Member
Simple Unicycle
GreenGrenade
Red Wizard
Mixtape Ghost N
Hillan
Rosellangel
Lord WraithWilliam Irving
The Outsider
The Outsider
The Mansion Roof
The cold, pre-dawn rain felt good upon the puckered, raw skin of William's face. The icy, heaven-sent droplets massaged the tortured flesh in a way no mere man made ointment or cream ever could. The mutant teen always sweltered in the sun thanks to the heavy clothes he had to wear, and his mask misted in the snow or the metal grew too frozen to touch, but the rain? He loved the rain.
Unfortunately he could only ever really enjoy it at times like now, when the rest of the school slept sound in their beds, dreamily dreading the cries of their alarm clocks and breakfast calls. Through the day William had to always be on guard, careful of draining too much energy from those around him, of losing control of the careful filters on his powers and hurting those closest to him, or of dropping his mask and letting the world see just what a monster he had become. During the night he could be himself though.
Just like a real vampire he smiled wryly.
Like Quasimodo atop Notre Dame, William had claimed the high places of the world as his sanctuary, the places where he could go to be alone and mask-less, with little fear of judgement. He whiled away the lonely nights perched upon the mansion's roofs, an easy enough place to reach for someone with agility like him, with the added benefit that no one but those able to fly could reliably follow him, and even if they did it took him mere seconds to afix his mask and hide his shame once more.
In the distance the sun had broached the dim horizon, and was beginning to wash the world in a pale, golden dawn. He watched it dutifully, taking no real joy from the beauty of the sight. Some people could go their whole lives without seeing a sunrise. Others made a point of getting up with the sun just to enjoy it's magnificence. Not so William. He watched the daybreak like it was his charge, a responsibility that he just couldn't shirk. As long as he could watch that sunrise then there was hope that things could get better.
That's the idea, according to Hank at least. And if there's anyone more qualified on how to deal with being a monster than me, I guess it's the giant blue cat person.
The other students would be starting to rouse themselves soon, so William slipped his mask back on. The inside smelt stale, metallic, and uncomfortably familiar. Instead of climbing back down from the roof however he began to strip of his greatcoat and undershirt. He then folded them, wrapped them in a towel he'd brought up for that exact purpose, then placed them upon the ground. They'd probably still get damp, but he wasn't bothered unduly. I nearly killed my first love when I got too 'excited' and the world didn't end, so I doubt wearing a wet t-shirt's gonna start Armageddon. The masked mutant began to compose his breathing, before slowly slipping into the first of his stretches.
Piotr had taught him the stretches, at the urging of Bobby Drake. They were all designed to increase his speed, athleticism and flexibility, and especially geared towards developing a more acrobatic fighting technique that would allow him to one day be a more effective X-man. William wasn't especially interested in fighting, nor did he wish to become a X-man, but Drake and his school had given the vampire a home, and the least he could do was to try and meet Bobby halfway.
So he moved from one form to the next, supple limbs sliding gracefully into familiar patterns, elegant movements resembling something closer to a dance than the violent, confrontation ending maneuvers they could become. Faster and faster he became, the dance becoming more complex as it aged, leaps and twirls and pirouettes being incorporated into the exceedingly advanced caper, his balance always excellent and his form always flawless. The dance lead him out upon the balustrade around the roof, stones wet and greasy from the rain. The drop off the side was sudden, and any normal person would think more than twice about even stepping close to that precarious, probably fatal fall, but William didn't didn't falter. He gave no hint to acknowledging the needless peril he was placing himself in. His footing was sure, his focus sublime. If he felt nerves at all then he didn't show them.
He leapt into the air, back arched and leg kicked high, his foot scraping the sky like a ballerina, and for a moment everything was perfection. He forgot his troubles, his cold past, his bleak future. Body and mind came together in perfect harmony, nothing existing outside the there and the then. He was nothing but the dance.
It was, in a word, heaven.
But heaven isn't for the likes of me. I may strive for it, but cold reality will always reach out to lay claim to me once more.
Gravity reasserted itself, as it always does, and he came down hard, too hard, his foot losing traction upon the stones of the balustrade. He swung his arms wildly, desperately trying to reaffirm his balance, but with a sickening lurch his footing shot out from underneath him and he knew this was it. He closed his eyes, willing a quick end.
He hit the roof hard, squawking like a plucked chicken.
He lay there for a moment, panting in the wet, his body sore and his side screaming from the bad landing. It could have been worse though. If he had fallen to his left instead of his right he would have plunged straight over the side of the building, and ended up as no more than a bloody smear upon the mansion grounds. He rolled to his knees to peer over the balustrade at the paving stones far below. Yeah, he definitely wouldn't have been getting back up from that one.
"Still alive. . ." He muttered to himself.
It only surprised him a little how disappointed he sounded.
The Dining Room
"What? It was funny..."
He'd decided to shower after his fall, and due to this William had missed the big speech, though he didn't reckon that as much of a loss. Bobby Drake was nice enough, but he lacked Xavier's talent for inspirational public speeches, a fact that he tried to make up for with bad jokes. Usually ice puns. Incredibly old, tired, overused ice puns.
"I'm willing to bet it really wasn't." William said, his voice surprisingly deep and sonorous for his slight figure, though it was muffled somewhat and giving a metallic edge by the mask. He slid into the seat opposite the younger Will. "Morning kid. Excited for your big day?" William Alexander had joined Xavier's at the start of the summer, though this was to be his first school year, and if the masked mutant knew the younger boy half as well as he thought he did then he was willing to bet the aerokinetic couldn't wait to kick everything off.
If anyone thought it obscene that they contented themselves with the pancakes on offer while William broke his fast upon his fellows very own psionic energy then they were kind enough not to mention it.