Sep 11, 2025
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CHARACTER OVERVIEW: ALEXANDER MASTRONADI
OVERVIEW
FULL NAME: Alexander Mastronadi
CURRENT ALIAS: Cyclops
NICKNAMES: Alex
BIRTHDAY: December 12th
GENDER: male
AFFILIATION: X-Men
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Xavier Academy, Leopold Estate
PERSONALITY
If anything defines Alex, its disciple and loyalty. Alex lives his life according to these principles.
Never one to be too expressive, Alex has always been there for the people that need him the most. Responsible from a young age for his brother Daniel, and then for the mutants at the Academy, Alex has always displayed traits of exceptional leadership.
Calm, collected and composed in every situation, Alex is exceedingly methodical and detail oriented - always planning 10 steps ahead of everyone around himself, always thinking and implementing a contingency plan or two.
Alex is not someone who can simply "go with the flow" - although he did when he was younger, primarily due to the influence of Rosaria's carefree nature. Typically, he needs to know the detailed plan- when, where, why, who, and how. He's also not the most trusting of people, typically preferring to keep them at arms length until they've earned his trust. Because of this, he often comes across as cold and aloof, which he absolutely is.
It would come as no surprise then that Alex also has an extreme case of type A personality, and is also a perfectionist. With a reputation of being notoriously tough, he tends to hold extremely high standards for everyone around him. Unfortunately, he holds himself to an even higher regard. He's not one that tolerates mistakes or excuses. Its 110% or nothing at all.
While he's not the easiest person to get to know, Alex is extremely loyal and exceedingly protective of the people closest to him - he will quite literally burn down the planet if it meant saving them.
He's also a massive control freak and tends to be uniquely aware of everything happening around him at all times. Alex hates 3 things in life - incompetence, defeat, and loosing control. Unfortunately, Rosaria's death and subsequent resurrection only made this more parent for him of late.
POWERS & ABILITIES
Much of Alex's true abilities still remain unexplored. It's believed that his mother's line carried the X- Gene that would have resulted in mutations that allowed them to channel the sun's energy through their bodies, essentially becoming solar conduits.
Similarly, Alex is able to channel the energy of the sun and release it via his body, primarily through his eyes. The way this works is that the energy and heat of the sun are channeled through his body and become increasingly condensed and released through high-powered laser beams.
To take it one step further, Alex is also able to release the sun's energy through his body in other channels - he can raise his body's temperature to dangerous levels affecting, enough to melt physical objects and metals, and also ultimately altering the climate patterns locally temporarily. Additionally, he can also release the sun's energy through his palms via high-powered laser beams.
Mother : Isabella Mastronadi
RELATIONSHIPS
Alex was extremely close to his mother prior to her death - he seemed to have inherited the x-gene from her. Isabella, while possessing the X-Gene, had no visible mutations or abilities, and it's widely believed that any abilities she may have had were dormant.
Father : Derek Mastronadi
Witnessing her death was extremely traumatic for 11-year old Alex and as per the Professor, it's what triggered and activated the otherwise dormant X-Gene.
FRIENDSHIPS
Alex had always been close to his father and idealized him as he grew up. After the death of his mother, Alex's relationship with his father changed and deteriorated drastically. Alex learned that his father was an executive on a pharmaceutical company's board who had been involved in a series of drug trials gone horribly wrong and was involved in covering it up. Furthermore, he also learned that his father had been cheating on his mother with his secretary for years, and they had planned to run away together with Isabella out of the picture. Unfortunately, things didnt quite work out that way as Isabella was killed during a heated argument with Derek, secretly witnessed by Alex, who later informed the police and testified against his father in court. So it's safe to say that their relationship is less than ideal.
BROTHER : Nathaniel "Nate" Mastronadi
Nate is Alex and Daniel's older brother, older by about 10 years. Although biologically Derek and Isabella's biological son, Derek had always suspended Isabella of being unfaithful to him as Nate appeared to show signs of the mutant X- gene as an infant, being able to manupilate the energy around him. Enraged, Derek forced Isabella to abandon him at a hospital during after a routine health check up at the age of 12. When she refused to do so, he threatened to harm his other infant sons. Terrified, she complied but not before a nurse overheard them and called CPS. Nate was promptly removed from their custody and was adopted shortly after by a lovely couple in Virginia.
