Players:
Summary: A late-evening discussion in the Rec Room goes into the topic of how to change the world.
Date: March 28, 2010
Log Title Anyone Can Change The World
Rating: G
Xavier Mansion - Recreation Room
What was once the Parlor has been turned into a Recreation Room for the students. A nice plush carpet meets the light blue walls giving it a homey feel. A pool table at one end, a foos ball table at the other, and entertainment center with video game systems, movies, and of course, cable TV. Big comfy chairs and couches surround a coffee table for comfortable loafing. Long glass windows with a pair of French doors line one side of the room bringing in plenty of light during the day. The main rule in here is to clean up after yourself.
The hour is late but not THAT late, for a card-carrying student grind like Rashmi Franklin and a recently more hyperactive Mike Drakos, who has ALREADY finished his 2.5 hour backup cycle and is wanting to discuss his earlier Danger Room test results with Rashmi. He has a formal experimental notebook and everything, with the hypothesis and test and positives and controls all laid out. And he's sitting in one of the comfy chairs near the coffee table.
"Okay," Rashmi says, setting her teacup back on the table and rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "Run that by me again… What have you been testing, exactly…? Um… layman's terms if you can, please. I can hold my own in a conversation with Dr. McCoy, but not *that* well…" The redhead marks her page in the law text she'd borrowed from the library - Not *quite* recreational reading, but the next best thing - and turns her full visible attention to the robotic mutant, listening closely.
Although it is late, Julian Keller had never been one for early to bed early to rise. The X-Forcer steps in, not paying attention to who is inside. The telekinetic has a bowl of popcorn in his hand, which he'd prefer to lift it with telekinesis. But lately, his fine TK skills have backslid. It's then, when he's inside the rec room does he look and notice Rashmi and Mike. "Hey." He says before plopping down on the couch, and munches on popcorn, looking for the remote.
"OK, the hypothesis — must be testable — is that the whole driver-fixation thing is … Hey, guy who saved our hash! Uh, remote is next to the TV," Mike waves a hello and returns to his explanation, with a slightly more electronic twang. "… Anyway the driver-addicting thing is either something really inherent in my power, or it's something I am doing subconsciously. I have to know which is true to really master it." He opens the book.
"So the drive with Rush tonight was inconclusive and has to be thrown out," Mike says, a bit unhappy over that.
"Okay, so um… *why* does it have to be thrown out, again? You didn't really mention that - Hi, Mr. Keller! Thanks again for the tactics classes, they were really a big help. …Oh! And if tonight has to be thrown out, Mike, why? I mean, if you're trying to work up a testing procedure, you'll sort of need a little more structure to it than just 'Nope, not good' or whatnot, you know?" Rashmi seems at least on stable mental ground with the theory of Mike's experiment, at least in part; her cautious expression tells of a girl watching the conversation slowly rise, and assumes she'll rapidly find herself out of her depth.
Julian gets up and grabs the remote. Turning it on to ESPN. "Thanks." Before he looks to Rashmi and nods. "I'm gonna be having more Danger Room sessions for students who wouldn't be useless in an attack situation. You guys should come take it." The Xavier's Security member looks to both of them. "Addictive?" He asks, pretty glad he doesn't use cars often.
"I didn't know before I came here" Mike answers, "but my power is extra quirky. I possezs vehicles, and before when I had a driver they'd get a jolt to the pleazure center, increased over tiime, when they were in synch with me. Bad thingz happened as a rezult. But I'm learning how to not do that. And I would be happy to take the course." He ALMOST manages to grin despite not having his inducer on. Getting invited specially, COOL.
He returns to the diagram. "Well, testing has to be fitted into training, is all. So here's the grid," Mike explains pointing to a diagram on the page. "Important part is here. See, Rush lasted 15 minutes total, but at minute 13 I asked him to close his eyes to check how much he was getting of my sensorium. HE puszhed the synch up, and I didn't think I was tasping him but he got one anyway? Turns out it's how hisz power worked too. I waz feeding him electrixity and didn't know it. His name is 'rush' cause of his own self-tasp."
Rashmi blinks a few times, brow furrowing. "….Okay, um… Mike, if I'm going to have any hope of following you, maybe you can write out a quick glossary? Like… what's a 'tasp?' But besides that, okay *that* makes more sense for why you'd want to throw it out." Pausing, she rewinds the last few moments in her head, and turns her smile on Julian. "Actually that'd be really great, Mr. Keller. Just, um… let me know when they'll be held, so I can carve out a hole in my study time?"
The things that Julian has no clue about in this conversation are swiftly rising, but only puts up his usual 'I don't care' demeanor. "Yeah, figured if I ever leave this place, the mansion's gonna need people to take over security, plus it's going to be good to know I can trust some of you students on the field." Of course, he trusts some people ,but then there's WAY more people he thinks have useless powers in a fight.
