2010-03-30: Clay Creations

Players:

Mike_icon.jpg Mikhail_icon.jpg Robyn_icon.jpg Tara_icon.jpg

Summary: Robyn and Mike are the art room sculpting, Mikhail stops by to chat and Tara eventually joins the fun.

Date: March 30, 2010

Log Title Clay Creations

Rating: PG


Xavier Mansion - Art Room

The Art Room has pictures of classic artists and small sculptures of famous pieces of art around the room. Any art supply you need may be found in this room, a large variety of paints, charcoals, markers, pencils, clays, canvases, easels, paper, and much more are accessible for the students. A large kelm is in one of the far corners of the room as well. On one side of the art room are a few sewing machines with a large variety of fabrics and sewing supplies for the students as well.


It's early morning and it's no big surprise Robyn is in the art room. He's got a fresh hunk of clay in front of him on the table and he's just starting to mold it into the basic shape he wants. Pinching it here, removing clay from there, adding bits to other parts and surprisingly, he's working in pretty rapid fashion as he quickly molds the clay into a basic shape of a cat, well the head at least. The bottom is still kind of blockish.

Mikhail has a free this period, so has decided to look for Robyn, they havn't spoken much lately so he's gonna stop by to see how he is, he's dressed in a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and black sneakers. He catches Robyn's scent and it leads him to the Art Room, he opens the door and knocks on it.

Mike the Macheen is also in the artroom, early, but where he might usually be drawing (car or motorcycle designs) he is instead trying to take a rather ordinary van design, some sketches of the attic gardens, and a block of clay, and come up with something better. The clay mocks him. He took his shirt off this time - an earlier attempt resulted in a shirt that had to be washed four times to come clean. Fortunately, being metal, he can just hose himself off … ok, let's try this again. Block of clay is blocklike. Use the putty knife to remove the preliminary shapes… oops. Knock. Twitch. "ARGH."

At the argh, Robyn looks up as he realizes someone else is in the room. "Need help?" He asks as he walks over to Mike's table to see what he's doing. "You're using the putty knife to early Mike." Robyn says as he turns his head a a knock on the door and seeing Mikhail, Robyn grins brightly. "Mikhail, hey! You don't have to knock to come into the art room." He says amused.

Mikhail smiles and walks into the room and over to Robyn and Mike,"Heya, how are you both doing today?", he grins slightly at Robyn teaching Mike how to use clay.

Mike looks up at Robyn, but the puppydog eyes expression doesn't translate through to the metal like it does to the image inducer. "YES, please," he says.
"I can draw adequately. I can model the shape in my mind … I just can't make it come out right in this gooshy stuff."
Of course it would help if he had even an inkling of the right techniques to use. He looks over at Mikhail. "Hey, Mikhail, how ya been?"

Robyn sits down next to Mike and takes any clay that he cut off the inital ball and just mooshes it into one bit mess. "I'm doing pretty good Mikhail, just making something for Jono. And now, helping Mike." He says with a chuckle. "Okay, drawing and sculpting are two different things, I'm not great at drawing but when makign something you want to mold the basic shape first. So lets say a tree." Robyn says as he starts to move his hands so that he's forming a Tree trunk, pinching and pulling to make limbs and give it shape. "You want to get the basic shape first, once you mold the basic shape, then you use tools to start doing the finer detail."

Mikhail waves at Mike, "M.., I'm doing fine thanks Mike", stupid pronouns!, he walks closer to watch what Robyn is doing, "So what have you guys been up to lately?"

"Ah." Mike takes a blob of cut-off clay and tries to do the same thing. It immediately sticks into his palm treads and gouges are left where his "nails" are extended. "drat… " He looks over to Mik, "Just hanging around the medbay for a week or so, then catching up on stuff."
He sighs exaggeratedly (to express exasperation, not because it helps to breathe) and starts picking the clay out of his treads again.

