Ruthie
It's Maxwell's first day of high school all over again! Kind of. Not really.

It's only been a few days since Maxwell arrived at Newton's Cradle. He spent the first of those days just getting settled — moving into a dorm room, setting up his laptop, that sort of thing — and part of that was meeting with his "Contact" (who really struck him more as a sort of handler) to determine what courses he should be enrolled in.

He asked for music, and all the standard courses he'd need academically — English, Mathematics, Science(s), that sort of thing — but when it became clear he needed "Electives" Of some kind, he was stumped.

So he went for all of them. Or, well, a lot of different ones for a little while, to see what he'd like. And one of them was film, and he happens to be in film class for the first time.

The teacher didn't give much introduction. People come and go frequently, it seems, and Maxwell is just another new arrival who'll have to either just catch up on his own or ask for help. It's hardly possible to restart the whole course whenever someone new arrives, after all.

Maxwell sits there, and tries his best to follow along with the lesson. He doesn't catch everything, but what he does catch is when the teacher announces that the class should split into groups of two, and he doesn't know anyone. He doesn't rush to find a group with someone he thinks he can relate to — it seems most of the class already know someone. Instead, he just sits there and waits to be assigned a groupmate. Or maybe approached, if someone wants to be nice to him.
Loretta
Like Maxwell, Kodie also hadn't spent too long at the Cradle, being relatively new, and afraid, they seemed a little zoned out, or afraid? There didn't seem to be anything causing them fear, but that's just how their face was. They were just in the class like everyone else, they heard film was a self expressive art, so they thought they'd try it out, there were a few things they weren't quite sure of though.

When the teacher gathered everyone's attention to ask them to split into groups, they froze for a minute... *They didn't know anyone*, oh well, they looked around for a moment, trying to keep their eyes hidden from view, they felt awkward scanning the classroom until they saw Maxwell, They looked all alone, so they decided to approach.

As they walked toward Maxwell a sheepish smile spread across their face as they waved. In that smile their teeth were kind of chipped, behind a few of the chips a sharp and thin tongue would be seen from certain angles. Their hair was messy, some of it even sticking to their skin, like some sort of glue trap. 

They haven't talked yet, but then again, maybe they should try to open up so they'd have a friend. But an thought rang though their mind as they got close to Maxwell-

Their smile flinched a little, and their eyes had a small bit of fear in them, but they wanted to continue, after all it was only one thought, how much could it mean, maybe he was nice.

Hnghnmn hi I'm sorry
Ruthie
It's ok! Totally understandable
I've had a busy day

Maxwell wouldn't have to wait to be given the slimmest pickings of the class, it seemed. Though, looking at the girl(?) waving at him, it might be close. Her teeth looked quite bad, and her hair did too. She dressed formally, at least, though it didn't really help her generally off-kilter appearance that she was dressed for a job interview.

Or, to put it briefly, the first impression was bad.

But, on the other hand, she was smiling and waving. For everything Maxwell could fault her, he could not say she was *Rude* — at least not yet — and he was not about to start the interaction by being rude to someone who hadn't been rude to him, so he decided to bury his shitty thoughts and just be *Nice* To the girl.

"Hey!" He smiled and extended a hand for Kodie to shake. "You wanna be in a group? I'm Maxwell — but you can call me Max."
Loretta
Given the way she looked she *One* This first impression probably wasn't gonna go the way they wanted, given her formal clothing even that seemed a little worn- like her to some capacity. 

"Oum, h-hi, I'm Kodie, and y-yeah that'd be nice" 

Their voice had slight imperfections to it, somewhere between a slight lisp and an inability to pronounce a few of the letters the way they should be, making their 'Kodie' sound like a 'Kothie'.

They talked quietly, and briefly, trying to speak as little as possible, quite odd given the context of them meeting, normally someone would want to tell their partner all about themselves to see if they'd work together well, they they didn't not, for multiple reasons, one of which being they didn't like their own voice a whole lot, but, Maxwell looked pretty nice, yet they still seemed pretty hesitant on shaking Maxwell's hand, yet they reached out to shake his, with their own-*Sticky*- hand.

Their skin's texture just has an odd texture similar to that of a glue trap all over their body, just uncomfortable as a whole, even to them.
Ruthie
Yuck.

Maxwell shook Kodie's hand, but withdrew his hand a little too quickly afterwards. He really hoped that this was some kind of supernatural thing like people had mentioned to him — the alternative would mean that Kodie was simply inordinately filthy. Either way, Maxwell did not feel lucky anymore, and he definitely intended to shower once class ended.