Wut? Rashmi never read Niven? Mike is aghast and shocked. "A tasp is from Larry Niven's Known Space series. Iz like a little zap gun, you shoot zomeone and iit givez them a really intenze jolt of pleasuur. In the sztories they banned 'em causze they caused addiction if someone used them too much."
He shakes his head. "Pleaze tell me I'm not the only guy whose parentsz read him science fiction classics when he was a kid?"
Rashmi holds up her hands in supplication. "Hey don't ask me, I'm the fantasy nut, remember? Narnia, Middle-Earth, Prydain, Valdemar, that kind of thing, you know?" Rolling her eyes and chuckling, she returns her attention to the X-Forcer. "Um… Actually Mr. Keller, if that's the case you might want to hold more than one class? …I mean as far as I know, practically everyone on my team could be a big help if there was a fight. I guess the question would be more like if they *want* to go a little further than the regular sessions, you know? … ….Probably James and Lucas at the very least, would be interested…"
"It's not just one class, we're gonna have more. Whenever we can fit it in. I may ask to make tactics a regular class people can take." Julian says, on terms of family and books, he keeps quiet on both fronts, not liking much of either one, especially his family. "I heard about James. Kind of a prick, thinks he's a hyena?" He asks, seeing if he's right.
"Is a hyena, thinks he's kind of a prick, more like," Mike says, though his reassurance that it's an act is more due to faith than knowledge. Rashmi claimed it and James denied it in a totally unbelievable fashion. QED.
"Ah, fu..dge," Mike glares at the next page. "I didn't notice I had a second problem set to do for tomorrow morning. I gotta run, will definitely sign up for your class, sir." There. Julian has been "sirred" and is now 30 years older. Mike gathers his stuff and (in as polite a way as he can panic) takes off.
Politeness gives ground to friendship, and a small frown appears on the redhead's face. "Well there's pretty good proof that there's something hyena about him, since teeth, paws, tail, face and all. But he - Oh, g'night, Mike! - anyway, he's not as bad as everyone says, just… well… maybe an impulse control problem, and a lot of really stubborn, but when it counts I can *always* trust him to have my back, you know? But… yeah, I think a regular tactics elective would be a *great* idea, Mr. Keller."
"When it comes down to it, he was born a mutant, homo superior, not a hyena. That's all that matters. That's all that the FoH needs. He isn't a hyena, he just looks like one. The sooner he learns that, the better." In fact he's seen him on the surveillance cameras. And of course, he's seen people made out of rock or liquid metal, that didn't make them any less human in his eyes. The 'sirring' of Julian makes him just smile, taking it as a sign of respect, one that he earned. "It'd just be more in-depth than what you learn in the squads, for those who want to learn it, you know?"
Rashmi nods her head, visibly conceding that point, but chuckles ruefully. "I can't argue with that, Mr. Keller.. But like I said, stubborn. But anyway… I'll ask around, okay? That's a class I'd really like to take, and the more kids want to sign up, the more likely it could be a regular thing, right?"
"That's how Cyclops would see it, the more interest, the more likely it would become a regular class. So yes." Julian says, floating himself over to Rashmi now that Mike is gone. "I have a feeling that James and I would get along…" Of course, he means get along for real, or he'd be kicking his ass all over the Danger Room.
Rashmi chuckles, wrinkling her nose at the comment. "Well I guess that depends on what kind of 'get along' you mean. If you mean actually getting along, well… I guess I'd be sort of a lot more terrified of the idea of you teaching kids. But if you mean the sort of getting along that ends in bruises…. then you'd probably get along with my boyfriend, too. He reminds me of the stories I hear about you a little, sir… I mean when he wants to be, he's kind of like a mule with a brick head, you know?"
"Heh, which stories are those?" He asks, looking to Rashmi, wondering if the stories have changed since he was a student. "Either way, I've heard that about myself before. If people don't get along with me, whatever. I'm not here to be a friend, you know? I'm here to protect the school, and let nothing get in my way of doing that." He's still got that flair of teenage rebellion that is his namesake.
Rashmi shrugs, holding up a hand. "I'm just saying, if you're likely to bounce James up and down the Danger Room, probably you'd be doing the same with Lucas, if he decides to sign up too, is all. Absolutely nothing to do with the stories about how the last person to make a joke about your name wound up found stuffed in a locker a couple days later, promise."
"Hellion Keller? Hellion and the Hellions?" Julian asks before his eyes shine green once rapidly. Of course, he was a member of the Hellions. "Punk never did it again now, did he?" He says, giving a little chuckle. He stands up for himself and his friends, even if it's a little violent when it needs to be. He's all about showing his prowess and superiority. "Anyway, some people can stand being treated like that. Personally, I can't stand it."
Rashmi shrugs. "Honestly, that kind of stuff never bothered me all that much, Mr. Keller. I mean sure, I'm going to stand up for my friends if they're being picked on, but me? Mnh. I've never really felt I had anything to prove to anyone but myself, you know? Besides… I don't… really remember who said that the best revenge is to live well, but it's the kind of thought I can get behind."
