Players:
Summary: An afternoon bull session in the Observation Deck
Date: March 31, 2010
Log Title Of Ethics and Chipmunks
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Observation Deck
//Glass windows surround the circular room giving a full view of the school grounds. Two telescopes sit in front of the window for students to looks at the stars. A few comfortable chairs and couches with a few tables are placed up here for students to relax. There's a door off to one of the sides that leads up to the attic above here. //
Up in the observation deck Robyn is working on the finishing touches of his latest sculpture, the mummy cat. He's just painting some yellow lines tints in the bandages to give it an old feel. There are facial feature in the cat but the 'brow' is sculpted from the bandages. It's weird and kind of cute at the same time. He's by himself at the moment, ignoring making up homework as he wants to get this project finished.
Rather than walking up to the Deck, Jordan is flying straight up, through the floor. Slowly and casually. As he passes through the floor, however, he still appears translucent. At his normal height, however, once he stops and solidifies, he looks like himself again. His toning has gone back to normal. But his mind… still lacks a bit.
A quick pit-pat-pit-pat sounds as Heather zips up into the observation deck. She is looking quite a bit more cleaned up than usual, her hair is brushed and straightened, and she seems to have put some time into at least cleaning her yellowed teeth. She still, however, wears mismatched clothes. The speedster raises up her tape recorder to take in whatever sounds are happening, and plays it back to herself. When she determines that there are none, she nods with some satisfaction and glances about quickly.
"Extra credit," Rashmi murmurs to herself from a couch near Robyn's determined sculpting, eyes locked on a sheet of paper in her lap, "interview one person that you think has opinions on Mutant Ethics, and write a five-page report discussing what you've learned from them…" An eyebrow rises, and the cap of her pen is chewed on thoughtfully. "….Hm. I *really* hope no one tries to get hold of Mr. Magneto for this…" Tearing her eyes away as people enter the lounge, she smiles in greeting, nodding to Heather and Jordan before going back to alternating between watching Robyn paint and considering her homework.
The door from the attic opens up and Tara comes bounding out from it, a big grin on her face. "Hey guys!" she shouts (not really knowing who's here right now) "Have you been up in the attic? It's soooo cooool! There's /strawberries/ up there."
Robyn looks up from his painting at Rashmi with distain. "Oh god, I really hope that they don't give us the same assignment in mutant ethics tomorrow." He says as he really doesn't want to interview anyone about that. And when he looks up is when he notices Jordan enter the room. "Hey Jordan, I'm just working on finishing this up, my Mummy cat." He says holding up the sculpture by the bottom to show him. "Hey Tara, Heather." He says to the two girls as they enter the room.
Jordan doesn't really say anything right now about that, but nods as he looks over the sculpture. "You almost packed?" He asks, running a hand through his hair. "Two and a half days till the flight." He offers, looking to Rashmi. "Sorry. About before." He's not said anything to her since the house…
Heather nods her head at Robyn when she is greeted, being able to recognize her name even in slow-speak, holding out her tape recorder to take in all the sounds. She takes a moment to review, playing back, "Mutant Ethics. I'm very good at mutant ethics." Her F is for 'Fantastic'. She plays at Tara, "Strawberries? Seriously?" Her tone is lost in the mechanical workings of her device, so the statement is inscrutable.
"That's why it's called 'Extra Credit,' Robyn," Rashmi says in a tone of light rebuke. "Not that I expect you to do it, no matter how far behind you are—hm?" At Jordan's apology, the redhead shrugs, shaking her head with a smile. "It's okay, Jordan. Really. I know what he did to you, so I can't blame you for it, can I?" As Tara bounds down the stairs, she looks over with a grin. "And now you know where Mr. Parker-Mayfair's pies from before started! Isn't it nice up there?"