Nate lost all contact with his younger brothers and Derek forbade Isabella from ever speaking of him. Nate's very existence was erased from their lives and both Alex and Daniel grew up with no memories of Nate. Today, Alex and Nate have a rather odd relationship as Alex sees Nate more as a mentor and less as a brother.
BROTHER: Daniel Mastronadi
Daniel and Alex had been inseparable as children. After testifying against his father, Alex and Daniel were placed into the foster system from where Daniel was adopted by a lovely couple in Hawaii while Alex remained a ward of the new york state Foster system until he was eventually brought to the institute by the Professor.
Daniel, who was too young to understand any of this, viewed this as Alex abandoning him and grew up resenting Alex for doing so. Having recently established contact with his younger brother, their relationship is rather awkward and strange too though they are notably closer to each other than they are with Nate.
ROMANCE
Zahara Kimeni
Zahara is probably one of Alex's oldest friends. Having known her since his early teen years, he's pretty close to her.
Christian Grimaldi
Alex and Christian have also known each other since their teenage years. Not especially close during their teenage years, they grew closer as they attempted to process Rosaria's death.
Aaron Daniels
As teens, Aaron and Alex hated one another. Alex evied Aaron's laid back attitude and how everything came so easily to him. Aaron found Alex to be too serious and wanted him to chill out.
However, her was one of the first people to accept that Rosaria absolutely could not have killed the Professor and over the years, he's grown to become a close friend of Alex. To Alex, he provides the balance, reminding him often not to take things too seriously and to chill out once in a while.
Marianne Davis
Marianne, like Zahara is one of Alex's closest friends. Since teenagers, they bonded quickly over their shared love of motorbikes and rock music. In the years immediately after Rosaria's death, Marianne grew increasingly concerned over Alex's obsessive nature with attaining power and was one of the main influences in encouraging him to try to move on with Katherine.
Today, they're close but not as close as they used to be once unfortunately. She finds him too harsh, and he finds her too forgiving.
Illyanna
One of the newer mutants, Illyanna and Alex bonded quickly over their shared love of sparing, organization, and order in general. Over the years, she's become the one person he trusts and is willing to delegate tasks to. He's also come to see her as his little sister and treats her as a younger sibling, much to Daniel's displeasure
Rosaria Huntington
Rosaria and Alex always had a special relationship. She was the sole reason he survived after his mother's death- she helped him process it, encouraged him to reach out to the police, tsstify against his father, kept his resolve strong through the series of foster homes and the separation from Daniel, and eventually also encouraged the Professor to seek Alex out and bring him to the institute. In many ways, she was his savior, always there to pull him out of his darkest days.
Even before they started to date, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Alex and Rosaria shared a special bond. They were always together. And when they weren't physically together, they were mentally communicating with each other. He always had an eye on her, on what she was doing, who she was with. After all, for as trusting as Rosaria was, Alex was skeptical.
As a teenager, Alex was sure he'd marry Rosaria one day. He had no eyes for anyone else. To him, she was his light. She made him feel lighter, feel more care free. So when she disappeared and eventually was declared dead, a part of Alex died with her. He turned colder, more aloof as he blamed himself for years for not being strong enough to protect her when it counted the most.
When Rosaria resurrected herself, he felt her presence and he felt her pain. Alex pushed it out of his mind convincing himself that he was haunted by his guilt around his inability to protect Rosaria and the Professor.
When Alex learned that Rosaria was in fact alive and she had intentionally kept away from him, Alex felt a deep sense of betrayal and resentment towards her. Today, their relationship is strained at best. Alex is cordial with Rosaria for the sake of keeping the peace
However, deep down he hates himself for his abject failure in protecting Rosaria and hates the pain she's had to endure.
Katherine Avery
HISTORY
Alex and Katherine had always been cordial with one another at the institute. After Rosaria's death, Alex turned to Katherine to help process her death and the guilt he felt around his inability to protect her and the Professor. Over the years, Katherine and Alex grew closer and eventually started to date, hoping to move on from Rosaria.
