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Summary: Tara and Pietro meet in the Japanese Gardens.
Date: March 24, 2010
A Meeting in the Gardens
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Japanese Gardens
A large area of the grounds is landscaped with a Japanese Garden. A river filled with coi fish runs through the middle with a wooden bridge. There is even a small waterfall splashing on the rocks. Bamboo can be heard clacking on the rocks. A small statue of a Buddha can be found in various places. The trees hang over the area and when the flowers are in bloom, it brings a variety of color to the peaceful landscape.
While Tara may not be able to see it, Pietro is here in his costume. That two toned blue body suit with a diagonal white lightning bolt from one shoulder to the opposite hip. Gloves and boots are white, and there is a comm device in one ear. What he's doing she would recognize. Going through some martial katas. He really doesn't have a style though, for his training has been too diverse, and far, far too strange. Being trained by some of the world's best sure doesn't hurt on a man who still learns like a child. Super speed is off as he goes through careful motions at a slow pace. Breath is controlled, inhaled and exhaled at the proper moments. Would be sweating if he were normal, but it'd take him doing this for a couple days to get that bad.
Even though she doesn't need it, Tara still carts her white and red cane with her. Partially out of habit, and partially so that people will know that she's blind, even though she has her own way of seeing. She's heard about these gardens from some of the other students and has decided to come by and take a look (so to speak) herself. Even though she can't see the prettiness, she can hear it, and she can smell it. She wanders around the gardens for a while, sniffing at a few flowers and running her hands across the leaves of the plants and statuary before her odd sixth sense gets in range of Pietro. "Oh!" she says when she finally notices him doing his katas. "Hello, there!"
The man doesn't stop immediately at that hello. Finishes out the round before responding. "And hello to you." The voice is deep and resonate. Powerful. Straightening, he stretches somewhat not to stop just cold, but his attention is now on the teen. "Why do you carry a cane when you clearly don't need it?" Not one to understand such things. Sure he's noticed those eyes, but when one knows Daredevil, one knows better than to assume. "Excuse me." Remembering something there. "I am Quicksilver, but you may call me Pietro if you wish." Manners and introductions!
"Hi!" says the girl brightly. "I'm Tara. I don't have a code name yet." She considers the cane for a moment and shrugs. "Habit mostly. If something happens to my powers I'd be kinda lost without it. That and I can whack people with it if they're being stupid."
"Then it sounds as though you are prepared." The man sounds amused at it. "Code names aren't always necessary. Do you plan on becoming a super heroine?" He pauses as a smirk spreads. "You have much cause to whack people?" Leaning over to gather up a water bottle, Pietro drinks from it before approaching.
"Of course!" announces Tara with a huge grin. "I'm going to be the world's first blind superhero!" Of course she doesn't know about Daredevil's secret, and that he's beaten her to the punch on that one. At his second question she considers the cane for a moment before shrugging. "Sometimes. Usually when people do stupid things like asking me, 'Hey, did you /see/ that?'"
The world's first? There's a snort. "You'd be the world's second, Tara, but I can't tell you who." Pietro /can/ say that there's someone else out there. Discourage her? Hardly. "Work hard and learn well. The world can use you." After that he arches eyebrows at her. "That's hardly a stupid thing to say, girl. Thoughtless perhaps, but not stupid. Generally that means someone assumed you weren't lacking your sight." Rather like Daredevil. "What is your power anyway?" Curious now, and he crosses his arms over his chest, bottle dangling.
Tara demonstrates by gesturing to one of the large statues and it gently lifts off the ground. "Telekenetics," she says matter-of-factly. "I can use it to, I dunno how to put it, feel everything around me." She gently sets the statue down where it rested. "It's good to figure out where everything is, but I can't tell about the smaller stuff. Like facial expressions. Unless they make a big deal about it."
The demonstration doesn't surprise the speedster much. It makes too much sense. "Then that's something you need to work on." About seeing facial expression. "There are other telling signs you can learn to watch for as well. I'm sure you already are working through many of them. Body language, heart rate, breathing.. we all give off telling clues whether we know it or not." Pietro sometimes more than most. "You're young yet. Your power will only grow as you do."
Tara makes a show of rolling her eyes. "I know. I'm blind, remember? I've gone through all of my life without seeing people's faces, so I've gotten pretty good and picking up on the non-visual cues that people do, you know? I was just using facial expressions as an example. If I concentrate, I can, but it makes people uncomfortable."
If he can, Pietro reaches out and pokes gently at Tara's brow. "Don't get sassy with me." Still, the tone says he's amused. Perhaps even smiling. Sorry, he doesn't deal well with that. "Adults are in fact not quite as stupid as you believe. You still have a lot to learn, regardless of what how good you think you are." That she can concentrate and 'see' has him snorting, "Then you need to get better." See, it's that easy. There's the motion of a hand after that, for he can see this isn't going anywhere. His lack of people skills shining through again. "Beyond rolling eyes at established super heroes, do you enjoy it here?"
"Yup!" answers Tara. "It was a bit rocky at first, but I think we've got it all smoothed out." She doesn't seem to be all that bothered by Quicksilver's poke to the forehead. "I know they've got one other blind girl here, but I don't know how many others they've had in the past. The place really isn't equipped for it. I'm going to get my Braille label printer and start labeling things."
"No, the school isn't quite equipped for the disabled." Wry that. Then again, neither is the Avengers mansion. "What kind of things require labeling?" Pietro has never been blind, so he honestly has no idea what to think of in terms of that.
Tara walks over to one of the stone benches and sits down on it, laying the cane down in her lap. "Well, a lot of it I can memorize, like the layout of the building, which rooms are what, that kind of thing. When you're blind you're good at building maps inside your head. But there are other things, though. Like, say, the knobs on an oven, and then organize the cans in the fridge so I know what I'm drinking. That kind of thing."
The things you take for granted when you can see. Pietro remains standing, but he listens well. Not at all the impatient man so many picture him to be. "And organization few will respect I imagine." Trust Pietro to see the bad side of things. After a moment, he approaches that bench and sinks down to the far edge of it. "Have you brought these complaints to the headmaster? I can't imagine he wouldn't take steps."
Tara cocks her head curiously, "Complaints? I didn't think I was complaining. This is a school for sighted students, and a lot of us are used to living in a sighted world." She shrugs, "Most of it really isn't that big of a deal, and I get the feeling that people here will accommodate the little things that makes my life easier."
"You were." Complaining. Then again, this is Pietro. "Honestly, you complain, but then say that they aren't enough to ask about? Would it really be that big an issue to ask that the refrigerator's contents are kept in order and labeled? That knobs have names?" The man snorts as he rises to his feet. It's a surge of energy for him, and a shift to slight super speed. Will feel different in that TK field. "Ask. It won't do any harm and may make your life easier. For now though, good day, young lady. It was a pleasure meeting you, but I must be off."
Tara's eyes go wide when Pietro shifts into super speed. "Woah," she says, "You just went all blurry." She waves to the man, however and says, "It was nice meeting you, too!"
The blurry stops as he realizes that Tara saw it. The smile spreads again, if only heard in tone. "I'm the fastest man alive, my dear. Good day." Pietro blurs and then seems to disappear. Moves just that fast.
