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Summary: Chloe confronts Theo on his attitude, and learns a slight hint about his unrevealed past. Kael joins them, and they talk about strategies to outsmart Scott's Danger Room scenarios.
Date: May 1, 2010.
Log Title Planning for the Future.
Rating: G
Xavier Mansion - Forgotten Path
Overgrown with trees and brush, this path has long been out of use and is rather difficult to find at all. Looking closely at the ground shows the remains of a dirt walkway, but the entrance to said walkway is long since lost to the plants. It winds through the woods, eventually opening to a view of a long forgotten chapel on the grounds. Perhaps once it had been a charming little building, but now, it has certainly seen better days. The windows are boarded over, the doors are barely hanging on their hinges, vines have started to grow up the walls, and there's even a good chuck of it toward the back that looks as if it were the victim of a fire. All in all, it seems it was judged not worth the cost of repairs and left to nature's devices.
The morning air is still brisk, and the sun is peeking through the trees. The Morning Danger Room session is over, and as he often does, Theo has escaped to the woods to get away from the noises of machines for a while. The Danger Room gives him headaches, but that's no secret.
He was a bit more useful today. While he doesn't bring a lot of physical power to the team, he was able to strategize solutions fairly well, even with all of the noise to bother him. It's all out of mind though, now. He has a book with him, and he finds an old log just a little off the path to perch himself on. "Advanced Mechanics" is the title.
Having been after a suitable moment to chat with Theo for a while the blonde speedster has decided that today shall be the day. Having watched which direction her target went from up on the roof it was simply a matter of running around the paths in the woods for a bit. The cybernetic hand makes sneaking a little redundant, so instead she opts for the direct approach. "Theeeeeeeeeoooooooo?"
Theo knits his brow at the first sound of his name, and rolls his eyes. He closes the book, and then realizes that it's Chloe who is summoning him. His mood almost instantly lightens, and he sets the book to the side on the log. It starts to fall off, but he catches it, and finds a more solid resting place. "I'm over here," he calls out to her. He lifts his arm in a wide, sweeping wave so that she can more easily spot him through the trees.
"Indeed you are," Chloe agrees, moving along the path in what must equate to her version of a idly strolling. "We need to talk and I don't just mean about that whole 'why on earth where you lurking at an anti-mutant rally' sort of way. I haven't mentioned to anyone I saw you there by the way, wouldn't want anyone putting two and two together now would we?"
Theo arches his brow, having not paid close attention to the news following the rally, and not previously having realized that Chloe had wanted some sort of serious conversation. "Sure," he says, "Pull up a tree." The log is plenty long enough to accomodate them both, and he shifts so that he can face the other end, his right calf drawn up to rest on top of the log.
His heart speeds up a bit, as it often does when someone hears the phrase 'we need to talk', but he tries not to show any anxiousness about the matter.
Chloe grins. "Mike would get pissed off if I started kicking trees over again," she offers, pacing back and forth. "And I'd rather stand if that's okay? My legs cramp up if I sit still too long." She waves her hand as if to say what can you do before adding. "The thing is I was just wondering if you had a death wish of some kind? Only /every/ time something goes wrong you're in the middle of it, which wouldn't be so bad if you were intent on fixing stuff. Of course if you really /are/ trying to fix stuff then I gotta tell you that you totally suck at it."
Theo listens carefully to what Chloe says, but doesn't seem to follow. "Like what?" he asks apprehensively. He shifts his weight again to pull both legs up onto the log, criss cross, and holds his feet.
"Like hanging out at a Friends of Humanity rally? Or the thing with Jordan? Trying to make pretty much the entire school hate you?" Chloe lists, rolling her eyes. "Not to mention throwing out how much you hate gay guys at every oppertunity. The same people you're going to have to rely upon the next time someone attacks the school while the staff are playing Ostrich."