Alex truly does admire Katherine and her resolve in keeping the survivors of the institute safe in Leopold estate. Thats really what anchored their relationship. This became increasingly obvious after Rosaria's return and the increasingly conflicted feelings Alex had around it.
Alex was born to Isabella and Derek Mastronadi in New York City, and was raised in Manhattan. His mother's family ran a pizzeria and his father was a pharmaceutical executive.
Growing up, Alex was the kind of kid who was always in trouble - not for instigating problems but for defending and standing up for those he perceived to be victims.
At the age of 11, Alex's mother was killed in a heated argument with his father. She'd discovered his affair with his secretary, threatened divorce, and full custody of Ale. And his brother Daniel. Alex witnessed her death secretary, having been awoken by them screaming in their room.
Her death devastated Alex. For the next few months, Alex processed her death by talking to a red haired 11 year old girl in his dreams. She encouraged him to speak to the police, testify in court, and even encouraged him to stay strong through out what came next - Daniel's adoption to a family in Hawaii, their separation, his father's sentencing, the foster homes, the homeless shelters, the headaches and seizures, and the burning eyes as his otherwise latent x gene slowly activated itself due to stress.
Alex soon after began to shoot laser beams from his eyes, virtually destroying everything in his pathways. Given the widespread damage, the officials at the homeless shelter reached out to Professor X and urged him to take Alex to the Academy. Shortly after, Alex met Professor X, who enrolled him in the Academy alongside other mutant wards. By then, Alex's eyes had been so damaged by the laser beams that he was forced to wear specially designed glasses that suppressed the laser beams.
At the age of 12, Alex was brought to the institute by the Professor. At the institute, Alex finally came into his own. The professor helped Alex processed his father's sentencing and his mother's death, while helping him come to terms with being a mutant.
To Alex, the Professor became the father he never had. Alex thrived at the institute, quickly becoming the Professor's protégé. It was here that he also met Rosaria and eventually started to date her at the age of 17.
Alex was weary of the Academy at first but soon grew to enjoy his time there and became fast friends with his fellow peers. He also found himself idolizing Professor X and wanted to prove himself to the Professor by winning his favor. This was of course to be achieved by being at the top of his class . And thus began his infamous rivalry with Rosaria Huntington.
For the next few years, Alex obsessively looked for Rosaria, often going through questionable means to find any information he could about her. He seemed haunted by the fact that he could not feel her presence. He refused to accept that she'd killed the Professor, or that she was dead arguing with anyone who was willing to listen that he could feel her alive.
In 2019, exactly a week after Rosaria turned 18, the institute was invaded - all students were put under a deep telepathic sleep while the Professor was killed and rosaria went missing. When they eventually awoke to find the Professor dead, they also saw security footage of Rosaria seemingly overpowering him while the Professor injured her while defending himself. She was believed to be missing and dead.
Alex, along with the Academy and the mutant world was devastated by his death. His death had left the institute increasingly vulnerable to governmental overreach and in a world growing increasingly intolerant towards mutants, survivors of the institute decided to abandon the campus estate for safer grounds in rural Canada at the Leopold estate. Alex was one of the survivors and was instrumental in helping organize and navigate the transition.
TRIVIA
Around 2026, Alex began dating a fellow mutant survivor - Katherie Avery in an attempt to move on.
Later that year, Alex awoke, and for the first time in years, he found himself not using his glasses. His eyes were healed. Unable to explain how this happened, Alex devoted his free time to learning more about his own abilities and mutation, furthering his abilities to channel solar energy. He'd eventually learn that Rosaria had unknowingly healed him through the tears of the Phoenix while she was astral projecting one night.
In 2028, Alex learned of Rosaria's resurrection and what actually happened that night - Rosaria being the Phoenix's manifestation was kidnapped by a fanatical cult called the Order of the Phoenix who killed the Professor and manuplated the world into believing Rosaria killed him in an attempt to isolate her. However, he also learned that she had willingly stayed away from the survivors, and from him. Since then, Alex has wrestled with increasingly conflicted feelings towards Rosaria, her resurrection, and the Professor's death.
