Players:
Summary: Four Students have a chat in the courtyard.
Date: July 9, 2009
Log Title: Courtyard Encounter
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Courtyard
Surrounded on three sides by the school, a large courtyard forms the front yard. The courtyard leads right up to the door of the mansion. Yellow square stone slabs cover the ground where the grass would be. The most noticeable thing about the courtyard is the large statue of Jean Gray, aka Phoenix, in the middle as a memorial. Benches surround the outside of the statue so students can sit and hang out in the courtyard. There are two paths leading off the courtyard, one to the left and the other to the right.
Sitting on one of the benches wearing a pair of torn faded jeans, a button up short sleeve shirt with tie and a fedora style hat, with a drawing pad in hand is Daisuke. It's not an uncommon thing to see the Japanese teen somewhere in the school just drawing. It's something that just keeps his mind clear. Right now he's going to draw for as long as he can before it gets too dark.
There is something else that, in the last few months, has become common on the Xavier grounds. That is the sight of Jared either in his work out clothes, or sitting some place quietly reading something on his kendel At the moment Jared is dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans carying his E-Book reader as he looks for a good place to just curl up with a good book…or 200 however many he has downloaded so far.as he wanders out into the court yard.
Following along behind Jared, more from coincidence than following him, is Eddie. Dressed in jeans and a Captain America t-shirt, he's got his backpack on and seems to be off in thought. Knowing him, he's gonna trip over or walk into someone.
Shelly is coming from the general direction of the tennis courts, which shouldn't be much of a surprise to most people, as that's one of the areas she's regularly seen in. She's got her duffle bag with her, which contains a whole bunch of random stuff. She's currently reaching in and pulling out a copy of the newspaper. She hasn't quite joined the digital age as whole-heartedly as Jared has, and still actually does read the print versions of paper. "Evening Jared, Eddie," the girl greets them as they all seem to arrive at the courtyard at around the same time.
Daisuke is lost in his art, like usual, so he doesn't notice anyone else in the area until he hears Shelly's voice. He tucks his mechanical pencil behind his ear and looks up with a smile. "Hey Eddie, Jared, Shelly." He says folding over the cover of his paper and standing up, stretching back a bit. He's been sitting there a while. "How are you guys doing tonight?"
Jared knows he is being followed, not be cause he has spotted Eddie but because he is Jared and can sense the person behind him. Jared waves at Shelly as he spots her and stops mid step for just a second as he spots Daisuke and grins. As Dai waves at him he waves back, "Hey Shelly, Dai, I'm doing good. How about you? You guys doing ok?"
Eddie jumps, stopping just short of walking into Jared's back. Blinking a few times, the booster looks around. "Umm. Hi, Jared, Shelly, Dai…" he trails off, a bit embarrassed. "Okay, I guess. How about you all?"
"Bit jumpy, Eddie?" Shelly asks when the guy nearly runs into Jared's back, though it is said in a good-natured tone. "Doing alright, just keeping busy. Figured I'd get around to catching up on what the media is going on and on about now," the girl says. "Some of the stuff that they publish in the papers is just such obvious space filler it isn't even funny, you know? How about you lot?" She slides the paper back into the duffle bag as she speaks. Catching up on the news wasn't that immediately important.
"Eddie's just kind of like that." Daisuke says in regards to his best friend as he walks over to give Eddie and Jared a hug. "I'm doing okay, and I dunno, I read about those two attacks, one in Salem Center the other in Brooklyn in the paper today, I don't know if it's filler or not. And I heard a few kids and a teacher here were taken." Gossip spreads around the X-Mansion like wildfire.
Jared nods and agrees with Daisuke as he mentions that Eddie is by nature kinda Jumpy. He loves the guy like the brother he is, but boy is jumpy as can be. He hugs Daisuke back and grins at Shelly, "It is all filler, although the attacks are kinda … not sure what to think about it. HEard the rumors about other students being taken too, and one rummor about a one about it being some Friends of Humanity group behind it."
