Players:
Summary: Everyone has different plans for the holidays.
Date: December 12, 2010
Log Title: Holiday Planning
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.
Staring out the window and shivering a bit as he notices the snow flurries, "Damnit! I hate the cold and I hate the snow!" David, dressed in a Xavier sweatshirt and blue jeans, closes the blinds by the window and moves towards the center of the room and literally jumps onto a bean bag chair, causing a large butt print. He leans back and activates his cybershades, "What game should I play today?" Ignoring the plethora of advanced games the Institute provides in the recreation for the students, David uses his shades to play some advanced high visual addictive game. A holographic menu pops up listing the latest and newest games on the market. But upon finding an old favorite, David smiles, "YES!" A large holographic Scrabble board appears for David, "Can't beat a classic!"
A problem that might occur with David trying to play scrabble is that Heather has plenty of non-words in her vocabulary, and to imitate her skill-set may add some residual glitches into an imitator's repertoire. Heather is already playing a game of chess with herself in the room, just to keep her skills sharp, and she turns her head towards David as he speaks. "You are being such a whiny baby," she plays from her tape recorder, "Cold is cold, hot is hot. It is what it is."
Breezing into the room at a lazy sixty miles an hour comes Chloe, deftly avoiding collisions and launching herself onto an empty couch. "Ahhh. Nothing like a break between classes," she declares. "Except maybe not having class at all." She glances at her watch, a mirror image of Heathers aside from the decades of wear and tear, and adds "Which we'll probably get in a few weeks when the next villain hits. Here's hoping we're all stranded on a tropical island so I can work on my tan /and/ beat up some bad guys."
Walking into the rec room Daisuke can't help but smirk as he hears Heather call David a whiny baby. "It's not that bad, unless you grew up in like Florida or something. But it's not like Xaiver's is drafty and doesn't have heat." He says as he plops down in front of the game systems looking for a video game to play. "Wow…you're miss optimisic Chloe." Daisuke says with a smile at her as he looks at a few games. "Though I'm excited to be going away for two weeks after Christmas."
"Nemesis, do not distract me from the task at hand!" David imitates the voice on the recorder. It is not a match as he is teasing Heather and not mimicking her skill-set. The holographic Scrabble Board lights up as David's first word scores very high, "Quartzy." David then turns and smiles, "Hello Heather, Chloe, Daisuke." The holographic Scrabble board collapses onto itself and disappears, "I grew up in Chicago. Basically I have always been surrounded by cold. Xavier's should have a campus in like Hawaii or Mexico."
"I have to listen to the tapes of the classes still," says Heather, thinking the 'except maybe no having class at all' is directed at her, "And do all the course work." She looks at her own watch, mirroring Chloe's motion, and adds, "A few weeks, yes, that should be long enough for a breath." She glances towards David as he tries to mimic her style of communication, but it only garbles it up more on the recorder. "I don't think I want to go on a warm vacation. My skin is too white for so much sun." She moves a couple of pieces on the board.
"I totally am. I mean I'm getting to enjoy the whole fighting bad guys thing," Chloe explains, rolling over to wave at people. "So long as I win, which so far hasn't been much of a problem. Except for a few little mishaps." Succesfully sprawled out she peers around for magazines and snags one with a cover article about Masons big day out. "You're from Chicago too? Cool. /Please/ tell me you found somewhere in New York which sells a Chicago-style hot dog worthy of the name! I've been hunting for one forever and no luck."
Daisuke looks up forgoing the videogaming right now. "Well what makes one hot dog worthy of being Chicago Style cause there are some pretty good New York Hot Dogs." But then New York and Chicago kind of have that 'food war' where they're known for the some of the same foods but served in different styles. "And at least you're out here for the better pizza." He says with a grin.
Standing up and looking at everyone in the room, "I'm with Chloe on this Chicago hot dogsand pizza are the best. Greys Papaya is ok, but it's got nothing on Gino's." David ponders, "I wonder." A holographic keyboard appears and he begins doing a search for any Chicago-style eateries in the area. "Gotta love google."
Heather watches David with a slightly raised eyebrow and makes a few more moves on her chess board. "I don't see the importance in gustafeuding," plays Heather, looking between the other three in the room for a moment. She notices the magazine that Chloe picks up and she asks her friend, "Do you like that guy? He seems very flirtatious to me."
"Well of course he is. I mean, not to sound arrogant or anything, but we're both cute," Chloe points out, flicking through the pages at fastworld reading speeds. "And it makes a nice change for one of the boys to notice. But if you don't want him to be just let him know. I'm sure he wouldn't do it if he knew you didn't appreciate it."