Julian gives a nod to Rashmi, he doesn't see her words as a 'you're wrong', so that's a plus. "I know about living well." He doesn't comment on the proving anything, because he still feels like he has to prove himself to certain people. He craves that attention that he didn't get from his parents on some deep level that less than three people have seen. "Everyone has their own beliefs, mine just happen to fall a bit more on the aggressive side."
Rashmi bobs her head. "I understand, Mr. Keller, and I'm not going to tell you what you should think…" Trailing off, the redhead wrinkles her nose. "…There's enough of that anyway, and most of it's stupid. Or dangerous. More often both. Besides, as long as people try to be the best people they can, why should anyone care what goes on in their heads to get them to do it, you know?"
"Glad to see someone in this school have a different point of view and can respect others." Julian says, he wasn't exactly Mr. Easy to get along with. And still isn't but every now and again someone has the patience to get along with Julian just fine. "Oh, it's dangerous, that's for sure. But someone in my position has to accept danger, in huge amounts."
Rashmi nods slowly, looking back up at Julian and tilting her head. "I've been meaning to ask, Mr. Keller… what's it like, being on one of the X teams? I mean, I know you guys mostly take care of security for the school and stuff, but… It's something I've been wondering about for a while."
"Honestly? Being with Addison, Brian, and Kenta…is different. I hardly ever see Brian, and Addison…yeah." Kenta seems to be one for the cool pile there. "Jono, not sure. But actually being on a team? Not so different than being on a squad. I'm sure X-Force is a load different than the X-Men though." Julian still strives to be an X-Man, even if there is a red-haired showboat that's outdoing him with a cosmic cheating force.
Rashmi chews on the inside of her cheek as she takes this in, eyes falling down to her lap. "Probably… But, Jono? No he's *really* great, there's a lot of kids that he means a whole lot to. …I mean he complains about it if you say it to his face, but, there's some kids that think he's really a hero, to them. ….But anyway, um…. what…. does it take to be *on* the X-Force, if you don't much mind my asking?"
Hellion shrugs off the Jono expression, he hasn't seen much from him so has yet to pass his own verdict. "It takes guts, the desire to become an X-Man, responsibility, courage, and /skill/." Julian responds, looking to the redhead. "Why? You gunning for a spot?" He asks, interested to see who wants in his group.
Rashmi lifts a shoulder briefly, letting it drop in a casual half-shrug. "I've been thinking about it now and again, I guess… I mean when I came here, mostly I just wanted to go on to law school, you know? But… After everything that's happened since Christmas, I've sort of been wondering if maybe I wasn't put here for a reason. And besides… the more I hear what Magneto has to say, the more I think maybe it'd be a good idea to stick around in case some of that nonsense starts sticking in other people's heads."
Julian stands up, he's been a believer in a few of Magneto's opinions. "The question you have to ask, if they are going to crack, do you think you can help by kicking their asses? You have to put personal shit aside, and put the school first. Why, does Magneto think they are going to crack?" He asks, really asking out of concern. He actually likes that Rashmi is thinking of this, cause the Phoenix Force isn't exactly reliable.
Rashmi shakes her head slowly. "I don't really know, Mr. Keller. I mean, I've only ever seen him around a few times. Once with Mike, when he made this voice thing for him so Mike could actually talk. ….It fell apart pretty quickly after he left, but it gave Mike the idea to talk to Dr. McCoy about a proper one. Um… let's see… once when Jono was still messed up by Sinister… …I guess Jono got away a little after us kids took off, and Magneto pitched a fit that put Mike in Medbay… I mean, he was just headed to the chapel to meet me, and caught the edge of that EMP thing… *again,* when he brought Kael back… He laid into Mr. Summers pretty hard there, that wasn't pleasant to be standing next to… Hm… Oh! And the last time I saw him, he'd just sort of floated down while Jono and I were talking." Sighing, the redhead shrugs. "I've heard of a bunch of other times he's been around, and talked to some kids… Some might listen, some probably wouldn't, I don't know. I just… Think he's got really the wrong idea, you know? All this 'mutants are superior' and 'win the war' junk… I mean my parents weren't mutants, and that doesn't make them any less special. And look what happened with Malcolm X and the Black Panthers and stuff… it's practically impossible to change the way the world thinks by going on the attack all the time."
Julian nods to Rashmi after her explanation. He stands up and looks to her. "Is it really? Malcom X didn't have superpowers. But then again, we aren't the only ones with them. Anyway, I'm gonna head out. I'll keep you informed on the advanced tactics class." He offers up, before nodding to her and making for the doorway, giving a little bit of a yawn.
Rashmi frowns quietly. "Neither did Gandhi," she says as Julian passes by. "But he did more good than a lot of superheros could ever hope to. And all he did was believe that we're *all* better than the wars we fight."