Eddie frowns a little and shrugs. He can't disagree with what Dai says. He's all set to go all silent and noddy, but then Dai and Jared bring up one of the things he's been thinking about. "I heard a rumor they attacked a superhero too," and there's the flame that drew the moth in. Glancing back and forth, he leans in to whisper. "I was thinking…maybe we could um…ask Mr. Summers for permission to do some investigating into this," he admits. "Ya know, see if we might be able to find out more about what's going on and then tell the police or the X-men if it's something really, really bad."
"I'm game for it. Not like I don't have the time to dig through newspapers or online databases or other things like that. Plus I'd hate to sit around here waiting to see if they strike again or anything like that," Shelly points out. "Though the question becomes if the Headmaster will allow us to mess around looking for anything. It doesn't seem, on the surface, all that dangerous," the teenager points out. "I hadn't heard about the rumors yet; I got behind in my news reading thirteen hours or so ago," Shelly explains. "Any idea who it was who was taken?"
"I guess we could try to ask Mr. Summers I just don't know if he'd let us." Daisuke says thinking that maybe just going off and asking might be a better option. "I don't know who yet, I just heard three students and a teacher. The paper said six so I'm not sure if all six were students or not. I'm actually surprised it wasn't me since I have a horrible habit of running into bad luck."
Jared shrugs and has no real idea what to think about it. "Not sure what we could do that the cops can't. Its not like we are teeps like Addison who might be able to find them mentally, or mages like Wiccan with the Young Avengers who could …you know do a tracking spell." Jared frouns for a second and then slips a hand around Daisuke's waist. "Honey, it is my good luck rubbing off on you."
Eddie shifts his weight a bit and then takes a breath. "Well. I could try to mimic Addison and we could go off and look. Or we could use your whole life-sensing thing to try and find people who we might know who are someplace weird…I dunno," he sighs. "I just wanna do something. Sitting here and doing nothing again is just…" he shrugs helplessly.
"I think I've been getting your luck, Daisuke. Every time I've gone out to town it's been a bit of chaos," Shelly says, though she seems to not be too stressed about it. She then glances over at Eddie. "You can do that? Mimic people on command like that? Sounds like that'd be pretty useful," Shelly agrees.
"You don't want my luck Shelly." Daisuke says putting his arm around Jared in return. "Maybe it is your good luck rubbing off on my Jar." He says with a chuckle. "And you can just call me Dai, most people do." He says to Shelly before looking at Eddie and shakes his head. "I dunno, I feel bad those people got kidnapped but I'm kind of content to let the X-Men handle it right now."
Jared grins and laughs a little, "Sounds more like Eddie's luck, chaos and super villians everywhere he goes. I know how you feel Dai, and you too Eddie. PArt of me wants to help but realistically no idea how I could. The only people whose life signs I can really tell apart from other mutants are you two and the Dads. Best I could do is be bait…and after the time travel thing I am pretty sure Mister Summers would say no and the Dads would lock both of us in our rooms."
Eddie nods. "It's part of my power. I can mimic the powers of people I boost," he explains. "But…" he trails off. Looking from Dai to Jared, Eddie sighs and hangs his head. The booster goes otherwise quiet.
"At any rate, worth keeping an ear to the ground," Shelly says. "Might hear a snippet somewhere or other. Though I wouldn't be surprised if some of the telepaths out there have found something already," she suggests. "And that's a bit like it, Jared. Though please, whenever I get around to choosing a codename, don't let me choose something as stupid as Flag Smasher," she comments in an attempt to lighten the mood a little bit.
"Yeah well I'm not letting you be bait Jared." Daisuke says give him the 'you better not even think about trying that' look. "I know what you mean Eddie I guess I just want to relax a bit after doing all that time hoping stuff. Also, I'd probably end up being kidnapped too if we went after them." He says before looking at Shelly. "Flag Smasher?"
Jared grins and shakes his head, "Flag Smasher is not that bad, but I may not be the one to ask about code names. I am still teetering around Medic and mine and Eddie's Dads are Buff and Shine. Eddie, don't look so down. You want to help and that is a good thing, best place to stop is to go talk to Mister Summers." Jared tightens his grip on Dai and grins a little, "No you don't, your not going anywhere alone and risking it Dai."
