Players:
Summary: People are met and there is crying.
Date: February 5th 2010
Instant awkwardness.
Rating: Log 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.
Van was passing by in the lobby but the sound of crying leads him into the rec room. Pausing in the doorway, he looks to see just who and how many are there then steps more fully into the room. "Hello there." he says, walking toward Annalisa. "I don't think they told me what to do when confronted with a crying girl. Perhaps you could give me some hints as to what's bothering you and how we can fix it. I'm Van, by the way."
July was skipping through the corridor, wearing thick wool pants and a wool jacket, along with a scarf around her neck, but she pauses as she hears crying when she passes the entrance to the rec room. She blinks, and recognizes Anna's voice, and she steps into the room, finding Annalisa and a new guy in the room, "What's going on here?" she asks, frowning softly, as she wonders if the guy has anything to do with Annalisa crying.
Having only been dropped off at the school a mere twenty minutes ago Chloe has finally got herself unpacked and set about the vital task of exploring. She heads down the hallway in something between skipping and some sort of comically exaggerated sneaking. "Hiwhatsup?" she blurts curiously, trying to peek into the Rec Room from behind July.
Annalisa glances up from her tears to Van, and sighs. "No…it can't be fixed..its ju-" At that point, she spies July, and leaps from the couch, latching onto her roughly, her tears starting up again. "July! I was gone and nobody told me and I just heard! Its its…awful…my my…roommate is…dead…"
Van glances over his shoulder as July shows up and gives her a nod before looking back to Annalisa. He's about to say something when she claims it can be fixed but stops as she jumps up. Oh. Dead roommate. No, that can't be fixed. "Well. I know how you feel and being upset is perfectly understandable."
July blinks as Annalisa rushes to her and gives the rubber girl a crushing hug. She ooof's softly, and then returns the hug, "What? Oh…" she says softly, biting her lower lip as she holds her friend and strokes her hair softly, "Yeah… I know." she whispers softly, sighing. "I'm really sorry, dear."
Chloe cringes. "Ohthat'sup…" she bites her lip, then adds "I'm sorry for your loss." Each word seems to take far more concentration than normal.
Annalisa just continues her loud whailing, rubbing her teary face against July's shoulder. "Its horrible, I didn't even know…I didn't even…"
Van gazes over Annalisa's shoulder to July. "Who was her roommate?" he asks quietly.
July sighs gently, just holding her friend while she cries, and then she looks at Chloe, then to Van. "Coyote." she says softly, "Coyote was her roommate. Real nice girl…"
Chloe puts one hand against the hallway wall and begins tapping her finger in a slow measured rhythm. "That's terrible. I.. I hope it was an accident or natural causes…"
Van ahs and nods. "I see. I was there when it happened." He pauses to study Annalisa a moment then comments "It was quick. She didn't suffer." He tells Chloe "It was one of the demons possessing someone. Fortunately, that situation has been dealt with now."
Annalisa turns to glance at Van, her eyes turning a piercing blue color. "You were there!? Fortunately? Theres nothing at all fortunate about this situation! She was my friend and shes gone!" Annalisa is now screaming at the top of her lungs, still crying as she does so.
July winces a bit as Annalisa screams right next to her ear, "Easy, easy, Anna." she sighs softly, hugging her friend tightly. "He didn't mean it that way." she says softly, trying to calm her friend's nerves. "Coyote's gone, that can't be changed, but… the demons that caused her death were… dealt with, and sent back to hell, or wherever they came from. No one else will be harmed by them again." she whispers.
"Perhaps I should continue exploring and let you mourn in private," Chloe offers, her eyes crossing as the drum beat of her fingers against the wall becomes more erratic.
Van just nods as July interprets and tries talking the girl down. "That's probably a good idea." he says to Chloe. "I was just about to go work out."
