Coming Out of Her Shell (Open RP!)

[Plague of Wasps]

"Aww, poor baby. Did I hurt your feelings?" Gwen asked sardonically as she leaned forward against the back of the couch, grinning at him. Those insults of his missed the mark, for sure - after all, there was no freaking way that Roach could be scoring better than Gwen right now, not with her having given up her social life - and hero work (a painful choice) - for a couple months to catch up on everything. Did he have that kind of dedication to schoolwork? She doubted it.

"And even if I had wanted to take up your very tempting offer," the wasp girl continued, her wings propelling her up in the air to hover in front of Roach's finger, leaning her head forward in a challenging manner, "You'd never be able to afford my rates. Much to your disappointment, I'm sure." Just to rub it in further, she blew him a gentle kiss with one hand, in the hopes of getting under his skin. He was making a lot of insinuations, after all - she wondered what was going through that crazy head of his?

It was around this time that they were joined by two others, and she grinned at Elijah's comment - a grin that faded just a little as Arthur weighed in with his questions, but that was the price you paid for putting on a spectacle in Westbrook. "Guys, it's cool," she assured the two of them, before smiling at the Copeland boy. "Roach and I just have some history together. Maybe not nearly as much history as he'd want, though, if he's imagining me in a fetish club?" With that, she directed her gaze back to Roach, still hovering in the air on insect wingspans while she rolled her eyes at him. Honestly, boys.

[Roach Copeland]

"Says the girl who keeps finding her way into my life. I swear, I thought I'd hear buzzin' outside my window late at night. I'm guessin' that kiss we shared back in the day really got you all hot and bothered," Roach said as his anger seemed to evaporate with the arrival of the two new comers. Turning his attention towards them, he held out his arms and flashed them his pearly whites. Well, his somewhat pearly whites...

Oh, sure, Gwen knew how this worked. He'd say somethin', she'd retort, he'd push, she's counter- all up until one of them finally popped and started letting their anger take lead (Most likely him). So, he changed tactics. Simpler that way. Less likely to be bugged down with detention slips and hive stings.

"And I'm the one that was just mindin' my own business, boys. And low and behold, this stalker buzzes her way back into my life. I tell you, one kiss is really all it takes to make a girl drop all her senses." He paused, tossing a glance over his shoulder towards Gwen to return her little air-kiss. He turned back, adding, "Though, I'm not entirely sure she had much sense to begin with."

He turned towards her, that smugness returning as his arms crossed over his chest. "And I wouldn't call what we had as history. You saw me in action and you've been following my lead... -and- me ever since."

[Elijah Elliot]

Eli kept an eye on Ar once he showed up. There was no telling when he'd manifest the dead rat, and Eli didn't want to be caught unaware if Ar decided to annihilate it again in the commons. He listened to Gwen and Roach's continued banter, then raised an eyebrow as Roach flashed a smile and attempted to switch gears.

"Gwen's been here for about three month's, gramps. It looks more like you have been following her."

[Roach Copeland]

"So, I've been considering this place for three months. Must have found out I was thinkin' 'bout comin' here and bam! Joined." That... wasn't mostly true, but Roach had learned along time ago that truth was really only a matter of what was spoken more succinctly. He backed away from the trio, still keeping a grin. "But hey, I'm not surprised Greenhouse here would be comin' to her defense. You play the White Knight so well, bro."

He tossed a glance to the other newcomer, Ar. "I'm guessin' that makes you the horse, yeah?"

He smirked, once again throwing up his hands before moving back towards the staircase. "No, no- I get'cha. I'm goin' to leave the Pixie alone. Lord knows I don't want to poke the bee's hive," he said before flickering his gaze back towards Gwen. "Stop followin' me, Honey Bee. And stop askin' 'bout what I've been up too. Ain't none of your business."

And with that, he turned and moved back towards the stairs. He wasn't retreating... Okay, maybe he was... but he wasn't in the mood. Three against one in a verbal dispute? Psssh, he'd rather be listening to his roommate's thoughts of Priscilla while he slept.

