(Hive-written with Stargazer.) The high school dropout Aramis, or Ari, awakens to a whole new life unfolding. The Xavier School is offering adult high school for mutants who couldn't complete it as a kid, which carries into college.
A Rude Awakening
-Ari: He's a 5' 2" man with a beardless, and layered, golden mane. His skin is pale-white. His irises are gray. He's 110 lb.s and fit. He's wearing black short shorts with pink hearts on them, and a black tank top, both of light, breathable fabric for the summer heat. *Ari is laying in bed on his right side, facing the sage green wall on the other side of his twin bed. His orange, Navajo comforter is covering most of him. *Ari slowly opens his eyes, as he feels his chest through his shirt, finding it flat. *Ari sits up, and looks into his shirt. *Ari gets up out of bed, and looks down at himself. *Ari grabs an orange bottle of pills with a white, child-proof lid, and white label. He starts reading it. *Ari then starts looking in a cardboard, delivery box until he finds an opened, and emptied delivery package of gray. He gets the papers out of the package, and locates the paper for his new pill. *Ari stands there, reading the paper. *Someone knocks on his door, a mezzo-soprano woman, "Hello-o! Food!" *Thus, Ari opens the door to his mother, and holds the pill's paper out to her. *His obese mother with her hair bleached to a very pale blonde drops two wrapped sausage egg McMuffins on the floor, but continues to stare at her son. She's wearing her black grocery store uniform. *Ari tries to speak, but fails. *Ari clears his throat awkwardly, looking sad, his eyes getting moist. *Ari then speaks in baritone, "I told you I'm a man." *Ari pushes the paper toward his mother, "They prescribed me a medicine for my faulty Y chromosome. It makes it work." *His mother: "I... Have no daughter? You're.... A son?" *Ari: "You have two sons." *His mother: "I'm so happy for you. But, if you start turning out like your dad, I'm going to disown you." *Ari starts to speak, "Wh..." But, he stops himself, and corrects it, "That won't happen." *Ari's mother picks up the food, and hands it to him. *Ari's mother leaves his doorway for her bedroom across the hallway, "You're stuck with this wardrobe till next month, because you can't save your S.S.I. worth anything!" *Ari closes the door, and partially unwraps a McMuffin, then takes a bite, and chews.
A Shave, For A Change
-Ari: He has a short beard growing in unkemptly. He's wearing a black, muscle shirt; and, drawstringed, black, athletic shorts. *Ari opens a packaged beard trimmer in the bathroom, setting it on the counter, and throwing away the packaging. *Ari plugs the trimmer in, and starts buzzcutting his beard. *Ultimately, Ari has a buzzcutted beard going from his sideburns to his bottom lip, hugging his jawline, until it reaches up to his lip. *Ari strokes his beard, and the smooth skin above it while tilting his head to the right, looking at it in the mirror.
Muscle Memory
-Ari: The top of his hair is pulled back into a bun. *Ari is sitting in a black, plastic chair at a cubicle desk, as a guest to the cubicle's occupier. *The occupier is a woman who looks him up, from his slide-sandaled feet to his hair. *The occupier pulls a deep file-drawer open in her desk, and starts rummaging around in it. *The occupier takes an Xavier School brochure out from the drawer, and sets it on the desk next to Ari, gesturing that it's for him. *Ari picks up the brochure, seeing that it's about adult high school, and college after. *The occupier: "They said there's still room to enroll for the upcoming school year." *Ari's brows furrow, lightly angry, "Why'd you wait till now to offer this?" *The occupier: "They were full every year when you showed interest. If you act fast, you can get in. They fill up quickly." *Ari: "Then, let's get this going! Do I need to get my paperwork from my last school, or can the clinic staff do that?" *The occupier: "They already got it, because you already asked to enroll in adult high school next school year, and they're waiting for you to give the okay to submit your enrollment." *Ari: "I consent. Submit it!" *The occupier looks to her other side, to something out of view to Ari, "Then, this..." *The occupier picks up a large, black backpack with contents inside, and sets it down in front of Ari, "...Is yours. They're donations. And, you won't need a laptop, because the school will lend you one for the school year." *The occupier dials a number on her work phone, then talks to someone, "Aramis Blanchard said to go ahead, and submit his enrollment to the Xavier School." *The occupier looks back at Ari, "You're free to go. Take your school supplies. We'll contact you with your transportation details when it's time to move." *A smiling Ari stands up, putting his backpack on like he was just in high school recently, and waves at her with his right hand, before walking away.
