Unwanted Surprise (Open)

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh pushes the door to his and Bobby’s room open, and drops his bag on his bed. Aaah. I’m so tired…

He realizes he should probably check his email before he stretches out, though. Ororo was supposed to send some information that the two of them had been putting together on tactics… Josh flips up his laptop cover and logs into his Xavier account.

There it is. Sure enough, and he downloads the attachment to he desktop to look over later. There’s an ad for natural male enh -- he hits the delete key. I should talk about them upping those filters… One more email catches his eye - he can see it’s forwarded from his ‘official’ account at worthington.com. Warren had convinced him to take the account, saying that it was better to give the public a simple way to contact him. Less chance of them digging around for his true account, or god forbid, his permanent address. Josh had to agree, and he also got periodic updates on various topics courtesy of Worthington Labs’ PR department. Apparently, stock in him and Warren was on the rise… I can’t believe we’re some kind of celebrity item. Last week he had nearly run out of a Barnes & Noble when he’d found a picture of the two of them on the streets of New York in a magazine. He’d thought they’d dodged that particular photographer…

He opens the email, which is from an unfamiliar Hotmail account. After a minute, his eyes widen and he pushes the laptop across the desk, stunned.

I have hate mail? A week or two ago, he'd gotten a couple cute emails from several of Warren's younger fans wanting his autograph, but this? His mind takes a minute to process it. The poster - who apparently thought she was in a longtime relationship with Warren - described in detail both what she was planning on doing to him the next time their paths crossed, as well as how displeased she was with Warren and her plans for him. Josh generally felt that it took quite a bit to actually shock him, but there was a first for anything. Both the woman’s vehemence and sheer delusional state left his mouth agape.

He quickly types a short message to Warren and forwards it on to him. The woman was probably cracked - and on the other side of the country - but it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

Josh collapses onto his bed and stares at the ceiling. Did that actually just happen?

[Damien Schwartz]

((hope you don't mind?))

Pop

Slam

A black laptop appears in mid-air, several inches above Josh's desk, and then after a few moments, the time it takes gravity to realize that the thing is not supposed to fly, it falls onto the desk, right next to Josh's non-flying laptop.

It takes about ten or fifteen minutes, but finally a black-haired, green-eyed boy in jeans, combat boots, and a tanktop, all black, appears on Josh's door. He seems to just look at Josh for an indefinite time, without ever saying a word.

This is the worst possible scenario Damien can imagine happening, and it does, to his utmost dread. He hasn't mastered his power completely, and it sometimes misfires, placing something or someone into an unwanted position. OK, so the laptop is on the desk of some random student. Nothing bad about that, right? Wrong. Damien is extremely shy, and it could sometimes take him hours just to say "hi" to someone he's been sitting next to for the whole time.

This is no exception to the rule, and the time period of silence keeps extending itself as Damien makes an extremely fiery mental debate on whether he should say something, pop the laptop into his hands, or just turn and walk away, hoping that the guy will get the picture.

The third option was the worst one, and the most risky, but at the same time also the prevailing one. OK, calm down. He's not a serial killer, a manic psychotic hyper-active person, or the world's worst grump...maybe...but still I have to meet new friends. Otherwise the whole trip from Germany would have been completely useless. Except for Tarot, of course.

Than, he remembers that he hasn't even confirmed that the laptop on the desk is his (because he cannot see his as it is behind Josh's and the angle is very bad...it's always good to make possible excuses)

"Um...hi..." a weak voice emerges from the depths of his mouth, and he pauses a few seconds, just in case a fire ball, spike, sonic wave, chair, the desk, or a raging animal is thrown his way. Nothing happens. "Have you, by chance, seen a black laptop lying around? It should have silver engraving on it..." he says, now making it obvious with his strong German accent that he is most definitely not from around.