The time had come, The Walrus Said, to talk of many things. Of ships, and shoes, and ceiling wax. Of colleges, and kings. And why Aurum was ushering him out the door, and where his umbrella was. And so many other things.

Shin had applied back in January for college at NYU. Aurum had prodded and pressured. Kealey had promoted it highly. Copious amounts of alcohol had been imbibed. That aided the decision. All three had decided his life needed direction. A better direction than costumed super-heroing (though they all had seemed to agree that, while ridiculous, spiffy tuxedos were grand). And so, when his hangover had died down, and his heart had been shattered, he had retreated into the complexity of the college acceptance process. Now, it was March already. Today, his acceptance letter had arrived.

Shin had unfurled the parchment, and ogled the message within. Words of acceptance, and suggestions of what next to do were detailed. Shin was pleased. He'd brought the letter to The Full Circle to show Aurum and the others. They were excited. It was exciting. He'd been all too happy to let the letter flop around in his hands while gallumphing about the shop. Rosali had eyed him, but when he detailed the good news to her, she too had been swept up in the (almost uncharacteristic) dance of the pleased. When their shifts had ended, some time around noon, Aurum had shoved Shin through the door, out into the rain.

Which brings us to this moment, under the downpour on NYU's campus, with the umbrella-less White Hoodied Shin. He looked around for cover, and glowered.

There were no survivors. Aurum had led to everyone's doom.

"The building where you sign up with classes should be... over there, somewhere." Aurum muttered. He glanced up from his map at the direction he'd pointed, then submerged himself back into the map quest, and flipped the paper around. "Maybe not..."

Okay, so maybe the plan to help Shin sign up for classes wasn't going as smoothly as he'd wanted. The campus was big, and Aurum had usually stuck to the classroom areas. He'd been to the main offices once or twice, but for the most part, he'd just signed up for classes online. Shin hadn't found out about online sign-ups, though. He'd waited far too long to look into what courses were open. Now, they were here and rushing.

Aurum's focus rose back to Shin. The boy was glowering at passerby as rain drizzled down from above. Aurum smoothed the dripping map again, and folded it. He slipped it away into his pocket with an exaggerated sigh. Aurum sauntered forward, hands-in-pockets. He bowed his head, and stowed his smirk. "Guess we'll just have to ask someone for directions."

They'd ask someone on-campus for help. Yes. That would work out nicely. That wasn't the true main objective here, though. There was more at work today than just getting Shin out of the shop to attack his 'class sign-up problems head-on. Maybe one of those cute girls could help Shin with his problem? Aurum pulled Shin along, towards the group.

((ooc: 66 posts + 6 karma. It's a good look for Maxine...))

Maxine snapped her fingers, and pointed at the sidewalk. "Puddle," she commanded, with a stony glare. "Puddle. Now."

The red head was standing outside of the student union. Outside, because she was not getting a lecture from the custodians again. "Rex, you have ten seconds. Ten."

The lump on the sidewalk writhed, vehemently dripping globs of dark mud.

"Nine."

In the metal supports of her umbrella, a flock of song pens sheltered together against the rain. They huddled side by side, still glistening damply: rescue cases that had animated from the grass and sidewalk as she'd passed, and sought out dry shelter. They'd had no problems preening in a clean puddle first. They hadn't developed a fascination with attaining godhood.

"Eight."

Elder godhood, that is.

Ever since Cthulhu, Octosaurus Rex had been insufferable. Every time it rained. Every time. And here they were again: it was only a six minute walk from her subway stop to here, but the mass of paperclips had already managed to transform itself into a miniature monster. Every filthy gutter, every muddy spot of grass: Rex had found it, as surely as a kindergartener finds mommy's medicine.

The intern reporter was facing off against Cthulhu's prodigal son. The writhing mass of mud, paperclips, and cigarette butts was set on having its divine way.

Her teeth gritted. "Se. Ven."

She didn't notice anyone approaching. The wild pens did: they rustled on their dry perches, some of them taking quick flights out as if to peer at the newcomers.

"Siiiiiscrew this. Five four three two one."

The mud monster went entirely still. Too late to call foul. The next moment, its tentacles were lashing the ground as it fled. Maxine's hand reached into her pocket. It came back out, horseshoe magnet in hand.

Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Dad. Thank you, Clark. Best Christmas present ever.

She tossed the horseshoe.

Splat.

CLICKclickclick.

WRITHEclick.

