Xaviers!

By the time Colette and Shari have made their way over to the dining hall, Shari's face has completely changed again. It's now that of an adorably oversized moth or butterfly, along with a thick collar of what seems like fur at first glance but upon closer examination is made up of millions of tiny shimmering scales that poof out from underneath her coat. Her hands are still hands, though darker and slightly segmented at the joints. The fact that she has mandibles doesn't seem to impact her ability to speak much.

"Ugh... lines..." she complains as they, well, get in line. Then the guy in front of them turns around at that he looks a little taken aback at her sight. To which Shari responds by sticking out her 'tongue'/proboscis at him with a laugh.

Colette had watched the transformation with a mixture of fear and fascination. After all, it was a bit like something out of a John Carpenter movie at times, seeing a form change from human to inhuman.

"You really do take great delight in your ability. It is... refreshing to see one enjoy zemselves so much here."

"Good. People need to be less... shitty. Feeling like crap about who you are is the worst and it's always somebody else's fault. No, not you." she tells the guy in front of them who has turned around with a confused look on his face.

"Zat is a view I have tried to express to ozers, zough sometimes it is difficult to sound sincere when telling zem."

Colette took one of the plastic trays from the stack, carefully selecting her cutlery so that she doesn't "dirty" any left behind.

"But zat is not my job now, is it? Zat is what ze teachers here are for. So perhaps I should take ze easy. Zat is ze expression, is it not?"

"I guess? I dunno, I'm not particularly good at this. Sometimes you just end up having to flip everybody off with as many arms as you can manage. But that made my parents give me the boot. Then again, they're assholes, so fuck them. Anyway, what was I getting at? Oh yea. The more you openly stand your ground the more enemies you're gonna make, so walk among them unnoticed until it's too late. Lessons of War number who the fuck cares. It's what my parents believe so I'm pretty sure the opposite's correct." she rambles on.

"I am... sorry zat your parents did not set ze best example for you. I fear zat many of ze students here have shared similar experiences."

"Yeah. People just don't like it when you're different, I guess. Only difference is what kinda different. Different. Different. Well, that word lost all meaning just now." she chuckles.

Colette selected a cheese and pickle sandwich from the lunch selection and placed it on her tray, already eager to move on to the desserts.

"And even here, persons like to categorize each ozer. Ze poor telepazs, no one trusts zem."

Shari just piles up carbohydrates like crazy on her plate. Giant chunk of lasagna, fries and a bunch of bread along with a whole handful of those little butter packages.

"Cause people don't trust each other." she nods as she follows Colette, eyeing the desserts.

"Correct! Which is why ze school spends so much time trying to create a sense of community zrough teamwork. We are all in zis togezer, whezer it be we as mutants, we as a nation, or we as a planet." Colette was one of those students who loved the school, while many others wished they could have just remained home, and many more preferred if they hadn't developed their powers at all.

When it came time for desserts, that's was Colette's time to shine. Bakewell tart, Eton mess, slices of banoffee and lemon meringue pie; the girl's plate was packed with sugar. If there hadn't been so many on campus who required massive amounts of calories due to their abilities some girls might've shot Colette a very dirty look due to her ability to indulge herself, though of course it came at a pretty steep price.

"Will you be able to fit all of zat zhrough your... straw zingie?" Colette asked, gesturing to Shari's lunch.

Shari chuckles. "Sure, but nobody wants to see that. 'Sides, eating with it is terrible, no taste at all."

"Well, zat defeats ze point, does it not? Food wizout taste is like wine wizout alcohol, or ze beach wizout sunshine."

Colette added a few bottles of water to her tray before she lifted her head.

"Do your segmented eyes see a good place for us to sit?"

"Sure do!" she says, swiping her student ID to pay for her food. She still has no idea who the picture on it actually is, but it's not like any actual picture of her would stay relevant for long anyway. She leads Colette over to a table with a couple empty spots and plops down in her chair. "So how do you eat? You just let it float around inside?"

Colette sat herself down, careful of her skirt as she settled in, showing some restraint in selecting half of her sandwich first before any of the desserts.

"Well, is zat not how ozers eat?" She asked with head tilted and an awkward smile. "I... well normally do not force ozers to watch, out of politeness." She made a gesture toward her face with one hand, her visage taking on that bubblegum pink opacity again before taking on that translucent pink goo look once more.

"But, if you are really curious, I could forgo zis."

"I mean, you're not wrong. You don't gotta do it if you don't want, but I don't mind. I bet it looks hella rad." she says, her proboscis, now with bit of a spiky bit at the tip, shoots out and spears a bit of lasagna to be reeled into her mandibles. It's not as messy as it could be but she still gets tomato sauce all over her chompy bits.

