Opening Day [OPEN]

[astonishing_xmods]

WHO: EVERYONE
WHAT: Mingle/Figure out Room Assignments/Meet old friends again
WHERE: The whole campus.
WHEN: September 1st, 2018
WARNING(S): None. If anything goes into warning territory, please create a new log for it.




For all of the newcomers, welcome to Professor Xavier’s Institute of Higher Learning! For all of our returning students and staff, welcome back! Once Professor Xavier’s welcome speech wraps up, it’s time for everyone to get themselves situated in their dorms and, more importantly, get to know your fellow mutants! Even if you’re not sharing rooms, you’ll still be sharing the same campus with each other, so don’t be afraid to get used to all of those new faces! Or even catch up on old ones! You have options; don’t be afraid to use them.

[[ ooc: This is the general mingling post for all of our characters to get settled into their rooms, get to know each other, reminisce with old friends, all that jazz. The log will be split into multiple locations. ]]

Comments

[shiningscales]

"Mm, that's right. And if I think of it that way, it doesn't seem as daunting."

He smiles as he speaks, genuinely, his hand finally falling away from his collar. He still feels sheepish, though, so he adds, "I'm sorry, I realize I'm being silly about this. But it really was helpful just to hear that, so thank you. I appreciate it."

Being so serious and practical... That's the kind of thing Caelius appreciates in other people, maybe because it doesn't come naturally to him. It makes it easy to admire, like a talent he never quite had the aptitude for himself. And when it's advice coming from someone with quite a bit more experience than him, he can't help but treat it as having a lot of weight.

[koukai_kirai]

He shrugged, faintly uncomfortably with the thanks. Kind words had come to him late in life, and it was still a little bit surprising when they worked to their intended effect -- he still didn't see himself as very good at the kind of words not calculated to cut or to manipulate.

"It's nothing."

He paused, feeling as if that wasn't enough to say, turning his tea cup in his hands. "...You'll get used to it."

[shiningscales]

He knows better than to push, so he doesn't comment on the way Hijikata brushes off his thanks. It can be nothing to him and something that Caelius is grateful for at the same time, after all.

"I hope so." The words are accompanied by a light laugh, though, rather than genuine uncertainty about his ability to adapt. "How are you feeling this morning, then? Aside from not worried."

He has experience navigating conversation with more taciturn types, so he keeps his tone friendly enough for the both of them.

[koukai_kirai]

"Fine enough."

It isn't a lie, not any more than it usually is. Hijikata's gotten accustomed to the words, and they come forward easily and without thought.

"Getting some reading done, while there's still any peace and quiet."

[shiningscales]

"I see."

Caelius is an emotionally perceptive sort of person, but even so, he didn't know Hijikata well enough before—before things happened to be able to say whether he's just distant by nature, or if there's something more to it. The answer might not be any of his business, anyway.

"Perhaps I should leave you to it, then. I didn't mean to have disturbed you."

[koukai_kirai]

It isn't unusual for his intentions to be misread, which isn't typically a thing that bothers him. But it strikes him that his comment -- a thoughtless one, from the part of his personality that he constantly plays up to shield the rest of it -- seems to have made the other man uncomfortable, which it at odds with his own goal, a moment ago, of helping him relax.

"If you were disturbing me, I'd have made it quite apparent."