Players:
Summary: An apology is made, new friendships too.
Date: February 09, 2010.
Log Title Food for Thought
Rating: PG.
Xavier Mansion - Dining Hall
In a school for children the dining room is decorated to be practical instead of elegant. The walls are a pleasant tan color. Two large windows line the walls looking out to the school grounds. A large table for at least forty people sits in the center of the room. Two chandeliers hang from the ceiling to light up the room. Along the wall is a hole in the wall looking into the kitchen so food can be passed back and fourth.
Dinner. And this time he isn't doing the cooking! In the dining hall, Cam is sitting at a table… alone. He has quite a bit of food gathered on a pair of plates. He's been keeping to himself ever since last night, when he has his power problem. No thanks to that roommate of his. You would think, newer mutants would understand that some people don't have that much control or ability. He's also got a pair of sodas sitting in front of him.
Rafael has been searching through the school for a while now, disconcerting people as his neck stretches around corners or a single eye attached to an extended optic nerve bundle peeps through doorways on either side of the halls as he covers ground quickly. Actually, that one didn't work so well as it turns out. Who knew that the upstairs hallways were just the right height to pitch over when your eyes are in different rooms. Thankfully blunt force impacts (such as falling) aren't that much of an issue for him. Shame about that fichus he landed on, though. When he sees his roommate eating, he grabs some food himself before wandering over and clearing his throat. "Hey. You mind?" The mute appeal of the student with the tray in his hands in the eternal lunch room purgatory of finding a place to sit.
Food, that is exactly what the mansion's resident techno twins need, fuel to power them while they work at what ever project they have going at the moment. As usually their presence is announced before they enter a room by the almost constant technical dialogue between them. At the moment they are discussing the merits of different types of processors for what ever project they are working on at the moment. The pair falls silent as they enter and notice the others. "Hello, I hope you do not…" starts one of them before the other finishes, "..mind some company."
Looking up, Cam winces but shrugs. "Free dining room. Well, free enough." He's still not over yesterday, even though he DOES understand beneath it all. He's just still hurting. And then the twins come in. He starts to pull in a little on himself. He's not used to so many non-family members around. And he definitely feels out of place amongst all the 'perfect bodies' he's seen in this place. He has yet to see one person that (even if they're hideously mutated) isn't in shape.
Normally at this time of day Mike Dracos is over in the garage, messing around in the auto shop, but there's a class there, and he's got homework due anyway. So he's here, with metal thermos and a metal straw stuck to the side of it with a magnet. He also has his laptop and that algebra book, and since technically this is his study hall period he's decided to take it where he can watch people. Of course, he recognizes none of these people here, but there's a table with an empty spot big enough to open his schoolbook. Apparently got here on the cusp of class-change, because there's a group of people collecting on the last free table, so he walks over. His voice is a bit electronic sounding, of course.
"MMinnd if iIi usze the eend of the table here?" He would smile and do all that normal human expression stuff except that James reminded him, yesterday, that he can be who he IS here, without the inducer. So, he is. Orange and white uniform notwithstanding.
Rafael sits down and gives the twins a curious look. "Stereo. Hi!" His voice is bit amused at that. He looks back to Cam and his expression is a bit shamed. Those glowing blue-white eyes are cast down for a moment and then he looks back up and says, "Ah, you were asleep when I got back to the room last night and I didn't want to bug you. But I wanted to say I'm sorry for that mess in the rec room." He shrugs and says, "I get hyper sometimes and don't think things through. And, um, you have a cool power." He looks up as the …robot?… arrives. "Wow. Um. Ok. Hi." He blinks and asks the twins in an aside whisper. "Tell me that's not like, Ultron jr. or something?"
The twins would be flattered by having their bodies thought of as perfect, admittedly they know they are, but that people can see it would flatter them. The two give matching friendly nods to Cam and slightly amused smiles to Rafael as they speak at they same time, "We only do stereo on occasion." As they sit, with a salad and grilled chicken breast each with some kind of juice to drink the twins introduce themselves starting with the one on the right hand side. "I am Pryce, and…" "…I am Vincent. If no one else has had the time let us welcome you to the Xavier School." Other than the fact that they are new faces the boys do not let on how they know that Rafael and Cam are new students. The two seem to get get very curious as Mike joins them, "Not near the level of tech Ultron would use, but very interesting." The one on the left says after Rafael's comment.
"Sure." Cam says to Mike. He's getting a little more withdrawn for now. As Rafael apologizes, he nods a little. "You couldn't have known. I can't control it. If I know someone, or really know who they are… news bites… pictures… sound clips… I can't always stop myself from searching them out. And he… he SAW me." He nods softly to the twins. "Been welcomed a few times." He says, eating slowly and quietly. "Just still feel kinda outta place."
