Players:
Summary: Students gather in the kitchen.
Date: December 26, 2009
Not a Team Meeting
Rating: PG-13
Kitchen - Xavier Mansion
The night after Christmas and in the Xavier Mansion, the Kitchen seems to be the center of some activity tonight. The lights are on and the smell of something nice is coming from the oven. There also seems to be singing coming from the kitchen. Pretty good singing too. "When you need a hero to protect the place you live, fighting monsters all around the try to get within. Awesome power! No surrender! Heroes never fall! Look to the sky when they arrive when you hear this call!" It's Eddie Parker-Mayfair, student and member of the New Mutants squad. He's dressed in jeans, an Avengers t-shirt, and a leather jacket with the Captain America shield on the back. Seems to be singing as he fetches a box of popcorn out of the cabinets. "Go, Superhero! Fly, Superhero! Win, Superhero! Here we go! Go, Superhero! Fly, Superhero! Win, Superhero! Here we go!"
Dallas follows his nose towards the kitchen. After spending entirely too long in the heated pool this morning, his day has consisted of vintage games on ESPN and trying not to let his eyes cross at just looking over the reading list for next term. The academic standards at Xavier's are /high/ compared to a suburban high school in Illinois. The smell of food overrides everything else as he realizes he missed dinner and though the singing makes him pause a moment, he shrugs and pushes on into the kitchen. He's wearing a dark blue pullover hoodie with his old school's logo on the back and jeans, as well as somewhat battered sneakers. He pauses just inside the door to make sure he's not crashing some X-party or other and watches Eddie sing.
There's no party going on in the kitchen. Eddie's getting ready for a small one though, in charge of gathering food for a little DVD watching thing a couple students are getting together for tonight. And since he's unaware he's being watched, Eddie just keeps singing as he places the popcorn in the microwave. "Bad guys, there are all the same. They want complete control. Intimidate, ellimate the heroes from the throne. But the good guys always have a way to win out in the end. So look to the sky as they arrive! The heroes who defend! Go, Superhero! Fly, Superhero! Win, Superhero! Here we go! Go, Superhero! Fly, Superhero! Win, Superhero! Here we go!" he does a little dance as he sings along, moving from the microwave to check on the oven. Seems he's got one of those storebought pizzas in there cooking up. Since everything seems to be in working order, the power booster grins and turns around. Now he's noticed he's been watched. Singing stops with a surprised squeak and Eddie manages to trip. THUD. "Ow," is all he says, muffled slightly by the floor.
Trey hears Eddie's singing before he even gets to the kitchen. His enhanced hearing picks it up but he doesn't know the song. Interestingly enough, the purple eyed mutant hasn't really met his roommate. They have only been just recently put together.So he doesn't really know Dallas as he nearly runs into the mutant as he is stopped right inside of the door. He catches himself from running into Dallas at least and he says softly. "Oh, i'm sorry. Almost knocked you over there." He offers Dallas a smile and he steps past him to come into the kitchen to spot Eddie on the ground and he quirks a brow. "Are you alright Eddie? Guess someone ended up falling on the ground. Hope I didn't have anything to do with that."
Dallas can't help but grin at the goofy song and the grin turns into a bit of a smirk as Eddie trips over his own feet. He jumps a little as Trey came up behind him as he was standing behind the other young man. Recursive roadblocks! He nods to Trey and says, "Hey. I'm Dallas. Sorry for being in the way." Being raised well, he crosses over to offer Eddie a hand up. "I think I scared him. Sorry, dude."
July is wearing a thick red wool sweater and blue faded jeans, along with wool gloves as well as she steps into the kitchen. She heard voices of at least three people in there, and came to check them out, as well as to get something to eat. "Oh, hi guys." the rubber girl says with a smile, waving to everyone in the room. "Wow. Almost a team meeting." she giggles softly at that.
Eddie blinks as he hears a familiar voice and one he doesn't recognize. Looking up and blushing, Eddie offers a sheepish smile. "Hey, Trey," he says, accepting Dallas' hand up. "Don't worry about it. I fall a lot," he admits, dusting himself off. "I'm Eddie Parker-Mayfair. Nice to meet ya," he greets, offering a hand to Dallas. He blinks as July enters. "We'd need Max, Leo, Nathan, and Mr. Guthrie for a team meeting. Not to mention that it would be weird not meeting in uniform…" he trails off. "Oh yeah! You're part of the New Mutants squad too, Dallas," he chimes, just now remembering this.
