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 Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:14 pm
The bustle of late-lunch crowd buzzed around Veer, HITS students speaking too loudly too close behind him, wide-eyed younger kids stressing out about final exams and projects, closely-approaching deadlines. Veer himself, a zombie-inspired hoodie thrown over the slightly-modified mess of his uniform top, was crouched at one of the tables. At his left elbow: two liters of Mountain Dew, brought from home. At his right: half a slice of pizza remaining, and the crusts from two more pieces. A large lunch. How was he still so slim? The computer in front of him had several windows open. One of them was an English paper which was more like three lines of text and a lot of blank after it, his research only half-assed. One of them was his browser, about nine tabs open, each holding some piece of information that he just couldn't quite bring himself to throw away. The last -- the active one -- was an IRC channel that moved almost too fast to keep up with, a small group of people filling page after page with text. Someone said something funny. Veer snorted and leaned back away from the table, chair shoved back just a few inches. It was thoughtless, torn between amused and annoyed, and thoroughly wrapped up in what he was doing.
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:31 pm
It was not uncommon that students were crowding the cafeteria, though Jett was rather surprised at the number of them trying to study or work here. It wasn’t the most conventional place for some last minute cramming given how loud and distracting cafeterias always were. He had a test in an hour and didn’t want to chance leaving campus for lunch, so he decided to do something he rarely did—fetch himself some school lunch.
Nothing looked particularly appetizing, but Jett was a little spoiled in what he usually helped himself to for lunch. He had already eaten—and survived—the school lunch and was up to dispose of the trash when he noticed a rather familiar—yet distinctly peculiar—sight.
He had met Veer only once before, and even then it had been relatively impersonal and they’d been in the company of enough people that he was lucky he even remembered the boy’s name.
Had Veer not snorted and leaned away from the table, Jett might not have paid him much mind, however the action was enough to warrant Veer a bit more of Jett’s attention.
The rebellious hairstyle. The self tailored uniform. That impressive hoodie. It was like he was begging for Jett’s attention.
And Jett couldn’t help himself.
He had plenty of time to kill before his exam, so he didn’t even bother to refrain from indulging himself in a little fun. He made his way over from to the table—hardly out of his way—and eyed Veer’s meal choice as he stood just slightly behind the male.
“A lot of food here,” Jett mused, looking at the remnants of what seemed to have been a rather large meal for such a seemingly scrawny boy. “…Do you always eat this much alone, or did your interpretation of fashion just frighten away all your lunch buddies?”
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:50 pm
He'd already leaned forward again, prepared to type up some witty [if chatspeak could ever be considered witty] reply to his IRC channel, when Jett came up behind him. Veer wasn't paying attention; the voice made him start, made him halfway turn, smile fading into a scowl until his eyes lit on Jett. He recognized the guy, but couldn't quite put his fingers on where they'd been -- most of his attention, that night, had been drawn in by Quinn. As always.
If they'd been closer, he would have shrugged off the faint insult as good-humored ribbing, might have laughed along and shrugged it off without even bothering to reply. As it stood, he couldn't decide if Jett was serious or joking, if that was supposed to get him all up in arms. He'd hate to disappoint, if the guy was looking for a fight.
So his eyes lit on the long blond hair, on Jett's expression, and he relaxed sideways in the chair, one arm draped over its back. Deliberately casual. Comfortable. "Sorry princess, did you say something?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:45 pm
“Ha ha,” Jett replied with mock humor. He seemed more amused than insulted, though the slight change of posture denoted he might have been a bit on the defensive side.
Yes, he had fantastic hair that most people might agree deemed him worthy of a haircut. Did having long hair make him any less capable of taking some punk out back and kicking his a**? Hardly. “You know, sitting all alone in the lunchroom with only your computer out, I might have pegged you to be some quick witted introvert, but if that’s the best you could come up with, you’ve sorely disappointed.”
Jett did not particularly have anything against Veer, however he knew very little of the male other than that they were supposed to be allies—and yet, sans the brief time they’d spent together shortly after the whole Surrounding incident, he hadn’t seen the male once. There was the time they both ended up at Quinn’s place, but that hardly counted for anything; it had been too crowded for any sort of comaradary to develop, and it didn’t help that Veer had been settled with Leto’s group instead of Requiem’s. Hell, Jett wouldn’t have even remembered the kid’s name if it hadn’t been so odd in the first place.
