2010-05-04: Cerberus, Drawn As A Puppy

Players:

Elizabeth_icon.jpg Robyn_icon.jpg Connor_icon.jpg Mike_icon.jpg Rashmi_icon.jpg

Summary: Elizabeth shows a drawing to Mike, Robyn, Connor and latecomer Rashmi

Date: May 4, 2010

Cerberus, Drawn As A Puppy

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.


Huddled up in one of the corner chairs, Elizabeth shifts between wistfully glancing out of the window and occasionally pausing to add a few bits to something inside her sketchbook. Every now and again she pauses, scowls and waves the pencil sternly. Apparantly at her drawing… "Bad Cerberus," she chides. "/Sit/."

Mike Drakos, Boy Autobot-Impersonator, is rocking out. He's come to the rec room after finishing his homework, where he just finished downloading more (legal) music into his memory stick, and has just replaced it and closed his face, locking it into place with a hex-wrench in the opening at back of his head, the base of what amounts to his skull, and he's now playing random music. His internal feed is at a comfortable level, his speakers set to a very low level so you have to stand near him to hear…
"All we wanna do is eat your brains! We're not unreasonable, nobody's gonna eat your eyes!" (bass guitar riff)
As he turns while dancing he notices the new girl staring out the window. He activates his image inducer and speaks.
"Hello. My name is Mike. You seem to be new here, and I don't see a Skyler label. So are you?"

Class has just ended and Robyn really has a hard time with Mutant Ethics with Mr. Anderson. Ever since their little…..conversation….Robyn can't take his class seriously. He's come down to the rec room to relax a bit and try to forget about the class and the urdge to burn his homework assignment. Walking in dressed in his usual all black, Robyn looks around the room. "Hey Mike…Hey…uh hi." He says realizing his doesn't know Elizabeth's name.

"Serves me right for drawing you that ball. Daddy always said the only good dogs were working animals!" Elizabeth declares, still intent upon her sketchbook. It takes a good few moments before she notices that other people have come into the Rec Room. "Oh, I… Hello," she murmurs, blushing and trying her best to withdraw back into the chair. "Yes, I started here yesterday. What's a Skyler label? I don't remember being given when when they showed me around…"

Mike-the-human-image can grin convincingly and does. "Oh, Skyler is one of the students here. He's graduating soon. He can copy people. If you see someone wearing a name card that says 'Hello, my name is Skyler' then it's probably not the person it looks like."
He nods a hello to Robyn and walks over closer to Elizabeth, "So should we call you New Girl? Hey, nice doggie! … wait, it wagged its tail."
That's accompanied by a raised-eyebrow pursed-mouth expression. "So either you animate drawings or you're a projection of a two-dimensional being into this world."

Robyn doesn't look at what Elizabeth's drawing, it's just not nice to look through someones scrapbook without their permission, even if they're in the middle of drawing it. That's at least Robyn's opinion of it. "Oh, welcome to Xavier's then. And yeah, Skyler is one of the other students here. He copies people, that's his power." Robyn explains as he holds out a hand to Elizabeth. "I'm Robyn, Robyn Larkin. It's nice to see another artist around here." He grins.

The 'doggie' in question isn't especially friendly looking. Not in the least because it's a very faithful rendition of Cerberus in Hades, although there /is/ a rather out of place ball that the heads appear to be fighting over. Elizabeth tilts her head at Mike and blinks. "I'm very sorry, but I'm not quite sure what most of what you said means," she admits. "And my name is Elizabeth White, it's a pleasure to meet you both." Tentatively she shakes Robyns hand, before venturing a smile. "Are art facilities here good? I haven't been feeling well enough to explore much yet.."

Mike continues to grin, "Good to meet you, Elizabeth." He doesn't offer to shake hands with her, but does nod in response to the question about facilities, "I only draw for industrial design mostly, but they do provide the good equipment and supplies if needed. Bristol board even, but I don't usually draw on that, because I tend to mess up the surface if I'm going too fast. Robyn is the really good artist."
Mike reaches up to adjust the collar he's wearing (a sort of white-metal thing) and pops out a cellphone. "No, I am NOT taking that call," he mutters, his voice getting a slightly electronic, auto-tune sort of sound. He replaces the cellphone in the collar and looks back, "Sorry. My past is haunting me."

