2013.07.31 - Future Plans

It was afternoon, and Jocelyn was in her room, the door open. Ever since Shift left, Jocelyn has been weirdly anti-social. Of course, it wasn't exactly a secret that she and Shift were close, so Jocelyn had withdrawn a little bit. Some things just stung.
Regardless, that didn't mean she had stopped working on things, and could be found typing away (slowly) on her laptop. Tap-tap-tap. She was putting together a list of things she needed to get for college, since it was, what, a month or so away? Time flew, really. But with her work at John Carmichal's place, it meant she had money for things like supplies now. She has some obscure jazz song playing on her computer, through the awful built-in laptop speakers, that most people outside of Detroit wouldn't recognize.
Man, she's been busy. How'd it get to be almost August anyway? It's a mystery to Cessily, at least. She's not spent a ton of time in the manor of late, between rushing off to search for apartments, her ongoing job with Heather Danielson, and the sheer excitement of being a young mutant in New York. 
Cessily moves down the hall quick, only pausing a few beats after she goes past the open door and turning, popping around. "Joce?" she asks. "Laptop!" she declares with a point.
"Yes. It is a laptop. And it isn't on fire. See, I did learn something here while I was a student," Jocelyn comments with a small grin to Cessily. She waves the silver girl inside. "How're you doing, Cessily? Haven't seen much of you lately, but with both of us working and keeping busy with things, I suppose that happens. Especially in summer". Jocelyn wasn't actually used to that, not with her own upbringing. It was kind of weird. "Been keeping out of trouble?" Jocelyn asks. "How's working with Miss Danielson?"
"Not setting things on fire?" Cessily asks. "I thought that was a grad school thing." Her body catches upw ith her head finally, and she steps into the door, leaning against the jam. "More or less. Things still happen," Cessily observes. "It's interesting. I think she forgets I exist half the time. I guess being famous lets you be kind of a space cadet."
"Yeah. That's actually kind of the opposite of my job, with Mr. Carmichal. He's still rather out of time, but he's catching on quick. Still, he has to ask me a lot of questions we'd consider basic. And I've had to actually study how computers work enough to manage things at that office. But, it pays well," Jocelyn tells Cessily.
"And grad school?" There's a pause, and then it dawns on Joce what Cessily means before she laughs. "Sorry. All this college stuff has my head spinning a bit. Never thought I'd be typing up a list of things to get for college, to be honest".
"That's great," Cessily says, moving into the room and taking a seat on Jocelyn's bed. "As long as he can learn, that's a good sign. It means he wants to learn and is interested, and trusts you!" she adds that last bit, excitedly. "Um, I've got some time before grad school," Cessily says with a laugh. "I'm still trying to find an apartment!"
"I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing about housing," Jocelyn admits. "I mean, I could stay here, if they offer that thing. I know Laura seems to prefer if we stay. She mentioned something about how she wasn't sure if you and I would be still on the Young X-Men or if we were to be promoted since we graduated," Jocelyn offers to Cessily. "Though it would be a long trip in for college classes. You aren't looking to stay on campus?" Jocelyn pauses, thinking. "You're going to what, ESU, wasn't it?" She thinks she recalls that.
"Yup, ESU!" Cessily says. "That...Academy of Tomorrow..." she says, her silver nose crinkling. "Something rubs me the wrong way about it. Makes my skin crawl, and that's saying something for me," Cessily says. She leans back, dropping onto her elbow to prop herself up. "I figure off campus will be better. More fun, and at ESU a lot of students do it. They don't have enough housing for everybody anyway." Cessily trails off and pauses as she considers something long and hard. "You know, if you wanted..."
"Possibly," Jocelyn says with a smile. She had an idea what Cess was saying. "It depends on what the rule ends up being. I heard a rumor that change is in the air about that. If I can stay here, I likely will, despite the distance". Jocelyn hadn't had a family until recently, really. She was loathe to disappear completely from it. Besides, it was cheaper, and frankly Jocelyn still saw this as a base for her. "I should know soon though. I believe the Professor is going to let us know soon".
"Unfortunately, we're not going to the same school, but I'm guessing the first two years or so will have similar classes," Jocelyn points out.
"Well give me a little time, if you think you might want to. I'd have to change what I'm looking for. Laura..." Cessily trails off, glancing at the other mutant's bed. Sisterhood, all that, blah blah, and they've trained together enough that Cessily trusts her...she's just not comfortable with her. Still, for Joce's sake. "Not a today problem, though," Cessily acknolwedges, and ohs. "Probably. Have you picked you program already?"
