Dance, Dance, Revolution!

[morg]

-- open

Someone had managed to find a decent sized television set and hooked up a console to it. Naturally there had been an argument about what game to play. Rockband had been suggested. As had Guitar Hero. In the end, someone had suggested they put in Dance, Dance, Revolution, because everyone had fun with that.

Morgan had heard about the Cavanites' latest set up, and had taken that as an opportunity to have some fun. No one really cared of members of the different dormitories mixed with one another, it was encouraged in fact. Morgan had actually gathered quite a few friends among the Cavan house, and not solely because of her name.

She'd been watching people play the game for a while now, their feet blurring over the dance pad. One particularly talented Asian guy had been doing incredibly well. He probably had enhanced reflexes or something, not that people cared that much.

Finally someone noticed that Morgan hadn't taken a turn yet, and called the youngest Cavan over.

Morgan had grinned fiercely, eagerly anticipating another challenge. She quickly selected a rather difficult song and cranked the difficulty up as high as possible. Soon she was dancing away, the other pad wide open in case someone else wanted to jump in.

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion, despite his age (or mabye because of it) was actually very good at Guitar Hero... but it wasn't playing. But no one was willing to go up against the girl who seemed to be hitting perfect on the hardest song on the hardest level. Throwing off her jacket, he jumped on the pad next to the girl.

Perfect
Good
OK
OK
Poor
MISS
MISS

Garion wasn't getting anywhere, and the girl was too good. One time Garion thought he saw three controls at once... which gave him an idea. Using his telekenisis, and his own two feet, he started scoring marginally better, but still not enough to beat the girl.

[morg]

It was times like this that Morgan wished she could actually switch her Gift off. She had enough talent without the Gift to at least keep up with the song. With the Gift she was unconsciously slaughtered her competitor.

And she felt a little bad about it, as it was apparently a kid. But he was concentrating hard, and giving in to him would just insult him. So she continued dancing, though managed to spare a few glances the kid's way.

He was doing... something, to keep up. But Morgan couldn't figure out what for the life of her. Sometimes these things were just plain beyond her.

"Not bad, kid!" she called, returning her gaze to the screen. She still hadn't managed to miss once, and again felt a twinge of guilt. People seemed to enjoy watching her though, and no one seemed particularly put out by her performance.

Most were cheering just as hard for the kid, trying to give him suggestions.

[Garion DeLuse]

"You... are... really.. good..." Garion danced wildly, driven by some compulsion to win like never before. His mental foot was stepping on dance pads faster and faster, until he didn't even have to think about it anymore. All though was driven from his mind except for Up, Left Down- Right, Left left up down right down up left right down right left.

He started to get light headed. The dancing would be enough to tire him out, but using telekenisis like that was adding that much more strain. He sliped and fell, his head thudding on the ground. Falling, he caught an energy drink from a watcher's hand, and drank it to attempt to regain strength.

[morg]

The moment the kid fell from the dance pad, Morgan dove. She didn't quite stop him from hitting the ground, but managed to lever him up enough so that drinking that energy drink would be a good deal easier.

"Jeez, kiddo, you aren't supposed to dance yourself to death," joked Morgan.

Several other watchers had gathered around, trying to see if the kid was alright. A few healers had stepped forward, nervously eying them. But Morgan waved them off, figuring that the other had just gotten temporarily exhausted. The drink should do it.

"You shouldn't have tried to win," she chided. "I've got Adoptive Muscle Memory, and a tendency toward watching way too much YouTube."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "I can't even stop from nailing it. Still, you did awesome, kid. Hey, name's Morgan, by the way."

Still supporting Garion with one hand, she extended another for him to shake. "Nice beating you," she teased, winking.

[Garion DeLuse]

"Garion... nice... to meet you" Garion said, finishing the stolen energy drink. "Blech... Blue Raspberry. So that's how you did it! And I felt bad about using TK to hit extra notes. So, are you a Cavan? I'm a Wingrose." Garion's head stopped from pounding, and his strength returned. He 'grabbed' a napkin from a table, and mopped up his sweat streaked face.