Annalisa lets out a sigh, and turns to press her face back into July's rubbery shoulder. "Its not right…she was a good girl…she was my friend…"
July gently pats Annalisa's back, as she smiles apologetically to the other two. "She was a good girl. But let's not honor her memory by being sad, ok?" she smiles to Anna, trying to cheer her up. She then looks at Van and Chloe again, and smiles softly. "Hey. I'm July." she offers, nodding gently. "You two are new here?"
Chloe begins nodding vigorously as July gets about half way through the word new. "WellIamanyway," she babbles. "Got here today.. not even an hour ago? Weird it feels like hours already."
Van consides Annalisa a moment and the doorway but stays to answer July's question. "Van. Vance Walker. And yes, relatively new. In fact the day the boy Lucas was freed of the demon is when I moved in. I'm a combat instructor and all things physical as well as co-leader of Alpha Squadron."
Annalisa wipes her eyes a bit, and sighs. "I'm Annalisa…and how'd you get to be co-leader of my squad if you're new? Instant promotion?"
July smiles softly to Annalisa, and hugs her tighter for a moment, "Most likely he knows the headmasters from way back in the past." she shrugs lightly, "I'm sure he's good enough if they think he can be a instructor." she nods gently, before looking at Chloe, still smiling, "And we got another speedster. That's nice." she nods.
"You have someone else who is stuck like this?" Chloe asks with blatant relief, still tapping her fingers against the wall to keep time. "Just how fast are they? Maybe I could actually /talk/ without it being like this."
"Mr. Summers?" Van shakes his head. "No, never met him before my initial interview a couple months back. And I would guess he decided that in addition to training all the students, my skills would be useful in more advanced training for a smaller group. I've been meaning to meet with each of my students individually and have already met Rob."
Annalisa perks an eyebrow, and wraps her arms around July's arm, holding to her desperately as she holds back more tears. "Unless your powers are fire proof…I dunno that you could be that safe training me…"
July chuckles gently at Anna as the girl clings tightly to her arm, "Y'know? Being made of malleable rubber has its advantages. The main one so far, being able to be crushed harmlessly." she giggles and kisses Annalisa's cheek for a moment before looking at Van, "Anna here has fire powers, but she's having trouble controlling them." she nods, before looking at Chloe, smiling still. "Ya. My roommate, Heather. I have to speak to a recorder, and she plays in fast-forward, to be able to understand us, and she has to speak to a recorder and play it in slow motion so we can understand her." she nods.
"Any idea how much you speed it up?" Chloe asks hopefully, taking one extremely rapid step further out into the hallway at the mention of uncontrolled fire powers. "You're not going to… yah know… ignite are you?"
"Powers are over rated." Van states dryly to Annalisa. "I used to be a marine. And you - all of you," he adds, including the other girls with a look "Need to learn to depend on your bodies and your minds first and then worry about whatever powers you have. Once you are confident in yourself, you can be confident in your abilities. Without a strong foundation, even the tallest building will collapse. That being said, I'm aware of your difficulty Annalisa. I have some ideas about it."
Annalisa shakes her head from side to side and glances at Van. "I could be in total fit shape, and everything. It wouldn't matter if I lost control and turned everything in the general vicinity to a five thousand degree pile of ash." She glances at Chloe. "No…not at the moment, I'm not."
July chuckles gently at Van. "No offense, sir, but, My body IS my power." she says, smiling, "Y'see, my whole body is like silly putty. I can reshape and mold myself into any form I want, and even stretch like rubber." she explains, and then she looks at Annalisa with an arched eyebrow, "Anna. Tone it down, please." she asks. "And as for the recorder…" she addresses Chloe this time. "I have no idea. She's the owner of said recorder."
Chloe lets out what passes for a long sigh at her speed. "Oh well. And Van… or uhm Mr Walker? You sound /exactly/ like my dad, he's always telling people stuff like that during pep talks. Although with less of the mutant angle because not many mutants would ever go public in my neighborhood. Which is why I'm a little jumpy about the burning… Sorry."