"Maybe try wearing latex gloves?" Robyn suggests as he squishes the tree back down. He really doens't want to say it but he doesn't think Mike has the 'hands' for sculpting since, well, tire treds. "I've been hanging out with James and Rashmi and Mike a bit lately. Just trying to hold onto every little bit of peace and sanity while it lasts."

Mikhail however will say it, "Maybe you should try using something not so clay-like, so it won't get stuck in your hands", he smiles at Robyn, "Theres never any sanity around here, but other than the attacks, the insanity is kinda fun".

Mike straightens, and says, "Gloves. Excellent idea. Hi, my name is idiot." He puts the bits of clay back on the block and goes to the sink, using the hand sprayer to wash the clay off and into the big basin that's there for the purpose - since otherwise it will eventually clog the drains. He looks around until he finds a pair of yellow kitchen plastic kitchen gloves and pulls those over his hands. "Maybe this will work better. And, I would use something else, Mik, but all car designs go through a clay mockup stage. It's part of the standard processz and I haave to know how to do it."

Robyn goes back to where he was working and brings the rough model of the cat over to table with Mikhail and MIke are so he can work there. "I don't find a whole lot fun around here…except for the people." Robyn admits as a part of him isn't sure how much more he can take. His hands move over the clay as he starts to shape the body of the cat, it's going to be about ten inches tall and six inches wide at the moment. "Also another tip Mike, don't let the clay get too wet, or it just gets sticky and overly mushy and you can't do much with it."

Mikhail suppresses a laugh at the sight of Mike in the gloves, then turns to Robyn, "the people are the best part of this place, but the classes are cool and so's the DR sessions".

"I find the routine to be much better than the attacks and the lockdowns … I was planning to ask my parents to take me out of here," and Mike raises an eyebrow at Mik, "wear yellow gloves and look this cool you would not," he yodas.
"But anyway, when I got EMPed and they did the repairs I learned some stuff that means I can actually stay, so. All things work to the good, it says."
With the gloves, he returns to the task of sculpting. His clay IS a bit too wet so he swaps it for a different block, not so damp.
"I started getting special DR sessions to work on my driver thing," the robot teen mentions as an aside.

"I can get the same classes at my old school, just the art room here is better equpied and I have access to it anytime I want." Robyn does smile at that beefore shrugging. "I dunno, I'm getting special corses on Addison for mental defense, but I haven't had those or a danger room session in over a week. Still healing."

"Sorry you guys got hurt, i should have been there to help", Mikhail feels bad, out of his friends, he's probably the least breakable and heals a lot quicker.

Mike nods to Robyn, as he pinches off the unwanted parts of the clay until he has an approximate shape. He overlays a ruler and an angle measure on the image he sees, and adjusts the block a bit more, until the shape is approximately what the drawing shows. Then, he uses the palette knife to smooth rather than cut off.
"Don't know how you would have helped me," Mike says, "I was hit by an electromagnetic pulse, it was a lot like being struck by lightning six or seven timesz. Not their fault but it took a while to notize I wasn't where I should be … Zack got taken about the szame time, I heard. Anyway I think Logan might've found me by the szmell of burnt wiresz, I was in the underbrush where nobody could szee. I was szupposed to be in those classes too but didn't make it."

"Addison is running a different class for me, I wanted something more than what he was offering to the others. My powers are psychic based, I should be able to protect myself psychicly better." Robyn says as Addison hasn't been going easy on him and he feels just as tired and exhausted after wards as if he did a 12 hour danger room session. "I'm kind of glad you weren't there to help Mikhail, I mean…even Dr. McCoy and Mr. Summers were having a hard time. Jordan…his powers were a lot different but still the same."

Mikhail shrugs, "I might have been able to help a bit, every little bit can help, no matter how small", when learning to read he read the giant turnip, "Whats up with Jordan?"