He blushed at the small crowd circling them, and stood up to show them he was fine. His hand reached back and felt a minor goosebump on his head.

[morg]

Since Garion was clearly fine, the other students relaxed. Smiles and nods were handed out, along with a couple of slaps of encouragement. Most of the people were just as impressed with Garion as Morgan, if not more so.

One guy stepped forward, lightly touching the back of Garion's head and dealing with the bump there. Soon it would be as if he hadn't been hurt at all, though Garion might feel a bit light headed from the experience.

"Only Cavan in name," offered Morgan, smirking. "Morgan Cavan, house is Almasy though."

She nodded to Garion, rising to her feet. Clap to the boy's back, everything was fine here, folks, move along.

"C'mon, let's get you seated somewhere. I don't know about you, but I'm tired. And I wasn't using secret mind powers to cheat," Morgan winked at Garion, and headed for a nearby seat, still within sight of the game.

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion laughed, and sat down on a nearby wooden chair, watching the next two kids (who were pretty good, but were an anticlimax compared to Morgan). Then, his voice dripping with playful sarcam

"Yes, it must be horrible to automatically win at everything... although to think of it, I don't think ther are many extreme Twister YouTube videos floating around."

Garion stared at the ongoing game, never taking his mind off the conversation.

"You know... you are the only person I know who doesn't even mind the fact I'm so much younger than everyone else. You have an impressingly open mind."

Impressingly? Is that even a word?

[morg]

"Who needs extreme Twister when you've got porn?" teased Morgan, smirking. It was purposefully said to get a rise out of Garion, but she did that every once in a while.

Her eyes went to the game, watching the arrows. The two up there were doing fairly well, but neither of them had a Gift for it. Just a couple of talented teenagers doing their thing. In many ways, that was more impressive then the show Morgan had just put on.

"Wait, you're younger?" her eyes widened. "Seriously? And here I thought you were some odd race that aged slower or something..."

She reached out and poked him tentatively with a finger. "You sure you're not a mutant freak?"

Wait a few seconds then... she grinned, winking.

"I can't help but be a little open-minded, really. My brother teaches here, dates a girl that flies, and his best friend is a lesbian werewolf. Some things expand your worldview, you know?" she chuckled, shaking her head. "But I usually go by how you act, not how you look. My brother's the same way. He's the head of Cavan house, by the way."

She nodded. "Besides, I'm used to nieces and nephews. Got a nephew that's probably your age or so."

[Garion DeLuse]

At Morgan's remark, Garion face flared up brighter that the TV screen. Less that healthy thoughts sprang up in his head (the kid reads medical journals, he is quite familiar with... things), and to distract himself, he tried to raise up the TV screen. It lifted up an inch, then fell. His strength came back too fast though. He paid attention to the conversation at hand.

Garion couldn't tell if Morgan was joking about the race, freak thing or not... the suprised look on her face was pretty convincing, but so was her thoughts.

NOT DISTRACTING ENOUGH, NOT DESTRACTING ENOUGH

Garion stabbed for something to talk about.

"I'm an only child. I didn't really get along with my younger cousin, as Barney kind of loses it's flare after about half a second. My parent have no idea where or what I am. They just think this is some super-advanced school for the gifted."

Garion chuckled as he saw the pun in the name.

"Teachers didn't know how to handle me. I skipped a few grades back in my old school, but I still wasn't being challenged enough. Worse than that, I was bullied for my size and intelligence, and when I'm angry..."

Garion paused, and realise that he had just blabbed out most of his life story out. Not that he cared about his private life, but that it might be a bit... akward for Morgan.

[morg]

Morgan seemed to have a talent for getting people to spill their life stories. She'd managed to do it with Locke, who struck her as someone Garion would get along great with. Heck, it hadn't taken her that long to get Noah to spill. Even Eiji bothered to talk with her everyone once in a while.

Nice to know I've got a talent beside all the amazing flippy physical stuff.