Around this time, Alex also started to "feel" Rosaria again, often telling his closet friends that he would see her often in his sleep or that he could feel that she was still alive.
Alex loves black coffee and rock music.
He also obviously loves the sun and loves beaches.
He hates winter, and the snow
Rhiannon, Part 2
Rosaria went through the motions of daily life - she woke up, went to her classes, studied with Alex and her friends and then came back. She forced herself to smile and engage with the world around her.
Normal.
Desperately, Rosaria hoped to claw onto some semblance of normalcy and stability.
To her, normalcy was conformity in many ways. She had to fit in. She had to make sure no one else suspected that things were not perfect with her.
And lately, things hadn't been. Ever since that night, Rosaria's life had changed forever. She was used to sharing her mind with others as a telepath. But this was beyond that.
There was a person who lived in her consciousness now. She heard her thoughts, felt her anger, experienced her pain. It was as if Rosaria had two bodies - one in the present, and the second, her.
Others in her life called her Rhiannon. They called her a Queen, a tyrant, a warrior, a prisoner. She styled herself as a survivor who kept her promises.
Rosaria desperately avoided being alone. When her mind was occupied, Rhiannon was at bay. She made sure her days were long - she occupied her time in the company of others around her. Rosaria made sure to participate in as many volunteering activities as she could. She studied late into the night with Alex.
To the world around her, Rosaria was a hard working student who desperately wanted to retain her standing as the top student and the Professor's protégé. And a part of that was true. She hated to loose, especially to Alex.
But the truth was that Rosaria was terrified of being alone. Because when she was, it meant her mind could finally pay attention to the woman lurking in her consciousness - watching her every move, questioning her every decision.
One could call her a ghost but Rosaria knew she wasn't one. There was something that drew her to this woman. And as much as Rosaria wanted her to disappear and leave her alone, there was an element of comfort that Rosaria experienced knowing Rhiannon was occupying her consciousness.
At least with her now, those whispers had stopped.
Rhiannon Part 1
Rosaria's eyes snapped open as she woke up covered in cold sweat, her heart racing and her fingers in tight fists.
The sheets under her had melted away, turning from satin to ashes. Her comforter had been reduced to cotton balls, scattered across her room like snowflakes.
Taking a slow breaths, her eyes darted across the familiar landscape of her room. Registering this, her heart beat began to slow.
She had no words to describe what she had experienced. It had started out as a regular night, she fell asleep rather reluctantly well past midnight. At first, it was the same dream again- whispers and tendrils of shadows reaching out desperately to grab her.
Most nights, they would quiet away eventually and she would find herself asleep for a few hours at the very least. This night, that was not the case.
Rosaria recalled seeing a pathway of some sorts form from the shadows, dimly light. For reasons beyond her, she felt compelled to follow it. From then, it was like she was in a different world.
She was in a prison cell in a body that felt like hers but wasn't. She could see memories of a red-haired woman as a queen in a castle and then in the midst of a battle on her horse. These were memories she did not recognize, but felt familiar all the same.
In the prison cell, Rosaria felt her arms bound by chains and overwhelming pain radiating across her body. She felt light headed, having lost blood and a deep hunger for sustainance. In all her life, Rosaria had never experienced such a thing.
She heard voices from around her in an unfamiliar language and saw rats scurrying away in the darkness from the corners of her eyes. From presumably outside the prison walls, she heard desperate cries and echoes.
In the air, she could smell the dampness of the prison cell and a faint burning and ashes from outside.
'If you exist, let me keep the promise I owe them. Take me later. That is all I ask of you,' Rosaria heard a voice speak in her mind.
Hearing voices in mind, hearing the thoughts of others, sharing her mind with the presence of others - these were not new sensations to her. What was new however was that Rosaria seemed to be in someone else's mind this time, and she had no idea who this was.
'The more you fight it, the worse it will be. Accept your fate. Let it consume you. Do not run from it.'
