Teenage Satellites (OPEN)

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden was happily enjoying her day now that her classes had finished for the day. Too lazy to make it all the way back to her dorm, she found an unoccupied lecture hall and took a seat in the back row. She liked lecture halls because the stadium seating was often comfier than the chairs in smaller classes. Not to mention someone could come in and there were plenty of places comfortably far away from her to sit. She liked her space. She leaned back and hoisted her feet up on the seat in from of her and pulled an old book and her phone out of her bag. Aiden was a huge fan of losing herself. She had a lot of crippling anxiety to deal with and not enough will power to keep it under wraps all the time. Just your average nineteen year old trying to make it in the world. She scrolled through her music for a moment and put on some particularity agnsty Blink 182 before popping in her headphones and picking up her book.

Though she hardly considered herself a romantic, it was a Jane Austin novel she opened. She was already about halfway though, though the tattered cover made it obvious she'd read it a few times before. She considered it a guilty pleasure. She adjusted her position a few times, trying to get comfortable in her tattered jean shorts and worn tee. Her hair spilled over he shoulders and behind her chair. After a moment she sigh and settled into a world beyond her own. She hoped in occupying all of her senses she would not only forget life and its many problems for a moments, but keep others from trying to pull her back. An interruption was the last thing she needed.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

There was someone else here! That took Lorelei a few moments to realize. See, she'd been dutifully recording some observational notes in her book (it might have been a little fanfiction-esque), and she might have lost track of time. So she knew she was still sort of in a lecture hall, but it was quiet and there was that whole thing with Lorelei in the library (one cork board, really). But now someone was sitting kind of near her, in the same sort of row.

Lorelei flicked through notes, alternating looks between the notes and the girl sitting nearby. She had to be one of them, right? She had that sort of look. "Oh! She's the one that's half-penguin!" Lorelei paused for a moment, drumming her fingers. Then she subtly, carefully, leaned over and looked down. She carefully checked Aiden out, determined to see if there were feathers or flippers or some other penguin-esque characteristic. Really, Lorelei probably would have settled for some mermaid hint of some kind, but she was aiming for penguin. This meant she did see the title of the book, or at least the author.

"Who's Jane Austen?" Lorelei mumbled, flicking through notes. Nothing.She really needed to get one of those phone things or something. Finally, Lorelei just couldn't take it any more. She shifted down a seat. Waited. Then shifted down another. She leaned over, staring but not quite staring at Aiden, waiting to see if she'd be noticed. She may have to hop over again, if it came to it...

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden hadn't noticed the other person in the room at first. She had been so absorbed in settling in and chilling out, that she hadn't really thought it necessary to scan the area. Usually the hall was big enough that you felt some sense of privacy without truly being alone. She figured, even if someone else was there, why would they bother her? Most people didn't head to an almost empty lecture hall to be sociable. Most people.

She hadn't noticed her at first, but it only took a minute before she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Aiden try to focus on herself. This was her time to recharge. She hadn't moved into a house yet that had her own room, so her choices for quite places were limited. Besides, the girl wasn't really Doing anything, just....looking at her. OK so it was a little annoying, but maybe if she didn't say anything she would just stop. She tried to listen to her music. She kept her nose stuck in the book, but wasn't reading. She could see the girls mouth moving, but couldn't hear anything over her punk. Just as well. Just ignore her.

Aiden began to read again, then chanced a quick glance in the girl's direction. Was she getting closer. Aiden turned back to her book and read the same sentence again. This time she heard the squeak of the seat, despite her headphones.

That's it.

She pulled her earbuds out and turned to face the girl with a look of clear irritation on her face.

"Do you need something?"

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

There were apparently these things in Aiden's ears that needed removing before she could speak. That struck Lorelei as maybe a little unusual, but given the way magic and sometimes technology and whatnot worked, she supposed it wasn't all that unusual. She was at least asking. "Why? Can you great wishes or something? Does that come from the penguin blood inside you or is that more of a mermaid thing? It sounds more like a mermaid thing," Lorelei pursed her lips, considering, "since there are precedents of talking fish that grant wishes and so on. I don't know if there's any legends of that nature involving penguins. But if you don't mean, like,' Lorelei waved a hand, "in a magical metaphorical sense, then I suppose there's nothing I strictly need from you. I'm just, like, well, I've never spoken to someone who's got your kinda unique parentage. I know you were all in your own world with the Jane Austen book," no, Lorelei still had no clue who that was and it bothered her but she was going to press on, "and apparently the, uh, either magic or technology that's in those things," she pointed to the earbuds, "that makes it hard for you to either speak or talk."

