Okay so the people pointing out how seriously she was taking this and joking about it were sort of confused as they'd never seen Emily like this. But it wasn't like she wasn't a competitive person normally... She actually was, but when you were in a roomful of people all excited and anxious and competitive and you literally picked up on the vibe of the room it was easy to get overly competitive!

Besides, she was better than all of these people. She just had to be. It didn't matter that she was more of a Tekken person than a street fighter player. How did all of these people keep doing those ridiculous super moves?!

"****************" As an intern to Gemma Taylor-Cervantes she probably shouldn't have been cursing in front of students. Oops. Her head spun to the boy next to her as the K.O was ringing through her brain, setting her nerves on fire. There was a wave of amusement near her left, pity behind her and a little fear to her right, her eyes flashed to the boy in anger. "Give me another round."

Why couldn't she do the hadoken? Was it that hard?!?! In the back of her mind she felt the boy shrink away a little. Good, maybe she'd have a better chance of winning if he was terrified of her.

Who ever had arranged this tournament was a genius. Messed up kids forced into close proximity could be pretty volatile so a harmless way to settle rivalries and vent stress and anger? Best idea anyone in the mansionm had in a very long time. It also gave Alice the much needed opportunity to excercise he skills without the need for an internet connection.

Thankfully the game of choice for the night was one she had some decent time in and could at least pull off some of the more powerful moves and combos. Sure it wasn't something like Halo but she was still able to perform in the top three or four people each time.

This time round she'd only been in a couple of matches between scoffing too much trerrible food but at least one person had caught her eye and for once, not because it was a cute girl. She was, but that was more a bonus than anything else. No what had really made her pay attention was the familar accent. That and the occasional bout of swearing when she lost was definitely entertaining. The girl had some skills but it looked like her instincts were ethier wrong or for a different game which was definitly tripping her up.

Lazilyu reaching over from behind the girls left shoulder she pointed to a series of buttons, "Press these in this order," pointing to each in turn, "then pull both triggers. Stop getting baiting in and use that combo and you should be golden." 

Emily picked up on the genuine interest from behind her. Along with some... Attraction? She wasn't really a stranger to it, she got checked out a decent amount, and there were always the people that found the 'exotic' accent alluring, but right now most people were laughing, or scared of going to near her. She guessed that some of it had to do with the nature of students, approach angry people with caution.

She'd picked up on the girl that leaned over her shoulder a few times, an unusually confident girl who she was fairly certain had checked several others out, but she'd not paid too close attention to all of that as she was too busy trying (and failing) To kick everyone's ass at Street Fighter.

She was about to let out a snarky response but given that she was the one losing every round. She bit her lip a little as the blue haired girl gave her some tips and tried to take them in.

"Oh." She'd been trying to juggle. No wonder it wasn't working, the game was more about hit confirming and punishing, that made sense. She started playing a little more defensive, and repeating the simple combo that the other girl had showed her and quickly lead to a win against the guy. "Aha, ******* got you!" he actually stumbled backwards a little.

Well, the girl was a fast learner. When she knew what she was doing and not making daft mistakes she managed to beat the kid who was abusing her lack of knowledge. Even managed to pull off the trash talking a little bit too convincingly for the poor boy who visibly flinched.

Perfect time for Alice to bring her back down a peg or two.

She tapped the boy a couple times on the shoulder and gently shooed him away before climbing over the back of the sofa and settling down with her legs crossed underneath her. "Ready for someone a little more experience dear?" she added playfully, before quickly picking one of the more technical characters. She liked being able to switch between defensive and aggressive play on the fly and she had just the fighter in mind to play a few games with someone a little bit on the cocky side.

"Fair warning though, I'm definitely better than the kid you just creamed." Which was a fair warning, this girl had definitely got in his head and scared him a little but even then he hadn't ever managed to beat her when she try-harded. "Just don't expect that combo to work against me."

Okay now she noticed the accent. Emily had a fairly typical English accent, she was from around Reading so she had the typical extended pronunciation on some words like bath and grass, but she definitely used quite a bit of slang here and there, and wasn't too attached to being English.

This girl though, sounded like she'd just come out of a nobles mansion. Emily got snicked at for sounding posh, but this was something else.

She smirked. "You're going to absolutely destroy me." She admitted quietly before sighing and cracking her knuckles and neck for emphasis and picking up the controller. "Oh well, my ego is already bruised, we might as well push it off a cliff"

She held up... Surprisingly well. Maybe it was just pity, maybe it was something throwing Alice off, or perhaps Emily was just getting the hang of this now. But she still lost the set without taking a full game. She did get a single lucky round, but that was about it.