"As I said, confidence in yourself. If you're always terrified of losing control, it's likely to be a self fulfilling prophecy. We'll work on it." Van tells his student. She might not be confident but he is. July gets a quirked brow. "Really. That would have been incredibly useful in recon. But most powers would be. Super speed included. Was your father in the military, Chloe?"
Annalisa lets out a sigh, and simply clings to July's rubbery body. She doesn't really speak at this point, choosing to stay quiet and just listen to the conversation.
July smiles to Annalisa and pokes lightly to her side, "You know he's right, hm? He'll help you get over your fears, dear." she nods gently, and kisses Anna's forehead gently before looking back at Van, "Yes, they can be." she nods, referring to her powers being used in recon.
"I dunno? I never really asked," Chloe admits, blushing. "He runs a savate gym though so he's full of the pep talks for future champions stuff. This might sound like a silly question, but all this talk of recon and squads sounds a little… well… suspicously hostile."
"The world is suspiciously hostile, Chloe." Van answers, becoming even more serious. "There are people who will want to hurt you just because of what you are. Other will want to use you specifically for what you are. It's our job here to teach you how to stay alive and unharmed as well as teaching you how to use your powers safely. And if you choose to use them to help people, even better. And more reason to be trained."
Annalisa still remains relatively quiet, though speaks a few small words. "I dunno, some people have powers that I don't think a military could make use of…"
July smiles, chuckling gently, "You're thinking too much on that. We are here to learn our powers. If you want to live your normal life after that, you're free to do so, without the fear of your powers being out of control. Or if you decide to help people, you will have your powers, which you then will have great control over, to help you."
"And I guess it has to be more indept than break nose, dislocate kneecap and run huh?" Chloe says, scowling. "I can hear my dad laughing all the way from Chicago. I spend years trying to get out of savate and now this… Oh well at least it'll only take me a sixth of the time to finish my workouts."
"Break nose, dislocate kneecap and run is excellent strategy." Van agrees and he's almost chuckling. "And if you already know how to do that, it's an excellent start. In fact, the first lessons I'd give anyone would be how to disable an opponent long enough to give them time to run. What kind of training everyone gets will depend in part on what their long term intentions are."
July hmms softly, "I am inclined to helping people." she says with a smile. "Besides, I love using my powers too much to just stay at home." she giggles softly.
Chloe waves her hands and shrugs. "I… might? Depends on who I had to hit," she decides, tapping her foot to maintain her slow and steady beat. "I haven't seriously been training for a while. Everything gets really boring really quickly for me. Unless it's exciting and difficult, like free climbing, then I can just about keep focus."
"Helping people is an excellent way to put our abilities to use." Van agrees. "It doesn't need to be in violent ways either. As a first responder, for instance. Getting people out of buildings safely. Being rubbery sounds like it could be very useful for that. So is being very fast. Both of you should concentrate on strength training so you can carry more."
July chuckles gently, smiling, and nodding, "As long as said building isn't on fire. I melt quickly if I'm inside a building on fire." she giggles a bit, "Then I wouldn't be able to help anyone." she shakes her head gently.
Chloe tilts her head at July and blinks. "You've/melted/before?" she wonders. "Argh. Talking should be getting easier by now. It's almost been /two weeks/. But if you're all squishy don't heavy things bend your limbs?"
July giggles softly, "Yeah, I can melt. I can do it willingly, but if it's by hot temperatures I can't control it." she shakes her head, "And, hey, heavy things CAN bend my limbs, but I have my strength, y'know?" she grins.
Chloe gapes. "That's… wow. How'd you know how to put yourself back together again?"
Van's cellphone rings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ringtone is the marine corps anthem. Checking the number displayed, he says "Sorry, I need to take this. Feel free to call on me if you need anything." And as he answers the phone, he heads out into the lobby.
