Players:
Summary: Summary of what happened.
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2011. 11:34pm.
Log Title: Are You Sorry?
Rating: PG-13
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.
Late night in the Mansion, and Shane, having come down from her daily give-a-damn-antidote, is squatting in the Rec Room. Headphones are on, console is on, and elaborately-dressed pretty boys and girls are fighting for their lives with the best special effects CPU power can handle. Life may not be good, but with the current distraction keeping her from worrying too hard about all the doubts and fears that came flooding back an hour ago, tolerable is a good enough word.
Proto has been roaming. The small robot has been adjusted, hopefully to Theo's liking so that it doesn't go getting itself attacked by the school's defense systems.The robot treads across the room, and stops inbetween Shane and the television. It's snakelike camera angles upward, studying the screen. After a moment, the camera arcs around, though the robot stays still. It studies Shane, examining her interaction with the game.
Shane doesn't seem to acknowledge Proto's presence, her attention fully locked on the flickering light show on TV. Her face twists for a moment in recognition of the robot's owner, however, forced away a moment later; she seems to know Theo is watching, or at least suspects as much. Her shoulders hunch slightly, but she continues to play her game, as though nothing was wrong.
Theo wasn't watching, not until Proto's camera fell on Shane. In fact, Theo was in the library down the hall. Kiloton's aptly named self was enough to catch his attention, though. He was too far away to remotely control Proto, but he could fix that quickly enough. It isn't but fifteen seconds before he is in the room, and Proto's camera suddenly retracts, as if something startled the little robot. It scurries out of close range to the girl, as if she were poison. Theo is still dressed in his clothes for the day, and one hand hangs on the door frame as Proto responds to his command to get clear of the girl.
Shane lets out a quiet breath as Proto scuttles back, eyes closing. The game is paused, and the headphones are pulled down from around her ears, controller set aside and the girl apparently waiting for Theo to speak up, her eyes settling around her knees and hands folded in her lap.
"What?" Theo asks simply as Proto scampers past him and back into the hall. "You gonna look all sad like I'm being paranoid?" he asks in response to her mousy position. "Won't make me more ready to let you near my stuff. You don't even care that you wrecked my car. Sure as hell not gonna let you near Proto with a self-righteous attitude like that."
"…Yeah," Shane says faintly, not looking up. "That's me… not sorry at all… that's why I've been avoiding you like you were nuclear. That's why I've been panicking over how much it's going to cost… why I'm probably going to keep avoiding you until I can win the lottery or something and pay you back. Yeah… I sure don't give half a shit, do I."
Her response doesn't seem to create a great impact. "Yeah, because if you cared, you would've at least come and asked. Instead, you just treat me like I don't exist. You just walk off like nothing's wrong, saying "Now we're even." Even? What the hell is that supposed to mean, anyway?" He releases the door frame, and walks further into the room, crossing his arms over his chest. "I give you a ride in my car — something I don't do for everybody, I'll add. You freak out because somebody's grabbing the edge of the car and kick the door straight out of joint. So your powers freak out. I can deal with that. But no, you act like it was a big joke! That's why I'm pissed off. It's not how much the car door costs. It's you acting like you're too good for it to matter."
"Look I'm sorry, okay?!" Theo's entrance seems to have made much more of an impact than Shane did, for she scoots herself further down the couch, away from the boy. "I don't know what I was thinking! I didn't care, and after that shit wore off I almost freaked out right in Grand Central because I only had one shoe and my clothes were all screwed up and I beat the hell out of your car and I'm sorry!" By this point, her breathing is much more rapid, shoulders trembling and face pale. "I just…. didn't know what to do!"
"See? Wasn't so hard, was it?" Theo asks, only slightly lowering his tone. He's still not in the most comforting of moods. Indeed, it might be difficult to determine whether the statement is sincere or sarcastic. "I'm not going to attack you," he adds in reference to her scooting to the other end of the couch. "I'm not one of those losers who need to beat up on girls to make themselves feel big. And since you've been so kind as to ask," this of course sarcastic, "The car doesn't cost anything. Tony wasn't mad, we fabricated a new door, took about a week." He sets his jaw forward a little, arms still folded. "What happened to you?" he asks, turning the attention to her panic. "You were like some kind of wild animal. Just what was that junk? Speed?"
