Players:
Summary: Connor takes off after James' news and Robyn and Rashmi reflect on what the future can be.
Date: April, 18, 2010.
Log Title Reflecting On The News.
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Library
Like most Libraries, this one has that respected quite hush about it. A desk to check out books sits next to the door, next to the desk sits a statue of an Orangutan with a sign saying Return your books or else. Row upon row of books goes up and down the room. In the middle of all the shelves are two computers for looking up titles and a group of tables for students to sit and study. Along the back wall are windows with padded window seating for students to read in quiet.
continued from Good News Bad News
There's a sharp look at Rashmi for that. Magneto? But there's too much going on for Jonothon to deal with right now. He grips Robyn's shoulder, but then heads after James. Come and get it? Sigh. Coattails billowing out behind him, hair flickering with flames, the Brit does just that. Unlike James he walks with head held high, but then he's had eight years to learn how to deal with it all.
Robyn walks over and sits down at the table, he can't help but be worried and it's taking up all of his emotions at the moment. "So what exactly happened with James? Is everything…well I know everything isn't okay but, I guess I'm just worried cause he's a friend." As Rashmi would know. She probably feels very similarly about the Hyena that she does. "And Connor, I still have to see your writing some time and stuff."
Connor stops as Rashmi says what she says, and he looks up at her, and she can see directly that he looks like he'd just sprinted hard for a bit, his eyes slightly dilated and his brow still slightly damp… the aquamarine hue brightening and fading at random, "I… yeah…" Blinking it down once more before he whispers, " …should go…" To Robyn… a mere nod is offered, but the distance and the feeling that there's a LOT going on behind those eyes is rather obvious, even to those who aren't psychic.
All it takes is a moment's glance to know that Connor means what he says. "All right, Connor… get some rest, okay?" As the other boy makes his way out, Rashmi turns to Robyn, dropping heavily into a nearby chair. "It's been… … A day."
Robyn watches Connor leave and then it's just him and Rashmi. He reaches over and squeezes her shoulder reassuringly. "Sorry Rashmi, and it looks it. Are you okay?" He says since she looks stressed as well, and also Robyn knows that Rashmi tends to hold the weight of everyone on her shoulders. "Do I need to drag you out somewhere to relax again?"
Rashmi blinks, looking up for a moment. "Hm? Oh… No, thanks. It's not incredibly super urgent, just… I think Jono told James that he'd never be human-looking again. And Connor…. well," she says, with that not-a-dodge-but-saying-nothing that, by now, clearly states that she's holding onto someone's secrets again, "Connor's got problems of his own, too."
"Yeah…I know James wants to be normal. It must suck for him, think about it. He can't do the things you and I can do, the simple things, like just go out and act like we're not mutants. People will see him as a monster as much as I hate to acknowledge it." Robyn looks down and runs his hands through his hair with a saddened sigh. "I was so hoping that he'd be able to change back. James…and I…we have a lot in common."
Rashmi closes her eyes for a moment, nodding slowly. "I know… and the worst part is? There's not really anything that can be done about it…" Tilting her head back, she runs her fingers through the top of her hair, sighing heavily. "You know… I probably will take that intership Ms. Walters offered, after I graduate. …Mostly *because* of things like this, you know?"
"I know, I like James just the way he is but I don't have to deal with a physical mutation so I can never fully understand. Even if I think there is something just neat about it." Robyn admits before looking at Rashmi with a confused look. "Internship? Ms. Walters…well any internship is good but you haven't told me about this yet."
The confused tone of Robyn's voice pulls a genuine, if brief, grin from Rashmi. "Yeah… well it was a couple days before Easter, so I think you and Jordan were already gone. So… Ms. Walters, you know… She-Hulk? I'd gone to Dr. McCoy asking if I could get a chance to talk to, um… one of the Avengers… and he said I should talk to her. So… I did. And just… *wow,* Robyn, you have *no idea* how amazing that place is… anyway. So we were talking, and talking, and at the end of it she had to run because the client she'd resceduled to see me got mad and held up a Starbuck's, but anyway. One of the last things she said was, she'd really like to have me as an intern for her, you know?"