Trey just smiles at Dallas, "It's quite alright. No harm, no foul." The blonde mutant is dressed in a pair of Xavier Institute shorts with a white tank top. He doesn't seem to mind the cold weather at all. He has Mr. Fuzzles tucked under his arm for safe keeping. He looks a little surprised at Dallas' introduction. "Oh, you're my roommate? I'm Trey." He looks towards July and he says, "Hey July, How you hanging in with the weather? It's going to be rainy for a bit. Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news but at least it isn't snow." At the mention of the squad, "I have not met most of my squad." He moves around the kitchen, "Any carrots? I'm out of reeeses pieces, so I figured I'd go for some of the veggies."
Dallas half turns to give July a smile and a wave and then turns back to Eddie. His shake is firm but without silly dominance game squeezing. "Dallas Gibson. Hey. And, um, yea. I got an e-mail about that." He pauses and adds, "Go team?" There is a hint of dry amusement in his voice as well as unvoiced question that anybody with sports experience might recognize from a new student. Namely: 'Do we suck?' At Trey's words he turns to give the boy a closer look and then nods and grins a little wider. "I was beginning to think you were a lump under the covers or something. Good to meet you." He transfers that outstretched hand from Eddie to Trey.
July smiles as she heads toward the fridge, "Yeah, doing fine, Trey. Haven't frozen yet, so that's a plus." she giggles as she rescues a plate of leftover cookies from Christmas that she will now bring doom upon them, and heads to the table while the boys converse with each other, "so how are you all doing? Been a while since I've seen you, Eddie. How's the holidays?" she smiles again.
Eddie grins and pumps a fist in the air. "Yeah! Definitely the coolest team in the school," he says. He'd probably say that even if he wasn't a member simply because of the name. He's a fanboy. "They're over except for New Years," he answers July, turning to grab an oven mitt. "Christmas was great though," he says, turning off the oven and removing the pizza within. "This is gonna be good," he says, closing up the oven and setting the pizza aside to cool off. "The carrots should be in the veggie crisper unless Jared's been by today."
Dallas's nose wrinkles as he smells hot, bubbling pizza. He grins at July as she snags cookies and gives Eddie a dubious look at the mention of carrots, "Veggies? On the holidays? Isn't that, like something the Grinch would do?" His tone isn't serious, of course. "And sounds like the New Mutants are the squad to be on. Good. Winning is /much/ more fun than losing."
July sits down at the table to munch down on her leftover cookies as she smells pizza. "Mmm… pizza. Yummy." she giggles softly, eating one of her cookies as she looks at Eddie, "This weather is such a pain. Remembers me of a training session we did a year ago in the Danger Room simulating going to Alaska, or somewhere like that. I almost froze!" she giggles.
Eddie chuckles as Dallas talks about the carrots, hopping up on the counter to get a bowl out of the cabinet. What? He's a short guy. He nods in agreement to the shadow user and hops off the counter. "Weather doesn't bother me," he says. "Get through two New York City winters on the streets in nothing but old, torn jeans and t-shirts and ya can take a lot," he says as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
Dallas tilts his head at July and says, "Yea, I've, um, heard about the Danger Room. It sounds …interesting." Given the horror stories that certain more evil minded students might heap on newbies, 'interesting' is probably an understatement and a half. The talk of making it through winters without a coat makes him wince a bit, apparently imagining it and he starts to ask a question of Eddie but then gets a 'Oh!' expression on his face and looks down at the counter, fiddling with a place mat there to cover the embarrassment of his near faux pas.
July chuckles gently, "I hate you all." she says with a smile as she eats another cookie, before standing up, "I'll head back to my room, back to my warm, warm bed." she giggles, "You all have fun, and nice seeing you two again." she nods, "See ya all later."
Eddie offers a wave to July as she goes. "See ya," he says, pouring the popcorn into the bowl. Apparently he caught that Dallas was going to ask something and gives the other teen a confused look. "What's wrong, Dallas?" he asks.
Dallas waves good night to July and helps himself to a cookie. When Eddie catches his social gaffe, he pauses a moment, slowly chewing to give himself a moment to figure out how to phrase things without being a jerk. After that pause he says, "I was going to ask why you did that and then I kind of figured it out for myself, with the whole mutant thing. Sorry. I didn't mean to bring up anything bad."
Eddie smiles and shakes his head. "Close but not exactly," he says. "Basically…when my biological father and brother found out I'm gay, they beat me within an inch of my life and tossed me out on the streets to die. I lived in an old shipping container under Central Park for two years until Dad…er…Mr. Parker-Mayfair found me and I ended up adopted. It's alright. All in the past. Don't worry about it."
Dallas actually flinches a little at the plain recitation. He nods once and swallows. "Rough man. Sorry to hear it." His expression is carefully neutral, in that typically stoic middle American 'I don't want to embarrass either of us by making a thing out of this' way." He adds, "Glad you got past it." And then in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood, "How likely are the movie watchers going to be to miss a slice?"
Eddie just smiles and shrugs. "Yeah…got two dads, two brothers, a hot boyfriend," he blushes and grins. "I don't think they'd mind, actually," he says.