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 10:22 am
The mention of the computer sent Veer's eyes skating sideways, an almost reflexive gesture. The chat had kept scrolling while they talked, text marching its way up the screen. At this point, he'd pretty much certainly lost the thread of conversation, and he very rarely bothered with backreading. Whatever. If someone addressed him directly, at least, he'd get a ping.
He flicked a look back up to Jett and raised an eyebrow, giving up on one conversation in favor of another. "Man, I don't know what the hell kind of backassed century you live in, but these days sitting with your computer out is the ******** norm."
Not witty, maybe, but true; Veer almost certainly wasn't the only person there with a laptop, though most students were working and scrambling to finish up their food, not tapping idly away in a chat. Whatever. He picked up one of his pizza crusts to tear it in half.
"The world out here isn't half as interesting as the world in there." But then he paused. No. That wasn't entirely true. He flashed a grin. "...usually."
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:02 pm
That was something Jett couldn’t agree with. He hadn’t ever really partaken in cyberland any more than he had to. His one online hobby consisted of stalking stocks, but even then that was simple to do from your phone. Emails, sure, he could spit out a few. Instant messaging, chat boards, online gaming? Not his cup of tea. Jett was the type of person that, when you wanted to talk to someone, you picked up the phone and called them—or just popped up on their doorstep.
Another glance at Veer’s computer—he had followed the male’s gaze—told him that, while Veer might not have been the only one with his computer out, he had to be tech savvy on at least some level. Jett was lucky he knew how to open a Word document and search on google. “You really think that?” he asked, at least vaguely amused with Veer.
Most of his taunts and jibes towards people were ignored or received with embarrassment, though Veer did a fine job of playing along. “Not the sort of thing I’d expect to hear from someone who has the opportunity to run around tearing s**t up at night.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:49 am
There was a beat, just a pause, a delay -- Veer distracted by something someone said, his attention easily drawn away and around. It meant Jett's words took a moment to process before he realized he'd been spoken to. Veer liked to pretend he covered this up seamlessly, that he could easily multitask without losing anything in the process. He was wrong.
"...oh, well, I do that too, but I kind of always have." He sounded blaise about it, eyes lifting back up onto Jett' face, legs stretched out. He'd given up on the HITS shoes fast, and beneath his uniform he was back in his battered, flame-toed boots, even if they made the pants bulk awkwardly around his ankles. It was worth it.
"Do you need something, or are you just here to give me a hard time?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:32 am
Jett answered honestly, and with a shrug—“Mostly just came to give you a hard time.”
There was no reason too lie about it; Jett hadn’t had too much to do, saw someone he recognized, and simply couldn’t resist. Darwin or any of his other friends—because, he’d started to think of them as such, despite their differences—from the Surrounding weren’t around, so he had to make due with someone else.
Veer fit the bill.
He glanced around the cafeteria and added, “No one else really looked interesting. Boring crowd, today.”
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:07 am
"Interesting, huh?" Veer draped his arm over the back of his chair and grinned, suddenly, up at Jett. There was a spark in his eyes as he followed the other man's attention around the cafeteria and back, a quirk to one eyebrow that was dryly teasing.
"Look, princess..." It was more than likely that was a name that would stick, that he'd remember that where he'd been unable to remember Jett's name. Disastrous. It'd be even more problematic in uniform, and doubly so around their actual princess, but Veer wasn't thinking that far ahead.
"I know I'm irresistible, but I've got a bit of a thing going on with this girl, right now..." His dry tone faded toward something more wicked, now. "And you're not really my type, anyway."
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:20 am
The sheer absurdity of Veer’s words caught Jett off guard and he turned to look at the male, one brow quirked. “…You’re out of your damn mind,” he concluded after a second. “On the off chance that I ever decided to try and hit it off with a guy, it wouldn’t be some delusional, smart a** punk. But, nice try. I’m starting to think that your computer’s your preferred company since it doesn’t have legs to up and walk away.”
His feathers were ruffled, just slightly, but that wasn’t something he was going to flaunt to Veer. Jett very much liked women, and if that wasn’t obvious, well, Hell. Maybe it was time to get a haircut or something.
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:29 pm
Veer couldn't help the unabashed grin across his face as he peered up at Jett -- and oh, he actually did try. He wanted to affect an uncertain squint, like he wasn't quite convinced; he want'd to push the joke one step too far, as he was generally wont to do. He wanted to push and prod until Jett blew up. But he couldn't keep a straight face, which was probably good for both of them.