Rafael nods to the twins, smiling a little cautiously. New school, new social situation. He says, "Ah, Rafael. And thanks." He looks back to Cam and says, "Well, I /am/ sorry. I'll be more careful. And hey, we're all in the same boat here, right? This is like a magnet school for people who might get beaten up or hauled off or something otherwise. Speaking of which…." He turns back to Mike and his form wavers a moment. A Cylon from the new Battlestar Galactica is sitting there, with the only difference being that the back and forth scanning 'eye' of light is blue-white rather than red. It holds up both metallic hands and says in Rafa's voice, "I, for one, welcome our robotic overlords." Apparently somebody spends /way/ too much time on the Internet.
Mike takes a headlights-on piercing look at the twins. Oh, yeah. Those guys came up in the vague rumors, the Igor and Anti-Igor, gotta be careful with them.
He just says, "Sankkyuu" - deliberate fake japanese with electronic overtones - and grabs a spot where he can open the accursed Algebra book.
The remarks about Ultron and his personal Tech level? Not … really gonna answer that. He does look up in time to see Rafael, and cracks up. Well, if that horrible squacking can be called laughing. But the tremors and stuff, the hand over face, pretty much.
Pryce nods at Cam, "I know how you feel, but primitive conditions aside this place grows on you. That, or you give into the madness and learn to just go with the flow. Either way, it gets better." Which is entirely true for the twins, and most people as long as they do not run afoul of some of the less than nice students. Vincent leans forwards a little and adds, "If you do not mind my asking, who saw you and what was the conditions he did so?" Its hard not to be curious, especially when the conversation involves interesting mutant powers. Mike gets a sly look, and Pryce replies, "Gomen nasai Mister Roboto."
"I'd rather not say, because I'll end up thinking about him, and I'll end up SEEING him again, and he'll end up seeing ME and it will NOT be pretty. That was the most scared moment I've had in my life." Cam says, shaking his head. "Rafael can tell you if he gives me time to put my fingers in my ears so I don't hear it." After taking another bite and a slurp of soda, he does, indeed, stick his fingers in his ears.
Rafael switches back to his own shape and grins at Mike. He might be a robot but anybody who laughs at Rafael's jokes is a guy he can like. He looks a bit shamefaced as Cam sticks his fingers in his ears and shrugs. Saying quietly, "It was Doctor Doom." He shrugs and says, "It was /really/ stupid of me." He gives Cam a nod and thumbs up sign as though to say that he's done saying the name.
Mike has recovered, somewhat. "I'm Miike Draakosz," he says to the table in general, and offers a hand to shake to Rafael.
"Nnot a sCyllonn, norr Ulltron'sz Stepchiild, but thaat would be a great-band-naame for aa technoo baand," and he finds himself trying to trigger the smile feature on the image inducer … darnit. Well, there's the drawback. He looks over at the twins. Now that is some serious identical there. "Szo do you guyz hav liike the Corrsicaan brotherzz thing oor jusszt really reallly close??"
Both twins nod and Pryce gets a small grin, he reaches under the table and pulls out a top of the line Stark Tech PDA and slides it across the table at Rafael. "Or you can just type the name in there, its pretty much networked into our brains anyway and less risk there." Of course just after he does that Cam plugs his ears and Rafael tells him who it was. "Or not." The twins faces go a bit…emotionless as the name is mentioned. They have had a few arguments with people that did not see eye to eye with their views of their personal hero, and are now trying the whole diplomacy thing. Vincent nods at Mike, "Something like that. Powers very close to each other, and a psionic link between us." Pryce adds, "And your right, Ultron's Step Child would make a great band name, maybe some Euro Thrash Techno though…."
Taking his fingers out of his ears, Cam nods. "Yeah. And he… he SAW me. Looked right at me and it looked, if I could see his eyes right, as if he was questioning who I was." He shivers again. "But hopefully, I can get this locked down before something like that happens again." He didn't hear any of the other conversation either.
Rafael shakes Mike's hand, a bit gingerly. Sometimes he forgets that he's not as breakable as he used to be. "Techno? You like that stuff? It gives me a headache." And then the gadget gets a look as it is produced. Oooooooh. He pokes at the touch screen at random. "Wow. This is cool. Is this like an iPad? Can it play games? Does it have WiFi? Hey… it's wired into your brains? Really. So you can like check your email with your minds? How do you handle spam? Could this thing do World of Warcraft?" All of those questions are shot off in one breath and then he stops himself and tries to reign in some of that enthusiasm that seems to drive some people a little crazy. He the pad back towards the twins and says, "Ah, cool." He winces at that 'Saw me' from Cam, apparently still feeling guilty about that. And as usual, when he's guarding against it, his physical form reflects his emotional state as his shoulders hunch in to a degree usually reserved for yoga adepts and his features elongate to cartoonishly hangdog. "
The handshake isn't terribly hard, but Mike's palms are made of tire tread. Novel sensation. The teen robot opens his thermos. He's careful not to waft it around and spoil other peoples' food but that wierd chugging that his engine did while he was laughing? Seems to have reminded him that he's hungry. So he docks the straw into his mouth and begins playing a sample of that "gas pump noise" that none of the modern pumps really makes any more. CLikPing, ClikPing… Ahh. Gas and oil mix. He'll have to try being a car again. And then he sees Rafael doing that thing with the face and he barely stops in time to keep from his pump from backwashing.