[Plague of Wasps]

She almost choked on laughter when he really started going. What kiss? Was this some kind of act, or was he seriously going off the deep end? And considering the place for three months - yeah right. The kid was firing blanks, so to speak, and the more he talked the more Gwen wanted to shake her head in disbelief. As Elijah retorted, she couldn't help but smile, though privately she wondered about herself - had it really been that long? She thought about the people she hadn't talked to since she started hunkering down in studywork...

Her pondering didn't last too long, as she saw yet another opportunity to be oh-so-clever. "More like the ass," Gwen quipped, in reply to Roach's comment about Arthur. Oh, she was looking forward to his assessment of this little event. There wasn't much else she could say, though - as he watched Copeland storm off, she glances to Arthur and Elijah, twirling a finger near the side of her head. "Completely. Bonkers," she remarked with something akin to awe. "You know all I was doing was lying near the TV before he showed up?" She couldn't help but shake her head at the absurdity of what happened. "How the hell did he get accepted in here? Dude's got more screws loose than a leaky faucet."

[Arthur Rawlings]

"Says the girl (well, more or less) whose best friend has six legs. It's not a freak show for nothing, dear."

Ar turned his attention to the retreating Roach. "You know, early withdrawal won't go well for you in the final tally. Not without a much better exit line, at least. You have to zing your way out or else it just looks sad. The stuff on the kiss might've been going somewhere. Kinda glad she passed mine off to Eli. Maybe a little more on this fetish club I've heard so much about? I assume you were implying something about the caliber of person who would ever think to show an interest in our little bug light."

It'd take, what, two nicks and a jab to finish this guy off. Even if Gwen softened him up, the killing blow always gets the credit. Ar couldn't quite figure what he was doing on Team Underdog. He was pretty sure he wasn't trading up on the friends front. Sure Roach was cute in that kicked puppy, street rat, Save the Children Fund sort of way, but Gwen looked like she almost wanted to resemble an actual girl. Even after taking into account the unfortunate loss of her punk edge, it might actually have been a step in the right direction. Then again, she was arguably selling out. It still felt a little too much like charity to be a certifiably 'Ar' thing to do. Artie would be pleased. A snicker almost broke through his grin.

"And for the record," he added more for the room at large, "I am often an ass, always a stud, and frequently a steed, but Eli isn't the one riding."

[Elijah Elliot]

Eli rolled his eyes at Roach's claim to have been considering Westbrook for months. Really, that's the best he could come up with? So blatantly lame. In response to the White Knight comment, Eli rolled his eyes again. "As if Gwen needs me to come to her defense."

He quirked a brow as Roach executed his tactical retreat. Eli hadn't expected him to run off, especially that quickly. Gwen commented that he was bonkers, and Eli had to nod his head a bit in agreement. He's definitely a bit bonkers.

Ar gave him another opportunity to roll his eyes--really, at this rate, they'd soon be rolling out of his sockets and onto the floor--with his ass, stud, steed comment. He considered making a semi-snarky response at Ar on it, but really, that was a no-win situation. Ar would either come up with something snappier in response, or he'd just talk around in circles. Your best bet with Ar was to not even engage in the first place. Besides, Eli wasn't sure how much to trust Ar's stability at the moment, given the rat incident.

He decided to just step around Ar's comment and focus on what Gwen had said instead. "I'd love to know how he finagled his way in, but at the moment I'm curious to find out what kind of history you two have together. How do you two know each other?"

[Plague of Wasps]

Oh, Arthur. The wasp girl gave him such a look while he critiqued Roach on his way out. "You should carry scorecards around with you, dude. Arthur Rawlings, banter critic, here to school your smack-talk!" She put two chitinous fingers to her cheek as the thought cogitated inside her brain. "You could like, offer lessons to people. And get really pretentious about it and say how the smack-talkers were so much wittier last semester... become a banter hipster! Natural evolution of style!" ...Wait, why did I start talking about this? She thought to herself, as he eyes rolled back to her head, having lost track of the conversation; as usual, Gwen's imagination had run away with her.