Tara nearly gushes all over Heather. "Yes. /Strawberries/. I had one and they were totally yummy." She closes the door behind her and goes over to one of the chairs and plops her backpack down on the table. "I know! I've always liked greenhouses because they're always warm and full of life and smell nice, but that place just takes the cake." She pauses for a second. "Or pie, as the case might be." With a chuckle, she unzips her backpack and pulls out an oversized textbook, which has no visible markings on it.
"Yeah, I'm almost packed Jordan. I just really wanna finish this before I go." Robyn says as he puts the mummy cat down and his paint brush. "It's for Jono." He remarks off handedly as he stretches a bit. "Yeah I should do extra credit..but…" He makes a face as he looks at Heather and Tara. "Mutant Ethics…it's not my favourite class. That's all I say. And the attic up there is really nice, it's relaxing."
"Ethics. Who says ethics are always right. Everyone has their own view. As… shown in the past few weeks when some of us had our ethics ripped out of our heads." Jordan says with an eye roll before he sighs. "Good. I think you'll like Florida."
"Yes, I agree with you," plays Heather to Jordan, after using her usual listening method. She draws her fingers through her hair once to make sure that none of the tangles have reappeared. "Maybe I will use strawberries to make something. I like the taste of strawberries."
Rashmi frowns slightly at Jordan's casual dismissal. "Ethics classes don't *tell* you what's right," she says, shifting on the couch to get more comfortable. "They just give you the criteria you use to figure out what's right for *yourself,* you know? I mean, like, would you turn your nose up at the Scientific Method? Because it's the same basic thing, you just apply ethics to your thoughts and actions, instead of theories. It's actually *really* interesting, if… well, y'know… you *care* about that kind of thing." With a shrug, she turns to look at Tara and Heather, nodding her agreement.
"Right, but they try to tell you certain things are right for everyone, and that's not quite possible." Jordan says with a shrug as his phone starts ringing. He looks down. "Mom. Be right back, Robyn." He says, sliding down below the floor after growing and going intangible. And probably vanishing to Tara's 'vision' if she's 'looking.'
Robyn can't help but chuckle as Rashmi talk. "Okay." He says as Jordan leaves and looks around his sculpture to see if he's missed anything. "I think it's pretty much done. Maybe a little darker under the eyes." He looks up at Rashmi and smiles. "I'm not really interested in that sort of thing but if you like it Rashmi, then go for it." Robyn thinks everyone is entitled to their beliefs, he's not gonna get in the middle of that.
"I know all of the ethics by heart," boasts Heather through her tape recorder, however absurd the statement is, "I just never agree." She blinks a few times rapidly and watches Jordan go through the floor, zipping over and checking the floor there just to make sure it's still solid. When it supports her weight, she seems satisfied.
Rashmi blinks, looking around as opinions sound off here and there… and sags slightly, hunching her shoulders and lifting her book up in front of her face. "…Oh," is all she says, plunging her attention back into her studies. "Anyway, where was I…"
Tara looks startled when Jordan does his vanishing act, muttering to herself, "Well, that's a neat trick." She pulls the large book into her lap and searches for the bookmark she placed into it and opens it up. On the subject of Mutant Ethics, the only input the girl has on the subject is to just wrinkle her nose distastefully. "Is that the mummycat?" asks Tara to Robyn, a hand idly playing with the raised dots on the page.
Robyn looks up at Rashmi and smiles at her. "You were talking about having to inverview someone? For this extra credit project? Who are you thinking about interviewing?" He asks curious and he doesn't want his friend to feel disheartened over people having a difference of opinion. "I can't agree with knowing them all by heart Heather, that's a lot of stuff to remember. Ethics is just…I don't know, not my thing." He's not saying it in a negative way just he'd rather be in the art room. "Oh yeah Tara, it's the Mummy cat, once the paints dry feel free to touch it."
Jordan rises back through the floor. "They're expecting us Saturday night." He says to Robyn. "Beach house. Finally. I do miss the weather down there." He says witha half grin. "Anna Maria Island, here we come."