July watches as Van's cellphone rings, and then apparently the new teacher will have to go, and she smiles, "Alright, nice meeting you, sir." she says, waving to him as he leaves. Then there's Chloe. "Oh, well, that's easy." she grins, and takes a step back and closes her eyes, smiling still. Her whole form seems to ripple as she starts losing definition, and then she starts melting into a blue-and-white puddle on the floor, wobbling a bit. She flows around a bit, over the couch, then under it, then through one of the couch's feet, and then back where she was. The puddle then coalesces back into a blob, that grows upward, then grows limbs, which in turn then starts getting definition as July again, the girl wearing her blue-and-white squad uniform. "Just like that." She grins.
Chloe pokes her head into the Rec room, eyes flicking between July and scoping out the rest of the room. "Does that mean your clothes are made of you too? Or did they change with you…?"
July smiles, "Not quite." she says as she dusts herself. "My instructor says that it's possible one day I might be able to do that, make clothes out of myself, but, right now, what I'm wearing is my squad outfit." she points out. "I can change myself along with it to make my squad uniform /look/ like normal clothes to an extent, but I can't change the colors and the texture. Other clothes, normal clothes, don't melt with me."
"I guess that means the uniform is made from something weird then," Chloe ponders, slipping into the Rec room. "Not that I'm saying you're made of something weird… but… uhm… Wow I can put my foot in my mouth at superhuman speeds too. Joy." The new girl begins a quick circuit of the room, poking at the walls and flicking her eyes back and forth from July to the rest of the room. "It's much nicer here than I expected."
July giggles softly, "It's okay, don't worry. Not even I know what I'm made of. I just say I'm made of putty flesh." she giggles again, shaking her head softly, before watching as Chloe goes around poking stuff. "Well, this is not a military building, that's for sure." she grins, back at Chloe's comment about the military training. "This is a really nice place to live."
"I guess I imagined it would be more…" Chloe snaps her fingers a few times. "What's the word… Sinister? Like a bad place where they keep all the nasty mutants the news is always warning everyone about. Which I know is probably a load of.. well yah know. I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet even though a single day takes /forever/ now."
July giggles, and then she gives Chloe a big hug for a moment or two before releasing, "Oh, this place is quite awesome. Especially the pool and sports area." she grins widely.
"I wonder which of the squads I'll end up in," Chloe muses, tentatively hugging back. "Because I have a horrible suspicion that some of them will have horrible colours…. And now I sound amazingly petty and vain. It probably stops feeling embarrasing to wear a costume after a while right?"
July looks down at herself, smiling, "I don't think they're embarrassing. It's a bit weird at the beginning, yes, but after you save the first person while wearing this… this feels fantastic." she says, grinning widely.
Chloe shrugs. "I think I'll start with baby steps," she decides with a smile of her own "Right now simply finding someone fast enough to talk normally with me would probably make me cry with joy, even if all they did was call me names."
July giggles softly, "I believe you and Heather will be each other's salvation." she grins at that, and nods, "Want some water, or anything to eat?" she offers, smiling now.
The mention of food turns Chloe's head so fast it's almost embarrasing. "I could really go for a snack or maybe a loaf of bread. My body burns calories faster than I'd ever imagined possible. God I'm going to die if we all have meals together and people have to see how much I eat."
July giggles softly, "Don't worry about that. My body never gets fat." she winks as she looks at he corridor, and stretches and arm toward it, her hand disappearing into the corridor toward the kitchen, "So, I eat a real lot. And I meant A LOT!" she giggles.
"I think the main reason my parents agreed to send me here was just to save on food bills," Chloe admits conspiratorially. "Well that and because I'd /explode/ if I had to sit in a normal classroom for a whole day of school."
July giggles softly, "My parents sent me here so I could control my powers better." she says, "When my powers appeared, I became literally a puddle in bed." she says softly as her arm remains stretched. "I couldn't keep a 'solid' shape for more than a few minutes." she explains, "After I was brought here, I started to learn to control my body." she nods, just as her arm returns back to normal, bringing in her hand, which is now in the form of a wide disc, a glass of water and a loaf of bread with some butter. "Here you go." she offers.
