Players:
Summary: Skyler and Robyn meet Robin, and a bit of serious discussion.
Date: June 16, 2009
Introductions
Rating: R
Rec 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.
Skyler grunts as his character gets his ass handed to him. At first he doesn't respond to the soft query behind him, but soon he realizes that he's the only other one here. Looking up he blinks at the thin boy and shakes his head. "I'm not Logan. I'm Skyler," he says, pointing to his name tag. "Have you ever seen him shave those awful mutton chops off?"
"I don't know, I haven't been at the school for long. I don't know him well or anything, I've just seen pictures," says Robin. The blue puppet shrugs, and Robin squints at the tag, "If you're Skyler, why do you look like Logan?" He crosses his arms and adds, "Um, I'm Robin, by the way. Robin Keen."
Skyler lifts a hand as if he's going to offer it to the other mutant, but upon consideration of Robin's posture he thinks better of it. "Skyler St. James. I look like Logan because I copy people. It's what I do."
"You…" says Robin, eyes opening wide, and stance changing to a little bit more open position, and going towards the couch. The blue puppet, as featureless as it is, still manages to look excited, too. "…copy people? Like, anyone? Can you copy anyone at all?"
Skyler nods, sitting back, tossing the controller next to him. "Yeah. Well, as long as they've got DNA, I can copy them." He shrugs. "I don't get their memory or anything, but if they've got mutant powers, I copy that, too."
Robin blinks, and then nods slowly. "That's really super neat. I'm jealous…" Robin bites his bottom lip and crosses his arms again, looking back towards his puppet and then back at Skyler, "So you could copy me, but not Blank?" Robin gestures towards the puppet at the mention of the last name, for clarity's sake. "Wow. I'm really jealous."
Skyler's eyes flick towards the puppet and shrugs. "Well, probably not. Unless Blank is a manifestation of your powers, that is." He chuckles at Robin's jealousy, "I think that's the first time anybody's thought it was neat and wasn't creeped out by it. The only downside is that I can't revert back to my old form. The changes are always permanent."
"Blank is part of my powers, yeah. She doesn't really have a mind, she just mimes out what I'm thinking. She's not someone I like to be trapped alone with," says Robin, glancing over his shoulder at Blank, who turns up her nose. Or at least where her nose would be. He shrugs, and notes, "I don't think I would mind if the changes were permanent…"
Skyler scowls, at Blank. "Trapped.. alone? Why not?" he asks curiously.
"I don't know. There's something about always having to face how you're feeling that's pretty uncomfortable, I guess. She's also a terrible conversationalist," explains Robin.
Skyler gives the puppet a critical stare before shrugging. "I suppose you have a point, there." He, then, cracks a very un-Loganlike grin. "I guess this means you literally wear your emotions on your sleeve."
Blank doesn't seem particularly amused, but Robin chuckles softly. It sounds sincere, but Blank's demeanor suggests otherwise. "Yeah, um, people can always see how I'm feeling. It's really frustrating. And she's always nearby, so people always see her," says Robin.
Skyler looks thoughtful for a moment before suggesting. "Can you put a blanket or something over her?"
Robin glances back to Blank and says, "She'll just teleport next to me if I'm not in her sight. Not that I think she can see when she's like this…" He tilts his head at the puppet and adds, "I don't know how she works when she's like this, actually." Blank cups her chin with her hand and looks equally as perplexed.
Skyler leans back in the couch, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "She isn't always like this?" he asks curiously.
Robin adjusts his glasses slightly and notes, "When I'm controlling her, she acts like I would. I can see from where she is so it's like I'm just… projecting my consciousness to her, or something like that. And I get depth perception, but I lose speech."
"So it's kind of like you possess her," Skyler says, shaking his head. "That's kinda cool. Unusual but cool."
Robin shrugs and gestures towards Blank, "Well, I dunno. I don't think she really has a will of her own, anyways. So it's not really possession or anything. I'm just… actually controlling her instead of kind've controlling her." He scratches under the painted lens of his glasses and adds, "Though I guess it does work the same way as possession."
Deciding that it was dinner time of cookies, Robyn grabed a plate full of oatmeal raisin cookies and a glass of milk before heading into the rec room. He's dressed in a pair of black pants with a Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirt on showing Oogie Boogie. He stops short a bit as he sees Logan but then there is something off about his apearance, and the name tag. "Skyler?"