Rosaria heard another whisper. This voice was familiar, and it caused blood in her veins to curl and her skin to crawl. All of a sudden, she felt heat overcome her body. She felt the sensation of fire over come her like a tidal wave, burning everything in sight, everything it touched.
Before she knew it, her vision blurred and all she saw was a blinding light of white.
'You can not fight what you are.'
Rosaria heard the voice whispering again.
And then, her eyes snapped open - her heart racing, her body covered in cold sweat, her sheets reduced to ashes and her comforter reduced to snowflakes of cotton.
Slowly, she raised her hand. The moment she moved her fingers, she felt as if she was being pierced by a thousand needles. Clenching her jaw, she forced herself to raise her left arm above her head.
In the luminescent light of the moon, Rosaria could see light scars of chains across her wrists fading away rapidly.
Was that a dream, she thought to herself. Or did that really happen, she questioned quietly as her arm dropped onto the surface of the mattress like a rock.
Rosaria clenched her eyes closed as she bit down on her lip, pain raidiating across her body.
And that's when she noticed it - she expected blood to fill her mouth from her lips. Instead, all she tasted was ash.
'Flames of creation, flames of destruction, flames of inspiration,' Rosaria heard the words echo around the room - a hollow, unfamiliar voice.
Gamer's Plight part 4
Aaron closed his eyes with his arms crossed behind his head. He wasn't asleep, though passerbys would assume otherwise.
Nothing about Aaron was what met the eye. Outwardly, Aaron was a tall, lanky teenager who frequently skipped classes and was absorbed in his own world. One would be pressed to assume that he had been raised by a coven of witches and assassins in New Orleans.
Though it had been nearly 6 months since joining the institute, Aaron still found it hard to adjust to life there. After all, his childhood hadn't been typical by any means.
Though far from conventional, the adults in Aaron's life had stressed the importance of education. Of course, the education was a tool meant to enable his success as an assistan. At a young age, he was expected to be fluent in all Roman languages. By the age of 13, he was fluent in 16 languages, including French, German, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Japanese, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian.
He was also expected to be an expert in various topics including world history, chemistry, physics, botany, and biology to name a few. Apart from this, Aaron was taught various self defense techniques and could wield multiple weapons. He was expected to be a master in reading body languages and emotions. The idea was that Aaron needed to be able to adapt to all situations incredibly fast and needed to blend into any environment as soon as possible. Moreover, he needed to be able to control the environment and the situation at all times.
To put it simply, Aaron was bored at the Academy. None of the classes remotely interested him. He often knew far more than his instructors. It was amusing to provoke them at first but he quickly grew wary of that too. And he despised reading.
He also was rather apathetic towards the other students on the whole. Aaron found them to be quite forgetable. There were a few exceptions like Alex and Zahara. But on the whole, the students at the Academy were unimpressive to say the least.
When at the Academy, Aaron spent his days on the roof of one of the building. It was a quiet spot and one that was rarely visited. Hidden from plain sight, it also served as a great vantage point. He could observe the entirety of the academy from the roof.
He had always enjoyed watching from the sidelines, quietly observing people go about their day to day life in complete oblivion. It always amused Aaron to observe how careless people actually were. It amused him really.
Of late, his hobbies also included a mobile game called Settlers.
Aaron found most games incredibly boring, but what drew his attention to this game was a particular player, midnightsun82. He had easily conquered most quests and leveled up quite fast since he had started playing. After all, he was a bit of a subject matter expert on assassins and magic. The entirety of the game was essentially completing quests involving magic and escaping or overpowering assassins.
In doing so, he seemingly earned the wrath of midnightsun82. Midnightsun82 had started to send him odd messages accusing him of cheating and 'defying the sanctity of the game'. The accusation was that no one leveled up that fast in such a short perood of time. Prior to his joining, midnightsun82 dominated the game.
While he was initially ignoring midnightsun82, he had started to enjoy receiving them of late. The more he completed quests, the more passive aggressive the messages became. Aaron knew that he was getting under their skin, and he found this amusing.
Over the last few weeks, Aaron had made another surprising discovery. Through his observations, he identified that midnightsun82 was a student at the Academy - Marianne.