Mike nods. He stops working the clay for a bit … it seems to want to rest. Or he's thinking about how to translate his imagined vehicle form to the clay.
"So what doesz it feel like, Robyn? The defensze class? I only got the firzt one for the braindead, 'try to ignore the intruding thought' … what IS with Jordan? Have I even met him?"
He nudges Mikhail gently with an elbow, "Glad you weren't there on my szide of the fight too. Chloe lost a hand, you fight close-in, you might've lozst more."

"He's just going through a tough time an he's never fully adjusted to this place. It's just so different for him." Or at least that's what Robyn has gathered, he could be wrong. "This place doesn't offer much to those into sports." Except a basket ball court. "And with all that just happened he's just kind of keeping to himself, it really is for the better." He doesn't say why though. "Thanks Mikhail." Robyn says giving him a smile for his words. He might not agree but he knows Mikhail's heart is in the right place.

Mikhail looks at his hand, "Someone lost a hand?", he can't imagine not having one of his hands, they're so useful, "But you need your hands, they do lots of things, is she getting a new one?"

Sports. No kidding. Mike isn't a team sports guy, and he can't do the one that used to relieve stress. But he's met three people here so far who said they were working toward the Olympics, and two (that he knows) football players who had it as their basic LIFE, and with the absolute freaking BAN on competing with an active X-gene, and the heavy suspicion about even allowing competitors who have one at all… not that the latter would go very far. Really should do something … come up with a team sport that's open to mutants maybe, or that encourages use of powers but that would exclude baseline and lowpower, which needs to be …He's jolted out of his inner reverie by that question.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, she is. I guess Dr McCoy, or Forge, iss making one. I would've given her one of mine but they're bigger than her head." Mike makes a fist. Yep. Almost as big as his own head.

"I wasn't there to see her lose her hand, I was on the other side. They kind of divided their attack…I can't imagine what it would have been like if it was all four of them, of if we didn't get to Jono earlier." Robyn trails off as he works on that cat and starts to form the legs and paws, it's in a sitting position. The tail will come later. "I have to hollow it out soon." He comments as he stands up to look for his wire. "I couldn't imagne losing one of my hands, I think that'd be the worst thing to imagine. I'd rather lose a leg." He doesn't need a leg to sculpt.

Mikhail scratches his head, "If you lost a leg, how would you move?, you really don't make sense sometimes Robyn, and if anyone took your leg, i'd fight them for it back", the looks at Mike hand, "I didn't notice how big your hands were".

"My hands are a bit larger than they were when I wasz flesh and blood," Mike admits. "But I can crush a basketball," he adds cheerfully. "Also I find this discuszion of losing body parts a bit disarming. Could we go on to a different topic?"

Robyn chuckles and looks at Mikhail. "Thanks Mik. And if I los…sorry Mike, I'll stop now." He was going to explain to Mikhail how he'd get around. Protestic or cane or wheel chair. He takes the wire in his hands and cuts his sculpture right in half length wise and starts to hollow it out. "I make sense to me, and that's what matters right?" He says with a grin.

Mikhail shrugs, hes had a lot of stuff he didn't understand resently, he's not gonna question it any further.

"Thanks, Robyn," Mike says, wondering when the artist will notice the horrible pun. He picks up the flat-loop and begins slowly and carefully removing material from the blocklike clay van, subtle modifications that should make it eventually more streamlined and elegant looking than the blocky box. Still no hint of how he intends to incorporate the ferns and leaves from the drawings though. "When do I take out the middle, Robyn?"

Sitting at one of the tables is Robyn, Mikhail and Mike and Robyn and Mike seem to be wrist deep in clay. In front of Robyn is two halfs of what look like a cat? It's hard to tell since he cut it in half length wize and is hollowing it out. "I like to hollow it out before I start with detail, that way I don't worry about messing up the detail when I put the two halves back together. It's mainly so it can cook easier." Try cooking a solid block of clay that's 10 inches tall by 6 inches wide, not going to be fun.