Skyler nods at Robyn. "Hey, Robyn. Have you met… er…. Robin?" He glances between the two Robins and winces, dreading the ensuing name confusion. "Care to join me in a game of Tekken 4?"
Blinking a couple of times, Robin turns to face Robyn, and smiles amiably. Blank puts her palm up to her face and goes through the motions of sighing, but is just as silent as always. "Umm, I'm Robin Keen," says the teen, "It's nice meeting you. I'm new."
"Hi, I'm Robyn Larkin." Robyn says kind of surprised to meet someone with his own name here. The ruby quartz sunglasses that are typically seen on Scott are on top of Robyn's head. "Don't worry Skyler, I won't optic blast you tonight." He says smiling sheepishly. "Welcome to Xavier's then, I'm..well…not really new anymore."
Skyler gives Robyn a small shrug. "Do I look worried?" he asks, not looking worried in the least. "Besides, if you did have to blast me, at least I've got a body that'll just bounce right back from it, now."
Blinking a few times, Robin asks, "What are you talking about?" He and Blank seem to exchange glances, and they both shrug. "Do you… do you normally optic blast people?"
Robyn shakes his head. "No, something happened and I got Headmaster Summers powers." He looks curiously at the puppet. "What is that…thing?" He doesn't know what else to call it but a thing. "Yeah but even if you can bounce back, I really don't like hurting people. Which makes my normal power award."
Skyler shakes his head. "I was just trying to make light of the situation." He raises his gaze to look at Robyn, tone serious now, "You know I don't blame you for what happened, right? If you'd done it on purpose, I'd have a problem, but around here things happen that we don't always have control over."
Robin looks at Blank, who waves in turn as she is looked at, and then explains to Robyn, "This is Blank. She's a mindless thing that follows me around, acting out how I'm feeling. That's pretty much it." He shrugs helplessly and adds, "I call her a 'puppet', 'cause I can control her, too, if I concentrate."
Robyn looks over at the puppet and smiles. "Hello puppet….okay..that sounds a little to much like the thing the guy in Pirates of the Caribean said." He says with a chuckle as he sits down next to Skyler. "I'm sorry, it's just..when I saw you..like that, I got scared and thanks…for not blaming me. I had people yell at me before when I couldn't control my powers."
Skyler waves a hand as if to brush away the issue. "Hey, that's why we're here. To learn how to control our powers. At least that they told me when I first came here." Suddenly an idea occurs to him. "How do you know Blank is a 'her'?"
"Well, um, she's not, I guess," says Robin, biting his bottom lip. Blank looks down at her feet, and seems a little bit sheepish and uncomfortable at the question. "She's just an it. I've just always found calling her a 'her' seems about right," replies Robin, half answering the question.
"Vlad yelled at me pretty good when I accidentally aborbed his pyschic energy." Robyn says with a head shake before looking curiously at the puppet. "Does it have to have a sex? I think if it seems right then just do it. Nothing wrong with that."
Skyler nods at Robyn. "Yeah, some people can be like that." He shrugs at Robin, "I was just curious. It's not a big deal, or anything."
Blank relaxes a little bit as the subject of her sex is no longer under question. Robin smiles at Robyn and just nods, agreeing that there's nothing wrong with it. He tilts his head slightly when 'Vlad' is mentioned. "Vladimir? He seemed like he had a bit've a temper when I met him. He was yelling at this teacher."
"Yeah, he's kind of moody." Robyn doesn't say anything else, he's not really one to talk about people too much behind their backs. "So how long have you been here Robin…and it's a bit weird I don't thing I've met another Robin before." He says with a smile.
"I haven't ever met another Robin, either," says Robin, nodding slowly, "But I lived in a small town before coming to New York, and then I didn't do much meeting with people when I got here. And I've only been here for a few days, now." Blank plugs her 'nose' and Robin adds, "Most of it spent washing up."
"I grew up in Brooklyn so I still get to see my Mom and Dad from time to time." Robyn says with a shrug. "I've never been outside of New York State so I guess I'm kind of deprived that way." He gives Robin and Blank a confused look. "Washing up?"
"I was kind've a panhandling hobo before coming here. I didn't shower much, and slept in garbage a lot," says Robin, crossing his arms uncomfortably. Blank looks just generally ashamed about it. "It took awhile to get that smell off of me. I mean, normally I have real good hygiene, it just didn't come up much when I was out there."