Lorelei paused for a moment, before leaning over and sticking out a hand. "I'm Lorelei, by the way. Nice to meet you, Aiden."

[Aiden Mumble]

"Grant wh-" Aiden managed, dumbly. She was so shocked by this first question, she lost control of her stony expression in favor of one utter shock. She thought to regain herself, but failed miserably when the stranger continued. Penguin? Mermaid? What the hell?

"I don't-" she tried again when there was the briefest of pauses in the girl's rant. She wanted to say she didn't grant wishes. Despite the mentioning of penguins and and mermaids, Aiden still couldn't understand what about her screamed "fairy godmother" to this wannabee princess. Without another moment to speak, Aiden simply stared. Her lips parted in confusion and slowly opened wider til she was full on gaping at the odd string of thoughts being pushed upon her. By the times she reached "Jane Austin," Aiden had to shut her mouth and look down to remember what she was talking about. Then she stuffed the book roughly in her bag. She hoped this crazy wouldn't go around shouting about it.

Aiden crossed her arms now, waiting for her to finish. She didn't know what headphone's where? Geez, what planet did the school fish this girl off of? Aiden rolled her eyes, the initial shock of the situation wearing off. That is, until this "Lorelei" said her name.

Aiden sat up, looking alarmed and annoyed.

"Who the hell told you my name?" She shot at her in a rather unfriendly manner. Who was this girl and who put her up to this? Had she been stalking her? What was going on here!?

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Why was it that everyone around here seemed to respond to Lorelei's genuine questions and interest with those weird looks and half-formed responses? It was like nobody around here could manage to come out with a full sentence, which made Lorelei wonder how exactly they got into all the drama that she kept hearing about. Maybe it involved a complex series of grunts and a lot of physical contact.

At least there was a question, albeit one that made Lorelei realize she'd made a slight oops. "That's your name?" she tried, knowing even as she said it that was it wholly unconvincing. Lorelei blinked. "I just thought that you look like an Aiden, y'know? You got that Aiden look. And the whole Aiden vibe going on. very Aiden of you. I definitely haven't done exhausted research about everyone that goes to this school, because that would be super weird, right? it was totally just a guess. A shot in the dark, maybe," Lorelei paused again, realizing she should switch topics.

"So do you like the, uh, ear---things?" she asked, gesturing at them. "They do seem useful at blocking out sound," Lorelei smiled apologetically. "Which you may be wanting to do right now..."

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden's look of shock and frustration only intensified as Lorelei tried to back pedal. Her eyes narrowed threateningly. With her sharp blue eyes, she attempted to intimidate the girl into telling the truth, instead she got a whole lot more rambling and silly nonsense. Eventually she got to a bit where she basically admitted to doing research on everyone at the school. Where there files on her somewhere that this girl could just google or had seen been breaking into offices? Somehow Aiden didn't think this girl was capable of breaking anything...on purpose at least.

"Extensive research..." Aiden repeated, slowly, in the time it took Lorelei time to think of something else to say.

Aiden was annoyed, that was for certain. She didn't like people having that much information about her, it made her feel vulnerable. Still, she wasn't humorless. By the time Lorelei had reached the point of apologetically giving Aiden a way out of the conversation, she'd raised an eyebrow in curiosity. She chewed her cheek in thought, giving the girl a once over. She was cute, but that wasn't really relevant. All and all, Aiden decided there wasn't really a point in yelling at the little thing. Not to mention her energy levels reminded her a little of her parents, whom she loved despite this flaw.

"They play music." she offered, at last. She leaned back in her chair, still eyeing Lorelei with curiosity. "Where'd they find you? Under a rock?" How could this girl know so much about her, but not know how earbuds worked?

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei's head bobbed at the mention of her research. So she might have had some access to information about her peers and their parents and done a little too much questioning when it came to the parents. Did that really make her all that odder than the rest of the people wandering around in here? Really?

"Ah, so they're probably connected to something else that plays a--" Lorelei began, only to pause for a moment. She let out a nervous giggle at Aiden's eerily accurate guess as to where she'd come from. "Something like that? Like, I'm kind of aware of that sort of stuff and all, but I'm still picking up some of the differences. It's, like, I know about some of the tech and all in kind of the abstract, like from books and discussions and all, but I haven't seen them or anything." Lorelei shrugged.

