The Beach, Thursday Afternoon

[solarhippie]

Well, it had been only a matter of time before Karolina found her way down to the beach, hadn't it? It was the wrong ocean, but a beach was a beach, and Karolina liked beaches. Sure, it was a little cloudy, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from enjoying herself. She'd even brought a little blanket with her, and spread that out on the sand so she could sit down, cross-legged and pushing her hair out of her face.

And since she had been prepared well enough to have a blanket with her, it should have come as no surprise that she'd also brought snacks. Just a few vegan treats and some apple juice to hold her over while she was here, recharging her batteries in more ways than one.

As she sat there, a few unwelcome thoughts crossed her mind – what Nico was doing right now, or Molly, or Chase, and whether there were beaches on Majesdane – but she pushed those aside and just looked out toward the water. Maybe she could grow to like this view.

[ooc: Open beach is open!]

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[ultron_junior]

Victor was on one of his walks, headphones firmly in place. (He'd been joking about self-destructing without the beach, but seeing the waves still made him a little less homesick. Funny, he'd never really been a huge beach person back home.)

He slowed his walk when he spotted Karolina. Other than seeing her in class, he'd been giving her space since the shuttle. But turning and going the other way just to avoid her would seem even weirder.

So.

"Oh, uh," he said, going a bit pink. "Hey there."

[OOC: Going to be slow due to work but had to.]

[solarhippie]

Karolina hadn't been exactly going out of her way to be around him, either. Not that Fandom hadn't already thrown stranger things at her than someone awkwardly proclaiming to know someone who looked a lot like her.

And it would've been rude to ignore him now. Karolina had no reason to be rude, so she gave him a little wave and a small smile. "Hi. Victor, right?"

[ultron_junior]

"That's me," he confirmed, and remembered to put his headphones down around the back of his neck. "And you're Karolina. Sorry for wigging out at you a little back at the airport. You settling in okay?"

It was still odd, but he could manage the polite small talk thing for a little while.

[solarhippie]

Karolina shrugged and gave him what was really the universal, wry 'well, it's Fandom' smile. "My roommate's a ghost," she offered. "Which is weird. But other than that I think I'm doing good."

Homesick, but she wasn't really sure what for, and wasn't going to bring that up.

"Are you?"

[ultron_junior]

"I'm making friends, I got a job," Victor said, matching her wry smile. "The crazy in this place is mostly the fun kind for me."

Because pony transformations hadn't happened yet.

"I may regret asking, but how come a ghost needs a room?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina shrugged again. "Because she wants to go to school?" she guessed. "I haven't really asked. I can't see her, so our conversations are a little, uh, slow. Some other people can see her, though. But I see a notepad."

[ultron_junior]

"I can't say school would be on my priority list if I was a ghost and most people couldn't see me," Victor said, and now he was going to wonder if he even could become a ghost. "But ... good for her, I guess? My roommate is just this very normal Canadian girl."

[solarhippie]

Hey, Karolina wasn't sure if she could become a ghost, either.

"Just... alive normal, or normal normal?" If he understood what she meant. "It's just that I was told this was a school for people in um, weird situations. Like, powered. But there seem to be pretty many people who are just ordinary."

In terms of powers, at least.

[ultron_junior]

"I'm not sure," Victor said, mulling it over. "If she has powers, she's either keeping it quiet or she doesn't even know yet."

He glanced over curiously. "I got the same sales pitch as you, though. Was yours a brochure?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina scrunched up her nose a little bit. "Well, they did give me one eventually." You know, after they'd already decided she was going to be sent here. She hadn't had much to do with that decision. "But yeah, I had one. Sounded like... Well, it sounded like a superpowered school."

[ultron_junior]

"No, that's what I thought too," Victor assured her. "Only independent and less ... well, less mutant-centric than most of the other ones."

His tone made it clear he didn't have an issue with mutants; he just wasn't one.

He glanced over. "I should tell you something."

[solarhippie]

Karolina really, really disliked that phrase. It wasn't anything personal against Victor: it was just something that didn't tend to work out great for her.

"Oh?" she said, looking up, trying not to look like she was expecting something bad.