"My computer's my 'preferred company' because it does exactly what I tell it to." Veer reached out and patted the side of the machine as if it were a beloved pet, as if it had done good, just a gentle little tap. Oddly affectionate, since it was inanimate.
"Well, this one less so than the monster at home, this one can't handle any games and s**t, but eh, this is finals week, right, might as well pretend to be working." He leaned back again, raising an eyebrow at Jett. "I didn't know you went here. Does anyone else?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:07 pm
With Veer’s laugh, the whole mood seemed to change, and whatever tension clinging to the scene lifted a bit. Jett regarded him for a moment, deciding that there was something he liked about Veer. In a very non homosexual way, of course. If offered the chance, he would have been more than willing to drag Veer outside and knock the snot out of him for those jibes he’d been making. Fortunately, it hadn’t come to that; Veer had backed off and Jett wasn’t going to pick a fight again. He’d seen what Veer could do, and while bantering had been amusing, Jett had seen what he needed from the male.
“Raven,” he answered. “Blonde one with the boobs,” he described, in case Veer didn’t recall her from the time they’d met at Quinn’s. “Not sure if there’s anyone else. Not that I’ve run into, at least.” Not that he’d been looking; he pretty much stuck with his group from the Surrounding whenever he was feeling social. He shrugged; from what he knew of the school, a vast majority of people he’d gotten familiar with in the Surrounding had shown up here, and I he was missing anyone from the DMC, it was either because their schedules were just so different or he wasn’t really looking.
“Guess I’m not so good with keeping tabs on most of the group. Hardly ever bump into anyone after dark, either.”
Which wasn’t to say he would have minded such; he had his route and didn’t change it up too much unless something compelled him to. Veer was the first person from the group that he’d chatted up recently—other than Raven, but she definitely didn’t count. He had to chat her up.
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:53 am
'Raven' didn't ring quite so much of a bell as Kyu might have thought -- not even boobs seemed to draw Veer's expression into focus. He frowned a little, vague recollections of a girl like that behind Quinn at a party at some point, and wondered at what the hell that meant. He was tempted to ask 'just how big are her boobs?' so that, if nothing else, he could get a measure of how clueless he'd been recently.
"I uh, I don't know. I don't bump into people much after dark except Quinn. And Josh and Pascal, since they're crashing at my place. And Lydia sometimes, but only when she's bribing me into doing some b***h of a favor for her sorry a**..." Maybe Veer was still a bit sore about that. His frown deepened for a moment.
"...hmph. Are we supposed to meet up while we're, uh, working? Is that something we're supposed to do?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:48 pm
The more names Veer listed, the more Jett realized that he might need to be a little more active within the group. He spent most of his time working alone, so with Veer’s question, he felt completely unfit to answer. “Would certainly help pass the time,” he replied with a shrug as he leaned back in his chair a bit. He couldn’t recall ever having run into any knights or senshi—or negaversers, for that matter—that seemed to be working as a team. There were a few occasions where he’d bumped into more than one at a single time, however their interaction hardly seemed coordinated.
“Though, I suppose that wouldn’t be very conventional.” Gathering energy seemed a little harder when you were both working with someone to cover the same grounds. Spreading out would certainly pull in more energy, though there wasn’t the security of having backup should you run into a particularly menacing foe. Not that Jett had ever had that problem; he’d either been lucky or was just that damn awesome.
He was leaning towards the latter.
“If you’re such good friends with Quinn, though, why not ask her?” She was the veteran, after all. “…Unless, you know. You’re afraid of looking stupid in front of her or something.”
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 6:38 am
Was that a challenge? A friendly mockery, needling? Jett prodding at his pride to get a rise out of him? Well, it worked at least to some degree, Veer's eyes narrowing to slits as he considered the possibility. If nothing else, maybe Quinn herself -- or, Leto, rather -- would be willing to come out with him, and wouldn't that be a worthwhile endeavor.
All the same, he rolled his eyes, trying to shrug off a twitch of annoyance at Jett's comment. "Trying to get me to ask your questions for you? Scared of the ladies? That's...."
He hesitated, and then flashed a grin. "Actually not that unwise. Those girls have a violent streak in them, let me tell you."
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