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Summary: Mason confronts Robyn about something said in regards to his name.
Date: May 19, 2011
Log Title: Bruised Ego
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Quad
There is a square side walk of pavement with a nice grassy area in the middle with a few stone benches and trees along the corners. The pavement leads to the paths to the grounds of the school, the Dining Hall in Xavier's and the Ramsey Dormitories. It's not particularly large but it's a nice place for students and teachers to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
After a night a heavy rain the sun is out and shiny and the weather is nice so thus why Robyn is outside lying in the grass with a towel under him to protect him from the still damp soil and grass. He has a sketch book open in front of him and he's sketching out his next idea for a sculpture as he listens to his mp3 player in his earbuds. He sings a bit outloud to his My Chemical Romance track as he doodles away.
Mason has a backpack over one shoulder, and is actually on time for class for once. The door to the dorm opens, and he trots down the stairs in his khaki shorts and untucked button down shirt. It doesn't take long to notice Robyn, and his pace slows. An otherwise cheerful seeming demeanor seems to darken a bit, and the bounce in his step disappears at the sight of his squadmate. His gaze is like one that could pierce the soul, but then he looks away again, shoving his hands into his pockets and slouching. Not a common posture for the boy who always wants to look his best, but at the moment he's not thinking about that.
Robyn continues to sing and sketch a bit till the tip of his pencil breaks off and he sighs as he starts to push the button on his mechanical pencil. The pause allows him to spot Mason and Robyn offers him a polite smile. He pulls the earbuds out and stops the music blaring out of them. "Heya Mason you look like someone kicked your puppy."
"Yeah," is the dry response that Mason gives. "Says the guy who kicked it." He doesn't turn to look at Robyn, but continues his pace in a rather passive aggressive manner.
"Ooooookay." Robyn says sounding really confused. "I'm sorry if I screwed up the other day in the Danger Room but I didn't think it was that big of deal. I honestly didn't think he was going to go for you and that's why I possessed the woman instead."
Mason stops, and turns to face Robyn in a planted stance. "Seriously? You're gonna play dumb on it?" He challenges as if he thinks Robyn should already know what he's talking about. "You know, I have been good to you, I don't make fun of you because you're gay, or because you're artsy, or because of anything else about you. Why? Because you are your own person, and nobody should judge you on it." Still no indication about what exactly he's upset about, he leaves Robyn on his own to figure it out.
Robyn is completely clueless as to what Mason's talking about. "Honestly I have no clue what you're talking about Mason. Are you still bent about what happened between me and Shane cause I thought I made it clear that that issue was over. Her and I haven't really even talked much since then. Why don't you cut it with the 'I'm going to make you guess why I'm pissy' and just say it?"
"Gay porn star?" Mason arches his brow as he says it, hands still in his pockets. "I expect that crap from the hate blogs and the hecklers. But you think you could cut me a break when I'm here? This is the one place I don't want to worry about that stuff — and behind my back. You're supposed to be on my squad. I'm supposed to be able to count on you more than most people."
"Wait…you're upset cause I said your name sounds like a gay porn stars name?" Robyn says thinking it was much more serious of a deal than that. "It's cause it does Mason. You're last name is Steele. It could be most first names and sound like a gay porn star name." He says shaking his head. "You've got to lighten up I wasn't making fun of you, I wasn't calling you a gay porn star. I know my name is rediculous and is easy to make fun of, I just deal with it and not let it bug me."
"Oh, that makes it better, now you're only making fun of my family name. Gee, why should that make me upset?" Mason retorts, sarcasm dripping. "You don't get it, people make cracks like that to each other, and a week later it's in the Daily Sun. I never thought your name was ridiculous. It's your name, it's something to be proud of."
"Why does it bother you so much and I don't care about the Daily Sun." Robyn says rolling his eyes. "You're so worried about your fame and popularity and what others are saying about you. Get over it. It was a crack made in good humour cause friends tease one another Mason. Not everything said about you is crack on your character or who you are or going to end up being in a blog cause some of us don't care that you're famous. And I'm not going to apologize for what I said though."
"Yeah, but according to you, you do care that I'm famous," Mason reminds. "According to you I'm not just another guy, remember? I'm different. So make up your mind already. If I offended you, I'd apologize. It wouldn't matter if I thought it was a big deal. My manager has a saying, 'Communication is ninety percent what's received, and only ten percent what is actually said.' But hey, if my feelings to mean squat to you, whatever."