With smug satisfaction, Maxine pranced over and picked up her prize. A muddy glob of clips was stuck to the ends of the strong magnet. The curve of the horseshoe made quite a nice handle, if she did say so herself.

It was then that Maxine noticed her fellow rain-goers. With a bright smile, she straightened back up, proudly displaying her trophy. "I'm sorry," she said, "my puppy was misbehaving. Hope it didn't scare you."

Beam, beam.

An oozing tentacle lashed free of the magnet, reaching for the scrawny Asian's face before--click!--it was trapped again.

It wasn't as if Shin's glowering had been prompted solely by the wetness. He hadn't been grouchy at Aurum beforehand. Earlier that day, things had been good. Right now, good was the wrong word for how things were. It was raining, you see. Rain was one of the many things his new-found power seemed to hate.

Drip drip. The whole world was being pummeled by plummeting pin pricks of moisture.

Drip drip. And his eyes liked to hone in on the exact distance the rain drops were from him before they fell.

Drip drip. The exact distance on each little rain drop, each falling so fast to the ground it was hard to keep up.

Worse than bright lights, worse than late nights, worse than attention-deficit-based inspiration disorders, there was the motion sickness. The doldrums of disorientation that came with every plip plop, every rain drop, every jiggle of Jello, and every noisy crowd in transit. Shin's vision calculated each rain drop's descent. It made for one hell of a sluggish Shin, and one darned good reason for glowering.

And so, he glowered, up till the point Shin saw something magical that made glowering less of an issue. Something Aurum led him to, that briefly reminded Shin of a statement made by a boy lizard.

Growing inanimate objects... and Cthulhu.

Redheads under umbrellas with floating pens, and a muddy glob of that seemed to be growing. The redhead was arguing with it. She seemed to be counting down to ... some... thing.

"Um." Shin bit his lip. Did he think 'Magical'? The elder gob she was arguing with was less 'Magical', more 'Evil'.

And.

It was coming his way.

The redhead drew back the horseshoe magnet, and lobbed it. The U hit the writhing mass of mottled metal head-on, and it collapsed.

Shin's widened eyes traveled up from the magnet-mangled monstrosity, to its owner. They relaxed.

>>"I'm sorry. My puppy was misbehaving. Hope it didn't scare you."

She beamed.

That was a puppy? Shin's face contorted into a look of amusement mixed with confusion. No harm, no foul. "Really, it's--"

A muddy tentacle reached out to him. Shin brought up a curious finger towards the tip, then --click! -- "No trouble at all," Shin finished with a hint of amusement.

He looked up at the umbrella, eyes quickly judging the flight paths of each of the little pens. Okay, less evil now. More... "Magical," Shin commented. He pointed his finger upwards, towards the umbrella. "That thing with the pens."

Really, quite the trick. How did she...

--Bump--

--Bump--

Nudge nudge.

Aurum nudged Shin's shoulder, eyes fixated on the redheaded reporter directly in front of them. A polite grin was firmly cemented to his face. "Hi," Aurum began. "My friend here was wondering if someone around here might be able to show him around the campus. We're kind of lost, and-- hey. Are you Maxine Ralls?"

Floating pens, paperclips going wild. Freckles and red hair. He might have been soggy, but he couldn't possibly have missed that. The star of “Equal in Stupidity” was hard to miss.

Maxine enjoyed being hard to miss.

>> "Really, it's--No trouble at all."

She enjoyed it when people didn't freak out about her powers, as well. Most people on campus were cool about such things--college students tended to be liberals, and liberals tended to wet themselves at the chance to prove how tolerant they were towards homosexuals, endangered African flesh-eating spiders, and the world's genetic minorities. The fact that a flying pen didn't trigger most people's survival instincts helped. She had to admit: she was happy wasn't one of those mutants who looked like--excuse the popularist term--a 'freak.'

>> "Magical, that thing with the pens."

She smirked. "More like cheap theatre effects. I'm testing out a new stage prop for the theater club. It's a modern, abstractionist retelling of Macbeth." She loved saying these things with a straight face. While holding a horseshoe magnet, that was holding a quivering mass of anger paperclips.

>> "Hi. My friend here was wondering if someone around here might be able to show him around the campus. We're kind of lost, and-- hey. Are you Maxine Ralls?"

She was listening politely until the end. Then she was grinning. "Why yes, yes I am. And you are?"