Aaron knew of Marianne prior to this, but only in passing. Unlike Rosaria or Zahara, Marianne was quiet. She wore dull, unremarkable clothes and was always in the middle of the class in terms of performance. She was not athletic either. In other words, she was entirely unremarkable. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Marianne was that she was in the orbit of Zahara and Rosaria, who were objectively popular and had no problems drawing attention to themselves.
But it was this quality that caught Aaron's attention in the first place. He wasn't sure if she was actively trying to blend into the background like him, but he was intrigued nonetheless.
Through his observations, Aaron had caught Marianne skipping class. Curious, he followed her to one of the gardens on the Academy grounds. Following that, Aaron observed that anytime Marianne skipped classes and was on her phone, he would receive messages from midnightsun82.
Out of curiosity, Aaron messaged midnightsun82 once during one of their classes. Aaron purposely chose to sit behind Marianne and observed her expression change from neutrality to irritation upon glancing at her phone. But most of all, he heard the slight vibration of her phone receiving the notification against the wooden desk.
Since then, Aaron made it a point to complete more quests. Specifically those that he knew she would be interested in. He knew it would annoy her and would result in a passive aggressive message from midnightsun82. Normally, Marianne was quie, aloof, and introverted. So to see midnightsun82 so riled up about something amused Aaron greately.
Gamers Plight, part 3
Rosaria stared blankly at Marianne, listening to her outline her strategy for identifying the identity of magicards through Rose's telepathy.
Rosaria knew Marianne liked online games but she was having a hard time following friend at this moment. She had no idea why Marianne was so bothered by this user.
"So what do you think," Marianne asked, her eyes flashing with excitement as she grinned at Rosaria.
Rosaria couldn't help but roll her eyes at Marianne as she returned to her notebook. "No," she answered flatly.
"What, why?" Marianne asked, her eyes widening s little in shock. "Come on Rose," she begged, trying to convince her friend. "Don't you think its creepy that they messaged me that I wasn't in class," she asked.
"Were you in class," Rosaria asked, her eyes fixed on her notebook as she sketched the outline of Alex's face.
"That's not the point, " Marianne dismissed, scoffing a little.
"That's exactly the point," Rosaria retorted, her attention still on the pages of the notebook, resulting in Marianne rolling her eyes lightly.
"Don't you see what this means, " Marianne asked. "They must be a student here," she explained, using her hands to emphasize her point.
Rosaria nodded lightly, following along as she sketched Alex's hair. "Absolutely not then," she dismissed.
Marianne groaned audioably, earning the attention of the other students in the classroom who looked over curiously, attempting to decipher what was going on.
"Why not," Marianne whined. Marianne did not understand why Rosaria wouldn't help her with this. Rosaria had no issues using her telepathy. In fact, she almost exclusively communicated with Alex through her telepathy. So why wouldn't she help her?
"Because I would be invading someone's privacy," Rosaria pointed out. "I can't just use telepathy and read people's minds whenever I want," she added, adding more strokes to define Alex's hair.
"It's not like they would know," Marianne pointed out, scoffing a little. While a part of her understood, Marianne still did not fully support Rosaria's reasoning.
"I would know," Rosaria retorted calmly. "Besides, them not knowing makes it worse," she added.
Marianne groaned once more before leaning back into her seat and slouching against the chair, her arms wrapped around her waist. Marianne's once enthusiastic expression now had turned sour as she frowned.
From the corner of her eyes, Rosaria observed Marianne's reaction. It wasn't that she did not want to help her. Since learning that she was a telepath, the Professor had instilled specific teachings in Rosaria. Wt it's core, Rosaria had the ability to enter people's minds, read their inner most thoughts, expose their deepest secrets and desires.
Over the years the Professor had taught her the weight of responsibility she bore in not abusing her abilities at the expense of others. After all, unlike the other mutant abilities, hers by nature was invasive.
"But there may be other ways to find their identity," Rosaria thought aloud. As she did, Marianne's eyes lit up as she quickly turned around to face Rosaria.
"What we need is a trap," Rosaria continued, as Marianne nodded along.
