Players:
Summary: A lot of people gather and chat in Xavier's Atrium
Date: March 16, 2009
Log Title Atrium Gathering
Rating:PG
Xavier Mansion - Atrium
The Atrium is large room with four corridors leading off in diagonal directions to the classrooms and dorms. A large window looks over the front courtyard. The Atrium has also been turned into a social area for students and teachers, with chairs, tables and a television set. Since its a main area of passing, it is encouraged that people keep things to a respectful volume.
Sitting on one of the couches of the Atrium, Daisuke has fallen asleep out here. The TV is playing some old re-run of Mythbusters but after leaving the medbay to find that he's had to sleep int he gym, well, he hasn't had a good night of sleep for a while. Not to mention the fact that he's prone to nightmares. Lucky the repairs should be finished sometime this week. He's wearing a long sleeved black and blue sweater and a pair of jeans that could probably use a good wash.
Wandering his way into the Atrium dressed in jeans and a 'Shadowcat and Lockheed' t-shirt, Eddie Parker-Mayfair's got his backpack and a notebook with him. He blinks when he sees Dai and moves over to greet his friend. The rather loud greeting gets stopped before its made so as not to wake Dai up. Eddie shrugs and sits down next to his friend quietly, scribbling away at the notebook.
His footsteps are soft as he walks in, but that's because Addison's very light-footed anyway. He's used to hovering and hates the noise his feet make. He peeks inside and sees Eddie and Dai. That's fine with him. He moves to curl his legs under him as he sits on a chair, lightly.
Up through the floor, and in axle-grease-smudged (or is that miniature burn marks? Tough to say) coveralls, Kitty, airwalking, is in the process of re-tying her ponytail. There's a pair of safety goggles up on her head and she's whistling something fast in a pentatonic scale— and she misses a note. The "Dammit!" is out loud, and as she's dropping her hands from ponytail-making, she's turning around— and magically, there's three *people* there. And one's *asleep*. "Sorry!" she whispers. (repose)
If the other's footsteps are light and soft, Sophie's is anything but. She practically comes crashing down into the atrium with a skateboard tucked underneath one arm and a cigarette dangling form her lips, running like there is something important that needs immediate attention. The sight of all the others causes an immediate pause; stopping her feet plus terrible shoes is just perfect equation for her to begin sliding towards the other students. "Oh crap!" She yells out, shoving both arms to maintain her balance as the skateboard crashes down to the floor.
As Eddie sits down next to him, Daisuke just mutters something and moves to rest against him, but still sleeps. He just grunts when Kitty enters and mutters something sounding Japanese, it's Sophie though that finally snaps him awake with the clattering skateboard. "What's going on?" He mutters as he looks around with surprise. "Where am I? Oh…uh..hi." He says turning a bit pink with embarassement as he notices there all of a sudden a lot of people in here.
Eddie blushes faintly and smiles when Dai leans against him. He offers Addison a little wave and lets out a squeak when Kitty appears. Shrinking down, he offers a sheepish smile. Sophie's loud appearance earns another squeak and Eddie looks around quickly. Scars flare up and his clothes transform into a white and light blue Grey King costume as Eddie boosts Addison. Holding up a hand, Eddie tries to telekinetically catch Sophie before she can hurt herself or someone else.
Of course, while Eddie's reaching out to catch Sophie with his duped powers, Addison was doing the same thing, as his body is surrounded by a nimbus of flame, not burning anything near him, fortunately. "You ok?" He asks, settling her softly, hopefully along with Eddie, if they succeed at all.
All of that telekinetic effort to catch Sophie, and what does Kitty zero in on? The cigarette. She waits until Sophie's been stopped, or is coming to a halt, anyway, and reaches out to phase the smoke away from the girl's lips. As mechanicky and smudgy and burny and informal as she looks, there are some things Kitty's more than willing to be somewhat unpleasant about. She makes an effort not to actually intersect with Sophie's head to get at the cigarette, but that's about where the effort stops. "One, illegal, New York State law. Two, *how* many people here have enhanced senses?"
Speaking of enhanced senses, here comes Pallaton, his nose wrinkling at the stench of smoke. He looks like he was just heading past, but seeing Daisuke and Eddie here changes his mind, and he gives the pair a nod and smile, heading over to them. He doesn't say anything yet, instead watching the scene unfold between Sophie and Kitty.