The Climb
*Ari watches as Remy puts his luggage in the back of a yellow Ford transit at an airport. *Ari gets into the van, and buckles up as Remy closes the passenger door. *Remy and Ari watch through the windows as a plane flies overhead noisily, while it's climbing into the air. It's coming from a runway on other side of the building. *Ari furrows his brows as he asks, "Do the planes always drive toward the building?" *Remy takes a quiet breath in, then keeps silent as he starts driving. *Eventually, Remy turns on the radio, and a DJ is talking, "I say I've had enough of the backwards runway at the airport!" *A second DJ: "Have they ever tried simply driving the other way?" *Remy turns off the radio, "They built the plane hangers opposite the building entrance a long time ago. They wanted that affect on people coming to the airport. It was before 9/11. People are... Trying to get it changed." *Remy starts eating beef jerky as he's driving, then looks over at Ari, asking while eating, "Did you eat? You did eat the plane food, right? 'Cause you missed breakfast. So did I. There was an emergency." *Ari points his left thumb behind him in the rearview mirror, making eye contact through the mirror, "That's not an emergency?" *Remy: "No." *Ari realizes the van is driving to mission control, which is observed by Remy in the mirrors. *Remy: "It's okay, we'll bring in our teleporter. This won't take long."
A Little Problem
*Remy drives the yellow Ford transit back to the pick up spot, and starts to head out with a sign that reads, "Nuitlis." *Ari: "You just saw Kurt earlier, and you parted ways. He teleported home." *Remy: "Not that Kurt. Another." *Ari: 'What? That's not for Nightcrawler and Stargazer?" *Remy exits the van while answering, "No. It's someone else."
*After a while, Remy returns with luggage... And, a 2' 6" tall little man of dark, medium blue coloration with very narrow, apple green eyes; and, pointed ears. He's wearing a ribbed, tank top tucked into very wide, poofy harem pants with ribbed fabric inserts in it's hip cutouts. The tank top, and matching hip cutout inserts are the apple green of his eyes. His pants are black with metallic apple green, embroidered flower damask throughout it. He's got on a metallic apple green, decorative belt. His footwear's metallic apple green, gladiator sandals. His pants drape over most of his feet, barely not touching the floor. His layered; dark, medium blue hair is in a ponytail over each shoulder with a metallic green, and black horizontally striped ribbon tied in a bow over each hair elastic. Around his eyes is black kohl, and his lips are wearing maroon lipstick that looks velvety. He's also wearing apple green peridot, stud earrings. His finger and toe nails are professionally done up in metallic apple green floral damask on black. His nails are evenly around half an inch long, and are pointed. He is Curtis Nuitlis. *Ari thinks out loud, looking at Curt through the window, "A bamf." *Ari then sees Curt's devil tail slowly wagging behind his short legs. *Curt follows Remy around to the back, as Ari moves to another seat to watch them, and is talking inaudibly to Remy. *Remy opens the back doors of the van, and puts away Curt's luggage. - Curt's voice is very high-pitched, "So, what do you think? I had this outfit made for school." *Remy: "It looks expensive." *Curt: "I was saving up for a computer... Decided to make sure I look nice for school first." *Remy goes to open the door, but Curt teleports to it, unvelcroes his pantlegs to extend them, then shifts to 5', and opens the door himself. *Curt briefly stares at a child booster seat in the van, then exchanges stares with Remy over it, while Remy gets back into the driver's seat. *Remy now stares off at the parking lot, away from Curt, "What if your shapeshift drops? You need a boost." *Curt gets in, closing the door behind him, "I'll be fine." *Curt buckles up, triggering Ari buckling up. *Curt tells Ari through the rearview mirror, "Name's Curtis Nuitlis. What's yours?" *Ari: "Aramis Blanchard." *Curt thinks about it, "Hmm." *Ari: 'What?" *Curt: "I think your family name's wrong." *Ari: "How could it be so?" *Curt: "Just..." *Curt looks out the sliding door window, away from Ari. *Ari: "What's wrong with my name?" *Curt's barely audible, "I'm just saying, I think that's not your name." *Ari briefly furrows his brows at Curt's reflection, then looks out a window on other side of the car. *Remy: "You have both suffered from a drug called Why Y. A small dose feminizes a man, maybe even makes him bisexual, or outright homosexual. But, a strong dose will actually give him Turner syndrome, shutting off his Y for his X, making him an infertile, pseudo female." *Ari: "They said my Y is faulty." *Remy: "That's what they're going to tell you if you catch you have a Y not working, yes. They're not going to take the blame. As far as they're concerned in a court of law, it's all your own faults." *Ari looks at Remy through the rearview mirror, "Are you saying I'm not supposed to be bi?" *Remy: "Well, maybe you are. We'll have to give you the counter drug, and see." *Curt: "Bisexuality, and gender-shifting, like Hermes, are the way of the future, so I hope I really am bi." *Remy: "It's doubtful that you're a gender-shifter." *Curt looks back out the door window, "You don't know who I've siphoned. I've met people." *Remy: "We'll just have to see about that. I heard your Turner syndrome gave you paranoid schizophrenia. Went on some wild rides." *Curt looks directly at Remy, "It was telepathy rides!" *Remy: "Well, yeah. But, maybe there was something more going on. We'll have to check you after you're on the counter." *Curt mutters at the door window, "I am not bread." *Curt flicks his tail, looking at it's tip, and smiles. *Curt looks at Remy, "Are we waiting for someone?" *Remy: "Get in the booster seat." *Curt, thus, unbuckles the seatbelt, unshapeshifts, then walks across the bench to the booster seat, and gets in, buckling up again. - Remy watches him do so through the rearview mirror. *Remy starts driving again.
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