"No," Shane says, voice still shaky, but with an undercurrent of anger. "You don't beat people up. You just talk like I'm dirt. I'm not *retarded,* you know. I'm *sorry* already. If I'm not supposed to pay you back, what else do you *want,* huh?"
"Don't go projecting your self-destructive worldview on me. I'm not one of those pushovers who are gonna handle you with kid gloves to make you feel good." All the same, Theo seems to soften a little. "I didn't treat you like dirt. You treated me like dirt. How am I supposed to know you're sorry if you don't talk to me? All I want is to be treated with at least some kind of decency. I don't need anything from you. But it would've been nice if you had at least asked. By not even talking to me, you don't make me think you're sorry."
"Well it'd've been nice if you just asked if I was sorry just now," Shane says, not looking up, but the heat leaving her voice. "Instead of just assuming I was too good to care… Robyn used the exact same words, y'know…"
"Don't go lumping me in with him," Theo answers, not a person he generally cares to be likened to. "You're the one who wronged me, I'm supposed to come looking for you to find out whether you're sorry?" he asks. "Take some responsibility for yourself."
"Fine," Shane says, shoulders slumping, defeated. "What do you want. Just… tell me what it'll take. I don't know, and I can't figure it out, and I'm a horrible stupid bitch, okay?"
"It's over now," Theo answers, "Just forget it. I get that you're sorry, just…next time, don't go hide in a corner and feel sorry for yourself instead of dealing with it. I know there was some junk in that inhaler. What was it, anyway?" He hasn't forgotten his question from earlier.
Shane mutely shakes her head, pulling her legs up on the couch and wrapping her arms around her knees. "It was just… I dunno. It was like…. nothing mattered. I… didn't have to worry about *anything.* None of it mattered, so why not? I mean I almost kicked his *face,* and the only reason I didn't was because I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle."
"Woulda served him right," Theo comments. "But it's a good thing you didn't. Just stay away from that crap. It's probably some trap to get all the mutants turned into druggies and kill us all." New Mutant Order indeed.
"Yeah," Shane says, utterly without feeling, "probably a trap. You'd have to be an incredible moron to get suckered in." A shoulder lifts, falls. "…You wanna know why I said we were even? It's pretty stupid, really," she says with a soft, hollow laugh. "You cared *so much* about that car, you *freaked* when it got dented. And whatever else I was thinking, the only part that gave a shit went, 'Now he knows how you felt when he trashed your Dad.'"
Theo knits his brow. "Seriously?" he asks. He doesn't even know how to comment on that without being a jerk. "I apologized about that," he says. "Man, that's petty." He shakes his head, putting his hands on his hips, and laughing at the situation in spite of itself.
Shane shrugs. "I was high, made sense at the time. Dad's one of the only people I can actually say 'He didn't get rid of me 'cause he wanted to.'"
Theo laughs, "Well," he says. "That's why drugs are bad," he tells Shane. "I dunno what gets people hooked on them. Maybe they just can't handle normal life. But life sucks for everybody. No reason to make it worse with drugs." He shrugs. "Well, I guess it was a good talk," he says. "Next time you get high, leave my car out of it, could ya?"
Shane sighs, closing her eyes and nodding, turning her head away. "Sure," she says after a moment, wondering if the boy realized how hard he just jumped on the truth. "Don't think you'll have to worry about that again."
"Well, as long as you don't get in contact with that stuff again," he says. Though her demeanor would normally be cause for suspicion, given Shane's normally uncomfortable demeanor, Theo doesn't think much of it. "I'm gonna o get some studying done. I'll see you later."
"Yeah," Shane murmurs, dropping her head onto her knees, "Later."
Theo starts to leave, and pauses. "Hey, for whatever its worth," he says, turning around as he reaches the doorway. "I'm really glad your dad is a guy who really cares about you. I'm even more glad you know it. Some many knuckleheads around here treat their fathers like the enemy. It's good that you stick up for him. I'd give anything to have that back."