[ultron_junior]

Victor heard that worried note in her tone, and he couldn't blame her. The number of great conversations in the history of the world that started 'I should tell you something' or 'we should talk' could probably be counted on ... half a hand. And he was already tensing up, because what kind of idiot was he, doing this when they were actually having a civil conversation?

"So at home," he said, and the sand was fascinating, "for me, obviously not for you -- yet, or maybe ever, I'm not some parallel universe expert -- we're teammates. So that's, uh, why I recognized you."

Hopefully it was less bad than some things Karolina might have feared.

"That's it."

[solarhippie]

Well, it could have been worse. Karolina's eyes still widened, though.

"You... know another me?"

Yes, Karolina, that's what he said.

[ultron_junior]

Victor nodded, feeling like he could breathe again. "Yeah. You and ... other people, yeah."

[solarhippie]

Karolina achewed on her lip, taking that in. "Like... uh, like Nico, and Molly?"

And the others.

[ultron_junior]

"Like that," Victor said. "And Chase. And Old Lace, I don't care if she's not exactly people."

He didn't say Klara's name, because he barely knew her. He didn't say Xavin's, because he figured if Karolina wasn't mentioning her fiancee there was a reason. And, for very different reasons, he was hoping he wouldn't get asked about Gert or Alex.

"I joined you guys ... like, almost a year ago? For me, anyhow."

[solarhippie]

"Even Old Lace?"

That mae Karolina brighten up some, though barely. They didn't know where Old Lace was, right now. She'd been taken into custody just like the rest of them.

But, she shook her head and almost looked apologetic. "But I've never met you before. Sorry?"

Or whatever it was you were supposed to say to people who knew you and you couldn't say the same about them.

[ultron_junior]

"It's not like we did it on purpose," Victor shrugged. "Just, uh, if my name ever does come up and I'm around? Tell me before you do anything else. The way we met in my world really could have gone better."

He still felt guilty about those damn bleachers.

[solarhippie]

"Oh-kay?" Karolina replied, with something of a curious look, but she wasn't sure she should be asking. Yet, anyway. "Sure. I can do that."

[ultron_junior]

He half-smiled in a way that held a bit of a wince.

"It sucked, and it's a really long story. You guys thought I was going to turn evil." A pause. "Which I'm absolutely not, so don't worry."

That last point required bold font and underlining.

"And, uh. Thanks."

[solarhippie]

"No problem."

Karolina meant it, even if it was a really odd thing. But she did believe him about not being evil. He just didn't seem that evil. Even if she was going to keep it in mind from now on. But there were other things coming to her mind right now.

"Oh," she said, brows knitting together a little bit. "Does this... does that mean you know? I mean, about me?"

The way she fingered her bracelet probably gave away what she was referring to.

[ultron_junior]

Even with the furrowed brow, it took Victor a second to work out what she was referring to. He hadn't seen the bracelet in a while, and discussing it with the new guy hadn't been that important to anybody way back when.

"I know what that does, yeah," he confirmed. "You're not telling people?"

He was surprised, but at the same time, it wasn't his secret to tell either way.

[solarhippie]

"About my powers?" Karolina asked, and shook her head. "Oh, no, I've told people about those. Even class. Just –- not, you know. Why I have them."

Yeah, the alien thing. She was watching him to see whether he got it now.

[ultron_junior]

He got it, it was just so far from being an issue in his head he had to run over her question again to be certain.

"That you're light show E.T.?" he said. "Well, yeah."

[solarhippie]

Well, it wasn't much of a surprise now that he knew, so Karolina nodded a little. "Yes." And she still looked a little uncomfortable with that fact. "I'm just keeping it kind of on the down low for now."

[ultron_junior]

"Really?" Yes, that's what she just said, and from the expression on her face Victor judged she meant it. "I can keep it quiet, sure."

[solarhippie]

"Thank you," Karolina said, and sounded sincere about it too. "I'm just worried what people might think."

Because she was still unsure what she thought. Give her a few months in Fandom, though. It had a way of chnaging people's minds.

[ultron_junior]

"What, like you aren't a person?" Victor asked, glancing over. "If it helps, nobody's had much to say about what I am."

Not that it was the same: People thought he was a pretentious kitchen appliance, not that he was scouting the planet for takeover.

"But I get it. Everything's new here."