Dallas arches an eyebrow at the 'two dads' thing but then again, it does stand to reason, given that he was taken in. He stands, moving past Eddie to steal a slice of pizza. "Well, cool. I'm glad your life is good now." And he seems to mean it. He's too new to New York to be jaded and mean yet. Skipping anything as useless as a plate or napkin, Dallas leans on the counter, watching Eddie and enjoying his ill-gotten (and slightly too hot to handle, so he's eating it quickly) gains. "So, anything I need to know that the teachers aren't going to tell me?"
Eddie nods, watching Dallas eat. "It's good, yeah…" he muses softly. The question from his teammate has Eddie blinking though. "Umm…what do you mean?"
Dallas shrugs and says, "I can surf the web, man. The X-Man casualty list is pretty long. And you read stuff about disasters and such. I'm wondering how crazy this place really gets." And then a bit of a grin. "Also, if there is a social scene with the school. I mean, I figure not so much with the town kids, because, well, the whole mutant thing. But what do the students do for fun here when the X-Men aren't looking?"
Eddie blinks then laughs a bit. "Yeah, stuff gets a little crazy here sometimes but it does in the city too. I've fought supervillains," he says, puffing out his chest a bit. "Kicked thier butts too," he adds. "But yeah…not too much goes on with the town kids. I mean, some of us do hang out together sometimes but it's rare. Nobody's supposed to know this is a mutant school after all," he says. "But there's tons of stuff to do. THe gym, the weight room, the pool, the Danger Room, the Rec Room, the art room, and the music room all have a bunch of stuff. And there's video games and movies all over the place. "And we head out into the city to do stuff there sometimes too."
Dallas gives Eddie a speculative look at the mention of fighting supervillains. He finishes off his pizza and pulls a bottle of water from the fridge, cracking it open as he says, "Ok, they tell me it's not rude to ask about, um, mutations and stuff. So what do you do? Or should I wait until we're practicing to find out?" His expression is honestly curious and friendly but he still stumbles a little over the word 'mutations'. He's only been here a couple of weeks.
Eddie doesn't seem to notice the look, just smiling. He blinks a few times and then laughs a bit. "Naw, it's not rude to ask what people's powers. Everyone asks," he says. "Basically…I can make other people stronger. I boost powers and stuff based off how much faith I have in a person. And then I can mimic the person I boost."
Dallas blinks as he digests that and then suddenly he grins. His voice is incredulous and amused. "Wait? You're a /cheerleader/? Like, a super cheerleader? 'Go Team! We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do!' on superheroes? Dude!" He can't help but laugh, not maliciously and his tone certainly isn't snide. More surprised and amused that such a mutation could exist. "Ok, now I'm /really/ glad you're on my team. But you know, nothing is going to rhyme with 'Mutants' right?"
Eddie blushes and facepalms when called a cheerleader. "I'm not a cheerleader," he sighs. "I don't do any chants or dances," he says, pouting a bit. Eventually he just shakes his head. "YEah…I know. Hey…" he pauses, glancing around. "Wanna see what getting boosted's like?" he offers, also interested in seeing what Dallas' powers are.
Dallas doesn't even hesitate. "Heck yea!" He pauses and says, "Um, it doesn't cause people to go out of control or anything, right?" He looks around the kitchen, apparently worried about smashing something. "Because I can't afford to replace stuff. But, um, yea, I'm curious to see what happens."
Eddie chuckles. "Unless you're like…not expecting the boost or your powers are 'going out of control', you should be fine," he says. Taking a deep breath, Eddie pushes off the counter and closes his eyes. When the open again, they're glowing blue. Suddenly, Dallas will find his powers to be at twice their normal maximum. There's a flash of blue light and suddenly Eddie seems to be wearing a blue and white version of what Dallas is currently wearing. The power booster smiles and enters shadow form, just glowing blue eyes uncovered by darkness. "This is pretty cool."
Dallas blinks as Eddie calls his own shadow and grunts. "That's what that looks like! Scary!" He calls his own shadow, the darkness pooling at his feet and traveling upward to coat him in a sheath of black, broken only by his own set of featureless, softly glowing blue-eye eyes. He whistles softly and then reaches out to lift the table by one leg and the corner, holding it aloft effortlessly. He looks back towards Eddie and says, "Nice! Ok, you're not a cheerleader. You're a freakin' steroid dealer." The temptation to just use one hand is massive, but … not his table. He sets it back down and then lets the shadow flow away back to it's own business. His grin is pretty wide. "So … nobody beats our squad. Ever."
Eddie waits for Dallas to finish playing with the table before letting his shadow return to normal as well. He drops the boost an with another flash of light, is back in the clothes he was wearing before. "And that's not even a full boost," he says. "Well…we haven't done too much fighting as a whole squad and not everyone's as gung ho about being a hero as me," he admits. "But we still kick butt."
