Players:
Summary: Cultural Gaps cause for interesting conversations.
Date: May 16, 2010
A Lot To Learn
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Ramsey Dormitories Lobby
The lobby of Ramsey Dormitories has two elevators at one end of the wall along with the entrance to a cafeteria. On the wall are three pictures that say 'In memory of'. One is of Douglas Ramsey, another of John Proudstar and the last one is of Jean Grey. There are several couches and tables down here for students to relax. Large windows in the front and sides allow for a lot of light in the room.
It's late at night, nearing midnight, and Robyn's just finished moving everything from his old room to his new room. After all that moving he's felt a can of coke of about three cookies were a good idea. He's plopped down on the couch and his feet are up on one of the tables, his head leaning back to look at the ceiling. The unopened can of soda sits in one hand as he brings a cookie up to his mouth to take a bite. Like usual, the emo looking kid is dressed all in black.
Robyn may be dressed in black, but the teenager that walks in is black. The tall african, Hosea, comes striding in with his long legs, ducking under the doorway as he steps in from outside. His smile may be the first thing that catches the eye, even more than his 6'7" tall and muscular build. His teeth are a pearly white in contrast to his creamy dark skin. Hosea's plain white T-shirt is smeared with dirt and sawdust. He smells of fresh sweat, and his wild hair droops a little. His cargo shorts are likewise covered in dust and debris. It looks like he's been working hard, whatever he's been doing. In one large hand rests a leather bound book, which seems to be pieces of books that have been strapped together in a tattered binding, more than an actual book by itself. I piece of twine holds it together. It looks like it could fall to pieces if you looked at it wrong.
Sneaking her way in through the front door a short while after Hosea, with her legs caked in mud most of the way to her knees, comes Chloe. The superspeedster hefts a sandwich made from two whole pizzas which she's well on the way to being half way through eating. In between bites she sings something incomprehensable at her natural speed.
After a while of just lying in there sort of a tired daze, Robyn looks up to open his can of coke, and that's when he spots Chloe. "Are you eating a pizza..sandwich? Like a giant..wow." Robyn says as he doesn't think he's ever seen a girl eat so much. Then Hosea is spotted and Robyn gives him a polite nod. "Hello." He says to the student he's not familiar with at all.
Hosea gives a deep bass response. His voice is powerful and energetic. "Hello," he says, "I am Hosea Ikbuku," he says, his African accent rich and thick. "It is good to meet you." He extends a large dirty hand toward Robyn, and his attention is caught by Chloe's massive food intake. "You would eat all dat food?" his smile remains, but he seems clearly amazed himself. "What shall deh other people heah eat?" He hasn't quite grasped the concept of American food supplies yet. "And you will make youself sick."
Chloe glances between Hosea and Robyn, then shrugs. "I ordered takeout for delivery to the front gates," she explains innocently. "And I /need/ this much food. Today was squad training after all! You know how much energy it uses up running over a hundred miles an hour all morning?"
Robyn has to put down his soda, since his hands are full, one with the soda the other with the cookies, so he can take Hosea's hand. "I'm Robyn Larkin. And seeing Chloe eat a lot isn't a surprise, it's the pizza sandwich that's a surprise. But then, what was the last weird thing I saw you eating Chloe?" Robyn asks trying to remember what she was eating up in the attic that time.
"Ordered 'take-out'?" Hosea echoes. "What is take out?" he asks. "People in America, dey eat much food. His handshake to Robyn is very firm and strong, matching his size and build. His smile seems to be permanently etched on his jaw. He has a certain musky scent about him, like someone who doesn't wear deodorant. He looks over Chloe. "You can run one hundred mile per houh?" he asks. "How fast is dat in kilometers?" he asks. "I am not vedy good with American measurements."
Chloe takes a few quick bites of her pizza. "It wasn't weird! It was a rare steak sandwich," she informs sullenly. "God you make it sound like I was eating a live goat or something." She shrugs at Hosea's question. "I have no idea? Math isn't really my strongest class. How fast can a person normally run in kilometers?"
From down the hallway comes a familiar voice says, "A hundred miles per hour is about one-hundred and sixty kilometers and change… Hey Chloe!" Connor says as he comes along in his own way, hands in his pockets, and a rare event… a genuine and happy smile on his face, his slightly a-glow blue-green eyes panning back and forth over the group.
Robyn shrugs at the kilometers question as well. "I don't know either, I just know to be able to run as fast as Chloe can, it's really damn fast." Robyn says as he takes a drink from his soda. "And take out is exactly what it sounds out, it's food to..take out. YOu order it and they bring it here, take it out of the restaurant." Robyn explains before looking back at Chloe. "It was just a rare steak sandwich, I don't know why I thought it was weirder." He smiles as Connor coms over. "Hey Connor!"
Hosea's eyes look up, "Hello, friend," he says to Connor, his smile growing even wider. "I am meeting many people right heah, yes?" he asks. "You say one hundred sixty kilometers!? You ah a vedy fast girl. "You maybe try goat, yes?" he asks Chloe. "Dey have good meat, you should go to deh market, maybe buy one." Of course, live goats are much less common in New York City than they are in Nigeria. As Connor grows closer, he meets him with his dirty clothes and outstretched hand. "My name is Hosea Ikbuku," he introduces himself. "It is a pleasuh to meet you."
Chloe almost chokes on her food. "Uhm.. I.. I'm going to pass on buying myself a whole goat… Delicious as they might be I'm not sure I like the idea of actually butchering my own meat." She shudders at the notion, before nodding in greeting to Connor. "Yo Con-man how's tricks?"