Sophie's face turns red from embarrasment as she's helped back onto her feet and steadied by a couple of the others. "Heh, thanks for the help." Her eyes wander the atrium, looking to find the on the loose skateboard. She finally catches sight of the little mode of transportation when suddenly the estatic look is completely wiped from her face along with her cigarette. "Aw come on, I was just about to reach outside!" she exclaims, turning to face the woman with a pout curling across her lips. "You know how much one of those costs?"
Still in that half asleep daze Daisuke just watches the two for a bit. "Hey Eddie, Addision, Pallaton, Ms. Pryde, Sophie." He says sounding a bit confused. "When did everyone show up here?" He asks as he streaches with a yawn. He just looks around curiously as he's just seeing what's going on and waiting to finish waking up.
Addison chuckles slightly at Pryde's reaction as he leans back against the chair he was sitting on. "Just in the past few minutes, Dai. And not only that, but isn't it against the school's rules to smoke if you're a minor?" He says, vaguely recalling something of that nature.
"Hi Dai, you guys," says Kitty, eyes only briefly flickering toward Pallaton, and then Addison, before the focused totality of her scrutiny's back on Sophie. She kneels, dipping the hand holding the cigarette into the floor for a couple of seconds. "It's against the school's rules — and state law — to smoke on campus, period, nevermind if you're a minor. And it's *mean*." She straightens up, and the cigarette's out. No oxygen to keep it burning inside the floorboards. "I don't care what you do off-campus, but off-campus is where you gotta keep it." The put-out cigarette (which smells even worse out than lit) gets offered back to Sophie; Kitty just looks irritated.
Pallaton nods in agreement with Kitty's words, before looking to Addison. "You must know how bad those are for you. Plus, it's bad for us just standing near-by." he lectures, before looking over at Eddie's curious look. "Hmm? Something wrong, Eddie?"
"This would be true, if I was still a minor." Sophie snips back not directly at Addison, but sort of just to the room in general. It is obvious though that she's more irritated at the situation at hand than his comment. She takes the now dead cigarette with contempt, pulling the pack out of her jean pocket and returning it to its former home. "Thanks." She says, her tone laced with just a hint of sarcasm. Sophie then wanders over to get the skateboard, pulling it close to the rest of the group and using it as a makeshift chair.
Daisuke looks down and doesn't say anything at first. Smoking doesn't bother him since toxins have no effect on him. He gives Sophie a smile but shrugs too. He's not a rule breaker. "Ah okay." He says in general as he looks to Eddie with a smile. "So how's things with having a new brother going Eddie?" He asks trying to make conversation but his shyness is kind of hitting with all the people in the room.
Eddie jumps slightly when Pallaton speaks to him, having been off in thought. "Wrong? Huh? Oh! No, nothing," he says, blushing slightly. "Just thinking about my new powers…err…the ones I already had that Addison showed me how to use right," he explains. Smiling to Dai, Eddie shrugs. "Going okay. Really, just like having another friend 'cept this one lives in the house with me," he chuckles.
"And some of us don't know that, because we're fairly new here." Addison says with a shrug. He doesn't care, really. He looks to Eddie and Dai, stretching slightly. "But how are YOU doing, Dai? After all that you've been through recently."
It's really all Kitty can do not to make faces at the retreating Sophie's back. If she and Sophie were the only ones in there, She'd Have More Things To Say. But no— she responds to sarcasm with a steadfast /ignore toggle, and brushes some of the soot off her coverall. "Addison, do me a favor? Let Scott know I replaced the Blackbird's left spikes, the air inlets were gonna unstart. I'm going into the city tonight." She's trying really hard not to amp up Dai's shyness even more; Eddie, she's trying really hard not to notice the shirt of. She gives Pallaton a sheepish wave. "By the way, hi. I don't think we've met."
Pallaton nods to Eddie, but looks interested at the 'new brother' comment. "Oh? What's this?" As Kitty addresses him, the wolf-man bows his head slightly with a smile to her. "I don't think so, no. My name's Pallaton. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The same tactic is quickly applied by Sophie, ignoring the teacher as she half mockingly and half seriously mopes while still sitting on her skateboard. Her black hooded jacket is now taken off since she won't be heading out side, her whole smoking buzz killed by one extinguished cigarette. She's wearing her usual ripped up jeans and holey black t-shirt; the short sleeves leaving both her 'tattooed' arms exposed. She looks towards the other students she knows. "Hey Dai, Eddie."