Heather raises an eyebrow when the possibility that she knows all ethics by heart is questioned by Robyn (how dare he!), and plays in reply, using the standard kind of logic that she tries to impose on the world, "Everything there is that's known is known by me, so everything that is knowable I know. It's tautological." She clicks the button on her tape recorder twice to synthesize a pause, the second message playing (and pretty well contradicting herself), "What is a mummycat?"
"And that's why tautologies rarely work," Rashmi mutters, an audible edge to her voice, before pitching to a more lighthearted and conversational tone. "I don't know, Robyn… But there're a few people I could think of… I guess I'll just have to narrow it down some."
"Cool," comes Tara's reply to Robyn's invitation to touch the mummycat once it's dry. "I can get an idea of it's shape from here and if I concentrate, I could make out the details." She shakes her head and chuckles, "But it's not the same. It'd be like… I dunno. Reading a book through binoculars." Heather's comments draw a slightly worried scowl from the girl.
Robyn looks up at Heather and smiles. "I thought you said that everything that is knowable, you know, so wouldn't that mean you know what Mummy-Cat is?" He says holding up his sculpture that he just finished. "This is my Mummy-Cat. And Jordan, I'm really excited for a week down there. I've never been to Florida or been on a plane before….that wasn't the Blackbird that one time." But that doesn't count as a plane does it? "Who is it that you're thinking of Rashmi? I mean few and some don't sound to different in amount." He says teasing gently.
"Warm weather. Sunshine. Beaches. Make'em jealous." Jordan says with a nod. He missed a lot of the conversation, so he can't really just jump back in like that. But hey, he would probably just piss people off with his opinions anyway.
"You made it knowable when you said it, then I knew it, so now I know it, and now it's knowable," plays Heather in return to Robyn. It's likely that this is said in a reasonable tone, but the tape recorder doesn't carry it across well. Which is exactly why Heather doesn't catch the edge in Rashmi's voice, and thus plays a second message, "And tautologies always work. That's how tautologies are defined. It's tautological."
"Except when they don't," comes the flat reply. Oh yes, the redhead is starting to get annoyed, as shown by the five-count pause before she turns back to Robyn. "Anyway… I was thinking about the Headmaster maybe, or Mr. Guthrie, or Dr. McCoy, or -" And everything is forgotten as the last name falls from her lips, and the lightbulb turns on. "…Oh… I didn't think about…. I wonder if… No, but -" Shaking her head, she starts to scrabble about her, stuffing papers into folders into binders, books in her book bag. "…Actually I think I have a better idea. I'm gonna go see if I can make it happen."
Rashmi gets a pleading look from Tara as she starts to pack up and go. She'd give her teammate a puppy-dog look if she knew what one actually looked like. Instead she distracts herself from her weird (and quite possibly insane) roommate by turning to Jordan. "Hi!" she says maybe a little bit too loudly. "I'm Tara! New girl!"
Robyn really does try to accept anyone for who they are, but Heather just makes it hard. Robyn can't help but think that she's just….weird. "I just hope your family like me." He says with a little bit of nerves in his voice. "Okay Rashmi…I guess I'll catch ya later. Let me know who you decide." He also wants to make sure to see her again before he goes off to Florida for a week. He just watches Tara introduce herself to Jordan and chuckles to himself.
"Jordan." He states simply. "Former Demon. Former Marauder." It's how Jordan sees himself at the moment, anyway. "Robyn, you'll be fine. They accept me, they'll be fine with you. I'm not like them anyway. They're brainiac types. I'm a jock. you're an artist. It works."
Heather gives Rashmi a quick polite nod as she decides to go, playing, "You'll have to explain about when they don't some other time." She doesn't mean to be enraging, but she doesn't really care if she is, either. With the introductions, she just plays her standard practiced introduction, "Heather Brown. Codename: Timeslip."