Chloe gapes although very briefly. "You can reach into another room, collect food and bring it back? Without seeing what you're doing?!"
July smiles, "I know where everything is." she nods softly, giggling a bit, "The organization in this place is very thorough, so I didn't have much trouble finding stuff." she nods, grinning, "Plus my tactile sense is very good." she nods.
Chloe takes the glass of water and rests it on a table, then begins picking at the bread. Pulling tiny bits off and eating them very quickly. "My power kicked in while I was walking to school and it didn't really go well with the medication I'd been taking at the time. So my brain just shorted out."
July oh's softly, then she winces lightly, "What was the medication you've been taking?" she asks, while her hand shape-changes back to normal, and she sits at the table.
"They thought I had ADHD," Chloe explains with a shrug. "But it was just my biochemistry adjusting before my mutation could kick in. So when it did and I was already on uppers… It wasn't pretty."
July blinks softly at that, and then she can't help but giggle softly, "Ah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to, but it does sound funny when you in hyper drive." she says, smiling.
Chloe pouts. "It'll probably be funny when it's not so recent… Probably by next Friday I guess, when I've forgotten how much blood I lost and that sort of thing. I guess that's the one big advantage I have, time heals all wounds. So a week feels more like a whole month."
July winces at that, "Ew." she says softly, "I'm really sorry, I didn't know you got hurt. Sorry about that." she bows her head a bit.
"Don't worry about it! Already forgotten. After all you've already forgiven me for making about half a dozen awkward comments so far," Chloe replies between swallowing dainty bits of the rapidly disappearing loaf of bread.
July smiles again and nods, "Thank you." she says softly, "By the way, remember when I told you about melting when close to big fires? Well, the opposite is true, too: if I get in really cold temperatures, I can freeze." she explains, smiling.
Chloe finishes off the last of the bread, then gulps the water down. "That hit the spot. Freezing is probably not an enjoyable experience, right? But it must leave you alive.. Are you aware when you're frozen? Because if not you could store yourself in ice for years if… well… things ever got really bad for mutants."
July chuckles gently, "Only my arm got frozen, once, and it was numbed out by the cold." she says softly, "I don't know what would happen if I got fully frozen." she shrugs.
Chloe ponders. "Probably not keen to try again though?"
July chuckles, "Not if I can avoid it, really." she nods to that, smiling. She then brings her hand to her belly, and thn her belly opens a small hole, where she pushes to fingers in and retrieves a small chocolate bonbon. "The perks of having a body like mine? I can create secret pockets anywhere." she grins as the hole seals itself.
Chloe tilts her head. "Couldn't you have just eaten it from the pocket itself? Or does food still need to go into your mouth..?"
Annalisa had fallen asleep on the couch after she had finished crying. She sits up, rubbing her eyes with a sigh. Her hair was a mess. "Oh…hi…"
July chuckles softly, "I guess you can say old habits die hard." she shrugs softly, smiling at that, and eating her bonbon as Anna arises again, "Ah, hey, dear. Are you feeling alright now?"
"Hi again," Chloe offers, waving. "Sorry if our chatting woke you. I can get a little loud when I'm in full on chatting mode."
Annalisa hops up from the couch, and gives July a swift peck on the cheek. She lets out a sigh. "I guess I'm gonna go sleep…" She mutters, as she walks off towards the door.
July smiles at the kiss, "It'll be for the best, Anna." she says, watching the girl leave, before standing up herself and stretching a bit, "Mmm… I better get going as well." she says, before hugging Chloe again, "Welcome to the school, dear. You'll love it here. If I see Heather, I'll make sure to let her know about you. Now… I must be off for some sleep." she says, smiling.
Chloe waves at both girls. "It was nice meeting you both," she declares, then with a glance at Annalisa she adds "Although I wish things were a little less… well you know."