"She-Hulk?! That's great Rashmi. I think you should take it, I mean, how many of us are really going to get the chance to do what we want in life." Robyn says as he's kind of given up on his dream of becoming a sculpter in Hollywood as much as he still says that's what he wants to do. He just doesn't think it's a possibility anymore. "And yeah, Jordan and I were gone, it was a really great vacation except for the plane thing, but I think it's awesome that you're getting the oportunity."(re)
"Well," Rashmi says slowly, "that's sort of what I mean. 'How many of us can do what we want?' should be an *amazingly* stupid question for anyone living here in America, right? But for you, Mike, James, Jade… all of you, it's a *real* question. And that's just…" Her mouth tightens, head slowly shaking back and forth. "It goes against everything Mami and Papi told me how life should work. And that's why I wanted to get into law, and even more now. Because it's *stupid,* and someone should do something about it."
"I know, it goes against what my parents taught me too." Robyn says with a sigh. "It's like, if you want to do something, do it. Just be yourself and go after your dreams. It's not about the money you make but the love you put into it. My parents aren't wealthy, they manage. We never went on vacation cause we couldn't afford it but we were never starving. I mean they were able to get my my tattoos for my birthday and I still have to go get my next one but like James…he just wants to go back home to his farm."
Rashmi nods. "I'd never even gone out of our borough all that much," she says after a moment. "The Bronx might as well've been a whole other city, like Chicago, for all I'd ever see it…" With a small shrug, she settles into her chair. "But it shouldn't matter, how James looks. It does, but it shouldn't. And that's the sort of thing that Ms. Walters fights so hard about. I mean, she's a defense lawyer for *supervillains,* and I know how crazy it sounds. But, when you talk to her, you realize… She just wants everyone to have a fair shake. *Everyone.* And I'm really proud to think she'd want me working for her, knowing that."
Robyn stands up and walks over to Rashmi, giving her a tight hug. "Thanks Rashmi, for being such a good person. I think I'm gonna be going to the dorms now but honestly, you really are a good person. I'm glad that you're fighting to give us a fair shot, and not just us as in your friends but us as in all mutants. Maybe one day we'll just be looked at as just another person instead of as this ticking timebomb." Robyn holds onto her for a few seconds before letting go and going to walk out. "G'night Rashmi and thanks. For being awesome."
Rashmi blushes deeply, spine straightening under Robyn's hug. Looping her arms around him before he steps away, she squeezes tightly. "That's what I'm hoping," she murmurs. "I'd like to see the day when my friends don't have to be afraid of who they are."
With Rashmi's last words Robyn turns around to say something. "It's not that I'm afraid of what I am. Honestly, I'm fine with being a mutant, what I hate about it, is the stress and chaos that comes with it. I hate the target. I always will. I just want to be able to be who I am and be a mutant without worrying about something horrible happening to me, or Jordan or you or James or Jono or any of you. It's the fear that we're hunted and the pain of what happens that just gets to me. I…I like being happy Rashmi. I don't like being afraid, I don't like being sad. I don't want James to be like he is now, I like it when he jokes around. I don't like being afraid when Jordan goes missing that I'll never see him again, I don't want that. I want to be normal, and I know James means. I just want peace." Robyn just spills out to to his friend.
"That's what I mean," Rashmi replies, a terrible sadness to her eyes. "Being a mutant means danger. It means you can't ever be really safe, anymore. It means everyone you care about, you have to worry for… And that can't go on, Robyn… It has to change, if there's ever going to be anything like real peace, you know…?"
Robyn nods and walks over to Rashmi again, giving her another hug. Mainly cause he's the one that needs it. "It does Rashmi, it really does. And thanks, for being strong enough to work towards it. I wish I knew how but I'm just an artist is all." He doesn't know anything about law and civil stuff.
Rashmi grins, returning the hug. "Hey… John Lennon was 'just a musician,' and look at everything *he* managed to do, right? Or, hell, if you don't mind California, go to college in Berkeley. They've been trying to change the world since the sixties."
Robyn looks at Rashmi for a second and doesn't say anything about John Lennon but his thought is 'let's just hope Rashmi doesn't get shot and killed young.'. "Thanks again Rash, but I gotta head to bed. Thanks, for everything." He says with a smile as he leaves to the room to get his homework done.
