Erin smile. It felt good to be able to use her smarts in order to make someone else understand something. Not that she planned to now try and be a teacher or anything crazy like that. No, she had her future career in her mind and was going to stick to it so long as it was her passion. Likely it would be her passion forever, but in any case even if she liked the feeling she had just gotten from helping Lydia, it didn't change what she wanted to do for a living. It also made her feel a little bolder for having said it all without really stuttering or anything like that.

Then again she was focused on the task at hand and that left little room for being embarrassed and what have you. When Lydia said the right answer, the door for the next floor made a sound, clearly giving away that the path was not unblocked for them. That was one down at least, and three more or so to go. "Don't feel dumb, this is uh...a team thing so long as one of us gets it, thats alright. Plus, you might...you know get the next one." Erin said, stuttering again. She had been fine when she was explaining something but now talking to the girl made that boldness go away.

"Let’s get going to the next one." Erin said as she offered out her hand to Lydia. She then paused for a moment, reaching into her leather jacket and pulled out some gloves. She then slipped them on and offered her hand out to the girl. She recalled that Lydia could not really touch people or was worried about it or something. So she had brought gloves this time to try and make it better. Granted now that she had done it, she was already moving to pull her hand back and run up for the next level.

[Lydia Faust]

Lydia was still a little frustrated for not having been able to work it out on her own, hoping that her ability to do so would improve once she got warmed up and they got through a few riddles, or at least after thinking her way though that first one. Yeah. She could do this. And even if she had trouble at any point, Erin was right, they were partners for this. They could help eachother.

"You're right. You are absolutely right. I'm being like, silly. Thank you for helping me out with that one, Erin." She flashed her friend a much much less frustrated smile. She would carry on trying with the confidence thing, even if her whole inability to work out what the first riddle was had taken a small toll on her little pool of confidence and energy.

She was about to hesitate for a second when Erin offered Lydia her hand, and then Erin quickly pulled out a glove, which would stop the blonde from accidentily electrocuting her friend. She grinned and took the other girl's hand, allowing Erin to lead them into the next area. "Thank you." She chimed. 

[Erin Hackett]

"No problem. Just being honest. It was us L33t people do. Be honest to pretty girls and cheer them up and what not when they are feeling down." Erin said trying to sound a little cool. She of course was not looking at Lydia now as she was saying this and trying to put an air of false bravado. Hey, it was half working and that was all that mattered, right? Right. It took a lot for Erin to actually offer out her hand but then she remembered that she had gloves she got distracted with the whole idea of how super awesome Lydia probably thought she was for having been so sweet to remember to wear gloves for her.

Still, the fact that she had offered out her hand in the first place quickly dawned on her and she had gone to bolt but Lydia had taken a hold of her hand before she could do that. What even was life? Erin was pretty sure she had died or at least left her body for a moment at even the simple hand holding. She didn't say anything, just basically turned into a robot as she led the way to the next floor. It was not far, a few steps and then they would come to the next part of the challenge. The riddle was already there, waiting for them to read and try their hand at completing it.

Floor 2 Riddle: Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?

"01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101." Erin said, her brain having already broken from the fact that they were still holding hands. Yes, she was speaking in binary, something that was not really all the easy to do. For her it was not even all that easy to do but she had basically become a robot and now her mind was thinking in ones and zeros. She was actually saying something, but well it would have been hard to understand it unless you were writing down every single number that she was blurting out like some super computer.

[Lydia Faust]

Even if Erin's obvious attempt to impress Lydia was kind of obvious and absolutely freaking adorable, it still drew a blush out of the blonde. Luckily, Erin wasn't really looking at her when it had happened, otherwise she might have just stopped breathing a bit. Lydia didn't deal well with feeling awkward, especially when people were watching her, even more so if said person watching her was the source of her embarrassment.
 
Lydia was too busy giggling at Erin's comment. She knew it was binary, but it took her a minute to translate it over into actual words in her head. She then smiled. She whispered, just gently enough for Erin to hear. "Of course you can. You're a genius." She meant that. She had maybe kind of stalked Erin's online presence a tiny bit since their last hang out, and had noted how talented the other girl was.

Of course the blonde wasn't nearly as good as the other girl at riddles, but she would still give it her best.