Illusions of Grandeur || Darren

Darren was also a fervent amateur of All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween, as the yankees -- and, let’s be honest, the rest of the world too -- called it, but for entirely different reasons. One advantage of the dubious reputation of a delinquent was that few people called him a freak to his face, unless they wanted a fight. And those who didn’t want a fight Darren didn’t give a flying fuck about.

No, the appeal of Halloween for the blondie wasn’t that he could blend in as a freak, it’s that for one magical night, the laws of men loosened just enough that normally off-limits pranks wouldn’t be punished so much. For the delinquent, it meant the night presented him with a world of opportunities.

It wasn’t Halloween night just yet, though, so for now the delinquent of 1-C was out doing some recon. He was wearing a scarf coming up to his nose and a drawn-up hoodie under his closed leather jacket, completed with a pair of jeans and his dirty white running shoes. With this rather thug ass looking get-up, he could leap from building to building relatively incognito, his favorite method of transportation. He had become an expert on it.

There was some sort of Halloween festival around town with a haunted house promising a lot of prank opportunities. He also noticed most of 1-A was out of the dorms; with some careful planning, a good old TPing of the dorms in good fun could be arranged. He also passed by the store and bought a bunch of fake snakes hanging by a fine string, which when discretely taped to people, could provide for some very fun videos.

So the delinquent started on his way back, jumping and scrambling on the roofs again, this time with a grocery bag full of wasted money in hand. They said money you enjoyed wasting wasn’t wasted at all, but seriously, plastic snakes?

On the way home, however, he chanced upon an interesting sight. A mane of blonde hair he very well knew was facing a wall. Upon closer examination, she was not merely staring at it like some kid of deranged person, but tagging on it like some sort of delinquent. Darren smiled as he jumped off the roof, landing softly with quiet counter-activations of his quirk. He was just as much at ease on the roofs than walking casually on the ground.

“Hey Jaz, whachu doin--”

He didn’t finish his phrase, because he recognized the subject of Jaz’s graffiti as he asked the question and broke into laughter. “Oh fuck, is that the principal? This is fucking awesome. We gotta find a way to show him without him knowing it was you.” He admired the graff for a few seconds as the blonde New-Yorker kept working on her masterpiece. “I didn’t know you were an artist,” he commented, poking her rib with his elbow again and bracing for the counter poke he knew would come.

“And g’day to ya yankee,” he answered with a smile and an exaggerated Australian accent. It wasn’t his usual accent, actually; having never lived outside of Japan, his accent was a bastardized mix of Australian from trips back home to the rellies -- the relatives -- and bits and pieces of a wide variety of accents heard backstage of rock concerts. There was a hint of Japanese as well, making for a truly bastardized mishmash of accents with Aussie overtones. It fit the delinquent’s chaotic personality rather well.

Speaking of chaotic, Jasmine put forward the kind of idea that he wish he had. A giant mural of the principal cosplaying as a ballerina in the school. It was the stuff of legends, the kind of feats students still whispered about decades after the act; the ultimate achievement for a troublemaker. He nodded sagely, although with his hoodie and leather jacket and his plastic bag, the wise master vibe he was going for translated to that of a veteran hobo’s wisdom. “This is the best idea you ever had,” he continued in English. “That will be our graduation present.”

The old Darren would have wanted to put it in practice right away, but the present day hero student Darren was… Well, not that he was more mature, but he really liked his stint at hero school so far and so, for the first time of his life, he was thinking of the possible -- likely -- consequences of his actions. If they pulled that off now, they might get kicked out. He didn’t want that.

He didn’t knew that Jasmine had started the arts club either, which was again characteristic of Darren. The self-absorbed blondie knew very little about other people that didn’t concern or interest him, even those whom he considered his mates like Jasmine. He simply lacked the interest and wasn’t fond of feigning it for social credit.

Though in this case, it was interesting. “I never pegged you for the artsy type,” he said honestly. “Though I bet you ain’t know I can sing earlier. You left before it got fun the other night.” He had a wily smile, still blissfully unaware of what else had transpired that night -- and changing the subject to his person once more. This time he caught himself. “Anyway, you gotta show me some of your stuff sometime.” He scratched his head, having nothing better to say.

He perked up when he was asked what he was doing here. Talking about himself, now that was something he could do. “No, we’re gonna… “ TP the 1-A dorms, he almost said. He already had the toilet paper stashed in his room. “I’m gonna put these on people. Check it out.” He brought out one of his prizes, a cheapo plastic snake in this delightfully kitsch packaging which only halloween stores had the secret. At the one end of the snake a string was connected, not quite invisible but easy to miss in a hurry. “I saw that in a uTube video. You put a piece of tape on the end of the string and you tape it in scred on someone’s back, so when they move it moves and it scares the shit out of them.” The smile on his face was as dumb as the idea. “Ima do it on Yumi. And Maxi too, i bet he’s gonna flip his shit like a pancake.”

He snickered to himself, excited like a little kid at the idea of Halloween pranks. “That shit’s small game, though. A wee bit of warm up while I think of something good. Everyone got their knickers in a bunch since that shitstorm at the military base, we needa do something big to knock these fuckers loose. You got any bright ideas?”