Tara just got out of her first class of the week, now that things have finally settled down to some semblance of normalcy after the attack. She's walking on her way towards the main part of the building when she hears familiar voices in the art room. Having time for a visit she pops open the door. "Hey, guys!" she says. "Whacha up to?"

Mike is wearing yellow kitchen gloves to sculpt; he's got his shirt off to keep it from being messed up by clay like the one he wore in a previous attempt. He is talking to Robyn. "Ah, then maybe I don't haave to … automotive mockupsz aren't uzually fired. Thiz is the smallest scale model they would do," and Mike nods towards his laptop on a nearby desk, where a page is open and would be showing a page with explanations, except for the swooping screen-saver images. "Used to be the only way buut CAD workz better for most thingz now. They sztill do a quarter szcale, and a full-size, but that takesz a body framework too."

"Well firing all depends on what kind of clay your using and what you're planning on doing with it." Robyn says as he's using clay that needs to get fired, and than fired again if he uses a glaze on it. "Hey Tara! How you doing today?" Robyn asks as he starts using some tools to start putting the two pieces of cat back together, gently. Making marks on both halves edges before sticking them together. "I know just as much about cars as I do sports Mike." Which for Robyn is pretty much nothing.

"Cars go VROOOM!" adds Tara helpfully, with a grin. She makes her way around the art room until she finds a stool and parks her butt there. "Mike's making a car, that much I can tell," she says, "But I can't figure out what you're making, Robyn."

Mike laughs at that. "I juszt used what wasz here, I think they use szomething different, at the big ddezign houses."
The robot teen focuses a bit more, "hi Tara, it's actually a new van design, but I'm tryinng to incorporrate ssome organic featurez … on the outzide as well as inszide. Mr. Parker-Mayfair has been teaching me design stuff since I went asz far as I could wiith cooking. I think it wasz the Aztec Cupcake that convinzed him."

Mikhail has been sitting there watching what everyone was doing, he's pretty much lost in his own thoughts, he berely noticed Tara enter the room, he comes out of his daze when Christopher is mentioned, "Mr. Parker-Mayfair is cool, his power is really good, he changes colours like that", he clicks his fingers on "that".

"His husband is really cool too. Dr. Parker-Mayfair, I don't think I've ever seen anyone that huge before though." Robyn says as he looks over at Tara. "Oh this? Well right now it's the basic structure of a cat, it's gonna end up being a Mummy Cat though. I just want to get the base shaped so I can add the bandages and that's what the features will be molded into. And..Aztec Cupcake?"

Tara tilts her head curiously. "Mummy cat? Like it's going to be all dessicated and gross and stuff? Awesome." She starts idly spinning around on the stool, "I met Christopher the other night," she says on a completely different tangent. "He's going to teach me how to cook. One on one lessons." She stops spinning when she realizes what Robyn said. "Wait. His /husband/?" she asks, sounding crushed. "Aw, man."

"That explainz why he can get the out-of-production fabric for the seatcovers," Mike mutters, and continues to remove material. It becomes apparent that he's molding a very stylized fern-leaf shape into the shape of the fenders and side panels. Almost too subtle to see except from a distance.
Mike murmurs, "If you're disappointed now wait til you see his husband," and grins internally. Reminder to self, schematic two must have facial expressions.

Mikhail looks confused, "What does it matter that he has a husband?, i know he's a Shrink but he seems ok", he grins, "But he's really strong, thats cool".

Robyn is about to answer Mikhail's confusion but he decides not to and let someone else explain. Or he'll explain when the two are alone. "No, it's not going to be rotted an decayed…that you can see. It's mostly the bandages that you're going to see. It's going to be a kind of cute mummy cat? I dunno. We'll see how it looks when I'm done." He says grining as he continues to work.

Tara makes a show of sighing despondently as she picks up from where she left off in spinning on the stool. "Why are all the cute guys gay," she asks to herself. She chuckles at both Robyn and Mike. "I'm sure I'll be 'seeing' these things soon," she teases, reminding them of her disability. She isn't being mean about it, quite the contrary. She stops her spinning to face Mikhail. "Hey, new guy. I'm Tara. We haven't met before."