At Addison's question Daisuke just shrugs. "I'm all healed up and I'm not just stuck eating soup anymore." Since that was his diet for the first few days. "I don't know, I just haven't been sleeping that well and as long as I keep my mind off of it I'm okay." He says knowing that as long as he doesn't think about what happened he's okay but when it comes back to his mind he starts feeling off. "Oh Ms. Pryde, I don't think I've said thank you yet so, thanks."
Eddie tunes out the rest of the room as he listens to the answer to the question he was planning to ask. Closing his notebook and slipping it into his backpack, Eddie slips an arm around Daisuke. Giving him a side-hugm he nods to Sophie. "Hey," he says. "It's complicated but long story short…I have a half-brother no one knew about until he showed up at my house," he explains to Pallaton. He glances around before leaning in to whisper something to Dai. "Why don't you ask Leo if you can room with him for a little while? That way you don't have to sleep down in the gym with everyone else and he's got that light that helps people…"
Skyler wanders into the Atrium from the Girls Wing of the mansion, her hands stuffed into her jeans pockets and her brow furrowed in thought. Since the attack, Skyler's been this slip of a girl ever since the attack, straight black hair, and a bean pole figure. As she approaches the small gathering, she lifts her head, hearing the sound of familiar voices, and moves in to investigate. "Hey, guys," she says as way of greeting.
"That might actually be helpful to both of you." Addison says to Dai in response to Eddie's mention. He nods to Pryde. "I'll do that. I'm going for food anyway, so I'll tell him while I eat." He says rising. "I'll see everyone later."
The wave turns into a cheerily half-assed salute. "Pallaton," Kitty repeats. "I'm Kitty Pryde. Miss Pryde if you're a student, Shadowcat if we're in the field, et cetera." Quick glance to Addison and a nod, and then she's looking to Dai and Eddie with a tiny little smile, something of relief and something of apology in it. "No problem, Dai. Sorry it took us so long." Then she waves in general. "See you lot tomorrow, I'm out too." With that, she's disappearing into the wall.
Pallaton raises an eyebrow at Eddie's story about the half-brother. "I don't mean to sound skeptical, but… well, are you one-hundred percent certain of this? It's not some trick, is it?" He shrugs, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be saying things like that. Ignore what I said, the invasion's just getting to me. I'm sure he's fine. And it's an honor, Miss Pryde." He then nods as Addison leaves, thinking to himself. Food sounds good, right about now. "Come to think of it, it is about that time… I'll see you guys later, I'm hungry myself." He gives the group a wave before heading off towards the kitchen to raid the fridge.
Sophie looks over in the direction of the new arrival, a look of confusion completely crossing her face; brows furrowed and jaw hanging half open. Then everyone seems to disappear as fast as she can blink. "Hmmm… " she mutters to herself, digging her hands down into one of her jean pockets and producing her pack of cigarettes. A fresh one is placed back inside her mouth, hanging loosely to the side as she says, "Was hoping one would leave, but didn't expect my wishes to hit that many people." Soon a lighter is produced, the flame being stopped only a near couple inches from the dry paper. The whole operation is aborted with the cigarette tucked behind on ear and the lighter placed back inside her pocket.
Daisuke nods at Eddie. "That might be a good idea, I'll go talk to him." He says as he looks up at the black haired girl, it takes a bit but the usual nametag is a dead give away and he jumps up to give her a big hug. "Skyler!" He says grining brightly. He hasn't seen his friend in quite some time. "When did you start smoking Sophie? I don't think I've ever seen you smoke." He says kind of glad the room's emptied out a bit.
Eddie blinks as everyone seems to be leaving, just waiting till later to explain things further to Pallaton. He squeezes Dai's shoulder a bit and smiles. "I'm sure he'll be happy about the idea, Dai. You're awesome company," he says. Sophie gets a concerned look before Eddie waves. "Hey, Skyler."
Skyler's grin spreads to match Daisuke's, and enthusiastically returns the hug. "Hey, Dai. Yeah, everything's been really chaotic recently." She chuckles as she disengages from her friend. "At least I still have my 'girl room', although losing most of my boy clothes is something of a pain. I did have to 'change' though. I was getting uncomfortable being a viking hunk over there."
"Oh shit, Skyler!" She says with her left handing moving up to readjust her glasses as if their position was the cause to her not catching sight of the name tag. "How you been?" She asks, shooting her a warm grin while the cigarette behind her ear is moved around in a nervous, tick like fashion. "Oh, guess it all started a couple months ago. Have been keeping it pretty hush hush, but sort of spaced out a lit one in my room." she says, looking at Dai. "Hence the attempted scramble out of here."