Bringing herself back, she brought her focus back to the two boys, favouring Eli with a smile for calling Roach's bluff. "Appreciated your help all the same... whether or not I needed it. As for our history..." Gwen trailed off, glancing up to the staircase, recalling the day that she had met him. "He got recruited into my old outfit, The Artful Dodgers - was kind of a homeless street kid, back then? - and wanted some help in controlling his powers... had some kind of crazy, uh, mental problem, I think. Absorbing other people's thoughts?" She shrugged her shoulders, her memory not being completely stellar.

"Anyway," Gwen continued, narrowing her eyes as she retraced her memory, "He didn't last long. Second time I saw him, he was in the girl's dorms, trying to get into someone's lockbox--" She stopped speaking for a moment, suddenly realizing that she was surrounded by teenage boys, and ammended, "--I meant someone's personal belongings! Schoolbooks and stuff! Not into..." She glanced around at Eli and Arthur's reaction, before sighing to herself. She knew that her flustered correction, if nothing else, would get a response from them.

"...Anyway, yeah." Back to the story! "Caught him trying to pick a lock on someone's belongings, looking really sketchy, nervous. I called out to him, he freaked out, then made up some kind of... bullshit excuse about being there. I don't really remember. Got one of the advisers to look to him... one of the crazier ones. It got ugly really fast." She bit her lower lip a little, thinking back with a tinge of guilt; she didn't remember helping the situation very much, she remembered that much.

"I didn't hear from him after," she continued, "Heard he left. Next time I meet up with him was at the D, like, a month or so later. Maybe longer. And apparently his excuse was he thought we were all Arachnos agents? Hence the sneaking around, break-and-enter routine?" Another shake of her head. "Whatever. Like I said, guy's kooky. Dunno how he got in... aren't you supposed to have a parental guardian or something, to enroll?"

[Elijah Elliot]

Eli had to smirk a bit as Gwen went on about Ar being a banter critic and hipster. He really did seem to think of himself as such. Which Eli supposed made sense, since Ar probably considered himself the leading expert in the field.

He quirked a brow as Gwen flustered herself and stumbled a bit on her words. What was that all about? Either she really wanted them to ask about it and was putting on a show, or she was really bad at covering a slip. Well, either way, it was definitely something to follow up on.

"I don't think he's been absorbing thoughts since he's been here." Eli paused briefly to consider, then added, "Or if he has, he's kept it on the down low. He's still lifting stuff, though. Picked Weltum's pocket and nabbed his wallet, which he says was just for a magic trick." He rolled his eyes to show what he thought of that. "I wonder what he was trying to lift out of someone's lockbox. I really doubt he was after a schoolbook. Any idea what else he might have found in there?" He gave Gwen an inquiring, innocent look.

"He does seem pretty kooky, though. I have no idea how he got in here. I suspect it's a matter of time before he does something spectacular and lands himself in isolation for a while, though."

[Arthur Rawlings]

Ar chuckled at Gwen's mocking suggestion. "I call that the Tyler-Lopez approach. Those who can't--or forgot how--judge. It's not bad, necessarily, for when I've absolutely given up on life and ever being relevant." If that dread day ever did come, Ar resolved to kick off his new, lame life with a book. One of the key chapters would be on proper handling of insults. Denial almost never works; always accept, twist, and redirect (either back at the other guy or off at some third party, depending on how you want the conversation to go). Sometimes it's as easy as laughing first. A well timed and executed laugh can accomplish all three steps in one.

But onto the more interesting topic. "As for getting in, he's got a battle ax of a social worker. Just be glad she let him take off her husband's tie after registration. It was a travesty. Like watching a puppy choke."

The whole school really was going crazy. Roach's stock seemed stupidly undervalued and somehow ET's was climbing like a rhesus monkey. No accounting for taste, which was exactly why public opinion counted for shit. "As for trouble, the most he's gotten here was a sound ass kicking from Nilesh. And only one, so we know the boy can learn." Ar let out a small smile. "Roach is mostly harmless. Lots of bark, not a ton of bite. Not that he couldn't, just doubt that he would. More scared of you than you are of him and all that."