Robyn shrugs at the really good artist part and blushes a bit. "I just sculpt that's really it." He does do other art but he prefers sculpting and that's where he's best. "But yeah, they have a good art room here, I tend to hole myself up there half the time cause I just get focused on something and can't stop." He says finding a place to sit down, the comfy chair of the room. "Was that your parents Mike? How's your Mom doing with the baby?"

Stepping into view is another new face… one that's familiar to most of the others present. Connor comes sauntering in, books under his arm and a slightly haggard look on his face, as if once more he has not slept well. Both hands are full, each a can of ice-cold Coke… and with a grin that could only be described as devilish… the can in his right hand is pressed into the back of Robyn's neck, while the other is brought up to gulp from, the tap already open. A sigh, and then "Hey Mike… Robyn… hello…" A polite but slightly tired smile as he nods in greeting to the girl with the sktechpad, "Nice to see more new faces around here."

Elizabeth manages a shy wave at Connor, before carefully closing her sketchbook. And in a rather odd move, locking it shut. "If the staff don't mind I was thinking of buying in my own supplies," she admits. "I find certain brands of paint much better than others. Especially some of the ones from Italy, although Daddy always complained it would cost less to just hire someone to mix the paint I wanted."

"Huhn. Oh, Mom's doing fine, baby's doing fine. They're trying to decide whether or not to do the mutant-gene check when they do the amniocentesis. And that was my old vice-principal, Crabtree. He somehow got my number, thank you SO MUCH Jason."
Mike scowls and slumps into a cross-legged position on the floor, with a bit more of a thump than seems quite reasonable. He does get the grin back though, when Connor comes in and cold-cans Robyn.
At Elizabeth's comment, he nods, "Papa had some custom paint mixing stuff for his business. It's actually kind of fun, really. But for artist paints, I think some of the pigments have to be handled carefully. Have you gotten to make your own colors? Not hiring someone else but doing it yourself?"

Robyn just nods as Mike talks before the can is pressed against Robyn's neck and he makes the least-manly sounding of yelps accompanied by a jump. "Oh man Connor, you startled me." He says chuckling as he wasn't expecting it. "How it's going…and you look like me after a long art project." Meaning no sleep. He looks over at Elizabeth and grins. "Oh no, they have no problem with it at all. I use all my own sculpting tools. I just use their clay and Kiln. As for paints, you can get your own, but there's this amazing art store in New York City….six floors of art supplies." It's Robyn's heaven. "I think that's what she's talking about, mixing her own stuff to make her own colours Mike."

Connor drops the can of Coke into Robyn's hands as he looks back and forth between the group, and then reaches over and pounds unusually hard on Mike's shoulder, "Ready for tonight? I've gotten it finally worked up to where I can do a second person comfortably… I wanna find out if inertia remains active…" A genuine grin on his face before he says to Robyn, "Art chat? I'm the odd duck here… I write… never been able to draw all that well short of silly cartoons. So are EITHER of you going to introduce me, or am I the only one here who's going to remember the art of being a gentleman?" Giving a smile to Elizabeth, before reaching over to take the back of her hand and lean in as if to kiss it… then stops and winks, instead giving it a gentle grip of more cameradic greeting.

"Are you both in Excelsiors too?" Elizabeth wonders, quite unphased by Connor's greeting. "I… I don't really know what they expect me to do in these 'squad meetings'. It takes hours for me to make my 'power' do anything." There is evident distaste at the word power in her tone. "And I'm Elizabeth, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"SQUADMATE!" Mike says, hopping up from the floor. "Yeah, you too will soon know the joy that is the orange creamsicle training uniform. Welcome! And … Hm. Hank … Professor McCoy … will usually give you a chance to observe what happens and figure out what's going on first. You'll get to see Connor here trying to move me across dimensions, and me doing really strange things to a mini-dune-buggy."
He grins at Robyn, and says, "Hey, Robyn, I never did ask what squad you're on."

Robyn shakes his head. "I'm the odd man out, I'm on Alpha Squadron under Forge. We're a…odd team as me, Jordan and Mikhail are the regulars. I haven't seen Annalisa, Jared or Antonio in a while." Robyn says as he takes the coke can and grins. "Connor, you're awesome. Thanks." He says cracking it open and taking a sip, aaaaahhh caffeine. "And Connor, just cause you're a writer doesn't mean you're not an artist. Your words are your art."