"But first, we need to narrow down our target population," Marianne spoke. "We obviously can not monitor the entire academy, nor can we design the trap to entice everyone either. It won't be effective," she added.
"That's a good idea," Rosaria agreed, nodding a little.
"Since they messaged you about skipping class, it is safe to assume that they are in our year and also take one of your electives, " Rosaria added. "We can start from there," she offered.
Marianne nodded a little as she reached for a pen and her notebook. Flipping it open, she began to scribble down names of fellow students by her electives. This was a good start, she thought to herself. Soon enough, the identity of magicards would be exposed.
Gamers Plight Part 2
Marianne glared at her door, kicking it open as she threw her bag on the floor and slammed the door shut behind her.
Zahara just had to go and remind her of that irritant, she thought to herself, irritated. Kicking her shoes off, she crawled into her bed, pulling the covers over her as she reached for her phone.
Marianne was not competitive by nature. In fact, she found competition to be boring. She did not understand why people got hung up with competitions the way they did.
Even so, for some reason, it bothered her that her streak as the number 1 ranked player in Settlers had been interrupted.
Letting out an irritated sigh, Marianne opened the game on her phone, waiting for it to load. Though she had walked out of her classes for the day, it seemingly did not bother her. She had never enjoyed classes to begin with and was notorious for skipping when she wanted.
Despite her frequent absences, Marianne was rarely reprimanded. Her trick to this was constantly flying under the radar. She was quiet enough that she blended into the background. The key to this of course, was the right place and right time. None of this worked when it was the Professor who was teaching. But otherwise, it was rather easy. She consistently maintained an average performance, never standing out by being the top or the bottom performer in any of her classes.
When the game finally loaded, Marianne noticed a notification under her username. Having played the game for as long as she had, it was not uncommon for Marianne to get messages from other players. But when she saw the username of the messager, she instantly felt irritated.
Magicards, she thought to herself silently as she opened the message with a mix of dread and morbid curiosity. As soon as she read the message, Marianne let out a loud shriek as she kicked the covers off her in annoyance.
'Didn't expect you to be the skipping class kind,' the message read.
Leaping off the bed, she glared at the phone screen, reading the message over and over. Each time she read it, the more irritated and annoyed she got. Marianne resisted the urge to throw her phone against the wall as she shrieked in frustration again, clenching her eyes shut.
They were a student here, she thought to herself silently. This was ridiculous. How was this even positive.
Groaning in frustration, Marianne opened her eyes as she began to pace around the room. Unlike traditional schools, the Academy did not have distinctions in grades. Students were grouped largely by age and capability. The classes for older students ranged from 16- 18 year olds. Marianne was fairly confident that she knew most of her fellow students well enough to know that none of them were gamers. Alex probably was the closest to a gamer, but she knew that he really only was interested in online chess.
So then, who was it, she thought to herself as she pulled on her shoes in a hurry, grabbing her phone and pulling open the door to return to class. This was ridiculous, she thought to herself as she angrily stomped down the hallways focused on identifying the person behind magicards.
Well, time to use your telepathy for something other than flirting with Alex Rose, Marianne thought to herself as she walked towards the library, hoping to find Rose.
Gamers Plight
Marianne stared at her phone screen, annoyed. This was irritating, she thought to herself as she stared at the ranking. Her own user name, midnightsun82 was ranked second.
Marianne had been playing this game for years. She had gotten into gaming as a child, starting with online chess. She had played many online games over the years but had settled on Settlers, an online role playing game. Settlers on the whole was not a popular game by any means. It was a rather niche game that blended strategy and magic in a way that she enjoyed.
Marianne enjoyed that Settlers was not popular and mainstream. She had a tendency to abandon things as soon as they became popular- music, television shows, books, games. There was a time that she loved Lana Del Rey, but then she became popular.
Marianne did not do this to be edgy or whatever else the term was. She simply did not like attention. With Settlers, she enjoyed how low-key it was. Because it was not popular, the quality of strategy intrigued Marianne. She enjoyed learning about the different ways in which the players approached things. It also helped that she had a streak of the highest quest completions for almost a year.
