Players:
Summary: There is much talk about recent events in the kitchen of Xaviers, along with lots of food.
Date: August 23, 2011
Log Title: Comforts of Food
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Kitchen
This kitchen was designed to feed large numbers of people, and looks it with its bright white walls and stainless steel appliances. The stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher are all larger than normal. There is an island with stools around it for people to sit and eat around along with a table for twelve by the windows in back. Along the wall is a hole in the wall looking into the dining room so food can be passed back and fourth. Anything you want to cook or eat in the kitchen you will find the food and supplies to do so.
Sitting at the table Robyn is a freshly showered and shaved and is wearing an Xaviers t-shirt and matching sweat pants. It seems like he's either indecisive with what to eat or really hungry because there are scrambled eggs and bacon on one plate, a roast beef sandwhich on another, french fries, chicken nuggets, eggo waffles covered in syrup and a large gallon contaner of orange juice. Even though there is so much food he hasn't eatten much of it. At the moment he's chewing on a piece of bacon slowly.
The moment she'd heard that Robyn and Connor had returned, she was on the first bus out to Salem Center, and all but ran down the long road to the school. Her determination to find her friends and greet them at speed, blunted by the fact that she couldn't manage to *find* either of them at first, and after asking around the redhead more or less barges straight into the Kitchen, still trying to catch her breath and flushed with exertion. "*There* you are," she declares.
The bacon is dropped and Robyn gets up to give Rashmi a big hug before saying anything else. "Hey Rashmi, sorry I worried you." He says holding onto her tight for a bit. "Sorry, they found me last night and I was slept in the medbay but they let me out. I'm not hurt or anything, I was just really dehyrdated." He explains. "You don't know how good it is to see you right now."
"Well I know how good it is to see *you,*" she murmurs, wrapping her arms around the boy's shoulders and hugging tightly. "God, I was *so worried* about everyone… Are you okay? I mean *really* okay, I know they let you out of medbay and all, just…" Cutting herself off, she shakes her head. "…If you *want* to talk about it, I'm here."
"I..honestly don't know if I'm okay or not." Robyn says as he sits down. "I mean, in some ways I feel like I beat Mindbender but it was terrifying. And then going through what Heather's had to go through…oh god Rashmi, it's amazing she's so sane." If anyone would call Heather sane. "Everything was so confusing with the illusions because even though I knew they were just that, I believed them. I attacked the school and people…I helped them till…well, I guess until I pissed Mindbender off so much he didn't want to use me."
Rashmi shakes her head, scooting a chair over next to the boy and sitting with a long sigh. "Well… if you actually managed to make him *that* angry…. yeah… you did beat him. And between you and Tabitha… yeah… I think I understand Heather a lot better, now. But, Robyn? It's okay, now. You *did* beat him, and now you're back. And I'm so, *so happy* to see you again."
"I was all alone most of the time except for whatever I was seeing or interacting with in the illusion. I was in an illusion with Heather for a bit but most the time I was alone. It was just me so…I tried everything I could." Robyn says. "I tried contacting Chloe at one point but I don't know if she got my message and I'll tell you about all that stuff later but Mindbender thinks in Games like Heather does." He says looking down and frowning. "Though, I know it's stupid, I think coming home and finding Connor packed up all my stuff was the worst."
Rashmi blinks, brow furrowing. "He…. wait what? Why would he *do* that?" Tilting her head, she glances to the pile of food on the table, nodding at the chicken nuggets. "Hey, d'you mind if I have some of those, by the way? I um… sort of didn't bother to stop for lunch… or traffic. Or, y'know, basic pedestrian courtesy…"
"Eat what you want." Robyn says motioning to the table. "I just wanted something with flavour. In the White Prison the food is so bland and everything is white and quite. After I stabbed Mindbender he put me in there in a straitjacket. I don't know how long, it felt like months but I was only gone two months." He then shakes his head. "I don't blame him, I guess he can't teleport anymore but I just wanted something -I- knew and -I- was comfortable with. But it's not like it's even my room anymore. I don't know which box he put my clothes in or even where my deorderant is." He says starting to cry a bit. "I know it's stupid but…I just wanted that comfort you know?"
"Shhhhshshshh," Rashmi says, wrapping her arms around Robyn's shoulders and pulling him into a hug, gently rubbing his back. "I understand… It's not stupid at all, I promise. I was the same way when I got back from Nigeria." The chicken nuggets, for the moment, forgotten in the face of something much more important.