"I mean, c'mon, is that really that weird, considering where we are? Most of our parents are super weird. Y'know, like, mermaids or wizards or queens or ex-robots or something. But, like, are you listening to super angry, grr, screw the world kinda music, or are you secretly into the happy skippy flower stuff?" Lorelei grinned, leaning forward to try and look conspiratorial.

[Aiden Mumble]

A rock? Really? had Aiden actually been close? She was trying to be ridiculous, buy judging by Lorelei's reaction she wasn't far off. This girl probably wasn't going to be Aiden's best friend, but she was sweet in a weird sort of way. She didn't seem to be intentionally trying to piss Aiden off. That was about as close as most people got to being ok in Aiden's book. Aiden simply stared, a bit bemused, as Lorelei went on about her lack of knowledge when it comes to technology. That's funny, she was the second person she'd met recently that was like that.

She had a good point about the general weirdness of the school and their parents. Still, Aiden was somehow constantly surprised by the people she met here. Weird parentage she understood, but she grew up in a fairy "normal" world, at least be her standards. There was technology and people without magic, even people who didn't even know mermaids existed. So, perhaps it was a little strange in that manner.

Aiden was brought back to the conversation when Lorelei questioned her music. Aiden's felt a pang of annoyance at the idea that she was secretly into anything. This was mostly because she had a lot of secrets. Still, she forgave her, because being into flowery music was not one of them. "I've never really considered "grr" a genre of music, but now that you mention it, that's definitely my preferred theme." She lifted one of the earbuds and offered it to her. Blink 182 could still be heard faintly issuing from the small device.

"By the way, I'm curious. Is it a Queen or an ex-robot? You know my parents, it only seems fair I know yours." Not to mention, Aiden liked leveling the playing field.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Uh, I've heard some stuff that's pretty 'grr,'" Lorelei insisted, raising her hands to do air quotes. Most of what she'd heard that wasn't part of the whole medieval sort of music that was actually contemporary for her situation had come from overhearing her siblings (and Mom sometimes, and Arthur at least once...). She leaned over to take the bud, carefully holding it up to her ear. She silently listened to the music for a few beats, head bobbing for a bit.

"What?" she all but yelled, blinking. "Oh, I guess robot makes more sense, right? Well, surprise! I'm actually one of Guinevere's kids. You know," she waved the hand not holding the bud in a circular motion, "princess of the summer country, one of, like, half a dozen or so of us running around the school and junk. So I'm, like, sort of legit a princess? But I'm, like, daughter six of six, and my dad's not exactly royal so..."

Lorelei shrugged. "Do I really sound like someone who's parents were a robot? Because that would be super cool, don't you think? Like, maybe get laser eyes or rocket powered fingers or something."

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden blinked hard when Lorelei shouted back at her. She had hoped giving her only one earbud would prevent this. Alas, it did not, and her ears were offended. A princess, huh? Wait didn't she say her mom was a princess? Wouldn't that make her a duchess or something? Aiden should know, her mom is a princess too. Still, her mom never made her learn much about her royal blood. She'd never have to rule Atlantica or anything so there really wasn't much point. Plus Aiden didn't love being a mermaid. For one, most of the time she grew a tail, it wasn't on purpose. Her mother also needed some magical assistance to turn herself back to her original form so visiting that side of the family wasn't all that common.

"My mother has a lot of siblings too." Aiden commented, flatly. "But you probably already knew that."

Aiden knew about the Guinevere kids, she figured most people did. There were too many of them to avoid hearing about at least one. Aiden, of course, hadn't really met one before now. For that she'd actually have to make an effort at being social.

"If your parent's were robots, you'd know what headphones are." Aiden said with a raised eyebrow and a twinkle in her eye. Also she was pretty sure being the child of a robot didn't cause you to inherit laser vision. Then again, what did she know? This girl apparently came from some world where they lived under rocks.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei grinned at the acknowledgement of her (obsessive) research. "Yeah, I bet that holidays are loads of fun. Doesn't your dad have, like, a super large extended family or something? Oh! Do you turn into a penguin or a mermaid when you go through the portals? Or is it, like, some combination of the two? A merpenguin? Or maybe a sort of werepenguin centaur sort of hybrid thing?"

Lorelei was tempted to dig out the pictures she'd drawn making guesses about this. She'd been super interested ever since she'd done (way too much) research into the matter, after all. She might have had she not giggled at the comment Aiden came up with next. "You are so totally right! Like, I'd probably be implanted with special technological device things that let me hear music whenever I want though. Maybe I'd be so far technologically that I'd be all," she held up the earbud, "what is this strange device from your weird planet?"