"Well, somebody practised." She admitted in defeat.

Alice hadn't been expecting as much resistance but the girl did do pretty well all things considered. Sure, it was a forgone conclusion she would beat a noob at a game she played more than a little but it wasn't as much of a stomp as it could have been. Although in her defence, Alice had never been as good when surrounded by so much noise.

"Just a little bit," she laughed, passing off her controller to one of the smaller kids who'd been waiting for a turn who promptly sat himself down on the floor in front of Alice. "But then again I help set the tournaments up since the last guy who did it left. Would be pretty poor form if I couldn't do well in a tournament I'm involved in."

Offering a friendly handshake she continued, "I'm Alice by the way, pleasure and all that."

Cocking her head to one side she actually studied the girl next to her, more to see if she could remember seeing her around before. She was clearly not some fresh faced teenager but Alice had a hard time judging age, "You new here or just visiting someone?"

Emily's ego was now happily quashed. The allure of competing here had slipped away when she realised how badly she sucked at the game... Street Fighter was weirdly old school. She knew her dad had liked it on account of having arcade cabinets. But at the same time, she'd not really been the right age to catch onto that. She remembered playing Tekken when she was little, along with a few others like Smash Bros, but nothing really older than those.

"Oh, so the game choice is your fault?" She narrowed her eyes. Was this the first tournament she'd actually attended? It was quite possible. Usually there were just too many people in the space for her to bother, but she was trying the whole exposure therapy thing to see if it helped. So far it wasn't... too bad.

Emily noted the intent behind the handshake and sighed internally, accepting the handshake, even if she kept it very brief. "Emily." She replied in kind. The girl was so posh it was almost comical. Like she'd just walked off of the set of some kind of historical drama. Like, Emily was posh but she was repeatedly amused by how much this girl put her to shame.

She narrowed her eyes at Alice as she was studied. "No, I am not new." She shot back a little curtly before adding more softly. "You could say I'm a recluse, I supppose."

Laughing at the accusation she shook her head lightly. "Not this time no." Gesturing to the kid in front of her who was now thoroughly absorbed in the game she continued, "Blame the younglings for this one. One of them heard me mentioning it to a friend and they got curious. Apparently they really like it so win win I guess."

Emily. Nice enough name but Christ the girl was a little bad at the whole not being a d**k part of conversing. Not that Alice could judge anyone for that. "Hey, I hear you. If it wasn't for this I'd either be in class or holed up in my room gaming. Being a recluse is my favourite hobby."

So if she wasn't new and Alice hadn't spotted her around she was probably a little older than her. She hated to admit it but she'd gotten used to most of the faces around the mansion even if she was generally one of the older ones. Still, she wondered how she'd missed someone with such an obvious accent and who, well yes was frankly pretty cute.

"In that case better introduce myself properly before you hear the weirder rumours," she said looking pointedly at a girl across the room who gave an equally pointed look back. "I'm the gamer girl. Have a HUD and everything. Can even form parties. I like girls, don't really like boys and can probably scrounge up some cigarettes and beer when I need to."

Rattling off the list she quickly realised she was also, probably not giving off a good first impression.

Emily immediately felt the realisation of her pointy personality edges hit Alice. When she was moody she felt an odd satisfaction it in. Generally she found people feigned offence, attempted to disguise their intentions, or relied on politeness, or informed her what a bad little girl she was being, and that she should exercise some more social etiquette.

However, that was not the impression she got from Alice. Obviously it took a little longer than a short conversation to read people, but her initial reaction was not the norm. It was odd, having two similar reactions so close together. Obviously the dynamic of her and Skye meeting had been drastically different, and Emily had felt decidedly more vulnerable in that situation, but both girls had surprised her based sole-y on their emotional reaction.

Under the firm, unflinching reaction still seemed to be an underlining of curiosity, which was in itself interesting to Emily.

The other girl however, was a bitch. She was smiling and talking to her friends, and radiating negative emotions like a typical high school girl. "You don't really need to worry about rumours around me, I sort of hate people." She was a tiny bit sarcastic, because there was a lot of truth in the statement, she didn't hate people necessarily, just most of them.

So far at least, she didn't hate Alice. In fact her lips spread into the first genuine smile since she'd been sitting in this room all day. "I'm assuming that's your power?" She shook her head in amusement. "What is it with bright hair and cool powers..." She muttered to herself, thinking of the other night.