"I've got a few, but honestly, with the whole GED thing, I'm taking pure general education credits for the first term no matter what," Jocelyn says easily. "I got in through some special assistance and what was quite possibly the snarkiest and most challenging application letter they'd ever seen," Jocelyn says with a small grin. "I'll let you know as soon as I can," Jocelyn agrees. "Hopefully I'm able to keep the job for awhile. I'm not sure how long Mr. Carmichal will need me, at least as a part-timer. And I know I won't have time to do a full-time job if offered". Jocelyn shrugs at that a little.
She sighs a little. "Though I have to admit, I'm having a little bit of trouble concentrating. I'm still baffled by Shift leaving," Jocelyn tells Cessily. "I mean, he just got back".
"No rush, Joce. I figure anybody our age who says they have it all decided is lying anyway. My mom wanted to be a ballerina!" she says with a snort, all the more notable since Cessily rarely if ever talks about her family. "Uh..." the silver girl shifts forward on the bed, closer to her classmate. "I don't know. Maybe he had things to sort out? I don't know him as well as you but I always though he was a decent guy. Maybe....he just needed a break?"
There's a laugh at the comment about the ballerina. "Yeah. I can't actually imagine many people wanting to be a ballerina, to be honest. And if I ever go down that route, feel free to smack me upside the head," Jocelyn tells Cessily. Because Jocelyn as a ballerina made perfect sense. Totally.
Jocelyn frowns again, however, as she considers the statement. "Maybe...it's weird though. All I've heard is stuff about a difference in opinion, and, well, I don't know. He and I come from very similar backgrounds. Makes me wonder about things, I guess".
"I think you're too old to start anyway, Joce. They probably wouldn't let a Mutant in anyway. Super-dancing, you'd shame all the rest," Cessily suggests, humphing. "If you'd run off?" she asks. How do you know he actually /ran off/?" Cess asks. "That's a very...judgmental way of putting it. Am I missing some backstory here?"
"Never said anything about him being run off. Said what I've heard is there was a difference of opinions is all, and that's typically code for 'Leadership and Person disgree heavily' on something at best," Jocelyn points out. She shrugs. "He was acting really...weird, though, when he was here. He wasn't himself. A lot more reserved and closed off. Not at all what I'm used to from him". Which puzzled her.
"Okay, okay," Cessily says, nodding, apologetic in her tone. "So you're thinking, what? Skrull? Mystique?" she asks. She makes a half-smile and moves in to lean on Jocelyn's desk. "I mean, it seems like it could be not really a thing, but I don't want to say it's definitely not. So...we find a way to contact him?"
"Contacting him won't be that hard. I know contacts who know his contacts, and that sort of thing," Jocelyn says. "I'm more trying to figure out what I want to say to him. Or rather, how I want to ask him things. Shockingly, my usual blunt 'What the hell is going on?' plan doesn't seem like it would be the best idea in this situtation".
There's a pause. "Mystique. I know I've heard that name, but I can't place her". Nobody has really given her the full rundown on Kurt's family.
"She's evil. Shapeshifter. Lead the Brotherhood for a while?" Cessily says. She huhs. "I mean, those would seem to be the options, right?" she asks, holding out her hand. "Not actually Shift, Shift and somethings wrong with him, Shift and everything's okay and it's no big," she suggests. "I'm hoping it's three. I think it is. And maybe 'Hey, are you okay?' would work?
"Oh. Her," Jocelyn says, remembering now. That took a little bit of remembering. "I suppose it's possible, though I didn't get any weird vibes off him from what I normally see". Jocelyn glances back at her screen and laughs. "And that's one major I can cross off my list in the future. Art," Jocelyn comments idly, switching gears briefly. Coping mechanism. "It's likely three. But I suppose I'm a suspicious person about things that just seem weird and out of place". She shrugs.
"We do have telepaths," Cessily says. "I mean who could confuse the Professor, and Miss Grey? Not...really anybody I'd want to tangle with, honestly," the silver girl says. "So Astrophysics, then?" she asks.
"Emma Frost might give them a run for their money, but I can't see why she'd be involved here," Jocelyn says. The woman was off running that other school.
Jocelyn grins. "Well, I've been thinking something to do with energy management in the long term. I know that comes as a complete and total surprise," Jocelyn offers with a small grin. "If that doesn't work out, I'll do something with physical therapy or training or something of that nature". Since it was something she knew.
"Her? Yeah, why would she care?" Cessily says. She barely knows more than a sentence about the White Queen, but somehow it doesn't seem like it fits. "Hey, Joce?" Cessily asks, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know you and Shift are close. Just promise me you won't do anything rash, okay? I don't think it's dangerous, but...it could be, you never know."
