I Am Not Clumsy

[Gabriel Mendes]

Walking through the empty hallway with his briefcase in one hand while the other pocketed his phone, Gabriel tried to fight sleep as he made his way to his office. He had just gotten back from a trip to New York to pick a recruit up. Thankfully, the recruit didn't kick up a fuss and the family was willing to let the child go with him. After the regular processing at the main office, Gabriel made sure that the child was safely in her dorm and helped her settle in some before making his way up to his office. He was tired, but he felt accomplished.

He did feel a little uncomfortable in his suit so he shrugged it off and neatly folded it over the arm that had the briefcase attached to his hand and checked his phone when it vibrated again.

Reading the message and laughing at who it was and what it said, Gabriel did not notice the person zooming in his direction until he was knocked back against the wall with his phone flying out of his hand and his briefcase sliding across the floor, unclasping and spreading the files in it as it came to a halt about ten feet away from him. 

"This place needs a no running sign." He mumbled to himself as he looked around for his phone. "Damn it."

[Beau Robinson]

Ooops.

Okay, so, to be fair, he probably shouldn't have been running along. Generally speaking, the office area was an 'on your best behavior' sort of place, and he knew that. Well, okay, he pretended he knew that. Because honestly, he was the type of person to run everywhere, regardless of whether or not he should.

He was just in a hurry. Time, after all, was far more precious to him than most people, so any activity that wasn't actively engaging him needed to be finished as quickly as possible. Still, he wasn't that much of a jerk. He recognized the mistake he'd made, and though he wasn't a fan of stopping, he'd made a mess. His eyes followed the phone in the air, and he made a mad dash to catch it, his reflexes more than adequate to catch a falling (or flying! ) hunk of plastic.

Beau skidded to a stop, sneakers squeaking their protest, and he lifted up both hands in a quick sorry! He hadn't even noticed that the guy had said something, as he was too busy already dropping to start picking up bits and pieces of paper that had been strewn about by his carelessness. One hand was still grasping the older man's phone, while the other was scrabbling to pick up the pages.

One or two were a bit more stubborn than others, but he managed to grab them with minimal folding.

Though they were certainly not stacked in any particular order ( or even stacked prettily ) he collected several of them before standing to hand both the electronic device and the pages he'd collected to the person he was trying not to offend. Hopefully he hadn't crashed into anyone important - he understood that his own limited memory meant he wasn't going to remember someone he didn't interact with regularly, so he generally didn't give people much thought.

"Noht gohnna expehl me, right?" He asked, once his hands were free. His words were a little slurred, but they more or less matched his hand-motions, even if they didn't translate directly.

[Gabriel Mendes]

At least the runner didn't leave him without helping out, so Gabriel couldn't really get that mad. And he was even helping with the files. When he handed them over, Gabriel couldn't help the smile that spread on his lips. "Thanks." He said before the kid started to sign.

It had been such a long time ago that Gabriel learned ASL but thankfully the kid voiced out the words as well and Gabriel's smile widened.

Shaking his head, he continued on to reassure the kid that it was okay. "Pretty sure knocking staff down doesn't get you expelled." He said slowly. As he tried to make less of a mess of his things, Gabriel signed the one he knew perfectly well, which was to thank the boy for helping out. "Why are you in such a hurry?" He asked.

[Beau Robinson]

Well, at least he wasn't currently in danger of being expelled. That would have been problematic, no matter who he bumped in to. He shrugged thoughtfully. "I juhst have to ahsk." He replied, a soft smirk playing on his lips. Since he wasn't getting in trouble for his antics, he was pretty sure he was just going to be on his way.

Except he had a question. He wasn't too exasperated at the line of inquiry.

He opened his mouth but no sound came out - nor did his hands move.

Dammit. Finally, he just shrugged again. "Cahn't remehmbehr." He replied, casually. It wasn't his fault... whatever it had been clearly hadn't been all that important. The soft rumble in his stomach reminded him. "Oh! Food. I'm stahrving." He replied, easily. "I dohn't like waiting around though."

Beau's explanations generally went over okay, especially when he was talking about remembering things. It was just one of those things that was all but a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Rubbing the back of his head, he paused, quirking a brow at him. "I dohn't wanna miss out on anything." He added, mostly for his own benefit. "Arehn't you gehtting any?"