Well, social interaction ho! "I'm an Empath, as a result I hate everyone and find more people repulse me than attract me, Gender's not really a factor there..." She'd dated at least one guy, and Kendra. "I also intern for Gemma in the offices, but don't worry I'll keep that last part secret."

 That was exactly the kind of attitude Alice could respect. most people sucked. Get the know them and they sucked more. Don't get to know them, they want to make your life suck because you're the outsider. "People are the worst. That's why we invented alcohol and entertainment. To make people more interesting and to ignore them respectively."

Alice never really considered her hair cool. She just did it as part of the whole stereotypical rebellion thing and found out she liked it blue. "Trust me, this is all chemicals. I don't get the funky colours some do through their power, mine is hard work and more than a few instances of dyeing my hands different shades of blue." That and she'd be damned if anyone here was seeing her with the bleach blond hair she had naturally. Hard enough getting taken seriously if she didn't look like she'd stepped out of Swedish musical.

"Ooof Jesus yeah. That'd do it." Knowing how people felt around you must be really weird. Could she tell when people were lying, or worse did she know when people were checking her out. Alice actually blushed at that because she had totally been doing that like 5 minutes before hand. "Oh god.......please don't tell me you can feel when people are interested in that way."

Alice had gone from smug victory to awkward in 2 seconds flat that she felt like Emily had just beaten her on the game seven different ways.

"Just, no don't tell me. I think I'm better curling up in a ball and dying than knowing." With her flailing she nearly missed the second part, about the whole internship thing but her natural anti authority filter kicked in and out came the narrowed eyes. "Lucky for me she probably already knows. Been caught once or twice and the guard Jack has already punished me for it." Several thought flitted before a more Cheshire like grin spread across her face, "besides, I'm more inclined to share when people don't give up my secrets."

Okay, Emily was starting to amend her initial impression of Alice a little. She wasn't just a bearable personality, she liked this girl. It was funny how doing just a little socialising went such a long way. Maybe she should re-evaluate her life approach a little bit. Just a bit. "Don't forget heavy metal and single player video games." She added to Alice's list with an amused smile.

Emily was wearing her usual mixture of torn up jeans and blacks, including a halestorm shirt, but she'd yet to dye her hair. That was actually happening the next day. "I've thought about dye for a while. Going to be doing something with purple in the very near future." She admitted, a little sheepishly. She really hoped that Skye knew what she was doing, or that was going to turn out to be a mess.

Emily let out a chuckle when Alice started to feel the creeping embarrassment that came with realisation. "Yeah, it can be awkward. Can also be useful and amusing for catching people off guard." She smiled knowingly.

"Don't tell you what, Alice? That it's amusing and fun to tease people that didn't realise they were super obvious to me? I tend to find it's most amusing with nerdy lesbians." She teased. Emily glanced around a little catching glimpses of the games going on. Which ever kid chose this game needed a beatdown in something else, but that was maybe an event for another time.

Emily snorted this time. "Hah! Learn to hide your stash better, nerd." She teased further. "And don't draw too much attention to yourself... Although-" She smiled mildly knowingly. "I guess that's not really your style, is it?" She ventured.

"Purple's not a bad choice, and other than having to bleach your hair first it should be doable." Alice did have to admit, having pale blond hair made dyeing it so much easier. No need to bleach it to start with and it was really simple to cover up her roots when they came through. "Just don't buy cheap stuff, I've made that mistake before and it fades to weird colours real quick."

Damn girl was clearly winning the current exchange, that much was clear. Mild frustration mixed with the embarrassment, with a few more extra emotion mixed in before they finally settled into some state of calm. Emily could read her like an open book. Sure it might be annoying she couldn't hide certain, thoughts, but it also meant she could mess with her. When she wanted to at least.

"Hey, I'll have you know I am the nerdy lesbian around here. No one is quite the combination of both as I am." Which was mostly true, her hobby and her preferences weren't uncommon combinations for people, she was just the biggest of both currently ion the mansion.

"Meh, Jack was pretty cool about it and I've found some better places since then." Really, a plastic bag in as bush wasn't her best work. "But you're right I'm not exactly subtle. You're pretty by the way, I'm sure you knew that but just letting it sit there." If Emily wanted to tease Alice could easily lean into it. "Just don't pick up on something you might regret knowing dear."