"I didn't start that thing with Jordan," Theo defends. "He just walked up to me and punched me. And Robyn started the thing between him and me. I don't hate gays, either." An odd statement for him to be saying, given his comments. He lets go of his feet and rests his elbows on his thighs, letting his forearms droop.
"I just…" he isn't sure he wants to finish the sentence. "I got some history with the gays, and they make me really uncomfortable. I know all people aren't the same." He changes example. "Don't forget, I saved Lucas' life, so sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time has been really important," he points out. Something he feels has been largely overlooked by the members of the school.
"But you have to admit being involved in a fight between Lucas and… James was it? Wasn't exactly the safest thing ever," Chloe counters, shaking her head. "Besides this is still /high school/ it doesn't matter what you secretly think. It's the impression you give everyone else. People don't see you and think 'Theo has history and we should totally give him the benefit of the doubt'."
Theo clenches his teeth at the front, trying to absorb what Chloe's saying without just impulsively responding. He drops his feet back to the ground. "I know that," he says. "And I don't really expect, or even WANT them to," he answers. He pauses, perhaps having more to say, but he doesn't say it yet if he does.
Chloe crosses her arms. "And thus we get back to the wondering if you've got a death wish topic," she retorts. "It's like you're throwing rocks at a glass ceiling but don't expect anything bad to happen. What if you'd pissed off someone with poor power control? They could just accidentally kill you. No shouting, no arguments and no chance to run for it." She sighs. "I guess the point of this is you either need to man up or the rest of the squad might have to take out some kinda life insurance on you."
Not something Theo had previously considered. He nods quietly, and is silent for several seconds. When he speaks, his tone is softer. "You're right," he says. "I don't really want to become a puddle of goo on the ground somewhere or anything." He stands to his feet, and runs his hand through his hair. "I've been acting stupid." He doesn't continue to defend his actions. Most of the guys that know him haven't seen him willing to lay down arms, but Chloe isn't a guy, either. "I really want to be liked. I think." he says. Around Chloe, he's always been fairly pleasant, even friendly, but it's obvious that his other relationships have her informed. "I apologized to Robyn the other day. I dunno if he cares or not. He probably just thinks I'm a bigot."
Chloe shrugs. "Robyn doesn't seem like the kind of guy to hold a grude if someone has apologized," she says, forcing a smile. "Look I'd be the first to say the squad system is lame, but it's not like we have much choice in the matter. So we might as well make it work, which means we need to be able to trust each other."
Theo returns the smile, though it's weak. "Yeah, I just wish they didn't make us go in the Danger Room. I do want to trust people. I trust you, I trust Kael," he says. He puts his hands in his pockets, and then shifts his focus a little.
"About the rally the other day," he says, seeming to feel the need to return to the conversation. "I hope you don't think I was being overly hard when I said we shouldn't help that girl."
X-Mansion> Kael always wonders why he gets up this early… then he remembers work.
"Actually… I thought you were being a total bigot," Chloe teases, uncrossing her arms and resuming idly pacing back and forth. "And if the police hadn't been so close by I'd have gone to help her with or without you backing me up. Letting them torment a normal girl doesn't make anyone like mutants more, but helping can. Take whatever vanished the guys pants, because of that she might assume mutants aren't all bad. After all one might have saved her."
"I wasn't being a bigot," he says. "I didn't want to see you get hurt. I don't guess you've ever really seen what a mob can do. Just because you're superfast doesn't mean that you could escape. Besides, she was…well fed, what were you gonna do, carry her?" He shakes his head. "Mobs are dangerous on a whole level you can't imagine if you haven't seen it first hand. I've seen it, I know. It's not something you screw with. That's why I wasn't hanging out IN the crowd, but away from it."
Chloe giggles. "You actually thought I was in any danger from them?" she wonders with astonishment. "I can /walk/ faster than anyone in the crowd could sprint. What exactly did you think they'd try? Pulling a gun on me in front of the cops?"