Tall, dirty blonde, and handsome. Mmm. He was older than her, but not too old; taller than her, but not a girthed out like a football bovine. And he watched her show.

Maxine approved.

The Asian, by comparison, couldn't have been much more than her age. With her heels, he couldn't have been much more than her height, either. There was something weird about his eyes, too. She couldn't put her finger on what; they just didn't seem like they were focusing right. Was he high?

>>"More like cheap theatre effects. I'm testing out a new stage prop for the theater club. It's a modern, abstractionist retelling of Macbeth."

Theatre club prop? No way! He may have been easily distracted by motion and shiny things, but Shin wasn't gullible. At least, not to a fault. Shin met her smirk and straight face with one of his own, and a light laugh.

"Stage prop. Right. I should have known that." It was neat, whatever it was. Did she have telekinesis? Or maybe she could control magnetic fields, thus the thingy in her arms that had metal bits peeking out through the caked dirt. A third option was that it was "Very artistic."

Aurum nudged him, and cut his comment short. Shin swung his eyes over to narrow on the man. What?

>>"My friend here was wondering if someone around here might be able to show him around the campus. We're kind of lost, and-- hey. Are you Maxine Ralls?"

Oh. The obvious nudge-reminder for the mission. Shin swung his attention back to the Maxine with a smile and a nod.

"Yup."

So, her name was Maxine? Magical Maxine. Neat.

She asked their names. Aurum introduced himself, and looked to Shin.

"Tetsuya Shinbo," Shin stated. "Shin, for short."

Well look at Shin's rapport, Aurum noted as Maxine and the kid conversed. First, it was 'magical', then it was 'very artistic'. He was certainly aiming to flatter. Good for him.

It had been, what, 2 months? 3? Since he'd broken up with his girl. Showing interest in another one was a sure sign of moving on. Especially when it was someone like Maxine Ralls.

He'd have to support this decision, and help it on.

>>"Why yes, yes I am. And you are?"

"My name's Aurum," he answered her question. Shin followed up with his own introduction. Aurum continued. "Do you think you could show us around? If you aren't too busy with..." His eyes dropped to the creature hanging from the horseshoe magnet. Aurum smiled innocently. "Things."

>> "Stage prop. Right. I should have known that. Very artistic."

"Why thank you, Sir." The redhead fluttered her eyelashes. Not out of any particular interest for the man in front of her; just out of long-ingrained habits of irony. A muddy tentacle lashed around her wrist, and began using the grip to pull itself free; without so much as glancing down at it, Maxine peeled the clips off and sent them back to their prison. Click.

>> "My name's Aurum."

"Aurum. Interesting. Does it have any meaning?" She'd never met an Aurum before. A pen flew out of her umbrella's cover, and sought a shy shelter under his coat lapel. Rex seemed to recognize her tone of voice: its clips wrathfully wriggled, forfeiting globs of mud to the rain.

>> "Tetsuya Shinbo. Shin, for short."

"Is Shinbo your first name, or your last?" What? She could never tell with Asians. Did all of them even do the backwards-name-thing, or was it just the Japanese? She was pretty sure the Chinese did it, too. Pretty sure.

>> "Do you think you could show us around? If you aren't too busy with... Things."

"Aurum, darling, I can make time." She had over an hour until her next class, anyway. Her schedule was rather fragmented on Mondays. It wasn't worth it to hop a subway between classes, so she usually just lurked around the library or computer labs. "As long as I can duck into the little lady's room, first. My puppy needs a quick bath."

The clips paused, then burst into action; Rex got nearly its whole body free. The octoclip pushed valiantly for the ground, and freedom. It ended up dangling from the magnet by the tips of its tentacles, sulkily pulsing.

Maxine tapped the handicapped button, and beamingly gestured them inside the student union. The lady's room was just inside.

"Mind holding this?" Maxine asked the Asian, holding out her dripping umbrella, pen flock and all. She disappeared with the struggling octoclip in tow. The sounds of soapy battle were tragically muted by the tasteful wooden door.

Contrary to popular ‘Aurum’ belief, Shin’s ‘rapport’ was anything but interest in the girl in front of him. Her power, on the other hand, interested him quite a bit. Flying pens were fascinating, and mud-caked octopi, even more-so. Aesthetically, it was pleasing. Artistic, one might say. And so, he did, because it was, and sometimes, you just had to call a spade a spade (no matter how expensive it was).

He eyed the tentacle thing again as it wrapped itself around her wrist. He looked up, to Aurum, and said nothing as the two people talked. Then, the conversation swung back his way.