"Yeah, I wanted something dark-ish because you know, my hair." She gestured as if for effect. "I'm also not doing it myself, someone else is helping me with it. I figured it might be good to get help and I don't really want to be in a hair saloon for hours at a time..." She shuddered at the thought, so many different people would be walking past or going in if it was a halfway decent one.

"And yeah, I've got quality serum and dye. My..." Was the word friend? Her and Skye were friends right? That was a weird thought, having a friend. God she was a depressing person sometimes. "My friend is giving me a hand with it."

There was always a feeling of elation or satisfaction when you could tell when you were winning an argument or something similar. She smirked at Alice. "I suppose that's why I'm finding you so amusing then, Alice." She teased.

"Hah. I don't think I've managed to run afoul of any of the staff. It helps that I can literally just avoid them when they're looking for trouble or in a mood." She admitted. She'd really come to appreciate some aspects of her power over time. If she was going to suffer from the side effects, she was sure as hell going to get some enjoyment out of the benefits.

Emily smiled. The funny thing is a few years ago, it would have made her blush or just made things awkward, but she'd really gotten used to sensing the people checking her out. It was pretty normal to her at this point. Less common with girls, sure, but it still happened. "Oh I know, don't worry." she smiled.

"Doesn't work that way." She admitted. "I get all of it, the amusing, the sweet and the unnervingly creepy or awkward." She added before smirking. "You're in the amusing category, if you were wondering."

Nodding, Alice was glad there wouldn't be another victim to the scourge of cheap hair dye. "Good, having someone who knows what they're doing really helps. Trail and error does not make for healthy hair."

"Well I'm glad I can amuse you so," she shot back with a grin, "just don't bite of more than you can chew. I'm all gristle and bile." Emily was fun. Very few people understood her sense of humour and coming across someone as sarcastic as herself meant she could really let loose. Even if it was getting a few odd looks from some of the others present.

That made a lot more sense, if she had no control over what she got in, no Emily was not a big fan of people. "Oh s**t that does suck. Mines similar but waaaay more tame than that. At least mine just mess's with my metabolism and stuff." Well that and her vision. Oh and the quests never going away. And the ever annoying skills list telling her just how bad she was at everything. "And as long as it's not creepy I'm doing something right."

Alice did wonder how that would work with her power though. Sometime when she partied up her mini-map gave her some extra info about ranges and stuff but so far it hadn't been consistent. Well, that and the Mirror problem. "Want to do a little test? See what happens when you party up with me?"

Holding out a hand she gave Emily a smirk, "Doesn't hurt, I promise. Well not much anyway."

Skye had actually taken to the activity of helping Emily sort out her hair with a surprising amount of vigour. "Yup! I'm surprised she's taken to it so well, she can't dye her hair so I suppose she could just be living vicariously through my hair." She blurted out. She maybe shouldn't be explaining the details of friend's powers to other people but oh well, Skye hopefully shouldn't mind.

"Me too! It's nice to be appreciated. Especially when you're pretty unapologetic and flirtatious." She admitted. It was nice to have somebody pure in regards to actions vs intentions. "You only had one massive surge of embarrassment so far too, so you're doing much better than most lesbians I catch in the act of checking me out." She admitted. "Most dudes tend to just get upset with me for understanding that they're looking at my body."

Emily tended to have a weird opinion on males and females. It differed on age group, she found teenage boys more painful but adult women tended to get on her nerve a lot more. She wasn't really sure why, thought was confident it wasn't because of her power. Perhaps it was a complex around her mother being a total bitch.

"I have no idea what my metabolism is like, it's all over the place" She admitted. "Although I've heard that insomnia can have an impact on that, so perhaps it's largely psychosematic?" She ventured before actually blushing a little. "Sorry for nerding on you a little there."

"Also don't worry about your personality, it's really not that abrasive. I'm impressed you didn't bounce off of my prickles." she admitted, slightly impressed.

"It used to creep me out." she admitted, letting it hang for a little before adding. "But honestly, I think your personality... Well. More like your emotional style is kind of nice, so I'll take it as a compliment." She replied sincerely.

"How does that work, exactly?" She asked sheepishly. "You don't have to get my feedback do you? Because my power can be a little overwhelming, I basically had a migraine for a week when I manifested."

Emily eyed the hand and tried to hide her immediate spike in tension. She didn't really touch people much these days... Or at all really. She looked Alice in the eyes for maybe a few beats too long and studied her emotions before slowly, maybe noticeably shakily reaching forwards and grasping her hand.