Simon B and Lydia, Wednesday evening

[om_panax]

Lydia acquires her first test subject potentially willing random student. Simon is convinced he may be useful--and manages to not be awkward for a few moments.

The telly was on, but Simon wasn't paying it any mind. He was sitting at the table in the otherwise deserted rec room, replaying some footage he had caught of Jeanne-Marie earlier. He had already shown it to her, and had her blessing to do with it what he wanted. He liked that she trusted him to do that, by now. She had talked to him about other things, too - about how lovely Bobby was, and about an ongoing effort to manage the emergence of the mutant community from a PR perspective.

His feelings on the matter were still very mixed.

Lydia dropped by mostly to peruse the DVD collection. She needed something to spring on Arthur and Eames, so it'd have to be Sci Fi (well, at least for Arthur's sake), but she had no idea what she was looking for just yet. She made her way to the shelf with just a little glance and nod for Simon, quiet film-creeper boy, playing with his camera at the table...

Then thought, what the hell. She looked over her shoulder (which was bright blue--she was wearing a belted sweater-dress and boots) and said, "How busy are you right now, Simon?"

Simon had looked up briefly when Lydia entered the room, but knew better than to address her. He watched her for a few seconds, then went back to his footage. But when she addressed him, he switched to a perfect rendition of a deer caught in the headlights, and it took him a few seconds to find his voice. "I - um. Not very?"

"Good," she said, taking a seat nearby and crossing her legs at the knee almost primly. "I'd like to sound you out on some PR things, if you don't mind."

Simon frowned, but flipped the camera screen shut and put the device down on the table, looking over at Lydia (Lydia!) and giving her his full attention. "Sound me out?" he echoed, with just enough emphasis on the 'me' to make it clear he wasn't sure why she thought that she ought to. He hadn't thought that he was even a blip on her radar.

Lydia cocked an eyebrow. "You're a mutant--and you go to school here, so you're close to the little epicenter we're creating. You can be involved--and will be, in a way, no matter what happens. So yes. Sound you out."

Alright, then. Simon's frown was not really easing, but it wasn't hostile at all, just... focused. "Alright."

"We're going to step up the game and try to get some mutants out there in a good way—better visibility, and more about how helpful we can be. We'll start with the mutants who are already out, but we'd like to see more people get involved—either in a public way or without taking any personal credit." She paused there to gauge his reaction.

Simon very much doubted that Lydia Martin would want his opinion on any of this. They had not really talked since that first encounter at that party, soon after Simon and Nathan arrived, and besides, all of this sounded decided already. So... was she trying to gauge whether he would get involved? He frowned a little more, then tentatively answered, "I have no interest in coming out."

"Okay," she said, making a mental note. "Would you possibly be interested in something where you could use your abilities for rescue or charity purposes--not sure what yet, just asking in a general kind of way--without getting credit for it? Say we could do things before the media knows about them and publicize them after--that kind of thing."

There was no mistaking what came over Simon as he spoke, then, mostly ridding him of his usual, overwhelming awkwardness: it was simple, solid determination. For a second, he even forgot that Lydia Martin was talking to him. "Absolutely."

Then it all seemed to come back to him, and he glanced down, swallowed, and added, in his usual awkward manner, "I mean. As long as my identity stays private. I want to help people."

"We can find a way around almost anything," Lydia assured him, gauging that reaction carefully. Very interesting. In a good way. "Even if you weren't a special case" --Facility issues-- "we'd protect your identity if that's how you wanted it. We need faces out there, but we also need people behind the scenes--both for security purposes and just to get things done."

Simon nodded slowly, holding her gaze more easily than he normally would on account of the subject matter. "If I can help, count me in." He glanced away briefly, then back at her with raised eyebrows. "Is anything happening soon?" Anything they would have planned for, obviously, by opposition to anything they might have to react to. The latter was a lot more difficult to predict.

"Not very," she said, leaning against the arm rest comfortably. "We're still gathering ideas for what we can do and who might be interested. Once we know what we have to work with, we'll tailor a plan to our resources. I'm glad you're on the interested list."

Simon nodded again, to confirm that he was. The fact that she cared at all what he did still felt surprising, but invisibility was an asset. "If I can help in any way before you have all of that figured out, let me know. I -" He paused, and rephrased what he had been about to say. "Will you let me know what's going on?" He meant more generally than what they might need him for.

"I can do that. Once we know what's going on, anyway." She cocked an eyebrow and offered something between a wry smile and her usual smirk.

Simon replied with one of his small, awkward smiles. "Thank you. And thank you for talking to me. About this."

"My pleasure," she said. "Email me if you come up with any ideas of your own, okay? Or come to office hours; no one ever stops by to talk about math, so why not?"

Simon smiled again, awkwardly, at the humour there, then nodded. "I will."