Letter to home (Cryogene's intro)

[Cryogene]

Dear Daddy,

Got moved into my room this morning after a load of paperwork, physicals, orientation meetings, and some logistical issues, so I'm finally finding the time to write. Haven't met my roommate yet, though, and given what I've seen since I got here, she could be ANYONE... or ANYTHING, for that matter.

My appearance, as it turns out, probably won't be an issue at all. First student I met had green hair and lavender skin. In the three days since, I've also spotted one with horns, and yet another was some kind of cyborg or robot or something, and this before I've even spent more than a few hours on the campus proper. So yeah, people look weird around here, and no one cares. Nice step up from the kids pulling on my ears in elementary school.

Still, there's a LOT of people on this campus. I'm still glad you and Mom put me into private tutoring -- between the teasing and the freezing and the teasing about the freezing, I wouldn't have lasted another year in public school -- but it's starting to hit me that I haven't spent real time with kids my age in nearly six years. (Well, Jimmy and Kathy only started avoiding me three years ago after that little incident, but other than them, I mean.) Anyway, got a bit of social anxiety here. Hope I don't make an idiot of myself.

First two nights, I slept in special facilities at GIFT, but this morning my "bed" arrived at the school: a well-insulated chamber they've installed into what'll be my room. It's a little claustrophobic inside, not much more room inside than those MRI machines, and I hope I don't have a panic attack when I spend eight hours inside tonight. But the technology involved is admittedly pretty cool (no pun intended). It monitors the temperature inside and constantly adds enough heat to make sure I don't popsicle myself completely, then warms me all the way to 98.6 when I'm ready to get up. A lot more efficient than sleeping in the sauna all night. They also put in an extra, personal water heater for this quad's showers (imagine the disaster if all the hot water were gone when it was my turn). That and a special uniform with some emergency heating pads built in, like in my usual coat, and I can stay functional around the clock, even during a Rhode Island December.

(Did I mention it's a LOT colder here than in Savanna? Well it is. Absorbing heat from the air alone doesn't keep me above zero-C even if I frost everything in reach. I shudder to think what it'll be like by February. Looks like I'll be using those heating pads regularly if I want to head outside.)

It's a little worrisome that they're going to all this inconvenience just for me, especially considering they don't know whether I'll be here for the duration or flunk/drop out before the semester's over. Miss Gemini (school administrator) says that a lot of the other students here have needs just as elaborate as mine, and they're happy to accommodate each of us, but I doubt she'll still be saying that when the school has to pay the heating bill for the next month. But it was a nice thought anyway. Just hope I can prove I'm worth the effort before then.

Love,
Joni

PS: If you get in touch with Momma, you can tell her I'm taken care of here. GIFT gave me a full scholarship, and she doesn't need to worry about taking care of me anymore. But if she gets the chance, could you ask her to visit? She wouldn't have to stay long. Just ask her.

PPS: I've included a picture of me in my new uniform. Me and skirts don't mix, but I like the jacket, and the tie didn't give me nearly as much trouble as I thought.

PPPS: If Momma says no, pretend you couldn't reach her, okay?

*****

Joni "Cryogene" Jacobs is a mutant whose blood temperature is best measured in degrees Kelvin instead of Fahrenheit. Although the rest of her body is more tolerant of low temperatures than most people's, she is at constant risk of putting herself into a state of cryogenic suspension (and has done so, frequently, requiring others to thaw her out). She compensates for this by drawing heat energy from her surroundings, freezing them instead of herself, and she has grown adept at directing exactly where she draws from -- at the same time, she must do this continuously to keep from "popsicling," as she puts it. Financially unable to care for Joni, her father finally sought help from GIFT, who evaluated her situation and gave her a needs-based scholarship to St. Joseph's.

Joni is easily identified as "non-mundane" by her snow-white skin and hair and her dog-like ears. She has a slight Southern accent but enunciates well (due to several years of private lessons).

[Firetastic]

Welcome to st.joes joni if ya ever need a lil heat shout out on the com ill come running

[FrancisCross]

Francis leans over her desk about as close to the new girl as the sudden temperature drop will allow. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thanks an unknown diety for making goth fashion involve layers.

"Hey." She whispers, eyes darting to the nun at the far front of the class.

"A bunch of us are sneaking out after curfew tonight. Apparently Stasis needs new boots again. You should come with. Sneak out exactly three minutes after lights out, go through the hallway to the right of the cafeteria and get out through the food delivery doors before the cooks lock up for the night.