"Would you rather me give you a half-hearted apology that I didn't mean?" Robyn asks Mason. "Honestly I don't care that you're famous but you make it a bit deal. You love to bring it up, you love to talk about dates and how you have this show. You may say you want to be treated normal but I don't think you do Mason. And yes, you are different. We're all different here. Noone here is just another normal guy or girl. You tell me -one person- here who is a normal person." He says crossing his arms over his chest.
"Would you rather me give you a half-hearted apology that I didn't mean? Tell me though, did I really hurt your feelings or just bruise your ego?" Robyn asks Mason. "Honestly I don't care that you're famous but you make it a bit deal. You love to bring it up, you love to talk about dates and how you have this show. You may say you want to be treated normal but I don't think you do Mason. And yes, you are different. We're all different here. Noone here is just another normal guy or girl. You tell me -one person- here who is a normal person." He says crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'd rather you give a rip about someone else more than your own entertainment," comes the answer. Mason paces forward onto the wet grass, his sandals being shed in the process. "I don't make it a big deal. I don't bring it up. Yeah I bring up girls, because I like girls, just like you like guys, but that doesn't have anything to do with it. I talk about my shows because that's what I do. You talk about your art because that's what you do, and I'm happy to listen to you talk about it because I know it's something you love. Well I love playing music. As far as normal, don't go playing the race card here, we're all mutants here, we're all normal when we're here, it's the one place we can feel normal." Mason's hands are out of his pockets, and his right hand twitches slightly as he speaks.
Robyn notices Mason's sandles being shed and takes a deep breath. "Seriously Mason, grow up. It was a comment made in good humour. I wasn't saying it insult you. Get over yourself." He says. "And yeah Mason, you do talk about it. You talk about the paperazzi, you talk about how it's hard to get a moment of peace." He then looks at Mason and notices him removing his shoes and just stands there. "I see what you're doing, I know how your powers work. Now ask yourself is you're ego getting bruised worth this?"
"See, now you assume that I'm going to beat you up?" Mason answers. "Have you ever seen me beat some one up because I was mad?" Well, he did punch Cloud once, but he's pretty sure that stayed between the two of them. "Well fine, don't expect me to stick up for you any more when people talk about you behind your back!" His volume raises, a seemingly odd level of anger coming from the teen who so often wants to please everyone, and he spins around, his foot kicking one of the stone benches.
The bench doesn't break, though, as might be expected. Instead, there is a definite crack, and Mason's face controts from near rage to great pain. Now his ego is really bruised, but not nearly as bruised as his foot. He sinks to the ground, and grabs the offended foot. Maybe he should have been a little more self-controlled.
Robyn shakes his head and walks over to Mason and starts looking at his foot to see if foot is okay. "I didn't say you were going to beat me up Mason." He says rolling his eyes. "Sit down, let's make sure your foot isn't too injured." If Mason lets him check out is foot Robyn will. "No, I was saying is me saying one little thing in a way that wasn't ment to insult you worth blowing a gasket to the point where you exploded with your powers?"
Mason growls, "Leave me alone!" He tries to get back to his feet, but fails. The right foot is starting to swell. "I don't need your help, I don't need anyone's help, I have a big ego, right?" His speech is slightly accelerated, and he pulls his foot away from Robyn.
"Really?" Robyn says shaking his head. "You're foot is starting to swell up and you can hardly stand and rather that accept help from someone who said something once you're going to let you ego get in the way? Either I can help get you down to the Medbay or leave you here to crawl on your own. It's your choice Mason."
"You'd probably just want to let me fall on the way there to prove some point anyway," Mason answers, pulling himself onto his mortal enemy: the stone bench. "You obviously don't like me, why would you want to help me?" A bit of a leap in logic, but it doesn't seem that Mason is firing on all six cylinders right now.
Robyn takes a deep breath and puts a hand on Mason's shoulder. "Now you're just putting words into my mouth and jumping to insane theories. Did I ever say I didn't like you?" He rasies his eyes at Mason as his tone has taken on a softer, more concerned tone. "You're my teammate Mason and I don't want to watch you fail. You're hurt and I'm not going to point and laugh at you while you're down. Now, let me help you."