Connor laughs a bit, "Con-man? Only a month and already with the bad nicknames…" Before reaching to Hosea, he pats his hands on Robyn's shoulders and then ruffles his hair, "What's up, you?" Finally to Hosea he looks down at the hand a moment, and then reaches out and gives it a firm shake, "Connor Blake… nice to meet you too. Anyways… guess what…" Looking back and forth, he lowers his hands and puts them back in his pockets, "Tests are over… exposure to weird things done… and… they fixed the power-related weirdness." With a laugh, he knocks on the side of his head, "Now it's all just me and mine. Great, huh?" Almost babbling in his chipper state, he looks around once more, "So… what's going on?"
"And it's not like you can find a place to buy a goat…or a whole goat…around here." Robyn doesn't even know if he'd eat goat or not. It's not one of the three basic meats - Cow. Pig. Chicken. "What's up, I'm tired. Moving the past few days…but then you've been the one organizing all my stuff." He then gives Connor a curious look. "Guess what? Um…you're new roommate it a lot better than the old one?" He does say it joking aroud a bit before hearing the real answer. "So wait…that's awesome Connor. Does that mean your powers won't drive you crazy?"
Hosea arches his brow. "No goats in America, but you have cows. Of course you would have many fat Americans!" he exclaims. "That is vedy good food. Cows have much meat." He nods as he speaks, his smile still large on his face. "So tell me, Connor," he says, turning his attention to the newcomer in the conversation. "You have a vedy special powah then?" he asks. "What do you do?"
"I'm sure there are goats /somewhere/," Chloe explains, between mouthfuls of pizza. "They're just not all that easy to go out and buy is all. Maybe you could buy goat meat if you went to a specialist butcher?" She glances between Robyn and Connor, before adding "You swapped roomies then? Cool. Who is the lucky guy stuck sharing with jerkface now? Oh and I never doubted you'd sort the problem out. But good to hear it's sooner rather than later."
Connor looks to Hosea a moment, and then to the others, and once more Robyn's hair is ruffled, "Well… Robyn agreed to swap with me because my roomie is much more Zach's type… big, and strong… but with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder… that's one less bit of stress in my life. And I… well… ummm… it's kinda hard to explain without knowing the basics of what a quantum particle is, and how it can affect things… but I can teleport, and do some other things." Winking once at Chloe and adding a soft 'yum', he then says, "You can rent goats for clearing out weeds and thornbushes… many people keep goats on farms too… goat milk is pretty decent… so is goat cheese… but I've never had goatmeat bef…" Stopping himself as he then says, "Sorry… good mood… gets me babbling a bit."
"Yeah, I mean goats in America are more…well farm animals. Animals you'd find in a petting zoo, not something you really would find to buy for eating at the supermarket." Robyn says as he flattens out his ruffled hair. "Yeah, I mean I hope I didn't end up really screwing over Zack, cause he's really not that bad of a guy." Robyn adds to the discussion of the switching of roommates. "So when did you get here Hosea?"
Hosea thinks a moment, "Ahhh," he says, his smile wide as his mouth opens and he thinks. "I think it was now ten days," he answers. "Dere are many things about your country that I do not know. I do not know a supahmarket. It where dey sell cows and goods, yes? Like a regulah market?" He thinks on it. "Why supah? What makes it supah? And yes, goats can be on farms. make good milk. Goats have many uses. You must use them wisely, so you do not run out of food, yes?"
"Ah. You did a swap," Chloe adds with an ahhh of understanding. "Hopefully Zack doesn't own anything breakable to worry about. I should probably get going, plenty of food to eat and an urgently overdue nap. Metabolism like mine says it needs rest and it's wise to listen or else I'm napping in the corridoors!"
Connor makes his way over and gives Chloe a pat on the shoulder, before saying, "Catch you round the gym or the danger room… I owe you a sparring session still… later." And with that he comes back over to Robyn, "Supermarket's just the term… it's a place where you can get fruits, vegetables, dry goods, meats and fishes… shellfish… it's a single place to shop for most of the food you'd get. It's not all fresh, but we Americans like to take cooking shortcuts where they can." Looking at Robyn, he then says, "I got some brit shows sent to me I want to show you… Being Human will blow your mind… right up your alley."
Robyn lets out a yawn and waves to Chloe. "G'night Chloe." He says before looking at Hosea. "We don't really have to worry about running out of food here, we just…I dunno." Robyn doesn't really know how to explain it. "Being Human? Sure, I'll check it out. My favourite British Television show was always an older one, my Mom loved it so we watched it quite a bit. Fawtly Towers."
"You boys play nice! And yeah I'll cya around in the gym sometime Connor," Chloe replies, already speedskipping towards the stairs. "If I'm lucky Heather won't have any of her food out when I get back. Nothing like misuse of jam to put a girl off her food yah know! Anyway cya laters."
Robyn stands up as Chloe leaves and looks to Connor. "I think I'm gonna head up to bed now, actually get some sleep. You gonna stay around or do you wanna come up with me?" Robyn asks before looking over at Hosea. "It was nice meeting you Hosea, I'll probably see you around school." He says with a friendly wave and nod as he goes to head upstairs.
Connor shakes his head, "We can shortcut back if you want… with the fix, you shouldn't get the weird feedback anymore… and besides… I'm a little wiped myself. Good to meet you Hosea. Be seeing you around, I think." Instead of turning to leave, he just holds his hand out to Robyn and says with a smirk, "Or… you could walk… fine by me…" Still smiling the whole time.