Percy Novikov
Mary Sue Sullivan
Location: Gymnasium
Skills: Friendship
Mary Sue's training had been perhaps the strangest and greatest thing she'd done in her entire life. The methods of Lady Nimue seemed arcane and Arthurian, but they were working, she thought anyway. Table manners were not the first thing she thought of when superheroing, but learning how to handle a sword was absolutely cool. Between her team and her classes, she was swamped, and in a near frenzy constantly. When she wasn't actively in class or on her team, she was either locked away in her room studying, or doing everything she could to keep in shape. In her mind, you could either be preternaturally gifted and not have to try, or burn everything else in your life to succeed. She knew which bucket she fell into.
As such, classes were one of the only places she got to talk to people that weren't on her team, and even then, she was high strung to say the least. Failure would not be an option for her, and that meant notes, engagement, and constant self criticality. Combat 101 then, ended up being an excellent place for her to blow off some steam. Today, she was paired with a Percy Novikov, a name that was already somewhere in her brain; was his parents one of her father's old collogues? It could be, but she didn't address it. They'd been tasked with practicing different holds, and going right into that wordlessly didn't sit right with her, so she gave a thin smile and said, "
Mary Sue, nice to meet you."
Percy raised an eyebrow.
Mary Sue. He bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't laugh. The term wasn't as popular in the late 2030's as it had been twenty or so years ago, but he knew what it meant.
"Percy," he said curtly. He paused. They were practicing different holds today, which was fine, but he didn't want to just go out and put his classmate into one.
"Do you want to go first, or should I?" he asked, doing his best to be polite. It was rude after all to just put someone into a hold. Although he might not have asked had Dorian Gray been his partner in this - or his sister.
Mary Sue took a mental note of the boy's tone; he seemed polite, yet restrained. This was a nature she could appreciate in a person. She shrugged and said, "
I don't mind starting, assuming you're ready." She quickly stepped towards him, intending to restrain his arms, only to have Percy shrug her off, stopping her from getting anything solid on him. Quickly refusing to allow herself to fail, she didn't let up, and forced herself behind him, locking her arms over his. Blind spots were something she'd learned to take advantage of in her training as of late, and she was proud of herself for being able to properly execute in this instance. After keeping him held for a moment, she let go, and said, "
If you'd like to try now, that's fine."
Percy similarly noted that Mary Sue seemed rather quiet - something he could appreciate. A lot of the students at the academy, particularly those on his team, were excessively load and outrageous. He couldn't decide if that made her more or less fitting of the name Mary Sue. Was she a social chameleon, matching the energy of all she met, in order to ensure everyone would like her? But he wasn't really getting that impression - but then again, he had just met her. The accent was interesting though... not English, but definitely something from around that general area.
It then occurred to him that he actually
had heard of a Mary Sue before - the kid of some ex-coworkers of his parents'.
"You wouldn't happen to be Mary Sue Sulivan?" Percy asked. He attempted to put her in a wrist-lock hold, but he didn't quite get the positioning correct, so the pressure wasn't applied properly, meaning that there was very little keeping Mary Sue from escaping.
Mary Sue gently pulled her hands out of the lock, and she held back a flinch at that name. She... didn't want to be know for being her parent's daughter. But she also wasn't one to lie, so she just nodded, "
Aye, and you're Percy Novikov, right? I think... our parent's used to work together?" It was true, and Mary Sue would even go as far to say that she
knew at this point that their parents were Agents of Shield; her obsession with super heroes wasn't to exclude the ones she was perhaps closest to. But that wasn't something she felt needed to me mentioned This was their story, and all their parents were were the people who got them here. It deserved to be respected, but she didn't want it to ever define her.
She almost instinctively wanted to push back into the assignment at hand, focus on the wrist lock, give Percy a chance to try again, and divert the topic but... she didn't know. She wanted friends and her roommate was
not providing that for her at the moment. She liked Percy, he seemed competent and careful and thoughtful, something that a lot of people were lacking if she was being perfectly honest. She picked a middle road. "
If you'd like to give that grapple another shot, that's fine, but... Is there a reason you asked?" She allowed herself a small smile, trying her best to seem open and polite, but not overbearing and nervous.
"Yes, they did," Percy confirmed. It was somewhat of a relief to him to learn that there weren't two poor girls named Mary Sue running around - or at least, not that he knew of. He raised an eyebrow though, as she asked him why he had asked. He hadn't had any sort of ulterior motive. He had simply been curious, wanting to know if she was the same person.
"Do I need a reason to ask?" he then proposed, before moving into giving that grapple another shot. It wasn't bad by any means, as he managed to get Mary Sue down to the mat, but it definitely needed work.
Mary Sue knew she was going to fall on her ass before it happened. She gave a push against him, but found that she couldn't really get herself out. She exhaled, and said, "
No, I suppose not." She said, rather briskly. Right now, she was more focused on freeing herself. Though she struggled, she was stuck. She was visibly annoyed at this situation, that she was incapable of freeing herself. It was at that moment, she has an absurd idea. She knew from her practice with Andy that her power's constructs could have physical qualities, like conductivity. What if they could have other one's as well? Within a few moments of concentrating, her skin was coated in some slick substance, and she slid herself out. Standing and brushing down her arms, she turned her head, "
I... don't have a lot of free time, but if you'd like to practice together again in the future, I'd like that." There was something about Percy that Mary Sue really respected; he seemed cool and competent. She honestly thought she could learn a lot from him; besides, she needed more friends.
His face wrinkled up, and he looked distressed as Mary Sue
slipped her way out of his grip.
"What the hell?" he muttered, looking at the strange substance. Some of it had gotten on him. When he touched it, it felt slick and sticky.
"...Dare I ask how you get this out in the wash?" he asked her. He hated having a dirty uniform - even when the school provided tons of spares, as students were destroying their uniforms all the time in class. But he nodded slightly at her offer to hang out in the future.
"Do you play chess? You seem like you'd be good at it." Mary Sue gave Percy a wry smile, and held back a laugh. "
Oh, don't worry, it comes out like that." She said, snapping her fingers, as the construct faded. God, she was glad that worked, or she would have looked ridiculous. "
But believe me, I know the stress of a dirtied uniform, I wouldn't have done that to you just to get out of a hold if I couldn't have fixed it. Apologies." She said, her tone sympathetic. At the questioned, she paused. She'd heard of chess, and vaguely knew the rules, but she'd never actually played. "
I... No actually. I'd be curious to learn though if you'd be willing to teach me." She answered honestly, a curiosity in her voice.
Percy let out a sigh of relief - although on some level, part of him would always know that the weird substance had been
there, but that was something he was just going to have to deal with.
"Thank you," he said curtly. He smirked slightly as Mary Sue asked if he would teach her chess. He liked to play the game, and often found that beginners could be surprisingly good at the game - mostly because they opted for unconventional movement sets, forcing things away from the handful of optimal strategies. He liked that.
"I can teach you, but you might not like my teaching style." Mary Sue had to admit, she was
curious about Percy's methods. She... knew she didn't have much time, but Chess felt like the sort of thing that might be good to know. It was about resource management and planning right? Those were things she should know about, one way or another. If Percy was offering to teach her, she'd take it. "
I'd like that, let's find a time to play." She said, a grin spreading out on her face. She was excited, this could grow, ostensibly, her first close friendship in her entire life. Today had been a good day, and she considered herself so lucky for meeting Percy Novikov.
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