[Gabriel Mendes]

Gabriel chuckled and nodded before tilting his head slightly and narrowing his eyes in confusion. Did he just get knocked down for nothing? And then the boy seemed to remember just as his stomach rumbled loud enough for Gabriel to hear.

At the reminder though, Gabriel realised he hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday. "You know, I think I might. I just need to get these things to my office. You go on ahead." He waved the kid away. He then walked over to his office to tidy things up and tossed his jacket over his chair.

He then went over to the cafeteria, rolling his sleeves up to his elbow as he waited for his food. A charming flash of a smile and he was given an extra pie. "Thank you Doreen. You're a peach." Gabriel turned to see if he could find the kid from earlier. At first he wondered if it would be weird if he sought out a student but then he remembered, it wasn't like there was a rule against it, right?

So that was what he did. When he finally located the kid, he walked over to the table and sat down. "I'm Gabriel by the way." He extended his hand out to the kid.

[Beau Robinson]

He had zero desire to wait. In fact, if he had been asked to, he likely would have fidgeted a hole in the floor. He was fairly certain that he had no 'special' reason for the fact that he was always full of energy - it was just this constant reminder that no matter what he did lasted. Waiting was... a waste of what little time he had cognizance of.

Thankfully, the other guy seemed to realize that, and the instructor waved him on forward. He smiled and gave him another thumbs up, before resuming his run to the cafeteria.

While he was never big on eating a lot, he grabbed things at random, and very rarely repeated. If something looked unfamiliar, he often grabbed that. His plate, once fully assembled, seemed more or less simplistic. One of every fruit that was on offer, a tuna fish sandwich, and 'salt and vinegar' chips.

He had no clue what one of those things was, so it certainly wouldn't hurt to try them.

Easing his way out of the food-grabbing area, he settled into a seat and poked at each one. Fishing his phone out of his pocket, he loaded up his instagram and snapped a quick picture. Setting it to the side, he let the phone just remain lit up.

He was actually kind of surprised when the teacher slid in across from him, and it was written on his face. What was more, was when the other guy offered a hand to him. He looked at it questioningly, as though it were a completely foreign thing. ( It was not normal by any stretch, for teenagers to shake each other's hands, and he didn't meet new people often enough to warrant the greeting. )

"Sohrry?" He asked, offering his hand as well, next to the other, outstretched appendage and holding it there like he hadn't the slightest what he was doing. "I'm Beau."

[Gabriel Mendes]

He repeated his greeting and gave the younger mutant a smile. "Gabriel. My name." He paused before spelling his name out. He shook the kid's hand and let go. Gabriel then looked down at the boy's tray and chuckled. He had probably been as bad if not worst than this kid when it came to hoovering food.

"A lot going on on that tray, huh." He chuckled before digging into his own food. A few weird glances were thrown their way but Gabriel decided to ignore it. It wasn't weird for staff to eat with students, right?

"You don't mind me being here...do you?" He asked, just slightly uncertain.

[Beau Robinson]

Beau nodded after a second, finally catching on, though the way the other guy grabbed his hand had him looking just as confused as he had been the entire time his hand had been out. He glanced at his hand ( mostly to make sure nothing had been left there ) and, after a second, decided it was just one of those things that everyone else would understand.

The question had him blink, though he smiled almost immediately. "Yeah. I like to try ahll sohrts ohf things." Not that his plate was particularly exotic, it was just all singles of everything. The scent of tuna was probably the most interesting, and so he started there, peeling the top off the sandwich and looking at the contents, occasionally glancing up to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

Though the follow up was strange - why wouldn't he be okay with him eating? "Noh, I dohn't mind. Should I?" He asked, genuinely interested, because it really was an odd sort of request.

After a second, he realized that he was doing the thing. "Ihf I ahlready tohld you, just tehll me." He offered, giving Gabriel a chance to skip the 'repeat.' Taking a bite of the tuna sandwich, he actually made a slight noise and wrinkled his nose. He finished chewing, and decided against finishing that, nudging it gently to the edge of his plate.

"I ahm weird 'cause I dohn't remehmber things fohr very lohng. Thah'ts why I try everything and cohme ohff kind of crazy. Ahnd why I dohn't knohw you if we ahlready meht before." He grabbed at the grapes, before popping one in his mouth and savoring the sweetness.

[Gabriel Mendes]

Gabriel nodded at the explanation he got from the younger man, not really surprised by his choice to do so. It was a good thing that he was open to exploring at such a young age.