Robyn bites his lip as he doesn't know what to say about that. "Well I'm glad you came here and aren't on the street anymore." He says brushing his bangs out of his face. "I was pretty much recruited as soon as my powers manifested."
Robin fiddles with the end of his hair lightly and notes, "Well, I dunno. My parents were really okay about my mutation, actually, and it wasn't really dangerous or anything." He gestures towards Blank, who does exactly nothing in response to that. "So I guess I didn't really need to come here back when I manifested. I'm not clear on how they decide that stuff, though. Anyways, it's nice having a bed now, at least."
Skyler chuckles, "I spent two years as a cat before I ended up being adopted by one of the students, here." He shake his head, "It was a lucky break for me. The reason why I've stuck around is that I don't have anywhere to go. My parents are convinced I'm dead, so I couldn't go back to them."
Robyn gets quite for a minute and nods. "Yeah, my was weirded out at first but now she's fine with it. I went into a coma for a few days when my powers manifested and then I put a nurse into a coma when I came out. I normally need psychic energy to survive. Though unfortunately I have to go now. It was nice meeting you Robin. See ya later Skyler." He says with a friendly smile as he heads out of the rec room.
Robin waves at Robyn and says, "It was nice meeting you, Robyn!" He pauses and then asks the question to Skyler, "You were a cat for two years?" says Robin, blinking a couple of times. He points at the painting on the left lens of his glasses and says, "Like, a normal housecat? That must've been weird. It must be really hard not to even be in a human body… for so long."
Skyler purses his lips as he considers how to answer. "The thing is," he begins slowly, "is that when I was a cat, I had the intelligence of a cat. I was a cat all the way so I didn't really know any better."
"Oh," says Robin, tilting his head slightly in thought. "So your brain, it imitates whatever you're turning into? Like, what kinds of things does your brain imitate? Just intelligence, or… any other stuff?"
Skyler shrugs. "I don't know, honestly. I know that I keep my memories, and my personality doesn't really change much. I once copied somebody who was a little…" he shudders at the memory, "psychotic. I heard voices and stuff. We've had a couple of geniuses here that I've copied and that was scary in a different way. I guess I just don't know the extent of what happens to me when I copy somebody."
Robin blinks and says, "So, like, if someone is a certain way, you imitate that too? Like, if they're crazy, or smart, or, um, anything else that's neurological?" Blank tilts her head slightly and looks kind of embarrassed. Robin bites his bottom lip for a moment and then asks, "Have you ever been a girl before?"
Skyler nods at Robin's questions. "Yes, and yes, and yes." He chuckles at the question of being a girl. "Several times, actually. It was weird at first, but after a year or so of hopping around bodies I got ussed to it."
Robin looks at Blank, who is still acting pretty embarrassed and then presses on, "But, like, when you're a girl, do you feel like you're a girl? Are you alright with it?" He seems anxious about asking all of these questions, but not as much as Blank is. "Is your, um, how you feel about your gender, is that something that changes with your brain?"
Skyler tilts his head curiously, listening to Robin's questions before letting out a knowing chuckle. "Usually, yes. I don't think I was comfortable with it at first, because it's not something that usually suddenly changes. But as time went on I got more used to the changes in, er, perspective."
Robin looks at his feet for a few moments thoughtfully, while fiddline with the ends of his hair. Blank approaches a little bit closer, perhaps seeming curious, but inscrutable with that blank face. "If… if you became a boy who wasn't, um, wasn't comfortable being a boy, hypothetically, do you think you would feel…" Robin trails off and mumbles, posture kind of shrinking down a bit, "Um, sorry. Maybe nevermind…'s a weird question."
Skyler stares are Robin for a minute, his expression softening with sympathy. "I don't know," he says quietly. "Maybe. I know that pure, physical attraction can change. I've been every end of the spectrum, but there's more to it than that, I suspect." He shakes his head again, giving Robin a guilty smile for not being as helpful as he would like. "I don't know."
For a moment, Robin looks like he's been punched in the gut, but he smiles weakly. For more than a moment, Blank looks the same way. "I… I don't mean to weird you out or anything, I just… wanted to know." He brushes his bangs lightly with his hand and looks down at his feet, "I… I guess you've never done it, though. I guess you couldn't tell me. But I wanted to ask."