Colette saw how Shari was showing off her eating habits on her form, so she thought perhaps she'd indulge the curious new friend a bit. Her face retained its translucent appearance as she bit into her sandwich. Her gelatin teeth seemed to lack the cutting ability of other students mouths, perhaps her more opaque form sported tougher toothies, though maybe that explained why she had taken a knife along with her fork and spoon even though most of her meal was rather soft. Her mouth in general was funny; when she opened her mouth there was a cavern inside of her complete with tongue, but as soon as she closed it that "bubble" collapsed, taking with it the piece of sandwich. It just seemed to float in her head for a moment, slowly drifting toward the collar of her shirt, tiny bits and pieces breaking off and disappearing like a lazy alka-seltzer tablet. It hadn't been like x-ray footage where one can see muscles moving, there was just... pink goo, moving the food around in an invisible current.

"Man, that's the laziest kinda eating ever." Shari laughs. "Are you like one giant stomach?"

Colette wasn't certain how it was lazy, though not really having teeth meant that chewing her food was easier said than done. As it was she was using her fork to cut a piece out of her tart rather than just biting into it.

"I... suppose so? In ozers, zeir cells are formed to do certain zings. Some are muscles, some carry oxygen, some fight disease, zose sort of zings. Mine just do everzing, everywhere."

"There's all kinds of stomachs and teeth and teeth in stomachs and moving it around going on for almost everything. You just dissolve it right into you. Sounds lazy to me." she winks.

"Well it is not as zough I have not tried to become more... normal. But I have always been zis way, I have no idea of where to begin." Colette explained, her voice a little sad. Her visage took on that opaque pale pinkness again now that the demonstration was over, the girl sampling some of her tart and adopting a more cheerful expression. She was easy to please.

"Hey, I'm just giving you shit. Nothing wrong with how you eat, Squishy."

"But, is not laziness a bad zing? It is a sin, no?"

"Is it? I mean, you don't wanna sit on your butt all day, but what's the harm in doing something efficiently so it's less work?"

Colette tried to sort this out. "Laziness is sloz, which is a sin, which is bad. But it is also efficient, which is good? I zink I my understanding of English is too poor for me to follow."

"I think you guys just have different kinda sins." Shari concludes.

Colette furrowed her brow.

"Are you... Mormon?"

"I dunno what that is, so probably no. I'm..." she hesitates for a moment and Colette can see Shari be reticent about something for the first time. "...one of the guys who attacked the school. The 'aliens'." she says, making airquotes.

"Oh. Okay. Zat makes sense.'"

Colette blinked a couple of times before she ate another portion of her tart.

"Did you want to try one of zese?" She asked, pointing to the assortment of desserts on her tray.

"You know what, sure. Why not." she says before spearing one of the sweets with her tongue. In the blink of an eye it's reeled in and the whole pastry disappears into Shari's mouth in one piece.

"Pwehhy 'ood." she says, adding a thumbs up for clarity.

Colette gave a little start at the darting tongue heading toward her, though she could not suppress her giggling at the spectacle.

"Well, I zink zat you are very... efficient as well!"

Shari chuckles with her mouth still full of dessert before swallowing it down.

"So, Invisi-Boy's your boyfriend, huh? I bet that looks kinda funky when you two get busy."

Colette tilted her head to one side, her cheek puffed out with another bite of her sandwich.

"When we are busy doing what?"

"You know. Smooching."

Colette's cheeks flush.

"I would not know. My eyes are always closed."

"Aww, that's adorable." she says and she sounds genuine at least. "Plus, not much difference from your point of view, am I right?" she can't help but add on a joke to ruin it immediately.

"It is actually... easier?" Colette mused, trying to think of how to explain it. "Wiz my eyes open, my sight is tricking me. But eyes closed I can use zat sense of... space? All zose subtle signs of where somezing is zat get overlooked when - one - looks...."

Shari tilts her head a little. "Yeah, I guess I could see that. But you know what also helps with that? A whole lotta eyyyyes!" she says as little bulbs of compound eyes grow on her hands. She looks confused for a moment, tilting her head the other way. "Okay this works better without clothes cause you can't see most of the eyes I just grew and I'm, like, 80% blind now." she laughs.

"If I cannot see him wiz two eyes, I do not zink a zird or more will be of much help." Colette mused softly before a smile slowly crept across her face.

"So you are saying zat your eyes are not up here?" An awkward attempt to make a joke about men staring at women's chests, but at least she tried.

"Oh they're up there, back there, just generally everywhere." she chuckles.

"Hopefully not on your seat,I cannot imagine zat zis would be very comfortable."