It takes Daisuke a while to figure out who the girls are talking about until he sees what Chloe is reading. "Oh the new kid…he just seems desperate to be liked." But Daisuke doesn't say that like it's a bad thing, just that's the impresson that he got. "I met him briefly in the library." He then looks at David and nods. "Greys Papaya's pretty good but actually I'm more a hamburger person than hot dogs."
"I'm typically a hamburger kinda guy too, Dai." David offers and then the smile he had on his face fades, "Dang nabbit! There was an Ed Debevic's in New York City, but it closed. I loved that place. The waiters and waitresses dressed up like 50s and 60s stars but were always rude to you. I remember my mother would compete with them to see who could be ruder!" He sighs and then gives his input on Mason, "I agree with Dai about Mason, nice kid, but trying a bit too hard to fit in. and I am glad not all the girls, and some boys, have gone stalkery paparrazi on him."
"I'm just trying to evaluate what he thinks about me," replies Heather to Chloe, "If most of the boys here said some of the things he has said to me, I would suspect they are interested in me, but I think flirtation might just be how he speaks." She moves more of her pieces and then knocks down one of the kings. "I didn't know who he was until I googled him." Because googling people is an important building block for paranoia. "I like hamburgers and hot dogs, but I prefer my own cooking."
Chloe giggles. "David, swear to me you'll never cook using Heathers skillset. Swear it on all that you hold dear," she says, repeating in fast world with an evidently playful teasing tone. "At least he knows he /should/ compliment people and he can dance too. He'd almost be suitable boyfriend material if he had that little extra spark." Magazine done she drops it unceremoniously on the floor. "And common sense. A mutant benefit concert in mutant town with all the reported shootings and stuff we've had lately? Am I the only one who isn't shocked people turned up to cause trouble?"
"I'm horrible at cooking so I definately don't like my own cooking better than anuything." Daisuke says as he knows his cooking is bad. "Which is kind of a shame that I can't cook cause you can't get the foods I grew up with from a fast food resturant or any resturant around here." His brother was the one who cooked better. "I didn't know who he was either Heather, but then, I don't listen to a lot of American music. Even though I was born here my Dad tried to keep things as Japanese as possible at home."
Laughing at Chloe's comment to him, David holds up his right and teases, "I swear on all I hold dead never to cook using Heather's skillset. And Dai, if you want I know a few good washoku restaurants in the City and in NJ. If you want, we can check them out. Maybe a field trip with some students." He puts his hand down and then goes to jump on one of the large couches and kicks off his sneakers to lie back, "I agree with you on that Chloe. His management should have known better, but why do I feel he did that on his own? You have to admire his courage for taking a stand like that though. But prudence would have been better in the planning stages."
"More prudence would have been good, but it is good that he did something instead of nothing," notes Heather. She sets the chess board back up and glances quickly around the room for anyone to cry 'next game!'. But since nobody does, she says to Chloe, "You think so? Are you romantically interested in him? I thought he was in me at first, but now I doubt it."
"Nah. If I was I'd have asked him out already," Chloe says cheerfully. "I can only think of one boy I've even remotely considered since I got here but that's been and gone. I should probably look for potential dates outside of school, maybe college guys. As I really don't think any high school boys are going to be able to cope with me." She sighs. "I bet us speedsters are doomed to be high maintenance."
Daisuke just gives David a look and gets really quiet. He's not good in the relationship field or knowing anything about it. He thinks he's probably destined to be alone and for the most part, he's content with that. He moves to sit on one of the couches and nods to David. "I know a bunch of places to go to eat in the city, and in Flushing just none of it is like a homecooked meal."
Scratching under his chin, David sits up and looks over to Dai, "Maybe someone should speak to Mason. I hear his name has been thrown around quite a bit. Maybe advise him on the potential hazards of overzealous flirting?" He shrugs, "Or just let him be. Either way someone should follow up and check how he is doing since his concert went awry." Plopping back up once Dai sits down, "I was thinking of going to Japan for the holidays anyway. Maybe we can meet up. I can introduce you to Noriko."
"I'm not so high maintenance," protests Heather, though anyone who would dare date her would indeed have quite a handful with all of her weird quirks and impulses, "but I think I might have too many standards. But that's fine. I'm not into romantic stuff anyways." Believing that most people are figments of your imagination can really put a hamper on romanticism.
Chloe scoops up another magazine and begins flicking through. "Heather I think you just proved my point," she replies. "I wonder if I could run back home for Christmas. It should only take a good days worth of running to get there and the trip back should burn off all the food I'll eat. You could probably come along too if you want Heather, I bet my parents wouldn't mind you joining us. Although you'd have to endure my sister who packs enough annoying for it to count as a mutant power."