He shook his head at the rhetorical question. He supposed he didn't have to be weirded out either. It was just lunch between two people. He gave a short laugh at Beau's response to eating the sandwich. He turned to see what sandwich it was and made a face when he realised that it was tuna. "Well, you certainly set yourself up for that." He chuckled before turning back around to Beau before realising he probably didn't hear that.

When Beau began to talk, Gabriel nodded before he tried to gather every single bit of memory he had on his lessons on ASL and decided to sign. Is that because of your abilities?

[Beau Robinson]

His face wore all the signs of someone thoroughly unhappy with the flavor in his mouth, but the tuna was a distant memory. He was sure he'd forget, and some day, he'd remember why he did the instagram thing, and use it to at least have an idea of what he did and did not like. Today? Today was not that day.

"It's awfuhl." He said, declaring his opinion to the world. Of course, he always felt a twinge of guilt when his experiments yielded less-than-tasty results, because it meant he wasted food. No, no, that was no good.

Ah well, he was sure that at this point people understood that he was probably always going to mess up, because... well, that was his life.

His explanation seemed to make sense to the other guy, and since it wasn't a repeat, he just nodded his affirmative. "I cahn do stuff I see." Sure, it was a little simplistic, but he wasn't gonna do a dance and jig to demonstrate. Or a backflip. He was pretty sure he could still do a backflip. But honestly... he was eating.

Swallowing another bite of fruit ( a slice of apple ) he shrugged, before signing. "Gohtta make roohm for thaht stuhff, so I forgeht everythihng."

[Gabriel Mendes]

Gabriel winced playfully and shrugged at how bad it must actually be for someone to have to experience things he already knew all over again. Although that must have it's ups somehow, right?

The explanation was quite simple and Gabriel nodded to show his understanding. Muscle memory? He signed. At least he hoped that was what he signed. Looks like he would have to brush up on that again.

Is it easier for you to lipread or let me continue with my bad signing? He laughed lightly.

[Beau Robinson]

Gabriel called it muscle memory and after a second, he shrugged and nodded. Context clues given what it was, that sounded right. He traded out regular memory for muscle memory, which was... just lame. Or maybe not lame, but less advantageous than he'd guess. Some people could do all sorts of superpowered stuff and the worst they got was a headache.

Bitter? Nope.

( Maybe a little. )

"Mohst people cahn't sign, so I lihp read okay." He replied, casually. "Buht I like signing behtter." He explained - it was all about the differences in the way people said things. Some people had accents, some people spoke slightly different or had weird pronunciations and inflections.

Signing took that out of the equation. "Ihf you say something weird, I will ahsk." He added, with a grin. "Whaht do you do?"

[Gabriel Mendes]

Gabriel nodded in acknowledgement of Beau's preference. He could hold a conversation well enough. He just couldn't use big words. Fair enough.

He nodded again when Beau assured him that he would check his signing. Thanks. I'm a- he paused, stuck on the word recruiter. He laughed and did the sign he actually knew which roughly translated to kidnapper.

"Sorry, I don't know how to sign recruiter?" He said as slowly as he could for Beau to catch what he was saying.

[Beau Robinson]

Kidnapper?

He blinked, clearly not getting it - until the other guy explained. Recruiter was a word he encountered often enough, but in all honesty, he couldn't remember the sign for it, either. He must not use it very often. After humming uncertainly, he went to his phone, and brought up a sign language dictionary.

A quick search later had the pleasant-looking woman giving him the sign - which he then translated to Gabriel.

"I dohn't remehmber thehm ahll the time either." He offered. "Buht I meant your abihlity." He pointed this out with a tiny smirk, before grabbing a banana and unpeeling it. He made an effort to eat a banana and an orange at least once or twice a month. Forgetting those fruits was often a hilariously bad scenario. No one warned you when you were about to bite through the skin of those kinds of fruits.

"Sohmething wild, I beht? Since you have to wrangle people like me?"

[Gabriel Mendes]

"Oh!" Gabriel chuckled to himself, clearly the victim of loss in translation. "Right. Uh..." He struggled a little before he remembered the right sign for the words ability and dampener. I can stop our kind from using their abilities.

He didn't consider his abilities wild at all. Worst comes to worst, he would use purely defensive methods to subdue the recruits. And it was always a good thing that they would usually pair him up with someone who could complement the recruiter's abilities. Only if they think he won't be able to handle the recruits and usually he could.

How long have you been here and how are you coping?