But that had ended with the introduction of a new player- magicards. Ever since he had started playing the game, Marianne he ended Marianne's streak and had begun his own streak of highest quest completions.
Marianne had always thought of herself as climbing thr ranks of the game quickly, but magicards had beat her to it. And she was not happy.
"You look happy," Zahara remarked dryly, takkng a seat beside Marianne, waiting for their class to start.
"I am not," Marianne mumbled, glaring at her phone screen.
"Is it the game," Zahara questioned curiously, resting her head on her palm as she turned to face Marianne.
Marianne nodded quietly, still glaring at the screen. She was sure that she had completed her latest quest first. She had checked the completion status before starting it and it hadn't been attempted by anyone. So then, how was this possible, she thought to herself.
"I don't know why you're so obsessed with it, it's just a game," Zahara remarked carelessly, shrugging her shoulders lightly.
Almost instantly, Marianne frowned, snapping out of her thoughts. "It's not just a game," she snapped. "There is an actual plotline, the characters are well developed and there is a ton of strategy to this, " she continued.
"That actually sounds pretty good," Marianne heard Alex's voice and nodded in agreement, gesturing towards Alex who took a seat beside Zahara, who rolled her eyes playfully. Marianne scoffed at Zahara's reaction.
"It is," she agreed with Alex, nodding as she spoke. "It's super interesting and super fun," she added.
Zahara scoffed playfully again and rolled her eyes. "So fun that Marianne doesn't like other people learning about the game and playing," she teased.
Marianne rolled her eyes at Zahara's teasing. "It's not that," she admitted. "I am fine with people playing, " she clarified. "I just don't want the quality of the strategy to go down," she explained as Alex nodded in agreement. "That makes sense," he replied, nodding. Hearing that, a small smile extended across Marianne's lips.
"Except Marianne can't stand that she lost to magicards," Zahara teased playfully, grinning, her eyes flashing with amusement.
Almost instantly, the smile disappeared from Marianne's face as she frowned once more, annoyed at the mention of magiccards.
"Magiccards?" Alex echoed, confused.
"Just some random user who started playing the game recently," Marianne mumbled under her breath.
"And who seems to be quite good at it," Zahara teased, grinning.
Marianne couldn't help but scoff at the mention of that. "He just got lucky," she retorted. "He seems to do all the easy quests and his strategies are so basic, so he just gets all the points," she vented.
"He sounds pretty efficent," Alex admitted, nodding lightly, listening to Marianne.
Hearing that, Marianne scoffed and rolled her eyes at Alex. "You know, the one time I think you're cool, you have to ruin it," she snapped, glaring at Alex as she stood up.
Alex stared at her, confused and quiet as he tried to process what just had happened. He had no idea why Marianne reacted the way that she did. And he thought he was always cool, was that not the case?
"Where are you going," Alex asked in confusion, watching Marianne pack up her things.
"Away from all of you," she retorted coldly.
"But we have class," Alex pointed out.
"You have class," Marianne clarified. "I had class but now I don't, " she added, glaring at Alex and Zahara.
"Enjoy gaming," Zahara remarked with a grin, waving at Marianne, who glared at her once more and left the classroom to head back to her own room.
Once whe left, Zahara turned to Alex and rolled her eyes playfully. "She's not mad at you," she explained. "She's mad because she knows she was beaten and she can't stand that," Zahara explained.
"That makes sense I guess," Alex remarked, still quite confused about the whole interaction.
Zahara nodded as she began to pull out her notebook from her bag, preparing for class.
"By theway," Alex began. "I am cool right," he asked.
Zahara almost fell over her seat, her hands wrapped around her stomach as she laughed. Her silver curles bounced, synchronized with her peals of laughter.
Alex blinked in confusion as she stared at Zahara, more confused than ever. Unknown to them, the remaining students in the class had started to look over in curiosity.
Zahara continued to laugh. "You sure are Alex, " she admitted between peals of laughter, flashing him a grin.
A small smile extended across Alex's lips hearing Zahara's words. He did not understand her reaction, but he would take the sentiment. After all, he was cool.