Robyn holds onto Rashmi for a bit while he cries, it's also just the need of letting it out after everything that's happened. Once he's done he sits back in the chair and wipes his eyes. "Thanks." He says giving her a smile. "I did well on my own Rashmi, I really did. I can't astrally project anymore but I wish I could explain it all to you."
Rashmi smiles gently, smoothing back Robyn's hair when he's finished crying. "I know you did, Robyn… And if you want to, you can… in time. For right now, though? We can just go back to taking it easy. I'm just… y'know, sorry you had to miss your whole summer."
Tara floats by wearing a hot pink sundress that seems to be about a size too large for her, judging by the way it billows about her. Her poor burnt blonde hair has been hacked down to a more reasonable and even length of about three or four inches, but still hasn't been styled yet. She pauses in the doorway of the kitchen not wanting to intrude until Rashmi and Robyn are done hugging, before floating all in. "Hey," She says to Robyn. "Glad to see you're back. Did you get your cookies?"
Robyn shrugs. "There are other summers, I'm just glad I didn't miss freshmen orientation at college." And he's serious about that. He reaches to the food laden table and picks up a french fry to munch on, then dumps more salt and some ketchup on them. "I really thought it was going to be October or something." He says eating a few more fries slowly. "Hey Tara, no I didn't get my cookies yet. This is the first time I've eaten in a few days. I was too dehydrated to eat anything last night without wanting to throw up when Connor and Heather found me."
Rashmi snags a chicken nugget from the pile, smiling and nodding Tara's way as the airborne gymnast enters. "Hi, Tara… you doing okay? I heard you were at the mansion when the big fight happened…" Glancing Robyn's way, she rests an arm around the boy's shoulder. "You'd be proud of him, Tara. Apparently he got Mindbender so upset he got a chance to poke the jerk in the brain."
Tara shrugs at Rashmi. "At this rate I'm going to die of skin cancer long before a supervillain gets me," she says with a grin, floating over to the fridge. Her grin widens when she hears about Robyn's awesomeness and floats over to clap him on the back after picking out a soda. "Way to go Robyn!"
"Well, it's good but it isn't cause I didn't mean to hurt Heather. I decided to starve myself of mental energy and let myself go comatose. I figured one of two things, if they just left me there they couldn't make me do what they wanted or if Mindbender or Upgrade touched me, maybe I could put one of them out of commission for a bit." He explains. "But Heather touched me first and I drained her." He says feeling a bit bad about it. "But that was when I was able to stick Mindbender with one of my psiblades."
Rashmi lifts a shoulder, picking up another nugget. "Well, it was a good plan, Robyn. But don't beat yourself up about it… you couldn't have known it would have been Heather to try and wake you up, after all, and no plan is perfect. …Especially plans that have to do with the planner putting himself out of commission," she says, waggling the nugget at Robyn in a poor mockery of stern chastisement. "But you fought him every way you knew how. Trust me, Robyn… I *know* how hard that can be. You're every inch as brave for that as people keep calling me, and don't *ever* forget it."
Tara looks impressed. "You have Psiblades? Coooooooool." She cracks open the can of soda and takes a sip, and then winces. "Diet. Bleah. Soembody's been rearranging the fridge. "I wouldn't worry about Heather all that much. You didn't do any permanent damage to her, and in worked out in the end."
"I know, just, I really didn't want to see Heather's parents get her again you know?" Robyn says but he's not blaming himself for it. "And thanks Rashmi for once I actually do feel kinda brave and like I didn't let Mindbender just step all over me. Even though by the end of the day I was locked in a closet in a straitjacket it means that I was a threat to him. And that he didn't want me to risk getting in his way and I'm kinda proud of that." He admits with a blush before looking at Tara. "I'll drink that diet 7up if you're not going to, right now even diet soda is delcious."
"And you *should* be," Rashmi says, nodding. "7up you wanted, Tara? Hang on…" And with that she scoots out of her chair, meandering to the fridge and beginning to rummage around. "And how's Connor? You said he doesn't teleport anymore?"
"Sure, if you don't mind girl cooties," says Tara, setting the soda down in front of Robyn. She gives the young man an approving grin. "Yeah. You should be. Anyway. Yeah, he's convinced he's burnt out, you know?" She floats over to one of the counters and settles down on it. "But I think it's more a of a sprain. He had his powers pushed pretty hard from what I can understand, so I think it just kind of shut down to recover."