"It hurts a lot. I don't like it," Mason changes subjects. "I gotta get this looked at. I think it's broken. I'm not supposed to break my foot. I'm supposed to break the bench. That's how this works. I move the stone, it doesn't move me. Why didn't it move?" He snaps back to reality, changing gears again. "Yeah, lets go to the med bay. I think I lost my powers, they are probably gone forever! Well, maybe not forever. If they are gone, then I don't have to worry about people finding out I'm a mutant, right?"
"Nobody likes being in pain but I don't think it's broken you probably just bruised it really good." Robyn says putting his arm around Mason so he can lift him up. "Here, lean on me." He says as he tries to help his teammate get to the Medical Bay. "YOu're powers aren't gone Mason, you're over reacting. Just calm down and you'll see that you're fine. Well not fine but not broken."
Mason puts his arm over Robyn's shoulder, and tries to stand up. Of course, Mason is quite a bit heavier than most people his size, but he's at least half holding his own weight.
Robyn lets out a bit of a noise at Mason's heaviness as he leads him through the Mansion, to the elevator and down to the Medbay. "Listen…I'm sorry if I pissed you off that much about the comment. It really wasn't to make fun of you or say you were gay or anything. I've heard it a lot with my name too. Hey Robyn where's Batman and a number of bird jokes cause Robyn's a bird and my last name's Larkin and Lark is a bird too. I just shrug it off. If you're proud of your name don't let comments bother you, laugh at them. Don't take it so seriously cause I really wasn't insulting you." He then smriks at Mason. "I would take it as a compliment cause Gay Porn stars are hung like…wow."
"I don't think like that, Robyn. I'm glad you think I have a big pecker. I do, but sorry, it's just for the ladies. I don't know why I got so mad. I wasn't that mad yesterday. I'm a bad person. I'm such a jerk." He hobbles a little as he makes his way to the medbay with Robyn, hopping on one foot. "Man, I was gonna have a hot date tonight, too. Her parents were out of town, even! Now I'm probably gonna be stuck getting a cast on."
Robyn can't help but laugh. "It's okay Mason, I don't lust after you. I have a boyfriend for that. And I doubt you'll need a cast. You'll be find for your hot date tonight." He says trying not to roll his eyes at that. "You might get an ace bandaged wrapped around it and told to take it easy but you can always play the sympathy card and have her take care of you for the night too."
"I feel really weird," Mason says. "I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing. Wait, I can't go to the med bay, I'm supposed to be in class! I can't get any more tardies! What time is it?"
"Woah, Mason, are you okay?" Robyn says. "It's almost noon I think and don't worry about class. Going to the nurse is like automatic okay excuse. We're going to the medbay if I have to possess you and walk you on your band ankle there. Really, what's getting into you?
"I dunno," Mason answers. "I just feel really s..super freaked out. Like I drank too much cocfee." What exactly cocfee is, might not be clear, but that's what he said. "I just woke up in a weird mood I guess."
Well that explains his rage outburst earlier to Robyn, at least he thinks it does. "Well maybe you need to much sleep and are running on fumes right now. I've been there, drank too much caffiene and thought I was awake when really I was sleepy as hell. Maybe you should get a good nap in too. I'm sure when you wake up you'll feel a lot better."
"Yeah, maybe that'd be good. Where's my shoes?" The teen grabs the edge of the medbay bed, and pulls himself up to sit on it. "Thanks Robyn, sorry I got so weird on you." The teen lets out a breath.
"Your sandals are up in the Quad, I'll get them for you once you're settled down here." Robyn says as he smiles. "Don't worry about it, just next time you get mad at me don't make me play the guessing game cause I probably won't guess it. And, we're cool now right?"
"Yeah, we're cool. Just next time don't try to play it off once you know. It might've not seemed like a big deal to you, but it was to me I don't even know why it is to me, maybe because I'm over-tired, just is." Mason shrugs. "Thanks for the help getting down here."
Robyn opens his mouth to say something and then thinks better of it and just nods. "Anyway I should go get your shoes for you and let the nurse check you out. For what it's worth I'll miss being on Alpha Squadron when I'm in college next year. You've been a good guy to have on your side."
