[Coming Together]

[thesevenlights]

It took some searching, and a not inconsiderable amount of financial maneuvering (trust funds and bank accounts transferred, withdrawn from, liquidated), and possibly a few subtle threats... but he has the building. Two stories and a basement, just a few blocks from the ESU campus

Comments

[soulsafire]

Benedict arrives precisely when he said he would, the more usual suit replaced with an old Lila Cheney T-shirt.

"Hello, sir."

[ofapples]

Lalla is not long after Benedict, her absurd amount of hair braided and pinned up. (Think Yuliya Tymoshenko, or try to avoid thinking about Lalla and a politician in the same breath, either way.)

"Professor. Mr Dupuis."

There is no real pause when she looks over them, but a barely discernible hitch of breath where someone else would've a little more obvious as she files something away in her mind.

(The shields, needless to say, have been done away with today.)

[bad_touchies]

Karolyn saunters in a little after Lalla, wearing... black dungarees and a long-sleeved stripey shirt underneath. The gloves and fashion-gas mask don't look out of place in this context, even. "Hey, hope I'm not late, everyone. Professor." She nods, the smile evident in her tone.

This beats studying musty old books by a long ways, in her opinion (so far).

[prestoportation]

Mona has brought cupcakes. It's like some kind of instinct she can't control, administering baked goods to others. She also has a sort of proto-bustle going in the brisk way she moves, one that won't be fully matured until she's middle-aged and surrounded by spawn... but that'll be approximately after Hell freezes over, so.

No greetings for anybody! She's busy. Helping herself to a cupcake.

[soulsafire]

When Karolyn glares, Benedict opens his hands in a 'mea-culpa-no-offense-meant' sort of way. No comments about 'if you've nothing to hide, then why are you so damn sensitive?' or anything. Bitchiness about telepathy was normal enough, however vexing, so he has no idea why he for some reason finds it surprising. Not like he'd ever met her before.

When Eric sonic-sweeps a bit, Benedict's impressed to notice.

When he hears the noise, Benedict looks over and...his dustcloths, etc. fall to the floor. And he's just going to take any memories of a childhood crush on Julie Andrews and cauterize them in a backsection of his mind now.

[ofapples]

If Benedict is cauterizing, Lalla's newly-developed shields are slamming up around her mind even as she presses the backs of her hands to her mouth and laughs silently.

Which, by the way? Is really weird to look at. She's clearly entertained, but there's almost no sound to it. It does falter a bit when the headache starts to kick in (easier than it was in the nexus, but not easy, yet).

[bad_touchies]

Maybe she should have made it more clear that she meant she has nothing to hide from anyone here, so if he has questions he can ask them aloud and not have to worry about her lying - but she's just a... realtively uncomplicated teenager, and they're not exactly known for eloquence or rational reactions.

It's just as well they suddenly have a mind-scarring distraction on hand, over there! ... Yikes. "Holy fucking - that one." The staring, it can happen now.

[prestoportation]

"... the only song I remember is the one about the spoonful of sugar, and I'm not singing it. By myself." Mona threatens, craning her neck to watch Mary Poppins (who has obviously always been a lady of international travel) clean things. It isn't that she isn't unnerved, particularly by the squelching noises, but she's accustomed to internalizing these kinds of reactions.