"You think you're still faster than them when you're carrying a girl that weighs three times what you do? And yes," he says. "I think they WOULD pull a gun, or a knife with the cops right there. You have to understand something," he says. "I was AT a rally when I found out I was a mutant. I'd never seen the FoH in person, and I thought it'd be a good 'cultural' experience." He pauses. "I never thought people were really capable of the sorts of evil those people were capable of. I thought it was restricted to horrible situations like the holocaust. My family even KNEW some of the people there." He takes a deep breath. Still, he chose to watch one all the same.
"I never said I would carry her," Chloe points out with a shrug. "Mostly I'd planned on beating the two thugs holding her up, getting everyone to focus on me, then she could run for it while I led them on a merry dance." She frowns and stops pacing as Theo begins opening up. "So what happened? They went after someone while you were watching?"
Theo shakes his head. "Yeah, they went after ME," he says. "They were some traveling group that had a device to detect mutants. I hadn't even manifested yet. So there I was, in the middle of a crowd of people who had been stirred up and wanted blood. My best friend thought on his feet pretty well for a change, he says it was God's grace, I say it was dumb luck. Got me out of there while everyone was still in a state of shock, including me." It doesn't sound all as violent as he suggested from his current description.
Theo and Chloe are currently in the woods in the early morning, just after the Danger Room session. They stand by a fallen log slightly off of the forgotten path.
Kael has arrived.
If there was no wind, there is now. A light breeze, happy if it can feel like that. If there was a breeze, well it's just changed direction is all. Kael's walking down the path, his eyes closed at the moment as he seems to be singing to the music in his ears, he wasn't trained to sing but he sounds kinda alright. Even air drumming to the music. It wasn't until he nearly trips that he opens his eyes, and catches himself with a blast of air to set himself upright again. Then he notices Chloe and Theo nearby and a blush forms on the teen's cheeks.
Chloe glances between Theo and Kael, then laughs. "Talk about timing! Theo was just telling me about his escape from a pitchfork weilding mob," she explains, waving. "Although it kinda seems like the short version and I totally understand if you're not ready to talk about the rest. Finding out you're a mutant generally has some kind of suckyness linked to it, I mean I almost OD'd on ADD meds."
Theo seems to shut down as Kael arrives. "Yeah, that's the short version," he says, not as amused as Chloe seems to be. "But still, promise me you won't do something stupid like try to fight them. I wouldn't want to have to take out life insurance on you either. All we'd need is for one of them to have good connections, and have something to dampen your powers, and that'd be it for you."
Kael takes the headphones out of his ears, stowing them away as he blinks a bit. "Mob with pitchforks?" He looks over at Theo, then at Chloe. "Friends of Humanity by chance?" Mutants. Talking about mobs. Jump to conclusions! It usually helps. He glances over at Theo for a moment before he says, "Uh… I nearly had a tree fall on me before I came here?" Share stories of before school? Sure.
Chloe nods. "Anyway enough about the past huh?" she offers when it becomes apparant Theo isn't feeling talkative anymore. "We should think up some kind of group training scheme without the evil overlord watching. So we stand a chance of getting the better of him. It's a shame we've got the most restricted power set-up of every squad, no-one else seems to have two of one ability."
Theo laughs, "Like what Chloe, you wanna go find crime to fight in the city?" he asks, happy to let the conversation change topic. Well, sort of, since she had wanted to go beat up the Friends of Humanity earlier.
Kael laughs a bit. "Fighting crime in the streets? It's… not fun from what I've seen." And done. A hand goes to the area where he was spiked and he looks up at Chloe. "You're right. No other team has two speedsters. But, that means no other team can keep people contained as well as we can."
Chloe blinks a few times. "Keep people contained because of superspeed? Or are you talking about with fire and wind tricks?" she wonders. "And I don't really plan on fighting crime. Not when detention lasts six times as long for me as it would for you guys. I mean can you imagine how much it would suck?"
Theo shakes his head. "So what are you thinking of, then?" he asks. "We just came from the Danger Room, you want to go back in there already?" He isn't keen on it himself, but hey, if it's Chloe asking, he might just be persuaded.