Connor's brain does what it does before he even engages his mouth, "Well Elizabeth… the answer's simple… buy one or two of those mini-books you can stash in a pocket, and pre-sketch or pre-draw some stuff… think of it like a magazine of ammunition…" Stopping himself, before he looks back and forth, before releasing Elizabeth's hand, "Alternately… learn tattoo art… then you and Chezlie could double team. Part of the problem with our group is we all require prep-work for our powers. I have to see or know where I'm going before I can teleport, Mike has his car, Chez her tattoos, and Cloud an energy source. Of course it doesn't help when occasionally Dr. McCoy will try to pop-quiz you while a machine is firing dodgeballs at your head." Chuckling a bit before Robyn is given a one-arm waist-hug.

Elizabeth pales at the thought of dodge ball, never mind the notion of a quiz at the same time. "Anything small enough to fit in a book like that would vanish in minutes," she explains matter-of-factly. "And it wouldn't be very useful… I… I guess I could demonstrate?" She glances around nervously, before reaching for the key to her sketchbook. "The Cerberus is pretty much complete. I spent a few hours on him yesterday while I was travelling up and some time today to just get the look right."

Mike looks to Robyn with a bit of surprise at the list of his squadmembers. "Antonio? My roomie is very strange. I think sometimes that he still lives on Italian time. And the last time I saw Annalisa she was upset about Tara being mean to her and July. If I didn't know she has classes I'd say she's sitting in her room practicing not using her power."
He seems a bit, not skeptical, more annoyed, about that idea. "SO emo that girl is."
When Connor describes prep-work, Mike considers saying something but decides to wait for Elizabeth's demo. After all, she may have the power to create the ultimate dodge-ball defense.

Robyn tries not to snerk coke out of his nose at Mike's comment of Annalisa. "Tattoo art…I still need to get my third tattoo. My parents said they'd let me get another for my birthday." Robyn says as Connor reminds him of that. "I'd actually be curious to see your power. I mean, it's kind of the getting to know you around here, name, squad, powers."

Connor takes a drink from his nearly forgotten coke, downing most of it, and seeming to almost… calm down a bit under the infusion of caffiene, "I still have to apologize to my roommate… we sort of… well… Robyn saw. I didn't take it well… but hopefully I'll get a chance to cross the bridge before it's fully burned down… so… let's see. You'll get a good chance to watch Mike and myself work together tonight… I just can't seem to convince the gearhead over here that I can't ACTUALLY take him to another dimension…" Another hard smack on Mike's shoulder in response to it.

Elizabeth glances at her drawing, then around the room. "Annalisa is my roommate," she says absentmindedly. "We haven't really had much chance to talk though. Maybe I should get it to come through outside the window… I'm not quite sure what size it will turn out at. Hopefully not bigger than a pony."

Mike seems not to be really bothered by the hard smack thing either. Must be thick skinned.
"Oh, cool, I was right," he says. "Will it do what you say? Cerberus was … I think, big enough that Hercules had issues with him, from the drawings in Bullfinch. So, small elephant sized? Maybe outside would be good. Hopefully he's not part chihuahua though. Those are the real hellhounds."

Robyn just sits up in the chair and watches Elizabeth. "How big can they get? And yeah, I know who Cerberus is, it's a really cool dog with three heads. I like the old Mythology of the greeks. Blame Clash of the Titans, even if it wasn't inaccurate." And by Clash of the Titans, Robyn means the orginal, not that movie that was pretending to be a remake of a classic.

Connor fills in with, "Cerberus, Hound of Hades, guardian of the gates of Tartarus… one of the many children of Typhon and Echidna…" Looking back and forth suddenly, as if something had distracted him, "Sorry… I'm a little brain scrambled right now, Elizabeth… it's something I'm learning to cope with a bit more actively… so… where do you want to make him manifest… so we can watch?" As he speaks, his eyes seem to change in intensity, a light glow beginning in the irises, brightening the subtle blue-green shading into something much more obvious.