Daisuke grins at Skyler again before going to sit back down. "You're telling me, I just want this whole invastion to be over. I also wish I could have helped stop the attack here." He says with a shrug before looking at Sophie. "Why didn't you just crack your window open and try to sneak smoking in your room instead of running through the place?" At Eddie's words though, Daisuke looks down and blushes. "I'm just me."
Eddie grins. "'Just me'? Dai, you're an awesome guy. One of the best I know," he says with a nod. "Aww, you made a good viking hunk," Eddie teases with a little blush. "Could've just gone up onto the roof too…" he offers to Sophie.
"Yeah, I know," Skyler says with a bit of wistfulness. "Still, it's good to get out of the comfort zone every once in a while." She, then turns her attention to Sophie and gives her a disapproving scowl. "Smoking is bad for you. It could kill you if aliens, evil mutants, or dimensional rifts don't.
"Hmmm… perhaps next time I'll seek one of you guys out before…" The thought is quickly lost as Sophie bites down on her bottom lip, looking forward with a blank stare. "Wait… That would have gotten me exactly here this time as well." She laughs, snapping out of space and falling back down to earth. "Or maybe I'll just try to remember one of those ideas. Guess panic just jumbled up the old brainwaves." That brings her to another thought, turning her attention to Skyler. "You know, I think I'd take lung cancer any of those others any day. At least I might get some medical marijuana out of it, right?" she lets loose a little chuckle while shrugging her shoulders. "Oh, and don't mind them. You're way better off like this than as some sort of Nordic fella…" her cheeks begin to turn flush. "cuter too."
"Or you could just not smoke?" Daisuke says as he's not exactly one to talk but he's got an advantage. "And shush you." He says to Eddie nudging against him. "I'm nothing special." He looks back up to Sophie. "I mean I tried smoking years ago and a few other things, mainly different kinds of pills, bu t I'm glad I have this super metabolism so they didn't do anything. I think I'm going to be killed by the evil mutant aliens from an extral dimensional rift, knowing my luck."
Eddie squeaks when nudged, exaggerating rubbing his side. "You're very special, Dai. You gotta stop saying you're not," he says, leaning on his friend. Sophie gets a pout. "Hey, that's a matter of opinion," he teases. He then frowns. "No you're not. No one's getting killed by anything as long as I can help it," he says, scars lighting up for a moment.
Skyler rolls her eyes at Sophie's not-quite-so-subtle flirting. "Geez," she says with a hint of mock exasperation. She stabs a finger at Daisuke, "You're special," she says matter of factly. Then the finger stabs at Sophie, "You're not gonna die," and then to herself, "And I'm only temporarily cute. Good. We've got that sorted out now."
"True, but where's the fun in not smoking?" Sophie says, letting her arms cross over her chest with a mocking scowl as she pretends to pout. "You're starting to sound like my Mom and Dad… and my older sister and two older brothers… and my two younger sisters… Geez, thanks." She looks back up, her hands gesturing towards herself as Sklyer waves a mock menacing finger towards her. "Really, I'm not?" She turns to look at Eddie, who also made a similar statement. "Aw, thanks!"
Daisuke yawns and grins. "We just care about ya Sophie, but I'm not gonna try to stop you if you want to." He says as he stands up. "I'm going to try to find a place to sleep for a bit, I'm really tired." And sleeping in a gym full of people isn't helping. He gives Eddie, Skyler and Sophie a hug before heading off. "See ya later guys!"
Eddie returns the hug then sighs. "How is inhaling poisonous smoke fun?" he asks, honestly confused. Shrugging, he leans back and listens to what's going on. He doesn't know Sophie or Skyler all that well so he's not sure what to talk about with them.
Skyler gives Daisuke a hug in return, saying, "Later!" She shakes her head at Eddie. "I don't know. I never really saw the point in it, myself. I guess I'm just a square," she says with a chuckle. Then something occurs to her, "Damn! I've got a room, and Dai doesn't. I should have let him crash in my room."
Sophie also returns the hug to Daisuke, sending him off with a soft "Good night." She looks back to the other two, shrugging her shoulders and biting down across her bottom lip. "I don't know, just sort of becomes… comforting?" it almost sounds like she's trying to convince even her self as to why she smokes. "Oh, man, he totally could have had my room too. I can crash anywhere."