Skyler shakes his head. "You're not weirding me out," he says reassuringly, getting to his feet. "I'm just not the right person to be talking to about this. If I ever got the feeling I should have been a girl, I can just wander over to the girl's dorm and take my pick. It's not an issue with me." He shakes his head, putting a hand on Robin's shoulder. "But I can tell you this: People put too much stock in their gender identity. Yes it's a part of you, but it's a very, very minor part." He sighs, dropping his hand. "That probably doesn't help any."
Robin frowns, holding back tears, and says, "I just… I'm sorry. I just… maybe it's a small part, but it's such a big part, too. I think about it all the time. Even when I was on the streets and everything… I think about it. I just… I don't want to think about it anymore. I want to feel okay." He slumps down and sighs, "I'm so jealous of your powers. I wish that I could have them, just for a moment." Blank slumps down as well, and buries her face in her knees. "God, I shouldn't unload on people I barely know."
Skyler shakes his head. "It's okay. Everybody seems to do that around me. Probably because of what I can do makes me a bit more empathetic since I can, you know, literally walk a mile in their shoes," he jokes trying to lighten the mood.
Robin smiles slightly and says, "I guess so." He sighs, gets up, walks around the couch to sit on it. Blank just keeps on crouching there, looking miserable. "This is a really nice place, this school. Do you have, like, a school counsellor or something? I think I could benefit from talking to someone… God knows I have enough issues." Robin smiles and adds, "It'd also prevent me from probably scaring people I just met."
Skyler's gaze lingers on Blank for a moment before turning to Robin. "We have quite a few," he says. "I'm sure they can help. There's some of the brightest minds in the world who work for us, here."
Robin nods, "Still don't know too much about this place, except that it's supposed to help people 'like us'." The last is in flying bunny ear quotation marks. Blank looks up, but continues to look generally miserable. Robin shakes his head, "I dunno. Kind've overwhelming being here, but in a good way."
Skyler chuckles good-naturedly, "Well, wait until your second alien invasion to feel overwhelmed," he jokes. "There's a lot of kids here, we're all mutants here, so we all have that in common. We're all struggling to be comfortable with who we are in one way or another. I think it's just part of growing up."
Robin nods his head, "Yeah, I guess. And… are there lots of alien invasions around these parts? In Kansas, where I'm from, we heard all these crazy stories about what happens in New York… It's always seemed like some of them were exaggerations to me." Blank seems to have gathered enough composure to be able to stand up again, so she does just that.
Skyler tries hard to ignore the puppet out of deference to Robin, but it's tough, his gaze occasionally stealing back to her. "I'd say about half of them are exaggerations. The other half aren't. I was attacked by aliens the first month I came here, myself."
Robin follows Skyler's gaze to the puppet for a few moment, and frowns at her a bit, "If only half are exaggerations, that's still lots and lots of stuff!" Robin smiles and adds, "Hopefully, there's not too much danger, though. Can't be worse than the streets." The puppet comes around to the front of the couch, and stands there idly.
Skyler chuckles and nods. "It's been calm around here recently," he says, and then almost immediately amends himself, "well, except for the whole power swap thing that happened… and the evil alternate universe X-Men… aaaannnd I better shut up now."
Blinking, Robin says, "That doesn't sound calm at all! I guess… I'll get used to whatever pace there is around here. I think it'll be a nice home for now. Maybe I'll figure out how to do more stuff with Blank while I'm here… and maybe get her to stop playing charades with my emotions!"
Skyler quirks a grin. "Yeah. We all have to start out somewhere." He stretches a bit and eyes the time. "I've got to get going. If you ever need to find me I've got a room in the boys and girls dorm."
Robin says, "You have a room in both places? I wonder if… Hm…" Robin shakes his head and looks towards Blank, and says, "I'll see you later, Skyler." Pause. "It'll be a bit weird talking to Mr. Logan the first time after this…"
Skyler's posture slouches a bit, his expression becoming closed and hard, looking a hell of a lot like Logan. "Whatever, bub," he says, keeping his voice gruff, which is a spot on imitation of the man he's copying. He can only keep at it for so long before he devolves into a fit of very unLogan like giggles.
Robin grins widely at Skyler, clapping cheerily, "That's exactly what he looked like when I saw him!" He waves at Skyler and then, in a moment, closes his eyes and gets Blank to repeat the motion.