Elizabeth twitches. "I don't really want to make /anything/ manifest," she admits quietly. "The last time… they… it wasn't very nice." Suddenly she stands up and moves to one of the windows. "I don't really know just how big it might be. The papers said they were quite big." Having picked a window she opens it and holds the drawing up and… nothing happens.

"Hm. Well, don't worry. If you need it I'm sure it will work. But if you don't really WANT it, then it's probably not gonna happen," Mike says. "It took me a couple months to learn how to take over a car when I wanted to and not, just at random. I had the weirdest dreams when I was learning it too."
He taps Connor on the shoulder. "Hey, stop using your power when you don't have to. Keep your head, Alice."
He considers playing 'White Rabbit' but Elizabeth hasn't seen him being a robot yet. He's saving the shock for when she's got less of that new-kid smell.

Robyn stands up and walks over to Elizabeth, kind of relieved that nothing happened. "Elizabeth, if you don't want to show us your powers, you don't have to. We don't need a demonstration. The last then we want you to do is something that makes you uncomfortable. Don't worry about it." He says giving her a smile not wanting her to think she's being forced to do something she's not. "I'm not about to give a demonstration of my powers for anyone cause…well it wouldn't be nice to jump into someone's head and start controlling their body. Somethings just don't need a demo." He doesn't want her to feel pressured.

Connor acks at the tap, and his eyes brighten and then dim a moment, as a flush of embarrassment passes over the older teen's face, and he rubs the back of his neck, "Thanks Mike… sorry…" Almost muttered before he then says, "Maybe you need to throw him a bone or something… there are three heads after all. It's a dog who can eat, sleep, and lick itself at the same time… I'd say that's pretty distracted. Almost as much as me." The jarring seems to remind him to toss his can in the recycling, and then suddenly, "SHOOT! I have to bolt… five minutes to history class, and I left my paper at the door…" Looking at Mike, "No porting… I know I know… rabbit hole…" As if the reference means something to anyone else.

Elizabeth stands still, holding the sketchbook up at the window. "I'm not really doing this to show you all," she explains, her voice wavering. "I promised him he'd get to come out." She steadys herself against the wall with her free hand and sighs. "Perhaps I should have told them my 'codename' was Echidna, it'd have been just as fitting."

And then suddenly there is a /thud/ as a three headed dog the size of a small car pounces out. It looks odd, as if made from lines and shading, and it's just about possible to see through to the other side. Of course that doesn't make the three heads, each complete with enough fangs to make any of Xavier's ferals jealus, any less intimidating as it presses up against the glass.

Mike jumps a little, his "goodbye" to Connor forgotten at the distraction. "Woah! Nice doggy!" He walks towards the window to see if the beast will react. Wow. Kinda huge, that is. He doesn't grin — that'd require thinking about changing the inducer image, and he's pretty sure if it IS a dog it smells that he isn't really human. Hopefully it won't think of him like certain dogs think of cars.

"See ya later Connor!" Robyn says as he jumps as the Dog 'thuds' outside and Robyn takes a few steps back. "Wow." He says as he looks at the dog kind of curiously, but with caution. He's not stepping closer, a three headed dog that size, some primal instinct of survial goes 'keep your distance'. "He looks like a drawing…"

Elizabeth grips the window for support and slowly turns around, looking unhealthily pale. "Because he is one silly," she points out, giving Connor a quick wave before putting her hand back against the wall. "I… I wouldn't get very close. He might bite… /They/ can be quite unruly. Perhaps I should go take it for a walk or something, before it gets into mischief."

Meanwhile the Cerberus drawing has begun to amble back and forth along the line of windows, sniffing at the ground and occasionally buffeting one of its heads against the glass.

Mike nods. "You look really pale, I bet this drains your energy. Do you have a snack? A candy-bar or something??"
He calls out the window, "Hey Cerebus, stay!" Don't want to replace windows again. Though Jono might be able to fix them easily enough now. He doesn't feel the immediate sense of risk that Robyn does, but then he's a bit less edible. Maybe.

Robyn nods to Elizabeth. "Well it was nice meeting you Elizabeth, I gotta head to class too and good luck with walking him…her." Robyn says as he gives a wave to Mike. "I'll se you later Mike." Robyn says as he grabs the can of coke and heads off to his next class.