He kinda nods to Cam, since he's not really been talking to him much since he sat.
"Sszo, where you fromm, and Ii miszed yourr namesz."
Pryce shrugs a little at Cam, "Sorry to hear it bothered you so. No one seems to believe the good he has done for our people but he is a benevolent ruler and far better than any Latveria had in the past." The twins really don't plan on saying more, sure they idolize him but so many in America hae and fear him. Vincent laughs a little, "Yes, yes, sure, of course, its part of our powers, always dow, revenge spam, not out of the box but we can alter one to do so with a little work." Yes, Vincent kept up with every single one of the hyper teen's questions. "I am a technokenetic and my brother is a cyberpath."
"It wasn't that. It's that he KNEW I was there. I've… never been looked at like that before." Cam says, shivering again. As Mike asks, he looks up. "Oh. Cam. Sorry. Biloxi. Mississippi." He does have a southern accent, but he pronounces his I's right. Strange for most people from down there, but he tries to make himself speak properly.
Rafael's face returns to normal as one of the twins seems to field each question and at the description of their powers he says, "Ah, I'm guessing that means you have really big brains and do something with computers?" He isn't going to touch the topic of a benevolent Doom for all the gray flannel military jackets in Latveria. After Cam introduces himself, he says, "Rafael. San Jose. California. Where it isn't this /cold/." And since Cam doesn't seem to be giving him a death glare or anything, he asks, "Really? You sound, you know, normal. Not…." A brief flash of Forest Gump. "…all box of chocolatey." And then back to his baseline form.
Mike shrugs when the Twins make their idealistic defense. "Zzuppose you're in a beeh terr poozzition to saay, buut, I'vve hearrd hee's a veryy privaate perszon. MMight be whhy heed bbe annoydd."
A nod to Cam, "Been theere onzze," before he looks over at Rafael.
"Szo, this iszn't thaat cold. Caan you," he makes a "picking" gesture with his right hand against his left forearm, "Cann you make, furrr or szomething to keeep warrm? I haave a hheater, buut it doeszn't go ooutszide my outerr zkin."
The twins nod at Cam. "Well, given he is one of hte most powerful mages, and smartest scientists in the world at the same time I am not surprised he might have the power to do that." Vincent says with as little emotion as he can. Pryce grns at Rafael, "Well are brains themselves are no bigger than anyone else's, we just use them with greater efficiency and if pushed can parallel process…although there are some side effects to that." "Yes, like getting stuck with some of your mental images of Colossus stuck in my head." "No worse than the ones you had of Miss Monroe." The two glare at each other a moment then drop right back into the conversation. "This is not cold, not compared to a 400 year old monistary in the mountains of Latveria. There are not enough heating coils in the world to make the whole place warm."
Looking towards Rafael, Cam has to ask. "So, you think these are the ones they were talking about last night?" Sure, he was scared. But he heard the discussion in the background about the overzealous Latverian nationals at school here. "Uhm… no. That's because I'm not a hick." He says, simply. At Mike, he nods. "It's alright. But, I don't feel right there."
Rafael sighs at Mike and says, "Kinda, sorta, but it's still all /me/. I mean, I modeled my body after I got killed on my old body. So I can only perfectly duplicate what I used to be. Everything else is is just like, um, psychic clay." The byplay between the brothers gets a quirked eyebrow and then his brows raise comically high and he says, "Oh. Oooooh. Suck." The temptation to say something along the lines of 'Tatum Channing, Megan Fox … FIGHT!' is nigh overwhelming. But given the trouble not watching his mouth got Cam into last night…. He looks back as his roommate asks a question and grins. "They'd pretty much have to be! And well, you'll fit in. The, um, threshold for 'normal' has got to be pretty high. And you seem normal and stuff to me."
After hearing Cam's question Mike says, in a blatantly audible sotto voce, "I'm szure they aarre, and theey probably reevel inn it."
Inaudbile, his motor is revving in that 'laughter' thing he's learned to do. Doesn't show on the outside unless he over-acts to make it show, but that's the price of being having a cool, metal chassis. He is ready to make a reply to Cam about Biloxi and the boat races (which is why he was there with his dad) but then Rafael says he died. "Uhh.. Szo, hoow did you … geet killled?"