Eddie shrugs. "My room got destroyed. I'd have him over my place but with Jared showing up, there's no room," he says with a frown. He feels bad about not hsving room for his best friend even if he does like Jared. "If I had a room, he could had it in a hearbeat though. I spent two years sleeping in a pile of dirty cloth I collected…a night on a couch isn't gonna kill me," he smiles slightly. "'sides, I sleepwalk and end up weird places sometimes."
Skyler quips to Sophie, "Yeah, but he doesn't have a crush on me." She nods to Eddie. "Sounds like you're set, then. I was gonna ask if you needed someplace with a private shower."
Sophie nods her head before cocking it sightly to the side. "Point taken. Guess stuff like that often slips my mind." She rocks herself back and forth on the skateboard she's still using as a chair, her smile reaching from ear to ear. "Boy, all this talk about smoking has made me… well, smokey. So I think I might head outside a get myself a little nicotine." The cigarette is pulled from behind her ear and left dangling between both lips.
Eddie blinks. "Private shower?" he asks, confused. "Err…" he turns a few shades of red. Yes, he get embarassed by the more open showers but he enjoys the views. He'll never admit it though. "You might wanna bring something to cover the smell for when you're done, Sophie. Or all the ferals are gonna be scowling at ya all day…"
Skyler chuckles and shakes her head. "Naw. They'd just be able to tell that she'd tried to cover up her smoking. Trust me, I'd done the hyper smell thing once before, you'd be able to tell that kind of thing." She gives Eddie a considering look when he blushes, glancing between him and Sophie. She shrugs, dismissing the idle thought before continuing. "Or you could be like Logan and just smoke. The worst that could happen is that Mr. Drake would turn your cigarette into a popsicle."
Sophie shrugs, "Well, I suppose being scowled at is better than being howled at, right?" she laughs pulling herself up along with the skateboard, holding it with her fingers wrapped around the trucks. She laughs again, doubling over slightly from all the effort. "Aw, a tobacco flavored popsicle? That sounds awful." She straightens up, offering the other two students a quick wave each. "Well, after that thought, the taste of poisonous fumes sounds real appetizing. Have a good night." Turning around, she heads towards the elevator door.
Eddie chuckles as Bobby is mentioned. "Or someone might give it a flash-burn or something else," he points put with a shrug. "Bye," he waves as Sophie goes then turns back to Skyler. "So…"
Skyler gives Sophie a friendly wave before rocking back and forth on her heels. "So…" she says, sounding just as uncomfortable as Eddie.
Eddie squirms for a little bit then sighs. "So, where were you during the attack?" he asks curiously. "Down in the Danger Room keeping the others safe or did you get stuck somewhere like some others did?"
"I was down in the Danger Room," Skyler says, blushing slightly. "There wasn't much I was going to be able to do unless I wanted to copy somebody. And… well… considering what was going on, suddenly having a copy of another mutant running around might not be the smartest thing in the world."
Eddie shrugs. "I dunno. Confusing the enenmy could've helped," he says. "Who knows. Maybe it'll be a Danger Room scenario in the future to try out."
Skyler purses her lips. "I wasn't afraid of confusing the /enemy/. I was afraid of drawing friendly fire."
Eddie blinks. "We had a telepath and my around. I don't think we would have lost you in the brawl."
Skyler shrugs. "Still. Combat is a fast and confusing thing. It would have been easy to mistake me as the enemy. Hell. I shudder to think about what the Evil Me might be doing amidst all of this."
Eddie looks down. "They're not all evil," he says quietly. "Yeah, some are evil jerks…but others have just been tricked and more still are under the control of the Shadow King."
Skyler purses her lips, and nods. "Of course. I'm just saying that, well, if I was invading an alternate dimension, I'd use me to be one of them to gather as much inside information as I could."
Eddie tenses and then looks down again. "I dunno. Why bother with a shapeshifter when they can just do what they did with Dai?"
Skyler looks thoughtful. "It's more subtle. You could say that, if you want to be paranoid about it, that the thing with Dai was a diversion. A bait and switch routine." She shakes her head and chuckles. "I doubt I'm even here. I think we would've seen me by now."
Eddie nods. "And the diversion'd fail the moment we found the fake. I believe Ms. Frost did a psychic sweep to check for invaders in the school," he shrugs again. "Either way, we got Dai back and kicked some butt…:
Skyler punches the air in front of her. "Hooah! I'm glad he's back. I just wish he'd stop getting himself kidnapped." She chuckles and shakes her head. "Anyway, I gotta get going, Eddie. I'll talk to you again soon!"
Eddie chuckle quietly. "Sure thing, Skyler. I'll see ya later."