"I didn't have a chance to talk to him much about it, I was just so tired and didn't have much energy last night." Robyn says. "He told me he could no longer teleport, said he's normal now. He didn't seem like he wanted to come back here….maybe that's why he packed everything up. Also, I think he feels guilty. You know how Connor is, he thinks it's his fault if one of his friends gets hurt?"
Rashmi sighs, pulling out of the fridge with a bottle of soda for Tara, Sobe for herself. "That… plus he probably feels like he doesn't belong anymore. Which is silly, but yeah, Connor…" The soda is set next to Tara on the counter, and she returns to her chair. "Well I have some *good* news, at least… I've been shopping around for apartments in the City during my free time. I figure between your student loans, my work, and whatever Connor decides to do, we could probably manage a walkup somewhere. There's not much left that's rent-controlled, and most of what there is is in pretty crappy neighborhoods, but we've got options."
Tara takes the soda with a thanks, and takes a sip of it. "Well, I think if you guys can come of out situations like what you were just in relatively unscathed, then being in a bad part of town isn't going to be that much of a problem for you," Tara says, offering her opinion.
"That sounds great Rashmi. I'm probably going to move back home in the meantime so it's easier to get back and fourth to school. And let me know when you want to go look at apartments." Robyn says as he starts to eat the roast beef sandwich. "Connor will always belong. Just because he's doesn't have his powers doesn't mean he's not our friend and that he's not one of us. I mean…I saw Future Connor, he had powers so…wouldn't it make sense that eventually he'd get them back?"
Rashmi twists the cap open on her drink, tilting her head to one side. "…It's not so much a matter of personal safety, weirdly enough… More like I don't want to risk worrying about things like getting burglarized if we can at all help it, y'know? I know how *I'd* feel if that happens, I don't even want to *think* about how Connor'd react to coming home to find the place tossed upside down and everything valuable taken off with… And you're right, Robyn, like I said it *is* silly to feel that way. But… it's not like I can't understand *why.* And who *knows* what it was like when he was… …….. …wherever he was."
Tara winces at the thought of a post-burgled Connor. Sucking in a breath between her teeth she says, "Oooh, yeah, that would be bad." She shakes her head. "Well, I hope you find something in the tidy part of town, then."
Looking at the large food spread in front of him, Robyn takes some of the bacon and throws it on the Roast Beef sandwich before nodding at Rashmi's words. "Also I'm going to be having all my art stuff there so if any of it gets broken I'd be really upset and it might cost me grades. And we'll have to do something for Connor to show him that he's still our friend and one of us even if he can't teleport for now." He then looks at the sandwich and smiles. "He came to visit me, while I was in The White Prison. He let me know it was going to be okay and gave me a way to make sure that this wasn't just an illusion too but real."
Heather arrives in the kitchen and, because she is only wearing socks, slides across the floor until she can grip the counter and stop herself. "There is no friction," she plays on her new (but actually older) tape recorder, her previous one having become a melted mess. She is wearing her pyjamas, a new Hello Kitty top that she got as a gift after trashing her previous one, and a pair of flannel pants. She looks at her watch for a moment and then glances around, "Oh, there are people." She raises her hand, both arms still covered in bandages from her burns. "Hello Robyn. Hello Rashmi. Hello Tara." She looks back at the door.
"That's *great,* Robyn… I can't imagine *how,* but, if he could pull that off that just proves he's got nothing to worry about." The redhead seems about to say more, but at the sound of Heather's voice she's out of her chair and hugging Heather as soon as 'Tara' stops playing on the recorder. "I'm *so glad* you're back, Heather."
Tara sneaks a bit of bacon from the spread and munches on it thoughtfully as she watches Heather slide about. "Hullo."
An age later (in fast world terms anyway) Chloe heads through the door following in Heathers wake. The speedster has dark rings around her eyes that no amount of clever make-up can cover. "I bet the teachers have given everyone the all clear for returning to the school," she muses. "And if you're looking for the get well stuff I mentioned it's in the fridge." In a box marked with biohazard warnings thanks to it's Heather-centric culinary stylings. "There are Russian roulette stuffed chili-peppers and a mustard creme brulee with a secret surprise layer." The surprise being maple bacon. "Hey everyone… Say Robyn do you remember calling anyone from a strangers phone?"