Oh and hey....what's the first battle of the Civil War called again?"

[Cryogene]

Joni glances around nervously -- she hasn't been in a school environment in some time, but she's fairly certain whispering in class wasn't allowed in elementary school. Of course, neither was getting up to defrost the ink in your pen every ten minutes, and they certainly would have frowned on her going out and freezing gang members between classes...

"Umm, okay... and Manassas, I think."

If she'd understood the concept of curfew better, she'd have almost certainly said "no." But everything she knew about boarding schools (weird ones especially) she'd learned from reading Harry Potter, and he was never in trouble for going around at night.

[Mimi]

Welcome, Joni!

I was so happy to meet you, and I'm glad that gigantic contraption was for you. Kinda woulda been awkward if they'd installed it in the wrong quad, huh?

See you soon, I hope!

[Kali Jade]

Hey there! You're new right? Least I don't think I have seen you yet.... anyways I'm Kali *smiles* You can usually find me hangin round Jack... oh Hes the big guy with the red arm *grins* Hes Awesome you'll love him! Anyways , welcome to St Joes! And oh here... ( hands her a bag of chips and a coke ) Hollar if you need anything ok? I'm in Quad 2 *giggles*

[Firetastic]

Fire looks kali over real close..."where in gods name do you keep all those cokes and chips?"

[Kali Jade]

oh um... well see... theres all these lockers and stuff right? And well sometimes ya know I find bags of chips... like one time I found this box of cheese its! they were great!

[Gravwarp]

Hi Joni! It's me, Bryan... ummm... Gravwarp. Thanks for helping me out the other with those paramilitary guys! I had lots of fun.

[Cryogene]

Hi Joni! It's me, Bryan... ummm... Gravwarp. Thanks for helping me out the other with those paramilitary guys! I had lots of fun.

You're welcome... it was actually kind of fun (well, not the getting-shot-at part, but it's nice to to freeze things totally guilt-free for a change).

[Sandy Stone]

Well I suppose this is a step up from elementary school, if you ever need to freeze anything, you can go at me when I revert back to stone form, I don't feel anything and It won't permanently freeze me, I hope my rooms big enough! Heh I just woke up so bear with ok =p, even though im bouncing around subjects, lets see...next...next...oh ya we gotta go stock up on good stuff, y'know chips, soda, candy, whatever we can get our mits on, I got a hiding spot the nuns don't know about, and begining my rock from makes so much noise they had to sound proof my room so I didn't keep wakeing up Stasis, Glacial, and the others, making it great for late night parties...(just don't tell others =p) Well...WELCOME to SJS, glad to have you as a roomate!! For the first time in you life theres something you can freeze as much as you want, and all it will do is make it super cold! byyyyeee

[Cryogene]

Well I suppose this is a step up from elementary school, if you ever need to freeze anything, you can go at me when I revert back to stone form, I don't feel anything and It won't permanently freeze me

Well, depending on how much heat you have in that form, it might not help much. But thanks for the offer... still, unless it's an emergency, I'll probably just swing by the furnace room. Then you won't have to thaw yourself out.

I got a hiding spot the nuns don't know about

*looks around, expecting eavesdropping nuns to swarm on their location immediately*

[Blitzen]

Swarming nuns? That conjures up an image that'll likely visit me later on in my dreams. In anycase, I can handle the cold pretty good, so no worries on my end. Just since we'll be rooming- let me know what to do in case of emergency, what to look for or what not. Otherwise, I'll head out to class thinking "Wow, Joni was especially quiet s'morning."

[Cryogene]

There's a lot of safety measures on the coffin, and I'm informed that if it can't keep my temperature stable for whatever reason, it'll send an immediate signal to the night staff at the infirmary and they'll be on their way in minutes. So just glance at it in the morning and make sure it hasn't completely lost power somehow. (If it has, there's some emergency instructions written on the side. Also get the attention of the nearest heater student or staff IMMEDIATELY, please, as I'll no doubt need a fast defrost.)

[Blitzen]

Well, maybe you could sleep with your med badge too, s'way they can evac you if need be, it'd save them a whole lot of shoe leather that way.

And how 'bout we give it a different name, besides "the coffin", because that's sorta creepy. Tanning bed, toaster oven, something like that- change the outlook a bit. It's all in the name. That's why they call it Escargot instead of Slugs on a Plate.

See you around!