Kael hehs. "Superspeed. I don' trust John as far as I can blast him." He shakes his head a bit. "Even if I can probably boost the flames by giving it more air to burn through." He shrugs a bit before he says, "I'd rather not go fight crime anyway. Last time I tried to, I almost died. I think I'm good on that for a while."
Chloe shakes her head. "I mean we need to come up with plans, strategies and tricks he won't expect. Don't either of you ever want to prove you're smarter than him?" She crosses her arms and huffs. "And we can't be using the danger room for it. Sessions are monitored so we'd lose any advantage we'd have gained."
"I already know I'm smarter than him," Theo answers confidently, perhaps even cocky. "I've been working on something for a while," he says. "I haven't really shown it in the Danger Room, but…" Chloe's phone rings, as does Kael's. "I have found my power can do more than just hear the machines," he grins a little. He must actually trust them after all. "Just don't tell anyone. Especially not Mike, I don't want him to freak out and think I'm gonna mind control him or anything."
"I can hear everything happening in the Danger Room. It's one big machine. Everything it says, whether we can see it or not, I hear. I'm trying to figure out how to control it. Not a lot, just enough so that we can cheat a little. But it's really complicated."
Kael looks down at his cell and lets out a soft laugh. "Nice, Theo." He looks over at the technopath and smirks, "Finally found a use for those powers, eh?" He looks over at Chloe and says, "Honestly, I haven't been applying all that I can do in the sessions. But, what I have gotten used to is using small blasts of air to aid in flips and stuff." No he's not going to show now.
Chloe eyes Theo, then sighs. "I figured as much. You got careless the other day yah know, it wasn't reported in the main articles but online the /thing/ got mentioned," she informs. "As for controlling it? I'd say it's best not to try at all. Advance warning every now and again is far better than tipping him off. They'd only up security so you'd lose all access again."
"I can't really control it yet anyway, and if I did, I'd just make it small stuff, like bullets not hitting their targets. Don't want to tip them off." Theo stops. "Also, if we all adjust our costumes so that we can carry our phones inside, then we could use them for fast communication. I can't fight worth anything anyway, but if we can get me to a spot in the matches that I can be out of the way, I could text alerts so that you know what's happening even when you're not in the area."
Kael chuckles a bit. "Bluetooth headsets. Ya can get some cheap ones, and I'm sure they'd work for that." He looks over at Theo, "I can already do that." The wind. It helps to do that. Not well though. "Make bullets miss their target. Well… their main target." He looks over at Chloe and says, "Who knows if there isn't any blockage on it already. I mean, if they know that Theo's a technopath. There might be blocks already put up from past students."
"True. But the blocks might not be specific enough… Or maybe they're letting you in intentionally to see what you do," Chloe muses, walking faster and faster up and down the path. "Headsets would be good. I don't really trust our school phones to be private, which sounds paranoid I know, but some of the staff don't seem as ethical as they claim to be."
"They do not," Theo objects, "they only know I can hear machines," he corrects Kael. "And Chloe's right. They want us to learn to use our powers, right? So they'd wait until I started to actually be able to alter things before they tried to stop me, since they want us to get stronger. Besides, if they put a block, it'd just mean I'd have to find a way to unblock it. If it's a machine, I hear it, and so I bet if I can hear it, there's a way to control it. Who knows, maybe I can even stop those power dampners." He folds his arms. "Chloe, your abilities are pretty straight forward. You can outrun just about anything that they throw at us, so they like to throw fast things at us. Maybe Kael can give you some boost to make you faster? Less wind resistance, or a back wind?"
Kael pulls out his cellphone as it vibrates in his hand. "Damn, already?" He runs a hand through his hair before he says, "I bet I could do that. If I had enough practice doing so. But, I gotta jet." He lifts himself up into the air, leaves swirling under him. "Gotta head over to Keith's for more practice." As it happens every Saturday. He waits for a moment or two for goodbyes to be said before the teen takes off towards the gates.