Daisuke grabs a pillow and holds on to it and nods to David. "Well it depends on which part of Japan you're going to. I'll mostly be in Kyoto with my Grandmother. New Years is always fun there since it's one of the big celebration holidays there, kinda like Christmas is here." It is but isn't. "Though for Christmas itself I'll still be here."
"Well, then we'll meet up in Kyoto for New Year's, God willing. I have to figure out how to the family in Chicago too, so maybe Christmas there and New Year's in Japan." David sits up and reaches to put his shoes back on, "So, ladies, how've you adjusted to being back these past few weeks from Tegu-Haaz?" David says to Chloe and Heather.
"It's nice to have showers again, but the setting change was so long ago I haven't been really thinking about it very much," plays Heather, turning towards David. She stands and zips to sit next to her roommate, now that her self-game is over. "Are you sure that would be okay? I don't really know the difference anyways. I'm kind of new to the whole Christmas thing. But I would like to stay with a friend."
"Well it was /months/ ago in fast world terms. Pretty much old news," Chloe points out casually, shuffling over to make room for Heather. "We hit mutant town for makeovers, I've eaten enough chocolate to break world records and nothing has tried to eat me. Plus I haven't been digging in a single graveyard. Life is good." She nods at her roomie. "It wouldn't hurt to ask and they usually have some of my dads more dedicated students round. The ones who are competing seriously. All I'll need to do is mention I've been giving you lessons and my dad will practically insist."
"I just have the one Grandmother in Japan and she doesn't celebrate Christmas so it's not like the decisions hard. She's a Shintoist." So Daisuke will be hitting a lot of temples to celebrate the New Year. "But it's always nice to spend holidays with someone you care about rather than alone. It sucks seeing everyone celebrate and knowing that you don't really have anyone."
"Well as cheesy at it sounds, Dai. You have us." David specifically points to Heather and Chloe, but obviously means the whole Institute. "Goodness, I have never stayed here on a holiday, do we have a lot of students who stay here? And if so, how do they spend their time?" While obviously knowing, David never really thought about what the students without family members do for the holidays.
"Last year, I stayed in my room and wrote," says Heather, shrugging, "But when I came down for meal, there were things going on. I had never celebrated Christmas or known about it, so it was surprising, but it looked like there were festivities going on all day. I only arrived around Christmas last year." She looks to Chloe and says, "Is your dad going to make me prove myself or anything? That sounds like it could be scary."
Chloe smiles and waves both hands at Daisuke. "And we're worth eleven normal people just by ourselves! Or at least as much of a handful, depending on your point of view," she informs in a mock solemn tone. "Prove yourself? Maybe a little? He'll probably want to see if I got you doing the basics right and maybe see us sparring at fast world speed. But he's runs classes for all age and experience levels and won't be so full on with you unless he thinks you can handle it."
Daisuke smiles and nods. "I know, I've spent the last few years here, it can be fun. Though I always like getting the change to visit my Mother and my Brother's graves while I'm visiting my Grandmother. I know it sounds morbid be we always go on New Years." It's just something he likes to do. "It's fun to celebrate Heather, I never celebrated it until I came here. I mean there were things at school that were done but never celebrated it like they do here."
Smiling at Chloe's comment to Dai and listening to what Heather said, "Well, good I am glad that something is done for them. Maybe at some point, I'll stick around for a holiday to see what's done. But this one in particular, I gotta see the family. So in Japan, Christmas isn't celebrated? Not even the commercial aspects of the holiday?" David asks to Dai and then to Chloe, "Chloe, what does your father teach?"
"Well, I can do that for him," says Heather, shrugging. She's not awesome, but she's progressing a bit. "I'm sure it's fun to celebrate. I was planning on doing some celebrating this year, I just didn't know."
"He teaches Savate and self defence classes," Chloe explains, frowning at David. "I figured you'd have guessed as much from having my skills! Some of his students do pretty well, especially lately, a few do mixed martial arts competitions and one placed nationally in a Savate competition." She shrugs. "He always said I could compete at that sort of level. I even did pretty well in competitions before I uhm.. decided I was too old to hang out with my dad all the time."
Daisuke is thinking it's more Chloe's mutant abilities that made her stop competing over what she says but he's not about to vocalize that. "Well Christmas is celebrated in Japan, and it's definately the commercial aspects, but it's New Years that's our big holiday. It's big among couples and kind of a romantic holiday. My Grandmother just doesn't celebrate it so depending I'll stay here or go visit her."
Nodding his head to Dai, "Well, hopefully, I'll see you in Japan on January 1st or December 31st." David moves to the pool table. He takes a pool stick and then begins to rack up the balls, "Anyone up for a friendly game of billiards?"