"Nice," she nodded, "I'm the youngest of five, and only my brother and I are special. Dad's a healer though, so that's probably where we got it," she shrugged, then nodded at Garion, "people are stupid, aren't they? I get razzed because I'm bit into sports and stuff. I know it's not the same as the whole smart kid thing, but still," she shrugged, "it sucks when people are too busy looking at you to see what you're really like."

She grinned now, ruffling Garion's hair. Couldn't help it, the kid just looked so cute.

"Just watch out for Almasies, and you'll be fine here. Most of us are asses," she nodded, then turned to look at the screen, watching arrows for a bit and thinking.

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion laughed. "People at this school are so unpredictable. Seriously, it was almost as if I could read thier minds. People in this school, not so much. I mean, one minute I'm having my morals and maturity questioned, and the next minute I'm being attacked by a girl and her cronies." He laughed again. Garion was glad Morgan went along with him writing her an autobiography, and eased up.

"It makes me wonder if I have my defenses to wound up, or not wound up enough." Realising that wasn't really clear, he added. "I mean, maybe if I become a little less withdrawn, I'll get along better. Or I'll get eaten alive." He sighed, then wondered iff he had just made a friend.

[morg]

"Yeah, that's pretty accurate," agreed Morgan, nodding. "But you gotta remember, there's people here from everywhere. we were in Britain right before this, and there were all kinds of strange people there."

She frowned, thinking about girls and cronies. There were a few groups like that, but only one that was overly offensive. Made her wonder if Garion had had a run in with the campus Queen Bee. She made a note to check it out. No one should be able to bully people like that. It was just disgusting.

"It's kinda hard to tell, defense wise," offered Morgan. "I mean, I'm used to talking to weird people, like I said. And I know I can handle myself. So I try to keep an open mind, but keep up some defense. Can't help it, really. Especially around here. I mean, there are demons around. Though most of them are cool."

She nodded at one of the teens in the crowd, who just happened to have a tail and horns. "It takes some getting used to. Don't worry though, you just have to find the right people to watch out for you.

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion was glad for the support. Morgan was one of the easiest people to talk to, and Garion couldn't help trusting her. "Who woke up and decided "Hey, let's have a school full of unpredictable teenagers with untrained and instable powers, and have them LIVE together!" anyway?" The complaint was more of a joke to lighten up the serious conversation.

"Speaking of powers, how does yours work? I mean, mine is pretty simple, but things like Adaptive Muscle memory and Gift Mimicry are more complicated. If you, say, learn watch someone do a handstand-ollie triple kickflip, can you do it three years later? And what happens if you, say, watch a movie and one of the action effects are simulated? What happens then?" Garion polished off his energy drink.

"If it isn't too personal."

[morg]

"Same genius who thought we should put people together based on a shared trait. Seriously, all the prideful people are in one house, it's killer," Morgan shook her head. While she liked quite a few Almasys, such as the bearer of the name and his best friend, most of the worst people in the school also happened to wear purple.

"Gift Mimicry's actually easier to understand than mine," offered Morgan. "I've only seen one sponge though, and that's my brother, Kennedy. He gets three Gifts at a time, and it's based on whoever he met last. Say he was sitting with us. He'd have my Muscle thingy, your telekinesis, and some other Gift. Probably Flight. His girlfriend flies, and he rarely goes a day without seeing her."

Morgan wrinkled up her nose at this. She liked Angela, and loved what she did to Kennedy. Didn't mean the lovey dovey stuff didn't make her somewhat ill, especially when it included her brother.

"Me, I remember how to do everything I see. But I can't, like, explain it to you. Well, I can explain martial arts, because I actually study those. But, for example, I can do a backflip, because I saw it on a kids' show when I was five," she raised her eyebrows, smirking. "And I've actually tried some really sweet wall climbs and stuff like that. The bad part is I can only imitate stuff that humans can actually do. So, like, if a guy could actually, say, bend over backwards completely, so can I. Well, if I could. I don't have enough muscle to lift some weights or something, even if I know how to do it."

She shrugged, then leaned back in the chair. The current match of DDR had just about ended, and she was debating hopping back up. Not to avoid the conversation, but just because she was itching to play again.