Pryce raches over and lightly hits his brother with the back of his hand. "I told you my ears were burning last night." That said he turns to Cam and gives him his best grin, "All the best rumors around here are about us, although I can categorically deny the one about being arrested at a rave just before we came to the school. A bust sure, but no arrests at all." Pryce's eyes have a mischievous sparkle as if he is just daring someone to say something about it. Vincent on the other hand is paying attention to Rafael. "You died? Psychic revivification of corporal nature, or post mortum psionic reintegration?"
Not much for Cam to say or do right now, so he goes back to his food. After lal, the conversations have turned to someone dying. And he has nothing to say about anyone dying or anything of that nature.
Rafael nods to Mike. "Ran over by a truck. Total squish. Seriously. They were picking Rafa-bits out of the grill for /days/." There is a sort of demented good humor there. Apparently he deals with it by laughing at it. Beats screaming at the memory. And then back to the twins. "Um… I'm not sure what either of those mean. I was going to be a big shot psychic type. Mind reading, throwing around cars and stuff with my brain, but all that went into making a new body wrapped around my, um, astral body?" Which is as close as he's been able to follow the explanations he was given thus far. "So, no more psychic stuff. But I'm alive! And you know, bendy-stretchy. Not that big a deal. I think it's pretty much a requirement for X-people, right? You have to kick the bucket and get better a few times?"
Mike nods, "Yesz, It does szeem to bee a popullaar paasztimme. You annd Jzoono." He thinks, 'And me, but I don't think I'll be dragging that out at dinner, Cam's already looking uncomfortable enough.'
He takes another swig off his thermos of fuel before closing the cap again, and trying to focus on algebra. It's not that it's hard, it's that it's so… stupid and boring. The calculations are easy.The twins shrug and look at Rafael, "Well we have yet to die, and are not planning on it any time soon. The plans for cloning vats and computer backups of our minds are in way too early a stage to even think much about it." Vincent adds, "Sounds like the second of the possibilities that I had thought of for how you might have survived death."
Even less to talk about. Ah well, it's fine with Cam. It gives him a few minutes to actually finish the food he brought out, without being paid attention to. He likes it better that way. Though… he does watch the others a bit. He's still trying to figure out his roommate. but that's probably a long way off.
Rafael gives the twins a look at 'cloning and computer backups'. "Hm. So, you know, what if somebody found out where the backups are and you know, replaced them with the LOLcats archive?" The question is /almost/ innocent. His expression angelically serene and not at all contemplating mischief. Really. He takes a look at his own dinner. He doesn't /need/ to eat it. But the tastes are nice. So he nibbles a bit, savoring. Somehow talking about being squished is always a conversation killer. He'll have to remember to watch that. And then a sage, "Hmmm. Peas."
Mike seems to be listening to something else not entirely present, i.e. his internal radio, because he's trying to distract himself from thoughts of trains and hydraulic crushers. Come ON Mike, why are you remembering that NOW?
So. Loud music, though not patched through to the speakers.
When Im holdin your wheel
All I hear is your gear
When my hands on your grease gun
Oh it's like a disease son
Im in love with my car
Gotta feel for my automobile
Get a grip on my boy racer rollbar
Such a thrill when your radials squeal
Which voice allows him to focus on the arithmetic. All the answers he puts down are backwards. So there.
The twins eye Rafael. "That is why there will be multiple backups, and they will be hidden someplace no one will find them. That and everything will be designed to lead people to think that the wrong computers are important. Just beause we have an ego does not mean we are going to be overconfident…or ignore the overlord lists." Vincent does all the talking, not sure what to think of the idea of getting a mind full of LoLcats again while Pryce seems to just sit there and bob his head to a music apparently only him and Mike can hear.
Cam stands, carrying his plates to put them away. "I'm going to bed. I think I've got to actually meet some of my people from my squad." He says, shrugging a little. "Non-combatant. Not looking forward." He says, sighing. "I guess I can always find a good place to hide." And with that, he heads towards the door.
Rafael grins and nods. "Probably a good idea. Well, I'm going to, um, go do something. Somewhere. With stuff." He watches Cam leave and sighs a little, "I'm /really/ going to have to help him relax and enjoy himself. I wonder if he likes cartoons?" Or living with someone who can do a good cartoon imitation. He stands and waves. "Nice meeting you guys!" And with that, he's also gone.
Waving as the others go, Mike finishes the homework for the last five days. He's still going to be graded down on it even though it's all perfect, because, well, backwards. Why is he doing this? And his radio comes on JUST loud enough to faintly hear, thanks to internal mixer.
Told my girl I'll have to forget her
Rather buy me a new carburetor
So she made tracks sayin
This is the end now
Cars don't talk back
They're just four wheeled friends now..