Robyn stands up and walks over to Heather giving her a hug, gently avoiding her burned arms. "Heather, thanks again for last night." He says. "I also have a ton of food if you want some." He says before going back to his sandwich and diet 7up. "Hey Chloe, nice to see you again too." He says taking a bite of his roast beef, bacon and horseradish-mayo sandwich before answering. "Yes I called you. I figured you'd be out looking for Heather. I didn't have much time though cause when I would…could…astrally project myself I had a small window to do anything."
Heather returns the hug from Rashmi, not bending her arms even though that makes for an awkward hug, and then pulling back so that she can work with her unfamiliar tape recorder. "I am glad that I'm back, too. I am glad that you're here. It's nice when you're here." She gives a kind of awkward smile before her expression drops back to the normal blank expression and she looks towards the fridge, when Robyn also gives her a hug, that she returns equally as awkwardly. "I wanted to bring you back, I know what it's like to be so alone, it's not a place I could leave you with being able to sleep well." She nods and then heads towards the fridge to pick up the treasures left by Chloe.
Rashmi steps back to allow Robyn to get his hug in, turning slightly green as the contents of the biohazard box are listed. "Musta—" She gives a full-body shudder, and shakes her head. "I don't even *want* to know what's in the peppers… Are your arms all right? It looks like they got pretty badly burned… what happened?"
"Shane and Ashley happened, "Explains Tara. "Heather got a hold of Mindbender as I tossed Shane at him, hoping that she'd explode on him in reflex." She shrugs, "Only thing is that I didn't count on Ashley sending a wall of fire at them. So. Shane did her explody thing which sent the fire everywhere. Thus my awesome new haircut, and skin color." Which, by the way, is bright red.
"Sorry Robyn… I'm just a little burnt out right now. I've spent the last subjective year and a quarter trying desperately to find everyone and I couldn't even be in the right place when the school itself got attacked," Chloe says awkwardly, forcing herself to smile and wave. "And I had to get up extra early last night to cook those welcome back snacks without anyone being around to mistakenly try sample anything. There is a special art to making Heather-snacks. It's a skill I suspect I could also apply to convincing a group of future housemates to not make me do the cooking." She near snarls at the mention of burns. "It's taking every bit of self control I have not to kick the stupid out of jerk who did that, the one who wasn't brainwashed. What kind of idiot thinks smothering his fellow students in an inferno is a sensible course of action?"
Robyn looks at Rashmi and smiles. "Right now I would try any of that stuff that Chloe named. As long as it has a flavour to it, I'll eat it." He then looks to Heather and smiles. "Well I'm happy Heather and I'm sorry you had to grow up with that. Once we get our apartment you'll be welcome over anytime." Then he just nods to Tara and Chloe before standing up. "Um..I'll catch up with you guys later, I'm gonna head to my…room for a bit…to lay down." He says sounding a bit disapointed. He gives Rashmi a hug before leaving, "We'll talk about apartments soon."
"I sometimes wear thin plates under my squad outfit for my arms so that I have a little defense against bladed weapons, just in case. They heated up and fused to my skin when the fire came down, and my tape recorder melted when I was on fire," plays Heather in response to Rashmi's question. "It was also on my shins, so I have been wearing long and loose pants. I have mostly minor burns elsewhere, but that fire was very very hot and came down right at me, so even my relative tolerance for heat was overwhelmed." She shakes her head quickly and then bring the biohazard box to the microwave, looking at it for a moment, and then just sitting down with it to eat it cold. She nods at Robyn and says, "I am sorry you had even had to glimpse those places. I wish that I could have prevented what happened to you. Enjoy laying down."
"Try to get some decent rest in, okay Robyn?" Rashmi says, returning his hug and nodding at the promise to talk living space. The redhead glances at Tara, then Chloe, then Heather, frowning to herself. "Well… if he's anything like most kids here, he's probably doing a good enough job of that all on his own, Chloe. I mean… how *exactly* is someone going to understand their powers hurt people until, well… they hurt people? So… try not to be *too* hard on him if you can help it…" As Heather enumerates her injuries and their attendance causes, she winces, sucking in a breath through her teeth. Oh my *God* I'm so sorry to hear that, Heather. And, Tara? That was a pretty incredibly awesome plan, mistakes aside. Any of you mind if I use all of this when I get back to Barnes? They're probably going to want to ask what everyone besides Tabitha was doing, so…"