"Me? Do something rash?" Jocelyn comments with a small grin. "Aside from getting a large spear of ice shoved through my stomach by a frost giant, I haven't done anything rash for at least a week". There's a pause. "But, yeah. I won't do anything stupid, at least not without checking to make sure there aren't a number of us committed to doing that stupid thing to go bail Shift's butt out if he's the one doing something dumb".
"Don't leave me out!" Cessily says, shaking Jocelyn by the shoulder. "If you're going to run off you'll need backup. Bring Laura too. She's...effective," Cessily admits. "The three of us? We can handle a lot. Maybe take Pixie too, she can teleport.
There's a blink from Jocelyn as Cessily shakes her a bit. "Okay, okay. I won't leave you out if I run off after Shift. Though honestly, unless I hear something, I'm not going to go chase after him. If it sounds like he's in trouble though...". There's a pause. "I'll let you know". Perhaps the Young X-Men could all go off to help Shift out if that was the case.
Cessily smiles and nods. "Deal," she says. "You know, I can lean on people good. Just looking exotic can be a real intimidation factor sometimes."
"Works for intimidation. Works for modeling too, from what you mentioned of what Miss Danielson said," Jocelyn points out with a wink and a nudge. "But yeah, I get it. I think that if the three of us decided to lean on someone, we could get some information pretty well". It might creep Pixie out, but that was something Jocelyn would prefer not to think about too much.
Cessily raises her hands. "I /so/ do not want to be in front of a camera and like...that. Ugh, They'd probably make me shapshift to be....crazy," she says, crossing her arms protectively.
"Just don't tell them you can shapeshift," Jocelyn points out with a grin. "And while I don't care for cameras these days, frankly they're not usually all that bad. I had to get used to them when I was doing MMA stuff in Detroit. I just learned to tune them out. Though I suppose that'd be harder with a photoshoot".
Cessily stands and turns, tossing her hair, trying to pose. She does...middling, at best. Maybe spending all that time with Heather let her pick up a few things. "Heather already knows that. Not sure about other people but..." she shrugs. "I don't think I'd have 'mass appeal' anyway," she says, sitting back down on the bed.
"Not bad," Jocelyn observes. At least for not having any professional experience, Jocelyn figured. "Well, hey. It's an ace in the pocket if it ever becomes relevant," Jocelyn tells Cessily. "The more of those you have, the more options you have," Jocelyn comments. "So, you got any plans for anything you're going to do at college? Any of the activities you want to get into?" she asks.
"You're too kind," Cessily says. "It might be fun to act..." she mutters. She did always like Mister Wagner's drama class, but then again, Kurt could probably make any subject entertaining, if he had a mind to. "But anyway, yeah, I've been thinking about it. Maybe drama club if it looks fun. Maybe something with mutants....I dunno. I'll see what they have. That's the exciting part!"
"Go for it," Jocelyn says with a grin. There's a pause. "You are still going to be doing stuff with the team though?" Jocelyn had been assuming so, but it occured to her she hadn't verified that. "Even if you aren't living here at the manor and that sort of thing?"
"With the X-Men?" she asks. "Sure. Why wouldn't I?" Cessily sounds concerned at all that. "Are people saying things!?"
"No, just wanted to check. I don't know many of the members who live out of the immediate manor area". Jocelyn shrugs. "Suppose that shouldn't be a concern. I think I'm just feeling off today. Not thinking completely straight," Jocelyn admits.
"Joce," Cessily says, "I've spent three years here. You guys are my friends and my family and even if I'm in the city, it's only like an hour on the train, and I'm not abandoning any of you," Cessily's tone is serious, as she focuses on Jocelyn's face.
"Yeah," Jocelyn says easily. "Like I said. Just feeling off. I haven't been here as long as you or the others have, despite how I tend to present myself". Also, she was used to 'losing' people in some capacity or another. "Just a bit shaken I suppose, with how things have been lately. I think I need a night or two without getting shot or stabbed. That might help".
Cessily eyes Jocelyn and shifts in, hugging Jocelyn. "It get it," she says. "We've all felt like that. Hey, you got plans this weekend? We could hit the town."
"Nothing other than the normal right now," Jocelyn says. "Heading into town for some R&R sounds like a fine plan to me," Jocelyn adds, returning the hug Cessily provides. "Thanks," she adds with a smile.
Cessily says, "Let me know. We could even get some of the others, really kick it," Cessily says, pulling back and standing. "Okay, so I've got some listing people to call. Catch you later?""
"Laters Cess," Jocelyn says. "I should finish this list and look at heading into town to get some of this at some point. Have a good one".
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