Players:
Summary: Three Xaviers students have a brief evening conversation.
Log Title: Evening Conversation
Rating: PG
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. //
Scene
It is mide evening at Xaviers, and for once the rec room is empty; empty but for one person, rather. The television is turned off, the radio is silent, and the pool table is seeing no activity. Sophie DeCosta has a music stand set up instead, with a couple of pages of sheet music, and her collapsed cane resting on the ledge as well. Her fingers brush over a line of notes written in braille, before returning to the flute she holds in her hands. She puts the instrument to her lips, and with a deep breath begins to play, issuing forth a hauntingly beautiful melody.
As a counterpoint to Sophie's beautiful music Tara strolls along the hallway humming tunelessly and off key to herself. Her humming falters a bit when she hears the flute coming from the rec room, and she turns to walk through the doors to investigate. "Hello?"
Hosea only knows one person to play the flute. Sophie is that person. He wasn't heading to the Rec Room, he was heading to the Library, but her music causes him to stop. Ever since Sophie has been attacked, the large African has been a little on edge around her. Not nervous, per se, but concerned. He wasn't there for the attack, and the very thought of the blind spaniard being put in harms way ruffles his normally pleasant demeanor. He doesn't speak as he comes in, but instead just listens, entering a few seconds behind Tara. It brings a smile to the young man's face as he listens to her music, and he leans against the door.
Sophie's song continues for a handful of verses after Tara's greeting, before she finally allows the last few notes to perish into silence. She straightens, and slowly lowers the flute to her side. "Hello, Tara," she murmurs, and her lips quirk upwards into a pleasant smile. "And good evening to you as well, Hosea. I believe that is you standing in the doorway, si? She rests her flute on the music stand, and takes up her cane instead; a flick of the wrist extends it to full length, and she taps the floor around her before walking carefully towards the door. "It is good to hear you both," she adds.
The atmospheric pressure around tara is always a bit denser due to the unique way she uses her telekenesis to sense her environment around her. "Hey, Sophie," she says, once the other blind girl's identity is confirmed. She eases her way into the rec room and immediately claims a couch by flopping bodily onto it. "How's it going?'
"I did not mean to stop you," Hosea says to Sophie. "It was vedy pretty." He likewise acknowledges Tara. "Hello, Tara, it is also good to see you." He reaches out to Sophie so that her hand will find his as she gets closer. "Have you been safe?" he says to Sophie, a common question as of late.
Sophie shrugs her shoulders dismissively, as her hand finds Hosea's and she pulls herself in close to the tall Nigerian. "It is alright," she murmurs. "I haven't memorized that piece anyway; I would have had to stop within another minute." She grins, and bobs her head once. "It is going well. I am earning good grades in my classes, and a package I was waiting for from Spain arrived last night, with everything in it that I needed." She nods her head, as she tilts her gaze back up to Hosea. "Si, I have been safe, as always. I have not left Xaviers for over a week."
Tara can't help but to voice her own opinion, "Safe is boring. Besides, there are safer places to be than Xavier's." She pauses a bit and then explains, "First day here at school, we were attacked by brainwashed souped-up classmates that nearly blew up half the building." She gives the other pair of students a huge grin, "I got to drive a car for the first time then, too. Everything after that has sorta been anticlimactic."
"Safe is not boring," Hosea answers Tara. "You live in Nigeria, you will not think safe to be boring. It is comforting. Much betta den looking at death, yes?" He puts his arm around Sophie. "Sometimes danger must be, but it should not be looked for. Not a sport."
Sophie giggles, even while her cheeks color with a light blush. "Drive? I do not expect that I shall ever drive," she obseres. "I do not terribly mind this, though. But I am glad you have had the experience, Tara. You have driven since then?" She leans against Hosea as he puts his arm around her, and reaches up to rest one hand on his chest. "Danger? It is merely another part of the world, I am learning. Especially when you are a mutant." She shrugs her shoulders. "I am learning to defend myself… some of the professors here are helping me to learn."
Tara shrugs at Hosea. "Hey. I wouldn't know what death looked like if it stared me in the face," she says. "I haven't driven again, Sophie. Not since Mike left. I've /tried/ to convince them to give me my learner's permit but they just won't let me take the test."
"How would you drive?" Hosea asks Tara. "If you cannot see, it would be a vedy bad idea, yes?" He shakes his head. "I do not have a license in America. I do not know I would pass. Dere are many rules to follow heah! In Nigeria, people do not worry about rules when dey are driving so much." He offers a shrug, not that anyone can see it, though Sophie can probably detect it.
The Spanish girl ahhs softly. "I understand," she replies. "It is frustrating when people put obstacles in the way of what you want to do, si? But at least you have gotten to do what you wished to do, even if only the once; so you at last have the memory." She smiles softly, as she tilts her head up to face sightlessly towards Hosea. "Does something trouble you? You have seemed… worried, for some days."
Tara gives Hosea a huge grin. "I'd drive the same way every other New Yorker would drive. The big pedal on the right makes the car go forward, and turn the wheel when you hear the screams of panic. Nothing to it."
Hosea doesn't answer Sophie immediately, and doesn't bother to argue over whether Nigerians or New Yorkers are worse drivers. He is silent for several seconds before answering. "I am troubled, yes," he finally answers. "I do worry wit all da talk of drugs at da school, and people who would take mutants to steal deir blood. It makes me angry, and brings thoughts dat I do not enjoy to have. I do not like feeling dis way." Of course the episode where he flipped out on a woman in the city along with his schoolmates hasn't left his memory, either. Not his best moment.
Sophie smiles softly, and shakes her head. "It is a difficult thing," she murmurs. "But there are some of the best people working on the solution, si? I have faith that they will triumph over the drug gangs and their ways." She gently disengages from hosea, and makes her way slowly back across the room. "Let me just collect my flute, and music… shall we go to the dorms? I can show you my Bible; it arrived today, si?" She giggles softly. "Would you like to see it, Tara? You are quite welcome too if you wish."
Tara shrugs at Sophie. "Enh. It's not my thing. You two go have fun!"
Hosea nods. "Dat would be a good thing," he says with a smile. "Tara, you have a good evening," he says. The Nigerian helps to gather Sophie's things, helping the spaniard before they head off to see the braille Bible.
~ Fin ~