Another giggle that might have included a snort came out of Lorelei, as she again lowered the bud to her ear. "Is this a recording of music impressed onto a device? Or is it streaming it through some sort of wave or something?"

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden grimaced at the idea of being a mermaid/penguin hybrid. She felt another flash of annoyance watching Lorelei imagine what she must look like when she transforms. It was even more annoying because it wasn't entirely a wild accusation. Aiden did turn into a mermaid if she became submerged in water...or if she was caught of guard for some reason. Her parents had always thought it was a phase when she was growing up. Bath time was a full on nightmare. Once she was old enough to bath herself, Aiden started telling her parents that it didn't happen anymore so they didn't worry. Up til now it still seemed to be a functional lie, but she lived in fear that she might trip into a pool for some reason while they were around. Needless to say, Aiden didn't go to many pool parties.

Anyway. Back to the Penguin thing.

"You got your lines crossed somewhere because my dad's not actually a penguin." she clarified. "It's a weirdly common rumor, though." She mused, thinking on the times she'd had to make this correction before. Her dad liked penguins alright, but she wasn't sure at what point people started assuming he had actually been one.

Aiden didn't like the words 'so' and 'totally' put together on principle, but she tried not to grimace too hard. Lorelei continued with another odd rant and Aiden's face betray her once again. What a weird person.She didn't have anything to say to this. What could she say? Aiden raised her eyebrows at the snort and bit her lip to keep from laughing at her expense. Lorelei turned her attention back to the music. Geez, how could this girl know so much and so little at the same time.

Then a beautiful idea struck Aiden.

Aiden sat back up. "I don't know, I'm not sure how it works." she rushed, brushing off her question so she could get to what she really wanted to say. "So who else have you done research on?" she said, trying to sound casual. "Do you only know about people who are going to the school now, or do you maybe know about people who went here and left?" She said, trying to sound like she might be asking for a friend and definitely not herself. Why would she care if someone went to this school and left anyway? They were gone. Still, she couldn't help herself.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Really? Because everything I've seen says something about--" Lorelei paused for another second, considering. "Are you trying to hide your secret penguin heritage? I do suppose that would make you a more likely candidate for princesshood, since they're probably--"

Wait, an actual question! That had Lorelei pausing, looking to Aiden. There was a brush off of Lorelei's question, probably the one regarding how the whole earbud thing worked. Thankfully, Lorelei could probably be distracted by waving a blinking ball in front of her face, let alone a question that actually dealt with what she'd spent most of her life obsessing over.

"Uh, mostly people who went to or are going to this school,' Lorelei said. "I mean, like, I know a stupid amount about our parents, since I kind of picked that up from listening to conversations and reading old journ--dia---research papers." Lorelei flashed a quick smile, obviously feeling that somehow worked. "And I know a lot about, like, the current class," she extended her hand, fingers splayed, and circled it. "Like, all the bajillion siblings I have, and like, the sort of demon and sort of vampire and sort of penguin and the girl who has two dads, I think?" Lorelei's brow furrowed. "I kinda respect her personality... oh, and did you know that at least three of us have world ending prophecies of doom and disaster around us? I have a chart..."

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden was focused now, she had no interest in anything else Lorelei had to say, rude as it was. Yes, yes, of course she didn't believe her about the penguin bit, why where people so set on believe that? Whatever, it didn't matter right now. Lorelei, sweet, cute Lorelei had information that she could use. If she could just be sure he left because he had a job to do...This girl may not have much, but anything that she didn't already know might help, right?

Her heart raced, too excited to worry about looking like a fool. Who was she trying to impress anyway? This girl? Absolutely not. She leaned closer when she began to answer her question. Ok, so far so good. He had just recently left, after all. So she must know something. Ugh, but she was taking too long to get to the point. Damn, she rambled a lot. Yes, good, she have a lot of siblings and Aiden had heard of Nancy before.

Vampires?

This got Aiden's attention. They may have been only one other person she could be interested in hearing about, although it was for an entirely different reason. Aiden mulled this over. Getting dirt on Costin sounded good. Not to mention...a little easier than trying to navigate her other desire just yet. Aiden hadn't even quite thought through what she would ask. "So I know you just have general information, but could you tell me if Hinrik left because he gave up on me? Thanks." Yeah. Unlikely. Costin it is.

"Cool, cool" Aiden responded to her doomsday mentioning as if she'd made a silly comment about someone'd weekend plans. She was distracted, after all.

"I'm really interested in vampires." Aiden said, trying to sound genuine without giving the impression that she was talking to a toddler. "I didn't know we had someone at the school like that."