"I know exactly how you 'see' things," Mike says in sly tones, "million-tiny-fingers girl. But I wasz going to try szomething, If I can ever make it safe. Will tell you more later."
He sets the scraper down and traces things a bit more with a leafblade tool.

Mikhail is confused again, "If you can't see, how do you know if Mr. Parker-Mayfair is cute or not?", he waves a hand in front of her face, "I'm Mikhail".

"So that way I can have all the choices?" Robyn says teasing Tara a bit, then Mikhail asks the question that's on his mind. "But once I'm done with this, I'll let you check it out. I have tons of little sculputes I've made over time all over my room." Robyn says as ever since he was little he's loved to play with play-doh, clay, anything he could mold.

"Stop that," Tara says at Mikhail's waving, her blind eyes never tracking the motion. "Cute is more of a state of being than a look," informs those interested. "Look at a pug. It's all wrinkly and ugly. But they're cute. Why? Because they're the embodiment of cute."

Mike doesn't give away Tara's secret any more than he already has, but then, he doesn't think of her as having a disability, more like a huge inconvenience. Nobody who can do what she does on gymnastic equipment is 'disabled' to him. Sure, she can't see a sunset through her own eyes, but Mike can't taste or smell Cam's cooking.
"Hey, I know there are assistance animals for sight and hearing," Mike says in an abstracted voice, as he fine-polishes the surfaces on the van model. "Too bad I can't get a smelling-nose dog, or a tasting-cat."

Mikhail has never seen a pug before but doesn't press the subject, this is just one of those things that are gonna hurt his head.

"Well you can get a smelling-nose dog or a tasting-cat but it won't do the smelling or tasting for you. Just the tasting-cat would probably eat all you food on you." Robyn says as he finishes up the basic mold of the cat and sets it aside. There are no features to it just ears, head, snout, body and tail. "You're right, pugs are kinda cute."

Tara goes back to the arduous chore of making herself dizzy. "Besides. Tasting-cats are hardly reliable. I mean, c'mon. They lick their butts."

Mike shudders all over. "OK, you have proven the idea impractical. Bleargh." No comment about pugs, Mike doesn't think of them as cute but rather as what would happen if you took a big boxer and dried it like a prune. Though they do have the usual "love me" attitude dogs tend to adopt towards humans… He's not so fond of them when he's inside a car though. Wet wheels and the chasing.

Mikhail shrugs, "Most ideas are impractical depending on how you look at them, like that gravity thing", Mik doesn't feel like hes being pulled down, if he was jumping wouldn't be so easy.

Robyn shakes his head at Tara, but there's an amused smile. "So do dogs Tara." He says as he stands up and gets a ziplock bag to put his cat in so he can retain some of the moisture. "Okay I gotta clean up and get to English class. It was nice seeing you guys, I'll catch ya later." Robyn says as he heads out the dooor.

Tara counters with, "But who heard of a Tasting-Dog? I mean that's just silly." She pauses in her spinning to wave goodbye to the boy. "Take care!"

Mike digs around in his music samples, and finds an odd bit from one of his mom's old albums. Sparks. "I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be….. I wanna be like every body else, be like every body else. Gravity Don't Work on Me, I wanna be like everybody else."

While he plays it, he waves to Robyn, then puts away the tools he was working with and covers his car model, takes off the gloves, gathers his drawings… "Math class for me. Huzzah," Mike explains, and asks either or both, "do you have a class this period?"

Mikhail waves to Robyn, "See you later Robyn", then shakes his head at Mike, "I've got bio, but i'm gonna go for a run instead, too much energy".

"Mutant Ethics," replies Tara to Mike, still spinning. She suddenly stops and hops off the stool, wobbling a bit. "Whoa."

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