"Oh, no no no no," Rashmi says as the bag is slung over her shoulder. "I've decided. I'll just tell you if it can work… Um. If I remember to, y'know, breathe then." Tara's pleading look, returned with a helpless shrug. "Sorry Tara… but I really have to go. I'll be down in Medical if you need me, okay? Thanks Robyn, and I hope you guys have fun in Florida!" And with that, the redhead is off practically at a sprint. Whatever her idea was, must be followed up on *now.*
Tara gives Jordan a brilliant smile. "Good to meet you," she says, sticking out a hand in Jordan's general direction. To Heather she says, in a low voice, "I know who /you/ are. We sleep in the same room." Rashmi's departure just gets another helpless look from the girl.
"Sorry but I'm gonna have to go too. I gotta get some homework done before I go to bed." Robyn says gathering his paints and sculpture. "Wanna join me Jordan or you gonna stay up here for a bit?" He asks as he looks to Tara and Heather. "Have a good night Tara, Heather."
"Unfortunately, I'm going to be getting ready for bed soon. I have classes early in the day." Jordan explains. "And I'm trying to catch a young Avenger. They're like pokemon. They flee when you find them. I need him to fix my head." He says, shaking his head and moving to following Robyn. "Yeah, for a bit." He tells Robyn.
Heather gives Jordan and Robyn both a wave and replies to Tara with her tape recorder, "I know that you know. I'm not sure if everyone else remembers, so I made sure."
"I can never tell who you're talking to when you use that thing," says Tara sourly, referring to Heather's tape recorder. "It always sounds like you're speaking into the ceiling."
Heather stares for a few seconds at Tara and doesn't use her tape recorder to reply, speaking in a high pitched pauseless stream, "Inlyuseitbkzpiplaveahrdtimundrstnding Icnspklikths'f'y'prfr?"
Tara smirks. "Well, at least I know who you're talking to, now." After a chuckle she says, "It's good to hear your real voice."
"Thtsfunybecuzyarntherinmrelvoce sjusatmshftversn," says Heather, since she got no indication that she should use anything but her natural voice. It's a lot easier for her to speak instead of using the tape recorder.
Tara rocks a bit in her chair as she listens to Heather speak naturally, beginning to understand how her roommate speaks. "No, it's not. /Trust/ me on this. So little about your speech is sound. Sighted people don't understand this because they pick up on the visual cues. But those visual cues get translated. Like, when you smile, the shape of your mouth is different and so your speech is different. That kind of thing." She giggles, "Besides, you sound like a chipmunk."
"Wlisndlikachpmnkt/you/," the last word is said with a lot of emphasis, so it's easy to understand, and she continues, "Tmeysndlikabrge!" The speedster tilts her head a couple of times back and forth and says, "Cnytelwt'msaynesly? Mstslwrldersveadifclttmvit."
Tara rocks a bit more. It seems that the motion helps her concentrate on the speech. "Not easily, no. I can make out most of it, though. I have to be paying attention, though. Like that middle part. To yourself you sound like a bridge?"
Heather plays on the tape recorder, repeating that part slower, and trying to orient the speaker towards Tara, "To me you sound like a barge." There's a brief pause and Heather scratches her head lightly, "Wchwydyouprfrmetspk?"
"Honestly? Like that." says Tara. "I may not get every word but that tape recorder just bugs the hell out of me."
"Okythnigus'lltklkths," says Heather, scratching her head. She still needs to play back the slower speech to herself to be able to hear it properly. "Itgvsmemrcaptrtimwththercrdr."
Tara takes a deep breath and attempts some Heatherspeech, pitching her voice high and squeaky as she says, "Okayithinkimgonnaheaddtothegymtoworkoutabitbeforegoingtobed!"
Tara pitching her voice up actually does help Heather hear it, since often speech is simply to low for her to even detect. She tilts her head and says, without use of the tape recorder, "Wlokythnhveaplsnttmatthgym!"