"Flag-Smasher's an anti-government super villain. He usually fights Captain America a lot but he's lost a lot of impact in recent years," Eddie gives the info on the villain with a shrug. "Supervillains have really bad luck with codenames," he guesses. "I guess I'm gonna have to go ask Mr. Summers," he says, still looking down. "And you wouldn't get kidnapped, Dai. You're way stronger than that."
"Yeah. He had a bunch of his goons out on the 4th and a few of us ran into him," Shelly explains. "Seems like the right idea to me then, checking with Mr. Summers". She's not sure how he'll respond to that, but it can't hurt to ask. At least, she hasn't heard he's as short-tempered as some of the other people at the place. "But yeah. I'm leaving the code name thing alone until I get some great bit of inspiration. Or I steal it from a movie somewhere. Whichever comes first".
"I go by Howl cause of my sonics. I don't know if it's a good one or not but I like it." Daisuke lets Eddie and Jared tell there own. He's about to say something else when his cellphone starts to ring. Pulling it out he looks up. "I'll catch you guys later, it's my grandmother. Take care!" He says as he answers his phone and starts talking in Japanese as he walks away.
Jared says, "Like I said, hes not that bad. Back in the day Flag Smasher was bigger name villian but these days he is a D lister." AS Daisuke's phone goes off he gives him a quick hug, "Sure thing Dai, catch you laters. WEll if you steal a code name you can always run it by Eddie, my little bir bro knows more about the world of heroes and villians than most people ever will.""
Eddie looks up. "I'm Mr. Faith but everyone just calls me Faith. I was thinking about changing it to something else but couldn't think of anything better," he explains. "Your codename's a good one, Dai," he says. When the cellphone goes off, Eddie gives a quick hug too. "Bye…" he trails off, blushing a bit when Jared mentions what he knows.
"See you later," Shelly says to Daisuke as the boy heads out to answer his phone. "That's got to come in useful. Could be useful in figuring out who might be behind something, if you know what a particular person tends to do," Shelly points out to Eddie. A nod is given to Jared at his comments about Flag Smasher. "I just haven't figured out a good thing for someone who doesn't need to sleep. Doesn't lend itself very well to witty code names. Insomniac doesn't really fit. So, does everybody mostly hang around here during the summer? I haven't seen a lot of people taking usual summer term vacation compared to most places. Figured I'd be fairly alone around here".
Jared shrugs, "Actually a huge load of people have gone off to summer things…its just mostlyt he people that are a bit anti-social or who just go without notice. It may not seem like it, but the place has emptied a bit, trust me with my powers I can feel the difference." Given that it usually takes concentration for Jared not to feel the life energys of people around him if anyone knows it would be him. "Other than going without sleep without going insane what else does your mutation do? Might help to inspire a code name if you think about that."
Eddie shrugs. "I dunno. This is my first summer here," he says. "Yeah. Maybe we can help come up with something if we know more about your power."
"Well, it has the side effect of letting me do physical stuff constantly because I don't get fatigued at all. Means I've got what would normally be mistaken as superstrength or superspeed just because I can train differently. It also lets me burst out all the energy at once for a short period, though I don't have control of that. So I can enhance my strength or speed for half a minute or so," Shelly explains to the two. "It's a fairly straightforward thing, all things considered".
Jared nods as he thinks, "Hmm, enhanced strength, speed, and stamina are good…fun too. A body that can't be fatigued has got to be usefull. Nothing immediatly comes to mind but I am not the most creative person on the planet."
Eddie listens quietly and then looks up thoughtfully. "Dynamo? Energizer?" he suggests. "Sorry. Might take me a bit to come up with better."
"It's not exactly a pressing concern. Not until I have to be referenced in a fight and don't really want my real name used," Shelly says. "Dynamo sounds interesting, though I'm not sure about it. But anyway, speaking of summer. You two got any plans this summer?" she
asks.
Jared says, "Ooh, Dynamo sounds pretty good actually. Maybe see if you can talk Mister Logan into teaching you some interesting fighting skills to go with your powers. Hmm, Me I was just planning to hang out with my family and Dai, although I know at osme point we are gonna have to put in a trip to Cali to…to put some things in order there…""
Shelly nods. "Sounds busy," she says. She's about to say more when her phone rings and she glances at it. "Parents. Need to go take this. Talk to you guys later," Shelly tells them. And she'll head out.