"Mutants aren't allowed to compete in athletic competitions, are they?" says Heather to Chloe, because Heather doesn't know what's appropriate to say and not, "Which I think is in some ways understandable, in others unfortunate." She glances between Daisuke and David and notes, "You'll probably see each other. Japan looks to be very small on a map." And her geography sucks.
"Erm. Maybe? I didn't look into it 'coz I stopped competing years before my power kicked in," Chloe says, frowning. "I guess it wouldn't be fair anyway. A normal competition wouldn't even be a challenge for me anymore, so I guess it's for the best really. Are they okay with mutants in Japan? I bet they're cooler about it than we are at least."
Daisuke can't help but smile a bit at Heather. "Actually it can be quite big, I mean it's made up of several different islands so if David is on a different island so I'm going to be on Honshu but if he's visiting another of them it'd be very difficult for us to meet up. And about mutants, I honestly don't know Kisha. I was actually born here, but my Mother, Father and brother were all born over there. So my Father tried to raise us with…as little American values as possible?" He thinks that's the best way to put it. "Sorry David, no billiards for me today."
Tilting his head and nodding to Daisuke, "No problem. Another day then." David takes the cue stick and hits a ball into the side pocket. He smiles ands then puts the pool stick away, "Well, Noriko had it rough. She was a former student here and she wasn't originally accepted by her family and ran away from home all the way here to avoid dealing with the issues there. But then again, Japan's national hero is Sunfire, a known mutant and former X-Man. And his sister and cousin are known mutants too, Sunpyre and Silver Samurai. They lead Big Hero Six, Japan's version of the Avengers." With that piece of information offered, David checks his watch, "Well, speaking of which, I should probably go give Nori a call." He pulls out a cellphone and waves to his fellow mutants as he walks out of sight and sound to speak to his girlfriend on the phone.
"Speaking of doing other stuff," plays Heather, "I think I'm going to fall asleep." Unlike normally, where she just runs out of the room after that assertion, this time she pulls some earplugs out of her hoodie and pops them into her ears, tipping over away from Chloe and falling asleep on the couch. Her 'sleeps' are more like 'naps' in general, though.
"I'll have to make sure I email my parents with a list of stuff to be aware of," Chloe says, glancing at Heather. "Like that my roomie may nap seemingly at random and that they'll need to cook enough food for twenty at least." Of which a large part will admittedly go towards her own needs. "And maybe we'll even get champagne this year." She eyes Daisuke. "And before you say anything teachers assistant-ish it'll only be a little bit. My dad likes doing a French style meal which is pretty cool."
Daisuke shurgs and smiles at Chloe. "I really don't care about that. I drink, not that it does anything but I do like the taste of sake." He says as he runs a hand through his hair. "Actually, I've tried stuff a lot worse than drinking but I found my super power gave me a super powered metabolism so I can't get sick, drugs and alcohol don't have an effect on me, stuff like that. What's great is that I can eat all the fast food I want and not have to worry about it."
"I'd say lucky but it's physically impossible for me to eat enough to get fat. My stomach just isn't big enough and I burn through so much energy you wouldn't believe it. We'll probably get little glasses of wine and a ton of food," Chloe says with a contented sigh at the prospect. "Oysters, lobster and probably a goose for the main meal. Costs a fortune but my mon fund it by having a swear jar in the gym. Over the year it tends to cover most of it, especially in the run up to a big competition."
Daisuke shakes his head at the swear jar in amusement. "My Grandmother usually makes Soba for the New Year and then at some point we'll go out to get some horse to eat." He kind of gets a bit timid at saying that. "I know most people find it disqusting but I actually like Raw Horse. It's not really something you can get over here and it's really good. My Grandmother knows I like it so we usually go out. And she's a good cook. I think my brother got her cooking skills, not me. I wonder if my Mom cooked like her."
Chloe blushes slightly. "You remember that future thing from a while back? I had visions of myself eating far worse," she confides. "And in the demonland I beat up a deer and then cooked it. I feel a little guilty every time I see the spine of a Bambi dvd." Some may say she hunted a deer, but that would imply degrees of skill and finesse in the process which Chloe very much lacked… "Especially because it tasted so damn good compared with most of the stuff we found to eat over there."
Daisuke nods. "Yeah, I remember the future the flashes are kind of faded though." He remembers being in a camp and a M over his eye though. "I wouldn't feel bad, Vension is supposed to be good." He then stands up and streches. "I think I'm gonna go hit the music room for a bit and practice my drumming." Then then gives a smile. "If I like horse, you have every right to enjoy deer." He says with a laugh. "See ya later Chloe."
"Say that after you puch your horse to death," Chloe murmurs sullenly. "I'll cya laters Daisuke. Methinks I better get Heather a blanket before she catches herself a cold."