Chloe waves as Kael lifts off. "Cya laters," she calls out, pausing briefly. "And I'm far from able to outrun /everything/. Training with Quicksilver has shown me just how slow I really am. I /really/ need to keep pushing to get faster." Idly she begins drumming her fingers against a tree. "Just because you've only said you can do that doesn't mean they believe it's your limit. What's to say they haven't DNA tested us all?"
Theo nods, "See ya Kael, have fun," he bids goodbye to the airbender, and pauses. "They make you train with Quicksilver?" he echoes Chloe. "Man, that sucks, he's probably the biggest dick I've ever met. So stuck on himself. I guess they could've tested us. I never gave them a blood sample, but after Mike did…whatever he did to me, They could've taken it while I was in medbay. Man, I came here thinking this place would be safe, sometimes I feel like it's Big Brother watching us."
"They don't /make/ me do it," Chloe corrects with a grin. "He offered and I accepted. Besides if you were the fastest being on the entire planet you'd have an ego to match too. Probably worse than his and Magneto of all people claims to be his dad." She waves her hand. "Oh and while we're on the subject of powers… I'd like you to swear on your life now that you'll never try control my hand."
Theo laughs, "Don't worry, I'd never do something like that to you," he says. "I have only respect for you, Chloe. My dad taught me well on how to treat ladies." He pauses, and considers for a moment. "Though he never specifically said not to control their cybernetic appendages with my mind, I'm sure he would have if the topic came up." He grins widely.
Chloe pauses for a moment, then nods. "Promise accepted! I'm glad I don't have to think up any ugly threats," she admits. "They're so uncivilized and it'd have spoilt the whole aura of trust thing. It's not the hand control itself which was a concern, the most you'd manage there is inflicting potentially a lot of pain, but deleting my mp3 collection? That would be so far beyond cool…" She grins impishly.
Theo laughs, "Well, you don't need to threaten me," he says. "And thanks for coming and talking to me, I don't want to hide what I think, I just want to work on thinking differently." He stretches a little. "Say, you getting hungry?" he asks. He knows that she usually is. "We should go into town and grab something to eat. I'll buy," he offers.
"You might regret offering to buy me food," Chloe warns, waving her finger at Theo. "As so long as the next time you remember that the people you're uncomfortable about might be the ones saving your life from doom I'll consider the talk a success. And if you ever need to talk about stuff feel free to bug me, although I might slap you if you're being dumb."
"Fair enough," Theo answers. "Just don't hit me with the robot hand," he requests. "Not sure if it'd delete your mp3 collection, but that'd hurt a lot." He gives a lopsided grin. "I might regret the bill, but I don't think I'll regret buying you food," he counters. "Besides, what better way to spend my cash?"
Chloe hmmms thoughtfully. "Lapdancers and beer?" she suggests innocently. "And hitting things doesn't seem to bother the mp3's but you are right about the hand hitting harder. All in all I came out of the whole attack rather well apart from almost dying. So anyway what kind of food are you thinking? My vote goes for anything except hotdogs."
"How about corndogs?" he asks slyly. "I dunno though, with your appetite?" Theo asks, "I'm voting someplace with a buffet. Chinese?" he suggests. He turns around and picks up his book from the log, and tucks it under his arm.
"Ahh yes the good old take advantage of an all you can eat trick," Chloe says, nodding. "Cunning, although I suspect I'll get myself banned from everywhere within walking distance pretty quickly. Sounds like a plan, although first I best go get some shoes."
"Sounds good, I'll put this up and meet you at the front gate," Theo answers, sounding rather energized. He starts back toward the path, hopping over the log he had been sitting on previously.
Chloe does a few stretches to limber up. "Then I'll cya shortly then," she replies. "Although I suspect it'll be shorter for you than for me!" And with that she sets off down the path, not sprinting but still quite a bit faster than would be safe on a woodland path…