Elizabeth waves as Robyn heads off, slowly and shakily moving to stand free from the wall. "I don't think I could even think about eating something," she replies, rubbing at the side of her head. "Do you think you could hold my things for me while I climb through the window? I don't think I should let him out of my sight…"

The three headed dog, about the size of a small car and apparantly composed of pencil shading & some kind of opaque fog, turns and glares at Mike. Before letting out a perculiar triple growl. Evidently it doesn't really appreciate being told what to do…

"Where's Caesar when you need him," Mike mutters. "Yeah, I'll help you through if you want, but there's a french door over there, you could walk through that."
Mike is nothing if not helpful. He is now ignoring the big three headed dog pointedly, because that's how you treat a not-alpha dog. In theory. Don't get it excited by challenging but hold your ground.

*Ding!* The elevator doors open, revealing a redheaded Hindi girl, dressed in a plain white blouse and light, angle-length gray skirt against the growing heat of spring. Hefting the strap of her book bag, she ambles in, all sunshine and cheer… until she spots the three-headed dog on the other side of the window, Mike and Elizabeth near it. A tableau that can bring a halt to just about *any* prior thought process, really. Freezing in place, her eyes widen as they fix on the creature behind the glass, startled into silence.

"Uhm… Hi," Elizabeth offers, trying and failing at not looking guilty. "He's… mine and perfectly harmless. I think… Well /probably/. I think he's just jealus because I'm talking to Mike and not playing fetch." She sighs and, clutching her sketchbook, begins following the wall over towards the french doors.

The giant animated drawing takes another look at Mike, before snorting with disapproval. Two pairs of eyes and two sets of finger length teeth turn towards Rashmi, while the third head begins trying to chew at the wall.

Mike opens the doors in a well-ingrained gentlemanly fashion, and steps out first. "You drew a ball, did that come out too?"
Mike looks at the ground under the window to see if it's there.
"Also… it's acting a bit like a puppy. The chewing."

"….Oh," says Rashmi, in response to the not-quite assurance that she won't get eaten, edging in a rather circular fashion towards Mike's side. "Um… drew… so… you *drew* that, and it came to life? Um… huh…. nice puppy?"

Elizabeth nods. "I didn't know it would be /quite/ so big," she admits. "And I think the size it's come out at might be why I feel a little woozy right now. I'm very sorry if we startled you." Ever so carefully she reaches through the doors to pat the Cerberus, which reacts much like any over-eager puppy would. Aside from the flattening of a pot plant when it tries to roll over… "I might go for a little walk in the woods. I think some fresh air might do me good, it's been very nice meeting you both. And I look forward to seeing you for squad practise later Mike."

"Bring him along, if you can," Mike says. "Hank will love him."
Prank the teacher! Yes! Mike is working on increasing his James Points. He braces himself for the 85% probable slap on the back of the head from Rashmi.

"Um… you too," Rashmi says faintly, having crossed most of the room at the inch-by-inch pace set by the desire to noy want to chance being eaten by a candidate for a possible American McGee's Mary Poppins movie. However, simply because she's not in arm's reach, doesn't mean she can't act as she's most probable to, and a sphere fades briefly into view, floating out to bump against the back of the robot's head, before fading away. "Also, er… What was your name, again…?"

Elizabeth turns and blinks a few times. "Oh. I do apologize," she answers. "My name is Elizabeth, I got here yesterday." She glances at Mike, then sighs. "They… they don't last very long like this. They wither away and die, but I couldn't just leave him as he was. It seemed crueler by far to deny it a chance at freedom, however brief." Patting the three headed terror on the side she takes a few steps off, before adding "If any of the teachers ask about the mess please do tell them that I'll gladly pay for the damages."

"Can you ask him to get back in the drawing after you walk a while?" Mike is slightly horrified at even pseudo-life ending that abruptly. He grins at the headbump, and then waves since Puppies Wants To Play.
"You know best how it works. I'll see you at the squad meeting tonight, Elizabeth, take care!"

"Oh," Rashmi says again, brow furrowing slightly as the thought fails to sit well in her mind, as well. "It's um… good to meet you too, Elizabeth… er. I'm Rashmi, by the way… have a nice walk?"

"I wish I really did know best," Elizabeth says wistfully, as she makes one final wave before setting off after her rampaging Cerberus drawing.

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