He decided to focus on the assignment. It was a composition exercise of some kind. Something about light and shadow. Chiaroscuro? No, the teacher hadn't said that. He wasn't sure what chiaroscuro even meant, but it probably wasn't terribly relevant.

He decided to ask Kodie. "Do you have any ideas? For the, uh. The assignment."
Loretta
While they may not have the best of up keep with most things, Kodie took good care of their body. While she saw Maxwell withdrawing their hand faster than what felt normal, they felt a little awkward and put their hand back by their side.

"Oh- uhm"

They sounded a little unsure, mainly cause they were. Being around someone that made it feel slightly like they'd rather partner with someone else made it hard to come up with any ideas.

"Perhaps a shadow show?"

A shadow assignment- that was the kind of assignment right? They honestly didn't know much more than Maxwell did, they frowned a little, not too noticeable but still a sudden change in their facial expression.
Ruthie
"Well, yeah, that's what the—"

Maxwell had been prepared to dismiss the thought entirely. The assignment was to do a shadow show. Right? Except... 

"No, actually, that's a great idea. We'll do a shadow play. Nice one, Kothie." He emulated Kodie's mispronunciation of her own name, solely because he didn't know better. He meant well.

"The assignment is only supposed to be, like, a minute tops. We can't really tell a huge story. Any ideas for what we could do in that time?"

Sorry for the long delay!! We r back and I am in my own home again getting non awful sleep and time to relax and unwind
Loretta
Your fine! I can understand the delays, people should also take time to themselves/gen
Ruthie
I have been touring Berlin and it has been rad but also exhausting and time consuming so replying to rps has not been on my plate— thank you for understanding!!
Loretta
You better treasure those memories for me, I'm a little jealous

Kodie had a few ideas of what to do, but no idea of how to *Actually* Do them, they were creative for sure, but expressing thoughts was hard.

"What about a love story? Better light and dark"

Their mispronouncing of words continued, they were so used to themselves mispronouncing things that she didn't even notice that Maxwell did it.

"We could make, uhm... Half of the story take place in the light using shadows, and make the other half of it in the dark, using light to make shapes"

Kodie felt like their idea was cool, but they weren't too sure about how Maxwell would the the idea, either way it was a group project for a reason, so they kind of had to share and help
Ruthie
"That's interesting! I'm sure it would be cool, but I don't think we can really do that. The light thing seems hard."

Maxwell was starting to feel slightly different about Kodie. Sure, she still seemed kinda gross and weird, but she seemed a little like the eccentric artist type — she had a lot of interesting ideas and absolutely no ability to function normally. Or at least she seemed that way. 

Maxwell could work with that. He didn't have many unique ideas, but he could figure out the practical part.

"Maybe we can do most of it as a shadow play, and then in the end move the camera back to show the things making the shadows? That would be a lot easier, I think."
Loretta
"Oooh, that sounds interesting"

Kodie smiled a little, wishing they had thought of the idea, perhaps Maxwell simply had better, easier to pull off ideas.

They looked down at their skin, and then looked back up at Maxwell

"I-i can help by providing shapes for the shadows"

Were they *Really* Considering using their skin to help make the shadow play? Yes, they were, I mean it'd be so easy. Either way they knew at least one way they could help now! Hopefully they'd be able to keep having ways to help.

"A-and I really like the idea for the ending you had"
Ruthie
"Thanks! And, uh, sure," Maxwell nodded. "Making the shapes is a pretty big part of the whole thing, though. Maybe we should figure out who does what before we start? That way, we'll both have something to do."

He looked down at his lap. He'd borrowed a camera. He wasn't really that good with a camera, but he figured he could learn, and Kodie seemed a lot more creative than him, so she should probably do the story.

He looked back up at Kodie."I'll film it, if that's okay."
Loretta
Kodie nodded, still a little hesitant of what to do, they knew just about as much as a random person would if they had just gotten here.

"Y-just kind of do this"

They put their hands close to the table and move a sort of imperfect circle with the shadows of their hands, they were particularly skilled at it but they knew the basics of how to make simple shapes.

"Y-yeah just uhm, use their hands to make shadows?"
Ruthie
This was inactive for too long, I'm out of it, I'm probably not gonna reply. Sorry
Loretta
It's fine! I did take a while I'm sorryyy