>>"Is Shinbo your first name, or your last?"

“My last,” Shin replied. “I guess it’s kind of a goofy last name, huh?” He always had thought it sounded a little odd. It was why he liked going by just the first syllable of it. It sounded better, he thought.

He fell silent again, as Aurum as Maxine conversed. It sounded like Aurum had found them a tour guide. Cool.

And again, with the ‘puppy’.

The thing tried to escape. It sure had personality, whatever it was. Shin followed Aurum and the redhead into the student union. He swung a look around the busy building as he waited idly. People shuffled about, papers passed hands, and college life continued.

>>"Mind holding this?"

His attention snapped back to the redhead, like paperclip tentacles to a horseshoe magnet.

“Alright.” A hand went out to take it. Shin slid his palm up to the ‘close’ button, but thought better of it. If he closed it, where would the pen flock migrate to? He settled for setting it down by his side, still-open, like a wheeled cane. He made sure to shift it, whenever passers went by.

Shin looked to Aurum after a moment. “She seems nice,” He commented. Because nice people helped out confused college students, and nice people bathed puppies, rather than letting them rust up with rain and mud.

>>"Aurum. Interesting. Does it have any meaning?"

“It’s Latin for ‘gold’,” Aurum replied genially, as he eyed the song pen best he could. Shin had said these things were ‘artistic’? They seemed a little disconcerting and invasive to him. Still, cute. Less so, the song pens, more-so their owner…who he smiled at. “I think this thing likes me,” Aurum stated wryly.

>>"Aurum, darling, I can make time."

She could make time. That was great.

>>"As long as I can duck into the little lady's room, first. My puppy needs a quick bath."

“Sure,” Aurum nodded. “Take your time.”

He followed her to the interior of the building, and watched as Shin got hooked up with her umbrella, and some song pens of his own. The umbrella was still sopping wet. As if the Asian wasn’t already wet enough…

>>“She seems nice,” Shin commented.

Aurum smirked at him. “Nice work, with the compliments. It’s good to see you’re moving on.”

((OOC: If I could get 1 more minute for an Aurum to nudge nudge nudge Shin outside the bathrooms, without a Maxine to interrupt, that'd be most humorous.))

>>“Nice work, with the compliments. It’s good to see you’re moving on.”

"Huh." One word could say a lot about how someone felt on a particular subject. Yes, No, and 'Huh' were all prime examples of this. The 'huh' in question here came alongside a blank expression, denoting just how much Shin didn't feel one way or the other on the subject. He quirked an eyebrow. "No idea what you mean."

He couldn't possibly have thought Shin was doing anything other than being a polite campus patron, and thanking the nice guide... could he? But then again, this was Aurum. Shin interrupted Aurum's smug little smile. "You're crazy." He stated. There was no way he was trying to be slick.

Although, Maxine was nice. But that was entirely unrelated to anything besides her personality. Honestly. "Quit being rude."

>>"You're crazy."

"Am I?" Aurum grinned. Shin was being awfully defensive for someone who, as he seemed to be putting it, had nothing to hide.

>>"Quit being rude."

Shin retorted.

"Well, okay..." Came Aurum's wry reply. He glanced towards the umbrella, then over towards the door. "But you were being awfully nice with those compliments. A person could get the wrong idea." And she was a reporter. Ideas were sort of meant to crop up. How else would one hone in on the hot topic, and find the 'big scoop'?

"And it wouldn't be the worst thing, you moving on. It has been two months..."

Wrong idea? Hrm. Shin shook his head. "I wasn't trying to compliment her... just her power..." He defended. His voice tapered off at the end. Shin crossed his arms. The umbrella dripped some more, and rolled an inch across the floor.

"You don't think she took it as something else... do you?" He frowned.

That'd sure be awkward...

Aurum quirked an eyebrow. Her power. Right. And her cuteness had nothing to do with it. He'd believe that when pigs flew on orange bat ears, and turned into angels. "Well, if you aren't interested, maybe I should ask her out for a cup of coffee?" He joked. He watched Shin's reaction carefully. If there was any sign of wavering here, he'd have his answer. The kid really did need that 'moving on' thing. Getting hung up on one person, and losing that person, generally didn't end well. Shin didn't deserve to become a monk.

Shin didn't give any signs of wavering.

He glanced back towards the bathroom door, and shook his head with a light laugh. "In that case..."