Dallas shrugs and says, "When I first got here, I was thinking I'd just learn to control the whole power thing and then go home. But it's …" He frowns and then carefully opens up a bit. Eddie's a stranger, practically, but he's on the /team/. "… I figured out that there is no going back. Not as long as I'm a mutant. So what am I going to do? Go home, go to college and be a lawyer or something? That's dumb. I can throw a freakin' truck. Bounce bullets off my chest. If this is who I am, then I'm just going to go with it." He grins and says, "But I am hoping that X-Men at least get an allowance."
Eddie listens quietly to Dallas, leaning against the counter. He jumps slightly at 'no going back' but a smile does eventually spread across his face. "You wanna be an X-man too? That is awesome!" he declares, laughing a bit. "Um. Not that there's anything at all wrong with wanting a normal, non-heroy life," he says, clearing his throat. "I dunno. Most of the X-men are teachers here or have money from other sources so uhh…" he just shrugs. "But that's great. Oh yeah!" a pause. "Hey, what's your codename?"
Dallas blinks when Eddie starts at his word choice and his brows raise inquiringly. He asks, "Did I say something wrong? And well, it's either an X-Man or the world's scariest furniture mover. And Specter. I wikied Shadow when I first realized I was going to be coming to Mutant High and man, there are like a billion people with dark or shadow-themed powers who have 'Shadow' or 'Dark' as part of their name. It would have been as lame as Batroc the Leaper to go that way, so I picked Specter. It's, um, menacing, but you know, non-specific." A sly expression crosses his face. "Sooooo, what's /your/ codename? Gleeclub? Team-Spirit? The Pom-pom?"
Eddie shakes his head. "Nothing wrong. Just…you didn't get like…thrown out at home, right? You can still go back and visit, right?" he seems concerned about this. "And there are other hero teams and jobs for metahumans," he says. "But being an X-man is awesome," he nods. "Hey, don't underestimate Batroc. Sure he's got a goofy name and acts like some kinda clowny dork but he's pretty tough," he says. The power booster frowns at the guessed codenames. "No. I'm Mr. Faith."
Dallas winces faintly and says, "Mr. Faith? Wow. You want to end up getting swirlies through your whole superhero career?" He pauses and takes a drink of water. "I didn't get thrown out. My parents are great. Just, you know, when I called my shadow for the first time, the shock gave my grandfather a heart attack. He nearly died. And I have a brother and sister." He shrugs and says, "Even if I don't stay here, I don't think they are going to be comfortable if I go home. Gramps says I can come stay with him and my parents …kind of didn't fight the idea. So that's not like getting thrown out. Right?" He sounds a bit conflicted and unsure about the whole thing himself. Finally he shrugs and finishes, "I just have to work on doing my best here. That's all."
Eddie frowns again. "Well…people mostly just call me 'Faith'," he says with a shrug. He once again listens closely to Dallas, a concerned expression on his face. He looks down thoughtfully and nods. "Right! It's not getting thrown out," he says, smilling again. "And don't worry about it! I'm sure you'll do great!"
Dallas grins and says, "Well, hey man. Just stand next to the scariest person in the group. Nobody's going to make something of it if you're a mini-Hulk or Captain America Jr." He takes the reassurance on face value because hey, that's what he wants to hear, so it must be right. "And hey, how hard can it be to pass here? I mean, other than the fact that some of those books on the reading list are about, oh, genetics, sociology and a half-dozen things I had to /look up/ before I knew what they were." Yes, there's a definite rueful laugh in that last statement. "Anyway, we should get your guys their pizza or something. I feel like I'm dumping stuff on you and we just met."
Eddie laughs, shaking his head. "I mimicked Hulkling's power's once. That was weird…'course that was while me and a couple others were on this wild time travel thing," he waves it off. "And I got to meet the real Captain America once. Had lunch with him. It was amazing," he says. "Don't worry about the school work. It looks a lot harder than it actually is," he chimes, believing it completely. "Don't worry about it! We're teammates and friends. I'm happy to listen and help ya out, Dallas," he declares, moving to give the blonde a sudden hug. "Right! Lets get out to the Rec Room at the dorm. DVD party tonight! Someone got the the new Avengers movie," he declares happily.
Dallas gives Eddie another one of those 'really?!' looks as he mentions having mimicked the hulk and having lunch with Captain America. He just says, "Wow. Ok, yea. You're my social director now, dude. Also, apparently, the guy whose homework I'm stealing." The hug catches him by surprise and after a moment of stiffness, he surprises himself by briefly returning it. New school, new rules. He grins suddenly and turns to get the pizza pan and a few plates. "Oh great. A documentary."
